by Imogen Rose
“I think you may need me here... But, I would like to go, if you can manage without me.”
“Yeah. I’m sure we’ll be fine. Taylor is in phase one,” I whispered in her ear, “and she’s freaking out.”
I turned to Dorian, “Dorian, can you get the private jet ready to take Alexandra back to New York?”
“If you want, I can take her,” Ryker offered, looking over at his uncle for permission.
Spencer looked uncomfortable, but nodded. “Can you return here once you are done? I need to talk to you,” he said sternly.
I wondered what that was all about.
“If you’re sure,” Alexandra said, squeezing my hand. “Call me, if you need me.”
“You gonna be okay?” Ryker asked me, as he put his hands on Alexandra’s shoulders.
“Don’t worry about me, guys. I’ll be fine. Go. I’ll see you later, Ryk.”
We watched them disappear as Mom came walking into the room.
“Hon, it’s so good to see you!” Mom exclaimed. “Did Alexandra leave?”
I hugged her and breathed in her great, mom-smell. “Yeah, she needs to be back in New York.”
“Well, we did well here,” Mom said proudly, sitting down on the chair next to mine.
Everyone around the table–Alfred, Cassandra, Edith, Sophia (the vampire queen of New York), Nora, Eva, Spencer, Shaefer and Hickman–nodded.
“Lady Annabel is quite the strategist,” Alfred said, admiringly. “She suggested we use the shifters in their werewolf forms to patrol some of the more prominent London sites. We have Shaefer and Hickman to thank for getting their packs organized so efficiently. They have been roaming the streets in various shifter forms–cats, birds, dogs. Anyway, we have the culprits in custody. We decided to wait for you before we question them. If you feel ready, we’ll go and do so now.”
“Who are they? What are they?” I asked.
“It’s two female vampires. We have no information about them in our database. They are not London residents. We haven’t been to see them, yet. The shifters transported them to my basement and left them there. Like I said, we’ve been waiting for you to return.”
“Have they been demonized?”
“We don’t know. We need you to tell us.”
Ah. This is where it may have been useful to have Alexandra stay a bit longer. I had no idea how to tell. But, I nodded solemnly.
“Are you ready, Princess?” Dorian asked, as my silence created an uncomfortable atmosphere in the room.
“Yes. Lead me to them,” I said bravely. I followed Alfred as he led us through the rooms, then down the back stairs to the basement. Sigh. I could only hope that it would be spider-free. As it turned out, it was more than just free of bugs. The cavernous, dark hole that I had imagined in my head turned out to be a finished, hi-tech play area, complete with a mini-theater and popcorn machine. Cool.
The two prisoners were sitting, bound to their chairs, watching Blade Runner. Alfred turned the projector off, and the two women in the chairs rolled their eyes at each other. Twins. Their mouths were sealed with tape. They both had amber eyes and red, curly hair.
“Does Faustine really have to be here for this?” Mom protested. “She’s only fifteen; she shouldn’t be exposed to this sort of thing.”
“Mom!” I whispered to her. “Don’t! I need to be here. I want to be here.”
She shook her head and sighed.
Alfred walked up to the twins and tore off the tape covering their mouths–instant upper-lip waxing. Both of them hissed, exposing their fangs momentarily, but then shut up and glared at us.
“Well, they are clearly vampires,” Alfred confirmed, reluctantly. “Who are you?” he asked gently.
The one on the left smiled with her fangs still exposed. “Collette, and this is Silvia,” she said, darting a look at her sister.
“Do you understand what you have done?” Alfred inquired.
They both shrugged.
“Do you understand that you have broken my rules, the Vampire King’s rules?”
“You are not our king,” Collette said sullenly.
Alfred delivered a sharp blow across her face. My mom looked ready to hurl, so I reached to steady her. She was clearly not equipped to handle this kind of violence. For whatever reason, it didn’t faze me at all. I didn’t even blink when Alfred made his move. As long as he wasn’t going to torture them with tarantulas, I’d be fine.
“Shall we try that again?” Alfred asked, his voice low and even, as his eyes narrowed and simmered into Collette’s. She didn’t flinch. “Whose territory are you in?”
