He stalked into the room with the edges of his black coat sweeping behind him like a cloak. He was dressed entirely in black; only his skin and the short cut white hair on his head betrayed him. As he moved through the black room, it looked like his head and hands were floating on their own.
I shook my head to clear the image. When I looked back, he seemed a touch more normal. "He's using his powers to make himself look frightening," I said.
"Yes, ma petite, he is." There was something in his voice that made me turn and look at him. His face was its usual lovely mask-but in his eyes, for just a second, I saw fear.
"What's going on, Jean-Claude?"
"The rules have not changed. Do not draw a weapon. Do not strike the first blow. They cannot harm us unless we break these rules."
"Why are you suddenly scared?"
"That is not Serephina," he said. His voice was very bland when he said it.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
He threw back his head and laughed. The sound reverberated through the room, echoing and outwardly joyous. But I could taste it on the back of my tongue, and it was bitter. "It means, ma petite, that I am a fool."
Chapter 25
Jean-Claude's laughter faded away in bits and pieces, like the sound was clinging to the walls. "Where is Serephina?" he asked.
Ivy and Bruce walked out of the room. I didn't know where they were going, but it had to be better than this. How many torture rooms could a house this size have? Don't answer that.
The tall vampire looked at us with his dead-fish eyes. There was no pull, nothing; it was like looking into the eyes of a corpse.
His voice, when it came, was almost shocking. It was rich and deep, resonant, but not with vampiric powers. It was the voice of an actor, or an opera singer. I watched it come out of the thin, lipless mouth and it still looked like a parlor trick, like the mouth should move out of sync with the words, but they didn't.
"You must pass through me before she will see you."
"You surprise me, Janos." Jean-Claude glided down the steps. I guess we were going down. Pity. "You are more powerful than Serephina. How is it you do her bidding?"
"When you have seen her, you will understand. Now come, all of you, join us. The night is young, and I want to see you all na**d and bleeding before dawn."
"Who is this guy?" I asked. I could use my hand again; might as well smart off.
Jean-Claude stopped on the last step. Jason moved up, one step behind him. Larry and I stayed a little behind that. I don't think either of us was too eager to go down.
The vampire turned his dead eyes on me. "I am Janos."
"Dandy, but the rules say you can't bleed us, or anything else. Or did I miss something?"
"You miss very little, ma petite," Jean-Claude said.
"You will not be harmed against your will," Janos said. "You must all consent for any harm to befall you."
"Then we're safe," I said.
He smiled, the skin of his face stretching like paper. I half-expected bone to break through, but it didn't. The smile was nicely hideous.
"We shall see."
Jean-Claude took that last step, and moved farther into the room. Jason followed, and after a moment's hesitation so did I. Larry followed me like a trooper.
"This room is your idea, Janos," Jean-Claude said.
"I do nothing without my master's consent."
"She cannot be your master, Janos. She is not powerful enough."
"Yet, here I am, Jean-Claude. Here I am."
Jean-Claude walked around the dark wood of the rack, trailing a pale hand over it. "Serephina was never much for torture. She was many things, but not sadistic." Jean-Claude came to stand in front of Janos. "I think you are master here and she is your stalking horse. She is known as master so all the challenges come her way. When she dies, you will find another puppet.
"I promise you, Jean-Claude, she is my master. Think of this room as my reward for being a faithful servant." He looked around the room with a proprietary smile, like a storekeeper admiring well-stocked shelves.
"What do you plan for us in this room of yours?"
"But wait a few moments, my impatient boy, and all will be revealed."
It was odd to have someone call Jean-Claude "boy," as if he were a much younger cousin that Janos had watched grow up. Had Janos known him when he was a little vampire? Freshly dead?
A woman's voice: "Where are you taking me? You're hurting me." Ivy and Bruce dragged a young woman through the side door. Literally dragged her. She had let her legs collapse, trying to use them like a dog does when you try to take it to the vet. But she only had two legs and a vampire on each arm. She wasn't having much luck slowing them down.
She had straight blonde hair that barely touched the tops of her shoulders. Her eyes were large and blue, and the makeup she'd started the night with was smeared from crying.
Ivy seemed to be having a good time. Bruce had very wide eyes. He was afraid of Janos. Hard not to be, I guess.
The girl stared wordlessly at Janos for a second, then screamed. Ivy cuffed her absently like you'd swat a barking dog. The girl whimpered and fell silent, staring at the floor, fresh tears trailing down her cheeks.
There was only Janos and the two youngsters in the room with us. I was betting we could take them. Two more vampires came in, but they didn't drag in the next girl. She walked in, eyes glittering with anger, back very straight, hands in fists at her sides. She was short, a little heavy, but not quite fat, as if a good burst of growth would take care of the weight. Her hair was a nondescript brown, glasses framed small brown eyes, freckles dusted her face. The personality that radiated from that face was not nondescript. I liked her instantly.
"Oh, Lisa," she said, "get up." She sounded embarrassed as well as angry. The blonde girl, Lisa, just cried harder.
The two vamps that were guarding the second girl were not young. They were both tall, around six feet, dressed in black leather, one with her long yellow hair in a braid down her back, the other with black hair falling free around her face. Their bare arms were muscled and firm. They looked like female bodyguards from some bad spy movie.
The power that radiated from the two of them was not a B movie effect. It crept through the room like a current of water, thick and cool. When the line of power poured over my body it took my breath away. The power crawled into my bones and made them ache. Larry gasped behind me.
I glanced at him just to make sure he was gasping for the same reason I was. No new monsters behind us, just the power of the two new vamps.
"What are you guys doing, running a halfway house for all vampires over five hundred years?" I asked.
Everyone turned towards me. The two female vamps smiled, most unpleasantly. They looked at me like I was a piece of candy and they wondered what sort of center I had. Soft and gooey, or hard with a nut in the middle? I'd had men undress me with their eyes, but I'd never had anything trying to picture what I'd look like with my skin off. Yikes.
"Do you have something to add?" Janos asked.
"You can't just drag a couple of underage girls in here and expect us to do nothing."
"On the contrary, Anita, we expect you to do many things."
I didn't like the phrasing of that. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"First, the young women aren't underage, are you, girls?"
The second girl just glared at him. Lisa shook her head, still staring at the floor.
"Tell her your ages," Janos said.
Neither of them answered. Ivy yanked hard enough to make the blonde girl cry out.
"Eighteen. I'm eighteen." She collapsed on the floor in a sobbing heap, and the vampires let go of her so she could do it.
One of the female vamps said, "Your age, now." Her voice was like quiet thunder, a warning of the coming storm.
The second girl's eyes widened behind her glasses. "I'm nineteen." There was fear now peeking out from behind her anger.
"Fine; they're over eighteen, but an unwilling human is still an unwilling human, regardless of age," I said.
"Would you play policeman here, Anita?" Janos asked. He sounded amused.
"I won't just stand here and watch you hurt them."
"You have a high opinion of yourself, Anita. Confident. I like that. Always so much more entertaining to break someone strong. The weaklings fold and cry and snivel, but the brave ones, they almost demand that you hurt them." He stalked towards me, reaching out one white spider-hand. "Do you want me to hurt you?"