Actually, there was no ‘maybe’ about it. I did like Morse. I respected him and I looked up to him. He was a good man, no doubt about it. And he was handsome. No doubt about that either. But, could I develop real feelings for him? Love feelings?

  I wasn’t sure.

  It was then that a faint echo of my sister’s voice sounded in my head, at the fringes of sensation. Whether it was Orsik, the Veits, or something else, that familiarity was still there. I could still feel Bryn’s presence, even as I doubted the truth behind it.

  Was it too much to hope that somehow Bryn had found a way inside the Abyss? That somehow she’d come after me?

  FOUR

  SINJIN

  The last thing I packed for the journey was the most essential.

  The vial of blood belonging to my tempest hung about my neck on a rather gaudy gold chain, but it was the best I could procure in

  short notice. The blood was all that remained to me of her physical person and it was comforting to feel it against my skin.

  Of course, on this particular journey, it would prove more than a keepsake. Nothing limits a vampire’s travel more than the inability to go about in daylight, but Bryn’s blood allowed me to brave the sun. More than that, it would help me to track her.

  Because I had been with Bryn for so long, because I had drunk her blood so many times, and because she had occupied a place in my heart, she was still a part of me now, years after we parted.

  Having her blood with me, a part of her physical presence, enabled me to sense where she was, or at least the direction in which she was. It was still not easy—the world is certainly a big place—but my daughter had given me a starting point.

  I arrived in Brazil after dark.

  Given how little I had of Bryn’s blood and how precious it was, I would have to ration myself, which meant travelling by night whenever possible. Laying a hand on the vial at my chest I listened to the blood, as it called out to its parent body.

  South-East.

  That was vague, but she wasn’t as far away as I had feared. She wasn’t in Manaus any more—that might have been too much to hope for, but I did not think she had left the country. Was the entrance to the Abyss here? Brazil had never struck me as particularly evil, but I had not spent much time here. If I had known where she was specifically, I could have got another plane or a train or whatever, but all I knew was south-east. Brazil was a big country and the bulk of it lay to the south-east of Manaus.

  I had to follow the tug of the blood.

  I rented a vehicle and set out. Because I had made a point of acquiring one with tinted windows, I was able to continue by day, always following the pull of my tempest’s blood. I allowed myself a smile. I was on her trail, hunting her down. What would Bryn say when she saw me? Nothing good, that was for certain, but I was still looking forward to our reunion. And I was still enjoying having a quest, in the first place. My life had certainly plunged into the blasé most lately. Well, with the exception of the Vryloka, I suppose.

  And on that subject, I wondered what was happening back on the ships of the Vampire Coalition? It was no longer my problem.

  Laucian would do a fine job and I had introduced him to Teri, who would be happy to assist him. I thought the two of them would make a good team. Would they make good lovers? I was not certain.

  Laucian had always preferred virgins, but it was about time the man enjoyed a true woman, one who knew herself and her body. For myself, I would never bother with a virgin—silly, mewling little things. Actually, it was quite true that I would never bother with another woman again… sadly, my Bryn was the only woman for

  me. And that was quite a bold statement, considering I had spent the majority of my existence as a wanton skirt-chaser.

  Suddenly, and without any warning, the pull of the blood at my chest stopped. It was as though it had gone completely silent, the energy no longer reverberating from it. I pulled over to the side of the road and placed my hand on my chest, crushing the vial to me.

  But, there was nothing.

  And that was when panic began to flood me. For if there was no pull to the blood any longer, that could only mean one thing. No.

  No, she could not be dead! I would know if Bryn was dead.

  With trembling fingers, I undid the stopper. Just a drop; that would be enough. Delicately I tipped one single drop of the precious blood onto my index finger and lapped it up.

  I almost spilled the rest of the vial as a tremor shuddered through my body. That taste, so long denied me, so unlike any other blood I had ever tasted, still had the same unique effect.

  I got out of the vehicle, feeling the sun’s ray’s on my pallid skin, but too concerned to think about it. With her blood inside me, even just a drop, I should have been able to sense her.

