by Rena Marks
Up the winding steps we walked. At the top of the staircase was another long hallway, identical to the one we’d left except for one difference. The lack of rows of doors that the bottom level had.
There was one lone door clear down at the end. We walked to it without speaking. My silence was excitement, Chen was probably perturbed.
It was locked. No key.
“Damn,” I said, pounding on the heavy door in frustration. It wasn’t exactly a knock, it was more an open-palmed strike, but the door was opened.
“Mistress.” The vampire who opened the door bowed.
It was that easy? What the mistress wants, the mistress gets. That was a lesson for the future.
“What is this room?” I asked.
“The hallway that leads to the turret you view from the front of the castle,” he said. “I am Acelin.”
“Acelin. Call me Anjelia. This is Chen.”
The vampire greeting was brief. The two of them locked eyes and then lowered their gazes slightly. Whatever. There were so many rituals in France, I couldn’t keep track. It was worse than the werewolves.
“I’d like to see the inside of the turret. May I?”
“Whatever you wish, mistress.”
The inner hallway was tinier than the previous one. Only wide enough for one person to pass. So we walked single file, our footsteps echoing through the small corridor. At the end, another matching heavy door stood, stark and heavy. This time, Acelin had the key. He inserted it into the lock and it turned with a heavy thud and a dull click. He pushed open the door and it creaked slowly, long sounds, as though it were in pain.
For some strange reason, anticipation coursed through me. I wondered why.
Chapter Five
The room was deadly silent. Not even a hint of breeze through the open windows rustled the hay strewn on the floor.
A woman, hardly more than a child, huddled chained to the wall. Her head was bent over her chest, her wild, ratty hair covering her face. She looked more animal than human.
The turret had open windows with bars covering the openings. It was night right now but the daylight shining through had to be painfully bright if she was vampire.
“Who are you?” I asked.
She didn’t answer and Acelin strode over to her, grabbing her arm. “Answer the new mistress,” he snarled.
The woman-child hissed. Her hair parted enough to show the red glow of her eyes.
“Acelin,” I said sharply, annoyed with his brutality.
I slowly moved closer. When she didn’t move, I knelt before her. An anxious Chen waited at my side, forever fearful for my safety. I slowly reached out my hand to her, just to raise her face, but she snarled, baring her teeth.
The sound was horrific in the ominous quiet of the room.
Chen and Acelin each grabbed a bony shoulder, flinging her backward and slamming her fragile body against the stone wall.
She was too weak to struggle. With her face lifted enough to see her features, I saw she was starved.
She had been without blood long enough that her features were wild, her shell aged yet kept alive in a state of constant, torturous hunger. Her skin looked ready to disintegrate, like the dried, peel-away layers of a yellow onion.
“Shhh,” I crooned, smoothing wild, dirty hair from her face. “You’re just hungry, aren’t you?”
Her eyes, eerily intelligent, watched me warily. She never answered, afraid of whatever trickery she’d been exposed to in the past.
“Acelin, why is she kept chained and starved in a turret?” I asked mildly.
Beside me, Chen stiffened, well aware that my tone meant trouble. Acelin was clueless.
“She is being punished, mistress.”
“For?”
“She refused the master, once. Nico, I mean. She’s been kept in solitude ever since.”
“How long?”
He shrugged.
“Years?”
There was a pause before he answered. “Yes.”
“Her name?”
“Verity.”
I stroked her cheek lightly, afraid to crumble the delicate tissues. She shuddered as if she’d been so long without human contact, she was afraid to have it.
“Well, Verity, I didn’t like Nico much either. Good thing he’s gone,” I said and her eyes actually connected with mine for the briefest second before she looked away.
“You didn’t know, did you?” I whispered.
She didn’t respond.
I turned my attention to my bodyguard. “Chen?”
“Yes?”
I held my wrist to his mouth. “Bite.”
“Mistress?”
