Part 41 (2/2)

”See?” Odette whispered. ”That's Hadrian, and he's asleep like I said. In fact, from the looks of things, he's quite deeply asleep-he's completely dormant.”

We'd been talking about vampires sleeping as if it was something normal, but I realized that I didn't actually know what that meant.

”Vampires sleep?” I asked.

”After a fas.h.i.+on,” Odette replied. ”We do have a period of decreased function-which you know about already-you know that creatures of the dark are weak during the day. But we also do need to go through a period of metabolic repair-that's what sleep is. If you have a body, it will always need to fix itself. But Hadrian's current state is more than that. We can go into a state of deep dormancy if we are badly injured but still largely intact. Wounds and injuries can heal over a period of weeks, or months, or even years. I suspect that Hadrian's current state is self-inflicted. Strong drink can induce oblivion in vampires as well as in humans.”

Odette pulled me across the room to the window. Then she released her grip on my coat and climbed up onto the spindly table that supported Hadrian's feet.

She climbed onto the windowsill next and perched there, her shape a dark silhouette in the frame of the window.

”Come on,” she hissed.

I climbed onto the table and tried not to glance at Hadrian or the bottle. As I reached the window, Odette's dark shape vanished, soaring upward.

I gripped the ledge and looked down into the street below. A single dark shape glided down the street and disappeared. I wondered if the figure below had spotted us.

”Hurry up,” Odette hissed.

I looked up, and I could see Odette standing on the tower's pointed roof, a sliver of moon visible just over her shoulder, her red hair fanning out in the wind.

I glanced back down at the street below. It seemed very far away.

”I'm not sure about this,” I whispered to Odette. ”Are you sure we can't give the ground route a try?”

Odette crouched down and held out her hand. ”I can do this. And so can you. Now get out here.”

I climbed onto the ledge and grasped Odette's hand. Although I shouldn't have been surprised by Odette's strength any longer, I was startled by just how easily she hauled me up and set me on my feet.

Up on the roof, the air seemed even colder, and the view was dizzying. A strong wind whipped around us, and I found my boots slipping on the roof's s.h.i.+ngled surface.

I grabbed frantically for Odette, and she set me on my feet again. I noticed for the first time that she was clad only in a filmy black gown-her gauzy sleeves fluttered to the side, leaving her alabaster arms bare. She grasped my hand again, and this time I was sure-I could indeed feel the chill of her skin through the fabric of my gloves.

”Stay calm,” Odette ordered. ”And don't let go of my hand. I won't be able to buoy you up otherwise. Remember that.”

I wasn't likely to forget.

Odette suddenly leaped forward, and my feet left the solid surface of the roof. I felt my body soar out into the open air, and I twisted and turned in panic, trying to grab onto Odette with my free hand, trying to grab onto anything that would break the fall that was sure to come.

A horrible thought popped into my head.

Had Odette brought me out here to kill me?

All she had to do was let me drop-I imagined she could save herself pretty easily.

Had I been, as Odette had said not so long ago, too trusting?

Of course, Odette could have killed me at any point while we were sitting in Hadrian's tower, or she could have done nothing earlier and simply let Veronika kill me.

These thoughts pa.s.sed through my mind quickly, and just as quickly, I decided I could trust my cousin. Though panic still coursed through my body as we continued to soar through the air, I tried to quiet my mind, and I clung more tightly to Odette.

We dropped suddenly and landed on the rooftop of a nearby house.

”Stop wriggling so much,” Odette said impatiently. ”You're going to be fine-for now. Getting to the castle is the easier part. Things will get much harder once we get to the castle.”

Odette took off again, and though I was expecting the feeling of weightlessness that followed this time, it was still terrifying.

Once again, I found myself twisting in the air, flailing wildly for something to grab onto.

Odette brought us to rest on another rooftop.

”Seriously, stop wriggling,” she said.

Before I had quite caught my breath, we were off again, and we soared from rooftop to rooftop with dizzying speed.

After several more successful landings, I began to relax just a little bit. I managed to raise my eyes and look around when we came to our next stop, and I realized that we had halved the distance to the castle. The immense stone structure now loomed much closer, and I could see that its narrow windows were illuminated by a curiously subdued silver light.

”Why is everything so dark around here?” I asked.

”It is night,” Odette replied. ”And as you can perhaps imagine, vampires have an uneasy relations.h.i.+p with the light. Too much of it is hard on our keen senses-that's one of the reasons why we don't like the sun. The sun's harsh light floods our eyes, and its heat can be too much for our skin. There are disadvantages in having super-refined senses. But we do need some light to see by-we can't live in complete and total darkness. So, it might look dark around here to you, but to me it's as bright as day.”

Without warning, Odette grabbed my hand again, and once more we took off into the night.

After several more jumps, Odette brought us to rest on a broad roof with a gentle slope. We were perhaps a quarter mile from the castle, and in the dim light I could see there was a lot of activity along the castle's parapet wall-there were men in what looked like leather armor positioning themselves into the crenellations of the parapet. The men seemed to have spotted us, and each one trained a weapon on us.

”Are those crossbows?” I asked, squinting.

”Yes. They know we've been heading toward the castle, and vampires are a suspicious group. I told you this would be the hard part.”

”Are they going to kill us?” I asked.

”They're certainly going to try,” Odette replied.

”But they don't know why we're here,” I protested. ”Isn't there someone we could talk to? Some sort of gate official, or something like that?”

”Vampires do not look for diplomatic solutions,” Odette said. ”And they're under more strain than usual at the castle these days-they're under imminent threat of invasion. No doubt we look like spies.”

”What do you mean by 'imminent threat of invasion'?” I asked, startled.

”I'm sure William will explain it to you,” Odette said. ”And I'm sure he'll keep the others from killing you once we find him.”

Odette stood up. ”I want you to give him a message from me. Tell him that they're planning to attack the human village during the Firebird Festival.”

”Who are 'they'?”

”The hybrid army. This information comes from a very good source.”

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