The Darkest Colors

by David M. Bachman

  “Are you just unhappy with the idea of being Raina’s servant?” Mary asked with a lift of one of her thin, neatly-shaped eyebrows. “I mean, the Grand Duchess did ask you when you took that oath if you…”

  “I know, I know,” Brenna interrupted, waving her hand, “but when Billy-Boy explained it to me last night, he left out a lot of important details.”

  “Billy-Boy?”

  “Y’know … William?”

  “Ah.” Mary shrugged. “Well, what important details? Didn’t you know that you were swearing life-long loyalty to the House of Fallamhain?”

  “Oh, I knew that. That isn’t what bothered me, at all. And the idea of serving Raina really doesn’t bug me, either,” she replied. “It’s just the idea that as soon as I committed to this thing, she turned around and … did what she did … like she didn’t give a damn about me at all.”

  Mary shook her head, wiping tears from Brenna’s cheeks as she said, “That wasn’t what happened at all, and you know it. Raina only slept with her because she felt that she had no other choice. Really … would you want to be one to say no to the Grand Duchess?”

  “Me? Hell no. Like I said, she hates me enough already, so I wouldn’t want to do anything to piss her off,” Brenna replied, getting herself under control. “But there’s no way she’d kill Raina, because she’s the end of her bloodline.”

  “She could always find someone else,” Mary suggested quite casually with a shrug.

  Brenna stared at her. “She wouldn’t. There’s no way she would kill Raina over something like that.” She hesitated. “Would she?”

  Rather than give a direct reply, Mary shrugged again. That was a scary thought. In fact, it was downright horrifying. She had not seen Raina since she’d entered that bedroom with Duvessa. What if Raina had actually rejected her advances? For all she knew, her dear friend, her love, could be lying dead and bloodless, having been forcibly restrained and drained. She had already found her unconscious and victimized by a Fallamhain once, before. If she walked into that bedroom and found her lying there, her throat torn out, her perfect skin pierced and marred by numerous bites…

  “Hey-hey … no,” Mary said, keeping a tight hold of Brenna and forcing her to stay seated as she tried to get up. Brenna spilled a bit of coffee on her fingers, hissing with pain and flinging the hot liquid away. “Relax, okay? Don’t even think like that. She’s fine, okay? I saw her last night. They were just talking.”

  Brenna was tense for a few moments, only loosening up as Mary’s words sank in. She turned to face her with eyes that were still quite wide with worry, and likely surrounded by ruined mascara.

  “What?”

  “I saw them. It’s okay, she’s fine.” Mary hesitated, rolling her eyes. “Okay, so I got nosey and wanted to sneak a peek while everyone was chatting you up in the den. I tried bringing a drink in for Raina, but Svetlana stopped me right when I walked in. She took the drink and basically told me to piss off.”

  Brenna narrowed her eyes slightly. “What were they doing?”

  “Talking, just like I said.”

  “What, like … just standing around, or sitting there, or what?” she pressed.

  “They were in the hot tub together, just chatting up a storm, all casual-like,” Mary explained. “It’s not like I walked in on them doing it, or anything.”

  “But … wait. In a hot tub? With their clothes on?”

  “Not from what I could see, no. I’m sure Duvessa wasn’t wearing anything, but Raina was just kind of hunkered down in the water like a croc,” she elaborated with a smirk. “But I saw some black clothes on the bed, Duvessa’s dress on the floor, and the other two girls were still dressed, so … y’know, process of elimination.”

  “Oh,” Brenna sighed, looking away from Mary’s lovely dark brown eyes, which were so very much like Raina’s. “So maybe … they did it before then … or after…?”

  “What the hell? Why are you so fixated on that idea?” Mary asked. “Would you rather hear me say something like, ‘Oh yeah, I walked in and they were having a sixty-nine right there on the bed’ or what?”

  Brenna shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe. At least then I’d know for sure what happened.”

  “You know, I know, and everyone knows,” she said. “Let’s not be silly about this. They did it, okay? And Raina didn’t do it because she was trying to hurt you, or because she didn’t care. She did it because she had to, because nobody in their right mind says no to the Grand Duchess. That’s all there is to it. Besides, it’s not like we all won’t be getting a turn with her later, anyhow.”

