Masque of the Vampire (Amaranthine Book 8)

by Joleene Naylor

  “You aren’t a weak link. You’re probably stronger than me,” Katelina said. “You can read minds without all this practicing shit.” It seemed as good a time as any, and maybe it would make Sarah feel useful. “Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that.”

  She explained what Jorick said about starting with someone she was more familiar with. Sarah nodded slowly. “That makes sense. Though this mind reading thing isn’t so great.”

  “But it is. Don’t you see? It’s the one big power all the ‘real’ vampires have. It’s what makes them all super powerful, because they know what everyone’s up to and what everyone likes, and when they’re lying and…”

  “It isn’t like that. At least not for me. I can’t read most of the vampires, and those I can, I wish I couldn’t. As for knowing if someone is telling the truth… how? No one thinks ‘I’m lying.’ But, if you’re determined, I’ll help you.”

  Katelina heaved a sigh. “We need a quiet place.”

  “How about one of our rooms?”

  The idea was sound, but when they got there the doors were open. A human servant bustled out with an armload of linens and jumped when she came face to face with them.

  “I-I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I can clean later.”

  Katelina waved her apology away. “No, that’s okay. Sorry.” The light in Sarah’s eyes looked hungry, so she tugged her friend down the hall.

  “Now what?”

  “What about one of those big storage areas?” Sarah suggested. “Remember, from the tour?”

  It was as good an idea as any and, with a nod from Katelina, they set off. In the largest storage room, they found a cozy place behind a tarp covered piano. They set up a pair of dusty overstuffed chairs facing one another.

  “Kai said it’s easier if I make eye contact.”

  Sarah looked thoughtful. “I never paid attention.”

  “Now who’s the one who doesn’t know themselves?”

  Sarah grinned and they got comfortable. Katelina swallowed, met her friend’s eyes and concentrated as she had with Kai. She reached out, listening as hard as she could. The sound of Sarah’s heartbeat was soon deafening, and the giggle was so loud she jumped.

  “Did it work?” Sarah asked.

  “Not unless you giggled mentally.” Katelina rubbed her head.

  “No. I wasn’t thinking of anything funny.” She frowned. “Maybe it was someone else?”

  Katelina tried again. She felt a soft buzzing at the back of her skull, an insistent sound, almost irritating, then—

  “You’re trying too hard.”

  Katelina jumped and Sarah looked hopeful. “So?”

  “Did you say I’m trying too hard?”

  Sarah shook her head. “I was thinking about home, well, Ohio. About the tree in the back of the school.”

  Katelina slumped in the chair. “Yeah, it didn’t sound like you. I guess I’m hearing people talk. How am I ever going to learn this?”

  “It isn’t easy for me, either,” Sarah countered. “Being stared at is creepy.”

  “It’s just as creepy doing the staring.”

  “Not that I think it has anything to do with you, but maybe you are trying too hard. Especially if you’re listening so intently you can hear conversations from who knows where. You should relax.”

  The next two tries were fruitless, and on the third Katelina caught an excited, “Can you hear me?”

  “Yes, I heard you!”

  Sarah’s confusion deflated her.

  “You weren’t…”

  Her friend shook her head. “The tree again. I was concentrating on it.”

  Katelina threw her hands up. “I surrender. Maybe we’re still doing it wrong.”

  Sarah shrugged. “I don’t know. No one showed me how to do it, it just happened on its own.”

  “That’s the same thing everyone says. I’d think I couldn’t do it at all, except I have a couple of times. But I’m tired of messing with it, and I’m hungry.” She checked her watch, and noted her heart rate was sixty-three. Fantastic. “It’s lunch time, anyway.”

  They pushed the furniture back and headed downstairs. After lunch the new entertainers were set up, and Katelina followed Jorick outside onto the bricked patio. A platform stood at the far end where a huge bright colored puppet stage sat.

