Ichor : Blood & Secrets

Chapter 35

“A brand-new Jaguar XZR. Zero to

sixty in 3.7 seconds! A 550-horsepower supercharged AJ-V8 GEN III R engine with 6-speed ZF automatic transmission! Adaptive Dynamics and

Active

Differential for exceptional traction and handling! There is no car like the XZR!” Matt finished nose to nose with the little man, whose mouth had slowly come open as his eyes flickered between the car and the boy.

“You want to trade that in for something on this lot?” he said, shocked into frank disbelief. “As if I’d have the cash to—waitaminute!” he interrupted himself. His eyes stopped flickering and became the eyes of a poker player. His shoulders came up, but his head didn’t, giving him the appearance of a vulture.

“Don’t want it,” he said flatly and made as if to go back into the office. “What do you mean you don’t want it? You were drooling over it a minute ago!” Matt shouted, but the man had stopped wincing. His expression didn’t change.

I should have done the talking, Casie thought. I wouldn’t have gotten into a war from word one—but it’s too late now. She tried to shut out the male voices and looked at the dilapidated cars on the lot, each with its own dusty little sign tucked into the windshield: 10 PERCENT OFF FOR XMAS!

EASY

CREDIT! CLEAN! GRANNY-OWNED SPECIAL! NO DOWN-

PAYMENT! CHECK IT OUT! She was afraid she was going to burst into tears at any second.

“No call for a car like that around here,” the owner was saying expressionlessly. “Who’d buy it?”

“You’re crazy! This car will bring customers flocking in. It’s—it’s advertising! Better than that purple hippo over there.”

“Not a hippo. S’an elephant.”

“Who can tell, with it half deflated like that?”

With dignity, the owner stalked over to look at the Jag. “Not brand-new.

S’got too many miles on it.”

“It was bought only two weeks ago.”

“So? In a few more weeks, Jaguar will be advertising next year’s cars.” The owner waved a hand at Casie’s giant rose of a vehicle. “Obsolete.”

“Obsolete!”

“Yeah. Big car like this, gas guzzler—”

“It’s more energy efficient than a hybrid—!”

“You think people know that? They see it—”

“Look, I could take this car anywhere else—”

“Then take it. On my lot, here and now, that car is barely worth one car in exchange!” “Two cars.”

The new voice came from directly behind Matt and Casie, but the car dealer’s eyes widened as if he had just seen a ghost.

Casie turned and met Klaus’s unfathomable black gaze. He had his RayBans hooked over his T-shirt and was standing with his hands behind his back. He was looking hard at the car dealer.

A few moments passed, and then…

“The…silver Prius in the back right corner. Under…under the awning,” the car dealer said slowly, and with a dazed expression—in answer to no question that had been asked aloud. “I’ll…take you there,” he added in a voice to match his expression.

“Take the keys with you. Let the boy test-drive it,” Klaus ordered, and the owner fumbled to show a key ring at his belt, and then walked slowly away, staring at nothing.

Casie turned to Klaus. “One guess. You asked him which was the best car on his lot.”

“Substitute ‘least disgusting’ and you’d be closer,” Klaus said. He flashed a brilliant smile at her for a tenth of a second, and then turned it off. “But, Klaus, why two cars? I know it’s more fair and all, but what are we going to do with the second car?” “Caravan,” Klaus said.

“Oh, no.” But even Casie could see the benefits of this—at least after they held a summit to decide on a rotation schedule between the cars for

Casie. She sighed. “Well—if Matt agrees…”

“Mutt will agree,” Klaus said, looking very briefly—very briefly—as innocent as an angel.

“What have you got behind your back?” Casie said, deciding not to pursue the question of what Klaus intended to do to Matt.

Klaus smiled again, but this time it was an odd smile, just a quirk of one side of his mouth. His eyes said it was nothing much. But his right hand came out and it was holding the most beautiful rose Casie had ever seen in her life.

It was the deepest red rose she had ever seen, yet there wasn’t a hint of purple to it—it was just velvety burgundy, and open at exactly the moment of full bloom. It looked as if it would be plush to the touch, and its vivid green stem, with just a few delicate leaves here and there, was at least eighteen inches long and straight as a ruler.

Casie resolutely put her own hands behind her back. Klaus wasn’t the sentimental type—even when he got on his “Princess of the Night” soapbox. The rose probably had something to do with their journey. “Don’t you like it?” Klaus said. Casie might be imagining it, but it almost sounded as if he were disappointed.

“Of course I like it. What’s it for?”

Klaus settled back. “It’s for you, Princess,” he said, looking hurt. “Don’t worry; I didn’t steal it.”

