by Ella M. Lee
What if it wasn’t even here at all? Cold fear crept into my veins. Ren claimed it was, but what if his information was wrong? I’d never pressed him to tell me how he knew. What if I was on a fool’s errand?
I made my way quietly back to my room with Hannah, careful to avoid vampires.
Her eyes widened with terror when I opened the door, but they softened when she realized who it was.
“When was the last time someone came for you?” I asked.
She swallowed. She was sitting cross-legged on her bed, playing with a Nintendo DS. “I don’t know, a few days ago?”
I remembered that feeling—not knowing how many days were passing as my life slipped by. But I had a goal now. Every single day brought me closer to freedom, and I clung to that, as hard as I clung to the thread between me and Ren.
“Hey…who is the blond vampire? The sandy-haired one, a little taller than I am,” I asked.
Her eyes went wide. “Tomas?”
I frowned. It wasn’t good if I’d run into Tomas. I was hoping to get through this with as few vampires as possible knowing who I was, especially the vicious ones.
Hannah assessed me. “Tomas doesn’t like brown hair,” she said, eyeing me critically. “Thank god. I don’t know what I’d do if he came for me.” She raked a hand through her own dark hair again, a nervous habit.
“Where’d you get that?” I asked, pointing to the gaming console, distracting her.
“It was in this room when I got here,” she said. “It was someone else’s, I guess.”
Her slight frown at the device was apologetic, as if she knew she was playing some dead girl’s games. That they were giving her the same comfort they’d probably given that girl.
That she might end up with the same fate.
Chapter 35
I didn’t leave the room again until sunrise.
Hannah crept out with me, and we ate silently in the kitchen. Other humans came in and out, but no one spoke more than a few words—a passing greeting or an inquiry: “Okay?” It was always met with, “Okay.”
Don’t get attached to anyone, the tiny voice told me. You have to be selfish.
I needed to think of myself and my task. I wasn’t here to make friends. Even with Ren’s power, I was still human. There wasn’t much I could do against the entire vampire system, the hold they had on the world.
One day at a time.
And then freedom.
But guilt still flooded my gut. I had a chance none of these other girls would get. I wished I could share that.
I detached myself from Hannah shortly after, going into the entryway to examine the doors and windows. Hannah was right—there were no guards here. The house was deadly quiet. I didn’t see any dogs outside, either, although I trusted Hannah that they were there.
I could see something she couldn’t, though.
It took a while, but I examined the doors and windows with Ren’s power. Hidden in the glass and wood, like an intricate puzzle, was a protection spell. If anyone crossed the spell, from the outside or the inside, it would trigger a consequence. I had a sneaking suspicion that the dogs only came if that spell was violated.
I certainly wasn’t going to test my half-assed theory, but I thought I’d interpreted the meaning correctly.
I hadn’t thought vampires had magic like this. It seemed very…elegant. Their magic was usually blood-based and crude. Had it maybe come from a demon? One of those benevolent trades Ren said they sometimes made? For a while, I tried to form the type of question I’d need to ask Ren through the thread to get a definitive answer, but decided it was too complex.
Instead, I walked through the house and cast my dagger-sensing magic out. I poked into all the rooms that didn’t have vampires occupying them. I even climbed down the ladder into the creepy, cobwebby basement, but there was nothing in it but dust.
I didn’t sense the dagger, nor did I find any clues about where it might be hidden. No notes or references to it, no dagger-shaped boxes that would tell me it had been delivered here.
Ren sensed my frustration. He pinged the thread with inquiries, and all I could send back was, Nothing yet.
Right before sunset, I managed to sneak in a couple of hours of sleep, collapsing on the hard bed. I touched the thread, wrapping my hands around the very end of it tenderly, holding it close. I didn’t want to sleep here, nervous and afraid, but the thread hummed gently against me. Ren was attentive at the other end, like he understood I was trying to calm myself. Like he understood that being near him helped. I let myself recall the feeling of his body against me, the feeling of his fingers in my hair, the pleasure of seeing him smile and laugh. The memories relaxed me.
I was grateful for the two hours of sleep I got, because I woke to a flurry of activity.
Our bedroom door was flung open, and my surprised eyes met Maggie’s. Hannah jumped to her feet, startlingly quick and alert.
“It’s Jess,” Maggie said, and Hannah only nodded and followed her out of the room.
I trailed behind as we made our way two doors down.
Maggie and Jess’s room was a bloodbath.
Jess was spread out on one of the beds, naked, covered in bites. She moaned softly. A horrific set of burns—like brands—marred the outside of her left thigh. She’d been badly beaten, bruises and cuts covering her face, and arms, and chest.
Hannah swallowed. “Ari, across the hall, the bathroom, get some wet towels and bandages. I’ll get ice.”
I backed out of the room and followed her instructions. I loaded my arms with bandages and white towels, soaking the latter in cold water in the large sink. I’d seen wounds like this before; this wasn’t even bad compared to what happened in burrows sometimes, but those people…they often died.
My hands shook.
