Cherry Stem Page 19

  My ex turned to me. “I suggest you and I fly by your place first, since you want to change shoes, and meet Alex outside Ádísa’s.”

  If Alex had any objections about the detour, he wasn’t vocal about them. I suspect his fear of flying had something to do with that. The three of us didn’t speak again until the grandfather clock standing on the far wall of the dining room chimed nine.

  * * * *

  Constantine was uncharacteristically hands-off during our short flight to my apartment.

  He held on to me but not like he had when we’d flown to meet the council. Despite our being just as close, there was some sense of detachment that hadn’t been there before. It gave me the chance to clear my head, and I was grateful for it. Instead of trying to breathe him in, I let the scents and sounds of the night fill my senses until there was no room for doom and gloom. By the time we landed, I felt ready to take on anything.

  He kept a respectful distance while I unlocked my door and stepped inside, unnecessarily waiting for me to ask him in before joining me in the space that served as both a bedroom and a living room. I saw the covert peeks he took at my quarters and wanted to tell him he didn’t have to be so discreet with his disapproval. My whole studio apartment could have easily fit into his bathroom, I bet.

  He was trying to play nice and that wasn’t easy for his snarky personality, so I let him entertain himself while I looked for my tall buckskin boots. With their thick leather exterior, they were as sturdy as they were cool. I wanted them to be covered with Ádísa’s ashes before the night was over.

  When Constantine cleared his throat, I expected him to finally stop holding back and say something about how brilliant it was that they now made pocket-sized rooms or something, so I didn’t pause while pulling the left boot up my calf.

  “Do you love him?” he asked. “Alex?”

  His eyes were the color of the winter sky just before heavy snow when I hopped around on one booted foot to stare at him. He didn’t wait for an answer.

  “If you do, don’t miss out on even one moment with him. We think there’s always time, but there isn’t and he’s human. If he won’t turn… Just don’t waste time, Cherry.”

  I crossed the room and hugged him. I don’t know why I did it. He certainly wasn’t my favorite person at the time, didn’t make it into my top ten of favorite people—and I didn’t even have friends—but it felt like the only thing to do.

  Chapter Sixteen

  As we’d agreed, Alex parked his car two blocks down from Ádísa’s manor. Waiting for him outside the wrought-iron gates with Constantine gave me all the time in the world to ponder the unfairness of her living in a manor, Constantine’s having a mansion, and my being stuck with a frigging underground studio. Maybe I’d get to upgrade too, in a couple of centuries. If I survived the night. And where was that man, anyway?

  Seeing Alex round the corner, I sighed with relief. Nothing could have possibly gone wrong that early in the plan, yet the knot in my stomach had only become tighter the longer he’d been out of sight. He reached us and gave me a smacking kiss on the lips, which left me with a silly smile and Constantine with a disapproving frown. I pretended not to notice; nobody cared about his approval.

  The gates were to keep humans out, I guessed. I was about to tell Alex that and propose he hold on to me so I could float us over the fence, when Constantine just leaned on the gates, and they opened.

  “The lock hadn’t caught,” was his answer to my questioning look. “You really should be more observant, Chérie. Having night vision is a gift. Not using it is remiss of you.”

  “Good thing you’re with us, then,” Alex said. “It’s so handy that you notice the little things.” I was ready to bet my favorite pair of Louboutins that by “handy” he meant “prearranged,” and—judging by Constantine’s frown—the implication wasn’t lost on my ex.

  There was no reason to allow things to escalate between them. I weaved my fingers through Alex’s and pulled him after me as I stepped inside Ádísa’s garden, Constantine right behind us.

  The beauty that greeted us was like nothing I’d ever faced before. Flowers formed islands of color through which meandered cobbled pathways. Grape hyacinths and lavender mixed with blood irises and lilacs, making purple in all its shades the prevalent color. Batches of pink peonies and yellow freesia, hot orange gerberas and velvet red roses broke the uniformity with their vividly contrasting hues. And those were just the ones I could name.

