Chapter 28
"Kierlan's Soulmate," Roseclear introduced Sarah by grabbing her by the arm and shoving her forward into the arms of a vampire who had been waiting implacably. He had fantastic eyes like black night sky with just a hint of blue and with as many flickers of white sparkling like stars. But his face bore absolutely no emotion, which was even more disconcerting.
He gripped her by the shoulders as Anthony shoved Tom forward. "Expendable," Anthony said, bored.
"He's not!" Sarah said hurriedly. "He's from Daybreak." Tom glared at her. "No I'm not."
She could tell he was lying. Still, she reasoned it'd be better for him to have a chance at staying alive than to be executed straightaway.
"May as well see how much damage Daybreak was allowed to do," Roseclear said with amusement.
"Allowed to do…?" Tom echoed her words, perturbed.
"Of course," Roseclear said in bemusement. "I called ahead to warn them of course, an hour ago."
An hour ago… the tavern, Sarah thought numbly. When she went to feed. She must have phoned Hunter too, to warn him. No wonder she didn't have a drink from the human in front of us. She felt like laughing angrily at herself. And she'd thought it was Roseclear displaying unusually good manners.
So Daybreak just came, Sarah thought numbly, feeling sick. And it was a trap all the time.
Tom looked just as sickened by the thought, opening his mouth to speak, then shut up when Roseclear shrugged, grabbed him by the arm. "I'll have some dinner then," she told the guard vampire holding Sarah. "You put her with the Wild Power boy."
"I don't think that's a good idea," one of the guard vampires spoke up smoothly.
"She can't do anything," Roseclear said calmly, authoritatively. "She's a human. If she moves in at all the wrong way, drink her. Traumatise the Wild Power if you like. Just make sure he doesn't spill any blood otherwise…poof." She laughed softly, not looking at all worried at the idea of a Wild Power explosion.
"Oh fine," the emotionless guard vampire said disgustedly, though a slight tang of emotion had entered his lips at the prospect of dinner. With that, he forced Sarah down another corridor as Roseclear took Tom away.
Keenly, Sarah forced her eyes to adjust to the dimness. So this was where Hunter had dwelt in the years that humans had still been hunting with bows and arrows. Or maybe not. Her memory of history, pardon the pun, was poor: she preferred English and Art.
As the dimness brightened, as she squinted harder, she could see that there were oil lamps hooked to the walls, all unlit. She supposed vampires could see in the dark well enough. Only humans are nearly blind, she thought, only half-joking.
The vampire guard manhandled her down a black-stone corridor. "It's a lot like obsidian," she accidentally said aloud.
The vampire jerked, startled and annoyed. "It is," he said finally. "That is the rock that dragons like."
Dragons! Her mouth went dry. A slow smile twitched at the vampire's lips at how she was obviously unnerved. "Oh well," she said finally, doing her best to sound unconcerned.
"The Harman kid doesn't seem to like the dragons," the vampire said conversationally, a malicious glint in his eye.
"How is Kierlan?" Sarah asked as politely as she could.
"He's only around the next corner," the vampire guard assured her, as the path split into a fork, he took her to the left and she swiftly did her best to recall the route.
Where? a sudden thought burst into her mind, baffling her for a second, and she shook her head slightly, uncertain, and suddenly feeling violated as the vampire guard let go of her to twist an iron handle of a large wooden door that was exactly like one from one of the ancient castles.
"Watch out for the rats," the vampire guard said, disappointed that Sarah hadn't done anything that could have meant he'd have made a meal of her. Clearly he was afraid of Roseclear and her pet dragon.
"I will," Sarah said politely, feeling odd and thoughtless, like she was on one of those days suddenly, where thought was as absent as watching the clouds in the summer sky, like she'd used to do with Susie, lying in one of the neighbour's fields, until the old farmer would run out, waving a pitchfork and scream at them to stop flattening his grass. Her lips twitched at the memory of herself and Susie jumping to their feet and fleeing like deer, Susie laughing loudly.
As the door swung open with a screech, light flooded out.
"Boo," a girl announced, reached out and pulled her in as something leapt out, all tawny-gold, rippling through the shadows as it pinned the guard vampire.
Kierlan laughed and it was a startlingly vicious sound that made Sarah turn with a flinch.
"You're okay?" he called to her, eyes gleaming violet in the shadow. She nodded slowly, uncertain.
"Sorry about getting rid of your escort," Blade said coolly as Angelo, for that was who it must be, finally had the vampire helpless. Blade cleaved a sword blade through the air, decapitating the pinned vampire swiftly.
Shuddering, Sarah looked away. This wasn't like Buffy. If the vampire was old, it'd wrinkle like a mummy. If it was young, it would look like a dead human, with a lot less blood.