Oh, great. I was to be paraded around under the pretense of Karmic intrigue. I should’ve known. At least that was better than having to pretend to flirt with Vance all night. “I’m sure I’ll be delighted,” I said, mimicking the formal cadence vampires tended to speak with.
Vance led me through a large double door and into an enormous dining room with a grandiose table and chairs, full of vampires. The room went silent as we entered it, and suddenly all eyes were on me. Notus. Just me. The men and women alike all seemed to be in their thirties to fifties and wore their best clothes. Or, maybe, just their normal clothes, but it was elegant as heck. The women were all in long dresses that screamedmoney, and the men wore tuxes in varying colors and styles, although all finely tailored and modern.
Vance led me around the hushed table as people moved to stand behind their respective chairs. We went toward the head chair, and then he pulled out the chair beside it and seated me, before sitting down himself. My heart raced, and I tried to focus on a spot on the table in front of me, tried to shrink away as if I wasn't there. But then I remembered that I wasn't old Emma who wanted to be forgotten, I was me. The new me. And I was there to do a job, so instead of focusing on the spot in front of me, I forced my gaze onto the other people at the table as they sat down in their respective spots.
Vance had told me that he’d introduce me specially to the people he suspected as being behind the murder of Quillan, and now I needed to pay attention to those people. This might be one of my few chances to create a list of suspects longer than just the name of the man my friend was in love with, and I would be damned if I didn't fully take advantage of this moment.
“Emma Foxx, may I introduce several key members of our vampire community.” Vance indicated the table. He introduced each person in turn, along with the name of the clan they belonged to. When he came to the last names, my ears perked up. All of them were from Clan Dusk. “This is Dreven, Jeffrey, Trista, and Lysa.”
I nodded at each in turn, but then as Vance continued to speak, giving a speech about being glad to have all his guests there, etc., I focused back on the people from Clan Dusk. Dreven had pale brown hair and dark eyes. Grey was woven in with the brown in his hair, and wrinkles had formed along his forehead, and beside his mouth and eyes. In appearance, he seemed to be the oldest of the vampires at the table, but I couldn't be sure. Maybe he'd just been Turned later on in life. But the expression on his face wasn't as difficult to figure out, he looked like a man who was eternally grumpy. Of the four of them, he was the guiltiest looking… at first glance. Or perhaps I just thought that because he had the air of a villain from a children's movie.
After moving my attention to the second man, Jeffrey. And, boy oh boy, if I thought Dreven felt like a villain, this guy felt like the one who beat up everyone in high school. He wasn't just big, massive in size, there was something... more than that. It wasn't the fact that his hair was blond, shaved down low on the sides and left high on the top, so that it was permanently falling over one of his eyes. Nor the tattoos that covered his arms and neck. It was something I couldn't quite put my finger on. So, instead of just relying on his physical appearance, I tried to let my powers do the looking. Jeffrey put off an air of menace. Malice. My instincts said to get away from him. But I smiled wanly and nodded my head at him when our eyes met unexpectedly. I didn't like this man one bit, but whether that made him a killer or not was left to be determined.
The first woman, Trista, was teeny tiny and looked like a firecracker, with bright red hair and a pert, upturned nose. She seemed cheerful and I didn’t get any bad vibes off of her. It was almost like she literally had nothing going on in her head. I didn't want to be judgmental, but the way she spun a piece of hair around her finger, and popped her bubble gum, made me think of an air-headed teenager instead of an adult woman. Yes, her age was hard to read, but she had a very young energy. Yet, I knew vampires could be deceiving, so I focused on my power. I didn’t getanyvibes.
Any? Whoa.
The realization hits me like a truck. This nonthreatening woman... she was masking herself somehow. That didn’t bode well. Because for someone to play the part of an innocent person this well, while consciously masking who they really were, well, that's more dangerous than the two guys. I was certain of that.
The last woman, Lysa, was curious and her personality came off of her in waves. This was a woman used to getting her way, and liked to know everything going on. Her hair was long and dark, brushed so impossibly straight that her hair shone beneath the light of all the candles in the center of the table. Her blue eyes were pale, almost white, and she wore a dress the same light blue as her eyes. The dress she was wearing was as sleek as her hair, wrapping her curvy figure like plastic. But it wasn't her flawless appearance that made me weary. It was the way she was staring directly at me. Not being subtle at all about the fact that she wanted to get to know me.
“I'm glad I was seated next to you,” she said when I smiled a greeting at her. “I'd love to learn more about the great Karma."
"Uh, sure." Okay, that wasn't smooth, but it was good enough.
She reclined back in her chair. “Now, tell me all about yourself.”
My purpose for being here wasn’t to talk about me, but I also didn’t want to add suspicion. “Well, I was given my powers by an older woman, and now I'm Karma." I could tell her more, but I'd learned information was power a long time ago, and I wasn't about to give any of these people more power than they already had.
“Have you considered passing them along yourself?” Drevin asked from a few places down the table.
I stopped as a waiter poured a glass of wine in front of me. I’d never even considered passing along these powers. “Well, no,” I answered honestly. “I supposed one day I will, but not yet.”
More waiters brought out the food, and to my surprise, it was delicious. I knew vampires could eat, but they dug in with gusto. I tried to watch the vampires interact with each other as the meal progressed, and talk as little as possible. Instead, I let my powers flow out as much as possible. The main suspects, Drevin, Jeffrey, Trista, and Lysa, didn’t give me a whole lot to figure out which of them might’ve killed Quillan. They chatted normally with the other guests, like old friends, or old enemies, I wasn't sure which.
“Of course, Bryan has to be in the running as well,” Lysa said. I’d been focusing on Dreven and her words snapped me back to the right side of the table. Lysa and Trista were deep in conversation. I drank my wine and opened my ears. “We all had reason to want Quill dead, given how he Turned all of us, including him.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Both women turned to stare at me, and Trista looked mildly offended, but then quickly returned to the blank look I'd grown accustomed to on her face.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized, feeling my cheeks heat. I was being rude, but I also wasn't about to just ignore the valuable information that might be presenting itself. “I couldn’t help overhearing. I know Bryan, a little. He dated my good friend in high school."
“Well, yes, we were discussing Bryan and his possible connection to our dead clan leader, Quill.” Lysa said, drawing out each word. “Maybe people are looking at Clan Dusk to find the culprit, given our history."
"History?" I asked, playing dumb.
She sighed and picked up her wine glass. "Quill had a habit of turning young humans into vampires. Most of whom later wished he hadn't. It’s not that we regret becoming vampires. I’d hazard to say that not a vampire alive regrets it in the long run, once we’re out of the newly-Turned stage.”
The people sitting nearest all chuckled in agreement, and I realized the whole table was now listening to our conversation.
“But the method of turning was a bit much,” Dreven intoned, his gaze now focused on me. “You see, Quill wasn't just fond of turning young vampires, he Turned vampires as young as our laws allow. And even though legally eighteen is the minimum age, it’s still frowned upon. It used to be twenty-five.”
Okay, this was information I already knew. What else?
Vance nodded in agreement. “The way he ran his coven was wholly unseemly. The rest of us prefer to wait until around thirty for our recruits. They're much less dangerous that way. And we are usually certain they won't have regrets.”
"Quill was a bastard!" Jeffrey said, his tone mocking as he raised his glass.
