Page 23 of The Bloody Ruin Asylum & Taproom (Sam Quinn #7)

Eighteen

Why Do Ghosts Have To Be So Creepy?

“It was the same with my Ilona. I wanted to slay any who caused her the slightest unease. She wanted me to train her instead, to show her how to use my weapons.”

My heart clutched. “Clive taught me to fight with swords and my axe,” I said, tapping the handle behind my head.

“I saw that in the alley.” He leaned forward. “May I see it now?”

I pushed my jacket back and pulled out the axe. It shone, almost glowing in the firelight.

Vlad made a sound of deep appreciation and reached for it. “Fae?”

“Yes. Don’t touch it, though. Clive says fae metal burns vamp skin. This one has been spelled to protect me from the king’s assassins. I don’t believe it’ll be instant death for vampires, but it seems best not to test that theory.”

He stood, opened a drawer, pulled on a leather glove, and then took the axe from me, weighing it in his palm before swinging.

As he moved through a series of fast slashes, I had a moment to worry my head was about to be separated from my body.

Instead, he flipped the axe in the air, caught it, and handed it back.

“Magnificent.” He was so fast, I wondered if he’d switched axes on me. Mine was, after all, quite valuable. When I tilted the blade to the firelight, I caught the faint fingerprint of Algar, the queen’s captain of her guard. Satisfied, I sheathed the axe and sat back.

“He trained me in hand-to-hand, as well,” I said, “but if I told him I didn’t want to fight, he’d breathe a sigh of relief and love me just as much.

He’s fair and open-minded. I know lots of older supernaturals can become stuck in their thinking.

That’s not Clive. His mind is fluid, always taking in new information and altering beliefs based on it.

“And he’s secretly kind. As you loaned me your ring, I think you’ll understand.

He makes choices based on the safety and comfort of those he considers his, not just his own needs.

I was a traumatized, scarred teenager dumped in his city.

He could have let an underling deal with me and forget about it.

He didn’t. I’m no one special, but I was one of the supernaturals in his charge, so he kept me guarded and checked on me regularly to make sure I was healing. ”

I felt a kiss on the top of my head and flinched.

“Nonsense. You’ve always been special,” Clive said. He walked around the couch, taking in the room, and then sat beside me. “Now what brings you to what I assume is Vlad’s room in a hidden basement?”

Vlad smirked. “She described it as warlord chic.”

Clive gaze went to the wall of weapons. “I see her point.”

“I went exploring,” I said. “I didn’t know Vlad lived down here.”

Clive nodded slowly, pulling my hand into his. “But why the basement? I thought you’d be out touring parliament or eating a five-star meal. Instead, I find you here.”

“Léna is quite persuasive,” Vlad said.

Clive looked between Vlad and me. “Léna?”

Vlad must have noticed the panic in my eyes because he said, “I misspoke.”

Defeated, I sighed and leaned into Clive. “No. He didn’t. This place is lousy with really fricking disturbing ghosts, one of whom is Léna. She was pregnant and hidden away here. On the first night, she was raped by two male attendants from the men’s side of the asylum.”

Clive wrapped his arm around me.

“I forgot,” Vlad said. “You don’t speak Hungarian and therefore wouldn’t have understood the whole story.

It was her father who had been molesting her, who had impregnated her in the first place.

He didn’t want the scandal or the questions, so he committed her here with a large sum of money to make sure his problem went away.

She had a younger sister at home. That was what she was crying about as they took her away.

She was pleading with him to leave Lara alone. ”

Clive pulled me in closer. “And she’s been haunting you?”

“All of them have. They mess with me when I’m awake and haunt my dreams when I sleep,” I said. Poor Léna. “I hate her father even more now. I didn’t think that was possible.”

“I knew I should have moved us to a hotel,” Clive murmured. “And this is why I keep finding you asleep on the couch. Are they doing something to the bed?”

“More vulnerable,” Vlad said.

“Yes. Exactly. I can sleep on the couch, and it feels more secure for some reason,” I said.

“It’s an illusion, of course,” Vlad explained, “but the back of the couch makes it seem as though they have to come at you from one direction.”

I thought about that. “I think you’re right.”

He nodded. “They don’t bother me as much as they used to, but I was watching you at the gatherings—”

“Where?” Clive interrupted. “I never saw you.”

“There are medallions in the molding that are peepholes. I had no desire to talk with any of them, but I’d heard you were bringing your mate and I wanted to see her,” he said.

“We all heard her heart beat faster, but I think I was the only one watching to know she’d been looking at the portrait when it happened.

I’ve seen that madman lean out of the frame, the blood dripping from his hands as well.

When I saw her reaction, I knew the ghosts had found a new audience.

” He paused. “That was also why I gave her the ring, so she could get out whenever she needed to.”

“She’s right here,” I said, annoyed to be talked about rather than to.

“Apologies,” Vlad said, “but I was replying to your husband, who is not yet sure if I can be trusted near you.”

You should have told me, Clive said in my head.

“I didn’t want to screw up your chances with this job.” I answered him aloud to let him know I thought Vlad could be trusted.

“Darling.” Clive shook his head. “The decision had been made before we boarded the plane. Why they brought all of us here to go through these ridiculous meetings and tests is beyond me, though there is a reason.” He turned to Vlad. “Do you know?”

Vlad shook his head. “We’d already agreed to offer you the position.

