Nancy A Collins-Vamps 02 (11 page)

The students got out of their desks and formed a single line, with Annabelle serving as its reluctant head.

When she stepped up to the mirror, her gaze was firmly fixed on her shoes instead of on the silvered glass in front of her.

“Go ahead and look at yourself, Annabelle,” Madame Boucher said gently. “There’s nothing to fear.” Annabelle hesitantly raised her eyes, slowly tracking up her legs and torso until she reached her face.

She stared for a long moment at her crudely drawn 110

eyebrows and the clownlike splotches of rouge on her cheeks, then dashed from the room in tears.

“Can you believe that spod didn’t know how horrible she looks?” Lilith snickered as she stepped up to take Annabelle’s place in front of the mirror. Instead of flinching or cringing at the sight of her reflection, Lilith casually flipped the hair out of her face.

“Excellent form, Lilith,” Madame Boucher said approvingly. “Very confident and self-assured.” As she watched her sister turn away from the mirror, Cally found herself feeling bad for all the mean things she’d said and thought about Lilith—not to mention kissing her boyfriend at the Viral Room last night.

They
were
siblings, after all. Even if Lilith didn’t know that was the case,
she
did, and she had been raised to honor family ties.

“Nice job, Lilith,” Cally said as she walked back to her desk.

Lilith turned and glared at Cally as if she’d just hocked a loogie at the side of her head. “
What
do you mean by that, New Blood?”

“I was just trying to compliment you on how you handled yourself in front of the mirror, that’s all. You did it like a pro.”

“Are you insinuating that I
like
to look at myself?” Lilith hissed, her blue eyes flashing.

“No, I was just being nice, Lilith.”

“Brownnosing is more like it,” Lilith spat. “What 111

are you trying to pull, Monture?”

“Miss Todd! Miss Monture!
What’s
going on here?” Madame Boucher asked as she moved to separate the two girls.

“She said I was a mirror junkie!”

“I said no such thing! She’s lying!” Cally protested.

“Miss Monture, I will not tolerate you insulting others in my class!” Madame Boucher said sternly.

“But—”

“Not another word, Miss Monture!” Madame Boucher’s beehive hairdo jiggled wildly atop her head as she wagged a finger in Cally’s face. “I do not tolerate troublemakers, is that understood?”

“Yes, Madame Boucher,” Cally said, biting her tongue and dropping her eyes in deference.

“What else can you expect from someone like her?” Lilith sneered. “Her mother’s a slut.” Without any warning, lightning leaped from Cally’s left hand, and for a fleeting second she was tempted to let it strike Lilith. Instead, she snapped her hand back, like a cowboy cracking a bullwhip, and sent the deadly charge arcing in the opposite direction.

The other girls standing in line scattered, scream-ing in terror, as the lightning bolt flew past them and struck the mirror, shattering it to bits.

“My mirror!”
Madame Boucher wailed in disbelief.

“Do you realize what you’ve done, you wretched child?!

That was an original Chippendale!”

112

“I’m sorry, Madame Boucher!” Cally said as she stared at the smoldering remains. “It was an accident.

Honest! I didn’t mean for
any
of this to happen!” Madame Boucher went to her desk and furiously scribbled a note on a piece of parchment, handing it to the servant who had wheeled the now-demolished mirror to the front of the classroom. “Get
out
of my class, Monture! Gustav! Escort her upstairs and give this note to the headmistress. And send the second-floor janitor to come sweep this mess up while you’re at it.”

“As you command, Madame,” Gustav replied, taking Cally by the arm. His grip was not rough, but neither could it be easily broken. “Come, young mistress,” he said. “You must go to the office.”

As she was led out of the room, Cally glanced over her shoulder and saw Carmen, Lula, and Armida clustered about Lilith, whose glossy pink lips were twisted into a triumphant smirk.

The headmistress sat behind her desk, dressed in a neat single-breasted gray tweed skirt suit with black velvet trim. She glanced up from the note Madame Boucher had written to look at Cally, who stood before her desk, hands clasped behind her back.

“As you well know, Bathory Academy is a vendetta-free zone,” Madame Nerezza said sternly. “It is strictly forbidden for students to use their powers against one another in class.”

