They took him to the safe house in the Hollywood Hills. Silas had only been here once before, several years earlier. As Felix — now back in his human form — drove away from Pasadena and cut across on the 134 Freeway and then down into Hollywood, Silas knew the safe house had to be where they were headed.
As hideouts went, it was fairly spectacular. The house was built on multiple levels, and had an eye-popping view across Hollywood, all the way to downtown to the east, or out to Century City to the west. A pool shimmered blue-green in the backyard.
“I have to go after Serena,” Silas told Felix. Aaron and Micah had already departed in their own vehicle. Where they were staying, Silas didn’t know, and hadn’t asked. The Watchers had a few properties stashed around the L.A. basin; it was entirely possible that the two gula were holed up in one of those houses, condos, or lofts, just as it was also possible that they had taken refuge in a hotel. Better that he remained ignorant of their whereabouts, at least until their services were needed again.
“No, you are not going after her,” Felix said sternly. “At least, not yet. We didn’t rescue you just so you could go off half-cocked and get yourself captured again.”
“You know that wouldn’t happen.”
“I don’t know anything.”
Silas scowled and looked out the kitchen window at the pool in the backyard, like a glowing jewel in the dark. For some reason the two of them had ended up in here, propped up against the kitchen counters, rather than any of a number of more comfortable places in the house…maybe because they both realized this was not a social call.
The other gula crossed his arms. “Look, I’m not saying that we’re not going to do our best to extract her…when the time is right, and no sooner. She seems to be handling herself pretty well. Resourceful, for a rich girl.”
Anger flashed within him. Silas cocked an eyebrow at Felix and snapped, “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, come on. I know you think you’re in love with her — ”
“I am in love with her. There’s nothing to ‘think’ about.”
“All right. Fine.” Felix shrugged and went on, “All I’m saying is that she’s someone who’s always had everything handed to her. She hasn’t had to work hard for anything in her life. So it’s kind of nice to see that she isn’t being a helpless victim, that she’s trying to be proactive.”
“Serena is anything but helpless.” Silas thought of the accident that had almost ended her life, how she’d had to endure months of physical therapy to get herself anywhere close to where she’d been before the car had struck her. How she still experienced pain because of the injuries she’d suffered, pain that would never entirely go away.
“Look, we’re on the same page when it comes to that subject.” After running a hand through his short-cropped fair hair, Felix said, “Anyway, we have other more important matters we need to worry about. Apparently, Lucius has Serena’s brother convinced that some sort of serum derived from vampire blood will help his daughter, who has leukemia. In exchange, Jackson is supposed to have his team of researchers cook up a serum that will take away some of the less desirable parts of being a vampire, like avoiding the sun, possibly even drinking blood.”
That revelation knocked any further defense of Serena right out of Silas’ brain. “How the hell did Lucius manage to convince Jackson Quinn of that?”
“Serena. She had a series of visions that showed a future where vampires were able to walk in the daylight. Now, we know that her family isn’t too keen on her visions, but they also can’t deny that they’re highly accurate. That seemed to be enough evidence for Quinn to throw his not-inconsiderable resources at solving the problem.”
Silas had begun to regret not sitting down, because his head was spinning. At least he had the tiled countertop to prop him up. “How long has this been going on?”
“Not that long. Serena says Jackson has the research facility going already, but they’ve only had a day to get to work. No one’s going to find a cure that fast — whether for her niece, or for vampirism. But we need to shut that thing down. Having day-walking vampires is going to shift the balance of power too far in their direction.”
That was only the truth. The gula had powers of their own, but one thing they’d always been able to use to their advantage was their ability to function whether it was night or day. If vampires suddenly didn’t need to drink blood, could function in the sunlight just like everyone else, then they might not be as careful about making more of their kind. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Silas pictured a world where the vampires began to multiply without check, far outnumbering the gula, who had a difficult time reproducing to begin with.
“What about Serena’s niece? I know we can’t let the vampires have their cure, but to deprive a child of a chance at a normal life….”
For a long moment, Felix said nothing. He looked past Silas toward the yard beyond the kitchen window, although his gaze didn’t seem to be focused on any one particular thing in the landscape. Then he let out a breath, his expression sorrowful. “I don’t want to condemn a little girl to death. In cases like this, there are no acceptable losses. But….” Again he paused, hands jammed in the pockets of his jeans. “If we have to weigh the death of one child against the possibility of a world dominated by vampires, then you know what we must do.”
