Defiance

by Adrienne Monson

  After ascending, Samantha slowed. Leisha was paying her respects to Victor, but Annette was looking at Samantha with a predatory smile. Simply being in her presence brought the taint into Samantha’s mind again. She remembered feeling the smut of Annette’s essence ooze through her brain like oily slime, leaving a trace of filth everywhere. She shivered and once again forced the memory away. Seeing red splattered all over Annette certainly didn’t make Samantha feel any better.

  Annette caught the shiver and her smile widened, but her arctic blue eyes remained cold.

  Leisha loudly cleared her throat and Samantha looked over. Leisha’s eyes veered between Samantha and Victor, then tilted her head. Samantha’s eyebrows drew together.

  After a second, Leisha asked, “Samantha, would you like to pay your respects to our new leader?”

  “Oh.” Samantha hurried to them, a flush creeping across her cheeks. She knelt before Victor and touched her forehead to the floor, as Leisha had taught her the last time. The pool of blood was less than an inch away from her fingers. The coppery scent filled her nostrils, and she clenched her jaw to keep herself from gagging.

  “Rise, servant,” Victor said.

  She rose and stood next to Leisha. Samantha trying not to look at Annette, or at the gore marking the floor.

  Leisha gestured to the woman on the other side of Victor. “You haven’t met Ellery. This is Samantha, my human servant.”

  Samantha sent a sharp glance at Leisha, and her friend gave a slight nod. So that was why she was acting strangely. Leisha had told Samantha about Ellery a while ago. She had been a good friend to Leisha, but had died a couple hundred years ago. Burned as a witch, if Samantha remembered it correctly. Leisha had spoken of Ellery with compassion, saying the woman’s friendship was the thing that pulled Leisha from her century-long depression.

  Ellery stood, her black gown flowing around her curvy figure. She had chestnut hair, brown eyes, and a fair complexion. There was nothing necessarily striking about her looks, but she had something that was alluring. Samantha could see why Ptah had taken her as a lover. She was pretty and had a sparkle in her eyes, as if she knew something the rest of the world didn’t.

  She extended a hand to Samantha. “Nice to meet you, Samantha. You must be something special. After all, you’re Leisha’s first human servant.”

  “Leisha and I get along well.” She shook Ellery’s hand, the other woman lingering longer than normal.

  Ellery smiled and looked Samantha over from the top down. Then she grinned at Leisha. “My dear friend. How have you been all these years?” She leaned in and kissed Leisha on both cheeks.

  “I’m fine. What I would like to know is how you have been all these years.” Leisha’s gaze bore into Ellery’s. “After all, you look amazing for being dead.”

  Ellery chuckled. “I daresay I do, even by a vampire’s standards.”

  “Care to explain what the hell happened?”

  Sighing, Ellery shook her head. “You’ve become more crass, my dear.”

  Leisha shrugged. “I’ve become more myself.”

  That brought a smirk to the other woman’s lips.

  “All right,” Ellery said. “I’ll tell you my little story. Can you remember how I wasn’t blessed with any extra gifts? I couldn’t lure, couldn’t see into the future, or anything else.”

  “I remember. We thought that you simply needed more time to develop one.”

  “Well it was a lie. I had developed a psychic gift—possibly a unique one.” Ellery walked back to her chair and sat, crossing her legs. “I can feel people’s emotions.”

  “You mean that you’re an empath?” Samantha asked. Everyone glanced at her as though they’d forgotten she was there.

  “Yes,” Ellery confirmed. “At first, it wasn’t so bad.” She gave an impish smile. “I used it to gauge Ptah’s moods so I could better… play with him.” She slid a glance to Leisha. “It helped me to understand your depression, my dear. I was able to say the right things to cheer you up.” She smoothed out her already flawless dress. “But after a while, it was overwhelming. I couldn’t figure out a way to filter it. I was constantly bombarded by others’ feelings.” She grimaced. “It was rather unpleasant. Taking on a human servant helped me focus a little better, but then I had her emotions to deal with as well.”

