Becoming the Enigma, page 32
Helga held up the outfit and Katey made a face. “Like the skirt, not the blouse.”
Katey took charge and turned to the wardrobe to have another look. Soon, she came across a beige, silky, long-sleeved buttoned blouse with a plunging neckline. It would show way too much skin for her comfort, but it was better than the Renaissance Faire outfit.
She took the new outfit combination, undressed and threw her old clothes on the foot of the bed. To her astonishment, the skirt and blouse fit perfectly, fitting to her figure as if it were made for her. She walked up to the full-length mirror standing in the corner of the room next to the wardrobe and inspected her reflection for the first time. Katey’s face puckered in a deep frown. Her hair was a tangled mess. No wonder Martel may have thought she was in danger from the loups-garous. Though it was completely true, it looked like she had been chased through the Alaskan wilderness.
“Is something wrong, miss?” Helga asked as she presented Katey with a pair of heels to match the skirt.
There was plenty wrong. She was in an unfamiliar place, one of her former childhood friends was a freakin’ vampire, and her future mate was locked away in a cage somewhere, probably wondering if she was even alive. Nothing was right, but she couldn’t tell anyone that. Until she could free her pack and all the other loups-garous trapped below her, Katey would have to play the part that they all expected of her.
“Do you have a brush or something so I can fix this?” Katey slipped her fingers into the tangles and pulled to make her point.
Helga then pointed out a small vanity on the other side of the room. “Would you like me to do your hair, miss?”
“No, I can do it myself.”
Katey sat at the vanity and strapped on the heels. A brush, hair clips, and a perfume bottle sat upon the vanity top, along with an elegant jewelry box. This definitely wasn’t Martel’s room. By the clothes and the vanity, it had to belong to another woman, but who? Where was she now?
While she tried to fix the disaster that was her hair, her mind drifted. How did the vampires sneak up on them so suddenly and manage to overtake them with those darts? What poison could have taken down a loup-garou so easily? And above all, why didn’t the vampires just kill them? It would have made much more sense, but they were being held in the bowels of the castle and alive. For what purpose?
“How did you get tangled up with this bunch?”
“My parents are dead, miss. I didn’t have anywhere to go so I came to work here. My uncle tends the gardens. My whole time consists of serving the vampire lords and their guests.”
Katey’s heart bled for Helga. To have no family besides her uncle who was bound in the same servitude as she was, no friends, no means of supporting herself, and forced to work for a race that drank blood to survive, all of it was too great a burden for any little girl to bear. Hopefully, they had no plans to make her dinner one day if she ever proved to be useless. Then again, did vampires do that sort of thing? By Helga’s reflexive timidity, she doubted that the vampire lords were that benevolent.
“Can you tell me exactly where I am?” Katey glanced at Helga in the mirror, who stood some distance behind her, waiting for orders.
“We’re on a high mountain overlooking my hometown.” There was a hint of pain in her voice as if she didn’t want to be here either. “Unfortunately, it’s far away from any big city. The vampires set up here for that reason.”
“Is this Martel’s castle?”
Helga giggled and shook her head. “No, miss. It’s Michael and Yaverik’s. They’re the vampire lords of this region.”
That wasn’t comforting. “How many vampires are here?”
“We’re in the middle of the Winter Solstice celebration, so it’s hard to say. We have many guests from across the country staying with us right now.”
That was even less comforting. She was surrounded. She had hoped maybe only five vamps at the most lived here. Now she realized how surrounded she truly was. A gathering of this many vampires and the ambush on the loups-garous was no coincidence. Something was coming and she had to stop it somehow, but there was too little information to go on.
“I’m assuming this is a big castle?”
“Yes, miss. You’ll have a good view of it from the bottom of the mountain. We have a beautiful courtyard, too, if you get to see it during the day.”
Katey considered the perfume, and wondered if her nose was too sensitive for it. After a tiny spritz, she figured that’s all she could handle. The scent resembled something like lavender or orchids and Katey liked the subtle feminine touch it gave her. It was familiar too, but she couldn’t place exactly where from.
“Have you seen the werewolves in the basement?”
A chord had been struck in the little girl and Katey heard Helga swallow hard. “I caught a glimpse of them when they were being brought in, miss, but nothing more. I’m not allowed in the basement.”
Katey’s heartbeat quickened. “Did you see someone specific? He was a younger man, dark hair with blonde streaks and a bit of facial hair around his jaw? What about an older man with a bit of a graying beard? How about one that’s young, but with reddish hair?”
Her questions came at Helga too rapidly. All the girl could do was shake her head.
“I’m sorry, miss, I didn’t get a good look at them like that.”
Katey let out a heavy sigh and her shoulders slumped. She wouldn’t know if Logan and the others were safe until later, but patience was never something she possessed.
With one last look in the mirror, Katey knew there was little else she could do to make herself look decent. Then again, why would she care about that? It was just Martel, a vampire, and also an old friend. She had Logan, so why would she want to look good for Martel? She shook her head to rid herself of that feeling, and stood to join Helga by the door.
