As our guests began to arrive, the staff showed them through the patio doors to our late spring oasis. The night air was warm enough a shawl wasn’t needed, though I had one picked out that was an exact match for the hue of my crimson dress.
Speaking of, my dress…was…spectacular.
The clothing style in America has proven to be so vastly different from London, I didn’t appreciate it at first glance. However, one day while Mother and I window-shopped, the featured dress caught my attention. With its straight lines and understated elegance, I simply couldn’t resist purchasing it. The front has a deeply scooped chest, reminiscent of Marie Antoinette’s style, but the sleeves are short and barely cover the tops of my shoulders. The waistline is high with a sash that ties in the back. The sash combined with the low neckline accentuates my breasts and makes me feel very grown-up. The bottom is flowing and so very romantic, unlike the stuffy, formal hoop dresses I grew up wearing.
I’ve normally stayed far away from Father’s business gatherings because the dull conversation nearly bores me into a coma. The thick smoke from the cigars makes me cough, and the sweet stench of the tobacco turns my stomach. Tonight was the first time I’ve joined any business dinner willingly and without being asked first. But then, I’ve never really had a reason to want to go before Mr. Ramses Barnett arrived on the scene.
I made my entrance after everyone had arrived and settled into their comfortable conversation routine. As I stepped onto the lanai, the warm breeze greeted me, blowing my long blond hair away from my face. I rarely wear it down with the ends curled as it is tonight, but I chose that style because it makes me look older, more mature. More sophisticated. More worldly.
And then Ramses looked up at me. For the first time in my life, I felt desired. Wanted. Needed—in the same way someone drowning needs a breath of air. In the same way a man dying of thirst needs water. In the same way a sick person needs health. In the same way someone starving needs a bite to eat.
With that one look from him, everything else faded to black in the background. All I could see was him. All I could hear was my heart thumping in my chest. While the small band played their original music for the other guests, the erratic beat of my heart rivaled them by creating its own music.
Ramses approached me and held his hand out after he bowed slightly. I accepted his hand, and he pulled me closer to him in a partner dance. With one hand on my waist and the other holding my hand in the air, he led us around the dance floor with grace and ease. I don’t think I moved my eyes away from his penetrating stare even once during the entire song.
“Alea, have you found a way to let that poor sap down so you’re not officially engaged anymore?”
“Since last night?” I laughed, and he flashed his most charming smile.
“I guess I’d hoped your father would send a letter first thing this morning.”
“Sean is my friend, nothing more. No matter what, I wouldn’t wish anything bad to happen to him.”
“Why would anything bad happen to him?”
“You know how people are,” I hedged. “If they think there’s anything to talk about, they’ll blow it all out of proportion with rumors. We just want to head that off at the pass as much as we can.”
“That’s very honorable. On top of being so beautiful and intelligent, you’re also thoughtful and considerate. There are so many things to love about you, Alea.”
His directness is so new to me, especially with what he said last night. He doesn’t seem like a young man freshly arrived here from London’s high society. But then again, I’ve never really been around other men his age. Only Father’s business associates, and that’s exactly why I stayed away from their meetings as much as possible. Ramses is actually quite refreshing and doesn’t leave me guessing what he’s thinking.
“I’m surprised you haven’t already found a nice lady to settle down with and have a family.” The words flew out of my mouth before I could stop them. I’ve never said anything so rude in my life, and I thought I’d die of embarrassment on the spot.
“It’s not for a lack of a few ladies trying to capture that spot. Or for my mother to fill it, when she was still alive. But I guess I just haven’t found the right one. Up until now, at least.”
His words flew straight to my already overactive heart. Could he really mean that? Is he falling in love with me? The possibility of it being true, that he’d actually choose me, fills me with such excitement. After our dance, we sat together at a small table outside, enjoying a glass of champagne and each other’s company. Ramses is so witty and knowledgeable in so many things, I could never grow tired of talking to him, listening to him.
I waited until everyone left and retired to my bedroom to capture every word floating in my memory about tonight, so I’d never forget a single thing. How wonderful it felt to be in his arms. How captivating his eyes are. How he seems to see straight through me and somehow knows exactly what I’m thinking and feeling before I even say a word. How he hangs on every word I say, like it’s the most important matter in the world. All through dinner, our eyes found each other and further sealed our bond.
Father just called me down to his study to discuss the events of the night. My tears are falling so fast now, I’m not sure how this ink will even dry on the page. He noticed the connection between Ramses and me, and he’s not happy.
“Alea, it’s obvious you’re very smitten with Ramses Barnett. Actually, it’s a little too obvious for my taste. When he visits our home, it’s for my business. He’s an associate of mine, and I won’t have your schoolgirl crush interfere with my plans. The fact is, I have a very strong feeling about him. Call it gut instinct. But I won’t allow him to use my daughter’s infatuation with him against me in our negotiations.
“The next time he visits, I expect you to be on your best, proper behavior. If you can’t control yourself around him, you’ll have to dine alone in your room and wait until our guests have left before coming down to join your mother and me. You are not yet eighteen. You are still betrothed to a man in England. Some of our guests will travel back home before we do, and they’ll talk, Alea. There is simply too much at stake for you to behave so foolishly. Have I made myself perfectly clear?”
