But moreover, the very image of the woman that had introduced herself to them as the club’s manager and owner, Samantha Schwarz, was positively distracting to Raina. Blessed with bright emerald-green eyes, naturally raven-black hair, and a tall, voluptuous body, in addition to her vintage style of attire, Samantha’s beauty was striking in completely independent observation. Raina knew her, through and through, and yet she was absolutely certain that she had never actually met this woman in her entire life. No, this was not like with the girl on the stage, not at all. Anyone that resembled Brenna this closely, even if only by basic visual cues, would have been impossible to forget. The familiarity was not just surprising but downright disturbing.
Of course, there were a lot of distinctively unique differences about her that assured Raina that she was not simply losing her mind, that she was not seeing things or experiencing some kind of a grand hallucination. She was not looking at ghost of Brenna, nor her identical twin. No, this woman was much different than her in a few obvious ways that made that connection impossible. For one thing, Samantha wasn’t nearly as tall as Brenna. She was taller than Raina – then again, most people were – but she definitely couldn’t equal Brenna’s six-foot height. Perhaps five-ten, at best … although the heels she was wearing were tall enough to account for at least a couple of inches. Samantha was also still fairly young; Brenna had been almost forty at the time of her death, whereas this woman was, at most, in her late twenties. Her features were softer, her eyebrows much thinner and more angular, her lips not quite as full, her nose slightly upturned, and she had a dimple in each cheek when she smiled. Her features were much more gentle and less severe than Brenna’s had been, traits which would made Brenna less attractive to some, but which Brenna had made beautiful with her presence, her personality, and a bit of makeup skill.
Most dramatically different was the way that Samantha carried herself. Brenna had always been very outgoing, very frank, very animated, and actually quite aggressive in most ways, but also very affectionate and warm – to her friends, at least. Samantha, on the other hand, was anything but those things. She appeared very cold, very distant, overly professional, and even a bit stuffy. Samantha’s movements were very graceful and smooth, seemingly calculated. Although her voice had the same mature timbre as Brenna’s, it was much smoother and her words were deliberately well-pronounced and exact. She appeared very intelligent and educated, but also seemed like someone that was so uptight and personally restrained that she probably would be dull and humorless outside of a business setting.
Samantha sat down in the tall, executive-styled, black leather chair behind her broad, black desk, brushing away a few invisible specks of dust or whatever from her lap and straightening her skirt as she scooted herself forward. To say that she dressed classically was an understatement; Samantha looked like she had stepped out of a World War II fashion magazine, albeit one in which only color was available.
Samantha obviously had a thing for black – her clothes, her shoes, her jewelry, her nail polish, her desk, her chair, her file cabinet … everything was black. Raina was surprised that the walls of her office weren’t painted black, as well. It was one thing to wear black as a matter of choice for a certain occasion, as Raina was doing, but Samantha obviously had a distinctively longstanding, monochromatic theme going on. But then, the club here did have a sort of gothic-industrial theme. As Serenity had explained, this was one of the only clubs in the Phoenix area that featured an all-nude, all-vampire revue several times per week, so perhaps it was simply a marketing gimmick.
“Your grace, I can’t even begin to say how honored I am to have you here. I have looked forward to meeting you for quite some time now,” Samantha explained with a broad smile as Raina seated herself in one of the two comfy black leather chairs on the opposite side of the desk. Turning her gaze to Serenity, she said, “And of course, I am so very glad to finally meet you in person.”
“It’s quite a pleasure for me as well, dear. For years, I’ve wished to put a face to your name … or your screen name, I should say,” Serenity replied with a smile and a soft chuckle.
“I only wish that we could be meeting under more pleasant and casual terms than this. I would have arranged for a dinner meeting or something much nicer than this cramped and filthy little office,” Samantha explained, “but I understand that time is something of a factor.”
“More or less,” Raina agreed with a shrug. “Now that we know who you are and we’re here, I think we can kind of relax a little bit. From the way Serenity made it sound, we were sort of competing with the bad guys to get to you first. But … now we’re here, so…” Raina waved her hands encouragingly. “How about it?”
Samantha gave her a confused look. “I’m sorry?”
“I mean, now that we’re here and all … well … shall we get on with it?”
“Get on with … what?” Samantha shook her head slightly and looked to Serenity with a shrug. “I’m sorry, am I missing something?”
Serenity looked to Raina briefly and fidgeted a bit in her chair. The sense of fear that Raina perceived from her burned so intensely that Serenity’s skin began to glow once again. The proximity of her intense emotion felt like Raina was seated near a small fire. Had she been mislead completely? Was this entire trip a sham, a false pretext in Serenity’s quest to simply taste Raina’s blood?
Raina’s eyes narrowed at Serenity. “I think maybe we’re both missing something. But I’m sure that the Duchess will be more than happy to clarify things for us very soon. Right?”
“Ah … yes. Yes, of course! I’m sorry, I’m just … just a little anxious about all of this, that’s all. I mean, this is something of a historical event, after all,” Serenity replied nervously, clasping her hands together in her lap. Her consorts, standing behind her, actually backed away just a bit. Raina had not brought her sword into the club, due to the “no weapons allowed” sign outside. Nevertheless, the consorts apparently assumed that Raina wasn’t above lunging at the other High Court with her fangs.
