Love and Brimstone Read online

  “Good, you’re here,” he said. “Let’s get breakfast.”

  He led the way with long strides, Albert at his side, not waiting for her. She followed, Robertson beside her.

  “Well,” he said in her ear, “at least you’re not screaming at each other.”

  “Shut up. I’m still mad at you.”

  “No you’re not. You’re mad at the situation.”

  She hated when he was right. The more she thought about what she did to the guard, the sicker it made her. She hated to admit it, but Albert did the right thing. If their circumstances were reversed, she would have done the same.

  In a heartbeat.

  Albert stopped her before anyone got hurt. She never thought about it, that she could hurt or kill someone with her thoughts. It explained why during the demonstration with Mayfield that Matthias stood at her shoulder, carefully controlling the situation.

  Breakfast was good. Matthias never looked at her, didn’t speak to her, giving her space. She received the itinerary from Albert and Robertson and was able to watch Old Faithful erupt. The guards flanked her as she sat on the bench next to Albert while Robertson went with Matthias. Apparently their meeting was in one of the nearby buildings because they didn’t take the Rover.

  “What did Matthias mean when he said he’d know if someone got in here who didn’t belong?”

  Albert looked out over the geyser field. “Just that.”

  “How come the Others can’t just hike through the woods to get here?”

  “What do you smell, Anastazia?”

  She sniffed. “I don’t know. Pine. Place smells like Christmas trees. And whatever the geysers are putting out, rotten egg smell. This whole place is a huge supervolcano. I saw it on the Discovery Channel.”

  He nodded. “If you’re a fan of irony, which I am, you’ll be happy to learn a lot of what you’re smelling is sulfur. Another term for which is ‘brimstone.’”

  She looked at him, sure he was pulling her leg. Then she realized he was serious. “You’re not kidding?”

  He shook his head. “About something like this, I never kid, my dear. We are surrounded, if you will, by fire and brimstone.”

  “Fire?”

  He smiled. “Well, technically. The Others can’t stand sulfur. The smell. It burns them or something. Which, in this case, is lucky for us. Yellowstone has been a safe haven and meeting spot for our kind, as well as other paranormal breeds, for many, many years.”

  “‘Other paranormal breeds?’ Do I even want to ask?”

  He arched an eyebrow at her.

  “Um, right. We’ll cover that later. Sorry, go ahead.”

  “As I was going to say, the Others are most likely watching for us to leave the park, and we can probably expect some sort of trouble on the way out. They could send their hybrids, but they’re not much fonder of brimstone than the Others. And if they try to send humans through the gates, they’ll be spotted.”

  “Because they have pointy horns growing out of their heads?”

  He looked at her. “It doesn’t matter how they’d be spotted. They would.”

  “Need-to-know basis?”

  “And you don’t need to know right now. You’ve got enough on your plate. I’ll be happy to explain it all later. For now, you need to work on a few things. Lessons to learn, and all that.”

  “Is this where we have the action montage sequence of me doing the kick-ass ninja-slayer training so I can handle evil bad things?”

  He looked at her strangely.

  “You never watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer on TV, did you?”

  “No. But I heard it received quite a bit of critical praise for the writing. Too bad the facts were totally wrong.”

  “Well, I got my black belt in karate because of that show. I wanted to be like Buffy.” Taz sighed. “How was I supposed to know it was life imitating art? Sort of.”

  He smirked. “Matthias had a fit when Tim reported that. He was afraid you’d get hurt, or hurt someone. Once I convinced him you having those skills could only help, he settled down.”

  “Back to the brimstone.”

  “Ah, yes. Of course, as you are well aware by now, there is nothing evil or supernatural about what we are. It’s a physical condition, like any other genetic anomaly.”

  “But you just said vampires are paranormal.” She rubbed her temples. “And that there are other paranormal breeds. You’re making my head hurt.”

