by Leigh Walker
5
FORWARD
“It’s not safe to talk here. We must go.”
He clasped my hand and led me down one hallway then another. I felt shaky but elated from our physical encounter. More than anything, I was curious. But Dominic didn’t say another word, not even once we were safely back in my room.
Once we were inside, I faced him. “Well?” I asked.
He crossed his arms. “Well…”
When it became clear that he wasn’t going to speak, I cleared my throat. “The way I see it, we have two problems: you’ve been holding out on me in the biting department, and your mother is going absolutely bonkers with the sacrifices.”
The prince nodded, exhaling deeply. “You’re right about the queen. She’s completely gone off. I can’t have her practically killing the slaves like that. Did you see the expression on their faces? They’re terrified.”
“They should be.” I shivered. “Has your mother ever done anything like this before?”
Dominic looked grim. “No. She’s been through periods where she just killed whoever she fed from, of course.”
I winced. “Of course.”
“But she’s attempted to be slightly more civilized since we’ve had the sacrifices. She wanted our family to be able to settle here, to stay in the kingdom for as long as we liked. That’s why we’ve relied on vanishing the villagers so heavily. And I know that’s manipulative and dishonest, but at least it doesn’t actually hurt them. But my mother’s brief period of civic-minded behavior has expired. She’s literally out for blood.”
“You have to talk to her.” I absently rubbed my neck.
“I will, for what it’s worth. But I’ve no patience with her anymore, and she seems acutely aware of that.” Dom went and stoked the fire.
After a moment, he turned around. “I should remove your bite marks—we don’t need evidence of what happened tonight on display. With everything going on with the sacrifices, I don’t want to add insult to injury.” Dominic had never fed from the blood slaves, a fact that was widely discussed and analyzed by them. I suspected that they’d wagered on whether or not the prince would feed from me after we were married.
“Of course.”
I touched the tender spot on my neck as Dominic came closer. He did that weird thing he’d done after the guard had attacked me. He stood close with his eyes closed and his hand outstretched. A soothing sensation washed over me, as if a cool washcloth were being applied to my skin. When he finished, he opened his eyes. I felt my neck—the marks were gone.
Maybe it was strange, but I sort of wanted him to bite me again. I missed the feeling of being so close to him…
But Dominic didn’t appear in the mood to ravish me further. He frowned as I trailed my fingers down my throat. “You must be tired,” he said.
“Not really…” I took a step closer to him.
He took a step back. “You should get changed for bed.” He nodded toward the pajamas Mistress Olivia had left out for me.
I went into the bathroom, feeling rather like a scolded child, and changed then brushed my teeth. When I came back out, Dominic promptly pointed to my bed.
“You need your rest, especially because I drank from you.” He frowned again.
“Dominic. Stop frowning.” I reluctantly climbed into bed. “And about you drinking from me… I didn’t mind it. Not at all.”
He arched an eyebrow as he tucked me in.
“In fact, I liked what you did. I think we should probably do it again!” I grinned at him. “How about right now?”
He laughed. “I knew you were going to say that.”
I sat up a little, a buzzy feeling going through me. My intuition was telling me there was some history here. “How did you know?”
He tucked the covers more tightly around me. “Because you’ve said it before. Many times.”
“I thought you’d only ever drunk from me once—and that it almost killed you.” Dom fed strictly from donations, but he’d told me that when I first visited the kingdom, he was bewitched by the smell of my blood. He’d fed from me and become so sick that he could barely move.
Dominic didn’t say anything. Instead, he stared at the fire.
I patted his hand. “Listen, there’s a lot going on. We don’t have time to play guessing games. Just tell me what happened—you already said you would.”
Dom turned to me, his handsome profile outlined against the blaze of the flames. “I’ve drunk a lot more of your blood than you realize. A lot more.”
That caught me off guard. “Excuse me?”
He frowned. “I’m not proud of it.”
He’s drunk from me many times… I absently touched the place on my throat where his fangs had been. “I don’t remember any of that, of course. Can you explain?”
“I’ve fed from you when you’ve visited the kingdom. I always try to stop myself, but…” His gaze met mine. “And I’ve also ingested a lot of the blood you donated to erase people’s memories.”
“What? Why?”
He looked back toward the fire. “Sometimes it hurts so badly when you leave that I drink it to try to forget you.”
“Does it work?”
He shook his head. “But in the past, that hasn’t stopped me from trying. And ingesting your blood has other…side effects. I’m afraid I’ve rather abused it.”
“Explain yourself—explain everything, especially whatever it is that’s making you look away from me.”
He sighed and climbed on the bed next to me. His expression was grim. “Where do you want me to start?”
I still felt a bit woozy from our encounter earlier and wondered exactly how many times he’d drunk from me before. “Tell me about the times you’ve fed from me. I want to understand how it doesn’t make you sick anymore and also why you said you always try to stop yourself.”
He blew out a deep breath. “Are you sure you want to hear this?”
My cheeks heated, and I had a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach, but I said, “I insist.”