Unfortunately, Silas did know. He just wasn’t sure whether he was ready to accept that reality. Besides, how could he ever tell Serena that he’d allowed her niece to die so the entire world might be saved?
Because I still had my watch strapped to my wrist, I knew exactly how many minutes passed before Lucius came to meet me in the salon. Seventeen. It felt far longer than that, however.
As he came into the room where I’d been sitting, I got up from my chair. “How is he?”
“He will be all right. He’s sleeping again now…or at least what passes for sleep in our kind.”
“Did he say anything about what happened?”
Lucius nodded, and then moved past me to go to the table where the decanter of Armagnac was located. “Drink?”
I wished I had the strength to protest, but I was feeling too shaken right then. “Yes, please.”
He poured a decent measure of Armagnac into two of the brandy snifters that sat on the tabletop. Silently, he handed one to me, waited for me to take a sip. That first sip was soon followed by another. I needed something to steady my nerves, something to help me get past the realization that a man had just died in Michael’s room upstairs. Even though I knew Lucius would have stopped me if I’d run up there and tried to rescue the intended victim, I couldn’t help being racked by guilt. Since I’d done nothing, even though I’d known what was about to happen, wasn’t I now complicit in his death?
I cleared my throat. “So…what did happen?”
“Three gula came here to free Silas. He must have given them the address much earlier, but was too impatient about coming to rescue you and so didn’t wait for them to assist him.” Those words were accompanied by a faint curl of his lip. I supposed Lucius found something amusing about Silas charging in here to save me, only to be captured himself, but I didn’t find anything remotely funny about the situation. “At any rate, if they were watching the property, then they would have known when I left for dinner and seized the opening. All of my semivives are gone.”
“I’m sorry,” I murmured, although to be honest, I wasn’t sure whether I should be mourning their deaths or glad that their souls were now freed from their bondage. “You didn’t feel that, though? I mean, at dinner you seemed to know exactly when Michael — ”
“The bond between a master and a semivive is different from the bond between a vampire and his fledglings. I could direct the semivives, give them orders to follow, but we did not have the same soul-deep connection that I do with Michael, or with Tristan and Leticia. So until we came here, I did not know that I’d lost them all.”
What could I say? Merely repeating “I’m sorry” didn’t seem like the correct response. Instead, I went over and put a hand on Lucius’ arm, hoping he’d see the gesture as a sign that I truly was sympathetic to his situation. Of course I wasn’t, but it seemed I still had to play the game for a while longer, at least until Silas was able to do some rescuing of his own. About all I could do was pray that rescue would come in the very near future. “What happened then?”
“They went to the cellar, where Michael was speaking with Silas.” Lucius’ mouth twisted again, although this time it seemed to be more from annoyance than amusement. He sipped some of his Armagnac before continuing, “I should have known that it would be difficult to keep Michael away from my captured gula. In a way, it was an interesting experiment.”
“‘Experiment’?” I repeated. “What do you mean?”
“I guessed that Michael would be automatically drawn to Silas.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Do you mean Michael is gay?”
That question elicited a chuckle. “No, not at all. Michael felt a connection to Silas because he’s Silas’ older brother.”
If Lucius had reached out and punched me in the gut, I couldn’t have felt more gobsmacked. I clenched my fingers around the snifter I held, afraid that otherwise it would slip from my trembling fingers. “He’s what?”
“A little joke of mine.” Lucius drank some more of his Armagnac, silvery eyes glinting with amusement. “You know how the gula send away all their female offspring, and the boys in whom the gargoyle blood hasn’t bred true?”
“Yes,” I said cautiously. “Silas told me about that.”
“Charming practice, isn’t it? Ruthlessly practical, so I suppose I should admire them for their purity of purpose. At any rate, Michael was Silas’ elder by some four years. He was sent away and adopted by a family here in Southern California — in Glendora, I believe. When I relocated here, I thought it would be interesting to find one of these castoffs, see if he or she had the correct temperament to become one of my fledglings. As it turned out, Michael St. John was the perfect candidate. That’s not his real name, of course — it was the name he took after he entered his new life. But that doesn’t change the reality of the blood in his veins, or his connection to Silas Drake.”
