Chapter Ten

"How do you know he'll come here?" were the words I woke up to unknown hours later.

The second voice, the voice of the red haired woman, said, "Trust me. Aubrey is never one to let his pets just disappear. And he'll be here- I left a little present for him back at the cathedral."

"Brynn..." the first voice said sternly, "I don't want him to be storming this place, so it best not have been a map."

As I opened my eyes, I could make out two figures, one Brynn, and the other sitting at a large black throne of sorts. Brynn turned away from the other one, saying, "Oh come now, Sean. You think I'm a fool? I left him nothing more than a black rose, one from the hedges of Midnight. He'll know we're after him, and he best know it's me."

Sean rose from his seat and approached Brynn. He clasped his hands on her shoulders and spoke harshly into her ear. "You're nothing to Aubrey and you know that," he spat. "He has no comprehension of the countless livelihoods that were destroyed when he took Midnight down."

Brynn turned out of his grip, pulling the white gold dagger from her hip. She pressed the blade to Sean's throat.

"One more inch, my friend, and I can end your livelihood here and now." She was silent a moment and then when he took a step back she collapsed into a chair. "He'll know who am, Sean. He'll know my hatred like a burning ember within his very soul."

The red-haired vampire turned to her friend.

"I could have been great in those halls!" she exclaimed. "I only needed a few more years. I could have proven myself! I was to be a great slave trader, the greatest!"

She stood and paced a bit, her hands clenched in fists of rage. She looked to a portrait of a building that hung on the wall. Narrowing my eyes to see clearer, all I could really make out was a large gate and thick rose bushes at the front of the building.

Staring at the picture, I could see Brynn's anger boiling underneath her skin, ready to explode.

And then it did.

She screamed and flung her dagger at the other vampire. It caught him in the shoulder and pinned him to the throne.

"Never question me again, Sean!" she shouted as she leaned to his face. "Never doubt my skill, or I will aim for your heart next time."

She ripped the blade from his flesh and the vampire dropped to the floor. Within a moment, he stood up again, clutching the wound.

He sighed and removed the white cotton shirt. To my amazement, where there should have been a dagger wound that would have killed any man, there only was a thin pearly scar.

Sean curled the shirt into a ball in his fists and headed towards an exit. He called back to Brynn, "That temper of yours has got to go..."

Brynn picked up a vase and made to throw it, but Sean had already left by the time she turned back to him.

"Fine then! Be that way!" She threw the vase anyway and it shattered with a fine tinkering, like icicles in the wind.

I had made a startled noise at the sound of the crash. I hadn't been expecting it, I suppose. But when she looked to me I knew that there was no use in pretending to still be unconscious, or whatever it was that I had been since Notre Dame.

Brynn stalked towards me, a thin, malicious smile caught on her vibrantly painted lips.

"So the guest of honor awakens," she said pleasantly. "And how is our dear little mortal holding up? Your accommodations quite snug, I hope?"

It was then that I realized I was in chains. I hadn't moved enough before to feel the pressing weight of the metal. I tried to sit up on the bench but could not- my hands were cuffed to a six-inch chain.

"Marvelous," Brynn whispered more to herself than me. "You'll stay this way until your vampire friend rears his ugly head. At which point, I will kill him for destroying everything.... And then I suppose, I will have to kill you as well. Hmm. What a pity."

Brynn turned away and headed the way that Sean had. With her back turned to me, I began to struggle against the bonds. "You really think that's supposed to scare me?" I called out.

She stopped dead in her tracks and spun to look at me, her eyes wild with some mischievous thought. She took slow, measured steps in my direction. Looking me over once, she gave a short laugh. "You know, Barrett, I might not kill you after all. I think that the slave trade might be a better punishment for fraternizing with criminals. Maybe Gabriel needs another manservant... That's about as good as slipping the noose over your neck, I'd think."

She laughed and ran a finger down my cheek; reopening the wound she had caused me previously with the pointed tip of her dagger. She licked the blood and grinned viciously.

"I'll send guards in later to beat you; to keep you awake incase your Aubrey tries to rescue you. Consider it a service. A prequel to the pain you're to experience in the slave ring."

She stepped away from me and to the door. Glancing back a moment, she continued to smile. "Maybe a little teaser right now?" she asked and then nodded to give herself an answer.

When she had left the room, two large men sauntered into the dark room. In the shadows, I thought that they were half man and half bird, but I knew that it could only have been my imagination.

One took out a whip from his belt and cracked it in the air as the other one laughed, deep and low.