Masque of the Vampire (Amaranthine Book 8)

by Joleene Naylor

  Just as Katelina started to relax, a trio of vampires sailed through the door. The man was tall and pale with a dark ponytail, while the woman had caramel colored skin and long locks pulled back by a band that matched her swimsuit. At her elbow, wearing a baggy pair of trunks, was Des.

  The man nodded politely and smiled. “Do you mind if we join you?”

  “Not at all,” Annabelle replied.

  Des’ dark eyes stopped on Katelina. “I should have known you were here if Jorick was.”

  “Des,” the older male snapped. “I told you to leave your petty squabbles behind.”

  He scoffed. “They’re hardly petty. But you’re right. She’s just a pawn.”

  The dark woman grabbed his arm and gave him a hard look until his shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry, Mother.”

  She telegraphed a warning, then released him and turned to the pool’s occupants. “I must apologize for my son. He allows his passion to cloud his judgment.”

  Trivila smiled at him from under heavily lashed lids. “Don’t we all sometimes?”

  Des made a noise in his throat, but some of the hostility melted from his face. He hesitated between the two ends of the pool, then finally dove into the deeper end with a splash.

  His mother and her lover, as Jorick called him, took places in the shallows. Annabelle made a round of introductions that labeled him Demetrious and her Diana. Katelina could feel the years that hung on him, but Diana didn’t seem much older than Des.

  They made polite conversation while Des swam with Marna and Sarah. When Diana’s eyes moved to Katelina, she tried unsuccessfully to disappear into the pool.

  “You’re the mate of the Executioner Jorick?”

  “Yes,” Katelina mumbled.

  “And his fledgling, no doubt,” Diana added.

  There was no point in correcting her, so Katelina murmured agreement. It was nice to know someone wasn’t a mind reader around there.

  Not long after, they dried off and changed for dinner. Katelina thanked Annabelle. Her hostess insisted the pleasure was hers, and reminded Katelina about the upcoming feast. “Tell your mate you do not wish to be present. If he knows anything of the Night Goddess rituals he will understand.”

  As they headed for the smaller dining room, Sarah asked, “What are the Night Goddess rituals?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve heard the name before but I can’t remember where.”

  When she mentioned it to Jorick, he said, “You heard it from the Father of Shadows. Memnon and the Children worshipped her.”

  Katelina thought of the blade packed in the bottom of her suitcase. Gold with a blue jewel, it was a sacred dagger, used to make sacrifices to the so-called goddess.

  “So you’re saying a feast to honor her…”

  “Probably involves killing someone,” Jorick confirmed.

  “What do you mean, probably? You were an Executioner for four hundred years. You can’t pretend you don’t know.”

  He sighed. “Fine. Yes, it involves killing someone.”

  “Why didn’t you say that?”

  “I was trying to protect you. I knew what your reaction would be.”

  She shook her head and moved on. “You aren’t going to let them do it?”

  “So long as there’s nothing illegal about it.”

  “Nothing illegal? Are you listening to yourself?”

  “Katelina, have you forgotten what I do? What I’ve done? Your offense at death is precisely why I tried to keep you sheltered, and you objected to it. You wanted to live in reality. Reality is death. If you don’t want to be coddled, then it’s time you faced that.”

  She couldn’t think of words that didn’t sound ridiculous, so she settled for giving him a dirty look, then pushed her way to the refreshment table. She downed two glasses before she found him locked in conversation with Fleur.

  “—I’ll be back tomorrow. They want me to check it out.”

  Katelina’s curiosity was piqued. “Check what out?”

  “They found dead children in a nature preserve thirty miles north east of here. The kids went missing from Churchill Falls a few days ago, so it’s more likely human on human, but since I’m in the area, the Assembly wants me to look at the bodies to be sure.”

  Missing children found dead. Katelina shivered as she remembered yesterday’s news cast. “Isn’t it kind of late to go to the morgue? It’s after three.”

  “That’s the perfect time; while they’re closed.” Fleur checked her phone. “The sun won’t rise until after six and, with these clouds, a little later. But it’s still not enough time to get back until tomorrow night.”

