He laughed quietly, “That was just to get me close to you.”
She raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Ah ha, perhaps now you’ll convert to the lad’s religion,” Opal laughed.
Cameo smiled at the boy thoughtfully, “Kyrian, I’m not about to become a member of any religion.”
“No, what would that mean?” he said as he was losing consciousness, “You might...might start caring for people....”
She was certain that she heard him chuckle to himself as he fell asleep.
Opal shrugged as their eyes met. “Well, at least he confirmed that I did indeed take him to that stupid shrine in Kings Basin. Can’t believe I needed his word to prove I was telling the truth. You would think by now that I really am sincere where you’re concerned.”
“Uh, yes... Opal. That’s true.” She wondered what Cyrus had in mind when he sent Kyrian with them. Perhaps he knew of his own impending death and sent the lad on with them to simply spare his life. Besides that, if Kyrian really had no shrine to go to, then what was she going to do with him?
Chapter Ten
CAMEO AWOKE IN THE dark. She had apparently burrowed in between Kyrian and Opal at some point, and they were all cuddled up against each other for warmth. There was a cold breeze now that was causing her fretful sleep, and she decided she might as well get up and have a drink.
As she opened her eyes, she found Haffef standing at her feet. His body was tall and angular, a black silhouette set against the full moon.
“Master.” She stood, as if she had been pulled to her feet by a string.
He gestured for her to come to him, and she did.
Haffef appraised the group of followers she had with her, seeming somewhat intrigued.
She flinched under his scrutiny.
“Where is Ivy?” He was cold and impassive as always.
Cameo could feel the scar on her neck begin to burn. She hated being this close to him. She was certain he knew it, too.
The expression of superiority on his smug face answered any question she may have had about him reading her mind. He was. Edel looked a bit like that—
“Edel?” he said, taken off guard.
“Yes ....”
Haffef took a step toward her, his gaunt frame resting on his cane. “What of him?”
“He took Ivy’s bones.” As she said it, her arms flew up to protect Opal and Kyrian.
Haffef met her eyes, then glanced down at the two wounded people behind her.
“I looked for the bones everywhere—”
“Stop referring to Ivy that way.”
She blinked.
“Where did you see Edel?” His body was stiff, and white, nearly like a statue, but his black irises moved to search her face, and that was all.
“Lockenwood. On Haberdasher Street.”
She held her breath, hoping he would forgive her and move on. She certainly had no power to stop another vampire.
“You should have defended her with your life,” he said quietly. “Now you owe me one.”
This woke her. “I can find her again.”
“I know,” he said as he pushed her aside with his cane.
“What are you thinking?”
He gazed down at Kyrian, then as if irritated by his presence, turned away and focused on the dandy lying there. Suddenly he was on one knee beside Opal.
“No!” She cried out before he could stop her.
With excruciating calm, Haffef turned to her, “Sit.”
And she did.
Opal opened his eyes, stunned to discover the vampire at his side. The long black hair tickling his face.
“Oh, gods.”
Haffef cracked a smile. “Oh, you don’t believe in that, Black Opal.”
Opal reached for his rapier, but the vampire had it before he realized it was missing.
“Toying with him....” Cameo said, pained.
Haffef laughed, “Should I make it quick?”
“No!”
Bel stirred in the distance.
Opal rolled away from Haffef and tried to pull himself to his feet.
The vampire watched, seeming amused at his pathetic efforts. “You’re no match for me without an injury. Do you really expect to crawl away?”
The highwayman staggered to his feet.
Haffef rose fluidly.
“Please don’t.” Cameo’s voice sounded like the child she once was. She remembered saying that same exact line so long ago, before she had been stabbed and left for dead. She cringed as she said it. It was pitiful, but she had little else to work with at the moment.
Opal turned to look back at her, and in that instant Haffef lifted him off his feet.
He grinned at Black Opal, whose neck was now completely exposed for the vampire’s bite.
“What’s going on over here?” Bel traipsed over with Lorelei on his heels.
Haffef turned around to face them, with the highwayman in his arms still trying to fight him off.
Lorelei looked at the apparition before her and collapsed.
“You—” Bel stepped back and tripped over Lorelei’s body.
The vampire searched Bel’s face, then turned to Opal and smiled. He dropped the dandy to the ground.
Bellamy crawled backward as Haffef approached him.
“Please, just end me! End me!” Cameo cried out. “They’ve done nothing to you!”
Haffef turned to look at her one last time, glanced down at Opal, and met her eyes with an extremely pleased expression.
Bel turned and ran back in the direction he had come from, but Haffef caught him instantaneously. He pulled him off the ground, sunk his fangs into Bel’s neck, and broke his back.
“Bel!” Opal reached for him.
Haffef tossed Bel to the ground when he was done with him and then he looked over at Jules, who was very near.
The assassin’s eyes widened; they were pale green. He struggled frantically against the tether that held him to the tree.
Haffef tilted his head in interest. “Afraid?”
Jules’ mouth opened but no words came out. Haffef vanished, leaving only Bel’s bloodless corpse on the ground.
Cameo, who had been struggling to stand, suddenly leapt to her feet when Haffef disappeared. “Opal?”
