All Souls' Night - Renee Rose Page 0,60

been rubbing up against one another in the act of sexual desire. But no one’s base needs were being totally satisfied on the dance floor. That had all been happening a floor below.

It wasn’t widely known that there was any sexual activity going on in the club. I certainly hadn’t known it the night I’d gone in. Nor when I’d come out. Which leads me to believe that Frangelico and his minions were behind my demise.

They’ve taken my family’s business. They’ve taken both of my sisters. And now they are trying to take my career.

I park my car in front of the Serrano vineyard as the last rays of the sun set. I’ve been to this house a couple of times. One such instance, I have almost forgotten. Because the Serranos have taken my memories from me.

“Arneis? Is that you?” My sister Cari’s voice comes from the other side of the door. “I can smell you from all the way inside, isn’t that crazy? But don’t worry, I already ate tonight.”

“Cari, that’s not funny,” says Marechal as she opens the great doors.

I stand on the other side of the threshold, gaping down at my sisters. They look exactly the same, but I know they are different. Like me, they both sport bite marks on their necks.

About a month ago, my baby sister got herself in a relationship with a dead man walking. That isn’t hyperbole. Hadrian Serrano is a vampire. And just a few days ago, my older sister Marechal got in bed with Serrano’s brother, Gaius. I’m convinced both of the creatures mind-wiped Cari and Mare into loving them. It is the only way my two brilliant sisters would fall for such fiends.

Cari flashes me a toothsome grin, complete with fangs. Marechal, only a couple of years older than me, gives me the maternal smile I’ve seen all my life. She hasn’t been turned. Yet.

“Come inside.” Marechal beckons.

The two women move into the dark recesses of the house. I hesitate, even though I know how the lore works. Humans don’t need an invitation to come into the realms of monsters. It’s getting out that’s the trick.

“I wish you had called first,” says Marechal. “We’re headed out. Gaius has a political meeting.”

“Political?” I say as we move into a formal living room. Doric columns frame the lit fireplace. Colorful murals line the walls around the curtained windows.

“Not with humans,” says Cari, her voice reaching the excited pitch she uses when she is about to go on an adrenaline-inducing adventure. “A vampire delegation has come from Africa to meet with the guys at Club Toxic.”

I clench my teeth at the use of the words delegation and vampire together. The word politics does not belong in the same sentence with such mindless monsters. But another thing catches my attention.

“You’re not going to that club,” I say. “Neither of you.”

“You do know she’s over twenty-one, Arneis,” says Marechal, jerking her thumb at Cari. “And it’s just a costume party. Venetian themed. It sounds like fun.”

Marechal and fun don’t usually come up in the same sentence, either. My older sister had to be dragged out from her lab up until a week ago. But our family name has been dragged enough, thanks to Frangelico and the Serranos.

“You don’t know what happens at Club Toxic,” I say.

“Do you?” says Cari. Her large brown eyes are no longer that of a child’s. The tilt of her eyebrow says that she could answer her own question. What has that devil Hadrian gotten my sister into?

Even though I know what she now is, I still have trouble reconciling the fact that my baby sister is a blood-sucking monster. My hand goes to the bite on my shoulder. My entire body flinches as I touch it.

Cari’s gaze goes solemn as she witnesses what I’m doing. Guilt wracks her features. “They’re not all like that, Arnie.”

She’s referring to the bloodsucker who attacked us both weeks ago. I’ve only recently begun to remember the white-haired demon, Domitia. Before that, I’d only seen her in my nightmares because the Serranos had taken the memories of her biting me and of her kidnapping Cari from me. But those two vampires didn’t realize just how strong a mind like mine is.

I remembered. Now I need to find a way to let everyone in the town—everyone in the world—know what walks amongst us. I need to find a way to expose them—the Serranos, Frangelico-—or what they are.

But how?

“Plans have changed, ladies.” Gaius Serrano steps into