Beautiful Monster 2 (6 page)

I knew that he would fill me in when he was done, and I
went back to my room to wait. I told Sarah the whole story. I never did make it to the library, instead I researched on the Internet until midnight. Exhausted, I fell asleep.

“Hey,” I said, opening the door and about to turn around and shuffle back to bed. But it wasn’t Liam or Sarah standing there. It was an unfamiliar male, standing at least 6’2”, with high cheek bones, and scruffy facial hair.
“Can I… help you?”

“Are you Amy?”

“Not again.” I buried my head in my hands, holding open the door. “Let me guess. Liam? Selene?”

The vampire’s mouth hung open.

“How did you know…?”

“Experience,” I said dryly, reaching for my phone. “Come on in. I’ll call Liam.”

Over the next few days, word spread like wild fire as more and more vampires arrived at the school. For some reason, all of them sought me out first, perhaps afraid to approach the reputation that was Liam. They assured us that our plan to kill Selene was being kept quiet, whispered in underground circles and put in prayers of safety. Some of them were old, some of them brand-new, but all of them had been under Selene’s thumb and were used as puppets by the mother of all vampires. We received vampires with hardened battle weary spirits, and new vampires, afraid and in tears, wanting to get back to their normal lives. Connor and Isabelle were just the beginning of the interesting stories. I talked to vampires that were older than I could ever imagine, vampires who had seen great wars that I read about in history books, and vampires who had met long dead heroes like Shakespeare and Kit Marlow. They had done so many things with their lives, struggling to be normal, to pretend that they hadn’t been cursed.

But not all of them were old. Some of them were only a few months old, and had met the right person at the right time to turn to for help. One
in particular, Nina, was heartbreaking. The gentlest, sweetest girl, Nina worked for a homeless shelter in her human life, showing compassion and kindness to anyone who had come through the doors. She was one of those workers who went the extra mile, always giving money, slipping them an extra bread roll from the soup kitchen, lending them her cell phone to stay in touch with friends and family. After becoming a vampire, she couldn’t bring herself to feed on human blood at any point, or even live animals. She lived on buying raw hamburger meat and squeezing it out, licking the meager remains from a plate. The very thought of it made me gag, but she couldn’t be convinced of anything otherwise. She was tiny and weak. When she came to me, while I was walking to rehearsal, I thought she was going to collapse into my arms. I practically had to carry her to Liam’s office, nearly breaking down the door to beg for assistance. I had no idea what the secretary must have been thinking about what went on behind his doors, but at that point, I was past caring.

“Can she die?” I asked Liam
.

A
fter he had met with her and we were alone. Liam sighed, looking sadly in the direction she had left. “She can’t die, no, but she can fall into an eternal slumber that she can’t be woken from without a proper feeding. She was practically trembling, my heart breaks for her.”

“And this will work?” I asked him for the hundredth time. “If we kill Selene, you’ll all be
mortal again?”

He put his arm around me.
“Yes, Amy, it’ll work.”

“But what about…
us?” I asked, carefully. “Have you thought about that, about us? About having an… intimate relationship with me, if we’re both human?”

He sighed, running a hand through my hair.
“Amy, we have to get over such a hurdle and that’s what you’re worried about?” He kissed the back of my neck, trailing down my throat. “Perhaps we should take advantage of it now, hmm, while we still can?”

I nearly melted into his arms, as he trailed them down my body
. Perhaps we should.

And so, we became a vampire haven, a safe house, for the broken, tired and damned. None of them stayed at the school at night, except for Nina, so pre
cariously close to death that Liam didn’t want her alone for an instant.

Since
Liam had mostly kept to himself, he knew none of these new vampires, but he welcomed them with open arms.

“They come to you
because you are safe,” he told me one night. “Because you don’t tempt them, and they know you are with me. You can’t snap and bite their heads off.”

“Literally,” I said, dryly, as we finished lunch in his office. “But what are we going to do with all of them?”

He took a swallow of water, giving me a tight smile.

“I have a plan, don’t worry. I just need you to be patient with me.”

I nodded, trusting him absolutely. Whatever Liam was planning, I knew that it was going to be good.

I hadn’t expected such support from others. Mind you, I hadn’t expected that anyone at all would actually know anything about the plan at all, but Connor told me that Amy and I had become a beacon of hope for the rest of the world.

Of course, there were many vampires who wanted to remain vampires, and would hate us for transforming them back. I could only hope that we could keep ourselves secret and safe long enough to execute the plan, which I had no idea about. Amy, especially lately, was keen to see Selene dead, but I told her time and time again that we wouldn’t execute it until we were ready. While Sarah and Amy tried to find her Shield origins, I paced the corners of my mind, trying desperately to figure out a solution. But it wasn’t until I went to a production meeting for
Phantom
that things began to be clear to me.

