Blaze (14 page)

Her stomach growled, reminding Kira that
even with the turmoil stirring in her head, her body needed
sustenance. But even after eating two eggs with a side of toast,
Kira was still hungry. It was one of those times when her taste
buds yearned for a specific flavor, but her brain hadn’t yet
figured out what that craving was.

She opened the refrigerator, perusing the
shelves. Orange juice? No, tangy wasn’t really what she was
feeling. Salad? Definitely not. Yogurt? No.

Kira closed the door, frustrated. She
clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, trying to figure
it out, and decided to search the freezer. She could use some ice
cream. But there was only one carton and it was vanilla. Gross,
Kira thought, who doesn’t have chocolate ice cream? Vampires,
that’s who.

Now completely positive that ice cream was
definitely what she wanted to eat, Kira crossed the room to search
the freestanding freezer for more flavors. Ice cream would help her
figure out this whole situation. It was amazing what a little
sugar—and by a little, Kira meant an entire tub of
Ben &
Jerry
’s—could do to clarify the mind.

She reached for the handle and pulled, but
the door didn’t open. She furrowed her brows and yanked again, but
the door still wouldn’t budge. The vacuum seal must be too tight,
Kira thought and reached around to dig her finger into the plastic
securing the door, trying to get some air in to break the seal. But
the material was solid and not squishy. Curious, Kira inched a foot
to the side to look at the door. From the front, this had seemed
like a freezer, but looking at it from the side, Kira wasn’t so
sure. It looked fake in an odd way.

Kira careened her head to search the wall
for a plug, but there were no wires. Instead, the entire back of
the fridge extended and molded into the wall.

What the heck? Kira thought. She tugged on
the handle again, yanking until her arm was sore. And then she saw
it: a tiny, miniscule little button barely the size of a pea was on
the side of the handle, in an awkward spot just out of reach of her
thumb. Kira pressed it and the door swung open without making a
sound. She couldn’t see very far, but it looked like some sort of
passage. Of course—where better to hide the entrance to a secret
tunnel than in the kitchen. No vampires would ever notice it. Good
thing Kira was a foodie and was way more curious than was
healthy.

She stepped inside and the door sealed shut
behind her, trapping Kira in the dark. Luckily, she was a human
light bulb.

Kira brought a flame to her palm and watched
as the fire danced around the reflective surface of the tunnel.
With her free hand, Kira rubbed the wall. At first, it had looked
like stone, normal in a castle. But now Kira realized it was glass.
Extremely thick glass had been fixed to the stone. Looking down at
her feet, Kira saw glass there too. For a second, she felt like a
fish in an aquarium. But rather than harp on it, Kira stepped
further into the tunnel.

She squeezed down the narrow walkway,
wandering aimlessly until finally something like light appeared
around the bend. Kira walked closer, stepping hesitantly, until she
saw Tristan. The glass remained unbroken, but there was a hole in
the stone and through it, Kira could see Tristan sitting on a sofa
reading a book. Kira waved in big, exaggerated motions, but Tristan
didn’t notice her.

“Tristan,” Kira whispered. He still didn’t
move. “Tristan,” she said a little louder, but nothing. Finally, in
her normal voice, Kira called out his name. Nada.

Kira tried to think of the design of room.
Surely, she would have noticed a big gaping hole in the wall that
led to a glass tunnel. What could possibly keep Tristan from seeing
her? And then Kira remembered. A mirror. There was a medium sized
mirror hanging over the mantel in that living room—it must be a
one-way mirror.

And the glass, Kira suddenly realized, it
must be completely soundproof—so soundproof, that even visiting
vampires wouldn’t be able to hear Aldrich walking around.

That asshole! Kira wanted to yell. Then she
realized she was in a soundproof tunnel and she did let out a
shriek. Tristan, very cute sitting and reading his book, didn’t
even bat an eyelash at the noise.

Kira, feeling nauseous all of a sudden,
remembered that there was a mirror in the bedroom she and Tristan
were staying in. It hung on the wall right over their pillows.

“Oh my God,” Kira said and covered her open
mouth with her hand. What a pervert! She had gotten undressed and
changed and everything in that room, and Aldrich could have been
watching the entire time. It was disgusting!

