by Gayla Twist
“No,” I told her, stepping forward to take her in my arms, but immediately being thrust back by one of the vampires in uniform.
“He’s lying,” Ilona said, tossing her crimson curls. “He told me all about what a little trouble maker you are. In fact, he half considered staking you himself.”
Haley looked at me, her eyes as large as saucers. “Why would you do this?” she asked.
“Ilona’s lying,” I insisted. “I never said anything of the kind. This is all just one big misunderstanding.”
Three of the uniformed men rose up into the air, dragging Haley behind them. “Haley, please don’t worry,” I called after her. “I’ll get this all straightened out right away. I promise. You’ll be free before sunrise.”
I heard Ilona chuckle. “Poor little fledgling. I swear they’re worse than mortals half the time. Never realizing they shouldn’t break the rules until it’s too late. They’ll have to stake her, I imagine.”
“What the hell is your problem, Ilona?” I charged her, grabbing the lapels of her leather jacket. I was so furious I was readying to fling her through the windshield of Uncle Kevin’s pickup truck.
“Keep back from the witness,” the remaining soldier said, poking at me with his silver baton. He only prodded my chest, but I could see that he wasn’t reluctant to smack me over the skull.
I backed off and turned to face him, fighting the urge to shove away the baton and punch him in the face. “Would you please tell me where they are transporting my progeny?” I said in the most civil voice I could muster. “There has been some type of horrible mistake and I need to rectify it as soon as possible.”
“There’s a containment facility in Columbus,” he said, thrusting a card at me that had an address on it. “She’ll be processed there.”
“Thank you,” I said barely clinging to civility. I didn’t understand why he was hanging about. “Are you staying in the area for any particular reason?” I asked. “Is there any way I can help?”
“I’m just going to do a sweep of the neighborhood to make sure no mortals need to be influenced,” he told me. “Then I’ll escort the witness to the containment facility so she can give her testimony.”
“Oh good.” I glared at Ilona. “I would love to hear what Miss Firenze has to say for herself.”
Ilona’s eyes were sparkling like jewels. For some reason she wanted to hurt me and she knew she had struck home. “I look forward to seeing you there, Dorian,” she said with a sultry purr. Then turning to the soldier, she batted her long lashes. “I’m so glad they left a strong man to escort me.” And then, with a significant glance in my direction she added, “There’s an unsavory element in this town.”
Chapter 23
Haley
I wasn’t so much flying as being dragged through the air by three burly vampires dressed in their black military looking uniforms with their silver tipped clubs. I had no idea what had just happened or why. I think the silver net they had thrown over me must have messed with my head because for awhile everything was kind of a blur.
Ilona had harassed me the entire flight home from Sterngrove. She had a giant stick up her butt and I couldn’t figure out why. Did she have something against me personally or was she just haranguing me to get back at Dorian for some reason?
She kept taunting me about my crazy mother. It was like middle school all over again. I was used to being maliciously teased, but not by an actual adult. It was one thing to be taunted by a twelve year old who didn’t know any better, but Ilona looked like she had become a vampire somewhere in her early thirties. You’d think that teasing the practically parentless foster kid would have gotten old at some point. Especially with the extra century she’d probably been on the planet. I began to wonder if she was all-there mentally. As I flew along with her dogging my heels, I began to feel like I was being harassed by one of the crazy homeless people at the bus station. But instead of muttering at me incoherently, I could understand every word coming out of Ilona’s mouth.
All I wanted to do was get to my Uncle Kevin’s house and go inside where she couldn’t follow me. I knew Dorian had asked me to meet him at the castle, but I still needed to talk to my uncle and pack a few things. Besides, I suspected that if Ilona knew I was going to the castle, then it would completely push her over the edge. And I had no idea what she was capable of doing. Aggressive homeless men were scary enough. I couldn’t handle a crazy vampiress freaking out at me.
