Driving to town I had to resist every second thought. I drove past Kari’s apartment building, and the temptation to stop and ask her to come with me. I passed one of the sheriff’s deputies in his patrol car, and didn’t do anything stupid to attract his attention. Once I reached town, I saw people strolling everywhere, admiring the lights, and didn’t pull over to join them. I kept going until I reached the little lot next to the park, and eased the convertible into the very last spot left.
The vampire hadn’t told me exactly where to wait for him, but the park was small, and I knew he wouldn’t want us to be seen. I walked to a bench at the farthest corner, where only a single string of lights curled around the trunk of a coconut palm. There I sat down, and looked at the beauty all around me, and wondered if this would be the first night of my life, or the last.
He came up behind me, as silent as the shadows, and his cool hand touched the top of my head. “You shouldn’t be here alone.”
“Those were my instructions.” I turned around and looked at Jesse. “You shouldn’t be here, either.”
“I didn’t think you would go through with it,” he admitted.
Earlier that day, after Trick had offered me his compromise and left me in my room, I’d used my bond with Jesse to wake him from his sleep and tell him what I’d planned to do. Although some of the details troubled him, he’d agreed to help me.
After that I’d gone downstairs, but before I went to the kitchen I’d slipped into Trick’s bathroom to take a few of his sleeping pills from his cabinet. I’d kept them in my pocket during Christmas dinner, and then dissolved them into the milk I’d heated to make the hot cocoa.
My brothers never noticed that I didn’t drink any of mine.
Deliberately drugging my brothers so I could escape them was probably the most cold-blooded thing I’d ever done. I knew the risk I was taking, and as Trick had said, I didn’t have nine lives. But after tonight, nine lives would be changed forever: mine and Jesse’s, his parents’ and my brothers’, and the three missing girls’. I had to believe that what I’d done was worth saving the three of them.
“My brothers are never going to forgive me for this,” I told him.
“Perhaps they will.” He rested his hand on my shoulder. “They know how much you love them.”
“No more than the Johnsons, the Waynes and the Hamiltons love their daughters.” I gazed up at him. “But not as much as I love you.”
He bent down, and the kiss he gave me took away a little of the pain. “I’ll be watching from the rooftops.”
Twenty-One
The temperature dropped steadily, and a chilly breeze chased most of the Christmas-light lovers out of the park, but I barely felt the icy air as I waited on the bench. From the moment I’d decided to use Trick’s pills to gain my freedom, something slumbering inside me seemed to awake. It felt hot and wild and almost uncontrollable, but this time I wasn’t fighting it, and I wasn’t afraid of it. If this was what gave me the ability to kill, then I would use it.
Tonight I had to be a Van Helsing.
The city hall’s clock chimed eleven times, and as I got up to stretch my stiff limbs I heard a commotion and turned around. A lady walking her poodle came running toward me, almost tripping as she bent down to pick up the little ball of fur before she darted behind a tree. At that moment she saw me and shrieked, “Watch out.”
The horse burst out of the bushes, her legs churning as she came straight at me, and I spun out of the way just in time.
“Rika.”
The Arabian reacted to my call by wheeling around and stopping, her sides billowing in and out as she regarded me.
“Ma’am,” I said to the lady with the poodle, “could you throw me your dog’s leash?”
“For that thing?” I heard the woman say.
“Please. I need to catch this horse.” I looked down as the leash landed next to my foot. “Thank you.”
I bent down to retrieve the leash, and then whistled. Rika’s ears pricked, and she trotted up to me, shivering and blowing, her hide soaked with cold sweat. Just as I reached for her she stepped back and shook her head.
“Come here, girl.” When she backed away, I started toward her. “Rika, it’s me. Come on, it’s okay.”
The mare snorted and turned, trotting down to the corner, where she stopped and looked back at me.
“I can’t play tonight. Rika, come on.” I walked halfway to the corner, stopped, and whistled for her again. “Rika, here.”
Again she trotted a short distance away, halted and waited, watching me. I didn’t want to leave the park, but if she ran out in front of a car she might kill herself, the foal and whoever was driving. I hurried after her.
She kept playing her version of keep-away, leading me across town until she stopped just at the entrance of the maze.
I looked at the gates, which were standing open, and then at the mare. “Okay, you didn’t do that.”
She trotted through the entrance and disappeared into the gardens.