Kira turned and ran down the hallway. She
needed to get out of there. Suddenly the glass was suffocating her,
she felt like she couldn’t breathe. But she had no idea where she
was going. Every time she rounded a corner, Kira expected to find
some clue as to where she was, but the passage didn’t quite follow
the line of the house—either that, or Kira had already forgotten
where the kitchen was in comparison to the rest of the house.

She passed by more spying windows, saw more
rooms that she had sat in or searched without realizing Aldrich may
have been watching her the entire time. Was he at all suspicious
that Kira was tricking them? Did he already know her secret—that
there was no way she would ever turn into a vampire? Or had Kira
managed to avoid detection?

For some reason, Kira thought she was still
undiscovered. If Aldrich had known that she was playing them all
and telling half-truths to Tristan, there was no way he would let
her go see Luke. It was a small comfort, but it was enough to make
Kira slow down for a minute and calm her nerves. Aldrich didn’t
know she had found out his secret, so why not use it against him.
Maybe she could find him and do a little spying of her own. As they
say, payback’s a bit—

Kira stopped walking. Somehow, despite being
completely and utterly lost within the actual walls of the castle,
she had stumbled onto Aldrich. There he was, with her imposter
mother, sitting and sipping blood in a room Kira had never seen
before.

Why would he have a spy-hole into his
private room? Or maybe it was that woman’s room, which meant she
didn’t know about Aldrich’s little set of hidden passageways.
Interesting.

Kira pressed against the glass to peer as
far into the room as possible. To the far left, just barely within
view, was a bed. Her breath caught. A pale foot fell over the side,
immobile. Traveling up the unmoving leg, Kira’s eyes found Miko’s
face. She was expressionless, laying still with a wide open lids.
Blood dripped from her neck, staining the satin sheets below her
body. But she blinked and Kira realized she wasn’t dead, just too
weak to move. Who would willingly let people do that to them, just
to become a vampire? And Kira knew it was willing, because Tristan
would have heard it if they were hurting her or forcing her to do
anything. Something that would have made him question Aldrich, Kira
knew it in her heart.

Unless they were sitting in a sound-proof
room as well.

Looking away from the bed, Kira examined the
walls. They weren’t made of glass like the tunnel, but Kira doubted
Aldrich would be casually talking where Tristan could overhear
him.

She flipped her attention to the two seats
by the window where Aldrich and the woman sat. Heavy drapes kept
the sunlight out, but the room was very well lit with candles. Kira
wasn’t quite sure what Aldrich’s deal with electricity was, but it
seemed strange for a vampire to willingly light fires all around
himself. They couldn’t hurt him, but still, didn’t they remind
Aldrich of the one thing that could kill him: conduits?

Not what she was here to think about, Kira
thought and focused on Aldrich again. He was saying something, but
she couldn’t quite read his lips behind the wine glass. Move it
just a little bit, Kira silently urged, wishing she were the
telekinetic one. But then he stopped, and it was the woman’s turn
to speak. Her back was to Kira, so all Kira could rely on was
Aldrich’s reaction, which luckily was a big one.

Above the glass, his eyes hardened. The
normal ebony-blue was rapidly transforming into a glacial steel and
he placed the goblet back on the table. He grabbed her fake-mothers
hand, pressing his nails into her skin until blood sprouted,
staining her pale flesh. His lips opened to talk and Kira
concentrated on reading his words.

“I don’t care. Make her believe.”

A blonde head shook back and forth as the
woman tried to reason with Aldrich, but after a moment, his hand
slapped her face making her head whip around so far that Kira could
see the tear stains on her cheek.

“We have been planning this for years and I
will not let you ruin it. You are a three hundred year old vampire
and she is a teenage girl. Figure it out!” He let her go and licked
the blood from his fingertips.

The woman slid from her chair to kneel at
his feet, placing her hands on his knee to beg for something—his
forgiveness? Her life?

Aldrich eased back into his seat and ran his
fingers over her cheek. His eyes lost their glow and returned to
the umber Kira was used to. His expression softened.

“I’m sorry. You know how angry you make me
sometimes.”

