Jack Templar and the Lord of the Vampires by Jeff Gunhus

you certain of this, Ahmed el-Tayeb, Sheikh of the Shaouri? the voice asked, echoing in my head.
    “I would like to be able to say I was out of my mind with pain so I didn’t understand the question. Or the consequences of my answer. But this would be a lie. Like any man, I hoped my death would be a brave one, but I cowered in the face of it. I would have done anything to live. Anything at all. The djinn saw this in my heart and knew my answer.
    “Then I heard the most amazing thing. The voice began to sing. A gorgeous, female voice, sweeter than any sound I’d ever heard. And it sang me the Ibn Al-Lar, the most pure version of it there could ever be. I followed the sound in my head farther and farther into myself until at last, I could follow no more. I drifted out of consciousness, out of time and place, and fell into a black sleep.
    “I wished I had stayed in that sleep as I was meant to, but it was not to be. When I awoke, it was into a nightmare unlike anything I could have imagined.”

Chapter Seven
     
    G regor stopped, took a pitcher from the table near him and poured a glass of water. He offered it to me, but I shook my head. He nodded and drank it slowly, his eyes closed as if easing some long remembered thirst. He emptied the glass and placed it back on the table, his hand resting on it, fingers absently running along the rim. I felt a surge of panic that he had decided not to continue with his story, and I fought down the urge to say something. I was about to lose that battle and blurt something out when he finally continued.
    “When I finally opened my eyes, I was in a cave in front of a small fire. On the ground next to me was a stone bowl filled with water. I tried to reach for it but my body refused to move. Panic filled me. I was paralyzed. My eyes could move in my sockets, but that was it. My mouth was so dry and stomach so empty that seeing water so close and not being able to touch it was torture. A terrible thought occurred to me. Perhaps I was dead and this was to be my own personal hell. A place where what I needed was endlessly dangled in front of me, just out of reach.
    “But then an angel walked into the cave. Not a real angel, but given my state of mind, you’d forgive me for thinking she was. She was tall and dressed in a simple white gown. She moved with a grace I felt more than saw, although she did seem to glide across the cave floor when she moved. Black hair fell down past her shoulders. Her face was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Fair-skinned. Wide, kind eyes that blazed blue. High cheekbones. Full lips that were moist and red, a rarity in the desert. She was the most beautiful woman I had even seen.
    “She saw that I was awake and smiled at me. She raised the bowl of water to my lips and, God’s mercy, it was the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted. It filled every dry, cracked crease in my mouth. The second drink washed through my insides and made me feel whole again. When she pulled the bowl away, I mouthed the words thank you , which she greeted with another smile.
    “Slowly, feeling came back to my body, and I realized my paralysis was only temporary. The woman saw me flex my hands and move my feet and nodded her approval.
    “‘Do you have a name?’ I finally managed to ask. I hardly remembered my own, but I needed to know hers.
    “‘Caroline,’ she replied.
    “‘It was you,’ I said. ‘Yours was the voice I heard. The song.’ I spoke the same way my thoughts came to be. Disjointed and out of order. But she seemed to understand.
    “‘Yes,’ she said. ‘It was I who asked you those questions. Do you remember?’
    “I fought through the fog in my head, but then I remembered. ‘You asked me what price I was willing to pay to live.’ She nodded.
    “‘Your soul was so strong. I’d never felt that before,’ she said. ‘I granted you your wish.’
    “The feeling was back in my arms and legs now. I was still sluggish, but I was able to prop myself