Collette shrugged. She was rewarded with yet another head-splitting blow from Alfred. This time, the force of the impact made Collette’s chair fall to the side, and her body fell to the floor.
“Faustine,” Mom whispered. “We are leaving.”
I shook my head, but gestured to Dorian to walk my mother out of the room. She shouldn’t have been here in the first place. She protested as Dorian took her elbow and led her out, but he held firm and closed the door behind them.
“Princess?” Alfred asked, sounding slightly annoyed.
“Oh, don’t mind me. Continue.”
Collette, still attached to her chair, lay silent on the floor.
“Is she alive?”
“Alive? She’s a vampire,” Alfred remarked.
“Oh, you know what I mean!”
“Yes! She is still alive, but barely.”
While Shaefer returned Collette’s chair to an upright position, Alfred moved over to Silvia. Colette’s head had slumped to the side, and her slack jaw revealed that her fangs were missing. I looked around on the floor trying to spot them.
“Silvia.” Alfred seethed venomously.
She nodded, looking over at her sister, who was missing most of her face.
“Where are you from?”
“New York,” she whispered.
“Shut up!” Collette hissed, raising her head. She looked more zombie than vampire. Alfred’s blow knocked over her chair again, this time hard enough to ensure that she was out cold.
“Please, stop,” begged Silvia, her eyes welling up. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, just don’t kill her.”
“You are from Manhattan?” Alfred asked for confirmation.
“Yes.” Silvia nodded.
“Did you know about this?” Alfred asked, turning to glare at Sophia.
“Of course not!” she exclaimed, annoyed. She walked over to face Silvia. “Do you know who I am?”
Silvia shook her head.
“I am the Vampire Queen of New York.” She turned to Alfred. “I’ve never come across these two before.” Then, she turned back to Silvia. “Who gave you permission to travel? I know I didn’t.”
“We don’t need your permission to travel,” Silvia spat at her.
Sophia held up her hand to stop Alfred from striking Silvia. “Insolence will get you nowhere,” she warned Silvia. “Didn’t you see what happened to your sister? I will do the same to you if you don’t answer my questions. Now, why did you not seek out my permission to travel?”
“I’m not a vampire,” Silvia laughed. “That’s why I don’t need your stupid permission.”
Sheesh. This meant that they were possessed for sure. She was clearly a vampire, everyone could see that! Flaming, possessed vamps! Eh, I wished that Alexandra had stayed, after all, as all eyes were now on me.
“Faustine?” Alfred sounded annoyed, to say the least.
I took a deep breath and harvested my inner demon. I let my fingers fuse, but stopped the transformation there. I wore my meanest look as I walked up to Silvia; her sister was still unconscious.
Silvia smiled at me. “Princess Faustine? You’re not at all as I imagined,” she smirked.
“Imagined?”
“I thought you’d be more... sophisticated. Like your mother.”
I shrugged. I wasn’t going to let her get a rise out of me. “Silvia, are y
ou a demon?” All right. Lame I know, but I couldn’t think of how else to figure out if she was or not.
“A demon? Yuck! Of course, not!” she spewed.
Phew. My work here was done, in that case. I shrugged at Alfred.
He shook his head. “Is that it, Faustine? You’re just going to take her word for it?”
Oh, okay. Maybe not... I decided I better ask about the notes.
“Why did you write me the notes?” I asked her.
She looked away. Now what? Slap her? That was kind of Alfred or Sophia’s job, seeing that she wasn’t demonized; though, I guessed she could be lying. I decided to bail and let Alfred handle it. Guantanamo Bay-inspired interrogation wasn’t my cup of tea at all. I shrugged at Alfred, indicating for him to take over.
“The notes,” he repeated. “Why did you write them?”
“I didn’t,” she protested. I could see the fear in her eyes as they welled up when Alfred brought his hand down on her knee, whacking it really hard.
“The next time, your leg will be severed,” he warned.
“Dad wrote the note. I just put it by the bodies after I killed them. I did what I was told; that’s all.”
“Dad?” Alfred hissed.