“Do it,” I snapped, patience at an end. Sharp pain hit when he immediately punctured me without glamour.
I brought my wrist to Verity’s lips. I knew the scent of my blood would drift upward eventually to tempt her. When she couldn’t help herself any longer, she licked delicately, as though expecting me to yank it away. Then she shuddered, her thin shoulders shaking deeply as if it had been so long since she’d tasted real blood, it was nearly painful.
“Mistress,” Chen said harshly, “you are with child.”
“No one is more aware of that than I,” I responded.
“Julian won’t like this.”
“He will feed me later if need be,” I said calmly. “Go on, Verity. Take it,” I encouraged.
She suckled more gently than I’d have expected. We all watched as her face slowly transformed back to youth, with silky pink skin replacing the dried yellow it had been.
It was still dirt streaked, paths of tears cutting through the filth on her cheeks to make her face grimy but it was now smooth and beautiful underneath. I wondered what she would look like when clean.
“That’s enough,” Chen said.
Verity stopped immediately.
I pressed my fingers to the wound to hold the bleeding. Verity couldn’t seal the wounds, it would be up to Chen as the biter, but I certainly wasn’t going to beg.
Chen sighed and lifted my wrist to his mouth where his tongue flicked gently back and forth a few times. And then one more than necessary.
“Are you tasting me, Chen?” I asked in a fake, haughty voice.
He grinned boyishly, a look I’d never seen on the harsh man. His slanted eyes tilted upward at the corners and a new sparkle shone in the dark depths of his onyx pupils.
“No, mistress. Just wanted to make sure you were properly sealed. Can’t have you dripping as you walk.”
“You are incorrigible.” I gave him the faintest smile as I returned my attention to the watching guard, who looked slightly horrified by our casual American exchange.
“Can you unlock the shackles, Acelin?” I asked.
“I can. But, mistress, it is her punishment to remain in solitary confinement.”
“For how long?”
“Her remaining days.”
“A little harsh considering she was being kept alive instead of being allowed to die, is it not? And what does she do during the day light hours?”
Acelin didn’t answer. Instead the husky voice came from Verity.
“Je cours.” I run.
“All day?” I asked her.
“Oui.” Yes.
“English, Verity. You’ll need to practice.”
“Yes,” she answered, heavily accented. “I run and I burn. The shackles? They keep me in the edges of the sun’s reach.”
“Well, no more. You’re done with that.”
Acelin gasped but wisely said nothing. After all, the old master was no longer here to protect him for defending his wishes.
“Keys,” I reminded him.
She was hurriedly unlocked.
“Now, follow me downstairs,” I said to her. “I’ll need to find Julian to let him know what I’ve done and then we’ll get you cleaned up, okay?”
I pulled her up by her hand, except she didn’t let go of mine. Perhaps, like a wolf, she needed to touch for comfort. I le
t her cling to me like a lifeboat and we made our way down winding staircases. Halfway down the second one, I paused to rub my lower back.
A little pain. After all, I’d donated blood, I’d had a long trip and I’d climbed up massive amounts of stairs.
Chen looked worried. I closed my eyes to search for Julian. Finally, I sensed him in a room full of vampires and lounging humans. A piano played in a corner like a party was in progress.
“A sitting room with a piano,” I murmured to Chen. “We’ll find it.”
It didn’t take long to find the room. The music stopped as we entered. Gasps followed, then silence. A female vampire dropped the glass she was drinking from. It bounced before shattering on the marble floors.
Verity stilled, and I had to pull her forcibly along by the hand.
“Non! It cannot be!” The female who dropped the glass said.
“Verity?” I inquired lightly of the stupid woman. “It is.”
“But she ees to be punished.”
I shrugged carelessly. “She was, from what I saw.”
Julian was instantly at my side. He had so much power, I realized. With all my own enhanced abilities, there were still some instances when even I couldn’t see him coming. “Where did you find a new pet, my sweet?”
