The tests required an odd sort of concentration that allowed him to slip through the cracks. They weren’t especially difficult, but you had to pay attention. I didn’t understand why the educators of the world wanted to trick human teenagers, but they did. It was a test of wits, not merely churning up facts and using mathematic principals.
I heard a crack and looked down. I’d cracked my pencil in half by accident. I opened my fist, staring down at my palm. Whoops. I’d pulverized it. I tilted my hand and tiny slivers of wood fell onto the table and crumbled into dust.
“You okay?”
I looked up to see Bernard poking his head in from the kitchen. I wasn’t, but I nodded anyway. I needed a distraction. All I did was train, study, and go to school. I needed to blow off some steam.
“Let’s go out.”
He lit up. Bernard loved doing daytime human activities as much as I did.
“Actually, this is good timing. Caleb wanted me to take you shopping.”
“He did? I thought he wanted me to train.”
“You can train later,” he said with a wink. “Shall we drive into town?”
I nodded happily. ‘Town’ didn’t mean the little town we lived in with a short but charming main street. Town meant the small city three towns over. It had its own mall and a row of high-end shops on a tree-lined street. It wasn’t big, but it could have been any metropolitan shopping area.
“Let me grab something.”
He nodded and pulled off his apron.
“I need to primp too.” He winked and then shouted, “Caleb, we’re going out!”
I heard grumbling from Caleb’s office. He was still a night dweller and slept most of the day, but he was always up in the early afternoon and working in his book-filled office. He was trying to learn everything he could about what might happen to me on my eighteenth birthday, as well as maintaining correspondence with my allies and supporters.
Planning a revolution took a lot of work, and Caleb was always at it. Thank Nightfall for Bernard, otherwise Caleb might shrivel up and desiccate, he was so intent on his tasks. I worried about him. I knew Bernard did too.
But Caleb was right. Nothing else mattered. Not any one of us, compared to the task at hand.
None of us ever forgot for a moment that my father and others were suffering at the hands of his captors for every second we delayed. But since I was only seventeen, there was nothing we could do about it.
Correction. Nothing we could do about it yet.
I felt a flash of sympathy for Maxim, knowing his mother was still a captive and that he knew the pain I felt. A soft feeling of gratitude floated down the bond to me and I sighed.
I didn’t slam the garage door this time. I slowly lowered it. I grabbed a light jacket and sunglasses. They were better at covering my unusual eye color than colored contacts. Plus, I was feeling rebellious. I grabbed my purse and fished out a lipgloss and comb, making sure I looked somewhat presentable. My wild red hair bounced back no matter how many times I combed it. I slipped on a baseball cap and shrugged. I kind of looked like a celebrity trying to hide their identity. I wasn’t famous among humans, of course. I was just a teenage girl with no discernible talents, other than being captain of the cheer squad with a killer back-flip. But I did need to keep my location under wraps. All the New Leaders needed was a single picture of my features, and they could use facial identification software to track me anywhere there were cameras.
So basically, anywhere in the world.
Yeah, I wasn’t so much famous as I was notorious. Actually, most Vamps didn’t even know I had survived the attacks. So I was more than notorious. I was mysterious.
I kind of liked that. I felt a kinship to Big Foot and the Lochness monster.
I clomped down the stairs in my combat boots and called out to Bernard. Not that I had to raise my voice. Bernard had super hearing. Even though he would walk in the sun now and ingest human food, he was otherwise still 100% Vamp.
“You ready?”
He came down the hallway with a grin.
“Let’s go shopping.”
Chapter 2
Sometimes, you need to spoil yourself. Or let others do it for you.
“Stop smiling so much,” I grumbled.
Bernard just smiled wider.
“What if you get hungry and your teeth pop?”
He schooled his features accordingly, but he was pretty much vibrating with happiness. Bernard was born a French peasant, or one step up from that. Hundreds of years ago, his father had been a cook for the local gentry and had elevated their status through hard work and talent. Bernard loved to cook as well.
And now, he could actually taste it.
Ordinary Vamps could not walk in the sun or eat food. But Bernard was different. He could, after I’d… done something to him. We weren’t quite sure yet exactly what I’d done, but Bernard didn’t care. He was as thrilled as Caleb was worried about him. Maxim had called him ‘Vamp Plus.’
I closed the door before I could hear Maxim or Dylan respond to that thought. Dylan had to be aware of how much I thought about Maxim. He popped up in my thoughts randomly all the time. It was embarrassing. I couldn’t hide anything from either of them anymore.
Thankfully, Dylan was too smart to say anything about it, even if I could feel his opinion. And his jealousy.
“Let’s start here.” Bernard looked up at the awning for Neiman Marcus. We’d just parked and were standing in the mall under an enormous skylight. Bernard seemed to take perverse pleasure in getting as much sun as possible, even claiming that he was getting a tan, which I was pretty sure was impossible. I teased him endlessly about it, even buying him a can of spray tan from the drugstore. Vamp skin was kind of impermeable. We could wear makeup, but that was about it. I didn’t think even I could get a tan, and I wasn’t full Vamp.
