“So,” she said slowly, dragging the word out. “Keeping secrets? Secrets are shit. No one is allowed to have secrets.”
I almost laughed. “Not even Renard?”
“Never.” She dropped it, seeing that I wouldn’t be confessing anytime soon. I couldn’t tell whether she suspected me or thought I knew who the culprit was.
The next day I found Arthur walking around on the west side of the building where the full-sized chess set was. He lifted up the king piece easily and looked inside its hollow center.
“I don’t think there’s a criminal in there,” I informed him, pointing to the empty space. He set it down and reached to pick up the rook to search it too. “I’m Lisbeth, by the way.”
“Hmm,” he said in response, and picked up another piece to study. “I’m busy, Lisbeth. Go bother someone else.” Arthur’s voice was deep and rough like he’d shouted too much or hardly used his vocal chords, but he also lacked the tonal quality that made voices nice to listen to. He was truly cold inside and out.
“Rude,” I muttered and climbed onto the rook to sit on top of it, watching the Hunter check the chess field like a moron. He had sandy blonde hair cropped close to his head and his jaw looked like it was chiseled from stone. Je-sus. I was still attracted to him. Wrong place, wrong Hunter. “So you dated Olivier, huh?”
“We didn’t date,” he said blankly, finally looking my way.
“Oh, so you mean you just…” I mimed sex with my fingers. He watched me and raised an eyebrow, then picked up a pawn to look at.
“That was a long time ago.” He moved to the white side of the board, where I was sitting.
“Are you with anyone now?” God, I was really going there. Be still my loins. He wasn’t worth it.
“I’m on the job,” he informed me shortly and picked up the rook with me still on it. “Besides, you’re not my type. I prefer women who aren’t airheads.” Oh no he didn’t.
He set me down with a thunk and I jumped off, grabbing his dog tag necklace to bring that chiseled jaw towards my face. “Airhead I am not, sir.” His blue eyes looked my face up and down, and I instantly regretted being this close to him. My body was heating up and I found myself wanting to test that kiss theory. Would he melt in my arms, or push me away? I let go of his tags and stepped back to the rook. “They tell me you only come here when one of us has broken a law.” I tried to look casual. The chess piece search forgotten, Arthur leaned against a pawn.
“That’s true. I prefer to not be amongst all the…” He wiggled his hand, but I wasn’t going to let him be vague.
I crossed my hands over my chest. “Amongst all the what?”
“Castle. Money. Cars. Jewelry. Your kind. Stuffy rich vampires.”
“I am not stuffy,” I huffed. Now I wasn’t sure if I wanted to kick him or plant my body against his until he surrendered to me.
He snorted, hiding the smile, and pointed a finger at me. “Oh yeah? How much did your shoes cost?”
“Fuck you!” I shouted and stormed off across the lawn.
5. Arthur’s Prey
Days passed, and I tried to wipe Arthur from my mind. Lying in bed, my mind kept flashing images of the Lycan Alpha and the brown-eyed pup I’d saved. I’d hidden the bracelet behind the drawer in my nightstand, and for some reason, I felt like taking it out. It truly was a fine piece of work, despite the insulting teeth woven into it. I tried to pretend they belonged to a cat. A very large cat.
I’d just drifted off to sleep with the bracelet still in my hand when there was a pounding at the door. My blood turned cold. Was Arthur here to arrest me? I quickly used the bracelet to tie my hair back and then covered it with a wide ribbon so no one could see it before putting on a robe. Cameron was answering the door when I walked into the parlor, and in burst Arthur, followed by his security team.
Othello entered behind them, protesting loudly. “I told you that Lisbeth cannot possibly be the-” He was cut off by Arthur’s hand rising as a signal to shut up.
“Everyone is suspect. No exceptions,” Arthur informed him.
Without even asking me, the Born security team swept over my rooms. They took care to not break anything, thankfully, but they didn’t care about replacing pillowcases after they’d been removed or putting my belongings back in an orderly fashion.
