After Dark (12 page)

“
H
ere you go—door-to-door service,” Lucky said as his driver pulled up outside the Plaza.

“It’s not the first time you’ve escorted me home,” Cally reminded him.

“That’s true,” he said, leaning in for a long, lingering kiss. After they finished, he smiled down into her eyes, stroking the curve of her cheek with his thumb. “When can I drop by for a proper visit?”

“Give me a couple of nights to break the news, okay?” she replied. “I don’t want to be sneaking around behind my father’s back. I’ve had enough of that already.”

“I understand,” Lucky said. “I’ll start in on my dad, too. Don’t worry, Cally. We can make this work, baby—I promise you that.”

Cally pirouetted her way across the marble lobby of the Plaza, giggling like a schoolgirl in love. The night-shift concierge behind the desk looked up, baffled by such a display of ebullience at six in the morning. Cally’s first response was to halt what she was doing and hurry to the elevators, but she stopped herself from doing so. Why should she have to worry about calling attention to herself all the time? After all, why
shouldn’t
she giggle and act silly? She
was
a schoolgirl in love!

It had been a fabulous evening—her fashion show was a huge hit, her designs were being picked up by Sister Midnight for sale in her chain of boutiques, she’d been offered an apprenticeship in Paris by none other than Nazaire d’Ombres—and to top it all off, she had a new boyfriend! It would take her hours to come down to earth long enough to sleep. She couldn’t wait to tell Baron Metzger everything.

Although he was her father’s vassal, she trusted the Baron enough to try to plead her case. Surely Victor would welcome a truce between himself and Vincent Maledetto?

As she unlocked the door to the apartment, it stopped halfway, blocked by something just inside the threshold. She stuck her head into the gap between the jamb and the door, frowning down at the packed suitcases parked inside the foyer.

“Edgar? What’s going on?” she shouted as she squeezed her way inside. “What are my bags doing out here?”

“I do not know, Miss Cally,” Baron Metzger’s butler said as he stepped into the front hallway, carrying Cally’s sewing machine under one arm and a fully loaded steamer trunk under the other. “The master has instructed me to pack your things, so that is what I am doing.”

Cally pushed past the undead manservant and hurried in the direction of the living room, where she found Metzger standing in front of the fireplace, drinking blood from a brandy snifter.

“Baron! What’s happening? Why are my things sitting in the foyer?”

“I’m afraid I must return to Europe, my dear. Something has arisen that requires my immediate attention. I fear I will be gone for some time.”

Cally’s heart, which had been as light as spun glass moments before, suddenly transformed into lead. Wonderful! Just as things were really looking up for her, now she was going to be torn away from her friends and opportunities and sent packing to some foreign land.

“Where are we going?”

“I’m afraid you don’t understand,” Baron Metzger said gently. “You will not be accompanying me, Cally. Where I’m going is very dangerous, even for our kind, and especially for someone your age. Besides, your probationary agreement with the Synod requires that you remain in New York. There is no way you could leave the city without bringing Count de Laval down on you.”

Cally frowned. “But if I can’t stay here and I can’t go with you, where am I supposed to live?”

“Come tomorrow evening, you will be residing with your true father.” Baron Metzger smiled, placing his hands on Cally’s shoulders. “You will remain under Victor Todd’s roof until you have finished your education at Bathory Academy. You have nothing to worry about, my dear. As far as Old Blood society is concerned, Victor is merely extending hospitality to the child of his vassal, nothing more.”

A stricken look crossed Cally’s face as she realized what Metzger was saying. In the brief time she had spent as the Baron’s “daughter,” she had become quite fond of the old gentleman. Although her grandfather Cyril had died long before she was born, Baron Metzger treated her the way she always imagined he would have.

“But I don’t
want
you to leave, Baron!” she said tearfully, throwing her arms around him, burying her face into his broad chest. “
Please
don’t go! Can’t you talk my father into letting you stay?”

