by K.N. Lee
Train? You can’t train people.
“Do not worry. You’re already the closest to perfect I've ever encountered. You'll be free from your chains before you know it.”
“Please, sir. Don't do this.”
When he came to his feet, Willa coiled back as far as she could. Where was the charming act he'd put on for her before? She knew she now looked at the real Lukas, and it terrified the hell out of her.
“Lord Lukas. Or master.”
Willa’s lips trembled.
“Say it.”
“Lord Lukas,” she stated in a soft voice.
“Good,” he said with a sigh. “I do have to do this, Willa. If I am to keep you, you must be perfect. I can't let you go.”
Heat filled Willa's cheeks as she summoned the fuel of power within her belly.
She squeezed her eyes closed as it built and built, ready to explode out of her pores. Her mind raced when she realized that something blocked its release.
You may want to conserve your energy,” Lukas said, standing over her. “You won't be able to use your power on me,” he said.
Willa's eyes popped open.
The Silence power was real.
Dread brought tears to her eyes.
Lukas knelt to her side, alarm filling his eyes. “No.” He cupped her face with one hand and stroking her hair with the other. “No tears. Smile for me.”
Willa! Fight him!
A forced smile came to her lips.
“Good girl.”
He stroked her cheek and kissed her. His voice lowered to a whisper. “Now tell me you love me.”
Willa's stomach churned. No!
“I love you.”
The words were empty and hollow, but Lukas didn't care. He kissed her again and all Willa wanted was to rip out his tongue. She feared what he would command next.
She looked down at her body. She wore a sheer white gown and nothing else. She felt as if she'd be sick. The thought of how she ended up out of her clothes and into the sultry new ones worried her. Lukas's eyes watched her.
She prayed he hadn't touched her without her consent. No one was that cruel.
Willa bit her lip, fearing that she was naïve.
“You know I won't make love to you until you beg me for it, right my love?”
Willa nodded quickly, anything to convince him not to force himself on her. She couldn't afford to lose all of her free will or privacy.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“Anything for my lady. Now, let's get you some food. You slept much longer than I'd anticipated.” Lukas stood. His face was as excited as a boy before Christmas. “I can't have you losing too much weight. You’re already too thin.”
Willa squeezed her eyes shut against the images she fought to bury deep inside her mind.
For a moment, the memories took her from the present.
“Are you okay?”
They sat in Zoe’s kitchen at her bar with the lights low.
“Yes,” Willa said, forcing a smile.
She wondered if things would ever be the same. She drank a shot of tequila and nodded at Zoe, who sat across from her with concern in her almond-shaped hazel eyes.
“What were you saying?”
“I said that you don’t have to do this.”
“I know I don't have to. But I want to," Willa said. "I have to do this if I want to heal. You have no idea how hard this has been. I want my old life back."
Even though the fear festered in her soul, she knew that this was the only way she’d be free. Something told her that this was the time to come out of hiding.
Sighing, Zoe nodded. “Of course, I understand. You think you’re the only one who suffered? You disappeared, and I thought you were dead. Did you know that people suspected that I did something to you? I had to leave Cambridge for a long time.”
“I know,” Willa said. The rumors about Zoe had been preposterous, but people needed someone to blame. “I’m sorry for all of that.”
“You don’t have to apologize. I just want you to know that everyone who loved you suffered. One day you were planning your wedding celebration, the next you’re gone without a single word.”
That was the worst. Her hopes for a happy marriage had been destroyed.
“Do it, Willa. I support your decision.”
Willa put her empty shot glass on the nightstand and kissed Zoe on the cheek, her face brightening at having her approval. If her plan were to work, she’d need all of the help and support that she could get.
“Thank you,” Willa said as she pulled away. “You are the best friend in the entire universe.”
“I know. But, not so fast," Zoe said, handing her the shot glass back. “We both need another shot.”
Willa grinned, her eyes brightening with the promise of hope and a future that she could be happy to look forward to. "Top me off.”
