The sting was minimal, but surprised me nonetheless. The second the magic realized it was being trapped by my ring, it began to revolt, tugging against Kerdik’s command.
Kerdik’s hands remained raised, not caring what freedom the higher magic wanted. He mimed yanking an invisible force toward us with a sharp grunt, and more of the snakes filtered into my ring, turning the sting up to a sharp slice. I gasped, but didn’t pull away, staring with fascination at what felt like a knife across my ring finger, but left not a single mark.
Kerdik wrestled with the defiant strings in the sky as if arguing with a teenager. Though the lost magic wanted to infect the world with its rage against the machine, Kerdik was in charge, and he wasn’t about to be bested by the rebellion. I gritted my teeth through the phantom blade across my finger, closing my eyes as the pain ramped up and started heating. It wasn’t until Lane shouted, “Rosie, stay still!” that I realized I was twitching and trying to wriggle away from the scald.
“I’m trying! It’s burning my hand!” I threw my head back and let my knees buckle when the heat traveled through my arm like a full-on fire that bled into the rest of my body. The snakes were fighting with me now, trying to make me see reason as if I had a say in any of it.
Through it all I kept my hand in place, doing my best to endure so I could be a team player. It wasn’t until two different black spindles broke off from the fog and tickled my nose that I lost my shiz. I thrashed while Bastien tried to keep me in place, hold my arm steady, and cover my nose to keep the bad things away. “Kerdik!” I screamed. My opened mouth was all the black snakes were waiting for. The two slipped into my mouth and wriggled down my throat, tormenting my insides.
Bastien’s roar was the only thing I heard. “Kerdik, help! Something went into her mouth!”
“If I stop now, the rest of the darkness will go into Avalon. I’ll help her once I’m finished.”
The cloud seemed triumphant in its victory of sneaking inside of me. The snakes were slithering around, bumping into my DNA and changing things they weren’t supposed to be touching. I screamed as something popped in my mouth, cutting my gums like a million knives doing surgery on whatever the crap they felt like.
Of all the things to feel in the middle of a battle on the nebulous, hunger hit my belly, coiling with desperation I couldn’t ignore. I went from my sole focus being the pain, to a ravenous hunger being the only thing in my life. I don’t know when the last time was that I’d eaten, but I knew I couldn’t last another minute, starving as I was. The number of snakes in the sky were getting smaller, sucking into my ring while Kerdik called out commands I couldn’t decipher. I could hear the anxiety in his voice, but the hunger was more powerful than even that. My head twisted left and right, searching for something to fill my belly. I couldn’t remember my appetite ever being this voracious, and felt the urge to murder anyone who got in the way of me and my Happy Meal.
Lane was freaking out about something, but I couldn’t understand her words. Of all the chaos that surrounded me, my ears suddenly went deaf to all sounds, except a steady thrumming that sounded like the relief I needed and the man I craved. The anarchy of the world I was stuck in began to fade, the pandemonium submitting to the tune of the kettle drum that centered my focus and made my mouth water.
Bastien smelled like cinnamon, and I wanted to be nearer to the scent that tempted me. He leaned in, cradling me to his chest as he studied my features with a wrinkled brow. He was shouting something to Kerdik, but all I heard was that beautiful thumping that seemed to stir something delicious inside of me. I didn’t feel the pain of my finger anymore, or the slices in my mouth, nor the fear of something foreign swirling around inside my body. All I felt was the draw of the steady beat that called to me like a forbidden lover.
Only Bastien wasn’t forbidden. He’d said a million times that what was his was as good as mine. He was all mine for the taking.
So I took him. On instinct I didn’t have the wherewithal to comprehend, I opened my mouth and latched my lips onto Bastien’s neck, sucking at the pulse that teased my baser senses.
Bastien’s lashes fluttered in the midst of the bedlam. “Oh, holy… Rosie, not now!”
When sucking and licking his skin didn’t suffice, my stomach roared that I wanted more. I didn’t think, only acted on a pure animal instinct that made no sense to my brain. I bit down on my fiancé’s neck, piercing his skin and drinking his warmth into my mouth.
