by L E Royal
With it done she looked down at me, studying me with love and marveling I could feel as much as see.
I flushed, shy in the face of what had just happened.
She laughed a soft breathy laugh, and leaned down. It surprised me when instead of kissing me, the tip of her tongue slicked around my mouth.
“You are beautiful with blood on your lips.”
The words were reverent, and I knew they would stay with me. Apparently content with her cleanup, she rubbed her cheek against mine. I pulled her down onto me. The two-way sharing only seemed to have enhanced the affection and contentment she always displayed after drinking.
“I love you.”
I twisted my fingers in her hair and tried not to think about the future, about anything outside of right now.
She didn’t reply aloud, but I felt the response inside my chest.
You’re mine.
“I’m yours.”
WHEN I WOKE, the sun was dying outside the windows, brilliant reds and gold behind the wall at the edge of the city. I was still naked, the thrum of Scarlett’s blood potent in my veins. Though our connection was quiet, I tasted the darkness she was slipping into.
Pushed up on the pillows, I watched her finishing her makeup in the mirror. Smoky eye shadow, thick black lashes, blood-red lips to match her nails—this was her battle armor, as beautiful as it was deadly.
“Do you have to go?”
When she turned, the eyes of a killer looked back at me, cool and hard before they softened into the woman I recognized.
“You know I do.”
The last dregs of her contentment, her softness at our earlier encounter rescinded, leaving behind a nothingness I knew she’d put between us to hide the dark.
She turned back to the mirror to fix her hair from loose waves into soft curls, and I wondered why she went to all the effort.
This had become our routine: long days spent together, and longer nights apart, me sleeping in her bed while she disappeared into the city. She rarely spoke about where she had been. Every day she slipped under the sheets with me at five in the morning, hair still wet from the shower, small in an oversized T-shirt and nothing else, and I knew she’d been at the Punishment Center.
A form-fitting black dress peeked out from beneath her leather jacket, the presence of which told me she would be leaving soon. I rolled out of bed and wrapped my hair into a messy braid, and then tugged on some leggings and a large black sweater belonging to Scarlett.
“I was thinking of making a pie…”
It was a weak play, and I knew she would see right through the offer.
I ached to be able to accept where she went at night, to end the distance my feelings about it put between us. As much as I loved her, knowing she went off to effectively torture people was hard to bear.
“Save me some.”
Her answer was cool and clipped and it spoke volumes about her headspace.
Defeated, I trailed after her as she opened the bedroom door. Her killer heels swung from her fingers as she started down the hall.
She paused so abruptly that I ran into her, my shoulder colliding with her upper arm, though she didn’t seem to notice. Her biceps was like a rock under my hand as I gripped it to steady myself. Leaning forward to peer into the open door of Jade’s room, I tried to see what had caught her attention.
Camilla was over. I hadn’t realized, and apparently neither had Scarlett. Jade and Camilla reclined on her bed, the TV playing a movie I didn’t recognize. Its blue glow illuminated their bodies pressed close together.
I thought it was sweet, if a little creepy. I cringed internally at the memory that Scarlett and Camilla had previously been…involved. Camilla was drop-dead gorgeous, even by vampire standards, and she and Jade had been growing noticeably closer since the untimely death of Jade’s previous almost-girlfriend.
The corny horror music on the TV continued to rise in a crescendo. Jade reached out and wrapped her long fingers around Camilla’s on the comforter.
White-hot anger shot through my chest and I’d taken half a step forward, ready to rip their hands apart, before I stopped myself.
Scarlett’s eyes were murderous. I tried to force a feeling of calm down our connection to extinguish some of her apparent anger at the situation.
“Cami…”
The vampires on the bed jumped again. I laughed silently as Camilla whipped her hand away.
“Scarlett, come to join us?”
I knew the playfulness in her tone was supposed to hide her true feelings. I didn’t understand why they were acting like teenagers who’d been caught in the act. Whatever was happening between them was admittedly kind of odd, but walking on eggshells around Scarlett just made it even weirder.
