Viken tenses, looking up at Heli with a concerned expression.
Heli laughs.
"Vampires?" he repeats. "You have to be joking. You don't really believe in vampires, do you?"
"Ha ha!" Viken shouts. "Could you imagine? What a far out notion!"
The serious look on Peter's face doesn't fade.
"If that's not what you're doing, then what business do you have out here?"
Viken's forced laughter stops. Heli glances at him for an idea, but he just shrugs. Heli bounces between making something up, or just brushing Peter off, but eventually he settles on deflection.
"You were following us through the cemetery last night."
The hand holding his torch drops slightly, but his response doesn't skip a beat.
"I had to make sure you weren't some of them."
Viken stifles an actual giggle and ends up in a coughing fit.
"You see it right there," Peter points to the pile of carcasses at the back of the barn. "Why do you think there isn't so much as a stray cat in this town?"
The question hangs heavily in the air between them. Heli had told Eugene off once about looking for vampires at night, and as far as he could tell Peter was an idiot of an equal sort.
"Vampires drink human blood," Heli replies flatly. "Why would you be looking for them at night, when they're the most powerful?"
"Sounds like you know something," Peter says.
"Isn't that common sense?"
Peter walks forward, his hand reaching into a coat pocket. Heli resists the urge to step back, not wanting to appear nervous.
"The films don't always get things right," Peter says. "Same with novels. My great-uncle didn't even know what he was dealing with. I'm surprised you've heard of him, if you don't believe in vampires."
He pulls a string of beads from his pocket and extends his arm, holding it out to Heli. From the end of the string a crucifix swings in the air between them.
"I've seen them, I know what they're capable of. You should be careful too, so take this. Tomorrow, I can show you the things I've found, if you want."
"You've seen them?" Heli echos.
Peter nods.
"Have you ever killed one?" says Viken.
"I have."
Heli doesn't feel the pushing force he had trying to walk into a doorway adorned with a cross, but instead the rosary in Peter's hand is a dare, a pendulum waiting to strike its judgement should he be so bold as to reach out.
Viken takes the crucifix, sparing Heli from having to try another distraction.
"We'll keep that in mind," he says, pulling Heli around Peter and back out of the barn. He doesn't follow as they trudge back to the cemetery. Neither of them says a word until they've reached the treeline.
"Guess we're going to have to split as soon as we can," Viken mumbles.
"Why?"
"Because your friend's not here, there's nothing to eat, and there's someone ready to end you if he figures it out?"
"I was thinking he might help us."
Viken nearly trips as he scoffs. "Now who's saying nonsense?"
"He didn't come here to hunt vampires for no reason. He pretty much confirmed there are some here. Maybe he can lead us to them."
"If you can't find vampires, I have a hard time believing that somehow he will."
"You never know. Might be fun to keep an eye on him."
He doesn't miss the side-eye Viken shoots in his direction.
As the sun rises, Heli tries to sleep, but each attempt has the same result as the day before. He jerks awake and his eyes fly open; for just a moment the shadows across the wall look like her silhouette, leaning down as she sneers.
"Then starve."
He sits as he gives up, waiting for a better hour to venture out, try to find Peter and see what he knows.
Jaan hadn't liked the idea, and neither had Eugene.
"Shouldn't you try to avoid him?" Eugene had said, aghast. "Aren't you concerned he'll figure you out?"
"Not really," Heli had said. "He doesn't know any better than you did, but what if he knows something that helps us find Jino?"
"What if he's the real deal, and puts a stake in your heart?" Jaan had countered. "I don't want you alone with him."
As long as he can't sleep, he might as well find something to do. Jaan doesn't need to know what he does during the daytime, and Jakah and Solon's silence on the matter gave no hints on to which side they would have taken. Though he's groggy and still hungry, trying to lie here in silence just fills him with dread. Viken won't be awake for a while either, but he climbs out of bed, takes a long bath and dresses. He spends most of the dawn hours shuffling through their bags, trying to find something to distract himself with so he doesn't have to stew alone in his thoughts while he waits. They really should invest in a couple books. He sighs and leans against the wall. Every so often he can hear someone walk by, talking in hushed tones.