The woman nodded and sat up a little higher.
He brought her hand to his lips. The blood lingering there left a
mark on her skin, like a tattoo, as though he had branded her.

“When she gets back from visiting Lucas,
we’ll know. She has one day, one day to come willingly or we’ll
have no choice but to kill her. And if you do your job, neither one
of you will have to die.”

He reached for his glass on the nightstand
and took a sip of blood, staining his lips a deep red again. Over
the brim of the glass, Kira met his eyes. For a moment, she thought
he could see her standing there, watching him. But Kira blinked and
the sensation was gone. She was safe, safe in the biggest gift
Aldrich could have given her—a free way to spy on him.

Kira eased away from the glass, thinking
about what she had just heard, when a moan broke through the
absolute silence of the tunnel. Kira’s head snapped to the
sound—was someone else in here with her?

Chapter Nine

Kira took one last look at Aldrich, who was
sipping calmly and staring at his own reflection, before following
the noise.

As the darkness deepened, Kira let the
flames surrounding her palm grow, partially to see and partially to
prepare herself for whatever was in there with her. She strained
her ears, reaching out for a sound, but Kira couldn’t hear
anything. Stepping slowly, carefully, Kira kept walking. No bend
had broken the hallway, so there was nowhere to go but straight
ahead. If the noise was real, it was definitely coming from this
direction.

After a while, the path started sloping
downwards. At first, the angle was subtle, almost impossible for
Kira to notice, but the further she traveled, the steeper the walk
became. And colder. Small goose bumps rose on her arms because
despite the summer heat, the air nipped at her skin.

Okay, Kira thought, enough of this. She put
more energy into her power, making the flames surge higher to
illuminate the entire path. She couldn’t see anything in front of
her but a hallway that slowly faded to black. Kira was about to
turn around when she heard the sound again, a strained and muffled
scream—of pain or frustration, Kira couldn’t say.

Tired of the slow approach, Kira started to
sprint. Her feet pounded against the glass, thundering in the
silence of the tunnel—only challenged by the crackle of her
fire.

Finally, after two minutes at full speed,
Kira saw something ahead: an open door. No wait, Kira stepped
closer, there was no door, just an opening. Beyond it, there seemed
to be an open chamber flickering with candlelight.

Kira slowed her pace again. As she neared
the opening, her heart stopped.

Kira knew what this was.

It was Aldrich’s dungeon. New. Modern.
Clean. But a dungeon nonetheless.

Through the opening, all Kira could see was
one rail-thin body curled into a ball on the ground. Kira rushed
into the room and the scene became even more gruesome. Five bodies,
six glass cells, and not a single ounce of movement from
anyone.

“Hello?” Kira asked, hoping someone would
give a sign of life. The only reply she received was another moan,
quieter this time, from a shape huddled in the corner of the cell
on the far left.

Kira rushed over and placed her hand against
the glass. A man leaned against the wall of his cell, naked except
for a pair of tattered pants. He looked no older than thirty. His
red hair was matted with sweat and run through with knots. It was
long enough to frame his face and cover his shoulders. His skin was
bloodied; bite wounds punctured his chest, his arms, his neck. A
shudder ran through Kira.

He moved his eyes, slowly glancing up at her
with all of the remaining strength left in his body. A jerk shook
his limbs when he saw her face. He pushed his feet, trying to back
away from her, but he was already at the furthest corner his square
glass cage would allow. But Kira wasn’t paying attention to
that—she was distracted by his eyes. They were green in the center,
fanning out to an orangey red flaming hue she was familiar
with.

“Are you a Punisher?” Kira asked, placing
her other hand against the glass, anticipating his answer.

He nodded, eying her with fear. Her eyes,
Kira remembered. They were blue. He must think she was a vampire.
Kira searched the glass for a hole or a door, surely there needed
to be an entrance somewhere. And then she found a crack in the
glass, a small indent that must be the handle to a sliding door.
Kira pulled, but the door wouldn’t budge. It was either too heavy
or locked in some way she couldn’t detect. But there was a smaller
sliding door along the floor, maybe for food. Kira crouched down on
her knees, and slid her hand through the opening. She put her palm
up and let a small flame hover over her fingers.