Craved: A Vampire Romance (Marked by Night Book 1)

by Sara Thorn

  “Rightful?”

  “Athan is the current ruler of the largest and most powerful vampire clan in Mystreuce. But the only reason that he received the position was that Cassius refused it. Their father relinquished rule over the vampire clan to Cassius when he died, but Cassius refused the role.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Cassius doesn’t want to rule,” he said.

  “Let me guess, he would prefer to drink wine from silver goblets?”

  He looked thoughtful at my comment. “I believe the reason is a bit more substantial than that. You’re very inquisitive,” he said. “Most of the new recruits are just frightened and focused on finding a way back to the human world.”

  “Trust me,” I said as I rolled my eyes. “I’ve done both of those things already. I guess I just tend to get over self-pity faster than most.”

  I heard a small laugh, one that sounded almost impressed. “Well, let’s go get you settled with the rest of the group, Mara. There will be a lot for you to get used to in the morning.”

  Chapter Five

  I met the morning with probably the most sleep deprivation I had ever had. Even sleeping on the streets was easier to choke down than being here.

  The sleeping quarters weren’t bad; they would actually seem quite nice if it weren’t for the dire circumstances I found myself in. Even though several girls shared the room, the beds were comfortable, and except for a few whimpering sobs, the night was quiet.

  I should’ve tried to save my strength, but all sorts of scenarios ran through my head from the moment we were led here until morning arrived. It was difficult to tell that it was even morning since no daylight shone into the castle. When we had come here last night, the tunnel emptied into the main hall, and I recognized it immediately as the castle I had explored when I thought this was all still virtual reality.

  It seemed brighter then, and I thought I remembered daylight from over the tops of the hillside streaming in through the windows. But now, all of the windows were covered with some sort of black parchment which hung in sheets from ceiling to floor. I guess that made sense since they were vampires and all. The castle was still beautiful, and the amenities—even for the servants—were not lacking in the least. But it was dark, and it was foreign, and I had the increasingly worrisome feeling that I would never be going home again.

  All night I was kept awake by thoughts which tried to sort out how this could actually be happening, mixed with terror at the reality that vampires and hidden worlds existed, not lessened by the lingering unease I felt around both of my apparent captors.

  I felt utterly betrayed by Athan, the one who had promised me the future of a professional dancer that I had always dreamed of and had worked my ass off to achieve. And I felt total hatred toward Cassius, who was now robbing me of that dream with his plans to turn me into his personal servant or entertainer—whatever that meant.

  When the same golden-blond guy who had accompanied us here last night came in to give us a verbal wake-up call in his most pleasant, yet stern voice, I sat up in the bed with palpable, puffy, dark circles under my eyes and an aching head.

  “You look like shit.” He said as he walked toward me.

  “Yeah, well, considering I haven’t eaten, slept, or had a chance to bathe or change clothes, you’re lucky this is as bad as I look right now,” I said.

  He stared at me with an expression of compassion that I hadn’t seen from anyone else here. “I’m sorry about all of that,” he said. “I’m going to try to make this as easy on you as possible, okay?”

  “Why?” I asked. He looked stunned at my blunt question, but then he appeared as though he understood.

  “Because I am not one of them.”

  I wasn’t quite sure who “them” was, but I assumed he meant the vampires he worked for.

  “My name is Quinn,” he said as he reached out to take my hand. His fingers were soft and tingly, which was unexpected. He smiled when I jumped a little. “Sorry, that’s a fae-shifter thing.”

  “A what?”

  “I’ll explain it to you later. We’ll be spending a lot of time together,” he smiled.

  Quinn looked like the kind of guy I had wished existed in high school—attractive, gentle, and with the brightest eyes that stood out against the sunny locks of hair that curled around his face.

  “Hey, how old are you?” I asked as I suddenly realized that everyone here looked as if they were about the same age.

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Huh?” I said. “How can you not know how old you are?”

  “It’s a bit complicated with the fae folk.

