“Sorry.” I rolled my eyes. “I meant, where’d you put the female dog?” Bitch suited her so much better.
“She’s in the kill suites.”
“What?” I nearly dropped my plate. “Why?”
“Not to meet her end, I assure you,” he said, with one eye scanning for eavesdroppers. “The repercussions of that would be… damning.”
“Repercussions?”
He sipped his blood, saluting with his glass after. “Drake.”
“Oh.” I nodded knowingly. “So, why the kill suites?”
“Because the doors can be locked from both the inside as well as the out.”
“And?”
“And she needs to be protected from David right now as much as she needs to be punished.”
“He won’t hurt her… will he?”
“Where do you think he’s been all night?”
“He’s been hunting—for humans,” I corrected him.
“No.” He turned and laid his plate down on the table behind him. “He’s been hunting for Morgana.”
I put my plate down too, then thought better and grabbed a leg of chicken off it. “Do you know where he is now?”
“No.” He grimaced at my face. “And chew with your mouth closed.”
My gaze moved sideways to the person Dad looked at apologetically, who showed obvious disgust at my open-mouthed gorging. “Excuse me, but…” I swallowed the chicken so I could talk properly. “I’m building a child and I haven’t eaten all day. I don’t care if I look like a slob.”
Dad just groaned, but his eyes smiled.
I stood there taking everything in for a moment, while Dad quietly sipped from his heavy silver goblet. It took a few visits of the cup to his mouth, his tongue moving forward to lick the remnants of blood from his lips, before it truly sunk in exactly what my dad, a man who was human to me my whole life, was actually drinking. I put my chicken leg down and held onto my stomach. His overnight return to youth was one sign of his immortality, but blood on his lips just totally cemented it! “Um, Da—I mean, Lord Eden?” I said.
“Careful,” he reminded me sternly.
I ducked my head apologetically. “Did it hurt—to deny yourself all these years?” I said, nodding at the blood.
“Sometimes.”
“Only sometimes?” I thought about the state David had been in after being bloodless for only a few weeks. “How come you didn’t get thin, like David?”
“I’m a difference species, to begin with.”
“Really?” I almost fell over in shock, but then I realized… of course he would be. He was the first vampire. Drake was his son, and David was Drakarian. “Are there a lot of differences between Vampirians and the Drakarian kind?”
“Some.” His eyes wandered slowly away from our conversation then, taking with it his will to continue.
“Like?” I prompted anyway.
He looked back at me, took a breath, and planted his goblet down on the table. “Well, for one, the way I create vampires, and also their abilities thereafter, differ.”
“In what way?”
His shoulders dropped with frustration. “I guess, without being too specific, my kind do not need to drink venom in order to turn.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“So you just…” I covered my neck absentmindedly. “You just bite them.”
“And leave them alive, yes,” he said with a nod.
“Cool. And… so, blood denial affects you differently to what it does Drakarians—like with David.”
“It does.” He nodded again. “My Created can hibernate.”
“Seriously?”
He just smiled.
“And… so… that means they can go without blood?”
He shook his head. “If they choose to hibernate, they mummify.”
“Mummify?” I cringed. “Gross.”
Dad laughed and we both broke apart for a moment when some guests walked past.
“So, the effects of blood denial, when I was growing up, did you ever—”
“I counteracted the more obvious physical side effects with an awful lot of sugar and fat.”
“And lack of exercise?”
“Precisely.”
“Did you ever want to, like… did you ever wanna kill… anyone… at school?” I whispered the last bit so low no one would have heard. It even took Dad a second to catch on.
“Oh.” He leaned back again, crossing his arms loosely. “Uh. Yes.”
“Vicki?”
He smiled fondly. “More often than you’d know.”
“Mom?”
His eyes closed at mention of her. “No. I was still…” He glanced over his shoulder, pausing until a couple walked away. “I was still drinking until shortly after I left you in Australia with her.”
The way he said Australia, with a tiny hint of an Aussie accent, took me back home to the past—to a past where he and Mom were together, supposedly married, and we were happy. I was happy. “You shouldn’t have left her, you know.”
“I had to be there for Sam.” Dad took in our surroundings and assessed them before adding, “He needed me more than you did, Ara.”
“No. I needed you. Mom needed you. At least if she could’ve pretended to be married to you, she wouldn’t have dragged me my entire life through a myriad of sample fathers.” I folded my arms, simmering down with a careful glance around the room. “Look, I’m sorry, Lord Eden. I do understand why you left. I completely do. But my life would’ve been so different if Vicki had’ve let you stay in Oz.”
“She had a job here, Ara.”
“And you had a daughter there.”
He laid a hand to my shoulder, his eyes sternly reminding me where we were. “I love you. And no matter where I live in the world, that will never change.”
“That’s what you said to me the day you left.” I wiped my eye. “I may have been young, but I remember it. And it didn’t change what I believed in my heart.”
“I know,” he said solemnly. “I’m not perfect, Ara. Even someone as old as I still makes mistakes.”
I nodded.
“But I am, and always will be, your dad.” He whispered the last bit.
