Dark Awakenings (Danse Macabre Book 2)

by Christina Quinn

  12

  RECLAIMED

  THE NEXT MORNING, WHEN I FINALLY PRIED MYSELF FROM THE WARM soft mattress, I found myself alone. That light room seemed almost surreal with the sun streaming in from the two windows with their near gossamer white curtains. My fingers toyed with that collar of jewels at my throat as my mind wandered back to the night before and Aleksi’s crying; I couldn’t blame him for those tears. Were I in his position, I think I wouldn’t have been able to wait for the others to fall asleep before falling apart. At least you’re aware of your weakness. Rolling my eyes at Miss Manners I slipped from the warmth of the bed and padded to the bathroom. Hanging just inside of the door was a red vintage sundress with thin straps and little white polka dots on it. Under it were a pair of strappy red flat sandals, and on the counter was a small makeup bag full of my shades and a corset. Oh, Aleksi had plans with this mansion. Of course he did, you saw the video.

  After I showered, dressed, did my makeup and wrangled my hair with a curling iron I felt more myself than I had in almost a year. I left the ruby necklace on top of the dresser though—it clashed with the lightness of the dress—simply put it was nightwear not daywear. The corset, however, felt like it was too tight. As I made my way downstairs I could feel the stays pressing into my sides. The visual was impressive admittedly, I looked like a pin up.

  My heels clicked on the pale marble tiles as I headed into the great room. Aleksi, Nikolai and Colette were all dressed and lazing about the cream colored granite island like lions at a watering hole. Nikolai was clearly wearing Aleksi’s clothes, both wore a black tank top and skinny jeans. Tattoos and hair length aside it was very hard to tell them apart at first glance. Colette was dressed in white capris and a baby pink blouse. The three of them looked up at me in tandem, and then… Evan walked in the room.

  Without thinking I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around the tall ginger vampire. He chuckled softly and kissed my cheek. Really? How can you be this stupid? The growl coming from the island made me jump.

  “Your breakfast is served, sirs and madam.” Garrett’s voice came from the foyer as the front door closed. This somehow seemed like a bad idea. “Angel face!” The blond werewolf practically chirped as he pulled me from Evan’s arms and into his own. He was so warm I could melt against that pale blue polo and the hard chest beneath. The growl from the island grew louder. Garrett scoffed and loosened his grip on me. “Seriously? I’m so glad death has changed so little about you, Aleksi.” Garrett chuckled out, the sarcasm dripping from every word. “I wouldn’t have had it any other way.” Evan gave Garrett an exasperated look.

  “Puppy!” Colette chirped as she ran to wrap her arms around Garrett. She seemed genuinely happy to see him.

  “How’ve you been, little Doll?” He chuckled as he released an arm from around me and draped it across her narrow shoulders.

  “Much better, you know what they say. Being institutionalized is as good as a vacation.” She flicked his nose with a pink polished nail. They cackled madly together, and I dipped away from Garrett’s side to turn to the neglected group at the breakfast bar.

  “Good morning.” I smiled at both Nikolai and Aleksi, but the favor wasn’t returned. Aleksi’s eyes read nothing short of disapproval and Nikolai refused to meet my gaze.

  “Winston and Tristan will be here in an hour or so. And Estella was right behind us,” Evan offered as he glanced for a quick second at Colette and Garrett.

  The pink clad brunette was acting like she wanted to crawl inside of the handsome, curly haired, green eyed blonde. Evan was clearly uncomfortable, but he didn’t say anything; he wouldn’t say anything. Evan was a passive creature for the most part, and that passivity meant he would rather suffer in silence than say anything about it. My eyes trailed from the copper haired vampire to Aleksi. He was right, if brought into our situation it would kill a little something inside of Evan.

  The door opened and a flurry of footsteps sounded as a gaggle of vampires filled the foyer. At the head of the group was Estella looking very business-like. She wore a black boat neck shirt with a sapphire blue blazer over it and an A line black skirt with nude peep toe Louboutins. Behind her walked Byron looking very normal in his black button down shirt with a skinny tie in that same shade of blue.