  But, I could not. There was still nothing. Yet, she was not dead.

  Had she been, I would have sensed it in her blood. I would have tasted it.

  If she was not dead then…

  Damn it. She had done it! She had entered the Abyss.

  I sat on the vehicle’s bonnet (‘hood’ I suppose I should call it on this side of the Atlantic) and stared at the ground. That was always the problem. When Bryn set her mind to something, she did it. She did not waste time thinking things through, she just charged in. I loved her for it, but right now it was very inconvenient, indeed.

  I could not sense her blood because if she were truly in the Abyss, she was completely sealed off to me. And I had no idea where the Abyss was, nor how to get there. All I knew was that the door was somewhere to the south-east of where I was now. It wasn’t exactly a full address and zip code.

  “Bloody fuck.”

  I was not often given to the harder swear words—I liked to think of myself as a product of a more genteel age—but I had earned this one. What the hell did I do now? I had no way in to the Abyss and I did not know where the entrance even existed.

  There was only one answer.

  Faery.

  Before Bryn had come here, she had gone to Faery. Presumably it was that trip which had led her to Brazil, and to somewhere more specific. There were a few in Faery she knew, but with relations between the factions frayed, my best guess would be that she went to Odran. He was, in any case, the most powerful and the one most likely to help her. Also most likely to be willing to help her; he had a weakness for beautiful women.

  So if I went to Faery myself and spoke to Odran, perhaps I could find out what he had told her and where she was. Odran and I had never been close, but with Bryn in danger and Jolie potentially at stake, I might be able to get something out of him. But that was only half the problem. There had existed a time when a trip to Faery would be no huge deal; there were portals scattered throughout the world. But since the fall of the Underworld, the Fae had closed their borders (on Odran’s command) and now there was only one left. And that portal lay in California, which was not quite the other side of the world, but nor was it an easy drive away. I would have to go back to Manaus and get on another plane…

  Blast it!

  I wracked my brains, trying to come up with another solution, but short of stopping random Brazilians and asking if they knew the way to the Abyss, this was all I had.

  “Damn it.” I raised the vial to my lips and drank. I spared one drop of blood, more out of sentiment than because I thought it would be of much use to me. Right now, time was my greatest enemy; Bryn was already in the Abyss and I did not even know which way to go. I had to move as quickly as possible and that meant taking sunlight out of the equation.

  #

  Never has a journey felt more slow to me than that one. In past centuries, I had travelled by steam ship, by sailing ship and by horse drawn carriage, and they all felt quicker than the plane that took me from Manaus to California. By the time I arrived, I was frantic and used a little old-fashioned hypnosis to get through customs and security at LAX. Soon I was on the road again and thinking about the next issue.

  For obvious reasons, the location of the last portal to Faery was known to only a few. I was among those few because I made it my business to know such things, and I entered the Redwood National Park, knowing exactly where I was going. But not knowing what I was going to do when I got there. The portal did not open for just anyone. Bryn was skilled with magic and that would be enough to open it. She was also an Elemental; a nice friendly species. I

  had no ‘magic’ as such, and I was a vampire—not quite a nice, friendly species. The portal was closed specifically to keep people like me out. My only hope was to name drop.

  Finding the tree I was looking for, I laid my hands on the bark, mentally urging it to open, on the off-chance that someone had forgotten to lock it. I could feel the Fae magic, old and complicated, pushing back me, recognizing me for what I was and repelling me. I pressed harder; I could not open it, but I needed those on the opposite side to know I was here, all the same.

  “I am Sinjin Sinclair, Master Vampire and a friend of King Odran!” I yelled out, to no one in particular. Maybe the squirrel on the branch atop me.

  The magic tightened about my forearms, clinging like bindweed as it pushed me away. But I hung in there.

  “I am Sinjin Sinclair, Master Vampire and Lord of the Vampire Coalition!” The Fae respect titles so I figured I ought to use mine. “Tell that kilt-wearing, skirt-chasing, drunk you call your King that I am here to see him! And tell him to open this… tree on the instant!” It might not work, but at least it would prove I knew Odran and I was quite ill-tempered.

