Becoming the Enigma (The Loup-Garou Series Book 2)

by Sheritta Bitikofer

  “So, I took the child and gave her to one of my most trusted maidservants. I gave her explicit instructions to take the child as far from the castle as she could. I think she had relatives in the south and took her there to be cared for... That was the last I’ve seen of her... She would be eighteen now.” Michael smiled to himself, probably remembering his granddaughter with a bittersweet fondness. “She is the key to peace between the species... I only wish there was some way I could find her.”

  “Haven’t you tried?”

  Michael nodded. “Oh, yes. I did try once a few years ago, knowing that she would be coming of age soon. I could only find the grave of the maidservant and her husband I had entrusted her with. The reports said that they died in a car accident a few months after they took my granddaughter and that an infant was found with them. My granddaughter was put into the foster care system, but the records are so confidential for the safety of the child that I couldn’t find anything useful.

  “I don’t even know the child’s last name. My daughter named her Katherine - after her grandmother, but I have no idea if that name was kept when she was put into the foster care system since we had no documentation of her birth. I’m not even sure if the maidservant knew her name. There were thousands of Katherines in the southern states that matched her age, but unless I went to every single one, it was unlikely I would find her. Not only that, but I couldn’t be away from my duties as a vampire elder for long before they began asking questions.”

  Katey leaned back in her seat as her mind raced. Was it all coincidence?

  “I’m sorry if I’ve bored you with this whole story.”

  “No, no,” she stammered. “Not at all. It’s fascinating to think that…” Katey debated on how much she could tell him. What would have been a surprise and what else did he know? If he knew that she wasn’t human, and if his story had anything remotely to do with her, she should have come clean about everything. But, there was still a bit of hesitance in her, as if she wanted to see how the rest of this was going to play out before showing all of her cards. “I’ve wanted to know about the werewolf history for a while; so it’s interesting to learn.”

  Michael gave her a kind smile and nodded. “I just want to make sure you were going to be comfortable here for however long you will be staying with us.”

  His voice sounded far away as her heart beat a little louder in her ears. She took a stuttered breath before opening her mouth. “Well, I’m not looking forward to tomorrow for sure. My fiancé is down in the dungeon along with many of my other friends and his pack. I don’t want to see them murdered.... Is there anything you can do to stop it?” Katey looked to the vampire lord with pleading eyes.

  There were a million other things she could have asked, but they were not going to help her in freeing Logan and the others. The pressing issue at hand was to escape this castle and she knew that Michael was the one who could assist her.

  “I’ve tried to convince Lord Yaverik that it was a bad idea, that those werewolves have family and friends back home that will catch onto what they’ve done. A massacre like this would surely spark another conflict that we don’t need. My compassionate tendency toward the werewolves is exactly why I am not in charge, as I once was a century ago. But Yaverik, though a gentleman, is an adamant warmonger. He only laughed in my face and told me that a conflict is what he wants.”

  “Can’t you overrule him? You’re older.”

  “No, he’s the head vampire lord around here. I’m only secondary, despite my age. My daughter’s sin has crippled much of my influence in the covens. In this region, there is no one above him. We have a high council in Romania, but they’ve become so lazy and complacent that it wouldn’t matter if we told them about this or not.”

  Katey’s head swam with the severity of the whole tragedy that they seemed to be stuck in the middle of. “Well, this sucks!” she exclaimed, feeling herself drown in the hopelessness of the situation

  “I concur,” Michael said blandly.

  “Can you help me free them? There has to be some way!”

  Michael grimaced. “I want to help, I really do. I did my best with petitioning them to have food and clothing. If it were completely up to Yaverik, those werewolves would be naked and ripping each other to shreds from starvation.”

  Katey sighed. She was thankful for Michael’s generosity. “I appreciate your effort, but we have to get them out... Do you have a key to the cells at all?”

  The vampire lord shook his head. “Yaverik is the only one that has a key to the cell locks.”

  “Is there any way you can steal the key?” Katey’s face twisted in desperation.

  He turned pensive, his mind tracing through a plot. “I could but it would be very tricky.”

  “Are you willing to help me?”

  That was the key question. If Michael didn’t want to help, there was no amount of convincing that would make him agree to a plan. But if he could, if he wanted to save the loups-garous just as much as he said he did, then Katey might have found their ticket out of the castle.

  Michael looked up into her eyes and he must have seen that Katey was completely and totally serious. She would do anything, up to sacrificing her own life if needed, to free the loups-garous. When one is given something to live for, they’re also given something to die for. He, of anyone in this castle, should have understood that concept. His daughter was a shining example of such devotion.

  He nodded. “Yes, I will... The best time would be before sunrise. I’ll see what I can do.”

  28

  “I believe we will be missed upstairs soon,” Michael said, stiffly lifting himself up from the chair.

  She rose to follow him out, but stopped him just short of the door.

  “How did you know what I was?” Katey asked, as he was about to turn the doorknob.

  He looked back to Katey with wise, warm eyes. “I don’t know what you are, but you certainly aren’t human.”