No—he wouldn’t have stolen it. Casie knew exactly how he would have gotten the rose…but it was so pretty….

As she still made no move to take the rose, Klaus lifted it and allowed the cool, silky-feeling petals to caress her cheek.

It made her shiver. “Stop it, Klaus,” she murmured, but she didn’t seem to be able to step backward.

He didn’t stop. He used the cool, softly rustling petals to outline the other side of her face. Casie took a deep breath automatically, but what she smelled was not flowerlike at all. It was the smell of some dark, dark wine, something ancient and fragrant that had once made her drunk immediately. Drunk on Black Magic and on her own heady excitement…just to be with Klaus.

But that wasn’t the real me, a small voice in her head protested. I love

Lucien. Klaus…I want…I want to…

“Do you want to know why I got this particular rose?” Klaus was saying softly, his voice blending in with her memories. “I got it because of its name. It’s a Black Magic rose.”

“Yes,” Casie said simply. She’d known that before he said it. It was the only name that fit.

Now Klaus was giving her a rose kiss by swirling the blossom in a circle on her cheek and then applying pressure. The firmer petals in the middle pressed into her skin, while the outer petals just brushed it. Casie was feeling distinctly light-headed. The day was warm and humid already; how could the rose feel so cool? Now the outermost petals had moved to trace her lips, and she wanted to say no, but somehow the word wouldn’t come.

It was as if she had been transported back in time, back to the days when Klaus had first appeared to her, had first claimed her for his own.

When she had almost let him kiss her before she knew his name…. He hadn’t changed his ideas since then. Vaguely, Casie remembered thinking something like that before. Klaus changed other people while remaining unchanged himself.

But I’ve changed, Casie thought, and suddenly there was quicksand under her feet. I’ve changed so much since then. Enough to see things in Klaus I’d never imagined could be there. Not just the wild and angry dark parts, but the gentle parts. The honor and decency that were trapped like veins of gold inside that stone boulder in his mind.

I have to help him, Casie thought. Somehow, I have to help him—and the little boy chained outside the boulder.

These thoughts had trickled slowly through her mind while it seemed separated from her body. She was so involved with them, in fact, that she somehow lost track of her body, and only now did she realize how much closer Klaus had gotten. Her back was against one of the sad, sagging cars.

And Klaus was speaking lightly, but with an undertone of seriousness. “A rose for a kiss, then?” he asked. “It is called Black Magic, and I did come by it honestly. Her name was…it was…”

Klaus stopped, and for a moment a look of intense bewilderment flashed across his face. Then he smiled, but it was the warrior’s smile, the brilliant one he turned on and off almost before you were sure you had seen it. Casie sensed trouble. Sure, Klaus still didn’t remember Matt’s name correctly, but she had never known him to forget a girl’s name when he was really trying to remember. Especially within minutes of when he must have fed from that girl.

Shinichi again? Casie wondered. Was he still taking Klaus’s memories— only the highlights, of course? The thrills, good or bad? Casie knew that Klaus himself was thinking the same thing. His black eyes were smoldering. Klaus was furious—but there was a certain vulnerability about his fury.

Without thinking, Casie put her hands on Klaus’s forearms. She ignored the rose, even as he traced the curve of her cheekbone with it. She tried to speak steadily. “Klaus, what are we going to do?”

That was the scene that Matt walked in on. Ran in on, actually. He came weaving through a maze of cars, and dashed around a white SUV with

one flat tire, shouting, “Hey, you guys, that Prius is…” And then he stopped dead.

Casie knew what he was seeing: Klaus caressing her with the rose, while she was practically embracing him. She let go of Klaus’s arms, but she couldn’t back away from him because of the car behind her.

“Matt—” Casie began, and then her voice trailed off. She had been about to say “This isn’t what it looks like. We’re not in the middle of a cuddle. I’m not really touching him.” But this was what it looked like. She cared about Klaus; she had been trying to get through to him….

With a small shock, that thought repeated itself with the force of a shaft of sunlight shooting through an unprotected vampire’s body.

She cared about Klaus.

She really did. It was usually difficult being with him because they were alike in so many ways. Headstrong, each wanting their own way, passionate, impatient…

She and Klaus were alike.

Small shocks were going though Casie, and her entire body felt weak. She found herself glad to lean against the car behind her, even though it must be getting dust all over her clothes.

I love Lucien, she thought almost hysterically. He’s the only one I love. But I need Klaus to get to him. And Klaus may be falling to pieces in front of me.

She was looking at Matt all the while, her eyes full of tears that would not fall. She blinked, but they stubbornly stayed on her lashes.

