House Of Vampires 3 (The Lorena Quinn Trilogy)

by Samantha Snow

  “This is the menu for tonight,” a female voice was saying. I think it was Anja. “He wishes for dinner to be served promptly at three in the morning.”

  “Yes, ma'am.” I instantly recognized Peter.

  There was a long silence. “Is there a problem?”

  “The amounts seem to be short.”

  “No, this is all the master and us require.”

  Another long pause. “Master Alan and Master Dmitri will not be attending dinner...again?”

  The sound of skin striking skin echoed through the door. “A servant does not speak of dinner guests, he is required only to carry out his duties. If you cannot do that, you will be...dealt with. Is that understood?”

  “Yes...ma'am.”

  I ducked down and slunk around the long fancy island when I heard the door open. When I saw Anja's full skirts rustle by I had to resist the urge to attack her. I didn't like her hitting Peter. To be honest, I wasn't cool with hitting someone in the first place. I know that they say video games are supposed to make you violent, but I find killing my digital enemies soothing. My real ones? Well that takes a toll.

  When I was sure she was gone I went from the kitchen to the pantry where I found Peter, hunched over what looked like an industrial sized thing of water ketchup. One sniff told me that it was definitely blood. Ew. He was leaning over it, his head pressed against an empty shelf. His shoulders slumped forward.

  “Peter?”

  He jerked up, his eyes wide with fright. “I wasn't dawdling!” he cried out.

  I had never seen Peter look anything but perfectly pressed and polished. Yes, he had smiled, laughed, and joked with the Sons of Vlad, but he had never seemed afraid. The wide-eyed stare he was giving me, and the shaking of his hand as he fidgeted with the big bucket of blood made me think that he was well beyond scared and deeply afraid.

  “Peter,” I said again, softly this time. “Are you okay?”

  He blinked, his eyes softening for just a moment. “Lorena?”

  “That's me,” I said, stepping forward and putting my hand on his shoulder. “Are you alright? Where are Alan and Dmitri? What's going on?”

  He started to shake again, and I tugged him away from the pantry. I didn't know how safe the kitchen was, so I pulled him deeper into the servants’ area. I was pretty sure none of the high and mighty vampires would come this way. Eventually we ended up in a room that looked like Peter's private quarters. He sat on a love seat, still looking at me like I was a ghost.

  “Lorena, you are here. I thought...they had put you away.”

  “They had,” I admitted. “But being a necromancer pretty much rocks. But how long was I gone?”

  “A week,” he said.

  I wasn't sure how I felt about that. There was a part of me that feel like I had been in that crappy room for months, and another part that wondered if it had only been a day or two. A week? That was...well that wasn't the worst news that I could have gotten.

  “Alright,” I said. “Tell me everything.”

  He did. I had to make him a cup of tea to help him stop shaking, but ultimately, he told me the story of Vlad's budding reign of terror. It had started when he had demanded that everyone forget that Wei was alive. I didn't get that. I mean, I knew that he thought that if I believed Wei was dead it would mean I'd jump into Vlad's arms...but what did it matter if everyone else thought he was alive? I didn't know, but when Alan and Dmitri refused he had them locked up too. Apparently, Vlad believed that locking people up and refusing them sustenance meant that they'd learn respect. Yeah, fear and respect weren't the same thing. Whatever.

  Then Vlad had decided to redecorate. Instead of going back to Transylvania or wherever, he had decided that this new and lush world was the new home for him and his people. It was where they would make their army.

  “What army?” I asked.

  “Vlad has...lost the ability to create more vampires.” Peter's voice was conspiratorially low. I had to lean in to hear him. I had already known that, but it was clear that Peter didn't think I had. “He thinks once he gets you pregnant that he will be able to make more, and when he does he wants to make hundreds, thousands.”

  “Why?”

  “To rule the world,” a light feminine voice said.

  I jumped, so did Peter. I whirled and found myself looking into the perfect face of Genevieve. Her dress was the palest rose petal pink I had ever seen, but it wasn't as fancy as the other gowns I knew she owned. It had the straighter lines of a riding gown.

  She held up a single hand. “I am not here to harm you. I am here to assist.”

  “Assist?” I asked, knowing I sounded disbelieving.

  She sighed. “I want magic back in this world, Lorena Quinn. I will not lie about that. I will, however, say that the idea of Vlad fathering that magic makes the blood grow cold in my belly. I do not know if it is the loss of magic, or the believed loss of two of his sons, and he does believe them lost. But he has gone mad. Every night it is worse. I have heard him whisper your name when he comes to one of our beds. I have heard him walk the length of your hallway and wonder why you do not submit to his charms. Lorena, I fear for you, myself, and my brother.”

  I believed her. Maybe it was stupid, but I did. “What can you do?”

  “I can get you out of here.”

  “What of Alan? Dmitri? Peter?”