I nodded again, not making eye contact until a thought about dads and daughters and boys snuck into my head. “Did you know?”
“Know what?” he asked.
“All those times David jumped through my window. Did you—”
His laughter cut me off. “Yes. Of course I did.”
“How come you didn’t say anything—you know, burst in and kick him out.”
“Because, my dear, the less I interacted with David, the better.”
“Because you were worried he might figure you out?”
“Yes.”
“Was it hard keeping track of your thoughts, like, to make him think he was reading your mind?”
“Sometimes.” He nodded, picking up his mask from the table. “It was a bit harder to maintain control of my actions though, when I’d hear the things he was thinking.”
“Like what?”
“Just stuff boys think,” he said.
“Like what stuff?”
“Just… stuff. And I can tell you”—he positioned his mask over his face and fastened the ribbon—“the stuff a vampire boy thinks in relation to his girlfriend is a hell of a lot worse than what any regular boy could come up with.”
I giggled into my hand.
“Lord Eden?” Emily hummed, gliding over and seizing my father. “I believe you owe me a dance.”
Dad bowed and kissed her hand, and Emily’s cheeks flushed, making them pink. I wasn’t really sure I’d ever seen a vampire blush before, but there it was in black and white, plain as day. Well, more like pink and white.
My extra-critical eye focused harder on her than usual then, assessing her every move with Lord Eden, wondering if she still had feelings for him. I mean, he wasn’t her teacher anymore and he also wasn’t an old man. But he w
as still my dad, and any feelings she had for him would not only be unforgivable but… downright creepy.
“You’ve nothing to worry about,” Blade said softly over my shoulder.
I managed to look away from them long enough to see Blade’s dark stubble and jet-black eyes above me, his jaw moving around something crunchy and sweet-smelling. “You’re not worried?”
He used the dagger from his hip belt to carve out a circle of apple, a simple smile thinning his lips. “No. Em and I have talked about it all. She will always love your d—Lord Eden, but not in the way you think.”
As he looked down at me, I moved my attention to the pretty blond in a yellow dress, comfortable in the arms of a tall, slightly tanned man; the couple circling gracefully around the dance floor, surrounded by a collection of beautiful immortals.
“Besides,” Blade added, his British accent sounding more American. “Your father would never touch Emily that way. He might not be an old man now, but he still very much views her as a child, and as his student.”
“How do you know?”
Blade’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “I may or may not have spoken to him about it—without Em’s knowledge, I should add.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “I won’t say anything to her.”
“I appreciate it,” he said, and walked across the room to steal Em away as the song ended and another began. Dad cast a glance across at Mike and Falcon and headed over there, blending among the crowd until I could no longer see him or the other guards. I stood on my toes and tried to search above the heads for them, but my short little legs forbade it, and when I looked back at the dance floor, even Blade was gone, leaving Em in the arms of a politician.
My brow tightened in the middle. Where’d they all go?
“Hey,” Mike said, popping up out of nowhere. “Why the frown?”
I shook off the adrenaline and gave him a little whack on the arm, almost knocking his bagel from his hands. “You scared me.”
“Sorry.” He laughed, filling his mouth. “So, why the long face?”
“You all just… disappeared.”
“Who?” He looked around the room, making a face like I was crazy. “’Cause the room looks pretty full to me.”
“Ha-ha.” I backhanded him again. “I meant the Guard. My dad. Arthur.”
“So?” He shrugged, stuffing the last of his bagel in his pie-hole, his cheek puffing on one side.
“I don’t know,” I said softly, still kind of searching for them, or maybe for something else. I wasn’t sure. “Something just seems really off about it.”
He nudged my rib with his elbow. “I think you worry too much. Come on”—he grabbed my hand—“let’s dance.”
“I don’t know the steps.”
“Make some up,” he said casually, dragging me through the throngs to the dance floor.
When we reached the center, he tightly wrapped my waist and swept me against a body I knew well enough it could be an extension of my own, and what I knew or didn’t know of the steps meant nothing in his arms. He led me around the floor like he’d danced to these songs every day since he was a child, and no one was any the wiser for our lack of instruction.
“So,” he said ultra-casually. “I heard Jason left this arvo.”
“Yeah.” I rolled my face upward to look into those warm caramel eyes, seeing my own reflected in them. “Why, you gonna cry?”
He laughed, but it was half-hearted. “I was actually wondering how you feel about that—about him leaving?”
I went to shrug but gave it more careful consideration instead. “I’m okay actually. I mean, he’s going on to better things, so I’m happy for him. Not sad for myself.”
The uneasy look in his eye retreated and left a guarded smile behind. “Good.”
* * *
The secret shortcut through the forest to the field gave me a much-needed moment of quiet. I untied the ribbon around my head and let my face breathe the crisp autumn air, fastening the mask to the loop in the side of my dress.
Tiny creatures scurried out of sight as I passed the brush along the sides of the path, while bolder creatures above called loudly to acknowledge my presence here. If I were anywhere else in the world, a forest this late at night would be creepy. But these animals, these trees, they were like old friends.
