Eternal Shadows (10 page)

“Should I make your favorite cake?” Anne called after me.

Damn. Triple Chocolate Peanut Butter Kassandra Cake. Named after me, of course. “Can’t eat it!” I shouted back. “But make it anyway and make sure Warren gets some!” Amused by myself, I took the stairs as fast as I could, concentrating on stopping gracefully at the top.

Upstairs, no one wandered the halls.

Rhys and the others had all taken rooms up here, with the exception of Millie. The rooms had been studies, libraries, and guestrooms before the take-over. I didn’t know which belonged to whom. Aside from barging in on Rhys the night before, I’d had no reason to come up here before now, but I could smell each of them clearly. Madge’s expensive perfume that covered whatever her natural scent was, and Cade’s military cologne of fire and steel. There were others I didn’t recognize at all—jasmine and water lilies, and sandalwood. At least, that’s what they smelled like to me. We’d had candles that smelled similar.

Of course, there was one more scent I would never forget, never mistake. Fresh earth—Rhys. Third door. The fiction library. The two unfamiliar aromas came from there, as well. I headed towards it.

Millie intercepted, appearing out of thin air just between me and my destination. I knew I wouldn’t be getting into Rhys’s room.

“There you are,” she said, taking me by the arm and leading me back down the hall the way I had come. “Didn’t Warren tell you I needed you to hurry?”

“Yes, but everyone’s back. I needed to talk to Anne. How’s Rhys?”

She stumbled. Honest to God, faltered in her steps. But she recovered quickly and looked at me with an utterly calm expression and the falsest smile I had ever seen. “He’s better now. Don’t worry.”

“If he’s better then why isn’t he on my case this morning?” Rhys was usually the first one up, and always roaming the halls. Normally I would have seen him at least three times already. And that was on the days when he wasn’t my shadow.

Hadn’t thought I would miss that shadow.

Millie’s expression turned to something a little more condescending. “I told you not to ask about it, Kassandra.”

“No. You made me promise not to say anything to
him
about it. Asking you is still on the table. Besides, I thought I’m supposed to be meeting the general, and from what I can tell,” I pulled us both to a stop and pointed back at the door I had tried to get through. “He’s in there with Rhys. We’re headed in the wrong direction.”

“You’ll meet the general later. He’s busy at the moment.”

Yeah, busy dealing with whatever had taken Rhys down the night before. I didn’t much like being left in the dark. I was supposed to be learning how to be one of them, yet they hardly told me anything. Not fair, if you asked me. Of course, no one asked me.

“This is crap, Millie.”

Her tiny little nose scrunched up. “Crap?”

“Yeah. Why can’t I know what’s going on?”

“It doesn’t work that way. For everyone, not just you. Years go by before the general trusts you with even half his confidence.”

“I’m not asking for his deepest secrets. I just want to know what happened last night and I want to see for myself that Rhys is okay.”

“Rhys is okay, I told you that. As for what happened last night, that is one of the general’s deepest secrets, so you don’t get to know. Please just trust me.”

I searched for the longest time for some sign of insincerity. I wanted it to be there. I wanted a reason to believe she was playing me, lying to me. But I found nothing. Nothing but truth.

“Fine.” I gave up. For now. “So where are we headed then? I hope I didn’t get all dressed up for nothing.” I flicked my skirt.

“Of course not.” She started walking again, heading for the stairs. “You have other people to meet today, and other things to do as well.”

I decided not to follow, opting instead to stand still and watch her. “Uh huh. The second new scent is in Rhys’s room, too. So who would I be meeting?”

It took her long enough to realize I wasn’t walking with her. She turned, and suddenly I questioned the claim that she and Rhys weren’t really related. I’d seen that look on his face hundreds of times. “I need to brief you on some things. Since the general is busy, we should make good use of the time and go talk now.”

“Who’s the second person?” I felt like being a pain.

“Her name is Aurelia Cinilla,” Millie said, one foot on the first step. “She and the general have been together for a very long time. Comparatively speaking, they’ve known each other their entire lives. Very few years without each other. Now please, come downstairs with me.”

She was trying to keep me away. Her job was to get me off the third floor. Too bad for her. Now I just really wanted to stay. “Where’s Cade?” I asked, trying to buy myself some time.

Her lips flattened into a tiny pink line. Whatever she was keeping from me, Cade was involved. And if I poked around long enough she would give something away.

She cleared her throat. “Kassandra, I will drag you if I have to.”

“You know, all this evasiveness just makes me more curious. And it also makes me worry. You suck at this keep-Kassandra-away game.”

She opened her mouth, probably to argue further, but then closed it again without a word. Her gaze left mine, and trailed over my shoulder instead. Light footsteps treaded behind me, and the fragrance of jasmine and water lilies wafted down the hall stronger than before. Millie drew her foot back up off the steps, straightened her pleated white skirt, then gave me one of those you’ve-done-it-now looks.