Zoe poured the chilled tequila into her glass, and together they drank it down.
“You’re going to get me drunk,” Willa said as the cold liquid trailed down her throat.
“That’s the point.” When Zoe took her empty glass, she stroked Willa’s hair.
"I'll be there with you, every step of the way." She pulled away and held Willa out at arm's length so that their eyes were locked. "I'll protect you. You know that, yeah?"
Fresh tears stung Willa's eyes. “What would I do without you?”
Zoe wiped her tears from her cheeks, her own eyes glistening. “You'd be just fine. You're stronger than you think.”
Willa smiled. “Right,” she said, staring down at the email she was prepared to send to a vampire halfway across the world. “Here goes.”
She pressed send and looked up at Zoe with a weak smile.
Clapping her hands, Zoe stood from her barstool and did a twirl. “Good girl. Now, let's watch old Cary Grant movies until we pass out.”
Willa chuckled and stepped off the bar stool in her pink pajamas and black slippers. “Sounds like my kind of wild night.”
"Good," Zoe said. "I’m glad you decided to do movie night at my place. I fear what I'd do if I had to hear Gemma's nasally voice chastising you for some foolishness."
"She'd keep her mouth shut if she knew what you could do."
Zoe grinned, pride shining in her eyes. "Exactly. She'd never sleep peacefully again."
Willa followed Zoe to the living room. Picturing Kristoff Dargaard’s handsome face made her eyes brighten as she prayed that somehow they could be together again.
Chapter 3
ZOE PUT HER dark curly brown hair into a top knot as the wind picked up. “Have you heard anything from Kristoff yet?”
Willa shook her head, yet she knew Zoe was right. “Not yet. I understand that he’s busy. With the Sun Serum 99 on the market, he must be making loads of appearances to talk about it.”
“The world loves him,” Zoe said, her hazel eyes fixed on her reflection in her pocket mirror as she primped. “They couldn’t have chosen a better spokesman. Kristoff always was such a charmer. Even as a human. I remember when he used to throw the best parties.”
Willa sighed as they stood in front of the tube. “Me too.”
“And he never treated me different because of the color of my skin,” Zoe added. She put her gloves on and stuck her hands in the pockets of her black coat. “I always loved him for that. Even when all of his friends poked fun at me for being the daughter of a white man and a black slave, he stood up for me.”
“Kristoff was always remarkable like that.”
God. She missed him more than she let on. She almost wished Zoe hadn’t brought up those wonderful times when life was easy—when they were young and innocent. They put a sour feeling in the pit of her stomach as she thought about them.
Her first kiss had occurred at one of Kristoff’s parties. He’d led her away from the dance hall of his Cambridge estate to one of his father’s studies. The memory made her cheeks flush a bright pink. She could still smell him, feel the touch of his warm hands on her
soft skin.
Before that night, Willa and Kristoff had been the best of friends. They’d grown up as neighbors, attended the same boarding school, and spent their summers fishing and riding horses. She’d never thought of him as more than a close companion, loyal, kind, intelligent, and protective.
Like a brother.
When he pulled her into the study and pressed her back against the wooden wall, it all changed. The kiss that followed had left her breathless and opened her mind to there being more between them. Memories of his tongue against her own, and on her neck had her closing her eyes. He’d touched her tenderly, and held onto her as if she was the most precious thing in the world to him.
Willa bit her bottom lip, tasting her pineapple chap stick. She tried to hold onto that beautiful memory. It was one of the few that conquered all of the painful ones that haunted her sleep. That memory got her through a lot of cold nights when she feared she’d never make it home to him.
If Willa hadn’t known better, she’d have thought Kristoff had put a spell on her at that party, because her infatuation with him grew with each passing day.
And then Lukas arrived and ruined it all.
Zoe kissed Willa on the cheek, embracing her. When she pulled away, her eyes turned serious. “Either way, you have me. I will protect you.”
