|
|
Everything sparkled, to her perception. The coffee tasted bright brown and bittersweet. The shower felt like a waterfall of hot liquid gems, the air glittered with gold dust, her clothes stroked her skin with sensuous license. Vivid, bright, immediate, the whole world seemed to be celebrating Mason's happiness.
The moving company was quick and efficient. They had her boxes up in the elevator and stairs quickly; they unpacked them with equal finesse, noting where she had marked each item to go and placing it in its proper location. By the afternoon, every bit of Mason's belongings were stowed in her new home. During the time the movers were doing this, Mason took Brutis to Nick and Constance's apartment which adjoined her new one - Nicholas had removed the wall shared by the living rooms of both apartments, leaving the resulting larger apartment with two entrances, four bedrooms, and one large livingroom. Mason and the decorator had decided to decorate it so that it gradually shifted from one room to the next, with pools of light delineating social spaces in the large room. The room was painted in a single shade, with shifting patterns of texture beneath.
And still the world rejoiced. The very walls themselves seemed to glow with reflections of her joy. The presences of Constance and Nick seemed to have already expanded to fill the newly adjoined apartment, and Mason felt herself sinking into soft bliss as she settled herself into her new, larger, nest. Never alone again.... something swelled inside her like music.
For most of the day Mason supervised the movers, Constance was sleeping and Nicholas was out working; but they had lunch together, and it was clear all three were in the happiest of moods. Mason could barely recall what she'd eaten, but every expression on the faces of the two was engraved deeply in her treasured memories. She had gone to her meeting with Lyness that evening still floating on clouds, Lyness used to it as it was the third night she'd seen Mason in such transport. Two nights earlier Lyness had asked Mason to share the reason for the wonderful mood... and Mason, discarding more complex notions for the heart of the matter, had told Lyness it was because she was in love.
In love... to love is to give hostages to fortune, they say, and though fortune treats many of its hostages well, allowing frequent visits, perhaps even forgetfulness, for moments, that one has made such a risky investment - though that may be the case, yet fortune is fickle, and her favors not to be taken for granted. A day, three days, of such happiness were all Mason was to be granted this time. The flip side of the joy of no longer being alone, is the dread of being alone once more. Terror of loss... raising its dark gaze to Mason's countenance, lifting its belljar......
Mason's visit to the Church proceeded that night, and spontaneously she'd danced with Sally, finding that dance could express joy as well as relieve anger and other negative emotions. Then she'd gone upstairs to, as Sally had put it, do her homework... and met with Maeve. Mason liked Maeve, who had been nothing but helpful to her in the past... but Maeve could not let go of her sire, though it had been a year since Elizabeth disappeared, and asked to interview Nick and Constance if they knew anything about Elizabeth's scheduled meeting with Sebastian Thorne, their former master, on the very night of her disappearance.
At first, this inquiry seemed harmless to Mason, and she called Lucille Semingworth, her own employer, to pass on Maeve's request. Of course Miss Semingworth wished to help Maeve, who was her protege, as they were both of the Ventrue clan and Maeve was far younger and had lost her sire. Constance however was in no shape for questioning, but Nicholas could be.
However, something was soon to change Mason's viewpoint on it. A small foreboding slipped in as she discussed with Maeve what was to be asked of Nick. As they talked, and Mason told Maeve of the Conclave, and what had transpired... and Maeve told Mason that the staking had not actually slain Bastian... startling to Mason, though perhaps she should have known, but what human could see a wooden stake through someone's heart, them still and unmoving, and think them alive?
Pause with me and think on that horror. It is one thing to clinically be aware, that a vampire staked through the heart with wood is paralyzed, but in some sense unharmed, able to perceive though not to react to his perceptions. It is another, far far other, especially for one never exposed to the scene of violence, to see the pierce of splintered stake pass through flesh, spraying blood, bared fangs frozen grimace, a man who'd seemed the picture of polite reserve, rendered a slain monstrosity in a flurry of vicious blows. Mason had perhaps known he might be 'alive' through this, but she had felt him to be dead, viscerally. Now, that changed... and dread crept up, as well as certain realizations.
