The Wiccan Diaries: Neophyte Adept Part 3

"So my hat it pointed, and your teeth are. So what? Witches are in covens the same as vampires. You've been at this longer. I told you. I know the sum of squat. I want more. I'll take answers first."

"And after that?" he said.

"I don't know. We'll see," I said.

"Fair enough. Vampires' senses are heightened: this means hearing and sight. Touch and taste, however, are relative to the raw material. Some blood is better than others," he said, when he saw the question forming on my lips. "Just as some vampires' connoisseurs.h.i.+pwell, let us say, they think they know what is for the best."

"Paris. The Lenoir, you mean."

"They rule the Immortals. But their reach is greater, more powerful. And it is growing. But enough of that. You wanted to know how" he motioned to the garden; its reach extended to Lennox. I suddenly became aware that I was sitting in light; he was not.

"Dallaceand I, and Camillebut Dallacehe must've been a wallflower, when he was a mortal. I would have loved to have known him, then. What is the more romantic version? That he heard the rhythms of your heart, or that he was listening to them in the first place? He pays attention, Dallace. Dots the i's, crosses the t's."

"So when you said he was perceptive..."

"It isn't really a Power, it's just him; which is one of the reasons why we're here..."

"But why are we here?" I asked. "Not that I want to leave; just the opposite, in fact. I would love to explore. To see Venice."

"So you shall. If things hold." He looked at me. "I am afraid that I must go," he said.

"What? Now?" I said.

"Soon. Days. I needed to know that you would be in good hands. Camille and Dallace will pro They'll make sure nothing happens to you... while I am away."

The visions. My dreams. Had Lennox just admitted that he knew something was after me? Was that why he was standing out on that finger of rock? And was he still, in a sense, on duty? Was Lennox... protecting me?

"I thought you didn't need to do that anymore. I thought nothing was after me," I said. "Well, besides Marek. But he's not coming back again, is he?"

"Would you want him to?" he asked.

Lennox produced an envelope. It was made of thick cream parchment, and had a wax seal. "It's unopened," I noticed aloud.

"It's addressed to you," he said.

Dallace and Camille returned. They had been up all nightall of them. I had been left out. "Good morning, Halsey Rookmaaker," said Dallace. Camille smiled at me; it was only polite.

Chapter 3 Lost Cause.

Dear Diary, Do I retreat within myself? And make of things more than they are? Don't answer that.

I have just spent the day with all of them; we didn't go anywhere. I got the impression that they're all kind of aimless. I don't mean that in a bad way. Even Lennox is p.r.o.ne to staring at walls.

I suspect it has something to do with having a lot of time. Anyway, they're out now. They take s.h.i.+fts guarding me. Camille is off hunting. The other two are wandering around somewhere downstairs.

I spent some more time alone with Camille today. She told me about Hunters.

"Vampire Hunters," she said; somewhere in Prague or something. If they're not here, now, I don't really think about them. It came out during a conversation about something or other. "The young are vulnerable to hunters," she said. "Another reason we're so communal. It's for protection." She stared at me with her big eyes.

I think I'm getting paranoid. n.o.body's telling me anything. Scratch that. Just that I'm safe and not to worry. But that's not really true, is it? I'm not really safe. If I have three vampire protectors, but things can kill vampires...

Do my protectors need protecting?

Lennox is always whispering, and when I ask him about it, he just smiles, and says not to worry.

I got a letter today. There were actually four of them that were delivered. And that's another thing, it must've been by hand, because there's no stamp; probably while I was sleeping. An invitation, Diary, to something called a Gathering, or the Gathering, I'm not sure.

I won't transcribe it; it just said I was summoned. 'You are hereby summoned.' Which struck me as odd. There's a difference between a summons and an invite. A summons is a command, which means that I was born into something, or that I signed up.

I don't recall having done either.

It was sent by the Lenoir.

I paused to think about that.

The Lenoir. I have heard it p.r.o.nounced both ways. Like the American jaguar, and the very French Len-wa. I favor the latter. They are, after all, from Paris.

