"What is it?"
"I should really give it to you in your room."
"Oh, come on."
"Okay," Garret said. He walked over and dropped something into her hand, but Caitlin couldn't see what it was.
But Alexis could. "Are those your underwear?"
Bethany turned bright red, and Caitlin turned red just out of sympathy. Garret stammered a bit, but couldn't say anything.
But Alexis wasn't thinking about any of them. She stormed back over to the counter and shoveled an angry spoonful of cereal into her mouth. "Am I the only one who didn't get laid last night?" she fumed.
That actually made Caitlin crack a bit of a smile, and at least gave Bethany a chance to recover. "I, um, have to get rid of ... I'll be right back. Meet me outside?"
"Sure thing, Beth," Garret said.
Caitlin sat down with Alexis. "So," she said, "bad night?"
"It was a great night," Alexis said. "Right up until we got back here. We were together all night at the club, he acted like he was really into me, I gave him all the signals. Hell, I didn't give him signals, I invited him in to take a shower with me. And you know what he did?"
"I'm guessing it doesn't involve lathering, rinsing, and repeating?"
"He gave me a side hug. A side hug. Do I look like the kind of girl that does side hugs? No, no I do not."
Caitlin made a face. "Sorry, hun. I really don't know what to say."
"You can say that he's a big stupidhead that missed out on the best night of his life."
"He's a big stupidhead that missed out on the best night of his life," Caitlin repeated dutifully.
"And that he's probably gay."
"And he's probably gay."
"Thank you," Alexis said, and shoveled more cereal, crunching grumpily.
Chapter Six
Michael didn't spend much time in this part of Angelica's mansion.
When he saw her, it was usually on a more personal basis, but this was strictly business. Which meant that they were in the part of the mansion reserved for business.
They were waiting in a cavernous room, easily a hundred feet long and nearly as wide. The floors were marble, and the high ceiling was supported by a series of pillars. There was no artwork on the walls, but the windows were stained glass. If you looked carefully, though, you'd see that the images were considerably more graphic than you'd find in a church.
They waited at the end farthest from the entrance, near the raised platform. The dais was also made of marble, and atop it sat Angelica's ebony throne. A hidden door opened, and Angelica's assistant appeared. "You will be seen now," she said.
The two vampires rose and followed her into Angelica's office.
Angelica's private space wasn't as vast as the throne room, but it was still needlessly large. The floors of the office were covered in thick, plush carpet, and the walls were covered in dark wallpaper with a subtle print. The entire back wall was one giant window. Shutters were hidden in the wall, which could slide into place to make the room light-tight.
Angelica sat behind her mahogany desk, her face a stone mask. She was dressed in a black pant suit, and her hair hung in a braid behind her. She leaned forward, her fingers steepled. Even though she was looking up at them, it was clear that she was the most dominant person in the room. "Sit," she said, pointing to the two chairs that faced her desk. It wasn't an invitation.
They sat and waited. "I assume you know why we're here," Angelica said at last.
"Well, I'm here to find out how this sorry excuse for a vampire is going to be punished," Liam said.
Angelica sighed and sat back. "You should be more worried about—"
Liam pounded his fist on Angelica's desk. "He killed seventeen of my wolves!"
Angelica raised an eyebrow at him. "When did you start caring about werewolves?"
"They don't grow on trees," Liam spat. "Do you know how hard it's getting to find decent help?"
"Right," Michael said. "Because if there's one thing we're short on, it's werewolves. How many do we have crawling around the city? Fifty? Or is that just your personal guard?"
Liam rose from his chair. "You entered my grounds uninvited. You slaughtered my men. And you took. My. Dinner."
"I told him to retrieve the girl," Angelica said. "And it's not his fault you can't be bothered to pick up your cell phone. Now sit down."
Reluctantly, Liam retook his chair. "You commanded him to kill my entire staff?"
Angelica smiled. "No, that was his own idea."
