Sleeping Beauty (24 page)

She hesitated for a second, but then pressed the button and the gaslights flared to life.

He grinned.“Nice.” He stepped over to the wall of glass that divided the tower room in two. “There's a door in the glass partition. Any idea where the keys might be?”

She shook her head. If she knew her father, they'd be impossible to locate.

He crouched and stuck his hands through the small slot at the bottom of the glass door. “Doesn't look like you'll fit through here.”

“No kidding.” The slot was about two inches high and eighteen inches long.

He stepped back to where she lay in her case and pointed at her feet. “Looks like you've got another note down here, inside the case.”

Lucette twisted and squirmed in the confined space, which barely fit her when she was tucked up like a ball in the center. After her contortions, she was lying on her front, her head at the opposite end of the box and right against the trapdoor leading into the glass cell. She adjusted the fabric of her gown to make sure she wasn't putting on a show for Alex, then picked up the note. This one was in her mother's handwriting.

Her heart thumped loudly as she read, then she turned toward Alex and blurted, “There's another trapdoor. At that end.”

Alex pushed on the end that was now at her feet.“How does it work?”

“It only works from inside,” she said, and as she turned back around, she silently thanked her mother for begging the fairy who'd made the case to give her another way out. If she'd had to spend her days in the horrible glass cell after all she'd been through ... It was too horrible to think about.

And it wasn't just about herself. If she were trapped up here in the tower, who would protect everyone else from the vampires? As her mother advised in her letter, once Lucette got out, she'd have to be careful not to leave any evidence of her nightly escapes and to get back into the glass room or the case before dawn. No sense pushing her father to even more extreme measures. This was bad enough.

Twisted around, and now lying on her belly, she realized if she used
the second trapdoor to exit the case, she'd be sliding right into the grasp of a vampire.

But she had to at least see if the trapdoor worked, so she pressed the lower corners of the panel as her mother's note told her to, and it lifted open, swinging up on a springed hinge.

Alex bent down to peer through the open end of the glass case, his face about a foot from hers. “Well, hello there.” His fangs rested on his lower lip.

Lucette scrambled toward the coffin's far end, her heart racing.

“Sheesh, I'm not going to hurt you.” Offended, he backed away. “Fine, get out of there yourself, if you don't need my help.”

Considering her options—semifriendly vampire at one end, prison at the other—Lucette wiggled forward on her stomach until she was out of the box up to her waist. The edge of the glass dug into her hips as she stretched for the floor.

“Sure you don't want some help?” Alex stayed on the other end of the room, leaning against the wall. “‘Because I could—you know—help.”

She shook her head and pushed her way forward until gravity took over. Her hands hit the ground and the rest of her body followed, rolling into a heap on the floor.

Glancing around the room, Lucette searched for something to use to defend herself. The room was lined with tall wooden cases, each more than six feet tall with slits cut near the top and bottom. Next to one of those cases, she spotted a stake. She took a step toward it, but Alex easily beat her to it.

Her heart almost stopped out of fear, but he passed her the stake, with the sharp end facing his own body. “Stake me if you want, but I wouldn't recommend it.”

She grabbed the weapon and raised it, striking a fighting stance. Her heart thumped. “Think I'm not brave enough?”

“Oh, I think you're plenty brave.” He didn't move. “But I'm hoping you're also smart, and it looks to me as if I'm the only friend you've got.” He lifted his arms and gestured around. “In case you hadn't noticed, all the humans in Xandra are sleeping, and there are vampires roaming everywhere, out for your blood.”

Lucette's heart rate slowed as she looked into the vampire boy's eyes. He seemed so sincere, and she wanted so badly to believe him. By trusting him she'd gain the comfort of company, even if it were only the illusion of an ally.

She lowered her stake. “Okay then. First step, I need to find something else to wear.”

Lucette sat with her back to the wall and devoured the roasted chicken and potatoes someone had slid through the narrow slot at the bottom of her glass cell back up in the tower. While only one end of the sleeping chamber opened at a time, she'd discovered she could use it like a tunnel to travel in and out of the glass cell.

And she'd found plenty of weapons. The curious wooden cupboards in the tower each held a standing, sleeping slayer armed with weapons. She admired the bravery of those men for volunteering for this duty, especially since it seemed ceremonial at best. What good could they do asleep? At least they'd be there when the curse broke, she thought.

Alex sat cross-legged several feet away, an amused smile on his lips.

“What?” Lucette held up a drumstick.“Would you like some?”

He shook his head quickly and held up a hand. “No way. First, dead flesh is gross. Second, vampires can't digest solids. And third, I already ate.”

A shiver prickled along the back of her neck.“What, exactly, did you eat?” She tried to keep her voice even, but if she got even a hint that he'd lunched on a citizen of Xandra, especially someone in the palace, she'd grab her stake and introduce him to its sharp end. All alone, she couldn't take any chances.

