“Sam, old boy,” Damien said in a smooth, mocking voice, turning to Sam as if he had just noticed his presence. “It’s been ages. Come now, don’t you recognize me?”
Sam seemed confused for a moment, but then his eyes widened in recognition. “I know who you are. You ain’t welcome here and you know it, Dominique.” he replied, pulling himself up as straight as he could manage. “L-let her go and I won’t alert the mistress that you’ve been here.” His bravery was sweet, but severely misguided.
“By all means, Sam, please inform your mistress that she has visitors,” Damien said with a cruel chuckle. “Or are you afraid of what she’ll do to you for informing her that I’ve returned to claim what is mine?”
But Sam stood his ground. “Let Lucy go, Dominique. She ain’t got nothing to do with your quarrel with the mistress.”
“Directly? No, but you have to admit, she’s a rather valuable bargaining tool,” Damien informed him, adding a humiliating slap on my rear for emphasis.
“Touch my ass again and you’re dead,” I said through gritted teeth, but all that earned me was another laugh.
“Well?” he growled at Sam. “What are you waiting for, old man?”
“You’ve no right to give me orders, you filthy pirate,” Sam said in a wavering voice, but as he did, he drew what looked like a kitchen knife from his back pocket. Without letting me go, Damien knocked the knife from Sam’s hand.
“I’d kill you for your insolence, but that is what you want, isn’t it?” he snarled. “Do as I say and perhaps I’ll grant you a swift death. Defy me again and I’ll cut out your tongue.”
I could see fear waging a battle with bravery and I intervened before Damien actually did something to hurt Sam. “It’s okay, Sam,” I said softly. “Take us to LaLaurie.”
He stared at me in horror for moment, but I gave him a conspiratorial wink, as if I had somehow planned to get captured by a murdering liar. He nodded curtly and descended into the tunnel. Now all I had to do was stay alive long enough to come up with a plan.
When Sam had told me LaLaurie’s lair was underground, I didn’t realize he meant it was halfway to the center of the earth. As we entered the tunnel, all I saw ahead of me was a never-ending staircase that spiraled into darkness. Why did vampires like putting their secret hideouts under millions of tons of earth that could come crashing down on them at any moment? Already I could feel the cold pit in my stomach that signaled the beginning of an anxiety attack.
Concentrate, I told myself. Think of a plan. Think of anything. Do not think about being suffocated under a pile of dirt! Clearly, I was losing this war.
“So, Dominique,” I said, trying to keep the panicked quiver out of my voice. “Isn’t that a girl’s name?”
“When you butcher it like that, yes it is,” he replied with an amused chuckle. “French is a subtle language.”
I nearly laughed. Andre used those exact words several times while trying to teach me some useful phrases. “Subtle, snobby, I can see how you’d get those two confused,” I replied. “Damien suits you better anyway. It does kind of got a demonic appeal, don’t you think?”
“I think it would be in your best interest to stop babbling,” he warned. “You’ll find I’m not easily distracted.” For emphasis, his grip around my wrists tightened painfully.
“Ow, geez! Fine, I got it,” I hissed. “You big strong vampire. Me weak ass vampire. It’s just a name. You’ve got some anger management issues.” I was pushing my luck, but I didn’t care. I had indeed planned on distracting him with my ramblings, but now my intention was to make him angry. Like humans, vampires tended to lose their ability to keep control of a situation when angry.
“I warned you once,” he growled and slapped his free hand over my mouth, slowly drawing one talon-like fingernail across my cheek with enough pressure to break the skin. “Another word out of you and it will be your tongue that I slice off first.” Okay, so he was definitely angry, but apparently still very much in control. It was time for plan B.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a plan B.
At last, the stairs ended and I tried not to think about how far underground we were as we headed into another dark tunnel. This one was short, ending with a huge wooden door, under which I could see light. I was intrigued as Sam pulled out an old-fashioned key ring. Considering the advanced technology that vampires had at their disposal, I would have assumed that LaLaurie would use a more sophisticated system to keep her secrets.