"Exactly," Liam started, but Angelica cut him off.
"Of course," she said, "if your wolves really did ignore my signet, I would have had them killed anyway. So really, Michael was just expediting the process. Did their Alpha really say that your orders were more important than mine?"
Liam avoided her eyes. "Well, we could ask him, except Michael cut his damn voice box out." He was clearly unhappy that she knew Liam's followers considered themselves beyond her reach. In St. Troy, pretty much nothing was beyond her reach.
Michael smirked. Liam's talons extended, and he reared back to slash. "Enough," Angelica said, with a voice as cold as the arctic wind.
Anger flashed in Liam's eyes, but he settled down. "So you're doing his hunting for him now? He picks a pretty girl, and you move heaven and earth to get her for him? You need to start thinking with your head, and not your—"
"Be very careful with your next words, Scion," Angelica said. A dangerous note had crept into her voice.
"I've been patient with you," she continued. "I know that you don't agree with the way I'm running this city. And I've told you before, if you want to go to another city and find a Regent that will let you hunt the way you want, you can leave with my blessing. But while you're in my city, you will obey my rules."
She shook her head. "You're getting careless, Liam. This girl would have been the second one this week. Never mind that Michael was ... interested in her. We can't afford the attention. There's a horde of parents watching this place right now, worried about their children, away from home for the first time. And if they start disappearing ... Do you have any idea how hard it was to cover up that girl's death?"
"Nothing draws attention faster than a pretty white girl gone missing," Michael said with a smirk.
Liam stared at them, mouth hanging open. "We used to hunt together. You taught me how to be a vampire. And now ..."
"Now," Angelica said, "we live more comfortably than any vampires in the world. We have a home, and a constant food supply, and access to some of the brightest minds and most beautiful people from this generation. But you'd throw that all away, wouldn't you?"
"We aren't meant to be comfortable," Liam said, exasperated. "We're supposed to be hunters! We're supposed to work for our food. Enjoy the hunt. What good is having the University if we can't eat any of the students?"
"We can eat them, Liam. We just can't kill them."
"We're predators!"
"We're survivors, Liam. And if we're going to survive in this world, we have to adapt to it. If you don't like it, there are a dozen Regents that would love to have you."
Angelica picked up some papers lying on her desk. "You may leave," she said.
Michael and Liam walked out of the office and back into the throne room.
"Well, I'm glad we had that little chat," Michael said.
"I'm sure you loved that," Liam said. "Angelica's little neutered pet, watching the real vampires get their fangs pulled."
"It did put a smile on my face. But that's enough about me. Let's talk about you, and how you're going to leave Caitlin alone."
"Oh, is that her name?"
"You know damn well what her name is, and she's off limits."
Liam gave him a cruel smile. "I'm a vampire, Mike. A real one. No one's off limits. Not even your little blond crush."
"Angelica—"
"Angelica said I can't kill her. But there are still plenty of ways to entertain myself. In fact, I might go visit her right now. He
r blood is practically singing to me."
Michael roared. He pulled the silver dagger so fast it seemed to appear by magic, then Michael rushed forward and slashed at Liam with furious power.
But Liam caught hold of Michael's wrist and casually stripped the dagger from his hand. "You really don't learn, do you?"
He thrust the dagger between Michael's ribs. Michael choked and fell to the ground, smoke curling up from the wound. "I'll give Caitlin your regards," Liam said.
He looked back when he reached the door. "I really have no idea what Angelica sees in you."
***
Caitlin tried, she really did. She tried to pay attention in class. It was still the first week, and she didn't want to get behind so soon. She tried to get excited when they toured the dark room. A real dark room, with red lights and trays filled with chemicals. She'd always wanted to see one of those, to see how photography worked before you could just download a bunch of RAW files to your Mac and tweak them in Aperture. She tried to follow the conversation at dinner. Alexis was grilling Bethany about Garret, demanding to know the intimate details of how he ended up with her intimate apparel.
