Museum of Masks (Paranormal Public Series)

by Maddy Edwards

  “Nice work, Charlotte,” he said warmly. “It was impressive of you to risk yourself like that for the good of the team. Not something most people would do.”

  “I don’t know,” I said, tearing my eyes away from Keller. “I think there are more people out there who would do that than you think.”

  Risper gave me a long look but only said, “Perhaps. With such a spectacular start to the festivities, I wonder what you’ll have in store for the rest of the semester.”

  Without another word he stalked away, while I was left to wonder what exactly had he meant, and whether it was a challenge or a warning. Glancing away from his retreating figure I could see Dacer standing far off in the distance. I could see him even in the dark because he was wearing a glow-in-the-dark coat. His arm went up in a merry wave and I waved back. It was nice that he had come out to watch us compete, and it was even nicer that he had seen me do well. In the little time since I had been back at Public I had decided that I liked Dacer a great deal, and I was looking forward to working with him for the rest of the semester.

  “Nice job,” said Lealand, once Risper was gone.

  “Thanks,” I said. “You as well.”

  “Yeah,” said Lanca, her voice so soft that I had to strain to hear it. “Nice.”

  I stared at her in alarm. Her normally pale skin was a translucent white and I had the alarming notion that if I breathed on her too hard she might fall over.

  “Lanca,” I murmured, “are you alright?”

  Her eyes burned into me, showing a feverish light. “Of course. Just a bit tired. I should be fine in the morning.”

  But when she turned to walk away she stumbled. As if in slow motion, Lanca, probably the most graceful student on campus, started to fall, her frail body giving out beneath her. Keller, who I later realized was prepared for just that sort of occurrence, caught her right before she hit the ground. Her bodyguards, the other vampires who were always with her, had not yet rejoined her after the Tactical had finished; they were too far away to give aid. It might have just been my imagination, but I had the fleeting notion that Lealand didn’t look entirely surprised.

  With Lanca safe in his arms, Keller gently lowered her to the ground. She was unconscious. An explosion of motion happened around us as every vampire in the vicinity descended on us, drawn by the sight of their prone princess.

  I glanced upwards, towards the invisible force field, then wished I hadn’t. There was nothing but a mass of demons overhead, blotting out the night stars. Definitely more than fifty, just waiting for our defenses to crack.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  I got into bed that night almost too tired to move. All on its own the magic I had done would have been enough to tucker me out; I was new to paranormal magic in general and elemental magic in particular, and tonight’s effort had been major.

  But that had turned out to be the least stressful event of the evening. I had barely had time to cry out after Keller lowered Lanca to the ground before I was ushered away from the scene. Keller and Lealand had also moved away as the professors had gathered, Zervos first in line, and rushed her to the infirmary.

  Keller had gently taken me by the arm, murmuring something in my ear. I was too stunned to listen to his actual words, but when his fingers put gentle pressure on my flesh I moved, allowing him to lead me away. I didn’t pay attention to what happened to Lealand or to my friends. All I knew was that I had feared that Lanca was ill, and now it was clear that she was.

  “Is it possible it’s just, like, a cold?” I asked. It sounded stupid coming out, but seriously, how often do twenty-two-year-olds collapse and it’s anything major?

  “No,” said Keller quietly. “She’s a vampire princess. That’s not possible.”

  The walk home was cold. My body felt numb, my heart beat wildly, and an icy panic washed over me. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Lanca was a friend, fast becoming a good one. The only warmth I could feel came from the body next to me; Keller was, as usual, a source of strength. We reached Astra without another word and in desperation I turned to him.

  “Want to stay?” I asked breathlessly. I couldn’t see his face, but I knew his eyebrows shot up.

  “Stay?”

  “Yeah,” I hurried on, not sure what I was asking. “Just stay somewhere in Astra. Like my room.”

  An image of Sip holding an imaginary shovel and pretending to dig a hole popped into my head.

  “I mean, I don’t want to do . . . like, we obviously aren’t. I just want you to be near.” I finished lamely. It was winter and my cheeks felt like they were on fire. My goodness, I was awkward.