  Tristan was with them, and he looked like he was dressed for brunch. He had a khaki colored blazer over a blue gingham shirt and dark jeans. Leslie and I however, were dressed like twins. We both raised a brow as we looked at each other. She wore a garnet version of my dress with a large garnet sun hat. With them stood a vampire I didn’t know, but he looked familiar. His hair was golden brown and his eyes a deep chocolate, his lips were full and sensuous and, dare I say he was the tannest vampire I had ever seen. He was dressed semi business casual, with a silver, gray and violet thatched tie, a white shirt and a grey vest over it with matching pants. With him was a human male who I hadn’t seen before, he wore a deep violet colored fitted polo and khakis. I turned and glanced at Aleksi and Nikolai, they looked underdressed. I’m pretty sure they don’t care.

  “Let's call to session the first annual convention of Vlad’s unhappy fledglings.” Estella quipped in that husky, gritty voice of hers as she embraced Aleksi. “I’m so glad you arranged this, ‘leksi. It’s about time you stopped settling.”

  “I don’t think this is the proper time to joke, ‘stella,” the male in the purple tie chided. Estella rolled her eyes.

  “So American. Right down to business as always. Girls like a little foreplay, Winston. But then again… you wouldn’t know a whole lot about that would you?” Estella eyed the man with Winston before stepping back from Aleksi. Winston didn’t reply, he only straightened his tie and lifted his chin a little. “Time to send the kids off to play while the grownups discuss business? Or are we missing someone?”

  “We’re missing one person.”

  “You didn’t!” Colette chirped, crossing her arms and huffing, finally drawing her attention from Garrett.

  “Oh, but I did. It was her or Fabien and he has his own issues at the moment,” Aleksi stated matter of factly as Colette practically growled.

  “Letty! You know as well as I do we needed someone with leverage, and next to Elizabeta and Fabien she’s the one with the most power… who won’t ask anything in return. Remember she owes the three of us a massive favor and she too is pissed at Vlad.”

  “A favor? That blonde bitch fucked and tortured my son for four years and almost ruined his career.” Colette’s tiny little body exuded rage and Estella sucked her teeth.

  “And… You. Did. Too.” Estella beamed at her, and the room fell into a deadly silence—Nikolai looked like he was going to be sick. I started to walk towards Nikolai but Garrett was there in a blink wrapping his tanned, toned arms around him and pulling him in close. My gaze turned to Evan… those gray eyes were stormy. I think you just witnessed what will be the cause of their first fight.

  The door opening broke the silence, a tall, leggy, voluptuous blonde entered flanked by two guards she was wearing all white and holding a white parasol. She lowered her sunglasses as the door was closed behind her. That almost violet gaze danced over the crowd gathered and her full lips pulled into a smirk. I had only seen her once before, but Galina was one of those women who made an impression on everyone. The only woman I knew who could match her in pure subtle intimidation was Elizabeta.

  “What a reunion. It’s like its eighteen ninety nine all over again!” Galina sniggered in thickly accented English.

  “Now that we’re all here, lets talk business.” Aleksi moved from the breakfast bar and walked into a set of doors. Most of the vampires followed him, and Garrett as well. But Evan, Nikolai, Leslie, Byron, that other male and myself stayed in the great room.

  “So!” Leslie snickered taking off her hat. “Apparently we’re twinsies for the day.”

  “Yeah… I guess we are.” I smiled weakly and glanced over everyone in the room.

  “This is dan
gerous stuff. I really hope Aleksi knows what he’s doing; he’s essentially asking everyone in there to stick their necks out.” That unknown human male spoke drawing our attention. Who the fuck is this guy? Now who’s not being ladylike? Your skirt’s a mess, fix it. My fingers smoothed that pleated polka dot and I jumped up on one of the little stools.

  “Really? You don’t say?” Leslie stared at the man in mock shock, pressing her hands to her face with a little gasp for full effect.

  “Look, Prima Ballerina. I don’t expect you to understand the logistics from a business standpoint. But our money in this region is all Sala money. If Elizabeta gets pissed she’ll pull her funding and we’ll end up in the poor house.”

  “No, you’ll end up in the poor house. Everyone else in this room will be just fine. Danse Du Nuit, and The Westley Ballet have been independent as of last year. Since Tristan took over revenue has even tripled…maybe he’ll hire you as an office manager or something?” Leslie cracked her neck and giggled. The bad blood was clear.

