Almost Final Curtain (16 page)

It had to be a lie. I shook my head violently. “No way would people put up with that.”

“Protesters were easy to silence with us under their command,” he said grimly. The sound of the tires changed as we crossed onto a wide bridge spanning the Mississippi.

I looked out at the expanse of water, a strip of moonlight rippling across the blackness. Beside me, I heard Elias let out a soft sigh. I jumped when his hand briefly patted my thigh. He pulled it away quickly, guiltily.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you. I understand that it’s hard to believe,” he said, as if reading my mind. “But unless our new masters decide to let us all die of hunger, you’ll see. The bargain will be struck once again, and a sacrifice will be made.”

This was awful. My stomach clenched. Bea was so right, but yet so wrong about everything. I didn’t know whom to be more disgusted by. For the first time since I turned sixteen and found out about everything, I was really, really grateful that I hadn’t chosen a side, because the truth was, both sucked.

That wasn’t fair, I supposed, but I was frustrated by this whole hunt situation. “Can’t you survive on human blood? I mean, when I tasted Thompson ...” I stopped. It was too weird to admit how delicious the experience had been.

Elias smiled sadly. “Human blood is like chocolate or junk food. It tastes great, but there’s simply not enough nutrition to sustain a healthy life. Vampires who have gone rogue often subsist on human blood at the cost of their sanity.”

“Oh.” I chewed on my lip for some time, before offering up another suggestion, “What about taking just a little from a witch and, you know, not killing?”

“Do you think in all the millennia that witches and vampires have existed, no one has tried that?” He kept his tone sympathetic, but I could sense his frustration building. Elias shook his head as if trying to let something go. “Forget it for now, Ana. Now it’s time to dance one last dance of freedom.”

Elias pulled off the highway onto a residential street. Houses slid by and we were in the park almost instantly. A small sidewalk ran along a narrow strip of manicured grass. The cliff’s edge was marked by a tangle of trees. Where the curb curved inward, he maneuvered the car into a parking spot. The streetlights were set farther apart than the ones I was used to in the city, somehow making the night deeper. As I stepped out and closed the car door, I could see stars through the clouds.

I hugged myself from the cold and the heavy knot in my gut.

Elias came around and put his arms on my shoulders. Though I cringed away, he gave me a reassuring squeeze before letting me go. “None of this will matter soon enough, my princess,” he said. “What will happen with the hunt will no longer be in our control.”

I blinked. “You mean, you think it will happen to me too?”

When he offered a hand, I took it this time. He led me down the sidewalk, away from the car. “It’s hard to say. There were, of course, witch children born to vampires, and vampire offspring born to witches, but ... few were allowed to survive, at least of the former variety.”

“I don’t understand the difference.”

We passed under one of the long-neck streetlights. “I suppose there really isn’t one, only a matter of perspective. If you’re born in the master’s house, different rules apply.”

“Gross,” I said with a
tsk
of my tongue.

Elias laughed. “That’s a word for it.”

I could hear the strains of music. In the distance, someone played the fiddle. The tune was light and airy. Drums picked out a dancing rhythm. Elias flashed me a playful smile and pulled me along faster. I followed as we ran down the sidewalk past a chain-link fence that looked over a steep drop. On the other side, the grassy area widened. Elias guided me off the pavement to a narrow opening in the woods. I would have thought it was little more than a deer trail, except for the crunch of gravel underfoot.

We went only a short distance before the path twisted and became steep. My steps skidded, but Elias didn’t slow. “I’m going to fall,” I protested.

“You’re a vampire princess, Anastasija Parker,” he reminded me. “You could fly down this hill if you chose. Stop holding me back. I want to dance.”

He let go of my hand. I grabbed for him and almost ended up on my ass. Bounding ahead of me, he disappeared out of sight into the darkness. “Wait!” I shouted. I didn’t know this park at all. I didn’t want to be lost.

“No, Ana. Fly!”

I didn’t have to dig very deeply to find my inner vampire. She seemed closer to the surface than ever before. In a second, the landscape brightened, pulsing with energy. Every obstacle became visible, and I saw Elias just at the fork in the trail. He flashed a knowing, fangy grin as he dashed to the left.

