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Valtu’s eyes slide over my face again, then my body, despite it being covered by a winter coat (or partially covered, since I borrowed it from Lenore—it doesn’t close over my boobs), then he tilts his head in consideration. I can only stand there on display, feeling like I’m being judged in the harshest way, my insides squirming with insecurity. If he doesn’t deem me good enough for him, then what? What if he sends me back with Abe?
Then you tell him who you are, I think.And hope for the best.
But I know deep down that it would only end in more heartbreak. This man standing in front of me doesn’t want to know who I’ve been. If I told him I was Mina and Lucy and Dahlia, he would turn me away, and it would jeopardize his friendship with Abe, even though there doesn’t seem to be much of a friendship left from the awkward tension between them.
Oh my love, what happened to you?
Finally, Valtu sighs and looks to Abe. “I suppose you’ve never let me down before.” His eyes go to me again. “What’s your name?”
“Rose,” I tell him. If I say more my voice will start to shake. I raise my chin a little and take a firmer stance.
“Ah,” he muses. “All petals or all thorns?”
“Depends on what you like,” I answer.
Finally there’s a hint of amusement in his eyes, the faintest ghost of a smile.
Winning that from him feels like winning the lottery.
“I like her,” Valtu surmises to Abe. “A bit more fire than the others. I suppose she will do for the night.”
The night? I look at Abe in surprise. Has that already been decided?
But Abe doesn’t meet my eyes. “Shall I consider myself a guest for the night as well?” he asks Valtu.
“Of course,” he says. “You know you never need ask.”
From the tension in Abe’s face, I can tell that’s not true.
Valtu gives me another discerning look. “How are you for hiking a great distance?” Then he smirks, charming and acidic all at once. “Never mind. I forgot I’m not dealing with a human. Perhaps you’re right, Doctor. Having a vampire might be a nice change after all.”
“I can handle a hike,” I tell him, pulling my bag further up on my shoulder. “Lead the way.”
I guess Valtu’s castle or whatever it is that he lives in isn’t accessible by car. Maybe Valtu doesn’t even own a car. I’ve actually never seen him in a car, which is funny. They didn’t exist when I was Mina and Lucy, and in Venice Valtu only drove a motorboat. But still, being here in Germany, you’d think he would have some mode of transportation, though Abe did say he never leaves Mittenwald. I have to wonder if it’s a great distance, how quickly he’s able to get to the village. Vampires can move extremely fast when we need to but it’s not something we can keep up for a long time. We’re supposed to be more like cheetahs than an endurance racer.
Abe walks beside Valtu as we go across the square and I trail behind. I have to wonder why he decided to settle down here, but from the way that most people ignore him, or barely look in his direction, he must at least enjoy a degree of anonymity. Still, the Valtu I knew hated being cold. Italy, Greece, Croatia, those were the places he always found himself drawn to, even when we were in London he was always talking about taking me to the sun of the Mediterranean. The fact that he’s in this village, in the dead of winter, is just another sign that he’s changed.
It feels like I’m getting a tour of the entire village before we finally come to the edge of the gingerbread house buildings and pass over a river and there’s just a faint trace of a trail heading up between the towering pines, the branches laden with snow.
Valtu comes to a stop in front of us, his eyes shining with faint amusement again as he looks us over, the mountain looming over him like a shadow and for a moment I’m afraid we’re only going straight up.
“Nunc vides,” he commands, his words in another language, maybe Latin. He holds up his fingers and snaps them. “Nunc non faciunt.”
And suddenly the entire world changes.
I gasp, stumbling forward a step and Abe reaches out and steadies me. Valtu is still standing in front of us, with his fingers in the air like he just snapped them, but the mass of the mountain and forest is no longer at his back. Instead, there’s a sheer wall of rock with steps carved into it, leading to a door. The more I stare at the rock wall, the surface dark gray and shiny with snow clinging onto little ledges and outcrops, the more that it begins to resemble a house…no…a castle. There are arched windows cut right into the rock along the length of with stained glass inserts, and balconies built into crevices with gargoyle-laden stone railings, towers carved above.
Where am I? What the hell just happened?
I whirl around and gasp again when I feel the sharp breeze buffeting my cheek and realize we’re hundreds if not thousands of feet above the village of Mittenwald.
Holy. Shit.
“What the fuck?” I exclaim breathlessly, feeling so dizzy at the sight of the valley no longer at our level but miles below us that I have to turn around again, vertigo taking over.
Valtu chuckles dryly. “I do enjoy this moment.”
I look at Abe, still feeling sick, and he just shrugs. “It’s the only way to get here.”