“Hmm. What
did
I last eat?” Alex stuck his tongue into the inside of his cheek, as if trying to remember.“I do believe I had a delicious glass of venison.”

“A glass of venison?” Lucette wrinkled her nose. “How does that work?”

“I drank deer blood.” He made a face as if she were being obtuse.

She shivered. “Did you kill the deer?”

“I thought we already went through this.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “The deer who supplied my meal is alive and well and feeling no pain. If you don't believe me, you should come tour one of our ranches. The animals are well treated and are only bled once a week through special stints. The procedure is totally painless—the animals barely seem to notice—and once harvested, the blood is bottled and sold at markets. The stuff at the farmers' markets is always freshest, of course. It has so much flavor.” He licked his upper lip.

She took another bite of her chicken and chewed while considering that answer. It was disgusting to think about what Alex consumed in order to survive. But as the only human awake in Xandra, she couldn't afford to be squeamish.“I get what you're saying. Still, I wouldn't want to be bled every week. Poor deer.”

Alex nodded toward her dinner. “Poor chicken.”

Lucette swallowed her last bite. “Touché. But what about the vampires who've tried to bite me?” She pointed the chicken bone toward him. “And I've witnessed other attacks. You can't claim that everyone in Sanguinia lives off ranched animal blood from the farmers' markets.”

Alex paused, then said, “You're right. But it's not in a vampire's nature. Someone's paying those vampires to terrorize Xandra.”

“Who?” She wanted to hear someone directly implicate the vampire queen.

“That's what I'm trying to find out.” He leaned forward. “I crossed over to figure out who's behind the attacks, and how to stop them.”

“I thought you came over to help me.”

“That, too.” He smiled, and she smiled back. In spite of his blood diet and his fangs, Lucette had to admit that she liked Alex. He was funny and nice and didn't fawn all over her like the boys her father had introduced her to over the years. He didn't seem intimidated by her royalty, either.

But she had to keep her focus. He was the enemy, or at least the queen of his country was. And until this curse was lifted, no one in her kingdom, especially her, was safe. She didn't want to reveal to Alex that she'd heard the vampire queen was behind the nightly attacks. It would be better if she could draw that information out of him as confirmation. “Your queen should do a better job of controlling her people.”

His expression darkened, and the yellow flecks in his eyes glowed brighter. “You don't know the first thing about my queen!”

“I know more than you think. She cursed me when I was a baby. This”—she gestured around her—“is all happening because of her curse on me.”

Alex's eyes widened, and he leaped to his feet. “How do you know that?”

“My parents told me.”

“How do you know they weren't lying? Parents lie to their kids all the time.” He emphasized that last part.

Lucette put down the chicken bone.“The facts line up with the story I was told. Your queen laid a curse that would only take affect when I pricked my finger. All my life my parents did everything they could to keep that from happening, but eventually it did, and everyone fell asleep but me.” She lifted her arms. “Everything happened exactly the way my parents told me it would. I think that's pretty strong evidence they weren't lying, don't you? I was only a baby, so I can't prove it was your queen, but clearly
someone
put a curse on me.”

His face even paler than normal, he reached his hand down to help her up. “I'll see what I can find out,” he said. “For now, let's figure out the best way to keep you safe.”

She decided to take the risk and his hand. At least she had company, even if it was bloodsucking company.

After Lucette and Alex did a quick walk around the palace and verified that her parents were both barricaded in their respective bedchambers, they stepped into her father's office to look out the window and down to the inner courtyard. Alex easily lifted the huge slabs of wood away from the glass, making her nervous that any vampire could do so if he tried. The barricades would need to be strengthened; she'd leave a note for her father by the slot in her glass
cell. No, on second thought, she'd leave the note for her mother. She couldn't explain to her father how she knew about the problem.

Lucette liked the idea that her parents were both under the same roof again, but wished they were sharing a room. At least now they were in the same house, they might speak a few words to each other during the day. Not all of them harsh, she hoped.

She leaned up against the glass and saw a vampire drop the sleeping body of a palace guard to the ground before crossing the courtyard to grab another.

Her breath caught in her chest. Why had the guards stayed outside at dusk?

“We've got to help them.” She turned, grabbed her bag of weapons, and headed for the stairs. Alex seized her arm. His grip was stronger than anything she'd imagined, but he wasn't hurting her.

“No,” he said. “Not without a plan.”

“What plan? Do you have a plan?”

“No, but I saw dozens of other vampires when I crossed the border tonight. Whoever is paying them has doubled or tripled the ranks since your curse fell. There's no point in fighting masses of them all at once. You'll get bitten, and then you'll be too weak to fight.”

“Too weak or too dead.”

He winced. “Yet another good reason not to dash down there as a solo slayer.” He stepped forward.“But most of them aren't killers. And even with three bites, you know I might be able to save you, right?”

She shook her head. “How?”

“If I'm fast enough, a Sanguinian surgeon could convert you into a vampire. Under normal circumstances, the conversion process starts with injections of vampire venom. Bite victims can skip that step.”