  With a flash of light, the portal hurled me backwards. My body smacked into another redwood and I fell to the earth. I was bruised, more my ego than my being, but that was nothing to the pain I felt inside; if I could not see Odran, I would never find Bryn.

  Suddenly the harsh light from the portal was interrupted by a shadow falling across me.

  “Kilt-wearin’ an’ skirt-chasin’ Ah may be,” said a familiar voice in his unbelievable accent. “But Ah deny drunk. Ah drink. But Ah am seldom drunk for Ah know how to hold mah liquor.”

  I looked up at the silhouette of Odran, his long blonde hair flying in a breeze that blew from the portal. He looked the same as ever; tall, strong, ridiculous.

  “I had hoped that in the last ten years, you might have learnt how shirts work,” I groused.

  “Nice to see ye too.”

  “Are you going to ask me in?”

  “Ah am not.” Odran made a casual gesture with his hand and the portal closed behind him. “Ah willnae admit a vampire across mah borders without good reason.”

  “I have good reason!”

  “Then we can talk as easily here. Ah daresay Ah can guess why ye have come.”

  “Bryn came to see you?”

  “She did.”

  “To ask the way to the Abyss?”

  Odran inclined his head.

  “And you told her?” I demanded.

  “Ah dinnae know the way mahself,” said Odran. “But Ah gave her the name o’ someone who might.” He smiled to himself. “Or might not.”

  “Odran, I do not have time for your silly Fae games. I have reason to believe she has entered the Abyss.”

  Odran’s face changed—that irritating grin dropped right off.

  “Damn! Ah thought… Ah thought even if she found the man, an’ even if she found the door, there was nae chance o’ her actually enterin’.”

  “Well, then you do not know Bryn as well as you thought,” I muttered.

  “Ah suppose not.”

  “I need your help, Odran,” I said, those words never having spilled from my lips before. That was how desperate I was.

  “Mah help?”

  “Yes. Will you help me find her?”

  “Why does she wish to enter the Abyss anyway?” Odran muttered, half to himself.

  He did not know. How was it he did not know? “She thinks Jolie is in there.”

  Odran’s face snapped round. “The queen? But the queen is quite dead.”

  “Jolie is not dead.” I was going to say more, but to my surprise, Odran seemed to know it already.

  “The Abyss,” he said, nodding. He grew quiet for a moment. “How is it she came to be there? The living are nae supposed to be able to enter. That’s why Ah thought Bryn wouldnae be able to.”

  “As I said, you do not know Bryn as well as you thought.”

  Odran looked down. “Perhaps that is so.” He looked back at me.

  “Ah’ll help ye if I can, Sinjin. Any way Ah can. Partly for the sakes o’ Bryn and mah queen, but also because I did ye a disservice.”

  “What disservice?”

  He nodded, determined that I should hear this, though I wished he would tell me while we were en route.

  “Ah was away at the wars when Jolie vanished, taking down the last o’ the Unseelie court and riddin’ mah home o’ their stench.

  When Ah returned to the Seelie Court, Ah learned what had happened. Ah knew it couldnae be you who betrayed her.”

  “Well, I appreciate that, though it is a bit late for it now.”

  “I smelt the stink o’ wicked Fae on it,” Odran continued, with a sigh, clearly determined to force me to suffer through his story.

  “But there was sae much to do. The old Seelie Court fell apart an’ Ah was elected king and there was so much to do. And it wasnae like mah word would bring Jolie back. But, aye; Ah could have defended ye to yer wife, and Ah didnae. An’ Ah’m sorry for it.”

  “Apology accepted! Now, why don’t you open the portal and we can be on our merry way?”

  But Odran continued to nod and sigh, in turns. “Ah consider ye a friend. A friend Ah dinnae much like, but a friend none the less.

  And Ah let ye down.”

