Page 28 of Rock Bottom
“Micca and Hailey shouldn’t have to hide what they are, but even without that, I’d need to know what Julian is.”
She met Mikey’s gaze a second and then told us, “Someone will bring a wine service in soon. First off, a few drops of vampire blood won’t turn you. Not even close.”
Another knock at the door, and Kirsten opened it to a man wearing what I assumed was the castle livery, who entered with a wine bottle and empty glasses on a tray. He ceremoniously removed the cork and poured two glasses of wine, then stepped to our water goblet and poured about an inch of water in two more wine glasses. He bowed deeply to Kirsten, then inclined his head respectfully to us before departing.
“Easiest way to get blood without a vampire biting you is the way diabetics do.” Kirsten showed us the little stickpin things. “I can do it for you, if you’ll give me your finger.”
I shook my head. “Nothing happens to my fingers.”
“Guitar player,” Josef told Kirsten, and he looked at me. “I can puncture your forearm and get enough for the oath, but it will be easiest for me to lick it directly from your arm, rather than try to get it into the water. Not a big sexy lick, but a dainty little touch of my tongue will suffice.”
I held my arm out and he said, “We have some instructions to go through, first.”
He made a claw with a finger, poked his forearm, and held it over one of the glasses of wine, then the other, so both got four drops. He looked at his forearm, and I watched the hole heal over in seconds.
“Some vampires prefer to cloud minds, so the humans don’t get creeped out about drinking vampire blood, but I find everything works better if you understand what’s happening. As Kirsten said, this isn’t even close to enough to turn you into one of us.”
He met my gaze. “After I ingest your blood, I need you to say ‘I will keep your secrets’ and then take a couple of seconds to consider what you’re promising to keep — everything about vampires, shapeshifters, Alfheim, the different realms, anything magical or non-human you’ve learned from us — then drink the wine while thinking the words along with everything it means. Again, the phrase is “I will keep your secrets.”
I nodded. It sounded simple enough.
Kirsten handed the vampire the little medical device, and he held his hand a foot in front of me, palm up. I put my wrist into his hand, he used the little medical device on my forearm, and sure enough, a huge drop of blood welled up. He leaned down and, as he said, daintily touched his tongue to the drop. I barely felt it touch my skin at all, and then he swallowed and touched his tongue to my arm again before standing. Finally, he handed me one of the wine glasses and said, “I will keep your secrets.”
I repeated it out loud and then did as he’d said, thinking of everything I’ve learned, and drank the wine down, which just tasted like wine. I couldn’t taste the vampire’s blood, thankfully.
And I felt…something. Like a key in my soul. That’s probably an overdramatic way of describing it, but it’s still accurate.
Josef talked Mikey through the same oath, though Mikey was fine poking a hole in the side of his ring finger and dripping some blood into the water.
The whole thing took less than ten minutes, and then we had to try to write something on a piece of paper. I tried to write that I’d seen a real-life dragon, and I did just fine on the beginning of the sentence, but try as I might, I couldn’t get my hand to write the D in dragon.
I don’t know what Mikey tried to write, but he clearly couldn’t, either.
“Congratulations, you both did everything correctly,” Josef said.
He turned to Kirsten, who told him, “Just a couple of minutes to make sure Silver and Mikey are fine, and I’ll get you home.”
He nodded and sat on a sofa, and Kirsten turned to us. “I hate to have to leave the two of you alone, and I won’t if I think either of you is uncomfortable with the oath. Some people freak out a little, but the two of you are taking it in stride.” She met my gaze. “How are you holding up?”
“Let’s see… dragons, oaths, vampires who can wipe my memory, and oh yeah, my boyfriend might completely exsanguinate me, but I’m great. Really.” I realized I sounded a little hysterical, so I rolled my eyes and used my everyday voice. “No, seriously, it’s possible I shouldn’t be, but I think I’m okay.”
“I believe Silver and I have both been talking to a special someone we now understand isn’t entirely human,” Mikey said, “so we’re both a little relieved to have found an explanation that…” He shrugged. “I don’t want to say more.”
She smiled. “I won’t tell secrets that aren’t mine to share, but I’m happy to hear both of you are figuring things out. I have much to accomplish while I’m here, but I’ll try to check back in with you before too much longer.”
We watched the band through the window a while longer. It was frustrating, watching without being able to hear.
“The horn-looking thing,” Mikey said. “It’s like it’s somewhere between a sax and a trumpet.”
He wasn’t wrong. It was shaped like a sax but with only three holes.
“And the xylophone thing reminds me more of a complicated organ with all of those layers,” I said.
“I guess it’s hard to fuck with drums. Pretty sure I could sit right down and get to it without having to think about it.”
After a while, I went to the pull-cord and tugged it. The door opened, and a man stepped in wearing super-official court livery in a deep, formal burgundy — some shade with a ridiculous name, no doubt — gold embroidery gleaming at his cuffs and shoulders. He gave a tiny bow and said, “We are at your service. You have only to name your needs.”
“We’d like to know more about the music in this place. Would it be possible for us to meet the band in the courtyard? Hear them? Maybe learn about the instruments they’re using?”
