Death be Charmed

by Epstein, Katie

THE HOUSE OF Osiris was pretty isolated when we returned, so no one questioned why I was returning in Bernard’s arms with Vienna in tow.

  Doubt started to fill me as we reached our room. What exactly was I going to do? But I reassured myself that we only had a few more days here. We also had an escaped prisoner to find, so tiptoeing around things wasn’t going to get us anywhere.

  It also made me nervous that the Head of Houses had called a meeting. That wasn’t good. And something was telling me that we needed to ramp things up a little before Cole became impatient enough to pull the plug and demand I return to the agency.

  Once we entered our room, I wriggled out of Bernard’s arms. Locking the door behind me, I told Vienna to take a seat. Whispering the magical words to silence the room once more, I wanted to feel the energy of Mayra’s magic shimmer against my skin before I spoke. Once I was satisfied the spell was engaged, I moved deeper into the room. It was only then that Vienna noticed my ankle.

  “Is your ankle better now?” she asked, looking as confused as a cornered rabbit. She knew something wasn’t right, and I glanced over at Bernard to silently beg him to follow my lead.

  “It wasn’t hurt, Vienna,” I told her honestly. “I just needed to get you up here to ask you a few questions.”

  “W-what?” she stammered, her eyes flitting everywhere for an exit.

  Putting my hands up, I spoke calmly. “I’m not here to hurt you. Neither of us are. And you can be reassured that no one will be able to hear what is being said in this room.”

  She stood up and stepped closer to the balcony doors. “What do you mean? No one can hear us?”

  Bernard fled across the room at inhuman speed and was next to Vienna in seconds. “Do you know of me?” he asked her, his lips so close to her ear I barely heard him. She nodded nervously. “Then you know you can’t outrun me. Sit down on the bed, Vienna.”

  With slow and jerky movements, Vienna did as she was told. Telling someone you’d just barricaded in your room to sit down on the bed wasn’t the best thing to say, but I understood why he told her to do so. The bed was in the center of the room, at an equal distance between the window and the door, and therefore easier for Bernard to stop her trying to escape through either.

  “We’re not going to hurt you,” I reassured her again, but I didn’t step any closer. “I only want to ask you a few questions. Okay?”

  She nodded her head and kept her eyes lowered to the floor. Her mouth was pinched together so much I could barely see her lips.

  “When you crashed into me in the garden yesterday, I had a vision,” I continued. “I’m a Sapphire citizen, you see. One who sees certain things.”

  Vienna’s face paled. The light rose color of her cheeks draining away.

  “I don’t ask to see these things and I never know if they are visions about the past, present or future. But with my vision from you, we’re both guessing it was from the past.”

  A tear fell down Vienna’s cheek, and I pushed aside the pain that I could sense emanating from her—even from this distance. “Your friend was called Daia. Florin Thorne killed her, and he made you clean up his mess. Am I right?”

  “Oh no,” Vienna choked out as she started to cry. “He’ll kill me. He’s going to k-kill me.”

  Rushing to crouch down by her legs, I didn’t hesitate in putting my hand gently on hers. I’d pulled off the bandaid in one fell swoop and guilt hit me in a wave. “No, he won’t, Vienna. He doesn’t even have to know we’re aware of anything. But I need to know the truth. The girl, Daia? Is she dead?”

  Vienna nodded as more sobs came. “S-she was a student. And a-a friend. I thought he wanted me. But he didn’t.” She looked at me as tears spilled out of her eyes. “He wanted her, and he used me to get to know her. He summoned me to his room, and I found her there. Dead. He’d hurt her badly. Then he blamed me because I hadn’t taught her that she must listen to the demand of a Courtier at all costs. But it’s not like that here.” She looked pleadingly at Bernard. “Tell her it’s not like that here. We all have a choice. We’re not monsters.”

  “She’s right,” Bernard said to me. “Refusing a Courtier may hurt you socially. But a lot of vampires would frown upon one vampire forcing another.”