  I can’t exactly describe how vibrant colors look to us at night. They’re not the same as they appear to humans in broad daylight; it’s like the colors are three-dimensional, deeper, exposed through some special filter. The colors of the flora around us, framed in the white pebbles shaping up the pathways, composed what I imagined the Garden of Eden would have looked like.

  And, like that garden, I knew this one hid a snake in its heart.

  Already distracted by the exquisite panorama, I didn’t want to add fragrances into the mix, but my nostrils flared, seeking the scent against my better judgment. The mixture of dizzying aromas affected me the way I’d expected it to, only about a million times more strongly.

  Next thing I knew, Alex and Constantine were shaking me. I forced my eyes to focus and waved their hands off.

  “What happened?” Alex was right in my face, whispering urgently.

  “Sensory overload,” Constantine said just as quietly. “Ádísa has built this garden as a defense mechanism. I’m sorry. I should have thought to mention it, but I’ve been here so many times, I’m used to it by now. It masks her scent when she’s hunted, and vampires who haven’t been here before and don’t know to block the stimuli are overwhelmed.”

  Alex looked around. “By what? Vegetation?”

  How could he call the miracle of nature around us vegetation? A voice in the back of my mind whispered, He is human. I wanted to weep for him. His short lifespan in itself meant he would miss out on so much; now I realized how much more his mortality deprived him of. There was no reason for me to try and explain what he could never experience for himself, so I just nodded. “Vegetation. She’s charmed it.”

  Constantine kept quiet and helped steady me so we could move on. He squeezed my shoulder after a couple of steps, but I didn’t turn his way. Whatever solace he was offering me was not welcome.

  Alex clasped my hand and halted us once more. “But why would vampires cross the garden on foot?” Wrinkles formed on his forehead as he frowned in a self-deprecatory manner. “I get why you have to—human with sensitive stomach here—but others could fly. You could fly if I weren’t with you.”

  “We would have walked anyway.” I gave him a smile I hoped looked reassuring. “Flying over another vampire’s property is considered hostile action.”

  He gurgled back a chuckle. “And breaking into their home isn’t?”

  Constantine beamed an unexpected grin at him. “Vampire law. What matters to us is that if someone inside sees us fly over, they’ll be prepared for a fight and allowed to attack first. The way we’re approaching, our purpose may as well be a social visit.”

  Alex shook his head. “I think vampire law is stupid,” he murmured, “and if someone’s in there, we’ll be getting a fight anyway the second we pick their lock.” Still, he began moving again, squinting against the darkness.

  Knowing the power of the garden made me focus on the task at hand. Keeping my senses, except for my hearing, on a tight leash, I placed one foot steadily in front of the other. No matter how carefully we walked, however, I cringed every time our shoes made contact with the ground. The pebbles rubbing against one another sounded to me like a burglar alarm, and I thought there was no way any vampire left in the manor wouldn’t be alerted to our approach. A few feet before the main entrance, I held Alex to me and flew us over the rest of the distance and the stairs to the front door. Constantine followed our example. We managed a nearly perfect landing, the only hitch being that I hadn’t calculated that Alex’s f
eet would hit the marble deck before mine did, since he was taller than me.

  The thud his shoes made wasn’t deafening, but in the stillness of the night it might as well have been a gunshot. Afraid we’d been heard, I pushed him behind me and scanned the periphery, expecting someone to jump at us from the bushes around us. Just when I began to relax, I noticed Constantine stood stock-still, except for one finger, which was pointing somewhere over my shoulder.

  Slowly, with dread filling me to the point it felt like my heart might start beating again, I turned toward Alex.

  The door behind him was ajar, and Johnny Boy’s face peeked through the opening, his index finger slicing his smile in half.

  I took a step backward and collided with Constantine, who was trying to get to Alex. Get to Alex! Alex was in danger. Johnny was too close to him.

  I looked at Alex. In the split second it’d taken Constantine and me to find our footing, he’d ducked and pulled his gun on Johnny Boy.

