Masquerade

by Melissa de la Cruz

Chapter Sixteen

 

  Like many of the guests, when Bliss arrived at the after-party, she gasped in delight. The abandoned synagogue was lit by a thousand tea light candles, casting long and gloomy shadows on the walls. Mimi was right, it looked like a beautiful ruin, and there was something spooky and romantic about dancing only in firelight.

  The masks lent the evening an eerie glamour, since all the guests were still in their ball finery. The boys were so handsome in their tailcoats, and the girls gorgeous in their couture ball gowns, and everyone looked a little bit wicked with all those masks.

  Bliss fixed the feathered and jeweled mask on her face. It was a little hard to see everyone from behind it. She noticed Schuyler arrive. Good. Bliss had forwarded the message to Schuyler without Mimi knowing.

  The DJ was spinning Bauhaus, a dark, violent tune, "Burning from the inside. . . " A boy in white tie and tails walked up to Bliss, his face hidden underneath a sad Pierrot mask.

  He motioned toward the dance floor.

  Bliss nodded and followed him. He held out his hands and she stepped into his embrace.

  "So you have survived," he whispered, his mouth close to her ear, so that she could feel his breath blow softly.

  "Excuse me?"

  "I would have hated to let you drown. " He chuckled.

  "You. . . "

  He put a finger to his lips, or rather to the lips of the Pierrot mask.

  "I missed you. . . " Bliss said. Dylan. It had to be him. He had found her again. How clever to show up at a mas- querade party, where he could appear without causing a fuss.

  "I haven't been gone for long," he said earnestly.

  "I know, but I was worried. . . . "

  "Don't be. Everything will be all right. "

  "Are you sure?"

  "Yes. "

  Bliss danced joyfully. He had returned! He had returned to be with her. She was elated.

  The song ended. The boy in the mask bowed low "A pleasure. "

  "Wait " Bliss called, but already he had disappeared into the throng, and when she looked around, she saw a dozen boys dressed similarly in their black tails, but none were wearing a mask with a sad clown face, one tear glinting below the eye.

  Schuyler walked despondently from room to room. She should have called Oliver after all, if only to have some company. This party didn't seem to be as exclusive as the Four Hundred Ball. She noticed a few of her human classmates were there looking a bit nervous, as if they weren't sure they were welcome. She could tell human from vampire: the vampires glowed in the dark--the gift of Illuminata made them recognizable to each other.

  Deep in the shadows behind the columns, several couples were availing of the dark to neck--"necking" taking on quite a different meaning among the vampire teens. She could hear the deep, sucking sounds as vampires fed on their human familiars, the throbbing beat of blood and life force exchanged from one being to the next. Afterward, the vampires glowed even more, their features sharper and more distinct, while the humans looked vacant and listless.

  One day, Schuyler knew, she would have to do the same. She would have to perform the Sacred Kiss with a human familiar. The thought both excited and terrified her. The Sacred Kiss was not a joke. It was a serious bond between vampire and human, one that was respected by the Blue Bloods. Human familiars were to be treated with affection and care for the service they provided.

  The genteel atmosphere at the Four Hundred Ball had given way to a rowdier, more boisterous behavior. Several teens were dancing body-to-body to the hard beats of the house music the DJ was spinning, and a riotous, anything-goes atmosphere prevailed, as girls began dancing sexily with each other, or grinding their pelvises against their male partners. The party was soon packed with sweaty teens throwing their hands in the air and declaring they were getting mega-crunked tonight. (Crazy-ass drunk on blood. )

  Schuyler remained at the fringes. She didn't fit in with this crowd. She had no friends here.

  She sighed. The Venetian mask she was wearing covered her entire face. She wished she could take it off; it was itchy and making her face hot.

  She made her way to a small alcove hidden behind the speakers, so she could sit down while she debated her next move.

  A boy followed her inside the room. How funny, Schuyler thought. How you knew who the girls were because they were wearing different dresses, whereas the boys were truly disguised since they all looked the same in their penguin suits. Just like this one, in his black silk mask that covered his eyes, nose, and hair, giving him a rakish air like an urban pirate.

  "Don't you like parties?" he asked, when he noticed her sitting by herself on a ruined stone bench.

  Schuyler laughed. "I hate them, actually. "

  "Me too. "

  "I never know what to say, or what to do. "

  "Well, it looks like dancing is involved. And drinking. Of all kinds. "

  He was a vampire, then. Schuyler wondered who he was, and why he was bothering to speak to her.

  "Undoubtedly," she agreed.

  "But you choose not to choose. "

  "I'm a rebel," she said sarcastically.

  "I don't think so. "

  "No?"

  "You're here, aren't you? You could have chosen not to come at all. " He was right. She didn't have to be there. She had come for the same reason she had chosen to attend the ball. For the chance to see Jack again. She had to face it: every time she saw Jack Force, something inside her quickened and came alive.

  "To be honest, I came to see a boy," she said.

  "What boy?" he asked in a teasing tone.

  "It doesn't matter. "

  "Why not?"

  "Because. It's complicated. " Schuyler shrugged.

  "Now, now. "

  "It is. He's. . . he's not interested," she said, thinking of Jack and Mimi, and the bond between them. Whatever she was feeling for him was irrelevant. He had made that clear at her grandmother's funeral. He had responsibilities to his family. She couldn't escape the image of the two of them holding their hands aloft. Azrael and Abbadon. The magnetic charge between them was electric. The whole ballroom had tingled with excitement at the announcement. Two of our most powerful vampires. They have been revealed to us at last. Who was she, Schuyler Van Alen, not even a pure-blood vampire, to come between them?

  "How do you know he's not interested?" he asked in a serious tone.

  "I just do. "

  "You might be surprised. "

  Schuyler realized that the boy was standing close to her as he spoke. His eyes behind the mask she could detect a hint of green. Her heart skipped a beat. The boy moved closer.

  "Surprise me," Schuyler whispered. In response, the boy lifted her mask gently, so that her lips were exposed, and then he leaned down and brought his mouth to hers.

  Schuyler closed her eyes. The only boy she had ever kissed was Jack Force, and this was like that--but different somehow. More urgent. More insistent. She inhaled his breath, felt his tongue in her mouth, rolling on top of hers, almost as if he wanted to devour her. It felt as if she could kiss him forever.

  And then it stopped.

  She opened her eyes, her mask askew from her face. What happened? Where had he gone?

  "Hey!"

  Schuyler turned. Mimi Force was standing in the foyer, wearing a dazzling Indian princess headdress, her "mask" expertly drawn on with makeup and face paint.

  "Have you seen my brother anywhere?" Mimi had been upset at first to find her party overrun by human gatecrashers, but then she'd just chalked it up to her own irresistible popularity. So she wasn't fazed to find Schuyler, another non-invitee, at the party as well.

  Before Schuyler could answer, Jack Force materialized by his sister's side. He was wearing an Indian headdress like his sister's. And his mask too, was made of face paint.

  "Here I am," he said jovially. "Oh, hey, Schuyler. How was Venice?"
r />   "Great," Schuyler said, trying to keep her composure. "Cool. "

  "C'mon, Jack, the fireworks are about to start. " Mimi said, pulling on his sleeve.

  "See ya," Jack called.

  Schuyler felt numb. She was so sure it was Jack she had been kissing. So sure it had been him behind that black mask. But his relaxed attitude, that casual friendliness, made her doubt her assumption. But if it wasn't Jack she had just kissed, then who? Who was the boy behind the mask?

  With a pang, she realized tomorrow was the start of the Christmas holidays, and she wouldn't see Jack Force again for two whole weeks.