Heart of the Vampire (Vanderlind Castle) (17 page)

“Vampires.” The woman chuckled, sounding a bit weary. “You know how most guys think that just because they have a penis, they should be in charge? Well, a lot of vampires feel that way, but with fangs.”

It took a few more minutes of me supporting myself with the sink to feel steady enough to head back into the ballroom. Vilma had definitely tried to bend me to her wishes, but vampire or no vampire
, it would take more than an undead mean girl to make me give up Jessie.

Finally feeling more myself, I headed back out into the ballroom. I had expected to see Jessie loitering somewhere near the door, but he was nowhere to be found.

More vampires must have decided to dance because the room felt much more crowded. The music had shifted from the eighties pop to nineties grunge, and it was turned up loud. A tall man in a long cape and wearing a papier-mâché head kept bumping into me. I took a few steps back to create some distance between us, but he filled the gap and started crowding me again. I didn’t know what his deal was, but he was being pretty rude and stank of onions.

Oh crap! He wasn’t just drunk or rude. He was the guy from the airport
, and he was trying to herd me away from the crowd. I drew breath to scream, but ended up saying, “Ouch!” as something sharp jabbed me in the shoulder.

The world began to spin more quickly
, and the dark corners of the room closed in until I was just looking through a pinhole in a wall of black. And then nothing.

Chapter 26

I opened my eyes, but my world was still pitch black. My head was swimming, and my mouth tasted like a car battery. I wondered if I had thrown up and if any of it got on my dress. I tried to sit up, immediately hit my head, and was knocked back down.

Where the hell was I?

My heart started racing, and I suddenly felt like I couldn’t breathe. I was on my back in a small, black space with absolutely no room to sit up. I was in a coffin.

I curled on my side and tried to keep from hyperventilating, focusing on slowing my breath. Madame Orzy had been right
; the birdcage did collapse when necessary. Eventually, I realized two things: I wasn’t in a coffin because there was room to the right and the left of me, and whatever I was in was moving—I could feel the floor beneath me shifting up and down like a car on a bumpy road. I was in a car, I told myself. I was locked in the trunk of a car.

I began feeling around me to see if I could find a tool or some kind of weapon. There was a pile of something damp
, and I had to assume from the smell that I had been sick. I tried to think of what I was supposed to do if ever locked in the trunk of a car. It didn’t help that my head was still spinning.

Okay, my brain pieced it together. I was supposed to kick out the taillight and try to signal anyone driving behind the car. Hopefully
, it wouldn’t be more gangsters.

There wasn’t much in the trunk. I felt around and only found some wire coat hangers and a few papers. I tried kicking the taillight near my feet but couldn't really tell what I was doing. Eventually
, I twisted myself over to the side, negotiating around my skirt, and wrenched off one of my pilgrim shoes. Using it to protect my hand, I punched and punched at what I thought was the taillight closest to my face. I could hear plastic snapping and thought maybe I was seeing a little light crack through the darkness.

The car went over a large lump
, and I was slammed against the roof of the trunk. I was pretty sure we’d just gone over a speed bump. By the sudden and numerous turns we were taking, all to the left, I wondered if we were in a parking garage. The sounds had changed, too. The street noise was gone, and everything had more of an echo.

I could tell by the angle of the car we were going up. And up and up. I had to guess we were heading to the top of the garage. I gave up on my plans for the taillight and fumbled for the hangers, straightening the curved hook and bending the triangle bodies so I could clench them in my fists.

We came to a stop, and I could hear some men talking in what I assumed was Hungarian. I heard the car doors opening and closing as they got out. I had a hanger gripped tightly in each hand, concealing them both under my skirt.

There was more talking
, and then the trunk opened. I saw the big man that tried to grab me at the airport. He scowled at me and then said something over his shoulder to another man standing a few steps back from the trunk. I couldn’t see the other man; I only heard his voice.

The big man leaned in to grab me
, and I stabbed him in the cheek with the end of the coat hanger. To be honest, I was aiming for his eye, but I had never stabbed anyone with anything before, and I was nervous. I know that sounds brutal, but if he didn’t want to get stabbed in the eye, he shouldn’t have drugged me and stuffed me in the trunk of his car.

