Dark Rapture (52 page)

A white rose was tossed on-stage. Where it had come from, Sebastian did not see. Without missing a note, he fell to his knees, bent over and plucked the stem up with his teeth, much to the approval of the roaring crowd.

He finished in grand flurry and held his guitar high as he received the adulation. Cheers and applause rained over him, maddening and frightful as Sebastian’s soul was jerked back to reality, and finally he could feel the recognition and acceptance from the blind worshippers.

Chapter Thirteen

Spain, 13
^th
century

“It won’t be long.” Paquita gestured to the chamber maid to bring another wet cloth and then turned to press the one she held to her mistress’s forehead.

They had discovered Esmarelda earlier this morning, lying motionless upon the bed. At first Paquita had thought her dead from her pallor and stillness. But Esmarelda had whispered softly, setting the chatelaine’s heart back at pace. “Water,” she’d requested.

“The fiend,” Paquita sneered as she held the pewter tankard to Esmarelda’s lips. “You were fresh and gay yesterday eve. I thought it a miracle. And then he does this!”

Paquita set the tankard on the rushes and pressed the cloth over her mistress’s forehead.

Ah well, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t expected it. It was that all the others hadn’t lasted so long. Two and a half months! This girl had been so strong. She’d almost had everyone believing she would live forever. And now this.

“Watch the mistress.” Paquita rose and gathered the soiled towels into her arms. “I must alert Rogero and…the coffin maker. See to it she is kept as comfortable as possible.” She glanced back over Esmarelda’s body, so thin and pale and inches from death. “Such a waste, such a precious waste.”

***

Los Angeles, present

Esmarelda was near death. But she couldn’t be! Unless it really was Adriano who had been the father of Vince’s bloodline. No. Scarlet did not want to believe that. It had to be Esmarelda. There was goodness in Vince. It had been planted by Esmarelda. Hopefully.

Slipping away after Sebastian’s first set, Scarlet had called a cab. Compelled by unknown reason’s, Scarlet gave the driver Vince’s address. Since she’d been reading the diaries, her mind was being invaded by some…one. Someone who wanted her to now go to Vince.

Save him
, the soundless voice beckoned.
You are right. He is good.

It was Esmarelda who pleaded with her. Scarlet sensed it like she could sense the
shimmer
from of another of her kind.

She had called Vince from the pay phone after calling a cab.

“Come to me tonight, Scarlet,” he had whispered.

“I’ll be right there,” she said as if hypnotized by the magician’s voice.

Vince waited outside on the steps of Rico’s mansion. A misty rain dressed his body in delicate translucent jewels.

“I wasn’t sure whether or not you’d come.”

Taking in the vast facade of the white mansion, Scarlet murmured, “I wanted to.”
I need to.

“Aren’t you supposed to be with Sebastian tonight?”

She exhaled. “He’s at the benefit concert. He’d be pissed if he knew where I was but I’ll be back before he misses me. Besides, I need to be here.”

“Need to?”

“Don’t ask for explanations. You wouldn’t understand where my mind has been lately. So what’s up with you? You look a little depressed.”

“Yeah.” Vince gestured his hands through the misted air. “It’s Gary. He told me to take a hike tonight. Doesn’t want me in the band anymore.”

“I can’t believe he would—”

Vince shook off his announcement with a sweeping wave of his hand. “No biggie. I could see this one coming for a long time. I just hope this doesn’t turn you against me now.” His eyes met hers and Scarlet swallowed to see the pleading innocence.

“God, things are such a mess lately.” She looked out across the lot. Moonlight shimmered across the black pebbles paving the driveway. “I’m so confused. I love Gary dearly. But I would never stop being your friend, Vince. “ She turned and walked to the white doric column that supported the porch.

What am I doing here? Sebastian would never forgive me. Is this you, Esmarelda? What do you want me to know?

Her decision to learn more about herself and the vampire condition had all been triggered by watching Vince kill. She had come here by means of an unforced coercion.

