Faustine (6 page)

“Anyhow,” I said, “that doesn’t explain the sound we heard. It couldn’t have come from the victim; it was too... well, not human.”

 “Faustine, I need you out of here. Now. The cops are just starting to make the rounds. So, unless you can dial down the red, get out of here. Now,” Luke ordered.

“Ready?” Ryker whispered, and drew me close to him. I had no idea how he was planning to get me out. All I felt was a warm blanket of peace and a floaty feeling as I closed my eyes. When I opened them seconds later, I was back in my bedroom.

“Wow! How did you do that?” I asked.

He smiled. His lips curled more on the left side of his mouth. Cute.

“Do you know that’s the first thing you’ve ever said to me?”

I nodded.

“Do you know what I am?”

“A Wanderer,” I whispered.

“Close. I’m a Sigma-Wanderer, which means I can travel geographically, as well as through time and dimensions. So transporting you over here was relatively easy.”

“Well, thanks. I owe you one.”

He laughed. “Let me take you out to dinner.”

“Sure. By the way, how did you know about the party, anyway? Did Neave contact you?”

He plunked himself down on my bed. I sure hoped that Mom wouldn’t pop into my room. I would be so grounded for having a boy in here!

“It was Audrey, actually, who told me about the party. But, I’m guessing Neave initiated it. I’ve wanted to ask you out for ages, so it was pretty cool to hear that you have the hots for me,” he grinned.

“Now, wait...” I protested, feeling my face turning a molten shade of red.

Ryker grabbed my hand and pulled me down to sit next to him. “I’m just messing with you. But seriously, I’m glad they set us up. I've totally had a thing for you for a really long time.”

“Why didn’t you ever speak to me?”

“To tell you the truth, I was–am–a bit afraid.”

I laughed. “You’re afraid of me?”

“You’re a demon,” he replied matter-of-factly.

“
Half
demon,” I corrected. “And I’m a demon princess, which means that I don’t go around creating havoc. That would be very unprincessy of me.”

“What about your demon temper?” he asked.

 “It used to be a problem. That’s why I was sent to the Academy. But I have it under control now.”

“Come here,” he said, and pulled me down to rest my head on his shoulder. “I really like you,” he whispered, and turned to brush his lips against mine. I wasn’t sure how to respond; this had never happened to me before. I moved my lips gently across his. I could feel myself warming up, starting to feel hot. He parted my lips slightly with his and kissed me. I moved against him, feeling more and more drawn to him, like I was falling into him. And I was on fire–literally. My skin was burning. This was beyond embarrassing; I pulled back.

“What’s wrong?” Ryker whispered, and then opened his eyes. “Wow! You’re glowing!”

Awkward. My skin was glowing like a fire was illuminating it from the inside. We sat in silence, watching my glowing skin. The glow started to subside after a few minutes, then disappeared entirely.

“That was... amazing,” Ryker muttered. “How did that happen?” Then he smirked. “Never mind. Did it hurt?”

I shook my head. “It burned a bit, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. This is so embarrassing. I’m sorry. I guess you want to go?”

“Go? Why? You mean ‘cause your skin starts glowing when I kiss you? Don’t be silly. We’ll just have to take it easy. Just to make sure you don’t explode or anything,” he laughed.

I grabbed a pillow and thumped him with it. And kept hitting him. This wasn’t funny; tears were streaming down my face. Why couldn’t I just be normal? Like Mom.

“Hey, hey, hey,” he said, grabbing my wrists and pulling me into his chest tightly. “It’s going to be fine. I’m sorry for teasing you.”

I lay back against him, recomposing myself.

A sharp tap on the door made me pull away from Ryker. I motioned for him to get into my closet. With Ryker safely stashed away, I opened the door.

“Hey,” Luke said, walking in with Neave and the twins. “Your mom told us to come straight in after we explained what happened at the party.”

“Wassup?” Ryker asked, walking out of my closet.

