Vanquished by Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguié

Author:Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguié [Holder, Nancy & Viguié, Debbie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Tags: Speculative Fiction, cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 9781416998068
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

THE MONASTERY OF THE BROTHERHOOD OF ST. ANDREW

ANTONIO AND ESTHER

In the cell bristling with stakes, Antonio spent every moment hating himself. The thought that he had bitten Jenn still made him shudder, but with a terrible mixture of remorse and longing, regret and desire. He wanted more of her blood. He wanted it the way a drowning man wanted air.

The monks of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew had told him they could help. They came to pray and chant, but he felt no different. They were wrong. Just as Father Juan had been, and Jenn. They should never have trusted me. But then again, if what he had heard about the virus was true, it would all soon be over.

The tumblers of a lock clicked in the distance, and, moments later, footsteps echoed against the stone floor. One of the monks coming to check on him, no doubt. He didn’t even raise his head.

“You’re a sorry excuse for a man, vampire or not.”

He jerked his head up in surprise and saw Jenn’s grandmother, Esther, standing and staring at him, arms folded across her chest, eyes critical.

“Excuse me?” he asked, so shocked to see her there that he could barely process what she’d said.

“You heard me. Sorry excuse for a living creature.”

He felt his lips twist in a snarl. “You don’t understand.”

“Then enlighten me,” she said, raising an eyebrow.

“You should back away from the bars,” he warned her. “You’re standing too close. I might . . .”

“What? Bite me? Kill me? Bore me to death with your sad tale about how you just wish you could be good?”

“What is wrong with you?” he asked, wondering, just for a moment, if the woman had lost her mind. Grief could do crazy things to people.

“That’s what I want to know about you,” she said with a snort.

He stood, slowly, and wrapped his hands around the bars of his cage. “I’m a vampire,” he said, pulling back his lips to reveal his fangs.

She shrugged. “So what?”

He felt as though she had just slapped him. He shook his head. “I don’t understand your attitude.”

“And I don’t understand yours.” She frowned at him. “You love my granddaughter, right?”

“With all my heart,” he admitted, though the words tore at him.

“Love’s stronger than hate, or fear, or anything. Except maybe faith. And from what I hear, you’ve got plenty of that.” She cocked her head. “At least, you say you do.”

“I have faith,” he insisted. “I do.”

“Prove it,” she said, not even flinching.

Without hesitating, he placed his hand against a cross tacked on the wall of his cell. After a moment he showed her the skin, unburned.

“I’m not talking about parlor tricks or magick or superstition,” she said, shaking her head at him. “I’m talking about real faith. And real love. Either you have them or you don’t.”

He stared at her. No one had challenged him like this in a very long time.

“Last time I read the Bible, it said that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains,” she continued.

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