He pulls the mirror from his coat pocket and inspects his face. In the subdued light he can tell his skin is pale, but his eyes seemed to have darkened. Still red, but maybe he could pass it off as in a tired, bloodshot way.
When the sun finally seems to have cleared well more than the horizon, he dons Eugene's blue shades along with his coat and scarf and steps out the door.
To his surprise, he catches sight of Eugene and Viken's backs, rounding a corner as they walk away down the hall.
"Why can't we sleep in?" Viken whines. "We're up all night, then you make me get up early-"
Heli grips the doorknob, ready to duck back inside, but neither of them turn around. He'd rather not have to explain why he's awake, or listen to them attempt to dissuade him from talking to Peter again. Their voices fade and Heli is presented with a new obstacle. Presumably Peter is also lodging here, but he doesn't know in which room. He'll have to just walk around, and hope to run into him. Perhaps he could go sit in the downstairs lounge again, and wait.
Through a window he can see the grey, cloudy sky. A light snow is falling, but he decides it's still best to stay indoors as much as he can. What excuses could he offer if Peter suspects anything? A mental run through of potential scenarios proves fruitless, as if his brain is tired and full of fuzz. He stops, watching the snow.
He doesn't realise how heavily he's leaning against the glass until a sudden exclamation startles him.
"Ethan Lee!"
Peter walks briskly towards him.
"Good morning! Where is your friend?"
"Went out," Heli says. How Peter could be beaming the way he is, as if they hadn't last conversed in front of a pile of mangled bovine in the middle of the night is a mystery. He smiles as if nothing had happened, as if their topic of mutual interest was nothing more than a new programme on the telly.
"I was hoping to run into you, actually," Peter says. "If you're still willing to listen about my work."
There it is. Heli nods, trying to continue his role of the totally normal and very human skeptic. He follows Peter into a small room that he doesn't appear to be sharing with anyone.
"Is wearing sunglasses indoors the new cool thing to do? I think I asked you before," Peter laughs.
"We came here from the arctic," Heli tenses. "It's been a while since I've seen the sun."
"I see," Peter says. "I was joking, though I never seem to keep up with the fashion trends." He motions for Heli to sit in a desk chair.
Heli smiles back before quickly remembering he ought to hide the state of his teeth, and pushes up the edge of his scarf over his face. Peter pays no mind as he pulls out his briefcase and piles the book Heli recognises as Dr. Himmel's journal along with a couple other tomes.
"If it's not vampires, then what did draw you to my uncle's work?" Peter asks.
"The orphanage," Heli starts, again stopping himself before revealling something that would give him away. Some clarity rises from his drowsy head, and he decides it's better to stick as close to the truth this time as possible. The less he makes up, the easier it'll be to maintain the ruse. "It wasn't far from the town I was born in. The fire was the most interesting thing to ever happen there, so everyone knows about it."
Hopefully, that much was still true.
To his relief, Peter seems to agree.
"The place is pretty rural, isn't it? You must have seen the ruins, then. Even to this day, nothing has been rebuilt there."
"How does a fire turn into vampires?" Heli says.
Peter flips open the books, laying them open on the desk in front of them. Dr. Himmel's handwriting graces a chart Heli has never seen before. Listed in boxes on the far left side are their names. His own, though faded, is still legible at the very bottom, under Noa, Jaan and all the way to Jakah at the very top. The other books look like medical charts and illustrations, renderings of the cells that make up human blood.
"There was an outbreak of illness, that's why my uncle was called there. Out of all the children he treated, these seven had the same symptoms as the others, but something was alarmingly different about their blood."
Heli knows this, of course, but he sits in silence as Peter continues, explaining the theories of unknown virus strains, infections, and genetic anomalies. He points to the medical texts as he talks, flipping through the pages and reading portions of the doctor's notes. Heli is just about to tune him out when he concludes.
"But the biggest difference is these seven didn't die."
"They did, though," Heli says flatly. "Everyone died in the fire."
"But that was never proven!" Peter says. "Look here, according to my uncle, they found no-"
"You said you've killed vampires before," Heli interrupts. "Then shouldn't you know better than to hunt for them at night? Isn't that when they're awake and active?"
Peter is slightly taken aback by the sudden questions, but recovers with a wide grin.