The downward momentum that I’d been fighting against now became my ally. In a burst of speed, I caught up with him. I could have run past, but I didn’t know where we were headed. The music was much louder now. I smelled the swampy scent of river nearby. A bat skimmed over my head.

“Echo Cave,” Elias shouted against the wind of our speed.

The path evened out, and I could see tall reeds along the riverbank. We’d come to the bottom of the valley. Sandstone cliffs rose like a wall, and I could see the mouth of a cave. Vampires had camped out in front of the boarded-up entrance. A row of drummers leaned against the concrete pylons, and the fiddler stood under the lip of the entrance, taking advantage of the natural acoustics. Bats streamed in and out over their heads.

People danced free-form to the music. Men and women, all the indeterminate age of vampires, leaped and turned in the absolute darkness of the night. The city lights were far beyond, and no campfire or torches blazed.

Elias took my hands, and spun me out into the center of it all. “Come,” he said. “Let us be free.”

The drums pounded an infectious beat. The music was unlike anything I’d ever heard before, though it seemed some strange amalgam of an Irish jig and a powerful West African tempo. My body didn’t care. The music swept me in. It was easy to forget about all the crazy I’d just learned, and lose myself in the rhythm.

I danced.

At school formals, I was very self-conscious and awkward. But here, under the stars with the wild all around, I moved without a thought of how I might look to others. Though dozens of bodies spun and wove in the clearing with inhuman grace, I felt alone—just Elias and me, hidden together under a protective blanket of darkness.

He circled me, twisting and turning with the music, our bodies tantalizingly close, but never quite touching. My heart thumped in time to the song. My skin flushed.

In his element, his features softened. His body retained its predatory sharpness and angles, but dancing soothed something in him. Taut lines on his face disappeared, replaced by an elation I’d never seen before. Noticing my attention, he pulled me close, wrapping his arms around my waist.

Our dancing slowed to a gentle sway. We were an island of stillness in the center of a pulsing crowd. Reaching up, I clasped my hands around his neck. His eyes searched mine. Apparently finding what he was looking for, he leaned down, drawing me even closer.

Our lips met.

The kiss was over in a moment, but the giddy sensation of it lingered, spreading deep inside me, all the way to my toes. We’d stopped moving entirely. His neck bent again, but this time his lips brushed my ears. Somehow over the music, I heard him whisper, “If fate takes me away from you, my lady, know this: being your betrothed was my greatest honor.”

Expertly, he spun me away from him, back into the dance. Energized by the kiss and his words, I rejoined the frenzy with a whoop. He returned my wild smile, and the music took us again.

O
ne by one in the hours before dawn, vampires disappeared into the warrens of Echo Cave. The music wound down, leaving Elias and me holding hands on the banks of the river solemnly watching as the instruments were packed away.

I’d been out all night. Mom was going to kill me.

“We should get you home,” Elias said, reluctantly. The moon hung low on the horizon. Though it was still dark, the light had a different quality to it. I felt certain deep in my bones that sunrise was imminent.

“What about you? Will you be okay?”

We started up the path that led back to the car. The muscles in my legs felt the strain of the sharp incline, not to mention the long night. “I’m not expecting a traffic jam.” He smiled. “I can get you home quickly, but I may have to leave my car in your neighborhood.”

I knew from past experience that Elias had a hidey-hole not far from my house. My shoulders relaxed somewhat, but I did my best to keep up with the brisk pace Elias set.

We hadn’t spoken about the kiss. I held his hand firmly as we made our way up the slope, reveling in our nearness. Exhaustion began to insinuate itself into every pore. By the time we reached the car, I had only enough energy to slump into the seat and tip my head back against the rest. I closed my eyes to the gritty heaviness. The soft sounds of the car and empty road soon lulled me to sleep.

 

 

Like a fairy-tale prince, Elias woke me with a kiss. Though the pressure on my skin was featherlight, his heat raced through me. I blinked, instantly awake.

“It’s time for good-bye,” he said, pulling away.

I sat up and sucked in a deep breath. “I hope not forever.”

“Me too, dear princess,” he said, turning away, avoiding the concern I was sure etched my face. “Me too.”

