How to Cure a Vampire Bite without Losing Your Mind
Chapter 11

And then, just like that we were grantedpermission to exit school. As long as we needed, Carson said firmly, and weweren’t to return until we’d found a solution to our problem, whatever it was.I wasn’t sure Orcus had stuck to the story he’d planned to tell, or at leastwhat he’d said he’d tell, but Iwasn’t too far concerned. Orcus did have a talent for the dramatic, and as longas it got me what I wanted (which was time to solve the Sebastian problem so Icould go back to hating Orcus in peace), I wasn’t in the least bit bothered athow he used it.

Raechel and Sebastian were both ready to go in a moment.Sebastian took a bit longer when Raechel had begun packing books into hersatchel, grumbling about how really unnecessary it was to hound him about readingwhen he wasn’t going to do much of it anyway. Raechel had given him one of herrare, but really excellent verbal thrashings, and his attitude, though not muchchanged, had softened and he’d become quiet and surly, instead of surly andwhiney.

In a matter of hours Carson had contacted Orcus’ family,and we’d been picked up, whisked to the airport, and boarded a private jet thatshot us across the country to the state of Maine. I learned two things on thattrip: Orcus had an extremely wealthy family, and their fascination with allplaces cold and remote was a very good reflection of their state as humanbeings.

It was Orcus’ aunt that met us on the tarmac, not hismother or father, a fact which didn’t leave me much miffed. My parents rarelymet me or Ben if we flew anywhere, and we relied quite heavily on familyrelatives to greet us in foreign locations. His aunt did very discreetly informme in the car that his mother had disappeared a few weeks after he was born,and his father, whose family was run strictly as a firm, had seen to it thatOrcus had been grounded into the institution as soon as he’d shown hischaracteristic sign of extreme intelligence. It was about this time that Ibegan to actually appreciate my family, as rotten as they were, and to feelvery sorry for Orcus. Of course, that feeling was also obliterated when Raechelinformed me that he’d scored higher than me on our last Chemistry exam; and I’dstudied quite hard for that test.

His aunt, Eleanore Mastadon, was Orcus’ father’s sister,and I swear she was perhaps the greatest mother-figure born into this world. Itwas obvious she considered Orcus her son; it was equally obvious that he wasn’tsure what exactly he was meant to make of the affection he’d probably nevergotten from anyone else. On the ride home, while Orcus was deep in conversationwith his driver-cousin, Aunt Eleanore explained just how wealthy the Lockefamily truly was. They were of that class of society whose wealth made theForbes 100 look destitute. How had they managed it, I asked. By encouraging thechildren’s cognitive processing and teaching them family finances in such a waythat substantially more came in than went out. Orcus must have over-heard thatlast part, because he’d peered over his shoulder, giving his aunt a puzzled andwary expression. Like he didn’t know he was a pawn in another person’s chessgame.

When we arrived at the house Raechel and I were the onlytwo people miffed at the size alone. Orcus called it a house, as did Sebastian.Raechel and I agreed that this was nothing even remotely resembling a house. Avery large house was probably a liberal half of a football field. Orcus’ housewas a freaking palace. It made the White House, literally, look likeMcDonald’s. And this, Eleanore had said, was Orcus’ childhood home.

“Did you ever get lost?” Raechel asked him.

He shook his head. “This is the Firm’s territory,” hesaid grimly. “Getting lost is not an option.”

I paused a moment and looked back down the driveway. Itwas very long, and very winding, and completely unnecessary aside from the factthat it had been installed to give visitors a grand impression of the Lockes.The gate had granted us entry two miles ago, and there had been extensivegrounds to occupy our vision as we made the five-minute drive to the ‘house’.Great oak trees had lined the road, all evenly spaced. It was difficult tobelieve Orcus had lived anywhere that was manicured, and the way he curled hislip at the scenery told the observer that he didn’t like it. As he’d said,though, it was the firm’s territory. If it ever became Orcus’s all themanicuring would undoubtedly go very much away.

