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I reached out to Nathaniel, but it was like hitting a wall that dissolved around me, so there was nothing to touch, nothing to reach for; I was back to being alone in my head. Okay, falling into Deimos’s eyes had damaged what Jean-Claude had repaired through kissing Richard. Where was he? Was he in a coffin with one of the other vampires? Did Rodrigo need a coffin since he was still a wereleopard? Did that kind of vampire do better in daylight? I had no idea. But Trappolino would need one, and Capitano, and Mischa, so if they would physically fit in a single coffin there were plenty to hold Richard and a vampy bunkmate.
I lay there in the dark and was starting to lose my battle with the claustrophobia. It makes small spaces feel smaller, like they’re closing around you like a fist to cut off your air and…I couldn’t lie here. Even if it woke Deimos early I had to try to get out.
The coffin was a bigger model because Deimos in human form was still a bigger guy. It wasn’t as impressive now that I’d seen him in dragon form, but it still gave me enough room to turn and get my hands under me. The vampire never moved except where I accidentally moved his arm, or hand. He rolled like a real dead body; ancient or not, he was out for the day. Thank God. I made sure it was ahinged coffin on only one side, because with the older vamps sometimes the lid was lift-off with no hinges, or with things on both sides that could lock down. How it’s put together changes the balance point on the lid. I raised my hips slowly; I didn’t want to bang myself on the lid. I’d hit my head on the first coffin I’d woken up in like this, given myself a mild concussion. I did not want to do that again, or hurt my back, or…I didn’t know if I still had Jean-Claude’s vampire marks to rely on, so I had to treat myself like I was just a regular easier-to-hurt-and-kill human.
I raised my hips and had room to sort of get up on my knees, but my back was pressed against the satin lining of the coffin. I pushed with my shoulders and back against the lid, slowly, cautiously, just to see if the lid would move at all. It did, in fact there was a thin line of light. The thrill of adrenaline-backed relief made me a little weak. I took a deep breath, and Deimos’s scent was masculine, but not sweaty, or anything that human. Vampires don’t really sweat all that much normally. I smelled modern aftershave and soap and all the scent modern humans have on their skin, but underneath that was something that made the back of my neck creep. It was the scent of vampires, especially ones that were over a thousand years old. The closest I’ve ever described it is snakes; it smelled vaguely of snake cages. Jean-Claude never smelled that way; neither did Damian or Asher. I didn’t know why some did and some didn’t, but if you got enough of them in coffins in an underground hiding place it was stronger. I’d learned to know they were there just from that nose-wrinkling smell. Whatever it was, Deimos had it.
I had to put my arm over his body to get a better place for my hand and move all of me closer to him, pushing on his thighs and hips to get the balance point I needed to open the coffin lid enough to get my fingers through and lift that way. I lifted and there was the crack of light again. I balanced on my knees and one hand, lifting with the one hand and shoulders so I had enough room to get higher on my knees, getting both sets of fingers under the crack and lifting.
I heard footsteps but the lid was already open too far to pretend, so I just opened it, grabbed the lip of the coffin, and used it to help me roll out of the coffin to a crouch down behind it. With the lid up, I was hidden from view.
“I told them not to leave you in here without a guard,” Goran said.
I lowered the lid on Deimos’s coffin, and I could see the big werebear standing at the top of a small flight of stairs that led up to the room’s only door. Goran was completely hidden behind the traditional Harlequin outfit, even his hands were gloved, but in one gloved hand he held a water bottle. The second I saw it I was thirsty. Thirstier than I’d ever been; all I could think of was getting to that water. Goran had it opened by the time I got there. I started drinking. The water wasn’t cold, but that didn’t matter. I drank half the bottle before I stopped to look around or even think much. My neck hurt. I touched where it hurt and found two large puncture marks. The edges were ragged and hurt to touch.
“Rodrigo has a rough technique,” I said.
“It is Deimos that is rough, Rodrigo did the other side.” I found another set of fang marks on the other side of my neck, but these bites were much smaller, neat and sort of tidy. The edges didn’t hurt to touch.
“That’s the reason you’re so thirsty, you fed two of them in one night,” Goran said.
“I’ve fed Jean-Claude and Asher in one night and I wasn’t this dehydrated.”
“Did you feed theardeuron them as they took blood?” The question seemed utterly neutral, not salacious like Scaramouche would have implied, or jealous like Kane. Goran was just gathering information.
“Yes,” I said.
“Have you ever fed multiple vampires in one night without feeding theardeur?”
I thought for a minute as I sipped the water. “I don’t think so, no.”
“Have you ever had a vampire take too much blood at one feeding?”
“Yes, enough to be nauseous and dizzy, a little faint.”
“But not craving water?” Goran asked.
“No, food, especially protein, is good afterward, but I’m not craving it. I just know it’s good for me, and bad if I go too long without feeding my own hungers.”
“So, you’ve never woken craving water like this?”
“No, never.”
“That is interesting,” he said.
I finished the last of my water. He pulled out a second bottle from the small soft-sided cooler he had in his hand. This one seemed a little colder, or maybe seeing the cooler made me imagine it was colder; either way it was better, though I was less frantic drinking it.
“Come, let us take water to the Ulfric, he will need it.”
I glanced at the room. There were five coffins scattered throughout the room, counting Deimos’s. The light I’d seen from the coffin was electrical lights strung throughout the room. The windows high up on the far wall had been bricked up. The vampires could sleep snug and safe until night fell.
“Richard isn’t in here?”
“Deimos would not allow either of you to share a coffin with anyone but himself.” He motioned me ahead of him through the door. I didn’t argue with the gentlemanly gesture, or question if he simply didn’t want me at his back. He was taking me to Richard; that was all I cared about in the moment.
45
We came outof the door into a wider-than-normal hallway, then turned left. There were other rooms on the left side of the hallway, but just a blank wall on the right, so probably an outer wall. The hallway was huge, as in big enough to drive a forklift or things a little bit bigger through. The hallway wasn’t just tall and wide, but long, so that I wasn’t a hundred percent sure the room at the far end was the big room.