113

“Yes, ma’am, I know that. And I’m
really
sorry about what happened, Madame Nerezza,” Cally said earnestly. “I told Madame Boucher I didn’t mean to do it. It’s just that Lilith said something to me that . . .

well, it made me lose my temper, and I reacted without thinking. I managed to keep the lightning from hitting anyone. . . .”

“Be that as it may, what you did is still grounds for permanent suspension.”

“I’m being expelled?”

“No, child.” Madame Nerezza sighed, shaking her head. “It would be negligent of me to do such a thing.

You must be taught how to control the power you have.

“However, if you are to remain at Bathory Academy, you have to promise me that you won’t let others pro-voke you again. The consequences could be disastrous for everyone involved.”

“Yes, ma’am, I understand,” Cally said. “Thank you for giving me a second chance.”

“Something tells me that it would be best to give Madame Boucher time to cool down,” the headmistress said with a smile. “Here’s a pass to the scrivenery. Stay there until it’s time for your next class.”

“Thank you, Madame Nerezza.”

“Before you go, I want you to have this as well.” The headmistress handed Cally a sealed envelope.

“It’s Tanith Graves’s invitation to the Grand Ball. Or 114

it would have been had she not been killed. The presentation committee decided I should award it to the Bathory student most worthy of the honor. I was going to have it delivered to your home, but seeing that you’re here, I thought I would give it to you personally. I realize it’s on short notice. . . .”

“I’m flattered, Madame Nerezza, but you know I can’t accept this,” Cally protested. “I’m not entitled. I’m not a real Old Blood. And I’m half human.”

“All the more reason for you to go, if you ask me,” the headmistress replied. “With every decade, each techno-logical advance, the world grows smaller and smaller.

If vampires are to survive, we must come to terms with the human race. In you I see a glimmer of hope for our people’s future. Besides, where’s the harm? Go, have a good time. After all, Rauhnacht is for the young.” 115

As Lilith exited the red double doors of Bathory Academy and climbed into the back of the waiting Rolls-Royce, she pulled out her iPhone and checked her messages. There were six voice mails waiting, all from Kristof. She instantly hit callback while pushing the button that raised the privacy screen between her and the driver.

“I’ve been trying to reach you all evening! Where have you been?” the photographer asked in an exasper-ated voice, not even bothering to say hello.

“I’m, um, taking night-school courses, and I have to keep my cell switched off while I’m in class.” While her explanation was closer to the truth than anything else she’d told him so far, it was still a lie.

“Great news! Karl saw the frames I took last night 116

and decided you’re perfect for the Maison d’Ombres launch! So you need to get your sexy butt to the loca-tion by nine tomorrow morning. I’m going to text you the address. But first, I want to make sure you get a good night’s sleep, okay? You don’t want to look like you’ve been up all night when you’re in front of the cameras. Oh, and don’t bother putting on your face beforehand, either. Stylists will be there to handle your makeup and hair.”

“Do you think this is a good idea, Kristof?” Lilith asked, making sure her voice had just the right amount of girlish quaver.

“Kid, it’s the best idea I’ve
ever
had! Tomorrow’s going to be all kinds of crazy, but you have nothing to worry about. Just leave everything up to me.” Lilith smiled as she hung up. So far everything was going perfectly. Aside from pushing that bitch Gala down the stairs, she really hadn’t had to cheat all that much in order to get her way. Still, it was frustrating not being able to talk to anyone about what was going on in her life.

After all, what was the point of being a fashion model if you couldn’t brag to everyone you know and make them jealous?

“I brought new flowers, Granny,” Cally said as she removed the withered bouquet from the memorial vase and replaced it with a fresh one. Her head was buzzing 117

from all the stuff that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, and tending her grandparents’ grave helped organize her thoughts.

She found herself thinking about the attack on the pier the night before. She’d been so focused on saving Melinda, it had never crossed her mind that Peter might be one of the strike team. She had been so close, so terribly, terribly close to firing raw lightning into his back.

Praise to the Founders she stopped herself in time, but what if she hadn’t? What if she’d accidentally killed him? The thought made her chest tighten up. Maybe it was all the stress and emotional turmoil from the last few days that had made her lose control and nearly fry Lilith in class.

