All Just Glass Part 16

She ended up sitting with Kristopher on her left, Nikolas on her right and Kendra on the opposite side of Nikolas-too close for comfort, still, but at least Kendra didn't lean over to whisper things conspiratorially in Sarah's ear like she did to Nikolas. It was almost hard to remember, with the head of their line looking radiant and excited for the show, that she had given tacit approval of Sarah's death if it did occur that night.

It was too surreal to contemplate, so Sarah tried not to. As they settled in, she wondered instead why box seats were considered good good seats. Could anyone without a vampire's vision tell what was happening onstage from so far away? She flipped through the glossy color booklet Kendra had handed her, looking doubtfully at the strange costumes while the rest of the audience trickled in. seats. Could anyone without a vampire's vision tell what was happening onstage from so far away? She flipped through the glossy color booklet Kendra had handed her, looking doubtfully at the strange costumes while the rest of the audience trickled in.

She waited too long to ask where and when the story took place. The lights dropped, and the music began. At first it seemed uncomfortably loud and jumbled. She struggled to make out what people were saying as they sang over each other. She made out enough of the opening song-"No One Mourns the Wicked"-to wonder what kind of "theme" the show had that Kendra thought she should appreciate. After all, Kendra had given a group of hunters permission to kill her tonight. Was this supposed to be a warning?

As the show continued, she felt like she alternated between frowning and suppressing a chuckle-but come the finale of the first act, she found herself sitting forward in her seat.

If her heart still needed to beat, she knew it would have been pounding at that moment.

She felt hands on her back and realized that Kristopher and Nikolas had both reached out to her. When she leaned back, Kristopher took her hand, and Nikolas left a comforting hand on her shoulder. The touch grounded her and reminded her where she was. She closed her eyes, not wanting to watch the characters in front of her anymore, but she could not block out the music.

Friends.h.i.+p, sisterhood, rebellion, betrayal. Was there a lesson she was supposed to learn here, or was she just supposed to feel like she had been kicked in the gut?

The first act ended, and Sarah stood, pulling away from Nikolas and Kristopher. She didn't even want to look look at Kendra. at Kendra.

"I have to get out of here for a bit," she announced.

"Do you want-"

"I need some s.p.a.ce," she said, interrupting Kristopher.

"If you don't want to watch the second act, we can go somewhere else," Nikolas said.

Sarah shook her head. "I want to watch the end. I just need to be alone for a minute."

"Be careful," Kristopher warned, and she nodded.

She needed to compose herself, away from the comforting and critical gaze of Kendra's lineage. She hadn't decided yet whether she liked liked the show. All she knew was that it was too much for her right then. the show. All she knew was that it was too much for her right then.

Before she could take herself away from the theater, seeking silence and solitude, she sensed a familiar aura. It was mostly hidden, but Sarah never could have missed it. She knew that power too well.

Adia was alone. She had found her way to an unused dressing room, doubtless using the combination of power and guile she was so good at to bypa.s.s security as easily as Sarah did by appearing in the room without walking through the halls at all. Adia had obviously been waiting for Sarah.

There were tears in Adia's eyes, though she still had enough Vida control to keep them from spilling down her face. Seeing them, Sarah felt her own throat tighten. She didn't know what Adia wanted or expected. All she knew was that seeing her sister made her heart simultaneously jump in elation and constrict with fear.

"Hey, Little Sis," Adia said with a sad smile. "I was hoping you would come say hi."

"Hi," Sarah said, uncertain how to proceed from there.

"Michael called us," Adia said. "I made sure I was the one in the theater, since I knew you wouldn't be stupid enough to walk outside. I just..." She drew a deep, shaking breath, and then suddenly the words were pouring out. "I wanted to see you. Needed Needed to see you. Things suck without you, Sarah. I've been stuck in the safe house with a freaking Marinitch telepath. I just found out Zachary has been letting vamps snack on him in his free time. Dominique's practically disappeared. I don't think she can stand to even look at the rest of us. I want it to be over. I can get the others on my side, and force Dominique to drop her call for the Rights. I just..." to see you. Things suck without you, Sarah. I've been stuck in the safe house with a freaking Marinitch telepath. I just found out Zachary has been letting vamps snack on him in his free time. Dominique's practically disappeared. I don't think she can stand to even look at the rest of us. I want it to be over. I can get the others on my side, and force Dominique to drop her call for the Rights. I just..."

Her voice trailed off. Sarah stared at her, watching Adia as if her own reflection had suddenly lost control and started to weep. And Zachary! He couldn't possibly-but then again, that was what enough people had probably said about Sarah. She couldn't possibly be involved with a vampire She couldn't possibly be involved with a vampire.

Sarah wasn't sure which one of them made the first move, but suddenly they were both walking, and then Sarah found herself wrapped in the tightest hug her sister had given her since the day their father died. Moments of physical affection had become rarer and briefer since then, more perfunctory if they occurred at all.

