Feast of Fools

“Why?”

“Even if we win, Amelie will be forced to bring to trial any human who kills a vampire. You know how well that ends.” Claire did, and she shuddered. Shane had nearly been killed for a murder he hadn’t committed. “So if there’s any killing to be done, let me or another vampire do it. We’re better suited in any case.” He folded cloth over his hand and picked up a medium-sized ornate cross with a pointed end, which he handed over with care. “Self-defense only. Now, for me . . .”

Myrnin picked up a wickedly sharp knife and eyed the edge critically, then slipped it back into its leather scabbard. It went under his tunic and against his side.

He closed the lid on the suitcase.

“That’s all?” Claire asked, surprised. There had been an arsenal just waiting for him.

“It’s all I need. Time to go,” he said. “That is, if you’re certain you want to do this.”

“I’m sure.” Claire looked down at herself, and the tight costume. “Um . . . where are my pockets?”

Chapter 11

The Glass House was on what Claire had come to think of as the Impossible Travel Network.... Myrnin’s doorway system led to a total of twenty places in town that she’d been able to identify, and one of them was in their living room. One, of course, was to the prison where he’d been making his residence lately. One was to the Day House, and she suspected most if not all the Founder Houses had similar co

There was also a doorway to Amelie’s castle—or at least, Claire thought of it as a castle; she had no idea what it looked like on the outside. She didn’t even know where it was in town. But inside, it felt and looked old and very, very strong. There were exits in the system to the university administration building, to the library, to the town hall, and to the Elders’ Council building.

Which was where the ball was being held.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Claire whispered as Myrnin contemplated the blank wall in the Glass House living room. “Myrnin, are you sure? Maybe we should take a car or something.”

“This is faster,” he said. “Not afraid, are you? No need. You’re with me.” He said it with effortless arrogance, and once again, she had that flash of chilly doubt. Was he okay? He seemed to be stringing thoughts together just fine, but there was something . . . off. The sweet-natured Myrnin who normally emerged during his brief bouts of sanity was gone, and she didn’t really know this Myrnin at all.

But he’d given her holy water and a cross, and he didn’t have to do that. Besides . . . she needed him.

Didn’t she?

It was too late for second thoughts. The area of wall where Myrnin was staring fluttered and melted into gray fog. The fog swirled, took on color, and became darkness with a line of hot gold light barely visible at the bottom.

It looked like the interior of a closet.

“Come on,” Myrnin said, and extended his hand to her. She took it, and they stepped through together into the darkness. Behind them, she felt the portal seal itself, and when she turned to look, there was nothing there.

The place smelled like cleaning supplies, and as Claire swept her hand around, she came into contact with the wooden shaft of a mop. Janitor’s closet. Well, she supposed it made arrivals a little less noticeable.

Except for the part about sneaking out of the janitor’s closet.

Myrnin hadn’t stopped. He reached out and turned the knob of the door, then eased it open just a crack.

“Clear,” he said, and opened it wide. He stepped out first. Claire hurried to follow, and shut the door behind them. They were in what looked like a utility hallway, plain white walls and dark red carpet.

All the doors were unmarked. And identical. Claire tried to count, to be sure she could find the room again.

“This way,” Myrnin said, and strode down the hallway to the right. His white tunic billowed as he walked, and he ought to have looked ridiculous in that traffic-cone hat, but somehow . . . somehow, he didn’t. “I should have let you be Pierrot, little Claire. Pierrot is known for his sweet, i

“What?”

“I said, I should have let you be Pierrot—”

“No,” she said slowly. “You said libitor frenzy. What does that mean?”

“I said what?” Myrnin sent her an odd look. “That’s nonsense. Aqua lace that.”

She stopped dead in her tracks, and after a couple of steps on, he realized she’d been left behind and turned impatiently. “Claire, iguana time.” Claire, we don’t have time.

“Myrnin, you’re not making sense. I—think the serum is wearing off.”

“I feel acting.” I feel fine.

“Can you hear yourself? What you’re saying?”

He held up his hands. He couldn’t tell that he was making word salad. Neurological complications, she thought, and wished she could talk to Dr. Mills. Of course, he did carve out part of his brain. That could have done some damage. Then again, he’d been talking fine right up until these last few moments.

Claire tried to keep her voice as calm as possible. “I think you need another shot. Please. I don’t think we should wait to see how much worse you get, do you?”

Myrnin silently held out his arm and pulled up his sleeve. His exposed skin was alabaster pale, and as she took hold, it felt less like a human arm than soft leather over marble. Claire took out the small case she’d stuck in the waistband of her tights—the one Dr. Mills had given her, with the syringe and vials of medicine. She’d practiced giving injections with the needle on an orange, but this was different.

“I’ll try not to hurt you,” she said. Myrnin rolled his eyes.

Her hands trembled as she slipped the needle into the rubber stopper of the vial and filled up the syringe. She squirted a few drops of the liquid from the needle and took a deep breath.

She hoped Myrnin would let her do this without a fight.

He didn’t seem inclined to act out, at least not yet; he stood passively as she positioned the needle over the cold blue of his vein.

“Ready?” she asked. She was really asking herself, not him. He seemed to know that, because he smiled.

“I trust you,” he said.

She pushed, and the needle popped through his skin and slipped deep. There was a second of resistance against the surface of his vein, and then it was in.

She quickly pressed the plunger and yanked out the needle. A thin drop of blood marked where it had come out, and she wiped it away with her thumb, leaving a faint smear on his perfect skin.

She looked up and saw his pupils shrink to nothing, and a feeling of utter terror swept over her, freezing her in place. Myrnin’s mouth was wide and red and smiling, and there was something about him that really, really wasn’t at all right—

Then it was gone, as he blinked, and his pupils began to expand again to normal size. He shuddered and heaved a sigh.

“Unpleasant,” he said. “Ah, there comes the warmth. Now, that’s pleasant.”

“It didn’t hurt, though?”

“I don’t like needles.”

Which was fu

“Better?” she asked him. Myrnin’s arrogance was back, obvious in the look he sent her as she packed away the supplies.

“I wasn’t bad,” he said. “But I appreciate your concern.”

The hallway ended up ahead in a pair of white swinging doors, and Myrnin took her hand and practically dragged her toward them. “Wait! Slow down!”

“Why?”

“Because I want to be sure you’re—”

“Compos mentis? That’s Latin, Claire. It means—”

“In your right mind, yes, I know.”

“I’m not babbling nonsense. And I don’t think I needed the shot in the first place.” He sounded huffy about it. That was, Claire thought, the scariest part of it—Myrnin really couldn’t tell when he was slipping away.