by Rose, Imogen
She nodded, looking over at her sister, who was missing most of her face.
“Where are you from?”
“New York,” she whispered.
“Shut up!” Collette hissed, raising her head. She looked more zombie than vampire. Alfred’s blow knocked over her chair again, this time hard enough to ensure that she was out cold.
“Please, stop,” begged Silvia, her eyes welling up. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, just don’t kill her.”
“You are from Manhattan?” Alfred asked for confirmation.
“Yes.” Silvia nodded.
“Did you know about this?” Alfred asked, turning to glare at Sophia.
“Of course not!” she exclaimed, annoyed. She walked over to face Silvia. “Do you know who I am?”
Silvia shook her head.
“I am the Vampire Queen of New York.” She turned to Alfred. “I’ve never come across these two before.” Then, she turned back to Silvia. “Who gave you permission to travel? I know I didn’t.”
“We don’t need your permission to travel,” Silvia spat at her.
Sophia held up her hand to stop Alfred from striking Silvia. “Insolence will get you nowhere,” she warned Silvia. “Didn’t you see what happened to your sister? I will do the same to you if you don’t answer my questions. Now, why did you not seek out my permission to travel?”
“I’m not a vampire,” Silvia laughed. “That’s why I don’t need your stupid permission.”
Sheesh. This meant that they were possessed for sure. She was clearly a vampire, everyone could see that! Flaming, possessed vamps! Eh, I wished that Alexandra had stayed, after all, as all eyes were now on me.
“Faustine?” Alfred sounded annoyed, to say the least.
I took a deep breath and harvested my inner demon. I let my fingers fuse, but stopped the transformation there. I wore my meanest look as I walked up to Silvia; her sister was still unconscious.
Silvia smiled at me. “Princess Faustine? You’re not at all as I imagined,” she smirked.
“Imagined?”
“I thought you’d be more... sophisticated. Like your mother.”
I shrugged. I wasn’t going to let her get a rise out of me. “Silvia, are you a demon?” All right. Lame I know, but I couldn’t think of how else to figure out if she was or not.
“A demon? Yuck! Of course, not!” she spewed.
Phew. My work here was done, in that case. I shrugged at Alfred.
He shook his head. “Is that it, Faustine? You’re just going to take her word for it?”
Oh, okay. Maybe not... I decided I better ask about the notes.
“Why did you write me the notes?” I asked her.
She looked away. Now what? Slap her? That was kind of Alfred or Sophia’s job, seeing that she wasn’t demonized; though, I guessed she could be lying. I decided to bail and let Alfred handle it. Guantanamo Bay-inspired interrogation wasn’t my cup of tea at all. I shrugged at Alfred, indicating for him to take over.
“The notes,” he repeated. “Why did you write them?”
“I didn’t,” she protested. I could see the fear in her eyes as they welled up when Alfred brought his hand down on her knee, whacking it really hard.
“The next time, your leg will be severed,” he warned.
“Dad wrote the note. I just put it by the bodies after I killed them. I did what I was told; that’s all.”
“Dad?” Alfred hissed.
“My dad. Robert. He’s married to Faustine’s nanny,” she explained.
I closed my eyes. Sheesh. How many kids did that warlock have? I could clearly see the family resemblance now, the red hair and the facial similarities to Taylor and Fitch. They were going to die when they found out! “So, you are vampire-witch hybrids?”
She nodded.
Edith had made her way up to Silvia. “If you’re a witch hybrid, then you are clearly under Sophia’s jurisdiction and mine. You were not acting under our orders, so whose orders are you under?”
“Dad’s!” Silvia muttered.
“Who is Dad?” Edith asked, frustrated.
I sighed. “Edith, let me explain. Their dad is Robert. Robert is working with my half sister, Katerina, in some grand scheme to take control of the New York and London territories. Taking me down and creating mass confusion is part of that scheme,” I explained.
“What are you going to do with us?” Silvia interrupted.
“I’d like to hand you over to the police, so you can pay for all the murders you’ve committed. But, since we can’t do that, I guess Edith and Sophia will decide what to do with you, as you are under their jurisdiction,” I mused, looking over at Edith, who nodded.
“Just one more thing. Is it just the two of you, or are there others committing these murders?”
“Just us.”
We left them in the basement with Edith and Sophia–good luck to them–and reconvened in the conference room where Mom was not-so-patiently waiting.
“So, we have Robert’s daughters,” I concluded after bringing Mom and Dorian up to date on what was happening in New York.
“So, Robert married Tessa to get close to our family?” Mom voiced. “Did he take Sebastian? Or is he under Katerina’s spell?”
“I don’t know, Mom.” I hadn’t shared that Taylor was now occupying Robert, and that I was hoping to get some of this information from her.
