and he left to find some teacups. She turned the page, and saw another picture, with the man-made-god at the top and a dozen tiny men underneath of him. There was a caption beneath it which read ‘His power could be conferred on to other priests of the deity's choosing.’ Holy crap, but it makes a lot of sense.
"So tell me, Tatiana," he said as he set a cup and saucer in front of her, with one of the rescued pastries beside the cup. "Have you really met a vampire? What are they like?" He sat opposite her, and leaned over his tea like an over-eager student.
"Yeah..." she blew on the tea, thinking. She wasn't much of a tea drinker, but she thought it would probably be rude not to drink it. Still, she waited until he took a drink and a bite of pastry. "They're um... they're really awful, Seth. I hate to burst your bubble."
He tilted his head and frowned. "What do you mean?"
Tanya took a sip of the tea. She was surprised to find she liked it, it was much lighter in flavor than she would have imagined. "Maybe this is how it started out," she flipped through the book pages, "but it's... it's different now. They're evil. They kill people, and they don't give a damn about it. Almost happened to me about six years ago, that’s why I started hunting them." She rubbed her arm thoughtfully, pushing away the memory of cold, steel eyes.
"Again, you thought I was a vampire?" he sounded less flattered this time.
"I... well... someone gave me your name." She realized that Etienne du Lac must have thought it was quite a joke, sending her after another potential enemy instead of a vampire. "Before I kill a vampire, I promise them that if they tell me the name and location of the most powerful vampire they know, I'll let them go."
"You don't kill them?" he seemed confused.
"No, I lie. But they believe it and tell me anyway. You should see the look on their faces," she laughed, and then stopped when she saw his expression. "See, when you kill this guy," she pointed to the big demigod in the book, "all of these guys die too," she dragged her finger across the minions below him.
Seth nodded. "It makes sense, they would be dependent on him for power. But what about..." he turned the book around and flipped forward a couple chapters to another illustration, "this. If a priest served this man-made deity long enough, say a century or two, he was released from service and allowed to go found his own temple as a god in his own right. If you killed his maker, would he still die?"
She stared at the picture. "Damn, I don't know." Sitting back, she thought about it. There were a lot of Master vampires. If you killed the Master of a Master, would they die? Somehow, she doubted it. "Well, fuck. There goes my brilliant plan."
If he was offended by her colorful language, he didn't show it. "It was a good idea, Tatiana. Knock off the top of the pyramid, and the rest of it will crumble."
"That doesn't make any sense," she moaned, and dropped her head on the table.
"Well, no, I suppose not." He was thoughtful a long while, sipping his tea.
Suddenly Tanya's phone beeped, and she checked it to find a text from her dad. Where had the time gone? It was already 8:00! "Shit, hang on, I gotta give my dad a call." She hit the call button, and waited for him to pick up. "Hi Daddy, yeah, I'm okay. No, I just... It was a bust. The guy's not a vampire. He's actually pretty cool.” Glancing up, she gave Seth a quick smile. “Yeah. Yes, I'm fine, I'm sorry I didn't call sooner, I forgot. Right. Okay, well, give Mom my love and I'll call you later, okay? Love you too. Bye." She hit end.
Seth looked surprised. "Your parents know what you do?"
"Just my dad. Mom doesn't believe in vampires," she rolled her eyes.
"I see."
There was a long pause, although it wasn't too awkward, where they drank their tea and thought. When he spoke again, his voice was low and quiet. "What if... what if there was a way to make you more powerful, so you could fight them more easily?" he asked.
Tanya put her teacup down. "Like what? Some kind of magic spell?" The sarcasm was rude, she knew, but she had just lost her best idea for the eradication of vampires.
To her surprise, he smiled. "Something like that." He glanced at the book. "It could be risky. But if you could, Tatiana, if it would make you strong enough, would you take that risk?"
She looked from him to the book. What had he stumbled on, searching through all those dusty pyramids? She doubted it would be superpowers like on TV, but still.... "The truth is, without even meaning to, I’ve devoted my whole life to this," she told him. "I would do anything to get an edge. I won't stop, not until they kill me, or until I kill every last one of them. Even this guy," she pointed to the demigod in the book.
"Well then." He set his teacup down as well, and took off his glasses. "You might find that more difficult than you imagine."
"Why is that?" She frowned as he pushed away from the table and stood up.
He smiled at her. Not the polite, friendly smile he had been using that evening. It was a sharp, deadly one she had glimpsed only once before, at the museum. Suddenly the room was full of that strange but familiar electric buzz she knew all too well.
He reached up and pulled off the bandage on his forehead. There was no bruise beneath it. "Because I have absolutely no intention of dying," he said, and his voice was liquid power. His eyes flashed, clearly glowing like small blue flames in the dim lamplight.
What. The. Fuck. The wheels of her mind locked up, and then tried to peel out, getting no traction. She darted for the door, knocking over her chair in the process. He got there first and clotheslined her, moving faster than she could see. She managed to get her knife out of her boot as she came up, and slashed him in the chest. He jumped back, and glanced down to see the line of red across his white shirt.
She took the opportunity to turn and try to dash for the door, but he pinned her against the wall, his long lean body pressing into hers. "Where are you going, Tatiana?" he teased.
Oh god. Tanya suddenly realized he'd been using her full name all evening, and she had never said it. Nobody called her that, except her Nana. She tried to stab him again, but he caught her hand and pressed it against the wall, too, squeezing until the knife clattered to the floor. With his free hand, he wrapped his long fingers around her neck.
"You said... you weren't..." she gasped.
He brushed his nose against her cheek gently, inhaling deeply before whispering in her ear, "I lied."
A thought tried to form in her mind, but it was getting harder to breathe as he squeezed her neck very slowly. She tried to speak, but couldn't get enough air. She punched him with her free hand, in the ribs, but it had no effect. She kept doing it anyway.
"Shh, shh, shh..." he murmured soothingly. "It's all right, we will speak again when you rise."
His words barely registered in her mind. Everything was going dark around the edges, and there were funny blotches in her vision. Is this really how I'm gonna die? she thought distantly. Is that it?
And then the world tilted and winked out.
Two
Tanya drove the stolen car out of the St. Louis traffic and into an alley, turned the engine off, and closed her eyes. “You can do this,” she whispered. She repeated her usual pep-talk, dredging up the memory of Jake and the vampire with steel-gray eyes. It didn’t make her feel any less nervous, but it did make her angry, and she could work with that.
With a deep breath, she opened the car door and squeezed out between the rusting metal and the rough brick wall. The July heat was oppressive, without even the briefest breeze to relieve it. She could almost feel her red curly hair frizzing out in the humidity.
Tanya tugged down the hem of her t-shirt, a couple sizes too small to keep it from getting caught in a fight. It smelled strongly of the musty thrift shop where she bought it, but she was just going to burn it later anyway.
Glancing up at the sky, she saw the sun almost directly