by Danae Ayusso
That’s why Maximus was familiar. Tybalt looked strikingly similar to his father, but was much hotter and younger. And it was exceptionally sweet of Tybalt to think of my best interest like that, and trying to save my life…
That was beyond romantic, and neck and neck with Andrei offering to disembowel the monster in Usk!
“She has a date with a werewolf?” Maiya asked with the unmistakable sound of amusement-laced-disgust in her tone.
Andrei made a face.
“And yet the pup still lives. Fascinating,” she commented. “Child, go change into something presentable. Now that I have foolishly claimed you as I have, you are a direct representation of the Crown.”
I nodded, looking at my feet. “I fear I don’t have anything that’ll be to your standards, Ma’am.”
Andrei motioned for his Maker to mind her manners, which was amusing to be telling a Queen to shut it, and motioned me back to my room.
“I’m not wearing underwear in public with your Maker around,” I informed him under my breath when we entered my room.
“There is more than merely undergarments in your things,” Andrei said with a small smile. “Did you not go in your closet?”
I shook my head, hopping up on the bed, and waited for Andrei to do whatever it was he ducked into the closet to do.
“Dr. Willa pulled the clothing out for me. I didn’t realize there was a wardrobe included in this imprisonment and forced master-subservient bond,” I complained.
Andrei leaned against the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. “After seeing the questionable wardrobe you had, I felt it was needed since it was only a matter of time before Master discovered your existence.”
I glared at him. “Where are my clothes, my things?” I demanded.
“They were donated to charity.”
My eyes widened.
“Your footlocker is in the closet for safekeeping,” he instantly added when my bottom lip started to tremble and tears flooded my eyes. “The items that were obvious in their value to you or were acceptable in my opinion were kept.” He ducked back into the closet before returning with a dress draped over his arm and a pair of shoes in hand. “This will suffice for the evening,” he said, tossing the dress on the bed next to me.
I made a mocking face, grabbing the dress.
My eyes widened.
“This is a 1950’s Edith-Head original,” I stammered, caressing the ivory lace covered, knee-length dress.
It cost more than I’d make in a year!
Andrei nodded. “Yes, I know. There are many shawls and cloaks that will look lovely with it. They are hanging in the closet and you can pick whichever you’d like to wear.”
“My grandmother’s shoes would have looked perfect with it,” I whispered, wiping away the tear that rolled down my cheek.
“I know,” Andrei again agreed, offering me the shoes he was holding.
I took them from him and started hyperventilating.
They looked just like Grandmother’s Rangoni t-strap heels, the ones I lost when Luka attacked and left me for dead. My fingers caressed over the aged leather and over the buckle on each, and my face dropped.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” he demanded.
“Thank you for trying,” I said. “My grandmother’s Rangoni heels had a broken buckle from my grandparents’ wedding. She was so nervous that she had a little too much wine and ended up rolling her ankle when they had their first dance, breaking the buckle and her ankle, and spent their wedding night in the Emergency Room. After that, a safety pin was required to keep it secured. Thanks for trying though,” I said, offering him the shoes.
Andrei pushed his hand through his hair. “I thought Luka was responsible for that damage so I repaired it when I had them cleaned and the leather on the left heel patched. Those are your grandmother’s shoes. Her initials are on the inside of the left shoe with a date.”
I looked inside the aged leather and sure enough, Grandma’s initials were barely visible, the ink fading more and more over the years, with their wedding date.
That was it, I completely lost it and started sobbing, hugging the shoes to my chest.
Andrei looked extremely uncomfortable all of a sudden, and his mouth opened more than once, but nothing came out, so he did what Andrei did best when I needed comforting or a hug, he turned and ran, the door closing behind him.
I think it’s been seven days.
A week.
A full week since I left my room.
From that week of isolation I learned some interesting and not very useful things about vampires.
For starters, they don’t use the toilet.
That was a fun, creepy fact that only registered with me when day three rolled around and I hadn’t felt the need to use the bathroom.
Another completely useless fact I learned that they apparently had a thing for German dance music from the 1980’s.
Sunrise didn’t necessarily mean the end of their day thanks to the vampire specific security system; it meant they could party for days at a time without stopping.
I was ready to kill them.
It wasn’t the unnatural darkness rearing its head.
No, it was brought on from having to listen to David Hasseloff’s version of 99 Luftballons over a hundred times that drove me to want to attempt genocide on my vampiric venom line.
And that was the extent of what I learned while locked in my room.
Andrei, to his Maker’s extreme disapproval, refused to make me leave the protection of my room to entertain her or any of the guests that came in and out of the church. Apparently they were having a baby shower which the baby refused to attend.
Yeah, there was obvious reasons for that.
It was too much for me.
I thought I had reached my limit before, but apparently Andrei and those of his venom line were pushing me to see just how far they could before I broke because I was seriously losing it now.
I hadn’t cried that much in the accumulative of my life, and I cried a lot when Papà died, and again when Giovanni followed him to the grave, but that was nothing compared to the crying I had been doing since my rebirth into the dark.
I couldn’t help it.
