The Dark Blood of Poppies (28 page)

“Oh, to vanquish this blood thirst would be a fine trick!” she hissed.

Josef shifted uneasily, looking dismayed and anxious.

“So, you maintain that it’s all in my mind? How do you explain the fact that the three angels who pursued me were real, physical entities? Ask Charlotte, ask Karl. Explain how Lancelyn knew what I was without being told. You can’t, can you?” She stood up, ready to leave.

“No, I can’t.” He rubbed his forehead. “I’m afraid I haven’t handled this well. Please, Madame, don’t go. We’ve barely scratched the surface. We might need hours, days of talking to unravel this.”

“No,” she said, reverting to the imperious ballerina. “I don’t have days. I’ve heard enough. Thank you for seeing me, Dr Stern. I’m grateful to you for trying, but you’ve only confirmed what I already suspected. I am damned.”

* * *

Robyn curled up with a book, trying to forget that Violette was in her house. Insatiably curious, she longed to eavesdrop, but her conscience would not let her. Fearing for Josef’s safety was irrational – how could a petite ballerina possibly harm him? – yet she couldn’t help linking Violette with his illness and disturbed state of mind.

Half an hour passed. Then a strange sensation made her look up. Violette Lenoir was standing by her armchair as if she’d materialised from nowhere.

Robyn started violently, dropping her book. She laughed, trying to make a joke of it. “No wonder you’re renowned for your light step, Madame.”

She made to stand, but to her surprise, Violette knelt beside her and put a hand on her arm. “Don’t get up. You weren’t so formal when we met in the garden.”

Robyn, at ease with men, had no idea how to behave towards this woman. Her presence was uncanny. She wore a black cloche hat, glossed with feathers and jet beads. Under its deep crown her face was a lily, accentuated by dark lashes and brows. Her irises were startling, deepest violet-blue.

“Where’s my uncle?”

“Downstairs. The ballet is leaving soon. I came to say goodbye.”

“Oh.” Robyn’s mouth went dry. She remembered how Violette had embraced her, the strength of her fingers, her mouth, gentle at first, then demanding. Such thrilling terror… Now she felt as jumpy as a thirteen-year-old girl. “Would you like some tea, Madame?”

“No, thank you. And please, call me Violette. Don’t say anything until you’ve listened to me.” Her demeanour, Robyn saw, had changed from their first meeting. She seemed softer, even anxious. “There are certain things of which I can’t speak. Dangers. Your uncle knows. He’s been afraid for your safety.”

“What are you talking about?”

A brief hesitation. “Oh, ballet company politics. Jealousies. Conflicts.”

“What on earth has that to do with me?”

“I asked you to listen, Robyn. Please. This is hard for me. Almost impossible, actually.” Violette’s hand, gloved in black leather, grew heavier on her arm. “I frightened you in the garden. I didn’t mean to; it’s something I can’t always control. But the strangest thing is that I’ve been completely unable to stop thinking about you since.”

Robyn, taken aback, managed to suppress any sound she might have made.

“I couldn’t bear it if any harm were to come to you.”

“Why should it?” Robyn exclaimed. “Do you have a jealous admirer who might shoot me?”

Violette exhaled, at a loss. “I wish I could explain, but I can’t. I simply wanted to apologise for frightening you. I didn’t realise how badly I’d behaved until afterwards. I suppose this comes too late. I hardly know you, yet I feel I can tell you…”

“Anything.”

“Then don’t be too hard on me. You need not even reply. I have never in my life made a confession like this; never thought I’d need to. I love Charlotte but she’s too much like me; our passions are like ice-thorns to tear each other apart. But when I met you… I saw someone with all the warmth and strength I lack, who could perhaps heal me. I despised love, until I met you! No, I’m not asking anything of you, Robyn. I simply wanted to tell you. You make me feel human. I’ve never felt human before.”

“Oh, my God,” Robyn said softly.

Violette looked steadily at her. Her presence uncoiled all Robyn’s certainty about the world. Her allure would have captured anyone. Robyn realised that if she chose, Violette could seduce her into anything – but she held back, respecting Robyn’s choice.

To be wanted by this goddess was too dazzling to bear.

“Are you horrified?” said Violette. “I don’t blame you. Please don’t be polite. Don’t say, ‘I’m terribly flattered but I prefer men,’ or any of that. All I want is for you to remember this: you are the first person I ever felt I could love, and probably the last.”

