Innocently Evil (A Kitty Bloom Novel) (33 page)

In a matter of seconds, the man had gracefully climbed the stairs towards us, bowed quickly and quietly to Louis, presented him with an object I couldn’t quite see and then left, hurriedly stalking back down the stairs. As Louis turned his body back to the crowd, my eyes focused on the large, smooth, glitteringly sharp blade of the dagger in his hands. Fear chilled and stiffened my limbs and although I didn’t want to think about what he was going to be doing with that dangerous dagger, my evil half felt as though she should probably tell me.

I glanced back over my shoulder, desperately trying to look for the support of my mum, Louis’ vampire bride, but was greeted instead with a look of bristling excitement and comforting reassurance. Clearly, I wouldn’t be getting any help from her. Facing the front again, I looked out at the crowd, my eyes jumping from person to disobliging person, as the hot adrenalin from my pounding heartbeat filled my system and made me start to panic. If there was a happy way out of this, I couldn’t see it and I was even beginning to wonder if the strength of my two halves would be able to get me out of this mess.

I bit my trembling bottom lip as Louis turned towards me and the audience gasped in anticipation. I scooted closer to Max and tried again to pull my arm free from Louis’
death grip, but it was no use, his vampire strength held it firmly in place. With a nod from Louis, Max reluctantly stepped behind me, wrapping his arms securely around my waist and over my arms, and then Louis finally dropped his linked arm from my left elbow. But now it was too late. Max held me tightly in front of him, pressing the line of his cool body against the back of mine, while he forced my lower arms out before me above the metal tray.

“You can’t do this,” I said quietly, as I fought unsuccessfully to keep my arms down.

A small feeling of relief washed over me at finally being able to make myself speak out without fear of being punished any more than I was about to be anyway. Fear of accelerating the arrival of my death had kept my mouth shut during all the polite proceedings, but now, with the dread of death so close, all I had left to sustain my life was to keep the grim reaper talking. And with every breath I had left in my body, that is what I planned to do.

Louis laughed wickedly
at my meek declaration and the supernatural crowd laughed with him. His bright, gold eyes glared deep into mine and a chastising smile pricked his lips.

“
Of course I can,” he grinned at me. “I own you now, Kitty Bloom, just like I own your mother and I owned your grandmother. You are mine and I can do with you as I please.”

I frowned innocently at him, hoping
to play a decent part of begging before he caught on to my effort of prolonging my soon to be short life. His grin grew wicked again at my feebleness and he began to move towards me with the dagger.

“No,” I begged. “P
lease don’t. Can’t we do this another way? Please.”

The crowd around us watched intently, obviously enjoying my struggle, while hopefully completely unaware of its phoniness. I swallowed deeply, staring at Louis with my most helpless puppy dog eyes as I internally tried to force my evil side to come up with a substantial escape plan. As I let out a small whimper, I noticed that Max’s arms, which had been vice-like around me, were now softening
and that maybe, just maybe, if he loosened them a bit more I might be able to turn the tables. Either that or head-butt him backwards, it depended on how desperate I was about to get.

I waited for Louis to continue
the life-threatening conversation, but found that his concentration had been moved elsewhere. Noticing the audiences’ fierce attention on us, Louis’ expression was beginning to harden. In an angry flash of gold they returned to mine and I started to wonder whether or not my plan of distraction was really a good idea. All things considered, it didn’t seem to matter, because not more than a moment after his eyes met mine, the dagger thrust deep into the inner veins of the underside of my left wrist.

I screamed in pain and thrashed, trying to pull away, as Louis drove the blade down along my arm. Blood spurted violently from
my wrist covering the metal tray below in a unique pattern of dark crimson. Louis pulled the dagger from my left wrist and grabbed a hold of my right, getting thick red, venous blood on the clean, white of his shirt as he leaned in.

“No, no, no,” I cried, whimpering as his eyes glared evilly into mine.

“Yes, yes, yes,” he whispered.

His hand dropped and the dagger sliced hard and deep into the soft skin of my right wrist. I screamed again in agony, feeling the blade cut smoothly through vital veins
. Tears streamed down my face as I felt the life begin to drain from my body and my left arm started to go numb. With a neat downward stroke, Louis removed the dagger from my right wrist and handed it back to the uniformed wolf-man who ran promptly back up the stairs to collect it.

The sweet metallic tang of blood filled the air and the
swollen eyes of the hungry creatures in the room were captivated by me and the blood cascading down my arms and onto the metal tray below.

“Now,” said Louis, addressing the room, in a deeper, hungrier voice, “everyone help yourself to a glass and form a line. Our party is about to begin.”

Hurried footsteps trampled across the room and the sharp, tinkle of glassware filled the ballroom’s walls. My body began to feel weaker and I was suddenly strangely glad that I had Max behind me to support me. Through a softer vision, I saw the creatures on the ballroom floor congregated below the podium in front of the tray at the bottom of the stairs. Another uniformed werewolf guard stood in front of the end of the pipe and was turning a metal tap at its tip, allowing small portions of my blood into the first couple of guests’ wine glasses.

Soon, everything started to get to
o heavy, too tiring and I felt my body slump against Max as my eyes closed. Silence seemed to overwhelm me and although the injuries at my wrists throbbed every now and then with an agonizing pain, empty numbness was beginning to take over.

All of a sudden, there was a loud crash in front of me and I weakly
forced my eyes open. A tall, black haired man with a beard of stubble and in a black and blue uniform like the other werewolves dragged a blonde haired man into the ballroom. At first they were both too far away for me to distinguish them properly, especially through my blurring vision. But, as the supernatural crowd parted and the werewolf-man dragged the other closer to the podium, a cold, mortified chill engulfed my heart.

