Where Loyalty Lies
Page 10
More than anything I wanted to beg Holt to stop the car. I could feel the words climbing up my throat, desperate to escape. I clenched my jaw to stop them coming out. I couldn’t let fear destroy everything that Holt had done for me. It was true that I still didn’t know much about him, but I did know that he’d been a perfect gentleman. He’d made Ben return my money, Mr Jackson put locks on my door, he’d arrived in minutes when I’d called him in tears, he’d googled Harry Potter just to understand what I was talking about, he’d made me the best banana pancakes in the world and he’d patiently answered every one of my questions.
Already I owed him so much. Regardless of what The Sénat thought of me, I would do what I could to make sure Holt never regretted his decision to bring me here.
I raised my head and forced my eyes to take in the fast-approaching Rillith. This was it, my new beginning. I would not cower and cry; I’d show everyone here what I was made of. Life is what you make it and I was going to make sure I made the most of every moment.
Holt pulled out his mobile, flipped it open and pressed a couple of buttons.
“Hello.” I could hear the male voice on the other end.
“Henry, are you busy?” Holt asked. There was a pause.
“Well, that depends on your definition of ‘busy’.” The sound of a female giggling gave away what Henry’s definition was.
“I need your help,” Holt said.
Henry’s tone changed instantly. “Sure thing, where are you?”
“I’m at the front doors.”
With that, Holt snapped his phone shut. His attention came back to me. “Henry’s a good friend of mine; I’ve known him a long time and you can trust him.”
I looked carefully at Holt’s face, wondering if he was aware of my anxiety. If he was, he wasn’t going to mention it.
We pulled up outside the huge front doors in a spacious area that was fully undercover. It reminded me of the front of a smart hotel.
Holt smiled at me and got out the car. I took one long deep breath and followed suit. A guy about my age seemed to appear out of nowhere. At first I thought it must be Henry but then Holt handed him the keys.
“Put the bags in the boot in my room please, and the ones on the back seat can go to room 418.”
“Certainly, Sir,” the guy said and then he slid into the driver’s seat and drove off and out of view round the side of the building.
I raised my eyebrows. This place really was like a hotel. Before I could comment, the front doors opened and the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen trotted down the steps towards us. The paleness of his skin and the way he moved, in the same graceful style as Holt, told me he was a vampire. He had a heart-shaped face, eyes the colour of summer grass and his soft brown hair, which was only slightly shorter than mine, was pulled back in a clasp at the base of his neck. He was wearing black trousers with a navy shirt that looked ever so slightly rumpled. He gave me a quick once-over and turned to Holt.
“Blimey Holt, if you keep bringing them back here at this rate, we’re going to have more staff than we know what to do with.”
Holt gave me an apologetic look as I came to stand next to him.
“Henry, this is Faine.” While Henry and I nodded at each other, Holt seemed to be figuring out what to tell Henry. He must have decided to bite the bullet. “Faine is half-vampire.”
“Half...” Henry gave me another once-over, this time taking his time. I tried hard not to squirm under his gaze. An uncomfortably long moment passed in which Holt watched Henry, Henry watched me and I tried to look anywhere but at the two of them.
“You’re sure?” Henry finally uttered.
“Certain,” Holt answered without a second’s hesitation.
“Damn!” Henry looked amazed.
Holt continued, “I’m sorry to spring this on you, but I need to take Faine to The Sénat straight away and I’d appreciate it if you’d come with us. I want your opinion on how they react to the situation.”
I wasn’t quite sure what Holt meant and, before I could decide whether I should ask or not, Holt started up the stairs. Still staring at me, Henry gave a gracious wave of his hand to indicate that I should go before him.
Inside the doors I did my best not to gasp. The entrance hall was huge. The wooden floors were lightly coloured but an intricate pattern of dark wood swirled out from the centre. A wide staircase began at the left of the room but curved to the right as it went up; it connected to the second storey balcony that overlooked the room. There were two doorways on the left, two on the right and three on the back wall.