He pulled away from her as she touched his arm. Opal got to his feet once more and stumbled to where Bellamy’s body was lying. “Oh dear boy....”
“We have to get out of here.”
Opal ignored her.
“Did you hear me, Opal?”
“Leave me alone!” He spun around to face her. “You’re the reason he’s dead! You brought that monster here—”
“I’m sorry—”
“We could’ve left days ago. Why didn’t we leave?”
She could feel herself dying inside a little bit. “It wouldn’t have mattered. You are all tainted by being in my presence. My Master likes to hurt me. I made the mistake of being your friend, and he used that against me.”
“He took Bel....” Opal’s face was a mask of fury and pain. “Because of some problem between you and that monster?”
She stood quietly, longing to say the right thing, but there was no right thing that she could say.
“He didn’t even like you,” Opal said angrily.
“He liked you, though.”
Opal slid to the ground beside Bel, his head in his hand. “The last thing I said to him was something harsh,” he sobbed.
She crept a little nearer.
“He’s right; I was a bastard to him. He didn’t deserve that. He didn’t deserve to die like this....”
She dried his tears with her hand. This seemed to be the catalyst for more tears. Cameo pulled him close to her, secretly savoring the feel of his body in her arms. She was elated that Haffef had chosen to end Bel’s life instead of Opal’s, even if it meant Opal blamed her for his death. Clearly that had all been in her Master’s mind when he decided to kill Bel and spare Opal for some other time. H
er eyes lingered on the dead body of the poet lying in the newly fallen snow. It wasn’t so long ago that Bel had confessed that he was afraid of being Haffef’s victim next time around. She closed her eyes tightly and tried to push those guilty thoughts from her head. “He knew you loved him.”
He buried his face in her arms, as she pulled him to her in an embrace that lasted a few moments only.
“This is just,” he dried his face, “this is just intolerable. A gentleman shouldn’t be behaving so badly.” He pulled away.
She was reluctant to let him slip out of her arms.
He wiped away tears that were threatening to fall, glanced over at Bel again, and tried to stand up.
Cameo caught him easily as he started to fall and steadied him on his feet.
“Please tell me we’re leaving here soon.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“I have no idea,” he said pitifully as she helped him back onto the patch of lichen where he had been sleeping.
She handed him a suitcase, then took a sip of wine. There was very little left. Dropping the bottle softly back onto the ground, she picked up a shovel and went over to Bel’s corpse and began to dig. Her superhuman strength made it quite easy for her to break through the frozen soil.
Opal cracked open the lid of the suitcase. At the very top of the clothes was a beautiful dark purple frock coat, and just beneath that a mound of silk shirts. He set his hand down on the coat gently.
* * * * *
The sound of Bel’s back breaking was taking its toll on Cameo’s nerves. Somehow she couldn’t seem to get that out of her mind, though by now she had witnessed and been a party to many deaths. There was a horrible feeling of anticipating the worst, hoping it wouldn’t really transpire, and then the dreadfulness of watching it happen. She, perhaps more than Opal, had an ability to move on quicker, because she had endured so many more things in life than he probably could’ve imagined, she assumed...given her age in comparison to his thirty years. Bel had been even younger. She tried to think of him as taken care of now, buried and quiet rather than running the same scenario over in her mind. Haffef had nearly killed Opal. Part of her was calmer because that did not occur.
Opal had pawed through Bel’s things until he found the collection of his writing, something he planned to take with him. He had fallen asleep reading it.
Lorelei stirred and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. The sun was piercing; it was that early morning sun, one single, white ray that comes down and splits one’s brain in half. Cameo felt somewhat sorry for her.
“Good morning, Lady.”
Lorelei shot up into a sitting position.
Cameo noticed she was now wearing the jewelry that Opal had taken from her. Bel, it turned out, had returned it to its rightful owner.
“Bel is dead.”
“What?” She staggered to her feet and scanned the area for him.
“I buried him, just over there. The vampire who was here earlier killed him.”
“No, no.... I can’t believe that.”
“You were unconscious all night. He died very soon after you...passed out,” she said, wishing that she had perhaps run that line over in her head before it actually tumbled out of her mouth so callously. “Well, it was quick. I’m sorry.”
Lorelei stared at the grave and then she sank to the ground.
Cameo pinned her brooch on her collar once more.
“Cyrus....” Kyrian woke.
“How are you feeling?” The assassin moved beside him.
“Fine,” he yawned. “How are you?”
She took off a glove and touched his face, “No more fever. That’s pretty amazing considering you’ve been out here in this bitter weather.”
He smiled at her.
“Mmm hmm. You know something I don’t, right?”
“Of course not, Cameo. I’m fifteen, and an acolyte. What could I know that an old hand like you doesn’t?”
“Well,” she glanced over at Opal lying in a dusting of snow.
Kyrian stretched out like a cat in the sun for a moment. “Right to work? All right.” He sat up and removed the bandage around Opal’s leg. “That’s disgusting.”
“You know Haffef was here last night.”
“Who?”
“My Master, the vampire?” Cameo said. “How is it you could have slept through his visit?”