She began to stand up, but Robyn caught her hand and said, “Don’t go.”

An incredible wave of excitement was rolling through her. She saw a way to leave everything behind, to shed her tawdry life like a snakeskin: Harold, the endless string of victim-lovers, the bitter scars, the hollow tedium of waiting for Sebastian to call. All of it. Replace it with an affection that was new and tender and clean.

“Violette,” she said, her voice shaking, “what if I say I’m not horrified? Quite the opposite. If I say I want to come with you when you leave…”

Violette went paler, if that were possible. She looked dumbstruck. Robyn saw that this was the last reaction she’d expected. She’d spoken in the certainty of rejection. Finding acceptance, she was utterly bewildered.

Tears brimmed in her eyes. The tears, Robyn saw, were tinged faintly red.

“Oh, Robyn, no. It’s impossible.”

“Are you worried about people talking? No one need know. Don’t you need a ‘personal assistant’ or whatever?”

“It’s not that. God, I’d love to… but I’d destroy you.”

“I’m not so easy to live with, either. Ask my housekeeper.”

She spoke lightly, but Violette didn’t smile. Her eyes glared with sudden annihilating menace: arctic ice steeped in blood. “No, I mean it. I would destroy you.”

Violette dropped her gaze. Robyn’s heart began to beat again. She felt angry, bereft and cheated. “So after all that, you’re turning me down? Good grief, what do you want?”

“I’m sorry,” Violette whispered. “I had no idea you would… No, it’s impossible.”

“If you leave here now, we’ll never see each other again, will we?”

“I doubt it.”

“I don’t understand!”

“Forgive me.” Violette leaned down and pressed her lips to Robyn’s. She was trembling. Robyn thought she was about to break down, but when she slid her hands onto the dancer’s slim shoulders, Violette immediately pulled away. “Please forgive me. I’ll never forget you.”

“Likewise,” Robyn said stiffly. She watched as Violette let herself out. “Goodbye, good luck and…”

Go to hell!
she added silently, her jaw clenched, her body rigid with emotion. Where the gloved hand had touched her arm, her skin tingled and burned.

* * *

“What did she want?” Robyn and Josef said in unison as they met in the parlour. Then they laughed uneasily. Violette was gone but her shadow hung between them.

“Have you been crying?” he asked.

“I’m just being silly,” she said, sniffing. “So, what happened? You go first.”

“Oh, nothing,” Josef said, stroking her hair. “Well, not quite nothing. She decided to talk to me after all, but… I didn’t say what she was hoping to hear. I wish I knew what she does want.”

“You and me both!”

“Why, what did she say to you?”

Robyn tried to make light of things. “She made declarations of undying love, would you believe. I must have gone clean out of my mind for a few minutes, because I asked her to take me away with her.”

Josef’s face dropped in horror. He actually grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “Dear God, you mustn’t go!”

“Uncle!” She stepped back, shocked. “Why not?”

“Because…” He pushed a hand through his hair, leaving it even more untidy.

“Come on, tell me.”

“To spend too much time with her might not be… healthy. She’s demanding. Can you imagine what force of personality it takes to train and discipline all those dancers? You would lose your own self to her.”

“You make her sound like a vampire.”

“Robyn, please…”

“It’s all right, I’m not going. She wouldn’t let me, and you know why? She said the same thing, that she’d destroy me. As if she was trying to protect me.”

Josef sank onto a sofa, holding his head in relief.

“But it would have been fascinating!” Robyn said. “I could have written a book about her! ‘My life with a mad genius’.”

“Don’t joke about it.” He settled his spectacles on his nose. “Well, it’s almost over. Once the ballet’s left town, you’ll be –” She thought he started to say,
safe
“– I’ll be on my way and your life can return to normal.”

“Won’t that be fun,” Robyn said aridly. The prospect was dreary. “Without people like Charlotte, Karl and Violette around, I think I shall die of boredom.”

* * *

“It’s you, Cesare,” said the angel, Simon. “You are the one chosen to lead us against the Enemy.”

They clasped hands. In the gloom of the inner sanctum, yellow light flared from their palms, knifing between their entwined fingers. Power. Cesare looked into Simon’s wondrous eyes and laughed, intoxicated by hope.