I played it cool and kept my face neutral like I was simply annoyed at being bothered. “Anything in particular you’re looking for?” I asked him casually.
Arthur had stayed in the parlor with us, probably monitoring our reactions. “Evidence,” he replied, like it was obvious. He glanced at me and his eyes went south, his mouth twitching a few times. My robe was open, so I closed it quickly. Under these circumstances, I didn’t want him staring at me. Stuffy, indeed.
“He’s searched everyone else’s rooms as well,” Othello mentioned from the doorway, no doubt trying to make me feel better. It didn’t work. I knew exactly what Arthur was doing. He was an experienced Hunter who didn’t need to bother looking for evidence. Searching our rooms was just a pretense to appease whoever had sent him. Once nothing incriminating was found, the criminal would relax and slip up somehow, and then Arthur would have him. Or her.
The security group finished, having only found a naked mermaid statue in Cameron’s bathroom that held a stash of money. Othello led the team out and onto the next suite, but Arthur didn’t move from his spot on my carpet.
“You didn’t answer the door.”
“I was asleep.” He was squinting at me, and I really wanted to slap him for it. “Being stuffy is exhausting, you know.”
He wasn’t amused. “It wasn’t the first room we searched. You didn’t hear us?” he observed, scratching at his stubble.
Cameron was the one who spoke up and saved me. “Dude, these walls are ridiculously soundproof. Do you know how many times the couple next door bangs? We don’t, because we don’t hear it.”
It occurred to me that Arthur knew all of this. He was simply testing my reactions. He was nothing if not thorough. And that meant he was close to being onto me. Thankfully, he left soon afterward, and we all went back to bed as if nothing had happened.
Stupid Arthur with his stupid searches trying to get under my skin. I was confident that I would be able to get him off my scent and on his merry way. I even entertained that he wasn’t here for me, though I didn’t discount it. I mean, who had even seen me at the border? I hadn’t smelled anyone nearby at the time.
However, if anyone had seen me, even a human, our kind could find out. Since it involved drinking excess blood and using our powers on humans, it would be technically against the law, which was ironic. Breaking the law to find out who broke the law. It all depended on how far Hunters could go to keep us in line. I supposed it was a grey area for them. They got exceptions for all kinds of things. Mind controlling humans might be in that category. I had a slight hope that such methods were not allowed, even for them.
The next morning, I spent ten minutes finding the best way to hide the bracelet on my person without someone noticing, just in case Arthur searched my rooms again. Why was I even keeping it? My intuition overruled my logic since some part of me wanted to hang on to it. I finally went with fastening it to a garter belt.
I forced myself to relax when I went downstairs after feeding from Cameron. Even he was noticing my off behavior, so when I joined Olivier in the dining hall, I tried to pretend like nothing was wrong.
Arthur was sitting next to her.
Be cool, be cool.
He didn’t react when I approached. I sat next to Renard, who was clearly annoyed that his lady was sitting next to another man. I avoided all body language that indicated hiding something and lying. My body felt stiff from sitting a certain way all the time. The way Arthur was staring at me was unnerving, like he was hunting and I was his prey. I can’t deny the feeling that invoked deep inside me, making my face flush under his gaze, but this wasn’t the time to react to him because I might actually be his prey,
and not in the good way.
“Hey hey,” I greeted as I unrolled my napkin and put it in my lap. No one spoke. Olivier picked at her food and stared at a spot behind me. She too looked unusually stiff. “So,” I said slowly. “Arthur. Where are you going after you catch the lawbreaker?”
He turned his frigid blue eyes to me like I’d just spit on him, and I had to physically hold my breath to keep from displaying any damning signals.
“What?” he asked blankly.
I saw Olivier’s eyes dart to me, and then back at whatever she was fixated on. “I mean, you won’t stay here afterward, right?”
“No.” He liked single word responses.
“Maybe we should all go to town before you leave,” I continued. “Do you like movies?”
