Inever thought I’d return to Arcanum Heights, with its snooty gated mansions looking down at all the rest of the city. I haven’t stepped past the wrought-iron fence that marks its boundary since I was twelve years old.
I’m back now, though. Not through any choice of my own.
I’m inside one of the many ostentatious bedrooms of the Laskin’s mansion. I grew up only three doors down from here, and I can see their creepy garden statues and ugly topiary from here.
As the last zombie fell, Simpson grabbed me before I could take a breath. He used his crazy super-speed to get me out of City Hall, into this monstrous house which they’ve decided to commandeer as their own.
I’m upstairs with Ember, who is currently giving me puppy-dog eyes while I glare at him from the rock-hard armchair beside the window. I need to get out of here. I can’t imagine any of the idiot vamps downstairs will be happy to let me go willingly. Not since they’ve decided they want to use me as a weapon in their endeavor to take over the city.
There’s not much scarier than a superpowered vampire with a lot of deep-seated anger and a plan of city-wide domination that’s wooly at best.
I can’t even be free with my own thoughts right now. I can’t trust that Ember’s not listening in now he’s apparently tossed his damn morals out the window, along with his sense.
“You’re mad at me,” he says.
I want so badly to roll my eyes at him. When I can’t even muster any words to express quite how damn mad I am right now, I just wind up glaring some more.
“I get it.” He holds his hands up in surrender, which somehow makes me even more annoyed. “I get it. But don’t you see this is the best way that tonight could have gone?”
I fight the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose and the other lurking desire to toss him out the damn window. Ember’s not an idiot, so I cannot understand how he thinks that tonight wentwell.
Nothing good happened. It was a damn horror show.
I’ve spent the past decade living in the shadows and had to fake my death to escape my execution. In what world would it be a good thing for my business to be laid bare in full view of a roomful of people?
Including my mother, who had me arrested for less.
I’m not even thinking about how there were a whole lot of cameras outside City Hall tonight and at least one of them is likely to have caught the entire thing.
That my safe little life, hidden in obscurity, is over.
I can hear Simpson and the other vamps downstairs. By the sounds of it, they’re tossing furniture around. I’d bet that with their suped up powers, they have a bunch of energy to burn. There’s a lot of cackling laughter that has me right on edge.
CRASH.
It sounds like someone’s battering a chair against the wall.
They crank up some music and there’s the sound of smashing glass, followed by more laughter and chanting.
My shoulders creep up to my ears. There’s no way I’m safe here.
Ugh. I really need to get far, far away. It sounds like they’re about two seconds away from tapping a keg and chugging beer like drunken frat boys. I’m not sure how many of them there are, since I only caught a glimpse before Simpson dragged me upstairs and locked the door from the outside. But they’re all high on super powerful blood and they’re unpredictable at best.
Dangerous.
It sounds like they’re having a party, clearly high on the thrill of getting one over on the city’s elites.
I rub my eyes and try to will away the pounding in my head, but it doesn’t do much.
I’m drained. Exhausted after using so much of my magic tonight and I feel... pretty gross. Like using necromancy magic has left a filmy residue on my insides.
I need a long shower and some sugar, followed by a twelve hour sleep.
CRASH.
Another roar of laughter.
Something tells me I’m not going to be getting any of those things here tonight. I can’t imagine letting my guard down enough even to nap for twenty minutes, even though I desperately need the sleep.
