Chapter Twelve
Emily was waking up.
Vara turned the car onto the short road that lead up to the house, the tyres crunching on the gravel as she drove toward the large, stone building. Tumbler pigeons circled the house, wheeling high up in the bright sky. The sun peeped out from behind the rows of trees that lined either side of the house.
Vara stared at the house as she drove toward it, wondering how Emily would see it. To Vara, it was just the house, the place she’d lived in for nearly her whole life, the place that looked all pleasant and Victorian on the outside, but had three floors below ground level devoted to fighting. Would Emily find the ivy growing on the left-hand side creepy? Would she hate the look of the gargoyles that kept watch from the building? Or would she find the little front garden with the iron gate and itsy path leading to the front door cute?
Judging by the increasing number of soft groans coming from the passenger seat, Vara guessed she’d soon find out.
Vara glanced at Emily, then back at the road, ‘cause driving into the master’s water fountain wasn’t going to make anyone’s day. Emily’s eyelids were fluttering and her head rolled from side to side. Judging by the frown on her face, she was going from a deep sleep and right into a throbbing headache.
So naturally Vara wasn’t quiet with the brakes when she jerked to a stop outside the little, iron gate.
“Hey, Sleeping Beauty,” Vara said to Emily, slipping her seatbelt off. “You mind hurrying the rise ‘n’ shine routine for me? This car’s nice, but I don’t want to spend all day in it.”
Emily turned her head and frowned stupidly at Vara.
“Right.” Vara popped open the car door. “I guess we’re gonna have to make like newly-weds. Let me carry you through the doorway of your new house.”
When Vara got to Emily’s door, the girl had come back to herself a little. Memories about how she’d ended up there hit her like a car hits road kill.
“You’re… You’re kidnapping me?” she croaked.
Vara rolled her eyes. “I’d rather you kept on sleeping.”
“Hey! You can’t park there!” a voice shouted.
Vara peered over the roof of the car and saw a red-faced Gun standing by the gate, shaking his index finger at her. Vara felt like shaking a different finger at him.
“Go back inside!” she told him, flashing the dragon tattoo on her wrist. The thing was even better than an identity badge: he turned on his heel and slammed the door. Vara turned back to Emily.
“What was that?” Emily asked as Vara opened her mouth. “That thing on your wrist?”
“Tattoo.” Vara grabbed Emily’s arm. “Anything else you want to ask while you get inside?”
Emily tilted her head so she could squint at Vara. “Why are your trousers wet?”
Vara growled to herself in the back of her throat and yanked Emily to her feet. Emily cried out and stumbled, nearly falling back down again, but grabbed on to the car for support. Once the girl’s legs had woken up a little, Vara began to drag her toward the front door.
“No!” Emily cried out, yanking her arm from Vara’s grasp. “I don’t trust you!”
“Do you need to?” Vara snapped back, just dying to get inside and show the master her prize.
Emily blinked stupidly. “Well … yes. Yes, I do.”
“Wrong. What you need to do is find Kieran. Unluckily for you, we’re the only way.”
“I can go home. File a missing person’s report to the police. Tell them-”
“What, exactly? What would they have to go on other than the guy that’s vanished isn’t really a jerk, but has a secret love for rainbows? You know nothing about Kieran.”
“How would you know?” Emily breathed, gazing at Vara like she couldn’t believe Vara had said half the stuff she had.
“One, you told me a thousand times that you know nothing. Two, if Kieran had told you anything, the master would’ve found out and used his ass as his new footstall. Three, you wouldn’t be so in love with Kieran if you knew what he did to people.”
The last one had been a mistake. Vara saw that when Emily’s head gave a little jerk and her forehead immediately creased up.
“What… What do you mean?” she asked slowly, her eyebrows lowering with every word.
Vara sighed impatiently and stared at the door she was dying to get through. “We don’t have time for this. Let’s swap stories later, yeah?” Vara began to march toward the iron gate, but stopped when she realised Emily wasn’t following. She turned and saw Emily staring at her.
“Is there something I need to know about Kieran?”
Not if it’s going to send you running.
“Kieran cheats at cards, can we move now?”
Emily glanced behind her, at the car, obviously thinking of jumping in it and driving away, but she turned and stared back at Vara. Biting her lower lip and clutching her handbag with white knuckles, she stared up at the mansion and nodded to herself. Vara saw her lips move, forming a name. Kieran.
With another deep breath, she marched toward Vara.
Vara turned her head so Emily wouldn’t see her lips peel back from her teeth in a victorious grin.
“Vara?”
Her head snapped to the two people standing by the front door. It was the angry Gun from earlier and, oh joy, Darius. Obviously, the Gun had gone and fetched someone to deal with her. Spineless goody-goody.
