Dark Awakenings (Danse Macabre Book 2)

by Christina Quinn

  He wrapped his legs around me. That cold flesh was like a crushing vice as he tried to force me closer to his mouth while I tried to struggle away from him. My grunts and mewling noises of frightened desperation woke Evan.

  “Autumn!” Evan hissed as he grabbed Nikolai by the shoulders and tried to pull him back.

  Those blue eyes that glared at me were vacant—there was nothing of Nikolai in the gaze at all. “Autumn, don’t look him in the eyes.” Evan moved to cover Nikolai’s face and the frenzied vampire snapped his jaws around Evan’s hand causing the ginger to hiss again as Nikolai almost instantly released him. This is how you’re going to die. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears as I fought to claw my way off of the bed.

  Then I felt the shadows of the room press around me. That darkness roared out a warning that made Nikolai release me so abruptly that I shot off of the bed and smacked into the wall knocking the air from my lungs.

  “Get my phone and call Tristan.” Evan ordered as he held Nikolai down on the bed as the freshly turned vampire thrashed. Before I recovered from the burning in my lungs I pulled myself off of the wood and darted for the dresser snatching up the thin white phone. I unlocked it and paused for a second. His background was a selfie of him and Garrett kissing, they looked so happy. And you’ll ruin it all for both of them. I shook Miss Manners from my head and called Tristan. Leslie answered on the fifth ring.

  “Evan?” She whispered.

  “No, it’s Autumn. W-we h-have a… Niki’s… he’s…” I heard the phone quickly change hands.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “He tried to eat me!” I yelped into the phone.

  “I figured as much. Vlad did the same fucking thing to Aleksi.” Tristan sounded anything but pleased. “Just leave him in there for now. He can’t break the silver. Vlad and Elizabeta want us all in the hall of mirrors…” He sighed. “He said specifically… well you’ll see. Your clothes are in the bathroom in your room.” Just like that the call ended.

  “What did he say?” Evan grunted out.

  “Just to leave him.”

  “We can’t. Autumn, he’ll chew his hand off.”

  “How much blood will stop this?” I asked bringing my hand to rub at my neck and those two little scars Aleksi had left behind.

  “A mouthful… I don’t know.”

  “Could… could I feed him?”

  “He would rip your throat out… Tristan should have taken him, or Vlad…” He trailed off.

  “Tristan w-was pretty shaken up by Aleksi’s death.”

  “He probably wanted Nikolai to chew his hand off… brilliant.”

  Chewing on my bottom lip I stared at the two of them. You aren’t just some random human, remember? With a swallow I furrowed my brows. After setting the phone back on the dresser I walked to the furthest corner of the room and sat back against the wall. I had a plan! A stupid plan. You should just let him chew his own hand off. He killed Aleksi, remember?

  “G-go get changed… I have this.” I stuttered out taking a few deep breaths to calm my thudding pulse.

  “Autumn, there’s no way…you’re mortal he’ll rip you in two.” It wasn’t until then that I realized how secret all of my powers were.

  Using my telekinesis I opened the bathroom door and Evan stared at me like I grew a second head.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “F-fine… just don’t look in his eyes.”

  “I won’t.”

  “If you need anything…I’ll be in the bathroom. I’ll keep the door open.” He continued as he pried himself away from Nikolai. This will work, I’ll just hold him down and feed him from my wrist. This is a dumb idea. From my place against the wall, as Evan crossed into the bathroom I unlocked Nikolai’s handcuffs. Instantly he rushed across the floor toward me. This is the stupidest thing that you could have possibly done. He pinned me between him and the wall and I pushed him back with my powers as he roared at me.

  My hand slid over his heart and my gaze caught his. I was instantly wrapped in waves of sea foam, cerulean and alice blue. Why so many colors? Slowly those layered hues shifted and changed. Gold, amber, and earthy brown started to overtake the blues. Something inside of me was yelling stop the entire time, and once the blues were completely replaced I was released. Blinking I felt my heart race in my chest as my gaze settled back on Nikolai who was no longer snapping at me like a wild, rabid dog. No, he was kneeling on the floor pressing his cold forehead to my feet.