But it was hopeless. Every time Caitlin closed her eyes, hell, even when they were still open, she saw Michael.
Part of her was head-over-heels about him. Who wouldn't be? This was every teenage girl's fantasy, come to life. A handsome, brooding, vampire had literally broken down the door to rescue her from monsters. This was the kind of thing they made movies about, and it was real, and it was happening to her. There were moments when Caitlin just wanted to scream, she was so excited.
But part of her was ... not afraid, not really. It was more like she knew that she should be afraid. That being kidnapped should have affected her more. That the knowledge that Liam was still out there should have scared her. And the fact that Michael was a ...
No, he wasn't a monster. He was one of the good guys. He had his urges under control, and when he fought, it was to protect people, not to eat them. He was a vegetarian, or whatever they really called themselves.
But every once in a while Caitlin flashed back to her dream, and saw Michael's ruby eyes and razor-sharp fangs. And when that happened, she wanted to scream all over again.
They were sitting in their dorm, on the couch. Caitlin had a book in her lap, trying to finish some of the reading she had been assigned and failing miserably. Bethany was on the other end of the couch, and Alexis was in one of the arm chairs. The television was on, but no one was really paying attention to it. They were all lost in their own worlds.
And then it hit her. The worst pain Caitlin had ever felt in her entire life.
It was like someone had jammed a white-hot knife into her chest. Everything else disappeared, replaced with searing pain. Caitlin tried to cry out, but she couldn't even draw a breath. She grabbed at her chest and curled into a ball, and wondered if she was dying.
"Caitlin? Are you all right, babe?" Alexis' voice was worried.
Caitlin couldn't answer. She was somewhere else, somewhere she didn't recognize. It looked like some kind of a church, like the big Cathedral that her parents dragged her to on Christmas and Easter, except it was all white marble instead of dreary gray. She was lying on the floor, looking at some kind of a throne.
"Michael," she gasped.
And just like that, the pain and the vision was gone.
"What?" Alexis asked. Bethany was looking at her intently.
Caitlin took a moment to clear her head. "Um, Michael. I was supposed to meet him tonight, and I totally forgot about it."
"And that made you faint?" Alexis asked. "Is he that good in bed?"
Caitlin gave a nervous laugh. "I wouldn't know," she said. "But I have to get going. I don't want to miss him."
She ran to her room and threw on a sweater, then headed out the door.
"Don't get pregnant," Alexis called after her.
Outside, Caitlin looked around, not entirely sure where she should go. She knew that Michael was in danger, and that he was in incredible pain, but she had no idea where he was. The room she had seen was totally unfamiliar to her. Finally, she decided to head to Indigo, and hope for the best.
She set off down the trail that led to the Student Life building.
The path through the woods was narrow and winding, and the lights were a little too few, and a little too far, in between. It was like walking through a tunnel of shadows. Caitlin felt like it was designed to give things a place to hide and jump out at you, but she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind, and kept moving forward.
She breathed a sigh of relief when she finally reached the SL building, with its bright lights and constant flow of people.
A guy and a girl were making out on the side of the building, and Caitlin couldn't help but stare at them. The way he held her, the way her head fell backward, the way his lips moved across her skin ... it almost looked like he was biting her.
But then the girl laughed and slipped out from under him, and grabbed him by the hand and pulled him back toward the dorms.
Caitlin shook her head and moved on.
She stood at the bus stop, tapping her foot impatiently, wishing that she had her own car. Finally, after what felt like an hour but was probably only five minutes, the shuttle pulled up. Caitlin got inside and threw herself into the seat closest to the door.
There were only a handful of people on the bus, all of them dressed to go clubbing. Three girls sat together in the back, laughing and joking. Four guys across from her, one of them with his arm around his girlfriend. Caitlin bounced in her seat, wishing the driver would hurry up. Finally, the door closed, the air brakes hissed off, and the bus pulled onto the road.