“No. I’m going to work.” Her voice was devoid of emotion, and for a long moment the four of us all held our breath. A storm was brewing, twisting and turning and broiling inside Scarlett, and feeling its perimeter from the outside, I loathed to be there when, finally, it was unleashed.
“Rayne’s making pie.”
I silently damned her to another death, not in the mood to pull out all the ingredients and go through the motions. I’d only offered the distraction in the hopes of persuading her to stay home, though I was glad for a break in the tension. I made a note to ask her later what had gotten her so upset about Cami and Jade dating.
“I love pie!”
Jade’s eyes were like saucers and I rolled mine. I was definitely making pie now.
“Rayne’s pie—vampire crack. Who knew?”
They laughed. Scarlett dropped a soft kiss against the side of my neck and bent to put on her heels before she was gone in a blink, the ding of the elevator ringing her out.
The loose hair around my face had just settled when Cami paused the movie.
“Do you want to join us?”
It was an olive branch, but with Scarlett gone and having napped too long during the afternoon, I was restless.
“I think I’m actually just going to start the pie.”
“We’ll help.” Jade popped up off the bed and I was once again grateful to her. I loved her like a sister, part of the emotion mine and part of it Scarlett’s, though it didn’t matter. She was the one to bring me to Vires and the only one to accept me and understand my relationship with Scarlett and the struggles it brought, no matter what.
Cami seemed less enthusiastic but followed anyway. Though it stung, I knew her disapproval of my relationship with Scarlett came from worry over what it could cost her if we were exposed. Now I was, for all intents and purposes, scheduled to become a vampire. I wondered if that was the reason for her slightly improved attitude of late.
“Peach pie?” Camilla asked.
Although the dessert had been a big hit in the past, it wasn’t what I wanted to bake tonight.
“Blackberry… It’s Scarlett’s favorite.” Jade replied for me, as she gave me a sympathetic smile and hooked her arm through mine.
I let myself be towed along toward the kitchen.
Chapter Two
SCARLETT HAD BEEN in a better mood all day. I tried not to think what she might have done the previous night to inspire it, and just enjoy it for the gift it was. For once the hybrid issue, the Government order, felt far away, and after a day of eating too much pie and enjoying a side of Scarlett so seldom seen, I pushed my luck and asked her to take me outside.
By a miracle or something else it worked. We descended the tower via the sleek elevator. The guards at the front desk opened the doors for us as we stepped out onto the sidewalk.
The sun was almost completely set. I marveled at the pretty glow it cast on the city. As much as I had wanted to get out, I was suddenly nervous to be immersed in the culture of Vires again.
“You remember the rules?”
Scarlett’s voice was soft, low enough that I had to walk faster to stay close enough to hear her. I felt plain in my jeans and button-up next to the customary skintight dress she had ins
isted on if we were going outside.
The question caught me off guard.
“Do we still have to? I mean… Can’t we be normal seems…”
I was loath to say the word “hybrid” aloud, loath to ruin this rare outing before it had begun.
She shook her head but offered no more explanation. Trying not to let the news deflate me, I nodded my understanding, trusting for now that she knew best, though I planned to ask her reasoning once we got home.
We walked in easy silence between the ominously large skyscrapers housing the Delta families. I looked beyond them to the smaller non-Delta towers, trying to force my eyes not to linger on Chase Tower, which had been my home for my first few weeks in the city.
Beyond the smaller towers I could make out the scattered roofs of buildings in the Midlands, home to the more middle-class vampires. I tried not to think of the Fringe, which lay just past them, inhabited by the humans. Most of them were born here, a life of servitude and being preyed on by the vampires all they had ever known.
Scarlett glanced sideways at me, and I guessed some of my mood had leaked through to her.
“Isn’t this what you wanted?”
