All Just Glass 2005 Rough Draft: Chapter 4
Chapter 4
The day's hunt had generated two possible leads. The bash tomorrow night seemed the most promising, but it would be hard to confirm, and neither Adia nor Dominique had a lot of faith that the vamp who told them wouldn't have made something up just to get rid of them. The other lead was from a good source, but said only that one of the circuits that Nikolas occasionally attended was having a bash that night. He seemed doubtful that Nikolas would actually be there, but if nothing else, it seemed like a good place to look for work of Sarah.
The house was in D.C., and had been on the hunters' watch list for a while, so even if Nikolas didn't show it was still worth going to gather more information. There hadn't been time to assemble a team, but Dominique had instantly put Adia on a plane with instructions to check it out, see if their primary targets were there, and if possible procure and invitation to the next event.
The plane ride took less than an hour. It was acquiring permission to fly a private jet anywhere near the capitol that took time, and all of Dominique's vast influence. It would almost have been easier to take a commercial flight, but nowadays no amount of magic could get a fully armed hunter through security... and she wasn't about to check her Vida blade.
It was almost ten o'clock by the time she parked her rented Honda outside the house. Something was going on; that much her sources had been right about. Even standing in the driveway, she could feel the music in her teeth. Sometimes she wondered how vampires could stand it, since their senses were even sharper than hers. The shades were drawn, but the aura of vampires rippled out along the pounding bass.
Though she had taken the time to mute her aura, and had worked with Zachary to cast a stronger veil to mute anyone's natural suspicion and casual recognition, she still would not be able to linger long. Without even seeing the guests, she knew that this would be the kind of party that celebrated the Devil's Hour with deaths. There was too much power here for anything else.
She reached out magically as far as she dared, searching for a familiar aura, and found nothing. She knew before she had even knocked on the door that Sarah wasn't in the house. It would be a little harder to pick out Nikolas or Kristopher, but her senses were stretched wide enough that she was pretty sure she would sense them before they could get close enough to notice her.
As soon as she had pushed open the door, a young, human boy politely offered to take her jacket. Adia smiled in a confident, east way as she shifted smoothly into her persona for the night.
"Thanks."
Parties like this were filled with strangers. Some were innocents who didn't know what was going on, and some were vampire aficionados who tracked events like this and begged like dogs for their right to be here. Either way, one extra guest wasn't going to raise any alarms so long as she stayed in character.
She handed over her light jacket, revealing an airy black tank-top over tailored cream-colored jeans. She had her Vida knife on her right ankle and another very slim blade on her left thigh, rigged so she could draw it by putting a hand in her pocket, but that was it. She needed to be able to be friendly and flirtatious and dance without some leech feeling a weapon if he touched her back or put a hand at the nape of her neck.
If she did this right, she wouldn't need either blade. If she did this wrong, twenty knives wouldn't help. That compromise was the one that got so many hunters killed. That compromise was the one that made her heart speed, just a little, despite all her Vida training. There had been times when she loved this life.
Excitement was excitement, and it wouldn't raise any eyebrows here, so she allowed it as she drifted from room to room as if looking for someone. After she established that Nikolas and Kristopher definitely were not in residence, she gradually let disappointment into her expression.
Right on cue, someone approached her and asked, "Looking for someone, Love?"
She lifted her eyes to meet the vampire's black gaze, taking in his pretty body and handsome face in a dispassionate way as her body smiled, this time a little self-consciously.
"I thought a friend of mine was going to be here," she said, lining up her goals in her mind: establish that Nikolas and Kristopher did visit this circuit, get an invitation, and get out without playing dinner.
"Who is your friend?" the vampire asked, very solicitous for a habitual murderer. It was human blood that gave his skin its color and human death that made his black eyes sparkle in such an oh-so-friendly way.
"Her name is Laura." She made up the name on the spot, knowing that it wouldn't matter. She doubted that even Nikolas could keep track of the idiots who came to his bashes to faun over him- and sometimes to bleed and die, as well. "She comes to these to see Nikolas."
As soon as she said Nikolas's name, she saw the vampire's gaze flicker just an instant to her arms to confirm that she wasn't marked. She was dressed right, but if she was one of Nikolas's fans, he hadn't noticed her yet.
She continued as if she hadn't noticed the inspection. "I'm leaving town tomorrow, and I..." She blushed, perfectly on cue. "Well, she talks about him a lot. I was hoping to meet him."
"That would explain it," he new friend said. "Nikolas isn't here tonight. Maybe your friend went home early."
"Oh." She sighed and glanced to the doorway as if debating whether she should leave, too.
"Where are you from?" he asked, continuing the conversation exactly as she had hoped.
