sharp angle of the roof. Beneath them, exposed brick walls radiated coolness. A miniature fireplace was tucked into one wall, and a skinny window into another. A built-in bookcase fit snugly next to the window, and a desk with a chair fit in the corner. A small couch and thickly cushioned armchairs filled a seating area around a colorful antique rug.
The age of the furniture wasn’t far off from Prospero’s Gramercy Park apartment, but the style was far more relaxed. Cheerful even. Vintage prints were displayed on every wall, and set in the bookcase, on shelves where books didn’t take up the entire space.
James and Jessica hung back, but I moved closer to the prints.
First: A church surrounded by oak trees thick with moss, and several palm trees. Under the artwork, regal printed letters spelled out Le Couvent in small caps. Another framed piece depicted two-story buildings with large white shutters and ornate iron railings that curved around corners. A third piece showed a little alleyway with run-down charm, hung with clothing, frozen in time on laundry day. Every print was different, but seen all together, they clearly depicted the same place. “Where is this?”
“New Orleans,” Victorine said, seating herself behind the desk. She gestured to the fireplace. “Will you do the honors? There is a chill in the night.”
A match could do it just as well, but I liked to practice, so I knelt. Seasoned wood had already been laid, and a basket held discarded copies of the New York Times. I stuffed paper under the wood and did as Poppy had taught me, sending a controlled pop of fire into it. The burst of magic woke Patty Melt, who blinked sleepily in my mind before closing her eyes and going back to sleep. “What’s ‘Le Couvent’?”
“The convent,” Victorine replied. “I grew up there.”
Jessica’s gaze narrowed on the art in question.
“It’s not a secret,” Victorine continued. “Lord Prospero and I are well aware of each other’s histories. I decorated my little upstairs retreat to remind me of home.”
Home. It wasn’t a word I associated with Victorine. She floated through every environment like an icy angel, untouched. I looked around again, taking in the softness and the colors.
“Victorine Laguerre,” Jessica said, almost to herself, as she studied the print of the convent. “Victory in the war. Is that your true name, Lady Victorine?”
The question walked the line between curiosity and impertinence. A lesser being than Victorine might have bristled, but the vampiress waited for Jessica to make eye contact, seeking an answer. Then Victorine smiled, showing perfect teeth, canines beginning to sharpen. “It is true, Initiate. Whether it is my true name, or not.”
James hid a smile as Jessica blanched.
“Now,” Victorine said, stacking a sheaf of papers on her desk, “you will tell me why you believe you are becoming human.”
“Yeah, how do we even know you’re telling the truth?” James said.
Victorine turned her head like a hawk sighting a lizard.
James shrank back. “I’m just going to sit down, over here, and be quiet." He dropped into a plush armchair.
Jessica followed suit, oddly prim in her movement to smooth her short, pleated skirt as she sat on the edge of the couch.
“Zelda?” Victorine asked. “Are you going to stalk around or sit?”
“If I sit I’ll fall asleep.” The snap and crackle of the fire wasn’t helping. “James is right, though. How will we know if Jessica is telling the truth?” I didn’t bother to add no offense, to Jessica, because I didn’t particularly care if she took offense.
“You may have her repeat anything you doubt, in front of your mind-reading friend,” Victorine said. She turned back to Jessica. “We know the beginning of your story. You were converted at the same time as James. Placed under Lord Prospero’s protection when your Elder was… removed from his position.”
“From life,” I corrected.
Victorine acknowledged this with a slight head bow—taking credit, not blame—before continuing. “You captured Zelda’s ex-boyfriend, Daniel, a civilian, and brought him to death’s door. In fact, if it hadn’t been for Zelda—if Daniel had died—you would have broken the Covenant. Your own life would have been forfeit. In saving Daniel, Zelda saved you as well. For that, you owe her a debt that has not been paid.”
Jessica owed me? I’d never thought about it that way before.
It may have been the shifting of the flames in the fireplace, but Victorine’s expression appeared to darken. “Look at me, Initiate.”
Jessica raised her head.
Even in the tender golden orange light, I could see she wasn’t young at all, hadn’t been for decades. Lines framed her eyes. Hair that had been so ultra-black it glowed now caught the light with tiny silver threads. Her eyes, with the red fading out like sunset, had always been older, wiser, more hardened than they should have been, for someone who looked twenty at most—but for the first time, their age matched the rest of her.
The slow snap of the fire kept time like an irregular heartbeat. Jessica took a slow breath, appeared to gather herself, before speaking. “I did as Lord Prospero said—to drink from the human—”
“From Daniel,” I said. “Say it.”
“From Daniel.” Her fingers twisted together.
“Go on,” Victorine said.
“I didn’t think it would kill him. I thought—I thought I was close, but not quite—”
I couldn’t stop myself. “You played with his life—you made jokes about it—”
“This is how I survive,” she said. “What am I going to be, a short-order cook like him?” She jerked her head toward James.