“What is this interruption,” yelled Louis furiously.

The black haired man, who seemed to have a flash of grey along his left sideburn, pushed the tall, muscular, blonde man to his knees on the floor and then bowed his own head politely at Louis. “I am dreadfully sorry, Sir,” he said in a deep, husky voice. “I would not have interrupted had this not been an urgent matter.”

Louis raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the werewolf, who hung his head lower, and
then started taking delicate steps down the stairs towards the two intruders. “Really,” said Louis, sarcastically. “Then please—explain.”

The werewolf nodded, t
hen grabbed a handful of hair from the head of the man kneeling before him and thrust his head back to reveal him to Louis and the astonished audience. Everyone gasped, while my quick beating heart seemed to skip a beat. Sam smiled up at me, appearing completely oblivious to the supernatural menace surrounding him. Through slightly better vision, I glared at him, partly so angry to see him and annoyed that he’d put himself in danger like this to save me, but mostly grateful that he had.

“I caught him skulk
ing around the perimeter,” growled the black haired man. “You said you wished us to bring him straight to you if we ever caught him, so I did as instructed.”

“Very well done,” said Louis to the werewolf-man, but his eyes were all for Sam.
Louis reached the ballroom floor and took a step towards Sam and the tall, black haired werewolf who was holding him. “Samuel Winter,” said Louis, slowly. “How glad I am to finally meet you. I have heard so much about you.”

Sam’s eyes left mine for a moment and connected aggressively with Louis’.
“Thanks,” he said, with a pleasant smile. “It’s all true and just for some fun I thought I’d prove it to you.” His dark, violet eyes met mine again and then looked past me.

“Angelica,” Sam yelled. “H
ave you met my companion? Marcus Gray.”

The werewolf-man with black hair dropped his hold on Sam and stepped to the side.
My mouth fell open is surprise. My father? My father was alive. Though I still couldn’t see her, I heard my mum’s gasp and I could hear her footsteps approaching the edge of the stage beside me.

“No,” she said, quietly, more to herself than
to the room. “It can’t be.”

Twenty-Four:
An Unlikely Knight

“Stop! Stop this at once,” shouted Louis. “I order you to stop!” Louis pointed his right index finger aggressively at the black-haired werewolf, at Marcus Gray, my father.

Marcus didn’t flinch.
“Angelica,” he called to my undead mother. “Is that really you?”

My mum stepped up on the stage beside me and stared at the tall, muscular man walking towards her on the ballroom floor.
“Marcus,” she said astonished and then she let out an elated sigh. “My Marcus.”

My body seemed to straighten and strengthen as I watched her run down the stairs and into his open arms. They hugged and kissed and laughed as the room filled with curious whispers and worrying gasps. I couldn’t help but smile at the reunion and at Sam, who
was now standing and who, I was sure, had some large part to play in the whole thing. Sam’s grin was wide and loving as he stared up at me and as I smiled down at him, unable to hide how impressed I was, I suddenly realized that the drowning numbness I’d felt in my body only moments before had disappeared.

I glanced down at my slumped wrists and saw that the deep, violent gashes had healed and all that remained was the darkening scarlet of my congealing blood.
Funnily enough, I actually felt better than I had earlier in the evening, like a weight had been lifted and my body felt more energetic than ever. Maybe my evil side’s powers were increasing, or maybe seeing Louis in considerable distress had something to do with it. Either way, I had to silently thank my evil half for her supernatural healing abilities and would be sure to pay her a future favor in return. Killing Louis would definitely do quite nicely.

While my mum and my dad couldn’t
appear to keep their hands off each other, my attention seemed to wander back to Louis, who was standing, silently still, staring at the couple’s joyous embrace. I could see the fury building on his perfectly pale, angular face and hoped he’d direct it at me. Max’s arms around my body had weakened just that little bit more that I needed and his stunned concentration was firmly focused on the cuddling, supernatural couple. At just the right moment, I’d fight myself free and see just how many punches I could hit Louis with before his werewolf lackeys came to his rescue.

When I glanced over at my mum and dad again, their postures had changed. They were still touching each other lovingly and desperately,
but now they were facing Louis. Disbelief and anger filled my mum’s eyes, while a vicious smile of revenge twisted my father’s lips.

“How could you,” my mum asked Louis, as heartfelt pain tore at her voice
. “I thought I loved you.” She slipped off the gold, ruby studded wedding ring from her left hand and threw it to the floor in front of Louis’ feet.

I watched as Louis’ golden eyes followed it as it tinkled lightly against the ballroom floor and then rolled to a stop.
For the first time, a twinge of pain seemed to cross Louis’ face, and I almost felt sorry for him, but it was quickly replaced by a contortion of furious arrogance as he raised his eyes back to my mother.

“Face it, Angelica,” he spat smugly, “you did love me and you chose me. You could have waited and pined hopelessly for
him
for the rest of your pathetic life, but you didn’t. You chose power, privilege and immortality over him. I made you do nothing, it was all of your choosing.”

My mum’s jaw dropped at Louis’ foul allegations and she raised her left hand to her mouth in shock and shame.

Marcus’ arm wrapped around her shoulders comfortingly and he growled at Louis. “You made me this,” he snarled. “You took me away from her and then manipulated her. She only chose you because you gave her no other choice. Cornering her and breaking her until she needed you is completely different from offering her a fair choice. None of this was of her choosing or mine. You did this to us.”

Louis’ face turned hard for a moment, then he rolled his eyes and tilted his head conceitedly.
“Please,” he said mockingly. “Have you completely forgotten whom you are addressing? I am your master, you are my dog. Now obey and be a good boy.”