Chapter 24
Before I could answer, Alexi reached for my arm, yanking me along by the sleeve of my sweatshirt as he turned on his heel.
“Come along, Mar,” he said on a sigh. “We have much to discuss.”
I had no choice but to follow as he left the shadow the alley for the wide-open Pier, where beams of faint moonlight gave everything an eerie glow. I couldn’t see anyone else around. Even the three little vampires had disappeared.
I was utterly alone with Alexi…on a pier, close to an easy disposal spot for bodies. You couldn’t blame me for feeling afraid.
But the vampire didn’t seem intent on murder tonight.
“How rude of you to drop in without warning, Mar,” Alexi grouched as I stumbled in his grip. “We’ve had absolutely no time to prepare. Why, if the wrong eyes had caught sight of you—”
He broke off and peered at me from over his shoulder. I sensed those dark eyes scanning my face, taking in the smeared snot and tears dribbling down my chin.
He frowned.
“Unless you’ve already made you’re grand entrance ahead of time,” he grumbled under his breath.
I had no idea what he meant, but in the next moment he was dragging me to that cluster of warehouses in the Pier’s corner. As we came close, he wrenched open one of the rusty metal doors and shoved me inside.
It was pitch black darkness. I had no chance in hell of seeing anything, even as Alexi wrestled the door closed behind us with a metallic whine.
“Lucy, I’m home,” he called obnoxiously into the dank, empty space.
I couldn’t see anyone, but—like that old saying went—that didn’t mean anyone wasn’t around to see me.
I could hear the quiet scuffles of someone moving around through the dark. A heavy someone. Way too heavy to be your average dock mouse.
“Alexi,” someone said on a dramatic yawn. “Do you know what time it is? It’s barely evening…”
They sounded pissed at having their beauty sleep cut short, but the annoyance was quickly replaced by a startled gasp as their eyes adjusted to the dark. I guess that was when they could finally make out the sight of me, standing like a deranged puppet, in Alexi’s grip.
“We have a guest, Ren,” he said simply.
Before I could react, he shoved me forward. I tripped over unseen garbage in my graceless fall and landed hard against a firm surface. My knees scraped against the cold cement floor. Great, I couldn’t help thinking, another trip to the lovely clinic.
It was a second later that I realized I might not even live that long to get bandaged this time. Go figure.
I tried to pull myself to my feet, only to epically fail as my foot hit something hard instead. I would have fallen again—no doubt amassing more lovely injuries—if it weren’t for a cool hand on my shoulder that held me stead. I shivered as the icy fingers brushed the skin of my neck that peeked through my collar.
“Maryne…” Serenity murmured. Her fingers clenched me tighter, and her tone changed from wistful to sharp in an instant. “But what about—”
“Gone,” Alexi said. “I didn’t see him around with those stupid little Dhamphirs,” he added with a scoff of disgust. “I just hope that he didn’t see her.”
“You hope?” There was a scuffle beside me as if Serenity were shifting in place. “I hope that word hasn’t reached anyone else by now. Can you imagine what that bloody council would do to get their hands on—”
“Ren,” Alexi said sharply. “There are ears.”
Serenity released a graceful sigh. “Oh. Of, course. I’ve forgotten where we were...”
I heard a rustle of movement, and then a wrenching sound. The mechanical whirr of electricity running through the walls was my only warning before a massive overhanging light blinked on in a flood of artificial yellow.
“Shit.” I clutched at my eyes as they stung and burned in the brightness. I felt damn near blinded as I blinked them open—but at least now I could see.
Though blurring eyes, I could make out the shape of Alexi as he leaned against a metal wall with his pale fingers on the lever of a massive light switch. A few paces away, I shared a busted, mustard yellow couch with none other than Serenity who looked perfect and lovely even though—from what I could tell—she’d just woken up.
And…all around us, lounging on various bits of furniture spread throughout the massive room, were the slumbering bodies of what seemed like ten other vampires. In the face of the light they moaned and grumbled like a bunch of children being woken up to go to school.
