Cameo and the Highwayman (Trilogy of Shadows Book 2) (4 page)

He favored her with a kind smile and released her from his grasp. For him it was as if he had just brought a wild animal into his home to be cared for. He watched as she moved in awe from one antique to another.

Cameo looked up at the huge mirror over the fireplace. It was a bit tarnished at the edges, and it was a golden color. In the reflection of such splendor, she seemed very out of place. One tiny woman: zombie, a killer, a servant.... She did not belong here.

Cameo turned from the looking glass and bumped into Edel’s shoulder. He had been standing behind her all that time, and she never saw him.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she breathed, taking a step back. His jacket smelled of the grave, and she brushed her nose and mouth with the palm of her hand, then she remembered he could read her mind.

“Completely my fault,” he said politely. “Completely my fault. Um, well then, would you like to see the rest of the apartment?”

“Yes.”

“Right this way,” he extended his pale hand before him and allowed her to walk on. “Here is my room,” he briefly touched the door covered in mother-of-pearl, “and here is the dining room.”

She walked in, and there at the end of an fine mother-of-pearl and gold gilt table was something resembling a man. Something like a corpse. It was very pale, and wrinkled, and had a wispy shock of steel gray hair on its head.

Cameo expected this man to move, so she waited for a moment, but he remained motionless.

“Hello?”

Nothing.

“This is Chester,” Edel said finally. He took a step closer to the
thing
. “Chester awaken.”

The man blinked his eyes. They were milky white, corpse-like eyes. He pulled his hands from where they’d been resting on the table in a painfully slow manner, and he pushed back the chair, then stood. At full height he was stooped and frail in his excellent gentleman’s ensemble.

“Chester is my butler. He’s been with me a long time, haven’t you old boy?”

“Yes, Master,” Chester rasped. His voice filled the room with a high-pitched sound, much like a cat’s weak mew.

“This is my new good friend, Cameo. She’ll be staying with us now.”

Before Cameo could protest, Chester met her eyes with his milky orbs.

Cameo’s mouth opened, and she couldn’t seem to shut it. She was looking at a zombie. Another zombie. She had never seen another in her life. And this was a zombie? He was so slow, so weak. She felt he would break if he tipped over.

Edel touched Chester’s shoulder gently, as he might have if they had been long-time friends, and also with the tenderness one shows to an elderly father.

“Is this your thrall?” she asked incredulously.

“Friend,” he corrected. “You two do have something in common, as I see you’ve noticed. It’s in the eyes,” he smiled. “The dead eyes. Yes, he is also a zombie.”

“But he’s so different....”

Chester stared at her. He was so horrifying and pitiful at the same time. He seemed quite helpless.

“I’ve noticed that.” Edel fixed his thrall’s large bowtie and straightened his silk jacket. “Fetch us some tea and dessert.”

Chester turned and staggered out the door at the opposite end of the room.

“Come along, Cameo. Why don’t we have a look at the room I’ve prepared for you?”

“Is that why you have a servant? For tea?” She walked ahead of Edel back into the sitting room.

“He’s my butler, yes. Would you have me send him on outlandish missions and endanger his life, as our Master does with you? Or to spy on other people?”

She turned around to look into his eyes, eyes that were no longer quicksilver but light brown. He was more human in appearance now that they were no longer in the dark.

“As you do with your thralls?”

“How did you know?”

He smirked. “I saw them the first time I saw you. They follow you everywhere.”

“They do?”

“Certainly. You mean to tell me you never noticed?” He tilted his head to one side, studying her face. “After all these years, you never wondered?”

She exhaled in exasperation.

“Too caught up in your own little world, hmm? Well, that happens, I guess.” He pointed at a hidden door that she could barely see until he pushed it open. “Your room.”

Cameo took a bit of a staggered step inside, afraid that if she did walk in he would simply slam the door behind her.

Edel strolled into the room past her and pointed out the view of the woods out her window. “It’s much prettier in the summer.”

“Uh huh.”