“Well … yes, I suppose it is a rather monumental occasion,” Samantha replied as her smile returned. She looked to Raina with those gorgeous eyes of hers. “I was honestly beginning to believe that the day would never come when I could finally meet my sister’s bloodspawn.”
The impact of Samantha’s words were like a fist being slammed into Raina’s chest, literally knocking the breath from her. She stared at Samantha for several long, silent, awkward seconds, meeting her gaze unblinkingly and feeling her lips remain parted in shock. Immediately, it made sense … and yet it made no sense at all.
“Sister?” Raina finally asked in nearly a whisper.
Samantha chuckled softly. “I’m sure the resemblance is hard to miss.”
“But … that’s … I mean … she never…” Raina stammered. She forced herself to calm down enough to form a complete sentence. “I had no idea.”
“I’m sure she didn’t talk much about me. That’s just how she was, as I’m sure you know,” Samantha told her calmly. “Brenna was always very concerned about how others perceived her. I’m sure she never told you much about her family because she worried you might think less of her.”
Raina closed her eyes for a few moments and literally had to shake off her surprise. “I mean, she did tell me before … that she had a younger sister and brother, but … she never talked about them. About you, I mean. She never really mentioned anything about her family, and … well, I just never wanted to ask because I figured she had her reasons for avoiding the topic. You know … maybe for the same reasons I don’t like to talk about my family…?”
“Oh, it was nothing like that. No, Dominic and I are still very much alive.”
“Dominic?”
“My older brother,” she replied. “I had hoped he could be here tonight, but he’s with his band at a gig tonight, and … well, given the circumstances, I didn’t want to complicate things.”
Raina leaned forward in her
seat a bit to rest her elbows upon her knees as she asked, “All she ever told me was that her family disowned her a long time ago. She said that, as far as she was concerned, you were all dead to her.”
“She did?” Her smile vanished and she looked away with a sigh, clearly hurt by that. “Well … I suppose I can’t blame her. It was our mother. Dominic was too loyal and I was too young then to protest. Mother was a devout Roman Catholic, and when she learned that Brenna had an abortion…”
“She what?” Raina gasped automatically. She realized the rudeness of her outburst and she shrank down a bit in her seat. “I … I’m sorry. I just … wow. This is all news to me.”
“She never would have told you. Again, she cared too much about what you thought of her. That’s what got her into trouble with our mother,” Samantha said. “Mother was always very strict with us. She was very focused upon discipline … and guilt. She forbade any of us from dating when we were still in school because she felt that our education should come first, and that dating only led to sex before marriage. And adultery in any form, of course, was a one-way ticket to Hell. But Brenna had always been the wildest of the three of us, of course, and so that never stopped her from dating … or smoking, or drinking, or doing drugs…”
“Drugs?”
“Nothing serious, of course. Just marijuana,” she insisted with a subtle wave of her silk-gloved hand. She smiled. “She talked me into trying it once. It was probably the naughtiest thing I ever did as a teenager. I was so scared that Mother would find out, and I honestly didn’t enjoy it at all, but … I was just happy to spend time with Brenna. Of course, that was after Mother threw her out of the house for dropping out of high school. She mentioned that, didn’t she?”
“Once or twice, I think.”
“Things got progressively worse after that,” Samantha continued, “and when she was almost twenty, Brenna moved in with a guy that she had been dating for a few months.” Samantha was visibly affected by the memory, but her voice remained steady and her eyes stayed dry. “When Brenna found out her boyfriend was cheating on her, they had a big fight and he kicked her out. She had nowhere else to go, and I wanted to help her, so I begged Mother to let her come back. She allowed Brenna to move back in, but … she was already three months pregnant by then, and Mother was absolutely furious when she found out about the morning sickness. So … Brenna had an abortion.”
“That’s just terrible,” Serenity commented softly.
Raina glared at her sharply, sensing what she really meant. Serenity wasn’t sympathizing for Brenna; when she wasn’t lobbying for vampires’ rights, fighting to save whales or rainforests, or protesting for animal rights, or spouting the morality of vegetarianism, she was also a hardcore right-to-life advocate. It was a stance that put her sharply at odds with a lot of her typically left-wing supporters. Serenity was entitled to her opinion, but Raina already had a very short fuse with her now, and this was an especially poor moment for her to start exhibiting her endless list of holier-than-thou divine virtues. In fact, without a word spoken between them, Serenity apparently picked up on the vibe of Raina’s annoyance, causing the High Court to visibly shrink back slightly in response.
Samantha didn’t pick up on the tension and merely shrugged, folding her hands upon her desk and staring at a small stack of assorted papers nearby. “Brenna kept it a secret from everyone, even Dominic. I only knew about it because I drove her to and from the clinic, and she made me swear that I’d never tell anyone. Mother figured it out soon enough on her own, anyhow. She noticed the physical changes, and Brenna knew she couldn’t hide the fact that she wasn’t showing and wasn’t gaining any weight by the fourth month. When Mother confronted her, Brenna tried to claim that she had miscarried, but Mother knew. She just knew somehow. There was a big fight, and … Brenna wanted me to back her up, but I … I couldn’t.”