  “Paranormal, meaning outside the realm of the normal. By supernatural, I mean those silly, old Hollywood myths. There are legitimate explanations for what we are and what we can do that science just hasn’t caught up with yet. And explanations for the other ‘creatures’ out there as well.”

  She stared at him. “You’re really nitpicky about semantics, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m sure people would argue with you about us not being supernatural.”

  “Probably. But the truth is, we are not much different from ‘normal’ humans.”

  “Only we tend to live a long time, have freaky powers of quick healing, can sometimes read each other’s thoughts, and drink blood,” she snarked.

  “We don’t drink blood.”

  “Usually.”

  He sighed. “We don’t need to feed on blood to stay alive. But I’ll concede the point. Yes, sometimes, we drink blood.”

  “That doesn’t explain the Others.”

  “Did you know they are still discovering new species of creatures in the oceans and in rain forests, in both South America and Indonesia? Animals and plants never before known to science. Just in the past few years. If there was an intelligent species that wished to remain in the shadows, don’t you think they could accomplish it? Especially when they were fervently persecuted throughout most of history?”

  She considered it. “Werewolves, huh?”

  “Not really. There are breeds of shape-shifters out there, but like us, they are more interested in not being discovered than they are causing trouble. The Others, however, have a chip on their shoulder. They have for centuries. And while it’s easy for the Clans and most other types of paranormals to blend in and go undetected, it’s not so easy for the Others.”

  “What are they?”

  “They don’t usually hang around long enough to have that discussion. Most of the time they keep to themselves and don’t interact with humans outside their groups. Some of them can transform like shape-shifters, or so we’ve been told. But some of them are very nonhuman in their appearance and cannot shift.”

  “I saw the head.” The thought of the dismembered head made her want to urp her breakfast. What had Matthias done with that, anyway? She hoped she didn’t open a freezer at the house and find it.

  “That’s right—you did. But that’s just one form they have.”

  She asked even though she didn’t want to. “Why did he take the head?”

  “DNA. To track down its group. It was easier to take the head than to try to wrestle the whole body into the car. I was having a difficult enough time just getting Matthias loaded, as injured as he was.”

  “It won’t turn into a human head and be waiting in the freezer for us, will it?”

  “I doubt it. That was probably its true form anyway. Had it been a shape-shifter, it would have shifted when it died.”

  “Area 51?”

  He laughed. “Do I look like a Wikipedia of the Weird? Your guess is as good as mine. But I’ve personally seen a ghost.”

  She stared across the geyser basin. Old Faithful still spouted steam occasionally, and in the distance, steam clouds puffed from other geysers in the chilly morning air.

  “What else is there out there we don’t know about?”

  “‘We’ meaning you and I and those like us, or ‘we’ meaning the rest of the world?”

  “That.”

  He paused, weighing his words. She sensed there was a lot of carefully concealed knowledge in that brain of his. “There are lots of unknowns, Anas
tazia, even to those like us. Most of the European lines managed to survive the worst of the Inquisition, the Plagues, the upheavals. Then World Wars I and II nearly killed the entire Eastern European Clan.”

  “Couldn’t someone have done something?”

  “And bring more attention to us? As it is, some of the greatest myths were written by those like us.”

  “Really?”

  “What better way to misdirect than create works of fiction? No one would believe it was real. Now there are so many people claiming to be ‘real’ vampires all over the world, and as you’ve seen, they’ve got it all wrong, that no one bats an eye about us anymore.”

  “Ha-ha.”

  He looked at her for a moment and smiled. “Yes, I get it. Bats. Ha-ha.”

  “Except for science.”

  “Ah, yes. That’s the true threat, now. There’s plenty of room for myths when blood can’t be analyzed under an electron microscope. That’s why it’s desperately important to identify all those like yourself and Matthias and bring them in from the cold, so to speak.”

  “What about you?”