  “I cannot free them. Not without him knowing. And if he knew that you were helped in the escape...not all of us would survive the aftermath.”

  “I'll stay,” Peter said bravely. “He needs his comforts. I will provide them.”

  I shook my head. “I can't leave Alan and Dmitri locked away.” I shook my head a second time, harder. All I could picture was them in a room, unable to leave, while the days crawled by. No, I wouldn't leave anyone that way, not even someone I hated. “I can't leave you two to fight this battle without me.”

  “We aren't,” Genevieve promised. “Not all of the vampires agree with Vlad and what he is doing. Anja does, because she is dedicated to him in a way that only his first bride can be, and Rehma is his favorite, and she won’t do anything to risk that changing. But the rest of us? Well.” She shrugged a pale shoulder and looked amused with herself. “I am very charming.”

  I didn't know exactly what she meant by that. But I didn't need to. “You'll make sure that Alan and Dmitri are safe?”

  “I will make sure no harm comes to my brother or his love.” Genevieve smiled. “You must go. You must rescue Wei.” She reached out and took my hand in hers. “Please, Lorena, rescue your heart so that we do not all lose.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  After so long of nothing happening, everything went quickly after that. I had so many questions I wanted to ask, but before I could even form the words, I was given new clothes and shown out the servants’ door to disappear into the night in record time. I was promised that everything at the mansion would be taken care of, and I had to trust in that.

  The keys to a car that wasn't mine jingled in my hand. When I saw what they went to, I nearly froze. I was expecting one of the dark SUV's that I had seen the vampires drive when they had bothered to drive rather than use their fancy magical transportation abilities. This? This was the kind of car you'd see in a slick action movie. It had the Pontiac symbol on the front, but I didn't know what fancy title they had given this curvy and sleek car.

  “Holy...” I shook my head and smirked.

  I jumped in the car, and a moment later Maahes appeared in the passenger’s seat. “Hey buddy, thanks for the great escape.

  His response was to sniff the leather. I couldn't blame him. The leather was nice. So were all the pretty display options on the dashboard. No expense was spared with this car was concerned. I approved.

  I put the key in the ignition and took off into the night. I didn't bother with AC, I rolled the power windows down and let the fresh air tangle my hair. It cleared my head long enough for me to make a plan.

  I was going to stop by
the house first and let my dad know I wasn't dead. While I was there I was going to load up on all the magical crap my grandmother had laying around, arming myself like Rambo did with guns. Then I was going to pick up a burner phone so I could stay in contact with people. Then I was going to Jenny's. I didn't care how happy her life was without me in it, I had a few things to say about being abandoned. I hadn't had a whole lot of friends in my life, but I knew that you weren't supposed to ignore them just because you got a love interest. That just wasn't cool.

  Then, when all that was done, I was going to go find Wei. Either he was at the creepy cult compound, or someone there knew where he was. One way or another I was going to find out where he was.

  There was a light on at the house as I pulled into the driveway. Before I even got out of the fancy, fancy, car the door was opening and the familiar shape of my father filled the light that came spilling out.

  “Lorena?” he asked, and I heard his voice break.

  “The one and only.”

  Before I could make some smart quip, he was wrapping me in his arms and holding me so tight breathing became an option. I couldn't blame him, but it was the first time I really remember him really hugging me. Sure, he'd hugged me on my birthday or when I wasn't feeling well. This was different. He'd thought I was gone forever and I could feel it. I felt bad, but more than that, I was angry at Vlad for making me worry my father. “Where were you? What happened?”

  “Let's talk inside.” I felt strangely exposed standing outside of the house, my house. I had to keep reminding myself that it was mine. Stupid, but true.

  He didn't let go of me, he loosened his grip and lead me inside, but he kept an arm slung around me as if he were afraid I was going to disappear. I couldn't blame him. Over a cup of hot chocolate, I told him everything, from the dinner to Vlad to the great escape. Then I asked him if he'd figured out the math magic thing.

  “You want to talk about that right now?” he asked. There was something in the way that he said it that had me looking him over. My dad looked tired. Not just kind of sleepy, like my arrival had woken him up, but really tired. The kind of tired that a whole month of sleep couldn't fix. His brown hair looked a little more silver than I remembered it and there were bags under his eyes. He wore jeans and a t-shirt and no socks to speak of.

  I shrugged. “Well, I don't plan on sleeping for a week since that's pretty much all I've done. So, let's talk about this.”

  He dragged a hand down his face and then stood up. He went to one of the magic book shelves and took out what looked to be a fancy leather notebook. He opened it up and I realized it was filled with equations. The Mathmagician’s grimoire, I supposed.

  “Okay,” he said, plopping the book down in front of me. “I have done a little over one hundred equations and what I've discovered is that Wei is at the compound for the Order of the Loyal Hermit, and that he is neither alive nor dead. I don't know how that is, or why that is.”

