I put aside the e-reader that had gone into standby mode while I’d been zoned out and stood, studying the darkened corners. I searched my mind for supernatural blips, finding lots of vamps, but none in the room with me besides Clive.
Lighter, almost indistinct in my mind, were hazy forms surrounding me. I couldn’t see them, but ghosts were hovering all around me. The floor creaked near the door and something crashed in the bathroom.
Jeez, was I a necromancer or what?
I sat back down, closed my eyes, and gathered up the spirits crowding me. I’d done this outside The Wicche Glass Tavern when I was still learning about my powers. I could certainly do it now. I let out a breath and then realized I had a problem. I didn’t speak Hungarian. How was I supposed to tell them to go?
Pulling out my phone, I tried to find a translation program, but I didn’t have a signal. Shit. The flames in the fireplace shot up, making me jump. Rude, stupid-ass ghosts. I went to Clive and tapped his chest.
“Sorry. I really need your help.”
His eyes blinked open but they were unfocused.
“I’m fine. It’s not an emergency. I just need the Hungarian word for go. Can you tell me what that is?”
His speech was slow, but he said a lot of words. A lot.
“All of that to just say go?” What the hell kind of weird language was this?
He spoke again in what I assumed was Hungarian. I could have gone out and asked one of the human Renfield assholes, but I just knew if they spoke English, they’d probably lie to me.
“Clive, I need you to tell me in English how to say go in Hungarian.”
He opened his mouth and I said, “In English, please.”
He paused and then said, “Go.”
I thunked my head down on his chest. “Yes. The word is go in English. What is that word in Hungarian?”
“Megy.”
Oh, thank goodness. One word. I said it back to him, hoping I got the pronunciation correct. When I said it, the pressure in the room swayed.
He said the same word back to me and I turned, found all the spirits pressing in on me, held up my hand, and pushed while forcefully repeating, “Megy.”
Like an elastic band, they moved away and then snapped right back. Damn it. Was it the wrong word? Was I pronouncing it incorrectly?
Frustrated and more than a little scared, I sat back down, closed my eyes, and tapped into that part of me that spoke to the dead. I focused on all the misty images I saw around me. All were women. When I tried gathering them up again, broken nails scraped down my arms.
I put power in my voice and commanded, “Megy!” Some of the lighter, more insubstantial ghosts disappeared. The rest, though, slowly, resentfully, retreated. They were still in an orbit around me, but at least they were no longer clinging to my skin.
I didn’t understand why they were so different from all the other spirits I’d encountered. They were stronger and angrier. Other than those two ghosts in New Orleans, I’d never felt threatened by spirits before.
Was this an asylum for supernatural creatures? That seemed unlikely—and terrifying. What was it about these ghosts then? How did they have the power to ignore me?
I reclined on the couch, desperate for sleep, as I considered. Could it be the vampires? They were what was different here. Could ghosts feed off vampires? Who could I ask?
Eventually, I did fall asleep but far too soon, Clive was waking me up.
“Sam, darling, we need to get ready.” Voice low, he kissed my forehead and went to the closet to pull out a suit.
“Do we, though?” The last thing I wanted to do was go chat with impossibly beautiful deadish people who were hardwired to hate me when I was sleep-deprived and more than a little unnerved by a horde of supercharged hostile ghosts. So far, Budapest sucked.
He turned. “You don’t have to, if you’d prefer not.” His brow furrowed. “Is everything all right?”
Not really, but I couldn’t do that to him. This was a big opportunity and I wanted it for him. “Yep. Just tired. I’ve been a little keyed up about this trip, so sleep has been evading me.”
After living together in the nocturne, we’d learned to speak barely above a whisper. We both had excellent hearing, so it wasn’t a problem. If another vampire was intent on eavesdropping, they’d probably just hear a murmur of voices. When we had to communicate something sensitive, though, we spoke mind-to-mind.
