Lost in the Castle

~22~

"Where shall I start?" Junior asked, his eyes boring into mine, gauging, trying to guess how much truth I could bear.

As I was a part of this world, their world now, too, I needed to know all, to understand everything.

"Wherever. Just tell me everything. Please."

He sighed and said, "Two girls have disappeared from the village."

As simple and easy to understand as this statement seemed to be, it did not explain anything. Not to me.

"They got lost? Ran away from home? Surely they'll come back. Someone will find them. But what does it have to do with your father?"

"Oh, Samara. Think." He sighed. "Humans don't simply disappear in a place where there are at least as many vampires as them. When something like this happens, they always suspect us, those of our kind. And they are right to do so. Do you remember what Mother told you? About hunting?"

He paused, letting the information sink. I leaned against the back of my chair, feeling sick. My skin crawled into gooseflesh, and my palms started to sweat. They hunt humans. At least some of them do. I put my cup carefully back on the table before I would drop it. No... It couldn't be true. Just that it was. I knew it, of course. I just didn't want to admit it to myself.

"You asked," Junior said, hands raised in a gesture of resignation, a guilty look in his eyes. "Do you want me to stop?"

"No. I want to know." I insisted stubbornly.

"Drink then," he ordered, refilling my cup, forcing me to take a sip before he went on.

"That's what happened to Clara's sister. They took her, and we found her too late. She was already dead." I could feel that he didn't like telling me all this, but he had promised, and he would keep his word.

"But you know who... Can you find out... " I started, in a vain attempt to find the right words to form my question.

He understood anyway.

"It could have been anyone. Once they leave the place and their victim, if we come too late, it's impossible to trace them. We would have to catch them while they are still there, to see them. Or the victim, if they survive, would have to recognise them. But it doesn't happen. Not often. Those who survive usually remember nothing. It's the same reason why they never caught the one who had killed you."

At least I could understand this easily. There had been no witnesses back then. Even now, with some of my memories back, I couldn't lay an accusation against Radu without having it all explained by him first. Because Radu hadn't been alone. And it wasn't supposed to happen.

"But why did they call your father?" I asked, coming back to the more urgent topic of our conversation.

"They always do. Even though, for the humans, he is practically one of their...  enemies, they still respect him as the highest authority. He is the prince, after all. And we do our best to track down and punish the guilty, although, mostly unsuccessfully." He paused, his look distant and forlorn, lost in memories I did not share. "We try to keep peace in this place, Samara. You've met Clara's father. Most humans see us exactly like he does. It wouldn't take much for them to... do something silly. And the consequences would be disastrous."

It was pointless to ask on which side the disaster would be greater. I was sure that there were more vampires of Jusztyna's sort, hungry for human blood, than of Vlad's, who tried to protect them.

I shivered and took another sip of my wine, pushing away the plate of food Junior put in front of me. Suddenly, I wanted to finish this conversation. I could only take in as much of this world at a time.