Hannah returned before me. I handed her and Maggie the towels, and Maggie soothed Jess, brushing her hair back and holding her steady while Hannah did all the hard work, cleaning Jess’s bite wounds and bandaging them. When she got to the burn, she gagged, but pressed her lips together and did what she could to clean the messy wound before apply salve, bandaging it, and covering it with a plastic bag filled with ice.
There was little else we could do. None of us were doctors; Hannah was doing the best with what she had.
“My mom’s a nurse,” she said, when I gave her an impressed and inquisitive look.
“What happened?” I asked Maggie in a hushed whisper. Jess still moaned softly. None of us had a way to ease her pain.
Maggie gave me a dark look. “Weston happened.”
Chapter 36
“Jess didn’t come back to the room at sunrise,” Maggie said, walking with us down the hall. “I went looking for her, but she wasn’t in the house. The second the sun set and the doors unlocked, I went searching outside. I found her in that old guesthouse on the edge of the property, the blue one. I basically had to carry her back here.”
“Weston did this?” I asked.
“She didn’t say it, but it looks like his work,” Maggie said, “and he’s had his eye on her.”
I shuddered. No wonder Ren had told me to stay away from him.
“Will she live?” I asked.
Maggie shrugged, her eyes sad and hopeless. “Maybe. I hope so. I lost a lot of roommates before her.”
I watched her walk back down the hall, troubled and seething.
Maybe I could kill Weston on my way out of here. That would be fun. Just another sadistic vampire gone from this world. Hannah touched my arm and gestured me into the room.
“How often do you see injuries like that?” I asked as she wiped her hands on an old t-shirt.
“Not a lot,” she said. “Weston is terrible, but he doesn’t usually do that unless someone resists him. Jess… I don’t think she understands that. The others know to keep quiet and still. Then it’s just biting, but not burns or beating or whatever.”
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
She gave me a puzzled, wa
ry look, as though she’d never heard those words. She shook her head. “No. Are you?”
“No,” I said.
Despite Ren’s power and the hope that I’d get out of here—not a hope Hannah had the luxury to share—I still didn’t feel okay.
“I have things to do,” I said.
“What things?” she said.
“Don’t ask,” was all I offered as I left the room, because I wasn’t allowed to say more. The conditional bond was a constant thing lurking within me, squeezing silently when I edged too close to breaking a requirement.
More than that, I didn’t want to get her involved. It was already dangerous enough for one of us to be sneaking around a vampire’s estate on a secret mission.
I made my way quietly to the back door again, sensing for vampires as I went. It was fully dark now, cool and misty. There weren’t a lot of lights behind the plantation house, but I could see large statues and sculptures looming, like a garden of strange trees.
Gently, I called up some of Ren’s shadows. This was my favorite power of his, this ability to blend into darkness. I’d played with it incessantly, partially because I also loved to watch shadows gather around him. Ingrained in his essence, they completed him, natural and effortless.
I let the shadows wind around my hands and arms and neck, shrouding me. I didn’t want to completely disappear or look like I was using magic. On the off chance someone saw me, I wanted it to seem like my shadows had been a trick of the darkness.
I wandered the back garden, trying to remember the map of the property Ren had shown me. Seemingly endless swamp existed beyond this grassy, tree-filled stretch, but I wasn’t sure the dagger would be hidden there. Why leave it somewhere so far and unprotected?
No. I thought it had to be close to the house, even if it wasn’t in the house.
But I wasn’t sensing anything in this back garden. I knew Ren’s detection worked; we’d practiced it on some other, similar objects in Ren’s possession. I’d have to branch out or go more slowly.
Behind me, around the front of the house, I saw the rebounding headlights of arriving cars. I ducked and laid low for a bit at the base of a statue, hoping no one was going to take a late-night garden stroll.
Finally, I moved. I crept around the side of the house, my eyes snagging on the lights in the library. There was movement in the windows. I shifted closer. Maybe—just maybe—if I could overhear some conversation, someone would mention it…
The farthest window was open to the cool night, and I slid under it, wrapping myself more tightly in shadows, hoping my human scent didn’t draw attention. There were a lot of humans here; I was probably safe.
I sensed vampires in the library, three of them. And—
And—
Something else.
I had no idea what it was.
Murmuring filtered out of the room, and I frowned. I’d have to call on some of Ren’s awesome hearing. I tugged gently and pulled that out, homing in on the sounds on the other side of the library.
A male and female were talking quietly between gentle breaths.
In Estrerian.
I ground my teeth together, annoyed. I calmed myself, calling up some focus. I could understand Estrerian. I’d had the foresight to think of this one and made Ren speak it for me to practice listening.
But just as I called up the knowledge to translate, the murmuring stopped.
The sounds shifted, and I blanched.
Now it was the intimate caress of skin on skin. Touching? Kissing?
I crossed my fingers and gathered my shadows and prayed, peeking my head up over the windowsill and peering into the room.
Shaw was there. I recognized his raven hair, his perfect blue jacket. He held a woman tenderly, his hand sliding up her neck, his lips barely touching the edges of hers.
She was the something else I’d felt, because when I studied her pale features, I realized I knew her.
Ren’s sister, El.
Chapter 37
I ducked my head back down quickly, my heart beating rapidly, awash in adrenaline.
