The Vampire's Reflection (31 page)

“Precisely.”

“And where is Aiden, now?”

“Aiden is no longer
Aiden
. You’ve changed him. He’s untraceable now, so I have no idea where he is. But Aiden should not be your main concern at the moment. What you fear most is happening at the hands of one of your own. A brother. Someone close to Charlotte now.”

Valek straightened in his chair instantly. “Who do you mean? She is not safe?”

“You did not leave her in the finest care. Funny. I always thought you to be more vigilant than that. You seem such a thorough character.” The hag shrugged. She tilted her teacup, eyeing the remaining contents of it, before twisting and tossing it into the fire. A tea leaf reading, as Sarah had done.

The flames billowed higher before flashing in a more brilliant yellow. It licked and danced around each other until a definitive image was formed in the fire. Valek watched in horror as the image of a face appeared from the blaze. Its mouth was stretched in a long and anguished scream as parts of the fire colored itself in a deeper red.
Blood
, he recognized.

Immediately, Valek leapt from his chair. Something sharp lurched in his chest and crawled up to this throat. His eyes pricked with tears. “Lottie….” He’d done it again. Failed her…
again
. This was becoming a vicious cycle. He wanted to die.

“Yes. You left your love in misery. More than just broken skin, you left her with a broken heart.” Baba Yaga’s words echoed and swirled about the room until the fire eventually dwindled and fizzled out into ashes. The room darkened. Baba Yaga waved her hand again. The skin on Sarah’s face stretched open, forming a newly-created mouth where the other one had vanished.

“I have to go to her. Sarah, we are turning around!”

“No, we can’t! If we bring her to the Dark City, she’ll absolutely die!”

“She will die
anyway
if we continue on as we are! I’d rather her be in
my
care! I’ve already failed her. What is the point of this journey if I come home to find her already dead? I have been careless and idiotic!”

Sarah’s face fell as though someone had pulled a dark veil across it. The fates had once again taken control of her mind, displaying for Valek the hell he had left Charlotte in. The images were far too graphic and disturbing and left Valek with a sick, sloshing feeling winding around in his gut. Far too much time had passed since he’d felt the warm little grasp of her fingers winding around his. Since he’d seen the brightness of her eyes.

“I’ve made a
huge
mistake.” He began for the door.

“Relax, Vampire!” With a thump of her staff on the floor, leafy tendrils exploded from the branched chairs and wrapped around Valek, pulling his rear back into his seat. “Your kind is far too moody and emotional for my taste. And anyway, I will see that the girl is brought to
us
.”

Chapter Nineteen

Gone Baby Gone

Charlotte could do nothing but lie still, drifting in and out of consciousness, in what had become a freezing room. At certain moments, she could have sworn she was awake, replaying her final moments with Valek over and over in her head, the harrowing images haunting her, for that was all Lusian left for her to do. Most of the time, she couldn’t tell if they were reveries or actual dreams as she begged herself to fall asleep again so time would move by faster. A very tiny piece of her blamed Valek for her imprisonment. She felt like he, in all of his immense knowledge and power, should have predicted this.

These days became as monotonous as her very addiction.

Not much to her surprise, the door would open and a figure would come drifting in, the balls of its feet barely skimming the floor. She knew the movements of a Vampire well enough now that they actually bored her. At first, a slight bout of fear scurried through her, mostly a reflex of a reaction as a result of her not-so-distant past. It would eventually move to distant apathy upon thinking the visitor was Lusian. But then the dark shadow would emerge into the light, and reveal the most beautiful face she had ever seen. The face that had left her there, chained up in the darkness, waiting. It was followed by the slight surge of joy, and the abrupt awakening when her eyes would really open, and again, all she was met with was the empty, dark room. It was a perpetually revolving cycle. Charlotte sighed. So sick of the monsters calling her name. The birds outside screaming. The old windows in the house rattling.

Even if her wrists had not been chained back so harshly behind her head, her ankles outstretched on the mattress, she didn’t believe she would have the ability to move anyway. Lusian and the others, seeming to revolve constantly in and out of the double doors, had kept her so drained. Charlotte wondered how long it would be before they ran out of Sarah’s magically baked medicine—how long it would be before she eventually perished there from slowly being depleted completely.