  “Winston’s the only one who didn’t cut the apron strings, Xander.” Byron interjected in a cool, even tone with the confidence of someone who spent their time lecturing. “Renfield, Grey, and Harker is also independent of Sala. Granted, without R.G.H there wouldn’t be a Sala Corporation. So in the end, the so called Prima Ballerina is correct. Winston would be the only one fucked financially if this deal goes south.” I stared at him in awe. I don’t know why I expected him to be like me, stumbling over his own tongue. My gaze fell on Nikolai for a time, and he looked at me offering a small smile.

  The conversation around us continued about financial situations, it seemed the only one panicking about it was Winston’s servant Xander. Yet, as Nikolai stared at me with sad eyes I couldn’t help but to feel that us mortals were missing the obvious. They’re not worried about the right things. I pushed the thought out of my mind. If Vlad and Elizabeta took this little meeting the wrong way it wouldn’t matter who made what. We’d all be making the same amount—Nothing, because we’d all be dead. Now she gets it! I knew you weren’t a total lost cause. I decided to let them argue about things that didn’t matter for a little while longer. I could tell by the look on Evan and Nikolai’s faces that they knew the real risk here.

  “So what brought all of this about?” I asked as Evan took the seat beside me.

  “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven,” Evan replied with a sigh.

  “Paradise Lost… so Aleksi is Lucifer then?” I nodded slowly. “He thinks he can do Vlad’s job?”

  “Not exactly. No one is happy about Tristan being ousted as Master.” Evan exposited with a small grin. “There was no reason for it at all, other than he wanted power, and it was totally unprecedented. You’re not supposed to be able to sit on Council and control a region… and Vlad sits on council. Aleksi just organized it, but the Patriarchs of the region; Estella, and Winston, as well as most of the Elders in Florence want Tristan back. No one is content with the strict rules placed on their servants. Galina is here to show support, because she is what Elizabeta was before she accepted her council chair. Essentially a bunch of boring bureaucratic vampire stuff with Aleksi proving, surprisingly enough, that he is Vlad’s heir after all.” Evan sighed and those gray eyes fell on Nikolai for a handful of seconds before returning to me. “I also…wanted to talk about…” he fell silent and ranked his fingers back through those short flame licked locks. Oh here it comes. “I understand that you were going through some things…but I appreciated our time together. I mean, I knew the entire time it wasn’t going to be a lasting arrangement…but I cannot lie and say I didn’t hope to some degree.” He nervously traced his tongue over his little pink lips and sighed. Well now, what are you going to say to this? What should I say? You should probably start with, ‘I’m sorry for being such a selfish twat and wiping my feet on your heart.’ Or something like that.

  “I never meant to hurt you. My head was just so turned around with grief…and you were so kind and...”—I shook my head—“I took advantage of that. I should have called or said something… you deserved better than that.” Out of the corner of my eye I caught Nikolai death glaring at me. Isn’t he supposed to be your sub? I think he’s jealous. No, I think he’s showing just how much Aleksi is in him. Apparently the part of jealousy today will be played by a cyan eyed monster.

  “She doesn’t mean it.” Nikolai snorted. “There is only one person she’s capable of caring for and that’s Aleksi, the rest of us are just things for her to play with until he’s free.” Evan sighed at the Russian and shook his head.

  “My, how very dog in the manger of you.” Evan retorted cocking a brow.

  “What?” Nikolai blinked at him confused.

  “It’s a fable. There’s a dog in a manger who stops the horse from eating the grain even though the dog isn’t interested in it. All the fucking love in the world, in your eyes, belongs to you—even if you don’t want it.” Evan glared at Nikolai. “You want them all to adore you Autumn, Garrett, Elizabeta. Even though you don’t want them, you want their love and you get pissy even when they show a passing ounce of affection for another.” He swallowed and his lips set into a hard line for a moment. “I hope Aleksi ties you above the bed so you can watch the moment her eyes roll back in her head when he’s fucking her, knowing you can never give her that.” Evan smirked and pushed to standing, leaving me to blink shocked. I honestly didn’t think Evan had it in him to be jealous. Everyone has their breaking point. Miss Manners’ assessment brought my attention back to Nikolai. He’s doing this because he’s not getting what he needs. “Oh, before I forget. We’re doing Giselle next and would love to have you audition.” I thought for a moment. Did I want to go on stage? You shit all over his and Garrett’s heart. You need to do it to make amends, it’s clear they want you to dance. Even if you make a fool of yourself at least you’ll have broken even.

