Sleeping Beauty (15 page)

“You've locked me in a prison.” She strode toward the glass wall and slammed her shoulder against it. “How could you?”

A few hours later, her mother entered the room and her initial shock at seeing her daughter behind the glass turned into rage. She ran to the glass and pressed her hands against it. “Lucette, darling! Are you okay?”

Lucette shook her head. She was not about to pretend she was okay living like this—not even to keep the peace. She held up her thickly gloved hands.

Her mother gasped and then spun toward her father. “Stefan, this is too much! She can't even move her fingers in those things!” She turned back to Lucette. “It's not too late to change your mind. Come away to live with me.”

Her father slumped against the stone wall next to the stairs and put his head in his hands. Lucette's heart lurched. She might not agree with everything her father had done, but in her whole life she'd never seen him question himself. Not like this. If she didn't know better, she'd think he was crying.

Her mother approached him and stood just a few feet away. Lucette pressed her ear to the holes in the glass so she could hear what they said.

“Stefan. Those gloves. Really? How is she to wash herself?” Her mother's voice rose with each word. “You've got her in a prison. How could you do this?” She shoved his shoulder. “What were you thinking?”

He straightened and glared, as if her scolding had firmed his resolve. “Unlike you, I will do whatever it takes to keep her safe. To keep our entire kingdom safe. And after what you did . . .” He shook his head. “The lies you told. The danger you put her in. The risks you took.” He pushed off the wall and the queen backed up a few steps.

“But, Stefan, the gloves. What can happen to her behind that unbreakable glass? At least give her lighter gloves.”

Her father's jaw hardened as he stared at her mother, but he lifted his head and met Lucette's eyes. She held up the confining gloves.

Her father ran his hand over his black hair, and then strode over and crouched in front of a long, narrow slot at the bottom of the glass wall. “Fine. Lie down, reach your hands through this meal slot one at a time, and I'll unlock your gloves.”

Happy birthday to me
, thought Lucette.

Lucette picked up the latest letter from her mother, who'd written every day since she'd moved to the country. She ran a gloved finger over her mother's signature. There was no sense in risking a paper cut, although she wasn't sure that would count as “pricking” her finger. She'd spent nearly two weeks in the tower, and although her father tried to hide the truth, from the sounds she heard at night, the vampire attacks in and around the palace had increased. Lucette missed her mother, but part of her was glad that she was in the country and away from all this.

Her father had agreed to triple admissions to the vampire slayer academy for the next year, but he had yet to declare war, still believing the Sanguinian ambassador's claim that the majority of their citizens were against drinking human blood.

Lucette set down her mother's letter and climbed the rubber-coated steel ladder her father had finally allowed into the room. If she climbed to the top, she could see out of her tower window and look down over the palace courtyard.

When she reached the top of the ladder she closed her eyes and inhaled. She could almost imagine she was outside. If she climbed up at the right time of day, the sun hit her face for half an hour. Now bathed in moonlight, she looked down the many stories to the palace courtyard below. It was quiet tonight. A team of slayers prowled the roof of the building on the opposite side of the courtyard, and she could occasionally make out the shadow of something moving on the ground, but it seemed as if the vampires were taking the night off. Maybe the slayers were making progress, after all.

She hadn't made much progress herself in finding anything close to true love. Her father had paraded a stream of unappealing young men
up to the tower every day to meet her through the glass. In truth, not all of the boys had been horrible, but something was always missing. So far, no boy had come close to making her feel the way Tristan had, even when she'd first met him. Perhaps she was just older and more jaded now. Perhaps Tristan would no longer have that effect on her, either.

Suddenly, from outside the bars of her tower window, a face appeared directly in front of her. Its fangs glinting, its pale iridescent skin, and its yellow-flecked eyes unmistakable, she knew she was face-to-face with a vampire. Heart racing, she slid down the ladder to the floor in panic and scrambled back along the carpet to her bed.

“Hello, Princess.” The vampire snapped one of the iron bars off the window as if it were a twig. He stuck his head into the gap and smiled mischievously.

“Help!” Lucette yelled. Someone would surely hear her through the ventilation holes in her glass wall. Guards and slayers were on duty at the bottom of the tower stairs at all times, but she'd begged her father not to station any in her room outside the glass. She needed some privacy.

When her father had worried about the window and threatened to fill it with the unbreakable glass, the slayers had assured him that no vampire other than the queen herself could climb that high, or pull iron bars from stone. Apparently they'd been wrong.

“You smell delicious.” The vampire chuckled as he snapped another bar off the window. Lucette heard the bar clatter to the cobblestones far below. Someone had to hear that, even if they missed her cries.