“Matt…” she whispered.

He said nothing. He didn’t need to. It was all in his expression:

astonishment turning to something Casie had never seen before, not when he was looking at her.

It was a sort of alienation that shut her out completely, that severed any bonds between them.

“Matt, no…” But it came out in a whisper.

And then, to her astonishment, Klaus spoke.

“You do know it’s all me, don’t you? You can hardly blame a girl for trying to defend herself.” Casie looked at her hands, which were shaking now.

Klaus was going on, “You know it’s all my fault. Casie would never—” That was when Casie realized. Klaus was Influencing Matt.

“No!” She took Klaus off guard, grabbing him again, shaking him. “Don’t do it! Not to Matt!”

The black eyes that were turned on hers were definitely not those of a suitor. Klaus had been interrupted in the use of his Power. If it had been anyone else, they would have ended as a small spot of grease on the ground.

“I’m saving you,” Klaus said coldly. “Are you refusing me?”

“I’m saving you,” Klaus said coldly. “Are you refusing me?”

Casie found herself wavering. Maybe, if it was only once, and only for Matt’s benefit…

Something surged up inside her. It was all she could do not to let her aura escape completely.

“Never try that on me again,” Casie said. Her voice was quiet but icy. “Don’t you dare ever try to Influence me! And leave Matt alone!” Something like approval flickered in the endless darkness of Klaus’s gaze. It was gone before she could be sure she’d seen it. But when he spoke, he seemed less distant.

“All right,” he said to Matt. “What’s the game plan now? You name it.” Matt answered slowly, not looking at either of them. He was flushed but deadly calm. “I was going to say, that Prius isn’t bad at all. And the dealer guy has another one. It’s in okay condition. We could have two cars just alike.”

“And then we could caravan and split up if someone was following us! They won’t know which to follow.” Normally Casie would have thrown her arms around Matt at this point. But Matt was looking at his shoes, which was probably just as well really, since Klaus had his eyes shut and was shaking his head slightly as if he couldn’t believe something idiotic.

That’s right, Casie thought. It’s my aura—or Klaus’s—that they’re homing in on. We can’t confuse them with identical cars unless we have identical auras, too.

Which really meant that she should drive with Matt the whole way. But Klaus would never accept that. And she needed Klaus to get to her beloved, her one and only, her true mate: Lucien.

“I’ll take the ratty one,” Matt was saying, arranging it with Klaus and ignoring her. “I’m used to ratty cars. I already arranged a deal with the guy. We should get going.” Still speaking only to Klaus, he said, “You’ll have to tell me where we’re really going. We might get separated.”

Klaus was silent for a long moment. Then, brusquely, he said, “Sedona, Arizona, for a start.”

Matt looked disgusted. “That place full of New Age lunatics? You’re kidding.”

“I said we’ll start out from Sedona. It’s complete wilderness—nothing but rock—all around it. You could get lost…very easily.” Klaus flashed the brilliant smile and instantly turned it off.

“We’ll be at the Juniper Resort, off North Highway 89A,” he added smoothly.

“I’ve got it,” Matt said. Casie could see no emotion in either his face or his expression, but his aura was seething red.

“Now, Matt,” Casie began, “we should really meet every night, so if you just follow us—” She broke off with a sharply inhaled breath.

Matt had already turned around. He didn’t turn back when she spoke. He just kept going, without another word.

Without a backward glance.

Casie woke to the sound of Klaus impatiently rapping on the window of the Prius. She was fully clothed, clutching her diary to her. It was the day after

Matt had left them.

“Did you sleep all night like that?” Klaus asked, looking her up and down as Casie rubbed her eyes. As usual, he was immaculately dressed: all in black, of course. Heat and humidity had no effect on him.

“I’ve had my breakfast,” he said shortly, getting in the driver’s seat. “And I brought you this.”

This was a styrofoam cup of steaming coffee, which Casie clutched as gratefully as if it were Black Magic wine, and a brown paper bag that proved to contain donuts. Not exactly the most nutritious breakfast, but Casie craved the caffeine and sugar.

“I need a rest stop,” Casie warned as Klaus coolly seated himself behind the wheel and started the car. “To change my clothes and wash my face and things.”

