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Mikhail leaned his elbows on the table. “We need to earn their trust. How many are there? Six?”
“Yes.” Zoltan took another long drink. “I’m trying to convince them I’m on their side. I have an advantage there, since my mother actually came from Beyul-La.”
Elsa gasped. “The mummy was one of the Amazon women?”
“What mummy?” Pamela asked.
“The mummy in the chapel is his mother,” Elsa whispered to Pam.
J.L. snorted. “His momma’s a mummy?”
Zoltan sighed. “As I was saying, I’m the son of one of the original founders of Beyul-La, so they’re reluctant to kill me like they would some other guy. They’ve existed for centuries with the mind-set that men cannot be trusted.”
Emma frowned. “We can’t change something that ingrained overnight.”
“I know.” Zoltan drank some more Blardonnay. “Two of the women would still like to kill me—the queen and Lydia. I think Lydia’s daughter, Tashi, could be open to change. And the two younger ones, Winifred and Freya, were born in the 1920s, so they missed the major man-hating events that the older ones went through. And they grew up with a loving father for a while, so we have a good chance of convincing those two that we’re good guys.”
“They’re the daughters of Frederic Chesterton?” Emma asked, and Zoltan nodded.
“That’s five of the women.” J.L. looked at Zoltan. “What about the sixth?”
Neona. Zoltan wasn’t sure how she felt about him. “I think she’s on my side.”
Howard’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t seem very confident. Is there a problem?”
Zoltan drank some more Blardonnay. It seemed to be helping with the pain. “They don’t trust men. They trust vampires even less.”
Pamela winced. “You haven’t told them you’re a vampire?”
“How did you explain being old enough to be the mummy’s son?” J.L. asked.
“They think my mother gave me some of the Living Water to drink.” Zoltan took another sip.
“Ah.” Pamela nodded. “That would explain it.”
Howard swallowed down some beer. “I wonder what would happen if a Vamp drank the Living Water.”
Zoltan finished his glass. “I wondered that, too. If it enables a Vamp to stay awake during the day—”
“Master Han would have a huge advantage over us.” J.L. grimaced. “He could kill us in our death-sleep.”
Pamela gasped. “This is terrible!”
Mikhail patted her shoulder. “Relax. We don’t know if the Living Water has any effect on a Vamp at all.”
Everyone at the table turned to look at Zoltan.
He swallowed hard. “You want me to try it?”
“We have to know what would happen,” Mikhail told him.
Zoltan frowned.
“Cheer up.” J.L. gave him a wry smile. “It’s not like the water could kill you.”
Zoltan shifted in his chair. The women would kill him if they caught him in their cave, drinking their precious water.
What else were they hiding? “I keep feeling like I’m missing something. Shouldn’t there be a . . . purpose for their long lives? Why live forever in secret?”
The others at the table were quiet as they pondered his question.
Zoltan thought back to what Neona had said. “She said the pact was binding forever.”
“What pact?” Mikhail asked. “With whom?”
Zoltan shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Maybe they’re protecting someone?” Emma asked. “Or something?”
J.L. hit the table with the palm of his hand. “I know! The abominable snowman!”
Zoltan sat back. “What?”
The women at the table laughed, while Mikhail shook his head.
“I’m serious,” J.L. insisted. “It’s a Himalayan thing.”
“There’s no such thing as an abominable snowman,” Howard muttered.
“Says the were-bear,” J.L. smirked. “You might be related to him.”
Howard growled.
“I have to leave soon.” Zoltan glanced at his watch. “Emma, be ready to come when I call you. Maybe tomorrow night, or the next.”
She nodded. “I’ll be ready.”
“The neighboring valley has a cabin where Frederic Chesteron lived. I’ll try to get the women’s permission for us to use it as our headquarters.” Zoltan rose to his feet. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
While the others talked, he teleported up to his bedroom, cut the bandages off, and took a quick shower. Then he dressed, threw some clothes into a duffel bag, and teleported back to the kitchen. Everyone was still talking.
He stepped behind the counter and loaded a small ice chest with bottles of blood and ice.
Howard joined him. “What are you doing? You act like you’re moving to Beyul-La.”
“I have to gain their trust.”
Howard scowled at him. “Talk to them all you want, but when the sun rises, come back here. Do not do your death-sleep there.”
Zoltan closed the ice chest. “Neona tried hard to keep me alive. I think I can trust her.”
“You think you can? You’re going to risk your life on a hunch?” Howard removed a set of silver handcuffs from his jacket. “Don’t make me use these.”
Zoltan stepped back. If Howard managed to get a cuff on him, he’d be unable to teleport.
“Do I have to remind you how completely helpless you’ll be?” Howard continued. “If you must go, take me with you.”
“I can’t take you on my wedding night!”
The room hushed. Everyone stared at him.
Zoltan winced.
Emma stood. “Did you get married?”
“Not . . . really. It’s a . . . long story.” Zoltan remembered the wedding rings he’d admired at the jewelry store. He glanced at his watch. “Howard, tell Domokos to go to the jewelry store tomorrow and pay Janos whatever I owe him.”
With a groan, Howard raked a hand through his hair. “I don’t know whether to congratulate you or use these damned handcuffs.”
“I have to go.” Zoltan grabbed his duffel bag and the ice chest.
“If you get the slightest inkling of danger, teleport back here,” Howard warned him.
“I will. But if I hope to gain Neona’s trust, then I’ll have to trust her.” As Zoltan teleported, Tashi’s words echoed in his head. It was either a wedding or his funeral.
Chapter Fifteen
Human or monster? Neona asked herself for the hundredth time. He looked human. He kissed like a human. Bled like a human. Felt pain like a human. And he was the boy she’d healed all those centuries ago. A boy who had almost died trying to protect his mother.
He was the same noble person. He’d grown into the man who had tried to protect her when he’d thought her leopard was going to attack. The man who had taken an arrow in his back to keep her from being harmed. He was the man her heart still yearned for. Human.
But as soon as she convinced herself of that, the memory flashed across her mind. Fangs, sharp and lethal, erupting from his mouth. Monster.
She shuddered in spite of the hot water she was sitting in. Freddie and Freya had dragged her to their house to prepare her for what they called her wedding night. While filling the tub with hot water and flower petals, they’d teased her with bawdy jests. Freya had insisted on washing Neona’s hair with some soap she’d made from the local wildflowers that bloomed each spring.
“You’re so lucky,” Freya said as she rinsed Neona’s hair. “You’ve caught such a gorgeous man!”
Man or monster? Neona wondered again with a growing sense of panic. How could she spend the night with him?
“He’s very strong and handsome.” Freddie dug through the chest at the foot of her bed.
“And so devoted to you.” Freya sighed. “When I think about how he risked his life to come here to see you—”
“I know!” Freddie removed a pair of red silk slippers. “And then he refused to let her feel his pain.”
Freya sighed again. “What a gorgeous man!”
Or a gorgeous monster. Neona hugged her knees in the small wooden tub.
A knock sounded on the door, and Tashi slipped inside. “He says he needs thirty minutes to rest.”
