Where Loyalty Lies (13 page)

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Holt’s lips twitch and I knew he was amused by my nervousness. I opened my mouth to speak but then we crested a hill and Rillith came into view. It was immense. I couldn’t bring myself to close my mouth again and, for a few moments, my jaw hung open. If the pictures of Rillith had seemed impressive, the real thing was frankly intimidating. Suddenly words failed me and the closer we got to the gigantic front doors, the more glued to my seat I became.

Oh God, I’d been so wrong! I’d known this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park, but some tiny hopeful part of me had wanted this to be the place where I finally fitted in. Right now, I knew that was a huge mistake; I wasn’t going to fit in here anymore than I’d fitted in anywhere else. I felt the prick of tears in my eyes and I turned my head so that Holt wouldn’t see. The car slowed and I wasn’t sure if Holt had seen my watery eyes and was giving me time to compose myself or if his intention was to let me take in the beauty of the towering castle ahead. My eyes roamed over the building before dropping to my lap. As always I was wearing jeans; I was such an idiot. Had I really been planning on marching into the vampire equivalent of Buckingham Palace, in jeans, and demand that they accept me as one of their own?

More than anything I wanted to beg Holt to stop the car. I could feel the words climbing up my throat, desperate to escape. I clenched my jaw to stop them coming out. I couldn’t let fear destroy everything that Holt had done for me. It was true that I still didn’t know much about him, but I did know that he’d been a perfect gentleman. He’d made Ben return my money, Mr Jackson put locks on my door, he’d arrived in minutes when I’d called him in tears, he’d googled Harry Potter just to understand what I was talking about, he’d made me the best banana pancakes in the world and he’d patiently answered every one of my questions.

Already I owed him so much. Regardless of what The Sénat thought of me, I would do what I could to make sure Holt never regretted his decision to bring me here.

I raised my head and forced my eyes to take in the fast-approaching Rillith. This was it, my new beginning. I would not cower and cry; I’d show everyone here what I was made of. Life is what you make it and I was going to make sure I made the most of every moment.

Holt pulled out his mobile, flipped it open and pressed a couple of buttons.

“Hello.” I could hear the male voice on the other end.

“Henry, are you busy?” Holt asked. There was a pause.

“Well, that depends on your definition of ‘busy’.” The sound of a female giggling gave away what Henry’s definition was.

“I need your help,” Holt said.

Henry’s tone changed instantly. “Sure thing, where are you?”

“I’m at the front doors.”

With that, Holt snapped his phone shut. His attention came back to me. “Henry’s a good friend of mine; I’ve known him a long time and you can trust him.”

I looked carefully at Holt’s face, wondering if he was aware of my anxiety. If he was, he wasn’t going to mention it.

We pulled up outside the huge front doors in a spacious area that was fully undercover. It reminded me of the front of a smart hotel.

Holt smiled at me and got out the car. I took one long deep breath and followed suit. A guy about my age seemed to appear out of nowhere. At first I thought it must be Henry but then Holt handed him the keys.

“Put the bags in the boot in my room please, and the ones on the back seat can go to room 418.”

“Certainly, Sir,” the guy said and then he slid into the driver’s seat and drove off and out of view round the side of the building.

I raised my eyebrows. This place really was like a hotel. Before I could comment, the front doors opened and the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen trotted down the steps towards us. The paleness of his skin and the way he moved, in the same graceful style as Holt, told me he was a vampire. He had a heart-shaped face, eyes the colour of summer grass and his soft brown hair, which was only slightly shorter than mine, was pulled back in a clasp at the base of his neck. He was wearing black trousers with a navy shirt that looked ever so slightly rumpled. He gave me a quick once-over and turned to Holt.

“Blimey Holt, if you keep bringing them back here at this rate, we’re going to have more staff than we know what to do with.”

Holt gave me an apologetic look as I came to stand next to him.

“Henry, this is Faine.” While Henry and I nodded at each other, Holt seemed to be figuring out what to tell Henry. He must have decided to bite the bullet. “Faine is half-vampire.”

“Half...” Henry gave me another once-over, this time taking his time. I tried hard not to squirm under his gaze. An uncomfortably long moment passed in which Holt watched Henry, Henry watched me and I tried to look anywhere but at the two of them.

            “You’re sure?” Henry finally uttered.

“Certain,” Holt answered without a second’s hesitation.

“Damn!” Henry looked amazed.

Holt continued, “I’m sorry to spring this on you, but I need to take Faine to The Sénat straight away and I’d appreciate it if you’d come with us.  I want your opinion on how they react to the situation.”

I wasn’t quite sure what Holt meant and, before I could decide whether I should ask or not, Holt started up the stairs. Still staring at me, Henry gave a gracious wave of his hand to indicate that I should go before him.

Inside the doors I did my best not to gasp. The entrance hall was huge. The wooden floors were lightly coloured but an intricate pattern of dark wood swirled out from the centre. A wide staircase began at the left of the room but curved to the right as it went up; it connected to the second storey balcony that overlooked the room. There were two doorways on the left, two on the right and three on the back wall.

Holt led me through the central doorway at the back of the room and along a maze of hallways. I walked in silence, taking in my new surroundings.

We walked through room after room and they were all much the same. Wooden floors, walls painted blood-red, bottle-green or mustard-yellow. Windows were draped in heavy curtains. All the furniture was the stuffy, uncomfortable antique type that you associate with castles and manor houses. But, despite all that, it was still breathtaking. Chandeliers hung from incredibly high ceilings and every room seemed to have at least one huge fireplace, big enough for me to stand in. I felt like I’d just stepped back in time and, though I wanted to stop and admire everything, I was careful to keep a blank expression on my face. I didn’t want the few people that we passed to see my complete and utter awe.