He lit several candles, and as he did she could see the luster of gold gilt in the corners of the room. A very large wardrobe with a painting of a white peacock on the front, large mirrors set in the wall, and a bookcase. This time as she looked into the mirrors, she could see the candles being lit by a flame held by an unseen source, and when she turned back she could see that it was Edel. The bed was large, with steps on each side to climb in. She wondered at the softness of the mattress,
was there linen or silk on that bed?

She glanced up at the vampire who was on one side and stopped in her tracks.

He met her eyes, then glanced at the bed.

Cameo didn’t move.

“I could add chairs, of course. Perhaps a desk?”

“Whiskey.”

“Oh, yes, I have a bar in the other room. I’ll have Chester stock that.”

“How do you plan to keep me here?” Her voice was dull, hardened by years of torment.

The other zombie appeared at her open door.

She actually started.

“Thank you, Chester,” Edel’s voice comforted her.

Cameo felt him come up behind her. She felt helpless, stuck in another situation that she didn’t know how to get out of.

“I’m to be your prisoner?”

“Only until you understand—”

“That I’m free of Haffef,” she rolled her eyes.

“There are refreshments in the sitting room,” he said, but his voice sounded a bit uncertain.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Oh, Cameo, I don’t mean you any harm, but I don’t know another way to make you comprehend.” He brushed past her and into the sitting room, saying, “In time you’ll understand,” as though he were trying to convince himself.

She crept out, looking around for Chester tentatively, uncertain if she really wanted to face him again. “How old is he?”

Edel perused the slices of different cakes his thrall had delivered. Some chocolate with raspberries, some white cake, and some truffles, everything was lightly powdered with sugar. He was enamored by the desserts that he could taste only with his eyes.

“I need a drink,” she muttered.

He offered tea.

She laughed.

“What makes you think Chester is old?”

Cameo ate a raspberry. “I must warn you poisoning does not work on me so you may want to try a different tactic if you want to kill me.”

“Such as,” he searched her expression, “snapping off your head?”

She nearly lost her appetite mainly because she couldn’t tell if he was serious, and he certainly could do it. “That might work.”

“It would work. You are not immortal, Cameo, as you’ve long suspected.”

“Ah.”

“Yes. You have a long life, and that is all.”

She thought of the waste that her undeath had been so far, this just another pitfall along the way. Her life had been nothing but servitude, and the moment she had a friend in the world, she was forced to do without.

“What friend?”

“I hate it when you do that.”

“I’m sorry. I’m unable to control it. Everything is coming at me all the time. All of these thoughts and ideas and this knowledge… and I have no one to share that with.”

Her eyes fell upon him sitting there before the fireplace, the heart-shaped face, the clothes that smelled of death, and then she looked away, uncertain of her thoughts.

His expression widened for a moment.

She took an uneasy step back. “Just how
do
you plan to keep me here?”

Edel rose sinuously from his place on the couch and faced her.

She now felt that she had been correct in taking that initial step back and sorry she hadn’t had the opportunity for one last whiskey. She took two steps toward the window, planning on jumping through it just to get out of the Belfour’s palace.

Edel had her wrist so suddenly that she would’ve fallen forward if he had not pulled her back up.

She kicked him and made an awkward attempt as wrestling her arm free.

“Gaze into my eyes,” he commanded.

Cameo immediately met his eyes, and then she stopped struggling.

“You cannot leave this apartment.”

She suddenly realized what she had suspected all along: she was trapped inside the apartment with Edel and that zombie, and it would be useless to try to escape.

“You are no longer in Haffef’s power.”

“Yes, I am.”

He took her by the shoulders, as if a stronger grip on her body would equal the control he had on her mind. “You are no longer in Haffef’s power.”

“I am Haffef’s thrall… and so are you,” she said with a voice that sounded empty, and dark.

He sighed. “Tell me, Cameo, when I leave you alone will you leave this apartment?”

“No, I cannot.”

“Alright,” he let go of her shoulders and turned from her. “Why don’t you have something to eat?”

She moved across the room, in a stupor.

“Awaken.”

Cameo found herself beside the dessert plate, with a piece of cake in her hand. “What did you do to me?”

“I didn’t harm you.”

