And regardless of whether my heart was in it, the future depended on the outcome. As did the life of the one for whom I cared most.
Chapter Seventeen
Clouds concealed the pale moonlight, making the night particularly dark as I approached the coven. Adjusting my sunglasses, I took inventory of what laid before me, now much closer and more intimate with the building than I had been during our previous visit. There were no cars parked in the front, but enough activity passed through the large glass doors to give it the appearance of a bustling private establishment. A guard turned away any unwelcome visitors at the gate and allowed me past security when I gave my name.
A shiver crawled the length of my spine as I walked across the grounds.
The wind was not nearly as cold that evening as it had been in recent days, but as another chill afflicted me, I reminded myself of where I tread. These beings were no longer my kindred. Indeed, they might kiss my cheek and shake my hand all evening, but their master would ensure one ping after another registered on this radar I now possessed. I vowed to myself to ignore it as much as possible.
After all, this demon had a mission to accomplish.
I shut my eyes and indulged a steadying breath as I attempted to summon what I had pantomimed back at the apartment, this time in a more serious fashion. The cunning creature I once was – the immortal whose very name could turn the tepid blood of vampire cold with fright – crept from the shadows in a tempered fashion. The corner of my mouth curled in a smirk. Yes, they would call me Peter tonight, but everything about me would have to scream Flynn.
“Another fucking social call,” I muttered, flicking away the cigarette I had lit after parting company with the others. I adjusted my coat, concealing the shoulder holster and knives, and stepped briskly past one couple loitering on the front steps. The door opened before me as though I belonged there, and a nod exchanged with one vampire almost bore with it the message that I was just another immortal returning from a venture out onto the town. My eyes took in the sight of the foyer as I entered, and I summoned an air of apathy to project over my discontent.
Decadence hung all around me, from the smallest adornments to the largest fixtures. Paintings and tapestries hung from the walls, depicting scenes both macabre and majestic for the voyeur. Many of the pieces bore the signs of being as old as Ian himself. Well-dressed creatures strolled past, exchanging nods with me as I continued inward. This was a game with which I was well-acquainted; the same I had played when I kissed Sabrina’s lips while still tasting their wickedness. If I could fool her for so many weeks, then surely I could maneuver this round of chess.
I paused by a larger set of doors, flanked on both sides by two men. “Greetings, fellows,” I said as they stared me down. Both burly and of European persuasion, one reminded me of Julian. “I have been invited by your master Ian. I should like to meet with him if he is available.”
“Your name?” he asked unflinchingly.
I smiled at the irony. “Peter, originally of Philadelphia. He told me you would be informed I was coming.”
The man’s disposition changed at once, into a much more agreeable posture. “Oh, yes. Yes, he did.” Stepping out of the way, he gestured at one of the closed doors. “Please, enter. Ian’s been expecting you.”
“Thank you.” Offering him a quick nod, I shot a glance at his counterpart before walking to the doors and pulling one open. Music which had filtered into the hallway from the other side became louder, revealing this to be something more than just a lounging area. I perked an eyebrow at the collection of vampires on the other side. It would seem their coven was a bit on the rowdier side.
A common area on the other side proved to be anything but. The door swung shut behind me, leaving me to pause in the entry and gaze upon a temple for carnal indulgence. Men and women either lounged together, or busied themselves on the dance floor, glasses of blood, alcohol, or a combination of the two in hand and a cloud of cigarette smoke hanging in the air thick enough to cut through. I furrowed my brow and recoiled against the stench of bodies pressed together, knowing some of the fray to have pulses for at least the time being. Whether or not they still would by the night’s end was a matter up for debate.
Taking a deep breath, I willed myself to move forward, descending a short set of stairs into the main portion of the room. Tables were situated in front of plush booths, with chairs on the other side for those apt to stand and be seated more frequently. Figuring Ian would be one more for enjoying the sight of his debaucherous progeny, I made the mistake of fixing my sights on the stationary crowd. It made me ill prepared for when one of the dancers crossed over and intercepted me.