“Ilona, I don’t know what you want,” I said as I landed in the driveway to Uncle Kevin’s house. “I don’t know why you’re upset with me. And I don’t know what I can do to make you happy.”
“You can meet the sun,” the vampiress said, smiling in a weirdly menacing way. She was also speaking in a voice that was no louder than a whisper and I didn’t know why she was doing that either. Maybe she thought it would make her even scarier. And it kind of did, in that mentally unhinged sort of way. “You and Dorian Vanderlind can shrivel up and die. That would make me happy. And I wouldn’t mind draining that crazy mom of yours while I’m at it.”
So she really was nuts. It’s one thing to dislike someone or be mad as someone because they don’t want to date you. And people made stupid threats all the time about how they were going to kill someone or wished someone was dead. But you didn’t follow through with that kind of crap. You didn’t actually try to hurt them. I knew first-hand that revenge wasn’t worth it.
“Okay, Ilona,” I said in the most calm voice I could muster. “I’m sorry you’re upset and I wish I could say something or do something to make you feel better, but I think whatever you’re feeling actually has nothing to do with me. I’m going inside now. So... goodnight.”
I tried to turn and go into the house, but Ilona was there, right in my face and grabbing my arm. “The only thing that’s going to make me feel better is to see you miserable,” she hissed in a voice that was barely a whisper. “And I know just how to do it.”
I pushed her away from me. “Just leave us alone, you psycho bitch.” I was trying stay in control but it was almost impossible. “Leave me alone, leave my mom alone, and leave Dorian alone. Just go away and find someone else to harass.”
“You think you’re so special,” Ilona said with a sneer.
“No, I don’t think I’m special,” I told her. The only time I’d ever felt special in my life was when I was in Dorian’s arms. Maybe that was what made Ilona so crazy. She wanted to be the one whom Dorian found special. But I actually didn’t care if she was envious. Her anger was not my responsibility. All I wanted was to go into the house.
“Don’t turn away from me,” Ilona snarled. “I’m not finished with you yet.”
“What?” I really couldn’t figure her out. Did she really think I was just going to stand around and let her threaten me? For some reason she suddenly thrust something into my hands. It was a sharpened piece of wood. The crazy bitch had just handed me a stake. “What are you doing?” I asked.
That’s when she started shouting. “Haley, what are you doing? Get away from me with that! Help! Help!”
“What?” I was completely confused. Ilona was obviously out of her mind.
Ilona flung herself on the ground and started scuttling backward on all fours like I had lunged at her and she was trying to get away from me.
And then there was a sound so painful that I thought my ears were going to start bleeding. It was that horrible high-pitched shriek that a smoke detector makes when you’re just preheating the oven to make some biscuits and you can’t get the damn this to shut off. But this noise was a hundred times worse. It was so bad it sent me staggering. I dropped the stake and covered my ears with both hands. It hurt so bad I thought I might blackout. And that’s when things got much worse.
When I was a mortal, I’d always wondered about the whole vampires-being-repelled-by-silver thing. It made no sense. Why silver? Was there something about the alloy that negatively reacted with undead body chemistry or what? Of cours
e that was when I didn’t believe in vampires. I just assumed it was something that people made up for entertainment, like Superman and kryptonite. Everyone had to have a weakness.
But I was so completely wrong. The silver net hurt so bad that I thought I was going to lose my mind. It seared into my flesh like a hot poker. Thank God Dorian managed to convince them just to cuff me. I didn’t know why they were taking me or where they were taking me but I sure as hell wouldn’t have survived the trip in that silver net.
“Am I under arrest?” I asked, once I felt a little less out of it from the attack. I was trying to fly on my own a little because it was awkward having them drag me.
“You’re just under suspicion for illegal behavior. We’re bringing you in for questioning,” the vamp in charge informed me.
“Questioning?” I asked. “About what?” It was true that I’d been snacking on some mortals to survive, but I hadn’t killed anyone. And I’d used my influence to cover my trail. Having the undead government send four armed bullies to grab me seemed a little overkill. It was kind of like a cop tasering someone for shoplifting. There was definitely some excessive force happening.