It was all too much. I staggered over to one of the chairs by the fireplace and dropped into it. Michael and Silas were brothers. Now that I thought about it, their coloring was the same, although otherwise they didn’t look terribly alike. Not that it mattered — I had plenty of friends whose siblings barely resembled one another. In my own family, the connection was more obvious, but that also didn’t mean much. I drank some Armagnac, hoping it would steady me. “Do either of them know?”
“No. I have no idea whether Silas even knows he has an older brother. Oftentimes, the gula never mention those who were born first and discarded.” Lucius finished the remaining liquor in his glass, and went over to the table with the decanter and poured himself some more. He sent an inquiring glance in my direction, and I shook my head. I still had more than half of what he’d poured for me in my glass. “As for Michael, I never told him. He does know that he’s adopted, but since the adoption was handled legally through an agency, he has no reason to think there was anything strange about the circumstances of his adoption. The agency told him the files were sealed, and that his birth mother didn’t wish to be found. He never tried to seek her out. Why, I’m not sure. Possibly he did not wish to upset his adopted family.”
“God.” I set down my glass on the small marble-topped table next to the chair where I sat. Already I felt rather swimmy, and I thought it was probably better if I slowed down a little on the drinking. How would Silas react when he found out? Because I had to tell him. He needed to know that Michael was no ordinary vampire.
A gula with a vampire brother. Lucius did like his little jokes.
“That’s why Michael was in the cellar when the Watcher SWAT team arrived,” Lucius said. “He says he tried to stop them, but no one vampire, even with our not-inconsiderable powers, can hope to prevail against three gula. I suppose we should all count ourselves lucky that Silas’ rescuers were more concerned with getting him out than stopping to check that the blow with the wooden stake had actually finished off their target. It went through his chest, but not through his heart, which is why he will survive their cowardly attack.”
Three against one definitely wasn’t a fair fight, but then, Lucius had set four of his semivives against Silas when he came to rescue me. At this point, I’d have to say the score was pretty even. I kept that thought to myself, though. I only made what I hoped were sympathetic sounds.
“So,” Lucius continued, “now all we have to do is wait for Michael to fully absorb the blood he took in, so that he is able to finish his recovery. I’ve sent the call out to Tristan and Leticia, telling them to come home. While I know the Watchers in general prefer to avoid doing anything that might call attention to them or their activities, they may be feeling bold right now and may attempt another attack. It’s safer if we’re all here together.”
I didn’t like the way he said “we.” He didn’t mean that I would have to stay here, too, did he? But I realized it would be strange if he didn’t make the request. After all, it was much more likely that Silas would attempt to retrieve me if I was back at my condo, rather than locked up here in this mansion.
My fears were borne out, for in the next moment, Lucius said, “I know we agreed that it would look better to your family if you stayed at your condo, but after what’s happened tonight, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be there. You’re far too exposed. I’ll have Brian bring some of your things over.”
Damn. I wished I could think of a realistic protest, but it seemed as though no matter what I came up with, any reason I might give for going home sounded like a weak excuse at best. All right. I’d stayed here before and lived to tell the tale; one more night wasn’t going to make that much of a difference. “Sure,” I said, hoping I sounded completely unconcerned by the prospect of spending the night in Lucius’ mansion. “I don’t think it will look that strange for me to be staying over on my birthday.”
“Excellent.”
“But….”
“But?”
“What happens tomorrow? I mean, with your semivives gone, there won’t be anyone here to protect me during the daytime.”
A frown creased Lucius’ pale forehead. “I will have to make more. It is a bother, because they always take a little time to get used to their new routines, but I fear I don’t have any choice.”
Oh, hell. While somewhere in the back of my mind I’d understood that eventually he would cook up a fresh batch of mindless servants, I really hadn’t expected him to move on the project so quickly. And after knowing what had happened to the poor man Michael had used as a revivifying tonic, the last thing I wanted was for more innocent victims to get sucked into Lucius’ orbit. But again, I knew I couldn’t argue against his plan. I had to let him think I was okay with all this.
“I will wait until Tristan and Leticia get here, of course,” Lucius told me. “I couldn’t leave you here alone.”
I nodded. The last thing I wanted was the gruesome twosome to be my babysitters, but the idea had some logic. You didn’t leave your girlfriend unattended when her former lover was suddenly free and, no doubt, extremely pissed off. “I think I’ll stay in my room,” I said.
