“You’re saying I cannot stop you?”
“Look, McCloud. I like you. As in, I really like you. I want to help you, and considering these shackles, it looks like you can’t really stop me. ”
A moment passed. Finally he said, “I am honored. ” Emotion infused the words, and it was a foreign sound, striking me as sounding both moved and gallant. “I recognize that you are your own woman, Annelise, and that I cannot stop you. But you must also recognize that I will try. Just as you want to protect me, my compulsion is to keep you safe. At all costs. Even if the cost is my own life. ”
Sudden emotion swamped me so intensely that my throat ached with it. I tried to tamp it down, to shore up those emotions, because this was just the bond speaking, right? This was chemical.
Mostly.
His voice came to me in the darkness, hoarse and fraught. “I feel your sadness, but you mustn’t mourn on account of me. You are strong. You have it in you to endure the fever. You will survive my passing. ”
“You’re not dead yet,” I said, so fiercely his body leaned toward mine in the blackness.
“There is a myth where I come from. The story of Josa MacIntyre, a sorrowful man, a fisherman who roams the world, gathering souls of the living. Sometimes I feel like this Josa, and the world is my sea, its despairing souls my only sustenance. But now I’ve met you, and it’s been enough. So do not mourn me, love. My life has been long, and if my battle must end here, so be it. I’d rather die now than see you perish to save me. ”
“Forget your Josa. ” My spine stiffened. More than ever, I knew I needed to find the killer. I pulled from him. “Nobody is doing any dying anytime soon. Tell me what you know, Carden. Think of it as keeping me safe. Because if you don’t tell me, I’ll leave here and I swear I will search all over this island for clues. ”
“You would, wouldn’t you?”
“I would. ”
“You brave, wee spitfire. ” He sighed again, but this time it didn’t sound tired so much as resolved. “Touch me, Annelise. Quickly, now; we’ve not much time. I’d feel your hands on me as I tell you. ”
The words stole my breath. I stepped closer, sinking into him, cradling my cheek against that hard chest.
“That’s better,” he said. “I’ll tell you what I know, which isn’t much. I am an outsider here. ”
“But I thought you were from here. ”
“Aye, so I am. But I am not of these men. I’ve never pledged fealty to the Directorate, and they mistrust me for it. There are many things to which I’m not privy. ”
I fisted my hands in his shirt, wishing we were someplace else. Wishing I were brave enough to slide my hand under his shirt. That the day might come where I’d even have the chance. Such wishes galvanized me, focusing me back on my goal. “You must know something. You’ve been alive for hundreds of years. ”
“I do know things, it’s true. I know there is a man, a human man, the one you call the Draug keeper. ” Carden was thoughtful for a time, then added, “Your instincts are good. The keeper sees much and speaks little, and he is perhaps a good place to start. More than one body was discovered at the base of that cliff. ”
“How do I find him?”
“He stays on an abandoned croft on the southern tip. ”
“Have you ever met him?”
Carden gave a startled bark of a laugh at that. “He won’t speak to vampires unless forced. ”
I pushed away, looking up to where his face would be. I felt a pang of loss that I couldn’t see his expression. “I can’t believe the vampires would put up with that sort of disrespect. ”
“The keeper distrusts vampires, but they need him. His is a putrid, dangerous job—not many men would do it, and certainly no vampire. ”
I nodded in the darkness, feeling resolved. Giving our alibi wasn’t an option, and giving up on Carden wasn’t, either. But this—missions and secrecy—this I could do.
The last time I’d felt this optimistic, I’d been packing up my Honda, getting ready for what I thought would be my illustrious college career. “He may not trust vampires,” I said, “but maybe he’ll trust a
girl from Florida. ”
“You seem to have that effect,” Carden said quietly.
Had I misheard him? Was this vampire actually telling me he had faith in me? “Really?”
“Aye,” he said with a low, rumbling chuckle. “Really. Trust is a foreign sentiment for me, and I thank you for allowing me to experience it once more. ”