“It was just like we thought; the cops questioned us. Obvious stuff, mostly, about what we’d heard or seen. Who else had been at the party? Etcetera, etcetera. They took down our names and contact information, then just let us go. There’s more, though,” Luke added cryptically. “Audrey will tell you. It’s not good, so prepare yourself.”

“Faustine, as you know, I can hear human thoughts, the same as you. In addition, I can also visualize them, if those thoughts are strong enough. The cop who was questioning us had been in the men’s restroom. He was obviously traumatized by what he had seen, and his thoughts were preoccupied with visuals from the restroom. I could see them quite clearly. I won’t describe the gory state of the body, but I want to draw your attention to something else.” She paused.

“What?”

She chewed on her upper lip. “Brace yourself. On the far end of the restroom, just above the sink, written in red on the mirror was a note.” She stopped again.

“Oh come on, out with it,” I said impatiently.

She nodded. “It said,
Eat That, Demon Princess
.”

A
wakened by sunlight streaming through my window, I turned to the giant pink bunny on my bed and sighed. Playtime was over. One thing was clear: I would need to take this demon-sovereign thing seriously. Very seriously. Whoever had left that bloody note for me clearly meant it as a warning. But, a warning about what? Maybe it was a warning not to try to govern London in my dad’s absence. Like I had a choice. It was pretty clear that I didn’t. Given the option, I’d much rather spend my time being a normal teen and concentrating all my efforts on becoming queen bee at school. Sheesh, it was going to take an enormous amount of effort to navigate the complicated politics of high school. I really didn’t need this extra load added to my daily routine.

From out of nowhere, I felt a sudden breeze across my face, just before Ryker appeared.

“Oh my gosh! You scared me!” I said, sitting up.

“Sorry! I thought you’d want some company after what happened last night.”

“I do, but I want to get dressed first. Can you meet me in half an hour? Just ring the front doorbell, and I’ll invite you in for breakfast.”

“Okay. Parting kiss?”

I smiled and kissed his nose before he disappeared again. I’d have to get used to his wandering. Poof, he was here. Poof, he was gone. Weird stuff. And, we’d have to make some rules. No appearing just
whenever
! That could lead to all kinds of embarrassing moments. I sighed. He did make me feel pretty wonderful, but I would have to learn to rein in my emotions. I closed my eyes and relived the sensations I’d felt when he’d kissed me last night. I felt the same burning sensation start up again in my hands, and I tried holding my breath to temper it. It seemed to work, but I would need to practice some more. Now wasn’t the time, though.

I got ready fast. It was going to be a busy day. I threw on a blue cotton dress after a quick shower, then blow dried my hair. A dab of lip gloss and I was ready. The doorbell sounded as I walked into the dining room. Mom was already sitting at the table, leafing through a newspaper, so I waved at her to indicate that I would get the door.

“Mom, this is Ryker. He’s a friend from Bonfire Academy,” I introduced, as they shook hands.

“Nice to meet you, Ryker,” Mom said, pointing him to a chair. “Sit down and have some breakfast with us. Are you allowed to tell me
what
you are, being from the Academy?” she queried.

“It’s nice to meet you, Lady Annabel. Sure, I can share that with you. I’m a Wanderer.”

“Oh, lovely. Sigma?”

“Mom? You know about Wanderers?” I asked, surprised. “I’d never heard of them before I went to the Academy.”

“I’ve picked up on a few things since I met your father,” she smiled. “Have you heard from him, by the way? He was going to pop in for dinner last night but didn’t show.”

“Nope. But I wasn’t really expecting to hear from him,” I said. No point in worrying her. Mom had been told very little about the
emergency,
which had caused her to be sequestered temporarily at the Waldorf. Thankfully, over the years, Mom had learned not to meddle or ask too many questions about the paranormal activities surrounding my dad. The secrecy must irk her, though, along with all of those unexplained dinner no-shows.

