Chapter 10

Liege, Belgium

March 1943

Nikola stumbled to a halt feeling his heart seize in his chest.

"Beautiful brown eyes. So much like her mother's…were. Did you know that when a person dies a sort of film forms over the surface of their eye, and makes the color seem lighter than it had been in life?"

Nikola started walking again. He had to warn the other men. Somehow Kohrber had gotten his hands on his letters to Helen. For the sake of his deception he hadn't coded them. The arrogance of that decision it seemed, had doomed him.

"Mr. Tesla…" The Kohrber's voice called. Further away but still louder than he cared for. Ahead Bijou had begun to get upset. Already she had forced Tueur to stop walking and Hans and Dane were stopped too, turning to watch the frozen Serbian.

"I have begun to think that the accounts of your death in America are greatly exaggerated. There are also those in Berlin who wonder…" Tesla turned around to face him, watching as Kohrber slowly closed the distance between them, hands still behind his back. "How is it that a man of 80 continues to look so remarkably spry and young? The aging makeup was clever but we have eyes everywhere." The German paused, grinning in a way that reminded Nikola more of a naked and empty skull, than a human being. "I am also wondering how a normal man could possibly lose so much blood and be looking as well as you are only weeks later."

Kohrber was close to him now, far too close for comfort. He reached a hand out from behind his back, bringing it toward Nikola's face and the vampire flinched, backing up a step. "We should have found your dead body lying in that alley, Mr. Tesla. I have my suspicions as to how you accomplished this feat. Das Fuhrer however is given to more fanciful…ideas…"

He could kill him. Right there on the street. It would take seconds for him to transform, drive his nails into Kohrber's torso and drag him into the alley. String him up by his entrails and leave him as an example to every other Third Reich bastard in town. He was so taken with the idea that he was literally moments from enacting it when he heard tiny running feet behind him, Dane's voice shouting her name, Bijou's hand grasping his own.

The anger was replaced with fear in an instant and Nikola looked down at Bijou, then up to Kohrber who had begun smiling at the child. Tesla picked her up and turned his back on the blonde colonel, hurrying with Bijou back towards Dane, Tueur and Hans. He spared one glance backwards before he told them, "Walk. Get to the theatre."

They reacted to the severity of his tone and started moving immediately. Nikola couldn't read Kohrber well enough to know what the man was planning. He didn't know if Kohrber's frustration came from his personal interest in Tesla or his duty to the Fatherland.

"What did he want?" Dane asked, as if reading his thoughts.

Nikola shook his head. "I don't know. He knows who I am. He knows that I was there the night Bijou…" He cut himself off, eyes flickering to her face. Thankfully Dane had caught on.

"Worse still they know I'm a vampire…or suspect it."

"How?" Hans asked. "How could they possibly know that?"

The rest of the group had waited for them a block away and as soon as they rejoined the larger crowd of men Nikola put Bijou down and took her hand. "I have no idea. He said they have eyes everywhere. That must mean spies and undoubtedly it also means they've infiltrated more governments than we can count. The Nazi's have been planning this long before any of us have imagined…they've invaded so quickly and so powerfully-"

Nikola finally realized that the men around him were staring in confusion, not following at all. What he knew of the world and what they knew was so disparate, not only because of the differences in age, but also in experience.

In fact the words he had just spat from his mouth were shocking even to him.

Tesla turned in a circle scanning the streets. Kohrber was no longer in sight but the vampire knew he had to be close. There were uniformed soldiers everywhere, two stationed outside the post office, a few more walking down the street from where they had likely been ordered to stand on guard outside the theatre, yet more standing smoking outside a café. Strategically placed up and down the block, all doing activities that led naturally towards standing and waiting for hours; all part of a setup, a snare, a trap meant to collect Nikola.

"They want me." Nikola said quietly. It sounded self-centered and fanciful he knew, but it also made sense. It explained why Kohrber had returned to Liege after being gone for so long; even if the dinner invitation and the chase that followed hadn't been planned.

Georg pushed through the group of men. "The notes, the photos, the maps…" He said quietly.

Nikola closed his eyes, dropping his head as he remembered. "Back at the boarding house. Korhber himself set up our lodging, he'll have no trouble finding them."