  “Sure.”

  “Brilliant! Garrett will be ecstatic.” Evan smiled at me and pressed a quick kiss to my forehead before he left me to go stand by Leslie who was looking at the poster of Colette and Aleksi in Giselle.

  “Nikolai—” I was cut off by the door being shoved open as Aleksi burst through into the great room, his anger trailing behind him like a thick tangible thing.

  “Alyoshen'ka.” Galina sighed as she followed him out into the bright white room. “I meant nothing by it. I’m a whore. Elizabeta’s a whore. Your mother was a whore. A whore is a powerful creature.” She shrugged. Colette practically ran up behind her and shoved the tall blonde hard enough to knock her off balance. The pretty Russian hit the ground with a thud that rumbled the house, and those guards were at her side in seconds pointing pistols at Colette. Vampires using guns? Well, bullets did almost take out Evan. Galina held up her hand as she looked up at Colette and sighed. “I would recommend you putting space between yourself and Aleksi. We all know about your love for your brother, but it would be a pity for the truth to come out… and the truth about your son. We might understand it. But these modern Americans who pay thousands to see you dance, I doubt they would.” Galina pulled herself to standing and smoothed her white dress. “But we’re all friends here, so your secret is safe. I agreed to help, da? We old whores always protect our own. Your… brother should not be so sensitive. If not for those six days you would not have your precious Swan Lake to dance.”

  A door slammed and I glanced up at that railing on the second floor to find Aleksi gone. Colette meanwhile seethed with rage, her tiny little white hands balled into fists. Winston walked up behind her and placed his hands on her small shoulders. She spun around and glared at him.

  “Don’t you fucking touch me!” She snapped before she too disappeared up the stairs and slammed a door.

  Winston sighed heavily and exchanged looks with Galina as Estella leisurely meandered out of the door with Garrett behind her, looking a little pale. Evan, without a word walked to the refrigerator and took out a small bottle of apple juice and
brought it to Garrett. They took a seat on the couch and whispered softly to one another. I envied them to a degree, you could see the love in their eyes when they looked at one another. You’re staring too hard.

  “Autumn, you need to do something about Nikolai.” I jumped at the voice. I wasn’t used to hearing my name said with a female Russian accent. Blinking I turned and found Galina beside me and Nikolai gone, he had retreated elsewhere while I stared longingly at Evan and Garrett.

  “I…I’m not sure I’d be any good at it. I mean… according to Aleksi I am inclined in the same direction Nikolai is… though in not such an extreme fashion.” I couldn’t stop the blush from blossoming across my cheeks as I spoke.

  “Well it is an easy thing to go from where you are to where he needs you. What is the golden rule? Treat others as you wish to be treated. The same goes for a bottom who tops. You treat him as you wish Alyoshen'ka would treat you. Very simple.” She flashed me one of those warm, charming smiles and I nodded slowly. “Admittedly, little morsel, I do not envy you. You are trapped between two of the most capricious and mercurial men I have ever known. But Kolen’ka can be tamed, when properly treated of course. Alyoshen'ka…Well, again as I said: I do not envy you, Beautiful girl.”

  “Kolen’ka? What does that mean?” I asked, only halfway embarrassed that I hadn’t caught on. It’s a pet name of some sort, do you really need more than that.

  “Kolen’ka is… more or less a term of endearment for the name Nikolai, as Alyoshen'ka is for Aleksi. It’s like I told Kolen’ka his first night with me… he is Russian. Niki is a name for a little English or American girl. He is a Russian Dansuer, he is masculine, virile… such a name is laughable to me. I adored my Kolen’ka… I even miss him.” Her smile fell and she slowly shook her head.

  “Why did you leave him?” My words made her sigh.

  “Oh, you will get there. You will get there quicker than I did. You have to have a very hard hand with…what is the English word…” Estella walked up behind Galina as she spoke.