The succulent treat that flowed down my throat was like nothing I’d ever tasted before. It was beyond a flavor classification, but had the scent of cinnamon and Bastien to it. I heard Lane scream as my arm pushed her aside when she tried to jerk me away. I didn’t care about being still for the cloud; I only cared that Bastien stayed put, so I could feast on him to my heart’s content. I pushed him over with strength I didn’t know I had, jerking his head to the side so I could take what I needed. My eyes fluttered shut as my body writhed with a slow, luscious, sensual persuasion atop his struggling form. I heard myself groan like a porn star – guttural and forceful. Everything in me needed Bastien. I was starved for him, and couldn’t hold back.
Kerdik wrestled me off my prey, shouting things I didn’t care to hear. I lunged time after time, but he fought with me until I twisted to bite my green captor, using my new weapon with an instinct I was too rabid to comprehend.
Kerdik didn’t howl, but he did grimace at the small bite marks I left on his wrist before he shook me off.
An acrid taste flooded my mouth, pushing out the cinnamon deliciousness. I spat the foreign grossness out on the balcony. “Ack! Sick! You taste disgusting!”
Kerdik straightened, looking down his nose at me. It was as if I’d said something he was willing himself not to hold me accountable for. “That’ll be the last time you say that to me.”
I turned toward Bastien, who was backed to the railing of the balcony, pale and in shock as he gaped at me. His hand was over his bleeding neck, covering the treasure I craved. I took a step toward him, but Kerdik’s arms around me held me tight to his chest, my back pressed to his front. “Let me go! I need him!”
“Easy, darling. There’s something inside of you that I need to draw out. You don’t want to hurt him, do you?”
“Of course not. I would never hurt Bastien.”
“You just attacked him!” Lane screeched. “Kerdik, tell me she’s not… Tell me my baby’s not a Vampire!”
The obvious word punched into me like a Mike Tyson-sized dose of non-reality. My gaze jerked back to Bastien, who looked horrified and frightened. Bastien was never afraid. Now I could see it all clearly on his face.
Bastien was scared of me.
I didn’t want to lunge, but my body ached for the blood it had been denied. Kerdik wrestled me to the floor, rolling me over so he could peer into my mouth. “Lane, help me hold her still! I have to get it out before it sets down roots.”
Lane moved around to my legs, pinning them down as tears flowed from her face. “It’s alright, baby. It’ll be fine. Kerdik can fix you.”
“I need Bastien!” I screamed, not caring that I sounded like a codependent twit. I needed more of that cinnamon sweetness in my mouth. My body was twitching for him, pushing me to do whatever it took to get another hit, and another.
Kerdik cupped his hand over my mouth, gripping my face sideways. “Manifester!” he called to whatever it was inside of me that he wanted to come out.
The snakes trapped in my body jerked around, burrowing deeper to escape Kerdik’s command. Again, he said it, and again, until the magnetic pull he possessed tugged them into his hand. The ends broke off, but the bulk of the madness was finally in his grip. Both black threads were jerked out of me, like a magician pulling a bunch of bananas from a volunteer in the audience. The snakes writhed in his fist until he released them over my ring. The aquamarine trapped them inside so they couldn’t torment me anymore.
Kerdik slumped over my supine form in relief. “I got them bot
h. She’ll be alright.”
“Then why do her teeth still look like that?” Lane demanded, furious and fearful.
Kerdik propped himself up on his elbows to peer into my mouth. What reprieve the vanishing snakes had given him was now gone. “No. No, no. No. I can fix this.” Though his tone had the desperation of a man who was grasping at straws, I tried to trust him. He covered my mouth again and shouted, “Manifester!” again, but nothing inside of me moved. The broken-off bits of darkness were seeping into my bones now, taking root and melting into my innermost parts.
I’d felt things shift inside of me when the higher magic had first entered, and knew something was different. Though I could hear now through my fog of wanting more blood, the desire was still coursing through me.
“Kerdik?” I whispered, my lower lip trembling. “What’s wrong with me?”