  Katey tilted her head, silently requesting an explanation.

  “I know you’re not human,” he said with a sly grin, “because you don’t smell like a human, you don’t smell like a vampire or a werewolf, yet you smell unique. Almost like you’re a species all your own that I can’t sense or recognize. Don’t be alarmed though because no one else here has their senses as honed as much as mine are. I’m sure no one can notice. I could probably reach into your memories and find out what you are, but if it were important, I’m sure you would tell me, yes?”

  She blinked and looked away, glad that he chose to be discreet, but troubled that she had to lie to the one person who would have deserved to know the truth. She nodded.

  He gave her arm a reassuring squeeze and they walked into the hallway, leaving the library. Even though their conversation was over, his words lingered with Katey the whole way back to the ballroom.

  The irony of Katey looking like his daughter, his granddaughter being named Katherine - which was her full name - being from the south where his granddaughter was put up into the foster care system, her never knowing her real parents and above all, her being able to change into the first female loup-garou in centuries coincided so well with his story that it was borderline uncanny.

  Could Katey have been the one mentioned in the prophecy that would bring peace and order between the two species? Was the spirit within her the spirit of the princess from more than a few millennia ago? It was compelling evidence.

  Then again, what if Michael had been lying. What if he did probe her memories like he said that he could? What if he tried to weave her a story to get her mind off of the loups-garous and distract her? She had no doubt that he could reach into her mind and read her thoughts somehow. If he could make a chair move and Martel could make her stand perfectly still while he slipped his tongue into her mouth, then there was no telling how far the vampire psychic abilities could go.

  But, what if he was telling the truth all along? If she was the savior of the loups-garous, what did that mean
? What was she supposed to do? And how could she be expected to save the future of two warring races when she couldn’t even hear behind a closed door at that moment? Her loup-garou blood was still fading, but she could still feel her wolf clinging on.

  As soon as they walked through the ballroom doors, an eager Martel greeted her at the entrance. His smile was infectious and she tried to silence her thundering heart at seeing the excited sparkle in his eyes.

  Almost everyone was sitting down in chairs or lounging on the floor by the Christmas tree in the far corner and the roar of voices had lowered to a dull murmur. It must have been time for the gift exchange, but Katey’s thoughts were far from festive.

  “Katey, come with me,” Martel said. “I saved us a spot over near the tree.”

  Martel took her hand and pulled her away from Michael as he donned his vampire lordly comportment and strutted to Yaverik’s side on the far wall as he monitored the activity of the ballroom. Katey watched him walk away, immediately missing his company. If her suspicions were true, then he might have been her only known relative on this earth.

  She and Martel wandered through the crowd until they came to a pair of empty chairs near the tree. Katey took her seat beside him and let her eyes skim over the many pale faces around her. How many would have known her mother – if her mother had been a vampire? She spotted Julia in the crowd and wondered how long she and her mother had been friends. Who was there for her execution? Who knew about Michael’s pacifist and sympathizing tendencies to the loups-garous? Who experimented on her father with the liquid silver bullets?

  Her mind fought against the floor of questions that might never be answered. If she let herself slip into such hysteria, then she’d never make it until dawn when Michael promised to help them escape. There was still no guarantee that she was the one who would fulfill the prophecy. She swallowed hard and bit down on her lips to keep herself from slipping into a panic attack.

  Several volunteers were going through the hundreds of gifts laid out under the tree, calling out names and tossing them to their respective owners. Once the first few gifts were passed out, the racket of paper ripping, joyful glees, and general merriment resumed.

  Martel had received several gifts, mostly from other ladies in the congregation. He gave his cordial thanks and set them aside with perfect impartiality, much to the dismay of the ladies, who were waiting for a flicker of interest in his eyes for their gift.

  It was amusing for a little while to see someone open their gift and either squeal in delight or laugh at the gag inside. On more than a few occasions, she let her eyes slide a glance toward Michael across the room, observing the way he interacted with the other vampires.

  No one would have known that he was somewhat of a defector, the way he laughed and socialized with the others. If any vampire could read memories, wouldn’t they have known that he had helped his daughter escape and elope with a loup-garou? Or were they only able to read the feeble minds of a human?

  As the gift exchange drew to a close, the vampires scurried about carrying their goods to the edges of the ballroom, where they set their presents down and retreated back toward the center to continue mingling. Numerous servants, including Helga, who looked to have recovered from the attack earlier, came out to the floor to begin clearing away the wrapping paper and trash while others took the chairs and pushed them toward the walls to get them out of the way.

  As that was happening, the band tuned up their instruments.

  “What’s going on now?” Katey asked Martel when he came back from putting his gifts away to a safe place against the wall.

  “Time for more dancing. The night is still young!” he replied with a wide grin as he led her away from the center of the hall to take their seats out of the way of those gathering together to dance.