  “Is this Florin vampire known for this sort of thing?”

  “He loves himself. That much is evident. And he acts like a spoiled brat when things don’t go his way. But I wouldn’t have imagined he was capable of something like this.”

  “I’m telling the truth!” Vienna shouted as she tried to control her panic. I grabbed a couple of tissues from the dresser and handed them to her.

  “We believe you,” I said, sitting down on the bed next to her. “And I saw it for myself, remember?”

  Wiping her eyes, she fisted the tissue in her hand and looked at me. “Why are you asking me about all this if you already know? Why lure me up here if you’re only going to arrest me anyway?”

  “You know I’m an Enforcer Field Agent?” I asked. It looked like Parris wasn’t the only one to have found out so quickly.

  “A memo was sent out to all houses about Bernard’s return and his new wife. They told everyone to treat you as a guest here, but to be aware of two things: you were human and you were an Enforcer Field Agent. It’s put a few people on edge. But after last night the rumors are dying down. You looked very much in love.” She glanced at Bernard before looking back at me. “Are you together?”

  “No.” A brutal reply, but still … It was better to give her it all in one. “I’m undercover here for something else and Bernard is helping with that cover. Running into you was a complete accident.”

  Vienna choked on another sob at that revelation, but she held it together. “What are you going to do with me?”

  “At the moment? Nothing. If I take you and Florin in now, it jeopardizes the real reason why I’m here. But I also don’t want him to have a bunch of law keepers playing around with the politics regarding a murder charge. Law keepers who would no doubt manipulate things so you end up taking the blame for Daia’s death.”

  “W-what?” she stammered again as if surprised.

  “Terra has a duty to uphold the law,” Bernard explained, “but she is also a pain in the ass when it concerns justice. She won’t stop until she gets it. And she won’t sell you out knowing that you’re also an injured party in all this.”

  “An injured party?” she questioned. “I buried her. I scrubbed her blood. How am I the injured party?”

  Guilt eked out of her pores. “Did you kill her?” I decided to ask.

  “No! Of course not.”

  “Did you send her there for him to kill?”

  “No.”

  “Did you rejoice in her death?”

  “No, I did not.”

  “And were you coerced into burying her body and cleaning up the crime scene?”

  “I don’t …” she hesitated then whispered, “Yes.”

  “I may not be a vampire, but I know how things work in Portiside. I’m also learning how things work here in Darkwood. Florin is keeping an eye on you and keeping you in line. The last person he will want you speaking with is me.”

  She nodded, as if knowing the inevitable.

  “If you don’t do as you’re told,” I added, “he could kill you, too. Or at least make life very difficult for you here. And if you’re not established in the city, leaving Darkwood would be a very frightening thing to do. Especially if there is no one to look out for you.”

  She nodded again.

  “I don’t know what to do in regards to what has happened here, Vienna,” I told her honestly, “but right now I need you to do something for me.”

  “What?”

  “First of all, I need you to keep quiet on this. If you go to Florin and tell him what you know about us, that’s going to put you in a very dangerous position. From both sides.”

  “I know that,” she snapped, and she angrily wiped another tear from her face.

  “Alri
ght. Then secondly, I would like to ask you what you know about a Romeo Lovejoy.”

  Her ears pricked up at the name before she turned fully to face me. “Romeo Lovejoy?”

  “The very one. You seem to know everything and everyone around here. And it’s your job to know the right people. I’m sure you’ve heard of him?”

  “Yes, I have,” she said dubiously. “He was sent to Portiside Prison a while ago for killing all those human women. But what does he have to do with all this?”

  “He’s the reason why we’re here.” Taking a chance, I decided to confide in her. “I have some very confidential information to share with you that must stay in this room.”

  “And what is that?” she asked tentatively, her eyes wary.

  “We received word recently that Romeo escaped the prison.”

  Vienna squeezed her eyes tight as if she was trying to determine if she’d walked into a twisted reality or not. “You’re not kidding, are you?”

  “I don’t kid about sadistic serial killing vamps.”