In the safety of desolation, I could finally let myself think about everything without worrying that my face would crack, and I’d have to explain what was wrong. Jason came up first, carrying some curiosity about the gift he’d left for me, followed closely by David and then the Immortal Damned. Tomorrow, little Tommy would finally be picked up and taken home with his two new dads to begin his human life, but a part of me feared that the ferocious hunger of the king might lead him there to the peacefully-sleeping little humans, ripe for the taking. I hoped with all my heart that David was actually searching for Morgana and not for food, because a desperately-hungry vampire couldn’t distinguish the difference between innocent blood and a meal. And David would never forgive himself if he killed a child. And neither would I.
I kind of hoped, in this darkness and separation from the world behind a wall of trees, that David might be tailing me. I could hear someone. But when I took a moment to concentrate on the energy, it represented what felt like two bodies. Not one. And they were Lilithian. Not vampire.
I tilted my nose to the almost perfectly still sky and sniffed the air. Blade. And… I sniffed again. An ashtray? No. That’s… Oh, Ryder.
“Hey, guys.” I stopped and spun around.
“Yo,” Blade said, popping out from behind a tree.
“Have you heard anything about David yet?” I asked, heading toward him, and I could actually hear the hesitation suddenly slow his steps.
“We have.” Ryder appeared by a tree stump right beside me, striking a match to light a cigarette. “But it’s not good news.”
“Don’t say that to her.” Blade reached out and flicked Ryder’s ear. I did a double-take, looking from where Blade had been to where he was now, and redirected my steps. “She’ll think the worst.”
“Too late,” I said, pretending to hyperventilate.
“Well, let’s start with this,” Blade said, snatching Ryder’s cigarette and snapping it in half before stomping it out in the dirt, “and you might find it easier to breathe, Your Majesty. At the very least avoid poisoning our future queen.” He gave Ryder a vehement look.
“What?” Ryder shrugged. “She’ll be immortal. She can’t die from cancer.”
“A baby is a baby. Immortal or not,” Blade said sternly. “And no decent person would smoke around one. Now”—he turned back to me and cupped my shoulder—“David has been sighted. But he’s not himself.”
“Who is he then?” I joked.
“He…”
“He was unresponsive,” Ryder said.
“Unresponsive?” I looked at Ryder.
“Catatonic.” His brows rose with a small, humored smile. “We were leading him back to your chambers when he suddenly snapped out of it, took out three guards and vanished.”
The ground felt a little mushy then and hard to stand on. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Nothing to tell, really.”
Blade’s hand moved smoothly through the darkness and tilted my face until our eyes met. “We didn’t want to worry you.”
“Actually, Lord Eden didn’t want to worry you,” Ryder added.
“He just wants to see you enjoy yourself—for once.”
My heart softened a bit then. “That kinda failed anyway. I’ve been worrying all night.”
“Aw, Queeny. I’m sorry.” Blade pulled me in for a one-armed hug. “You just looked so beautiful and so happy tonight. We all thought it’d be better if we told you after the festival.”
I patted his back twice and broke away from the hug. “No, it’s better that I know. I mean, David’s not where I want him to be, but he’s still around, so I’m okay.”
Blade nodded once,
smiling into my face with all that English charm.
“And, you know what?” I added, deciding right then and there that too many things happened in my royal day that destroyed the good times. “I’m not gonna let it bother me. I’m gonna go to the field and enjoy the games.”
“That’s the spirit.” Ryder slapped my shoulder, receiving another disapproving look from Blade. “Come on, I’ll challenge you in the archery tournament. See who can hit the bullseye.”
“Fine,” Blade said, the three of us walking side-by-side toward the field. “But I get to use the dagger instead.”
“Not much good with a bow and arrow?” I asked.
He drew his dagger from his belt and flipped it in the air. “Much better with a blade.”
“I’m better with a sword,” I said. “Can I throw that at the bullseye instead?”
“Sure.” Ryder turned and walked backward for a second to face us. “In the fencing tournament.”
“Fencing?”
“Yup.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fencing. Archery. Do they have jousting?”
Blade laughed, and even his laugh had an accent. “No jousting. But I believe there is apple bobbing and pie throwing.”
“Oooh.” I grabbed his shirtsleeve. “I am so in for the pie throwing. Who’s the target?”
Ryder and Blade exchanged grins.
“Who?” I demanded.
“Margret.”
My eyes widened in excitement. “Let’s go do that first then!”
* * *
Bonfires warmed the wind that swept the plains of the open field. From as far back as the doors to the Throne Room all the way to the rocky edge before the beach, stall masters had set up games and displays, and people in the hundreds gathered around them, laughing and talking loudly. The costumes of the greater population strongly resembled clothing worn in the fourteen hundreds and I got a sudden sense, as we stepped out of the tree line in awe, that I had gone completely back in time to when Lilith reigned.
“Wow.” I laid one hand softly across my belly, the orange flicker of fire coloring my skin. “This looks amazing.”
Blade stepped up beside me and swept his hair back, leaving his hand on his head. “I feel like a little kid. I’m not sure what to do first.”
Echoes & Silence Part 1 Page 49