Metzger gave a deep, sad sigh as he tried to console the weeping girl. “As much as I would like to do so, I must serve the House of Todd as your father sees fit. I have served him without question for over a hundred years, just as I served your grandfather Adolphus before him.” He gently disengaged himself from Cally, handing her a linen handkerchief from his breast pocket. “However, I will admit that pretending to be your father has been the most pleasurable task ever commanded of me. I wish you
were
my real daughter, Cally. My beloved wife and I always wanted a little girl, but it was never meant to be.”

“Will I ever see you again?” Cally sniffled. All her life she had dreamed of going to live with her real father, but now that she was doing so, she was surprised to find herself ambivalent about the whole thing.

Baron Metzger shrugged. “That depends on the will of your father.” He reached out and lifted her chin, holding it with his thumb and forefinger. “Now, now—no crying,
liebchen.
What did I tell you the night your mother died?”

“Life is too long for sorrow,” Cally replied, wiping the tears from her eyes.

“That’s my girl,” Metzger said proudly.

L
ilith woke up feeling better than she had in a long time. She hadn’t greeted a new evening with such confidence since—well, since before Tanith was killed. And why
shouldn’t
she feel on top of the world? Her dream of becoming the most important and powerful vampire in all of history was finally within her grasp.

She was standing on the cusp of being her own woman, finally free of interference from her father and the likes of the de Lavals. From here on in, things were going to be
very
different, not only in her life but in everyone else’s as well.

Maybe she would just go ahead and drop out of school. With the kind of money she would be making soon, she could simply hire other vampires to do the things she wasn’t good at, such as beastmastery or stormgathering. And if her father didn’t approve of her decision to drop out, he could go suck it. Her life was going to truly belong to her now and no one was going to tell her what to do—or
not
do.

As she slid into her cashmere robe, she heard a loud thumping noise coming from the hallway. Lilith opened the door to see one of the maids carrying a large steamer trunk into her mother’s old bedroom. She darted across the hall and peered around the doorjamb. A female figure with short, dark hair was standing with her back to the door, removing clothes from an open suitcase sitting atop the bed. Although she couldn’t see the woman’s face, there was something horribly familiar about the unannounced houseguest.

As Cally Monture turned around to tell the maid where to place the trunk, Lilith’s worst fear was confirmed. Tightening the knot on her robe, she ran down the hallway, taking the stairs to the main level two at a time.

Victor Todd was sitting behind his desk, talking on a hands-free headset while working on his computer, when Lilith burst into his office.

“What is
she
doing here?” she demanded angrily.

“Hello, Lilith. Do I not get a ‘Welcome back, Daddy—how was Russia?’” Victor said sarcastically, covering the mouthpiece of the headset.

Lilith scowled and rolled her eyes. “Fine. How was Russia?”

“Colder than a polar bear’s balls,” Victor replied. He took his hand away from the mouthpiece, resuming his conversation. “You heard me—I want someone on this,
fast
! I want to know where it was sent from and I want—no, I
expect
—answers for what happened PDQ! Call me as soon as you get something!” Removing the headset, Victor turned his attention back to Lilith, who was glowering at him, arms folded across her chest. “To answer your first question: Cally is here because Baron Metzger has wearied of playing papa to my cuckoo’s egg and returned to Europe. As she is your demi-sister and has no other living family, where else would you have her stay?”

“She could stay at the Y for all I care,” Lilith replied, “just as long as it’s not here!”

“That’s strange,” Victor said coldly. “I thought you said you wanted to change things between the two of you. You told me before I left for St. Petersburg that you finally realized the importance of having her as an ally, not an enemy, and that you wanted to be more of a sister to her. Were you telling me the truth when you said that, or were you simply lying to me again?”

“No, I meant what I said,” she lied. “But that doesn’t mean I want to live under the same roof!”

“Well, that’s what you’re going to be doing, young lady,” Victor replied sternly. “I’m not going to tolerate any more of this Cain-and-Abel bullshit, you understand? The last thing I need is for you to end up like Christopher Van Helsing simply because you provoked Cally into a fight!”