  “Yeah, but…” Brenna began to say, then turned to Mary again with a shocked expression. “Wait, what?”

  Mary was about to reply, when they both heard a soft knock upon the front door of the suite. Immediately, Mary arose, gave Brenna another affectionate peck on the cheek, and stepped quickly out of the bedroom with Brenna following closely behind, leaving Ian sound asleep and half-naked upon the bed. The others in the den of the suite were still passed out, vampires generally being severely heavy sleepers by nature. Mary paused to adjust her dress and make her self somewhat presentable before attempting to answer the door. Before she could place her hand upon the doorknob, someone opened the door. William stood in the doorway, handsome, neat, orderly, and seemingly oblivious to the scattered collection of mostly nude sleeping bodies that greeted him. He turned to Mary after glancing at Brenna with a polite nod.

  “Duvessa wants everyone up and looking camera-worthy within the hour,” he told her.

  “Within the hour?” Mary gasped. “Why the rush?”

  “We’ve got a lot to do, and the world isn’t going to wait for us. We’re running on a bit of a tight schedule tonight,” William replied before looking to Brenna. “Is everything all right, m’lady?”

  “Just peachy,” Brenna replied blankly as Raina slipped into view from behind William.

  For a few moments, they simply stared at one another. Raina was dressed in a white terrycloth robe like she had just showered, but her hair was neat and dry, and she was already wearing makeup. Even though she was wearing everything but her shoes from the night before, Brenna must have looked like a total wreck, given the way her own makeup was likely running in rivers down her face. Raina looked alert and lucid, though clearly unhappy; Brenna, oppositely, felt like she was on the verge of a total meltdown akin to what Raina had experienced the prior night. Clearly, Raina had been having a far better day than Brenna.

  “Good morning … your grace,” Brenna finally managed to say, not bothering to hide the bitterness contained in those last two words.

  “Evening, actually,” Raina replied. “It’s like six o’clock.”

  “Whatever,” she muttered, abruptly turning her back on her and walking back toward the bedroom as she sipped at her coffee.

  She heard Mary and William trying to rouse the others from sleep, slapping their faces and shaking them, while Brenna retreated to the bedroom. She would not cry anymore. She was done with that. She already looked like a spook of some kind with trails of Merle Norman down her cheeks and smudged around her eyes, so bawling some more wouldn’t help things. She wished that she had gone with her cheap waterproof stuff, but she’d opted for the expensive goods in the hopes of looking better for the Grand Duchess. Had she known that she would’ve been getting stabbed in the back and crying her eyes out like this, she wouldn’t have bothered. Actually, had she known to expect this, Brenna wouldn’t have bothered to beg the Grand Duchess for forgiveness, simply opting to let Duvessa just lop her head off while the whole world watched it on television. She heard the bedroom door click shut, and she hoped that it was Mary.

  “Hey,” said a hushed voice behind her.

  She didn’t turn around, and she didn’t wait for an explanation. Brenna simply walked ahead, making a beeline for the bathroom.

  “Brenna, wait,” Raina called out gently. “Please, just…”

  “I don’t wanna hear it,” she r
eplied, giving the door a hard swing as she hurried into the bathroom. There was a solid thunk as the door struck Raina. She didn’t yelp in pain, and so Brenna wasn’t at all sorry that it hit her.

  “Will you please just let me explain?”

  Reluctantly, sniffing back fresh tears that threatened to spill, Brenna turned to face her, clutching the mug of coffee embossed with the hotel’s logo. “What’s there to explain? What, you wanna gloat about how you fucked the Grand Duchess? Well, lah-dee-fucking-dah! Bravo!”

  “I’m not any happier about it than you are.”

  “Well, you sure don’t seem too broken up about it.”

  “If you’d just let me explain what happened…”

  “Explain? Why? You wanna give me a detailed rundown of everything that you did with her? I don’t fucking care! Okay?” Brenna replied bitterly. She sat the ceramic mug upon the polished faux marble countertop of the sink with a loud clank, again sloshing a bit of coffee over the edge. “I don’t need to know all the fine details. I can fill in the blanks just fine on my own.”