The man let out a shriek
, and the hanger got knocked out of my hand as he jerked away from me. He was howling and, I’m quite sure, swearing in Hungarian. The other man, much younger, came in to cuff me, but I stabbed him in the hand with the other hanger. Screw both of them if they thought I was just going to lie there and not defend myself. I jumped out of the trunk and started running. I had no idea where I was going, but I sure as hell was going to try to figure something out.

A sharp blow to the head sent me crashing to the ground. It was the big man, blood streaming down his cheek. I couldn’t understand most of what he said beyond the word, “Bitch!” As if I was at fault for trying to save my own life.

He had me by the hair and started dragging me to the edge of the parking structure. I kicked and clawed at him, but it wasn’t any good. The goon was too angry at that point to feel any pain. He grabbed me and lifted me over his head, wanting to hurl me off of the garage. “This is for Count Adami,” he told me. Wrenching my body around, I grabbed him by the hair and held on for dear life. If I was going over, he was going with me.

The big man’s friend join
ed him, slapping me in the face to try to get me to release my grip. I still hung on. I had known when I left Tiburon that there was a good chance I was going to die in Budapest, but I had thought it would involve a group of vampires in a feeding frenzy, not being flung off a parking garage by some mobbed-up thug.

Out of nowhere, I heard Jessie’s voice. “Aurora, let go,” he commanded.

“Are you crazy?” I shouted back.

“Just trust me and let go.”

Trusting Jessie was something I knew how to do. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and unlocked my fingers. I felt the big man hurtling me into the night. I didn’t mean to scream, but I couldn’t help it.

“Oof!” I said, all the air escaping my lungs as Jessie snatched me out of the sky. He was a vampire, after all
; he knew how to fly.

“I’ve got you,” he said, cradling me in his arms. I let out another scream and buried my face in his chest.

Instead of flying me the hell away from there, he returned to the roof and set me down gently a good distance from the men. “What are you doing?” I asked, still wobbly on my feet from the injection and the terror.

“Don’t worry,” he said in a calm voice with rage seething just underneath. His eyes look
ed wild, like he was a panther about to tear apart its prey. “I’ll be right back. There’s just something I need to take care of first.”

“Jessie
, don’t,” I said, pulling at his coat, but he wasn’t listening.

“Run!” I shouted at the two
Mob guys. “You’ve got to run!” Sure, they’d been paid to kill me, but the look in Jessie’s eyes had me almost as terrified as being in the trunk.

Three more figures appear
ed out of the sky causing both Mob guys to panic. The younger one exclaimed something, looking surprised and terrified. Jessie laughed, looking more like Satan than a saint, and then snarled something at him in return. It was pretty dark, but I could just make out the other three vampires. It was Vilma, the Duke, and another man, possibly the one that told Jessie about the dancing. They did not appear happy.

There was a brief conversation in Hungarian between vampires
, and then suddenly Jessie was at my side. “Are you ready to go?” he asked, trying to appear calm.

“Jessie, you can’t,” I said, feeling tears filling my eyes. “They’re just...” I stammered. “Please don’t let anybody hurt them.”

Gathering me in his arms, he whispered, “Don’t worry, my darling girl. They’ll live.”

And then we were flying over the rooftops of Budapest, Jessie’s arms around me, the wind whistling through the bedraggled mess that was my hair.
“My hat,” I yelped, suddenly realizing it was gone. “Oh, crud,” I said with a slight whimper. The little boat was so charming, and now it was gone.

“I’ll order you a new one,” Jessie assured me.

“No, that’s okay,” I told him. “I couldn’t keep it anyway, it’s just... It was pretty.”

We arrived at the Csorbo
villa. Rather than landing us in the courtyard, like I was expecting, he set me down outside the main gate. “Aren’t we going in?” I asked.

“Sure,” he assured me, “but it’s rude to just fly into someone’s home. This way is more polite.”

A few moments later a guard opened the gate, letting us in. The night air was very chilly, and I shivered a little. “Oh,” I exclaimed. “I don’t have Madame Csorbo’s cloak.”

Jessie laughed, his eyes looking merry rather than
like the storm of anger that they had been on the roof. “It’s fine,” he told me. “I’m sure it’ll get back to her. She was very worried when you disappeared from the ball.” More servants ushered us into the house.

