Chapter Twenty-Three
I lied to Skye.
I didn't want to do it, and afterward I felt bad about it, but it was unavoidable. I think she wanted to believe that Antonio was just up at the penthouse, that he wasn't doing anything he shouldn't be. But I knew that when I went up to the penthouse, Antonio wouldn't be there. In fact, I was pretty sure he wasn't in the lair at all. The only reason I was going to the penthouse was to talk to Winter. I needed to tell him that Antonio was MIA, and I needed to know why, exactly, Winter didn't trust him anymore. In all honestly, now that I had learned that Antonio had left and clouded Skye's mind to keep her from where he was going, I was starting to agree with Winter. There was something...off about Antonio.
I was uneasy as I got off the elevator at the penthouse. It was too quiet. All the vampires were already asleep; most of them weren't powerful enough to actually be awake during the day. They'd be out for the count until after sunset. There were only two vampires up here that could wake up at will, and I was here to talk to one of them. I could only hope Winter didn't kill me for interrupting his sleep--master vamps were picky about that kind of stuff.
Not letting the fact that there was absolutely no one around bother me, I started off down the hallway towards the bedrooms. I had a pretty good idea which one was Winter's; I was hoping not to barge in on the wrong vampire. I wasn't exactly sure who all lived with Stavros up here.
I came to the door that I thought--hoped--was Winter's. I thought about knocking, but considering I had been trying to be fairly quiet up to this point, knocking seemed sort of ridiculous. Besides, was knocking really appropriate? What did you do when you were about to disturb a vampire in their sleep? It seemed a stupid thing to do, but he had wanted to know if Antonio did anything suspicious. Disappearing during the day seemed a pretty suspicious thing to do for a vampire.
I twisted the doorknob; it gave easily, being unlocked, and the door pushed open without a sound. I stepped into the room. It was obviously Winter's. The black curtains obscured any and all sunlight that came through the window, but it wasn't pitch black in the room. Two small, circular lights in the ceiling were pointed towards the bed; they were turned on dim. Very dim. Looking at the wall opposite the bed, I could see the cross had been taken down. That struck me as odd. Winter had told me just yesterday he hadn't lost his faith, so why take his cross off the wall?
Looking to the bed, I froze. I had found my answer to the cross question. Winter had taken the cross off the wall because Winter wasn't alone. There, in bed with him, was Stavros, and they were wrapped in each other's arms, naked. I was...shocked, I guess? I mean, I had noticed the way they treated each other before--like lovers--but taking notice and actually seeing it were two totally different things. It wasn't that it bothered me, it's just that I had never seen two guys together before. I felt really bad for just barging into the room--I felt like it wasn't my place to know what went on behind closed doors here. I hadn't earned that right, yet. I quietly turned to leave the room, but I wasn't fast enough.
One second my hand was on the doorknob, and the next I was up against the wall, a hand around my throat.
"You had better have a very good reason for being in here, monster slayer," Stavros said. See, I told you vamps could get grumpy if you woke them up.
"Calm down, Boss," I said, voice straining around his grip. He obviously wasn't trying to kill me; if he had been, I'd have already been dead. My eyes flicked from Stavros' face to Winter's. "I only came...to talk...to Winter. I...didn't know."
Winter came to Stavros' side and put a hand on his lover's shoulder. "Stavros," he said gently. Stavros looked away from me for a split second, and then he lowered me to the floor. When he let go I grabbed my throat; he hadn't been holding me hard enough to kill me, but it still hurt.
"Jesus Christ," I rasped, coughing.
"What was so urgent that you felt it pertinent to disturb us during the day?" Winter asked.
I looked quickly to Stavros before answering. "It's about our conversation yesterday, and what you asked me to do," I told him.
Stavros glanced sharply at Winter. "What is this?" he asked.
"You might as well tell him," I said. "Once I tell you what I know, it's not going to matter."
Reluctantly Winter turned to Stavros. "I asked Kayla to keep an eye on someone for me," he said. "She was to report back to me if she found anything suspicious."
"Who was she asked to watch?" Stavros asked Winter. When Winter didn't answer, he turned to me. "Who were you asked to watch?"
Neither of us answered. Stavros' face contorted in fury. "I am master here, and someone will tell me what is going on," he said. His voice was calm with fury. I knew countless people had heard that voice in the moment before their death.
"It was Antonio," I said finally, giving Winter an apologetic look before turning my gaze back to Stavros. "Winter doesn't trust him anymore and frankly, neither do I."
"Antonio?" Stavros asked Winter.
"Strange things have been happening ever since Kayla came to us," Winter said. "I thought they were all coincidences, but now I think our problems may all be connected. Further more, I think Antonio has something to do with it all."
"Antonio would never betray me," Stavros said.
Winter shook his head. "Your love for Antonio blinds you to his faults," he said. "Antonio is not like the rest of us. He is dangerous."
"I hate to say it, Boss," I chimed in, "but I think that--" Whatever I had been about to say died in my throat. My eyes went wide and out of focus--even though I was looking at Stavros and Winter, I wasn't really seeing them.
"Kayla, are you all right?" Winter asked.
I tried to shake my head, but found I couldn't move. My body wouldn't respond to what I was telling it to do. And then, suddenly, I wasn't in Winter's bedroom anymore.
"Mikhail?" a girl's voice asked, bringing me out of my reverie. She put a cold hand on my cheek and turned my face to hers. "You were ignoring me."
I pushed a strand of chocolate brown hair out of her face. "So sorry, my love," I said. "Where were we?"