"That's the mistake of an amateur," he replies. "Nighttime is the best time to be in a vampire's lair."
"That doesn't make any sense."
"Vampires leave their graves to hunt at night. During the day, they need to return to the one place they're guaranteed safety. Someplace dark and outside of common decency for living eyes to poke around in. But when they leave, the grave can be made unusable, whether destroyed or sanctified, if you take away their refuge, then they have no choice but to linger in the daylight, unable to rest."
Heli has no retort to that. He sits in silence, his eyes on Peter's brown shoes as he mulls over the result of such a cruel fate. Viken may have commented that only good will keeps the others from harvesting him and Eugene for their blood, but it was their own good will that saved Heli from first rotting alone in a damp coffin. Nothing stopped them from leaving him out in the daylight either, between the tower and its stained glass, to the trek through the woods, and finally inviting him into their home.
"Sleep-deprived, they're weak and prone to mistakes, just like the rest of us," Peter continues.
"I see," Heli mumbles. He lifts one of the pages of Dr. Himmel's notebook, skimming over the words but not really reading. "What happened to him?"
"Who?"
"The doctor."
Peter snaps closed the other books and starts clearing the desk. "He passed peacefully in his sleep at the age of eighty-three. Or at least that's what my grandfather said. Never actually met the man."
He takes back the journal and slides it into his bag.
"How'd you get that book then?" Heli asks.
"I found it in my grandparents' house. Opa was happy enough to be rid of it, but dad totally freaked out. He said Uncle Ernst was never quite right when he got back after the incident with those kids. Kept telling dad if he could just find someone called Heli, then he would be able to explain everything. Of course that just made the account even more interesting."
Heli tenses at his own name. He had been right to lie, but he also feels a tinge of guilt. He never gave much thought to the doctor's fate during their time with Lamia. He hadn't thought about him at all until seeing the name come up in Taho's own research into his past.
"Who the hell is Heli? That's what my dad would always say. Well, if he's still alive he'd be an old man now." Peter either doesn't notice or chooses to ignore Heli's discomfort. "To me though, this journal was the beginning of everything. I did spend a few years trying to figure out where Heli might be, but came up with nothing."
"You must have considered those kids died all those years ago, then.." Heli would like very much to steer the topic of conversation away from himself. "You're not here because of anything in that journal, I would guess."
"If you consider that what my great-uncle wrote set me on this path, you could say it is. But directly, no. And if you're still not convinced, why don't I show you the reason I was called here?"
With hesitation Heli nods and Peter grabs his briefcase, and with a long wooden box under his arm, leads Heli out into the snow flurry. He holds the scarf up over his face as they turn down a narrow street and approach the door of a multi-storied building with a light yellow facade. Peter knocks thrice on the door, then steps back down to the sidewalk. Heli silently prays no one answers, so it doesn't have to explain why he can't just walk into someone's house.
Peter can't invite him in if he doesn't live there after all.
The door opens and an older woman pokes her head out. Her grey hair is covered with a scarf and she looks around wide-eyed before spotting Peter on the sidewalk below.
"Oh, it's you,' she says.
"Good day," Peter steps forward. "I brought a friend with me today, is that alright?"
"Yes, yes come in then," the woman motions for them to enter as she widens the door.
A small lamp sits on a table just inside the entryway, but otherwise the inside is dark. Its small flame barely illuminates the hallway as they make their way up a narrow and creaky set of wood stairs. A couple frames hang on the plain painted walls. Heli can barely make out the monochrome shades and silhouettes of people in the photos.
As they draw near to a closed door, an unfortunately familiar odour permeates the air. Heli coughs. Peter glances his way with a questioning expression, but Heli doesn't know if garlic smells as strong to the both of them.
"There's the scent of something…" he trails off.
"Pungent, right? A necessary precaution, though I'm not so convinced of its efficacy now," Peter finishes.
The grey-haired woman who led them up here pauses with her hand on the doorknob.
"Hermina has been sleeping," she says. "That's all she does now. She will get better soon?"
"I'll see to it," Peter flashes a wide smile, and the older woman bows her head as she lets them in.
The curtains are drawn, and the woman switches on an electric lamp. In the centre of the room facing the door is a bed, the duvet cover is a soft pink with ruffled edges. A chair sits beside the bed and upon the seat is a cushion just as ruffly as the duvet. A wardrobe sits against the wall across from the large window upon which are small statuettes of dancing figures and animals.