“Rise and shine, kiddies,” Alexi called grandly. “The big bad world awaits.”
The vampires are a motley collection of what seemed to be young teens—all the same shape and variety of Ashley and her friends. Several of the dirty faces I swore I recognized as the missing teens from Dustyn’s newspaper clippings—only they weren’t dead per se.
Someone had turned them all into bloodsucking, sun-fearing vampires.
But why?
“Chop, chop,” Alexi snapped. His eyes narrowed as his mouth flattened into a snarl. “Get out.”
The vamps didn’t argue as they slip off moldy blankets and rush for the door.
The way they jump and shuddered beneath Alexi’s glare made me realize that this wasn’t their first little rude awakening since the two Stroggha had been in town. From what I guessed from Ashley and Riley’s grumbles Serenity and Alexi had intruded upon this happy little family and thought that just because they were fancy vampire royalty, or whatever, they had the right to boss everyone around.
How pleasant.
The rusty squeal of the door slamming closed snapped me back into the present before I could feel too bad for the others, though. Once again, I was alone with the two psycho vamps who seemed very determined not to eat me…
“How did she get here?” Serenity asked in a gentle murmur. Her black eyes eyed me warily. “She looks awful.”
“Don’t know,” Alexi said breezily. He moved toward a moldy blue arm chair that sagged against the wall and threw himself into it. “But she came alone. I don’t think those hunters followed her.”
At the mention of Dave and the others, I flinched, and pulled myself upright. But, I couldn’t quiet force my legs to move correctly and just ended up flopping back down again. Beneath me, the couch cushion sagged and yellow bits of stuffing spilled from a long tear along the side.
“W-what do you want with me?”
I tried to sound brave—really, I did. But my voice was all snotty from crying and I had to sniff just to clear my nose enough to breathe. I sounded like I either had just suffered a brutal break-up, or had a really bad cold.
If I wasn’t mistaken, I saw Alexi try to hide a snicker beneath his pale hand—how polite he was, that one.
“Nothing,” Serenity said. Her pale hand gently patted my shoulder. “We want to help you—”
“Help me?” I laughed so hard that it wasn’t until I felt tears dribble down my chin that I realized I was actually crying. Again. “Snap a girl’s neck and break into her apartment—talk about helpful.”
Serenity sighed. Her black eyes were filled with so much pity that I would have almost believed that she cared—ya know, if she didn’t happen to be a soulless, bloodsucking creature.
“Maryne—”
“Mary,” I snapped.
She blinked. “M-Mary. We just want to keep you safe.”
“And use you,” Alexi blurted.
“Alexi!” Serenity glared at him from behind her yellow lashes.
“What?” He shrugged, unapologetic. “It’s the truth.”
He turned to me and propped that chiseled chin on the mound of his fist.
“Look here, Maryne or Mary, or whatever the hell your name is now. Ever since you left, we—” He waved a hand from himself to Serenity. “Have been treated like social outcasts—piranhas.”
“I think the term you’re looking for is pariahs, Lex,” Serenity said coldly.
“Tomato, tomato. The point is, that everyone from your father to the damn servants seem to think that me and Ren had something to do with your disappearance.” He glared at me as if his hardships were somehow my fault.
The guy bites me, kills me, and now wants to blame me for his problems?
Cry me a freakin’ river.
When I didn’t seem adequately sympathetic to his plight he shrugged and went on.
“Everyone thinks we’ve murdered you, or worse—helped you escape the enclave.”
He made running away sound even worse than murder. Nice to see this Maryne person’s life meant so much to him. With friends like these, no wonder the chick had bailed.
“It’s true,” Serenity murmured, gazing down sadly at her pale hands. “My own mother won’t even look at me without suspicion. She said that your disappearance has put our entire race at jeopardy. ‘Just think of the power struggles that will ensure around us, Serenity,’” she intoned in a high-pitched, accented voice.
