“Oh, please.” She brushed at a strand of her short, dark hair as it fell into her eyes. Her features were sharp, nearly vulpine as she sneered at me. “Of course he knew what he was doing. I’m sure he went begging after her. Why else would she have chosen him?”
“You never wanted to be one of them,” someone behind me called out. “Yet now you’re the closest of all of us.” I wanted to snort at that. Few were ever turned to vampires—hell, it was possible none of the servants ever truly were, and the ones we heard of were simply stories to keep them working harder.
“I’m a pet, not a recruit,” I reiterated. “She has made no promises of turning me, nor have I asked for it. You all know my alliance is to the humans, to my job.”
“Exactly!” Clyde hissed at me. “You are human.”
Well, duh. You are too. The words hovered on my lips, but I didn’t say them. Shifting my body slightly, I tried to keep track of the ones who had moved behind me, though there were simply too many for me to observe that way. I might be a solid brawler, and far better than solid if I had a weapon, but twelve to one was no easy fight on my best day, let alone after two nights without sleep and still being weak from Elsie’s feeding yesterday.
“You don’t deserve to worship her.” Ah, so that was part of the problem. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit Elsie was beautiful.
When she had stripped yesterday to face off against the witches, I had nearly swallowed my tongue. Her body was a work of art, all lush curves and smooth skin, and the way she had stood completely unashamed, absolutely in control, as she put those witches in their place had nearly had me coming for a second time. While Clyde—and the others facing off with me apparently—all wanted to become vampires, it appeared Clyde wanted more than that. If he’d been chosen as a pet, I had no doubt he would have instantly been in Elsie’s bed. I tried to ignore the anger and jealousy that burned inside of me at that, focusing on surviving this confrontation.
“I’m bound to her,” I reminded them, again holding up my arm. “You know you can’t harm me without repercussions.”
The female who’d spoken before growled. “We’d be getting rid of a traitor. You’re not loyal. We’d be doing her a favor. She could have her choice of any of us.” A dreamy look crossed her face as the others murmured their agreement. I knew many of the humans were fanatical in their desires to become vampires, or even just pets, but this was beyond anything I had seen before. I didn’t know if it was just that Elsie was the princess, or if this was something many of the pets faced. When others had disappeared, I had simply assumed the vampires had taken them as meals. Now, however, I couldn’t discount the idea that maybe some of the new pets had met their fates the way I was about to.
I heard the rasp of metal and clenched my hands into fists. Apparently this wasn’t just going to be a brawl. Clyde’s gaze was cruel as he slipped a knife from his pocket, one he had clearly gotten from the kitchen. It wasn’t made for fighting, but for food, and if it was as dull as it looked then the sucker would seriously hurt. “We’ll carve you into little pieces and feed you to the other vampires.” The manic light in his eyes was brighter as he practically vibrated with the need to shed my blood. “They’ll take several of us on as pets after that, knowing we took you from our princess after you betrayed her.”
I shifted my weight, balancing myself carefully. If I could get through them and up the stairs, then I would be close enough to Elsie’s chambers for her to potentially hear me. The protections instilled as part of the bond claim were meant for witches and vampires, but it seemed humans were something I needed to worry about. Fury ate at my insides like acid, banishing my fear. I was fighting for them, researching for them, trying to find ways to keep our kind alive. Yet they were so caught up in the idea of being vampires that they were willing to kill me for their own chance at it, the lives of others be damned. The need to hurt them burned at the back of my mind, the darkness I hid so carefully demanding to be unleashed, yet I forced it back. Humans weren’t my prey. Even in self-defense I couldn’t allow myself to cross that line, to unleash what was inside of me against them, not when I could still potentially escape.
“You’ll make an enemy of Elsie,” I reminded them, tracking who was holding knives. Those were the ones I really needed to look out for.
If possible, I could try to grab a knife from one of them, but doing so would slow me down. I was too outnumbered for that to be a successful strategy even with my skills. Slipping through them was by far the smarter option, I just had to find a way to do it. And if I lived through this, I was going to get some of the same damn weapons bands I’d given to Elsie yesterday and start carrying myself. It wouldn’t save me from the witches or vampires, but it could help me if another situation like this arose.