By the time Father finished speaking, his voice had risen several levels. I can’t remember a time he’s ever yelled at me before. But what he yelled at me about both hurt and embarrassed me. It hurt because he essentially banned me from being around Ramses, or at least, from showing my interest in him. Which just comes out naturally when I’m around him. It’s not a conscious decision—he just makes me feel so real. I was also hurt because he’s right. I am making a fool of myself. Ramses could be just using me to gain leverage over my father’s business deals.
But most of all, someone could go back and tell others about my behavior, putting unnecessary attention on Sean, when that’s the very thing we’re trying to avoid. He’s my friend, and his well-being never even crossed my mind. If Sean is hurt because of my carelessness, I don’t know what I’ll do.
I’m embarrassed because my behavior is obviously overly blatant and deeply inappropriate. My parents are ashamed of my unseemly flirting with Ramses, who’s a slightly older man, considering he’s twenty-six and I’m still seventeen. Father’s business associates also witnessed it, and they will think the same about me. What if they accuse my father of giving Ramses preferential treatment because of me? What if all of this harms his business?
I’ve been so very foolish and thought only of myself. It’s pathetic, really, now that a mirror has been put in front of my face. With that, I simply can’t face Ramses or the others tomorrow when they come to our house again. Not tomorrow night. Maybe not even the next night. The tongue-lashing I received is much worse than just disappointing my father. I’m disappointed in myself.
* * *
Ramses Barnett, 1790
Young, inexperienced girls are so easy to persuade. Their opinions aren’t firm, so they’re very ea
sy to coax and sway in the direction I need them to go. Especially with the added benefit of reading their thoughts. Of knowing exactly what to do, when to do it, and how far to push them past where they’ve always been comfortable going before. With Miss Alea Dunn, I don’t even have to use my vampire powers to know what she’s thinking. It’s written all over her face, in the blush of her skin, and in the bat of her soft brown eyes. She wants me almost as much as I want her. Well, her blood, anyway. There’s no doubt I’ll enjoy her body and take her virginity first.
Knowing she’s never been touched is more of a turn-on for me than I ever would’ve imagined. Being the first to show her everything would make me her master every bit as much as turning her would. The problem is, I don’t know if I can turn her. I don’t know if I can stop drinking her blood once I start. I’ve always lacked a measure of self-control when certain humans have been involved. But I’ve never experienced anything near the need I have to consume her—completely, utterly, thoroughly drain every last drop from her veins. It’s the only reason I keep returning to her family’s stuffy affairs.
After the last gathering at the Dunn’s several days ago, Slade and I had the first significant fight we’ve had in decades. My brother knows me too well and can read me inside and out. He has always watched my mood swings closely. Even I have to admit he’s had cause to be troubled over my actions in the past. But I won’t admit that to him—ever. He’s the younger one, but he has had to be the voice of reason on more than one occasion. He had to be because I couldn’t.
“Ramses, you are playing a dangerous game yet again. Stop this right now before you go too far. Once you’ve crossed that line, you know there’s no turning back. There is too much at stake, and I will not let you ruin this good thing we have here. If I have to, I’ll stop you myself.” Slade’s tone was all too familiar—he was at his wit’s end with me. He’d never threatened me before, but I had absolutely no doubt he meant exactly what he said.
“Slade, I need you to trust me.”
“You haven’t given me much reason to trust you. Your past record speaks for itself.”
There may have been a couple of times during my vampiric life my craving became a full obsession that consumed me. I would’ve gone to the ends of the world and back just to satisfy that urge. That need. That yearning. It’s so deep inside me, it permeates every dead cell and fiber in my body and takes over any rational thinking I otherwise possess. Those…episodes…are far behind me now. That’s not what’s happening to me with this girl. It feels different.
“I’m fine, Slade. Stop worrying so much.”
“Your infatuation with this Dunn girl gives me plenty of cause to worry. I’ve seen the crazed look in your eye when you get back from the meetings at her house. I know that look far too well, and I know what comes afterward. End this tonight, Ramses.” He shoved me and knocked me a few steps backward to drive his point home. My brother’s strength has surpassed my own, both physically and mentally, through his focus and determination. He could use his telepathic power to force me to obey him if he wanted, but he was never that type of man, and his code of honor stayed with him through his change.
It’s true, I cannot deny how often I think about the scent of her blood and how exquisite it would be to feast on her. Once I started, I know I wouldn’t be able to stop. I wouldn’t be able to get enough of her, until there was none of her left. Slade’s concern is that by killing her, I’ll fall into a depressive state, take my vengeance out on too many others, and then we’d be discovered.
“I can’t just walk away from this, Slade. We’re making a fortune from Clarence Dunn, and there are more contracts to finalize,” I bellowed back at him.
“Then I will finish it. You are not to go back to that house again. Or you will regret it.”
But I have an amazing plan this time that will keep my mind on track.