This was the kind of hug she had given Sarah that day, to try to get her to stop railing and screaming and destroying everything at hand.

"I love you, Sarah," Adia said. "And I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Before Sarah could question why, Adia s.h.i.+fted just enough, and Sarah felt the knife. It slid into her back under her shoulder blade and between her ribs with the perfection only a professional hunter could achieve, not even nicking the bones to hamper its progress.

"I'm sorry," Adia said one more time. "But I gave my word. And even if the rest of the world goes to h.e.l.l, a Vida's word to her kin needs to be..."

The words were choked off.

"Bye, Sarah."

CHAPTER 25

SAt.u.r.dAY, 9:02 P.M. P.M.

ADIA LET S SARAH fall. She took a step backward, and another, and halfway through the next one, she felt herself grabbed and thrown with careful violence, so that her breath was slammed out of her lungs as she struck the wall. She was able to tuck her head just enough to keep her skull from smacking the floral wallpaper, but knew she would have bruises later. fall. She took a step backward, and another, and halfway through the next one, she felt herself grabbed and thrown with careful violence, so that her breath was slammed out of her lungs as she struck the wall. She was able to tuck her head just enough to keep her skull from smacking the floral wallpaper, but knew she would have bruises later.

She tried to push herself to her knees to protect herself even as she struggled to pull air into compressed lungs. Her head was spinning, and for a minute she thought she was seeing double, but then she realized it was the two brothers, and if someone didn't talk fast, Adia was going to die.

The twins approached like avatars of fury.

One reached down and dragged her to her feet by her throat. "You traitorous little-"

"Nikolas!" the other protested.

"No, Kristopher," the one choking Adia protested. "You do not not protect her after-" protect her after-"

"Wait."

The choked voice made everyone freeze. Adia raised a hand to try to peel the fingers off her windpipe, but knew better than to draw a knife even in her own self-defense at that moment.

The twins turned to look, Kristopher leaving Adia a wide-open shot if Nikolas hadn't been careful to keep the hunter clearly under control. She wondered if Kristopher was careless, or just trusted his brother that much.

Adia had known that Sarah trusted her her that much. that much.

She felt her vision start to waver. The two twins became four in her blurry view.

"Hi, Sarah," she wanted to say as the world went dark.

Adia saw their father's body, but before she could even think what that meant, Sarah started screaming and throwing things. Adia tried to hold on to her and calm her down, but it wasn't any use.

Sarah put her fist through one of the etched-gla.s.s panes on the doorway.

"There is no rainbow," she declared.

Another punch, another pane, another concussion of sound followed by the gentle ring of the window's remains falling to the ground.

"Sarah Vida!" their mother shouted, trying to get Sarah's attention, but Sarah wasn't listening. She seemed hypnotized by the window.

"No rainbows," she said, tears streaking her face. "It's all..."

Zachary was old enough and big enough that he finally managed to pull Sarah back before she could hurt herself more.

Weeping, Sarah whispered, "It's all just gla.s.s."

Adia woke with someone's lips on hers. The instinct to protest was replaced by the need to start coughing, and only when she did, and the individual above her drew back, did she realize that he had been doing CPR. She had stopped breathing.

Jerome was kneeling over her. It was remarkable that someone who didn't need to breathe could give another individual breath, but she wasn't quibbling right then. She was alive, and she was breathing, which was not the normal expected result of being throttled by an angry vampire.

That meant something had gone right.

"She's okay?" Zachary stood behind Jerome, who looked back and nodded. Adia started to ask him something, but the bruises on her throat choked off her first attempt. Zachary guessed the question and said, "I keep meaning to take a CPR lesson, but I haven't gotten around to it."

"Yeah, somewhere in your dallying about as a bleeder you got some funny survival priorities," Adia said, or at least tried to say. It came out as a squeak. That was for the best. She was happy to be alive, but the near-death experience was making her grumpy.

More composed, she managed to whisper, "Where are the others?"

"Kendra and Jay both showed up," Jerome answered. "They tried to convince Nikolas and Kristopher that Sarah wouldn't want your neck broken. I'm not sure they were convinced, but Kendra grabbed them each by the scruff and disappeared with them. Jay took Sarah out."

"Jerome called me when he realized you had gone to talk to Sarah," Zachary said. "He said you might need my help, but I couldn't get inside in time." If Jay had gotten there first, he must have disregarded Adia's orders. He must have known what she had planned. "I think Michael is still at his post," Zachary added. "The second act hasn't even begun yet."

Funny how being strangled into unconsciousness affected one's sense of time. Logically, she knew she couldn't have stopped breathing for more than a couple of minutes, but the thoughtless darkness seemed so long.