  “What about vampires?”

  Quinn got a look of distaste on his face. “Cassius is about four hundred years old, I believe. If that’s what you wanted to know.”

  “And Athan?”

  “Slightly older than that.”

  I stood up from the bed and tried to run my fingers through my hair. Long strands of black knots wrapped around my knuckles. I might not have been able to do anything about the distressed jeans and white cotton T-shirt I had been in for at least the last twenty-four hours, but a brush would have been nice.

  “And you said they’re half-brothers?” I asked Quinn as I tried my best not to look and feel like I had been hit by a truck.

  But the voice that answered wasn’t Quinn’s. It was Cassius.

  “Why do you want to know?” he asked as he walked into the room.

  The rest of the girls scattered, some walking quickly out of the room toward the bathroom and others looking toward Quinn for reprieve as he moved them along to get ready.

  “Curiosity,” I answered flatly as I tucked the front piece of my T-shirt into my jeans. I needed a shower, badly.

  “Yes, Athan is my half-brother.”

  “And he’s older than you? That’s why he is the leader, and you’re not?”

  Cassius shot me a glare that, for a minute, made me feel like I might become his next meal.

  “No,” he growled.

  “Why then?” I figured at this point I didn’t have much to lose by asking questions. Maybe if I annoyed them enough, they would even send me back home.

  “Why what?”

  “Why aren’t you the leader of this vampire world?”

  “First of all,” Cassius answered slowly, “this isn’t a vampire world. Vampires simply rule here. We are not the only species that exists in Mystreuce. Secondly, I am not the leader here because I do not wish to rule.”

  “Who doesn’t wish to rule?” I asked.

  A dark shroud fell over Cassius as he visibly waged whether or not he was going to answer my question further. “Someone who watched his father rule at the cost of his mother’s life.”

  I surprised myself by feeling a tiny bit of compassion for him, at least for a moment. “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “Don’t be. Emotions are a weakness. I handed the rule that was given to me over to my younger half-brother, Athan, simply because I wanted no part in it. Go shower, you smell awful.”

  Cassius looked at me with a pained face. I wasn’t sure if it was disdain or something else, but it was certainly rude enough to make me feel self-conscious. I was getting ready to open my mouth and ask how I was supposed to shower with no change of clothes, along with a snide question about whether or not vampires even had a sense of smell, but Quinn appeared and wrapped an arm around my back to pull me toward the bathroom. Cassius didn’t seem very fond of Quinn, at least not by the face he made when Quinn came to get me and ushered me out of the room.

  The shower felt magnificent. I stood under the hot water, which streamed out of a wide sprinkling nozzle above my head. I closed my eyes and let the warm rain cascade around me as I tried not to freak out about several different things at once.

  One thing at a time, I told myself. That was what I used to say on the streets. Anything could be handled if I took it piece by piece, possibly even the thought of abduction into a supernatural world. It was
n’t like I had a choice in the matter.

  There were two options—survive or not.

  I closed my eyes and thought about nothing other than getting as clean as possible, because who knew if I was going to get another shower soon, or if this would be my last one before being eaten alive by deliriously handsome bloodsuckers. When I opened my eyes, I jumped back at seeing Quinn standing in front of the open shower, staring at me.

  “Sorry,” he said, diverting his eyes and extending his arms toward me with a towel and pile of clothes balancing on his hands. “I brought you your stuff.”

  “These don’t look like my things,” I said as I took the towel from him. I couldn’t help but notice that his eyes had shifted back toward me.

  “That’s what you’ll be wearing here,” he said.

  “Where did my clothes go?”

  “They’re gone.” I could tell by his tone that I wouldn’t see my favorite pair of jeans ever again.

  Quinn turned around as I got dried off and dressed.