“Okay—but did you
have
to give her Mom’s room?” Lilith pouted.

“Why not?” Victor shrugged. “It’s not like Irina’s going to be using it. Would you prefer I move you into your mother’s suite and give Cally your old room?”

“No,” Lilith grumbled, dropping her shoulders in resignation.

Victor Todd waited until Lilith was safely out of the office before getting up and locking the door behind her. He had a lot of things that needed to be taken care of now that he was back, and he didn’t need any further intrusions.

It was easy enough to explain Cally being brought into the household by claiming the decision was forced on him by Metzger, who Lilith believed was blackmailing him with the pictures the fashion photographer Kristof took when she was posing as the human model Lili Graves.

The truth of the matter was that Victor had grown concerned about the possibility of Cally bonding with his vassal. The girl was in a particularly vulnerable emotional stage, and he did not want Metzger getting any ideas about manipulating Cally’s loyalties—and abilities—to his own ends.

After all, whoever held sway over the heart and mind of the one who wielded the Shadow Hand controlled one of the deadliest weapons in this world and the next. But right now he had far more serious matters to worry about than a possible palace coup by Karl Metzger.

Victor sat back down behind his computer and clicked on the toolbar at the bottom of the desktop, reopening the window he closed the second Lilith barged into his office. The LCD flat-screen monitor was filled by the image attached to an anonymously remailed email message with the heading:
WE HAVE HER
.

The picture was that of a blindfolded Sheila Monture standing before a sheet hung in front of a wall. She looked haggard and frightened but otherwise unharmed. In her hands she held a copy of the
New York Times
with the day’s headline and date visible.

Victor sighed sadly as he stared at the mother of his child and, safe in the knowledge that no one could see him, caressed the image of her face with the tip of his finger.

Cally heard a knock and looked up to see Lilith standing in the open doorway, dressed in a willow-green cashmere robe. It was the first time she had ever seen the other girl without her makeup. She was taken aback at how young and vulnerable Lilith looked au naturel.

“Is it okay if I come in?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Cally shrugged.

Lilith stepped inside, taking in the mahogany rococo bed and other antiques that decorated the room. “So, my dad said you’re going to be living here….”

“Yeah, I have to stay here until my father gets back,” Cally replied, still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“Your father? You mean the Baron?”

“Yeah,” Cally said, frowning slightly. “Who else?”

“What’s that?” Lilith asked, pointing at a bronze urn sitting atop the dresser. “Was that here when you arrived?”

“No,” Cally said, quickly putting herself between Lilith and the urn. “Those are my mother’s ashes.”

Lilith frowned. “I thought humans go into the ground when they die.”

“Not all of them,” she explained. “Some of them are cremated.”

“But why would you want to keep her ashes?”

“So she’ll always be a part of my life,” Cally said. Lilith stared back at her as if she had answered in Swahili. Cally decided it would be better to change the subject. “There are some clothes hanging in the walk-in closet,” she said as she watched Lilith wander around, staring at the furniture and fixtures as if she were in a museum. “Does someone stay here on occasion?”

“This was my mother’s room,” Lilith replied.

“Oh! I’m sorry!” Cally said, embarrassed. “I had no idea! I just assumed, when you asked me if the urn was here before I arrived, that this was a guest room—”

“That’s okay,” Lilith said with a shrug. “I’ve never been in here before. My mom and I didn’t talk a lot.” She walked back to the door and turned around to face Cally. “You want to go shopping?”

Cally blinked, taken by surprise. “Huh?”

“Not right now, of course,” Lilith said, clarifying herself a little further. “But later, once you’re unpacked and settled in. We could do Bergdorf’s…maybe hit a couple of the boutiques?”

“Yeah, that sounds cool, I guess,” Cally replied, although she still wasn’t sure whether she was walking into a trap or not. “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

“Sure. Go ahead.”

“Why?”

Lilith shrugged again. “I hate shopping by myself.”