Heli can see the outline of a body underneath the bed covers, but the person's head is in shadow. They're lying on a sizable pile of pillows, apparently asleep as they make no movement when Peter and Heli enter. The door snaps shut behind them as the other woman leaves.
"Hermina's mother called me when conventional doctors couldn't treat her," Peter whispers as he sets down his box and bag. "She displays all the symptoms my uncle described on those orphan boys. Fatigue, blood loss and strange bites across her body." He points to a wreath of garlic hanging on the inside of the door. "Putting that up slowed the progression of symptoms, but she's not getting better. Tonight we'll take that down and see if we can kill the thing once and for all."
"You think a vampire will come here, then?"
"I know one will."
Heli's about to make another remark, only pretending he's still unconvinced, as he actually does question the probability of a vampire showing up the night they happen to be present, but the figure on the bed stirs. Peter's head shoots up as he also notices.
Slowly, it seems to stretch out its arms and hands, rising from the bed into a sitting position. The young woman's head droops, her long brown hair obscuring her face. She begins to rise from under the duvet, but falls, landing with a thump onto the floor.
Peter jumps up to assist her, but she hasn't finished yet. Now from the floor she snaps up, her knees bent back and she unfurls her body from being nearly bent over backwards, to a forward leaning position. Her head jerks, eyes scanning the room until they settle on Heli. Unnerved, he steps back towards the wall. She hurls herself at him, throwing the full weight of her body into him and they both tumble down. She kneels over him, putting her face close to his.
"You smell like him," she hisses into his ear. "I wonder if your blood tastes like his too?"
Her mouth opens wide into a smile as she throws her head back and laughs. Heli doesn't need to feign confusion as he lays on the floor completely stunned. Peter pulls Hermina up by the arms.
"Come on, now you're going to frighten him," Peter says. "This is my friend Ethan Lee, please be nice to him."
Hermina shakes her head as she straightens out and stands normally under her own power. "You've never brought a friend before," she says. "What is the occasion?"
"The day you're going to be free of what haunts you," Peter replies. "Or night rather."
"But Peter, it's only midday."
Heli picks himself up from the floor. Hermina speaks to Peter with a different voice than the one she had used to address him. She acts as if nothing had happened as Peter guides her back to the bed. Heli can agree she looks pale, and tired, but as far as he can tell, she hasn't transformed yet. At least not all the way.
It's only when Hermina is settled back on her pillows that Peter even looks to see if Heli is okay.
"I hope you don't mind the intrusion," says Peter. "But I'm afraid if we wait until dark there's the chance this will all go wrong."
"You're insufferable." Hermina's voice darkens. "I don't want you here. He can stay." She looks to Heli.
"No can do, so why don't you just tell me what you wish to do to pass the time?"
Hermina sighs, but eventually relents to a card game. Peter sits on the edge of the bed as Heli takes the chair. Between rounds Peter attempts to explain the progression of her illness, but Hermina interrupts him at every turn.
"The teeth marks don't match any local animals, as you can-"
"You don't know anything, Peter. And don't touch me."
Though initially awkward, after a while the afternoon becomes mind numbing. Heli loses focus between the putrid smell of garlic and fatigue. If he closes his eyes for too long he might just fall asleep, but of course collapsing as a corpse in this setting would cause even more problems.
"Please, throw away that wreath," Hermina finally says. "Its stench is something terrible."
"Of course." Peter smiles as he stands. "I'm going to throw it away then, will you be alright for a few minutes?" The last question is directed to Heli who replies in the affirmative.
Removing the wreath may normally repel any vampires, but if Peter is intent on killing one this time, then its absence would make sense. Not having it in the room would also at least help clear Heli's head, and he wants to be alert for whatever is about to happen when the sun goes down. After Peter leaves, he sits in silence, looking towards the dimly lit window until Hermina speaks.
"She said you would come. She told him, and he told me."
Heli's hand twitches, but he doesn't turn or acknowledge the comment.
"You don't have to lie to me. She told me everything." Hermina pauses. "I know you're Heli."