The halls were carpeted with more red and the grandeur she had admired in the bed chamber seemed to carry into the décor for the rest of the castle. Ancient tapestries and sconces lined the walls. They passed door after door that led into unknown chambers and Katey heard whispered conversations behind each one. The stench of vampire was everywhere, an ever-present odor that singed her nostrils.
The foyer boasted high raftered ceilings with extravagant golden carvings in the corners of the hall that trailed down along the walls in intricate scrollwork. The floor was paved in marble tiles and gleamed in the golden light from the torches throughout the foyer. She saw only three sets of doors leading out of the room. One led to a dining hall packed with vampire guests, while the other opened up into a ballroom where she could hear humans bustling around and talking amongst themselves about decorations. The third massive door led outside, etched with old world designs and straight across the long foyer floor from the grand staircase.
They hadn’t passed by a single vampire until they descended the grand marble stairs down to the main foyer. They were pale, just as ashen as Martel, and held their heads high as if they were the true royalty in the world. Some dressed in formal gowns and suits, while others were clothed more humbly in slacks and polos. The women were stunningly beautiful and the men were handsome, but more sophisticatedly handsome like Martel.
A few were followed closely by humans who kept their heads bowed and eyes cast to the floor. Were these servants like Helga, or did they serve some other purpose?
What struck her odd was that some didn’t exude the same haughtiness like Martel. Others actually met her stare and nodded their greeting before walking past, showing her some deference despite not being a vampire at all. But there were plenty of sneers to outweigh the kind smiles she received, too.
It was different from the roguish good looks of the loups-garous. The vamps had a regal quality to their appearances, while the loups-garous featured more of the dashing essence of adventurers and warriors. These people looked like they had never worked a day in their lives.
It was then that she realized she couldn’t read their emotions in the same way that she could for humans or loups-garous. It was as if they blocked her out, her mind hitting a brick wall in an effort to figure them out. Either that, or there was nothing there for her to find but a soulless shell of a creature so different from herself and her pack. It troubled her to know that she wouldn’t be able to gauge their reactions and motives so easily. At least she could tell which were friendly and which to avoid.
As they approached Martel at the bottom of the stairs, Helga took her leave with a little curtsey and walked off.
Martel grinned and gave her a once-over. “How did I know you wouldn’t wear any of the dresses?”
Katey shrugged. “Not much has changed. I still don’t like getting that dressed up.”
“Well, you look exquisite anyway.”
Katey’s lips parted a bit at the oddness of the remark. It sounded so strange coming from Martel. He seemed to add flair to the word that sent her mind reeling. Did he mean that, or was he saying it just to be nice?
He offered his arm, but Katey kindly refused it. “Let’s just get this over with.”
She had to remind herself that was a means to an end, just like the date with Erik had been. Going out with Martel would gain her access to her pack. That was all she wanted and much to her dismay, she had to play along.
Again, Martel looked injured at her remark, but relented to her attitude and led her toward the massive oak doors that led outside. Snow flurries greeted them with a cold gust of wind. Katey could feel the chill climb up her legs from under her skirt and squeezed them together in hopes to keep herself warm. Now she regretted not grabbing a jacket or wrap before leaving the bedroom. She remembered seeing a white fur shawl. It may not have gone with her outfit, but it would have kept out some of the chill.
“I have a spare jacket in the car. It’s in the backseat,” he said, as if reading her thoughts.
Martel ushered Katey to a slick black sports car parked not too far from the high stone steps that led down from the front doors. A valet was present who, despite the cold, was not dressed warmly in his bright red attendant uniform. He held open the car door to let Katey slide into the passenger seat. As soon as the door was shut behind her, she blindly reached into the back and swept her arm along the seat and floorboards to find the jacket. Her hand brushed a bit of leather and she snatched it up.
Martel was given the keys and got into the driver’s seat just as she slid her arms through the sleeves that were far too big for her. He started up the car and launched off at a dangerous speed down the snowy mountainside. Katey braced herself and even with her seat belt securely fastened, she was jostled on her side of the car due to the bumpy road and hairpin turns.
“Sorry about the rough roads. I don’t like going to town too often because of it.”
Katey gave him a sidelong glance and wondered if he really could read her mind, or perhaps he was just more observant than she gave him credit for.
At the bottom of the mountain, once they were driving on smooth blacktop, Martel turned to Katey, a wrinkle between his brows. “You seem pretty calm about all this.”
“What do you mean?” Katey loosened her grip on the leather seats and hoped she didn’t leave a mark in the fabric.
“I mean, I’m a vampire. You just walked past a bunch of vampires, and you don’t seem to be bothered at all. What gives?”
Katey realized that her behavior must have been highly suspicious, as if the news that bloodsucking monsters existed wasn’t news to her at all. After learning about werewolves, not much was bound to surprise her anymore.
She shrugged. “I guess… It just doesn’t bother me.”
“Why not?” There was a hint of puzzlement in his words.
“Because I know you won’t do anything to me and neither will anyone else.”
“How can you be so sure?” His voice dropped deeper and Katey looked back to him with a cool expression.