  Ellery shrugged as if she were ambivalent to her own story. “So I faked my death. I moved to a very remote place where there was only one small village nearby to serve my needs.”

  “But there were witnesses that watched you burn,” Leisha protested. “Your human servant died the instant you did. How could you have faked that?”

  Ellery smiled, her eyes lighting up. “It was rather clever, wasn’t it? I went to this town in France, played the witch—rather brilliantly, if I do say so myself—and set Ida up to take the blame.”

  “And was Ida so willing to sacrifice herself for you?” Leisha asked dryly.

  Ellery waved a hand. “She was my human servant. Her entire purpose in life was to help me, and that’s what she did. So, once she was burned as a witch, I collapsed and played dead. Then, they buried me and I had to wait until the next night to dig myself out.” She gave a look of distaste. “An experience I would not recommend to anyone.”

  “Been there.” Leisha didn’t look happy to admit it.

  Ellery’s eyes widened. “How did you get buried?”

  Victor came into the conversation. “Some silly human had the idea to marry her for her money while she entered society to scope out new recruits for our race. When she refused him, he forged their wedding documents, then poisoned her and buried her alive.” He chuckled. “We like to give her a hard time for that mishap.”

  Rolling her eyes, Leisha confirmed it. “Yes, everyone loves to retell the story to my face as if I hadn’t been there.”

  “When was that?” asked Samantha.

  “When we were in England, sometime during the nineteenth century.”

  “What did he poison you with?” Ellery asked. “It had to have really been something for you to let him bury you.”

  “Ground glass,” answered Leisha. “It’s extremely painful. Ptah actually adopted it as a form of punishment.”

  Ellery looked impressed. “Interesting.”

  “So where was it you lived?” Leisha asked, changing the subject.

  “A cave in New Zealand.” She smiled. “It was a great place for a retreat. After a few years, the local villagers started bringing me virgin sacrifices to keep me from terrorizing the village.”

  Samantha swallowed. “Virgin sacrifices.”

  Ellery nodded. “Yes, usually girls who were too outspoken or didn’t fit in. But don’t you worry.” She winked at Samantha. “They didn’t die virgins.” When Samantha balked, Ellery blinked. “I thought it was rather nice of me. Most of them were able to experience some pleasure while they died.”

  Chapter 9

  “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this,” Leisha said as she rubbed her feet. They were sore from walking and dancing in high heels all night.

  Samantha rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you’ve been saying that ever since you’ve become human. It’s like your daily mantra.” Though her face was still pale from the scene in the ballroom, she gave Leisha a pointed look. “Or should I say hourly.”

  Leisha couldn’t respond to that because it was true. She had said it a lot lately, but refrained from commenting that she’d been thinking it even more frequently. “I guess now I can appreciate what you and all other humans have to constantly go through.”

  Putting a hand over her mouth while she yawned, Samantha asked, “Don’t you remember this kind of stuff from when you were human?”

  “Well, I guess I assumed that since humans are so cosseted these days, they didn’t have so many discomforts.” She pushed on a tender spot below her toes. “Guess you simply traded one hardship for another.”

  Shrugging, Samantha stood and went to her bedroom door. She stopped and l
ooked at Leisha through bleary eyes. “Do you want to talk about anything before I turn in?”

  Leisha gave a sardonic look. “You mean about a dear friend faking her death and returning from the grave?”

  “Yep. That’s pretty much it.” She leaned against the doorjamb, waiting.

  After careful consideration, Leisha answered. “As much of a shock as it was, I can objectively say that I’m alright.” Grimacing, she added, “Well, maybe a little hurt that Ellery didn’t spare my feelings, but I can understand why. If she’d told anyone, Ptah could have found out. Besides, after having a real friendship,” she smiled at Samantha, “I can see that Ellery wasn’t a true friend. She was just the closest thing I could find when I was in a very dark place, both figuratively and literally.”

  Samantha smiled back. “I’m glad to hear it.” She paused. “I have a bad feeling about her.”

