Even in Death

by Eden Wildblood

  Wynter opened the back door and knew before she’d even set foot inside what she’d find there. It was the same back entrance she had come and gone through with Jakob, and as she passed the small room she’d been held in, a pang of nostalgia hit her. They had laughed and joked in that room. Built a friendship. There would never be a day that she didn’t miss that bloody vampire, but Wynter was glad she had worked through her grief during her meditation. She had chosen to let Jak go, and so smiled as she thought of him, but didn’t dwell on it. She simply pressed on and headed through what were undoubtedly the servants’ quarters before coming up into the main entrance hall of the mansion.

  Damn him. Marcus had spared no expense in redecorating their home and while she was still annoyed about his way of doing things, Wynter couldn’t deny he had chosen well. But one thing this new décor lacked in abundance was love. She had done the work herself and put her love into every selection. Every stroke of the brush. He, on the other hand, had probably just hired an interior designer before ducking back in his office and finishing off his master plans. Had he even cared, or okayed the plans ahead of time? She very much doubted it, but refused to seethe any longer. She had plans of her own to see through, and in order to get there, Wynter knew she had to make amends with her reprehensible husband.

  She followed the small crowd of people through to the greatest of their halls, which had been kitted out with rows of chairs all facing towards a small stage. Inside, Wynter looked around, and she could see nothing more than a sea of humans. No vampires or witches, just Marcus’s new team, and she wondered how many had been recruited during these past few weeks. Had they already signed their lives away? Did they know what they were getting themselves into? Or perhaps tonight was his big reveal? As they each took a seat, she followed their lead and sat amongst them. Hiding in plain sight, even though he probably already knew exactly where she was.

  Wynter sat in silence and waited, and as she did so, she took a look at the array of faces all around her. Each of them were staring forwards like they were under some kind of spell, answering her previous musings regarding their contracts having already been initiated, and as she glanced around she immediately spotted a plaited pink braid a few rows in front.

  Could it be? Could her old friend phoebe have survived too? The geeky girl who had given her more than just a shoulder to cry on, but who had offered her comfort when all hope had seemed lost. Phoebe had been sent to oversee one of the new clubs’ IT department before everything had kicked off, and Wynter hadn’t seen her since. Perhaps she had been spared after all. She sure hoped so.

  “Welcome!” Marcus’s deep voice then boomed from somewhere behind the stage, and the crowd went wild for him. There had to be well over two hundred humans there, and each began clapping and hollering as he mounted the steps and stood proudly over them.

  It was the oddest sight, like she was at some kind of show where a self-help guru was on stage talking into a microphone about his own brand of enlightenment or miracle cure, and Wynter watched as he grinned at the adoring welcome he’d received. Marcus was lapping up their adulation like she knew he’d always loved to, and when his eyes fell on hers he simply winked and then carried on scanning his new team’s many faces.

  Bastard. She’d been right, of course. He’d known she was there.

  He then shushed the crowd and waited a beat before getting right to the point. “I have some wonderful news. Slave is back up and running, as is Bound, and we have numerous other new locations opening within the coming weeks!” he told them, and the news was met with renewed cheers and applause. The old and human Wynter would have been devastated to hear that. She would’ve thought about the amount of poor Blood Slaves such an undertaking would require, but not any more. She had thousands of vampires to feed, and so needed those slaves. She had cultivated her plan to have blood deposited in small quantities at each sitting, amounting to large amounts over the days, and so would be plentiful for her hordes. No one would have to die and at least that way her devoted soldiers would not go hungry.

  The only thing in all of this that Wynter didn’t get yet, was what these humans were doing in their home. It wasn’t long until she got her answer. “And so, to your roles in this,” Marcus told them, and each of the humans hung on his every word, “you have all been appointed as Supervisor thanks to my meticulous standards. In this room sits two Supervisor’s for each of my clubs around the world. Some of you are already in post and others are waiting to start, but for the time being you will all stay here at the mansion while being trained. Plus, as an added bonus, you are all now tasked with personally serving my feeding needs.”

  Murmurs echoed through the crowd. Some of the humans seemed shocked, while others were confused, and Wynter could tell from that fact alone how there was a complete mix of older and new employees for Marcus to oversee. It was the older ones who knew he was indeed very particular in who he fed from, and so seemed surprised to hear he was ready to feed from them. He had changed his tune and while they could understand the alterations in the way his clubs might work, they couldn’t seem to grasp this change in how he himself chose to feed.

  Wynter shot to her feet and saw how Marcus was just as surprised as the rest of them by her sudden movement. He scowled at her, clearly thinking she was about to storm off because he had run none of these plans by her, but instead she walked towards him.

  They hadn’t spoken in over two weeks. Not since he had ruined the work she had painstakingly undertaken at his behest, and there was a part of her that wanted to do the same to his. Maybe she could kill everyone in the room. Render him without his chosen ‘Supervisors’ and make him have to start all over again too?