“So, did you have a good time at the party last night? I gathered from Neave–and your other friends who came by last night–that there was some drama. There’s a story in this morning’s newspaper about a murder at a club in the village. Was that the same club you were at last night? Do you know anything about it?” she asked, looking at me intently.

“Yes, we were there at the time of the murder,” I admitted.

“Thank goodness you weren’t harmed! Why didn’t you tell me? Were you there, Ryker?”

“Yes.” He proceeded to bring her up to date, describing the scream and the ensuing scramble for the exit, but omitting the part about the vision Audrey had described to us. “So, I brought her home,” he finished.

“Thank you, Ryker. I appreciate that. The article doesn’t go into any details. While it mentions that the body was found in the men’s room, it doesn’t say anything more. I’m just relieved that you–all of you–are okay,” she said, looking from me to Ryker. “Do you have any plans today, Faustine? You can hang out with me, if you want. I’m going to Marylin’s this afternoon for tea. She would be delighted to see you.”

Did I ever have plans! “Mom, thanks, but I’m going to hang with Ryker and Neave today, if that’s okay with you.”

“Of course it is. But remember that you have school tomorrow; you’ll need to get organized for that.”

“Which reminds me, Mom. I invited some girls from school to come over for breakfast tomorrow. That’s okay, right?”

“Yes, of course.”

It would’ve been nice to have had the day just to
hang
with Ryker. No such luck. After breakfast, I went down to the basement for a debriefing. Alone, because that’s what Luke had instructed.

When I arrived, I was surprised to see that Luke had company. Dorian was sitting on the couch looking grim. Awesome–not.

They both stood up when I entered. “Princess, let’s go to the conference room,” Dorian said, as he led the way. Once we were seated, he glared at me. “Princess, I can’t begin to tell you how unhappy I am with your decision not to go back to London, especially after last night’s events.”

“What do you think is going on?” I asked. “Who wrote the note on the wall and why?”

“We can hypothesize, but we have no real information.”

“Hypothesize away,” I encouraged.

“It could be whoever has your dad, if he has indeed been captured or killed. The potential candidates for that are too numerous to mention. Another possibility is that it’s one of your half siblings, annoyed that you are the chosen heir.”

“Just perfect. So now what? Do we know who the victim was?”

“Yes, sort of, but no name. The police report indicates that it was a male student from Columbia University. I’m guessing he was an innocent bystander who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Can you tell from Audrey’s description of the victim’s body what kind of being may have been involved?”

“No. Audrey’s description of
mangled
is too vague. It could be anyone–vampire, shifter, demon, even another human. However, we are pretty certain it wasn’t another human based on the note.”

“So, what now?” I asked, looking at them both.

“Are you still refusing to travel to London, or even move in here, until we figure out what’s going on?”

“Yes. I’m going to school tomorrow.”

“We’ll do our best to keep you safe. We’ve asked Ryker to keep an eye on you as well, since you seem to have become attached to him.”

“About that... um, how do I, um, control bouts of, you know, burning...?” O-M-G, that was so embarrassing to ask!

Luke collapsed into a heap of chuckles while his dad raised his brows in confusion.

“Luke?” his father queried.

“Never mind, Dad. I’ll help the Princess with that later,” he said, winking at me. Sigh.

“Okay. Let’s talk about this afternoon’s meeting.” Dorian continued. He proceeded to give me a breakdown of the various leaders who would be attending.

“What do you think they’ll want from me?” I asked once he was done.

“They’ll expect you to fulfill the obligations of the demon sovereign,” he said.

“Which are?”

He pushed a heavy, leather-bound book toward me. “This is it. It’s all in there.”

“Give me the short version. I really don’t have time to go through that before this afternoon,” I sighed, running my hand over the rough leather of the book.

Dorian nodded. “Faustine, they are coming to look you over, to evaluate whether you can perform your duties, which I can assure you that you can’t.”