A hand tapped his sleeve and Nikola looked down to see Bijou holding up her camera. He sighed and cupped her cheek in his palm. "Other photos, angel. Photos I took."

She screwed her face into a look of thoughtful concentration.

"I can go back. Or call Marga on the phone. Ask her to get them." Dane offered, not looking entirely pleased with the idea even as he offered it.

"No…no, we can't pull her into this. Kohrber mustn't know that Marga or her family are in any way connected with us. In fact it would be best Dane, if you got her and her children and her sister out of Belgium altogether." Tesla looked around again, noted the addition of two more soldiers to the collection of eight already on the street. Up ahead was the fountain, the same place where they had held their first impromptu performance.

"Sing…start singing. The series of drinking songs, and head for the fountain." Tesla told them. They stared at him wide eyed; barely comprehending what was becoming all too clear to Tesla. The vampire bent to pick up Bijou again and started the first verse, nodding that the men should join him. As their voices rose into the air he led the way to the fountain and they immediately began to draw a crowd.

Georg broke off from the group his voice falling silent while he moved to walk beside Nikola. "What are we doing, Mr. Tesla? Why do we draw attention to ourselves? To the little girl?"

"We're drawing a crowd." Nikola told him, his voice dropping in volume so that neither of them would be heard over the strong singing voices of the group.

Georg opened his mouth to ask another question, and Tesla could see the frustration building in the man's face. "This mission is over…" Tesla said. "It ended the moment I decided to toy with the enemy instead of defeating him. All of you must leave. All of you must escape. There is another mission, one heading to Huy, if you could escape and join them you might have a chance."

"You don't know that! You can't know that!"

"I am decades older than you, Georg. I have seen the end of battles more times in my life than I care to admit and I have lost so often I hardly know what it is to win. Here, with this remarkable group of freedom fighters I can do nothing but threaten your lives. There might be another way that I can help but I can't do that until I know…" He stopped and met Bijou's eyes then forced himself to look away. "All of you are safe."

He set Bijou down and she immediately grasped his hand again, but he stopped her, gently pulled her hand away and kissed it before he knelt in front of her.

"Bijou…angel." He said, and then felt his soul tear. It was happening too fast, this good bye. He had known that it would happen but he hadn't planned for it to be while he was still so hopelessly in love. He fought the darkness swarming into his heart and pulled the child into a crushing hug that had to have been painful for her, but she didn't pull away. "I want to you take pictures. Lots of them." He said to her cheek, to give her something else to do, to think about. "But I want you to keep that camera hidden, and I want you to stay with Georg."

He felt her head shaking against him and he pushed her back so that he could meet her eyes. "Bijou." He said, and took her cheeks in his hands. "I…love you..deeply. So does Georg, and Dane, and Marga. I have to go away and I can't take you with me."

"Do you love me?" He asked her.

She nodded, tears brimming in her eyes.

"Do you like it when we're happy?"

She nodded again, her lips trembling, a tear rolling down her cheek.

"I will be happy for the rest of my very…very long life," He said, smiling bitterly, "if I know that you are safe. And you will be safe if you stay with Marga, and Georg will get you to her. I will miss you and I promise I will come to visit you when this terrible fighting is over, but for now you have to be brave, and smart and strong."

Tears streamed down her cheeks, her fingers white as she clutched at the camera hanging from its strap around her neck.

"More soldiers." Georg said simply, regretting the necessary interruption.

"Will you do that for me?" Nikola asked, his thumbs busily wiping her tears away. When she finally nodded he pressed his lips fiercely to her forehead then stood. With a short breath he shifted his shoulders, straightened the lapels of the blue wool coat that he had grown rather fond of and nodded to himself, his decision finally made..

"Georg…" He said, the men's voices continuing in the background. Without being told they had launched into another of the favorites that they had performed together, playing to the crowd as it grew. They had been joined by a street performer as well, a man with a squeeze box and his son, playing haphazardly along with the tunes that he recognized.

"Take the men." Nikola said. "Two…three at a time. Use the crowd, have them slip away." He reached into his jacket, split a thinly sewn seam, and pulled out a roll of bills, then another, then a third and fourth. He had been saving them, skimming off the top of the funds that the Liege counsel had been paying them. There wasn't enough there for his purposes, not hardly, but there was enough to help get the people he was now responsible for out of harm's way.