She slunk against me, leaving a group of two men and another woman to bare her fangs and graze her fingertips across my chest. I did my best to reciprocate the look of interest, while dismissing her advances at the same time. Her eyes caressed the entire length of me before she returned to her cohorts with a look of satisfaction on her face. Internally, I grumbled.
Just beyond my encounter, I spied Ian at last. He reclined exactly where I had suspected, in one of the best seats in the house, with an arm wrapped around one of the men who had accompanied him on his midnight stroll, Talon. Virgil stood off to the side, his eyes not fixed on anything in particular, but flicking to me when I entered his peripheral vision. Ian had his free hand on Talon’s cheek by the time he noticed my presence, but immediately, his face lit. “Peter!” he said, hand relinquishing its caress to rise in a wave. “Come over here, dark vagabond. I’ve been hoping you would show.”
Talon sighed and looked at me as well. I perked an eyebrow while closing the distance between me and the table where Ian sat with William, Clarence, and two female vampires who had yet to be introduced. They were adorned with black and lace, one a redheaded woman who looked no more than eighteen years old. The other had her long, brown hair tied back in a bun; her apparent age a much more distinguished-looking twenty-five. They all nodded when I approached.
Ian waited until I paused beside the table to slink out from beside his male companion and stand. A more reserved tan suit hung from his slender frame, although the gem-encrusted cane was still propped beside his booth. The ringmaster conducting his circus. “Welcome, Peter. It delights me to no end that you finally decided to join us. I’ll admit Virgil and I were debating whether or not you would.” He glanced in the direction of the brown-haired vampire to his left. “It would seem I won, Virgil.”
Virgil smirked, but failed to look at Ian. I stepped forward when Ian extended his hand and shook it without hesitation. “I do apologize for the delay,” I said. My arm dropped to my side once Ian released his grip. “I had other matters toward which to attend.”
“Other matters meaning your human.” The corner of Ian’s mouth curled in a knowing grin.
“Amongst other things.” I attempted to mirror his smile. “I hope my delay did not offend you.”
“Not at all. Please –” He motioned to one of the few remaining free chairs, one positioned across from where he sat. “–Take a seat. Allow me to entertain you for a few moments before we speak in private.”
I pulled out the chair and sat as Ian assumed his place by Talon’s side. He pointed first to his male companion. “You remember my child, Talon. And Virgil, Clarence, and William should all be familiar faces. These two beautiful women are Patricia and Geneviève.” Ian paused, smiling as I nodded to each of the vampires. When I stopped at Patricia, he continued. “Patricia and William were twins. They refused to be separated, so I had to keep Patricia safe until she could be turned with her brother. She in particular has been looking forward to meeting you after hearing us talk the other night.”
The brown-haired vampiress flaunted her fangs as her ruby lips spread in a grin. “Hello, Peter,” she said, surprising me when she rose to her feet and climbed onto my lap. Chocolate-colored eyes drifted from the sight of my neck and traversed slowly northward until she met my gaze. Her long fingernails
brushed past the side of my face, touching my sunglasses. The shiver I suppressed had nothing to do with arousal. “You’re even handsomer than my brother described you. I bet you’re an especially delicious creature beneath those glasses.”
I summoned as much of a smile as I seemed capable, allowing my pointed teeth to become more pronounced and feigning interest. “Nothing could be as fair as you, Pet. I would allow you to see my eyes, but then the night would be a loss.”
“Perhaps I could lure you someplace more private.”
Taking her hand from my face, I placed a gentlemanly kiss on the back of her palm. “I imagine a night with you would be exquisite.” Her hand fell to her lap when I let go. “I am afraid I must decline, though. Some other fortunate devil shall have to be the envy of the coven tonight.”