Darius’ eyes flickered between Vara and Emily as he tried to work out what was going on. Emily stepped closer to Vara, like Vara was her personal bodyguard. Well, the master wouldn’t like it if she came to his room piece by piece.
“Darius!” Vara forced her grin to stay plastered to her face. “Great to see you!” Beside her, Emily began to relax, reassured that Vara was friends with him and wouldn’t give them any trouble.
Darius didn’t seem at all fazed by strange behaviour. He just shrugged, like the feeling wasn’t mutual, and told the Gun to go back inside.
It was when they were walking past him, through the front door, that Vara really had to fight the urge to stick her fingers in his eyes.
Darius turned his long face to Emily. “So, you’ve been brought here to die like we all have,” he said with a sigh as he brushed past her to close the front door.
Emily’s eyes practically bulged out of her head as she sent a wild look at Vara. Which made Vara immediately feel like grabbing Darius’ head so she could ram it into the nearest solid object.
“Don’t pay him any attention,” she reassured Emily hastily. “He always talks like that. Sure wouldn’t like to leave him alone with a bottle of aspirin.”
Or maybe that’s not such a bad idea…
“But-”
“Let me show you to your room.” Vara turned and glared at Darius, glad she could give him the death-stare now Emily wasn’t looking. He looked up and froze. Vara tossed the car keys at him and rolled her eyes as he watched them fall to the floor. “Park the car, Darius.”
He just stared at the keys, about as bothered with picking them up as he was with making the most out of life.
Leaving him to get on with it, Vara lead Emily down the hallway, going slow enough that Emily could gaze at all the framed paintings hanging on the wall. She could practically hear the girl wondering just how rich and illegal the Black Dragons were. Vara turned the corner and bumped into someone with a fetish for finding new and exciting ways to stare creepily at another person.
“Leo,” Vara said, stepping smartly away. Behind her, Emily gasped, no doubt afraid of Leo and his pale eyes already.
“Come with me.”
“Actually, I was just-”
“Now.” He turned and began to walk back in the direction he had come from. Vara stormed after him.
“Hey!” she hissed when she reached him. She tried to keep her voice down so Emily wouldn’t hear her. “Don’t you dare talk to me like that!”
Leo marched ahead, giving Vara a strange feeling of Déjà vu. Or maybe a better word was familiar. That damn weirdo couldn’t care less about what she thought of the way he treated her.
Vara lunged forward and grabbed his elbow. Leo immediately turned and gripped Vara by her upper arms, swinging her around until she crashed into the wall. The paintings wobbled, threatening to jump off the wall. Leo lifted an arm and shoved it under Vara’s chin, knocking her head against the wall so hard she bit her tongue. He leaned in close to her, his narrowed eyes fixed on her gaping mouth as she struggled for air.
Vara tried to push him away, but the breath had been knocked from her when he’d thrown her against the wall. The fact that she couldn’t breathe right now wasn’t exactly helpful, either.
Leo leaned even closer to her and for a wild, crazy moment Vara thought he was going to kiss her. But no, he was just showing her he had far more experience and killer instinct than she could ever dream of.
Right in front of Emily.
No wonder Cherry hated Vara so much. Being pinned to a wall, struggling for breath, wasn’t the best experience in the world. Even when he eased off enough for Vara to get some air into her lungs, Vara wasn’t about to thank him for being so thoughtful.
Leo turned his head to one side and breathed slowly into Vara’s ear, “Come with me or the master will bleed you dry drop by drop. He doesn’t like to wait. He gets rather,” Leo paused for effect and leaned even closer to Vara, the light stubble on his chin brushing against her jaw, “impatient…”
Vara tried to throw him off, but Leo pushed his arm into her throat again, choking her.
“Bring Emily,” he continued, holding Vara’s body against the wall as she thrashed about, desperate for air. “The master is holding a meeting about finding Kieran.” He paused again, turning his head so he could stare hard into her eyes. “And dealing with him.”
He watched her struggle for a moment longer, then let go. Vara dropped to the floor and sucked in as much air as she could into her lungs. Blood roared in her ears, so deafening she didn’t know Leo had gone until she felt hands touching her shoulders.
She shook Emily off and pushed her away, furious that the pathetic, spineless girl was trying to comfort her!
“Are you okay?” Emily asked. The worry in her voice made Vara want to throw up. She didn’t answer and hoped the idiot got the message.
“What did he say to you?”
Vara pushed her hair away from her face and rubbed her fingers against her pounding temples. Great, now she had the mother of all headaches to deal with. Not that Emily didn’t compete for that title.
“Change of plan,” she said in a hoarse voice. “Gotta take you … to go and see … the master.”
“The master? Who is he?”
“Guy who … the guy who’s … running this place." She looked up from the floor and met Emily's worried eyes. "We’re gonna go and find Kieran.”
