by K Loraine
I grit my teeth against a retort and forced myself to be calm. Fighting with him wouldn’t get me any closer to escaping. Instead, I lifted my chin and walked into the bathroom, dropping the clothes on the counter as soon as the door shut behind me. I needed to keep a clear head and not be clouded by my desire to verbally spar with him. This might have been my only chance to scope out the house. If that were the case, I’d need to be on the top of my game. There had to be a way out of here that didn’t include a body bag.
Even through the chunky knit of the sweater Cashel chose for me, I felt the unwanted rush of arousal at his touch. He held my arm as though I might bolt at any moment. He was right, I probably would have. We walked slowly down the stairs, the second from the bottom creaking at our weight. I took note of the sound, filing it away for future reference.
“This house is enormous,” I said, unable to help myself. I grew up in shoebox-small apartments for most of my life. This place could have easily been the size of an entire apartment building.
Cashel shrugged. “It has served us well.”
“How many of you are there?”
“Six of us are Blackthornes by blood, but only four live here. Then there are Brenna and Martin.”
“Who are?”
“Not Blackthornes.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I got that. So they’re what? Indentured servants? Is this like some kind of vampire version of Downton Abbey?”
He frowned and shook his head. “Brenna and Martin have been with us for the last two hundred years…give or take a decade.”
“By choice? Or did you kidnap them too?”
He gritted his teeth and the grip on my arm tightened. “You always have to needle me, don’t you?”
“I bet you kept Brenna here just like me. You used her up until she was too old for your perverted tastes and then you turned her into one of you. You make me sick.” I spit the words at him and he turned blazing eyes on me.
Ripping my arm from his grasp, I backed away until I hit the wall. The raw anger in his eyes had my heart racing with every step closer he took. “You will not speak of Brenna that way again, little bird. Not if you value the protection I provide.”
“Protection? You’re not protecting me from anything. Your father wants my blood. You brought me to him. I’m a literal lamb being brought to slaughter. If you wanted to protect me, you’d have left me right where you found me.”
Tension crackled between us as he ground out, “You know nothing.”
I raised my hand, ready to strike his handsome face, but a cool palm wrapped around my wrist, stopping me in mid-air.
“I wouldn’t do that, darling. You’ll break every bone in that little hand of yours if you hit him hard enough, and he’ll hardly feel a thing.”
The man’s accent was different from Cashel’s. Where Cashel’s voice was deep and resonant, his accent only barely holding a hint of British vowels, the vampire holding my wrist sounded like he just stepped off a plane from London. Cashel’s gaze swung from me to the man at his side.
“Lucas.” That was all he said, but those two syllables were filled with undeniable hatred.
“Big brother, lovely to see you, as always.”
Lucas didn’t take his hand off my wrist. Instead, he pulled my palm to his lips and pressed a kiss to the skin between my knuckles. I could practically feel Cashel vibrating with rage as Lucas inhaled deeply. “Hmm, rose oil. She must be delectable if you’re having her mask her scent.”
“She’s off-limits, Lucas. You’d know that if you had come home when father summoned you.”
“So, she’s really the fuil ghrian? Now I’m sad I missed the ceremony.” He looked at me with a mixture of awe and hunger.
Cashel nodded and wrapped an arm around my waist, tugging me against his side. “She is. And no one is permitted to touch her.”
Lucas focused on the arm around my waist. “It looks to me like you’re touching her right now. Does Father know you’ve laid down a claim on what is his by right?”
Laid down a claim? A fucking claim? “Excuse me. No one is claiming me.” Even as I said the words, I knew I was wrong. I had no leg to stand on here in this house where my very life was in danger every moment.
“Oh, Cashel claimed you. He may as well have pissed in a circle around you for all the pheromones he’s sending off.” Lucas elbowed Cashel and leaned close to whisper conspiratorially, “Are you going to breed this one, then? Wear her out until she can’t take anymore just like our father did?”