  “Then tomorrow you can cover my shift,” Jorick said firmly.

  Fleur rolled her eyes. “I’m on Assembly business. It isn’t as though I’m having fun.”

  “The point is moot. If you want me to cover your shift tonight, you’ll have to agree to do mine tomorrow. It’s as simple as that.”

  Fleur growled, but Katelina could sense her weighing her options. “Fine. But not tomorrow, in case I’m not back in time. The day after.” Jorick nodded, and Fleur added, “I’ll remember your unwillingness to help out.”

  “Go ahead. You can think about it the day after tomorrow while I’m enjoying myself.” He gave her a wink and caught Katelina’s arm. “Come, little one. It appears we have an extra shift tonight.”

  Katelina followed Jorick on his rounds. They swept through the lower rooms, then up to the second floor, then the third, and back down again. As they neared a corner on the second floor, Jorick forced them to a sudden stop. With a smirk, he pulled Katelina into the shadow of a doorway.

  Before she could ask what they were doing, she saw Anya pushing Thomas down the corridor, ranting.

  “I thought this would be good for you. I thought maybe we could find someone to help you, but do you cooperate? Do you show any indication of wanting help? I can’t do everything for you, Thomas. You’re lucky to be alive. It’s about time you started appreciating that.”

  “I’d rather be dead!”

  The words screamed through Katelina’s brain, forceful enough to make her flinch. She looked to Jorick, and his subtle nod said she was right: she’d heard Thomas’ thoughts.

  “It’s so loud even non-mind readers should be able to,” Jorick murmured with amusement.

  Anya carried on as she turned the corner, but her patter died with the word, “You.”

  There was a pause, then Katelina heard Des’ voice. “Hello Anya.”

  “Don’t ‘hello’ me as if you didn’t help Jorick get away with this.”

  “Give it a rest, Anya. Jorick isn’t my favorite person, but he didn’t do this. He isn’t the kind to torture. He’d have just killed your brother. This is on Joseff. Even the High Council lady said so.”

  “She can say anything she likes, and how the hell can we prove her wrong? It’s all smoke and mirrors and bullshit.” Anya’s voice trilled hysterically. “But don’t think that absolves you. You admitted you let them take him because he wasn’t ‘worth fighting for’. Maybe he isn’t worth it to you, but he is to me. He’s my brother, my god damn responsibility, and now I’m stuck with this forever!” Her voice cracked. “He can’t even talk. He only gurgles and moans—and it’s your fault!”

  “Look, I get it. It’s easier to blame everyone else but him. It’s easier to say it’s all a sham than admit you were wrong. Hell, I wanted to say the High Council lady was full of shit, because it means we were all wrong about the traitor, but truth is she’s got nothing to gain. From what I gathered, Jorick ain’t her baby. They’re kicking him out of the Executioners because he won’t follow orders. They stuck him on this as his last gig. Even you can’t pretend playing security guard is fun. It’s punishment detail.”

  Punishment detail? Was Jamie being punished for not coming back right away?

  Des went on, “The truth is Thomas screwed up, and you’re paying for it because you refuse to let him suffer for his actions.”

/>   “He has suffered!” Anya shouted. “He spent three months buried in the dirt like a corpse, mangled and starving. God damn, Des, how much suffering do you think he deserves?”

  “That depends on how many sins you want him to atone for. Look, we’ve all made mistakes, babe, and, when they come crashing down, I for one am not gonna whine and bawl and beg to be saved. I’ll get what I have coming, and so will you.”

  “And Jorick?” Anya demanded.

  “Everyone has to pay someday.”

  “I’m paying now.” There was a banging sound, as though Anya forced Thomas’ wheelchair around something. Her voice came as a sarcastic sneer. “Good seeing you, Des.”

  As she clunked away, Katelina heard Des mutter, “You too.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Katelina and Jorick were downstairs when Sarah caught up to them. She tugged Katelina away, but wouldn’t say what she wanted until they were cloistered in her bedroom.

  “You believe me now?”

  Katelina blinked. “About what?”

  Sarah’s hand curled into an irritated fist. “About the stalker standing outside my door in the daytime. This morning you said you heard them, remember?”