I have no idea why Sebastian called us in, or even if it was him.

The email was from him, but I can’t say whether he’s being influenced.

I will say that I’ve noticed Sebastian staring at that portrait over the fireplace for no apparent reason.

He’s never so much as blinked at the other ghosts when they pop up, but that portrait seems to have him fixated.

He’s never mentioned noticing movement in the frame, but I don’t suppose he would, as it would make him appear mentally unstable.

Which, of course, is why I tell no one about seeing ghosts. ”

“If not ghosts, we know Ava has some mental abilities. Maybe she’s the one influencing him,” I suggested.

Clive shook his head and Vlad said, “Not enough. She has to maintain eye contact.”

“Okay, well, what do they get from having you all here in Budapest?” I asked.

“We’ve left our homes possibly open to invasion,” Clive said.

“They already tried that. It didn’t work out so well,” I joked. “Besides, Russell’s holding down the city.”

“So why this group? Here? Now?” asked Vlad.

“Maybe it has nothing to do with you guys,” I said. “Maybe someone is using the North American Counselor position as an excuse to get Frank here or Delores or whomever to execute,” I said.

“Except no one’s done that,” Clive said. “They were here days before we arrived. To be honest, the rest of us didn’t need to be called. Invite whoever you want dead, tell them others are coming, then when they get off the plane, kill them. This is too elaborate for that.”

“It could be you,” Vlad said, staring at me. “There’s no scenario that puts Sam in Budapest right now if she weren’t here with you.” He turned his attention to Clive. “Did you decide to have her join you or was she invited?”

Clive thought about it a moment. “It was an offhand comment as we were about to hang up. Sebastian said that Budapest was beautiful in the summer and that perhaps my wife would like to see it.” He swore under his breath and stood, pulling me to my feet. “I’m taking you home.”

“Not yet,” I said.

“Whyever not? This place isn’t safe for you.”

“Clive.” I patted his chest. “It’s a haunted mental asylum filled with vampires. It was never safe. Meanwhile, as long as we’re being honest and upfront, I had a dream about someone being held here who may or may not have been a werewolf. I came down here to check out the room.”

Vlad stood. “By all means, let’s investigate.” He went to the door and held it open for us.

I went first, but then shoved Clive in front of me. “There’s a ghost coming up on your right that likes to bite off faces.”

“So kind of you to think of me,” Clive said.

“Don’t even.” I held on to the back of his jacket, my face pressed against his spine. “She won’t bother you.”

I turned my head away as we passed by the door. Unfortunately, that meant I was looking in the direction of the open door across the hall where a skeletal woman lay, her eyes open and glazed over, staring straight at me. Her jaw dropped open and the rattling sound of her pleading echoed in my head.

“Is it her?” Clive asked, no doubt because my heart had begun to gallop.

I shook my head against his back. “Keep going to the open area at the end of the hall, please.”

When he stopped, I looked back down the hall we’d just walked through.

The top of the face biter’s head was visible as she peeked around the corner of her door at me.

Hopefully, that meant she’d stay in her room.

I studied the doorways. Most were open, the doors long gone.

Not all, though. The tub room had a closed door.

“Doesn’t it freak you out to have closed doors down here? Anything could be behind them,” I said to Vlad.

“Generally speaking, I’m the most dangerous thing around, so no,” he replied.

“Good point.” I looked at Clive. “This is the tub room. They took Léna here her first night, put her in a cold bath in her shift. The water plastered the thin fabric to her body, making the pregnancy obvious.”

I opened the door on its screeching hinge.

The scent of rusty water and mold overpowered me as I shined my flashlight.

Tiles were broken or missing. A large metal tub caked in filth still sat in the middle of the smallish room.

The ceiling was black with mold, the part that was still up. Pieces had begun to fall in the corner.

“Why is it hotter in here than out there?” I asked.

“Perhaps it’s the heat generated by the hyphal growth of the mold colonies,” Clive responded.

I elbowed him. “Look at you, breaking out your science facts. You’re kind of hot too,” I said.

“Not here, darling. I’d rather we limited your exposure to black mold,” Clive responded, wrapping an arm around me, trying to guide me toward the door.

“Wait,” I said. “Do you hear that?” It sounded like the sloshing of water against a hard surface. As my bookstore and bar was situated beneath the water line of the San Francisco Bay, I was quite familiar with that sound.

“The maddeningly slow heartbeat? Yes, but I have no idea what it is,” Clive said.

“Heartbeat?” I looked at both vampires. “You hear a heartbeat? I meant the water sound.”

Vlad nodded. “I’ve been hearing a slow heartbeat since we first looked at the building, almost a hundred years ago. Sometimes it’s stronger, sometimes weaker. This is the loudest I’ve ever heard it.”

“I know of no animal with a heartbeat that slow,” Clive said. “Perhaps a blue whale, but I doubt they’ve been holding a blue whale in the basement for over a hundred years.”

“Like I said,” Vlad responded, “it’s never been this loud. It’s usually so faint, it’s easy to ignore.”

“Well, now I want to rip out the walls and floor to see what they’ve imprisoned,” I said, looking for hidden doors or hatches.

“Is this where you saw the wolf?” Clive asked.

Reluctantly, I went back to the hall. “No. There’s just something about that room. It’s important. I feel it.” I turned to where the shadowy hall should have been and found a wall. “That wasn’t in my dream,” I said, pointing.