The Survivors

Chapter Thirteen: Body and Blood, pt. 2

We got his things out of his room and brought them into mine. I thanked and tipped the manager profusely for taking care of him until I returned. Then we spent the rest of the day out in Moscow. We walked the cold, dark streets of the city for hours, wandering in and out of shops, stopping for him to eat. I ate a little to humor him.
  I began to get pieces of the puzzle of where he had been and what he had been doing. Anthony had allowed him to come see me, knowing full well what that meant since he had been the one who had seen us together in a vision. Anthony, Patrick, and Mark had been out searching for something. Adelaide had many cross words with Anthony about this, a very rare occurrence in their five-century marriage. She had been angry that they had left me behind.
    Over a quiet dinner at a small bistro near the hotel, I told Everett what I knew he would not want to hear. "I'm going to Romania next," I said.
    His brow furrowed. He didn't speak.
    "When I came to Europe, I planned to go to Russia and then Romania, so that's where I'm headed. I think I'll just run. It's far, but it's easier than trying to fly," I said. "With any luck, I may only be there a week." I was going to keep talking until the horrified expression on his face dissolved. "I might be able to find some more creatures like I did here. That was much faster than trying to dissect beliefs, village by village."
    "You can't be serious," he said incredulously.
    "I'm going, Everett. This is what I do," I said, standing my ground.
    Everett rubbed his face, stroking it like there was stubble there even though it was inhumanly smooth. He was thinking something over. In the end, he sensed defeat. "Fine," he said, "but I come with you."
    I raised one eyebrow at him. "Fine," I said.
    We spent the night looking at maps of Eastern Europe. When the shops opened the next morning, we bought him clothes more appropriate for the kind of traveling we'd be doing. I packed him a bag like mine, pulled on coats and scarves, and put everything worth saving-mainly, the remaining red diamonds I carried with me-in the suite's safe. That evening, we were sprinting across Russia at close to two hundred miles an hour.