“You’ve been grabbing teenagers off the streets,” the man told me. “I’m sure it’s tempting, but it’s not a very bright thing to do.”
“I haven’t been grabbing teenagers,” I protested. Okay, I’d snacked on one teenager, Tommy. But that had just happened. There was no way some overreaching vampire authority could have found about it so soon.
“The guy shrugged. “Tell it to the Bishops.”
I only had a vague notion of who the Bishops were. Some kind of vampire ruling class. I didn’t know if they were actual Bishops, like in a church, or if that was just their name.
We were approaching Columbus as my escorts started to descend. “Keep your mouth shut,” the jerk in charge told me. “Or we’ll tape it shut and give you the net.”
I did not want anything to do with the silver net again so I didn’t make a sound. We were headed toward some kind of down-at-the-heels warehouse district. We landed on the roof of a nondescript building that was sorely in need of a paint job. We entered through a door that looked pretty battered on the outside, but on the inside it was obviously made from reinforced steel. My captors marched me down a scummy, dimly lit hallway. At the end we turned to the right and everything changed.
The new hallway was clean and well-lit, with gorgeous wood floors and beautiful globe light fixtures. It was like we had been instantly teleported from the warehouse district of Columbus, Ohio to some ritzy building in New York City. It was pretty obviously vampire money.
We descended a few flights of stairs and then I was led down a hallway lined with cells, most of which were empty. “Don’t touch the bars,” my capture instructed me as went past. “They’re coated with silver. And trust me, it burns.”
We stopped in front of a cell toward the end of the hall. In the room’s defense, it was a pretty fancy set up compared to the jail and prison cells I’d seen in the movies and on TV. Yes there were silver coated bars on the doors and windows, but there were also curtains, a rug, two comfortable looking beds and other assorted furniture. One of the beds came complete with occupant, a vampiress who looked to have been turned somewhere in her mid-twenties.
The guards unlocked my handcuffs. “You’ll be staying here,” the one in command told me.
“For how long?” I asked. “And don’t I get a lawyer or something?”
“You haven’t been charged with anything yet,” he explained before shoving me into the cell and slamming the door. “If it looks like there’s enough evidence to go to trial then all that stuff comes into play.”
“But how long will I be here?” I asked. The cell wasn’t nearly as scary as being locked in a cellar or anything, but I was still feeling pretty frightened.
“I’m not in charge of any of that,” the man said. “Now I’ve got to go file a report. You just relax. Get to know your roommate.” With that he turned and walked down the hall, the other two men trailing after him.
“They’re not actually paid to be assholes,” my new roommate said from her bed. Her voice had a gravely quality to it like she was fighting off a cold. “That’s just a perk of the job.”
“Great.” I turned to look at my new living quarters. It’s not that bad, I told to myself. Dorian won’t leave you to rot in here. He’ll figure something out and you’ll be free by tomorrow night. Of course Dorian was the reason I had been arrested, but I tried not to let that knowledge sink its poisonous claws into my thoughts. If Dorian felt about me the way same what I felt about him, then he would do everything within his power to set me free. I just had to believe in him. That was the challenging part.
“I’m Leonora, by the way,” the vampiress said, breaking me out of my reverie.
“Oh, hi,” I said, forcing my voice not to quake. “I’m Haley.”
“Nice to meet you, Haley,” she replied. “That doesn’t sound like much of a vampire name.”
I shrugged. “I guess I’m not much of a vampire.”
“I used to be Tiffany, but I changed mine,” she told me. “No one takes a vampire named Tiffany seriously.”
“Maybe I’ll change mine too,” I said, although I couldn’t imagine going by anything other than Haley.
“You might as well make yourself comfortable,” she said, gesturing toward the free half of the room. “You’re going to be here for awhile.”