He can hear the sick satisfaction in her voice. He turns to see her grinning back at him from the shadows.
"Then you should know I don't want anything to do with her. She can just leave me alone, and I won't look for her either."
"That's not possible," Hermina sings. "You know she can't do that."
"Why?"
"For the same reason she wanted you in the first place." Hermina brushes a hand up his arm. "You will conquer the world. Or perhaps destroy it."
She rolls up the sleeve of her nightdress.
"Why don't you take some blood?"
He turns away again, eyes back to the window. Thoughts of blood are ones he needs to quash, no matter how hungry he is. He can already feel the prickling.
"No."
"Don't you want it?" she says. "She said there was something wrong with you."
"You're still human, so I can't. It's a curse."
"Still human? Even after all the times he was here? We drank blood from each other."
"Have you had a human's blood?" he asks.
"No," Hermina confesses.
"Then you can still stop the transformation," Heli replies. "It's not over for you yet."
"Maybe," says Hermina. "And what if you weren't cursed?"
"I'd bleed you dry," he snaps. His heart drops the moment the words leave his mouth, but Hermina laughs.
"I'm betting on destruction."
Peter returns with a plate loaded with bread and dried fruit.
"Have you eaten today, Hermina?" he asks, placing the plate next to her on the bed.
"I don't want any of this," she replies.
Peter again ignores her. "You should eat too."
Had Heli put anything in his body lately with any nutritional value, perhaps he could have found the bread tolerable, but as it is he might as well be trying to swallow plaster. His mouth is dry as he chokes it down.
Though Peter continues questioning Hermina about who the "he" she keeps referring to is, how he got into the house, and various other enquiries about the status of her condition, she refuses to answer with any detail. When the sun finally begins to dip below the buildings and the light turns a deep orange, he pulls Heli out into the hall and closes Hermina's door.
"You must think this has been tremendously dull and a waste of time, but I promise, it has not been," Peter says. He crouches down to attend to the wooden box he had carried with him, now set on the floor. With a click, the lid pops open, revealling its contents.
Strapped inside is a long wooden spike, a mallet, several glass bottles filled with clear liquid, and even a small pistol and a box of ammunition Peter explains to be made of silver. Crosses and assorted rosaries are fastened on the inside of the lid. Along with a bag of garlic bulbs, there is what looks to be a curved blade with a hook-shaped hilt. It is nothing short of a comprehensive vampire-hunting kit.
Heli gapes as Peter pulls out the stake and mallet, then weighs his option using the pistol instead.
"How do you know this vampire will even show up?"
"I'm confident of it," Peter says as he loads the silver bullets. "Hermina is just about at the breaking point. Her mind has been warped. If he waits too long, she'll recover and he'll have to start all over. He won't want that because she'll be able to reveal his identity as well."
"Don't you think he might," Heli pauses as he filters his thoughts. "Be able to tell we're here? What if we deter him?"
"I have a good feeling." Peter closes the box lid as he takes what he needs. "I'm going to wait in the other room." He points to a door behind him. "I'll be able to hear anything that moves in Hermina's room so don't worry."
"What do you want me to do?" asks Heli.
"Wait right here and don't let her mother come in."
He flashes a wide smile and ducks into the next-door room, leaving Heli alone in the darkening hallway. He slides to the floor, resting his arm on the lid of Peter's kit as he leans with his head in his hands.
More waiting.
If he had known his day was going to go this way, he might have stayed in the room fighting with his inability to sleep. It would have been just as exciting. But then again, this vampire is connected with Lamia somehow and could offer another clue to Jino. Even if he doesn't want to help Heli, there's still the possibility he could end up pointing Peter in Heli's direction. The items in the box under his arm are serious business, and Heli would be lying to himself if he didn't find it a little frightening. He could tell that stake has been used. Deep stains and the scent of blood linger on it.
This is all for Jino, he reminds himself. That's why they're here. That's why he's endangering himself by hanging around with Peter, and why he's sitting on the floor in this hallway waiting for someone who may not even come.
He does feel nominally more energised as the sun goes down, but his eyes still drift closed. There's nothing to look at anyway, so he instead sets his focus to what he can hear. From downstairs, he catches occasional laughter which he assumes to be from a television. In the room behind him, he hears Hermina taunting Peter.