“After what happened the other night…” Flashes of Vince feeding on the woman in the alleyway pushed into Scarlet’s mind. “Watching you kill… You must understand Vince, there is this blood bond between Sebastian and I. We will always be one, no matter what happens, and should we part I feel we will always be together. In the blood, you know? I hate to hear the words come out of my mouth but…I am a vampire...and I was so tempted. Vince…”He tipped her chin up with his finger. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“But I’m so confused. I know you’ve told me it is my nature, but I’m not so sure. I think it’s the values my family instilled in me all my life, they’re battling with my sense of right and wrong. Even though I’ve changed and I’m very different from the common mortals who must obey the rules of the land, I still feel very much a part of the mortal race. And that’s the whole problem. Why am I so normal? What’s missing, Vince? Can you tell me? Do you possess the answers?”

“I don’t know about having all the answers, Scarlet, but I think there’s something I can do to help.” A thin stream of rain trickled down Vince’s cheek, like a tear. “Come inside. I want you to meet Rico. I know you’ll like him. He’s a hard person not to fall in love with. Maybe being around more of your kind will help you to see things more clearly. Blake is here, too.”

“But I thought we…” She pulled back on his hand, staring blindly at their joined fingers. His fingers were so warm, even in the rain.
Not this way
. ” I thought it was just going to be the two of us, Vince. I have questions. There are things I want to know.”

“First you have to meet Rico. He’d never forgive me if I didn’t introduce you.”

So Scarlet received the grand tour of the Bellange mansion. She was in awe of the conspicuous display of wealth. An original Picasso hung in the gallery upstairs, accompanied on either side by solid gold candelabras circa the eleventh century. And there were angels everywhere, in paintings and lithographs, carved into the woodwork, set into the plaster frieze and glimmering in precious metals.

“We are the wicked angels,” Vince said with a masterly smile. “That’s what Rico calls us.”

“Kinda romantic sounding.” But what Scarlet found most interesting was the collection of swords hung along the upper hallway.

She trailed behind Vince, lingering over the elegant weapons, until her eyes fell upon one with a hilt of twisted silver and five tiny rubies embedded within the precious metal. She had held one similar to this once, a year ago, when she had traveled through time to the eighteenth century. Francesco, Vince’s blood master, had been alive and well then, and had offered to give her fencing lessons with a blade much like this one. She drew her finger along the blade’s edge, surprised to find it so sharp.

“That’s a nice one.”

Vince startled her from behind and the blood oozed from a red slice across her fingertip.

Clutching her hand to her chest with her finger extended, Scarlet looked to Vince to find his interest rousing. He stared at her bleeding finger, not moving to touch, but she knew from his slowing, deep breaths, the sight tempted him.

Daring to feed the betrayal, she lifted her finger to Vince’s lips. His tongue encircled it slowly as he sucked and drew the blood from her. A tormented moan escaped him and Scarlet pushed close to his body, matching her hips to his. As she pulled her finger away from his mouth his head followed.

Vince nudged into her hair and bulleted kisses along her neck. His heart pounded against hers. Feeling her teeth slide over her lips, Scarlet bent to Vince’s neck and tested the pounding vein with her pin-sharp weapons. His flesh smelled of rain and sweat. The sense of want was immense. She had to taste the blood of this fiery man.

For the moment, Sebastian no longer existed.

“Evening, Vince.”

Scarlet froze and Vince looked up, blinking away a curl of her dark hair.

“Blake.”

“Don’t mind me,” their visitor said as he strolled down the stairs. “I can see you’re busy. I’ll meet your friend later. Rico’s in one of his moods. You’ll find him in the studio playing the dirge again.”

Scarlet willed her canines back up before the other man noticed.
What are you doing? You didn’t come here to betray Sebastian.

“Don’t rush off, Blake.” Vince grabbed her hand and pulled her down the stairs behind him. “I want you to meet Scarlet.”

“Ah, the lovely lady who lives with Sebastian DelaCourte.” Blake bowed his head and offered his hand. “I’ve heard little about you from Vince other than your beauty is of the utmost brilliance. And I can see now why he mentioned nothing else.”