He broke off another bar and then traced his tongue over his fangs. She scanned the room for a weapon, knowing she'd find none. Her
father had taken so many precautions to ensure she'd never prick her finger in this room that there was nothing even vaguely resembling a weapon, especially not a wooden one.

The vampire snapped off another bar. One more and he might fit through. “Don't be scared. One bite won't kill you,” he said, and then the final bar snapped. “But since I've gone to all this trouble, I might take a very long drink. You have such a beautiful neck.”

Lucette grabbed a book from the nightstand and gathered every ounce of strength she had. Taking careful aim, Lucette threw her book directly at the vampire's nose and struck her target. Blood dribbled from his nostrils and shock entered his eyes.

He wiped the blood off his face. “That's no way to greet a visitor.”

Holding onto the bottom ledge of the stone-framed window, he pulled himself forward.

She ran to the iron chair, picked up the cushions, and threw them at the vampire. They bounced off his head and shoulders harmlessly.

The vampire pulled through the window and dropped down to the floor. She picked up an unlit candle from the nightstand.

“Nice stake,” he said as he rose to his feet. “That wick looks sharp.” He stepped around the room slowly, keeping his eyes on her, clearly enjoying her fear and the buildup to his feast. He lunged, hands raised like claws. “Rah!”

She jumped back, and he laughed. Rage rose in her chest. She sprang onto the iron chair and jumped off, kicking. Her foot connected with the vampire's chin and knocked him back a few feet. She landed next to him, and dashed backward, knowing she was vulnerable.

A grappling hook flew through the window. The noise distracted the vampire and Lucette leaped to the other side of her bed. The
hook pulled back and snagged the inside of the window. A slayer crew would come up that rope—she hoped—as long as she could hold off the vampire until they arrived.

The vampire leaped across the bed toward her, but she dove under him and rolled over the bed. He roared with anger and lunged again, but Lucette jumped onto the metal chair and launched herself over his head, flipping in the air. She landed before he turned around, and took the opportunity to plant a kick squarely in his back.

He turned, his face twisted. “I didn't plan to kill you, Princess, but now you've made me angry!” He leaped forward, but she rolled down and under him.

Slayers burst into the visitors' area outside the glass and one of them slammed into the glass enclosure.

“The key!” a slayer shouted.

“The king has the only copy.”

“Wake him!” the first slayer yelled back to another. “And find glass cutters. Now!”

“Looks like we've got company, Princess,” the vampire said.“Normally I like to feed in private, but you might be fun with an audience.”

He reached forward and she jumped and twisted, but he caught her in midair, pulling her down and placing her feet on the ground with her back to him. Holding her by the arms, he traced his nose up the side of her neck, but she stomped down hard on his foot.

The vampire howled in pain and let go of his grasp on Lucette's arms. A slayer appeared at the window and pushed his way through. The screech of metal on glass filled the air, but Lucette knew the cutters were no use. If the fairies had enchanted the glass, not even diamonds would cut through it.

The vampire, distracted by the slayer's entrance through the window, had his back to her, so with a quick twist to build momentum, Lucette kicked him hard on the hip, making solid contact. The vampire stumbled.

The slayer bounded down from the window and, with his stake raised high in the air, he lunged at the vampire's chest. The vampire swatted at the stake, knocking it from the slayer's hand. But the slayer was quick, and landed a roundhouse kick to the vampire's ribs, distracting him for a moment.

A second slayer appeared in the window, but Lucette couldn't wait. She rolled across the floor and grabbed the fallen stake. As the vampire prepared to take down the newly arrived slayer, Lucette raised her stake, leaped, and planted the sharp weapon right into the vampire's back.

The creature shrieked and then crumpled to the floor. Lucette rolled off his body. Her chest heaved as she sucked in short, sharp breaths, unable to regulate their speed, unable to draw enough oxygen to fill her lungs.

“Princess, are you all right?” One of the slayers bent down to offer her a hand. She let him pull her up, but had trouble remaining on her feet.

Lucette had been so close to death. The only other time she'd felt real fear was when she'd realized that boy in the forest was a vampire. But that had been nothing compared to this; she'd been like a baby frightened by a fairy-tale witch. This was real and her attacker had been far from friendly. He'd been determined to kill her and, worse, he knew who she was. She wasn't some random throat; he'd been sent to bite
her
.

And she'd killed him. Killed a living, breathing creature. Even if it had been a vampire attacking her, she'd taken a life. Ever since she'd learned about vampires and slayers, she'd been eager to get into the action, but this was far too gruesome, too brutal. Nothing like sticking a straw dummy.

But necessary to save her own life.