"New Hampshire, only a couple minutes from the Massachusetts border." She had chosen the location because it was close enough to home without being so close it would make anyone suspicious.
"If you really want to meet Nikolas," he offered, producing from his pocket one of the familiar white cars, "I can get you into one of his more selective parties. He's hosting, so I'm sure he will be there."
"I don't know," she hedged, looking at the invitation doubtfully. "It seems sort of stalkerish to show up alone. I only came tonight because I thought Laura was going to be here."
A perfect gentleman, he immediately offered, "Then you can come as my guest."
She brightened, feeling like a simpering idiot- and playing the part perfectly. "Really?" She took the invitation from his hand hesitantly, and quickly skimmed the scant information. The address was familiar; this was the same party the vampire in SingleEarth had told them about. That was a little disappointing in some ways, but at least it confirmed that the bash was happening, Nikolas would be there, and no one from SingleEarth had warned this circuit that someone had given a pair of Vida witches an invitation. "This is tomorrow!"
"If you can't make it-"
Actually, needing to make it gave her a perfect excuse to get out of here, so she interrupted animatedly, "I can make it." A little more sheepish, she added, "If I drive all day tomorrow, anyway."
Again, he took the cue.
"How about I walk you to your car, then?"
She was so good. Zachary was better with raw magic, and she believed that Sarah had always been the best fighter, but Adianna Vida could play a mark better than anyone.
Sarah. As always, the thought made her stomach give a little lurch.
"You can stay longer if you want to, of course," the vampire said, responding to the unplanned mellowing of her expression. "I just thought that you might like to get out of here early so you can get some sleep before driving home."
"Early," he meant, so she wouldn't see him kill anyone tonight. He was playing with her. He thought that she was far more innocent than she was, and he didn't want her to loose that innocence until he'd had a chance to amuse himself.
Typical, arrogant blood-sucker.
"You're right," she answered. "I should get some sleep." Coy again, she asked, "You will be there tomorrow, won't you?"
"Absolutely." He caught her hand, and kissed the back of it. "By the way, my name's Jerome."
"I'm Anne."
"Pleasure to meet you, Anne."
She blushed again. "Pleasure to be met." Despite how much she hated the feel of his aura sliding over hers so long as their hands were touching, she forced herself to linger, not immediately taking her hand back- and then withdrawing it quickly as if embarrassed. She recognized the amusement in his gaze as he caught the tell-tale sign and mentally wrote her off as a conquest. Even if he saw hunters tomorrow, he would never link them to sweet, stupid little Anne.
Of course she didn't spend the next day driving. She was on a plane and back in Boston by seven the next morning.
She had spent much of the forty-five minute flight staring at the invitation that Jerome had given her. Was she really going to do this? Was she really going to go home, give this to her mother, and let her organize a group to attack?
The answer was yes, had to be yes, but even so she felt a guilty sense of relief when she finally got home only to find Dominique gone. She left the invitation on the counter next to the phone where Dominique was sure to find it, and then returned to her own room for some much-needed rest.
She allowed herself the immature luxury of flopping onto her bed with a frustrated sigh- one of the many little secret indulgences that had gotten her through nineteen years as Dominique Vida's flawless daughter.
An instant later, she sat back up, drawing her knife and expanding her senses. There was something on her bedside table, an envelope that hadn't been there before.
She approached the envelope cautiously, examining it with eyes and magic. She could feel vampire on it. One of them had held this, and left it here. She should have sensed it the instant she entered the room.
Whoever had left it was long gone now, though.
What if it was from Sarah?
Inside the envelope, she found a photo. Long blond hair was a splash of light on black sheets. Two people, curled together on a bed, most of the woman hidden, only that fair hair and a long stretch of her bare throat.
Bile rose in Adianna's throat, and she had to fight not to toss the photo away in revulsion.
Sarah? That blonde hair- but there wasn't enough of the woman visible to know. The vampire's hair was dark, not as long as the woman's but long and shaggy enough to hide most of his face as he fed. Broad shoulders. Leather jacket with metal studs, retro to the seventies or eighties.
Maybe from then.
She realized suddenly that the photo was old. Its surface was matte, a little scuffed.
Not Sarah, then. In that case, who was it, who had left it here, and why?
She slept lightly, keeping aware enough of her surroundings that she would know immediately if the vampire was crazy enough to return while she was home. She was primed enough that Dominique's return also made her stir, so she forced herself to get up and report on the night's events.
Last, she handed over the photo, and explained where she had found it.
Dominique's face actually seemed to pale as she viewed the disturbing scene.
"Disgusting," she spat, as she shredded the photo. "Obviously from a creature too much a coward to ever actually face a hunter."