“You dare call her that?” another female hissed. Her hair was bleached blonde, dried to the point of cracking, and forced into weak curls that didn’t seem to want to hold in her stick straight hair. “She is your mistress. The heir to the vampire throne. Yet you dishonor her by using her name?” Well, fuck me. I’d gotten used to saying it in my head, as it was still a challenge to let the title of mistress fall from my lips. In my haste to get them to back off, I hadn’t even realized I had used it.
“That’s for her to punish, not you.” I lifted my chin, staring her down. I wasn’t a fool, and showing any weakness here would just get me killed faster. “It doesn’t change that you’ll make an enemy of her.”
Clyde cackled with laughter. “We never do. They never know it’s those of us who are loyal who take out the trash like you.” I had never wanted to be wrong as much as I did here. Clearly this was something they had done before. “The others always reward us.” I wanted to know who “the others” were, but I didn’t have the time to keep playing this game. I was already late, and knowing Elsie, she would be searching for me shortly. She hated to be delayed from beginning her research. If she left her rooms to find me, though, she wouldn’t take the servants’ stairs like I did. She’d have no reason to look for me here, not unless she scented me. And if I got to her rooms when she wasn’t there, I might be just as trapped as I was now. Would that be enough for me to break my vow to myself? Would I use the violence I had buried deep inside of me, violence I had sworn never to turn on other humans?
I couldn’t wait anymore, I realized, as I looked from one bloodthirsty face to the next. I spun in a tight roundhouse kick, knocking back the few who had gathered close behind me. I launched myself forward and headed for the stairs when I felt the burn of a blade across my back. The cut was deep, even as I lashed out, forcing myself onward as I ducked and dodged other attacks, shoving my assailants away if I could and taking blows or cuts if I couldn’t. I had always been fast and flexible, and the quick, unexpected movements I made kept them guessing. Their own numbers and thirst to be the ones to take me down worked against them as they ran into each other, tripping one another up with yells and squeals of pain. I was twenty feet from the stairs when I went crashing to the ground, a large body pinning me in place.
“Traitor,” Clyde panted in my ear. I didn’t bother pointing out that his own behavior was treasonous as I pushed up hard, jarring his hold on me. He slipped to the side with a growl, and I flipped over, punching at his throat. He gasped for breath as his knife tumbled from his fingers, and I grasped the blade as the mouthy female stabbed at me. She snarled as she slashed at me again, and I lifted my blade to counter hers. I caught her wrist with the tip, stabbing deeply and making her shriek, as I wrenched her far-sharper blade from her hand and dropped the dull one I had previously claimed.
“Winifred!” Clyde gasped out behind me, the name a wheeze as he tried to speak through his damaged throat. I darted toward the stairs as Winifred dropped, cradling her bleeding arm. With this much blood flowing, it wouldn’t take long for the vampires to be on us if they were nearby. I would just need to be coherent enough to show my wrist band before they took a bite out of me. More hands grabbed me, marking
my skin as their fists landed blows or their weapons struck. Pain racked through me as I hacked and kicked. I wasn’t some mouse of a servant who was going to go down without a fight, even if I was still unwilling to let the violence inside of me have free rein. My lips were peeled back in a snarl as my blade connected with the face of one of the men, and he screamed when his cheek peeled away. It was his bad luck that the blade I’d managed to keep happened to be one of the sharp ones, able to do some serious damage. I was still outnumbered though, and my exit was cut off as the others closed in, even while I waved my knife to keep them back.
Three dove at me at once, one taking my blade to his gut when I shifted at the last moment. He crumpled with a groan, yanking it from my grasp. Rough hands clutched my wrists, yanking my arms behind my back as a fist met my face. I hadn’t made it, but I hadn’t allowed the hidden darkness inside of me to escape. I hadn’t been the easy kill they expected of me either. Most of them sported wounds of some type, and even with Winifred binding her wrist, it was probable that she and the man at my feet with my knife in his abdomen wouldn’t make it through this.