“Excellent idea. I know you have no love lost for the pair, and I cannot blame you. But with them here, you should be safe.”
Unless one of them wants me for an after-dinner morsel, I thought. No, the two vampires were bloodthirsty and ruthless, but they weren’t stupid enough to have their boss’s best girl as a late night snack. “And Brian will be coming by with my things,” I offered.
“Yes,” Lucius said, and hesitated. It was clear enough to me that he didn’t think Brian could do much to protect me, should the Watchers return to finish what they’d started. “Yes, it will be good for you to have a friend here.”
“Should I make a list for him?” I asked.
“That’s not necessary. He’ll know what to get.”
Of course he would, since he was the one who’d taken all my things from my condo when Lucius first kidnapped me. I didn’t bother to point that out. Now everything was supposed to be fine between me and Lucius. After all, just an hour or so earlier, I’d agreed to become his wife.
Footsteps echoed in the corridor outside, and a moment later, Leticia and Tristan appeared in the doorway. They both wore expressions of extreme irritation, but that was nothing new.
“What’s this about Michael?” Tristan demanded. “Is he all right?”
“He’s fine. Or rather, he will be fine, when he awakes tomorrow evening. For now, I will need you to stand guard. Serena will be going to her room shortly, as I want her to stay here tonight. The semivive Brian will be here soon as well. I need to go out to claim more semivives, as we will need to make sure we have sufficient guards here before the sun comes up.”
Neither of the two vampires appeared terribly startled by any of this information, although I noticed the way Leticia’s hard blue gaze slid in my direction and then back toward her master. She didn’t appear thrilled by the revelation that I would be back in the mansion once again. Or rather, I thought, since I realized she hadn’t been looking at my face, but somewhere a little lower down, she’d seen the big diamond on my finger, the one that hadn’t been there before. It wasn’t that Leticia had any claims on Lucius herself, but she probably hated the idea of a mortal hooking up with her master.
Well, I wasn’t thrilled about it, either, but I had to go along for now and seize whatever opportunities might present themselves.
“Do you want me to check on Michael when I go upstairs?” I asked, and Lucius sent me an approving smile.
“Yes, that would be a very good idea. Why don’t you look in on him now? I will be going very soon, since Leticia and Tristan are here.”
“Of course, Lucius.” Ignoring the glares from the two vampires, I went over to him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “And Brian can just meet me in my room when he gets here?”
“Certainly.” The master vampire touched my hand briefly, a gesture of reassurance, but also of dismissal.
Fine by me. I was all too happy to get out of there. I murmured, “Be careful,” and then fled the salon, hurrying to the staircase so I might go up to Michael’s room.
Of course, on my way upstairs, I thought of the man Michael had just fed on. Would his body still be there, lying on the bed next to him? Or had Lucius thoughtfully stuffed the poor guy in a closet?
If he’s still there, just deal with it, I told myself as I mounted the steps. Better yet, make yourself useful and check his pockets for identification. If you manage to survive this, then you can pass that information on to Detective Ortiz or someone else in the Pasadena P.D.
That sounded very noble, and practical as well. I just had to hope I wouldn’t throw up during the process. I’d never been around a dead body before.
Well, unless you counted seeing Lucius Montfort hold my sister’s corpse in his arms.
I swallowed, and continued up the stairs. When I got to the top, I paused to take off my shoes. Those things had been killing my feet for the past hour. Now that I was inside — and away from Leticia and Tristan — I figured it was in my best interests to remove those torture devices before they gave me a blister.
After setting them off to one side from the staircase, I continued down the hall to Michael’s room. Lucius had left the door partially ajar, so I pushed it open a few more inches and squeezed inside.
Michael lay on the bed, alone. His hands rested at his sides, and his mouth was closed. However, I could see the line of blood that trailed from the corner of his lips, across his cheek, and down his neck. I forced myself to take a breath and move closer. Lucius hadn’t bothered to get him out of his stained shirt, probably because he’d known there was a very good chance that any fresh clothes would get bloodstained as well.
A healthy flush touched Michael’s cheeks. In fact, he looked healthier than I’d ever seen him before, probably because Lucius had instructed his vampires to avoid any fresh kills for a while, and therefore they’d all been subsisting on bottled blood. Maybe it was the color in his face, or maybe simply that I knew the truth about him now, but for the first time I could see something of a resemblance between Michael and Silas, in the sensual curve of the lower lip, the same straight, expressive eyebrows. And the long black lashes, now lying against his cheeks.