It was times like these that she sorely missed Granny’s wisdom. Sina Monture had worked hard to give Cally as normal a childhood as any kid with a vampire for a dad, an alcoholic for a mom, and a witch for a grandma could possibly hope for. Even though her grandmother would not have approved of the decisions she’d made or the individuals she was involved with, Cally had no doubt Granny still would have known exactly how to make things better.

Cally opened the invitation Madame Nerezza had given her and read the formal chthonic inscription.

Cally could easily see that her name was in a different scrivener’s hand than the rest of the invitation.

The Presentation Committee requests the honor of
118

presenting Miss Cally Monture at their three hundred and
eighty-third annual Grand Ball this coming Rauhnacht,
on the stroke of midnight. At the pleasure of the Count
and Countess Orlock, King’s Stone, East Hampton, Long
Island, New York.

Initially Cally had been excited about being invited to the Grand Ball, but now that the thrill was starting to wear off, she wondered how she was going to actually be able to attend.

There were three things a vampire debutante had to have to be presented at the Grand Ball: a full-length black evening gown, an escort, and a father. She had already started work on a dress, but the escort and the father were going to be considerably harder to come by.

Cally had imagined that discovering her father’s true identity would solve all her problems. But as it turned out, knowing who he really was could gener-ate more trouble than not knowing. Cally wasn’t sure which would be worse, her father discovering that she was secretly involved with a Van Helsing, or Peter finding out that she was really a Todd. Either one, she got the dirty end of the stick.

And there was no way Victor Todd was going to stand up in front of Old Blood society and openly acknowledge her as his daughter, especially with his wife and Lilith in the audience.

Suddenly there was a hand on her shoulder. Cally jumped like a startled cat, making a flawless two-point 119

landing on her grandparents’ headstone, her fangs bared as she hissed at the intruder.

“Calm down, Cally!” Peter said with a nervous laugh. “It’s just me!”

Cally frowned. “What are
you
doing here?”

“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to scare you. I know we weren’t supposed to see each other tonight, but after what happened at the pier, I wanted to make sure you were okay. . . .”

“I’m all right,” she said as she hopped down off the tombstone. “It’s just that after last night, I’m kind of jumpy.”

“That’s an understatement.” Peter chuckled. His smile disappeared when Cally did not join in on his laugh. “Is something wrong?”

Cally didn’t want to have to admit that she had come to Rest Haven so she could be alone with her thoughts.

“I just wasn’t expecting you, that’s all,” she said, trying to hide the annoyance in her voice.

“What’s the matter?” He frowned. “You’re acting like you aren’t glad to see me.”

“It’s not that, Peter. It’s just that, well, it was kind of weird seeing you trying to kill my friend.”

“Cally, you know what I am, what I do.”

“I know that; it’s just that I never thought you would end up attacking anyone I know. Why didn’t you tell me you were going to be there?”

“It never occurred to me you would show up at the 120

Viral Room. It was Drummer’s decision to keep the club under observation.”

“Who’s Drummer?”

“He is, I mean, he
was
the strike team leader. We were stationed in a panel van parked on the street across from the club. Drummer recognized the girl we ended up chasing as a sucker. . . .”

“A
what
?” Cally said angrily, her eyes flashing.

“Sorry, I mean a vampire,” Peter said, hastily correcting himself. “He’s the one who made the decision to pursue her. Samantha and I were just following orders.”

“Who’s Samantha?”

“She’s the woman you
fried
, Cally!” Peter replied testily. “Doc Willoughby says she’ll need a couple of skin grafts for her back.”

“I don’t care,” Cally retorted. “She was trying to kill Melinda!”

“So she and Drummer deserved what they got?”

“Yes! I mean, no!” Cally covered her face with her hands. No matter what she said, it seemed to be the wrong thing. She wasn’t ready to talk about any of this yet. “I don’t know what I mean, Peter. I’m just so confused. . . .”

“Cally, what’s wrong with you?” Peter asked, a worried frown on his face. “We’ve never talked to each other like this before. It’s not just what happened on the pier, is it?”