We followed leads and our intuition into the Ukraine and then across into Moldova and back toward Romania again for two days. I had heard distant humming across parts of the Ukraine, but it wasn't strong enough to follow. But when we crossed into Romania, I felt something strange. I slowed at the base of a snow-covered mountain so I could talk with Everett.
    "Something's here," I said.
    "What?" he breathed, his voice winded from the very cold air penetrating our lungs. His hair was tousled from the wind, and it made him look irresistible. I smiled suddenly and kissed him gently. "You were saying?" he said. Suddenly I saw that his golden-green eyes had darkened to a brown that matched his hair. I closed my eyes and opened them again to make sure I was seeing right.
    The humming swarmed in my ears. I'd have to ask about the eyes later. "There are creatures of some kind inside there," I said.
    "Inside the mountain?" he asked.
    "Possibly, or they could be in a valley between this mountain and the next. One way to find out," I said, and took off up the mountain, Everett on my heels. It was steep and icy and it took some time to reach the peak. The sounds and feelings were stronger here than they had been at the bottom. They were definitely beneath our feet.
    "How do we get to them?" Everett asked when I told him what I'd discovered.
    "Caves are a good place to start," I said. "Let's look down the other side," I suggested. We trekked down the slope. We heard the sounds of a large pack of animals as we descended. "Do you hear that? It sounds like lions," I said.
    We had instinctively begun to whisper. "Yeah, but there are no lions in Romania," he said. "There are lynxes, though."
    "Then I'd put good money on it that that's what they are. Listen to the snarls. I can feel them, too. They're certainly predators, and they smell us coming," I said.
    "Of course they do," Everett scowled. "Are they alone?" he asked.
    "I can't hear any humans," I said.
  We saw a glow in the distance. "Is that fire?" he asked.
    "I think so," I said.
    "What kind of animals have a fire going?" he asked.
    "A good question," I said. I was growing tense. Everett crouched a little as we walked, too, resembling a predator. That didn't relax me at all.
    Then we saw one. It had a golden coat, sparse black spots, and a fuzzy white beard. Lynxes were supposed to be significantly smaller than lions and tigers and other big cats, but this one was huge, at least six feet long from head to tail. It must have weighed at least three hundred pounds.
    More of them emerged from a cave below us to join him, forming a line to face us. "Are you seeing this?" I asked Everett quietly. He nodded. "For the record, this is an example of when the stupid bulwark is going to get in the way," I hissed.
    There were about twenty giant lynxes in front of us. We had gotten close enough that the humming had clarified into more distinct sounds, words, and phrases. I realized how strange it was that I was hearing thoughts-very distinct thoughts-from animals. I knew that they were supernatural in some way, but it still surprised me that they thought like humans or like Survivors.
    Everett hadn't gotten up from his crouching posture. He more closely resembled a lynx than a man. The foreign pose made me nervous and suspicious.
    The girl can hear us, I heard a female voice say. I tensed. One of them could hear me the way I could hear them.
    Then it's time to stop thinking, a deep male voice said. I fixated on the lead lynx's eyes. It had been his voice. They all responded, clearly able to understand his unspoken orders.
    I decided to speak. "Can you understand me?" I called.
  Everett looked at me sideways. "What the hell language was that?" he asked.
    "Romanian?" I whispered.
    He shook his head. "More like lynx."
    We can hear you. You don't need to shout, the male voice said.
    You think she's going to try anything? a quieter voice asked. I scanned the line and determined it belonged to a fuzzy, darker lynx down the row.
    Surely not, a female voice said.
    "I just want to talk to you," I said aloud. I knew one of them could hear me and translate, but this way I was addressing them all. I was trying to be respectful.
    Is she American? one asked. She sounds American.
    She looks French, another said.
    She looks like one of those Russian witches, another said.
    "If you could just stop speculating on my heritage for a moment, I'd like to ask you some questions," I said.
    Everett had moved closer to me as I neared the pack. A loud growl escaped his chest. I flinched at the sound; it was more intimidating than the version of it I had heard from Mark and Patrick.
    Anxious little vampire, one of them smirked.
    "I'm not a vampire either," I said, frustrated. Several of them laughed, though it sounded like a growl in my ears.
    Quiet, the lead one said.
    She didn't understand what you meant by vampire, the one who could read my mind said, chastising me in some way.
    Quiet! the lead one repeated. Everyone, he said, looking to his left and right. He stepped forward and closed the distance between us. His mind was blank to me. I wasn't sure how he could control it so well. He stretched his front legs in front of him, splaying his paws against the ground, and bowed his head. The muscles across his back rippled. He let out a low howl.
    Suddenly his fur retracted into pale skin. His shoulders broadened and his arms shrank. Three seconds later I was standing face to face with a threatening, naked man.
    A shape-shifter.
    I deflected my eyes, not wanting to see him like that. "Witches aren't usually known for their modesty," he laughed. He was speaking English. "You can look back now." When I did, he was dressed in a pair of low-slung, worn out blue jeans and nothing else. The lynx who could read my mind had stepped up next to him and was nuzzling his hip. He fluffed the fur between her ears affectionately.
    His body was very muscular, and he was larger than Everett. Veins clearly showed on his arms. He had white-blond hair the same color of his beard when he was in his lynx form; it hung messy and in his eyes, long past his ears. His skin was very pale but his eyes were a very deep, beautiful chestnut brown. His ears were pointed and eyes were slanted and thin, just like they had been in his lynx form. I could hear his heart beating.
    "I'm speaking English for your friend here. This is Narcisa," he said, indicating the lynx at his side. "And I'm Valentin." He stepped forward and extended his hand. Everett was eyed him suspiciously.
  "I'm Sadie," I said, speaking in English again. I shook his hand. Everett growled. "This is Everett," I said.
    "She's not something we know," Valentin called to the other cats in what Everett called Lynx. I realized that once he touched me, he could read me in some way.
    Not a witch? one of the cats thought.
    Not one of us, surely, another said.
    Cold like the strigoi, Valentin said in his mind. Pretty like them, too.
    "What's a strigoi?" I asked.
    Vampire, Valentin spoke to me in his mind. A very lethal one. Not unlike your friend there. I rolled my eyes. I was very used to our kind being mistaken for many things we were not.
    I looked at Valentin meaningfully. Then I looked at Narcisa. Can you translate for me? So Valentin can hear me? I asked her.
    Certainly, she said. I hadn't envisioned using my talents to keep something from Everett. I had thought it would be the other way around.
    He's not a vampire, I said. Narcisa conveyed this message this to Valentin who raised a doubtful eyebrow.
    Then what is he? Valentin asked.
    He is like me, I said. I looked at Everett's crouching, snarling form next to me. How sure of that was I?
    I think you're mistaken, friend. Though I do not know what you are, Valentin said.
    "What's he saying?" Everett asked. His tension was rampant.
    "He's asking me what I am," I said. "And what you are."
    This upset Everett considerably. He crouched again and snarled wildly this time, exposing his teeth. My belief that he and I were the same was evaporating quickly. I heard a flurry of voices in my head: They were ready to pounce. They were only waiting for a signal. "Everett, stop," I hissed.
    Valentin looked above my head and into the woods behind us, and then he looked back at the lynxes. "Sorry, pretty girl."
    It all happened very fast.
    Narcisa lunged first, able to hear Everett's own plans to attack. The other lynxes circled quickly, then piled on top of him before I could even scream. Then I was moving, being dragged across the ground by the lynx with the fuzzy darker hair, its powerful jaw clenching my side, its teeth searing into my flesh. I heard mangled animal screams as Everett fought against them, and the sound of claws and teeth shredding flesh.
  I was feeling dizzy, and my vision was clouding over as my arms and legs went limp, being dragged across the rugged terrain, defenseless against the fuzzy lynx's jaw. But suddenly I saw two blurs of long blonde hair jump toward the pile, then three large men and another woman sprinting out of the woods. They launched themselves into the fray.
  Valentin ran to me and swooped me out of the lynx's jaws and into his arms. I let my head fall backward and tried to see what was happening.
  At first I thought I was imagining it, but something told me it was real. Still, it was hard to believe: All of the Winters were sparring against the giant lynxes. I couldn't understand it. Where had they come from? What had they been doing? They couldn't possibly be here! And what if they got hurt?
  But quickly I understood my fears were misguided. The last thing I saw was Mark Winter rip the throat from a lynx that had pinned Everett to the ground.
  I panicked. I tried in vain to call out to them, to fight my way out of Valentin's forceful embrace, but his strong arms were like a vice grip against my weakening frame.
    "Sadie!" I heard a bloodcurdling scream. It was Everett. Valentin ran so fast, Everett's voice quickly dissolved into silence.