“What did that man say?” I asked.

“What man?” Jessie wanted to know.

“
The younger one. On the roof of the garage. When your friends appeared. He said something. And then you laughed at him. What was it?”

“He said ‘Impossible,’ but I guess he was wrong,” Jessie chuckled.

“Why were they after me?” I asked. We were inside the villa, and Jessie was leading me toward my room. “How does the Mob even know I’m here?”

“A friend of Viktor’s must have hired them to kill you before you
were under the Bishops’ rule,” he said.

“But why?” The Bishops more than likely wanted to see me dead anyway
; it seemed like a waste of money.

“In case the ruling’s in your favor. If they kill you now, they haven’t done anything wrong in the eyes of the law. But if the Bishops show us leniency, then kill
ing you would be a crime.”

“But that’s cheating,” I exclaimed as he opened the door to my room.

Jessie smiled and then kissed me on the forehead. “They’re vampires,” he said. “They’re not necessarily worried about playing fair. Why do you think we had to form a government in the first place?”

Margaret came rushing. “Mademoiselle,” she exclaimed. “Your beautiful gown! Are you hurt?”

I looked down. My beautiful sea of blue was torn and stained. “I’m all right,” I told her. “But it really is a shame about the dress.”

Gloria appeared in the doorway looking severe
, and Jessie joined her for a conversation in the hall.

“We’ll get you cleaned up in no time,” Margaret assured me. “And I’ll do my best with your gown.”

Forty minutes later I was clean and makeup free with my hair detangled. Margaret had me wrapped in a cozy lavender robe, and the fireplace in my room had a roaring fire. I was curled up on a loveseat feeling toasty when Jessie came striding in. He still had on the pants and boots to his costume but was no longer wearing the jacket or vest. The very lightweight linen shirt he had on was open at the collar, and the fabric was slightly transparent—much to my delight.

Jessie sat down beside me, reached over
, and squeezed my hand. “Besides the whole kidnapping thing, how did you enjoy the ball?”

“I loved it,” I said, shifting so I could be a little closer to him. “It must be wonderful to be able to go to a ball any
time you want.”

“Mmmm...” Jessie said noncommittally. Eventually he added, “It was wonderful to be there with you.”

“So it’s not wonderful when I’m not around?” I asked, a little confused. The ball really had been spectacular.

Sighing, Jessie said, “Have you ever known anyone who’s worked in a chocolate factory?”

“Sure,” I told him, not really knowing where he was going with the conversation. “My Aunt Sue worked at a chocolate shop that made their own chocolates when she was in high school.” When I was really little, she used to tell me about it. I would fantasize about working there when I grew up.

“Does she still eat chocolate?” he wanted to know.

“No.” That’s one thing I always found strange about Sue. She would not eat chocolate no matter what the occasion. Not even a little bite.

“And why doesn’t she like it anymore?” he pressed. I felt like I was
in some type of remedial class and he was trying to coax an answer out of me.

“Because she got sick of it,” I said. “She had access to it all the time and... Oh, I get you.”

Jessie nodded. “Something that was a treat became commonplace and then became boring to the point of distasteful.”

“And that’s how you feel about going to a ball? It’s become distasteful?” I wanted to know, feeling just a little bit hurt and embarrassed. I had been having such a good time and to know that Jessie was thoroughly bored
...

“Distasteful probably isn’t the right word,” he said. “They’ve just become oddly tiresome.”

“I’m sorry you were bored,” I told him, turning my head slightly away. I was definitely feeling hurt. He was definitely talented at faking a good time.

“You see, that’s the thing.” He gathered me closer in his arms even though I was trying to pull away. “Being there with you made everything new again. I got to see the ball through your eyes. That made it fresh. That’s why it was so fun. I haven’t enjoyed myself that much, anywhere, in decades.”

“Oh.” I relented, feeling less like a fool. “Okay, good. I’m glad you had fun.” I stopped struggling to put some space between us.

“Being with you makes everything more fun,” he said, leaning in and giving me a soft kiss.

I wasn’t expecting the kiss but gladly returned it. His lips were firm and his mouth cool. The kiss deepened.