“My dad. Robert. He’s married to Faustine’s nanny,” she explained.
I closed my eyes. Sheesh. How many kids did that warlock have? I could clearly see the family resemblance now, the red hair and the facial similarities to Taylor and Fitch. They were going to die when they found out! “So, you are vampire-witch hybrids?”
She nodded.
Edith had made her way up to Silvia. “If you’re a witch hybrid, then you are clearly under Sophia’s jurisdiction and mine. You were not acting under our orders, so whose orders are you under?”
“Dad’s!” Silvia muttered.
“Who is Dad?” Edith asked, frustrated.
I sighed. “Edith, let me explain. Their dad is Robert. Robert is working with my half sister, Katerina, in some grand scheme to take control of the New York and London territories. Taking me down and creating mass confusion is part of that scheme,” I explained.
“What are you going to do with us?” Silvia interrupted.
“I’d like to hand you over to the police, so you can pay for all the murders you’ve committed. But, since we can’t do that, I guess Edith and Sophia will decide what to do with you, as you are under their jurisdiction,” I mused, looking over at Edith, who nodded.
“Just one more thing. Is it just the two of you, or are there others committing these murders?”
“Just us.”
We left them in the basement with Edith and Sophia–good luck to them–and reconvened in the conference room where Mom was not-so-patiently waiting.
“So, we have Robert’s daughters,” I concluded after bringing Mom and Dorian up to date on what was happening in New York.
“So, Robert married Tessa to get close to our family?” Mom voiced. “Did he take Sebastian? Or is he under Katerina’s spell?”
“I don’t know, Mom.” I hadn’t shared that Taylor was now occupying Robert, and that I was hoping to get some of this information from her.
“We’ll have to update Edith, so she takes Robert into her custody,” Cassandra said. “She’ll get him to release Neave and the others.”
“No. It’s not as straight forward as that. Trust me. Give me some time to work it out,” I said.
“Care to explain?” Spencer asked. “Is my nephew involved in your scheme?”
“No,” I lied. It was a small lie, though. He wasn’t directly involved. Not yet, anyway, and I hoped to keep it that way. “But, I do like hanging out with him and hope that you’re okay with that.”
“I’m not, while this is going on. Perhaps we can revisit it when this situation is over. In the meantime, I’d like him to stay uninvolved.”
“Much as I like you, Spencer, I’m not going to stop seeing Ryker. But, I’ll try my very best to keep him uninvolved.” I could feel the deathly chill in the room as Spencer studied me. His resentment was hard to ignore. Every one else was looking us.
“It’s hard to keep young love apart,” Nora finally said, trying to lighten the situation. “I’m sure Faustine will keep Ryker out of trouble. Right, Faustine?” she asked, with her eyebrows raised so high that they nearly hit her hairline.
I nodded.
“Spencer?” Nora persisted.
He nodded, but remained silent.
Cassandra interrupted the silence. “You’ll need Edith’s permission if you’re wanting to handle Robert yourself. She is the witch sovereign in New York,” she reminded me.
Yeah. Protocol.
I returned to New York with Ryker, once he picked me up after having dropped Alexandra off. We took the Wanderer Express while Mom flew back the regular way with Dorian, who decided that he could leave London for a while, now that the killings had stopped. We had enough demons in our employment to look after things for a couple of days in London. We were needed in Manhattan.
Ryker brought me home directly into my kitchen. I was famished! I brought him up to date between chews.
“Wow! I was only gone for a short while! That’s quite a story. So, Taylor and Fitch have siblings! Wow.”
“Now, tell me what’s going on with Taylor,” I asked. “Is she okay?”
“Define okay,” he snickered. “She is furious! She can’t stand being in Robert’s body. Alexandra had the hardest time with her in the bathroom earlier. Taylor was totally freaking. She’s freaking to the point where she’s unable to tap into Robert. Anyhow, I left Alexandra trying a number of relaxation techniques on her. So hopefully, she’s calmed down. Are you ready to go over?”
“Yeah. Let’s not say anything about the twins, not yet, anyway. It’ll just upset Taylor more, and that’s the last thing we need.”