“Not really,” he responded. I went back to eating my food in silence since my table mates were doing the same. After a long period of quiet, Arthur said, “You’re awfully chatty, Lisbeth.”
I shrugged. “Am I not allowed to talk to people?” Goddd. He was going to smell this lie on me like perfume. I sucked at everything.
Instead of answering, he got up and took his dishes to the sink. Olivier waited until he had left the room before she relaxed. She gave me a pursed look.
“Stop sitting like that. You look uncomfortable.” I slacked my spine a bit. “And stop talking to him. It won’t go well.” She picked at her salad. “He told me you tried flirting with him.”
“What? I did not. That is outlandish, how dare you!”
“You use big words when you’re flustered.”
“You suck, I’m leaving.” I stood up and left the cafeteria as fast as I could.
After that, it took effort, but I managed to maintain a normal attitude and continued with the turned training for the next few days. Arthur was never far away. I dreaded when he would show up, seemingly out of nowhere, and then watch me for hours. My only consolation was when I saw him doing the same thing to a few other Born vampires. Sickeningly, the small group of female vampires he was cornering all had the same hair color. My hair color. I looked down at my thick black curls and knew. It was as I feared.
Arthur was here for me.
The thought was relaxing and terrifying all at the same time. On the one hand, I knew all along that he was here for me. It also dashed my hopes that I was wrong.
Olivier had never told me what happened to lawbreaking vampires when the Hunters caught them. She only said it wasn’t pleasant. I assumed it was decapitation or something similar. No trial before the heads of the Orders. Who cared if they were falsely accused or were in the wrong place at the wrong time? I could tell Arthur killed and asked questions never.
I stood in the shadow of the castle, thinking of what my next move would be when Olivier drove up in her convertible.
“Get in, loser. We’re going shopping.”
I jumped in and we sped away. Olivier drove to the nearby town and kept going past the city limits.
“Arthur was sent here to find you,” she said finally. Of course she knew. I hadn’t even tried to fool her, as if I could. “I’ve known for days.”
“He recruited you to help him.” Sigh. Such an underhanded move from such a sexy guy.
“Gods help me, I had no choice, Lisbeth. The heads of the Order commanded it. He told me someone had spared a Lycan that crossed the borders, and he was sent to find out who it was. We’ve been drinking extra blood and interrogating dozens of humans in the town. We eventually found what we needed. The humans that were there that day remembered you. Black curls. Purple eyes.” I shut my eyes and curled my fingers around the bracelet, still strapped to my leg. “Why, Lisbeth?” she demanded, slamming her hand on the steering wheel in frustration. “Fuck. Why would you break the law?”
I opened my eyes and stared at the road in front of us. “He was a child, Olivier. If there’s only one rule I can live by in my long life, it’s protecting the life of a child.”
“Shit.” She smashed both palms down on the steering wheel, looking away in frustration. “You’ve risked everything. Everything.”
Reality slipped into me, like a cold icicle down my throat. Everything with Arthur had distracted me from the real danger, and now I couldn’t avoid it any longer. “I know.”
“I can’t protect you,” she said. I could hear tears in her voice.
“I know,” I repeated. I wanted to apologize, but that would mean I regretted it. And I didn’t.
She casually ran a hand across her face. “Backseat,” she said. I unbuckled myself and leaned over the backseat. There was a huge duffel bag in the floorboard. The duffel bag she’d brought with her when she came to our Order, an ex-Hunter with no sense of our way of life. I sat back down with it in my lap.
“We going camping?” I asked, half confused. She abruptly pulled the car over into a little roadside park and stopped.
“You have a choice. Right now. You run. You run like there’s a forest fire licking your ankle. And you never look back. You never stop running.”
That sounded exhausting. “Or?”
“I take you back to the Order, and you face Arthur’s justice.”
We sat there as I weighed both options. I realized that while I didn’t regret what I’d done, I didn’t want to die. I really didn’t. When I’d saved the child, I thought no one would ever know, and now I would be paying for it with my life.