“Starting high-end, huh?”
“Only the best will do.” He winked at me. “We need to spruce you up.”
I grumbled a little at that. My style had been almost exclusively black before in order to blend in and keep a low profile. But I secretly loved dressing up now that Caleb had let me off my fashion leash. I just didn’t have that many opportunities to do it.
“What are we doing here, exactly, Bernard?”
“You are going to be meeting some of Caleb’s old friends in a few weeks.”
“Friends?”
He cleared his throat.
“Very important acquaintances.”
My brows shot up as Bernard led me through the store.
“How old?”
“Older than him.”
Nightfall, that was old. Caleb was over a thousand years old. Maybe more. He wouldn’t tell us exactly. I got the funny feeling that he was embarrassed to be dating a much younger Vamp, even though they looked fewer than ten years apart. I got a little nervous around the few older Vamps I’d met, and none of them were true Ancients. I’d known Caleb for my entire life, so he didn’t scare me, but even he could be a little spooky sometimes.
He did this thing where he held perfectly still…
I shuddered.
“So, formal attire.”
“Yes. Formal daytime attire. Formal evening wear. Formal nightgowns.”
I laughed at that until I realized he was serious.
“Wait, what?”
“We are going to be staying on an estate. Servants gossip. They are almost more important to impress than the hosts.”
“Seriously???”
He nodded. I wanted to ask if the servants were human and if they knew who and what they were serving, but now was not the time or place.
“Please tell me I don’t need to wear a corset.”
Bernard chuckled and shook his head.
“No, not with your figure. But you will be needing slips and that sort of thing.”
I sighed and shrugged. It’s for the cause, I reminded myself. I was going to have to let my two guardians have their way and dress me up like a porcelain
doll. I’d do anything to save my father, and the world, from the New Leaders. Vamp and humankind depended on it.
“Lead the way.”
An hour later, I was regretting my hasty capitulation. I tugged at my collar and grimaced.
“This is…”
Bernard clapped his hands together.
“You look so classic! Hepburn in her prime! A young Victoria!”
“Are you talking about Queen Victoria?”
Bernard smiled at me, looking like a crazy person. He was enjoying this way too much.
“Let me take a selfie for Caleb.”
He snapped a picture of me, and I sighed.
“It’s only a selfie if you are in the picture, B.”
“Oh, really?”
He took another shot of both of us and showed it to me. I had to laugh. We looked like every other person who was self-obsessed. You couldn’t even tell we were supernatural beings.
“Like this?”
“Yeah, you got it.”
He stood behind me and angled me toward the mirror. We were in an enormous private dressing room. Bernard must have glamoured the sales clerk to leave us completely alone because she hadn’t come back once. In fact, the entire hallway seemed deserted. I looked at myself and frowned. I was wearing a crisp white high-necked blouse with lace on the collar and cuffs. A long emerald velvet skirt hung just above my feet.
“It looks like it was made for you.”
“I guess. If I were starring in Downton Abbey.”
He tossed the baseball cap aside and pulled my hair up.
“Very Hepburn.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Maybe in My Fair Lady!”
Bernard nodded enthusiastically, thinking I meant that as a good thing. He loved musicals. We were sort of TV and movie addicts. We’d spent so much time in hotels that there wasn’t much else to do other than binge-watch whatever trashy Vamp shows and movies we could get our hands on.
We definitely preferred Vampire lore. We’d seen them all. Near Dark was one of my favorites. But it didn’t hold a candle to Buffy.
“Just promise me, no giant hats.”
He bit his lip and looked away. I sighed in exasperation. Clearly, he’d been planning on making me wear a large hat at some point.
“Just one?”
“No!” I said, putting my foot down. I looked around the room. We already had a big ‘yes’ pile. I was afraid to look at the price tags for all of this. Not that it mattered. I was well aware that Caleb’s bank account gave new meaning to the phrase ‘old money.’ “How many more outfits could I possibly need?”
“Well, these people do change clothes a lot. We might have to order proper riding clothes online, though we can get the blouses and jackets here.”
“Riding? Seriously, ’Nard?”
He raised his eyebrows at me.
“Seriously.”
“You are telling me that horses hold still for Vamps?”
“These are special horses.”
I turned back to the mirror with an incredulous look. Did he mean Vampire horses? He nodded at my unspoken question.
“Undead horses, you mean.”
He chuckled and handed me a pair of gloves. I took them, turning them over in my hands. They were gorgeous, a deep Burgundy leather. Sadly, I hadn’t found a fabric glove that was strong enough to keep my juju from spilling out onto inanimate, or animate, objects.
“These are…”
“Beautiful, aren’t they? They are Italian leather.”
I tugged one of my black gloves off and slid my hand into the dark red one. I wiggled my fingertips in pleasure.
“Oooh…”
“I’m assuming we got the size right?” I nodded, still staring at my hand. “We’ll get a pair in every color.”
Bernard held his hand out for me to give him back the gloves.
“I don’t want to take them off.”