Vampires have a saying. That all vampires are from Paris. It is the simultaneous audacity, and clannishness of the Paris Coven, that I hate. Lennox is of course encouraging me not to think of them in those terms. But I choose how and what I think, and the process by which I do it.

I feel claustrophobic, Diary. I miss Rome. But if this summons is truly a command, I won't be missing it much longer. The Gathering takes place in Rome; or on the outskirts, at any rate. There are a series of tunnels. I guess I'll see it when I see it.

It sounds like Jubilee. The Romans have this thing, Jubilee, where every twenty-five years they get together and celebrate, I would guess to punctuate generational milestones, almost. More significant than the Olympics, or any other event that takes place every four years. This takes place every twenty-five.

Well, so does the Gathering.

It said that I would be 'tested', the summons.... DiaryI don't know what's going on, but I don't like it. We're going out. They're calling me.

I put my book away; it was black-bound and could hold my angst. In Venice, there is the idea of the citta salotto. The city as salon. As gathering place. Innumerable small islands, in a sense, interconnected. With all the doors thrown wide open. Inviting waterside cafes... etc., etc.

They were waiting for me at the foot of the stairs. Camille wore an embroidered black dress, with a silver choker; her eyes peeked through two curtains of s.h.i.+ny dark hairthat same lick of red, that was the color of blood.

She smiled at me, genuinely this time.

Dallace marveled at my appearance. "I didn't know your size," he said. He and Camille had supplied me with a small wardrobe, while I was here.

I had on a pretty silk dress and heels. Lennox took my hand. "Shall we?" he said.

I nodded, anxious to see the city. We were going out!

I had never experienced anything like it; but then again, what other city in the world was quite like this one? We left the dark chambers and entered the Grand Ca.n.a.l, Venice's chief waterway. Where we were headed was Riva del Vina kind of Main Street.

Camille and I sat in the back of the boat together, the Bellezza Immortale, Dallace throttled along slowly; we were in traffic on the waterway, it was amazing.

Water taxis went to and fro; there were suitcase boats, loaded with luggage. The Ca.n.a.l is only about two-and-a-half miles long. The water lapped mildly around us.

And of course there were the gondolas. Tall Italian men stood in them and rowed pa.s.sengers along. Everything felt safe. It was a cool September night, and the light on the water danced in my eyes. I inhaled the smellsthe water, the food. Lennox had neglected to mention vampire smelling. They must, mustn't they? I had remembered him sniffing my hair.

Camille took my hand and held it with both of hers. I looked but she was staring off in her own little world. My stomach rumbled.

"How do you like the city?" she asked, smiling, and turning her bulbous blue eyes, to look into my own. She didn't often blink. I had the impression that she didn't need to.

"It's wonderful. But I would be afraid of getting lost here," I said.

"What do you mean?"

I thought a moment. "Well... it's self-sufficient; it's been around forever, and it certainly doesn't need me. Venice is almost a trap."

The bells in her voice chimed. "Exactly how I feel," she said. "You know it's disappearing, don't you? Every year it gets closer and closer."

So I had heard.

"Venice is like Atlantis," she said. "One day it will be a myth. People will be sure that it never existed. The earth is swallowing it up. Wonderful what mortals will do, isn't it? They're so afraid to let things die, they will try and save a lost cause. This is the point. That this world, our world, is stuck in the past, nothing can prevent its slow decay. One day, it will cease to exist, as will we."

I think I said something about drinking blood and not to talk that way anymore.

"You are young. You still have your pa.s.sion," she said. "I will say no more."

"But I want you to go on. I want to know more, particularly about your past," I said. "Who made you? And how long have you been?"

Her liquid emotionless eyes cared for nothing. I could see her death, written dismissively in them.

"Such secrets are not for mortals. I only wish to offer a warning. Be not too hasty to enter our world. For I am death, I am the dead."

"I don't care," I said. "There's nothing for me here, or anywhereexcept Lennox."