  Reaching down I pet Nikolai’s hair and he looked up at me. He was back, there was even embarrassment in his eyes.

  “You need to feed.” I whispered as I knelt down and turned my back to him. “Do you remember what I showed you in Moscow?”

  “Yes.” His voice was a whisper against my shoulder. You should let him starve. My skin broke out in gooseflesh as he pulled my hair over my shoulder baring my pulse to him. His hand slid around my waist and I pressed my thighs together. It had been a while since I fed a vampire, and I admittedly missed it. I missed the sharp pain, and feeling utterly possessed. I swooned as Nikolai’s frigid fingertips slipped across my jaw, stretching my neck long. His bite was delicate, like he was afraid to hurt me as he wound his hand in my hair. We both moaned in tandem as those sharp little fangs of his broke the skin. The instant my blood hit his tongue I felt like I was having a vision as my pupils contracted and my vision hazed over.

  Smack. The sound of the pointer hitting my back. I winced but I watched in the mirror as I held my arabesque. But it wasn’t me. I was looking out from the eyes of a fourteen year old girl with huge blue eyes and mousy brown hair. Colette? She wore a pink leotard and loose romantic era tutu. Something was said in French and I watched her tilt her chin up further and hold that difficult pose seemingly effortlessly as she smiled. The girls around her at the barre all looked sloppy by comparison—her lines were immaculate. Still that pointer came down against her side again as the stern woman made her rounds. I watched that pretty face wince and when the teacher’s back was turned she snarled at the woman. But the moment the teacher turned her attention in Colette’s direction the smile slipped back over her lips.

  The woman stopped at the front of the room and said something again. All of the girls returned to first position and that woman dressed in all black turned to a nearby blonde girl with dark eyes and placed her hands on the girl’s shoulders. As she prattled on, Colette’s chin twitched. Her tiny body practically vibrated with rage. Shortly after the room started to empty. But while everyone left the room with its large ornate mirrors Colette waited until that blonde girl started to leave. She shadowed behind her until they reached the grand staircase that I stood on for Leslie’s Wedding at the Paris Opera House. Colette shoved the girl, staring with blank dead doll’s eyes as that small blonde form bounced and tumbled down the stairs all the way to the bottom. Watching she did a few fouettes until the girl stopped twitching, and then she screamed; wiping the self-satisfied little grin from her face as the footfalls of the teacher sounded behind her. Then once the woman was standing beside her I blinked and suddenly I was no longer at the top of that stair case.

  My surroundings refocused around me. The room I was in lacked the grand splendor of the Paris Opera House. It was almost suffocatingly small and the pale blue paint was peeling in the corners. I was standing—or rather whoever I was in that moment was standing—in a row of boys about fifteen or so. A man was sitting in the corner speaking in Russian while they all stood in first position. The person never looked at the mirror but I was guessing that it was Aleksi, then it was confirmed;

  “Aleksi, Grand Jete.” I felt Aleksi’s pride, joy and pure glee over being singled out. He took a short three step run and then leaped, his long legs spreading into a full perfect split. His eyes fell on his reflection in the mirror for a mere moment. His lines were immaculate, even at that young age he looked more like a drawn diagram than an actual person. The man spoke more in Russian and in the mirror that smile on young, human Aleksi�
�s face broadened. For the most part he looked the same, only his eyes were a little less blue than I knew them to be. However, those eyes were actually bluer than Colette’s, though with that slight roundness of youth their faces were even similar. Aleksi’s eyes weren’t quite serious yet.

  The room emptied and Aleksi stayed behind. He took a few steps closer to the barre and stared at himself in the mirror. His hair was shorter. It was cut similar to Nikolai’s when I met him, and without the weight of length it had more of that slight wave to it than either Nikolai’s or Colette’s had. I was right about the color though. His hair was a mousy golden brown in his youth, a color which had tarnished to almost black from the lack of sunlight.