Holt led me through the central doorway at the back of the room and along a maze of hallways. I walked in silence, taking in my new surroundings.
We walked through room after room and they were all much the same. Wooden floors, walls painted blood-red, bottle-green or mustard-yellow. Windows were draped in heavy curtains. All the furniture was the stuffy, uncomfortable antique type that you associate with castles and manor houses. But, despite all that, it was still breathtaking. Chandeliers hung from incredibly high ceilings and every room seemed to have at least one huge fireplace, big enough for me to stand in. I felt like I’d just stepped back in time and, though I wanted to stop and admire everything, I was careful to keep a blank expression on my face. I didn’t want the few people that we passed to see my complete and utter awe.
We eventually came to a room whose only decoration was a huge wooden carved desk, behind which sat a female. I wouldn’t have described her as tanned but the shade of her skin was just a bit darker than mine. Her blonde hair was pinned up in a ponytail and, when she saw us enter, she looked slightly worried.
“How can I help?” she asked, fidgeting on her chair. Definitely not a vampire I decided. I’d only been at Rillith a few minutes and I’d already seen three of the human staff Holt had told me about.
“I need to see The Sénat straight away,” Holt said.
If she’d looked slightly worried earlier, now she looked panicked. I got the feeling that calling The Sénat for a meeting wasn’t standard protocol. A slight huff beside me told me that Holt was getting impatient but Henry leaned forward over the desk to look her in the eyes. His voice was like honey.
“Everything’s fine but we need to speak to The Sénat straight away, so dial those emergency numbers you have printed over there and then send us into the waiting room.”
The girl continued to stare at Henry for a couple of seconds and then blinked a few times before a beaming smile lit up her face.
“Certainly, Sir, I’ll just need to make a few calls. If you’d like to take a seat in the waiting room, someone will be with you shortly.” She stood and indicated to a door on the left.
I blinked a few times myself, wondering if what I’d just witnessed had been what I thought it was. I looked at Holt and he nodded as he led me through the doors.
“Yes, that was Influence.”
“Influence!” Henry scoffed. “No, that was charm.” He gave me a wink before collapsing into one of the overstuffed armchairs and putting his feet up on the coffee table. Despite my nerves, I smiled back.
Holt reminded me to be honest with The Sénat and proceeded to mention any further bits of information he thought might be useful, until Henry interrupted.
“For crying out loud, Holt! You’re putting the fear of God into her. Stop rambling and relax. We’re here now; whatever happens will happen.”
Holt took in my anxious appearance and was silent.
Chapter 14
The waiting seemed to stretch on forever but eventually we were called in. The room was enormous and had a high ceiling. Four chandeliers hung, evenly spaced, throughout the room. They looked deceptively small in this cavernous room but I had a feeling each one was probably twice my height.
Holt guided me to the centre of the room and we faced a large wooden table that had thirteen seats but only five of them were occupied. The table stretched across the entire end of the room and the wood wasn�
�t smooth and flat but twisted. It looked like it had grown straight out of the ground.
The air seemed to be humming. Holt had told me that vampires gave off a vibe but, for a few seconds, the air felt so thick with it that I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Eventually it eased and became more bearable.
Henry and Holt took up positions on either side of me and I felt a strange sense of comfort in knowing that I wasn’t alone, even though I barely knew the two of them. I took in the faces in front of me, four men and one woman. They weren’t sitting in the five central seats, but were spaced out along the table. I remembered reading that, even after the deaths of the other eight Sénat members, the remaining five still kept to their original seating plan. I mentally checked off their names, grateful that I’d taken the time to learn them; it gave me a tiny speck of assurance to hang onto. Sitting in the third seat was Sénator Aimery who was originally from England. In seats five and six were Sénators Aleron and Varden who both came from France. Sénator Eliseo from Italy was in seat nine and the thirteenth seat was occupied by the only remaining female Sénator, Ira.