  He shrugged and studied his hands. “I’m a hybrid. As is Tim. We have traits and certain talents, but our blood looks nearly normal. Normal enough. Which is why it was useless to heal Matthias.”

  They sat for a long time, watching the geyser basin while she tried to collect her thoughts. “I don’t know why I’m taking it out on him,” she quietly admitted.

  “I do. It’s understandable.”

  She shook her head. “No it’s not. I’m not like this. I’m normally a controlled, rational person. I’m not like this at all. I don’t like being like this. I don’t like being a bitch.”

  He wouldn’t meet her eyes. “You love him.”

  Her heart rolled. Yes!

  “Do I? Or is it just some sort of stupid vampire hypnosis infatuation?”

  Albert looked at her, and she sensed a deep, timeless sadness in his heart.

  “Kindred hearts sometimes take a while to find each other, my dear. And when they do, they are so much alike sometimes they fight before they realize they don’t need to. It’s fear. It’s normal. The soul always returns home, Anastazia. Never forget that. The heart knows what it knows, and the soul always returns home.”

  There was something melancholy in his voice and manner, something deeper she sensed she didn’t want to explore right then—or shouldn’t. She opted for humor. “New World Order?”

  “Doesn’t exist.” Damn, he was unflappable.

  “Masons taking over the planet?”

  “Only if the Shriners make enough of those funny clown cars for them.”

  She laughed. Then something inside her turned loose, and she laughed until she cried and had to lean against his shoulder for support. He hesitantly put his arms around her then pulled her to him, let her cry against him. He was a lot like Robertson. It was almost as much a comfort having his arms around her. Protective.

  Loving.

  When she pulled herself together and sat up, sniffling, he handed her a handkerchief. He waited until she looked into his eyes, and she again felt there was more than he was telling her.

  “Just give Matthias a chance,” he whispered. “That’s all he wants. He doesn’t expect you to do anything you don’t wish to do. Especially now that he owes you his life.”

  Taz dried her eyes. “I don’t know what to think. I’m still sure I’m going to wake up in the hospital with Robertson telling me someone spiked my drink at a party and put me in a coma.”

  Albert reached for her left hand and tenderly touched her wrist where the thin white scar bore mute testimony to what happened. “When you think that, take a look at this. You risked your life for him, Anastazia, without hesitation or thought for your own safety. Remember, the heart knows what it knows.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Anastazia wanted to walk the boardwalk trail around the geyser basin. Albert glanced at his watch. “You’ve got time, but you have to take them with you.” He indicated the guards.

  “You’re not coming?”

  “This is one place we can almost guarantee you’re safe. And you’ll have them.”

  “If I’m safe, why do I need Moe, Larry, and Curly?”

  “Because Matthias refuses to take chances with your life.”

  “I thought there were things you wanted me to work on.”

  “There are.” He stood. “You’ll probably figure out at least one of them on your walk. We’ll talk later.” He glanced at the guards and lowered his voice so only she could hear. “Do not look them in the eye. Please, do not compromise them. Your anger is not at them. It’s at Matthias. Don’t risk their lives.”

  She felt odd but soon realized the guards blended in with the surroundings. Of course they would. They were trained to protect and serve and to become one with the wallpaper. They didn’t speak to her, and she didn’t try to make them uncomfortable by striking up conversations. She understood their orders and why they had to follow them.

  She damn sure didn’t want to put them at physical risk.

  The tallest one she dubbed Moe, and noticed that Larry, who had short, curly hair, and Curly, who was bald as a cue ball, hung behind a few steps. Moe walked beside her, just close enough the casual observer would think they were a couple. She took pictures of the geysers and stopped to watch a bison near the boardwalk. The men cautiously put themselves between her and the large animal. As she watched it looked up at her with huge brown eyes like deep pools.

  “Walk away,” she thought to it.

  Surprisingly, it turned and left. Maybe that was one of the “things” Albert referred to.

  “Huh.” She’d have to ask Matthias about that later.