  Behind him a door opened and a petite flaxen haired girl walked in. Her hair was almost white it was so blonde and her eyes so gray they bordered on colorless. She bounded into the room, but Aleksi paid more attention to his reflection than he did to her. His hand rubbed over that long neck of his as a sigh escaped his lips. The girl started speaking, her voice so high and lilting it almost made Colette’s seem like an eighty year old smoker’s. She stood next to Aleksi and batted her pale lashes at him before setting a large coin on the floor. She drew a circle around it in chalk and snatched the coin off of the ground. It was clear she was trying to impress him as she raised en Pointe in the center of that coin sized circle. After a moment of righting her posture she started to turn a series of fouettes keeping her toe in the circle while she spotted to Aleksi. After the ninth, she fell unceremoniously onto her bottom with a thud. Without missing a beat Aleksi clapped a little and offered her his hand, but she swatted it away and stood quickly. Her cheeks were the color of apples as she turned from Aleksi and muttered something. That hand returned to his pale throat and he looked back to the mirror.

  She turned around and pulled him in for a kiss. Those eyes of his went astoundingly wide as he stood there frozen. Almost immediately he pushed her away and shook his head, before almost whispering something. Never before had I wanted to know Russian so badly. She blushed deeper, and they had a rather heated discussion, but he never raised his voice. Aleksi was clearly uneasy, those oh-so blue eyes of his never quite focusing on her even as they addressed one another. She started for the door and Aleksi leaned against the barre. All of that joy he experienced while dancing earlier was replaced with conflicting emotions. His guilt was startling. It lingered even after she left the room while yelling what I was certain was an expletive.

  For a while he stared at himself in the mirror, inspecting his face, and that long neck. I could feel his insecurity whenever he looked at his neck, he thought it was too long. I was unsure about what I had expected from young Aleksi but shyness and insecurity wasn’t quite it. After a moment he took a few steps back and placed the ball of his right foot in the little chalk circle the pretty blonde had drawn on the floor.

  That blissful joy returned as attempted the girl’s trick. He did a series of fouettes keeping the ball of his foot in the circle as he turned again and again. I lost count of how many he did as that smile of his slipped back into place and he started humming, and then singing a song that I had heard him mumble in his sleep on occasion.

  “Sur le Pont d'Avignon L'on y danse, l'on y danse Sur le Pont d'AvignonL'on y danse tous en rond.” He sang in clear and confident French as he continued his fouettes, with that happy smile curling his lips. He seemed so free, and so genuinely happy. It actually hurt to think of everything he’d endure in the decade to come.

  Again the vision turned, and this time it was painful. It felt like someone was pulling something from my brain. As I blinked I knew exactly why. My mother, sister and I were at a fundraiser at the Westley Theater. I was eight, maybe nine. My mother and sister seemed so tall and elegant in their matching pale cream gowns. I could barely keep up with them as I was pulled along roughly by my older sister. Both of them looked like the ballerinas I had aspired to be. Both of them looked like they fit amongst the lithe forms that milled through the room. But we had been invited to the Westley because of me. However, my sister and mother seemed to steal the show as they rubbed shoulders with the dancers.

  “Oh, she’s a little doll!” A familiar voice exclaimed. “Is this the little marvel who caught our Tristan’s eye?” Colette appeared out of nowhere beaming down at me. I had forgotten all about this. She was so pretty in her pale pink chiffon gown and it all smacked into me at once. I was accepted into the Westley Ballet Academy when I was 8 because the director of Du Nuit saw my dance class’s production of Swan Lake. “Oh! Look at that neck and that posture!” Colette cooed as she looked me over. I could feel my shyness settling in as I tried to hide behind my mother who pushed me forward.

  “What do we say when someone compliments us, Autumn?” My mother raised a brow as she spoke. My small hands smoothed down my pale blue dress.

