Page 14 of The Bloody Ruin Asylum & Taproom (Sam Quinn #7)

Nine

The Fisherman and the Mermaid

“Have you lived in Budapest all your life?” I asked.

Viktoria shook her head.

I guessed we weren’t sharing private information about ourselves, which was fair. I wasn’t sure why I liked her. Perhaps it was only because I’d never been able to chat alone with another female wolf before.

We walked in companionable silence for a few blocks, though my stomach began to twist. Was it the eel at lunch? The meat sticks? It felt like the blood had drained from my head and I was about to pass out.

We stopped in front of a huge Moorish building. “This is the Great Synagogue,” Viktoria said. “And that over there is the Tree of Life memorial. It’s dedicated to the half a million Hungarian Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. They chose that spot because it sits on top of a mass grave.”

“Oh my God,” I murmured. No wonder I was getting light-headed, a necromancer at a mass grave. I did my best to breathe through the worst of it as my stomach cramped harder.

The tree was a weeping willow made of a silvery metal. She waved me forward, clearly impatient with the way I hung back. “Each of the metal leaves on the tree bears the name of a Jewish Hungarian killed by the Nazis. Come. Take a pebble, say a prayer, and add it to all the others in the base.”

I did, coiling my magic around the pebble, wishing that those who had had their lives stolen from them found peace on the other side, away from the hatred and bigotry, the sadism and indifference.

“The tree symbolizes the mourning of this nation,” she said.

Nodding, I considered taking a photo for Clive, as I had at the other spots we’d stopped, but I couldn’t. Some things were too important, too profoundly moving to take pictures of.

We wandered back the way we’d come, both lost in our own thoughts.

“Can I ask you something?” I finally said.

She shrugged one shoulder. “You can ask.”

“You don’t actually believe I need to be watched, do you? That I’m going to do something to hurt the people of this town?” I kept my eyes on her, but she was looking out over the Danube.

“Do you see that?” she asked.

I followed her gaze. “The island in the river?”

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.”

“Listen,” she said, lowering her voice even more, “just tell me where they are. You and your husband leave tonight. We won’t attack until tomorrow. Yes?”

That wasn’t going to happen, no matter how much Viktoria wanted it.

Still staring at the mermaid, I let out a long breath.

Clive wasn’t going to be happy because it was going to make me even more of a target, but I had to find the vamps who were preying on humans, stealing them away to feed on, rape, and kill.

They had to be stopped. I couldn’t pretend I didn’t know.

“Tell me about the mermaid,” I said.

“The mer—it’s a statue. I don’t care about that. You have to help us!” she hissed. “They’re terrorizing our people.”

I was lying on my axe, so it wasn’t comfortable, but I stayed where I was. I almost laughed when I realized I was showing her my belly in this position. Deep down, I knew she was right, but I couldn’t give the pack the Guild’s location. No. I wouldn’t do it.

“I hear you,” I said, “but that isn’t happening. I will find them, and I will deal with them. You don’t have to believe that. I won’t blame you for not, but I keep my promises.” I clasped my hands over my stomach and took deep breaths in and out, steeling myself for what I’d need to do soon.

Wanting a diversion, I asked again, “Does she have a story? She appears quite determined to protect this city.”

Viktoria paced and cursed. Luckily it was all in Hungarian, but I got the general idea. Eventually, she burned through the mad and dropped to the grass near me, leaning up against the statue’s base.

“There are many stories of mermaids in the Danube,” she began. “I’ll tell you the one I know well and then you will give me some piece of information that we don’t have.”

I remained silent.

“The story begins in the dead of winter,” she said.

“Two fishermen were sitting in fishing huts on the frozen section of the river, repairing nets. The old man told the younger one a story of the Danube Prince, who had many children and lived in a tall castle made of green glass at the bottom of the river.”

An underwater castle made of sea glass. I already liked this story.

“The prince was a cruel man,” she continued, “often walking the shores dressed as a fisherman so he could capture unsuspecting humans and drag them to the depths of the river, where he stored the souls of his dead.”

I was liking this story a lot less.

“Being a cruel prince,” she said, “he was no better to his daughters, keeping them prisoners. Sometimes they escaped, though, and fishermen would hear them dancing and singing along the banks and in town.”

Oh, good. They got away from him.

“They were cursed to return before daybreak,” she said, “when the prince would beat them for their disobedience until the river ran red.”

“Jeez,” I grumbled, “this mermaid story sucks.”

Ignoring me, Viktoria continued, “The younger fisherman shook his head, not believing a word of it, until a beautiful young woman approached the men. She wore a long gown, with flowers wrapped around her waist and woven into her long black hair.”

“Pretty,” I mumbled.

“She told them they needn’t fear,” Viktoria said. “She wasn’t there to harm or steal from them. She wanted only to warn them that the ice was breaking, the snow in the mountains melting. A great rush of water would soon flood them. And then she disappeared.

“The men rushed to tell the others and though the huts were all washed away, the Danube Prince took no souls that night.”

“Yay, flower lady. Wait. Is she the mermaid?” I asked.

“Guess,” Viktoria said. “So, spring came and life got back to normal for all except the young fisherman. He had fallen in love with the dark-haired mermaid—”

“Ha!”

“—and searched relentlessly, rowing out into the middle of the river every night, trying to find her again.”

“Aww.” This story was a real roller coaster.

“One morning,” she continued, apparently making her peace with my interruptions, “the old fisherman found the young man’s boat washed up onshore and empty.

Did the Danube Prince finally collect his soul?

Did the young man find the mermaid and run off with her?

Or did he, heartbroken at not finding her, offer himself up to the prince? ”

Shaking my head, I stood up. “I’d like to introduce you people to the concept of happily ever after.”

“That is not life,” she said, standing as well.

“Maybe not,” I said, “but there’s something to be said for hope. We need to believe happy is a possibility to have the wherewithal to keep going.”

She rolled her eyes. “Americans. We prefer to see what is and meet it head on. It is the only way to fight for justice. You hide your eyes and dream of fairytales.”

“Ouch,” I said, heading back for the bridge. “I want to see the Buda Palace. You can come with me or follow angrily at a distance. Whatever works for you.”