She paused. “Part of the island is industrial, but the majority of it is a public park. A teenaged girl, pretty but painfully shy, was found over there at the base of the Danube Mermaid statue. She had a bruise on her neck with two small pinprick wounds. She was missing most of the blood in her body and she showed evidence of rape.”
My stomach twisted again.
“One of our pack is a nurse,” she continued. “He says the girl reeked of vampires. Multiple. Her parents fell apart. She was only fifteen. She disappeared on her way home from a school play and was found out there early the next morning by a jogger.”
She turned to me, eyes blazing. “We know there are vampires in this town, but we can’t find them. It doesn’t make any sense, unless the nocturne has been magically hidden and spelled against us.” She shook her head, looking back over the river. “They’re blood-sucking demons, preying on the innocent, and you married one of them. We have no idea what you’re capable of, so we’ll watch.”
We were quiet for some time before I finally responded. “My husband believes it must be someone or something throwing suspicion on vampires because they have a code of secrecy, and they stopped feeding on humans when bagged blood was invented.”
Viktoria scoffed at that idea.
“Okay, most. Also, vampires can heal the wounds their bites inflict. A swipe of the tongue and no more wounds. It doesn’t make sense. Why would they let the marks remain? Why leave evidence when the first rule of being a vampire is no one knowing about vampires?”
“Do you think she was the only one?” Viktoria asked, her voice hard. “Most are found alive and dazed, with no memory of what happened the night before, but the memory is there. Just under the surface. It returns in bits and pieces. In nightmares, the victims relive shadowy echoes that keep them forever on edge, consumed by fear. And they all reek of vampire. We know this town. We know who lives here. It’s the leeches.”
The horrifying part was I believed her. What the hell was going on at the Guild? “Can you show me where you found her?” I asked.
Jaw clenched, she said, “What’s the point? It was last week. I doubt the scent is even there anymore.”
“Okay, but I know more vampires than you do. If there’s still a trace of her killer, I might recognize the scent.”
She gave me an appraising look. “That’s true. Wait here.” She pulled her phone from her back pocket and walked away. Since I didn’t speak Hungarian, she could have stood right next to me, shouting her conversation, and achieved the same level of privacy.
She returned a couple of minutes later. “Okay. I have permission to take you.”
We walked back across the bridge and then backtracked over a pedestrian bridge to the island. Viktoria led me across the island, past people lying out in the sun and couples strolling, past a copse of tall trees and into a small clearing and a statue of a mermaid holding a shield.
Viktoria went to the front of the statue, to the fierce mermaid staring out over the river, her shield up to protect the people of Budapest. My guide pointed down to the grass directly beneath the raised shield.
I waved her back. I didn’t want her scent muddling things more than was necessary. “I need you to tell me if anyone comes near. I can’t have humans catching sight of me.”
She looked confused but nodded.
Glancing around and considering how good phone cameras were, I decided to pull my arms out of my jacket and lift it over my head. Kneeling down in the spot she indicated, I shifted my head to my wolf’s. I needed a heightened sense of smell and keen eyesight.
Scanning the grassy area first for the smallest clues, I found nothing. Closing my eyes, I dipped my snout to the ground and tried to weave my way through too many overlapping scents. Wolves. Cut grass—the gardeners had mowed recently—Humans. Blood. Decomposition.
A gust of wind almost blew my jacket away, but I held tight with one hand. I heard a gasp, so I assumed Viktoria caught sight of me. I couldn’t let her reaction distract me because I’d caught it. Vampire. No. Vampires. And that little shit who’d taken us to that first room when we’d arrived.
The wolves were right. Vampires were killing the people of Budapest.
Shifting my head back, I slid my jacket back on to hide my axe and dropped onto my butt. What the hell had Clive and I walked into?
“Well?” she asked.
How did I answer? Damn it, I didn’t owe any loyalty to killers. “You’re right. It’s vampires. Multiple. The only one I recognized was a human servant I met when we first arrived. I have their scents now. I’ll figure out which ones.”
“You must tell us where they den!” She pulled out her phone. “The sun is still out. We can go now.”
I held up my hand to stop her. “I’m not going to do that. My husband is not part of this. I’m sure there are many others who also aren’t. Let me handle this. Clive and I will find them and deal with them. You have my word.”
She growled, “We. Don’t. Trust. You.”
I flopped back on the grass and stared up at the mermaid. “I probably wouldn’t either. All I can tell you is that I will investigate and deal with the vampires involved. The human servant is already dead.”
“You killed him?” She leaned forward, interest replacing disgust.
“Not me, no. He was an asshole and vampire justice is swift.”