“Locked in the most fascinating room upstairs, love. Barely fit for an animal, padlocked to a wall, with hay strewn across the floor. Between two open windows, I might add.”
“How did you heal her?” asked Marcus.
“Heal her?” Julian repeated mildly, his eyes narrowing on me.
“She was horribly burned by the sun. Daily. In the turret,” Marcus explained. “She was only fed enough dead blood to sustain her life for the next day’s punishment.”
Julian let a sigh escape. “Tell me you did not feed her in your state, Anjelia.”
“I could hardly leave her starved and suffering, could I?”
He shook his head. “What will I do with you? Thankfully, Dr. Leo will arrive tomorrow evening and can give you a thorough examination. In the meantime, head to our suite. I will feed you again.”
I rose on tiptoe to press a kiss to his lips. “Thank you, my love.” And then I turned, pulling Verity from the room with me.
“He’ll let you keep me?” she asked, wonderingly.
“Of course,” I laughed. “Let’s get you cleaned up. You stink like burning sunlight, missy.”
At the door I looked over my shoulder to see Julian still watched.
I blew him a kiss. “Will you send up a snack?”
He smiled, knowing it would be for Verity, and then flicked his hand. A human male rose to walk upstairs with us.
On the way, I asked the man which rooms were still empty. “Directly across from your room is available.”
“Then that’s the one for you,” I said to Verity.
I ran her a bath and waited while she fed from the human. I shooed him away when he was no longer useful.
Bathing Verity was like bathing a child. Her body was tiny and fragile. The funny thing was this creature had lived centuries longer than I.
She was painfully thin and not used to moving much, so she moved shakily still. I washed her hair and wondered how long it would take her to fatten up now that her diet was live blood.
I toweled her dry and she sat still the entire time. When I blow dried her hair, she had no idea what a blow dryer was. I saw the confusion in her eyes before she lowered her gaze and allowed me to finish drying it. Her hair was hopelessly matted from years of being uncombed, even with the massive amounts of conditioner I’d worked into it. It dried in the constant, ratted tangle.
“I’m sorry,” I said to her when her hair was dry. “It won’t untangle. It’ll have to be cut.”
She nodded.
“Would you like me to?”
She nodded again, simply. Trustingly.
I searched the dresser and found a pair of scissors. I cut the snarls out first, hoping to salvage some of her length. Unfortunately, they went much further than expected and when I finished, her hair was short. Nearly as short as Julian’s. But it was adorable, sticking up in a spiky way. She looked like a tiny elf.
I smoothed it comfortingly, with one hand. “Tonight, you’ll sleep. A deep rest, away from the others. At dawn, you’ll die. How early do you arise?”
“When ze sun burns, I arise. And I run.”
“There’s no more running. No more burning. So when you arise tomorrow, you’ll come across the hall and get me. Later in the day, I’ll have a friend here who can stay with you. If you’d like to return with me to the States, you’re welcome to. Or you can stay here. Whatever you’d like, but no one will hurt you any longer.”
By the time I returned to my own room, Julian was waiting. He sat on our bed, bare-chested and beautiful. He opened his arms as I approached and pulled me to his lap.
“What will I do with you, my sweet?” He punctured his own throat with his nail, and I eagerly closed my mouth over the wound.
I would never get enough of his blood. It filled me with joy to feed from his power and I realized this is what he must feel when he fed from my essence. I, of course, could regenerate blood, I was just weakened until I did so.
When I’d finished my fierce sucking, I stayed cuddled on his lap, my lips still at his throat.
“I need to do something,” he said, slowly.
“What?”
“You may not like it. I will take Verity’s blood, to partially link her to me. That way I will be aware of her thoughts always.”
“Why?” I asked.
“I want you to be safe and she could be unstable from years of torture. I will not allow anything to happen to you.”
