Chapter 11 Memories
Memories
Grayson pulled down the hood of his jacket as he jogged up the dorm’s steps to his shared rooms. Ryder wasn’t with him.
His beloved was patrolling the outside of the city, on high alert, in case any Sect members chose this night to infiltrate the city again.
But Grayson felt sure that, if there was danger, it would come from within.
As more and more Vampires arrived in the city–drawn by Weryn and his own return–there were just too many to test in his weakened state. And he wasn’t altogether sure that every Sect member had a structure within them. Maybe only those who had come here before and been tested by Balthazar did.
But now there were more Vampires that Balthazar had not tested then there seemed to be ones that he had. And now that they knew the structures were dangerous to Balthazar, they couldn’t risk him simply casting his mind out into the sea of other minds and reeling in the fish they were looking for.
Daemon does not want them turned away. All are welcome. But, surely, he guesses the danger of letting so many in?
But, then again, what would weakness look like for Daemon?
It would look like Vampires being stopped and frisked.
And he had a feeling that the Vampire King still had hope that even those who had turned against him had done so out of ignorance.
Once exposed to him and the feeling of togetherness that they were creating here, Daemon clearly hoped they would change their minds.
Maybe some of them could. But could they in time? The ones that came after me seemed gleeful at the idea of torturing and killing an “innocent” human. War Children are supposed to be like that so can anything else really affect them?
It was impossible to say. Grayson just knew that he was uneasy and wanted to shut down all borders and bunker down. That’s partially what he had been doing at the Weryn Palace. That and recovering from using his power more in these few weeks than he had in years as Grayson Duke.
And then there were the emotional shocks.
There had been way too many of those. He used to pride himself on being as cold an observer as Kaly and as calculating as Eyros as he viewed everything from above like Wyvern.
Maybe he was none of those things. Maybe it wasn’t Grayson who was emotional–and weak–but him.
He thought he remembered himself one way, but maybe he didn’t understand himself.
Grayson wasn’t born in a vacuum. Grayson was him.
Forged under different conditions, but, at the core, him.
What does that mean?
He had been asking himself that question for two weeks and he still had no answers. But, at least, he was calm when he asked it and not shaking. He composed himself and walked inside his rooms.
Already, the others–Mairead, Amana and Eiji–were there, but there was also an extra: Nero!
Grayson’s eyebrows rose to see his Childe, sitting at the bar in the kitchen with a malt beer in one hand, watching as Eiji laid out paper blueprints of a building.
His eyes met his Childe’s and Nero inclined his head slightly.
It was to be the only sign that they were Master and Childe, of course.
Is he so jealous that he can’t bear to have Eiji be part of the Helm game? I know that all Masters are jealous, especially after they choose a Childe, but Nero was always easy-going. But that was before… before he’d lost so many fledglings to the War.
Grayson searched Nero’s face, but he was distracted by the Mairead express.
“Thank God, you’re here, Grayson!” Mairead cried and hustled over to him. She was pulling off his jacket and stuffing a beer in his hand–an ice cold lager for him–as she said, “We were worried Ryder wouldn’t let you leave the Weryn Palace!”
“You mean you were worried.” Amana shook her head then took a sip of white wine. “Grayson is spoken for. He does not need to play these games.”
Amana gestured towards the blueprints that Eiji had laid out. There were also several pages of bullet pointed lists in a careful hand.
“This isn’t a game, Amana. This is conquest,” Nero corrected.
He and Eiji shared a smile. Nero looked like quite the proud papa in Grayson’s view. No jealousy there at all. And he seemed at ease. Perhaps, he’d been right that Nero would love for Eiji to do well at this game. It was clearly giving Eiji a chance to shine in his element for Nero.
All my Children have been damaged by the War. They pretend to be fine for my sake, but perhaps I have not allowed myself to look too closely for the differences. I have been selfish.
“And he needs all of us to make this work, Amana, so you’re not getting out of it. You promised!” Mairead had finished shucking off Grayson’s coat and tossed it on the couch.
He stepped back when he thought she might take off the rest of his clothes, but she didn’t, just urged him to take a drink.
“I did. And I will do anything asked of me.” Amana held her hands up as if in surrender.
“But, Mairead, I know that you aren’t interested in the Helm.
