RBC05 - Bloodline (28 page)

“A portrait of Suzette very nice, thank you.”

This time the doors opened as we approached.

“We’ll talk about how these things work when everyone is together this afternoon.”

“Very good.”

I went up stairs to my room and took off my boots. Without bothering to change out of my traveling clothes, I just flopped down on the bed. As I laid there I tried to go over every detail for the party in my mind.

There was just so much that I wasn’t going to have any control over. Having Meil and Auguste at the same party was a volatile situation to put it mildly. I had planted my image as Suzette into both of their subconscious. Now I would use that to my advantage. I could only hope that it worked the way I envisioned.

Damien:

I had looked everywhere for Genevieve without success. I needed to know if my suspicions were true. The fact that the cousins hadn’t thought of her as they looked for the vampire carrying the possible next Dark Prince was the only saving grace.

Of course they had no idea of my past powers or for that matter my new Jinn power.

Genevieve had told them that she would be visiting friends in Italy, but every part of me was screaming that she was still in Paris somewhere. That matched what the warlock had told Stephan and Devin.

“Someone has to be helping her. She’s a very clever girl, but…”

“Why wouldn’t she tell you?”

“I mentioned several times that I was not the fatherly kind. I think she’s afraid I would insist that she get rid of the baby or that I would take him away from her.”

“Isn’t that exactly what you plan to do?” Cain said.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do if this is really true. This will crush any chance I might still have with Katrina.”

“You should have been more careful,” Cain groused.

“I wasn’t in my right mind, remember. Well not all of it anyway. Each day I was descending further and further into darkness. Evil was consuming me.”

“You don’t have to tell me. I was there, remember?”

“You saved me. There must be something we can do, someone that can help us without having to ask Katrina. I feel like such a letch.”

“We may have no choice, Damien. We left in such rush and we haven’t been in contact since. What do you suppose they’re thinking.”
      “The party is tonight. We have the rest of the day to look, after that we’ll have to make a decision.”

“You mean on whether to tell everyone else what you are thinking?”

“Yes, if this is true and of course I’m hoping it’s not. But if it is we can’t take the chance that our enemies could find her first.”

“Why is it that
our
family seems to always be at the center of whatever evil turmoil that is swirling around?”

I shrugged, “I don’t know. But I wish it would stop.”

Katrina (Suzette):

I wasn’t doing myself any good. There was just no way I was going to rest. I finally got up and took a nice long shower and called Sarah to come and help me get into a gown.

“I’m not going out at all today. I don’t know why I have to dress like this,” I grumbled.

“What if someone comes? Nearly every day, you have had someone just drop by. Or you’ve had something come up and had to go out. Besides you are the one that thought this whole thing up in the first place,” she said as she pulled the corseting tighter.

“I . . .do . . . need . . .  to breath, Sarah.”

“There,” she said, backing away with her hands on her hips. “You look lovely. With your coloring the gown you picked to wear tonight is going to be even more stunning.”

“Actually, we all have gowns in variations of the same color. The designs are slightly different, as are our masks. I just thought it would be fun.”

“Allwain said you thought what he and Tao had done next door was fine. None of the rest of us have been allowed anywhere near it.”

“It’s more than fine I can assure you. I don’t think he would have shown me either but he was trying to cheer me up. I had a bad dream during the night and got up and insisted on actually portaling home for a few hours just to make sure everything was as it should be there. When I got back I was still unsettled.”

“I’m sorry, I had no idea. Well, you are all ready, what are you going to do now?”

“Is there anything to eat?”

Sarah laughed, “I should have known. Yes, of course there is. I’ll see you down stairs.”

I took a look at myself as Suzette in the mirror and found that she was right. Suzette did look lovely. She fit the part perfectly and now the hour of all that I had planned for her was nearly here.

My sister, as Sasha was coming up the stairs when I left my room.

“You must have been really tired. Do you feel all right? I was just coming up to check on you.”

“I was and I’m fine, just hungry now. What is everyone up to this morning?”

“Liridon and Yanna are out on patrol. Amparah is working with Tao and Allwain and…”

“So everyone is busy except me. Do you want to go out? I didn’t think I wanted to go out today. But I’m so…”

“Bored?”