“Not to worry, they have a more casual style for you to wear around here. We’ll get a couple of pairs.” He held up two pairs of gloves, one a pale gray leather and the other a dark green. They were a simplified version of the other gloves he had shown me. “I think you deserve an upgrade, no?”
“Deserve? Maybe. Want? Definitely.”
I grinned at him, but he shook his head.
“You are too hard on yourself, Sasha,” he said just above a whisper.
I was quiet as I tried on more clothing. Blazers in wool and velvet. Stiff button-down shirts and lace blouses. And then the gowns. I stared at the mirror in awe, shocked at my own appearance. I looked like… a piece of cake. With the pale pink lace bodice and deeper pink tulle that ballooned out at my knees, I really did look like Eliza Doolittle at the ball. I glanced at the price tag and let out a little shriek.
“Bernard! You must be kidding me!”
He crossed his arms.
“I am not.”
“Caleb will kill you!”
“He told me exactly what to get.”
“Excuse me?”
“He picked them out.” He gave me a mischievous smile. “Online.”
“He didn’t!”
“He’s been using an iPad in his coffin.”
“You are joking.”
He grinned and held up another equally ornate gown in a deep emerald green. This was silk, with velvet sleeves and a corset-like waist. The long skirt belled out gorgeously.
“That is… very sophisticated.”
“I know. Try it on so we know if we need to have it fitted.”
I nodded and took off the cake dress. I stood as Bernard lowered the green dress over my head. I had thought it would be too sophisticated, something a woman twice my age would wear.
But it wasn’t.
It was… regal. Both dresses were. For the first time in my life, I truly felt like royalty. I realized once again that Caleb was a very smart Vamp, probably the smartest Vamp who still walked the earth. He knew exactly what he was doing.
I stood up a little straighter and dropped my walls.
I let them see what I saw.
I wanted them to.
Immediately, I felt it. Intensely gratifying male appreciation flooded the bond from both ends. It was the equivalent of a drawn-out wolf whistle. I smiled to myself and shut the door, though I could feel them both protesting as I did so.
Well, that was one way to know if the dress worked.
“One more, Soph.”
I took the last dress. It was a deceptively simple column of silk with a bodice that skimmed my curves instead of clinging to them. The deep rich blue was incredible. The gold beading at the shoulders gave it almost a military feel. The dress was sleeveless, but there was an attached cape that draped over my arms, revealing them from the front. When I turned, I realized it had the slightest bit of a train. Not too much to be archaic, but enough that it was a serious dress indeed.
“Royal blue?”
Bernard winked at me.
“I think this one is my favorite.”
I didn’t look at the price tag this time. I agreed with him. This dress was not to be messed with.
“We have some more coming.”
“More?”
“If this goes well, you will need hundreds of such dresses, Sophie.”
I sobered, staring at his reflection in the mirror. I knew exactly what he meant.
“If this goes well.”
He held my gaze. We both knew that challenging the New Leaders was the ultimate gamble. And there was no second place in this race. We would triumph or we could perish. All of us. I closed my eyes and exhaled.
“We’d better get back.”
Bernard nodded and helped me out of the dress. He went to find the sales lady and have her ring up the clothing. I had no doubt that we’d spent in excess of thirty thousand dollars on the gowns alone. And he said he had more coming.
“Nightfall. Being a female is expensive,” I muttered to myself.
I dressed quickly and opened the dressi
ng room door. Bernard had already paid and was leading two saleswomen back to the dressing room with a rolling cart to load all of our purchases. I watched as they folded and checked things off a list. Bernard handed me the pair of gray gloves. I slipped them on, tucking my old pair into my pocket. I’d use them for training and exploring the woods.
I needed to learn to turn off what was happening with my hands. So far, I hadn’t had any luck. It was like the power just spilled out of me in all directions. I had no control over it.
To be honest, it scared me a lot more than the New Leaders did.
My powers were not all light. I had an equal measure of darkness inside me. And I had no doubt I could hurt or even destroy someone I loved by accident.
So far, I had been lucky. But now…
We followed the procession of sales ladies to the garage. I waited while Bernard loaded the car. It was still sunny out as the women rolled the cart away after being tipped generously and then glamoured to forget we ever existed. Bernard locked the doors as we pulled on our seatbelts.
That’s when the darkness overtook us. Bernard and I stared around us as a billowing dark cloud rolled into the parking garage and enveloped us.
“Sophie, you must stop this!”
“It’s not me, I swear!”
I could just make out the wheels of the cart as the sales ladies continued on as if nothing was wrong. I looked at Bernard.
“What on earth?”
A security car drove past, and I stiffened, barely seeing it through the mist. What was happening? We were just minding our own business in the car.
Relax. I heard down the bond in Maxim’s arrogant drawl. It’s invisible to humans. I’m just blocking the security cameras.
“Security cameras? I blurted out loud. Bernard gave me an odd look. I realized that Maxim was speaking to me down the bond in complete sentences.
Yes, I can do that.
Just didn’t feel like revealing that before now? I said sardonically.
I was giving you your space.
Why stop now?
Because they are looking for you.
I swallowed, staring at my reflection in the windshield.
Rogue Prince Page 2