Beneath the gleaming
skyscrapers and picturesque facade of the City of Redemption lies another city;
a community of dark and ancient magic populated by creatures of the night. Dark
Redemption is a shared-world novel based on an online role-playing game by
James Crowther.
Cassandra True has followed
her roommate Cecily to the Cyba-Netsu, a local club frequented by vampires and
other exotic people. She has learned
that Cecily has been seeing a vampire there, and Cassandra hopes to save her. Miss Kurayami has warned Cassandra not to
interfere with her friend’s love life, and so Cassandra decides on another
course of action.
“Oh,
my god.”
“What
is it?” Philippe looked around the club
floor.
Cecily
crouched down, trying to hide behind the screen on her table’s laptop. “It’s my roommate, Cassandra,” she
whispered. What was she doing here?
She
saw Cassandra come out of Kurayami’s office and look around the dance
floor. Cecily tried to sink lower in her
seat, but it was too late; Cassandra’s gaze met hers and she strode
purposefully towards their table.
“Hullo,
Cecily!” Cassandra said cheerily. “I was
hoping I’d find you here! This must be
Philippe.”
Philippe
rose and gave Cassandra a half-bow.
“Your servant. And you must be
Cecily’s friend, Cassandra,” he said in the suave, Continental tone that made
Cecily melt inside when he directed it at her, but made her feel quite
differently when spoken to her roommate.
“What
are you doing here, Sandy?” Cecily said through gritted teeth.
“I
decided you were right. It’s not fair
for me to judge your friend before I’ve even met him. So, if it’s all right with you, I thought I
might join you.” Cassandra grabbed a
chair from a nearby table and sat down between Cecily and Philippe.
It
was not all right with Cecily, but Philippe said, “We’d be delighted and sat
back down.
“Then
we’ll make it a three-way.” Cassandra
giggled. “I mean, a threesome.”
Cecily
frowned. That remark was so unlike
Sandy. “Have you been drinking?’
“I
have not,” Cassandra insisted. “Just one
Nuzzy Fable. Fipple. One Fuzzy Navel.” Cassandra giggled again. Yes, Cecily was sure now; Cassandra was
pretending to be drunk. Now she was
unbuttoning the collar of her blouse, that silly high-collared thing that she
thought made her look professional but really made her look more virginal than
usual. “Whew! It’s so warm in here!”
Good
grief, how unsubtle could she get? But
Philippe seemed to be eating it up. “Another
Fuzzy Navel for this lady here,” he told a passing waiter.
Philippe
couldn’t keep his eyes off Cassandra’s cleavage. No, not her cleavage, that peculiar amulet
she was wearing. Where did she get
it? Cecily didn’t remember seeing it
before.
Then
Philippe turned his attention to Cecily again and in an instant all her
jealousy evaporated. Of course he loved
her. How could she think otherwise? She relaxed a bit. But then his gaze returned to Cassandra.
“So
I understand you’re a vampire,” Sandy was saying. “Tell me a bit more about it. I expect most of what I know is wrong.”
“Well,
to begin with, we dislike the term ‘Vampires.’
It has such a superstitious connotation.
We prefer to call ourselves The Kindred.”
“That
is so fascinating!”
Cecily
scowled at that. Cassandra wouldn’t find it fascinating; she would find it
pretentious. She’d figured out Sandy’s
game now; she was trying to break the two of them up. Well, it wouldn’t
work. But why didn’t Philippe see that? And why he focusing on that amulet and why
did he seem so tense?
“What
an interesting charm you’re wearing,” Philippe said at last.
“Oh,
this?” Cassandra seemed to notice what
he was staring at for the first time. “A
friend gave this to me. For protection,
she said. But we’re all friends here,
right? I’m sure I don’t need it.” She unfastened the amulet and set it down on
the table. Philippe seemed to relax.
They
chatted some more and Cassandra slipped deeper and deeper into her Fuzzy
Navel. Cecily was still sure she was
only pretending to be tipsy.
“Would
you excuse me?” Cassandra said suddenly.
“I have to visit the Little Girl’s Room.
I always get turned around in this place; where is it?” She stood up abruptly and teetered a little.
Philippe
rose immediately and steadied her elbow.
“I was on my way there myself.
Let me show you.”
His
offer was like cold water in Cecily’s face.
He was going to bite Cassandra.
She knew it. How could he do
that? Cecily wanted him to bite
her. She was expecting it. She was waiting for it. And now he would be drinking from Sandy, his
lips at Sandy’s throat. It wasn’t right!
Cecily
was about to say something, when Cassandra scooped up the amulet from the table
and placed it in her palm. “Take care of
this,” Cassandra said softly, her voice suddenly sober. “Keep it safe. Please.”
She closed Cecily’s hands over the charm; then she lurched towards the
lavatories.
Philippe
came close after her, but first also paused by Cecily and brought his lips
close to her neck. “I won’t be
long.” His breath was cool and sweet on
her flesh. “I haven’t forgotten you
darling.” Again, all her suspicion and
mistrust ebbed from her, replaced by a sense of blissful anticipation. How could she doubt him?
He
gave Cecily’s hand a pat. “And dispose
of that, will you?”
The
chill returned. Cecily watched Philippe
escort Cassandra towards the back of the club.
Then she opened her hand and looked at the amulet. Sandy told her to keep it safe. Obviously, it was a charm to protect her from
vampires. And Philippe had told her to
throw it away. Cassandra was trying to
play some sort of game here. But she had
also trusted Cecily.
She
did not throw it away. Instead, Cecily
fastened the amulet around her own neck.
Immediately,
a strange clarity seemed to come over her. She still loved Philippe, and
desired his touch on her throat; but for the first time she realized that his
regard for her was purely nutritional.
He was going to enthrall Cassandra; and then he was going to take both
of the back to his flat and feed on them both.. And she wouldn’t even be
sharing him with Cassandra, because he belonged to neither of them; they
belonged to him. And despite how wrong
she felt this to be, Cecily knew she would welcome it, and he would make love
to them, and he would offer Sandy some Essence…
No. She couldn’t let Cassandra do this. She rushed to the back of the club to the
alcove in front of the lavatories.
Cassandra was backed up against the wall, with Philippe standing over
her cooing tender blandishments and drawing closer to her carotid artery.. In Cassandra’s face Cecily saw the same
mixture of dread and desire that had paralyzed her so often.
“Sandy? I was thinking,” Cecily said, and the
Vampire’s spell was broken. “Neither one
of us got much sleep last night. Maybe
it would be a good idea to call it a night.”
Cassandra
blinked, as if confused. Then slid away
from Philippe to Cecily’s side.
“I
could call you a cab,” Philippe offered.
“That’s
okay. We’ll manage. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Cecily put her arm around Cassandra and
escorted her out of the club.
“Thanks,”
Cassandra said. “I thought I could hold
out against him. It was harder than I thought. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize how it was.”
“It’s
okay,” Cecily said. “We’ll get you home.” Already she was beginning to regret leaving
Philippe. She had so looked forward to
later. Still, there would be tomorrow
night; and she did have a responsibility to Sandy.
“Funny,” Cassandra said as they walked out into the
evening drizzle. “I thought I was coming
to the club to rescue you.”
“Don’t
sweat it,” Cecily said.
A taxi
cab pulled up alongside the sidewalk by them, and a big black cabbie rolled
down the window.
“Tobias!” Cassandra said.
“Grams
told me you might need a lift about now,” the cabbie said.
This
made no sense to Cecily, but it seemed to make sense to Cassandra. In any case, she was glad to get out of the
rain.