I didn’t think I’d made any sound, but all the same, those lashes flickered open. Dark eyes caught mine.
A harsh whisper. “Serena?”
“I’m here,” I said.
“Silas….” he began, and then stopped, as though he didn’t have the strength to say anything more than those two syllables.
I couldn’t tell him. Not now, not as weak as he was. Maybe soon I’d have the chance. Anyway, I knew that wasn’t what Michael had been asking me. “He got away.”
“Good.”
My eyes widened in shock. I’d already known that Michael St. John could be contrary and slightly quirky, but I really hadn’t expected him to be happy that his master’s prisoner had managed to escape. “Excuse me?”
One corner of his mouth twitched. “Crazy, I know.” He huffed out a breath that seemed to rattle at the back of his throat. “Tired.”
“Sleep, then. I’ll be here.”
He nodded, and his eyes shut again. Within a few seconds, his breathing became even and deep, without a trace of the rattle I’d heard a moment earlier.
Sleep was what he needed…or the vampire equivalent of sleep, anyway. I still didn’t know exactly how that worked. Usually a vampire wouldn’t be in bed at this time of night, nocturnal creatures that they were, but it seemed obvious enough to me that Michael’s need to heal had overcome his usual instincts.
I stepped away from the bed and glanced around the room. No sign of the man who’d just contributed to Michael’s healing process. Pulling in a breath, I went over the the walk-in closet and opened it up. No body inside there, only neat racks of dark clothing, and a shelf at the far end, obviously custom built, that held three guitars.
Lucius had said Michael was a musician back before he’d been turned, but I’d gotten the impression he didn’t play anymore. Obviously, I was mistaken. In a way, it comforted me to know that he still had an outlet for those creative energies, even though his life had been so irrevocably changed.
After shutting the closet door, I turned back toward the room. Michael seemed down for the count. Possibly he’d only wakened to see who was invading his personal space, and, once he’d assured himself that I was no threat, had allowed himself to fall into the deepest of healing slumbers.
Across the room was another door, probably to the bathroom. While I hated the thought of going in there — because it was becoming increasingly likely that the victim’s body had been disposed of in that room — I knew I needed to check.
I pushed open the door and looked inside. Like the rest of the suite, the bathroom was clean and spare, with white subway-style tile on the walls, gray granite countertops, black towels. The shower was enclosed by glass blocks.
They blurred what was inside, but couldn’t entirely hide it.
A tile bench had been built into one wall. The drug addict Lucius had kidnapped was propped up in the corner, his head lolling to one side, his skin nearly as white as the tile on the wall behind him. The puncture marks in his throat, livid red, were the only thing of real color about him.
My hand went to my mouth, but I didn’t make any sound. I knew I couldn’t. And terrible as the sight was, the expression on the man’s face shocked me even more. I’d been expecting a look of horror, eyes bulging from their sockets, mouth open in a silent scream. Instead, his eyes were shut, and he looked peaceful, as though the death Michael had given him was the release he so desperately sought.
Or maybe I was simply trying to rationalize the man’s murder.
I wiped my damp palms on my dress, then made myself step into the shower enclosure. The man was wearing filthy jeans, and I hated to touch them. But I forced myself to move closer, to reach inside the front pocket of his pants.
Nothing there.
All right. I tried the other front pocket. Nothing there, either. Gritting my teeth, I reached around him and felt for the edge of his back pocket. No wallet, but I did find a piece of folded paper. I drew it out, saw that it was a picture of a woman around my age, blonde, pretty. His girlfriend? Sister? Wife?
I didn’t know. The picture was a piece of evidence, though, and so I transferred it to my left hand, freeing up my right to check the final pocket. It was empty. I supposed it was somewhat silly of me to expect a guy like this to be walking around with a wallet. I had the impression that people who lived on the street didn’t worry too much about having the proper I.D.
What did Lucius plan to do with the man’s body? Have one of his newly minted semivives dig a grave somewhere out in the yard? That seemed like the most obvious plan. I wondered how many of the vampires’ other victims had been buried in unmarked plots in the mansion’s extensive grounds.