Kerdik let out a cry of frustration, reaching between us to feel along my rib cage. He moved off of me and tore my shirt up, paying my noise of surprise no mind as he pressed his ear to my stomach, as if his hearing had all the powers of an ultrasound.
I meant to open my mouth and ask more politely if I could please, please, please have just a little more blood, but when I tried, a horrible wail came from my lips. “More!” I cried, scared at how distressed my voice sounded.
Kerdik swore and covered my mouth again. “It’s in there. In deep, Lane. I can’t get it out! There’s no undoing it now. We just have to wait to see if she’s a Farouche or an Attelage.”
Lane was beside herself, her voice dripping with grief. “My daughter’s not a Vampire!”
Kerdik snarled at her. “You think I don’t wish there was any other explanation?” The fear in his eyes scared me more than my need for blood. Kerdik was never afraid, so I knew this would be bad. “Darling,” he said quietly, hovering above my horizontal form. “What’s my name?”
I wanted to cry out for more blood, but knew that wasn’t what he was asking me. “Kerdik,” I panted. “Kerdik, something’s wrong with me. I want to drink blood! I need it!”
Kerdik exhaled with choked relief. He turned his chin up to look at Lane. “Be grateful she isn’t a Farouche. We don’t have to figure out how to put her down. She can learn to live with this.”
“Bastien!” I cried out, partly because I needed more of his blood, but also because I was scared that something was changing, and I didn’t understand what.
Kerdik sat back, motioning for Lane to release my legs. I had the freedom to attack Bastien if I wanted to, but this time I was more measured in my hunger. I knew if I pounced, they’d take me away from him. Animal that I was, I needed sustenance.
Shooting furtive glances at Kerdik to see how much tether he’d give me, I crawled over to my fiancé, whose hand was dripping with the food my stomach was screaming to get at. Still, I paced myself, taking in Bastien’s sweaty face and pale pallor. I knew I couldn’t drain him anymore, but oh, how I wanted to.
“Bastien?”
His reply came back breathy and unsteady. “It’s alright, Daisy. I’m okay. Are you feeling better?”
I didn’t know how to answer that, so I didn’t. Despite our audience, I climbed onto his lap, straddling his thighs so I could wrap my arms around Bastien to comfort him. The blood called out to me, singing my name like a vixen. I reasoned that if it was dripping all over him just going to waste, it wouldn’t put him in peril to clean him up a bit. I pried his hand from his neck, feeling Kerdik standing over us, ready to intervene. “Please,” I begged quietly with longing in my eyes. “I won’t bite. Just a taste.”
Bastien looked up to Kerdik to see what he should do, and then nodded, turning his head away so he didn’t have to see me lick the blood off his hands and run my tongue along the strained ridges of his neck.
23
My New Vampy Life
The trip home was solemn, and made without me. When Kerdik insisted I be kept away from the others, no one argued, though I could tell Bastien wanted to. Bastien refused to leave me in Province 1, but Kerdik was firm that we stay away from each other for two full days. “You’ll drink too much blood. You need to learn what it feels like to abstain, or you’ll seriously hurt him.”
You would’ve thought Kerdik had forcefully ripped Romeo away from his Juliet, what with the way the two of us carried on. I’m not sure what my deal was, but Bastien was just as belligerent. “If she needs my blood, then she can have it. Why am I suddenly not allowed to live with my charge? Why is it a good idea to send her off with you?”
Kerdik had rolled his eyes at our dramatics. I’d been weeping – actually weeping – in Bastien’s arms. After all we’d been through, I’d be willing to punch anyone square in the face for judging me.
Kerdik sighed. “You’re nervous to leave her because you’re bonded even more so now. You’ve got her lueur, and on top of that you’re her mate – the only one she can drink blood from. The bond between an Attelage Vampire and her mate? It’s intense, and you two are already on my last nerve. Add being engaged to that? Everything you’re feeling is normal, but you need to get a grip on it. Two days apart is necessary for her to realize she can go that long without blood, and for you to understand that she’s allowed to be in a different building without you having a heart attack. You’ll smother her with the angst I can already see rising up inside of you at the mere mention of being apart for two short days.”