“I know you better than that. The Martel I knew in school wasn’t cruel, and you wouldn’t let anyone hurt me.”
He turned his icy stare out the windshield. “The Martel you knew is long dead.”
Katey watched him for a moment, examining his hard, bitter countenance. “You may be a vampire now, but people don’t change that easily.”
He gave a mirthless laugh. “You don’t have a clue. Turning into… what I am… it’s not like a haircut or a makeover. It changes everything. You don’t know me anymore.”
In a way, he didn’t know her anymore. And she did know what that was like. Katey underwent her own transformation, and it was hard to imagine what she was like before she turned loup-garou, even though it had been less than a week. Nothing was the same. Nothing would ever be the same.
Chapter 21
They soon arrived in the town that Helga had spoken of earlier. The streets were fairly empty, with few cars and nearly no pedestrians out. Perhaps they all knew a coven of vampires lived not too far away and knew better than to walk out alone at night. The town was small, but reminded her of the Old World villages of Europe in its architecture and layout. In this remote part of Alaska, it seemed bizarre. Maybe, if vampires could live as long as loups-garous, a vampire built up this town to make it look like their old home in Germany or Italy. The addition of a castle up in the mountains only completed the vision.
During the entire trip through the town, Katey couldn’t stop thinking about Logan, her pack, and the other loups-garous that were trapped. She wondered what was going to happen to them, and if any had been injured during the ambush. They were alive, that much she could tell, but if they were harmed and miserable, that was another thing. If she played her cards right and buttered up Martel, she could milk him for answers. The idea of kissing up to him made her blood run cold, but it was for her pack. For them, she would endure anything.
Martel pulled up in front of a quaint French restaurant. Like the town near the resort, their storefronts were decked out in Christmas lights and garland to inspire a festive mood. Through the windows, she could see several customers seated at tables draped in white cloth and decorated with little flower vases and votive candles. Even from inside the car, she could hear the faint notes of Parisian music that played over the speakers in the restaurant, and smelled the savory aroma of food she likely couldn’t eat and could probably never afford by herself. It was the sort of place a husband and wife would go for their anniversary, and it made Katey’s lonely heart ache for Logan all the more.
As Martel assisted Katey out of the car, she noticed that his hand was colder than the air that swirled around them, and she quickly withdrew from the shock of it. She remembered when his touch used to be so warm when they had danced during club meetings. It was another reminder that he wasn’t quite the man that he once was, but Katey wasn’t going to give up so easily. There had to be something left of the human she knew.
He noted her surprise and he withdrew his hand with a look of apology. Katey wondered if his bashfulness was a show, or if any part about this evening was genuine. She wished that it was, but what Logan told her the day before kept repeating on loop in her mind. They were supposed to be enemies. Vampires made it their mission to kill loups-garous. Her desire to find humanity in him warred against this learned instinct to revile everything Martel had become, and she couldn’t make up her mind.
They entered the restaurant and all eyes turned to Martel. Fear exploded in the air, suffocating the pleasant scent of the rich food until Katey began to feel a little queasy. Expressions varied across the dining room. Some weren’t shy about showing their fear. One couple, who had likely been done with their meal for a while anyway, stood and abruptly walked out. Others quickly turned away, afraid to make eye contact, though she heard their whispered words of panic to their companions.
It made her wonder what kind of fear the occupants of the castle had inspired in the townspeople to make them so submissive.
“Popular one, aren’t you?” Katey mumbled with a cocked eyebrow as she shed his leather jacket.
Martel let out a long breath, but said nothing as they waited for a hostess to seat them.
The young woman who had been manning the hostess station before they walked in, had retreated somewhere else in the restaurant. Instead, an older man in a suit and tie approached, likely the manager. He greeted Martel with a feigned friendliness that he might have given naturally to any other customer. Like everyone else, he was terrified of the vampire.
“Good evening, sir. What can I do for you and your lady?”
Katey didn’t quite like the idea of being called his lady and wanted to correct him, but Martel was too quick to answer.
“A table for two, please.”
The manager grabbed two leather-clad menus from the station and nodded. “Absolutely. Right this way.”
He led them to a booth in the far corner of the restaurant, well away from the other patrons. Katey slid across the vinyl seat and eyed the intricate place settings, complete with wine glasses and cloth napkins. A quick glance inside the menu revealed no prices next to the entrees and appetizers, a sign that everything must have been incredibly expensive.
“What can I get you two to drink?”
The moment the words came out of the manager’s mouth, Katey could tell he instantly regretted it and blanched a perfect shade of white.
“Water,” Martel answered without hesitance.
“Same for me.”
The manager visibly relaxed, tense muscles releasing. “Of course. I’ll be right back with those waters.”
Martel didn’t even bother to look at his menu, while Katey tried to make sense of the cursive French across the pages. She wondered why the manager even bothered to give Martel a menu. Perhaps, just like asking for their drink orders, it was pure muscle memory, and had little to do with the fact that a vampire had entered his restaurant and he had to act like it was business as usual.
“Can you even read this?” Katey asked, tilting the menu toward him.
