“Not at all. We all want our parents’ approval.”
“Did you?”
“I would have, if I’d known them. My mother died in childbirth. My father refused to have anything to do with me.” Zack snorted softly. “I was raised by nuns until I was twelve, and then I ran away. I’ve been on my own ever since.”
“Oh, Zack, I’m so sorry.”
“It was a long time ago.” Over six hundred years, he mused. But it still rankled that his father had dumped him off at a convent in the middle of the night.
They walked in silence for a time. Lost in her own thoughts, Kaitlyn wasn’t immediately aware that Zack was no longer beside her.
Looking over her shoulder, she saw him standing as still as a stone, his eyes narrowed, his nostrils flared. “What is it?” she asked, starting back toward him.
“Shh. There’s another vampire nearby. One of your kind.”
Kaitlyn glanced around. Had her father followed them? But no, it wasn’t her father. She didn’t stop to wonder how she knew it was someone else.
She gasped when Zack grabbed her by the arm and pushed her behind him. Before she could ask what he was doing, she caught a blur of movement out of the corner of her eye. A moment later, a tall man wielding a sword materialized in front of Zack.
“Give me the woman,” he demanded, “and I will let you live.”
“No way.” Zack rocked back on his heels, his gaze intent on the other man’s face.
“You can give her to me,” the man said, “or I will kill you and take her.”
“You can try to take her,” Zack replied, “or you can die now.”
The other man’s eyes narrowed.
It was obvious to Zack that the stranger had not expected any resistance. And just as obvious that he didn’t know Zack was also a vampire.
The other man didn’t waste time arguing. He lunged forward, his sword making a swishing sound as it sliced cleanly through the air.
Kaitlyn watched in horror as the blade cut through the place where Zack had been standing mere seconds before.
Only Zack was now behind his attacker. Kaitlyn whirled away as the stranger lunged toward her. He hadn’t taken more than a few steps when Zack snatched the sword from the other man’s hand and drove it through his chest.
The man staggered backward, his heart pierced, front and back, by his own weapon. He stared at Kaitlyn, his expression faintly bemused before he toppled to the ground.
Kaitlyn let out the breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding, felt her stomach clench when Zack pulled the sword from the other man’s body, and lopped off his head.
She turned away, sickened by the sight.
“Katy, we need to go. There may be others.”
“The . . . the body. We can’t just leave it. . . .”
“Yes, we can. I need to get you out of here.”
Feeling numb, she started to walk. She had gone only a few steps when Zack swung her into his arms. She felt an odd sensation, as if she was flying.
When the world righted itself, they were in her room in the Fortress.
Zack set her on her feet, his hands folding over her shoulders to steady her. “Are you all right?”
She stared at him, her face pale, her body trembling. “You could have been killed.”
“Yeah, well, I wasn’t. Are you all right?”
“No, but I will be.”
“Did you recognize that guy?”
“He was one of us, wasn’t he? I mean, like me. A Romanian vampire.”
Zack nodded. It seemed odd that he could sense her kind when she couldn’t. Of course, he hadn’t been able to detect them, either, until he identified their particular scent, which made him wonder why Kaitlyn couldn’t detect it. The only thing he could think of was that her human blood somehow blocked it.
Kaitlyn blinked, her mind clearing as the initial horror faded. “We need to tell my father about this right away.”
She didn’t wait for Zack’s reply, just took his hand and hurried out the door.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he muttered as they went to find her father.
Chapter 25
Drake stood in front of the hearth in the library, his arms folded across his chest, his face implacable, as Zack related what had happened.
“You took my daughter out of the Fortress,” Drake said, biting off each word. “You knew her life was in danger, and yet you took her hunting.” He shook his head. “I think it best if you leave here now.”
“No!” Kaitlyn had been sitting on the sofa beside her mother while Zack spoke to her father. Now, she jumped to her feet. Moving to Zack’s side, she linked her arm with his. “If he leaves, I’m going with him.”
“You will not.”
“I think we all need to calm down.” Elena crossed the floor and placed her hand on her husband’s arm. “Zack didn’t have to come here and tell us what happened, but he did. Kaitlyn, did you recognize the man who attacked you?”
Kaitlyn frowned. “I don’t think so.” She smiled apologetically. She didn’t know any of Rodin’s sons and daughters very well; it didn’t help that they all looked very much alike.
“I can take you to the body if that’ll help,” Zack said.
Drake nodded curtly. “Kaitlyn, stay with your mother.”
“Be careful,” Elena said. “There could be others out there, just waiting.”
Drake kissed his wife on the cheek. “We will not be long.”
Drake scrutinized the scene of the confrontation, his senses expanding, drawing in the fresh smell of blood and death. And the unmistakable scent of Marius Korzha, another of his half brothers. Did Nadiya intend to send her sons out one by one to avenge the deaths of Daryn and Florin? And when she ran out of sons, would she send her daughters and her grandchildren, as well?
He felt no sorrow for his half brother’s death. Marius had made himself Drake’s enemy the minute he lifted a hand against Kaitlyn. If Ravenscroft had not killed Marius, Drake would have done so without a qualm.
Drake had brought a blanket with him. Spreading it on the ground, he placed Marius’s body and severed head in the middle, then wrapped the blanket tightly around the grisly remains.
“Gonna bury him?” Zack asked.
“No. I am going to send him back to his mother.”
“Do you know where she is?”
Drake shook his head. “I am going to send the body to her house in Bucharest. If Nadiya is not there, one of her other children will advise her of his death.” Drake looked at Ravenscroft. “You are in this now.”