Sacrum - 9. Chapter 9: Betrayal

When I decided to send a letter to Eric Van Sant, I was hoping for a swift reply. Unfortunately, as weeks went by and there was no letter or phone call, I began to lose all hope that any assistance from my mentor’s friend was on the way. Maybe the scientist had changed his address. Or worse, he read my letter and completely disregarded my plea for help. How was I going to get through this alone, without any guidance? And with Vincent being true to his word, I barely saw him for the remainder of November, and every time I did and asked where he went, I received a vague answer. At least Maratoni wasn’t giving me much hell. For the most part, he was busy avoiding me, only giving me meaningless worksheets to fill out during our private meetings. That, of course, still left me with the dilemma of not knowing what to do to make any progress with my gift. But I decided not to worry about it until the upcoming Christmas break was over. A plan Laura didn’t exactly support.

“You can’t afford to waste time, Dani,” and Angelo nodded his head.

“Well, what exactly do you expect me to do?” I answered immediately, trying to hide my annoyance.

“What if…and I know this is going to sound unorthodox, but this isn’t exactly an easy situation to navigate, and I think it might be okay to push some boundaries in light of the fact that Maratoni is an ass and that something fishy seems to be going out between the government and Trusting and this whole freaking program. What if you try to practice with me and Angelo?” I frowned. What Laura was proposing went directly against what I’d been taught all these years. As a Special, I wasn’t allowed to share any relevant information about my power with anyone else. But…Laura was right. It’s not like these were normal circumstances. And if nobody was willing to teach me, would it really hurt to get some help from the only people in my life who I trusted at the moment?

“You guys know I hate breaking the rules. But I think Laura is onto something,” Angelo admitted. “The State expects you to be ready when you graduate, but how can you when Maratoni is too busy hoping you’ll fail? Who knows what they’ll do to you if you don’t catch up,” he said but Laura’s swift glare made him shut up.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine, Dani, but just to be safe, why don’t we at least try to practice,” she said. I nodded.

“I’m just not sure how,” I admitted.

“We’ll figure all that out. We just need a private place where school officials won’t catch us,” she said.

“The janitor’s closet?” Angelo proposed.

“No, I have a better idea,” I replied, knowing of just the right place. “I will take you guys tomorrow, after class.” They nodded and after we finished drinking our daily blood juices, we parted ways. I opened up my books and tried to finish up my homework and not think about Vincent or the mounting pressure I felt as the days went by and I continued to fall behind. Little did I know, the next day would bring even worse news.

Right after Vampire History, Angelo let me know that Boeriella Trusting had asked to see me in her office. He said she didn’t specify why. A hundred thoughts ran through my head, each one worse than the other. I hurried until I reached the large door. I decided to knock and wait for an answer this time around.

“Come in,” I heard the pleasant voice on the other side of the door say. She was wearing a sparkling baby blue pantsuit and looked as beautiful as ever. Her blonde hair was up in a classy bun.

“Dani, have a seat,” she said sweetly. There was no trace of the panic I heard in her voice during our last conversation. She was cool, calm, and collected now. I sat across from her, anxiously waiting to hear what she brought me in for.

“You’re like a regular in here now, huh?” she chuckled. I smiled politely. “Well, you’re probably wondering why I wanted to see you,” she said, and I nodded. “It’s about the Specials program. As you may or may not know, you’ll be staying here during Christmas holidays, while the other kids go home. And I’m happy to inform you that Baritone High School will be hosting the Specials Summit,” she said and smiled with glee, looking for my reaction.

“The what?” I asked, confused. Once again, I was out of the loop.

“The Specials Summit,” she repeated, but realizing there was no sign of ‘aha!’ on my face, she went on to explain, “You are going to meet all the other Specials and the State is going to evaluate your powers and check on your progress to ensure you’re ready for your duty when the time comes,” she explained, and my insides dropped. This was my worst fear coming true. What exactly was I going to show them? Trusting went on, “Now, Professor Maratoni will be out of town until the Summit, so you will have to just keep up with your reading,” she added, taking my situation from simply bad to beyond horrible.

“Out of town? Where is he going?”

“What Professor Maratoni does is not for us to know, Dani. But believe me, he will be here to support you during the Summit,” she explained, as if that was supposed to help me. I sat there speechless. What if Angelo was right? What is the State would just decide to…get rid of me if they realized I didn’t know how to use my power? The thoughts swirled in my head, making me feel sick with worry.

“Now, there is another matter, Dani.” I stifled the urge to groan. What other wonderful news could she possibly have for me. “We have been informed that you reached out to a Mr. Van Sant, is that correct?” she asked. Suddenly, I felt uneasy. Why was the school monitoring my correspondence?

“That’s right,” I replied.

“Is there a particular reason why you need to speak with him?” she inquired.

“He’s an old friend of Vinicius. I just wanted to talk to someone from my past. I don’t have a lot of friends here,” I explained.

“Naturally. Well, he’s written back to you. Here’s the letter,” she said, handing me an envelope that had very clearly been opened. “For security reasons,” she answered my silent question. “We will be happy to accommodate him on his visit here, of course,” she added.

“Thank you,” I replied, not feeling very thankful. I was tired of having zero privacy and the school making constant demands of me. I took the letter, said goodbye to Trusting, and hurried to my room where I slammed the door shut and ripped the envelope open.

The handwriting was neat and the letter was short.