The house itself was truly impressive. It was aged andweathered, but no less grand. It was a cross between gothic and colonial, fifteensteps to the double doors, and the great windows on either side shining andbrilliant. There were more windows across the front of the house, all smallerthan those next to the door, twenty-four in number. Each one was paned andclear as crystal.

“Nice place,” Raechel finally managed.

Orcus snorted. “That’s what you think.” And he led us upthe white marble steps to the doors.

The inside was even grander than the outside, whichshouldn’t have been possible, but there it was. There was a great doublestaircase, one reaching up and around to the left, the other to the right,meeting in the middle, and then ascending a further three steps to the landing.They were a dark, richly colored wood, and the staircase on the right wascarpeted. It seemed a bit curious to me, but to each his own. Below the stairsa hallway stretched at least a hundred feet before us. Light poured in throughdoors that had been propped open, and the hall was lined on either side withtables supporting figurines and walls holding portraits. To our immediate rightwas what looked like a blue sitting room, and to our immediate left was a roomwith much the same layout, but instead of blue was decorated with green. Inboth rooms were two huge fireplaces, mantles very ornately carved, but whilethe blue room had a portrait, the green room had a mirror.

The portrait was what caught my eye, and I took a stepcloser. The subject was a very beautiful woman in modern dress. Her long haircascaded down one shoulder, a very beautiful black, like Orcus’. Her eyes weregrey, her face was shaped much as his – in fact it would take less time todescribe the differences. The most striking and immediately recognizablefeature was her manner: she was warm and engaged where Orcus was cold and aloof.I turned to him, the question on the tip of my tongue.

“My mother,” he said quickly, and it was more than clearthat nothing more was to be said on the matter.

Our coats were hung in a closet very conveniently masked,as it had no handle. A simple application of pressure from the fingertips, andit slid open with ease.

Orcus turned to his aunt. “Where is he exactly?” Itshould be safe to assume he was talking about his father.

“In the Great Drawing Room,” she said quickly, “but he’sbeen going about the house all day with Sean Martin, so you’d better makeyourselves scarce. I’ll tell him you’ve arrived.” And she made her way down thegrand hallway.

Orcus grabbed my arm and began hauling me up the carpetedstairs. “Come on, all of you.”

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“The attic,” he said shortly. “Edward never goes upthere, so my sisters and I made it into a makeshift hideaway when we wereyounger.”

We had just reached the top step when a voice boomed frombelow us:

“ORCUS!!!”

Orcus paused on the top step, his features distorting asa look of pure hatred swept across his face. “Piss fucks.” In a second he’dschooled his expression and dropped his hands to his sides. He marched half-waydown the stairs and called weakly, “Here, sir.”

Brisk commanding steps came up the hall, and the samecommanding voice bellowed, “Show yourself! And your friends as well!”

His father wasn’t doing much for Orcus’ temper, but thesociopath motioned us to follow him, and we did. We stopped on the bottom step,his father coming into view. Orcus was paler than ever, and still sweatingprofusely, but he stubbornly stood on his own, head up squarely as he faced theman marching down the hall. Mr. Locke stopped a few yards away, looked his sonup and down, and then looked at us.

“Well?” he snapped.

Orcus gestured to us. “Mallory Tourney, Raechel McNab,and Sebastian Degas.”

Mr. Locke’s lip curled. “School?”

“Degas arrived rather suddenly and with amnesia. DirectorCarson employed us to trace his history as we could.” Orcus was dutiful,prompt, and robotic. It would take a blind fool to think they were answersgiven out of respect or fear; he hated his father.

Mr. Locke gave me a second examination, a sneer identicalto his son’s stamping itself onto his face. “This is your competition?”

Orcus glanced at me. “When she chooses to be, yes.”

His father’s expression didn’t change. “Not much is it?As I expected.” His shrewd and cold gaze landed on his son again. “Why are yousweating?”

“It’s hot.”

“No it isn’t.” When Orcus didn’t reply, his father’s jawlocked. “Keep scarce.”