Mason now felt a strong intuition that Constance and Nick did not really think Bastian was dead. What was it Nick had said to her during their first interview? "He can't be dead, he's immortal." Mason's mind started on a spiral down. Things were too good, she was too happy. It couldn't last, it had all been a mistake, she never should have agreed to move in, she had been stupid, now everything was going to end... she didn't understand her own panic.
Mason also knew part of her intuitive dread was all wrapped up in the strange fact that millie had met Nick, but he didn't recall. Nick's memory was very, very accurate... except for a few spots where it was all wrong. Was it fortune's grace or disfavor that millie was present? Unable to contain this panic, Mason approached millie directly with her inquiry, and millie told her of a vampire power... one apparently millie had used to have, but did no longer... that allowed a vampire to manipulate memory - to hide it, and also to bring back that which had been hidden. When millie said that remembering could be dangerous... Mason felt her panic inch up yet another notch. Dangerous? She helped Maeve over to the table and had millie explain.
The explanation - nothing in its words, only the feeling, and the constant repetition of danger, danger to the one thing that had begun to let her feel... Mason admired, adored, Lucille, the blood bond and Lucille's mentoring combining in a powerful devotion, but Lucille was nevertheless, purposely chilly with Mason, and perhaps more significant, Mason had never felt the need to take care of Lucille... certainly never considered hurting Lucille - so that still, it was true, that it was Nick, or perhaps Nick and Constance, whose companionship and love was the first feeling that had reached the inner locked core of Mason and loosed her from the grey mists of emotional solitude. The explanation, in its subtle threat to the source of her release, drove Mason down the spiral, the fight or flight instinct took over and in a sudden fear that she'd have no more time with Nick - ever - she bolted for home.
By the time she arrived, she'd pushed her panic down far enough to appear relatively calm, though her first sight of Nick and Constance did little to reassure. Her phone call telling Nick about the interview had apparently set them both off, though Nick's concern seemed more about Constance's fears and Mason's own - but that was his way, if he were positive he would die, he'd work more to calm them than anything for himself. Constance was doing her best to stay calm, and Mason was too, and they all were companionable in an intense, brittle way, until Lucille arrived to take Nicholas. Apparently Maeve had arranged for the Prince and his progeny, Vlad Strauss, to be present at the interview, as they had the memory-affecting power where Maeve and Lucille had not yet learned it.
The minute Nick was gone, Constance collapsed into tears. Unable to speak of her fears, they overwhelmed her utterly. Mason held her in her arms and stroked her hair gently. Somehow, in the flood, Constance assuaged Mason's fears as well, or merely gave them expression so that Mason felt washed clean, as though she herself had cried for hours. The tears subsided barely as Nicholas finally returned. He seemed shaken, pale, yet calm. Constance looked at him, her eyes still glittering. Nick shook his head.. not knowing what he'd done, and it was not over yet.
Mason sat on the edge of the bed and looked at Nick, watching his face as he held Constance close, reprieved but not relieved, the both of them glad to be together once more, but hating the sudden feeling of persecution. She tried, to explain, and to keep her composure. She wanted to join their embrace but chose words for the moment; she knew she could not do both, for to touch them she would lose speech altogether at this moment.
"Miss Zeiram... she still mourns her sire's disappearance. She can't let go of her conviction that someone might know something that would let her break the mystery. Because... he... killed Miss Martin, she thinks somehow he might have had to do with her sire's disappearance, that and the fact that their meeting was concurrent with Miss .... " her mind faltered, as she realized she didn't know Maeve's sire's name... "... Zeiram's sire's disappearance... you see... it's nothing you've done, Nick. You... we... shouldn't worry, at least, that you'll be punished? no one thinks you did anything... she thinks... he did... but he's been punished already. Miss Zeiram just wants to know..."
Mason trailed off, her desire to explain sated partially, her desire to touch, overpowering it. She slid forward onto the bed, leaning against Nick, wrapping an arm around Constance, the three of them clinging together in ignorant, grey numbness... longing for the return of light... fearful of the descent of darkness. Lost, in the grey. But at least, not lost alone. At least they had one another. One tear, then another; one sob, then another; one murmur of comfort, thenanother; one whimper, then another; one soothing caress, then another. Whose? Didn't matter. Theirs.
The belljar threatened to come down again, but this time, Mason would not be alone there... and that made all the difference.