  No. She had told herself this wasn’t the way she wanted to do this. He would only retaliate if she did and Wynter knew she wasn’t ready to keep some kind of feud going. Marcus loved her, or so he had always said. He’d proven it in the way he’d acted, even when he was being cruel and unreasonable, and so she decided it was time she tried her best to care for him in return. To let go of the past and move forward, even if she had to force it.

  Wynter said nothing as she moved through the crowd towards him, but she saw their guests each turn to stare at her in surprise and murmur to one another, asking what the hell she was doing. Even Phoebe seemed shocked, and while Wynter was pleased to find her alive, she didn’t address her yet. Their reunion could wait.

  “And what is my role in all of this, Marcus?” she whispered as she neared the stage, and she peered up at him with a gentle, innocent look on her face she hoped he knew was sincere. She wasn’t there for a fight, just for the truth.

  It was Bryn who decided to intercept her. He stood from his seat at the front and blocked her path, a sneer etched across his usually so stoic face.

  “Well, seeing as Mr Cole has done away with his Managers and has chosen to feed from all us Supervisors instead, I think it’s obvious—you’ve been demoted, Miss Armstrong…” he told her, and then sniggered, like he had just told the funniest little joke.

  Something came over Wynter in that moment, and she wanted nothing more than to snap Bryn’s neck in front of all these people. She wanted to hurt him. To tear that stupid grin from his face. She instead feigned upset, like he was right, but then started to laugh along with him. Her face spread with an even wider smile than his, and then on instinct, she lifted her hand and slapped him across the face with so much force he went flying to the floor and then slid another eight feet.

  The room fell deathly silent and all eyes were on her, but all Wynter could look at was Marcus. She needed him to be the one to say the words. To reveal all at long last.

  And she would wait there as long as it took for him to validate her position in front of all his employees, both new and seasoned.

  Nine

  Marcus was suitably impressed. He had already spied his darling wife in the crowd of course, but was well aware of her movements before seeing her anyway. He always knew exactly wh
at she was up to. Knew where she was and what she was doing, which was why it’d taken him so damn long to finally get his affairs in order in the first place.

  Even now that she couldn’t possibly escape, he still fretted night and day that she might try. The memories of her absence haunted him, like a corpse rotting in the confines of his dark heart. And rather than breathing life into him, her return often felt like more torture, not less. Keeping tabs on Wynter was a necessary part of his daily struggle, and it was also the root of his problems. But he wouldn’t stop his invasive adoration and the ways and means he had of getting his fix of her no matter how much his work was suffering.

  Because of course, he couldn’t get enough. Of her smile and the way her body fit against his. Of the way she made him feel. Even her hate. He loved the fervent loathing she had for him, and even though he could no longer enjoy the taste of that harsh nectar for himself, he knew that bitterness still ran deep, in spite of the precious gift his Priestess had given her.

  Damn, he loved her. So much he’d kill every human in this room if she demanded it. His promises to the High Committee of Vampires meant nothing when compared to her needs. If she told him to burn it all down again, he would.

  Something had changed in her now though. His sweet little fighter somehow seemed as if she was ready and willing to become more than just his captive. She wanted her place by his side rather than accept it because she had no other choice, and he’d be lying if he didn’t acknowledge her actions as both unexpected and delightful.

  Their last six weeks together hadn’t been the best, after all.

  He had needed to get his head down and work, but all he’d been able to focus on was her, which was exactly why he’d given her the task of decorating their home in a bid to get her out of his sight and keep her nice and busy. But instead of working, he’d spent half the time either watching her or keeping tabs via his ever-loyal alpha soldier.

  Wynter had done an amazing job on the house, but over the course of it had grown a tremendous deal of independence. Far too much autonomy for his liking. She had also somehow grown closer to the vampires he commanded and had given strength to from his own flesh and blood. The alpha and the rest of his comrades were not hers to oversee, and yet they doted on her. They assisted her and followed her commands without hesitation, and then to top it all off, the alpha had gone and secured her place as their queen without so much as asking for Marcus’s permission. He had led her to the hordes of his own accord and had dared let her kiss him.

  It wasn’t his place to take her there, or to instigate any of that. Marcus should’ve been the one to do it, and so of course, he had been livid. He hadn’t sought to trash the house though. It’d been a knee-jerk reaction to ruin everything she had done, and he’d regretted it immediately, but couldn’t tell her so. He had made strides in the right direction, sure, but he still couldn’t admit to being wrong. And so, when she had returned he’d attempted to turn things back around onto her as usual, but rather than fight him, or grin and bear it as normal, something had seemed to snap in her. Wynter hadn’t fought or screamed at him. She hadn’t called him names or begged him to stop being so cruel. She had simply surveyed the carnage behind him with a miserable and heartbroken look on her face, and then walked away without a word.

  She had lost her fight, and Marcus knew then how he truly had failed at being a good husband to her. The silence was a hundred times worse than if she’d just bellowed and stormed at him. If she too had lashed out in her rage.

  Instead, Wynter had taken herself away from him completely. But of course, she couldn’t get far thanks to the magical barriers he commanded, and so she had climbed up into that tree, where she had remained for more than two weeks.