“Yes, and I hate being like this. I rather be attacked by something. This waiting and wondering is almost cruel.”

“We are in Paris. There are wonderful gardens and museums to visit. How about doing something like that to take our minds off of everything?”

“That does sound good. Something mindless and peaceful, I’m in. Why don’t you see if anyone else wants to go with us, while I get something to eat?”

I ate my pastry, drank crimson and then some herb tea.

“Letta and Charmaine want to come with us, Rosa and El are going to Gerhardt’s for the afternoon. El is very interested in a certain Watcher again.”

“Really? That’s interesting news. I love them both, so I wish them well.”

“We asked Alex to pull the coach around,” Letta said. “Are you ready to go?”

When we got out front, Gruen was pacing back and forth.

“Gruen, what’s wrong?” I asked.

“I don’t know, something is not right. I don’t smell anything, it’s just a feeling.”

“Are you saying you don’t want us to go?”

“No, it’s not that. I…I don’t know what it is.”

“Well I’m not sensing anything, so we’re going.”

I caught a brief smile from Alex as Jonathan opened the door to the coach.

“I have to admit that these dresses are starting to grow on me,” Charmaine admitted.

“I’m shocked, what’s changed your mind?” Kate said.

“I never had a chance to feel like a female before. I like the way men look at me when I’m dressed like this.”

“How old are you anyway, Charmaine? We really haven’t had any chance to get to know you,” Letta said.

“Well, I don’t really know. Belnovus don’t grow up, we are created and in the underworld time doesn’t really mean anything. We were just existing there anyway. We know only what the creator needed us to know. The thing is that our need for freedom grew in us anyway and they couldn’t suppress that need as much as they wanted to.”

“Well you look our age, so that’s how old you are going to be from now on. Our birthdays are all within days of each other and that’s in two months,” Kate said.

“So I guess that’s when your birthday will be too,” Letta added.

“Thank you, that’s sounds wonderful. I don’t have any idea what that means, but I’m sure it’s going to be great.”

We all laughed.

“I’m glad the Drow created you. They gave you beauty, intelligence and survival skills. Somewhere along the way you developed compassion, empathy and the ability to love.”

“Thank you. Allwain told me that nothing happens without a reason. I am here because I need to be here. He said that’s why I survived the attack. When he was training me I learned as much as I could about this world. But I have to admit it’s still very confusing.”

“It’s confusing for us too, and we grew up here,” I said.

“I have been using my link to the other Belnovus to monitor what’s going on. I found out that many now are suspicious about the leadership of the Noctu. Meil is making headway with them. I think he’s going to be a problem for the Arnaunt brothers.”

“They know it. I have spoken to the three most powerful of the brothers now. All expressed disdain for this challenger while assuring me that he won’t become a problem.”

“To bad you can’t tap in to Meil’s mind too.”

“He has powers unlike the rest of us. Darker power and something more.”

“We’ll know more tonight.”

We walked through garden after garden and I felt myself relaxing with each step. Next we visited the Museum of the Republic and saw amazingly beautiful works of art. As we stood in front of a mesmerizing piece, an elderly man approached us.

“You seem perplexed by this,” he said.

“Oh, I love his work,” I said. “I just don’t understand why he would change his style. His earlier pieces were much lighter and you could lose yourself in them.”

“Hmm, perhaps he will take your advice and return to that time. Good day,” he said with a tip of his hat.

After he left another patron approached.

“Monsieur Renoir seemed
very
taken with you.  He normally never speaks to anyone while he is here.”

I closed my eyes in utter embarrassment. “I hope I didn’t insult him. I do love his work. Our family owns several pieces.”

“That was amazing. I’m so glad we came. How about some lunch before we go back?” Kate said as we walked away.

There was a lovely bistro across the way so we had a nice lunch and then headed back.

“That was a normal morning. That’s what people are supposed to do,” Letta said.

“We are not normal. Not right now and maybe never.”

“Actually, what does normal mean anyway. It just means what you are used to. What’s normal for us is not normal for someone else. So that was not normal, it was just different,” Kate said.

We just all looked at her and then started to laugh. And then we couldn’t stop, we laughed the rest of the way home.

“It’s all right Jonathan,” I said wiping tears from my cheeks as I stepped down from the coach.

“But the coach was shaking. And the sound…”