All five members were dressed immaculately but nothing they wore could have been called fashionable. In fact I’m sure that Sénator Eliseo was wearing a pocket watch on a chain. Sénator Ira was wearing a very feminine outfit that was far too floaty for my liking, but it suited her so well that it could have been made for her. It probably was. As I watched, Ira lifted one hand and smoothed it over her immaculate hair and I caught sight of her Insignia.
This had been something else Holt had taught me yesterday when we were at his house. Each member of the Sénat had sworn a blood oath to rule the vampire race with a fair attitude and to do everything in their power to ensure the vampire race stayed undiscovered. After that oath, they’d each had a silver cuff secured around their wrist that would not be removed until death. Only The Sénat members knew how to fasten and unfasten the cuffs. I couldn’t see from this distance but I knew that engraved on each cuff was the symbol of The Sénat, which was a diamond with a spiral winding around it. I suddenly realised I was staring at the cuff on Ira’s wrist and I quickly looked away in case it was rude.
My heart was hammering in my chest. These were five of the thirteen people who I’d spent hours yesterday learning about. They had revolutionised the way the vampire race lived and right now I had all five sets of eyes on me.
Sénator Aimery stood.
“I hope you have good reason to call us here,” he said, his voice laced with boredom and impatience.
I tried to look both determined and respectful. He was about my height with pale skin, slightly narrower shoulders than the average man, dark eyes and short dark hair that was styled in such a way that it covered a bald spot. I knew that, to be a member of The Sénat, he had to be one of the oldest vampires ever. He looked a lot older than the rest of The Sénat, possibly somewhere in his fifties.
“Sénat.” Holt’s sudden announcement next to me made me jump. “I’m sorry for calling you all here on such short notice but a situation has arisen and I thought you’d want it to be brought to your attention straight away.” He paused but Sénator Aimery gave a wave of his hand to indicate that Holt should continue. As he had with Henry, Holt seemed to think it best not to beat around the bush.
“This is Faine Hawkes.” He motioned to me. “She’s twenty-one years old and I believe she’s half-vampire.” Silence. There was no gasping and no shocked faces, as I’d expected there would be, considering I was apparently one of a kind, but all I got were five sets of eyes scrutinising me. I resisted the urge to cringe.
“What nonsense is this?” Sénator Varden asked, moving his angry gaze to Holt.
“I understand this seems impossible but I have every reason to believe that Faine has vampire blood in her.” Again there was silence. Holt filled them in on our encounter three years ago and told them how he’d found me in Hull, where he’d learnt of my other vampire traits, and so he’d brought me here.
“Is this all true?”
It took me a second to realise that Sénator Aimery was addressing me. I nodded.
“And do you believe that you’re half-vampire?”
“Yes,” I said, then, feeling like I should say something more, I added, “I’m stronger and faster than any person I’ve ever known. I also have better sight, hearing and an acute sense of smell.” I finished my pitifully short speech and mentally chided myself; I’d basically just repeated what Holt had said. Another moment of silence made me think that The Sénat were probably thinking exactly the same as me. I’m sure they were expecting me to say something else but I didn’t know what and the fear of rambling and saying something stupid kept me from opening my mouth again.
“Wait outside, please,” Sénator Aimery said abruptly.
We left and, as soon as the doors were closed, I turned to Holt.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know what to say and I didn’t want to accidentally offend someone, so I thought I should just keep my mouth shut.”
“You did fine,” Holt assured me. “We’ve told them everything we know and now we need to wait for them to decide what they want to do.”
All three of us sat.
“They didn’t seem very surprised,” I said. “Don’t they believe us?”
“Oh, they were surprised, trust me,” Henry quipped. “Just because The Sénat appears not to react, that doesn’t mean anything.”
“Henry’s special ability is that he can sense emotions,” Holt explained. “That’s why I asked him to accompany us.”