"But you said it yourself. This place, Halsey Rookmaaker, us, we are a dead end; we are nothing, we had our time; while you, you are just starting. Your life is like a wheeling star, spinning recklessly; it could shoot," said Camille.

"The only question is why you are in such a hurry to give it all up. To let life go," I said.

"But I am not alive," she said.

I wanted to shake her. The boat was pulling into the dock. "All I'm saying," she said, "is that the trajectory of your life is in your own hands. Right now you could be anything. But that window won't stay open forever. Oh! Look! I just love water lillies."

I went to dinner with Lennox at a small cafe, sniffing at the scents of rosemary and juniper, with the Rialto Bridge in the background. He ordered the wine and whatnot. I had a nice dish of caper berries and marinated white anchovies, he a.s.sured me was delicious. How would he know?

His whatnot disappeared mysteriously, as I dug into the main course. Sarde in Saor. It sounded worse than it was. Fried sardines.

I was somewhat irked with the conversation I had had. Something of it played in my face.

"What is it?" he said, being all charming and stuff. Dallace and Camille had gone window shopping. They were like two old lovers surprised by everything. It gave me something to consider, actually.

I deigned to answer. "Vampires being all self-a.n.a.lytical and pseudo-deep: I get it you live forever boohoo."

"What?" He laughed.

I told him about Camille.

"She's like that," he said.

I rolled a marinated pine nut in my mouth. "If you want to be with me, be with me. Come on, Lennox, love. We spend half our time not talking to one another."

He blushed without blus.h.i.+ng.

"See? If you can hear when I wake, I can at least hear when the three of you whisper. I think I listened to your conversation all night. I had funny dreams. Not the bad ones," I said. "Just sounds, shapes, mostly. And Camille. She called you Lennox, love."

"Lennoxlove. One word. And stop that."

I stared at him. And ate another fish. "This isn't good," I said. "The fish is excellent. But my not knowing your name." I dropped my fork. "We're supposed to be going out... dating... I don't even know your name. It's not good, Lennox, love."

"Stop saying that."

"But, Lennoxlove..."

"I didn't bring you here to fight," he said.

"No. Just to ditch me," I said. The wine was excellent, the food was excellent. Everything was excellent, just not us.

"No offense to your familythey're actually quite nice, and under different circ.u.mstances, I would love to get to know them," I said. "All right, Camille's a little weird, and Dallace has been alone too long, but when you go, I go. We can either go together, and face whatever's coming for usyou with the Agonies, and me whateveralthough, if you ask me, what you're going through sounds like it doesn't existI'm not undervaluing it. I just don't understand why you would let something else control you. You are who you wish to be, which has always been my personal philosophy, come what may. It sounds like a load of hok.u.m, is all. But if I'm not invited, sobeit, you're going to have to come find me in Rome'cause that's my home. Otherwise, we need to just break up."

I left off and ate a sardine. Little did I know that he would actually take me seriously.

We walked that night through the sestiere of San Marco, in the only true piazza in Venice, where I saw a strange clock tower and a mechanism of blue and gold. The sun was the hand of time.

I realized it was the zodiac and the phases of the moon. Two huge bronze statues stood above us; they moved suddenly and struck the bell. Dallace explained them. The clock boomed.

"They are the Mori," he said. "Italian not Latin. They are the Moors. If it were Latin, they would mean death. They guard the clock."

It unsettled me for a second, watching the clock. Not least because it looked like the Wiccan symbol for the Three Protectors, otherwise known as the Triple G.o.ddess.

Infester had explained it to me. The Triple G.o.ddess told the story of the Three Protectors. One, who was steadfast, never moved; that was the circle. The others, the crescents, could only be there some of the time. But Infester had an ingenious theory. It wasn't because their interest in her had waned. Quite the contrary! It was because they were vampires. They could only protect me some of the time. And I, I As I looked at it, the full moon was like the sun, chasing away the crescent moonswhich were represented in the moon phases of the clock.

As soon as I returned to Rome I was adamant about finding magic; I knew who needed to help me. There was also a Fourth Protector.