Orcusdidn’t acknowledge the remark, but he wasn’t required to. Mr. Locke had turnedand marched back to the drawing room. I watched him go, and when I turned backto Orcus I found myself on the receiving end of a full-on glare.

“Do not attract anymore of his attention,” he snapped.

“What did I do?”

“Nothing, yet,” he replied. “Keep it that way.”

I gave him sarcastic thumbs up. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Orcus cast one more scathing look down the hall, and thenquickly led us back up the stairs. It was almost funny, I thought, how veryalike, yet different, they were. Mr.Locke obviously had a very short temper, as did his son; I had learnt that overthe years, just because I would instigate fights with him. But Mr. Locke wasobviously the family shouter, and Orcus’ anger was more often felt than seen.Mr. Locke would likely be the one to put his foot through the television, andOrcus would be the one to pull your spleen out through your throat. If it were comparableto nature, Edward Locke was a rampaging bull elephant, and Orcus was an AfricanRock Python.

Elephant, now that I thought of it, was a very gooddescription for Mr. Locke. Or perhaps water buffalo. He was a very big man,about Sebastian’s height maybe, and he was built with muscle. His arms werebig, his shoulders were broad, and his gait boasted powerful legs. His handswere twice the size of mine, probably as big as my head, and had none of theslenderness of Orcus’. His features were very different as well. His hair waswavy and grey and his eyes a very deep brown. His mouth was harsh, his chin andjaw squared, and his nose looked like it belonged to a parrot. It was a heavyface, much like the rest of his body, and it didn’t do much to endear him. Hisvery nature appeared nasty.

Orcus was more belligerent than usual as we marched alongtowards the attic, so the three of us kept our mouths shut and followed himwithout a word. The hall we walked down was decorated in much the same fashionas the lower floor, and it was just as devoid of people. That was probably tobe expected, though, since household staff are trained to keep as much out ofthe way as possible.

The attic, Orcus explained, had its entrance at the westend of the third floor, constituted the fifth floor, and spanned the entirebuilding. That meant that about three to four normal sized houses could havefit quite comfortably along the level. It could very conceivably have been awhole house unto itself. Orcus hadn’t been joking when he’d said they’d made ita refuge. There were five pallets lined up against one wall, each one equippedwith a pillow and two blankets. A small heater and a fan were tacked into thewall above the pallets, and looked as though they were used regularly. Boxeswere arranged to allow access to three desks, each large enough for two peopleto work comfortably. They were positioned under windows that looked out acrossthe grounds in all directions. They, like the ones downstairs, were cleanedwell and emitted a great deal of light.

Raechel turned to me. “I’d live up here too, but notbecause my dad’s an ass; I’d live up here just because.”

I agreed. Sebastian didn’t. “Winter would make itintolerable,” he declared.

Orcus snorted. “Better to take shelter in a carcass thanattempt to weather a sandstorm.”

My mouth very nearly dropped to the floor. “That’s thevery first proverbial piece of wisdom I’ve ever heard you use! And it didn’teven involve an order for coffee!”

Orcus wasn’t amused. He just stared at me. After a longmoment he said, “My estate, my edicts. Don’t touch anything if you don’t askfirst, don’t make any noise, anddon’t carry on conversations with my father.” He pointed to the east end of theattic. “The books and charts we smuggled out of the library are down on thatend.” He began walking in said direction, following a path made through the seaof many boxes, but suddenly stopped and turned around. “I don’t have to explainanything else, do I?”

Hiseyes were trained on me, so I nodded. Why he thought I was going to be talkingto his father was a bit beyond me, but I was willing to agree. It wasn’texactly like I would be able to go anywhere else to get this information, andsince almost everything we knew about vampires so far didn’t apply to Sebastian (except for the blood part, but vampire and stuff), killing him didn’tseem like the most effective method of disposal, no matter how attractive itwas. I almost groaned; if he started whinging at any point during ourinvestigation, I could not promise myself he wouldn’t die.