“Hold him still,” Clyde rasped, his hand around his throat as he snatched his knife back up and advanced on me. “I’m going to cut you into little pieces, you traitorous bastard.” I was sure he would too. The sound of screams wasn’t anything that would draw aid to me, since torture was too common here. From the smiles on their faces, they all knew it. “Once you’re in pieces, the vampires will come to lick it up,” Clyde taunted as he drove his knife deep into my arm, wrenching a piece off. I couldn’t hold back my scream, my stomach lurching at the pain as he ripped a chunk of muscle from my arm and tossed it to the side. “You thought you could betray us. Take what’s ours.” He was panting as his knife dug into me again. His wasn’t the only one now, as the others began to join him. Even with my arms held by two of the men, I kicked and thrashed, even as I screamed in agony as their knives carved out pieces of me to litter the floor.
“Fuck!” one of them swore when his knee gave out after a direct hit.
“Someone grab his damn legs!” a female muttered as she dove at one of them, dropping her knife from where she had been carving into my shoulder.
“You won’t get away with it this time.” The words were a growl through my gritted teeth. Sweat slicked my skin at the agony of my wounds, my stomach threatening to turn itself inside out at the sight of the pieces of my body on the floor. Elsie might not care for me specifically, but she was going to destroy these humans for having taken what was hers by law.
“Maybe I’ll take your tongue next,” Clyde sneered me, tracing his blade around my lips and making blood fill my mouth. “I’d take your eyes, but I want you to see yourself torn apart.” Blood speckled his face, staining his hands and clothes. More than one of my attackers was licking their lips, sucking on the blood that coated them or even scooping chunks off the floor to consume, making my stomach lurch all over again. Part of me had thought Elsie was a liar when she had said humans consumed their own kind, but here they were, proving her right. My vision began to tunnel as he carved into my cheek, pulling away a chunk as he laughed. “Not so pretty now, are you?” His breath was sour in my face as he tugged at the skin, and I couldn’t stop the scream that tore from my throat, the taste of blood strong in my mouth, coating my tongue. Fuck it. My mother had always said my pride would end up being the death of me. I should have let Elsie take me to bed. Mistress or not, at least I would have gotten to taste her before I died. I could have imagined that rather than the blood I knew stained my teeth. I was sure she would have been sweet. She called to the violence inside of me and I knew that the heat we would have generation would have been incredible. The ridiculous thoughts tangled in my pain addled brain as I fought against those holding me, despite how impossible it was. Between the blood loss and being held down by four separate servants, there was no way for me to escape.
“Maybe we should castrate him too.” I couldn’t see which of the women had made that jeering statement, but I heard Clyde’s laughter through the ringing in my ears. I felt hands scrabble at the tie of my pants, felt them loosening before they dropped to the floor and a knife dug into the newly exposed muscle of my thigh, tracing upward. Idiots were going to hit my femoral artery that way, I realized foggily, but I wasn’t about to tell them I’d be dead before they castrated me. My vision was wavering in and out now, and I sagged limply into my attackers’ hold, no longer able to support my own weight, digging the blade in deeper. Suddenly, everything stopped. The knives frozen in my flesh, and no sound reached my ears. If this is death, I want a redo, I thought wildly.
“Well now, what do we have here?” I recognized that voice, forcing my head up to see the witch twins. Their hands were raised, their power glowing as bright red as their eyes. Holding spell, I realized. The question was, were they here to help me, or assist my attackers?
“Artery.” I managed to get the one word out even as blood dribbled down my chin.
“Fuck.” Crowe turned to his brother. “Freeze it all. I’ll grab Elsie. Don’t let anyone escape.” He turned and darted up the stairs before fire lashed my body, the burn surging through my nerves as if I was being rolled in live flames.
“Sorry, Ash.” Draven’s voice echoed in my head.
“What the hell?” The snarl echoed through the hall, and I knew it instantly—Elsie.