They’d talked endlessly since Simon had arrived. Cesare longed to ask him,
Were you ever human? Can I, too, achieve angelic status?
But it was too soon, too presumptuous.

John was silent, but at least he was with them, an essential part of the triumvirate.

“Join us,” said Cesare, and John came to complete the circle. The energy he added was dark, like iron; but it was power, all the same.

“I came here because you understand,” said Simon. To Cesare he was a seraph, too bright and cold for humans to bear. His face was gold ice, ravenous with immortal hunger. “Lilith is the Enemy. You know, as Kristian taught, that God is not the forgiving deity of mankind’s belief. He visits vampires as a plague on mortals. He might equally visit Lilith as a plague on straying vampires.”

“So we must warn them,” said Cesare. “Bring them back to the true path.”

“Yes!” Simon said fervently. “We’re in perfect agreement. And you will be a worthy successor to Kristian, our beloved lost brother. Are you ready?”

Cesare had been awed to learn that Simon had helped create Kristian. Not that anything this angel did would surprise him. To be raised up in Kristian’s place was an honour almost beyond comprehension.

“Can I make the others believe how dangerous Lilith is?” Cesare met Simon’s dazzling eyes. “Will they accept me as their leader?”

“You can, and they will. Am I not your mandate from God? Come, it’s time.”

Cesare squared his shoulders. “I am ready.”

In the assembly chamber, the other vampires waited sullenly in their hooded robes. There were only a few left now: he counted eleven. Maria alone looked at Cesare with respect. The others, including Pierre, reminded him of unearthed moles, blinking resentfully at the daylight.

Cesare stood near the throne-dais, not on it. John and Simon flanked him. In a low-key, conversational tone, Cesare began to talk.

He told them of his journey through the outside world, its depravity and corruption. He spoke passionately of Kristian’s holy life and death. He held up the photograph of Lilith, still in its broken, blood-spattered frame.

“This is our Enemy,” he said.

Did they believe him?

Not at first. They didn’t care, but Cesare forged on like a true orator until he
made
them care. He brought John forward to display Matthew’s severed head. He summoned the wretched Pierre to describe Lilith’s violent cruelty.

“This is what she’ll do to us all if she is not stopped!” Cesare’s voice rose. “We’ve all seen and felt the growing darkness of the Crystal Ring. It is Lilith’s doing. Unless we act, she will be the death of us.”

The vampires had drifted into a tighter group. Now they were paying attention.

“Remember the story of Noah: God in his rage destroyed the human race, saving only a few. Well, Lilith is the new flood – sent to punish vampires for turning away from God. She is the Dark Mother who consumes her own children.”

His flock listened with parted lips and staring eyes. Terrified.

“But there’s hope. Schloss Holdenstein will be our Ark. We are the chosen few – if we work together.” Tears flowed from Cesare’s eyes as he walked among them. “You know I loved Kristian faithfully. I
never
turned against him. When I asked Karl to lead us, I made a vast error of judgement, for which I repent. I’ve learned so much since then. Instead, I offer
myself
as your leader. Your guide, your servant.”

How bright were their eyes now, how beautiful their faces that regarded him from within their hoods! Like young priests and nuns.

“You all loved Kristian too,” he said. “That’s why you stayed. And it’s very hard to bear eternity without him. So I prayed, and the Almighty answered. He sent Simon, His envoy, Kristian’s creator. Simon is God’s promise that I am destined to lead you against the Enemy. I am the soldier-priest whose sole purpose is to destroy Lilith and lead vampire-kind to salvation. Behold, at my side – the flaming sword and the hammer of God, our beloved comrades, Simon and John.”

Suddenly the eyes all around him were full of tears. Cesare found himself half-smothered by embraces, voices clamouring, “
Yes, lead us, Cesare. Save us! We’ll do anything, everything.
”

No apathy in their faces now. He’d restored them to life.

Wondrous feeling.

“We’ll draw other vampires here to share the truth and the light,” he declared. “But any who refuse, any who shelter Lilith – they too are the Enemy.”

Cesare was shocked at his own harsh assertiveness. Where had it come from? From above, of course! He moved among his followers in a state of near-ecstasy. He walked in a halo of golden light and his feet were winged.

This adoration might become addictive.

* * *

Simon watched beatifically, thinking,
Do you think you are safe, Violette, in your little world of human adulation? Do you imagine that the theatres in which you escape reality are any less fragile than eggshell?