Cashel stood still as a statue and refused to look at me. “That’s enough, Lucas.”
Lucas looked me over and grinned. “Sit by me at dinner, darling. I’ll be much more fun than him.”
Cashel didn’t react, and as Lucas turned and walked down the hall, I narrowed my gaze on the man in front of me. “What the hell was that?” I asked.
“That was my brother.”
“I realize that. I was talking about the breeding bullshit.” I put on a fake British accent and said, “Are you going to breed this one, then?”
Cashel took my face between his large palms and pressed our foreheads together. It was a level of familiarity we hadn’t achieved, but I couldn’t stop him. “No. There will not be any breeding between us. Not if I can help it.”
My eyes went wide when he stepped back and dragged a hand through his dark hair. “So you’re saying vampires and humans…”
“Can produce children. Yes. But they’re half-breeds. Tainted.”
“This just gets better and better,” I muttered. Cashel’s fingers brushed my forearm and I flinched at his touch. If he could knock me up, I was definitely staying away from him. “Which way to the dining room?” I asked, needing to get this night over with.
He put one hand behind his back, a formal gesture that seemed out of place in this day and age, but all at once completely fitting. “Straight ahead,” he said.
I strode forward, my head held high, shoulders back, false bravado running through me like an electrical current. I couldn’t let him see how much that revelation spooked me. The idea that he could get me pregnant terrified me. But the thought of him being inside me…well, in another situation, I would have welcomed a man like him into my body.
“Quiet your thoughts, little bird. I may not be able to hear what you’re thinking, but others at the table will be able to.” His breath tickled my ear as he spoke, and I repressed a shiver of unbridled lust.
“They can read thoughts?” I asked, breathless.
“Yes. Some of them. But they wouldn’t need that ability anyway. Your posture, your pulse, and…your scent, all give you away.” He trailed a finger across my collarbone and down the center of my chest. “Your desire is something I want to feed from almost more than I want your blood.”
Again, a shiver ran down my spine, but this was not fear. This was desire mixed with anger at myself. He was my captor. He was the beast who took me. Just because he happened to be dark and sexy, that didn’t mean I should want him.
My arousal was a traitor to every sensibility I possessed. Jerking away from his hold, I strode forward, not allowing myself to look back at him. “How do you know I was reacting to you? Lucas is very good looking.”
“Lucas is an unreliable ass. He’d drain you dry and leave me to clean up the mess.”
“And it would kill you to know he got to me first?”
“Yes,” he said, his lips brushing the shell of my ear.
I’d reached the French doors at the end of the hall without realizing it. That was how deeply Cashel affected me. I hated it. “Dining room?” I asked.
His hand settled on the small of my back and before either of us could move, the doors slid open. There I found a long table with eight empty chairs. Candles lit the room, heating the space and filling the air with the smell of hot wax and warm wood. Every wall was covered in beautiful wood panels. The ceiling was mirrored, reflecting light.
“Where are they?” I glanced from one end o
f the room to the other. “I thought they were meeting us for dinner?”
He strode to the table and pulled out a chair. “Sit.”
Crossing my arms over my chest, I raised my brows and glared. “Seriously?”
“Yes. Sit. They will join us shortly.”
“So you think you can seduce me with a candlelit dinner?” I couldn’t help but poke at him. It was the only defense I had left. “Are you going to drug my wine as well? Use your magic gaze on me?”
“I’ve already told you I won’t control your mind. It’s not—”
A secret panel on the right side of the room swung open as he stepped closer to me and instead of finishing his sentence, he backed away and placed his hand on the chair. “Sit.”
I did as he told me, but only because the four vampires who filed into the room all stared at me with barely controlled hunger in their eyes. Lucas grinned and shot me a devious wink, but the other three set me on edge. The King was as dashing and dangerous as he had been in the throne room, while two of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen nearly eclipsed everyone else.
“Calm down,” Cashel whispered, his hand on my shoulder. “They can sense your fear and it’s only adding to their hunger.”