How could he have just left her there like this? Without any protection? How could Sarah have let him? Was no one on her side anymore? The only thing Charlotte was thankful for now was the fact her addiction was constantly being fixed. She barely ever noticed her scar any more, for the feedings were coming so often now.

Consciously, she closed her eyes and refused to cry anymore. She had cried so much over the past several days, she felt like her eyes had gone dry. As though she was unable to bring the emotion out of herself anymore. All of it had been taken from her. Sucked from her. Her heart was so numb as she lay there waiting for her fate. She would like to believe that Valek would come back for her, but something spoke to her from deep inside—something rational that told her it was probably not going to happen. The odds were too heavily against him.

The sound at the front of the room forced her eyes open again. The door creaked. A shaft of yellow light pierced her sight, which had become so accustomed to the dark. So it was daytime, she mused sourly. That was something that was nice to know since Lusian had neglected to tell her anything of what was happening outside of her chained prison. She winced away from it as a tall, thin shadow moved forward enough to eclipse it.

Lusian snaked in, followed by Ana and Aneta. Charlotte didn’t react at all. She was too weak. The room around her was dizzying shades of gray that all seemed to blend together. Sarah’s lovely bewitchment had disappeared, just as she had when she’d left with Valek. Charlotte was unsure of exactly how much time had passed. She’d stopped counting at five sunrises. She’d counted them each time Lusian had allowed her up to use the bathroom, though he still kept her hands in shackles. Charlotte had never been more humiliated.

Every once in a while, the image of that mysterious shadow man appeared before her, standing right next to her bed, like he was checking in on her. Though she knew it was only an illusion, it was still slightly comforting. The vision, when it appeared, was always just the same. He stood next to her, looming over her. She could almost feel the chill off his skin, so close to hers. The only detail she could ever make out on his face was the eerily familiar glow of his eyes.

“Morning, Charlotte,” Lusian said cheerfully.

“Is
that
what time it is?” Charlotte muttered bitterly.

In an instant, he had one knee on the bed with her entire face clutched in one of his hands. “Don’t be a smartass. If you’re nice, things will go a lot more smoothly.”

Charlotte had the immediate impulse to launch a wad of spit directly in between his eyes, but she shoved that thought back in her mind, not wanting him to even hear the idea.

Ana and Aneta sat on either side of Charlotte on the bed. Charlotte distantly wondered what Lusian had done to Dusana. It seemed he had no use for her anymore with the evil twins at his flanks. This had been the third feeding in the last twenty-four hours. She knew that because she hadn’t yet fallen completely asleep. They were engorging themselves—taking full advantage of Charlotte’s entrapment.

She tensed slightly as the scar at the base of her throat began to burn slightly with their presence. But as they drew nearer to her on the bed, the door flew open on its hinges as someone stormed into the room.

“Charlotte!”

It was Jorge. She relinquished a gasp she didn’t expect would be there. Out of everyone in the coven, he was probably the least threatening, and he was the last she expected to be valiant in the face of Lusian.

“Get out of here, Jorge!” Lusian spat, immediately standing to his feet from the mattress. He braced himself for a fight.

Jorge lifted his hands, “I’m not looking to cause trouble, Lusian. The others have already left without you. I’ve just come to warn you of the sunrise.”

Lusian’s face dropped. Ana and Aneta got up from the bed to take their positions at his sides again. He clutched at his throat as his brow wrinkled, debating something. “What day is it?”

“The thirteenth. It’s the last day of the cycle. The light is running out in your system…and fast,” Jorge explained. “You should be hunting Fae.”

“What about you?” he accused with his pointed eyebrow lifted high on his forehead.

Jorge placed his hands on his hips. “I’ve just returned. I have a taste for something else now.” He turned his gaze to Charlotte.

Lusian deliberated something silently for another minute. He and Jorge exchanged looks before Lusian and the devil’s twins flew out of the room, the door swinging closed behind them.