Zachary never asked why Jerome was there. Maybe he was just used to vampires showing up to extract him from tricky situations, and a.s.sumed Jerome was once again here because of him.

Jerome, however, had known the plan; Adia had called him from the car. Now he said, "We have another rendezvous to make. Adia, are you up to it?"

"I'm a Vida," she answered. There wasn't any choice. This needed to be done now. She had fulfilled her vow.

A wave of dizziness. .h.i.t her, and Jerome and Zachary simultaneously reached for her, each catching one arm.

"Would you like some ice?" Jerome offered.

"Later."

"Where are we going?" Zachary asked.

"Dominique should be at the restaurant, waiting for us," she said. "I told her to meet me."

Zachary hesitated, nearly tripping them all up. She heard him swallow before he said, "I see."

He kept walking with them, but he did so with a heavy step.

The three of them crossed the lobby. Jerome flashed a smile at the guys working there, who nodded back in a familiar way. They looked puzzled but accepted Jerome's a.s.surances that everything was all right. Adia was unsurprised that they knew him well enough to trust his word, given she had already been told that Kendra herself owned this theater.

Zachary balked just before the doorway to the restaurant's private room, saying under his breath, "Adia..."

"Come on, Zimmy," Jerome said, reaching over Adia to pat Zachary on the shoulder. "Be brave."

"Did you really kill Fredrick Kallison?" Zachary blurted out.

The question sounded as if it had been simmering for a long time, possibly years.

Jerome hesitated but then shook his head.

"No," he said as he pushed the door open ahead of them. "She did."

The "she" in question, who was waiting for them, turned in the middle of a demand. "Adia, Zachary..." Adia could tell exactly when Dominique saw Jerome. It was as if Dominique's mind refused to process what she was seeing right away. The words kept coming, with an empty sound, despite the horror on her face. "I don't appreciate being...being ordered to meet you.... Is it...You said you would find Sarah tonight.... I...oh, my G.o.d."

She stumbled backward until her shoulders were pressed against the far wall, her eyes locked on Jerome.

Jerome greeted her with a smile and a "h.e.l.lo, luv. It's been a while."

Zachary looked from Dominique to Jerome, his eyes going wide. He stammered, "You...sh-she...I thought..."

He looked at Adia with desperation, hope and resignation nakedly warring on his face. He had thought she was about to turn him him in. in.

"I did as I swore I would," Adia said to Dominique. She had to clear her throat, but managed to continue at an audible level. "Now, Mother, I think we need to talk."

In the moment when Adianna and Zachary walked through the door with Jerome, Dominique Vida saw her life flash before her eyes.

She saw herself on a city street at night, a pink rose falling in front of her feet from a balcony several stories up. She saw herself blus.h.i.+ng furiously when, after she had sneaked into a club to get away from her mother for a night, someone who should have been her prey asked her to dance. There had been a shouting argument with her mother that afternoon, and she had been angry and hurt, so she had said, to h.e.l.l with it, and she had danced with him.

And over weeks, he had courted her. There had been flowers, and candy, and dancing, and one night it had seemed natural when he pulled her close to just lean her head back. She had wanted to know what it felt like. She had needed needed to know why, when she was hunting these monsters, so many humans were running after them, begging to be used as a midnight snack even if it meant risking their lives. to know why, when she was hunting these monsters, so many humans were running after them, begging to be used as a midnight snack even if it meant risking their lives.

Now here he was, in front of her, with the daughter whose birth had made Dominique swear up and down that she could be better, stronger, perfect perfect, so her children would never need to go through the same thing, and the nephew she had promised her dead sister she would always take care of.

"Frederick is a good hunter. He's a good match for you."

"He has the personality of a ferret," she replied. "I'm going out."

"You are not not going out. You have- going out. You have-"

"Bye!"

Another night. She met Jerome down the street, swung a leg over his Harley-Davidson and tucked her head down against his shoulder. She wrapped her arms around his waist and made herself forget the fact that he didn't have a heartbeat. Hers beat fast enough for both of them, right?

The speed and the wind swept the sound of her mother's voice out of her ears.

He brought her to a party, to a place where she wasn't Dominique Vida, hunter, but just Dommy, a pretty girl who got to dance, and play, and flirt, and go wild. And when it was too much, and the ringing of expectations in her ears was too loud, she could go to him and bare her throat and he could make it all disappear in a haze.

"You told me you would leave me alone," she said to Jerome. Her voice sounded flat in her ears, not from Vida control, but from the absolute inability to summon any energy or emotion at all.

There was no use denying that she knew him. There was no reason Adianna and Zachary would bring him here unless they already knew the truth. She had seen the horror on Zachary's face before he had composed himself.

Now they were standing there with expressions like gla.s.s, smooth and flawless and fake fake, and she knew it because she was the one who had taught them how to wear those masks.