I nodded. That made sense. I wondered how it must affect someone’s life to know what people around you are feeling all the time. Henry offered no further information as to what The Sénat had been feeling, so I assumed that was a conversation he’d be having with Holt later, either when they weren’t so close to The Sénat or weren’t so close to me.
Another long wait and we were called back in. We took up the same positions and waited while Sénator Aimery stood again.
“Holt, you’ve been a loyal member of ours for a long time now and, in that time, we’ve come to trust and respect you. However, as I’m sure you will understand, we cannot merely accept your word that Faine is a half-breed. Therefore, we see it fit to conduct our own tests. Faine will be issued with a weekly schedule which she is to follow. In four months from today, on the fifteenth of January, we’ll issue an official examination. We’ll take into consideration Faine’s results in her tests and we’ll draw our own conclusions.”
Well, that didn’t sound too bad. I looked up at Holt and his tense jaw told me that he thought otherwise, but he merely nodded.
“Thank you, I’ll ensure that Faine is given rooms and receives her schedule.” Holt’s words were polite but I could still hear the tension behind them. Once again I followed Holt out of the room and back towards the main hall. We went up the main staircase, through more hallways which I gave up trying to memorise and, finally, through a door with the numbers 418 on, into a room.
The TV and sofas made me think it was a living room but there was also a table and chairs at one end and, in the corner, a mini bar and fridge. The whole place had a distinctly feminine feel but was not too fussy. It was the first room I’d been in at Rillith that had carpet instead of wooden floors. The high-backed sofa had blue and white stripes and, when I ran my hand over it, it felt like satin.
Holt called my name and I looked round to see that he’d disappeared into another room. I followed him and stopped in my tracks in the doorway. This room was a bedroom and was so stunning it made the living area look shabby. Again this room had a carpet that was so thick it made me want to take my shoes off so that I could curl my toes into it. The theme of blue and white was continued here but my eyes were drawn to a huge four poster bed that was draped in rich shades of midnight blue. My bags were on the floor at the foot of the bed.
“Is this really my room?” I asked.
“Yes.” Holt seemed pleased at my excitement.
“There’s a bathroom through that door. There isn’t a kitchen, as we don’t usually have human residents, but if you dial 008 on the telephone it will connect you with the staff kitchens and they’ll bring you whatever you need.” The sudden thought of money crossed my mind and my excitement popped like a balloon.
“I can’t afford this,” I said, feeling embarrassed that Henry was here.
“You don’t have to pay.” Holt looked incredulous. “Except for having to put up with whatever tests they’re going to put you through.” He scowled. “It’s bloody ridiculous; they could have found out in five minutes whether you have vampire blood but it’s typical of them to drag it out for months.” During his rant, he walked back out to the bar and stared frustrated at its emptiness.
I saw my chance and plonked myself down on the sofa and ran my hands over its smoothness. Henry gave me an odd look, like he couldn’t work out why I was so thrilled with a sofa, and then he turned to Holt.
“You had to know it wasn’t ever going to be easy. When have The Sénat ever done anything the simple way? Anyway, if it’s as obvious as you say it is, then they’ll have no choice but to accept Faine at the end of the four months.”
Holt nodded and looked at me. I stopped my pawing at the sofa, aware that I probably looked like a cat with cat-nip.
“I’m sorry, Faine. I’m sure The Sénat will come up with the most intrusive and exhausting tests they can think of, but if you just stick with it for these four months, then you’ll be fine.”
I wiggled my way further back into the cushions. “It’ll be worth it, if I get to stay here in the meantime.”
Chapter 15
A week later I collapsed on the couch groaning. I’d just completed my first weekly schedule and I was knackered. When Holt had warned me it would be exhausting and intrusive, I’d believed him but I hadn’t fully appreciated the extent of his warning. Now every single part of my body ached; I was living proof that he’d been right.