"You'll never catch him. You're nothing. Don't call yourself a hunter."
The room Peter went into is silent. Aside from a creak in the wooden structure of the house every so often, there are no other noises.
"You don't even know the company you keep," Hermina continues.
Heli sits up at attention. He had been introduced to Hermina with an alias, but what if she told Peter who he really was?
"Even Ethan Lee knows you're a fool." She laughs again and Heli stands.
Heli holds his breath, waiting to see what she says next. Whoever this other vampire is, Heli hopes he hurries up. But then again, any competent vampire is able to hunt silently. He could slip into the room, take Hermina and leave. Peter would never be the wiser.
Heli reaches for the doorknob the same moment he catches a nearly inaudible scraping. Before he can open it, Peter slips from the other room, pistol raised as he whispers.
"It's here!"
Heli throws the door open. Leaning over the bed is a cloaked shape, ripped black cloth billowing around him in the cold winter air from the open window. A hood covers its face as it turns towards them. Without a word, Peter takes aim and fires.
The Shadow stumbles back, hit. Hermina jumps from her pillows with a scream. Blood runs from a wound on her shoulder. She leaps forward to check on the wounded vampire, but Peter runs between them pulling the wooden stake from the back of his belt.
"Stay back!" he shouts, and gives the Shadow a kick, the stake aloft as he prepares the mallet with his other hand.
Without a word, the Shadow raises his own hand. In a mere flick of his fingers, the wooden stake in Peter's hand bursts into flame. He yelps and drops the blazing weapon, which crumbles to ash before it even touches the floor. The Shadow takes his own turn to rise up and give Peter a shove, sending him to the ground as he prepares to pounce.
Heli moves between them, trying to find a speed that is sufficient to save Peter from the Shadow, but not so inhuman as to cast suspicion, and with a well-aimed swing lands a punch on the Shadow's obscured face. The Shadow hesitates, apparently surprised, and it's enough time for Peter to regroup and shove the Shadow back to the ground. As he sits up again, Peter pulls out the pistol, this time pointing it directly at the Shadow's heart.
As the Shadow moves forward into the light, the hood of his cloak drops from his head. He raises his face to Peter, and Heli has to cover his mouth to stop himself from crying out.
This Shadow is Jino.
Jino wears a defiant, yet amused expression as his eyes flick from Peter and the pistol in his hand to Heli, who surely looks horrified. Drying blood is smeared across his mouth and down his chin. Hermina reaches down to help him up, but Peter yells at her not to move.
As if watching in slow-motion, Heli can see the jerk of Peter's finger as he moves to shoot. Despite his exhausted mind, he wills Peter's arm just to the left, and the bullet clears Jino, just grazing his arm as it misses. Peter shouts in disappointment and shock, and the moment's hesitation is enough time for Jino to grab Hermina by the waist and plunge the both of them out the window.
Heli considers for a brief moment following out the window, but opts instead to run out the door and down the stairs. He races outside, searching for Jino and Hermina, but there's no trace of either of them. Not even a footprint in the fresh snow where they might have hit the ground upon making their escape. He scans the roofs of the buildings and every narrow alleyway as he runs, finding his way to the wider intersection of the main road, but they're gone. He stops, and circles around, staring up into the now clear night sky.
Peter is panting as he catches up. His eyes are wide and darting in every direction. Upon seeing Heli, he too comes to a stop and lets out a curse.
"Are you alright?" he asks, catching his breath.
"That…that was…" Heli is at a loss for words, and even if he could articulate what he was feeling, it's nothing for Peter to know. Jino became a Shadow? When? How?
Out of all them, he would have never imagined it would be Jino to break their promise to never kill.
"Why don't we go back?" Peter says gently. "Make sure to get a good night's sleep. I'm sorry I threw you into this, you looked terrified."
He turns Heli by the shoulder and they make their way back to the hostel, Peter still apologising.
"I almost had him though. I'm not sure how I missed that shot. I am sorry."
"I'm fine, really," Heli mumbles, though he's shaken to the core and his thoughts are reeling. Jino, of all people, a Shadow .
He understands now. He understands how Jino is here. He is, physically. But if Lamia subjected him to the same methods as she employed with her other servants, his mind is not.