by Sara Thorn
“I had a nightmare,” I whispered without lifting my head up.
“What was it about?”
“You. I dreamed that you were tasting my blood,” I said.
I felt Cassius start to pull away, but I didn’t let him. I held on to his waist and kept my ear pressed firmly against his chest as his heart started to beat faster.
Cassius sighed and leaned his chin against the top of my head as he spoke. “That isn’t necessarily a dream,” he said. “I’m part vampire. I can’t help what I am. And I have wanted to taste your blood, so badly in fact, that I have dreams about what it would taste like. I can barely sleep anymore because you invade every part of me, even when I’m not awake.”
“It doesn’t scare me,” I said.
“What doesn’t?”
“You.”
“It should.” Cassius's voice sounded sad and angry at the same time.
“Sen told me how you brought me here, that you were soaked in my blood, and that any other vampire would have likely killed me on the spot. She told me how hard it was for you. You’re not going to hurt me, Cassius. I know you won’t.”
“You don’t know how close I was to doing exactly that,” he said as I felt his breath dust the top of my hair. “You don’t know how close you were to death at my hands. I very nearly lost control. I felt like every vein in my body was going to rupture if I didn’t drink from you. You should be scared of me, and if you were smart, you should try to stay as far away from me as possible because I have tried to stay away from you, and I can’t.”
His heart was racing now, and it sounded like the tiny patter of running paws against my ear.
“What happened after you gave me to Sen?” I asked. I needed to know; I needed to know the answer to this one question more than I needed to know anything else. “Did you put your fingers to your lips after you put me down?”
“No.”
“You could have,” I said in a whisper that was so close to being a cry, not for myself, but for the thought of what torment Cassius endured. “No one would have even known if you did.”
“I would have known,” he said quietly as he clenched onto me.
We stood there in the quiet, empty space together, holding each other as if we couldn’t let go. Cassius heard a rustle down the hallway from one of the fae stirring and getting out of bed.
“I have to go,” he said as he let go of me and gently unwrapped my arms from around him.
“I want to come with you,” I said.
“You can’t, it’s too dangerous. You’re safer here with the fae.”
“Cassius, I don’t care. I want to come with you. Please.” I looked at him with a longing in my eyes that was pulling me apart, and then he took my hand as we walked silently down the hall.
We managed to get back to Cassius’s bedroom unnoticed. The morning would be a different story, but we would deal with it then. Neither of us could sleep, and neither of us wanted to try to lay in bed next to each other for fear that sleep would be the least of the things bedeviling us. Instead, we sat on large floor cushions in front of the warm fireplace with our arms and legs intertwined. The flames danced in the stone hearth, and every so often, an ember would burst and crackle, sending a scattering of smaller embers up into the air around it. I thought about what it would be like to be fire, to be something so powerful and violently dangerous, but to be rendered so helpless while trapped inside a stone box. That reminded me of Quinn, and I immediately felt guilty for not having thought of him earlier.
“What happened when you spoke to Athan about Quinn’s release?” I asked, hopeful that maybe this time Cassius was able to twist his half-brother’s arm in some way.
Honestly, Athan was a fool not to be afraid of what Cassius could do to him if he had the mindset to truly overthrow him.
“Quinn will be back here in the morning,” he answered.
“Really? You managed to get him to change his mind?”
“Yes.”
“How did you do it?” I asked, hoping that Athan didn’t have an even tighter upper-hand over Cassius now.
“I made a trade,” he said.
It bothered me how his answers were frequently so lacking in elaboration, leaving me to wonder about all the details, like what he had traded for Quinn’s safe return to his home. But I was content with the knowledge that Quinn would be returned, so I didn’t push for more.
“Thank you,” I said as I leaned against him, “for getting him back.”
We must have both fallen asleep in each other’s arms by the fire, for at least a little while, because the noise in the hallway woke us up. It was the sound of one of Cassius’s men arguing with one of Athan’s men about being let in to speak with Cassius. We both stood up, and Cassius motioned for me to go into his closet to wait since there was no way I would be able to make it out of his bedroom unseen. Once I was safely hidden, he went to go open the door.