  The first part came as absolutely no surprise, the second one? Well that was a whole different thing. “Because he's a vampire?” I guessed.

  He shook his head. “Vampires have their own numbers, like shape shifters and other mythical beings. Some of those numbers overlap, but that's not the reason for this. I don't know what's going on, but he exists in some in-between state that I can't get an equation for.”

  “Okay, that took a hundred equations?”

  He frowned deep enough to cause lines around his eyes and shook his head. “No, the rest came when I was trying to find out if you were with Jenny or the vampires.”

  “Well, I hope that question got answered.”

  “It did...and it didn't.”

  I didn't like the way that sounded. My life these past few months (was it really only months?) had been one problem after another and I had the distinct feeling that I was about to have another one handed to me. “You wanna make that a little less vague for me, pops?”

  He gave me a look that told me he was about as amused with me as he would be with a fungal infection. “You should focus.”

  “I am focused. Right now, I am focused on the fact that you don't want to tell me what's going on with Jenny.” I gave him my own look, but I didn't think it was nearly as polished.

  “I can't explain what I found, but I think that something is wrong where Jenny is concerned,” he finally said after our battle of the expressions. “Maybe Reikah too, I can't be sure.” He didn't look at me when he said it.

  Despite the fact that I wasn't too happy with her right this moment, I felt a little flip happen in my belly. I could taste guilt in the back of my throat like old sour fruit. “What do you mean? Like, you mean they might be having trouble in paradise problems? Or like, cult apocalypse problems?”

  “I don't know.” He jerked his shoulders nearly up to his ears. The new lines around his eyes looked deeper than they had at first. He wasn't just tired, he was scared. I don't know that I had ever seen my dad scared before. I picked up my keys. “Where are you going?” His head snapped up as he came to attention.

  “My list of people to rescue just got a little longer.” I tucked the keys into my pocket and turned towards my grandmother's shelves. “It's time to load up and roll out. Are you coming?”

  My father paused, he ran his tongue along his teeth. “Lorena, my magic is passive, not active. I need time to craft equations, to select the right numbers, use the right paper and ink to create the frame for my spell work. Informative, but not particularly good in any combat situation.” He dragged his hand through his hair again, several locks stuck up. “For a long, long time no one thought that I had any magic because it takes such a specific set of circumstances for me to spell work.”

  There was a flicker of something behind his eyes that told me this had been a sore point. As much as I wanted to reminisce over my father's childhood trauma I couldn't right this moment. Maybe another time.

  “Okay, so you are the font of wisdom back at home base,” I said, putting my RPG knowledge to work. “At least you aren't an annoying fairy that follows me around.”

  “What?”

  “Zelda joke. Don't worry about it. But I have to go. I have to go see what's happening with Jenny, I have to go find out what's going on with Wei, and then I have to see if I can fulfill a prophecy without one side trying to kill me and the other side trying to...attack me.” I couldn't bring myself to say the type of attack. It still made my skin crawl.

  “What do you need from me?”

  I began going through the crystals and glass bottles filled with dried herbs on the bookshelf. I didn't know the properties of all of them, or even half, but I knew enough to know what might help focus my magic. “Can you cast magic on me? I dunno, write your mathematical symbols on me or something? Protective ones, you know, or anything that can elevate my magic?”

  I had the feeling I was going to need my magic, and a lot of it. I just wish I knew what for. I wish that I knew better how to handle my magic. That I had more time, or some kind of wise witch to give me all the information right before I went to the boss battle. Apparently, life was not that straight forward.

  “I can give you three things,” he said, sounding more and more like a quest giver. That was about right, considering I was on a quest. “I can give you a map of the compound, I am sure it hasn't changed much since your mother and I were...together.”

  “You spent time there?”

  He sighed. “I had a rebellious time, it took a few equations to get that. Some protections, and...” he hesitated. “The wand.”

  That had me pausing with a crystal in my hand. “The what?”

  He turned away from me, and reached into the high cabinet nestled over the fridge. He pushed past the flour and brown sugar containers and pulled out what looked like a tall canister marked Pasta. He lifted the lid and pulled out a very simple slip of wood, no longer than the span between my wrist and my elbow and no wider around than my thumb. It was incredibly simple to look at, just smooth honey c
olored wood with a smooth white crystal affixed to the end.

  “Your grandmother's wand. I should have given it to you before, but I thought...well I guess I was still protecting you.”

  I felt a small tinge of anger, but it was drowned out by the fact that I could almost feel magic spilling off the wand. It felt like an invisible cloud sweeping through me.

  “Will it work for me?” I asked.

  He nodded. “It should.”

  He put it in my hand and a tingle slithered up my arm. It didn't feel bad or scary or anything, it felt good.

  “Is there a pointy hat hiding behind the sugar or something?”

  My dad laughed. “No. But there are some robes.”