Vampire Babylon - Break Of Dawn Part 9

Jonah's voice had taken on its usual ragged undertone, etched with that scratch of an accent. But what kind of accent? she thought.

Had he smoothed out the influence of his homeland-the place she'd seen in Kiko's dagger vision?

"I suppose I do know more now," she said, "but I'm not going to apologize for snooping."

"Tell me, what did you and Kiko see in the weapons room?"

He didn't sound angry, as she would've expected, just . . . curious. And a little sad.

So she described everything to him: the dagger; the bound and mutilated man; the wild-eyed leader who'd taken the human seer and turned him into a monster.

"A monster," he repeated after she'd finished, his tone a.n.a.lytical.

"How else should I describe what the seer became?" Her stomach was roiling at the memory of blood, warm and thick on the seer's face, in his mouth.

"No, 'monster' is more than sufficient." Something dark-a hunter's hatred?-crept into his voice.

Had this seer done something to cause such venom?

"You're the only one who probably knows who the seer was," she said, hoping to ease the way open for him to spill everything.

"And you know who that leader guy was, too."

"I do know."

She waited and, when he didn't continue, chuffed. At least he was consistent, even when he was disappointing her.

"Dawn, you seem to forget how much you hate when Kiko or I or anyone else tries to get into your head. You don't like your memories to be riffled through. You consider it an invasion. Why shouldn't I feel the same?"

His words made so much sense that shame made her bow her head, her hair blocking her face from his view. She hid behind the strands, grateful they were unfettered just this one time.

Hadn't she always despised starlets and Hollywood brats because they thought they were the center of the universe? When had she started thinking of herself the same way? When had she become just as ent.i.tled?

Jonah saved her from herself. "I do regret that we never had the opportunity to train in more than mind blocking."

He was referring to her obvious emerging talent for . . . What was it-telekinesis?

"I know," he said, "that you have made a habit of blocking people your entire life. The talent was always there, but . . . did you ever notice a propensity for striking out, as well?"

She hadn't wanted to remember, but now that Jonah was trying to pull it out of her, a memory surfaced, one she'd tucked away in a mental box along with Eva's crime-scene photo and so many other things she'd just wanted to erase from her conscience.

When she didn't speak, Jonah said, "It will not hurt you to share. It cannot hurt you."

He was right. Here, in the secure Limpet house, what was the harm? "I was . . . I don't know. I can't remember how old. Pre- teens? Frank and I were having another showdown-I don't recall what about. Doesn't matter. But I know I was angry. So angry.

And I wanted to hurt him."

"Did you?"

"Almost. We were in the dining room." It was all coming clear now-the smell of the TV dinners she'd pulled from the oven. The clatter of a basketball game on the tube. "I glared at him and, all of a sudden, a fork flew off the table and almost got him in the arm. It missed by inches."

"Did it ever happen again?"

"No." Dawn shook her head until her hair slapped her face. "I was . . . horrified. Scared."

"You shoved it away so you would not have to confront it again. You found other ways of taking your anger out on everyone."

She nodded. She'd repressed it. So how was it that she could make things s.h.i.+ver and shake now? Had she spent so much time fighting this "talent" that she'd weakened?

Or had she gotten stronger through all this vampire c.r.a.p?

"I wish I knew everything that's going on," she said, realizing it was no excuse for her recent behavior. But it was the best she could do, and at least her motives were pure.

"By the end of this, you will probably know more than you ever wished to." He sighed. "The Friends even understand your insatiable curiosity-except for Kalin, that is. After you ordered Breisi to take you inside Kalin's portrait, a smattering of h.e.l.l broke loose between the two of them."

Dawn jerked her head up. "Is Breisi okay?"

"Breisi always holds her own, even in spirit form, but you didn't do much for Friend relations."

"Well, I get the feeling Kalin does a pretty good job of ruffling Friend feathers herself. I'm sure Rose would testify to that." She couldn't help referring to the tension she'd seen between the two women hunters. "And remember the day you had Kalin bind me during that misguided foreplay session? The rest of the Friends were calling for her to stop and, when she did, they seemed to be arguing with her. . . ."

"Kalin has always been strong willed." There was a warning in his voice-one that told Dawn to lay off the Fire Woman. "In her day, she was lucky not to be called a witch and murdered for it. Someone else I know has much the same att.i.tude, Dawn." Well, okay. Touche then.

Even now, Dawn's inner detective was kicking in, sensing an opportunity to learn more, at any cost. From what Dawn knew of Kalin, the older hunter would've done the exact same thing-pursued like a mad dog.

"Well, if anything," Dawn said, "you're at least going to tell me why our Friends are in those portraits. Yes?"

"Don't you have any theories?"

"Actually, I think I do."

"Then . . ."

She drew her knees up to her chest. "Maybe the paintings are more than a bed for them to slink back to while they rest and gather energy for missions. They're a . . ." She thought of what Breisi had said about Kalin's memories pretty much living in the portrait.

"They're a type of body that houses everything about them, a living thing that even feeds them? And when their essences travel out of these 'bodies,' it's a little like astral projection or whatever." She'd read about the ability to travel out of body with your soul.

Why not?

"Near enough." He sounded a bit impressed.

"Can you tell me if Kalin is going to use those fire powers on anyone soon?"

"She cannot do that, Dawn. Physical talents like hers do not translate into the world she lives in now. Friends, as they are, have vowed to refrain from taking life."

Whoa, she didn't like the sound of that. "So all they really can do is help and . . . persuade?"