“What is all this about?” Cassius bellowed in the intimidating tone that he was good at summoning on a moment’s notice.
One of Dregon’s henchmen who had been at the opera house stood, looking over the shoulder of the fae who was guarding Cassius’s door.
“I was sent to tell you that your slave was returned and is within the fae quarters now,” the man said as he glared at the fae who was blocking his way. “You might want to start teaching your slaves some manners.”
“I’ll take that into consideration,” Cassius replied sarcastically. “Now leave.”
I could hardly keep myself from bursting out of the closet once I heard that Quinn was here. As soon as I heard the bedroom door close, I ran out.
“We have to go see him,” I said excitedly. I started to head straight for the door, but Cassius reached for my wrist to stop me.
“Mara,” he said with an empathetic look. “You should be prepared for the condition that Quinn is likely to be in.”
“What do you mean?”
“Athan is a cruel man, and Dregon is even worse. I expect that Quinn has received a great deal of mistreatment at their hands.”
I felt the tears start to well in my eyes. “But he’s alive?”
“Yes, he’s alive.”
That’s all I needed to know.
I hadn’t ever seen Sen cry before. When Cassius and I walked into the fae quarters, she was fetching some hot rags and bandages from the common area and looked up to see us come in. Her delicate face was tear-streaked and wrenched with a painful expression.
“Sen?” I asked, afraid to hear that something awful had happened. “Is Quinn…”
“He’s resting,” she answered with a cracking voice, “in his room.” Then she looked at Cassius. “Thank you. If you hadn’t have gotten him sent home, he wouldn’t have lasted another night.”
Cassius nodded in response to her gratitude and then followed me toward Quinn’s bedroom.
When I reached the open door, I froze in the middle of the doorway and put my hand over my mouth to keep myself from making any sound as I cried. “It doesn’t even look like him,” I whispered to Cassius as I tried hard to choke back my tears.
“He’ll be okay,” Cassius said gently. “His sister will take good care of him.” He waited in the doorway as I went inside to sit down next to Quinn’s bed.
Quinn’s eyes were so bruised and swollen that he couldn’t have opened them if he tried. He was propped onto his side because his back was so covered with open and bloodied gashes that he couldn’t lay down on it. Deep-black bruises covered more of his skin than not, and from the looks of the oddly protruding lumps on his chest and face, he had several broken bones. I leaned forward over his face and placed a tender kiss on his cracked and bloodied lips. Quinn stirred and made a small groan.
“It’s okay,” I said, trying to steady my shaking voice. “It’s me, I’m here with you, and you’re okay.”
Quinn tried to lift his hand, but it only made it less than a centimeter into the air before it fell against his mattress again
. I reached for his palm and wrapped my fingers around his. The shackles Athan’s men had put on him must have been made of iron because his wrists were burned so deeply that the bone was exposed. I was afraid that he wouldn’t make it, even now that he was here and under Sen’s watchful care.
Sen came back to the room with a bowl of steaming water, some rags, and a few metal tools that looked like they were going to hurt—a lot. I heard Cassius tell her that he would return later to check on all of us. She thanked him again and then came in to set down her supplies on the table. The two of us both looked at each other and tried not to break down into sobs. Then, Sen wiped her eyes and tightened her jaw.
“This isn’t going to be pleasant,” she said to me. “You might want to wait outside.”
“I’ll stay,” I said as I tried to collect myself and gather a stronger constitution before she began whatever measures she had to do in order to help repair him. Quinn had been there for me, and I wasn’t about to let him down.
I scooted over to let Sen near him so that she could get to work. The first thing she did was reach for Quinn’s hand that I wasn’t holding. The bone in his wrist was jutting out, and I could see the splintering pieces of it digging into the surrounding, burned flesh. Sen reached for something that looked like a silver, metal clamp and opened it as wide as it would go before holding it just around his wrist. When she closed the clamp, it pushed the bone back into place with a sickening snap that made me feel as though I would pass out.