Raina raised an eyebrow at that. “Why not? She was your sister.”
Samantha was visibly struggling to control herself now, tears threatening to spill even as her voice remained perfectly even. “I was only sixteen. I was still in high school. I didn’t have a job. At first, I tried to stand up for Brenna, but I was immediately given an ultimatum. If I shut up, I could stay, but if I said another word in Brenna’s defense, then I would be thrown out on the street with her. Of course, I knew that I would never make it on my own, even with Brenna. And I just felt so guilty, so terrible that I’d kept something like that from Mother in the first place. She made me feel absolutely horrible for having even associated with Brenna at all … my own sister, if you can believe that. Mother never forgave me for betraying her like that. And neither did Brenna, apparently … because I couldn’t lie for her.”
“That doesn’t sound right. Brenna wasn’t really like that,” Raina said, narrowing her eyes slightly. “I can’t imagine her hating you simply because you weren’t in a position to help her.”
“I’m afraid so. Brenna felt so betrayed by us all that she changed her last name. Mother forbade her from ever contacting anyone in the family ever again. Even though Brenna knew I was only obeying Mother’s demands because I didn’t really have a choice, she was still deeply resentful about it,” Samantha explained. She grabbed a tissue from nearby and carefully dabbed at her eyes, somehow managing not to smudge her mascara at all. She finally turned to Raina with those stunning green eyes of hers. “You understand that was how she was, don’t you? If Brenna decided that she didn’t like you, she didn’t hide it. If someone treated her wrong, she could be absolutely hateful.”
Raina considered that. Perhaps it wasn’t an unfair assessment, really. Brenna had been inclined to make snap judgments about people’s character sometimes, and as Samantha said, when Brenna decided that she didn’t like someone … well, that was it. Brenna hadn’t taken long to decide that she didn’t like Duvessa, but she’d only kept things civil for the sake of safety and perhaps because of how it would impact Raina. Just as well, she had also decided that Countess Wilhelmina was not her type, either, and ultimately her undisguised dislike of and contempt for that particular vampire had wound up being a factor in her death. Well, that and Raina’s foolish reluctance to fight the Countess. If she had simply gone after her full-force right from the start…
Serenity cleared her throat nervously, looking to Raina. “I, ah … I’m sorry, your grace. It would seem that I have misinformed you about Samantha.”
“Gee, ya’ think?” Raina quipped sarcastically. Looking to Samantha, who was visibly puzzled, she explained, “The Duchess here had me going under the assumption that you only knew Brenna because you’d both … um … worked together, so to speak.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well … she had it in her mind that you and Brenna were in … y’know … porn flicks together.”
“What? Oh, no, we never worked together like that,” Samantha replied with a chuckle. “No, we had already long gone our separate ways when I first became involved in the adult industry. The only films and photo shoots I have appeared in are strictly fetish-based … just a lot of costumes and props. You know, bondage and spanking and candle play. I’ve never done hardcore work like Brenna. I don’t have anything against it, of course. I just never felt comfortable with actually doing it, myself.”
“What about stripping on stage?”
“Dancing, you mean?” Samantha corrected her gently. “No, we never managed to cross paths, even in this business. Brenna was already retired from dancing long before I ever became involved in this business, and after her Change, she never worked at any of the clubs that were owned by or associated with Mister Giovanni.”
“Dante Giovanni?”
“Yes, her Maker,” she confirmed with a nod. “I heard about her confrontation with him at the memorial event he hosted for Duvessa’s consorts. It was never on the news, of course, but being that most of those in attendance that night were his peers, word spread quickly about what happened between them. And, of course, he did keep
a low profile for awhile until his teeth were right again.”
Something hit Raina with a delayed effect. “Wait, did you … did you say Brenna had retired from dancing?”
“Awhile back, yes. From what I’ve heard, she started doing movies and photo shoots when she was still dancing. After awhile, though, she apparently decided there was more money to be made from working for adult websites and films than with dancing, so she crossed over,” Samantha explained quite casually. “Again, I dabbled a bit in film and website photo shoots for awhile, but I was fortunate enough to come into a large deal of money around that time, so I was able to start my own business here instead. I haven’t done anything in that side of the industry since I took ownership of this club, and I’ve also been successful enough not to find it necessary to dance anymore … although, occasionally I still do.”
Raina looked aside, thinking back several months. “She never told me about the porn thing. I never thought anything of it because when she said she had to go to work, I just … I mean … I just assumed that meant she was still dancing. And she was working at least three nights a week, too.”
“Well, there again, she was probably trying to protect your relationship. Some girls aren’t ashamed at all of what they do here,” Samantha said, “but most of us tend to opt for discretion. We have families and friends, and some of us even have children. We don’t always expect everyone to react positively toward what we do, so it’s important to keep things separate … which, of course, is one of the reasons why many of us use stage names.”
The Darkest Colors- Exsanguinations Page 43