  “Thank you, Ma’am.” I whispered out keeping my eyes on the floor. My hazel gaze locked to the hem of her pretty pink gown.

  “Autumn!” My mother chided, and I slipped into a quick curtsey.

  “She’s such a lady! They tell me you’re already doing Pointe work, that’s very impressive.”

  “I started her early, her sister as well. Though, her sister stopped ballet this year. She’s hung up her Pointe shoes for pompoms. I always thought ballet an integral part of raising a girl. Poise and grace are in short supply these days.”

  “Very true, though it comes as no surprise that your girls are so accomplished. You had such graceful clean lines. It’s a pity you retired so early.”

  “I wanted a family, and being a Principal dancer with any company doesn’t exactly fit in with a mother’s schedule.”

  “So true… if you’ll excuse me.” She smiled but it was an empty smile as she walked away, her pink skirt fluttering around her feet.

  “Muma I’m—” My words were cut off by both my mother and sister simultaneously glaring at me.

  “Remember, we don’t speak unless a grown up speaks to us first. This isn’t a place for kids.” My sister whispered as she tugged us after my mother. I nodded and sucked on my bottom lip as we made our way to our table.

  The vision sped up and I saw the entire night on fast forward, including when my mother lost track of my sister and I as she flirted with the danseurs. My sister took her brand new cell phone out of her purse and called her boyfriend. She was fifteen at the time and couldn’t care less about what happened to me. I wandered off and fell asleep in a corner. It was Tristan who found me, all sparkling blue eyes and gleaming golden curls like a fairytale Prince. He picked me up and carried me back to the table, and suggested that my mother take us home.

  Again things shifted and changed, the colors blurred and then came back into focus. Again I found myself standing in someone else’s body looking out. I guessed who it was immediately, Nikolai. Though in truth I didn’t have to guess, he was staring at himself in the mirrors of the studio checking his posture. He was nervous as a tall figure made his way down the rows of boys at the barre, they were all between the ages of ten and fifteen. Nikolai couldn’t have been more than ten. That figure stopped in front of him and Nikolai looked up. Looking down at him thoughtfully was Aleksi.

  “Very impressive, but don’t forget to smile. Ballet is a beautiful, painful lie. No matter what you feel, always make them think you’re happy. No matter how much it hurts, always make them think it’s effortless.” Aleksi took a few steps back as Nikolai beamed with pride. “Show me a Grand Jete.” Nikolai took a few running steps and then leaped with a smile. The split in the air was perfect, but there was something about how he held his hands while he was in the air that suggested natural talent more than practiced poise. Still Aleksi clapped. “Impressive.” He offered a smile and then continued down the line saying nothing.

  The vision released me and I sagged back against Nikolai’s chest. My head swam a little. I couldn’t tell if it was from feeding him or from my clairvoyancy. After a few moments I tried to stand, st
umbling across the floor. It was definitely the feeding. With a soft groan I eventually made my way out into the hall and back to what was once Aleksi’s bedroom. Waiting for me in the bathroom, next to the sink was a small pile of black clothes. The pile was too small. You should have seen this coming. Every other servant wears next to nothing. You don’t dress up your steak and chicken with silk do you?

  Swallowing I inspected that pile; the thigh high stockings, the thong panty, the crude black leather collar and… I looked on the floor next to the sink. There had to be a bra somewhere, right? Right? He couldn’t possibly expect me to walk around topless. Why not? You’re nothing special now. My eyes raised to the purpling bruise that colored most of the right side of my face. The shadows seemed to seethe as I undressed and stepped into the shower. I was quick about it, my body still ached from the night before last, and my face was overly tender from the slap. Still that warm water felt amazing against my skin. The pressure of the spray made me relax a little and forget that I was going to have to crawl literally half naked in front of people I considered my friends. My mind wouldn’t stop mulling over the why. You know why. Vlad wants there to be no question of where you stand.