I nodded enthusiastically before she could change her mind and decide it was safer for us to go back home.
“Yes…Mistress.”
The word was foreign on my tongue, but not as unpleasant as it had once been, now I was certain of our relationship beneath it.
Mirth danced in her eyes and I fought the urge to roll mine. Following her as she rounded a corner, the sight of the little market greeted me. It struck me as strange to find the stalls still inhabited. As I studied the clientele frequenting them, their late hours made more sense.
We were browsing one of the closest booths filled with clothes—decadent dresses and fancy pant suits—and for a moment it was nice, easy to forget where we were and all that hung over us.
A pretty, blue sundress caught my eye, plain in comparison to the fancy satin and sheer cuts around it. It was something I might have worn at home, if I’d had anywhere to go other than school.
Scarlett must have followed my line of sight, as she requested—more like demanded—to look at it further.
The younger of the two girls at the stall stuttered a reply, looking as if she was about to burst into tears as she handed over the dress. If Scarlett noticed, she didn’t care, busy holding the garment against my body, studying me and it, before she met my eyes and I felt her question. I liked it, the material was soft where it brushed my fingers, but I was embarrassed to have her buy it for me.
“We’ll take it. Put it on my account.”
The girl took the dress back, folded it and recorded the sale, while Scarlett and I shared a smile that made me warm down to my toes. She was breathtaking. In any other world I would have leaned up to kiss her in thanks, but here I just smiled and hoped she knew.
“Oh, so it’s true then, Scarlett, you got yourself a hybrid?”
A hand reached out to touch me before I saw who it belonged to. Scarlett swatted it away before it could ever make contact, and on instinct, I stepped closer to her.
“Hello, Luke.”
The man looked to be in his early thirties, a little older than Scarlett appeared. His eyes swirled as he studied me. My stomach dropped.
“Looks human… Smells human.”
Scarlett cut him off, inserting herself between us, and forcing him to take a step back. His voice was familiar in a way that unsettled me, though even after racking my brain, I couldn’t place why.
“Is there something you need, or are you just trying to get in my way?”
He smiled up at her with poorly hidden contempt.
“My apologies, just a lowly Midlander trying to catch up on the latest and greatest in our great city… Heard all about your new pet hybrid, of course. Everyone has, and how you killed Evan Chase too.”
I felt Scarlett’s annoyance as he fished for information. The intensity with which he switched between watching her and then studying me sent something cold twisting uneasily into my stomach.
“Sounds like you’re all caught up already.”
Scarlett turned back to the stall, where the girl was still fumbling with the dress and a bag. She leaned across the table to snatch both and pushed the material inside the plastic without issue before taking hold of the back of my neck. She guided me away without another word to the man, but I still felt his eyes on us as we stopped a few stalls away.
Her thumb smoothed across the fine hairs at the nape of my neck, soothing, though I struggled to reclaim the sense of peace I’d enjoyed most of the day.
Now my focus had been pulled off Scarlett, off the market itself and onto the people inhabiting it, I was aware many were watching me—humans and vampires alike.
I noticed the humans were unkempt, cheeks smudged with dirt, the beige slacks and T-shirts most of them wore setting them apart easily. I noted most of them were not wearing a jacket despite the cooler temperature. Even hidden behind the desks inside the stalls I was aware of them watching me, and as I stared back into each unfamiliar face, they quickly looked away. Were they scared of me now too?
Scarlett dug the pads of her fingers into the back of my neck ever so slightly, bringing me back into the moment. I turned to face the stall before us, boxes upon boxes of produce on display.
“Where do they get this?”
I asked the question half to Scarlett, half to the woman behind the boxes, forgetting myself.
“It’s grown in the Fringe, Miss.” The older woman curtseyed a little bit as she spoke, “We’re selling it on behalf of the Government.”
I tried to smile at her kindly, the title she had given me still rolling around in my head. Since I’d entered Vires, I had been forced to use similar titles to address the vampires; it was completely jarring to be on the receiving end of one.
