In which case, she’d discover the truth of what had happened to him at the museum.
Connie, Patrick, and Jane were converging on the museum from other directions, apprised of the situation and just as determined as ever to preserve their way of life. Or undeath. Once there, they all hoped that they could make their way inside before the vampires, and then the search for the Bane would begin. The prospect of how long that search would take had not been mentioned at all, and if Rose really thought about it, the whole thing was daunting. But Lee had said something vague about checking the museum’s offline databases, and Francesco had nodded, and that had seemed to be that.
She was so unsure of so many things.
“They’re calling it a terrorist attack,” she said.
“What else can they call it?” Francesco replied. “It was in daylight, vampire slaves carried it out. They’ll never find the real reason.”
“But they’ll figure out that Marty was snatched.”
“Yes.”
“So he’ll be on their most-wanted list. Especially after what happened to his… our parents.”
“Of course.”
Rose caught Lee’s glance in the rearview mirror. Was that pity? She wasn’t sure, and she didn’t even trust her ability to be able to tell anymore. She hadn’t been human for five years.
“After all this is over—” she began, and then her cell phone rang. She flipped it open, thinking, Marty! But the caller ID registered UNKNOWN, and she knew instantly who it would be.
“Hello?”
“Rose Volk.”
“That’s me.”
“This is Stella Olemaun.” The voice seemed to come from a great distance, as if the caller were talking into a phone held far away from her mouth. And there was something else to that voice…
“Ms. Olemaun, thank you for—”
“No Ms., no Mrs. You know as well as I that vampires don’t use such titles.” Rose tensed in shock, and Francesco touched her arm to grab her attention. Then she let out a soft laugh.
“You’re a vampire.”
“For some time, yeah. One like you claim to be. I like your name: Humain. I’m not aware of any others like us who’ve tried to name themselves.”
“It wasn’t me, it was…”
Who’s a vampire? Lee was mouthing into his rearview mirror. He could’t have heard Rose’s initial greeting. Oh, Lee, you’ve been strung along for so long, she thought, and the idea of telling him actually made her sad.
“It doesn’t matter,” Olemaun said, voice crackling in her ear. “Your problem sounds like it does, however. D’you know the identity of the vampires in London?”
“I was hoping you might know. They came here two days ago, went after my brother. Human brother. Killed our parents instead.” Rose expected some expression of surprise from Stella Olemaun that she was still aware of what had happened to her human family, but there was none. I wish she and I could talk about other things, she thought, but there was no time. And Olemaun seemed to understand that.
“You mentioned the Bane.”
“It’s what they’ve come for. You know of it?”
There was a pause, the uncomfortable hiss of static, and Rose thought the connection had been broken. In that silence, she heard the same distance that seemed to inform Olemaun’s voice, an infinity of emptiness. She wondered what the woman had been through and seen, and, as if prompted by the thought, Stella started to tell her.
“You sound sheltered. I’m sure you and your Humains are aware of the outside, but do you interact? I don’t think so. There’s so much more to the vampire existence, Rose Volk. I’ve seen a lot of it. There are some like me, vampires who believe that staying in the shadows is the way to survive. Some, like you Humains, take that a step further… a step further away from vampirism, some would say. Existing alongside humans, not feeding from them.”
And how do you feed? Rose almost asked. But she didn’t want to interrupt, and she thought to ask that would be… impolite.
“There are also those who crave dominance. There’ve been conflicts. Ongoing, brutal. Attempts to thrust vampires to the fore, and conflicting efforts to hunt and destroy us once and for all.”
“And you’re in the middle?”
“I’ve been involved. Through it all, I’ve maintained my stance. And I have to tell you, Rose, that from what I’ve heard of the Bane, and if it’s actually for real, you have to find it before those vampires. You have to. The balance is being challenged all the time, and that thing could tip it either way.”
“Give them power to rule,” she said.
“Or destroy everything altogether.”
“Destroy?” Rose frowned, confused. The Bane was allegedly an artifact from the first vampire, that’s what they knew. Something that would bestow great power on its vampire bearer. What that power was seemed vague, as did how it would work, but…
“It’s an old, old thing,” Stella said. Her voice was low and quiet, as if tired by everything she had seen. “Stories get confused. It’s either the greatest power for vampires—or the deadliest weapon against them. Its maker was the first vampire, or the first vampire killer. I’ve heard both versions. Who knows anymore.”
“I haven’t heard anything,” Rose said.
“Well, be careful, girl. Either way, in the wrong hands, the thing might be the end of us all.”
“Might be?”
Olemaun laughed, but it sounded like someone crying. “Who’s to say there’s anything to the stories?”
“So this might all be for nothing?”
“Maybe,” Olemaun said. “But it can’t be worth the risk even considering that.”
“What have you done?” Rose blurted, surprising herself with her frankness. “What have you seen? Where have you been?” She was aware of Francesco watching her curiously, and Lee kept glancing at her in the rearview mirror. She’d have plenty to tell them both, if she chose to do so. Right then, she wasn’t sure of anything.
“Enough for a dozen lifetimes,” the woman said. “Now it seems it’s your turn.”
“Is that… ?” Lee asked at last, and as Rose nodded, the connection broke. Lee was reaching around in his seat, eyes still on the road but arm stretched back for the phone. But Rose shook her head.
“She’s gone. And I’m not sure you’d be her friend anymore.” She almost felt sorry for him, but when he asked what she meant, she couldn’t find it in herself to tell him. “Nothing. She’s gone Lee. Connection broke.”
“So, what did she say?” Francesco asked.
Rose glanced at him, and she saw his understanding instantly. His lips pressed together and the corners of his mouth twitched a little. So he could see the humor in this as well. All of Lee’s friends are vampires. She was glad. Humor was something they found so little of now. Sometimes she thought vampires were equivalent to the basest form of animal with the finest brains, possessed of a desperate need to endure that shoved aside the possibility of anything else.
“She said we can’t let the bastards get the Bane.”