Page 35 of Curses & Keys
For a brief moment, he stiffens, but then he reaches into his pocket and pulls it out to show me her picture. “My daughter. She’s still in Kallias. The vampire world,” he explains with an anguished expression on his face. “Our king asked for volunteers to enter the portal, find out what’s on the other side, and report back to him. I never thought I wouldn’t be able to return.” One elegant finger strokes softly across his daughter’s face.
There have been so many stories like his. Guilt tightens my throat, but I force myself to continue. “I’m sorry to hear about your daughter. How old is she?”
He smiles. “She was around three hundred years old when the painting in the locket was completed. A little over twothousand years old now. Vampires in my world don’t become adults until they’re at least five hundred.”
Wow. The girl in the locket with her dark curls and deep blue eyes appears to be around ten years old in the picture. “What’s her name?”
His dark eyes study me before he replies. “Calla.”
“That’s a beautiful name,” I tell him, wanting to know more but afraid he’ll be able to read the guilt on my face. Still, I press on. “Tell me about her.”
His eyes light up. “You really want to hear?”
I can see how badly he wants to talk about her. “I do.”
He shifts his attention from the video to me. “She got her mother’s blue eyes. It’s unusual for a vampire to have anything but brown eyes, so when she was born, I knew she was special. Her laughter was my favorite sound in the world. And her favorite thing to do was ride her beloved Shigari, Safro.” I frown, and he elaborates. “They’re similar to the horses in this world, but they’re much, much faster.”
“Vampire fast?” I ask, exhilarated by the thought.
A gleam of satisfaction shines in his eyes. “Exactly. She was fearless and mischievous. Always pushing boundaries. Doing stuff I’d forbidden her to do.” He lifts a shoulder and flashes a smile. “I could never stay mad at her, though.”
“And her mother? Was she your…wife? Mate?”
His smile dims. “She was a friend. Her name was Sybil. Calla was a happy accident for us both. Unfortunately, she passed when Calla was around a hundred.”
His leaving left his daughter an orphan. I take a deep breath and clear my throat. “I’m sorry.” Those are the only words I have for him.
He falls silent, lost in the memories of the past. A second later, his dark eyes meet mine. “Sorry. I miss my daughter so much. I can’t help but wonder what she’s like now.”
Guilt pierces my heart at his anguish, and I lay my hand on his. “I understand. My sister… she…disappeared when I was a teenager. I think about her every day. It’s hard to live without them, isn’t it?” It’s been a long time since I spoke to anyone about my sister.
Not wanting him to ask any questions I can’t answer, I quickly steer the conversation in a different direction. “How did the locket get into Westgate’s collection?” It seems odd that he would give such a treasured item to that psycho.
Black eyes darken with fury. “Westgate, self-appointed leader of the vampires, didn’t offer his help for free. A vampire could exchange something of value or a hundred years of service. Only then would he help us acclimatize to this world. I refused to give him my life, so I parted with the only thing I valued in this world.”
“A hundred years of service,” I state, keeping my voice neutral and my envy tamped down. Sometimes I wish my sentence had a limit. But with all this time, I still haven’t found a way to save my sister, so it doesn’t really matter how many years go by.
Mathias closes the locket with a snap. “It infuriated me. In our world, he had no power, but because he was one of the first here, and exceedingly ruthless, he climbed his way to the top. Ruled over our entire race as if he were our king.” He snarls, and the hair on my arm stands up.
This is the first glimpse I’ve seen of the turmoil beneath his calm exterior.
He stops when he notices my reaction. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” He briefly closes his eyes to gain his equilibrium. When he opens them, they’re studiously blank. “Did you want to watch any more of the video?”
I’m the one who should be saying sorry. Instead, I shake my head. “No, I think—” Leaning closer, I see something strange in the paused video. I point to the patio door. “What is that?”
He blinks and turns to face the laptop. “What?”
“Can you rewind? Then, forward frame by frame,” I ask, sure I saw something reflected in the glass. I lean in. There. “Stop.”
He taps a few buttons to magnify the image. Light bounces off the glass, and for a second, it shines on the person standing in front of it. “Can you make it clearer?”
Fingers dance as he tries to clean it up. “It’s a mage spell. It makes the cameras skip and obscure their image.” He finally stops. “That’s the best one we’ll get.”
Wavy lines blur most of the image. “There.” I point to the pair of brown shoes reflected in the patio door. “He must have forgotten to obscure his feet.”
Mathias captures the image and saves it. “Those aren’t the boots of a soldier, which means he’s someone higher. They really want that key. Are you sure it’s in a safe place?”
“The safest place I know,” I tell him. In fact, when I grabbed the key to the safe deposit box, I moved the other one to a more secure location. While the vault walls appear to be seamless, there are a few surprises built into them.
