Invincible (A Centennial City Novel) (27 page)

The car ride was quiet.

Jason sat in the front seat, eyes set forward. He had not spoken to me, hadn’t even so much as looked at me since Vincent escorted him down the stairs of that giant mansion.

He needed time. I understood that.

Vincent sat next to me, conversing quietly with Ryder about the current events, both human and otherwise. An utterly engrossing conversation, if I had the interest, but I was too focused on Jason, too aware of his presence.

“I will need to stop by my house in Camden,” he said once we hit the highway. “I would like to pick up my belongings.”

“There is no need,” said Vincent. “All of that will be arranged for you. We’ll take you to Noir. He lives in the outskirts of Centennial. He will have rooms prepared for you and your…Ailward.”

I had half-expected Jason to say I was not his protector, but he merely nodded and turned back to the road and the rapidly disappearing miles.

This late, there were almost no cars and we arrived in front of a large, brick house with dark windows extending to both sides of the white double doors. The property sat nestled at the edge of the Centennial Nature Conservation Reserve which was about a hundred square miles of forest filled with all sorts of wildlife, deer and wolf being the most plentiful. The last house we passed was a farmhouse about a mile back and when I stepped into the crisp air, only then did it occur to me just how remote the location was.

Perfect for a vampire lord.

How fitting.

Now, my job had become remarkably easy. Easy in that I now gained entrance into Noir’s home. But the crux still laid in how I was to dispatch one of the four Vampire Lords of Centennial City.

As Adrian would have said,
Good luck, Chuck
.
You’re going to fucking need it.

Vincent took Jason’s spot in the passenger seat. Clearly, he did not intend on staying for any longer than he had to.

“Ran.”

I nodded.

His brows furrowed downward. Had he been human, it would have left him looking permanently aged, but he was a vampire. He was perfection made to mimic the human form. “You will keep him safe.”

For the lack of anything else I do, I nodded again.

“Good,” he said and then paused. “He is under Noir’s protection, but there are many of us who are still…antiquated. The birth of something like Jason was generally at the beginning of any revolution, any great coup to the current vampiric power system. Noir has vouched for him, but that might not be enough to spare his life and keep him completely safe. It will be your duty to keep him…from harm.” He shook his head. “I still don’t know what it is that he has over you, why you have chosen to protect someone like him, when it seems the exact opposite of everything you have ever stood for. It’s not love. It can’t be for money.”

This time, I shook my head. “That is between Jason and myself.”

His green eyes hardened and unconsciously, I took a step back. “We’ll be watching.”

I was glad I wasn’t born with a sarcastic nature. If I had, I didn’t think I would have survived for so long. “You do that.”

Ryder shot me a salute through the pristine windows and they drove away, leaving me with a man who would no longer talk to me.

Not that it mattered, not terribly much.

And perhaps it was even better that way.

I counted fifteen windows on each sides of the building, three sets for each floor, but could not even start to fathom a guess about the insides or the back.

Still, I was here. This much closer to fulfilling my orders and then getting out of here, and getting away from these...monsters.

I was lucky.

But how long could my luck hold out for?

And how long could I think of them as monsters?

Frightening thought, really.

The front doors opened and a lovely, pale girl who would stand forever at the cusp of womanhood peered up at us, a curious expression on her fine featured, almost porcelain perfect face. “Yes?”

Jason looked at me. It was like being looked at by a stranger. I didn’t like it. If he didn’t like me, what would happen to the deal? “This is Jason. I am his Ailward. We were told Noir would be expecting us.”

She curtsied, low, holding out a sprigged dress that looked like a relic from the Revolutionary War. She even had a small cap tied over her sausage-curls. “Of course, Master Noir is indeed expecting your presence. If you would but follow me?”

She was dressed like a colonial, but spoke with a fine, cultured British accent. Then again, I supposed those colonials spoke like the British, for was their origin not of that country? Perhaps it had made the revolution that much more painful, that much more of a betrayal.

I followed Jason into the house, the foyer lit up by a large chandelier, the crystals sparkling like precious diamonds. My heels clicked on the parquet wooden floor and I watched our reflections in the mirrors on either sides of us as she led us into the main hall, a staircase extended up to separate into the two wings. There was much similarities between this house and the last mansion. Was it simply the style of the times or was there some kind of vampire architect that all vampires of money hired for their abode?

Questions after questions filtered through my mind as she took a right at the staircase, the dress flowing gracefully around her slim form. “There is a suite prepared for you underneath the house. I was told darkness would be preferred?”

Not for me.

But Jason spoke then, his voice low and rusty as though he hadn’t spoken in a very, very long time. “That would be preferable. Thank you.”

She nodded and led the way through an open doorway and those steps, those cursed steps down, down into the bowels of Hell.

Or perhaps I was just being needlessly dramatic.

But I really hated going to a place without any natural light. Although, in all honesty, it really wasn’t that dark going down. With a light sconce situated every couple of feet, there was a surprising amount of light in the lower levels of the building. With the walls wallpapered in a calm shade of blue and the plush white carpet underneath my feet, I could have fooled myself into thinking we were merely in a hotel, a hotel that had a strange aversion to windows.

There were a few doors, all of them closed and I was reminded of the lower levels of Vincent’s club. Was this how it was with most of the vampires in Centennial City? Did all of them live with patrons? Did any of them strike out on their own? Was it even allowed?

It hadn’t escaped my notice there were far less doors down here. Then again, perhaps those under Noir’s care preferred the upstairs, and actually liked having windows.

