by Bocco, Diana
Miles watched him with obvious interest and Marcus could see the traces of a smile forming on the usually stone face. “I guess I understand now.”
“Understand what?”
“Why you’ve suddenly decided you needed a pet after so many centuries,” Miles said.
Marcus frowned and looked back up towards the window. “Let’s just make sure we keep this between us for now. I wouldn’t want my enemies knowing about it.”
A second passed. Then another. Miles focused his eyes on the window, almost as if studying the wavering of the curtains in the wind. There was a heaviness in the air, the kind that came around when questions were left unanswered and secrets were hushed. “How much do you care about her?”
Marcus groaned and turned his gaze towards his friend. He had been avoiding that question for the past few days, worried that he would uncover something about himself that he’d prefer to keep buried. Because the truth was that vampires couldn’t afford to feel anything for a human. They were too fragile, too volatile. They were the prey and he was the hunter.
He ran a hand through his hair before letting out a breath. “More than I’m ready to admit right now,” he finally said. Miles straightened, his eyes still locked on the second floor window. “Then let’s make sure it remains a secret.”
Marcus nodded and looked up. The heaviness in the air seemed to slip into his chest. He was worried. Not only for her safety, but for the safety of everybody in the compound, human or not. Because if there was anything his enemies would love, it would be to find out the king had a weak spot.
When he finally spoke, his voice was tight. “Let’s go check the walls, Miles. I could use the distraction.”
~*~
After an hour of searching every inch of the walls in her room, Belle was still nowhere closer to finding a secret door. If there was one in her room, the mechanism was a lot more clever—and much better hidden—than she had first expected. She sighed in exasperation and walked towards the door. As soon as she touched the door handle, the vampire on the other side pushed the door ajar and eyed her steadily.
Did she know him? She didn’t think so. Miles wasn’t the friendliest of vampires, but at least he didn’t look as menacing as the one on the other side of her door right now. The steely spark in his eyes was the closest to warmth in his whole expression; everything else was just stone. The idea of trying to reason with him briefly crossed her mind, but she waved it away. There was no way she was getting past the guard and she knew it.
She stepped back into the room and the door closed behind her. A storm was raging in her mind and trying to make sense of anything was proving harder and harder. Why was she being guarded? Suddenly her interests were splitting in an assortment of different directions. She wanted to go out and search for the two women she’d seen with Lori. She also wanted to find at least one of what she suspected were many secret doors in the compound—except that searching for them could leave her exposed. If there was a guard posted outside her door during the night, it made sense to think they were also keeping tabs on her during the day somehow. And by “they,” she really meant Marcus.
Maybe all the little secrets he was letting out were finally weighing heavily in his mind and he had decided she needed to be watched. Except that she doubted that was the case. In fact, she was almost sure that the king wasn’t the kind of man… the kind of creature… who would regret his decisions. If he had told her about the daylight immunity, he had to have a reason for it. Just because she wasn’t aware of what that reason was didn’t mean it didn’t exist.
She paced around for a few seconds before heading towards the window above her bed. Dark clouds were gathering in the distance, bringing with them a faint rumble of thunder.
Chapter 13
She’d finally fallen asleep sometime in the middle of the night. Even then, her sleep was plagued with flashes of death, chaos and disaster. At one point in her dreams, she saw her brother, running away through the open fields near the house. He kept trying to tell her something, but she couldn’t make out the words. His lips moved as he screamed, but the sound got lost into the echoing darkness. Even worse, she hadn’t even tried to help him or move towards him. Instead, she’d just stood there, watching him run into the gloom of the night.
And then the rabids had come up crawling through the land, up from the belly of the underground. Their eyes were bloodshot and insane. One, two, ten. Suddenly there were dozens of them running after Shawn. But she still didn’t move. She stood frozen in place, next to the king, watching as the rabids tore into her brother’s body. The smell of death lingered in the air, thick and perfume-like. It was such a familiar odor, such a well-known thickness in the air, that it almost felt comforting. Death is all you know, something from inside her whispered.
And then she heard the screams, half beast and half human. Sounds of agony that tore through her skin and reverberated in her chest.
She woke up panting, her heart hammering so loud against her ribs that her entire chest hurt. Sitting on the bed, she buried her face in her hands and took a few deep breaths. Calm down, damn it. It was just a dream.
But she wasn’t so sure it had been. After all, there was at least a small chance the house was in danger. A chance her brother had gone looking for her and run into the rabids. An immense sense of dread filled her chest and sent her heart into a frantic race. It’s OK, they’re OK, she told herself, even though she had trouble believing the words.
