Free Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down by Lisa Olsen Page A

staring at the dark stain. 
    “No?  This isn’t jogging your memory I take it?”  It had been a long shot anyway.
    “No, not at all.  I just thought, wi th all the preparations he took with the costume and the jewelry… I don’t know, I thought we’d see something more elaborate than an old m att ress on the floor.”
    “Take a closer look.”  Bishop squatted down next to the makeshift bed.  “The m att ress isn’t old, the fabric and stitches are coarse, but new.”  He reached out to touch the end of the m att ress, releasing a waft of fragrant herbs.  Fennel, thyme , and apples - sparking something from his memory. 
    “What are these?”  Anja knelt down beside him, fingers tracing over deep scratches embedded in the hardwood floor surrounding the m att ress. 
    “They’re runes, Norse writing.”  Standing up again, he circled the bed, studying the old script with growing apprehension.  Coupled with the garb she’d been found in, Bishop started to have serious concerns about who her Sire might be. 
    It wa s crazy .  If an Ellri roamed the streets of his city, Bishop was confident he would have known it.  Sure , anyone could carve a bunch of runes , but the way he’d laid her out and the ring… Bishop couldn’t shake the feeling they were dealing with a very old and powerful vampire. 
    “So you think there’s an ancient Viking after me?” Anja drew him out of his reverie, her mind starting down the same path, but without the information he had about what that meant.  “Why would he want to turn me into a vampire if I’ve never even met him?”
    “I think I might know.  Your lineage could very well factor into it.  There’s a possibility you’re a descendent of his.”
    “Then my sister Hanna could just as easily have been chosen?”
    “If that’s his only criteria, then yes, she could have been a target.  But likely there are other factors.  Physically you’re… well , you’re very…” he gestured to her, unable to find the right words to describe her delicate beauty coupled with the intangible quality that drew him in.  Carys had evoked the same feeling in him, making him want to protect her from the moment he’d first met her. 
    “Very what?”
    Bishop cleared his throat.  Since when did he have trouble talking to women?  “Let’s just say with your coloring, you’re the ideal for someone of his tastes.”
    “Oh.”  She sounded almost disappointed by his reply and he couldn’t help but add a simple compliment. 
    “Besides which, beauty is often a tempting lure for our kind.”
    “You think I’m beautiful?”  Anja gave him a crooked smile, as if she couldn’t quite bring herself to believe such a thing. 
    There was no way he was going to walk into that one , he ’d a lready let himself get far too invested in her circumstances.  “We should , ah, keep looking for clues , a nything to take back to my team.”
    An j a nodded, eyes returning to the evidence before them.  “That’s my blood, isn’t it?”
    “Most likely.  Only one way to find out for sure though.”  Already familiar with the scent of her blood from the clothes she’d given him the night before, he leaned down very close to the m att ress, methodically working his way across the sprawling stain, searching for signs of any other blood mingled with hers.  Her Sire had to have given her some of his blood, there could have been some spilled in the process.  But they didn’t end up lucky enough for that to happen. 
    “Just your blood, A positive,” he reported, straightening.
    “How did you know that?”
    “Eh, it’s a knack I picked up over the years . ” H e gave a half shrug.  “Most vampires can tell by taste, I’ve gotten very good at tracking.”  The trouble was, the scene had been thoroughly scrubbed down by the human’s CSU, so there was precious little to discover.  He was surprised they hadn’t brought the m att ress in with them, but they probably