We eventually came to a room whose only decoration was a huge wooden carved desk, behind which sat a female. I wouldn’t have described her as tanned but the shade of her skin was just a bit darker than mine. Her blonde hair was pinned up in a ponytail and, when she saw us enter, she looked slightly worried.

“How can I help?” she asked, fidgeting on her chair. Definitely not a vampire I decided. I’d only been at Rillith a few minutes and I’d already seen three of the human staff Holt had told me about.

“I need to see The Sénat straight away,” Holt said.

If she’d looked slightly worried earlier, now she looked panicked. I got the feeling that calling The Sénat for a meeting wasn’t standard protocol. A slight huff beside me told me that Holt was getting impatient but Henry leaned forward over the desk to look her in the eyes.  His voice was like honey.

“Everything’s fine but we need to speak to The Sénat straight away, so dial those emergency numbers you have printed over there and then send us into the waiting room.”

The girl continued to stare at Henry for a couple of seconds and then blinked a few times before a beaming smile lit up her face.

“Certainly, Sir, I’ll just need to make a few calls. If you’d like to take a seat in the waiting room, someone will be with you shortly.” She stood and indicated to a door on the left.

I blinked a few times myself, wondering if what I’d just witnessed had been what I thought it was. I looked at Holt and he nodded as he led me through the doors.

“Yes, that was Influence.”

“Influence!” Henry scoffed. “No, that was charm.” He gave me a wink before collapsing into one of the overstuffed armchairs and putting his feet up on the coffee table. Despite my nerves, I smiled back.

Holt reminded me to be honest with The Sénat and proceeded to mention any further bits of information he thought might be useful, until Henry interrupted.

“For crying out loud, Holt! You’re putting the fear of God into her. Stop rambling and relax. We’re here now; whatever happens will happen.”

Holt took in my anxious appearance and was silent.

The waiting seemed to stretch on forever but eventually we were called in. The room was enormous and had a high ceiling. Four chandeliers hung, evenly spaced, throughout the room. They looked deceptively small in this cavernous room but I had a feeling each one was probably twice my height. 

Holt guided me to the centre of the room and we faced a large wooden table that had thirteen seats but only five of them were occupied. The table stretched across the entire end of the room and the wood wasn’t smooth and flat but twisted. It looked like it had grown straight out of the ground.

The air seemed to be humming. Holt had told me that vampires gave off a vibe but, for a few seconds, the air felt so thick with it that I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Eventually it eased and became more bearable.

Henry and Holt took up positions on either side of me and I felt a strange sense of comfort in knowing that I wasn’t alone, even though I barely knew the two of them. I took in the faces in front of me, four men and one woman. They weren’t sitting in the five central seats, but were spaced out along the table. I remembered reading that, even after the deaths of the other eight Sénat members, the remaining five still kept to their original seating plan. I mentally checked off their names, grateful that I’d taken the time to learn them; it gave me a tiny speck of assurance to hang onto. Sitting in the third seat was Sénator Aimery who was originally from England. In seats five and six were Sénators Aleron and Varden who both came from France. Sénator Eliseo from Italy was in seat nine and the thirteenth seat was occupied by the only remaining female Sénator, Ira.

All five members were dressed immaculately but nothing they wore could have been called fashionable. In fact I’m sure that Sénator Eliseo was wearing a pocket watch on a chain. Sénator Ira was wearing a very feminine outfit that was far too floaty for my liking, but it suited her so well that it could have been made for her. It probably was. As I watched, Ira lifted one hand and smoothed it over her immaculate hair and I caught sight of her Insignia.

This had been something else Holt had taught me yesterday when we were at his house. Each member of the Sénat had sworn a blood oath to rule the vampire race with a fair attitude and to do everything in their power to ensure the vampire race stayed undiscovered. After that oath, they’d each had a silver cuff secured around their wrist that would not be removed until death. Only The Sénat members knew how to fasten and unfasten the cuffs. I couldn’t see from this distance but I knew that engraved on each cuff was the symbol of The Sénat, which was a diamond with a spiral winding around it. I suddenly realised I was staring at the cuff on Ira’s wrist and I quickly looked away in case it was rude.

My heart was hammering in my chest. These were five of the thirteen people who I’d spent hours yesterday learning about. They had revolutionised the way the vampire race lived and right now I had all five sets of eyes on me.

Sénator Aimery stood.

“I hope you have good reason to call us here,” he said, his voice laced with boredom and impatience.

I tried to look both determined and respectful. He was about my height with pale skin, slightly narrower shoulders than the average man, dark eyes and short dark hair that was styled in such a way that it covered a bald spot. I knew that, to be a member of The Sénat, he had to be one of the oldest vampires ever. He looked a lot older than the rest of The Sénat, possibly somewhere in his fifties.

“Sénat.” Holt’s sudden announcement next to me made me jump. “I’m sorry for calling you all here on such short notice but a situation has arisen and I thought you’d want it to be brought to your attention straight away.” He paused but Sénator Aimery gave a wave of his hand to indicate that Holt should continue. As he had with Henry, Holt seemed to think it best not to beat around the bush.

“This is Faine Hawkes.” He motioned to me. “She’s twenty-one years old and I believe she’s half-vampire.” Silence. There was no gasping and no shocked faces, as I’d expected there would be, considering I was apparently one of a kind, but all I got were five sets of eyes scrutinising me. I resisted the urge to cringe.

“What nonsense is this?” Sénator Varden asked, moving his angry gaze to Holt.

“I understand this seems impossible but I have every reason to believe that Faine has vampire blood in her.” Again there was silence. Holt filled them in on our encounter three years ago and told them how he’d found me in Hull, where he’d learnt of my other vampire traits, and so he’d brought me here.

“Is this all true?”

It took me a second to realise that Sénator Aimery was addressing me. I nodded.