She looked towards the window and the rain tapping quietly against the glass. She had stopped using a watch a long time ago because time no longer mattered. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to be. Right now, though, she would’ve liked to know what time it was. Despite the storm outside, the sky was bright, probably closer to noon than to early morning. Still, her body felt tattered, like she had barely rested.
When she finally gathered enough strength to get up, she walked to the bathroom and placed her whole head under the tap. The cold water sent a shiver down her spine but also helped her wake up. It would be a while before she stopped loving the luxury of running water.
She rubbed her hair with a towel and then walked towards the door. Then she leaned against it, trying to detect any small sounds coming from the other side.
Nothing.
The logical deduction would’ve been that the guard was gone, since it was daylight, but she now knew better. He could easily be standing on the other side, holding his post. She eyed the windows, which were too small—and probably too high up—to use safely and then groaned in frustration.
She needed to get out of the room at some point during the day. Not only to search the compound and see if she could find any of the secret doors, but also because she wanted to find Lori’s friends. She wasn’t sure if they’d been told anything about her death. If they hadn’t, they deserved to hear it from her, not from one of the vampires. Back at the hospital, she had always insisted on being the one delivering the news when she lost a patient, and today didn’t have to be any different. Or at least she didn’t want it to be different.
She was still leaning close to the door when somebody knocked. She jumped back in surprise, her heart pounding.
The second knock was just as soft, but this time it came with a whispering voice attached to it. “Isabelle?”
Vicki. She took a deep breath, then reached forward and opened the door. The guard was gone.
The woman’s face was alit with surprise, as if she couldn’t believe Isabelle was actually there. She remained motionless for a few seconds, looking over Belle’s shoulder and into the room, then back to her face.
“It’s true, then,” she finally said, and there was a hint of accusation in her voice.
Isabelle frowned slightly. “I was heading to the kitchen, do you want to come along?”
“Can I see the room first?”
Isabelle looked over the woman’s shoulder. “Have you seen any guards around?”
Vicki seemed to conside
r her words for a second, then scoffed. “What do you mean, guards? It’s daytime.”
So it was a secret after all, the immunity to daylight. Isabelle wondered if it was a wise thing keeping it a secret, considering the events of the night before.
She hesitated for a second, then stepped aside. “Come in.”
She had no idea where the rest of the humans in the compound slept, but she could bet it wasn’t in a room like hers. Suddenly, she felt guilty. Not because she had the best room and others didn’t, but because she couldn’t explain right now why it was a good thing that she had it. Now that she knew there were secret doors and passageways below the compound, she couldn’t be sure who was watching and when. For all she knew, there was a vampire behind a peephole just a few feet away. There was no way she could risk speaking about her plans or opening up to anybody. Especially not in her room.
Vicki’s eyes kept moving around the room, trying to take it all in. When she finally turned around to face Isabelle, her face was laced with tension and something else. Jealousy?
“So the rumors are true,” she said. “You are the king’s pet.”
Belle groaned. “I hate that word, but I guess the answer is yes.”
Vicki sat down on her bed and Isabelle had an immediate urge to actually push her out the door.
“What is he like?”
How was she supposed to answer a question like that? Not with the truth, definitely. Because telling Vicki the truth meant she had to admit it to herself first.
“I don’t know.” She shook her head, trying to find the right words to lie properly.
“I’ve been in the compound for four years and I’ve never seen him take a pet,” Vicki said, and that spark of recrimination was back in her voice. “He’s always so distant, so away from everything and everybody. We really don’t know anything about him.”
Isabelle shifted on her feet. “Please don’t talk about us as if we’re animals. Pet is their word, not ours.”
Vicki shrugged, basically ignoring her words. “Being his does have some privileges,” she said as she looked around the room one more time.
“I don’t care about the room.”
“Is he… violent?”
It sounded as if Vicki was hoping the answer was yes. Was this what it was all about? So much darkness around them and people were still worrying about who got the better house and the shinier car. Or, in this case, the fanciest room.
She didn’t have the patience to deal with this stuff any longer. Or maybe she just didn’t care anymore. The past twenty-four hours had been exhausting, she was in a bad mood and she hadn’t done any of the things she wanted—needed—to do, including finding the door and searching for Lori’s friends. Petty jealousy was the last thing she wanted to deal with at the moment.
“I need food,” she answered, wanting to hurry Vicki up towards the door. “Let’s just get out of here.”
Vicki’s gaze was fixed on hers but she was quiet. Even more obviously, she was annoyed. And all of a sudden, Belle was annoyed too. How long had Vicki said she’d been at the compound? At least four years. So she had jumped into the compound opportunity as soon as it became an option. And now she was wondering how come the newcomer had ended up with the shinier car. As if the whole thing had anything to do with seniority.