  The outside lights dimmed, and stage lights blazed. A pair of giant marionettes appeared, one female and one male. They skittered across the stage on their toes, then jerked to a loose limbed stop. They turned to one another, bowed, then skittered back to the edges. Katelina wondered that anyone could control puppets that big. Was there one puppeteer per string?

  A narrator appeared, dressed in a suit and tie, as he set up the story, Katelina realized the puppets weren’t puppets, but living vampires.

  “Holy crap. How do they do that?”

  “Lots of practice,” Jorick replied. “When you have forever what else is there to do?”

  “You seem to think eternity is for reading.”

  He shrugged, and fell silent. The audience gave a round of polite applause, and the narrator moved to the side so the show could begin. Katelina soon lost herself to the performers. When a voice sounded near her she jumped.

  “I should thank you.”

  She spun around to see Sorino, a slick smile on his lips, Kai on a leash behind him.

  “Thanks to your inept handling I’ll be the only guest to turn a significant profit at this little party. Saul isn’t happy, of course, but he doesn’t find the alternative pleasant.” He glanced back at Kai. “Perhaps I should let you take him out more often.”

  “Take care of your pet yourself,” Jorick said firmly.

  “Come now, you would deny someone the chance of a lucrative venture?” Jorick cocked a single eyebrow and Sorino made an exaggerated sigh. “If you insist. Come, Kai, let us enjoy the show.”

  The boy nodded to Katelina as he was led toward a table. Jorick watched them with narrowed eyes and murmured, “Stay away from them, little one. I’ve never trusted him.”

  The show was halfway through when Jorick stood and motioned her to follow. She cast a regretful look at the players before heading inside. “Rounds,” he explained and led her on a sweep of the house. In the pale blue room Cutter called a sewing salon, they discovered Andrei’s masked mate Annabelle perched on a sofa. She jumped up, quickly folding a piece of paper, her single eye startled.

  Jorick nodded to her. “Excuse us, we’re doing the rounds.”

  Katelina waited until they were down the hall to whisper, “That was weird. What was she reading?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You didn’t get it from her mind?”

  Jorick gave her an odd look. “I didn’t try. Even if I had, I doubt I’d get anything without pressing hard enough to make her angry.”

  “Oh.” She walked beside him in silence, her brain churning. Since she’d been there she hadn’t seen Annabelle unaccompanied. So why was she purposely hiding away with a secret letter? “Maybe it’s a love letter from one of the guests. Imagine what will happen if Andrei finds out.”

  Jorick shrugged and started checking rooms down another hall. After he’d opened and closed several doors, she asked, “Aren’t you interested at all?”

  “Not really.”

  Her first thought was that Sarah would be intrigued but, when she mentioned it to her later, Sarah only shrugged, preoccupied with reading through a sheaf of paperwork.

  “Is that from Andrei?” Katelina asked, leaning on her elbows.

  Sarah nodded and turned the page.

  “He got it done pretty fast. Didn’t he just talk to you last night?” Sarah murmured a non-response and Katelina peered at the tangled mess of legal-ese. “He has his bases covered.”

  Sarah made an impatient noise. “I’m sorry. I’m trying to concentrate on this. You’re right, he probably has his bases covered, and I want to be sure what I’m signing.”

  “You don’t think it’
s odd he has the paperwork ready to go?”

  “He has a live-in lawyer. One of his coven.” Sarah went back to reading.

  Sufficiently told off, Katelina wandered to where Jorick sipped from his glass. He nodded to the pitcher and crystal cups. “Not having seconds?”

  “I don’t know.” She leaned against the wall and eyed Sarah. “I think Andrei is up to something.”

  He paused, the cup halfway to his lips. “I thought Annabelle was the one having the tryst?”

  “Not that. It’s Sarah.” She explained the contract and the pay off. “Why would he offer that to her? She was never part of Claudius’ coven. Even if she was, he wouldn’t owe her anything. Didn’t Jamie say he got legal ownership after Claudius’ death?”

  Jorick shrugged. “I can’t guess his motivations.”

  “Andrei doesn’t strike me as a moral giant. He has to have a motive.”

  “I’d advise her to read it carefully.”

