Velvet

“I doubt it,” Adrian said, though part of him was considering it. “He always waits for me to wake him up.”


Not saying anything more, Adrian hurried to the stairs and descended. I followed as quickly as I could. When we reached the kitchen, Julian was eating Cap’n Crunch and playing Angry Birds on his phone.

“Is Lucian down here?” Adrian asked, coming to an abrupt halt.

“Nope,” Julian said, not bothering to look up from his phone.

Adrian went very still, then whirled and fast-walked back to the hall and up the stairs. I couldn’t quite comprehend what was happening. Adrian opened the door to my studio.

“Lucian?” he called.

No answer. He ran back out, opening the next door. “Frankie?”

No response.

I took one side of the hall and he took the other. Every room was empty. Every hair on my body stood on end.

“Shit!” Adrian yelled, slamming his fist against the door frame.

“He’s gotta be here somewhere,” I said, on the edge of panic.

Adrian gave me a look that chilled my skin. We headed downstairs and checked the second floor room by room, calling his name loudly. Julian finally wandered out of the kitchen. “What’s going on?”

Adrian threw Julian a dirty look. “Our brother is missing.”

Julian paled.

We ran down to the first floor, to the east wing with the pool. It, too, was empty and silent. We raced through the dining room, the kitchen, the offices, and finally into the library, calling out “Lucian!” Even Julian looked a little panicked.

There was no one there but us. Adrian dropped to his knees, looking like the wind had gotten knocked out of him.

Lucian was gone.

*

Mariana and Dominic got home a half hour later. Julian was having a conversation with someone in spitfire French, and Adrian was still in shock. He’d scoured the grounds, calling Lucian’s name, asking me to stay in the house as a precaution. Since Lucian was a vampire as well, Adrian couldn’t sense him—they were all blank spots to one another—“voids,” as Mariana had called it. The only way to find Lucian was to stumble across him, and that was becoming less likely by the hour. Mariana and Dominic had us recount the story over and over, picking apart details, analyzing the events—although we very carefully left out the bits and pieces we’d decided we didn’t want the Council to know.

In the end, they concluded that Tommie must have come back here to the house while Adrian and I had been in the clearing. They didn’t know how he’d gotten past the security measures—unless, of course, Lucian had simply opened the front door. He was the only one of the siblings that had anything close to affection for their father. It wouldn’t be beyond reason to think Lucian has simply chosen to go with him.

Julian stayed that night while Mariana and Dominic made an emergency trip back to D.C. for some sort of Council meeting, which meant Adrian and I had one more night together before life got complicated again. But the joy of that morning was gone, the playfulness, the something else was put indefinitely on hold.

Adrian and I were sitting on the edge of his bed. It was three in the morning, and he had been silent for a long time. Norah had competed earlier that day, but I had no idea how she’d placed. It didn’t seem that important right now.

Lucian was gone.

I felt numb. I felt like I’d felt everything it was possible to feel, the past few days, and now I was exhausted.

It was late, though, and we needed to sleep. I pushed Adrian down and pulled the covers over us. He stared at the ceiling blankly. I wrapped my arms around him, and pulled him close.

“My brother is gone,” he murmured.

I didn’t know what to say at first. Finally, I settled for, “We’ll get him back.”

“Little brother.”

“We’ll get him back,” I repeated. Because we would.

He buried his face in my neck, wrapped his arms around me tightly. “I almost lost you.”

I kissed his cheek softly. “But you didn’t.”

“Don’t go.”

“I won’t.”

“We’ll get him back.”

“We’ll get him back.”

*

Sunday morning, Adrian, Julian, and I were working our way numbly through bowls of cereal when the backup arrived. They walked into the kitchen, assembling regally in a semicircle, and I had the weird, passing thought that they seemed like they’d be more comfortable in armor than the array of designer clothing they were currently dressed in.

“For those of you who don’t know,” Mariana began, addressing the newcomers, “these are my brothers Julian and Adrian. And this is Caitlin.”

Apparently they didn’t need an explanation of who I was, and why I was there. Three days ago, I would have been intimidated, but I’d now faced far worse than a bunch of well-dressed European vampires.

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