A smile came to Willa’s lips. “I know.” She wrapped her arms around Zoe’s neck. “I love you.”
“Love you too,” Zoe said and stepped away. “Phone me later. I’ll be free if you want a pint.”
Willa nodded, smiling as Zoe started down the steps to the tube. “I will. Take care.”
Zoe winked at her. “Always.”
Glancing at the gray sky, Willa was thankful for her friend. Zoe had the ability to make Willa feel better. It was only one of her many...talents.
She wasn't sure where she wanted to go next. Her flat in Kensington wasn't exactly warm and welcoming with her roommate's boyfriend in town.
Her holiday wasn't going as planned.
Willa's purple scarf lifted from her neck as a soft breeze swept through King's Court.
"Miss," a male voice called, breaking Willa from her thoughts.
She turned to him.
"You dropped this," he said, smiling as he handed her the purple scarf. She hadn't even realized it had flown off.
"Thank you," she said, wrapping her scarf around her neck and tucking it into her gray pea coat.
"No worries," he said. “Glad to help a beautiful lady.”
She smiled up at the tall stranger. He was older, maybe in his late thirties, with black hair styled in a pompadour. He had kind blue eyes that almost made her too afraid to look at him straight on. Before she knew it, she was holding her breath, as if frozen.
He snapped a picture of her on his cell phone and nodded. "Good girl," he whispered.
Willa stood there like that for a few moments before she came to her senses.
Her heart raced as she gasped for air.
What did he do to make her freeze like that?
Who was that stranger?
She shivered, pulling her coat closer as she looked around for him.
Magic.
Good girl.
The words repeated inside her head, haunting her as she rode the tube home.
Chapter 4
“I HATE YOU,” Katya shouted from the loft at the top of the stairs. "How could you do this to me?"
Nude, with long blonde hair cascading over her shoulders, she was stunning when angry. Her pert nose reddened as her eyes narrowed at Kristoff Dargaard. For two years, he'd thought her Russian accent was charming. Now he wished she would shut up.
Folding his arms across his bare chest, he gazed at her, indifferent. Yawning, he decided it was best not to ignore the young woman who knew most of the passwords to his accounts.
That’s what I get for sleeping with my assistant.
"Listen to me, Katya. I know what you did. I don’t take kindly to spies."
She threw a bottle of wine at him. “I told you I wasn’t a spy!”
Kristoff sighed, watching the bottle come straight toward his head. As if in slow motion, the bottle soared across the room to him. He sidestepped it.
Effortlessly.
He cringed at the sound of the bottle crashing to the floor, splashing his bare feet with the red liquid.
When she went to break his cell phone with all of the proof of her treachery, he darted up the stairs at lightning speed. Kristoff snatched his phone from her hand and grabbed Katya by her hair. Within seconds, he tossed her over the rail.
Her scream was so loud that he almost let her fall. She grabbed his hands with both of her own. She gripped him tightly, afraid to fall twenty feet to the marble floor of his Charleston manor.
The five-foot-eight woman was, at least, one-hundred and thirty pounds, but he held her mid-air as if she weighed nothing more than a rag doll.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Stop! You're hurting me!" She grabbed his hand while he held her in the air by a fistful of blond hair. “I’m sorry!”
"Are you done?"
Lips trembling, she looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. She nodded.
"Y-y-yes."
"Good," he said, lifting her back over the polished brass railing.
When he set Katya back on her feet, she ran to gather her clothes. Leaning against the rail, he watched her stuff her black heels in her bag and slip on tight jeans and a purple sweater, and ballet flats. She kept glancing at him as if to make sure he wasn't coming after her.
Kristoff contemplated walking over there, taking her by her waist and making love to her once more on his down-filled white blanket.
He'd miss Katya's sweet mouth and even more delicious blood.
The puncture marks from his fangs were stark against her white skin. He'd need to take care of the marks and her memory before she left.