Grayson is going Weryn. And Eiji…” She paused as she looked between Eiji and Nero, “Well, none of us are interested in the Helm. So why are you taking it so seriously?
“You know that all the Vampires–not just the Helm–are watching us to see how we do, right?” Mairead asked, hands on hips. “Every party they throw or game they create is a chance for all of them to observe us. We need to do well!”
“She’s correct about that.” Nero pointed at Mairead with his beer bottle.
“Any Bloodline that wants me to be a criminal is going to be sorely disappointed,” Amana said with another shake of her head.
Grayson winced a little as Eiji was a criminal. As was Nero. Her tone indicated that she sorely disapproved of such people. But she didn’t know the history there and likely never considered that she would be rooming with a yakuza-boss, let alone like him so well.
“This is hardly a crime. They wish us to find their treasure and take it. It is like a gift behind very elaborate wrapping.” Eiji spread his hands. “So do not consider this thievery, but tactics. Do you go in the front and battle your way to the plans?”
“You think people are going to do that? Fight with the Acolytes?” Amana’s eyebrows lifted hugely. “What Vampire Bloodline would that impress?”
“I can think of a few.” Nero shrugged. “They won’t let anyone get very hurt. It’s like with the fake knock-out drugs.”
“The fake what?” Again, Amana looked shocked.
Eiji held up a bottle of white tablets. “This will turn the guards’ beverages red. If one manages to get a tablet into their drink without being seen, they are knocked out, but, obviously, not really. But they are out of the game and the coast is clear.”
“Oh, that’s… that’s creative,” she grudgingly admitted.
“And for the fighting, if you come up behind someone without them noticing and tag them, that’s considered a knockout blow as well,” Eiji explained. “Again, no real violence. Just a touch. But the guard is gone and a way is open.”
“There’s sneaking in and talking your way in. I’m good at both of those,” Mairead said.
“I bet,” Amana said with a sigh.
“There are puzzles we must get past to avoid traps and open locked doors,” Eiji explained.
“You look like you might be warming to this game, doctor,” Nero laughed.
“Well, if it’s clearly make-believe without anyone getting hurt, I can’t see what the problem would be with it. And it is clever,” Amana said.
“Fantastic! We’ve got our full four onboard. It increases our chance of winning,” Mairead muttered as she sucked on the top of her own beer.
“There are ten treasures, aren’ there?” Amana began.
“But if we’re first to get ours or more than one, we’d be considered the winners. Don’t you think, Eiji?” Mairead asked.
“I think it would be most imipressive for us to do so,” Eiji answered neutrally.
“We should just make sure we get one of the ten. We’re playing against 96 other students,” Amana pointed out. “And many of them will be on their own, not banded together like we are. So we should be conservative about what we try to do–”
“We need to knock it out of the park!” Mairead was practically quivering as she contradicted Amana.
“We will do our best, Mairead. It’s okay,” Grayson assured her. “It’s a game, remember? For fun?”
“As Amana inartfully pointed out, Eiji has got Nero. You have Ryder. And Amana has interviews with every Bloodline. But I’m…
” Here Mairead stopped talking. “Anyways, we should do our best. Because, even in the interview, it’s not just what you say, but everything else too. So Amana and I have to do well!”
Amana had, at first, opened her mouth as if to object to her being included in that sentence, but her expression softened at Mairead’s half confession of her fear that all of her roommates were paired off but not her.
“This is just the beginning of the year, Mairead. You’ll be paired up with somebody in no time,” Amana said.
Mairead crossed her arms over her chest and, for a surprising moment, her lower lip trembled. She firmed it and said, “Of course! They just don’t know what they’re missing yet.”
Grayson put an arm around her shoulders. Her body was also trembling, which was not at all like he would have expected for Mairead. “We’re going to start showing them tonight what they’ve failed to see so far, Mairead. I promise. Okay, Eiji-sama, spell out the plan for us.”
They all went over to the peninsula to look at Eiji’s blueprints and other plans. Grayson let out a whistle as he saw that on the plans were marked secret entrances and back ways, not to mention timing of guard patrols.
“Okay, how did you get this?” Mairead asked. “Nero, did you help? Because that sounds a little like cheating. Not that I mind! But will they be okay with a Vampire helping us?”
But Nero was shaking his head and holding up his hands. “Not me! Eiji would be quite annoyed with me if I interfered with his fun. I had nothing to do with getting this.”