  Relief washed over me when Keller laughed softly. “I would stay . . . somewhere . . . in Astra . . . because we aren’t. . . .” - he mocked me with a smile - “. . . but I don’t think Mrs. Swan would approve.”

  “Forget Mrs. Swan,” I cried recklessly. “What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her!” What I really wanted to say was forget Professor Erikson, but I knew I couldn’t.

  “How am I supposed to get in?”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “Just fly. Sneak in through an upper window or something. Improvise. I thought you were smart.”

  I was rewarded by a flash of teeth in the dark as Keller’s jaw dropped open. If he had been any less smooth, the noise he made would have been a snort.

  “Charlotte, you live in a fortress. Maybe you don’t realize it, but Astra is the safest place on campus.”

  I stared at him. It was clear that he was serious, and since I would have done anything to keep him talking - to keep him from leaving - I said, “Tell me more.”

  He grinned and shook his head. “I should go. It’s insanely late. And we fallen angels need our beauty rest.”

  You’d be beautiful sleepless and covered in donkey dung. . . . Oh, the things we think in our heads, where no one else can hear. . . .

  “Why are you making that weird face?” Keller asked.

  “No reason,” I murmured. Deciding to be bold, I stretched my arms out, wrapping them around Keller’s hard middle. “Thanks, Keller,” I whispered.

  I was more relieved than I was willing to admit when he didn’t pull away. Instead he seemed to welcome the contact, wrapping his arms just as tightly around me. I didn’t pay any attention to how long we stood like that, but it felt like forever and just a few breaths all at once. At the end he placed a soft kiss on the top of my head.

  “Sleep well,” he murmured, and then he was gone.

  After the mayhem created by Lanca’s collapse, everyone somehow still managed to come to Astra, minus Keller, obviously. My friends were all so shocked and upset that even though the hour was very late, none of us really wanted to be alone.

  We trudged into the fire sitting room, all looking glum. Sip looked like she might cry, while Trafton looked concerned. Lealand, Lisabelle, and Lough distributed themselves in chairs around the room, while I sat on the couch with Trafton and Sip. Lealand had been invited, but he had made some excuse not to come. Mrs. Swan brought us cookies and milk but seemed to know that we just needed time to ourselves. When we told her about Lanca she didn’t look surprised, which worried me more than anything else. And she had done the oddest thing, she had asked me how Zervos was holding up. When I told her what he had done to me and showed her the marks his fingerprints had left on my arm she paled, but before I could ask her to explain she had bustled away.

  “What just happened?” Trafton asked. His eyes looked haunted. “I know Public went through a lot last semester, but I wasn’t expecting this. She’s a vampire princess. . . .” He was basically saying that she was too important to fall, and yet she had.

  “Something is making her sick,” said Lisabelle with certainty. “She’s known it since she got here.”

  “I think we should always just blame Zervos and Camilla. They’re both evil, and at some point we’re bound to be right about them,” I offered.

  “There are a lot of evil people in the world who don’t tr
y to kill others,” Sip argued. “Neither of them has done anything wrong. In fact, Zervos has been really quiet this semester. He was obviously not feeling well tonight either.”

  “A lot of the vampires have been quiet,” said Lisabelle softly.

  “What are you saying?” I asked.

  Lisabelle shrugged. “I think there’s something wrong. I don’t know for sure, but the vampires have been struggling. You saw what happened at Tactical tonight. Most of the first eliminations were vampires. Lanca wasn’t, okay, but no one paired with Keller would get eliminated early. He was protecting her, otherwise someone would have gotten to her.

  I blushed at the compliment to my . . . nothing. What was he? Nothing.

  Grrrr.

  “Do you know what’s wrong with them?” I asked softly.

  “So, you’ve noticed it too? Not just with Lanca, but with the others?” Lisabelle asked me.

  I shrugged. I had just sort of blamed it on the cold winter, but now that Lisabelle had said something explicit, I was worried that she was right.