  “Brenna … for God’s sake, do you have any idea how drunk I was?”

  “Oh, like I haven’t heard that one a hundred times before,” she scoffed, rolling her eyes and waving her arms dramatically. “Give me a fucking break! You wanted her before you even laid eyes on her. Don’t even try to blame the booze. You wanted to know what it was like to do it with another chick, you wanted to test-drive your new vampy body, and this was your chance at the Holy Grail of all vampire sexual experiences. And hey, I can’t say I blame you at all for any of that. I mean, she’s absolutely beautiful, she’s a High Court, and she’s the queen of all vampires, so she’s filthy fucking rich. Who in their right mind wouldn’t be turned on by all of that?”

  Raina struggled to find words. Her pretty pink lips moved, but nothing resembling speech came out – a couple of half-words, a sigh, and finally a miserable groan. Succumbing to the need she’d been denying for the past half hour or so, Brenna moved to stand near the toilet. She gestured for Raina to turn around.

  “Unless you wanna watch…?”

  Understanding, Raina spun on her heel and folded her arms as she turned her back upon Brenna to give her some degree of privacy. Immediately finding that she was facing her friend’s reflection in the mirror, she had to turn and walk a few steps to her right to get her out of view.

  “Look, it’s not the fact that you made it with the Grand Duchess that’s bothering me,” Brenna admitted after a moment. “I totally get that. I’m honestly not really mad at all with you about that fact, in and of itself. Like I said, I probably would’ve done the same thing myself.”

  “It wasn’t right,” Raina said, shaking her head. “If you and I are going to be … y’know … more than friends … then we have to be monogamous.”

  “Says who?”

  “Says me.” She hesitated a moment. “Don’t take this as an insult, but … have you ever been in a monogamous relationship? I mean … ever? Even as a human?”

  “Yeah, of course,” she said immediately, “but just as a human. I won’t say it’s totally impossible as a vampire, but expecting vampires to be one-on-one is a little bit … unrealistic. I mean, it’s just who and what we are. Don’t you remember what Duvessa said last night? Y’know, about letting go of inhibitions and preconceived notions?”

  Raina shook her head, saying, “That was just something she was saying to set me up for what she wanted to do with me later. She used that same line on me when she started … just…”

  She closed her eyes and swallowed hard enough that Brenna could hear it from where she sat. She stared at Raina’s back, trying not to allow herself to be distracted by the thoughts of what she may or may not be wearing under that robe. She forced herself to stay focused upon the conversation at hand. The tears that still threatened to spill from her eyes would not let her become too far distracted from the matter, anyhow.

  “What she was telling you was the truth. We’re vampires, my sweet. We’re all about blood and sex. We can’t help being obsessed with sucking and fucking,” she said quite bluntly. “The sooner you just face up to the facts, even the unpleasant and ugly ones, the better you’ll be able to handle living like this. I know you didn’t choose this. I didn’t choose to be a vampire, either. So, I’m not going to hold it against you for doing something that just comes naturally.”

  Raina glanced over to the mirror and caught Brenna in the act of wiping tears from her eyes as she stepped over to the sink. Brenna tied her hair back with a thin black elastic band she had been keeping around her wrist, and rather forcefully turned on the faucet to begin splashing icy cold water upon her own face.

  “If it’s not that,” Raina asked, only raising her voice enough to be heard over the rushing water, “then what are you holding against me?”

  Brenna hesitated, then pretended not to hear her as she used a nearby thin bar of soap to scrub the smeared and ruined makeup from her face. Raina watched as Brenna seemed to almost deliberately punish herself with such harsh and hurried scrubbing, her every movement quite tense with both anger and sorrow. She was making a mess of the sink with her vigorous splashing, but what the hell, the hotel maid would probably be in to clean it up soon, anyhow. When she finally shut off the water and grabbed a nearby towel, not caring that some leftover mascara and such was smearing upon the clean white towel and likely staining it, Raina repeated her question. Angrily, she threw the towel at the mirror and turned abruptly to face Raina.

  “God … damn it, Raina!” Brenna cried, causing her to flinch. “How can you possibly not understand? Are you really that oblivious? Even with all those fancy High Court powers you have now…?”