“We’ve set auditions for next week,” Katya announced as she came in and we all settled in. “Full panel of judges, open school auditions.”

“The mass choreography is coming along,” Miss Nailer said, back from her sick leave. She was so unlike Porsche, so stiff and rigid, that I felt it hard to draw comparisons to both as dancers. “They’ve all been taught, at least once, so now it’s just a matter of going over them a hundred times. It’s going to be harder especially for non-dancers. But right now, it’s good.”

“We’ve started production on the sets,” Devon volunteered. “The famous chandelier is going to take the most work, and we’ll need two or three, because it goes through a lot.”

I nodded, barely listening. I could disappear for months on end and I knew my team would handle things. They were beyond competent, some of the best in the industry. When I had first come to the school, they had accepted me graciously, despite knowing, loving and working with Peter for many years before. But they had never treated me like a Hollywood actor looking for a job. They had gone about their duties, asking my opinions and sometimes overriding me, but always including me. For the first time in a very long while, life was about being on a team, about working together. It was a change for me, as I was used to being the most important and most catered to person in the room. But as I quickly discovered, it was a change I needed. Without them, this school would have failed long ago and they recognized that. I didn’t know how to teach, I didn’t know how to manage, and I certainly didn’t know how to deal with children. But I did know how to act, and they helped me use that in every aspect of my life. I’d been at the school 4 years now, arriving at 23 and feeling 18 with my lifestyle. Now, I felt I had matured 10 years to my proper age in the short time I was here.

Except my heart reminded me that I was eternally 23.

“I’ve finally done the scene breakdown,” Katya said, as she passed around thick packages of paper.

I really didn’t want to be in the meeting. I’d rather be anywhere else but
the boardroom, looking at a scene breakdown for a show that was eight months away. My mind began to wander and I wondered if, in eight months, these meetings wouldn’t mean me rushing off into a basement. I wondered if after a late evening meeting, I could take Amy out to dinner, linger in a fancy restaurant, and wander home under the streetlights with her, kiss her under the moonlight and not have to worry about bloodlust, about transformation.

“I’ve added in something that will make us a bit different than some of the other productions. After
Down Once More
, the cast of the opera
Don Juan
will run off stage and into the audience, searching for the Phantom. We will even take some audience members on stage, and enlist them into helping kill the phantom.”

“How about we kill one of them?”

Katya raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Each night, one person
we choose will be killed by the Phantom. We can tell them when we take them backstage to costume them. Doesn’t have to be difficult, Phantom can just sweep in and kidnap them away.”

Katya’s eyes lit up, and she made a note in her program.
“Yes, I love it! Alright, moving on…”

“I have to go
.” I stood up suddenly, making everyone stare at me. I gathered the scene outline. “Sorry, I have a meeting… another meeting…” For someone who used to act on a regular basis, I couldn’t come up with a line to save myself this time. “This looks great, Katya. Add in that scene and we’re good to go. Bye!”

I darted out the door, putting my cell phone to my ear.

“Amy!” I said, when she picked up.

“Hey
.” I could hear the smile in her voice. “I thought you weren’t done for a while. Do you have time to go out?”

“Better. Gather everyone up, I’ve got the plan.”

“Right. Gather everyone where?” she asked. “There’s so many of us, Liam. Where’s somewhere where we can all fit in secret?”

I faltered. This is why I needed Amy in my life, to think things through logically when those things were the last things on my mind.

“In the basement,” I said, after a moment. “I’ll be there in 10 minutes. But Amy, keep Sarah separate. She’s my trump card.”

I heard Amy laugh
on the other end of the line. “You realize she heard every word of this, right?”

“It’s like I ha
ve two girlfriends,” I replied sarcastically and Sarah jumped in.

“I’m ok with that!”

I rolled my eyes. “See you soon, girls.” I hung up.

I
headed to my office. I unlocked the filing cabinet and pulled out a folder of admission forms and employee forms. Tucking them under my arm, I paused, looking around, and then opened my desk drawer. Inside, under a pencil case and a few CDs, was a Mickey of whisky. I unscrewed it, looking around to make sure the door was close. And then I took a shot and another for courage. Because God knows if I was going to pull this off, I needed courage.

I s
crewed the cap back on and made sure that I had all the papers I came for. I shut the door again, locking it behind me, and headed down to the basement.

Tell Sarah to wait at the emergency exit door until we call for her. And tell her to wear something red.
A dress, perhaps.

