Bone Crossed (Mercy Thompson #4)(85)

"You told me how you keep Catherine and John," I said. "How are you keeping Amber?"

He smiled at Chad, who was standing as far from his father as he could get. He looked fragile and scared. "She stayed to protect her son." He looked back at me. "Any more questions?"

"Not right now."

"Fine - oh, and I've seen to it that John won't be coming back to visit you anytime soon. And Catherine, I think, is best kept away, too." He closed the door gently behind him. The stairs creaked under his feet as he left.

When he was gone, I said, "Oakman, do you know when the sun goes down?"

The fae, once more sprawled on the cement floor of his cage, turned his head to me. "Yes."

"Will you tell me?"

There was a long pause. "I will tell you."

Corban stumbled forward a step and swayed a little, blinking rapidly. Blackwood had released him.

He took a deep, shaky breath, then turned urgently to Chad and began signing.

"I don't know how much Chad caught of what's going on... too much. Too much. But ignorance might get him killed."

It took me a second to realize he was talking to me - his whole body was focused on his son. When he was finished, Chad - who still was keeping a lot of space between them - began to sign back.

While watching his son's hands, Corban asked me, "How much do you know about vampires? Do we have any chance of getting out of here?"

"Mercy will grant me freedom this Harvest season," said the oakman hoarsely. In English this time.

"I will if I can," I told him. "But I don't know that it'll happen."

"The oak told me," he said, as if that should make it as real as if it had already happened. "It is not a terribly old tree, but it was very angry with the vampire, so it stretched itself. I hope it has not... doneitselfpermanentharm." His words tumbled over each other and lost consonants. He turned his head away from me and sighed wearily.

"Are oaks so trustworthy?" I asked.

"Used to be," he told me. "Once."

When he didn't say anything more, I told Corban the most important part of what I knew about the monster who held us. "You can kill a vampire with a wooden stake through the heart, or by cutting off his head, drowning him in holy water - which is impractical unless you have a swimming pool and a priest who will bless it - direct sunlight, or fire. I'm told it's better if you combine a couple of methods."

"What about garlic?"

I shook my head. "Nope. Though a vampire I know told me that given a victim who smells like garlic and one that doesn't, most of them will pick the one who doesn't. Not that we have access to garlic or wooden stakes."

"I know about the sunlight - who doesn't? But it doesn't seem to affect Blackwood."

I nodded toward the oakman. "Apparently he is able to steal some of the abilities of those he drinks from." No way was I going to talk about blood exchanges with Chad watching. "The oakmen like this gentleman here feed from sunlight - so Blackwood gained an immunity to the sun."

"And blood," said the oakman. "In the old days we were given blood sacrifices to keep the trees happy."

He sighed. "Feeding me blood is how he keeps me alive when this cold-iron cell would kill me."

Ninety-three years he'd been a prisoner of Blackwood's. The thought chilled any optimism that had survived the ride here from the Tri-Cities. The oakman wasn't mated to a werewolf, though - or bound to a vampire.

"Have you ever killed one?" the oakman asked.

I nodded. "One with help and another one who was hampered because it was daytime and he was sleeping."

I didn't think that was the answer he'd been expecting.

"I see. Do you think you can kill this one?"

I turned around pointedly, looking at the bars. "I don't seem to be doing so well at that. No stake, no swimming pool of holy water, no fire - " And now that I'd said that, I noticed that there was very little that was even flammable here. Chad's bedding, our clothes... and that was it.

"You can put me down as something else that won't be of any use," Corban said, bitterly. "I couldn't even stop myself from kidnapping you."

"That Taser was one of Blackwood's developments?"

"Not a Taser - Taser's a brand name. Blackwood sells his stun gun to... certain government agencies who want to question prisoners without showing any harm. It's a lot hotter than anything Taser makes.

Not legal for the civilian market but - " He sounded proud of it - proud and slick, as if presenting the product at a sales meeting. He stopped himself, and said simply, "I'm sorry."

"Not your fault," I told him. I looked at Chad, who still seemed thoroughly spooked. "Hey, why don't you translate for me a minute."

"Okay." Corban looked at his son, too. "Let me tell him what I'm doing." He wiggled his hands, then said, "Go."

"Blackwood's a vampire," I told Chad. "What that means is that your father can't do anything but follow Blackwood's orders - it's part of what a vampire does. I'm a little protected for the same reason I can see ghosts and talk to them. That's the only reason he hasn't done the same thing to me... yet. You'll know when your father's being controlled, though. Blackwood doesn't like your dad signing to you - he can't read sign. So if your dad's not signing to you, that's one thing to look for. And your dad fights his control, and you can see that in his shoulders - "