The Maestro's Apprentice (11 page)

93

She shook her head hard, to clear it, and whirled to face him. “
What?
” In spite of her bold beginning, she shrank from him.

Without touching her, he lowered his head to whisper in her ear. “I know what to do with naughty girls who have to stay in their rooms, Autumn. I’ve had decades and decades of practice.”

She could smell him—a sweet, musky soap, cologne, the hint of maleness. A series of hot chills spread over her back. She could swear she felt every individual hair stand on end. Suddenly, Francois moved away and drank the rest of his drink. “I’ll let you think about it,” he said. “Enjoy the rest of that. Oh, and…” He strode over to her and planted a kiss on her lips. “That’s to remember me by. Like I said, you know where to find me.”

He scooped up his bottle from the table, put down his cup and headed for the door, followed by Josh. Autumn could only watch, dumbfounded, and try not to let her legs shake visibly. She took a step forward as he opened the door and motioned for his boy to go out first, then went out himself, turning at the last moment to flash her a big, fanged smile before closing the door.

94

“I know what to do with naughty girls who have to stay in their rooms, Autumn.

I’ve had decades and decades of practice.”

Autumn wondered if Francois knew his words would keep her awake that night, touching herself. Bill had simply been desperate to find someone to fill his needs. He would have gone after anyone he thought he could steer back to his room and under his belt. Francois spoke as though only
she
would do.

She felt restless. She needed a walk. Her heart beat quickly at the thought of taking Adam’s key from his pants and slipping out the door. She could probably get out without disturbing the others too much. Maria had come back tipsy and Adam seemed to have too much on his mind to notice the strange smells that must have been in the room, including those of whiskey and other males. Or, she thought, maybe he just assumed the smells were from the cleaning staff.

This had been the first night since they had started traveling that Autumn and Maria lay with Adam between them. It saddened her in a way, but she was glad things were out in the open now. At least, most things were. It seemed that every time one thing settled itself, something much more interesting happened.

Very carefully, she sat up, trying not to shake the bed too much. Adam snorted and moved around a little, but didn’t roll over. She perched on the edge of the mattress for a moment, listening to their breathing, then stood and began feeling around on the floor for the jeans Adam had worn out that night. It wasn’t hard. They smelled like cigarette smoke.

95

There were two skeleton keys on a ring in the pocket. After a lot of pulling and fingertip pain, she got one of them off and put the other back, then felt around for her own jeans, pulled them on and headed for the door in bare feet. The bed creaked just as she got the key in the lock.

“Autumn…” Adam’s voice was rough with sleep.

“I’m just going to the pharmacy,” she whispered. “Stomach’s upset.”

“Want me to come with you?” he asked groggily.

“I’ll be fine,” she said. “It’s not far.”

“Be careful…” He was snoring within seconds.

She had never used a skeleton key before and had to crouch over the keyhole for many minutes to get the door to open. She didn’t realize how tense the position had made her back until she stood. The knob was a little loose in her hand and the hinges creaked, so she opened it slowly. Maria whimpered and turned over in her sleep. Autumn’s heart pounded, partly because she wondered what would happen if the others actually became conscious, and partly because she wondered what would happen if they didn’t.

She crept out into the cold hallway, wishing she had thought to bring a jacket. Or socks.
Too late now,
she thought, and shut the creaky door again, tempted to leave it unlocked. What were the chances of someone coming along and trying to get into their room? she wondered, then realized she really had no idea what would likely happen in a place like this. The thought made her shiver.

Finally, she got the door locked and put the key in her pocket, then took a moment to listen, in case Adam or Maria stirred. Hearing nothing, she backed away from the door, feeling very alone in the high-ceilinged hallway. She began to tremble. For a moment, all 96

she wanted was to open the door and rush back in, climb back under the covers and stay there, but she turned toward the hallway instead.

It was mostly dark, lit only by electric wall sconces. She stepped carefully, in case the staff had missed sweeping up a stone or something sharp.
This place is full of vampires,
she thought.
Horny vampires on vacation.
This time, her shivers were accompanied by heat between her legs, and she wished she was in a dress, like in the movies.