“’If you know Maryne’s whereabouts you must tell your Maman.’ All she cares about is her own damn position,” Serenity added on a dark laugh, along with a string of words in a language that I could only guess as French—though I was about as fluent as a French fry.
Alexi’s mouth quirked up into a chilling smile. “My own father threatened to turn me in to the inquisition out of suspicion that I might have played a role in your murder. He said he’d pound the wood into me himself if he found out that I had lain so much as a hand on you.”
Ouch. Talk about politics. I almost feel bad for him, until he added, “Thankfully, mostly everyone knew that you were slowly going insane, so the heat died down pretty quick when Demitri found your—”
“Lex!”
Serenity’s sharp admonishment made him bite his tongue.
“Anyway,” he said, quickly. “In the end, we decided to pull a copy-cat and ditch the enclave ourselves—though we had no idea that you would be here.” He gestured into the air with a wave of his wrist. “Playing mortal.”
Nobody was ‘playing’ anything—least of all me. But, for some reason…I was too busy trembling to tell them that.
“It’s been awful,” Serenity sniffed. “No willing humans…no decent clothes.” She pulled disgustedly at the hem of her silky blouse—which looked like it cost a fortune to me. “No to mention this horrible place. If Demitri hadn’t found us, I don’t know what we would have—”
I couldn’t help it. I jumped about ten feet into the air at the sound of his name—the memory of those icy, cold lips on mine—and I couldn’t hide the fear that ran through me like an electric shock.
Serenity noticed my reaction. And so did Alexi.
They shared a knowing look that made my stomach churn. As if they knew something big that I didn’t.
Something I wasn’t sure I even wanted to.
“We thought you were dead,” Serenity said, effortlessly changing the subject. Her eyes were mournful as they peered into my own. “I thought I would never see you again.”
“How touching,” Alexi remarked, bored. “The heart of the matter is that we have to get you back—ASAP. How soon before unfriendly ears catch wind of your little masquerade, hmm? Trust me, Mar; out of all the people searching for you, we’re the nicest ones.”
I glared at him. “But I’m not—”
“What you think you are doesn’t matter,” he growled, cutting over me. “What does, is that you look an awful lot like the sole heir to the most powerful Stroggha enclave in the world.” His tone turned nasty. “In the wrong hands you’re a weapon, Mary. Unless you want us to just prove the rumors true and eliminate that possibility.”
He moved so fast. I never even saw him get up, before he was suddenly at my throat with icy fingers.
“Alexi!”
“Back off, Ren,” he snarled as the blond rose to her feet. “The so-called mortal has made her decision.”
Those fingers tightened brutally. It was a struggle just to breathe. Until…I couldn’t breathe…
“ALEXI.” Serenity’s tone was like winter. “Slave,” she hissed when he didn’t budge. “Let her go.”
“Damn.” With a scowl, Alexi let me go, but not before snarling a parting jibe at Serenity’s expense, “She palls around with slayers now, Ren. This little ‘mortal’—” He made air quotes with his fingers. “Would sooner run a stake through you heart than listen to reason.”
“You catch more flies with honey,” Serenity said quietly. “But…sometimes the bees need a threat or two to take it.”
Alexi looked at her in shock. Then a slow, ripe smile uncoiled his lips.
“That’s my Ren—my little ice bitch. I was beginning to wonder where that girl went.”
“Shut up.” She turned her back on him and jabbed those gem-like eyes into my own.
“This is bigger than all of us,” she said in a fervent whisper. “Whether you like it or not—you’re in this mess.”
“You tell her,” Alexi goaded with a taunting smile, but the look in his eyes was dead serious.
I had a sinking suspicion that they were talking about a lot more than a case of mistaken identity now. A lot more.
“I’ve always stood by you,” Serenity went on in a pained voice. “Always. Even when you—” She swallowed and shook her head, sending that blond hair cascading down her shoulders. “This time is different. Whether you are Maryne or not…it doesn’t matter. You have to take her place, whether you like it or not.”