Great. Swell. Leave it to me.

Best to get it over with quickly. I turned on my heel, holding my unneeded breath in preparation for what lay behind me.

She looked like she had stepped straight out of a movie about ancient Rome. High-class, with a dress made from fabric so exquisite it couldn’t have existed back then. Her hair fell in perfect chestnut curls and had been pinned back to cascade over her shoulders. While clearly made in the current century, her dress had been cut in the ancient toga style, draping from one shoulder and flowing simply around every curve to her feet. White
looked exquisite on her. Her gray-eyed gaze fixed on me, and I knew who she was immediately. She emanated power.

This would be when I’d be smart to listen to Anne and be on my best behavior.

“You must be Kassandra,” she said. Her voice sounded ancient, but had no particular accent. “I’ve heard much.”

I didn’t know what to do. Curtseying was the only thing to come to mind, but that seemed a little silly. Though it probably wouldn’t have hurt to kiss her feet.

I settled for standing still and keeping my mouth shut.

“I was just about to take Kassandra downstairs to talk,” Millie said, obviously far more comfortable than I was, but the edge was still there.

“Julius would like to see you,” Aurelia said, glancing at Millie for only a moment. “I’ll look after Kassandra.” When she said my name, lengthening the sound of all the
a
’s, it sounded more exotic. It made me nervous.

“Julius wants me?” Millie had stepped forward where I could see her now, and her bright eyes had widened. She seemed to ask the other woman many more things without saying a word.

My nerves cringed. I didn’t know who Julius was, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to reason out he was probably the general. And the general was with Rhys. And last I’d seen Rhys, something had been wrong.

Now everyone was in his room.

I didn’t believe for a second that he was okay.

Aurelia nodded at Millie. “Things were better before you left. Go ahead.”

Millie was gone in an instant. And I was alone with the Roman goddess. I inched away from the wall, feeling rather cornered all of a sudden, as well as horribly inadequate. How did anyone live with a woman like this in the house?

“Come with me, Kassandra. We will talk.” An order if I’d ever heard one. She went straight for the nearest door—the old study—and grabbed the knob.

A crash thundered down the hall, followed by smaller, successive thuds. A bookshelf? Rhys?

I had only taken one step towards his room when Aurelia grabbed my hand and all but tossed me into the study. The door shut behind us both, and with a sharp click, she locked it.

I caught my balance and turned on her. “What the hell was that? What’s going on? Rhys isn’t okay at all, is he?” I knew that. Knew it as certainly as I had known trouble was on its way the night before. My heart thumped once then went still again.

“We have things to discuss, and none of them are Rhys. He will be exactly as he was the next time you see him. So be quiet and speak only to answer my questions.”

That power I had felt before grew again. It tingled along my skin, giving me goose bumps. Maybe she really was a goddess. Nothing else would have made sense. My busy thoughts kept me quiet, and thankfully she took that as my acquiescence.

“Now let’s talk,” she said, keeping herself between me and the door. “What do you know of past lives?”

Chapter Eight: When in Rome

“Excuse me?”

She loomed over me, making me feel like an insignificant bug. That sense of power pressed at me, and that annoying prickle at the back of my neck started to act up again. Caution was becoming a daily ailment.

“Past lives, Kassandra.” Aurelia glided across the floor, sendin
g me skittering backwards and farther into the room. “You have heard the term before, no doubt.”

I crashed into a tall round side table, toppling it and all its contents. Something shattered on the floor behind me. “I’ve heard of them, yes.”

“Sit down. I am not going to harm you.”

“I’ll stand, thanks.” No way was I putting myself in that vulnerable a position. Sitting eliminated what little height I had.

Aurelia studied me for a moment. She seemed to look past me, through me, into me. I thought about past lives. Did I believe in them? Maybe. I’d never seen or heard anything to convince me in either direction. Reincarnation sounded cool. Finish one life, come back and try another. Make up for past wrongs, do something you couldn’t do before. Fun times, in theory. Of course, even that had been taken from me. Reincarnation needs death in order to work, and immortality and death weren’t on the best of terms.

Really, it made me want to believe in past lives just so I could have one more thing to be bitter about.

I probably needed therapy.

“Tell me this,” Aurelia said, breaking my depressing train of thought. “When you look at us, do you get the sense that there is something more?”

“No.” Other than the sense they secretly want to eat everyone. Though a few of them were beginning to change my mind on that.

“No? Not at all?”

“Well, I’ve been a bit preoccupied with my almost constant sense of dread. I’ll try paying attention from now on.” And we’re done. I can leave now. Right?

Delusional.