  “Alex, move away from him,” I said, checking to make sure Johnny Boy hadn’t moved. That was when I realized the look the other vampire was giving all three of us was amused rather than threatening.

  “When you two are done with the slapstick, get the human and come in. And for God’s sake, keep it quiet. I could hear you when you were still at the gate.”

  I gaped at him while Constantine placed his body between Alex and the door. “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  “Same thing you are, I suspect.” The council member winked at him. “Looking for condemning evidence.” He turned to me. “Well, are you coming in or not?”

  I took Alex’s hand and followed Constantine inside. Johnny closed the door after all of us.

  “The rest of the council didn’t seem very moved by your warning about a rogue,” he told me, walking ahead and motioning for us to go with him. “Me, I’m not used to ignoring beautiful women.”

  Alex groaned. “Oh great. Another one!”

  Constantine patted his back, which had me doing a double take. Those two were comrades now?

  Johnny kept talking. “Willoughby was easy to trace once I got hold of his turning file. I found out Ádísa was his maker and thought maybe she had helped him escape, evade his punishment. I tried to talk to her several times but she avoided me, and the council wouldn’t condone a formal investigation, so here I am.” He had been leading us deeper inside the house while talking and now turned and grinned over his shoulder. “And here you are!”

  There we were, indeed. I looked around. The place was obviously the baby of extravagant wealth and abysmal taste. There was no way the amazing garden outside had been Ádísa’s creation if this room reflected her decorative preferences. The lushness of the setting bordered on vulgarity, the owner’s obvious efforts at a burlesque style having drifted toward the grotesque.

  Plush fabrics of clashing colors covered the walls, with Venetian and Grecian masks pinning them in several places so that they formed folds before draping to the floor. Animal heads stared at us with glassy eyes from around the oversize fireplace, and heavy chandeliers, interspersed as much with polygonal crystals as with horns, dangled over our heads, reminiscent more of guillotines than ornaments. Oh, and don’t get me started on the furniture. Really. Don’t. A woman who had chosen to decorate her living room that way wouldn’t surprise me if she slept in a bed made of human skulls.

  I reminded myself that she’d shared that bed with Constantine. On more than one occasion. Since I clearly couldn’t share my distaste with him, I aimed my grimace of disgust at Alex.

  And noticed he was mouthing something while tilting his head toward Johnny Boy.

  Huh? I mouthed back.

  He widened his eyes in warning and mouthed the same four words again. I don’t trust him.

  Well, neither did I, not completely, but there wasn’t much we could do. I shrugged, hoping to convey that exact message, just as Johnny stopped in front of an open door.

  “I’ve checked everywhere else and found nothing,” he said. “This leads downstairs. I was on my way there when I heard you. Once we reach the landing, we should split up. Cherry, you and I go left. Constantine and the human can check the other side. We’ll meet back here when we’re done.”

  His plan wasn’t the best I’d ever heard, especially because it involved my ex and current flames, alone, in a dark basement. I was trying to find a delicate way to suggest an alternate division of forces when Constantine did that for me. “I’m not going with the human. He’s Cherry’s problem.”

  Not knowing whether to be thankful or upset, I went with indifferent and snatched Alex’s waistband. “We’ll take right.”

  Constantine winked as I passed in front of him to climb down the stairway. “Good luck,” I told him in a cheery voice.

  “You too,” replied Johnny Boy. It sounded flat, despite reverberating on the walls of the narrow corridor.

  * * * *

  That level of the manor was almost barren in contrast to the upper one. The stone walls were naked except for lit torches every ten feet or so, and the floor was gritty underfoot. Apparently, despite the years she’d lived and the fortune she’d amassed—let alone the furniture she’d picked for her living room—Ádísa was still a warrior at heart and had chosen a frugal style for her more private space. Her chambers were probably underground too. I looked at the lit torches again. Something felt off, but I went ahead and rounded the bend in the corridor.

  I ran into a cold male body, hard enough to bounce back. If I were to judge the living status of the man in front of me by his eyes, I’d pronounce him as dead as his temperature indicated he was. I knew better.