Somewhat taken aback by the man’s charm, and still flushed from her brief encounter, Scarlet shook Blake’s hand. As their palms joined the
shimmer
gave her a bit of a start. This was the first vampire she had met other than Vince and Sebastian, and of course, Francesco.

“Vince has told me you’ve made him welcome here. I’m glad for that.”

“And where is your friend, Sebastian?”

“He’s playing a benefit concert tonight.”

“Sebastian is of no concern,” Vince said.

“I was just going to make a few calls, get some friends together.” Blake looked at Vince for a long moment and Scarlet wondered what they were silently conveying to each other. “Are you going to join the evening’s festivities?”

“I don’t know yet.” Vince glanced uneasily at Scarlet. “Maybe we’ll go say hello to Rico, try to pull him out of his funk.”

Blake’s smile revealed brilliant white teeth set between his thick red lips. “Well, if anything can help, I believe those wicked green eyes will do the trick. It was a pleasure meeting you, Scarlet. You’ll be back?”

“Oh…sure, I hope so. Vince tells me you have a band. I’d like to hear you guys play sometime.”

Vince gave Blake a high five and pulled Scarlet further down the hallway. “You really want to listen to us play?”

“Us? What do you mean, are you singing with this vampire band? That was quick.”

“I haven’t started singing with Blake’s band…yet.”

Scarlet sighed. “I guess I might have seen it coming.”

“Don’t give me any lectures.”

“Don’t worry I’m not going to try and convince you to go back to Wild Child. Right now I think the best thing for you and Gary is a little time apart. This split might be a good thing for both of you. Ooo…” She rubbed her arms, noticing goose bumps had prickled across them. “It’s cold down this way. Don’t you feel it, Vince?”

“What?”

Scarlet looked about the hallway, trying to discern the strange feeling that had overcome her since trekking further into the depths of the house. It was almost haunting.

“I don’t know, it’s a weird feeling I get. Like…a sadness, or something. A heavy feeling that—I don’t know—it’s like it drags on my heart.”

“Yeah, I noticed that feeling the first time I came down this way, too. Like a deep concern or something just kinda falls over you. It’s probably the air conditioning.”

Cold air? Scarlet stopped at the door where Vince stood. She was sure the cold would not make her feel this way. It was as if she could cry, like an exhaustion from some deep emotion was pulling her down.

“Listen.” Vince put his ear to the door. His eyes scampered curiously over her face as she listened, delving for the spark that had ignited before. “He’s playing that song. That means he’s thinking of
her
.”

“Of—”

He pressed a long finger to Scarlet’s lips. “Shh.”

“Of who?” she whispered from beneath his finger.

“His sister. He won’t tell me much about her, but I think she’s dead. They must have loved intensely. He becomes lost in another world when he’s like this. It’s eerie. I get the feeling that her ghost is hovering about the room when he plays this.”

Scarlet averted her eyes upward. “Maybe she is. We shouldn’t disturb him.”

“Nah, it’s cool. He wants to meet you. Let’s slip in quietly and listen for a while.”

Without being offered a choice, Scarlet followed Vince inside the glowing metal walls of the studio. The man bent over the keys seemed not to notice them as they carefully made way to the couch and sat down. The grand piano mourned deeply, pleading all who listened to feel the mercy, the loss, the tenderness of love still there.

The heavy feeling stayed with Scarlet as she listened and observed, finding Rico an elegant man in his late twenties with ill-kept hair, uncut and tousled about his head as if a bother. His fingers, weighed down by an assortment of thick silver rings, danced soulfully across the lower keys, the one blue stone catching the candlelight in fierce blazes of aquamarine.

Finding herself entranced by the elegant sadness of this man, Scarlet leant forward, cupping her chin in her palm and absently slipped her other hand into Vince’s.

“She would have been jealous of your beauty.”

Scarlet was surprised to hear Rico’s deep voice as he continued to play, not turning around to acknowledge either of them. She looked at Vince who offered no answer. It seemed he was too caught up in her hand, which rested in his palm.