  Part of me wanted to break his nose, but part of me knew the truth. “Even if you had come to Bryn and told her as much, I do not think she would have listened.” Bryn had been consumed by grief, she needed someone to lash out at and that someone had been me.

  “Yet Ah could have tried.”

  “Well, my friend, for what it is worth, I shall take your help now. I have lost a lot of time and I have to get to the Abyss as soon as possible.”

  Odran hung his head. “Ah said Ah’d help ye if Ah can, but Ah’m nae sure Ah can.”

  “Oh, bloody hell!”

  He nodded again. I was so sick of watching him nod and lament!

  “Ah told Bryn, there is nae Fae path tae the Abyss that Ah know of.”

  “Then I have got to go back to Brazil?” At this point my noble quest had turned into the world’s most inconvenient commute.

  “Even then,” Odran went on, sadly, “if they can tell us where to find the door, Ah dinnae know how to open it.” He shook his head.

  “Ah was quite certain Bryn wouldnae be able to.”

  “If you did not want her to go in, then why did you help her?” I asked in exasperation.

  Odran gave me a look. “Ah know ye havenae seen her for a few years, but ye do still remember the wee lass? What Bryn wants, Bryn gets. If Ah had told her lies, she would have been back, and she wouldnae have left without mah testicles for earrings.”

  That was true. Oh, I did so miss her.

  “So that is it then?” Despondency was starting to settle over me.

  “Back to South America.”

  “Ah can at least get us there faster,” said Odran.

  “You said ‘us’?”

  “Aye.” He nodded again.

  “Then?”

  “Ah am comin’ with ye, mah vampire friend.”

  “Well, let us get going then!”

  “I can get us there faster, as I was sayin’, by reopenin’ one o’

  the sealed portals. Ah wish Ah knew o’ one that would take us to the Abyss, but nae Fae o’ any worth would want to…” He paused in thought and did not seem to give two fiddles that I was clearly in a hurry. “Now then… Ah hadnae considered that.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Ah was about to say that nae Fae o’ any worth would go to the Abyss. But what about a Fae o’ nae worth””

  “Plenty of them,” I muttered to myself.

  “Ah’ll pretend Ah dinnae hear that,” growled Odran, clenching his ham-like fists.

  “What were you going to say?”

  “For the last ten years, mah dungeons have played host to a Fae of nae worth whitsoever. The last o’ the Unseelie court—or so Ah trust—Black Annis.”

  The name brought an image instantly to mind. I had come across Black Annis when Bryn and I, with Odran and two others, had ventured into Faery to rescue Rowan from the Unseelie Court.

  Black Annis was an ancient and cannibalistic hag who carried a human femur as a walking stick.

  “She might know the way to the Abyss?”

  “If there is a way, she will know it,” said Odran with certainty.

  “The question is: how to get her to tell us. She has been mah prisoner for a decade and Ah never had any intent o’ lettin’ her out.”

  I was silent. I could not ask him to let his prisoner free, knowing what he had done to rid Faery of her kind.

  “Come on,” said Odran. With a wave of his monstrous hand, he reopened the portal. “Consider yerself lucky. Ye are the first vampire to enter Faery in the last ten years.”

  “Thank you,” I said, as sincerely as I could.

  We passed through the portal and into magnificent corridors of the Seelie court, the high ceiling vaulted with tree branches.

  Music was playing, as it always seemed to be in Faery.

  “This way.” Odran led me down a spiral staircase, centered on a tree trunk. Here there was no music, as we went deeper and deeper beneath the Seelie Castle.

  “What will you offer her?” I asked, tentatively.

  “What can Ah offer her but freedom?” said Odran, dourly.

  “Odran…”

  “It is mah decision, Sinjin. Ye might remember me as the skirt-chasin’ drunk, but Ah have been a very different king for the last ten years from the man ye knew back then. Ah dinnae make this decision lightly, jist so ye know. But Ah will not let Queen Jolie languish in the Abyss for mah own peace o’ mind. The whole world was better when she was among us. Perhaps she can save us yet.”

 

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