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“How is there contention between the two of you when you’ve never met?” Penelope asked.
“Easy. He’s a vampire, and I’m a Hunter.”
“That automatically defines it?”
“Sums it up nicely in my book,” I said.
“You’ve never pardoned a vampire?”
“Have you ever let a demon go free?”
Her eyes narrowed, and she quickly looked away.
“You have?” I asked.
“A few,” she replied.
“Why?”
“It’s difficult to explain.”
“Try.”
She huffed and her lips tightened. “I’ve allowed some to live in order to glean useful information.”
“In what way?” Father asked.
I frowned. “How can you trust they’ll even tell you the truth?”
Penelope sat on the edge of the bed and folded her hands on her lap. “I have the ability to enslave a demon under my control if I choose. Not a powerful demon, but an imp or some of the lessers. I link my mind to its, which is why I choose one with less strength. A mightier demon could reverse the link to enslave me or drive me to insanity or kill me.”
“But how does that guarantee they tell the truth?” I asked.
“When I enslave them, they cannot lie or they burst into flames.”
“What about those plague demons?” Thomas asked. “The ones trying to kill me. Can you enslave them?”
She shook her head and bit her lower lip. “Good Heavens, no. That’d be suicide. They’d infect me with the disease.”
“Through your thoughts?” Father asked, perplexed. “How?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’ve been warned never to do so through strong intuition, so I understand partly why Forrest reacts to some of his premonitions. But, Forrest, why do you consider all vampires to be evil and unworthy to be pardoned?”
“They have no soul. They’re ruthless and feed upon other humans.”
“You’re blanketing all vampires to be exactly the same?”
“When it comes to how they stalk their prey and sire offspring, I see no difference in any of them. There’s only one I’ve protected,” I replied.
Her eyes flicked toward Varak and quickly back toward me.
I nodded. “And that’s only because I swore to do so and you know the reason I cannot.”
“Fair enough,” she said.
“But the vampire in this village,” I said. “There’s no reason he should know me yet or that I’d even be headed—”
It dawned upon me.
“What is it, Forrest?” Father asked.
“Albert.”
Father frowned. “You think he’d alert this vampire that you’d be passing this direction?”
“I can think of no other.”
Penelope gave me a worried look.
“What’s wrong, Penelope?” I asked.
“Then everything unfolds here tonight.”
“What do you mean?” Thomas asked.
“The demons that had been sent after you have hidden, but I have a feeling they will emerge again soon to kill you.”
A gentle rap came at the door. We all turned. Someone rapped again.
“Yes?” I asked.
The door opened promptly.
Jensen, who had led us to the men’s bathing pool, entered. In his arms was a neat stack of clothes. He acquiesced a slight nod and a friendly smile. In his elegant voice, he said, “I’m afraid your old coat is in tatters, Hunter, and all of your clothes were ... shall we say, are not even useable as filthy rags. But your host has a gracious heart, offering new clothes his tailor fashioned well before your arrival.”
“We can’t accept these,” I said. By accepting the apparel, in a sense he assured we were indebted to him. No words needed to enforce it. It was implied.
“He insists. In fact, he’s offered his invitation for all of you to dine with him tonight at midnight.”
“So late?” Father asked.
He laughed softly. “The night is just beginning for him.”
“Who exactly is our host?” I asked.
“You don’t know?” Jensen asked somewhat amused. “There is no mistake for your arrival here. He has been expecting you for quite some time, and this is the exact day he predicted you’d arrive.”
“Who?”
“Count Lorcan,” he replied. Jensen set the clothes on the cushioned bench. “Please be prompt arriving at the banquet hall. Not a second too late. Going through this door, you’ll find the banquet hall straight down at the end of the corridor. Ladies, the wardrobe against the wall opens into a small changing room.”
“How is it he knew of our arrival when we had never sought to come here until a few days ago?” I asked.
Jensen studied me with his brow raised for several moments before offering a polite smile. “My guess is you already know the answer to that question, dear Hunter, but if you haven’t figure it out by the time you arrive at his table, certainly ask him. Lorcan is a man who greatly treasures the company of others and loves intriguing conversation. I’m certain the two of you will get along splendidly. He’s talked for days about how he longs to meet you.”
I could not ascertain whether that was intended as a threat or not. I had hoped Jensen would tell me how Lorcan knew such details as to validate my suspicions. I held no doubt that somehow Lorcan had reached through the netherworld of my dreams and tethered to my thoughts and plans. He could see me, but he had veiled himself where I could not visualize him. It proved he possessed a great deal of power and possibly more than any other vampire I’d faced prior. While these matters were imposing, my curiosity outweighed my fear.
Still smiling politely, Jensen walked to the door, grabbed the knob, and turned to face us before he closed it. “Remember, promptness, midnight.”
I nodded.
Jensen closed the door.
Father’s brow furrowed. “Son, I feel uneasy about this entire situation.”
“As do I,” Penelope said.
“There’s not anything else we can do,” I said.
“We could leave,” Thomas suggested, glancing nervously to the door.
I shook my head. “How? We have no idea where those men took the horse. I assume it was the stables where they had gone, but we don’t rightly know. And if we found the horse, we’d still need to find the wagon, hitch the horse to it ... His guards or servants would apprehend us well before we could succeed in doing all of that.”
Father sighed and wadded up the map. “You cannot exactly slay a vampire when he knows we’ve come to do so.”
“Or since he’s invited us to eat with him,” Penelope said softly. “Not proper etiquette, now is it Forrest?”
I gave her a pretend stern glance, and she crinkled her nose, smiling. Even though we hadn’t known one another long, I could tell when she was being playful. I chuckled.
Regardless of the dinner invitation, she didn’t need to question my intent. She knew I’d not leave this former castle without attempting to stake Lorcan. I imagined he was thinking the same. I was quite certain he knew.
“Perhaps he wishes to eat us for dinner?” Thomas asked, and I knew his question was not in jest. I tried not to smile.
“But he’s predicted your arrival for longer than we’ve known he existed,” Father said. “You mentioned you’ve seen this place in your dreams? Have you ever seen him?”
“No. He’s kept himself hidden from me. I sensed his power. He’s strong. I sense him now. The most disturbing part of those dreams was the amount of bloodshed.”
“You’ve witnessed him killing people in your dreams?” Penelope asked.
“No. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I detected the volume of blood he’s shed and drank from the numerous people he’s killed during his lifetime as a vampire. My guess, it’s in the hundreds.”
Thomas looked uneasily. “Then we’re nothing more than fodder.”
“We have plenty of stakes,” Father said. “We tuck them into our pockets, behind our belts—”
“Then he immediately views us as a threat,” I said.
“And you don’t him?”
I shrugged. “He is, but nothing in my dreams indicated he seeks to harm or kill me.”
“Then what, son, would he want?”
I thought about his question for several moments. The answer came as if prompted to me, but not from a previous Hunter’s wisdom. Lorcan whispered it to me.
“I think you were right earlier, Father. He wishes to hire me.”