The manager didn’t respond right away. First, he glanced around the room. His eyes found Nel’s without delay. There was hardly any reaction before he dropped his gaze to the gemstone in her hand and again to the chalk dust around her feet.
Nel’s grip on her focus tightened.
But he still didn’t say anything. He wrinkled his nose slightly as he sniffed at the air before he turned back to Serena.
“My master wishes to meet with you and your two thralls. Immediately.”
All of the false humor vanished from Serena’s face as her smile turned to a grimace. “And your master is?”
“Lord Kuvon will accept no argument in the matter. Fetch your thralls and come with me.”
“There are only two hours until sunrise,” Serena said without so much as a glance towards the clock.
“Then I suggest that you make haste.” The manager took a step away from the door, back into the open air of the parking lot. He clasped his hands behind his back as he stared up at the night sky.
Serena turned back into the room with her grimace having shifted into pure anger.
Eva stepped out of the bathroom with her eyes still closed. “Tell me this isn’t what I think it is,” she said, apparently having heard the conversation.
“I used my geas on the thrall of another vampire,” Serena said through grit teeth. “And then I drank from him. This vampire is going to want a tribute for that offense.” Her eyes widened as she looked towards Eva. “He’s going to smell you. He’ll want a… taste. At the very least.”
Eva’s eyes opened. Just a thin slit of red peeking out from under her eyelids. She mouthed three very clear words. ‘I’ll kill him.’
“You’re in no shape to fight; that might not be an option. We’ll see. But we can’t ignore this. If we do, we’ll likely see a gang of thralls breaking in here. In the middle of the day.”
Eva grit her teeth. “Let me get my blood,” she said, turning towards her suitcase.
Nel hadn’t moved since she realized just what was going on. The hand gripping her focus was shaking. Her other hand was slowly stroking the black skull that hung from her choker. The symbol of Lady Ylva’s ownership of her.
It was a comforting motion, even though she knew that there would be no help coming from that front. Lady Ylva had asked her to handle the Sawyer situation. She wouldn’t be sending reinforcements.
Both Eva and Serena had completely disregarded Nel as any kind of possible help. Not really a wrong decision.
Nel was an information gatherer, not a fighter.
But she could use the magic of the Elysium Order. At the very least, she could unleash a wide blast of flame and give an opportunity for Eva to do something.
Vampires were the Elysium Order’s specialty, after all.
A Vampire, A Demon, And A Nun Walk Into A Bar…
If Eva had been regretting the ritual before, she was now thinking that it just might be the death of her.
Sawyer was still dissecting corpses around the ritual ring. By the looks of things, he would be at it for a while.
Which gave Eva plenty of time to focus on the events around her, despite the queasy feeling it gave her.
As they moved, first to a van and then from the van to a small smoke-filled bar, Eva held on to Nel. Both for support and because she had decided to wear her blindfold. While she could have clouded the area with blood as she had back while lacking eyes, such a thing didn’t seem all that wise when heading into a den of vampires.
Using Nel for support helped lessen the nausea from her shared senses. Slightly. The less she had to think about her own surroundings and movements, the better.
Her blindfold also helped with that as well, though the nausea wasn’t the reason she had worn it. With her eyes as distinctive as they were, they would draw more attention to her than gloves and a blindfold. That was the last thing that she wanted while barely able to move on her own.
The bar that they had been brought to was only about fifteen minutes away from the motel. So long as their meeting with this ‘Lord Kuvon’ lasted less than an hour, they should have plenty of time to get back before things became dangerous for Serena.
Unfortunately, Eva wasn’t sure how likely that would be. Two vampires moved to block the door behind them the moment they entered the bar. One stood behind the counter, cleaning out glasses—or so she assumed by the motions. Another three were scattered around the room at various tables.
Apart from the vampires, the room was filled with humans. At least, they looked like humans from their blood. Thralls was the more likely answer.
Her blood sight, being the only sense that didn’t aggravate her nausea, got abused to its fullest potential. She scanned and memorized every single person present, just in case they met them outside. It could be vitally important to keep track of who were the slaves of these vampires.