  Sip got to her feet and started to pace. “I have as well. This is bad. It’s obviously not demon-related, because let’s face it, the vampires are the most powerful paranormal type outside of the fallen angels, and there are lot more vampires than fallen angels.”

  “What difference does it make what it is?” Trafton asked.

  The rest of us stared at him, shocked.

  “What do you mean what difference does it make?” Lough demanded, outraged.

  “It’s not like they’re going to tell us what’s going on, or we’re going to be able to help!” Trafton argued.

  “She’s our friend,” Sip cried. “And she’s sick!” With tears in her eyes she stormed out. Glaring at Trafton, Lisabelle and Lough followed after. Once they were gone Trafton didn’t stay much longer. We didn’t have much to talk about.

  In a dramatic and terrible twist of fate, Zervos filled in for Professor Anania the next day, so I had the pleasure, or something, of seeing him two days in a row. All morning I had heard nothing at all about Lanca, and I was desperate for information. One look at Zervos’s face told me I wasn’t going to get it from him.

  I sat so close to his desk that when he slammed down a pile of books, a rustle of air hit my face. Class wasn’t going well. Zervos had come in looking irritable and tired, and everyone was in various states of panic after seeing Lanca go down the night before. Lisabelle had just told Zervos that she didn’t want to be first to recite the list of the ten ancient vampire artifacts that were kept in the Cruor basement. Zervos’s response - “Sometimes you are the windshield and sometimes you are the bug” - had almost sent Lisabelle into hysterics.

  After she had recited the list, she put her head on her arms and pretended to sleep while Zervos talked at us. At one point she raised her head a fraction and murmured to me, “Has he stopped talking?”

  “No.”

  “Under no circumstances are you allowed to wake me up unless he’s finished,” she directed, and dropped her head back onto her arms.

  Lough, sitting on my other side, watched us whisper. Camilla, watching us in her turn, said meanly, “Do you wish you were one of Lisabelle’s arms right now, Lough? So that her head was resting on you?”

  Lough’s face went redder.

  “Shut up, Camilla,” I said, surprising both of us with my harsh tone.

  Camilla recovered quickly. “Oh, look, the elemental speaks. Lucky us.”

  Suddenly Zervos spun around. “Ladies!” he cried.

  He was about to yell at Camilla, but something happened. Zervos, who had been looking worse and worse as the class wore on, suddenly clutched at his chest. His eyes rolled backwards, showing white, and with a loud crash he fell to the ground. Unlike Lanca the night before, he had no one nearby to catch him.

  Instantly Sip sprang into action, rushing out of the room to find help. Other students cried out, some asking if he was okay, others shrinking away in horror. Within seconds Lambros materialized, racing to Zervos’s side. Her harsh voice rang out. “Class is canceled. Everyone out.”

  We all filed out in a daze. I took one last look at Zervos lying on the ground. He didn’t look asleep, it was more grotesque. His body was twisted in a way that couldn’t possibly happen to someone sleeping comfortably.

  “This is bad,” Lough muttered as we left the room. Sip appeared at our side, agreeing with him as we walked away.

  “The vampires are dropping like flies. What’s the result of that going to be?” Lisabelle asked.

  “Angering the vamps is like angering Lisabelle,” said Sip.

  Lough nodded in agreement. “Always a bad idea.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  After Lanca and Zervos collapsed, it felt like time stopped. I went to class, went to the Museum and tried to stay present with my friends, but the strain showed on all of us. I wanted to know more about Lanca but we weren't allowed to see her.

  So I threw myself into my work at the Museum. I wanted to impress Dacer, and maybe in some indirect way to find out more about what was going on with Lanca.

  I reached the Museum early one morning, just in time to wave to the guard. Dacer was already there, but he looked strained. Ignoring the questioning look in my eyes, he set me to work.

  I was surprised when Lealand showed up later in the day. Without a word to me he disappeared into the back part of the Museum. Not long after that Keller found me, experimenting with masks in the elemental gallery.