  Frowning, she studied the girl’s tired face. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m not sure. I mean, she clearly felt nothing about killing those girls, but that’s not all.” She shrugged when it appeared she couldn’t come up with the right words. “I just don’t have a good feeling about her.”

  Leisha stored the information away. Samantha had good instincts about people, and Leisha decided she would trust them over a strange friendship two hundred years extinct. “Good night Samantha.”

  The girl yawned again before she smirked. “I think you mean good morning.” Then she went into her room and closed the door.

  Leisha went to the kitchen and made herself some tea. She felt a bit too wound up to go straight to bed and hoped the tea would soothe her and help her think. As the steam from her cup rose up and tickled her chin, she savored the heated mug warming her fingers. Mulling over the evening, Leisha knew the fact that Victor was allowing Ellery to sit with him and Annette was telling enough. Then, with Samantha’s vague impression, Leisha was certain that Ellery would be more foe than friend this time around. Sipping her tea slowly, she decided that trust was something too valuable to waste on a wild card like Ellery.

  The pounding was making her grumpy. Leisha pulled the extra pillow over her head, but it did no good at muffling the noise.

  “Leisha, wake up! I’m starving. Get that lazy butt out of bed.” Samantha knocked on the door again.

  Groaning, Leisha forced her heavy eyelids open and practically fell out of bed. It felt like her mind was running on sludge. After opening the door and glaring at Samantha, she went into the adjoining bathroom and splashed cold water over her face.

  “I think that your human self is not a morning person,” Samantha quipped from the doorway.

  “Yeah, well, I’m learning a lot about what my human side is like.” She grabbed a towel and dried her face. “If it weren’t for having to drink blood, I would choose to be a vampire any day.”

  Samantha gave her a half smile. “I guess everything has its price.” She followed Leisha back to the bedroom where she pulled out some clothes as Samantha continued. “But you have to admit, it’s nice being human so you and Tafari can be together again.”

  A warm sensation flitted through her bones at the mention of his name. “Well, we still can’t seem to agree or compromise, so I guess it doesn’t make a difference at this point.”

  Samantha let it drop. “Hurry and change so we can get some food.” As she walked out of the room she muttered, “Hopefully some normal food.”

  It didn’t take long for Leisha to get ready, and they were down in the lobby in no time. Once in the cafeteria, Leisha could see that there were two different lines for food. “It looks like there are only human servants in that line.” She pointed to the left. Samantha made a beeline for it while Leisha went in the other direction. By the smell alone, she knew she was in the correct place. Heavy spices of every variety wafted from the steamy kitchen and into the dining hall. Her stomach was growling and she decided to have crepes, a hamburger, steamed vegetables, and chocolate cake.

  Samantha’s eyes widened when she rejoined Leisha at a table, but didn’t bother to comment. Leisha ate half of everything and decided she wouldn’t need to eat again until the next day. While finally satisfying her hunger as well as her palate, the food now felt like a bowling ball, weighing her down. She wondered if she should complete the cliché and undo the top button of her pants. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a vampire heading her way. He was probably the only one out of the entire race that she might consider a friend, so long as he wasn’t ordered to kill her.

  Nikita approached and sat next to Samantha, kitty-corner to Leisha.

  Samantha’s face paled slightly, then she gave a broad smile. “Nik!” Samantha exclaimed and pulled him into a sideways hug. Leisha hid her smile when she saw Nikita’s cheeks turn a very subtle pink, contrasting with his light brown hair.

  “Hello Nikita.” She nodded her head in his direction. “We missed you last night.”

  He shrugged, affecting his usual nonchalance. “The banquet was only for Victor’s most loyal subjects.”

  “And you’re not one of them?” Samantha asked with a touch of edginess.

  He patted the girl’s hand. “I am neither here nor there. While I did not join in the recent rebellion, I wasn’t too eager to slaughter them either.”

  Samantha smiled warmly. “That sounds rather profound coming from a hit man.”