  “I’m just asking what’s wrong. You don’t have to be mean about it.”

  “You know what’s wrong! You fucking know it, Raina!” Brenna exclaimed, not caring if anyone outside the bathroom heard her. “Don’t even pretend that you don’t!”

  “I’m sorry, but …honestly, I don’t,” she replied in a rather calm voice. “If you’re not upset over the fact I slept with Duvessa, then…”

  Brenna just stared at her for a few moments in disbelief, totally aghast at her reaction. Finally, she looked away, shaking her head.

  “Oh … you bitch. Now that’s just cruel,” Brenna said in a tone hushed more by her own shock than by a need for discretion. “You know why I’m upset, but you just don’t care. And now you want to hear me spell it out for you, too. It’s not enough that you went out of your way to hurt me like this, but now you’ve gotta rub my nose in it, too. You really are something, y’know that? You really are cut out for this whole ‘queen of the vampires’ game, after all.”

  “Brenna…”

  “Fuck you,” she spat, attempting to walk past her. Raina caught her by the arm, and she halted in her tracks, turning to glare at her. “You’d better let go of me.”

  “Not until you tell me.”

  “Don’t make me hit you.”

  “Brenna, please…”

  She wanted to hit her. She didn’t intend to punch her, not really, but she did find herself drawing a fist back, really wanting to do so. She was going to give her another second. One more second, and she was going to take a swing at that beautiful bitch, slap her right across the face hard enough to make her see stars. No sooner did she draw back that fist, however, than she suddenly felt Raina’s hands move down to grasp the wrist of the arm she’d held, saw her become a blurred movement of dark hair and pale flesh as she whirled about and twisted Brenna’s wrist up and back. She pulled up for just a fraction of a second, and then pulled her down as Brenna’s knees buckled. Just like that, she found herself on her back upon the floor. While Raina had been swift and sudden with the move, she hadn’t slammed Brenna to the floor so much as she had simply dropped her, deliberately avoiding a golden opportunity to hurt her (again).

  Raina released her immediately and held up her hands defensively, taking a step away from her.
“Don’t be like that, okay? Don’t make this physical.”

  Overcoming her surprise after a moment, Brenna protested, “Bitch, you made it physical when you grabbed me!”

  “And please stop calling me a bitch.”

  Beginning to prop herself up with one elbow, Brenna replied, “Hey, if the shoe fits…”

  “Would you please just tell me what I did wrong? Please?” Raina begged as Brenna picked herself up off the cold ceramic tile floor. “Don’t just insult me and walk out…”

  “You fucking insulted me! Okay? You insulted me, and you hurt me,” Brenna finally admitted.

  “How? How did I hurt you?” she persisted. “If it wasn’t because of what I did with Duvessa, then what was it?”

  “It wasn’t why you did it, but … what you did, and when you did.”

  As Brenna faced her directly, Raina stared at her blankly. “Meaning…?”

  “I thought what you and I had was something special. I thought we were building up to something awesome, you and me,” she explained. “But what you did … when you did it … you made it pretty clear that it wasn’t special at all. At least, it wasn’t special to you. You just gave it away.”

  “Gave what away?” Raina asked with a raised eyebrow. Then, she suddenly seemed to get it, and the other eyebrow went up. “My first time with another girl? Or my first as a vampire?”

  “Both!”

  “Oh.”

  “Jesus Christ! You just now figured it out?” Brenna exclaimed with an exasperated sigh.

  “That’s really the only reason you’re upset?”

  “Yeah, well … I know it’s all just small potatoes to a fancy-pants High Court like you,” Brenna quipped, rolling her eyes, “but it seemed kind of important to me at the time. But … y’know what? Fuck it. I’m glad you did it with her. I’m sure she was better than I would’ve been, anyhow. Y’know … two hundred years’ worth of experience and all that has got to count for something in the sack, right? I mean, it just makes more sense to share your first time with her. When your choices are a cheap two-bit Commoner whore or a High Court vampire that’s over two hundred years old but doesn’t look a day over twenty-one … shit, that’s hardly even a contest. No wonder you didn’t want to be with me when you and I had the chance yesterday. You’d already made up your mind at that point, hadn’t you?”