  Bernard hid a smile at my witty comeback and relaxed a little now he was confident Vienna wasn’t going to flee. I looked across at them both. “What house did Romeo belong to?”

  It was Vienna who answered. “The House of Atlantis.”

  “Marco Perduto pushed for a prison sentence for one of his own?” I asked with surprise.

  “A few people wondered about that,” Bernard admitted. “Marco is all about strategy and very rarely does anything that won’t suit his own needs—either for now or in the future. Many people wondered why he’d sold out one of his family.”

  “As in related family?”

  “No. They call everyone in their house family. Even the dhampirs.”

  Speaking of the half-human, half-vampires who lived here, I asked, “Are the dhampirs around here somewhere then?” I didn’t have a clue if dhampirs looked human or vampire. And considering a lot of vampires looked human until they started to move, the odds were that the dhampirs did, too. But it would have surprised me if they’d been mingling with the vampires last night. Even I knew the dhampirs were considered second-class citizens.

  “The dhampirs are mainly servants here,” Bernard explained. “They act as servers, waitresses, doormen, entertainers. They run the shops, the launderettes, and a lot of them act as blood donors when no humans are available.”

  “I take it they get all the service jobs?”

  “Basically.”

  “So what do hive vampires do exactly?”

  “I’m a hive vampire,” Vienna replied. “We hold such jobs as the Governesses, Assistants, Guards, Doctors, Blood Managers and Hosts. There are other positions, but we don’t get paid a salary as such. We get our living quarters, food and other things for free.”

  “Aren’t the dhampirs bothered by this?”

  “Oh no,” Vienna said, her eyes wide. “They’re honored. Truly. They know they’re a part of Darkwood still, and they know how important they are to our community. That’s why a dhampir is still considered part of the family.”

  “So if Romeo was hiding out here somewhere they would all remain loyal him? Even the dhampirs?”

  “I believe so. Every one of us is beholden to the Darkwood decree. It states we must honor the word of the Head of Houses at all costs. That’s why they’re voted in. They’re voted in by the vampires of the house for the good of the house. Their word is golden.”

  The power I believed Ramses to have over his house raised up a notch from the realization of what she had just said. Here I was, walking into Darkwood, assuming that all they did was flaunt their peacock feathers. It turned out it was a hell of a lot more than that. I was beginning to understand that the history and hierarchy of this place showed the vampires had more power than I gave them credit for.

  “Do you know who Romeo’s friends were, Vienna?” I asked her. “His acquaintances? Who he hung around with?”

  “Not really. I mean, he hung around with the other Courtiers, but I wouldn’t say he was friends with anyone in particular. However, the vampire he was besotted with wasn’t from his house.”

  “She wasn’t?”

  “No. She was from the House of Strigoi. Lillith Arosa’s house.”

  “And what is this vampire’s name?”

  “Adalyn Lemaire.”

  “She still around?”

  “Yes. She went a little off the scene after what happened with Romeo. But when she returned they announced that she’d made the trials as a Courtier. She’s quite a strong presence now for the Strigoi. Lillith uses her as her right arm.”

  “But we can’t question either her or Marco Perduto because it would blow our cover.” I looked at Bernard. “Fancy asking Ramses to throw another ball?”

  “No need.” He walked over and picked up a piece of white card from the floor. I hadn’t seen it earlier because it blended in with the carpet. He turned it over to reveal gold writing. “They have more balls here than Kaleb has girlfriends. And when one has one, another is sure to follow to see if they can outdo one another. Vampires love nothing more than a little competition.”

  “So what’s that in your hand?”

  “An invitation to another ball, of course. For this evening.” He smirked. “You’re going to need another dress.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  “WHO’S HOSTING THIS time around?” I asked Bernard as he kept the invitation out of my reach.

  “The House of Strix,” he sneered. “We’re their guests of honor this time around, too. It appears we’re the current flavor of the month.”

  “Ah,” I said in understanding. “The vampire owl wannabes who like to dress people down in public.”