I was a big hot emotional mess and I didn’t know why…
Okay. I do know why.
Because I was a freaking vampire!
Actually, I think it’s because I’m being held captive and against my will and if I give in it means I have Stockholm Syndrome, and I wasn’t going to take it laying down.
No.
I was taking it curled up in a ball hugging a pillow in the middle of the bed.
All of it was overwhelming me to the point of wanting to go for a long walk in the sun.
Andrei said that the sun was bad for vampires. I didn’t want to believe it, but I got confirmation when fifteen minutes before the sun rose heavy metal blackout shades rolled down over the windows on the inside and outside of the church, blocking out the sun completely. The first time I was conscious when they came down it scared me, they weren’t the quietest things in the world. When they retracted I listened at the door and heard the loud sound they make when being pulled back fill the church so it was a safe assumption that the entire complex was vampire friendly and that meant vampires couldn’t handle the sun just like Andrei said.
I hated that he was right and I’d have to admit it.
Learning how to vampire through reasonable deduction would not end well for anyone, and I really should get a Vampire for Dummies book before I get myself killed.
The no sun thing was irritating. Not that I was a child of the sun or anything, but it was irritating because the money I was saving for that trip to Cancun next year was now moot. Most would say that would mean they could use that money to splurge on something else, like clothing, but Andrei wouldn’t hear of that. The closet was nearly as big as my studio apartment, and was filled with clothing; underwear, designer comfy clothes, jeans, sweaters, shirts,
jackets, vintage pieces that made me tear up, even a couple of evening gowns, shoes, so many shoes, and everything else I never thought I’d own or ever need.
Apparently the vampire was preparing me for eternity at his expertly dressed side.
I had super mixed feeling on that.
As promised, my footlocker was safely stored with all of my keepsakes that I was able to leave Usk with; pictures, birth certificate, some pieces of jewelry from my grandmothers and papà, and other things I couldn’t replace. Each held a special meaning for me. The bundles of letters Giovanni had written me throughout his hospital stay, when they said it was terminal, they were supposed to be opened one a year until I was ninety years old.
My brother had faith I’d make it that long. Of course I opened them all after he died and read each countless times, getting my butt chewed by my brother when he found out, but he should have known better. It looked at is they had been read, most likely by the nosy vampire I can’t get out of my head, and it irritated me that Andrei was apparently trying to get to know me or my brother while I was unconscious, when, presumably, he couldn’t invade my mind to snoop around on his own.
But how Andrei knew the footlocker’s importance, even on that first day, I’ll never know, and he wouldn’t tell me even if I asked.
The annoyingly cryptic and seemingly bipolar vampire was impossible to read and figure out, and what appears as logical reasoning behind something is the exact opposite of his reasoning. I couldn’t keep up with him, and that was part of the reason why I stayed locked in my room while his coven, the Royal Court as I was calling them, celebrated the new life that unwillingly joined their coven even if she was being held against her will and refused to join them…
Yes, I was speaking of myself in a third person now.
It wasn’t that I was being completely antisocial simply to be a pain in the butt or difficult.
Truth was, I never did well in party or club environments; I get anxiety attacks.
And yes, it was a party.
A full out party with loud music, drinking, laughing, a couple of fights broke out I deduced, with at least a hundred vampires! What was the baby of the coven, of the Royal Court, supposed to do when she didn’t know the first thing about being a vampire or how to vampire?!
Knowing that they didn’t sparkle or poop wasn’t really the ice breakers into the world of the living undead that I’d want to lead with… Giovanni would have without question, but I was more reserved, shy, and had a sense of propriety that my brother thought was overrated.
It was too much for me so I hid in my room, infuriating the Queen, my vampire grandmother, in the process since I was immune to her command as well. Something, that apparently, was unheard of. I’m a violation of the rules, all rules it appeared in the world of vampires, because I was the worst vampire in history as Luka and Maiya repeatedly said, loud enough that I could clearly hear them through the door.
Even mia madre had a rather amused opinion on the subject; she thought I was telling her about my new Goth phase when I told her I was a vampire.
Nothing in my life was going according to plan anymore.
Nothing.
And it wasn’t going to get better anytime soon.
The door to my room opened and I was surprised to see Luka waltzing in uninvited instead of Andrei.
“Get up,” he said, heading to my closet. “You smell of death, and not in a good way, or in a I’m gonna eat you way either. Your pouting, depressed teenager that is butt hurt over something routine is getting old. It may have saved you from your pre-coronation and reveal to the family, but I’m tired of it. There’s only room for one bitchy, whiney vamp in this family, and that’s me. Get up.”
I didn’t bother to move.
I was content, for the most part, curled into a ball with a pillow and blanket, absently sliding di mia nonna pendant back and forth on its chain.
It was one of the irreplaceable items in my footlocker.
“I will make you,” he warned, trying to sound like a big boy and as if he had a sliver of the terrifying presence and demeanor his big brother had.
He failed miserably.