A shudder went over me, and I pushed the gruesome thought away. There wasn’t anything I could do to help this man now, except murmur a few words under my breath and hope the look of peace I’d seen on his features wasn’t a lie.
I went back out into the main room. Michael still slept, and so I walked carefully past him — glad that I’d removed my clacking high heels — and on into the corridor. No sound from downstairs, which seemed to indicate that Lucius had left on his semivive-acquiring expedition. If Tristan and Leticia spoke to one another, their conversation was quiet enough that I couldn’t hear it from up here.
Good. I didn’t know how keen vampire ears were, but I had to hope they couldn’t hear me, either. I picked up my shoes with my free hand, then headed down the hallway toward the wing where my bedroom was located.
It didn’t look as if anything had been touched since the last time I was here. No dust, though, so someone must have cleaned the room. I hurried over to the dresser and slipped the photograph of the blonde woman into one of the drawers, then went to the closet and set my shoes down on the floor.
Just in time, too, because as I emerged from the closet, I saw not-Brian enter the room with several of my suitcases. “Hi, Brian,” I said brightly, although I wanted to frown at the amount of luggage he was carrying. It seemed like rather a lot for just an overnight stay.
“Serena.”
He didn’t seem like his normal chirpy self — or at least, the semi-normal, sometimes-chirpy semivive he’d become. I had to ask. “Is everything okay?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”
Hmm. “Well, I know it’s upsetting, to have the gula break in here like that, but Michael is going to be fine — I just saw him — and Lucius seems to be handling everything just fine as well, so — ”
“It’s not that.” He dropped the suitcases near the dresser where I was standing, then went into the bathroom and set the smaller bag I used for toiletries on the countertop there. “No, it’s only that Lewis couldn’t quite understand why I had to go to your apartment and get your things, then bring them over here. I said I was doing a favor for a friend, and he said it seemed more like I was your errand boy. I’ve tried very hard to avoid arguing with him, because I know Lucius wouldn’t like it, but this time it was…difficult.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I can try to patch things up with Lewis the next time I’m home — ”
“No,” Brian cut in. “That would just make things worse, I think.”
He was probably right. Lewis and I had always been friendly, but it was Brian I was really close to. Every once in a while, I got the impression that Lewis was slightly jealous of the time I spent with his partner, just because the two of us worked from home while Lewis had to go downtown to work each day. None of that was my fault, of course, but….
I didn’t bother to argue. “I can see that. Then I guess you’d better get back before he really blows a gasket. Tristan and Leticia are here, so I’ll be fine.”
The real Brian might have seen something strange about me saying I was “fine” with being alone in the house with the people who’d murdered my sister. Despite the flashes of his former self that I’d seen, this Brian showed no reaction to my comment. Obviously I was safe, since two of his master’s fledglings were here.
“Yes, that’s probably a good idea.” His gaze moved to my hand. “Congratulations, by the way. We’re — well, I’m very happy for you.”
I wanted to ask him if he’d felt his fellow semivives being murdered, but no, it was probably better if I left that subject severely alone. He had to know he was the only one left…at least for now. I doubted Lucius would be able to get his semivive complement up to full strength in only one evening. How many lives would he subvert tonight? Three? Four?
Pushing those thoughts away, I smiled at Brian. “Thank you. We don’t know when exactly yet, but if all goes well, hopefully it will be soon.”
A nod. “Something to look forward to. Good night, Serena.”
“Good night.”
Brian let himself out, and I went and closed the door behind him. The wood was far too flimsy to keep out a vampire, but I wanted the illusion of privacy. At any rate, I had to hope that Tristan and Leticia were busy drinking blood cocktails, or whatever it was they did to keep themselves occupied when compelled to stay home.
Home. I’d had a few precious days in my own place, but now I’d been forced back here.
Hopefully, not for long, I told myself. Just until Silas and the gula can figure out how to get you away.
Problem was, the last time it had taken a week, and Silas still hadn’t been successful. I had no desire to go through that again.
I looked down at the suitcase Brian had brought. The thought of unpacking it and putting everything away didn’t appeal at all, probably because doing so would feel like an admission that I wouldn’t be getting away anytime soon.
Then my gaze traveled to the door on the opposite side of the room…the door that led into Lucius’ suite. I crossed over and reached out to test it, even as I told myself that of course he wouldn’t have left it unlocked.
The knob turned in my hand.