  “The very same. It seems Parris has taken an interest in you.

  “Great,” I mumbled.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Bernard chattered on. “I won’t leave your side. We’ll just go to the ball, and you can seek out Adalyn. Maybe you can touch her and see if you pick up on anything?”

  “I can try.” I shrugged, aware we couldn’t question her as we had Vienna. We had no leverage over Adalyn and I couldn’t just come out with it and ask if she’d heard about Romeo’s escape. We needed to keep as much of this as quiet as possible. Speaking of which … “Vienna, you need to keep all this to yourself. Every bit of it.”

  “I know,” she replied, as if resigned to her fate.

  “Bernard?” I prompted. “Could Florin charm her to try and find out what we spoke about today?”

  “No. Vampires can’t charm other vampires.” He shrugged when I gave him a strange look. “What? I don’t know how it works.”

  “Alright,” I said with a nod. “Vienna, watch your back with Florin. If you feel scared or threatened, you come find us straight away.”

  Tears filled her eyes, and she gave me a watery smile. “I will. Thank you. Thank you for believing me.”

  “It’s fine. You should leave now before the Head of House meeting ends and Florin wonders where you are. But can you do me a favor on your way out?”

  “Of course I can. Anything.”

  “Will you phone for a car to come and pick me up and drop me at the city border? I’m going to head off into the city to go buy me a dress.” I didn’t need to tell Vienna that I would also be meeting with my EFA partner to give him an update. She’d heard enough for now.

  “I’ll do that …” she gnawed her lip again, “I will take whatever punishment I deserve regarding Daia, but I thank you for trying to protect me against Florin.” She hesitated. “What do you think will happen when you tell them about my friend?”

  “I honestly don’t know. But let’s cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now, I have an escaped convict to find.”

  “Very well. I’ll get out of your hair and order the car. I’ll arrange for it to meet you out front in ten minutes.”

  Bernard waited for Vienna to close the door behind her then asked, “You’re going to meet Kaleb, aren’t you?”

  “I
f I can. And I can get a dress at the same time. What time do I need to be back for the ball?”

  “Start of Final Cycle. That’s six, Portiside time. Ball starts at eight. That should give you enough time to get ready.”

  “Alright. I can do that. What’s your thoughts on what just happened?”

  “Regarding Vienna? It’s a believable story. And it happens often enough. Courtiers often allow their ego to rule their actions. She would have been easy pickings for someone like Florin. And she genuinely was scared of him last night.”

  “Can we trust her to not go running to him?”

  “I think so. She’s been bearing the burden of burying her friend for so long, she sees you as her salvation.” His eyes hovered at the door before he turned them back on me. “How are you going to approach this Adalyn Lemaire tonight?”

  “Who knows? I’m not exactly your girl’s girl who knows what to say to endear other women to them. Usually I’m on the other side of an interrogation table.”

  “If she’s a close ally of Lillith’s, I presume she’ll be a hard nut to crack.”

  “Aren’t all vampires?” I asked, and he winked at me.

  “You can crack my nuts anytime.”

  “Ugh,” I groaned. “I’m going. I’ll see you later.”

  “Sure you don’t want me to come with you?”

  “There’s no need. You can hold ground here and see if you can find out what they were discussing in the meeting.”

  Worry flittered over his face then his features were masked once more. “Alright. I’ll go speak to Ramses. See what he knows.”

  “Are you sure you’re alright to do this?” I asked as guilt washed over me once more. “Lying to your friends, deceiving them …”

  “They’ll understand. I’m sure.” He laughed when he saw the doubt reflected on my face. “They’ll be fine. I promise. A little disappointed that I haven’t found the love they share, but understanding nonetheless.”

  “Then you have very good friends. Vampires or no.”

  “I know. It’s good you’re coming around from your earlier prejudice.”

  “Bite me.”

  He leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. “Don’t tempt me. Now go get something pretty. And I mean something elegant. Don’t just grab the first thing off the rack because you’ve left it until the last minute.”