Charlotte slouched back down into the mattress and turned her head away, preparing for Jorge to begin feeding on her.

“Charlotte,” he began again. “You’re a mess.”

She looked back at him abruptly, though no words came out. Jorge’s gaze fixated on her body. Her own gaze dropped to the rest of her body, sprawled out on the mattress. Her dress was at least a week old, and torn in several places from Lusian’s aggressiveness. The mattress beneath her held so many varying bloodstains, they had all began to run together into a single massive one.

To her surprise, tears began to run down her face. What an obvious notion—that she was a mess. How could she not be? What kind of condition did he expect her to be in after treatment like this? Her cheeks burned harsher than her scar, and suddenly she didn’t care at all whether he fed or not. Actually, Charlotte was a bit angry. After all of these days, Jorge hadn’t come into the bedroom once—not even to give her water—to make sure she was still alive. She thought it might have been out of protest for the way Lusian was treating her. It was one of the few thoughts that had brought her any happiness at all. But now, she saw just how wrong she had been. She turned her neck once more so he could commence feeding.

“You’re not wrong.” Jorge answered her thought. “I don’t want anything from you,” he admitted and ran a finger across her cheek.

Charlotte saw an odd mix of dried blood and tears left on the tip of his claw. She met his gaze again, finding that it was one of concern, and she softened immediately.

“Charlotte,” he started again. “I am going to help you escape from here.”

Jorge sat next to her on the bed as she continued to study him silently. His face still held that sweet smile a brother would have for a little sister. The same uncomfortable smile he’d showed to her when they were all safe again, back in Valek’s house that first night home from the battle at the Regime.

Charlotte frowned at him. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

“Because I do not understand you. I read incessantly. I study all subjects. I’ve seen the world. I understand everything—except for you. I really appreciate the fact that you’ve completely stumped me. And I think that is remarkable.” His words came out quiet and slow, as though he wanted her to soak up the meaning of every syllable of what he was saying. “I have never seen anything like you, Charlotte. And I’ve been watching you from the day I met you—trying to figure you out.”

“I thought you hated me,” she admitted. “That you thought I was just some stupid little girl.”

Jorge chuckled. “Not at all. I mean, perhaps a little, in the beginning. You are mortal, yet you fight against impossible things in spite of the fact that they can and will kill you. You are surrounded by danger, yet you wish to fight to keep yourself alive. In many ways, you are more powerful than the rest of us could ever hope to be. I can’t predict the future, Charlotte, but I can count the patterns. Something very dangerous is coming. There’s another fight right around your corner. Study everything. Trust no one. Pay attention. You’ll find Valek. I am absolutely certain of that.” He reached into the pocket of his pressed slacks and pulled out a strange, tattered piece of parchment. “Answer me honestly, Charlotte. Was a messenger here?”

Charlotte winced at him. “A what?”

“A messenger? From the Dark City? Was there someone here you didn’t recognize?” He eyed her incredulously, his face getting ever closer to hers.

Her memory flashed back instantly to the figure—the man surrounded by darkness. Maybe that hadn’t been her imagination. Perhaps he had really been there in the room with her. She narrowed her eyes at Jorge. “I’m not…entirely sure.”

He flipped the torn letter over to reveal a strange logo imprinted on the paper in indigo wax. The Parliament, it read, with two dueling lions on either side of the scrawling words. “This is incredibly important. This will get you to Valek. They are waiting for you.”

“How do you know?

“Charlotte!” He grabbed her shoulders and she winced. “I know everything. You should have noticed that by now.” Jorge didn’t give her the time to respond. Not that she could have, in all of her shock over what he was saying to her. He stood from the bed and began unfastening the manacle around her left wrist, digging his sharp talon deep into the keyhole. He was going to pick the locks open. Charlotte guessed Lusian had been guarding the key ring very carefully. The manacle fell open after a few seconds, and her wrist collapsed into her lap. She hissed, fully realizing the pain of her arm being stuck in one position like that for too long, with the twisted metal digging deep into her flesh. She wound her joint around in circles, leaning her head against the headboard as she worked out the pain. Her skin was blue and purple where the manacle had been too tight.