Inside was just as anachronistic. If my sense of direction didn’t fail me, we were directly under the mansion and this room appeared to be an exact replica of the parlor as it would have looked in LaLaurie’s time.
“So, the old bat’s sentimental,” Damien muttered under his breath as Sam led us across the room and into a wide hallway adorned with near life-sized oil paintings. At another large mahogany door, Sam stopped.
“I’m afraid I don’t know which one opens this door,” he said with a look at his key ring. “I don’t go in there unless the mistress requires.”
“Just try them all,” Damien growled impatiently.
Sam’s hands shook noticeably, but finally he found the key that fit the lock. Beyond the antique door was a sterile, modern environment that was more in line with what I expected. In fact, it was nearly indistinguishable from the laboratory in Paris where I had been held prisoner, right down to the row of cruel and inhumane cages that, to my horror, were not empty. Among the pale, desperate faces, I recognized Dr. Hayward and Agents Timmons and Carr. I nearly called out to them but stopped myself. If any of them recognized me or even noticed that there was anyone else in the room, they didn’t acknowledge. Whether this was because they were in shock or drugged, I didn’t know, but I was relieved at least to see that unlike the prisoners in Paris, who had been horrifically deformed for no reason at all, no one here showed any physical signs of torture. Of course, I knew better than to think that meant they hadn’t suffered some form of abuse.
Seeing the prisoners made me realize why Sam had keys. If LaLaurie changed her appearance as regularly as we had been led to believe, any security system that relied on biometrics wouldn’t work. Sam paid the prisoners no mind as he shuffled to the far end of the lab and through another door into yet another darkened corridor, though this one was just as sterile and modern as the lab. At the very end of the corridor was a single door. Two young women, in black cat suits that were similar to that which Alex wore, stood guard.
“Who are they?” one of them asked Sam, eyeing me and Damien with suspicion and a trace of fear.
“Master Dominique would like to see our mistress,” Sam informed them.
At Damien’s real name, both women became visibly angry and one slapped Sam hard across his cheek. “You foolish idiot! Why would you bring him here?”
“Leave him alone!” I growled, trying to twist free from Damien, but he kept his grip on me. “He had no choice.”
“Who is she?” The other asked Damien, looking me over in disgust.
“That you don’t recognize the woman your mistress ordered you to find proves how pointless your existence is, Daughter,” he said in a low menacing tone. “But I suppose you think we all look the same, don’t you?”
“That isn’t the girl,” she said with a dismissive eye roll.
“Pointless and stupid,” Damien muttered. In a single move, he took one of my CPAs from the holster at my waist, yanked me to one side, and stabbed the woman in the neck before turning to the second one. “Do you wish to express your ignorance as well?”
“No sir,” she said, clearly terrified.
“Then open the door.”
“Forgive me sir, but the mistress does not take visitors during her treatments,” she replied demurely. “But if you’d like to wait…”
“I’ll deal with your mistress’ displeasure myself,” Damien informed her. “Now open the door or get the same as your sister.”
With a shaking hand, she slid back the cover f
rom a control panel in the wall and swiped what looked like a hotel door key card through the reader. As the door opened, she sprinted away, putting as much distance between herself and us as she could. Sam looked as though he wanted to follow, but Damien grabbed him and pushed him into the room ahead of us.
Inside was dark, cavernous, and empty except for a strange tower of machinery in the middle. There were tubes running from the tower that connected to two raised platforms that held what looked like bodies draped with a sheet.
“Who is there?” An ancient voice called out from inside the darkness, surprising me. I had been so sure that Alex was Delphine LaLaurie that I had forgotten completely about the old woman from the cemetery.
“Did I not tell you how foolish it was to send the swine to do a king’s job?” Damien responded with more amusement than the situation called for.
“You!” There was a rustle of noises as the tubes fell away from one of the platforms and the shrouded figure began to stir.
“In the flesh! Or rather, in the flesh of your first born son,” Damien said, cackling at his own cleverness.