She rounded a corner and found herself on a short hallway with no rooms, and windows on both sides. She wandered to the right, positioned above a courtyard, with a fountain for a centerpiece. Moonlight shimmered off the water, even as shadowy plants moved in the breeze on either side of the cobbled walk. At first she was alarmed to see movement here and there. Then she realized some of the guests had decided to take moonlit strolls, which had obviously led to other things. She had a pretty decent view of a man pumping a woman lying beneath him, her dress raised to her hips. She wondered which of them was the vampire. Judging by the percentage of vampire men she had seen at dinner, she guessed he was.

“Those people are completely scandalous,” a man’s voice whispered behind her, making her jump. She turned with a hand over her heart to find Francois standing there, grinning. “Scared you?”

“Yes!” she said, and smacked him on the arm. “Are you still stalking me?”

He put his hand over his heart and gave her an exaggerated look of shock. “Who, me?” he asked. “I just have a hard time staying in my room. I’m practically living in this hallway. I haven’t slept well since the turn.”

“Of the century?”

97

He laughed. “
No-o-o.
Longer than that, baby. Longer than that. Since about 1788,1789. Around then.”

Something about that date struck her as odd, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

“Oh,” she said. “I thought you were younger, for some reason.”

He gave her another look. “You really know how to make a guy feel good about himself. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go cry in my room.”

Autumn laughed, genuinely this time.

“Now she’s laughing at me. You really are an evil woman, you know that?” he said.

“I don’t know if I’m safe around you. Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t we go down there and do something to them?”

“Do something to them? Like what?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Throw some water on them or something.”

“We can’t do that!”

“Why not? Ooh!” he said, hunching toward her excitedly, touching her arm with the backs of his fingers. “I’ll tell you what. I have a water pistol in my car. We can get that, and it may not make them quite as angry as some of the things we could do. What do you say? Do you want a little adventure?”

“Well,” Autumn said. Pranking the courtyard couple sounded like a great idea in theory, but she wasn’t sure how it would play out in practice. Besides, it was cold out there.

“Oh, come
on,
” Francois said, turning to look out the window with a mischievous smile. “Live a little.”

98

Autumn followed his gaze. “I wasn’t really planning on leaving the building. It’s –

what time is it, anyway?”

“A great man once wrote that time is an illusion.”

“What great man?”

“It doesn’t matter. He’s dead now. But I’m alive and standing right before you, wanting to take you on the adventure of a lifetime.”

“Squirting people with a water gun is the adventure of a lifetime?”

“Well, all great adventures begin with something fun. Come on.”

Autumn smiled. It did sound like fun, and she didn’t mind being lured into the shadows by a fun, handsome vampire for a session of something that would probably turn into debauchery. She nodded. “Okay. But I can’t be gone long. Adam and Maria are expecting me back.”

“It will only take a minute,” he said and took her by the hand to pull her back down the hall toward stairs. “They won’t know what hit them,” he said. “And the water should be nice and cool by now.”

Outside, the night air was almost frosty. “Oh, it’s cold. And I’m barefoot,” she said.

“I shouldn’t be out here like this.” She turned to go back inside, but he put his arm around her shoulders.

“Never fear,” he said, and took off his jacket to hold it for her. She looked longingly at the door, but soon acquiesced and allowed him to slip it up over her arms and drape it on her shoulders.

“It’s way too big,” she said.

99

“Well, you can’t have everything,” he teased, and picked her up in his arms, making her squeal. Something about the sudden motion and the feeling of being pressed against his chest made her want him to touch her, made her ignore the pricking on the back of her neck that told her something wasn’t quite right.

“What do you drive?” she asked.

“Something really cool,” he said, focusing his eyes ahead, no longer smiling. Autumn thought he may be concentrating on finding his car, or on not stepping on something that would cause him to stumble with her, though she had never met a clumsy vampire.

