Page 14 of The Vampire Always Rises
“Merrick, you’ve had enough blood for two Dark Ones. You must wake up now.”
He was given blood? That must be why he was feeling relatively well.
“Merrick, by the saints, if you don’t wake up now, Allegra will be back, and she will insist on bathing you, and that will just end in another argument where I have to forbid her from handling your naked self, and she will accuse me of being jealous. Wake the hell up so I don’t have to be jealous.”
Merrick cracked an eye open. “It’s not my problem if your woman prefers my manly form over yours.”
The man sitting on the bed next to him glared at him, but at the same time, his mouth twitched. Christian Dante, Merrick knew, had a stern appearance that he used to hide his sharply honed sense of humor. The fact that they both knew Christian’s wife, Allie, would never so much as look at another Dark One had nothing to do with the ease with which Christian spoke, and Merrick answered.
“How long have we known each other?” Merrick asked, his mental and verbal filters slightly awry from the time spent floating in the soft blackness.
Christian frowned. “Is that a pertinent question to ask after you’ve nearly died on my library floor?”
“I wouldn’t have asked it if it wasn’t.”
Christian looked thoughtful. “It must have been in the fourteenth century. You were in Constantinople, and I was passing through on my way to the Far East.”
“Ah, yes, that’s it. I make that 1314 or thereabouts. So a little over seven hundred years.” Merrick thought about that. “Time passes quickly, does it not?”
“It does when you are lying insensible, drained of blood,” Christian answered in what Merrick thought of as his patented dry tone of voice. “What happened? Who did this to you? I assume it was the Revelation?”
“Yes.” Merrick felt the back of his head, but the lump that he assumed must have risen when he’d been struck was no longer there. “I went to Prague after an informant told me one of Victor’s procurers was there. I didn’t think I would have trouble taking him, but there was more than one, and they got the jump on me. I’m surprised they didn’t kill me outright.”
“I gather they were supposed to, but one of them had a change of heart and brought you here, instead.”
Merrick grunted an acknowledgment of that. “How much blood did I lose?”
“All of it, from what I can tell. You were nearly gone when Allegra and I returned home. Luckily, there was someone here to keep you from fading away.”
“Ah.” Merrick nodded, the faint memory of flowers flitting through his mind. Clearly, the goddess must be one of Christian’s staff, and she had found him and given him enough blood to keep him alive. “And how long has it been?”
“Three days.”
“Threedays?” Merrick sat upright. “Since the Revelation took me, or since you found me?”
“Since you were deposited at my door.” The amusement that had been in Christian’s eyes faded as he spoke. “You were more dead than alive, and I feared for the worst until we fed you sufficient blood that you once again had a heartbeat.”
A small cold ball of anger grew in Merrick’s gut. “I’ll get Victor if it’s the last thing I do. And the two informants who set me up.”
“We’re making progress,” Christian said, rising from the bed and strolling to the window. “You and the others have brought seven procurers to justice. You have saved countless mortals from being turned.”
“It’s not enough,” Merrick said, the small ball in his stomach turning into a burning sphere. “For every mortal we save, there are a handful the Revelation reaches. I must contact the other Horsemen. We have to do something beyond simply capturing random members of the Revelation. We need to strike at the head.”
Christian turned back as Merrick rose and somewhat clumsily pulled on his clothing. “Have you had any word of who that might be?”
“No.” Merrick’s legs felt a bit rubbery, but he ignored the sensation. There was so much to do, so many people who were counting on him to save them from eternal enslavement. “Not yet. But we will.”
Christian’s silver-eyed gaze watched him closely for a few seconds. “Do you still believe that Renata’s death lies at their door?”
“Yes.” Merrick donned his shoes and a long black duster, placing a black felt fedora on his head in a way that would shade his face from any errant sunlight that might try to catch him as he ran for whatever car Christian would allow him to borrow. He pushed down the pain that automatically rose at the mention of Renata, not needing the memory to fuel his fury.
Not now. Not when there were Revelation members to capture, and a leader to punish.
“You look ... grim.”
“Iamgrim.” Merrick slid Christian a look from the sides of his eyes. “You know as well as I do what is at stake.”
The two men walked in silence for a few minutes. “Allegra said you need a ...” Christian stopped, cleared his throat, and started again. “Allegra has pointed out that perhaps you could use a break from hunting the Revelation members.”
