“You have your ring back, Charles Winthrop Holloway.” I waited for his reaction.
He slipped off his right glove and put on the ring. It fit perfectly. “When did you figure it out?” he said calmly.
“I guess it bothered me that you always wore gloves but it was Chuck’s obsession with family that tipped me off. I gave him my word when he died and I kept it.”
“What word? What did he ask?”
“He asked me to give his license back to the council. Chuck was never a rogue vampire. He was a half-blood, wasn’t he? I thought I’d seen him before that night he attacked me. He was a half-blood
you
created without permission,” I accused. “You sent him away with your license so he could live freely elsewhere but he came back to you. He came back to family.
“He eluded the Investigators because you would feed him information on how close they were and because he operated mainly during the day, when other vampires couldn’t. That’s why I recognized him but couldn’t place where. He would hang out at my school, in the mall and at games.
“The one thing I just can’t figure out is how you got your license off without being dead.”
He stared at me for a long time. I wished I had psychic abilities, but Mr. Holloway was just sinister enough that I doubted I would really want to poke around in his brain.
“I loved my son, Miss Blanchard,” Mr. Holloway finally said. “Oh yes, he was my biological son. After I was turned, I could see the lonely, bleak existence without him and I couldn’t bear it. I couldn’t attain a license but I turned him anyway. In doing so he became
different
. He was not the same man I raised, this Undead version of my son. So I sent him away. When you love someone, it is a simple matter to cut off a finger to remove a ring.
“Thanks to vampire regenerative powers, I simply put it back in place to knit together, but it never healed correctly,” he continued. “There was a time it was easy to hide what I had done. Every gentleman wore gloves then. Now, wearing gloves inside is an oddity a young vampire would notice, but the older ones would not. Many of us have a hard time changing our ways to blend in with modern times, we tend to keep to ourselves.”
His confession answered my questions but grossed me out as well. He’d cut off his own finger! Eek! Chuck wasn’t the only one not right in the head.
“Chuck loved you, Mr. Holloway. He was desperate for family, which is why he kept changing humans to half-bloods. He was just … lonely.”
And crazy,
I added to myself.
“You think you’ve won, don’t you?”
I snorted at his observation. “Yeah, that’s it. Since the day I woke up Undead I’ve been saying to myself ‘I’m such a winner.’ ”
Mr. Holloway nodded in understanding. I wasn’t there to gloat. This was about survival and my right to live.
“The Tribunal is undecided concerning the acknowledgment of half-bloods,” he said.
“I’m sure your advocacy of the issue will swing any remaining resistance.”
“And if I don’t?”
I dropped a copy of his note to Chuck on his desk next to the license. I knew it was in his hand because he’d given me that sympathy note with my university packet. The writing was a perfect match. If anyone on the Tribunal knew he’d fed Chuck information to elude the Investigators, then Mr. Holloway’s vampire days were over.
He paused to gather his thoughts and then stood up. I jumped slightly when he rose and was clearly quaking in my boots as he walked around the desk. He noticed my reaction and chuckled without humor. “You are in no harm, Miss Blanchard. Technically, since you killed Charles, you replace him. You become my daughter.”
I shivered at the implication.
“Which means you have my protection, forever. Not a bad thing for someone with your unique background to have, a Prince’s protection.”
A fat lot of good it did Chuck,
I wanted to say but kept my mouth shut.
He stepped toward the filing cabinet to my left and unlocked it. He removed a file that bulged with photos, of all things, and handed it to me.
When he turned to return to his desk, I stopped him with a cautious hand on his shoulder.
“Mr. Holloway, I really am very sorry about Charles.” And I was too.
He paused momentarily and nodded. Then, as quickly as the look of shared remorse was there, it was gone and he was back to business, taking his place behind the desk again.
“You will have your license, Miss Blanchard.”
“And the half-bloods?” I persisted.
“And the half-bloods will be acknowledged by vampire society.”
“Thank you, sir.” I was almost out the door when Mr. Holloway spoke again.
“There is an old saying, Miss Blanchard. Be careful what you wish for …”
He didn’t finish his statement and when we locked eyes, I shivered at the implication. Half-bloods could now exist, but at what price?
Once outside his office, I opened the folder of photos. Some were very old; there were even some painted portraits. Each had two dates listed on the back, rebirth and death. All except one picture—mine. It had the date I was attacked but no death date. I looked at the other pictures again. Some dates were a week apart, some were more. But none was more than a few months.
Whatever the price for our existence, it was worth it.
Sixteen
T
he doorbell rang insistently. I didn’t want to see anyone; I had reserved this evening to wallow in self-pity. A week had passed since I was granted my license and now it was Homecoming night—and I still had no date and no Thomas. He hadn’t spoken to me since the final hearing, when all he’d said was congratulations. He must have been pretty disappointed that he wasn’t going to be able to “relieve me of my Undead status.”
When I reached the door, I could smell cookies. I opened the door quickly, stating bluntly, “Go away,” and shut it again in Thomas’s surprised face. Thomas looked so handsome in the quick glimpse I’d gotten that I should have slammed the door harder than I did.
Great, now he would know I was weakening and try to worm his way back into my affections
.
“I have a gift for you,” Thomas said. My heart constricted. He sounded so good.
I replied, “I don’t want a stake through the heart, thank you. Now go away.”
I could hear him sigh deeply, though we were separated by a good inch or two of wood.
“Colby, you’re going to have to see me sometime. I’m not going anywhere until you open this door.”
“Oh well, if you put it that way, I can wait all night. Until the sun comes up. Gee, can you say the same?”