  He must have seen her eyes light up with the thought of dancing. If there were any good dancers out of this bunch, it would be them. Katey remembered waltzing with him on her first day in the ballroom dance club. She was so nervous and constantly stared at her feet. Back then, she had to admit to herself that she found him attractive, but his kindness is what drew her to him in the first place. That was a long time ago and many things had changed. But if that was the truth, why did her stomach clench at the thought of dancing with him again?

  As Katey watched couples pair up for the first sets, she began to wonder which dance they would do first. Would it be the salsa, tango, a waltz, maybe a cha-cha? The Vietnamese waltz came to mind and she started running through the steps in her mind to refresh herself.

  Katey didn’t notice that Martel had momentarily walked away and came back with an oblong shaped box in his hands wrapped in beautiful shiny green paper and a golden bow.

  She glanced down to the gift and her heart rose in her throat. “Whose is that?” Katey asked him.

  “Yours,” he purred.

  She blinked in surprise that she would receive a gift at all from anyone, let alone him. Katey smoothly took the box from his hands and carefully unwrapped the gift, being careful not to make a mess of shredded paper that the servants would have to clean up. Upon opening it, she was met with a pristine rose in full bloom.

  Katey was never one for romance and simple gifts like these usually made her want to roll her eyes. Gifts like roses, chocolates, and teddy bears shouldn’t have been the go-to for any man. Thought was what mattered, not clichés.

  But as she stared at the soft, silky petals of the rose, she smiled and cherished its old-world beauty. A rose meant many things. To some, it was just a flower. To others, it was a symbol of love and devotion. To Katey, it was a gift and in this wintery world of vampires, loups-garous, and mysteries, this rose seemed to pull her back from all the desperate and disquieting thoughts. For a moment, she forgot about it all.

  “I thought a girl as beautiful as you deserved to be reminded of what she outshines,” Martel whispered intimately as she lifted the single rose from its tissue bed and brought it to her lips. Katey took a deep whiff of its pleasing aroma.

  She looked up to Martel, wondering what exactly she was feeling. This gift and the peace it brought to her mind, combined with their passionate kiss from the night before, stirred something within her that was surreptitiously enticing. It was comparable to how she felt when Logan had swept her off her feet for the first time, but not exactly the same.

  This pull of affection she felt for Martel seemed forced upon her, not easy-going like Logan’s. It was almost like she was being unwittingly romanced, but there was something that was trying to convince her that it was not wrong. The other side of her screamed that she should run, slap him, anything to break the spell that he cast over her.

  Katey didn’t want to return the flower back to its case, afraid that if she let go of it, the chaos would charge back in and take away that peace.

  “Katey,” Martel began shakily, taking her free hand in his. “Even in school, I knew you were special. I had thought about asking you out, but there was such an age difference that I didn’t want you to think I was a pervert and turn me down. But now that we’re older, the difference doesn’t matter so much.”

  She held back the urge to laugh. If age ever played a factor in whom she loved, then she wouldn’t have adored Logan so much, but Martel didn’t know that.

  “You are an amazing woman and any man would be blessed to have you. I would be even more grateful if you would be mine. I know I haven’t exactly put the best foot forward, but you have to understand that I am a different man than I was. But when I’m with you, I feel like I can be that man again.”

  Katey bowed her head and closed her eyes, wishing Martel would stop. Even if she wanted to be his, even if she had a crush on him as a freshman in high school, they could never return to the way things were. He was not the first one to give such a speech and he was not the one who would hold her heart.

  “Martel,” she said, hoping she would have the heart to say what she needed to. “I don’t know if I can just ignor
e everything that’s happened to me over the last few years. And I can’t ignore what you are. I don’t have a problem being your friend, but I can’t see us in the way that you do.”

  When she lifted her gaze, she saw the brokenness in Martel’s eyes and she wished that she could have taken away his pain. Short of accepting him, there was little she could do.

  “Then we shall be friends,” he said, forcing himself to smile though she could see the effort it took.

  In a daring move, Katey lifted his hands to her lips and kissed the back of his fingers, hoping that somehow that would soothe his wounded pride. “You have dozens of women here who would throw themselves at your feet. Why not go dance with them?”

  The vampire huffed. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to dance with you again? I’m not leaving your side.”

  The band began to play a light, swaying melody that flowed sinuously through the ballroom, cutting through their conversation. The music took on a life of its own and twisted its way around Katey’s mind. Like the rose, it brought her a level of serenity that she couldn’t force away. She watched the couples begin to twirl, skirts billowing out from their legs as they stepped and swayed like elegant sprites to the rhythm of their own world.

  In the heat of the rose, the music, and the beautiful people dancing, Katey began to lose herself and the wolf slipped away into the darkness.

  All of the sudden, Katey was glad to be right where she was in that moment with Martel. The knowledge that her fiancé was below her in a prison cell and that his death sentence was scheduled for the following night, was a fleeting concept. The idea that she could bring peace between vampires and loups-garous was a faraway nightmare. The feeling of homesickness and loneliness was a distant memory as she saw Martel gracefully bow and offer out his hand to her. She felt herself drowning in the murky forgetfulness that crept upon her mind and heart.