“Dear Dani,

Of course I remember you. You’re the Golden Child, after all.

I will be in town shortly and look forward to seeing you once again, my dear one.

Warmest Regards,

Eric”

I smiled at the note as memories flooded my mind. Vinicius was the only one who ever called me a golden child, due to my curly blonde hair. Suddenly, there was light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe Eric Van Sant could help me. Maybe—and I knew this was a stretch, but I had to hope—he could become my new mentor. After all, he had been close to Vinicius. He’d know much better than Maratoni what my mentor would have wanted me to learn. Maybe he could help me get through the dreaded Specials Summit—that is, if he got here on time.

I opened my door with the intention of going to find Laura and Angelo, and filling them in on what I just learned, but as I looked to my left, I saw two figures turn the corner and disappear into the nurse’s office. It was Vincent and my mentor, Sebastiano Maratoni.

Something didn’t feel right. What were the two of them doing together? I had to find out. I quickly ran over to the storage closet and made the climb up to the crawl space that sat above the nurse’s office. Vincent and Maratoni were in the middle of a heated conversation. I leaned down, trying to discern what they were saying.

“What exactly possessed you to bring Lawrence Ekhart to the school?” Vincent asked, his voice stern, as if he wasn’t speaking with a teacher.

“Let’s just say I needed his assistance with something,” Maratoni replied, sounding frustrated. “It’s done now. I know what I need to do, and how to do it. She’ll be home soon, Vincenzo.”

“Good. And the others?” Vincent asked.

“The others too. Everything is in place. As long as there’s no outside interference, of course.”

“There won’t be. They’ll be too busy with the Specials Summit, it’s the perfect time,” Vincent said.

“Hopefully. You know Deadnus has a hard on for you.”

“She won’t miss the Summit. It’s her chance to look at all her secret weapons and gloat. She wouldn’t give that up, not even for me,” Vincent mused. “Have you spoken to Altieri?” Vincent asked, and the name rang a bell. He was the mentor from Austria.

“Yes, all is well,” Maratoni replied, cryptically. Vincent nodded.

“What about the other two?”

“We can’t take the risk. They were too close to Vinicius.”

“Then all the more reason for them to say yes. Tell them what happened.”

“We don’t have the proof, yet. I can’t give them wild hypotheses. And even if we did, it would still go against everything Vinicius stood for. Everything the Specials program was created for. We’ll have to do without them,” he said, then added, “Then there’s the case of the blonde protégé. Thankfully, there’s not much to worry about where he’s concerned,” he said, and I felt a fury within me. How dare he talk about me in that way? I felt stupid for having trusted Vincent. How could he be involved with someone like Maratoni? It made me sick.

“Leave Dani to me. There is more to the bigger picture than what we can see right now, of that I’m sure. Vinicius was always ten steps ahead.” My anger boiled over and I accidentally hit the metal pipe next to me with my elbow. Thankfully it wasn’t loud, but Vincent’s alert eyes shot up right away. I sat still, hoping he didn’t see me.

Suddenly the door to the office opened, and the same busty woman I had seen Maratoni feed on before entered the room.

“Oh, do I have the pleasure of two mouths to feed today?” she asked seductively, her voice dripping with excitement. Maratoni looked over at Vincent, as if giving him the choice. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. But Vincent grabbed his phone and walked towards the door.

“You two enjoy yourselves,” he said, and in an instant, he was gone.

This time as Maratoni feasted on his large breasted meal, he also put a hand between her legs, making her moan in pleasure, and making me sick with a sudden and unexpected wave on nausea.

I walked away as quietly as I could. I was feeling incredibly peculiar and sick, which made no sense because for obvious reasons, vampires never got sick. I barely made it down the ladder, when I realized that Vincent was already in the closet, waiting for me.

“How much did you hear?” he asked. The tiny storage room and what I just witnessed Maratoni do, plus the entire conversation, was making my head spin.

“Enough to know that you’re no friend of mine,” I replied bitterly, pushing his hand away from me.

“Dani, it’s not what it sounded like,” he tried to explain, but I didn’t want to hear.

“You’re unbelievable! I gave you a chance, even though Trusting warned me. Clearly, she was right.” I felt hurt and embarrassed. Vincent looked upset by my statement.

“There are still a lot of things you don’t understand, Dani,” he tried again, his patronizing tone of voice making me even sicker.

“Don’t talk to me like I’m a child, Vincent. Or Vincenzo, or Salvatore, whatever the fuck your actual name is. Whatever you guys are doing or planning, I have a feeling it’s exactly the kind of thing I was created to prevent. I thought I could trust you!” My anger kept growing, and I felt my whole body become hot, suddenly.

“Dani, you have to calm down,” Vincent stated, he looked worried.

“How can I be calm after what I just heard?” I asked, “How could you betray me?”

“I would never betray you,” he said right away, and I couldn’t understand how he could manage to sound so sincere, when it was obvious that that’s exactly what he was doing from his conversation with Maratoni. “I brought you to this place first, remember? I gave you the Specials manual. Why would I do that, if I wasn’t on your side?” he asked. “If you just give me some time, I promise, I’ll tell you everything there is to know.”

My head continued to spin faster and faster. And my body felt peculiar all over. Instead of replying to Vincent, I suddenly bent over and threw up blood all over the floor and his shoes. I wiped my mouth and looked up. From the startled look in his eyes, I could tell that for the first time ever, Vincent was just as clueless as me about what happened.