  “She is.” Katelina watched the vampires drift in and out of the dining room. Some downed a quick glass before hurrying away, others lingered and chatted, like co-workers on a lunch break.

  Jorick finished his drink and set the glass on the sideboard. “That concludes my shift. Shall we?”

  “What? Go upstairs and watch you read? I’d rather see the rest of the puppet show. I heard they’re doing an encore performance.”

  Though Jorick didn’t look excited, he murmured, “If you insist.”

  When the puppet show ended, Katelina and Jorick headed back into the house. They passed Borne and the goth-girl twins. Katelina ignored their hard looks and physically bit her tongue to keep from telling them what fate they deserved.

  Inside, Jamie corralled Jorick for a “debriefing”. Katelina listened to him drone about a fight between two vampiresses, and finally excused herself to head up to the room.

  “I’ll see you there,” Jorick murmured absently.

  Katelina bit back a sarcastic response and left. She crisscrossed her way through corridors, only to run into the pale twins. Their androgynous features were caught somewhere between youth and adult, male and female, with slender bodies to match.

  “We meet again,” the first said with his unsettling smile.

  She backed away. “Um, yes. If you’ll excuse me I’m, uh, headed to my room.”

  “Upstairs?” the second purred, stepping closer. “We are going up, too. Best let us escort you.”

  “Yes,” said the first. “Terrible things can happen to little girls on their own.”

  “I’m not a little girl,” she murmured and tried to back away. She ran into the wall, and panicked. It was more likely something would happen with them than without them. “I-I’m fine.”

  “Nonsense.” They hooked their arms through hers and pulled her with them. “We are happy to help.”

  “Yes. Always happy to help,” the second echoed.

  Katelina’s heart raced as they propelled her down the corridor. This was the kind of situation Jorick warned her about, “Don’t let them lure you somewhere alone.” But what was she supposed to do?

  “Kick ‘em in the nuts”, came Micah’s imagined suggestion. It sounded like something he’d say, but it was easier said than done. Technically they hadn’t hurt her. If she started swinging she’d be no better than Sarah.

  “I told you that you shouldn’t wander alone,” one of the twins said close to her ear. “This is a dangerous place.”

  “So many with bad intentions,” the other whispered.

  Like you? She wanted to ask.

  They led her to the cavernous entryway. New flower arrangements filled the nooks with bright colors. Garlands and colored togas decorated the statues. She glanced to the mirror to see herself reflected, one snow white twin on either side. In the background stood someone in dark clothing-

  There was a noise like a small explosion and Katelina looked up in time to see the massive chandelier crashing toward her.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Katelina didn’t have time to scream. One moment she saw the chandelier hurtling toward her, and the next she was on the stairs, held by one of the pale twins. Shards of crystal splintered through the air like missiles. She ducked, arms over her head.

  Shocked silence fell. She lowered her hands and straightened. The chandelier lay in a heap of broken crystal, its rope coiled out like a giant snake, still attached to the half crushed ceiling medallion. Without its hundreds of glittering bulbs, the massive room was gloomy and painted in shadows.

  “You are unhurt?” the twin asked, and she looked down at herself to check. Her arms were marked with tiny cuts, and crystal glittered in her hair. Otherwise she was fine.

  The second twin materialized next to them, fast like Verchiel. “You’re lucky we were here.”

  “Yes,” his brother echoed. “Lucky.”

  Footsteps pelted down the corridors and vampires skidded to a stop inside the room. Jorick and Jamie pushed past them. They looked from the mess to her, and Jorick crunched his way through the debris.

  “Katelina?”

  “She is unharmed,” one of the twins said.

  “We pulled her from its path.”

  Jorick tugged her down a few steps to stand next to him. “Yes. Thank you.”

  “Of course. We are happy to help.”

  “Yes, happy.”

  Jorick gave them a final suspicious look, then led Katelina down into the sea of destruction. Jamie crouched over the massive medallion and examined the hardware on the other side of it.

  “And?” Jorick asked.

