The Last Rite (Danilov Quintet 5) by Kent Jasper

Author:Kent, Jasper [Kent, Jasper]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781446497166
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2014-10-22T16:00:00+00:00

I would dearly have loved to sleep too, but at the first opportunity I stood up, pleased to be once again in command of my own body. As before I’d been fully aware of Iuda’s every thought and action. I had been as surprised as he was when my thoughts had broken through to him in the dining room of the Hôtel d’Europe – and over such a trivial matter. I’d not been attempting to communicate with him; quite the reverse – I’d simply been trying to make something of my miserable state by crowing at his ignorance of the modern world. I’d somehow responded to his thoughts, but then managed to retreat into silence, like a snail hiding away inside its shell.

But now, like Iuda, I needed to make plans. I knew his ultimate intent – to make himself once more a voordalak. What that might mean for me I could only guess. From what I could gather, he had little idea either. Would his soul dominate in a body that was once again in a form that befitted his degenerate mind? Would I be destined for ever to witness each foul act that he perpetrated? Worse than that, would I not just witness it, but experience it? At lunch today it was Iuda who had willed his hand each time it lifted the fork to his lips, but I had tasted the food just as distinctly as he had – and enjoyed it too. Would I come to appreciate all his pleasures, or forever be revolted by them? I could only hope for the latter.

Perhaps my consciousness would simply wither and die once it found itself in the body of a vampire. It would be a blessed release for me, though it would mean the ultimate failure of my life’s work. I thought I had killed Iuda decades before. Now through me he would live on as a vampire, taking my body and with it my reputation.

There was another possibility, though, that we would share possession of my vampire body, as we did my human body now. In that case he was doomed. It would take only moments, once I was in control, for me to walk outside and bathe myself in blessed sunlight, just as I had done this morning, but with infinitely greater success. It was not the perfect solution, but ultimately it would mean victory, and at a price I was more than willing to pay.

I checked myself, remembering that Iuda was eavesdropper to my every thought. I should be cautious in revealing my plans, and yet how could I make plans, if I did not think them? Anyway – in this case it was a strategy that I ought to be pleased for him to comprehend. It would make him think twice about becoming once more a vampire.

And why did I need to wait? If suicide was a viable tactic after we had become a voordalak, then why not before? I reached into my pocket and felt the smooth nacre of the handle of the razor that Iuda had put there.

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