She shrugged. “Suit yourself.” When she lifted from my lap and stood to resume a place beside her brother, I nearly sighed with relief, wondering how many women would seem apt to throw themselves at me until I left. William rested an arm on the back of her chair and she crossed her legs, her gaze not straying from me even when she plucked a lit cigarette from William’s hand. “The offer is always open,” she said punctuating the comment with a wink.
I smiled. “My eternal gratitude, Patricia. I consider it an honor to have turned your head.”
“Don’t let it trouble you, sister dear,” William said as she lifted the cigarette to her lips and indulged a long draw from the end. The look on his face turned mocking. “He takes company with a human woman for all his needs.”
“Where is the human?” Talon asked. Ian smirked and stroked his hair.
“She remained at home for the evening, as was suggested,” I said.
“What are your plans with her?” Virgil chimed. “Using her and killing her? You’re probably not old enough to turn her.”
My attention shifted to Ian’s second. “I have no immediate plans with her.”
“How did she come to take your company, then?”
I attempted not to betray my unease in response to where the line of questioning had already strayed. Still, I risked a hopefully more-casual-than-not indulgence by thrusting a hand in my pocket and lighting a cigarette of my own. As the embers glowed orange, I entertained thoughts of the speed with which I could plunge a dagger into each vampire gathered. “Because I am a dashing devil and she is a vixen of a mortal. I have not favored the company of her kind very much prior to her, but she holds my interest. How she came to fall until my wiles, I do not know, but I can say this much…” My eyes shifted from Talon to Ian, a dark grin tugging at the corner of my mouth. “I would drive a sword through the heart of any who would harm her.”
“Then may it never come to that,” Ian said, neither blinking nor looking away. He mirrored my grin for a moment before shifting to address the women. “Peter is still a child in our ways. Who he chooses to take company with is his business and no one else’s. His coven was met with tragedy recently. A seer killed his mistress, a close friend of mine. I’m hoping we can lure his wandering spirit to settle with us.”
“Yes, tell me more about your coven,” I said, drawing from my cigarette again. Smoke bellowed past my lips as I continued speaking. “Your children are certainly livelier than Sabrina’s were. I have wondered if my former brethren are currently lying around without her oversight, waiting for somebody to shepherd them into a sloth their imaginations have not yet fathomed.”
Ian laughed. “Well, not all of these are my children, admittedly.” The hand around Talon flipped in the direction of William and Patricia. “I like turning pairs. The machismo of the male needs the delicate deviance of a female to compliment it. Even when I haven’t bestowed the dark gift to a couple or a pair of siblings, I’ve always made sure one gender’s turning is followed shortly thereafter by the other. It keeps things balanced that way.”
I smirked. “I thought you didn’t care much for balance. Or is that limited to humans and vampires?”
“Oh, I agree humans and vampires need to have a balance, I simply don’t think the Order’s balance is the correct way of looking at it.”
“And I am still undecided.” My eyes flicked about the room, taking in the sight of the others once more. “From where does the rest of your collective hail if they are not all yours?”
“My children have turned others, who have made sires of their own. This might sound a bit Darwinian, but I allow my children to choose the company they keep provided they choose wisely.” I caught a sinister smile on his face when my attention shifted back to him. “This is my house and my house is the only coven in this city. Staying here has its price. If I feel the gift has been given to someone unworthy, I reserve the right to thin the herd before they tarnish my name. My children know that, though, and have accepted it.”
I perked an eyebrow. “Quite a stringent condition, though.” As we stared at each other, I risked a slow crawl into his mind; smooth and subtle, lest he feel me doing so. “How would I convince Monica to be turned if she stood the risk of being weighed and found wanting?”
Pathways through his mind darkened. Some began to open. Ian gave no indication if he detected what I was doing. “Don’t worry, Peter, I like your style. You’re an agreeable and mischievous man and downright brash even in the face of a vampire of my years. That’s the sort of spirit I want in my house. If you agree to join us, I’ll see to it that she’s made the yin to your yang.”
“And you think she would be willing to accept being turned?”