  Jamie stood. “It could have given way from the weight.” He pointed to the cracked, ruined ceiling. A jagged hole was where the medallion had been. Snapped electric wires twisted out like colored spaghetti. “The rope wasn’t cut, and I don’t see how anyone could have forced it down like that.”

  Andrei sailed in. He looked from the mess to the Executioners, his face pale. “Is everyone all right?”

  “Yes,” Jorick said. “There was only Katelina and those two in the room.”

  The twins bowed. “Tol and Ren, at your service.”

  Tol and Ren. Bizarre names to go with bizarre vampires. Katelina thought of the reflection in the mirror. “No. There was someone else. I saw them for a split second before…” Before it all came crashing down.

  Jorick looked to the twins, but they shook their heads. “We did not see anyone else.”

  “Yes,” Katelina insisted. “I saw them in the mirror.” She broke off as she eyed the fallen statues, some draped in dark togas. “Or maybe it was one of those.”

  Jamie nodded. “That’s more likely.”

  Jorick patted her back. “Come, little one. You’ve had a shock. It’s nearly bed time, anyway.”

  Despite Jamie’s pronouncement of natural causes, the twins’ smiles left her uneasy. If only she could put her finger on it.

  “You were scared,” Jorick said as he helped her over the ruin. “It’s natural to still be upset.”

  She wasn’t sure that was it.

  Katelina woke in the middle of the day. She reached out, searching for what had startled her.

  Something moved in the hallway. She looked quickly to Jorick, but he was fast asleep. Years of being a warrior had honed his senses, so if it hadn’t disturbed him, she’d probably imagined it.

  The soft shuffle came again. Maybe it was Sarah lurking in the corridor, trying to catch her imaginary stalker. Katelina inhaled and smelled Sarah’s scent—a mixture of cucumbers and melon, her favorite shampoo—but the smell was farther away than the hall.

  With concern, Katelina slipped from under the bedclothes and jerked the door open.

  Nothing.

  She stuck her head out and looked both ways. No Sarah, no servant, and certainly no stalker.

  Relieved, she stumbled back to the safety of bed. Jorick cracked an eyelid. “Your friend?”

  “No. Just me.” She yawned and snuggled down. “I guess I’m still jumpy.”
>
  She dropped off before she heard his reply.

  The next evening, she woke to see a field of undisturbed snow outside. When her breath was too cold to steam the glass, she panicked, then reminded herself what she was now. She wouldn’t be warm until she drank warm blood.

  She was part way through breakfast before she remembered her daylight wakefulness. She leaned over to Sarah and asked softly, “Was your…stalker there last night?”

  Sarah gave her a suspicious once over. “Why?”

  Katelina lowered her voice. “I thought I heard…it might have been a dream…”

  “You heard them too!” Sarah cried. Nearby vampires stared, and Sarah quieted. “I told you there was someone.”

  Jorick took Katelina’s empty glass. “No one was there, or I’d have woken up. If you stop looking for something sinister in your overactive imaginations, you’ll find there’s plenty to worry about in the real world.”

  Sarah gave him a hard look and purposefully turned away.

  Jorick shrugged “We’re doing double shifts. Andrei’s decided to hold some sort of winter games and he wants two sets of security, one outdoors and one inside.”

  “Which one are we?” she asked.

  “Inside. Let Jamie play in the snow.”

  “For doing this as a favor, sometimes you seem bitter.”

  After breakfast, Katelina and Jorick did a quick tour of the entryway. The mess was cleaned up, and candelabras were placed around the room. Their flickering light threw strange shadows that gave the statues the illusion of life. Katelina was glad to leave the room behind.

  By the time lunch was finished, most of the vampires had wandered outside to enjoy the festivities. From what she could see, they involved sledding, snowman building, and a few strange things, including something to do with brooms and a sheet of ice they’d poured on the lawn. Several of the guests participated semi-unwillingly, dressed head to foot in furs and glittering jewelry, while others were more competitive and wore clothes closer to the occasion.