She smiled, and lowered her face back to my neck. I moaned as I felt her tongue on my skin, and then a moment later she sank her fangs into my neck, suckling on the wound. I grabbed her wrist and brought it to my mouth, biting into the smooth flesh there. She groaned against my neck as we drank each other's blood. I could feel myself becoming more and more aroused as the blood left my body, only to be replaced by hers. Still, even though she could excite me in such a manner, she was still not the one I truly wanted.
There was a sharp tap on the window of the limousine we were sitting in. I pulled her wrist away from my mouth; the wound healed almost instantly. Since we had parked and were waiting in an alley where the sun couldn't touch us, it was safe for me to roll down the window. "What?" I snapped.
The person standing outside the limousine was in all black, wearing leather gloves and a motorcycle helmet. Not an inch of skin was left uncovered to the sun. Bashkim bowed to me. "So sorry for the interruption, Master," he said. "I was told to tell you when he arrived."
"Very good," I said, rolling the window up. No sooner had I done so than the door opened and another, considerably smaller person wearing all black slid into the limousine. The person removed their own helmet, and Antonio was revealed.
"So, Antonio," I said, pulling away from the girl sucking my blood. She whimpered a little, wiping her mouth where she had spilled some of my blood. "Why did you insist upon a meeting at such an inappropriate time? I could be sleeping now, you realize."
"I just thought you should know that the slayer is on to us, on to me," Antonio said. "I don't know who told her, or how she found out I was up to something, but she's been asking questions, trying to turn my own human servant against me."
"Hmm." I leaned forward, elbows on my knees, and stared into Antonio's eyes. "Why is Kayla suspicious, Antonio? You haven't started being careless, have you?"
"Of course not," he snapped. "There's something else, too."
"Well, I suggest you tell me."
"Claudiana appeared to her in a dream," Antonio said.
The recently borrowed blood froze in my veins. "Claudiana?" I asked.
"She showed Kayla the House, told her that you were hiding there. Claudiana told them to come to the House on the eve of the Carnival of Nightmares."
"That bitch," I muttered, leaning back in my seat. The girl tried to move close to me but I pushed her away, in no mood for her ridiculousness at the moment. "Well, let them come to the Carnival of Nightmares. If everything goes according to plan, they won't survive long enough to come for me."
Antonio shook his head. "You really trust this woman, this other slayer?"
"No," I said simply, "but she hates Kayla enough to kill her. Then, after that, I will have no use for her. Her rage will make her easy to dispose of."
I stopped. There was something not quite right; I felt another energy in the limousine with us. I looked from Antonio to the girl. "Do you feel that?" I asked.
"Feel what?" the girl questioned. I shook my head, and closed my eyes, searching my mind for what I knew to be there. When I found it, I smirked.
You naughty, naughty vampire slayer. Get out of my mind.
I stumbled back into my own body. My knees became weak, and I would have fallen to the floor if both vampires hadn't caught me. "What happened?" Stavros demanded.
I realized I was panting, like I had run a long distance. Mentally, I had, traveling back and forth between my own mind and Mikhail's. "I was in Mikhail's mind," I gasped. "It was like I was Mikhail." I gave Stavros an apologetic look. "Antonio was there. He's plotting against us. Bashkim, as well. Antonio told Mikhail that I was suspicious of him, although he didn't know it was Winter who told me to watch him. He also told Mikhail about my dream and Claudiana."
"Traitor," Winter breathed. Stavros seemed to be all business, but I knew that the news of Antonio's betrayal had shaken him.
"What else did you see?" he asked.
I shook my head. "Nothing," I told him. "Mikhail discovered me, and pushed me out."
Winter and Stavros exchanged a look. "If Mikhail pushed her out..." Winter began.
"...Then he is probably going to come back through," Stavros finished.
"I don't think so," I told them. "I don't feel--"
It was only a light weight in my head, like the beginnings of a headache, and then it was gone. I felt perfectly fine, except for...
"That was a very impressive trick, Stavros," I said, my voice once again the strange mixture of my own and Mikhail's. "Tell me, did you teach our little slayer to do that?"
"Hello, Mikhail," Stavros said, his voice and face betraying no emotion.
I looked to both of them, noticing how they were unclothed, and the way they held me between them. I chuckled. "Oh, my. Have I stumbled upon something I shouldn't have?"
Stavros' grip on my arm tightened, and his power flared, sending a cold wind through the room. "What do you want, Mikhail?"
"Oh, nothing," I said. "Can't I just drop by for a visit? Maybe I just wanted to see both of you again."
The two of them exchanged looks. Memories flashed in my head, of sweat and blood and things whispered under sheets in the darkness. I looked to Winter, and there was a hurt in his eyes.
"Oh, ice bringer," I said, "why so sad? Are you not happy in your new life? Are you perhaps wishing you had never given me up?"
I leaned towards him, but he tightened his grip on my other arm, stopping me. "Stop this, Mikhail," he said.
"Fine." I turned away from him, to Stavros. "How about you, Stavros? Will you resist me?"
"I will," he said confidently.
I frowned. "Why?" I peered into his eyes, trying to see into his mind for an answer. What I found delighted me. "Oh, this is too rich!" I exclaimed. "You want the girl, don't you? Yes! You want the girl!" I turned back to Winter. "What of you, ice bringer? Oh, I can see it in your eyes. You both want little Kayla, don't you?"
"Mikhail, leave her," Stavros commanded. I laughed at him.
"Why don't you try to make me leave again?" I asked. "Or are you afraid of what will happen? I'm stronger now, Stavros. You know this to be true."
Stavros knew I was right; he looked away in defeat.
"I have an idea," Winter said. Gently, he released my arm and took my face in his hands. "Kayla, if you can hear me, then I am truly sorry for this," he said. Then, he kissed me.