  “How is it going?” he asked, shoving his hands into his jeans. His cheeks were slightly pink from cold and his hair was tousled. I smiled.

  “Pretty well, but I think there’s something wrong with Dacer,” I told him.

  “Like what?” he asked, his face clouding.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know, but Lealand of all pixies just showed up to talk to him.”

  “Lealand likes masks,” said Keller, nodding. “He was excited about this place.”

  “Then he should be the one with the internship,” I murmured, replacing the brown and muddy mask I held in my hand back in its rightful place on the wall. I usually thought of my parents when I was in this room, even though it was hard without having any real image of my dad to think about, but I felt closer to them when I was here, even when I was holding a mask made of mud.

  “Do you want to go see Lanca?” Keller asked, drawing me back to the present.

  I spun around. “We can?” It had been almost a week and I was going crazy with worry. Lanca had become a good friend, someone I could rely on and wanted to take care of. Her illness had been devastating.

  “Yeah, she sent a message saying I could bring you.”

  “Let’s go,” I said, rushing towards him. He laughed softly as I dragged him through the galleries. “How long do we have?”

  “She said come any time, but I don’t think they’ll let us stay long,” he said.

  Right before we left the Museum Dacer and Lealand came from the back. Their heads were bent together as if they were deep in conversation, and I wondered what Dacer could possibly have to say to a junior transfer.

  “Ms. Rollins,” said Dacer. He wore an orange suit today, with blue shoes and a blue bow tie. “May I have a quick word?”

  I glanced at Keller who nodded. “Lealand and I can talk Tactical strategy.”

  Dacer drew me away from my teammates, wrapping a thin arm around my shoulders. At some point over the last few days Dacer had started to appear weak. I had to remind myself that he, too, was a vampire, since he acted so differently from the others at Public. He was getting sick.

  “Are you alright?” I asked softly.

  Dacer nodded, waving a hand impatiently. “I need to tell you something and I don’t have a lot of time.” He coughed, covering his mouth with a shaking hand. I was horrified to see specks of blood dot his palm before he quickly folded his hand out of few.

  “One of the masks is missing. I have, of course, alerted the Committee to th
is fact, but they want to investigate further before they make a determination.”

  “Which one?” I asked, although my heart was sinking. I had a bad feeling I already knew which one.

  “The oval vampire mask that you saw on the first day is no longer hanging on the wall. Professor Erikson suggested I might have misplaced it.” He didn’t even seem angry at Professor Erikson for implying that he was careless, even though I knew him to be anything but. “That obviously is not what has happened.”

  “Why does it matter if just that one is missing?” I asked. “Isn’t it more dangerous if the first one, the one with two ovals is gone?”

  Professor Dacer turned sad eyes on me. Not even the fact that they were outlined in silver glitter gave them any life. “No,” he said, “Because the damage from that mask has already been done.”

  I almost ran to Cruor. Keller had to stride along next to me in order to keep up. On the way I told him everything Dacer had told me.

  “So, someone took the double oval vampire mask from the Museum, used it to poison all the blood for miles around, and then replaced it and took the mask that can perform the cure?” Keller asked in clarification. I had spat everything out so fast he had had trouble following me.

  “I think that’s what Dacer thought, anyway,” I said. “It doesn’t sound like the Committee really believes that’s what’s happened, but Dacer doesn’t make mistakes. It’s not like he misplaced the oval mask that carries the power to cure.”

  I was panicking now. Dacer’s theory confirmed my worst fears, that the vampires were under attack in the very place that existed to protect us.

  “Who would do that?” I demanded of Keller. “Is it a demon?”

  Keller shook his head. “Demons cannot use those masks. It has to be someone with some sort of supernatural powers.”

  “Maybe it’s Lealand,” I mused. “He’s around the Museum a lot. It has to be someone who got in and out without detection.”

  Keller frowned. “Let’s not worry about who it is just yet, although I don’t think it’s Lealand under any circumstances. Let’s just worry about getting the vampires better.”