“I think if she loves you, she should know it’s inevitable.”
‘… the witch, she seems to be the key…’
Thoughts slipped through the cracks, floating through like whispers.
‘… will never understand an immortal being so fixated on a human girl…’
Ian raised an eyebrow. “Peter?”
I blinked twice and drew from my cigarette again. A chill to rival the one I had experienced outside paralyzed me from head to toe. I struggled to maintain my composure. “Apologies. I was considering the notion that your assurance seems to be the only form our kind is capable of.”
He nodded. “Duplicity is in our nature. We are the world’s attorneys in our heart of hearts.” The smile on his face faded slowly. “Peter, I would like to speak with you alone, if you wouldn’t…”
‘… bastards in the Council wouldn’t see it coming…’
“… mind.”
“Not at all,” I said as coolly as possible while abstract images flashed through my mind. Without form, they passed through like the shadow of a ghost. There were plans afoot. Large plans. What they were eluded me, but would perhaps be revealed so long as I continued to play this game. “What did you wish to discuss?”
Ian kissed Talon’s cheek, then slid out of the booth and plucked his cane from where he had it propped. “I don’t want to burden the others with the details. Allow me to entertain you in my office. We can take a tour of the coven when we’re finished.” He paused, his gaze possessing a dare. “You wouldn’t mind that, right?”
I counted the breaths our eyes remained locked, noting that Ian had an uncanny ability to seemingly see through my glasses. The idea unnerved me, but still I waited as the silence bordered on rude. Finally, I nodded and extinguished my cigarette. The part of me that was Flynn was satisfied we had proven our mettle. “I do not mind.” As I stood, I shot him the most amiable grin I could manufacture. “It is not as though I have any pressing duties toward which I must attend.”
“Excellent.” Ian shot a quick glance to Virgil before he started to walk, leaving the implied command for me to follow. I did so, heading with him in the direction of a pair of doors. Instinct told me to guard my thoughts, which also required me to release the very surface hold I had on Ian. More delving would have to follow when he and I were alone.
The beings we passed nodded once again to me, but bowed to Ian when they sighted him. He reciprocated the gestures, an unreadable expression on his face. “
Enjoy the rest of the night, my children,” he said. “Relish what it means to be a vampire.” His eyes failed to meet mine as he turned away from them. The rest of the journey to the corridor was spent in tense silence.
I looked in his direction when he exited the common area and indulged a deep breath. The two guards framing the entryway nodded in recognition of him. He reciprocated the gesture, but his next words were directed at me. “I love being an immortal.” Ian assumed a place at my side and led us in the direction of a large staircase. I followed, ascending the stairs ahead of him when he signaled me to take the lead. “The more years I’ve weathered, the more distant the memory of my human life has become. Theirs is the land of the deaf, dumb, and blind. I traded it willingly three hundred and thirty years ago.”
My mind flashed to his cobalt stare, aware suddenly of how much it reminded me of Sabrina. She had been almost a century his junior, but they both held the sands of time in their gazes. “You can often tell a man’s age in his eyes.”
“Very true, though yours reads of a soul older than your naïveté suggests.”
I perked an eyebrow as we reached the top of one flight. Ian moved ahead of me, following a plush crimson carpet toward a long hallway. “How do you reason my age when I have not even told you it?” I asked.
“For one, I knew all of Sabrina’s immortal children older than three decades, and met some of her children after she settled in Philadelphia.” He smirked, twirling his cane once before resting the tip on the ground again. “Beyond that, you fail to see what immortality truly is, Peter.”
“And what is it to you?”
“It’s evolution – a shift from lower being to higher being, from prey to predator. It’s a world the mortals can’t imagine with their hindered eyes and dull ears, and far beyond mere transcendence of death.” He stopped walking, turning to look at me. “We are masters over death. While they are ruled by it, we are its masters. This is why we’re the higher beings.”
Rebirth of the Seer Page 23
