Bloodlust

Chapter Nine

Long ago, I worked at the Louvre during its initial period of existence. I was inordinately helpful to the staff, as I had been there when much of the artwork was created. I knew stories that no one else did, like how Michaelangelo sculpted his David statue in the timeless period between one and three a.m. while speaking of the stars and a parallel galaxy. There was something infinitely greater at work in those moments of artistic creation and I had been there to witness thousands of those moments. They are one of the few gifts immortality has given to me.

Now, I stand in front of the Palace of Versailles, where Louis and Marie Antoinette met their final days. The gold blinds me, and for a moment, I'm transported back to the 1700s, when Paris was infinitely more complex and simple, at the same time.

Inhaling the scent of the air once again, I allow a rush of memories to flow over me. A bright smile, a pair of warm hazel eyes. A brush of cracked fingertips against my arm, the slightest breath of my back of my neck as we surveyed the damage done to one of France's iconic structures. Closing my eyes, I allow my heart to crack this once.

When I open them again, I am not alone.

"Nadya."

"Tomasz," I say, acknowledging the vampire before me. "It's been...what? Ten years?"

"Something like that," he replies coldly.

"Where's Adama? She's always met with me."

"She died," he says, shuttering his eyes against the light. His brown curls bounce in the afternoon light. "Burned in Slovakia, alongside Damon."

I nod slightly, though a pang echoes through my heart. I've known Adama for years, solely as my personal black market dealer. Damon was a new recruit, from what I knew. Tomasz, on the other hand, has been around since World War One at the very least.

"I'll send my regards," I say softly, eyeing him. I always suspected he and Adama had something special, whether they acknowledged it or not. It seems he thought the same. "Did you bring what I asked you for?"

One pale hand enters the inside of his long wool coat and pulls out three tickets. Handing them to me, Tomasz says, "Three tickets to the Presidente's ball tonight. Ballroom, so you'll be able to dance with the man himself."

"Thank you," I say, reaching for the tickets.

"Ah-ah," he replies, pulling them away. I frown. "You know the price of our service, Nadya."

I groan internally. Somehow, Tomasz and his ring of dark-market dealers have gotten it into their heads that vampire blood has the cure to vampirism itself in it. Insane, I know, but I've been paying them with vials for years. "How much this time, Tomasz?"

"Six."

I gape at him, my blood pounding in my ears. "Six? That's ridiculous, Tomasz, and you know it. It's too much, I'll pass out. I need to be at full-strength tonight."

"Getting tickets to the presidential ball is no easy feat, even for a vampire, Nadya. And on such short notice, too, when the entire Otherworld has fallen into disarray." At the subtle mention of Adama's death, Tomasz tenses briefly, before continuing. "Six, Nadya."

"I won't do it," I say. "It's too much. Adama would never--"

"I think you know," Tomasz says, raising his deadly voice above my own, "that Adama knew many secrets. Things she shouldn't have known weaseled her way into her little black book." He taps his chest pocket and I can vaguely make out the outline of a small notebook. "Conveniently spelled, too. Only the owner or people they bequeathed it to can touch it."

"You would do well to tread carefully, Tomasz," I breathe.

"Wouldn't you love to let the world know who you are, beneath that demonic exterior?" A glint of madness passes across Tomasz's face, the kind only developed after the death of someone who has long been loved. "I'm sure those boys would. Not too clever of them, hiding among humans. So much residual damage could be done. But I'm sure you know all about that, Nade--"

"If you utter that name, I don't care what the Otherworld will do to me. I will rip you from limb to limb and I will revel in it. I have not--"

"Did Thierry know, Nadya? Or was he under your spell, like the rest of them?"

"Half now," I say desperately. I don't know how Adama could've discovered my secret, but Tomasz surely has it. He almost...I shudder at the very thought of what he could do with that information. "Three vials today and three tomorrow. Shit, I'll throw in an extra one if you agree."

Tomasz surveys me and I'm reminded of the first time I met him, on a day similar to this in the exact same space as we hold now. Adama had been giving me nexvil, a rare dilution to throw possible enemies off of my trail. There was always something invariably off about him, something I couldn't place.

Now I know.

Tomasz is heartbroken. And those whose hearts are broken are infinitely more depraved than the rest.

"Fine," he says after a moment, "but I expect you to hold to your word. Or else everything you've built will come crashing down, Nadya. It will burn and you will burn with it."

He disappears, the only reminder of his presence the pounding of my undead heart.

I have always been afraid in this world; in all my lifetimes; in my first real life.

This is the first time I've been petrified.

Because I can no longer keep the secret of Thierry to myself. It is time to share him with the two people I have found myself trusting, in a small way.

It is time for Will and Niklaus to meet Thierry Gerard-Toussaint. 

i think i'm going to do three updates soon, just so everything I've written so far is out. idk, honestly.