Georg stared in confusion at the money he was being handed.

"Take some of it for Marga and her family. It is imperative that all of them, including Bijou, escape tonight. They want me, these Nazi sons of bitches, who wouldn't want an unstoppable vampire? They'll get me, but only long enough for you to get out."

Nikola looked away, scanning the ever increasing crowd, craning to see above their heads as he counted soldiers. Kohrber had joined the group, grinning, standing at the rear of the crowd with his hands behind his back.

"Can you do it?" Nikola asked, turning back to Georg. Dane had worked his way through the singers so that he could hear what Nikola was saying. He turned, his voice falling silent long enough to nod agreement to Tesla, and elbow Georg into responding before going back to the lyric.

Georg quickly pocketed the money, fumbling and handing some of it to Dane before he reached a hand out to the vampire. "It's been an…"

"No…no it hasn't been an honor, Georg…it's been a privilege, for me. Take care of yourselves. Take care of her…" Nikola said, shaking hands with the man.

"What are you going to do?" Georg asked.

"Me?" Nikola smirked, backing away three steps to the base of the fountain and winking down at Bijou. She gave him the tiniest of smiles through her tears and Nikola felt some of the darkness clearing away. "I'm going to sing." He said.

He opened his mouth to begin another song, making his voice loud enough to be heard over the applause that had come for the previous number. The squeeze box player standing nearby took a moment before he recognized the song and tried to play along. When Tesla noticed Bijou lifting the camera to her face he struck a pose, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Do I want to be with you? As the years come and go? Only forever, if you care to know.." The song he sang was American, a popular favorite sung most famously by Bing Crosby. He hated the music, especially given that he had first heard it in a film a few years ago, a film that was shown using technology that he used to hold patents for. But he had always admired the voice of the singer.

"Would I grant all your wishes, and be proud of the task? Only forever, if someone should ask."

It was one of the mysteries of humanity that he couldn't fathom, that a person remembered better a song that they hated, rather than a song that they loved. As he sang on and the attention turned to him he saw Dane and Georg weave backward into the crowd, Bijou with them. They moved out like a spider's web, getting the attention of each of the men, quickly divulging the plan, working their way to the edge of the mass of people.

"How long would it take me, to be near if you beckoned. Offhand I figure, less than a second."

Most of the troupe was soon at the corner of the crowd, positioned such that he would have to turn his head to check on their progress. He had no choice but to ignore them, not daring to bring attention to them by looking their way. Get her free, and keep her safe, he thought.

He said his final goodbye as he sang, "Do you think I'll remember,"

Kohrber cocked his head to the side, his eyes still focused entirely on Tesla. The arrogant pig thought that Tesla was singing to him. Nikola's eyes glinted and he stepped away from the fountain as he sang the next phrase, pacing through the crowd that parted for him. The squeeze box player tried to follow but was quickly crowded out.

"How you looked when you smiled…"

There were soldiers to the left and right of Kohrber, more behind him, even more on either side of the street.

Nikola stopped singing ten feet from the Colonel. As the squeezebox player finished the song, Tesla transformed himself slowly, letting the nails grow centimeter by centimeter, his eyes bleeding into black, his teeth sharpening to a deadly sheen.

"I plan to remember you Colonel," He said, his voice deeper, the mask slipping so that there was no question whatsoever that he spoke with hatred and disgust as he addressed the murderer in front of him. Not only Kohrber, but his men and the crowd around them reacted to Tesla's transformation, some of them backing hurriedly away. The soldiers lifted their weapons, uncertain, their eyes traveling to their commanding officer who seemed just as surprised and unsure as they were.

"…long after I've killed you." Tesla promised. He grinned at the prospect then lunged forward. Kohrber jumped several feet back in the same moment reaching for his weapon even as he shouted, "Nien, Nien!" to his soldiers. He couldn't be heard over the sudden explosion of gunfire. Untouched Kohrber stared down at the body at his feet, ignoring the screams of the shocked crowd around him, or the looks of hatred being sent his way.

If the Fuhrer was right the man wouldn't stay dead for long, but it was clear that Kohrber could no longer remain in this part of the country. He had just murdered a beloved performer before a crowd of witnesses. He would have to take the vampire and return to France, and hope that the man Hitler found to be so valuable, would actually wake up.