“I discovered that your blood only made me sick the first time pretty early on. Maybe it was year two of your visits. We’d already started collecting it to experiment with it on third parties.” Dom cleared his throat. “One time after you left, I was so miserable I tried a small amount of it myself. I hoped it would make me forget you, but it didn’t. Not for a second. But it also didn’t make me sick. So the next time you came through, we decided to try it again.”
“We decided that you were going to feed from me again?”
He cleared his throat. “Yes.”
“Why would I agree to do that?” I asked.
“I told you that I’d ingested the blood and it hadn’t made me sick.” His cheeks flushed a little. “And one night, when we were being…close…you asked me to bite you. You said you wanted me to.”
I opened my mouth then closed it. After a moment I asked, “We were being close? What does that mean, exactly?”
“Not what you think it means,” he said immediately. “I can assure you, your virtue is intact.”
“Well I know that.” At least, I thought I knew that. “But we were…” I searched for the right phrasing. “You were sleeping over, I assume? And we were getting caught up in the moment?” My cheeks were blazing.
“Yes.”
“And I asked you to bite me?”
“Yes.”
“And did I…like it?”
“Yes.” He gave me a small smile. “We both quite enjoyed it. It can be mutually pleasurable, like earlier this evening. Sometimes even more so.”
“So why don’t I know about this if we both enjoy it?”
Dom picked at the comforter. “Um…”
I was about to pester him, but something else occurred to me. “And why doesn’t your mother know? If she thought you were feeding from me on a regular basis, you would be in much less trouble with her!”
His face turned stormy. “It’s none of her business. What we do in p
rivate is exactly that—private. I did not feed from you to please her; it was something sacred, something between us. So I’ve always erased your marks.”
“Okay, fair enough. But if it’s something we both enjoy, why haven’t you bitten me since I’ve been here this time?” Most nights, Dominic slept in my room. We’d kissed more times than I could count, and we’d certainly been close.
He shifted uncomfortably. “It’s best if we don’t. I’ve found it’s problematic.”
“Problematic how?”
Dom blew out a deep breath. “Because sometimes—okay, every time we do it, you want more.”
“More biting?” I rubbed my neck. As embarrassed as I was, it didn’t actually sound like a bad idea. I scooted a little closer to him.
“More biting and more… More.” He folded his hands and inspected them as if his life depended on it.
I frowned. “More…?”
“Yes. More.”
“Are you saying that I want to…get even closer to you…when you bite me?”
He coughed. “Yes.”
“And what—you don’t feel the same?”
“Of course I do.” He looked shocked. “But we can’t.”
“Um… Why not, exactly?” When he looked scandalized, I backtracked. “I’m not saying that we should just jump into anything or that we should be casual about our physical relationship. But I am eighteen. And you’re, like, three thousand.”
“I’m one thousand. Or so.” He shook his head. “And I’ve sworn to protect your virtue, Victoria. I don’t take that lightly.”
“Whoa, whoa—hold on a second. Are you saying… Wait, what are you saying?”
He looked me straight in the eye. “I’m saying that I would not take that step with you to consummate our relationship until we were husband and wife.”
I didn’t say anything for a moment. “Huh.”
Dom’s eyebrow arched. “That’s a loaded ‘huh’ if I ever heard one.”
I blew out a deep breath, feeling like my brain had been scrambled. “You’re awfully old-fashioned for being from the future.”
“I am still older than you, of course.”
“And you have old-fashioned values.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know if they’re old-fashioned, but they’re mine. Now, it’s getting late. You should get some rest. What other questions do you have for me?” He seemed insistent on changing the subject.
I frowned again, trying to remember what on earth we’d been talking about besides the fact that apparently, I often asked Dom to bite me. Then I tried to get him to divest me of my virginity, which he always politely refused. “Uh… What were you saying about my blood? About the side effects of drinking a lot of it?”
He gritted his teeth. “Yes, about that…”
“Go on.” I couldn’t understand what he was being so shy about. He wasn’t the one who’d been shot down repeatedly.
“Promise me something?” He took my hand in his.
“Sure.” I was eager for him to get on with it. “Promise you what?”
His gaze locked with mine. “That you won’t completely freak out.”
6
Side Effects
I snatched my hand away. “Freak out about what?”
Dominic sighed. “About what your blood does to me.”
“Go on.” I raised my voice a little—I already wasn’t doing great with the not-freaking-out part.
“Your blood is a mystery to me, Victoria. Its powers affect individuals in completely different ways. When it’s administered in small amounts to both vampires and humans, it has an amnesia-like effect, which is specific to you. If a vampire or a human has a dose of your blood in his wine, he cannot remember seeing you before from your past time-travel visits.”
“So I’ve heard.” I blew out a frustrated breath—we’d been over that before. “But what about you? I want to hear what happens when you drink it!”
“I’m getting to that. But in addition to this anomaly, when a vampire bites you, he can get sick, just like I did the first time you came to the kingdom. But maybe that is particular to me—the other two vampires that bit you both died.”