He swore under his breath and then I heard a rhythmic sound.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump
. “You. Are. Driving. Me. Crazy,” he said between thumps. He was banging his head against the door and I smiled.
That made two of us. Why did he have to be so cute? Be such a good kisser? Be here in general?
“You’re going to crack your head open doing that,” I finally told him after a good thirty seconds of head thumping.
“Then. Open. The. Door.”
Thump, thump, thump.
“Oh for heaven’s sake,” I muttered as I flung open the door. “You’re the most stubborn bloodsucker!” I announced, glaring at him.
It took me a moment to realize that Thomas was dressed in a black tuxedo. I blinked at him several times but the image did not fade. Yes, he was standing at my door in formal wear. Seemed a little extreme to dress up just to stake someone and I told him so.
“I am not going to stake you, Colby. I’ve been telling you that forever. I have something for you from the Tribunal.” He held out a small box.
It wasn’t Tiffany’s turquoise blue, but a box that size screamed jewelry—and being the weak half-blood mutant vampire that I was, I really wanted to see what was inside.
I accepted the box with a great show of exasperation, as though I was doing him a huge favor by taking it off his hands and really had no interest as to what lay inside, which we both knew was a huge crock of crap, but he allowed me the illusion, at least.
I snapped it open and gasped at the gleaming ring. It was my license. A very modern-looking, delicate crest set in white gold, just for me. I slipped it on my right hand and it fit perfectly. It felt warm and accepting against my skin. I closed my eyes for a moment, squeezing my hand into a fist. I belonged.
Thomas cleared his throat and brought me back to the present. He was holding out a manila envelope.
“What’s this?” I asked, taking it from him.
“Open it and see.” Thomas was a man of mystery, but his eyes sparkled and a hint of a smile played on his lips. Why was he so darling?! It was unfair and just plain mean!
I ripped open the envelope and pulled the contents out. A letter from the Tribunal was at the top. I read the subject line.
“My job assignment?” I asked uncertainly. I wasn’t even seventeen yet and they were giving me a job? “I can’t have a job! I’ve got to study for my SATs and get into college!”
“Look at the next page.”
Confused, I flipped past the assignment and found an acceptance letter from Puget Sound University and then another letter congratulating me on earning a four-year scholarship.
“I-I can’t believe it! But I don’t understand.” I was confused, happy and suspicious all at once. Anything involving Thomas seemed to have that effect on me.
“After you met with the Tribunal, they decided you had a point about the half-blood situation. So, with that in mind, they instituted a new program. The-training-and-acclimationof-half-bloods-into-vampire-society program.”
“Wow! I did that? Amazing. I don’t envy the poor sucker who’s in charge of that program. No pun intended,” I added hastily.
Thomas was grinning ear to ear by now and a deep sense of dread started in the pit of my stomach.
“Oh, no. Say they didn’t!”
Thomas thrust out his hand to shake mine. “Welcome to the Tribunal, Colby. I look forward to working with you.”
“I can’t head up that program. I’m just a kid! Why would they send me to college if they expect me to work for them?”
I was thoroughly confused and not just a little bit pleased. It was a huge responsibility they’d given me. Of course, who else would they assign it to? They kept killing all the other half-bloods so it wasn’t as though there were a ton of other vampires with experience being a mutant.
“I suggest you read the rest of the paperwork,” Thomas replied with a sweep of his hand, motioning to the couch in the living room where we could both sit down. I began to read my job description.
“How am I going to do all this?
Every
Prince is sending me their female half-bloods? Where are they going to stay? How am I going to take courses and protect them? I can barely protect myself.”
“You are special, Colby. You can do this. Besides, it will be easier once you are all living under one roof.”
“Say again?” I was certain I hadn’t heard Thomas correctly. I planned to live in the dorms the first year and then find a nice, quiet place off-campus.
“The Tribunal has purchased a house for this project. It’s at the end of something called Greek Row. Not sure what that is, must be the name of a street close to the college. Anyway, you’re all going to live there.”
“A house?” I squealed in excitement. “They bought a sorority house and I’m in charge of it?” I jumped up in excitement and did a little victory dance.
Thomas raised an eyebrow at me but I ignored him and kept right on doing the Cabbage Patch, alternating it with a pointed finger in a lame disco imitation.
“I can assume by your expression that this news pleases you?” Thomas asked.
“Duh! Who wouldn’t want to head their own sorority?”
“Excellent,” Thomas said, standing as well. “Then it is settled. Now go upstairs and change.”
I stopped in mid-dance. “Change for what?” I asked, eyeing his formal attire once again.
“For the dance you bemoaned missing. I am here as your escort. Am I not suitably attired?”
“Well, yeah, you look great. But I can’t go to the dance now. Piper and I made a deal. We’re going to make popcorn and watch old movies tonight, and then make fun of the Homecoming King and Queen when they’re announced. Dale is all set to call us when they are crowned at the party.”
I pointed to the coffee table filled with Piper’s favorite munchies, a stack of DVDs and my neon pink cell phone.
“She’ll be here any moment.” I was kind of disappointed now that Thomas was here and looking so hot. But I’d made a promise and I wasn’t going to screw over Piper because now I had a date and she didn’t.
“Yes, that is a dilemma. What if Piper had an escort as well? Then could you both attend?”
“Well, I guess so. If she said it was okay.” I wasn’t sure where Thomas was going with this conversation. “But it’s a moot point because she doesn’t have a date and I won’t set her up with some loser just so I can go to the dance.”