  Had she? The tangle of the day’s weirdness had blown it from her mind. “Oh, yeah. I said I thought I might have—”

  Sarah deflated slightly. “You said you did.” Her spine straightened and she turned brisk. “Never mind.”

  “No,” Katelina said quickly. Best to humor her. “I believe you. What about it?”

  “I think it’s time we lay a trap for them.”

  “What kind of trap?”

  Sarah chewed her lip. “I don’t know. I thought we could hide somewhere and wait, but there’s nothing to hide behind. Then I thought of staying awake in our rooms, but they’re always gone before we can open the door, so they’re too fast for that.”

  Too fast. Like Verchiel was fast. Like those creepy twins were fast. “Maybe it’s a wind walker?” Katelina explained the ability. “Even with that, the problem with the whole thing is why would a vampire be awake in the daytime? When they sleep is when they heal and kind of regenerate, so if they don’t get enough rest, they have to drink extra blood to make up for it or they’re sleep deprived.”

  Sarah perked up. “Then whoever it is would suffer from sleep deprivation. We just need to look for the symptoms.”

  “I don’t know what to look for, and there’s too many people to watch.”

  “We need to narrow it down. You mentioned they might be a wind walker. Are there any of those?”

  “Those creepy twins are. Other than that I don’t know.”

  Sarah asked what she meant. When she explained her friend said, “Oh. I’ve seen them. I thought they looked kind of intriguing. I don’t know why they’d stalk me.”

  Katelina stopped from saying she couldn’t imagine why anyone would stalk her.

  “Plus, they never go anywhere alone, do they? I haven’t gotten the sense that there are two stalkers, only one. But if there aren’t any more of the fast ones, then maybe.”

  They needed a list of the guests and their powers. If only…“The Guild has this massive database of vampires that lists all their information, even their abilities. Jamie cross referenced the guests with it when they arrived. Maybe he could make us a list of wind walkers. Then we can check them specifically. I’ll ask him tomorrow, and I‘ll find out the signs of vampire sleep deprivation.” It was a stretch, but it was easier than setting a trap for a vampire that might not exist.

  “Okay, and we may as well talk to the twins, since we know they have the right abilities.”

  Katelina thought of their smiles and shivered.

  Sarah nodded to the clock on the wall. “There isn’t much point in taking you back to Jorick. Do you want to practice your mind reading for a little bit before bed?”

  The answer was a mixed yes and no. After her last failure, Katelina was reluctant to try, but if she didn’t practice she’d never learn.

  “Sure.”

  They took their places, sitting Indian style. Katelina stared into Sarah’s eyes and tried to stifle her discomfort. She started by listening as hard as she could. When minutes ticked by with nothing but the soft thud of their heartbeats, she thought about what Sarah said in the attic. Maybe she was trying too hard.

  She attempted to stay calm, but staring into Sarah’s eyes left her tense and disconcerted. How was she supposed to relax under scrutiny?

  She closed her eyes. When the desired calm didn’t come, she thought of Samael and the peace that surrounded him.

  “Yes?”

  Her eyes snapped opened. The voice in her head wasn’t Sarah. Was it Samael? Had she managed to call him?

  “Well?” Sarah asked hopefully.

  “I think I contacted Samael.”

  Sarah blinked.

  “He’s that ancient vampire. The last time I saw him, in a dream, he was looking for Lilith. He can contact me when I’m asleep, but I’ve never been able to get hold of him before.”

  Sarah leaned back on her elbows. “You can get in touch with him, but you can’t read my mind?”

  Katelina grinned at the irony. “Maybe I’m trying too hard. Let’s go again.”

  Sarah settled back and Katelina closed her eyes. She tried to think of something soothing that wasn’t Samael. The last thing she needed was him complicating her efforts. She ran through calming thoughts from her childhood. Her house. Her mother. School. Sarah. She’d seemed smaller then; drawn in, with a mop of curly hair and stooped shoulders, as if she wanted to fold in on herself. Then one recess in second grade, someone took Katelina’s new doll. It had come from Santa. Though now she knew that meant her mother, at the time it meant something magical. It was an older kid, the girl with freckles and a boy haircut. She’d thrown the doll in the mud. Katelina remembered crying, then—

  “Leave her alone.”

