Page 12 of House of Night (House of Night #1)

12

Recovered Journal of Dr. Georgia Clark

January 11, Year 1, Emergence Era

I can’t sleep. I keep thinking about Juno. About how she’s changed so much. There’s a million miles of distance between us now. I hardly see her anymore. No more family dinners downstairs, at least not with her. She’s too busy. Or maybe she’s avoiding me. I passed her on the front steps, and I thought for just a second that she would keep going, would pretend she didn’t see me. Of course she didn’t. She wouldn’t do something like that. So why do I keep thinking about it?

“ I haven’t been up here for quite some time.” Melody scans the garden, moonlight turning everything into silver and shadows. “I’m sorry I couldn’t bring you during the day.”

She’d come to my room earlier, her soft knock announcing her arrival. Apparently, Valen ordered her to take the ‘little rabbit’ out for some fresh air while he’s away.

I hate him more every single moment, with every breath I take. I wish he could feel it, the way I despise him. Maybe it’s best he’s been gone for five days or so, by my count. Though I can’t imagine how Atlanta is faring right now. When my mind strays to it, to the things Valen told me about the new world, I turn inward. I spend hours writing in my journal, filling every bit of space with the things I remember. With notes about Sierravirus, small sketches of faces I remember but can’t name, and my thoughts—but only the ones I feel safe enough to write down. I can’t stomach the notion of Whitbine getting his hands on my deepest thoughts, the ones I hope I’ve managed to keep hidden from him despite his compulsion. I have to cling to those secret parts of me, the only bits of my consciousness I can still call mine.

“Georgia,” Melody turns to me, the silvery light shining on her dark hair. “Please don’t run. I wouldn’t want to have to …” She lets the sentence fade, and I don’t have to do much imagining to know she’d hunt me down if I strayed.

“Not on your watch.” I nod. “Don’t worry.” I don’t fear what she’d do to me if she caught me. I’m more worried about her disappointment. As much as I refuse to trust anyone in this special pit of hell, I have to admit she’s grown on me. Her quiet way of meeting my needs, her ability to sense when I need space or comfort—she’s nothing like Valen, nothing like any of the vampires I’ve met. I want to put every one of their kind into a box, pigeonhole them under a sign marked ‘EVIL’ in no uncertain terms. Melody, though, has made that far more difficult than it should be. She’s too human, and if I’m being honest with myself, she reminds me too much of Juno, the Juno who helped raise me and made me feel loved when I felt like nothing more than an abandoned stray.

“Thank you for understanding.” Melody walks into the gloom, her form visible but unobtrusive.

I wander forward, drawn back to the silent fountain, its waters stagnant but also teeming with life. Sitting on the mossy edge, I stare at the reflection of the sky, my eyes becoming better adjusted with each passing moment. Wherever we are, I can see plenty of stars. We must be far from any city—that, or whatever town we’re near doesn’t have power. Not uncommon. Once the plague hit with full force, plenty of cities collapsed. Then they reformed in loose collectives or allowed the federal government to step in and impose a bare bones sort of order. In the worst scenarios, people became lawless and violent. Leaders emerged—some warlords, some actually concerned for the greater good. A mixed bag of ideals and monarchies, democracies and dictatorships.

Austin was different. We had power more often than not, other services, too. All because of Juno. She kept civilization as intact as possible, used federal resources to maintain the rule of law, and set up food and medicine banks. Our hospital was up and running even in the darkest days of the plague, when the bodies piled up in tractor trailers and then the streets. When the crematoriums were running around the clock and the smoke from the open burn pit beyond the city’s edge darkened the skies. Juno kept order, kept the people moving toward hope. She saved lives. Countless lives.

“Why?” I whisper to her, to myself. Why did she accept Gregor’s offer? Access to vampire blood couldn’t have been enough reason. My work in the lab was fruitless. I never found the cure, never found anything to help save humanity. If I had, we wouldn’t be here right now. Maybe her misplaced faith in my ability was her true downfall.

She believed in me. I failed. And now the world is burning, Juno’s dead, and I’m trapped here. What was it all for?

A turtle surfaces, only its head visible, getting air. I watch the ripples in the pond, melting away from the creature simply trying to survive.

I sit for a long while, the light wind turning colder. Melody is nowhere to be seen as I meander over to the statue. The stone woman is still looking past me, her sad eyes somewhere on the horizon. There’s no marker, nothing to tell me who she is or why she’s trapped here like me.

