CHAPTER 3

T he same young waitress attended me at dinner that evening.

“Have you been assigned to me?” I asked.

She smiled. “Yes. They think I might be better able to answer some of your questions. You know, someone close to your age. I’m Siobhan O’Malley.”

“That’s a very German name.”

She chuckled. “My mother is from Zürich, but I was born and grew up in Dublin. I moved here a year ago to attend university.”

“I can’t detect a trace of an accent.”

She switched to English. “How about now? I grew up bilingual.”

I laughed. Her Irish accent was almost musical.

“Okay,” I said, “first question. Where do I get a bus pass?”

“At Zürich Hauptbahnhof. The main station. Just on the other side of the Limmat River. Bus, tram. It’s expensive, but everything in Zürich is expensive. I’m really glad I don’t have to pay for food or rent.”

She took my order, and I noticed she waited only on one other table that evening. Dierdre, my original mentor in the States, once told me that I was a full-time job.

As I finished my dinner, Siobhan approached and asked, “Do you enjoy live music? Some friends of mine are playing at a coffee house tonight.”

“Sure. I have to be back by midnight, though.”

She rolled her eyes. “You and me, both. I live with my grandparents. I’ll come up and get you when I get off work.”

As I climbed the stairs to my room, I reflected that a friend who already had permission to grace the Master’s domain might be a good thing.

* * *

T he coffee shop served coffee, tea, beer, and wine, as well as sandwiches. Siobhan’s friends were a couple in their early twenties who played guitar and sang. They were very good, the crowd wasn’t rowdy, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

We took off at about eleven-fifteen. Her grandparents lived on the other side of the university from the Master’s residence, so we would reach their place first.

“You’re sure you can find your way home?” Siobhan asked.

“I’m a tracker. If I get lost, the Master would probably ship me back to America.”

Some of the streets we walked on were completely deserted. “Is this a residential area?” I asked, not seeing any shop signs. It was Friday night, and the one café we passed was closed.

“Yes. The coffee house is on the edge of one of the entertainment areas. It will be a lot livelier near the university. But summer is a slow time there.”

Our peaceful stroll was interrupted by vampires trying to make a dramatic entrance, leaping in front of us and snarling.

“Some people know how to ruin an enjoyable evening,” I said. “Can you shield?”

“Oh, yes. Otherwise I wouldn’t go out at night.”

“In America, Master Greenwood was a hydromancer. I saw him disable a strigoi by sucking all the liquid from its body.”

“An interesting idea.”

The vamp who was almost behind me reached for me and encountered my shield. I cut off his arm in the same motion as drawing my sword. He seemed surprised. I stepped into him and decapitated him with a two-hand swing, then turned to see what was happening with Siobhan.

The strigoi threatening her were apparently having a problem. A hazy mist surrounded each of them, and their motions appeared slow. As I watched, they shrank, growing thinner. I simply walked over to the one closest to me and took his head, then attended to the other two. There wasn’t near as much blood as there had been with the first one I killed.

“Pretty amazing!” she said. “I like that!”

“Who deals with the bodies?” I asked.

She pulled out her phone and made a call. “There are four strigoi carcasses at…”—she gave the names of the cross streets, then put her phone away.

“I think I’m going to need that number,” I said.

* * *

T he following morning, while I was eating breakfast, Master Adolphus approached me.

“I understand you had a run-in with the strigoi last night.”

“A bit of a misunderstanding. They thought two young women would be easy prey. Young vamps who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Young? How do you mean?”

“Recently turned. Their movements were jerky, not fluid. They lacked confidence and speed. I think they expected us to be intimidated. I also got the feeling they didn’t understand the smell of our blood.” Mage blood was highly enticing to vampires. It got them high, like a drug, but it was addictive and eventually drove them mad if they made it part of their regular diet. As a result, most vampires avoided us.

He nodded. “You didn’t consider it out of the ordinary?”

“I don’t know what is ordinary here, and I don’t know the city yet. But Siobhan didn’t seem overly surprised to see them.”

“Well, be careful. There are strigoi here who are hundreds of years old. I guarantee they don’t lack confidence.”

“And they’re trolling the streets for their meals?” I asked.

A faint smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Probably not.”

* * *

I had done my daily duty with Frau Buckner, so I took off to see the city. From conversations with Siobhan, Frau Buckner, and Master Adolphus, I had a general idea of what might be of interest to me.

The first place I went to was to the HauptBahnhof, where I bought a travel pass. Then I recrossed the river and caught the tram going north. It ran along the river, so very much a scenic tour. After an hour or so, I got off and caught the tram going the other way, getting off at the train station and hiking over to the Langstrasse .

Frau Buckner told me it was once a red-light district, but it had cleaned up a lot. The coffee shop Siobhan and I had gone to was on the edge of the area. As I continued on, I came to a place that was suddenly devoid of life. Windows of the buildings—even on the ground floor—were shuttered or bricked up. The only people I saw were dhampir hanging around a few doorways. I had reached the strigoi enclave.

The number of dhampir surprised me. There were a few in Queen City, but they tended to be loners or employed by older vamps. I decided the ones in Zürich must fall into that latter category. Daytime security guards.

I didn’t linger but took off south and soon found myself in the financial district, then on Bahnhofstrasse—one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world. Dierdre, one of my mentors in Queen City, would have loved it. I didn’t have the courage to even walk into any of the shops—I just gaped through their display windows.

Wandering through the west side of the river until I reached Lake Zürich—or Zürisee , as it's called in Swiss German—I was stunned with its beauty. It was impressive, and as I watched the different types of boats, I wondered how much a lake tour would cost me. From what I had learned from the Master and Siobhan, I knew that the hills on both sides of the lake were favorite hunting grounds for the lycans during the full moon. Definitely off limits then.

After leaning on a railing, drinking in the view for forty-five minutes, I roused myself and walked back to the Master’s house. For the most part, I walked along the river, but when I reached Grossmünster , I climbed the hill and took the same winding path I had followed my first night in town. I timed my arrival just right—an hour after the restaurant opened for dinner.