“Better a short-order cook than a lapdog for a monster,” he replied.
“Shut up, James. You did what you had to do, too.”
James looked away, making me wonder just what he had done. They held each other’s dark secrets like radioactive gems.
“You can judge me,” Jessica said, her gaze darting to me before settling with a kind of sulky defiance on Victorine, who seemed faintly amused by it, “but I liked what I could do.”
“You liked what you did to Daniel? Or the power you had in doing it?” I said.
“Does it matter?” she said, with a bitter laugh.
“Yes, it matters!” I marched over to her, bent down, putting my face level with hers. I half-expected Victorine to intervene, but she didn’t move. “When you hurt him, I decided if I met you in a dark alley, only one of us would come out of it. Change my mind.”
“How did you convince Daniel to let you stay with him? Did you appeal to his better nature?” Jessica said. “Or did you use what you had to get what you wanted?”
My hand came up, ready to slap her face—until I saw that it was what she wanted. To get to me. I lowered my hand. “Flirting with Daniel isn’t the same as sinking your teeth into his neck.” We were not the same. I was not like Jessica. I—
I meant well.
Jessica just looked at me. And what was left of the red in her gaze easily pierced, laser-like, the comforting fiction I told myself. I’d roped Daniel into this because I wanted a place to stay. I played on memories and desire, to get it. Simple as that. It was amazing Daniel hadn’t played me right back.
Maybe he was better than I was.
Maybe I was the real vampire.
I turned away.
Victorine was talking now. Picking up where I couldn’t continue. Asking how Jessica knew her powers were fading.
“My appearance, first,” Jessica said. “Then I got tired more easily. I couldn’t keep up anymore. And I started to crave… real food,” she said, as if it still surprised her.
That got me. I almost laughed. “That part’s not as bad as you think,” I said, unable to stop myself from being a cheerleader of all things food-related.
“Oh, great,” she said. “I’m going to die but at least there are sandwiches.”
“Welcome to humanity.”
She stared into the fire.
“Couldn’t someone just… re-bite you?” I said. I couldn’t believe I was actually troubleshooting for Jessica, of all people, but there we were.
Victorine tapped her chin thoughtfully. “The Blessed don’t partake of each other—but even if we did, this condition could be catching. No one would do it of their own free will.”
There was a pause. Then Victorine, Jessica, and I all looked at James.
“Bite… Jessica?” he said, hope and disgust twisting his face into a very weird expression.
“Don’t touch me,” Jessica said—but her expression looked just like his.
“Off topic,” I said. “We’ll get to that. What exactly was Prospero doing with the Mirror?”
“He doesn’t tell me everything,” Jessica said. “But he’s been disappearing a lot, lately.”
“Why were you meeting secretly with Daniel?”
Mild surprise crossed her face. “He told you?”
“Of course he did.” He definitely hadn’t. Not at first. But Jessica didn’t need to know that.
“I mean, Prospero was trying to recruit him, so…”
Had Daniel mentioned that little detail? No, he had not. Trust restored is stronger than espresso, sweeter than ice cream, and more comforting than a boat of pot roast gravy. It better damn well be, anyway. “Why did he want to recruit someone he nearly had killed?”
“He said Daniel’s new state was ‘interesting.’”
James shook his head. “I wouldn’t want to be ‘interesting’ to Lord Prospero.”
“It could be to your benefit,” Jessica said. “Sometimes.”
In that brief exchange of normal-sounding talk, I could almost hear what they would have sounded like as friends. Before vampires and blood and a quarter of a lifetime locked in a power-based hierarchy. “And he was invited to the Royal Ball? At the Vespers Club?”
Jessica nodded. “He was coming with me. I was the go-between for him and Lord Prospero.”
Well, now I knew how I was going to chat with Prospero.
Victorine spoke. “You are here and asking for help, yet you wish to return to Lord Prospero? Do you still consider yourself aligned to him?”
Jessica smoothed her skirt over her knees. Then she stood and crossed the floor with quick, neat steps, ending in front of me—
Where she dropped into a kneel, bowing her head.
What? I stepped back like a too-hot pan was spitting burning oil.
James looked as shocked as I felt.
Jessica looked up at me, a hint of the fanatic in her eyes. “This is the best way to discharge my debt,” she said. “Lord Prospero will not help me. He will only discard me when he learns what has happened to me. I will be your Initiate, Zelda. No other’s. And you will help me.” Earnest. Desperate. Yes, fanatic. Still angling to get what she wanted by any means necessary. Same old Jessica.
And yet…
Better to snag her now than give her a chance to change her mind. Better to take away everything belonging to Prospero before he did the same to me.
I held out my hands.
Jessica took them, reverently.
“Zelda, do you accept her defection?” Victorine said.
I gazed down at Jessica. Orange fire reflected in her eyes, strengthening the red. She looked forged, not aged. I couldn’t trust her now, and I probably never would. But I had to admit—
I wanted her on our side.
“I accept,” I said.