He had his back to her.
Cameo moved to his other side. “Why is it that he could barely look at you lying there fast asleep?”
“I will need some room to do this,” he smiled at her.
She stood up, folding her arms, and stepped back, “Certainly.”
Kyrian held a hand a few inches over the wound, said only a soft prayer to one of his gods, she assumed, and his fingers began to glow in a pale blue.
Lorelei seemed to wake from her gloom when she saw what he was doing.
The aura grew until it touched the wound and seemed to pull up the infection and disperse it into the air.
Cameo watched as the pale blue glow slowly traveled up Kyrian’s arm and through his body and lit his face in a magical aura. When she saw this healing taking place, she felt so at peace...more so than she had in years.
Black Opal opened his eyes slowly, then when he beheld Kyrian over him, he fully awakened.
The lad took a deep breath, then as he exhaled it the aura seemed to evaporate into the air.
“What’s going on?” Opal sat up, and looked down at his thigh. The wound had completely sealed, with a slender scar as a reminder of where it had just been.
Kyrian sat back on his heels. “There now, all better,” he said, exhausted.
“How did you do that?” Lorelei said.
“Thank you, lad,” Opal gave a half-hearted smile. “Truly, it was amazing.”
Cameo took a step away from Kyrian.
He turned, as if he felt her go and gave her a knowing look. “Weren’t there some pressing questions?”
“No. There’s nothing.” She looked over at Jules, who was dangling from his leash.
Before Kyrian could reply, she had moved away. She walked over and stood beside the assassin. He was everything she knew, another killer like herself, and that was at least comfortable. He hung from his rope desperately, in pain, and completely miserable.
“What do you want?”
She pulled out her flask and drank from it. There was still dirt on her gloves from the burial. She brushed her hand on her leg.
“When are we leaving?”
Cameo looked at him. She suspected that he would’ve killed all of them if he had the opportunity. “Wick told you everything about me, didn’t she? I’ll bet she never told you about him. That vampire, I mean.”
He met her eyes defiantly.
“So that’s not something I would really want to get around.”
“They know!” He attempted to motion in the direction of the rest of the little group.
“Yeah.” She took another swig and replaced her flask.
“So we could leave now.”
She searched his face for a moment, then turned and walked away from him.
“Cameo! Cameo! Don’t leave me here!”
* * * * *
Opal finished brushing through his hair and pulled it back into a neat ponytail, affixing a large, black bow perfectly. He checked his appearance in a cracked hand mirror and sauntered from a wooded place back out into public view.
Lorelei’s eyes widened as he reappeared. He gave her a bit of a smile as he replaced his rapier in its scabbard.
Kyrian had changed back into that old, stinky set of clothing he started with. He was attempting to smooth the wrinkles when Opal graced his path. The lad almost laughed at him.
The dandy stuck his nose in the air.
Cameo was busy packing up her things when she caught a glimpse of the little group out the corner of her eye. “Here, Lorelei,” she handed her a suitcase. “I thought you wanted to bring this along.”
&nb
sp; Opal caught her eyes for a moment; he was wearing Derbec’s clothing.
She walked back over to her things, Opal on her heels.
“Well?”
She turned around, and Opal was right behind her...posing.
“Um, very dapper.”
“Dapper? You wound me. Are you certain you don’t mean devastating?”
She smiled, trying not to let him see her studying his body in all that finery. “Dapper is good.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Truly Cameo, I suspect you are trying to hide your enthusiasm.”
“Oh, really?”
He searched her face. “Are you?”
She could feel his breath against her skin; it was quite intoxicating. “You smell good, too.”
“Yes?” He leaned in.
She took a sip from her flask. “I was thinking of that shrine in Lockenwood, unless you have a better idea as to where to take Kyrian and Lorelei.”
“A better idea?” He warmed. “You want my opinion? Why, I never thought I would become a partner in this arrangement.”
“Partner?”
He smiled affectionately at her. “Well, I think that shrine could be a little dicey since you were just there. I suspect they have posted a guard in that little graveyard to prevent further grave robbing.”
“Probably true.”
His eye lingered on her long blonde hair and her profile. She had her gaze completely averted, studying the ground where they had been resting.
“You were so kind to bring me Lord Derbec’s clothes,” he grinned. “Such a good fit too. Those royals have the best tailors.”
“I owed you. I got Bel murdered.”
Opal’s smile slipped. “Yes, well....”
She looked up at him, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have mentioned that.”
“I, I think I’d better pack.” He walked away from her suddenly.
She turned and watched as he strolled away. Cameo secretly cursed herself for saying something so stupid.
“Hey, hey Cameo!” Jules called out. “You can’t leave me behind. You need me for information about Wick. You need me!”
Cameo pulled her pistol on him. “Silence.”
Jules closed his mouth obediently, then glanced down at the knot she had tied. He had been standing on the dagger Lorelei had dropped for quite a while.
She turned and found Opal, Kyrian, and Lorelei watching her, wondering if she was going to kill Jules. Cameo lowered her pistol, then motioned to them with it, “We should go.”
Cameo the Assassin Page 17