Section 6
IN THE DARK
Unable to sit up straight in her coffin of glass, Lucette craned her neck toward the top of the stairs. A figure appeared in the doorway. She snapped her eyes shut, but then watched the figure through half-closed eyes, pretending to sleep.
As the figure entered and the candlelight grew brighter, she noticed a piece of paper above her on the outside of the coffin, but before she could read it, a face appeared next to the note.
She gasped. Alex! The vampire she’d met in the woods as a kid. His bright red hair and wide, infectious grin were unmistakable. She’d never forget that face.
“Hey,” he said, his voice slightly muffled through the glass.“You look a little cramped in there.” He picked up the paper and read, “Dearest Lucette.” He peeked over the top of the letter. “Sweet opening.” He winked and then returned his attention to the letter. “I’m sorry you had to wake up alone in unfamiliar surroundings, but the idea of my daughter out among vicious vampires is more than I can bear.”
Alex peeked over the letter again and made a face. “Vicious? Oh, please.” He turned back to the note. “I must keep you safe, my darling daughter. I hope you had a good day’s sleep in your case.” Alex looked up again. “Case? Even vampires recognize a coffin when we see one.”
“Is that all it says?” she asked. Surely her father didn’t expect her to spend all her nights trapped in this case.
“There’s more,” Alex said, and he continued. “At your feet you’ll find a trapdoor that will let you enter your safe room. Behind the glass partition you’ll be protected at night. Once you’re in your safe room, make sure you don’t close the trapdoor to your sleeping case. It only opens from the case side. It was designed this way so that, if a vampire climbs the tower and comes in through the window, you can escape to your protective sleeping case, shutting the trapdoor behind you.” Alex looked up. “To be clear, when he says case, you known he means coffin, right?”
“Just finish the letter,” she said, dread creeping through her. “Or put it back down on the glass so I can read it myself.” Her father must have written the letter after trapping her inside.
“Sure thing.” He grinned before turning back to the letter. “For this nightmare to end, you must find true love, so I’ll bring every young man in the kingdom up here to see you. I’m confident one of them will love you. I know I do. Your loving father.”
Alex dropped the paper and leaned over, his face near the glass and his fangs glinting in the soft light. “He’s parading boys up here to look at you while you sleep? That’s messed up.”
It was messed up and Lucette cringed at the thought, but right now, being face-to-face with a vampire—even through glass—was even messier.
“Do you remember me?” Her voice echoed off the glass.
“Of course. Nice to see you again, Lucette. When we first met, I had no idea you were a princess.” He bowed mockingly.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, trying to keep her voice from wavering.
“I heard that everyone in Xandra was asleep except one girl.” He backed away from the glass and studied her from head to toe. “Based on the description, I thought it might be you.”
“How was I described?” The last time they’d met, she’d been so gangly and awkward.
He shrugged. “Beautiful, tall, big blue eyes, high cheekbones, long curly black hair, alabaster skin . . . You really want me to list it all?”
His grin really was infectious, and if she didn’t know better, she’d almost think he was blushing. “I thought you might need some help.” He set his candle on the floor. “Looks like I was right.”
She twisted in the coffin to keep her eyes on him. “Help? You’re a vampire. This glass is supposed to protect me from you.”
“Look,” he said, “it seems to me like you’re trapped in there.” He ran his hands over the sides of the coffin. “And that cell you can climb into isn’t much better. But if you don’t want my help. . . ” He turned to leave.
“You can’t help,” she called out. “You couldn’t get me out of here, if you wanted to. The glass is enchanted so it won’t break.”
“That’s harsh,” he said as he turned back. Then he studied the coffin, presumably trying to find a way out. “Didn’t they even give you lights?”
She hesitated for a second, but then pressed the button and the gaslights flared to life.
He grinned.“Nice.” He stepped over to the wall of glass that divided the tower room in two. “There’s a door in the glass partition. Any idea where the keys might be?”
She shook her head. If she knew her father, they’d be impossible to locate.
He crouched and stuck his hands through the small slot at the bottom of the glass door. “Doesn’t look like you’ll fit through here.”
“No kidding.” The slot was about two inches high and eighteen inches long.
He stepped back to where she lay in her case and pointed at her feet. “Looks like you’ve got another note down here, inside the case.”
Lucette twisted and squirmed in the confined space, which barely fit her when she was tucked up like a ball in the center. After her contortions, she was lying on her front, her head at the opposite end of the box and right against the trapdoor leading into the glass cell. She adjusted the fabric of her gown to make sure she wasn’t putting on a show for Alex, then picked up the note. This one was in her mother’s handwriting.
Her heart thumped loudly as she read, then she turned toward Alex and blurted, “There’s another trapdoor. At that end.”
Alex pushed on the end that was now at her feet.“How does it work?”
“It only works from inside,” she said, and as she turned back around, she silently thanked her mother for begging the fairy who’d made the case to give her another way out. If she’d had to spend her days in the horrible glass cell after all she’d been through ... It was too horrible to think about.
And it wasn’t just about herself. If she were trapped up here in the tower, who would protect everyone else from the vampires? As her mother advised in her letter, once Lucette got out, she’d have to be careful not to leave any evidence of her nightly escapes and to get back into the glass room or the case before dawn. No sense pushing her father to even more extreme measures. This was bad enough.
Twisted around, and now lying on her belly, she realized if she used the second trapdoor to exit the case, she’d be sliding right into the grasp of a vampire.
But she had to at least see if the trapdoor worked, so she pressed the lower corners of the panel as her mother’s note told her to, and it lifted open, swinging up on a springed hinge.
Alex bent down to peer through the open end of the glass case, his face about a foot from hers. “Well, hello there.” His fangs rested on his lower lip.
Lucette scrambled toward the coffin’s far end, her heart racing.
“Sheesh, I’m not going to hurt you.” Offended, he backed away. “Fine, get out of there yourself, if you don’t need my help.”
Considering her options—semifriendly vampire at one end, prison at the other—Lucette wiggled forward on her stomach until she was out of the box up to her waist. The edge of the glass dug into her hips as she stretched for the floor.
“Sure you don’t want some help?” Alex stayed on the other end of the room, leaning against the wall. “‘Because I could—you know—help.”
She shook her head and pushed her way forward until gravity took over. Her hands hit the ground and the rest of her body followed, rolling into a heap on the floor.
Glancing around the room, Lucette searched for something to use to defend herself. The room was lined with tall wooden cases, each more than six feet tall with slits cut near the top and bottom. Next to one of those cases, she spotted a stake. She took a step toward it, but Alex easily beat her to it.
Her heart almost stopped out of fear, but he passed her the stake, with the sharp end facing his own body. “Stake me if you want, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”
She grabbed the weapon and raised it, striking a fighting stance. Her heart thumped. “Think I’m not brave enough?”
“Oh, I think you’re plenty brave.” He didn’t move. “But I’m hoping you’re also smart, and it looks to me as if I’m the only friend you’ve got.” He lifted his arms and gestured around. “In case you hadn’t noticed, all the humans in Xandra are sleeping, and there are vampires roaming everywhere, out for your blood.”
Lucette’s heart rate slowed as she looked into the vampire boy’s eyes. He seemed so sincere, and she wanted so badly to believe him. By trusting him she’d gain the comfort of company, even if it were only the illusion of an ally.
She lowered her stake. “Okay then. First step, I need to find something else to wear.”