Page 20

Trap

T he Horys Vampire was lying on a metal table that looked a bit like it should have been in an embalmer’s basement. Her eyes were closed. Her body was completely repaired. Grayson could see all of it as she was naked. Her chest rose and fell as she breathed and lived again.

They were in the basement of the Eyros Palace, or really, it was a dungeon with stone walls, torches, chains, the whole bit.

It was the complete opposite of the glass, metal and wood palace above, which was all modern and airy.

This was all medieval. Grayson wondered if, like the rooms at the dorm, the palaces reflected their Immortal’s desires at any given moment.

Maybe it did work that way. And if it did, then Balthazar was in a very medieval mood.

“Is she asleep?” Dani asked as she slowly circled the Horys Vampire.

Grayson hung back. Not because he was frightened of her waking up. He was more afraid of what he would do once she was up and talking and taunting him about Charlie and Gregory.

“I have Whispered her to sleep,” Elgar answered, though he never looked directly at Dani.

He spoke to the skull in his hands that he cradled gently.

By the fact that no one mentioned the skull or seemed at all surprised by it, Grayson guessed that this wasn’t unusual behavior.

Though it must be a story. Elgar continued, “She will wake up whenever Master wishes her to.”

“I thought the Whisper was just useful on crowds, low level compulsion,” Dani said with a slight frown. “Nothing so deep as this.”

She gestured to the Horys Vampire who seemed so asleep as to almost be in a coma.

Balthazar cleared his throat and crossed his hands at the wrists behind his back. He rocked back and forth on his heels like a guilty, little boy. “Oh, that’s just what we tell people. The reality is… well, different.”

“You’re the one that’s different, Balthazar.

As Eyros, you loved people to know just how powerful you were and what you could do to them if they displeased you.

” Dani lifted an eyebrow at him. “You would laugh and say, ‘Tis better to be feared than loved, though I can make them love me, too. Just watch.’”

“I sound so very pleasant .” Balthazar gave out an uncomfortable laugh.

“You don’t feel that way anymore?” Dani had both eyebrows up.

Balthazar shrugged. “Maybe a little. Sometimes. But only for those that would attack me or those I care for. Otherwise, I’m happy to live and let live. I have plenty going on without needing strangers to fear or love me.”

Dani bit her lower lip. “Yes, well, you also said that knowing what was in people’s minds all the time meant that you didn’t believe in anyone being fully trustworthy or worthy at all. Except for Daemon.”

“I really was an asshole, wasn’t I?” Balthazar laughed a little brittlely.

“You probably weren’t wrong,” Grayson said quietly.

“Oh, I know that people are more lies than truth most of the time, even to themselves, but there are good people out there. Christian, Julian, Elgar… well, everyone in this room and more,” Balthazar sounded certain.

“That actually gives me a little hope that you think so,” Grayson responded.

Balthazar hadn’t mentioned Ryder, but then again, was Ryder real ?

Ryder was really Weryn and he likely wouldn’t be called “good” exactly even on his best behavior day.

He was wild. He was loyal. He was… beyond good and evil.

Grayson frowned. He didn’t know what Weryn was at all.

He knew Ryder. Sort of. And, yet, the thought remained with him that he did understand both of them.

“You’ve not had a lot of reasons to trust people, Grayson?” Dani looked at him with almost trepidation as if she feared what he might say.

He crossed his arms over his chest. He normally kept quiet about himself.

But he found himself answering her, “I had to leave home when I was pretty young. Was out on the streets for a few years. The only ones who really take an interest in you when you’re homeless are the bad people, while the good ones pretend you don’t exist.”

“I’m so sorry that you were out there on your own. That I… I mean, that you weren’t helped,” Dani said, her expression bleak.

“I was helped. Sam, the one she killed for a--for a snack ,” he indicated the Horys Vampire, “helped me a lot. He was a slave to alcohol, you know? He couldn’t stop drinking. Not when he lost his job, his wife, his children, his home, his friends, everyone and everything. He kept drinking.”

“Addiction is a terrible disease. It’s always been with us and it always will be,” Caemorn said softly. “It destroys us.”

Balthazar frowned as he glanced at Caemorn and Grayson wondered if there was some form of addiction in the Kaly Vampire’s past.

“Even though alcohol had pretty much rotted his mind and spirit, Sam was still kind .” Grayson gripped himself harder.