The parking lot was down the hill and across an expanse of grass, which meant he would have to carry her for about a mile. “Are you sure it’s worth it to go all that way for a water gun? We could do something else to them if you want.” Assuming the water pistol was just a ruse to get her into the shadows to do naughty things with her, she added, “Or something else, by ourselves.”

“It’s worth it,” he said, ignoring or perhaps unaware of her hint. “Besides, we can’t back down now. It would be against the rules, and we’ve already come all this way.”

Something about his insistence spooked her.

“Francois, I think I really want to change my mind. I don’t want to do this.”

That got his attention. “You’re not serious,” he said, his voice warm again. “Am I frightening you? Here, let me put you down for a moment. Your feet are going to get cold.”

He let her slide out of his arms. When her bare feet touched the cold pavement, she shivered visibly.

100

“Aw, come here,” he said, and put his arms around her. She shivered from the cold.

“I shouldn’t have brought you out here like this. Will you ever forgive me?”

“I just don’t want to do anything to those people anymore. They’re probably gone anyway.”

“Perhaps,” he said, and grew quiet.

Autumn thought there was something odd about the embrace, and about his sudden change in mood. She knew she should go back inside, but it felt as though he were coiled like a rattler, and that any sudden move or suggestion that betrayed just how alarmed she felt would cause him to strike. The odd thing about the embrace, she realized, was Francois’s lack of an erection, even though he seemed to be trying to seduce her.

She began to tremble as she realized things really weren’t quite right and she was far away from Adam. Just as she was beginning to wonder if she should scream and run for the door, she heard footsteps coming up the walk—two sets, belonging to men, not quite in sync.

“What’s up, man?” one of them said to Francois. It was Freddie Biali, carrying a walking cane, and he had Mick with him. Though his tone was friendly, it carried an undercurrent of something else. It reminded her of the way Claudio had sounded when he thought his feeders might be up to something.

“Mr. Biali, Mick. The lovely Autumn and I are going for a nice walk in the moonlight. It’s a perfect night for it.”

“In bare feet?” Mick asked, looking at Autumn. “You must be freezing. Here,” he said, taking off a red furry coat, similar to the one he had been wearing at dinner. “This one will be warmer.”

101

Autumn looked at Francois regretfully, not wanting to insult him even though she had been ready to run screaming a moment before. She felt glad he moved to reclaim his jacket himself.

When Mick made a subtle movement of his head to call her over, she noticed he was wearing a pair of goggles on top of his woolen hat. She went to him and let him put the coat on her. “There. That has
got
to be better.”

“It is. Thank you.” Unsure what Biali’s and Mick’s intentions were, and what Francois’s reaction was going to be, she began to tremble harder. She really wanted to go back to her room.

It was Biali’s turn to speak. “I hate to be a cock-blocker, man, but there’s no taking other people’s feeders off premise.”

“We were just going for a walk—”

“This place has two courtyards, and both of them have a lot of cover,” Biali said.

“And this girl is not dressed for walking out here. It’s freezing for them.”

Francois nodded, and tightened his jaw. “Right,” he said, glancing at Autumn. “I guess I didn’t think of that. Perhaps we should go inside to the library and talk, yes?”

“Actually,” Biali said, “I want a few minutes with her myself. I think I need to clue her in to appropriate feeder behavior.”

His words made Autumn’s stomach sink to her feet. Her lips parted in surprise. She looked at her bare toes, which looked much too vulnerable on the pavement, and wondered if they were going to punish her.

“All right,” Francois said. “I’ll just wait and we can go to the library afterward.”

Mick bowed his head and snickered, swiping his lip with his thumb.

102

Biali shook his head. “I was speaking rhetorically, my friend. I have a few videos in my office I’m going to show her. You won’t be seeing her again tonight. You two can hook up tomorrow,
on
premise.”

Francois nodded. “I see. Well,” he said, turning to Autumn. “Come find me.” He then turned briefly to the other men and went back toward the building. The others watched him go. When he was inside, Mick said, “Shady.”