My generous giving of information only piqued her interest further. “Sense of dread?” She stepped closer to me, running a hand through the air around my head, as though she was feeling for something. “Tell me about this sense.”

I kept very still, but shrugged one shoulder to try to make light of the whole matter. “It’s something I’ve always had, though it seems on overdrive ever since I got turned. It’s just a little prickle at the back of my neck when something’s about to go wrong.”

She drew her hand back. “Interesting. And is this feeling always accurate?”

“Uh…yeah, pretty much.”

“And when was the last time you felt it?”

“Well, it’s acting up a bit right now.” I had all my weight on my heels. If she came any closer, and I leaned any further back, I would be on the floor.

“Now?” One perfectly plucked eyebrow rose to almost meet her hairline.

“Yes, well,” I readjusted my weight before I fell, scooting around the fallen table and to the other side of a plush leather chair. “You are a little intimidating and way older than me—in a good way,” I added after realizing what I had said. “I mean, you could probably squash me like a bug.”

“Indeed.” She moved away, curls bouncing across her back, then swinging to one side when she spun back around to face me again. “I will not harm you, Kassandra. It is the wish of no one in this house. But you are right to be wary of someone like me. It will keep you alive in our world. The old ones are not to be taken lightly.”

“Good to know.”

“Before now, when did you last get this feeling?”

“Last night.”

As I suspected, those two words were all she needed to understand. I could see it in the way her eyes crinkled at the corners while her mouth tightened. She knew what had happened, and she would leave me in the dark just like everyone else. Why should I need to know? It’s not like I was there or anything. Not like I had seen firsthand the pain on Rhys’s face.

“We shall work on developing this instinct of yours. It will benefit you greatly. And perhaps the rest of us as well.”

“So glad I can be useful.”

“We all play our parts, Kassandra. Yours has yet to be determined.”

My part. Somehow I knew that would come up once I met the general. If he ran everything, then I assumed that meant he would run me, too. Joy. So much for the freedom of eighteen. Now I had to wait for the freedom of one hundred. Maybe I could gain some privileges early for good behavior. Not that I’d gotten off to a good start in that direction or anything.

“Let me tell you a little something about myself.”

Oh goody. Story time. I kept my mouth shut and hoped she’d continue on her own.

She sat in one of the other leather chairs, her white dress standing out sharply against the deep, rich tone of the high back and wide arms. “There are aspects of this life that are not largely known,” she said. “A few of your movies and books have alluded to the truth, or have speculated, but none have ever gotten it perfectly right. But the point is this—some of us are gifted in ways the others are not. It is just as it is with humans. For me, this ability was present in my human life and I made good use of it. I was a priestess, and an oracle, and I was good at what I did.”

I didn’t get where she was headed with all this. Yeah, I had that bit of intuition and it seemed to be stronger now, but I’d never used it for anything. Other than arguing fruitlessly with my father.

“Unlike in your movies,” Aurelia continued, “we do not all possess imagined powers. In all my years I have met one mind reader, and it is no gift. I have never met a vampire who could move objects with his mind, nor have I met any who could manipulate any point in time or see far into the future. But I have met, and continue to meet, those who can sense the past lives of others as well as remember their own.”

“That’s…interesting.” I wished I was closer to the door.

“I am one who can sense such things. I remember each of my past lives, though there are few since I was turned early on in modern human history. I can
glimpse hints of past lives in humans as well as vampires, and I know where each member of our family has been before they came to us. And you,” she stood again, then skipped the middle ground and appeared inches away from my face. “Have the same ability.”

I stumbled backwards, catching myself on the arm of the other chair. She was crazy. I’d never sensed anything from anyone—other than danger, of course—and I’d certainly never remembered a past life. “You must be mistaken.”

“You are young. The memories will not come immediately.”

“No, I mean I can’t sense past lives.”

She paused, physically and audibly. I crept around the leather chair until it acted as a shield between me and her. Confusion danced across her features, illustrating each thought in her eyes. She hadn’t expected me to say what I had.

“You have not sensed the presence of other lives?”

“No.” Please don’t kill me.

“Try.”

“What?”

The chair was suddenly gone, sliding across the hardwood floor to the other side of the room and leaving me naked to attack. I really needed to work on my reflexes. Backing up, I slammed into the windowsill, bruising my lower back. I curled my fingers around the edge, desperately seeking some sort of protection. This vampire could kill me with a look, I was sure of it. And while she hadn’t been outwardly threatening—yet—I had the distinct feeling Aurelia was the kind of woman whose mood changed on a dime.