I caught up with her in front of the shrine Stanas had made for his lost love. “Are you tired of chasing wild geese yet?”
The Arabian lowered her head, touching her nose to the top of the tiny bower made of shells.
“Yeah, I know, it’s pretty,” I told her as I came forward slowly. “Why don’t we go back to the park and call Dr. Marks and see if he can come and take you back to his clinic, before you drop that foal on its head?”
Rika snorted and began pawing the ground.
I could see the shrine starting to tip to one side. “No, no, stop that, Rika. Pay attention to me, I’m your friend, remember?”
The Arabian turned around, kicked, and shells went everywhere as her hooves destroyed the top of the shrine. I used the moment to grab her halter and clip the poodle’s leash to one of the rings. She pulled against it, dragging me off my feet, and I landed on the ground in front of what was left of the shrine.
“Thanks.” I lifted my head and held on to the end of the leash as I rubbed my bruised chin with my free hand. Something creaked as I moved, and I looked beneath me. Under the dirt some streaks of wood showed through, and when I brushed it away I uncovered one corner of a panel of oak.
I felt curving ridges under my fingers, and traced them. They formed the shape of a heart.
Stanas told them that whoever solved his maze and found its heart would discover a great treasure he’d hidden there.
I got up to tie Rika, who was now quiet, to the iron bench near the shrine. When I went back I saw that the shells and flowers all around the base, some of which Rika had pawed away, had been placed on top of the panel. Since the shrine covering the statue of Stanas’s girl was already destroyed, I gave the remaining portion a push, and it slid slow back from the rest of the panel.
Not a panel, I thought as I crouched down to examine it. A hatch.
Catlyn, where are you?
I’d completely forgotten about Jesse. I’m in the Jester’s Maze, with Rika. I think I’ve found where he’s keeping the girls.
I will get James. Wait for us.
Hurry.
I lifted the hatch and saw the same stone steps that had appeared in my blood vision. The sound of crying drifted up to me, tearing at me as I threw aside the hatch and lowered myself over the edge until my feet touched the top step.
Water trickled down the stairs and formed a wide pool at the base, so I braced one hand against the tunnel wall as I descended. Everything was exactly as I’d seen it in the vision, and I followed the passage to the barred wooden door. Inside I could hear the sound of crying and a voice whispering. I lifted the bar and cast it aside before I went in.
Two of the girls sat huddled beside Sunny Johnson, who held the broken handle of a broom as if it were a spear. I could see the clean trails tears had made through the dirt on her thin face, and she held her left arm tucked against her body, but her eyes were dry and wide and angry.
There was no sign of the vampire.
“Don’t you come near us,” she told me, her voice like a slap. “Or so help me, I’ll stake you through the heart.”
“I’m not here to hurt you,” I told her. “My name is Cat Youngblood. I’m going to get you out of here.”
The broom handle lowered. “Did you bring the sheriff? Are my parents here?”
“No, it’s just me right now.” The sound of metal clinking made me look down at the chains and cuffs the vampire had put on the girls’ feet. “Where are the keys?”
“He’s got them.” The girl reached into her back pocket and took out a bobby pin that had been bent at different angles. “I’ve been trying with this, but I don’t know how to pick a lock.”
Neither did I, which left me with only one option. “I’ve got to go back up and get some help.”
“No.” She grabbed my sleeve with her fist. “You can’t leave us down here. He’s coming back.”
I glanced down at her arm, which had been badly bruised from her wrist to her elbow, and hung limp, as if she couldn’t use it. “Did he do this to you?”
“Yeah. He thinks he’s a vampire.” She pushed the hair back from her neck to reveal more bruises. “He keeps trying to bite me to drink my blood, but he doesn’t have fangs and he’s too weak to do it with his own teeth.”
“After tonight,” a dry, horrible voice said, “I won’t need your blood.”
I turned around and for an instant saw a dark-haired young man with dark eyes and a beautiful face. As soon as I blinked, he changed into a wrinkled old man with ashen skin and bleary eyes.
He bowed. “Welcome, my queen. I had almost given up hope.” He shuffled forward. “But at last you have come to me.”
“I’m not here for you, old man,” I told him. “I’m taking these girls back to their families.”
“I will give them to you.” He reached into his pocket and took out a ring of keys. “As my gift.” When I held out my hand, he closed his gnarled fist over the keys. “As soon as you give me what I want.”