She stopped in front of a door at the end of the hallway and curtsied again, bowing so loud it was surprising to see her stand up straight without wobbling. “My Master hopes you find this room to your satisfaction.”

Jason nodded. “Thank you...I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name?”

Twin spots of red rode high on her cheeks. Was it embarrassment? Or pleasure? Either way, it had seemed she had fed and fed well recently. Vampires couldn’t blush unless they had human blood running through their system. “Amaryllis, sir. But most everyone calls me Mary.”

A vampire called Mary and looked like she was fourteen. Christ.

He smiled. “Just call me Jason. No need to stand on ceremony here, is there?”

Her eyelashes fluttered up and down as though she couldn’t stand to look at him straight in the eyes. Bashfulness from something that was at least two hundred years old...this was new to me. And somewhat terrifying at the same time. What sort of beast was this girl when her bloodlust was unleashed?

Actually, I didn’t even want to know.

She curtsied again and glided back up the hallway, her footsteps silent on the carpet.

Jason had a hand on the doorknob, although he did not turn it.

“Ran.”

It was the first time since killing Shannon he had spoken to me, even acknowledged my presence. I didn’t know if I should have felt suspicious or relieved. “I’m here.”

He laughed, softly, barely even a murmur, but a laugh it had been all the same. “You are, aren’t you?”

To say I was confused would have an understatement. “Is there something you wanted to say?”

He let out a slow, shuddering breath and then opened the door. “No. Never mind. Forget it.”

“Jason, please.”

“Just get in.”

“We need to talk.” I hated that I sounded so whiny.

“Later,” he said blankly.

I hoped so.

The suite was suitable enough, I supposed. Spartan in its decoration, with the walls painted an unassuming beige, it really did look like a hotel, minus the windows and the complimentary coffee machine with the stack of thin coffee cups that almost always leaked after fifteen minutes.

There was a door set off to the side, which I assumed was for the bathroom and I stared at the bed. Large and covered with satin gold sheets that probably felt like sin against the naked skin, I became almost painfully aware of Jason closing the door behind him.

“That’s it?” asked Jason as he took off the coat with the dried blood. I tried not to think about it, too much. “Not exactly the height of elegance, is it?”

I didn’t consider myself a prude. It was hard to think of myself as a sexual being when I’d never had a date, but I was really hoping the small sofa in front of the large plasma TV next to the bed was a pull-out one. I wasn’t so sure how Jason would feel sharing a bed with the woman who had killed his ex fiance.

“I’ll take the sofa.”

I don’t know if I expected him to argue, but he nodded and tossed his coat across the silky sheets and I watched as a fleck of dried blood peeled off and landed amongst all that golden threads. It looked dirty, obscene, even, but you couldn’t pay enough to move his coat. I’m a bit of a neat freak, but I wasn’t that bad. “Fine.”

I stood around feeling like an idiot as he walked around the small room, touching the top of an empty dresser, one hand trailing along the bed clothes, even opening the door that indeed was a small but shining bathroom that smelled like lavender bath crystals and the faintest tinge of bleach. “What’s wrong?”

As soon as the words left my mouth, I wanted to kick myself in the face. I’d never been much of a talker, but that just sounded terrible to me. How would Jason take it?

He shook his head and took a seat at the foot of the bed, hands laced and eyes down. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”

Being blunt was always a specialty of mine. “Shannon’s dead.”

“I know that,” he said quietly. “She died two years ago.”

I hated feeling so guilty. “Is that how you need to see this? Is this how you’re going to cope? Don’t you blame me?”

He lifted his head, watched me with those endlessly black eyes that seemed deeper, darker than any night I had ever encountered. “Do I blame you? Don’t be stupid. You did what you were hired to do. You protected me.”

Voice harsh and unrelenting, he couldn’t have sounded any less thankful. Not that I was looking for it, but the words did not exactly match the face. “I did do that.”

“You saw a threat and you eliminated it,” he said and then snorted. “Although, I hadn’t expected things to plan out the way they did. I thought it would take longer to find Shannon, to find the bastard who took her away. I had no idea you two had met.”

I didn’t like the direction this conversation was going. “Look, I had no idea she was your fiance. Maybe I suspected but that was all.”

“When did you first meet her?”

If I tried hard, I could still remember the way the night smelled, like trash and urine, still hear the sound of newspapers blowing in the wind. “The night I met you. She was the vampire who warned me away from you.”

“I see.”

When was the last time I’d felt so damn uncomfortable? And why did it bother me so much? “So, what happens now?”

He smiled. “You do what you were told to do.”

I looked around the room. It seemed benign enough, but I knew Vincent didn’t trust us. Noir seemed mild enough, but the look in Ryder’s eyes when he mentioned the other side of Noir very few people knew of...I was not willing to take any chances. “Would you like to go for a walk?”

He made no move to get up from the bed. “No. Not now. I’m sorry, Ran.”

“I understand.”

“No,” he said after a moment of silence seemed to stretch on for almost too long. “No, I don’t think you do. I think you ought to leave now.”

A command not entirely unexpected. “What about you?”

Sighing, he pulled the coat into his arms and I could not stop staring at the dark splotches marring the light gray woolen fabric. “I need some time, Ran. This...this entire affair has been...startling, to say the least. Too much has happened and now I have to think on what needs to happen. I’m sure you’re aware everything has changed now.”

He laid back on the bed, one arm over his eyes and I took that as a signal to leave.

Finding my way back to the first floor was no trouble, although the lack of any sort of presence was mildly disturbing.