“How long have you been here?” I asked as I took a seat on the vacant bed.
“It’s been about a month,” she said, reopening the book she’d been reading when I came in. “They can’t decide what to do with me. But I’m not going to stay here much longer.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
She shook her head a little, not looking up from her book. “I’m just not.”
I wondered why she was there. I wanted to ask, but I wasn’t sure if there some kind of vampire etiquette about asking. Leonora seemed half friendly and half pissed-off. I decided I wouldn’t broach the subject unless she brought it up. I didn’t want her to cross over to being fully pissed-off.
I looked around the room, completely unsure what to do with myself. I just couldn’t process everything that had happened. I felt like a jittery cat and I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking.
“There’s a woman who comes around with books on a cart ever couple of days,” my new roommate told me. “Kind of like a librarian. She should swing by tomorrow. You can look through what I’ve check out in the meantime.” She gestured toward a small stack of books on her nightstand.
“Thanks,” I said, mechanically getting to my feet. I didn’t think I could concentrate on a book, but at least it was something to do. Almost every book Leonora had selected was a romance. I don’t know why it surprised me, but it surprised me. She looked kind of like a tough-chick with a mane of black hair and a couple of small, home-made tattoos on her wrists. But I guess that didn’t mean she wasn’t a romantic.
I selected Pride and Prejudice and something called Love’s Labor Lost, although it was pretty obvious from the scantily clad couple on the cover that it had nothing to do with Shakespeare.
I slouched over to my bunk and cracked open the Jane Austen. It was one of my favorite books of all time, along with almost every other female on the planet. But I didn’t care. It still felt personal to me and if that was the case for other fans of Austen, then I was happy for them.
I can’t say that I was immediately lost in the world of Regency England, but I knew the story so well that it was easy to follow along without fully concentrating. I tried to take comfort in the fact that Mr. Darcy was willing to go to great extremes to save Elizabeth’s reputation, even after she had rejected his offer of marriage. Maybe that meant that Dorian would be there for me, even though I had told him to get lost after our first kiss.
How could I have been so stupid? If I’d only been brave enough to admit that I felt something
for him, then I wouldn’t be sitting in a cell.
There was the sound of clanging doors. Leonora sat up, looking eager. “Dinner time,” she said when I shot her a questioning look. A woman in scrubs came by pushing a cart full of packs of blood. She handed us each a bag of O positive. “Cheers,” Leonora said, hoisting her blood bag into the air before sinking her fangs into the plastic.
I suddenly realized that I was intensely hungry. I lifted the bag to my lips and it felt like the blood was gone in an instant. And so was the little headache that had been pinging around the back of my skull. I was so freaked out that I hadn’t even realized it was there until it had disappeared. Eating also made me feel a little less freaked out. My hands stopped shaking.
There was a prickling on the back of my neck and I could tell that the sun was about to rise. It looked like I was going to spend the day in the cell with my new friend, Leonora. I wondered about the windows. Were they just going to let us fry in there? If they were, Leonora seemed awfully calm about it.
I don’t know if it was the sunrise or what, but I suddenly felt extremely anxious for Dorian. It was me who was in the prison cell so I couldn’t really explain it, but the passing of every second made me feel increasingly worse. For some reason I was terrified, like I knew I would never see my maker again.
Another few minutes ticked away while I sweated and worried, hunched on my bed like I had the flu. Then there was an automated clicking sound and some heavy, metal blinds began to roll down, completely covering the windows and making them light proof. Leonora let out a small laugh as I leapt to my feet, both startled and relieved.
“Is this what you were expecting?” she asked.
“I wasn’t expecting anything,” I told her, walking over to inspect the blinds. The fear had released me from its clutches and I felt like I could breathe again.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” my cellmate asked.
“I mean it’s hard to expect something when you have no idea it’s going to happen,” was my reply. “I just got snatched out of the blue by those dudes in uniform and dragged here. I honestly have no idea why I’m here.”