She pointed to the door again and made a motion for both of them to go. No way she was leaving this woman alone in her room. Vicki let out a sigh of frustration and then headed out without saying another word.
If it came time to fight and pick sides, Isabelle was pretty sure Vicki wasn’t going to stand on her side. The shinier car side was apparently a lot more appealing.
Chapter 14
It had been a day of nothingness. She had spent most of the afternoon trying to find Lori’s friends without luck. How in the world did somebody disappear within the walls of the compound? Unless they both happened to be walking constantly ahead of her without her knowing it.
On top of that, the encounter with Vicki nagged in the back of her mind. The whole conversation had left a bad taste in her mouth and a sort of heaviness in her stomach. Vicki had followed her to the kitchen, trying to continue a conversation she had no intentions of indulging. Only when Vicki realized she wasn’t going to get any answers had she finally had left Isabelle alone. Even then, though, the ringing of poorly controlled jealousy had stayed with Isabelle throughout the rest of the day.
So much that even when she had managed to find what she thought was one of the secret doors—tucked away at the end of one of those going-nowhere corridors—she just couldn’t get excited enough about it. Not that it would have made any difference, because finding the door didn’t mean she could open it. There was some sort of hidden mechanism or code needed for the door to slide open—and she had no idea how to get it to happen.
So when Marcus had sent for her that evening, just as the sun was setting down, she’d been more than just glad to go to him. She hadn’t even realized it until then, but she’d been looking forward to his company, to his voice undulating in the room and into her body and her blood like music. Looking forward to his touch that awoke every single cell in her body. It was as if her body was organically hungry for him, missing him, aching for his energy. She didn’t like the feeling of urgency she was experiencing, but that didn’t mean it was any less real.
The second she stepped into his room, however, the air was different. He turned to look at her and his whole expression was darker than usual. Still, at the sight of her, his body relaxed, the ripples of his muscles easing down as she moved closer. He still looked massive and no doubt intimidating to anybody else, but she was beginning to understand the subtleties of his movements. To learn when the king had things weighing on his mind.
All of a sudden, she felt an unbearable urge to hold him and that set alarms off in both her mind and her body. It was a visceral reaction to his discomfort and one she could neither control nor deny. She wanted to comfort him, take the worry away. Comfort the monster. Comfort her monster, her mind corrected, and her heart went into a race.
He noticed right away, his eyes moving to her chest to trace the source of the sound. Then they immediately softened and his breath changed cadence to match the beating of her heart.
“Can you keep a secret, Belle?”
She froze, her body suddenly on edge. A secret. Another secret. For a second, she wanted to say no. Don’t tell me your secrets, Marcus. I’m the enemy. Then she remembered her brother and the people back at the house.
“Of course,” she replied, hoping he wouldn’t notice the slight wavering in her voice.
He hesitated for a fraction of a second. Just a slight flicker of apprehension while his eyes probed hers. Never had she been more glad she couldn’t be charmed. What kind of information would he have been able to get out of her if she’d been under his spell? Everything? Then he headed towards the door, his perfect form filling the room as he walked away from her.
“Follow me.”
And Belle had a fleeting thought: she was almost sure she’d follow him to the end of the world.
~*~
This time she stayed close to him as they walked down the tunnels. She still couldn’t see anything and twice she tripped and ended up crashing against his massive back. The tunnels had obviously not been constructed with humans in mind, as they were pitch black. Darkness down there not only looked thick, it also smelled thick. She had the distinct feeling that if she stretched her arms to the sides, she would be able to actually touch the shadows.
There was also a sort of murmuring quality to the tunnels. At first she’d thought it was her ears playing tricks on her, but after a couple of minutes, she realized the sounds were real, even though she couldn’t quite place them. It was like the tunnels were breathing all around her, whistling a tune of dense obscurity into her ears.
“Are we alone down here?”
Marcus continued walking in front of her and at first she thought maybe he was
ignoring her question. The silence stretched out for seconds, as the whispering of the tunnels seemed to grow more intense.
“In a way,” he finally responded.
What the hell does that mean, in a way? She sighed and then quickly turned around when she felt something moving in the distance. It disoriented her for a second and she lost track of which way was forward until he spoke again.
“What is it?” he asked.
She swallowed hard and the sound bounced off the walls and intensified before fading off, as if devoured by the darkness.
“I swear this place feels alive,” she finally said, moving closer to him. “Are you sure nobody is watching?”
She could almost hear his smile forming. “I didn’t say nobody’s watching. They’re just not watching from right here.”
