Page 94 of Red Masquerade

Thirty-Two

Iwandered the house, only just then starting to understand the layout. It was late afternoon, near dinner time, and I thought surely I’d have Vince to myself after dinner. There was no party planned this night, a sweet respite from the drink and debauchery. I passed a parlor, in which the scent of smoke spilled into the hall through the open door.

Sinclair sat on a couch, a book in one hand, a cigarette in the other. He must have heard me coming, because he didn’t look up when I stood in the doorway.

“Come in,” he called, his eyes skimming the page.

It was a parlor I hadn’t been in yet. Perhaps his own private room? The walls were plastered with a deep red paper, decorated with stripes of black. A few bookshelves, a set of couches, and an unlit fireplace. A few ferns sat in pots near the windows, thecurtains drawn apart to give Sinclair a light to read by. The electric lights were still yet off.

“What are you reading?” I asked, sitting across from him.

He looked up over the brim of the book. Smiling, his lips pulling into a line, he shut the novel, setting it upon the table. “Just some boring history,” he said.

“I hope I’m not interrupting?”

He waved his hand. “I know too much of history as it is, and I have plenty of time to read more.” He tapped the ash off of his cigarette and offered it to me, but I shook my head.

We sat like that in a comfortable silence, me, the human girl, wondering how I got here, and him, a vampire, a creature that shouldn’t have existed. He watched me watch him, but it was not uncomfortable, just two souls coexisting in a room, breathing the same air, basking in the quiet.

“Can you…” I trailed off, even though I knew he wouldn’t think me ridiculous. “Can you tell me more about—”

“About vampires?” His cheeks hollowing as he sucked in the smoke of the cigarette.

I nodded.

He looked off into the room, like he was considering, thinking. It gave me a chance to inspect his profile, his striking cheekbones, his strong nose. He had tan skin, and his hair curled upon his brow, giving him a boyish charm. He was an attractive man, and if I had met him in any other circumstance, I’d likely let him court me for an evening. If not for the odd conversation at that house party, I might’ve kissed him that night. And what a world of trouble we’d be in now.

His piercing eyes found mine, and he seemed to come to some conclusion. “I can tell you some of it. What are your questions?”

Some of it. An echo of Vince’s warning, before he told me how he turned.

Were there questions inappropriate to ask a vampire? The fact that I sat alone in a room with a creature that could drink my blood should have frightened me. But Sinclair had never given me a reason to think he thirsted forme.

“Just… how?”

He chuckled. “How are we vampires?” Another drag of the cigarette, and he lifted his chin heavenward, expelling his smoky breath. He looked at me. “How are you human? It’s just how you were born, is it not? It’s what you were made.”

“Butyouwere born human, right?”

He paused, thinking again. “I was.” A regretful twitch to his brow. “Though, it’s a one-way street. I cannot change my nature now.”

“Vince told me…” I trailed off, unsure how to keep going. “Was it your choice?”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “For many of us—most of us—no, it is not.” He glanced away to the window, and for a moment, I regretted letting the words come out of my mouth. “Though some of us do choose it. It has a great price, this new existence.” His fingers scrubbed at his jaw, his eyes finding mine again, softening just the slightest bit. “For me, it was an accident.”

“An accident? Is such a thing possible?” I asked, sitting forward in my seat.

He gestured to himself, a sweeping hand toward his body, presenting himself as evidence.

“When? And how?”

He laughed quietly, amused by my questioning, like I was a child still in wonder at the world. “Because Séra herself is a young vampire and couldn’t control herself in the throes of passion.”

My mouth fell open in anO, causing him to laugh again.

“She Made me, perhaps five years ago now, if I am remembering correctly.” He had kissed her forehead the night before, and I knew there was some affection there, a relationship of sorts. But—I had seen him with an entirely different couple the night I’d first witnessed a bloodletting. Séra most certainly was not there. There must have been an agreement between the two, though she didn’t seem the slightest bit interested in anyone at the party.

It was a question for later.