“We’ll have to update Edith, so she takes Robert into her custody,” Cassandra said. “She’ll get him to release Neave and the others.”
“No. It’s not as straight forward as that. Trust me. Give me some time to work it out,” I said.
“Care to explain?” Spencer asked. “Is my nephew involved in your scheme?”
“No,” I lied. It was a small lie, though. He wasn’t directly involved. Not yet, anyway, and I hoped to keep it that way. “But, I do like hanging out with him and hope that you’re okay with that.”
“I’m not, while this is going on. Perhaps we can revisit it when this situation is over. In the meantime, I’d like him to stay uninvolved.”
“Much as I like you, Spencer, I’m not going to stop seeing Ryker. But, I’ll try my very best to keep him uninvolved.” I could feel the deathly chill in the room as Spencer studied me. His resentment was hard to ignore. Every one else was looking us.
“It’s hard to keep young love apart,” Nora finally said, trying to lighten the situation. “I’m sure Faustine will keep Ryker out of trouble. Right, Faustine?” she asked, with her eyebrows raised so high that they nearly hit her hairline.
I nodded.
“Spencer?” Nora persisted.
He nodded, but remained silent.
Cassandra interrupted the silence. “You’ll need Edith’s permission if you’re wanting to handle Robert yourself. She is the witch sovereign in New York,” she reminded me.
Yeah. Protocol.
I returned to New York with Ryker, once he picked me up after having dropped Alexandra off. We took the Wanderer Express while Mom flew back the regular way with Dorian, who decided that he could leave London for a while, now that the killings had stopped. We had enough demons in our employment to look after things for a couple of days in London. We were needed in Manhattan.
Ryker brought me home directly into my kitchen. I was famished! I brought him up to date between chews.
“Wow! I was only gone for a short while! That’s quite a story. So, Taylor and Fitch have siblings! Wow.”
“Now, tell me what’s going on with Taylor,” I asked. “Is she okay?”
“Define okay,” he snickered. “She is furious! She can’t stand being in Robert’s body. Alexandra had the hardest time with her in the bathroom earlier. Taylor was totally freaking. She’s freaking to the point where she’s unable to tap into Robert. Anyhow, I left Alexandra trying a number of relaxation techniques on her. So hopefully, she’s calmed down. Are you ready to go over?”
“Yeah. Let’s not say anything about the twins, not
yet, anyway. It’ll just upset Taylor more, and that’s the last thing we need.”
“She’s bound to find out for herself when she taps into Robert, anyway,” Ryker pointed out.
“True.... I guess we’ll let her find out in her own time. I’m not telling her!”
“Don’t blame you. Let’s go,” he said, and put his hands on my shoulders. We took off again. The weightless feeling of wandering was becoming second nature to me. Once we arrived outside Alexandra’s apartment, we rang the bell. Fitch rolled his eyes at us as he ushered us into the living room.
Alexandra and Robert were sitting on the couch holding hands, their eyes closed. Robert was wearing a red dress and had a generous amount of make-up on. Ryker and I erupted in snorts and giggles, with Fitch joining us. We clutched our stomachs, laughing for ages; I felt like I was going to be sick.
When I finally looked up, I was confronted by glares from Alexandra and Robert. I nearly started giggling again. I bit down hard on my lips to stop myself. Fitch and Ryker both left and went into the kitchen. I could hear them laughing in there.
“Come and sit down, Faustine,” Alexandra said, beckoning me over.
I walked over to the couch opposite the one they were sitting on and plunked myself down. Unfortunately, my eyes focused on Robert’s unshaven legs, and I let out a snort.
“It’s not funny!” Robert said.
“I’m sorry, Taylor,” I apologized, promising myself not to look at those legs again.
“I am sick of this!” Robert exclaimed. “Let’s get on and do whatever we have to, so I can get out of here!”
“Sure. What’s with the dress, though?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Mom!” Robert cried.
Alexandra sighed. “Faustine, Taylor is having issues wearing pants with the.... well, you know what I mean. She finds it disturbing and uncomfortable. It’s a bit better with the dress on, but not much.”
“And the make-up?” I queried.
“Force of habit,” Alexandra explained.
“Well, we can’t have her going over to Katerina’s looking like this!”
“I know! And I’m right here. Hello!” Robert interrupted. “I’ll get into those stupid pants when I have to; in the meantime, I’m wearing this. So d-e-a-l.”
“Okay, Taylor. Thanks. You’re being awesome.”
Robert nodded his head.
“I guess our first task is to release Neave,” Alexandra said.
“Yes. Let’s go over to Neave’s apartment.”
“We don’t have to. Taylor should be able to break the spell from here; Neave’s apartment is close enough.”
Good idea. It would save us the embarrassment of walking Robert to Neave’s apartment in a dress.