"What they do means all the difference."

"Oh, definitely." Friends were even better than Santa's elves. "I'm wondering how they joined up with you, but I have a thought or two about that, also."

His silence allowed her to continue. From elsewhere in the house, all the clocks struck four, chimes reverberating like beats in a ghoulish dance.

She gathered her hair so it was out of her face. "Since Breisi's now a Friend, and Kalin is one-and they were both hunters-I'm guessing all the portraits contain members of your old teams who've agreed to stick around. Their loyalty didn't just last in life. But .

. . that brings up another question."

"Naturally."

She sent a wry smile to the dark corner. "Where's the portrait of Rose?"

Jonah's sigh was heartfelt, brus.h.i.+ng the darkness. "That night, Rose didn't die until Kalin brought her back to me. Her last wish was to rest in peace."

"And when Kalin finally pa.s.sed?"

"She had already committed herself to me, just as Breisi did."

"You've never asked me to be a Friend." Dawn was shocked at how petulant she sounded.

"I'm not certain you would have agreed." "How do you know?" It was just for the sake of argument. Okay, she also had some pride here.

"Dawn." She could imagine Jonah shaking his head. "You, yourself, know that you joined the team for personal reasons, not for 'saving the world,' as you would say."

The truth made her feel like an ant. No, smaller. An ant would be G.o.dzilla next to her.

Jonah must have sensed her mortification. "Kalin, Rose, and Will were my first team. In those days, there were no established Undergrounds, only masters and their minions roaming the world. It wasn't until centuries later that Underground societies were established, after . . ."

"After what?"

She could almost feel him choosing not to fight this particular battle with her. "After the most dangerous vampire ordered his faithful to multiply. And that is where it ends for you, Dawn, with that answer."

h.e.l.l, she had a thousand more roads to travel here, so it wasn't like he'd put her at a dead end. He'd mentioned Will the vampire hunter, and Dawn realized that she hadn't seen him in any portraits, either. In fact, she hadn't seen any obvious males.

"What happened to your hunter, the guy named Will?" she asked.

"We found his body later and put him at peace."

"So he didn't want to be a Friend, either."

Jonah paused, and Dawn possessed enough sense to realize that it had nothing to do with Will wanting to be a Friend.

"Oh, man," she said. "Are the ghosties, like, your harem?"

"Harem? Not quite."

She thought of how s.e.xy most of the feminine pictures looked-except for Breisi's and the field of fire. "You were nailing Kalin.

And maybe you were even putting it to Rose. Not that I'm jealous or anything . . ."

He moved in his corner again, as if shuffling from one foot to another. Hah-so busted.

She didn't let up. "You told me you weren't doing Breisi, but-"

"I wasn't." His voice had risen. It shook the ivy tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the bed. "Breisi has a vested interest in seeing Frank to safety, so when she discovered what was happening with the Friends, she made me promise to keep her active beyond her death if he was still gone."

"Impressive," Dawn said. Acting! She really was jealous, because he hadn't denied involvement with the rest of the Friends. Like, all five hundred million of them. "It's amazing that you managed to remain neutered around at least one of your female hunters."

Now he sounded as if he were wrestling his temper. "As far as Breisi goes, I knew you were coming, and I waited."

Her body quivered, hit by his honesty, vibrated by the thought of his restraining himself because he'd wanted her before she'd even shown up.

"Dawn," he added softly, "you're more powerful than you know, and Kiko saw this in his premonition-his prophecy, if you will.

Some are born to be hunters, like you. Like Kalin."

"And some show you a better time than others." Even before the atmosphere soaked up the comment, she regretted it.

A breeze ruffled around her. "Do not denigrate what each of these women has meant to me," he said, low. Lethal.

She didn't know why she'd muttered it-maybe because she was confounded by all of this, terrified at what everyone was expecting her to be. Little by little, she was realizing that it looked like she might be fighting more vampires after all. Nothing else made sense when you considered Kiko's premonition with her as the "key."

Calming down, she nodded in apology. "I respect the bravery of every single one of those Friends, Jonah."

Silence. Ragged breathing. Darkness.

"Then," she added, wanting to hold on to this opportunity to get more out of him, "this means that these Friends want to 'save the world' and they want to be with you century after century."

More silence.

She thought a joke might not be a bad idea to ease the oppression around here. "Is that why Kalin wants to kick my a.s.s? Because you're her man? That's pretty redneck of her."

"I see there's no reasoning with you." He made a movement as if to leave.

"Whoa, whoa, you don't have some get-out-of-jail-free card just because you're a supercool vamp slayer."

He didn't go anywhere, and that was encouraging. In fact, after this meeting ended she wanted to go into every single Friend painting to see how much each woman meant to Jonah: she wanted to check out the lady with kanji symbols on her back, wanted to see what was up with the redhead in silver armor, wanted to investigate the Elizabethan-looking chick. . . .

A flash from Kalin's Henry VIII adventures knocked at her brain.

Wait. Holy c.r.a.p, Friends were old. So was he.

Numbness overrode everything else. "How long have you been around, Jonah?"

At this, he took a step out of the dark corner. A breath of moonlight skimmed his face, revealing only one golden eye, his black hair. "I've fought long enough to conquer many masters, as well as a few Undergrounds. Long enough to see that vampires don't operate as simply as they used to. Long enough to see how every master and his children evolve in whatever ways help them to survive."

"Just like you?" There-it was out there now.

He closed his eye.