“Someone from the kitchen has already collected supplies this week.” Scarlett’s voice was cool and disinterested, and she steered me onward, leaving the boxes of cabbages and the rows of shiny apples behind.
We perused a few more stalls and I was amazed at the array of goods on sale. Scarlett explained quietly to me how each stall came to be, sensing my interest. The Government owned some booths and sold produce and items made by the humans in the Fringe. Vampires owned others, the human staff from their tower selling the items they or their masters had made to raise money for their towers.
As we passed a stand selling what mostly looked like weapons, I noticed Scarlett’s eyes linger. I didn’t want to look, to imagine any of them in her hands, but today had been a gift. Against her original wishes she’d brought me outside, and I wanted to give her something.
“We can look…”
I kept my voice quiet, but I knew she heard. Dark eyes flickered to me, studying me for a moment, searching out my sincerity, before we altered course slightly and headed for the booth.
“Miss Pearce.” The woman who greeted us shot to her feet far too fast to be human. I jumped back in surprise, my cheeks flaming. I had been doing better about not getting startled when the vampires moved quickly at home, but out here, I was on edge.
“Shikara.”
There was a respect in Scarlett’s greeting I rarely heard, and then they proceeded to discuss knives in greater detail than I had even known existed. In my world they were only used to prepare food.
“Would you like to try it out?”
My head whipped around from where I had been pretending to look at the ornate handles on what appeared to be swords. Scarlett seemed to be testing the weight of a smooth silver blade in her palm, balancing it as she moved her hand around.
“Shikara. Vires’s official Weapons mistress.”
The stall owner took a quick bow in front of me. Looking at her for the first time, I noticed she was of Asian descent, her hair pulled back into a long ponytail. She wore a modern kimono fashioned from a dark material, a belt of weapons tight around her waist.
/> “I…um, nice to meet you, ma’am?”
Scarlett snickered. When I turned accusing eyes to her, she was busy again with the knife. Given she hadn’t jumped between us and didn’t seem to mind the woman talking to me, I figured she was a friend.
“Nice to meet you too, hybrid.”
There was no malice in her words, just a simple statement of facts. Silence stretched out between us and I wondered if it would break Scarlett’s precious protocol if I spoke to Shikara more. Glancing back at the vampire, now spinning the knife around in a way that made me feel nauseous to watch, I decided if she cared she would let me know.
“Where do these come from?”
I indicated the long table of beautifully crafted knives, swords, intricately woven whips and lashes, and many other items I had never seen before and had no name for.
“I make them.”
I felt the weight of Shikara’s eyes on me, dark and curious.
“After you’re turned, come back and see me. I have some weapons that are relatively safe but effective for someone with little training.”
Apparently, we just couldn’t escape it today. I nodded dumbly and stuttered out a thank-you, not wanting to be impolite.
When I turned back to Scarlett, embarrassed and unsure how to continue the conversation, the knife had disappeared, no longer on the table but not in her hands either.
“Good?” Shikara questioned and Scarlett nodded.
They exchanged something I couldn’t see and were saying their goodbyes when we were interrupted by a ringing that had become all too familiar.
Scarlett’s voice was cold, brittle as she answered, and I already knew who was calling.
The phone call was over quickly and then she was nodding to Shikara and turning us back toward the tower. My heart fell; our outing was over too soon.
“I have to go to the Fringe, sweetheart. Time to go home.”
I dug in my heels, slowing down a little, trying to buy myself some time to talk.
“Can’t I go too?”
Realizing my voice was just a little loud, I added a bumbled “please mistress,” just in case. She seemed to consider the request, and I was suddenly nervous she would accept. I’d only heard about the Fringe from others, never experienced it myself. I was also acutely aware that a phone call from the Government to send her out there probably meant the reason for her visit wasn’t good, and most likely something I didn’t want to see.
