[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.“I don’t know if that’s who you think I am, but I’m very pleased to meet you both.”“You aren’t dead?” asked Rhes, shaking Theroen’s hand.“Not anymore,” Two said.“You want to explain that?” Sarah asked.“I mean, I know you guys are different than us, but I had the impression that dead was dead, whether you’re a human or a vampire.”“It is, for the most part,” Theroen said.“Especially if the body is burned or chopped apart.If it’s intact, and the remaining blood within is powerful enough, the body doesn’t decay immediately.It’s sort of like suspended animation.”“OK, and so Two brought you back?”“Like I said, it’s a long story,” Two told her.“This is kind of a once-in-five-thousand-years thing.There was some blood from a couple of ancients, and then the injecting and such, and—”“Jeeeeesus Christ,” Sarah said, cutting her off.“That’s great.That’s all super great … can we get out of here? I want to find Molly, go home, drink about three bottles of wine, and sleep in my own bed … assuming we’re safe from Aros and his nutcase friends.”“I believe Peter and Kanene are going to take you home,” Theroen said.“At least, that was the plan we were formulating a few minutes ago.I’m sure you can stop at Sasha’s apartment and pick up your daughter.”“Where are the rest of you going?” Sarah asked.“We’ve a bone to pick with Aros,” Jakob told her, as he and the rest of the vampires joined them.Two quickly introduced them all to her friends, and Rhes and Sarah found themselves shaking hand after hand.At last, Jakob continued.“We’re going to go find Aros.You’re going to go home.”“Are you going to kill him?” Rhes asked.“We’re hoping to avoid it,” the vampire girl with the brown hair, Sasha, said.“Don’t try too hard,” Sarah muttered.“Two, why can’t you and Theroen take us home? No offense to your friends, it’s just … you know …”“You know me, I understand,” Two said.“But I can’t go yet.The whole reason all of this is happening is because of me.Aros wants me, for some reason, and he’s not going to be satisfied until I at least explain to him that whatever he thought he was going to get from me, it’s not happening.”“He wants your blood,” Jakob said.Two paused, considering this, eyebrows raised.Finally, she shrugged.“Yeah … not happening.”“Why does he want her blood?” Theroen asked.“He believes he can merge his blood with her formerly Eresh-Chen blood, within himself, in order to create some new race of vampire.Supposedly, Abraham gave him the secrets to do it in exchange for this Burilgi army he’s been building.”“Abraham was almost certainly lying to him,” Theroen said.Jakob gave him a wry grin.“That’s exactly what I told him, but he wasn’t terribly receptive to the idea.”“He’s out of his mind,” Sarah said, “and you should stay far away from him, Two.He’s not just looking for a little drink or something.He wants all of your blood.Also, I’m not sure how many you are – I think I counted eight – but he’s got like a hundred guys or more up there on that base.”“There will be seven of us, when Peter and Kanene have left,” Sasha said.“That should suffice, especially if … well, we believe we can get most of Aros’s guards to stand down.”“That’d be an accomplishment,” Sarah said.“Excuse me,” Rhes interjected.“Your name is Sasha, right? Are you the one that helped Molly?”“Yes, I am.Your daughter helped me, as well.It was through her connections that we found this place.”“Thank you for taking care of her,” Sarah said.“Is she all right? We were very worried after the attack the other night.”“She is just fine,” Sasha said, smiling.“She wanted to come along on this little adventure, but we thought it best that she stay home.”“Yes, thank you, we don’t want her anywhere near here,” Rhes said.“What connections were you talking about?” Two asked Sasha.“She took me to see Jerry, a ‘fixer’ who lives—”“Oh, Jesus, you had to go see that motherfucker?!” Two exclaimed.“I am so sorry.No one should have to deal with that disgusting pedophile asshole, especially not Molly.”“It was an unpleasant experience,” Sasha agreed.“Molly did very well, and it proved useful.If not for her connection to Jerry, we wouldn’t be here right now.”“And we’d be dead,” Sarah said.“We’re not, so I guess I can accept that Molly had to go through some tough times for that.”“All’s well that ends well,” Jakob said.“So let’s end this well.Rhes and Sarah, I believe we can all agree that getting the two of you far, far away from here is an excellent idea.Peter and Kanene are people I would trust with my life, and they will be happy to take you home.”“There’s no way we can convince you to stay away from Aros, is there?” Sarah asked Two, who shook her head.“I’ll be fine,” she said.“Seriously, guys, get out of here.Go get Molly and go home, and I promise I’ll visit soon and start figuring out how I can make all of this up to you.”“We’ll have you under guard until we’re sure that Aros is no further danger,” Jakob said.Sarah sighed, nodded, took Rhes’s hand in her own.“OK,” she said.“Yeah.I want my life back.I want to get home before Rhes’s vacation time ends and he gets fired.I want to hug my daughter.Let’s do this.”Peter and his apprentice Kanene took a few moments to say goodbye to the rest of the group, shaking hands and wishing them good luck.Rhes and Sarah said goodbye to Two and turned to Jakob.“I am very glad you made it through this,” he said.“Us, too,” Rhes said [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]