  “What happens now?” I asked as I slid the black leather leggings up over my hips. They were made of the strangest fabric, thick, yet pliable enough to dance in. The shirt looked like liquid gold, and even though the sleeves reached down to my wrists, the shoulders were cut out from the top of my arm to my elbow. The openings left plenty of skin exposed and a sheer, gold, billowing fabric that fell around my forearms. The bottom of the shirt fit tightly to my waist as if it were a second skin. Since I wasn’t given a bra to wear, the fabric draped visibly from the tips of my breasts. When I walked up to Quinn, and he turned around, his mouth opened slightly, and his exhale was slow and audible. After a few elongated seconds, he regained his composure.

  “Now,” he said as he gently cleared his throat to compensate for his raspy voice. “You will be in my care as one of the entertainers for Cassius. Since you are an adept dancer, he expects that you will dance at his parties, of which he hosts many.”

  “Where’s the other girl who was here from the conservatory? How come she was chosen to go with Athan if the dancers are supposed to be the entertainment here?”

  “The humans who went with Athan will be trained as warriors for his cause. I’m not sure why he chose her. He must have seen something in her that led him to believe she would be a good fighter,” Quinn answered. At least he honestly answered the questions that I asked.

  “What exactly is Athan’s cause?” I asked.

  “He seeks to conquer all of the other species of beings in Mystreuce and bring them into his service. My people, the fae, have already been conquered by the vampires and are in servitude to Athan and Cassius.”

  “You’re slaves?” I suddenly felt both awful for Quinn and all of his people, but at the same time, relieved that he was a servant just like I seemed to be. Perhaps he was my first friend here.

  Quinn nodded. “Although, I am thankful at least to be a slave to Cassius and not his half-brother. Don’t get me wrong; Cassius is an arrogant and petulant child in the body of a man, but at least he isn’t cruel and evil like Athan.”

  Evil? I had trouble picturing the man who had saved me from homelessness and brought me onto my path toward a dance career as being evil. Then again, I would never have pictured him as being an immortal vampire, either, so obviously, my judgment was seriously lacking.

  “So, all I’m supposed to do is dance for him?” I asked.

  “For now.” Quinn’s ambiguous answer didn’t sit well with me.

  “Do I get more clothes than just these?”

  “Yes,” Quinn said as he swallowed hard. “You’ll get new clothes every day. But I must say that this outfit suits you beautifully.” He tried to casually move his hand in front of himself to cover up the subtle movement in his pants, but I caught a glimpse of it regardless.

  For a moment, I let my imagination wander to think about what it would be like to make love to a fae man, especially one as handsome as Quinn.

  As we walked down the corridor toward Cassius’s private chambers, Quinn told me about how the fae had been conquered by the vampires and forced into their service. The scene he depicted was one brimming with discord and resentment, and it was undeniable that the fae were utterly outraged by their indentured servitude.

  “Why don’t your people just revolt? Have an uprising or something?” I asked.

  “It’s not the time for that yet,” he answered.

  Yet?

  When we got to the giant double doors that led into Cassius’s chamber, Quinn reached for my hand and turned to face me, which caught me off guard a bit.

  “Mara,” he said as he looked at me through his glittering, green eyes. “I’ve been serving Cassius for more years than I can count, and he’s never asked to see one of his new servants before just throwing her into the party to dance for his guests. I find it highly unusual that he has requested to speak with you alone.”

  “Do you think he’s going to try to kill me?” I asked, feeling suddenly afraid.

  “No, I don’t. And I wouldn’t let him.” Something about the way Quinn spoke made me feel warm all over. “But I do think it’s unusual. I’ll be right outside this door. If you need me, just yell.”

  I reached up and tucked one of his blond curls behind his ear.

  “Why is it that even in the midst of this nightmare, I find myself wanting to kiss you?” I asked, shocked at the words coming out of my mouth. “Is that some sort of fae power or something? Do you guys put some kind of spell on human females?”

  Quinn laughed lightly. “No. We do have the ability to cast a glamour, but you can trust that I haven’t done that to you.”