“I’ll run,” I told her.
6. Olivier’s List of Survival
Olivier left me at the roadside park with very few parting words. Don’t tell her my plans, and follow the list in the duffel bag. She had to get back to the castle and pretend she hadn’t just helped me escape. Fooling Arthur seemed to be part of her skillsets. I wasn’t worried.
Alone, and miles away from the nearest town, I took the list out and started walking down the highway.
Olivier’s list of survival
1. Get a car.
Seemed simple enough.
2. Pick something in-between what you’d pick for yourself and what you’d never drive.
So something between ‘car’ and ‘Hummer.’ Got it.
3. There are sneakers in the bag.
Thank god. I took my heels off and replaced them with the sneakers. Much better. Running for my life wouldn’t be much fun in heels.
4. Stop reading the list and follow number 1.
I rolled my eyes and stuck the list into my pocket.
It was survival time. I had to rearrange my way of thinking. Whatever the Hunters and Arthur thought I was going to do, I would have to do the opposite. Or was that completely wrong and stupid? Would they expect that of me? Don’t overthink it.
They probably expected me to steal a car and then leave a trail of stolen cars for them to follow. A trail was not a good idea. After an hour of walking on back roads, I reached a town. I rummaged through the duffle bag and found a plastic baggie with a large amount of cash in it, enough to buy a car. Or maybe two cars.
After asking around, I found a used car place that looked semi-shady, one that wouldn’t ask questions or require paperwork, and would keep their mouths shut with the proper encouragement. I bought something tiny, expensive, and probably extremely gas efficient. Definitely not me at all. The dealer charged me double and I didn’t break his arm for it, even though I was sorely tempted to. The money baggie was still semi-full when I left in my tiny car.
The day was far from over and I was already exhausted. My feet had blisters from walking so far. I could feel Cameron’s blood working on them, leaving me hungry and cranky. I’d only need a sip or two and it would be fixed. The duffle bag didn’t have clothing in it, meaning I had to purchase all of that myself.
I drove another hour and then raided a hippy clothing store where the clerk looked so out of it, I bet she didn’t even remember what I looked like. I changed in my car and turned the Alpha’s bracelet over and over in my hands. A simple act had started all this, but no matter what, I refused to feel regret. The bracelet was ma
de for a large arm and I wrapped it around my wrist a few times until it wouldn’t fall off. Once I was a few hours away from the Order, I pulled over and looked at everything in the duffle bag. Besides the money baggie, there was a large container of unmarked lotion, which was addressed in the list.
5. Use this so you’ll look more human.
The lotion, as I found out, would tint my white skin so I would appear human. I applied it liberally all over my body. Goodbye, pale skin. Hello, tan.
6. Dye your hair.
I recoiled. I didn’t want to dye my hair. Call it pride, but I loved my black curls. They were part of me. Who would I be without them?
7. No buts.
Damn you, Olivier! The list had a few tips on other things I’d need to survive, and ended with one line.
18. I believe in you.
With a smidge more confidence than I had before, I drove for another hour before going to a beauty parlor. I was already in another state by now, and my route wasn’t a straight line, so I felt safe that I’d lost Arthur for now. The beautician gave me a trim before chemically straightening my hair and dying it dark brown.
Dressed in earthy, beachy tree hugger clothing with no makeup, and my beautiful curls straightened and dyed brown, and my skin a golden orange, the face I saw in the mirror every day was gone. I felt ugly and plain. My reflection in the beauty parlor mirror was a stranger. Would I lose myself in all of this? Would running away erase all I’d become in 400 years? I couldn’t think about that right now.
Numbly, I left the beauty parlor and bought a pair of sunglasses, a snack, and a map from a sidewalk vendor. My new car was waiting at the end of the block. It needed a name. All good vessels did. This car was going to carry me to safety, away from Arthur and his chiseled jaw.
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 5