It took another half an hour of arguing between the two bulls, but ultimately Bastien gave in when Kerdik lured him away with work related to keeping me safe. He was commissioned to round up two dozen of Morgan’s soldiers and take them out to draw out the Farouche Vampires, locking them in Morgan’s dungeon before they could hurt more people. Kerdik was clear that the problem needed to be dealt with immediately, and Bastien was just insane enough to go on a Vampire hunt.
So Bastien was allowed to stay in Province 1, but he spent his time rounding up the Farouche Vampires, not permitted into the castle until two full days passed. Kerdik kept a vial of Bastien’s blood in his pocket, just in case. Apparently, I wasn’t supposed to need so much after that first gluttonous gorging I’d done.
Though Kerdik’s reasoning was solid, my mouth watered every time anyone said Bastien’s name. Kerdik and I tried to distract ourselves from my altered genetics and did what we could to clean up Province 1. The remaining soldiers, jaded and somewhat entitled as they were, defaulted to my rule since I was the daughter of their fallen leader. Still, Kerdik kept a close eye on me to make sure none of them misbehaved.
“You’re too soft on the soldiers,” Kerdik observed. “They can dig faster than that, and you don’t need to help them.” The romance between us had been tucked away, both of us respecting that I was engaged for as long as it was until Bastien decided I was too much to handle with my Vampiric qualities, and tossed me to the curb. Kerdik and I were friends now, which put one less complication on my plate.
I didn’t put down my shovel, but paused the digging that Kerdik had argued up and down wasn’t my job to do. “I’m not above working to make Avalon better. What’s it to you if I help rebuild a broken country?”
“Because your rebuilding should be done from the throne.”
I scoffed, not bothering to lower my voice. “Please. These guys don’t want me on the throne any more than I want to be there. They’ve been through enough.”
Kerdik glared at each of the five dozen men, who all shoveled with their heads lowered, lest they make eye contact with the almighty Master Kerdik and incur his wrath. “They’ve put Avalon through enough, you mean. These are the men who rape and pillage, Rosie. Morgan’s soldiers followed her without question.”
“Then they understand loyalty,” I snapped, cutting him off. “That’s a good quality, and if it’s the only worthwhile attribute they’ve got, I won’t stamp it out.” I cast around furtively at the men who were all bigger and stronger than me. “But the raping and the pillaging will catch them a swift death. You heard it here first, guys. Y
our new job is to make Avalon safer for the civilians. So after we bury all these bodies, you’re going to start planting crops for the people you wronged.” When I heard a murmuring in the ranks, I held up my hand. “Fight me on this, and I’ll take my mother’s throne so fast, you won’t know what hit you. Then your full-time jobs will be to sing me songs and paint me pictures of unicorns and flowers. Fix what you broke, you jags.” I launched the edge of my shovel into the dirt, picking my rhythm back up of scooping and dumping. “I get that you don’t feel you had a choice in any of it, but if you can follow Morgan’s orders to be demanding buttholes, you can sure as a kick in the teeth follow my request to make the world a better place.”
“You should be on the throne,” Kerdik grumbled through gritted teeth.
I rubbed out a kink in my neck. “I addressed what’s left of Province 1 this morning. I did the royalty thing. Now I’m doing the citizen thing. Taking care of Avalon is what I’m supposed to be doing. Right now, this is what Avalon needs. They need a ruler who gives a crap about them. Dead bodies left out for anyone to see? I care about them, and they need to see that. Maybe if they do, they’ll remember again what made this land great.”
Kerdik’s hat that he’d given me long ago had been returned to him. He’d worn it all morning before placing the Newsies cap on my head to shield my eyes from the sun. It was sweet, but he still maintained a polite distance, keeping an eye on me while standing back so we didn’t complicate our lives any further. “What a sweet world you live in.”
“Yes. Well, if you’re lucky, you just might get invited to the party once we get things up and running.”
Stubborn Girl Page 12