  I wasn’t even sure what a “glamour” was, but I was increasingly sure that I could trust Quinn. He squeezed my hand, and then a look of concern crossed his face as he opened the door to Cassius’s room and motioned me inside.

  “Remember,” he whispered as I walked past him and into the room cast in a crimson glow. “I’ll be right here.”

  I mouthed the words thank you to him, and then walked inside.

  The room was huge, as many of the rooms here seemed to be. A giant fireplace and several stone columns lined the room in a gothically picturesque sort of way. Bookcases lined the walls and brimmed with leather-bound volumes, and near them was a large cushioned chair. Cassius sat in the chair with one leg draped over the side. I started thinking that must be one of his favorite positions since I had seen him sitting that way in the sorting chamber when I had first emerged from the tunnel. But, then, I became upswept by his open legs and had to dart my glance toward one of the many flickering candles in the room. What is it with this place and all the hot men? I had to remind myself that they weren’t even human.

  Cassius must have picked up on my flustered state because he laughed, and when he did, I felt all the blood immediately rush to my face.

  Chapter Six

  I wondered how long I would stand there before Cassius would either say something or get up from his chair.

  Instead, his eyes dragged over me as he sat in an unmoving silence. Since he felt no need for social pleasantries, neither did I. I walked over to the giant four-poster bed, layered in piles of violet blankets and heaps of furs, and plopped myself down onto the edge of the mattress. I folded one leg over the other and stared at him from across the room.

  For a moment, his face contorted into a mix of anger and intrigue. But then he stood from his chair abruptly and walked toward the bed, only stopping when he got close enough for his knees to touch mine. He leaned forward onto the mattress, putting one hand onto the comforter beside me and pressing his body down toward mine until I had to lean back on my arms to keep his chin from sticking against my face.

  “Who do you think you are?” he snarled. His breath lingered on my face until I was dizzy with the scent of him.

  “Nobody,” I answered quietly. It was an honest answer; I was nobody. Maybe back in my world, I could have been somebody. Maybe I could have been the most sought-after dancer in
Boston, with dance companies vying for my contact with them. But here, in this other world, I was no one. And as much as my stubborn hot-headedness wanted to believe that I could defy this fate I had been abducted into, I couldn’t. I was here…and that was the end of the story.

  Cassius didn’t seem satisfied with my answer, which surprised me, considering I thought his ego would have been more than happy to hear me admit my insignificance under his reign. He stayed hovering over me as if he were waiting for me to make a run for it, like a predator waiting for its prey to try something stupid. I stared at him, and he stared back as I felt his chest rise and fall against mine.

  Is he going to bite me? Maybe if I turned into a vampire, this would all seem more normal.

  “You have the most stunning blue eyes,” he said in a whisper that seemed completely uncharacteristic.

  “What?” I asked.

  Cassius didn’t answer me. He simply pushed himself up from the side of the bed quickly and stood firmly on his feet in front of me. The black pools of his eyes were hypnotizing. Athan’s eyes were dark, but not that dark.

  “How come you and Athan look so different if you’re half-brothers?” I asked without first thinking if it was out of line to ask such a personal question.

  Cassius seemed both annoyed and intrigued by my inability to keep my mouth shut. “Athan and I share the same father, but Athan’s mother was a vampire like our father, and my mother was a human.”

  “That’s a thing?” I asked in surprise. “Humans and vampires together?”

  “Yes,” he answered. He definitely seemed to be leaning more toward annoyance now. “It’s a thing.” He annunciated the last word dramatically as he rolled his eyes. “In fact, it’s more than just a thing; it’s a forbidden advantage.”

  I was wary of prying more and pushing his patience too far, so I just stood there and waited for Cassius to elaborate.

  “I am a Dhampir,” he said as if I ought to know what that meant. When he remembered that I was just a “naïve mortal” he explained. “Since I was created by a vampire father and a human mother, I am a special breed of vampire known as Dhampir. There are not many of us, since sexual relations between humans and vampires are strictly forbidden since we pose a threat to the numerous common vampires.”