I am going back to that house.
I will have every last drop of Alea’s blood.
Slade will see my reasoning, the purpose of my plan.
He left after our outburst, and I returned to my secret place, where my sweet Richelle waited for me. The first night, she was too worn out from our bedroom antics and slept all night. It wasn’t until the following day that she realized she was my permanent guest. Her initial reaction was pure disbelief. She thought I was joking, playing with her, only wanting to keep her as my sex slave. When she realized she belonged to me, intense fear and instant pleading for her release followed. After I’d left her alone for several hours, she was raging mad when I returned.
Her rage only served to stoke the fires of my libido, and I made the most of it. I’m pleased to say I fucked her into submission. She feels safer now, back to the original thought that she’s simply my sex slave. She actually likes it because I take good care of her, so she’s accepted her fate. I haven’t changed her yet, though I have enjoyed tastes of her blood without her fully realizing what happened. She has questioned some of the puncture marks and playfully accused me of having a fetish for biting.
She has no idea.
But she soon will.
Chapter 4
Alea Dunn, June 1790
I’ve done as Father said and stayed away from his work dinners and social events over the past month. It has killed me to know Ramses has been downstairs, but I couldn’t go down to see him. He has been so close, but he may as well have been across the ocean for all the good it has done me.
I’ve watched through the window when no one was looking. They were all too busy with their drinks, food, and conversation to notice me anyway. I’ve been ordered to stay inside, like a little child ordered to play in my room and not bother the adults. Even if I were invited to join them now, I’d be much too embarrassed to show my face.
But that doesn’t stop me from watching from the cover of darkness in my room. In the spare bedrooms upstairs. From any window that gives me a good view of Ramses. Sometimes I wish he’d see me, scale the wall outside, and whisk me away with him. But that is the wish of a child, of a young girl who still believes in fairy tales. Wishing for a fairy-tale ending is a luxury I can no longer afford.
“They found another body?” I asked Mother when I picked up the newspaper from the table. The morning’s paper showed the fourth dead body was found within the last three weeks. “Is there a madman lose from an asylum somewhere?”
She tried to hide her worried expression with her nonchalant tone. “People die every day for many different reasons, Alea. There’s no need to be so dramatic about it. Just because a body was found doesn’t mean someone killed them. They very well could’ve died a natural death.”
“Mother, at some point you’ll have to accept the fact that I’m grown now. In a short few months, I’ll be eighteen. Stop shielding me from the world—I have to live in it.”
Her eyes flew up to meet mine, and she really looked at me for what felt like the first time in a very long time. “I suppose you’re right, Alea. You are growing up, too fast for my taste, but it’s happening whether I like it or not. The bodies of four girls have been found recently. What the papers aren’t printing is the manner in which their bodies were found. There must be a madman out there, with what’s been done to those poor souls.”
I’d never heard Mother sound so frightened before. I could only imagine what they’d talked about while I wasn’t part of the adult conversation. Still, she was nervous and didn’t exactly want to discuss it. But I pushed, because I could tell she knew more than what she’d already said.
“What does he do to them?” My voice came out as a whisper.
She pursed her lips together, forming a thin line and further accentuating her worried expression. She hesitated for just a moment. It didn’t feel like she was trying to hide anything from me now. She just simply didn’t want to talk about it. “He mutilates them, Alea, in the most aberrant ways. It’s worse than what a madman would do. It’s like a mindless animal got to them. But an animal wouldn’t leave the rest of t
heir bodies. Their throats were ripped out, but there was hardly any blood on them.”
My responding gasp was loud and escaped before I could stop it. My hands flew over my mouth when I pictured their bodies, torn apart and lifeless. “Who could do such a thing?”
“No one knows, Alea. Everyone is taking extra precautions when they go out at night now. I guess the only consolation is all the dead girls were prostitutes, so maybe he’s not targeting anyone else. But we can’t assume that’s the case. I just hope and pray they find this murderer soon so we can put this whole terrifying ordeal behind us.”
I read the article in the paper while having breakfast, and I’ve never had a heavier heart. Those poor girls didn’t deserve to die like that. How frightened they must have been. How much pain they must have experienced at the killer’s hand. And the killer, what of him? What sort of madness flows through his veins and makes him want to do such vile things?
“Alea, we have to go to the tailor’s shop today. Eat your food and get dressed. I’d like to be finished there as early as possible. It’s a short walk from here, and the weather is so nice, but I don’t want to be out anywhere close to dark.”
The way she alternated between wringing her hands and wiping them on her dress told me more than I wanted to know. My stomach was on edge after reading the newspaper anyway, so I left my breakfast half-eaten and dressed as quickly as possible. Mother and I left the house, walking and chatting about nothing important. Anything that might keep our thoughts from straying too much.
But it didn’t work.
What Mother didn’t tell me, and what the newspaper didn’t mention, was how many family members were walking the sidewalks with panic-stricken expressions. They approached anyone they passed, showed drawings of their missing loved ones, and asked if anyone had seen them. One mother thrust the drawing at me, startling me with her forwardness.
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