  Leisha and Nikita shared a look before he responded. “Don’t make a hero out of me, Samantha. I think you will be disappointed.”

  A strange emotion flitted through Samantha’s eyes. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”

  After a brief silence, Leisha changed the subject. “Will you be staying for a while, or does Victor have you out on an assignment soon?”

  “I’m supposed to leave in a few days. There is a lead on the prophecy child that Victor and Annette have asked me to look into.”

  Leisha cocked her head. “And you’re not leaving right away?”

  At the same time Samantha asked, “They’re still following leads, even now?”

  “The assassins I’m training need another day of practice.” Nikita turned to Samantha. “There’s a rumor going around that if we find this prophecy child first, our vampire abilities will be restored to us.”

  Leisha pursed her lips in thought for a moment.

  “You disagree with the theory, don’t you?” Nikita observed.

  “I do.” Leisha shrugged. “I have no clue why we’re all human now, but that theory sounds like an ordinary superstition someone made up.”

  Samantha was nodding. “I agree. I think this child will do something greater.”

  They chatted for a few minutes more before being interrupted by Jonathon, Victor’s human servant. “Victor requests your presence in his chambers,” he told Leisha. When Samantha stood with her, he shook his head. “This is an exclusive invitation for Leisha.” He smirked and gave the teenager a once over. “I’d be happy to keep you company while she’s occupied.” He leaned toward Samantha and sniffed. “I’ll bet anything you’re still a virgin.”

  Samantha’s face turned scarlet.

  Nikita pulled out a dagger and started cleaning his nails. “I won’t be leaving her side for the rest of the night.” He looked up at Jonathon without expression, but there was suddenly a deadly glint in his hazel eyes.

  Jonathon swallowed, glanced at Samantha with a hint of bitterness, then left.

  Leisha looked over at Nikita.

  “We’ll be waiting in your suite,” he said in answer to her unspoken question.

  She nodded and left. It took a while for the elevator to reach the penthouse and Leisha used that time to mentally prepare herself. Being summoned to the master vampire’s personal chambers brought back memories of when she had to deal with Ptah. If a vampire showed much emotion, they revealed their vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, even when Leisha was stoic, Ptah still knew her weaknesses. But since Victor was in charge now, she was hoping she could play her cards a little better w
ith him.

  The elevator doors opened to show a suite filled with extravagant furniture, some of it new and others antique. Leisha spotted some original paintings by Botticelli and sculptures by Da Vinci. Victor was definitely enjoying his reign as master. Incense was burning from somewhere, making the front room smell sickly sweet. Under the scent, Leisha could detect a hint of sweat and body odor.

  Ellery was lying on a sofa close to the fireplace, wearing a slinky nightgown. She gave a languid smile when Leisha approached.

  “Too bad you didn’t get here sooner. You could have joined in the fun.”

  Pretending interest, Leisha asked, “And what fun would that be?”

  The bedroom door opened and Annette came out wearing only a robe and a look of extreme satisfaction.

  That kind of fun. Leisha shrugged, exhibiting an indifferent air and sat in a large chair.

  Ellery sat up and looked over at her. “So, you’ve finally gotten a human servant. What made you change your mind?”

  “Guess I simply had to meet the right person.”

  “But you haven’t marked her yet.”

  “I wanted her to at least finish high school before making it official.”

  A predatory look came into Ellery’s eyes. “You may not want to wait too long. Someone could snatch her up from under your nose.”

  Leisha picked imaginary lint from her blouse. “Since we’re not vampires at the moment and can’t make human servants, I hardly think it will be a problem for me.”

  Annette became animated, sitting on the opposite side of the couch from Ellery. “That is the question, oui? Whether we’ll change back.” She waved a hand. “But that should not affect us either way. We’ll always be a secret society. Victor and I will ensure that our traditions don’t die out.”

  Leisha raised her brows. “Traditions? We don’t drink blood anymore. What other traditions did we have?”

  Annette threw her a contemptible glare. “We’ve always been much more than just blood suckers, Leisha. You were too self-involved to see it.”