They headed directly west, which accorded with what Casie had found by looking at a map on the Internet last night. The small image on her mobile phone matched the Prius’s navigation system readout. They had both shown that Sedona, Arizona, lay on an almost perfectly straight horizontal

line from the small rural road where Klaus had parked overnight in Arkansas. But soon Klaus was turning south, taking a roundabout route of his own that might or might not confuse any pursuers. By the time they found a rest stop, Casie’s bladder was about to burst. She spent an unashamed half hour in

the women’s room, doing her best to wash with paper towels and cold water, brushing her hair, and changing into new jeans and a fresh white top that laced up the front like a corset. After all, one of these days she just might have another out of body experience while napping and see Lucien again. What she didn’t want to think about was that with Matt’s departure, she was left alone with Klaus, an untamed vampire, traveling through the middle of the United States toward a destination that was literally out of this world.

When Casie finally emerged from the restroom, Klaus was cold and expressionless—although she noticed that he took the time to look her over just the

same.

Oh, damn, Casie thought. I left my diary in the car.

She was as certain that he’d read it as if she’d seen him doing it, and she was glad that there was nothing in it about leaving her body and finding Lucien. Although she believed Klaus wanted to free Lucien, too—she wouldn’t be in this car with him if she didn’t—she also felt that it was better that he

didn’t know she had gotten there first. Klaus enjoyed being in charge of things as much as she did. He also enjoyed Influencing each police officer who pulled him over for blasting the speed limit.

But today he was short-tempered even by his own standards. Casie knew from firsthand experience that Klaus could make himself remarkably good company when he chose, telling outrageous stories and jokes until the most prejudiced and taciturn of passengers would laugh in spite of themselves.

But today he wouldn’t even reply to Casie’s questions, much less laugh at her own jokes. The one time she tried to make physical contact, touching his arm lightly, he jerked away as if her touch might ruin his black leather jacket.

Fine, terrific, Casie thought, depressed. She leaned her head against the window and stared at the scenery, which all looked alike. Her mind wandered.

Where was Matt now? Ahead of them or behind? Had he gotten any rest last night? Was he driving through Texas now? Was he eating properly? Casie blinked away tears, which welled up whenever she remembered the way he had walked away from her without a backward look.

Casie was a manager. She could make almost any situation turn out okay, as long as the people around her were normal, sane beings. And managing boys was her speciality. She’d been handling them—steering them—since junior high. But now, approximately two and a half weeks since she had come back from death, from some spirit world that she didn’t remember, she didn’t want to steer anyone.

That was what she loved about Lucien. Once she’d gotten past his reflexive instinct to keep away from anything he cherished, she didn’t need to manage him at all. He was maintenance-free, except for the gentlest of hints that she’d turned herself into an expert on vampires. Not at hunting them or slaying them, but at loving them safely. Casie knew when it was right to bite or be bitten, and when to stop, and how to keep herself human. But apart from those gentle hints, she didn’t even want to manage Lucien.

She wanted simply to be with him. After that, everything took care of

itself.

Casie could live without Lucien—she thought. But just as being away from

Meredith and Octiva was like living without her two hands, living without Lucien would be like trying to live without her heart. He was her partner in the Great Dance; her equal and her opposite; her beloved and her lover in the purest sense imaginable. He was the other half of the Sacred Mysteries of Life to her.

And after seeing him last night, even if it had been a dream, which she wasn’t willing to accept, Casie missed him so much that it was a throbbing pain inside her. A pain so great that she couldn’t bear to just sit and dwell on it. If she did she might just go insane and start raving at Klaus to drive faster

—and Casie might hurt inside, but she wasn’t suicidal.

They stopped at some nameless town for lunch. Casie had no appetite, but Klaus spent the entire break as a bird, which for some reason infuriated her.

By the time they were driving again, the tension in the car had built until the old cliché was impossible to avoid: you could cut it with a folded napkin, much less a knife, Casie thought.

That was when she realized exactly what kind of tension it was.

The one thing that was saving Klaus was his pride.

He knew that Casie had things figured out. She’d stopped trying to touch him or even speak to him. And that was good.

He wasn’t supposed to be feeling like this. Vampires wanted girls for their pretty white throats, and Klaus’s sense of esthetics demanded that the rest of the donor be at least up to his standards. But now even Casie’s human-sized aura was advertising the unique life-force in her blood. And Klaus’s response was involuntary. He had not even thought about a girl in this way for approximately five hundred years. Vampires weren’t capable of it.

But Klaus was—very capable—now. And the closer he got to Casie, the stronger her aura was around him, and the weaker was his control. Thank all the little demons in hell, his pride was stronger than the desire he felt. Klaus had never asked for anything from anyone in his life. He paid for the blood he took from humans in his own particular coin: of pleasure and fantasy and dreams. But Casie didn’t need fantasy; didn’t want dreams.

Didn’t want him.

She wanted Lucien. And Klaus’s pride would never allow him to ask Casie for what he alone desired, and equally it would never allow him to take it without her consent…he hoped.