My heart sped up, although I knew that the room beyond had to be unoccupied. Lucius was out hunting for more semivives, and the half-living servant who’d guarded this chamber for him was now dead. There was no one around to see me enter.
Still, I hesitated. Was I worried that Lucius might return unexpectedly, and catch me snooping? Of course. I somehow doubted my ability to lie my way out of that situation, although I’d been doing a serious amount of lying over the past week, and so far Lucius hadn’t caught me out.
This might be my only chance.
I pulled in a breath and then pushed the door open. The room beyond wasn’t completely dark, since two of the old-fashioned brass sconces on the walls had been left illuminated. They showed what I had seen before — the large space with the crystal chandelier overhead, the heavy, ornate furniture, oversized to match the scale of the room. And the large black-hung bed that dominated the chamber, although now I knew it would be empty, the equally oversized semivive who’d kept watch here now gone.
Still, I peeked past the black curtains that hung from the canopy, just to be sure that the bed really was unoccupied. My heart slowed a little as I saw that the silk coverlet lay smooth and flat, with no sign that anyone had lain there anytime recently.
Well, then.
I glanced down at my watch. It was nearly ten, and Lucius had been gone for about forty-five minutes. That couldn’t be enough time to subvert one semivive, let alone a group of them. If I was lucky, he would be gone for at least three or four hours. However, that wasn’t reason enough to linger.
Where to look first?
The nightstand was closest, so I opened the top drawer and peeked inside. I wasn’t sure what I’d find, but the contents of that drawer almost made me smile, they were so prosaic — a couple of boxes that contained his cufflinks, a spare brush and comb, a packet of Kleenex. Did vampires even get runny noses, or were the tissues there for some other reason?
I’d probably never know, since I couldn’t exactly expect Lucius to explain the items I’d found while snooping through his belongings.
The bottom drawer contained socks. Again, I wanted to laugh. Yes, vampires wore normal clothes like regular people, but for some reason, I never really thought about them wearing socks.
The lack of incriminating evidence was a little annoying. Then again, I didn’t know exactly what I’d expected to find. A diary with all his plans for world domination written down so I’d have proof of his perfidy, once I was released from this place? That would have been nice, but real life was rarely that convenient.
When I went to the other nightstand, I saw that it was empty. Had it always been that way, or had Lucius cleaned it out in anticipation of my joining him here in this room in the near future?
I didn’t like that idea at all.
Mouth set, I went over to the large marble-topped dresser placed up against the wall opposite from the bed. The top drawer there held undershirts, the one below that, underwear. I closed that drawer so hastily it made a distinct bang, and I winced. While neither Tristan nor Leticia had shown any inclination to come upstairs and check on me, I knew I needed to be more careful than that, even if I did find the idea of snooping around in Lucius Montfort’s underwear drawer just a tad distasteful.
All right. I moved down to the next drawer and slid it open.
Inside lay the sketchbook and notebook Brian — or possibly Lucius, since I really wasn’t sure who’d taken those items — had stolen from my condo.
I froze. Things had been so chaotic that I hadn’t had much of a chance to even think about my notebook, or the sketchbook. And if I had stopped to think about it, then I probably would have realized that it made sense for Lucius to have taken them, because within those pages he might have found some additional clues regarding the future I’d described to him in my visions.
Right then, I didn’t care about sense, or logic. Those books were mine, filled with things I’d seen, even if only in the context of a vision. Lucius didn’t have any right to even look at them, let alone steal them from my house.
Fingers shaking, I pulled out both books and hugged them to my chest. I knew I should have put them back, so Lucius wouldn’t know I’d seen them, but I needed to look at them. Now that I’d gotten a sense of the bigger picture, I had to know whether I’d overlooked an earlier detail that might have told me where I would end up.
Not in here, though. The room next door wasn’t really mine, either, but it felt like a sanctuary compared to the gloomy grandeur of Lucius’ suite.
I shut the dresser drawer and went back into my room, closing the door that connected the two chambers. A glance at my watch told me it was ten after ten. Still early enough that I should have plenty of time to look through the notebook and sketchbook, and put them back. Lucius didn’t need to know I’d ever had them. I wasn’t too worried about him dusting for fingerprints. He’d never find out.
Unless, of course, vampires had some sixth sense when it came to people rooting around in their things. It was a risk I was willing to take.
I sat down on the bed, and opened the sketchbook.