“Try.” She grabbed my hands and slid her own fingers around mine until they had clasped palm to palm. Her gaze bore into mine, and my skin tingled where it came in contact with hers. I tried. I tried like a drowning person tried to find the surface, but came up with nothing. No glimmers of the ancient world, no mental pictures of a life that had never been mine. The only thing I sensed was my desperate need to get away. I was sure she hadn’t been lying when she said no one here meant me any harm, but the hierarchy of the vampire world had made itself very clear to me in this one moment. She was older, more powerful, and more experienced. Every bone in my body screamed for a show of deference. Even if I had been able to sense her lives, I wouldn’t have.

Finally, she released me. I gasped, out of habit of course, but even without a racing heart I panted and clutched at my chest with relief and lessening fear. Aurelia just set her arms back at her sides and regarded me with a look that made me feel like a puppy that had failed its master’s expectations.

“You have the power. I can feel it,” she said. “Why you cannot access it is beyond me, but we will change that.”

I had opened my mouth to beg her to just let it be when her attention was drawn away. It would have been the perfect opportunity to risk my life and hop out the window, had it not gained my attention as well. A new scent. Flowery, and human.

Aurelia growled, baring her teeth for one short moment, then flew to the door and opened it. “Olivia.” Her tone would have stopped me dead in my tracks, even if a serial killer had been nipping at my heels. “Come here this instant.”

Though the woman had scared the living daylights out of me only moments before, I crept towards the door, wanting to see who this was, and how it would play out. When Aurelia stepped out into the hall, I slid into the doorway to watch.

A young woman had frozen just in front of Rhys’s door, one hand poised over the knob. Her brown hair had been pinned back out of her face, and the deep blue dress she wore left little to the imagination. She spun away from the door, clasping her hands behind her back and plastering what was meant to be an innocent smile across her face. “Aurelia,” she said, her voice a light soprano. “I didn’t see you there.”

Aurelia either wasn’t amused, didn’t believe her, or both. “That’s because I wasn’t here for you to see.” The vampress’ tone had darkened even more than it had with me. Olivia was in far more trouble. “What do you think you are doing?”

“Me? Oh, I was just coming for Rhys.”

“You have not been called for.”

“Not exactly, but,” Olivia shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “He’ll need me shortly.”

“When you are needed, someone will send for you. Until then, you are not to set foot beyond that door.”

“But if Rhys is in trouble, then—”

Aurelia moved so fast I didn’t see it. Olivia cried out when her back slammed against the wall across the way from the door she had been trying to get through. Aurelia had one hand clamped around the girl’s neck, the other pressed against her mouth. “Silence. Learn to hold your tongue. If you cannot manage to think before you speak, then I will solve the problem for you.”

My first instinct was to move to help the girl. However, logic kicked in fast enough and kept my feet plastered to the floor. All I’d do was make the situation worse.

Olivia choked and squeaked, and I saw her chin attempt a downward motion. She couldn’t nod with Aurelia’s hand around her throat.

Aurelia released her, dropping her back to the floor. Olivia caught her balance rather expertly, but hugged the wall as she rubbed her neck. I began to weigh my options—get out of there, hide in the study behind me, or stay there in the hall.

“Kassandra.” Aurelia made my choice for me. “Come here.”

I did so, but I kept a reasonable distance between myself and the human girl.

“This is Olivia,” Aurelia said, her stormy eyes locked on the girl, though she turned her body towards me. “She is one of our more headstrong feeders. As a part of our family, I expect you to remind her of her place just as any of the rest of us would.”

Oh great. Like I could give orders like that. Not really my thing. And I certainly wasn’t going to bully all the humans in the house just because I was a vampire. Still, after seeing Aurelia in action, I nodded. The gesture didn’t commit me too much, but it served to answer her command.

Olivia looked at me for the first time. Clearly older than me, though only by a few years, she had the eyes of someone who had seen far more than their years normally would have allowed. Her pert little nose was the kind that spent most of the day upturned at everyone else, and her china doll lips would always look perfect no matter what kind of scowl she attempted.

She scowled at me then. “Who is she?” she demanded in no uncertain terms. I almost felt as though she had spit on me.

“This is Kassandra Thomas. You will give her the same respect you give all of us.” How strange to have gone from being interrogated by the woman, to being defended by her all in the same hour.

Olivia seemed to have no qualms when it came to asking questions. In a way, I envied her. “And where did she come from? I didn’t hear anything about someone new joining the family.”

“She is Rhys’s fledgling.”

Fire. Honest to God there was fire behind Olivia’s eyes. Aurelia looked smug.

“Rhys?” Olivia almost couldn’t get the word out. “Rhys turned her?”

“Yes.”

“But—but Rhys never turns anyone!”

“Things change.”

Olivia chirped for a while, not quite managing a coherent sentence. I had backed away only one step, deciding perhaps my presence was needed elsewhere, when she turned her glare on me.

“You,” she said. “You had just better be careful. I see what you’re up to. Rhys and I have been together a long time. Don’t think just because you got turned that makes you special.”