“She’s bound to find out for herself when she taps into Robert, anyway,” Ryker pointed out.
“True.... I guess we’ll let her find out in her own time. I’m not telling her!”
“Don’t blame you. Let’s go,” he said, and put his hands on my shoulders. We took off again. The weightless feeling of wandering was becoming second nature to me. Once we arrived outside Alexandra’s apartment, we rang the bell. Fitch rolled his eyes at us as he ushered us into the living room.
Alexandra and Robert were sitting on the couch holding hands, their eyes closed. Robert was wearing a red dress and had a generous amount of make-up on. Ryker and I erupted in snorts and giggles, with Fitch joining us. We clutched our stomachs, laughing for ages; I felt like I was going to be sick.
When I finally looked up, I was confronted by glares from Alexandra and Robert. I nearly started giggling again. I bit down hard on my lips to stop myself. Fitch and Ryker both left and went into the kitchen. I could hear them laughing in there.
“Come and sit down, Faustine,” Alexandra said, beckoning me over.
I walked over to the couch opposite the one they were sitting on and plunked myself down. Unfortunately, my eyes focused on Robert’s unshaven legs, and I let out a snort.
“It’s not funny!” Robert said.
“I’m sorry, Taylor,” I apologized, promising myself not to look at those legs again.
“I am sick of this!” Robert exclaimed. “Let’s get on and do whatever we have to, so I can get out of here!”
“Sure. What’s with the dress, though?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Mom!” Robert cried.
Alexandra sighed. “Faustine, Taylor is having issues wearing pants with the.... well, you know what I mean. She finds it disturbing and uncomfortable. It’s a bit better with the dress on, but not much.”
“And the make-up?” I queried.
“Force of habit,” Alexandra explained.
“Well, we can’t have her going over to Katerina’s looking like this!”
“I know! And I’m right here. Hello!” Robert interrupted. “I’ll get into those stupid pants when I have to; in the
meantime, I’m wearing this. So d-e-a-l.”
“Okay, Taylor. Thanks. You’re being awesome.”
Robert nodded his head.
“I guess our first task is to release Neave,” Alexandra said.
“Yes. Let’s go over to Neave’s apartment.”
“We don’t have to. Taylor should be able to break the spell from here; Neave’s apartment is close enough.”
Good idea. It would save us the embarrassment of walking Robert to Neave’s apartment in a dress.
“Faustine, I’m going to need you to remain silent. No snickering or snorting. Or go to the kitchen and stay there with the boys,” Alexandra suggested.
“I promise to be quiet. You won’t even know I’m here.”
“Taylor, you need to meditate with me now, absorb into Robert’s spirit and find the spell that he cast on Neave. Then, I need you to break it. Will you try that for me?” Alexandra asked.
Robert nodded, closing his eyes and taking Alexandra’s hand. His labored breathing relaxed into deep, even breaths, his jaw slacking as he entered a deep trance. He sat like that for ages, his eyes occasionally flickering in a disturbing fashion, made even weirder by the false eyelashes bobbing up and down and coming loose in the corners. Finally, he started chanting. As he chanted, a smile spread across his face, which then turned into a grimace. I wished that I was in there with Taylor seeing what was going on. Then, Robert opened his eyes.
“Call Neave,” he said.
I nodded and called her.
“Neave?”
“Hey! Wassup?”
“Try your door.” I waited.
“The shield is lifted!” she exclaimed. “Awesome. Who did that? Mom?”
“No. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Come over to Alexandra’s place.”
“Okay!”
“So, what happened, Taylor?” I asked excited, turning off my cell. “You freed Neave!”
“I did, didn’t I? Flaming awesome!” Robert replied. In that moment, I could see Collette and Silvia in him. The resemblance was striking.
Fitch and Ryker decided to join us and were death-glared into no giggling by Alexandra.
“What was it like, Taylor?”
“Really weird. I became dad. I couldn’t feel myself anymore; my thoughts disappeared into the background. It was sort of scary. I wasn’t sure if I could get them back. I was scared that he would take control of me.”