“Faustine, I’m going to need you to remain silent. No snickering or snorting. Or go to the kitchen and stay there with the boys,” Alexandra suggested.
“I promise to be quiet. You won’t even know I’m here.”
“Taylor, you need to meditate with me now, absorb into Robert’s spirit and find the spell that he cast on Neave. Then, I need you to break it. Will you try that for me?” Alexandra asked.
Robert nodded, closing his eyes and taking Alexandra’s hand. His labored breathing relaxed into deep, even breaths, his jaw slacking as he entered a deep trance. He sat like that for ages, his eyes occasionally flickering in a disturbing fashion, made even weirder by the false eyelashes bobbing up and down and coming loose in the corners. Finally, he started chanting. As he chanted, a smile spread across his face, which then turned into a grimace. I wished that I was in there with Taylor seeing what was going on. Then, Robert opened his eyes.
“Call Neave,” he said.
I nodded and called her.
“Neave?”
“Hey! Wassup?”
“Try your door.” I waited.
“The shield is lifted!” she exclaimed. “Awesome. Who did that? Mom?”
“No. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Come over to Alexandra’s place.”
“Okay!”
“So, what happened, Taylor?” I asked excited, turning off my cell. “You freed Neave!”
“I did, didn’t I? Flaming awesome!” Robert replied. In that moment, I could see Collette and Silvia in him. The resemblance was striking.
Fitch and Ryker decided to join us and were death-glared into no giggling by Alexandra.
“What was it like, Taylor?”
“Really weird. I became dad. I couldn’t feel myself anymore; my thoughts disappeared into the background. It was sort of scary. I wasn’t sure if I could get them back. I was scared that he would take control of me.”
Alexandra took her hand. “Taylor, he can’t do that. He can’t control you. You must remember that, so you don’t freak out. A demon can’t be possessed. You are always in control of your demon part, small as it is. That is why you are perfect for this.”
Robert nodded. “Dad’s head is full of spells, so it took me a while to find Neave’s. Once I found it, it was easy.”
“Did you read any of his other thoughts?” I asked. “Do you know what he’s done with my dad?”
“No, it was exhausting enough to find Neave.”
I nodded. “Let’s plan phase two.”
“We’re going to need Edith back for that; she’ll be here this evening,” Alexandra said.
“What’s the plan?” Ryker asked.
“Who exactly are you?” Alexandra asked him suspiciously. “I know that you are a Sigma-W, but how are you connected with all this?”
“Faustine’s hookup,” Fitch volunteered.
I cringed. He was not! But it would stop any further questions from Alexandra.
“We can trust Ryker,” is all I said and moved on. “The plan, Ryker? The aim of the plan is to free Kismet and the others trapped at Pauline’s. Since Katerina herself cast that shield spell–we assume–we need to get her to break it. So as we discussed before, we need Taylor to take control of Katerina, and then break that spell. Therefore, the first part of the plan will be to enable Taylor to possess Katerina’s body.”
“Anything to get out of this one!” Taylor groaned. “At least it’ll be a female body!”
“Taylor, we need more information from Robert before we can approach Katerina. I think it would be best for you integrate with him until you get close enough to Katerina, then, you can switch bodies,” Alexandra explained.
“It will mean that you’ll lose me for a while, Mom. We won’t be able to communicate. I will still be within him, steering him into a meeting with Katerina.”
Alexandra nodded.
“Mom, I’m frightened. I’ll be on my own, with the two of them. What if Dad goes nuts when I leave his body and he realizes what I’ve done? What if he tries to kill me?”
“Ryker and I will be with you the entire time,” I comforted her.
“No. You can’t. Katerina won’t relax in front of you! It’s got to be just me in Dad’s body for this to work.”
“Taylor, it’s okay. I can make myself invisible again,” Ryker said. “And cloak Faustine.”
“You see? We’ll be there to take care of Robert when you leave his body,” I said satisfied.
“What are you going to do with him?” she asked.
Hmm. “Not sure. That’s one of the things we need to talk about,” I conceded.
“Well, I don’t want you to kill him,” Taylor said firmly.
“Even if he tries to kill you?” I asked.
She didn’t answer, but looked over at her mom.
“This is the reason I felt we ought to have Edith involved. It would be best to able to restrain Robert somehow, once Taylor has left his body,” Alexandra said.
“I could do that; I’m pretty strong,” I volunteered.
“I don’t mean that kind of restraint. Remember that Robert is a warlock; he can counter most physical restraints. What we need is a shield, a strong shield to hold him until we are ready to decide what to do with him.
”
“And that’s why we need Edith,” I agreed. “She’s powerful enough to create that kind of shield.”
“Yes, that’s right. We do, however, need to think of a way to get Edith close enough to the action to be able to use her powers.”
All eyes were on Ryker. Could he pull off cloaking Edith’s visibility as well?