  Marcus had watched her out the third floor window for days. Watched as she had simply laid there staring up into the sky as the world carried on turning without her. There was no emotion on her beautiful face, and he’d hated seeing her like that. She hadn’t moved a muscle, even when the workmen had come and gone, or when their work had continued to go on beneath her. He’d wondered at length what was going through her mind. Was she plotting his demise? Trying to sever their connection by internally attempting to free herself of the magic his Priestess had shared with her? Or perhaps he had pushed her one time too many and she was thinking of all the ways in which she could hurt him in return. Planning a lifetime of hatred, when all he had ever wanted was for her to love him.

  Yeah, he knew he had a funny way of showing it, but that didn’t make it any less true.

  And so, while she had clearly needed her space, he had finally gotten down to work. Marcus had already planned the fundamentals of his new regime, and he spent the days that followed adding the final touches to the plan before sending out invitations to all of his most trusted employees. He currently owned more than thirty clubs across the world, with another thirty due to open by the end of the year, and he’d decided that they each needed two Supervisors to oversee the running of them.

  He was no longer going to be based out of Slave or any other club. He was going to run his empire from the mansion alongside his wife, and they were going to be happy. He was going to make it so, but first, he had to rebuild his businesses from the ground up. The other clubs across the globe were running smoothly enough, and Marcus knew he could do the same here.

  And so, two members of staff were to be put into the prime position and would be expected to work and live at their relative clubs so they were there around the clock. One would be an older or more seasoned member of his current staff, who was experienced in his workings and the trade of Blood Slaves, and one would be a completely new employee, who would be trained by their senior counterpart. And Marcus was going to feed from them all. No more select few Managers, and no more overseeing the day-to-day business himself. He would do it from afar, and they would take it in turns to come to him with their veins at the ready. In return they would be offered amnesty from the other vampires who were patrons of their clubs.

  This also meant that Jack was affectively off the hook, but Marcus wasn’t done with him yet. He would still keep him at the mansion as a back up, but would also let him be with his family. Marcella needed him, and although he hadn’t liked the changes made in this generation of Priestess, Marcus knew it was time he let them have a life of their own. Let them raise their new daughter together, rather than for him to take the child under his wing and then drink the mother dry, like he had with all his previous Priestesses. They had gone willingly of course, but this time was different. This time he had Wynter and she needed him more than any witch progeny did.

  With the room still deathly quiet, Marcus sent a wave of power throughout the group, commanding that they remain so, and that they watch him intently as he climbed down off the stage and went over to his wife’s side.

  “My sweet,” he whispered, and he gathered her in his arms, placing kisses against her cheek and lips. “You came back to me,” Marcus added, and he could sense her iciness beginning to thaw. In fact, she seemed like an open book. For the first time he felt he knew exactly what she needed, and was relieved to discover that those needs involved him.

  “Of course,” Wynter whimpered, and she curled her body against his, driving him wild with desire for her. They had abstained for too long, and he was so full of lust he felt like taking her there and then, in front of the crowd, but forced himself to take a step backwards. He wanted her, like always, but wanted her in their new bed upstairs. Wanted her for hours, perhaps days. Not a quickie with an audience.

  Marcus led her up onto the stage instead, their hands entwined, and once there he grinned down at his devoted followers much like a cult leader might do with his flock. They were peering up at the two of them, their eyes wide with surprise and their ears trained solely on his voice. So ready for his commands. So eager to serve him.

  He’d missed this. Nothing was more perfect.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, pay no attention to what that fool dar
ed say,” he told them, and he saw the only just recovered Bryn turn a delightful shade of red at having been chastised in front of all the others. “None of you know this, but I have recently taken this incredible woman as my wife. She is mine, and she rules by my side. You will speak to her as you would me, and anything else will be dealt with harshly. I will not stand for anything less than perfection and devotion.”

  He revelled in the trepidation he felt emanating from his more seasoned members of staff. The new ones didn’t know what he was capable of yet, but they would, and soon they too would watch him in fear. They wouldn’t dare talk out of turn, and if they did, he was willing to bet they didn’t do so a second time after he was done punishing them.

  On his insistence, Wynter then stepped forward and she eyed the crowd resolutely. He was about to say more, when she surprised him by speaking up as well.

  “I do not want your devotion, but your respect. I’ll endeavour to talk with all of you in turn and learn your names and more about you. I would like to know each and every person here, and will offer council to any who might need it. But please, do not fear me,” she told them, and he sensed a shift happen among his loyal subjects. They somehow trusted her already, even after just a few seconds. “Not even when you discover what I am…”

  Marcus didn’t need to look. He felt Wynter’s hand turn to mist in his, and the gasps from the crowd were enough to tell him how shocked the humans were to discover his wife was far more than she had once seemed. He grinned down at them and then turned to watch as Wynter reappeared, this time wearing one of her specially selected ball gowns.

  His minions were beyond impressed, but they needed to get back to the task at hand, and so Marcus settled them back down with another wave of his magical hold on them.