I took a few long breaths and fought for control of the anxiety building in my chest. I could not have a panic attack here and now. Not with five hungry vampires closed in a room with me. Cashel’s face filled my vision, his eyes the color of black coffee. “Little bird, look at me. Slow your breaths, you are safe with me. You won’t be harmed tonight.”
My heart rate slowed under his gaze and I was able to pull myself together, but I internally cursed myself for giving in to the adrenaline my body sent careening through me.
“And how is our little blood supply liking her stay with us?” A tall, willowy woman took a seat across from me.
“Sorcha,” Cashel said with warning clear in his voice.
“What? Isn’t that why she’s here? She is our pet.”
Cashel’s grip was too tight on my shoulder. I swear I heard him mutter, “Mine,” under his breath. Everything in me bristled at the tension in the room.
“Now, now, children.” The King stood at the head of the table, his gaze on me. “Let’s not upset our guest. Olivia is here under my protection, and there will be no feeding from her. She is mine alone to enjoy.” His focus zeroed in on Cashel. “And Cashel has been seeing to her safety. Any harm done to her will result in…punishment.”
The door slid open and Brenna walked inside with a tray of food. She set it on the table in front of me and left almost as quickly as she’d appeared. A full wine glass sat on the left side of the tray and when I lifted the silver lid off the plate, my mouth watered at the meal in front of me. Fettuccini in rich cream sauce, a grilled chicken breast cut and laid out atop the bed of pasta, and a sliced baguette, freshly baked by the smell of it, stole my attention from the vampires. My stomach growled as hunger took control.
“Are you eating?” I asked.
A chorus of soft laughs filled the room. “Not yet,” Sorcha said, a dark promise in her words. “But we will.”
7
Olivia
My appetite disappeared almost as soon as Sorcha spoke those words. Was I going to be the meal? No, that wasn’t what the King had said. He staked his claim. I was his. No one else would have me. But that didn’t make me feel any better. It hovered over me like a guillotine waiting to fall and ruin me.
“So…your, um, your highness, I guess?” I reached for the right words but really wasn’t sure how I should address him.
“You may call me Elias.” The smile he gave me was kind, but the glint of razor-sharp fangs that he showed stole any comfort he offered.
“Elias, when are you letting me leave?”
The room went deathly silent until he began to laugh. His rich voice carried over me and made it abundantly clear I’d been an idiot to ask. “My dear, you are home. And after you’ve had some time to acclimate to life here at Blackthorne Manor, you’ll do your duty and serve me.”
“How exactly am I supposed to do that?”
“By any means I wish.”
My limbs trembled as I fought to keep myself calm. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m suddenly not very hungry.”
Cashel’s hand was on my shoulder, pressing me down into the chair. “Eat,” he ordered.
“I’ll eat when I’m hungry. You don’t own me.” I spat the words, but the lie tasted bitter on my tongue. He did. They all owned me. They’d stolen me from my life and I’d live or die by their whims.
Sorcha chuckled and shook her head. “Who is the master and who is the pet?” she muttered.
“I am,” Elias said. “And Cashel will do well to remember that if he wants to maintain his status as heir. I can replace my chosen successor, son.”
Cashel’s fingers dug into my shoulder. “You eat now, or you starve, little bird.”
“Maybe I will starve. It seems to me I have something all of you want. I don’t have to give it to you. I could easily end all of this.”
I grabbed the fork from the table and held it to my throat. With enough strength, I could do it. It would hurt like hell, but I didn’t think I could stand being fed from over and over by Elias, or any of them for that matter. Tears sprung to my eyes and I fought them back, unwilling to let these monsters see me cry.
“Spare us the dramatics, pet,” Elias said. “Cashel, control your charge.”
In one swift movement, Cashel had the fork out of my hand and my arms restrained. “Do not threaten to harm yourself again, little bird,” he whispered into my ear. “Or I will be forced to punish you.”