“I’ve got to seal it all before he bleeds out.” I assumed that was Draven answering her, but I couldn’t see anymore. Fuck, if that was what he was doing he could just let me bleed out. I was minutes away, maybe less, as it was. I’d take that over whatever the hell he was doing to me now. I’d thought the knives they’d stuck into me were torture, but this, this was something else altogether. “Almost done.” His voice was tight now, hard to hear over my screams, and then the burn suddenly stopped.
I blinked through tear filled eyes toward the stairs. Elsie seemed to be trapped in a field of crimson light, though maybe that was just the blood that spilled into my eyes. “Let the damn spell go,” Elsie snapped, pushing against whatever barrier the twins had erected.
“Can you be near him without blood lust kicking in?” Crowe asked her seriously. “He’ll die if you take any.”
“If I need to take any it won’t be from him,” she hissed, her fangs covering her lower lip as she snarled. I didn’t know what spell they had in place, but it seemed to be holding all of us mostly still, though not so frozen that we couldn’t breathe or blink. My head was fuzzy, the world still washed out from blood loss, and I knew even with the injuries he had sealed I didn’t have much time. I’d lost far too much blood.
The curtain of light holding her back parted, and she was in front of me in a flash. I heard sharp cracking sounds followed by soft thuds, and I realized she had quickly and efficiently snapped the necks of the servants holding me. She scooped me into her arms. It didn’t matter that she was tiny or female, she was a vampire and able to hold me with relative ease. She cradled me against her chest, heading for the stairs.
“Don’t let any of them escape,” Elsie snarled at Crowe and Draven. “I don’t care where you put them, but no one else touches them.”
“He’ll still need to be seen to,” Crowe pointed out, his hand snagging Elsie’s shoulder before she could pass. “Dray sealed the wounds, but he’s lost too much blood to live without it being replenished. You can turn him now.” Elsie made a growling noise in her throat, looking down at me as she assessed me. I was too tired to object, my mouth wouldn’t even form the words, but horror washed through me at the idea. I didn’t want to be a vampire, I’d rather die than become that. I was human, and that was enough for me. Her eyes softened slightly as she shook her head.
“He doesn’t want to be a vampire.” Relief bloomed in my chest at her statement, even as a frown marred her pretty face. “But I don’t know if I have a choice.” Fuck. Letting me die was a choice.
I felt movement near my side, but I couldn�
��t even force my eyes toward it to identify the source. From the direction, though, I assumed Draven had stepped closer. “We can replenish him.” I didn’t really want that either. If they did, I’d owe them a debt. A fairly significant one at that. I wouldn’t be bound to them like that, it was bad enough being bound to a vampire.
Elsie considered his proposal for the briefest of moments before nodding stiffly. “Heal him. I’ll assume the debt in his stead.” If I could have gasped in shock, I would have, and at least one of the twins did. She couldn’t know what she was offering.
“Do you understand what that means?” I couldn’t see which of the twins questioned her, but from the tone I assumed it was Crowe. He seemed to be the cooler, more methodical of the two.
Her chin lifted, her snarl loud as it echoed in the hallway. “Of course I understand. He is under my protection. That means I will assume the debt. Just save him before it’s too late.” Elsie’s blue eyes were soft as they met mine. “Always causing trouble, pet,” she murmured, as the twins began their spell. I could feel the air pressure changing around me, pressing against my skin. Not air, I realized after a moment. Blood. They were drawing blood back into me, forcing it to clean and enter my skin. I hadn’t even known that was possible. My vision became wavy again, the tunnel of oblivion tugging at me as their magic pulsed and bit into my skin. Unable to hold back anymore, I drowned in the ocean color of Elsie’s eyes and let unconsciousness claim me.
Chapter Twelve
Crowe
“He’ll need to rest,” I told Elsie gruffly, my muscles trembling after the amount of magic we were expending. Both Draven and I would need to recharge after this. Between holding all of the attackers, sealing then healing Ash’s wounds, and maintaining a privacy wall at a distance from our location to prevent any other vampires or witches from entering and interfering, he and I were both close to being tapped out.
Reign of Nightmares (Blood Throne Book 1) Page 9