Though I wanted to linger, I knew he had to get underground before the sun rose. I pulled myself up out of the car with effort. My feet dragged from tiredness, but also with reluctance to break the spell of the incredible night we’d shared. I wanted to say something hopeful like “See you soon” or “Let’s do this again,” but it all seemed inadequate. The next time I saw Elias, he could be someone’s slave. I could be too, but I didn’t want to think about that. I wondered how the talisman would change him. How completely would he be enthralled? Would he know me? Or would he simply be unable to speak freely?

I must have looked stricken, standing stock-still on the curb with the open car door still gripped in my hand, because Elias mustered a soft smile. “I’ll think of you, always.”

The sky had begun to lighten, changing from black to deep blue. Elias reached across the seat and gently pulled the door from my grasp and closed it with an awful, final-sounding latch. The car engine thrummed to life. He hesitated only a moment longer before driving off.

I stayed on the boulevard, unmoving. His car retreated into the distance, finally moving out of sight. Numbly, I stumbled into the house. Sadness and fatigue overwhelmed me and I dragged myself upstairs to collapse onto my bed, too tired to even cry.

 

 

I woke up to the sensation of my pocket vibrating. The numbers on the alarm clock told me that I’d gotten only a couple of hours’ of sleep; it was nine a.m. I tried to roll over and go back to sleep, but there was a buzzing at my hip again.

Through the fog of drowsiness, my brain finally registered the fact that my phone was ringing. Clumsy fingers dug it from my pocket and put it to my ear. “Mmmr?” It was supposed to be “Hello” but my mouth wasn’t working properly yet.

“Oh my God! Oh my God! We’re on the callback list! All of us! Even Thompson!”

“Bea?”

“I’ve been standing outside of school since six a.m. waiting for Martinez to post the list. A whole bunch of us were camped out, actually; it was kind of cool. I texted you, like, six times. Where have you been?”

“Dance.” I could hardly keep my eyes open, much less formulate coherent responses. I had a vague memory of having switched off my phone to go for a walk, but I couldn’t remember when I turned it back on. I must have done it out of habit before going facedown on the sheets.

“You went to a dance? Was this at some other school? Well, it doesn’t matter,” she said before I could do more than grunt. “I called to give you fair warning, girl. You’d better start practicing something phenomenal, because I’m going to kick your ass and take the lead.”

“Mmm, okay. Good luck,” I said without thinking.

“Ah, no fair! The curse!”

It was a well-known theater superstition that you never wished another actor good luck on a show. Instead, you were supposed to trick fate by inviting calamity instead. I quickly apologized. “No, I’m sorry. I mean break a leg.”

“Too late! Ah! Oh!” Bea reminded me of the cartoon character of Lucy after Snoopy had just given her a doggy kiss, shouting about disinfectant and other paranoia. It all seemed far too loud to my weary ears.

“Hanging up now,” I told her, and I did so.

I drifted back to sleep without even remembering to ask when callbacks started.

 

 

A wild beat invaded my dreams. Vampires, in various states of undress, undulated and rippled, finally melting into a squirming pile of fleshy snakes. The sun was rising and I was yelling for them to go underground, but they were all on fire, bright, hot light pouring everywhere.

I woke up sweaty, with the afternoon streaming in the window. Squinting, I sat up, shaking the remnants of the strange dream from my mind. I picked up the alarm clock and held it close to my eyes, willing the number to make sense. Was it really nearly three?

My teeth felt slimy. I shuffled my way to the bathroom, but stopped when I passed the door to my mom’s bedroom. The bed was made; it looked as though it hadn’t been slept in.

“Mom?” I called, and then again, louder, with an edge of panic,
“Mom?”

I thought I heard a faint reply. The voice had come from outside. Even though I rarely entered Mom’s sanctum sanctorum without permission, I scooted across the floor in my stocking feet to look out her window to the backyard. To my extreme relief, Mom was standing on the grass with her hands on her hips looking up. She had on the wide-brimmed straw hat and bright yellow galoshes she wore for gardening. Seeing me, Mom put a hand over her eyes to shield them from the sun. “Finally up?”