Rage burned in my belly, but I wouldn’t win this. Not with strength on his side. I moved toward my plate, but he still held me tightly. “I can’t eat without my hands.”
“This is your one chance. But if you so much as move a muscle in an effort to end your life, I will strap you to this chair myself and force your dinner down your throat.”
I swallowed down the fear which threatened to escape in the form of a whimper. Then I nodded, not trusting my voice to work. The pressure on my arms lessened and I stared at my food, avoiding the gazes of each vampire at the table. It took everything in me to eat every bite of my meal, but I did it. I forced myself to keep down my food, even with the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
When I was done, I tossed my fork onto the table in a very unladylike manner. I couldn’t have cared less what they thought of me. “There. Done. May I be excused?” I sounded like a petulant teenager, but I couldn’t stand being in the same room as them much longer.
“You may, pet,” Elias said, and Cashel stood to accompany me. I bristled at the thought of him stalking after me. “Cashel, she may not be able to leave the house, but she certainly has freedom to roam the halls. Someone is always watching. It doesn’t have to be you.”
I shoved back my chair and headed for the door. Freedom, if only inside the estate, seemed like a fleeting opportunity. I desperately hoped they wouldn’t send someone after me.
They didn’t. But as soon as I was out of the room, I let my fear take hold and I leaned against the door, shaking like a leaf. The murmur of Cashel’s voice struck a chord in me that I didn’t like. I’d come to crave the sound of him already, and I hated myself for it.
The scrape of chairs on the hardwood had me jumping away from the heavy door as the murmur of angry voices rose to a full-fledged argument. Hope filled my chest. They were distracted. Maybe they couldn’t or wouldn’t hear me. This might be my only opportunity to escape.
The hall was silent, the house still, and I took my chance. I kicked off my shoes in hopes my steps would be silent and bolted as fast as I could. I worked to control my pulse, my breaths, running with everything in me through drawing rooms, endless hallways, sitting rooms, in a maze with no sense of direction. I didn’t care. And when I finally did catch sight of the front door, my feet hit the floor with such force I thought for
sure the Blackthornes would come after me.
But there was the door. Within my grasp. My heart hammered in my chest. I didn’t know if I’d be able to get far, but if I didn’t try, what was the point of all of this?
Cashel
“What are you doing, Father?” I asked as soon as Olivia left the room.
He glanced from me to Calliope, then to Lucas and Sorcha. “Me? I’m having dinner with my family. What are you doing, Cashel?” He eyed me, lips set in a firm line, palms flat on the table. He exuded a calm reserve for a psychopath.
“She’s alone. What if she escapes?”
A wicked laugh escaped him. “Then you’ll hunt her down. You’ll drag her back here kicking and screaming, and lock her in the cellar for the rest of her days if you have to.”
“I can go get her,” Lucas offered. “She seems to like me better anyway.”
Before I could stop myself, I lunged across the table and wrapped my fist in the front of his shirt. “You’ll keep your hands off her.”
Lucas’s chair fell backward, hitting the floor with a crash. “Take your hands off me, brother. I’ll tear your arm from the socket if you ruined this shirt.”
“Enough!” our father said, his voice booming. “Lucas, you don’t have enough control to be alone with her. You know that.”
“And Cashel does? He’s a walking hard-on around her.”
I bristled internally, not wanting them to see how his words affected me. “I can control myself,” I muttered. “Something you still have yet to master.”
“What about me?” Calliope asked. “I’d be a fr—”
“No.” My interruption was curt and harsher than I’d intended, but I was the only one who could handle Olivia Stewart. Because this was my father’s test. I had to pass if I was going to take his crown. “We have to have her if vampires are going to be strong again. She’s vital to Father’s plan, to cure sun sickness.” I swallow past the lump in my throat at the mention of the disease taking our kind by storm. “She needs to feel like she has allies in you, and a protector in me. You’ll get too close, Callie. You know that as well as I do.”