“Why?” I said, though my voice came out more as a shaky whisper. It was getting hard to look her in the eye, her gaze was so fierce. I had to settle for a curl of golden hair that fell across her forehead instead.
Serenity inclined her perfect head toward the ceiling and seemed to think for a moment. “Because…if you don’t…Alexi and I will kill everyone you’ve ever loved.”
Her tone was so casual she could have been talking about the weather—but Alexi’s fierce grin gave those words a devious meaning.
She was serious. Dead serious, and I shivered as I thought of Dave, and Dustyn and Misty; all in danger because of me…
“Though,” she went on, “if you help us, we’ll make sure that your loved ones stay safe. Even those silly little slayers you seem so fond of.”
Alexi growled. “Do we have to? You know Demtiri won’t like it…”
“Yes.” Serenity seemed to plead with her beautiful gaze—those eyes are scraping my soul. “All of them will be kept safe—we promise! All you have to do is come with us—then we can explain—”
She broke off as I shook my head.
No way. I wasn’t giving in—this couldn’t possibly be reality; it was just too fucked up.
Yep, it was all a dream. Despite those pesky little details like pain—I was definitely dreaming.
It had to be.
“We’re not asking you to line up for the chopping block!” Serenity shouted, her voice wavering in pitch. “All we want is for you to pretend to be a princess! How hard is that?”
She was screaming now—and somehow, the sight of her losing her cool was so much worse than Alexi’s little outburst.
Anger in Serenity seemed as out of place as a pink tutu on Dustyn—just plain unnatural.
“Do you know how many of us would kill to be in your position?” She reached up to pull angrily at her long blond hair. “You were always so selfish! Would it kill you just think of someone else—for once?”
“Ren.” Alexi placed a hand on her shoulder. “Ren, cool it—”
“No!” She shrugged him off. The next instant she towered over me, and I found myself leaning back into the stained cushions in the face of her rage.
“Do you know how badly you hurt all of us?”
I was shocked as huge, round tears began to slip down her chin to paint the silk of her dark blouse—only they weren’t the clear tears of a mortal.
No, hers were a bloody black.
“Do you know how frantic I was when you left?” She was sobbing openly now, and even Alexi seemed shocked in the face of her tears. “Do know how close Demitri came to…t-to s-staking himself just because he thought what happened was his fault?”
“Ren!” Alexi grabbed her forcefully by the shoulders. “Snap out of it—”
“I’m fine,” she said in a normal tone.
But anyone with eyes could see that the beautiful blond was anything but fine.
Dark ruts ran down her cheeks painting brutal lines against her porcelain skin. Those black eyes smoldered with rage and pain—the same emotions that had been swirling within me since…forever.
I almost felt bad for her. But then her gaze turned as cold, and sharp as Alexi’s; the same burning look she’d worn that night at the warehouse.
“I will give you one day, mortal,” she said coldly. “Come sunset, make your choice. I’d rather not do this the hard way…”
I couldn’t speak. The violence of her emotions shocks me from the inside out and I could only stare as she stumbled away from me, as unsteady as a drunk.
“We could always just kidnap her,” Alexi suggested with a cruel smile. “Leave no loose ends…”
Serenity shook her head. “No. We need her willing—at least until we get her memories back.”
Her gaze flickered to me.
“One day,” she repeated in a soft whisper. “After that. Whatever happens is on your hands.”
Sh allowed Alexi to throw an arm around her slender shoulders as she swayed on her feet.
“Lex,” she said tiredly. “We have to get her out of here—before Demitri sees—”
“I know,” he said.
Both sets of dark eyes took me in warily.
“Take her to the Slayers,” Serenity said after a moment. “Make it look like…an accident.”
He let her go and took a menacing step in my direction. “Will do.”
I barely even saw those pale hands this time, as they rushed for my throat.