Just a few days ago he had been an empty shell, his body a puppet of the kitsune twins, who had made him hurt Casie in ways that now made him cringe inside. Klaus hadn’t existed then as a personality, but his body had been Shinichi’s to play with. And although he scarcely could believe it, the takeover had been so complete that his shell had obeyed Shinichi’s every command: he had tormented Casie; he might well have killed her. There was no point in disbelieving it; or saying that it couldn’t be true. It was true. It had happened. Shinichi was that much stronger when it came to mind control, and the kitsune had none of the vampires’ detachment about pretty girls—below the neck. Besides which, he happened to be a sadist. He liked pain—other people’s, that is.

Klaus couldn’t deny the past, couldn’t wonder why he hadn’t “awakened” to stop Shinichi from hurting Casie. There had been nothing of him to awaken. And if a solitary part of his mind still wept because of the evil he had done—well, Klaus was good at blocking it out. He wouldn’t waste time over regrets, but he was intent on controlling the future. It would never happen again—not and leave him still alive.

What Klaus really couldn’t understand was why Casie was pushing him. Acting as if she trusted him. Of all the people in the world, she was the one with the most right to hate him, to point an accusing finger at him. But she had never once done that. She had never even looked at him with anger in

her dark blue, gold-spattered eyes. She alone had seemed to understand that someone as completely possessed by the master of the malach, Shinichi, as Klaus had been, simply had no choice—wasn’t there to make a choice—in what he or she did.

Maybe it was because she’d pulled the thing the malach had created out of him. The pulsating, albino, second body that had been inside him. Klaus forced himself to repress a shudder. He only knew this because Shinichi had jovially mentioned it, while taking away all Klaus’s memories of the time since the two of them, kitsune and vampire, had met in the Old Wood. Klaus was glad to have had the memories gone. From the moment he had locked gazes with the fox spirit’s laughing golden eyes, his life had been poisoned.

And now…right now he was alone with Casie, in the middle of the wilderness, with towns few and far between. They were utterly, uniquely alone,

with Klaus helplessly wanting from Casie what every human boy she’d ever encountered had wanted.

Worst of all was the fact that charming girls, deceiving girls, was practically Klaus’s own raison d’être. It was certainly the only reason he’d been

able to keep on living for the past half millennium. And yet he knew that he must not, must not even start the process with this one girl who, to him, was the jewel lying on the dungheap of humanity.

To all appearances, he was perfectly in control, icy and precise, distant and disinterested.

The truth was that he was going out of his mind.

That night, after making sure that Casie had food and water and was safely locked into the Prius, Klaus called down a damp fog and began to weave his

darkest wards. These were announcements to any sisters or brothers of the night who might come upon the car that the girl inside it was under Klaus’s

protection; and that Klaus would hunt down and flay alive anyone who even disturbed the girl’s rest…and then he’d get around to really punishing the culprit. Klaus then flew a few miles south as a crow, found a dive with a pack of werewolves drinking in it and a few charming barmaids serving them, and brawled and bled the night away.

But it wasn’t enough to distract him—not nearly enough. In the morning, returning early, he saw the wards around the car in tatters. Before he could panic, he realized that Casie had broken them from the inside. There had been no warning to him because of her peaceful intent and innocent heart. And then Casie herself appeared, coming up the bank of a stream, looking clean and refreshed. Klaus was stricken speechless by the very sight of her. By her grace, by her beauty, by the unbearable closeness of her. He could smell her freshly washed skin, and couldn’t help deliberately breathing in more and more of her unique fragrance.

He didn’t see how he could put up with another day of this.

And then Klaus suddenly had an Idea.

“Would you like to learn something that would help you to control that aura of yours?” he asked as she passed him, heading for the car.

Casie threw him a sidelong glance. “So you’ve decided to talk to me again.

Am I supposed to faint with joy?”

“Well—that would always be appreciated—”

“Would it?” she said sharply, and Klaus realized that he had underestimated the storm he had brewed inside this formidable girl.

“No. Now, I’m being serious,” he said, fixing his dark gaze on her.

“I know. You’re going to tell me to become a vampire to help control my Power.”

“No, no, no. This has nothing to do with being a vampire.” Klaus refused to be drawn into an argument and that must have impressed Casie, because finally she said, “What is it, then?”

“It’s learning how to circulate your Power. Blood circulates, yes? And Power can be circulated, too. Even humans have known that for centuries, whether they call it life-force or chi or ki. As it is, you’re simply dissipating your Power into the air. That’s an aura. But if you learn to circulate it, you can build it up for some really big release, and you can be more inconspicuous as well.”