  She blinked angry eyes to see a little girl huddled in a denim coat and bright pink earmuffs. Blonde hair hung in a braid down her back. She turned a tear stained face, and Katelina realized she wasn’t seeing her memory but—

  Sarah’s?

  The world shifted. Sarah shook the mud off the doll and said, “Tell the teacher and she’ll let you wash it off in the bathroom after recess.” She paused. “I’m Sarah. I’m in Miss Peabody’s class. You’re Katie, right?” The blonde nodded. “You can’t let stupid Glenda bother you. Mr. Green says she picks on people to make herself feel better.”

  Mr. Green. The school counselor. Only in second grade and Sarah was already seeing him.

  The scene morphed, shifted, swirled. Mr. Green sat in a plastic chair and she looked down at her swinging feet; brown loafers and checkered socks. The teacher’s voice was soothing. “It’s all right. You can tell me.” But she didn’t want to. She wouldn’t. She wouldn’t tell anyone.

  There was a flash, and the office was gone, replaced by a room with brown carpet and eggshell walls. Her father stood over her, shouting, his face red and puckered. Bits of spittle flew with his words, scented like the beer he tried to drown himself in every night.

  “—think I’m made of money, huh? You and your goddamn mom, always spending, spending, spending. Don’t give a damn about the bills, don’t give a damn that I have to work overtime to pay for everything. No! Just leave the goddamn door open and let the heat out, huh? Who cares how much it costs? Who cares if I have to spend my goddamn Saturday working just to keep the lights on and the water running and the goddamn bank off our asses? This is your fault; you and Theresa! She had to get pregnant. She had to trap me into this shit hole. The least you can do is shut the goddamn door!”

  The last three words were punctuated with slaps that left her cheeks stinging and brought tears to her eyes. He reared back, ready to deliver another—

  Katelina was suddenly in the bedroom of the mansion, her hand up, and her chest heaving.

  Sarah gaped, her expression torn between horror and anger. �
�You—”

  Katelina tried to come to terms with the sudden shift in scene. She lowered her hand to her face to discover tears. She tried to reason away her terror. It wasn’t hers. She wasn’t in danger. She was fine. “I…I guess it worked.”

  “It worked?” Sarah demanded. “That’s not what it’s supposed to be like.” She eyed Katelina. “You saw…?”

  Katelina realized Sarah wasn’t asking what she’d seen but if she’d seen that. “School,” she said quickly. “The day we first talked, on the playground. Glenda took my Barbie and you saved it.”

  Sarah’s tight shoulders relaxed and some of the wildness faded from her eyes. “That’s it?”

  Katelina nodded and swiped away the last of the tears—tears that weren’t really hers. “I hated Glenda. She used to terrorize everyone.”

  “Yeah. Remember when she killed herself our freshman year and the teachers ran around trying to make us feel sorry for her; trying to humanize her? As if poor Glenda was a ray of sunshine.”

  Katelina mumbled a reply, but her attention wasn’t on the conversation. She knew Sarah’s dad was a drunk, she’d heard him yell before, she’d even seen him hit her friend once, but that was different. Safe. She knew he wouldn’t go far enough to hit someone else’s kid, and if it got too scary she could always run home to the security of her mother. But this, being the one on the other side of the fist, feeling the fear, knowing he was supposed to love her, supposed to treat her like other kids’ parents treated them, it was too much to process in a burst.

  Sarah kept talking; reminiscing on Glenda and some of the other kids. As she chattered, Katelina’s sensations faded to an uncomfortable memory, like a bruise that didn’t hurt unless you poked it.

  When Jorick knocked on the door she hugged Sarah good night and headed to bed. She snuggled up against him and whispered about Sarah and her success, then about Samael. Jorick frowned and asked, “Are you sure it was him?”

  Katelina deflated a little. “I was thinking about him, and the voice said, ‘yes?’, like they were asking what I wanted, so I assumed. Why? I know it wasn’t Sarah. Who else could it be?”