She looked over at the window. The last thing she remembered was trying to free herself from his powerful grasp. “What did you do?!”

“I only put you under my spell for a moment.”

Cameo searched for her pistol.

Edel took a step toward her.

She tossed the cake down and pulled her weapon on the vampire.

“You can’t hurt me with that.”

“Oh no?” She pointed it to her right, where Chester was walking into the room to pick up the mess she had just made with the cake.

“Please don’t do that.”

“He’s a zombie like me right? Not immortal, no; he just has a long life,” she said, waving the pistol at the mindless zombie who had not stopped when she pulled the gun.

Chester ambled toward the spoiled dessert, with a rag in one hand, hoping to clean up that spill.

“Please don’t,” Edel said breathlessly.

Her mouth opened again; those were the same words she seemed to say to Haffef every time he did something horrible to someone she loved. It was the same intonation. The pistol drooped in her hand.

“Is that what Haffef did to you, too?”

He watched as she put the gun back into her belt, then his eyes met hers once more. “Yes.”

“What did you do to me when I was under your spell?” She touched her throat, looking for a smear of blood.

“No, not that,” he said, helping Chester up and off the floor before him. “Will you be leaving tonight?”

“No,” she said, “I can’t.”

“Oh? Why is that?”

She glanced over at the window near the fireplace, still partially open; snow was blowing inside. “Uh, I can’t.”

“Why?”

She looked at him angrily.

Edel was bent over, somewhat embarrassed. He looked up at her hesitantly. “I don’t want you to go yet.”

“I should’ve shot Chester,” she muttered, as she stormed toward the hidden door that led to her room.

“I’m sorry, Cameo,” he called after her.

“Yeah,” she hissed, closing the door behind her. The world outside her window was getting gray; it was nearly morning. She searched her boot for a small flask.

Chapter Three

A
BELL SOMEWHERE IN THE DISTANCE
woke Opal. It was a great tolling bell, like at one of those damn shrines. He became acutely aware of the sun shining on his face.

“She’s gone.”

There was a man in his room. Opal sat up with a jolt, looking for a weapon.

“Good morning, Black Opal.” Kyrian was at the foot of the bed.

“Oh, it’s
you
,” he snarled, annoyed to be woken so early in the morning, and lay back down. His back was very stiff for having such a good bed to sleep in. Opal turned over and realized that the bed was still made; he must’ve fallen asleep while talking to Cameo.

“Where’s Cameo?”

Kyrian rolled his eyes. “I don’t know. Gone I guess.”

Opal readjusted his eye patch and got up. “What time is it?”

“Ten.”

“Really?” He ran his fingers through his blonde locks, “I must’ve needed my rest.”

“Apparently,” the lad scoffed.

Opal pulled the bell for room service. “I need coffee, and some glorious pastry, and maybe some fruit if they have any… and then I think I shall have a bath.”

“She’s taken all of her things.”

The dandy looked around the suite a bit bewildered. “I’m sure she knows what she’s doing.”

“I never had a chance to talk to her.” Kyrian sat down dejectedly in one of the settees. “What if she’s left because we fought?”

“No, no chance in that,” he sighed. “If you’re really worried about that, why don’t you go to one of your
little
shrines and pray?”

“I already have. I was up at six.”

A maid poked her head inside, “Hello, did someone ring?”

“Ah, yes, my dear. Could you bring us coffee and something for breakfast? Rolls or some such?”

“Certainly, sir, straight away.”

“Delightful.”

She blushed and left the room.

Opal turned toward Kyrian who was eyeing him with suspicion. “What?”

“She’s a little young.”

“That maid?” The dandy laughed then moved to a mirror. “I was only being polite to her. If you’re interested, then why don’t you say something instead of grumbling about me being so charming?”

Kyrian glanced at the door where the young maid had disappeared, half considering the idea for a moment and then dismissing it. “Where did Cameo go then?”

“To find what her Master sent her to obtain.”

“What?” He jumped up. “No, she can’t do that.”

“I think that’s her lot in life, Kyrian.”

“But she’s not going to come back.”