Page 12 of Cloak of the Vampire
It was a lonely life, but it was a life of her choosing. Just like I’d chosen mine.
And yet it was forever gone. Cassidy, wherever she was, was probably going through the same thing I was. She probably woke up disoriented, scared out of her mind. She probably was interrogated by Ragnor in the same rude, abrupt manner, with violent force, which Cassidy couldn’t really handle.
Yet I wasn’t there to do the one thing she relied on me for as a friend. I wasn’t there to protect her.
Would I lose her, like I lost everyone else?
There was an entire underground city beneath the warehouse, which seemed to spread out for miles. The city was like a mix between a labyrinth, a shopping mall, and a medieval-style ship, with marble floors, brightly lit caverns, and wooden walls.
Margarita gave me the grand tour of the place. We started from where we exited the elevator. “This is the entrance hall,” she said in a somewhat bored tone, gesturing dismissively at the room, which was more like a terrace overlooking the entire place from above. “The elevator here is the only exit.”
She led me toward an escalator heading down. It was one of dozens of escalators that I could see with the naked eye. It was almost like a high-tech version of Hogwarts.
We reached the floor below, and she motioned toward closed mahogany doors. “This is the cafeteria,” she said and passed it by, not bothering to show me inside.
We arrived at a corridor with a few doors. It was dimly lit, with dangling lanterns and smooth marble floors. “Here you have the classrooms,” she explained, sounding less bored now. “One of them is reserved for the Comprehensive Newcomer Three-Month Course—or CNC for short—while the others are designated for different divisions of the League.”
“So, it isn’t the only course you offer?” I asked, unable to hold back the sarcasm. “Do you have a League syllabus?”
Margarita shot me a glare. “I would suggest getting rid of this tone sooner rather than later,noob,” she murmured warningly.
I glared back, lips pursed.
The corridor led to another escalator leading to the floor below. That floor looked far more high tech than the rest; while the floor was parquet and vintage lanterns lit up the space, some of the walls were partially transparent, with what looked like offices behind them. “This is the Vampire Resources department.” Margarita motioned toward the large place. There was a note of pride in her voice. “As the head of this department, I have thirty workers who do all the work I’m not always able to. They’re efficient and well behaved.”
It sounded like she was speaking about well-trained dogs. She even looked at me expectantly, as if wanting me to show my amazement at what seemed to be her pride and joy.
I managed to grit out a dry, unfeeling “Wow.”
“I know, right?” she said, seemingly oblivious to my tone this time. Smirking, she turned to me, her eyes glinting ominously. “Fortunately, I don’t foresee you ever working for me.”
That worked for me as well.
We passed a corridor and took an escalator back to the upper floor, though to a different section. “There’s the Archive there.” She pointedat an obsidian door. “Access is granted only to people who complete the CNC, much like most of the League’s facilities.”
She stopped and turned to me. “The Rayne League’s main focus is knowledge. We trade in it, mine it, and protect it,” she said. “Knowledge is very powerful, and our Lord makes sure not to hand it so freely to those who don’t deserve it.”
I didn’t care much for reading, but it sounded a bit too extreme. “He sounds paranoid,” I said before I could think twice.
Margarita’s face contorted in annoyance. “He’s not paranoid,” she snapped. “He’s smart. Smarter than you will ever be. He understands what makes the world tick and the psychological tendencies of people, and so he’s careful.” Her eyes were flashing vehemently, full of awe, reverence, and ... affection.
Someone has a crush.
Not that I cared. “Everything points to the contrary, though,” I sniped back, my anger getting the better of me. “If he’s so careful, how come he just randomly gives the Imprint to people like Cassidy and me? Vampires are powerful, aren’t they—or rather, we? So, isn’t he far more careless than you give him credit for?”
Her lips stretched into a smile full of teeth.Like a shark.“Aah, noob,” she murmured, looking me up and down in amused disdain. “You’ll find out soon enough just what kind of man Ragnor Rayne is.”
Her patronizing tone made my blood boil, but she was already walking, conversation done.
She took me to one of the lower floors, and we arrived at what looked like a hotel hallway. “These are the shared-residence wings,” she said, bored again, while leading me to one of the doors. “You will share this suite with two other newcomers like you.”
When we stopped, she shoved a piece of paper into my hands and said, “This is your weekly schedule starting tomorrow.”
I looked down at the spreadsheet. It was a timetable for the CNC.
“As for your stuff,” she continued, and I snapped my eyes back up to hers, sudden tension making my spine go stiff. “We’ll bring over all of the essentials and clothes from your former apartment.”
Narrowing my eyes, I said, “Former?”