Such
drama
Amy replied, with a smiley face. Perhaps it was a bit of a show, but if I wanted these vampires to get behind the crazy plan in my head, I had to make it spectacular. Maybe I could dazzle them with theatrics and they wouldn’t think too hard about how crazy it was.

Everyone was gathered in the basement by the time I got down there
. I looked in horror at the chains and braces there. The vampires were standing in a circle around it, while Amy stood off to the side, texting on her phone. Giving her a smile, I walked in, clearing my throat.

“Those are for me,” I said
, pointing at the chains and braces. “Every night. Like most of you, I have regard for human life and the restraints stop me for wandering the streets in blood lust. My grandfather, Peter, mostly does the honors although occasionally, my love, Amy…” I gave her a smile, “is here to assist me.”

I was now standing in front of them, and I could feel all eyes on me.

“As I’m sure all of you have noticed, Amy is human, and her blood is untempting. Amy’s life expectancy…” I took a breath, looking to her. She gave me the tiniest nod. “Is shortened, and I want nothing more than to live out life with her, to grow old, and eventually, to sleep with her for all eternity. But this curse that Selene has placed on me has taken that from me, and much more. My best friend, Porsche, was murdered at Selene’s hands. I’m sure many of you have other reasons for wanting Selene dead, and I sympathize with you, I do. We all our motivated internally, but we all want to come to the same conclusion. She must die. And that’s why we’ve come here for help. So…”

I looked around. Most of them looked young enough. I was concerned about a few of them being able to pull it off. Nina, for instance, could barely walk twenty minutes before needing to rest. And Isabelle didn’t speak a word of English.

“The school’s year-end show is Phantom of the Opera. Last year, Selene used the chaos of Beauty and the Beast to murder Porsche, who was the De Ritter’s active Shield. And if I’m not following her rules, not following her orders, I’m sure she’ll use this year’s chaos to come here and take my life as well. Which is what I want.”

I opened my folder, passing around the forms.

“But what she won’t know, when she’s sitting in the audience, is that each and every one of you, and hopefully more, will be on stage when she tries that. The stage weapons we use will be real. And the murder of a seemingly random audience member by the Phantom will not be an act at all. Selene will die on stage, murdered by us, in full view of the audience, the last thing she would expect.”

Outrage came from the crowd, as I had expected it would. It was a crazy plan, of course, and about as theatrical as you could expect. For those who were not performers, it must seem beyond insane. They protested, and called out, but I held up my hand for silence.

“Before you commit, I want to remind you what you’re playing for!” I said, and nodded to Amy.

Amy
moved from her spot on the wall to open the door. The light from the emergency exit glowed down into the dark space, and Sarah emerged. Even I was impressed at what she had thrown together. Guessing at what kind of theatrics I wanted, she had donned a long red dress that dipped low and pooled around her feet. I held out my hand and she came to me, a smirk on her face.

The second she placed her hand in mine, I could feel it. A pain went through my heart as I compared her to Porsche’s strength but I continued my act.

“Porsche was a rebel Shield, it’s true. Shields are nature’s way of bringing balance to the universe. Porsche’s kind was outraged by her murder, and has agreed, for the first time in history, to collaborate with us to make sure Selene is dead.” I took a deep breath, leading Sarah to Nina. “But just in case they change their minds, it’s ok, we have a Shield of our own, a Shield who didn’t even know she existed until she came to me.” I placed Sarah’s hands in Nina’s tiny ones.

The change was almost instant, but
for one so tiny and weak as Nina, I had expected that. That’s why I chose her, for the most theatrical value.

Nina gasped,
her eyes opening wide. After a few short gasps, she began to breathe normally again, and I knew even in the back row, they could see the color coming back into her cheeks. She closed her eyes, smiling for the first time since I met her. Sarah seemed receptive to this, giving the tiny vampire a huge smile back. Finally, Nina’s eyes fluttered open and she turned to the small crowd.

“It’s amazing!”

One by one, Sarah walked through the crowd on her own, letting them touch her for themselves. If they had never felt a Shield before, and it was likely they hadn’t, then they would be impressed by her. If they had though, my bluff was called because they would know she was weak.

Amy came to my side, leaning
against my arm as she watched Sarah bring the vampires such joy.

“Good job,” she whispered
and kissed me on the cheek. “But next time, choreograph your crowd better. Stage looks messy.”

I laughed, kissing h
er back. “Aye aye. Maybe that senior thesis should be in directing?”

“Thought about it,” she answered. “But I love acting too much.”

“A woman after my own heart,” I said, as Sarah connected at last with Connor.