  If he was speaking to her.

  At one point she stopped and closed her eyes and inhaled. Crisp pine. Harsh sulfur. Now she placed Babson’s weird scent at the office before he attacked her—sulfur.

  Her eyes flew open. Sweat.

  She stole a glance at Curly, who was wearing a navy-blue jacket. The other two wore white windbreakers. Curly’s dark jacket absorbed the sun and made him hot. Around his neck and on his upper lip and forehead, small beads of perspiration glistened in the sun. He had to keep his jacket zipped to hide the gun he wore holstered under his left arm.

  Gun oil. She could smell it. Two of them used the same brand, the third a different one.

  Holy crap, I’ve got a super sniffer!

  She walked in a daze, no longer looking, but smelling.

  The boardwalk wound close to a stand of trees. She smelled something different and looked up to spot an osprey nest high in the branches above her.

  She’d always had a sensitive sense of smell, which was why she didn’t wear perfume. She’d always chocked it up to allergies. How about hearing? Closing her eyes, she tried to focus on the sounds.

  Every sound echoed when she purposely listened. How had she never noticed this before? Yes, odd noises always disturbed her. Even those no one else heard. One morning, she’d spent thirty minutes pulled over on the side of the 5 on her way to Anaheim, trying to hunt down the source of an odd rattle in her trunk. It turned out to be a free-range quarter vibrating inside the spare tire compartment.

  Moe gently touched her on the shoulder. As she turned, he looked away and held out his watch. “I’m sorry. Time to go.”

  “Thank you.” They followed her along the path to the cabin where Robertson and Albert awaited.

  “Did you have a nice walk?” Albert asked.

  “Uh, yeah.” She glanced at the guards. “What can I say?”

  “Around them, anything.”

  “Okay. Bison.”

  He smiled. “Yes?”

  “Could have been a coincidence. I looked at it and told it to walk away, and it did.”

  Albert smiled. “Excellent. Not all animals will do that.”

  “Murry won’t.”

  He shook his head. “Well, no. Murry isn’t exactly an animal. And e
ven if he were a normal cat, he still probably wouldn’t.”

  She’d leave that explanation for after they got home. She had enough to deal with. “Gotcha. Sounds.”

  “Yes. Very acute hearing.”

  “And scents.”

  Robertson nodded. “Now you know it’s not allergies.”

  “What else?”

  “We’ll have to go through that,” Robertson said.

  They walked to the Old Faithful Inn for lunch. “Where’s Matthias?” She noticed one of the Land Rovers was gone and kicked herself for missing him.

  She was still aggravated at him on general principle.

  “He had to drive up to Canyon Village,” Albert said. “He’ll be back before dinner, hopefully.”

  “How long will we be in the park?”

  “At least until the weekend. Beyond that, I don’t know.”

  * * * *

  Matthias didn’t return before dinner. Or after. Larry and Curly checked her room before she went in for the evening. They stood sentry on the stoop. She looked at Matthias’ empty bed and admitted she missed him.

  Fink.

  This had to be love, didn’t it? The fact that he could make her feel so crazy proved it, right? She’d never felt like this before about any of the guys she dated.

  Or was it the strange vampire attraction?

  That thought filled her with deep sadness and more than a little self-loathing. How would she know if what she felt was real? And how would she know if he really liked her in return?

  She tried to sleep. Sometime after her 12:18 clock check she managed to drift off. A noise startled her, and she almost screamed when a large shadow moved near Matthias’ bed.

  “It’s me. It’s okay.” Matthias snapped on the bedside lamp, and she relaxed. “I’m sorry. I was trying not to wake you.”

  “What time is it?” She glanced at the clock. 3:47. “Where have you been?”

  He looked like he wanted to say something and stopped. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.”

  He looked sorry. She realized the room felt chilly. “Could you please bump the heat up?”

  He nodded and found the heater control. It came on, and she shivered a little.