What was El doing here?
Ren hadn’t mentioned her, which made me think he didn’t know. But maybe he’d called her in? Maybe she’d offered to help him after all? Maybe he couldn’t send the details down the thread because they were too complex?
But that didn’t sound right. Ren had made it seem like she wasn’t at all on his side in this endeavor, like she wanted their father dead. Did she know I was here? Had she come to mess up our plans? She could kill me easily and might have every reason to right now.
But…was the fact that she’d come here proof that the dagger was here? Was she here to protect it?
I had to ask Ren.
Gently, I tapped the thread to get his attention. I felt his slight glimmer of his interest in reply.
Sister here, I said, gripping the thread. I tried to convey to him my images and impressions of his sister and send along my urgency.
I didn’t get a reply immediately. When it came, it was muddled and confused.
Family? it seemed to ask. Vampires?
I sent a strong negative feeling. Once again, I tried to convey El. Demon, I tried to say. Here.
The thread tightened in alarm. The reply I got was imbued with concern. Careful.
But I wasn’t sure he’d understood, and I didn’t know how to make myself clearer. We hadn’t intended on needing to communicate like this. He seemed to get the word “demon,” but I couldn’t be sure he knew I meant El.
I bit my lip. Ultimately, it didn’t matter. I would stay clear of her, no matter what. She knew what I looked like, but enough human girls resided here that she might not be able to sense me among the others. Maybe she wouldn’t even recognize me; maybe humans weren’t that recognizable to demons. Regardless, I’d just need to make sure I skirted her carefully. And hope she wasn’t looking for me in order to snap my neck and dispose of my body before Ren could stop her.
I headed away from the window, scouring the garden once again, but I didn’t sense anything even similar to the dagger.
Eventually, I went back inside to regroup, scared I’d be caught out here and asked difficult questions. I cast my vampire-sensing net out a second too late. I was stepping into the entranceway when I sensed one, and I couldn’t back out in time.
I swallowed, freezing.
Weston.
He exited the long hallway that led to the basement door, and his eyes went right to me.
I looked down instantly, and somehow made myself step to the side.
Other than Shaw standing in front of me the previous night, I’d never been close to a royal vampire. Most I’d been near were on the younger and weaker side.
Please walk by me, I prayed silently.
No such luck.
Weston came closer, his walk like a swagger, his presence practically choking me. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see he was halfway shifted to his vampire form, talons tipping the fingers at his side, black eyes. His reddish-bronze hair reflected the light from the chandeliers, and his skin was so pale that it was practically white.
“You are Arianna.” Weston’s voice dripped like poisoned honey. He screamed danger and malice.
All the blood drained from my face at the sound of my name.
Ren noticed my fear. He pinged the thread with his concern, and I gritted my teeth. He did it again when I didn’t reply.
Stop, I sent back, because I couldn’t focus on being still and quiet in front of Weston with Ren annoying me.
The thread went quiet immediately.
Weston grabbed a fistful of my hair and brought it to his nose, inhaling. He shuddered in pleasure, his eyes half-closing.
“I didn’t believe Tomas when he told me I’d like you,” Weston said roughly.
Oh, shit. Tomas hadn’t been talking about Shaw. He’d been talking about Weston. This was an absolute disaster.
“Mmm,” Weston said, inhaling the scent of my hair
again, winding his claws through it.
I gasped as he pulled it, tilting my head tightly to the side to expose the right side of my neck then tilting my head the other way.
“Perfect,” he murmured.
Don’t struggle, I told myself. Don’t move.
Even as my heart threatened to burst from my chest.
Don’t freak out and break his bones accidentally, I thought, quelling the rush of Ren’s power that desperately wanted to defend me.
Weston brought his lips closer, brushing the skin just under my ear, and I suppressed a gag, choking on nothing at all.
His fangs pressed into me very slightly, and my eyes filled with tears at the pain and helplessness.
I didn’t know what to do.
I didn’t think he’d kill me in the entranceway of his home, which meant it would be better to stay still and quiet and hope he left with little more than a taste of me.
Maybe he’d decide he didn’t want more.
He sucked briefly, and a rush of hot blood spilled out of me and into him. Ren seemed to feel it, too, because I received a bolt of panic down the bond.
Hush, I said firmly to the thread. I needed to be still. I needed to be stone. I needed to turn off, and it was too hard with Ren around.
Weston’s claws tightened on me. He opened his mouth, and I prepared for another draw of blood—
“Wes!”
He dropped me instantly, and I fell hard against the wall behind me.
Cassania came down the stairs, dressed in blue tonight, her hair pulled back, wearing jewelry like she was off to Cinderella’s ball.
“Time to go,” she said firmly to Weston as he licked the blood from his lips.
She didn’t even spare a glance for me, but Weston’s eyes lingered even as she pulled him over the threshold of the front door.
I hurried back to my room, my heart pounding. Hannah wasn’t there.
I grabbed a change of clothes from the dresser drawers, a shirt and pants that were too large for me, and headed to the bathroom.
I locked the door behind myself and pressed a towel to my neck.
Ari? The thread sang the shape of my name tentatively.