“Right.” A guard had bitten me the first time I’d traveled through time to the kingdom. And more recently, another guard that attacked me died. “But you’ve drunk my blood since then, and you haven’t gotten sick again. Like tonight.”
“Correct,” Dom said. “But there’s more to the story. Over time, I realized that every time I drank your blood, I became stronger. I became faster. My senses grew more acute. And when you returned to the kingdom, it was easier for me to find you. I could start to feel you, even when we weren’t close.”
“Does that happen with everyone’s blood? Does it always make you more powerful? Are you able to sense anyone that you drink from?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Not that I’ve ever experienced or heard about. Feeding of course makes us stronger, just like you feel revived after you have a meal. But no matter how much time has passed, I haven’t lost the strength I’ve gained. And no, drinking anyone else’s blood does not make them easier to ‘feel.’ I think this also may be particular to me and you.”
“Can you feel me even when I’m on the other side?”
“No, but when I went through to follow you, the sense saved me. It led me to you immediately. I was able to locate the Dixons’ house and even your room.”
“So it’s sort of like a homing device?” I wrinkled my nose. “Or GPS?”
“I think so. It’s like a tracker.” But he was looking at the fire again and not my face.
“What’s going on? What’s with the staring at the fire?”
He turned to face me. “Your blood makes me stronger, Victoria. It makes it easier to find you. And the more of it I drink, it also… It also has an impact on you.”
“What? I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
Dom sighed. “You react to your blood being inside me. It affects you.”
“I have no freaking idea what you’re talking about! Dominic, just say it.”
He took a deep breath, as if to steel himself. “It makes you obey me.”
I hopped out of bed. “What on earth are you talking about? That’s crazy! I don’t obey you—”
He reached his hand out toward me. “Victoria. Stop talking.”
My lips shut themselves together. I looked at him wildly. I couldn’t get the words out, or a scream, or any sound. I finally started flapping my arms up and down, crazed and confused.
“You’re released.” He dropped his hand.
“I WILL STAKE YOU MYSELF IF YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!”
His shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry. It’s just that your blood is magic. It makes me magic.”
I jabbed a finger in his direction. “That wasn’t magic—that was voodoo! And it’s nothing to do with me!” I roared. “I didn’t give you the power to do that. It’s some vampire dark sorcery!”
“Victoria, please. Calm down, and let’s talk this through.”
I didn’t stop finger jabbing. “Promise me right now that you will never do that to me again. I mean it, Dom.”
“Of course.” He shrugged helplessly.
“It’s not like it’s not bad enough already. I try to get you to relieve me of my virginity, and you decline. Not only that, but I can erase vampire’s brains, my blood kills some vampires, my mother and Iz are somehow trapped in this time with some crazy vampire emperor who happens to be family—oh no. That’s not enough! My blood makes you stronger, and you can use it against me to make me your freaking vampire puppet. I have had it!” I stomped my feet as I paced, on the verge of a full-blown temper tantrum. “Is it too much to ask to be normal and have a normal boyfriend?”
Much to my annoyance, Dominic was shaking with silent laughter.
Where is a good stake when you need one? “Dominic.” I used the last shred of my patience to keep my voice even.
He coughed. “I’m sorr
y. It’s just… The look on your face…” He collapsed into another fit of laughter.
I waited him out, my hands on my hips.
“I don’t understand. What is it with my blood? Why does it make you magic and make other vampires die? Why does it erase people’s brains? Why can I do a vanishment?”
Dom stopped laughing. “I don’t know. It’s unlike anything I’ve experienced in my existence. I’ve never met a human with talents like yours.”
“I don’t know if having blood that does freaky things constitutes being ‘talented.’” I stalk-paced in front of the fire. “And why would my blood turn on me so that you could control me? I don’t understand…”
Dominic came to me and clasped my hands. “Don’t think of it as a betrayal. Again, perhaps there’s some reason for it. We’ll figure it out.”
I fidgeted beneath his touch. “Speaking of figuring things out… How did you realize that you could make me obey your commands?”
His lips twisted. “It’s a rather long story…”
We were interrupted by a knock on the door. “Your Highness, you’re needed at the council.”
“Be right there,” Dom called. Maybe I was imagining it, but he looked relieved.
“See you later?” he asked tentatively. “I can come back after my meeting.”
“Maybe. I’m not sure if I’m in the mood for company.” I crossed my arms. “Although I suppose you could command me to open the door.”
“I suppose I could. I wouldn’t, of course—it’s so much more fun to be invited.” He winked at me then strode off, gone much too soon because I hadn’t had nearly enough time to properly curse him out.
7
Proper Motivation
Everyone kept saying I was a witch. But I felt nothing but human—vulnerable, confused, and a bit grumpy—as I woke up the next morning. The other side of my bed was empty. Dominic hadn’t returned from his meeting.
Fine by me. I missed him, but I still felt sore about the previous night. He said he’d never control me like that again, and I believed him. Still, that someone had such a great power over me… Well, it was a good thing I trusted the prince.