Venturing farther than before, I stroll past a row of fruit trees, their limbs barren, the rotten fruit beneath them already subsumed by tufts of grass and piles of leaves. The rolling hills give no clues of what lies beyond them, and as I stand still and just listen, no sounds make it to me other than the breeze soughing through the trees and the slight clack of limbs bumping against each other. No civilization. No rolling waves. Nothing to give me any real hints.

Footsteps behind me, particularly loud when I know Melody is capable of moving without a sound. “We should return now.” She’s being polite, making her presence known so she doesn’t startle me. Would a monster do something as thoughtful as that?

“All right.” I walk with her past the trees and back into the garden proper, but I pause when we get level with the statue. “Who is she?”

She stops. “I’m not sure if that’s my story to tell.”

“Please?” I catch her cat-eyed gaze and hold it.

She ponders for a few moments, her body eerily still. Sometimes I think the vampires exist outside of the laws of physics. I’d love to examine one of them. Though Melody has been patient with me, I don’t know if I can ask her to let me perform a physical. It’s not as if I have any tools here, anyway. The best I could do is press my ear to her chest and listen for a heartbeat.

“Do you have a heartbeat?” I ask before thinking better of it.

“Where’d that come from?” She gives me an amused half smile.

“Sorry. No ADHD meds here.” I shrug.

Her smile grows a little. “Yes. My heart beats. I’m still young in vampire years. The older ones, though, their hearts stop eventually.”

“But they’re still alive. Breathing?”

“I believe so, though I don’t know the particulars. That could stop, too. I’ve just never inquired about it.”

I can’t remember most of my work in the lab, though I remember receiving samples from Valen. It was vampire blood. What did I learn from it? Before I can think further on it, a dull ache sets up behind my temples. A warning. I return my gaze to the statue, to an unknown bit of marble that has no chance of driving a spike into my skull.

“I’d love to know about her.” I don’t want to push, but I’ve always been a curious creature. My imprisonment hasn’t changed that.

Melody considers me for a few moments longer, then seems to make a decision as she gives a resolute sigh. “Valen won’t appreciate this, but I don’t think it will hurt. Maybe you could see him in another light if …” Her sentiment fades away when she sees the look on my face.

“You can’t redeem him to me. No matter what you say.” I mean it. I’ve made a promise to never do harm to anyone, but Valen isn’t a person. He’s proven that to me time and again. If I could end him, I certainly would, because in a twisted way, it would save lives. More humans would escape Gregor’s purge if the Specter was gone. That’s upholding my oath.

“I suppose that’s fair enough.” She shrugs and walks over to the statue, ducking a little to avoid a tree branch. “Her name was Sylvana.”

“She’s beautiful.” I follow her beneath the tree and study the statue again, the soulful eyes and longing expression.

“Very. Her beauty was legendary in her town. It’s how she drew Gregor’s eye.”

That took a turn. I swallow hard.

“A human woman from a small village in Eastern Europe. She was young, perhaps barely twenty, when Gregor took her.”

My jaw tenses, and I tuck my hands in my pockets. The reticence in her voice tells a story beneath the words. One that makes my insides churn. I don’t have to use my imagination to understand what she means by ‘took’ and the suffering it entails.

“She barely survived it.” She looks away. “And when she returned to her village, she was pregnant. No doubt when she stumbled into her home, bloody and broken, she thought she was saved, that she’d endured the worst. But instead of protecting her, the people she trusted the most turned on her. The humans forced her from the town, her own parents turning their backs. Cursed and scorned, she fought for her life and that of her unborn child. But there was no kindness for her, not when she bore the marks—” her gaze flicks to my wrists, to the scars from Whitbine’s bites. “She was accused of witchcraft and of being the devil’s whore. They thought she’d bring the wrath of god down on them if she stayed. Their fear needlessly magnified her suffering. The villagers swore they’d burn her on a cross if she ever returned.”

“What the fuck? She was a victim .”

Melody shakes her head. “Superstition was just as strong then as now. No one would help her. Humans would rather she die than bring the devil’s child into the world. Some of her own people, those who’d watched her grow, had shared meals with her—they tried to kill her. She ran for her life and found an abandoned homestead in the woods, using her wits to keep her alive. Hunting, stealing what she could, and trading her body.”

“God.” I shiver.