“Luka, you can’t Andrei. You don’t have the presence to pull off his stick up the butt, hate everything and everyone around him, do as I say or I’ll kill you, demeanor that he gives to the world,” I said. “If anything, it’s kind of sad that you thought you could even attempt to pull it off.”
Luka rolled his eyes, throwing some clean clothes at me. “Whatever. My personality challenged brother would kill to have even a tenth of this,” he said, motioning towards himself as if that was explanation enough.
“As little as I know about Andrei, I have a very strong feeling that your brother would have a very different opinion on that one, Douche Bag.”
To my surprise, Luka nodded his agreement.
“We’ve never seen eye to eye on anything, and we won’t start now,” he admitted. “Put something on. Mother says I need to educate you in a way that Andrei won’t.”
That was ominously vague.
“I’m scared to ask,” I said, pulling the sweatshirt he threw at me over my head.
He shrugged. “We’ll keep it simple. A little people watching, of sorts. You see, my brother knows more than I do, more than most vampires ten times his age even, but it’s part of the job he took, against Mother’s wishes of course. That knowledge he won’t share. Andrei doesn’t think you can handle it, he doesn’t want you doing this,” he said, motioning to the bed as if that was explanation enough, and it was.
I looked horrible and wasn’t handling this very well.
“Any more than you already have,” he finished. “Get up, let housekeeping take care of the bedding, and we’ll go vamp watching.”
Suspicious, I eyed him while I slipped into a pair of running shoes.
“What? Why the look?” he asked.
“Why do you think? You aren’t the most trustworthy type,” I reminded him. “Or did you forget that you attacked, bit, buried, and left me for dead, then attacked me again, left me for dead again… Shall I continue?”
Luka smiled wide. “Well, when you put it like that you should be terrified.”
“I’m not,” I informed him.
“I know, it’s weird,” he said, his head tilting to regard me. “Such a strange little creature. Aren’t you hungry?”
I shrugged. “Still want a cheeseburger, but my longing isn’t as bad as it was before so it’s easily ignored.”
“Strange, strange little creature,” he mumbled, motioning for me to lead the way.
Yes, Luka would forever say that when it pertained to me, as well as many other colorful choice words, but it was one that I had heard my entire life so it wasn’t that nerve grating.
We walked with our hands in our pockets in silence, down the hallway and stairs.
“What are they doing?” I asked when movement from above stole my attention.
There were men on the other side of the stained glass domed ceiling on the roof.
“Resolving an apparent flaw in the security design,” Luka said with a shrug. “Andrei gave them a tight deadline to fix it.”
That made sense, I suppose, since this was a vampire den.
“I hope they don’t break the glass,” I commented, watching them work.
“Why?”
I shrugged. “It’s beautiful. When the sun shines through it… To be able to have seen it when I wasn’t like this would have been lovely.”
Luka groaned. “That explains it. No, they won’t break the glass. My lovely, twisted brother threatened to castrate before disemboweling their children if they broke the glass.”
That’s a mental picture I could have done without.
“Come on, Strange One,” Luka said, pulling the door opened and waved me outside.
“Is this a trick to get rid of me?” I asked, suspicious.
He smiled wide.
“That wasn’t an answer,” I pointed o
ut, standing my ground.
It’d be my lack of luck that he got me on the other side of the doors then slammed them shut, leaving me to burn in the sun.
Luka chuckled. “No, not this time. Besides, you are welcomed here now. This is your home, as much as you hate it, the doors will always open for you.”
“But will they let me in?” I asked the obvious.
He made a mocking face; I was asking all the things that I should have been asking Andrei, and yet as usual Andrei had no interest in answering them or even being in the same room with me. “Yes, they will. We can’t keep you out now. You’re one of us,” he said that latter ominously. “See that seemingly nondescript seal?” he asked, pointing next to the right door.
I joined him, looking where he was pointing.
Stamped in the stone was a coat of arms, of sorts, that seamlessly blended into the surrounding stone. I had kind of noticed it before when I stumbled to the church in a daze the first time, but didn’t put much thought as to why it stole my attention considering the situation and circumstances being what they were.
“That is the crest of vampires,” he explained. “The bat, the man, the dead, the immortal,” he said, pointing to each on the crest: bat on the upper left, man on the lower left, nothing on the upper right which I assume was to denote the absolution of death, and what can only be described as a shadow of a man on the lower right. “The circle of vampiric life, but the bat is more symbolic than anything else, and was a joke that got away from them. When you see that seal, know that it’s a sanctuary for all children of the night that once were children of the day. And that one,” he said, pointing to the one by the left door, “means no one will fuck with you. That is the crest of the royal family.”
It was surprisingly simplistic. A shield with a crown on top and another below that was upside down, the shield sandwiched between them; a bat across the top of the shield in flight and a crown denoted inside each of the four sections; King, Queen, Princes-
“That was most recently updated, even if you haven’t had your coronation yet,” Luka explained when I caressed over the smaller, princess crown that was between and slightly under the two princes crowns towards the bottom of the shield that appeared recently carved. “When the Queen or King update one, the rest around the world update to match. It’s pretty cool to see, but hasn’t happened in centuries.”