“Impossible!” the old woman hissed.
On the other platform, the body that was still connected began to convulse and moan. With the same speed and agility I had witnessed in the cemetery, the old woman cast off the sheet and jumped onto the writhing figure.
“Be still, you useless bitch!” she shrieked and jabbed a needle into the figure, who ceased moving with a final anguished sob. “You’ve cost me my voice and a precious night that I can’t afford to waste. What are you doing here?” She rounded on us and lowered the hood from her head. Though the voice was that of an old woman, there was no mistaking the face.
“Well, that was certainly unexpected,” I heard Damien say with a hint of amusement.
It seemed Alex was Delphine after all.
Chapter 27
LaLaurie stared hard at Damien for several seconds. “I killed you.”
“Three times now, if I recall correctly,” Damien said with undisguised amusement. “But like a cat, I keep coming back. Perhaps if you had been able to put aside your sadistic nature, you might have finished the job. I suppose it might not have occurred to you that my brothers and I didn’t share all of our secrets with you. But I at least would have figured that after burying me alive twice, you might have realized I can survive for quite some time without breathing. Who do you think perpetuated the myth that vampires are undead?”
“I have no patience for your games, Mr. You,” she spat.
“You never did, my sweet, and that was your downfall,” he said dismissively. “I know how much time you don’t have.”
“Mr. You? As in the pirate, Dominique You? Okay, now I’ve heard everything,” I said, unable to keep my sarcastic remarks to myself once Damien’s true identity was revealed. “Is there some rule that says all vampires have to be notorious historical figures?”
“It has always been in our nature to be a bit flamboyant,” Damien, rather, Dominique replied with a shrug.
“Who is that?” LaLaurie hissed, turning to me with a look of contempt.
“You don’t recognize the prize?” he taunted. “The granddaughter of our first child?” He turned to me, noting my puzzled expression. “Oh, didn’t you know, Lucy? Your grandfather was a legend. Adam Thorn was the first artificial genetic construct ever to live beyond incubation. My lovely wife at the time thought it clever to name him Adam. Her creativity clearly does not extend beyond her sadism. Of course, none of that kept her from having him murdered for the right price.”
I remember my grandmother once telling me about how her father supported Italy in World War II and feeling slightly ashamed that my ancestors were on the wrong side of history. Finding out that my paternal grandfather, who I already knew was a murderous psycho, was some kind of golem created by one of history’s most notorious sadists kind of put things in perspective.
“You lie,” she said, taking a step closer, but Damien dragged me back and out of her reach.
“I prefer to call it manipulation of the truth and yes, I’m rather good at it,” he gloated. “Though clearly, I’ve got nothing on you, darling. But I assure you, despite her most troubling appearance, this is Lucy, the last of the natural born genetic wonders. Though it appears that even our best efforts failed to completely breed away that which you despise and the rest of us have grown to embrace.”
They stood glaring at each other for almost a solid minute. I would have taken advantage of the moment, but Damien had yet to loosen his grip on me. Instead, I was stuck in the dangerous position of being a human shield between two people who obviously wanted the other dead.
“So, you two are married then? I thought she was married to Charles Pierre Blanc.” I asked Damien in an attempt to diffuse the situation. Of course, bringing up things that might make them angrier was probably not the best way to go about it.
“Were married. The witch has had the heads of more spouses than Henry VIII. I’m merely the one who refused to stay dead,” he explained.
“A mistake I’m more than willing to rectify,” LaLaurie muttered and narrowed her gaze at me. “Yes, I recognize your insolence now. What happened to make you look like that, girl?”
“You’re asking me?” I huffed with a sarcastic snort. “You’re the one who poisoned me. I take it ‘may cause demonic appearance’ wasn’t on the list of side effects?”
She slapped me for that, hard. I was pressing my luck, but I was running out of options. I was completely powerless and Sam appeared to be too terrified to do anything at all.