When she finished packing and dressing, she stood there, silently, waiting for permission to leave. Tears streamed down her face.
Kristoff strode over to her and collected her in his arms. “I know it wasn’t your fault.”
“He made me do it,” Katya wailed. She sobbed into his chest, clinging to him like a child being taken from her parents.
She loved him.
Too bad he didn't love her back. His heart belonged to another.
"Will you forgive me?" Her tear-filled bright blue eyes stared up at him.
Kristoff smoothed her hair. She didn’t even know how dangerous the situation was. He wondered how many of Lukas’ agents watched him at all times, waiting for him to slip up and reveal the truth.
Being the head of PR for an entire race could be challenging at times, but Kristoff was seemingly made for it. He was the face of the Vampire Nation. With ivory skin, sandy brown hair, and ethereal green eyes, the majority of the human population saw his beauty and accepted him.
"I forgive you," Kristoff said. He took her face into his hands and gazed into her eyes. The ethereal green and hazel of his eyes flickered into a dark red as he worked his glamor on her. “Now, you’ll forget everything involving my estate and me. You’ll forget what you saw in my office yesterday, won’t you?"
Katya nodded, wiping her tears as she slung her bag over her shoulder and left his room in a stupor that would last for a few hours. When she came to, she'd remember nothing of the two years she'd been Kristoff's assistant and lover.
He stood at his floor-to-ceiling window and watched for her to leave in her red convertible. When she sped away, Kristoff flopped onto his bed. He picked up his phone and deleted the email he’d received, the one that would have sent Lukas flying down to Charleston within hours of hearing of it.
A new email from Josef caught Kristoff’s attention.
There was an attachment.
He hoped it was good news. Kristoff needed something to lure him out of his foul mood.
His eyes widened as he stared at the picture on the screen.
Big blue eyes under dark
lashes looked back at him. A bright smile almost warmed the coldness of his heart. Jet black hair framed the face of the goddess on the screen. Pale skin sprinkled with delicate freckles and full lips the color of carnations stirred something in his belly, a feeling he hadn't experienced in a long time.
Willa Avery.
Kristoff swallowed, renewed feelings resurfacing as he gazed at her beauty. His hopes were confirmed. The email was real. Willa Avery had returned from wherever it was that she had vanished.
The one woman he had loved.
The girl he had lost.
.
Chapter 5
“AND WHERE HAVE you been, little Willow?" Gemma waited in the kitchen dressed in nothing but boxer shorts and a bra.
Drew stood behind her as bacon crackled on the small stove.
The smell turned Willa's stomach, making her cover her nose with her coat's sleeve.
Animal flesh. Disgusting.
"Why do you care?"
Gemma grinned, giving Drew a nudge. "She's always so moody."
"I'm not moody." Willa rolled her eyes at Gemma, trying not to think about how much she envied her perfect body and beautiful blonde hair.
No amount of magic could fix Willa’s thin frame. None that she wanted to dabble with that is.
"I just assumed you wouldn't be back until after your holiday," Gemma said, licking a spatula of batter. "Who spends their holiday at home? Drew and I had plans. You’re lucky I’m wearing any clothes at all."
“Hello, Willa,” Drew said, his eyes fixed on Willa’s bosom as she took off her coat when they should have been looking at his girlfriend.
Gemma looked back at Drew and whispered. “She probably spent the last few nights with that pretty mixed girl. Doing whatever lesbians do when they’re alone.”
Drew shot an interested look at Willa that made her roll her eyes in disgust.
Willa's brows furrowed as she stalked to her bedroom at the back of the flat. She wished she had somewhere else to go. Her full-sized bed was neatly made, a stuffed bear gifted to her from her nieces on top of the lavender comforter.
She pulled her vintage suitcase from under the bed. As she stuffed her favorite bag with essentials, she wondered where she would go. Anywhere would be better than being in the same breathing space as the roommate from hell and her ex-con, drug-dealing, chain-smoking, eyes-wandering boyfriend.