“He didn’t help her either.” Melody steps back from the statue, a reverence in her eyes. “In spite of all of it, she lived. She bore the child, screaming and alone in a moldy hut. And when she saw him, she loved him. She didn’t want to, had already decided to leave him for the wolves, but a mother’s love is something beyond anyone’s real understanding. She kept the child, sacrificing what life she could’ve had for him.”

“Valen.” I look at the statue with new eyes.

“He never knew her, of course. This is drawn more from imagination than actual memory.” She dips her head to the statue in a small bow and turns back to me.

“What happened to her?”

“That’s enough for tonight.” She shakes her head and gestures toward the elevator doors. “I have much work to do.”

I reluctantly follow her. “Work for the ball?”

“Yes.”

“When is it?” I try to sound disinterested.

“Two nights away.”

“Oh.” A jolt of excitement courses through me. That night, when the vampires will be busy celebrating their massacres, they’ll be far too preoccupied to bother with me. It’s the perfect chance for me to escape. The main problem is that the corridor leading to the elevator is always locked, and my knife is a poor lockpick. I need something else, but I’ve yet to come up with anything clever.

“What’s the matter?” Melody asks as she pulls the lever and we descend. “Your heart rate jumped.”

“Oh, I, um. I don’t know,” I say lamely.

“Is it the ball?”

“Yes.” I grab her lifeline. “I didn’t realize it was so soon. That’s all. I don’t look forward to the castle brimming with vampir—” I turn to her. “Nothing against you , of course. It’s just?—”

“You don’t have to explain.” She waves a hand at me. “You’ve seen the worst of my kind. I can’t blame you for your apprehension.”

“They aren’t like you.” I shrug. “I wish they were.”

She sighs. “Something like this should be planned months in advance, not on a whim. But Gregor is … He’s …” She can’t seem to find the right word. I would offer “demented” or “homicidal maniac” but neither of those even come close to encompassing the depth of his evil.

“It’s the first time he’s visited the Dragonis manor since Theo was killed.” She opens the accordion grate, a somber look on her face.

“Is that a big deal or something, that he’s coming here?” I ask. Then another question I should’ve already thought of surfaces. “If this is the Dragonis Estate or Castle or whatever it is, why doesn’t Gregor live here?” I regret it as soon as I ask it. I want Gregor as far away from me as possible.

“This was Theo’s residence. A gift to him from his father.”

I suppose that explains the shitty golden décor in almost every overdone room. From what little I’ve learned, Theo was just as sadistic as his father and on top of it, treated like a spoiled little prince.

We walk back through the rooms, and though I’d like to linger in the one with all the weapons, Melody sets a quick pace. I don’t dare grab anything when she’s with me.

Once we reach the staircase, she bids me farewell and starts down and away from me. My mind is working with all sorts of different plans for how I can get that door open. I’ll have to sneak to it, so my only hope is that all the vampires are too busy partying on Piano Bay to bother with journeying to this lower level. It will take planning and skill and more than a little luck. Maybe I could find a lampshade with metal in the rim of it, something malleable I could fashion into a lockpick. Or there could be some other?—

“Oh.” Melody pauses and turns to me, her heeled foot perched effortlessly on the corner of a step. I’d fall and break my neck if I even thought of trying it. She seems to be walking on air. “And don’t worry about your gown. I’ve already had something created for you.”

“My—” My voice cracks, and my skin goes cold. “My what?”

“Your gown. It’s almost finished. And if you’ll allow me, I’ll be with you to help you get ready.” She even smiles, like we’re discussing hair and makeup for prom.

“I-I’m going to the ball?” My mouth is dry. “I didn’t think I’d have to do that.”

Her perfect eyebrows draw together. “Of course. You’re Valen’s—” She stops herself, then begins again. “You’re his guest .” She turns and hurries down the stairs.

Prisoner. I’d bet money she was going to say I’m his prisoner, and now I’m about to be paraded around at a vampire ball like a show pony.

I clench my hands in my pockets, one of them wrapped around my knife. What if Gregor decides to flay me then and there? My breathing quickens, panic overcoming me as I stumble to the stairs. I sit down hard, my teeth clacking.

What am I going to do? My entire escape plan is shot. Unless… I take deep breaths. Unless I move up my escape attempt. It can’t wait. Not when Gregor is coming for me.

Today. It has to be today. When the sun is high and no one can come after me when I run. On shaky legs, I rise and return to my room.

Today is the day I escape or I die. Either way, I’m not going to sit here and wait for the decision to be made for me.