Dani reached for him, but didn’t touch him as if she feared she wouldn’t be welcome. And most people wouldn’t be. But he found he didn’t mind her. She brushed his nearest arm. It was nice. It helped him relax a little.

“He helped me when he didn’t have to,” Grayson explained. “Looked out for me. Taught me the ropes. Warned me about the bad stuff. I would sometimes imagine who he would be if alcohol didn’t have him in a death grip. Imagine how good he must have been inside not to be completely ruined by it.”

“And she killed him?” Dani looked at the Horys Vampire with no love whatsoever.

“Yep. It took less than a minute. And he was gone,” Grayson answered.

“He was free of the body and mind that craved alcohol, Grayson, but he was not gone ,” Caemorn said.

Grayson lifted his head. His heart beat harder. He realized that Caemorn wasn’t just talking about this out of faith . He actually knew . Kaly Vampires knew everything about death and souls and all of it.

“Is there an afterlife? Is there really something after this?” Grayson asked.

“Oh, yes, there really is,” Caemorn answered.

“Have you ever--ever seen what’s after?” Grayson asked.

For a moment, he saw a glowing door in his mind’s eye and souls--beings of light and shadow--streaming towards it while few went another way.

“No, if I had I would not have been able to return most likely.” Caemorn touched his chest. “I am reincarnated. A soul has a choice. Come back here or go on and see what’s next. But not both.”

Grayson thought about Sam being freed of his alcoholism and all of those bad choices and there was a little easing of the pain he felt.

Yet Sam had not been doomed to die that night.

It had not been his natural time. There had still been a chance for him to turn things around.

Or, if not that, at least have some enjoyable moments and not end with his blood on someone’s chin.

He glared at the Horys Vampire who lay so still and sweet.

But if there were something after, maybe there was someone after, too. Someone who would reward Sam for his goodness to Grayson and others, even when he bore the heavy burden of addiction. Caemorn might know this too.

“Is there a--a God?” Grayson asked, feeling foolish despite himself.

Caemorn did not treat the question as such. “There is order that feels like it comes from an intelligence. That is as much as I can say.” He focused on Grayson. “But the closest thing to a god that I have ever experienced is Daemon.”

“That must totally freak out all the religions,” Grayson let out a soft laugh. “I mean, I know it does. Explains why so many people are both joining religions and leaving them like rivers each way.”

“It’s going to get worse.” Balthazar grimaced.

“What do you mean?” Grayson asked.

It was Caemorn who answered, “The press are going to be coming here to show certain of the school events. Julian, Christian and Julian’s parents are doing their vlog, you know, to record their own journeys to become Vampires.

But the Harrows are television stars. People expect special things to happen to stars that would not to normal people.

” Balthazar made air quotes around “normal” even though it was Caemorn talking.

“But when they see the students getting chosen and turned…”

“Then it's real for everyone,” Grayson finished. He ran a hand through his hair. “Oh, man, I get it.”

He really got it. He’d lived with the supernatural all of his life, but when the Vampires had come out, even he’d been shocked and the world had wobbled a little on its axis. But he’d gotten over it more quickly because of his own unique circumstances. Other people wouldn’t have.

“We’re going to see a lot of disruption. A lot more of it.” Balthazar chuckled thinly. “And the world governments, though they are playing nicely on the outside with us, see us as a threat and an opportunity.”

“Okay, that’s--that’s, shit, okay, yeah, I can see that.

” Grayson’s eyes widened. He was just getting used to feeling safe in the Ever Dark to use his powers and be open with people somewhat like him.

But now, he realized, there were just more of people like him in danger from humanity.

“I admit, I was freaked out that the government would find out about me and put me in a lab.”

“Oh, yes, they’re planning that and more.” Balthazar laughed thinly again.

What must he have seen in human minds to cause that lemon-sour laugh?

Grayson’s shoulder blades twitched. He felt the need to look for the exits and he’d been able to stifle it since the incident with Ryder.

But now, his eyes flickered around wildly as if the humans would rush in to take them to the labs at any moment. It was foolish, but was it?

Think about what Vampires can do! Humanity doesn’t have a chance. It doesn’t, right?

“Ah, but you have a plan, right?” Grayson glanced between all of them. “I mean… you guys have to have a plan!”