She chewed her lip the entire ride. She tasted blood by the time the bus reached her stop.
And then Caitlin was standing across the street from Indigo, staring at the line of people queued up to drink, dance, and hook up.
And maybe die.
She felt numb, fuzzy, like she was in a dream. She shouldn't be here. It was stupid, dangerous. What if Liam was here? What if he saw her? And really, how was she supposed to find Michael? Nothing in the vision had looked anything like Indigo.
She was just about to walk away when a pair of hands grabbed her and dragged her into the shadows of the alley.
She tried to scream, but a cold hand was clamped over her mouth. She was taken by the shoulder and turned around, and saw ...
Michael.
He looked like hell. His skin was ashen—not his normal, natural hue, and not the chalk-white he turned when his fangs came out, but an in-between gray color that made him look ill. A hole in his shirt revealed a horrible stab wound.
"Oh God, Michael! Are you okay? What happened to you? I was in my dorm, and I felt ... God, are you okay?"
"Yeah. Liam," he said. His voice was clipped.
Caitlin's eyes widened. "He did that to you?"
"Yeah. Silver. I'm all right. But we have to get you out of the city."
"Wait, what? Out of the city? Are you kidding?"
"No," he said harshly. She couldn't tell if he was angry or in pain, or both. "He's looking for you right now."
Caitlin was suddenly very cold.
"We have to get you out of town," Michael repeated. "I can have you on a plane tonight. I'll have someone pack up your things. But for now, let's just get you off the street and somewhere safe."
"No."
"What?"
"I said 'no.' I'm not leaving." She looked at him, almost longingly. "I can't."
"Caitlin, you don't understand. Liam is dangerous. He'll—"
"I know he's dangerous, Michael. But you don't understand, either. I can't leave. I just can't."
Anger flashed in Michael's eyes, and he looked around like he was searching for something to attack. "Will you at least come with me, so I can try to keep you safe?"
"Of course," Caitlin said.
"Of course," Michael mimicked. "I'll go home with a vamp
ire, and spend the night in his vampire mansion, and wait for his vampire buddies to come and eat me. That sounds like a great idea."
"You don't have to mock me."
Michael just stared at her. "The car's this way," he said finally.
***
Caitlin had been pretty sure that the ride home was going to kill her.
"Um, Michael? Do you want me to drive?"
Michael was hunched over the steering wheel, his teeth gritted together, his eyes narrowed. He was gripping the steering wheel so hard that it was actually bending in his hands. "I'm fine," he managed to sputter.
"Um, okay. It's just that you almost hit that woman. And that car. And that other car."
Another wave of pain hit Michael, and his body swayed to the right. The car followed with him, and Caitlin tried to brace herself in the seat. But Michael recovered in time to keep them on the road.
Caitlin was exhausted by the time they got to Michael's, but at least they made it there safely. Michael nearly fell to his knees when he got out of the car, and Caitlin worked her way under his arm and helped him into the house.
William was waiting inside for them. "Good evening, Master. Would you—" He stopped in the middle of his sentence. "Not again," he said, and sighed. "What happened this time?"
"Lost a fight," Michael said, and stumbled toward the kitchen. Caitlin walked along side him, trying to keep him upright. William followed close behind.
Michael waved Caitlin away when they reached a cooler full of blood. She watched, fascinated, as he drained two containers. He looked like a frat boy shotgunning beers.
The color returned to his skin almost instantly, and the wound on his chest flowed shut. The life returned to his eyes, and he stood up straight. He looked like a different person. Caitlin walked over and placed a hand on his chest, touching his skin through the hole in his shirt. "That's incredible," she said, awestruck.
Michael rolled his eyes.
William cleared his throat. "Master? Is there anything you require?"
"Just privacy, please, William. Thank you."
The butler vanished in a puff of British manners, and Michael led Caitlin into the living room. Michael threw himself into one of the arm chairs, and Caitlin sat on the ottoman in front of him.
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