“That you dare defy me after all you have seen is a testament to the weakness my children have allowed to fester for too long. Your appearance disgusts me, but it will do for now. Prepare her for the treatment.”
“Not so fast,” Damien said with unveiled amusement. “Did you really expect me to hand the girl over in an unprecedented fit of generosity? Admittedly, I was foolish to believe you would uphold your end of our arrangement after history has twice proven otherwise, but the difference between you and I is that I learn from my mistakes.”
“You are in no position to negotiate with me.”
“On the contrary,” he chuckled. “You are the one at a disadvantage, my dear. Every minute that you waste is more precious than you realize. I wish I could tell you that I had masterminded every event that brought us to where we are at the moment, but alas, I must give credit where credit is due. For that, I thank you, Sam.” He grabbed Sam with his free hand and roughly pulled him over, putting his arm around the old man’s shoulders in what looked like a friendly gesture, but Sam’s expression of pain said otherwise.
“You see,” he continued, “I happened to overhear your loyal servant offering to bring Lucy the antidote in exchange for ending his life and yours. Yes, my dear,” he said to me. “You are as subtle as a tourist on Bourbon. For that, I must thank you as well.” I jerked away as he tried to land a ‘playful’ kiss on my cheek.
LaLaurie’s eyes widened as she realized that Damien wasn’t bluffing. “What do you hope to get out of this?” she asked.
“Revenge, my love, revenge!” he said with an almost maniacal laugh. “How long now before the window of opportunity expires? An hour? Two hours? Any longer and not even the antidote you had created as a failsafe will work.”
“What are you asking in exchange for the girl, Mr. You?” she asked in a measured tone, but I could see true panic in her eyes. Not that I wasn’t panicking as well. Two hours was less time than even Abe had predicted.
“The girl? Nothing,” he said with another laugh. “I was foolish enough to give you the tools to become invincible once before and you tried to usurp control of my city. When the citizens rightfully turned against you, was I not the one who offered my fleet to help you escape inevitable death? You repaid my kindness by putting a price on my head. Admittedly, I have only my own stupidity to blame for accepting your apology as genuine when you returned. I married you
out of pity, my dear, and helped you build an empire in the process. Once again, you showed your gratitude in the only way you know how and I found myself buried at the bottom of the river. Your mistake this time was in offering nothing more than what you stole from my brothers and me so many years ago. Did you honestly think I believed that you had any intention of keeping your promise this time around?”
“Have I broken my promise?” she asked. “I offered you New Orleans in exchange for the girl. I laid the foundation to exterminate the last of the Conneauroix line. I have done exactly what I said I would do and until now, you have failed to do the same. That you have brought her here in the end tells me you have something to negotiate.”
So Damien was the ‘descendant’ of the Lafitte family who had Evan’s great grandfather killed. I had to wonder exactly what Horace Conneauroix had done to warrant Damien holding a grudge for several generations.
“Hm, interesting,” Damien said in a bored voice. “I suppose the gas leak in my chambers that happened to coincide with a malfunction that kept me locked inside was a mere coincidence? Were you not surprised to see me just moments ago? I know you too well, my dear. As to why I brought Lucy, I’ve already explained that she was the one who brought me to you. I’m going to enjoy watching you die, Delphine, but more than that, I’m going to enjoy watching you die while the one person who can save you stands just out of your reach. Cruel, yes, even for a bastard like me, but isn’t that the way you’ve always liked it, my love?”
“You’re a bigger fool than I thought if you honestly believed I was counting on the girl for survival,” she spat. “You may have jeopardized my plans to use her at the moment, but I’m not as close to death as you wish me to be.”
“Ah yes, the serum,” Damien said with a wide grin. “I’m afraid you forgot that our good friend Sam is currently in possession of your precious cure. No, my dear, I have no intention of wasting that on you. Lucy will use the serum. After all, I still need a bargaining tool if I wish to rid my fair city of Conneauroix’s bothersome heir. But in the end, as lovely as she may be, Lucy too will die.”
The Eyes of the Sun: The Complete Trilogy Page 89