I was going to protest that she’d had enough trauma but it was the desperation in his voice that swayed me. Julian had been through a lot to protect me over the years, even allowing our relationship to be shared with Leo. When I looked up, he knew he’d won me over.
“You need to ask her,” I insisted. “Not just take. She’s had enough of that.”
“I will,” he agreed, kissing my nose. Hand in hand, we walked across the hall to Verity’s room.
After a brief knock, Julian opened the door to the most pathetic thing I’d ever seen. She was huddled in a corner of the bed, blankets all around her and she looked up with huge, frightened eyes.
“Verity,” Julian said quietly, eyes taking in the scene. His voice was rich, mesmerizing. “Be calm. Will you share your blood?”
Big eyes stared at us, never blinking. She nodded but at least it wasn’t fearful.
I sat on the bed next to her and hugged her to me. She rested her head on my shoulder, closing her eyes.
Her neck and shoulder was exposed by the nightgown I’d dressed her in. Julian leaned forward, kissing my lips softly and then bared his fangs.
He sank them into the area between her shoulder and her neck and didn’t drink much. It couldn’t have been that tasty of an exchange, she’d only had two meals recently. Years of dead blood had comprised her diet before that.
Julian licked once to close the pin pricks and sat up. I continued stroking her back, and Julian uttered one word.
“Sleep.”
His power flowed through her veins. She immediately slumped onto my shoulder and together Julian and I maneuvered her gently back into the bed. I tucked the covers around her thin body and Julian helped me up off the bed.
Verity looked helpless in that huge bed, and...stakeable.
“Do you think any of the French vamps will bother her?” I asked, worried.
“They wouldn’t dare.”
That fear was assuaged by the definition in his voice. Finally, we could settle down for a peaceful night.
I woke while Julian’s body was stone cold. A glance at the bedside clock showed nine. He’d been dead for several hours.
I slid into a robe, and called down to the kitchen to have a human breakfast brought up. While it was being prepared, I slipped acro
ss the hall to check on Verity.
She was cold also and I tucked the blankets tighter around her, even though I knew she couldn’t feel it.
Chapter Six
I’d showered and had breakfast.
Bored, I wandered downstairs. The humans were the only ones who roamed the house in the mornings. It was laughable, actually.
They were fully dressed to the nines, like soap opera stars on reality TV. They gathered in circles, speaking of their individual vampire stories. How each human was coveted for their blood. Since they only had each other to speak to, I imagined they heard the same stories countless times.
A few dressed like the vampires, with a thick coating of zinc oxide on all exposed skin should they venture near windows. Most had their hair dyed jet black to make their skin appear paler.
“How long have you been a mistress?” The voice was ugly.
The woman who spoke had kept staring at me yesterday. Later I found out she was Marcus's human.
She continued to look down her narrow nose. The chatter stopped at the rudeness. The others knew the woman didn’t realize that I had to address her first.
My witch powers swelled, thickening the air like a sauna. I allowed the hush to be long and drawn out by simply staring at her. Her breathing became shallow and quickened as she panicked, realizing her mistake.
The other vampire wannabes mimicked the vampires as best they could, controlling their facial expressions. I’d heard one rumbling that by perfecting vampire attributes, one day you would receive the honor of being turned. Now they all stood, perfectly still, trying to control their racing heartbeats.
“Why does that concern you?” I allowed my eyebrows to raise, deliberating exaggerating my movements. These people were so twisted to ignore their own humanity.
Most of the people averted their eyes, now wanting to disassociate with her. She, on the other hand, was too stupid to catch on. She decided to use her own status. Obviously she was used to pushing her influence.
“I belong to Marcus. I have the right to speak to you.”
I smiled grimly. She really was funny. “Please, do so.”
She straightened her spine, trying to appear haughty. “I simply wondered how you did it. How you rose to vampire mistress? How you earned human servant?” She looked down at me, and her breasts rose the slightest millimeter. She was so sure she had the upper hand.