  I tried to scream, but he covered my mouth with one hand and grabbed Alex’s neck with the other.

  The council member who scared me the most had a firm grip on both Alex and me. “Make a sound, and I snap him like a twig,” Benjamin said. “Is that clear?”

  Alex gasped for breath and kicked at our captor to no avail. I could possibly get away with nothing but a bruised jaw but couldn’t do much to help Alex; Benjamin stood with his arms spread, so we couldn’t reach for one another.

  “Is that clear?”

  It was possible that Constantine and Johnny had heard Benjamin and were rushing to our rescue, but I couldn’t afford to wait for knights with sharp canines, who might or might not show up. I nodded behind his palm. Feeling it against my lips was disgusting. It felt…dead. Touching my lips to it was like touching them to wax. Cold wax, not the kind I’d used to get rid of unwanted hairs when I was alive. It was odd since I knew he and I had to be the same temperature.

  “Will you keep quiet if I let you go?” His thumb dug into the soft tissue underneath Alex’s jaw, making my lover tilt his head back and wince.

  I nodded again, more vigorously, my gaze glued to Benjamin’s dirty thumbnail.

  “Good.” He squeezed my face once and pulled away.

  “You’re the one working with Ádísa,” I said as soon as he’d loosened his grip on Alex. My tone was as accusatory as I could manage without raising my voice.

  He raised both eyebrows. “I’m here to take her down,” he said. “The bitch will get what’s coming to her. She will pay for what she did to my daughter.”

  “Your daughter?” My turn to be taken aback. I had never imagined he’d have a family.

  Even though his eyes weren’t as wide now that he could breathe again, Alex looked just as shocked at the revelation; he didn’t need to know who the man in front of us was to find the idea of said man having a family odd. Even at first glance, Benjamin seemed incapable of human contact.

  Yet now Benjamin’s face showed more emotion than I thought possible for him, becoming almost human instead of the carved stone mask it usually resembled. “She was killed a few days before you were turned. I knew a vampire had done it, but I could do nothing about it. The death of a human meant nothing to the council. I wasn’t supposed to have kept in touch with my family after my turning anyway.
Ádísa approached me the day before Willoughby’s hearing and promised me the one responsible would meet the sun if I helped her.”

  Things were falling into place. “That’s why you were the first to revolt against the old council.” I remembered Benjamin jumping up and hurling accusations at them, remembered him urging spectators to join him in attacking the council members, to help bring them down. “The one who killed your daughter,” I whispered. “Was it…?”

  He nodded. “Willoughby. He was supposed to dust for what he did to my little girl.” I was shocked to see a tear run down his cheek. “She was only twelve. I only had a year with her before I became a vampire—too little time. I couldn’t give her up, so I watched over her and my wife as much as I could. Then he—” His voice cracked. “When you came to us and said he was still around, I confronted Ádísa. She called me an idiot for believing you.” He shook his head. “I looked into it anyway, and once I discovered Willoughby was her childe, I knew for certain that you were right. A maker would never have their offspring killed. She lied to me from the start. For all I know, she was the one who ordered my little girl killed so she could eventually get to me. I could be the reason my Virginia died.” His face crumbled, and it was as if he shrank, the wind knocked out of him.

  I didn’t know what to say; I was frozen there, watching a man I’d considered emotionless be torn apart in front of me.

  “We’re going to bring him down. Her too. For everything.” Alex’s voice sounded raw for the second time since I’d met him. Hanging out with me didn’t exactly do wonders for his well-being, I thought.

  Benjamin nodded again and let Alex go. “Come with me and keep your voices down. She’ll hear you.”

  “She’s here?” That was bad—so very bad!

  Benjamin was already walking by me, toward the direction Alex and I had come from. “Yes,” he said over his shoulder. “I didn’t see her leave tonight. I meant to wait until she left, then break in and wait for her to come back, but I didn’t have the patience. Thought she’d be underground, but all I found were some newly turned vampires. They may be the girls you said you were looking for.”