Quinn’s scream shot out and into the hallway. Sen opened the clamp again and lifted it away from his wrist. It was hard to see if the bone had been set due to all the blood flooding the area, but it didn’t seem to be protruding out anymore, so Sen was satisfied with the job she had done. She opened a glass jar that contained one of the tinctures she made and poured the frothy, white liquid onto the open gash. As Quinn made the sound of muffled cries just before he lost consciousness, I laid my head down near his and pressed my lips softly to his forehead.
Sen spent hours doing all that she could to mend him, and I spent hours with my head perfectly still as I listened to him breathe while he slept.
Chapter Eighteen
I stayed in the fae quarters while Quinn healed. Cassius would come to visit at least once every day, and he would tell me about what was going on outside of the little infirmary that I was focused on. He said that Athan was still plotting and scheming and that now there were whispers that the fae were up to something, too, although he didn’t know what it could be. And even though he was understanding and steadfastly watching over us, Cassius seemed to be getting frustrated that I hadn’t returned to him for what was now going on a couple of weeks.
Quinn was slowly getting better, and it wouldn’t be too much longer now before I could return to Cassius’s room and to the events that were happening in the rest of the caverns. Tonight, he had informed me that he was throwing another party. It had been too long since he had hosted a festivity, and the other vampires were beginning to get suspicious that Cassius was focusing his attention elsewhere, which would eventually prompt Dregon to start snooping around again.
“You should come and dance at the gathering tonight,” Cassius said as he came to sit next to me beside Quinn’s bed.
“I can’t,” I said. “Not yet.”
“Does he sleep all the time?” he asked as he looked at Quinn.
“Not all the time. He seems to be finally having more waking hours than not.”
Cassius stared at my hand as I rubbed Quinn’s temple. “Why do you run your fingers through his hair like that?”
“I feel like it helps him sleep,” I answered. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous?” I grinned, thinking that Cassius would laugh off what I had meant to be playful banter.
But he didn’t laugh at all, in fact, he scowled. “I could make you dance at the party tonight,” he said gruffly. “I could order you to attend.”
I was shocked to hear him say that and upset by the tone in his voice. “Yes,” I said. “You could.” I lifted my hand from Quinn’s forehead and reached for Cassius’s hand instead. “Cassius—”
He quickly stood up from the chair and shook his head as he stormed out the door.
“What was that about?” Sen asked as she came into the room shortly after Cassius had left.
“I’m not sure,” I answered. “I think he isn’t fond of my spending so much time with Quinn.”
“I think he isn’t fond of the feeling of having a weakness,” Sen said.
“Are you guys talking about me?” Quinn said softly as he woke up. He was finally able to open his eyes since the swelling had gone down.
“Quinn!” I said happily. I helped him sit up in bed and carefully gave him a gentle hug. “God, I’m so glad you’re okay!”
“I’m pretty happy you didn’t die, too.” Sen smiled at him with a cheeky wink.
“I’m certain that I owe that fact to you,” he said as Sen leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek. “What would I ever do without you, little sister?”
“Die, probably.” We all laughed out of sheer relief that he had avoided that fate.
“What have I missed?” he asked, taking the water cup from Sen’s hands.
“The usual,” she answered. “Parties, plots, and the encroaching uprising of our people.”
I wasn’t quite sure if she was being serious about that last part.
“You need to finish recovering before you can jump back into anything, though,” she warned him. “You’re no good to anyone dead.”
The three of us spent the afternoon talking. Sen and I caught Quinn up on everything he had missed while he was asleep, and he told us a watered-down version of his experience in Athan’s prison. At times, he paused before continuing and then veered off into another part of his recount. I think those were the parts that were too horrible for him to tell us.
After a while, we started to hear the bustle of some of the fae around us getting ready for Cassius's party. Some of the fae were going to entertain, and some were going to serve. I wondered for a moment if Cassius would be sitting on his throne with his leg draped over the side as he usually did, and if he would have several beautiful vampires running their hands over him as he pretended to be an oblivious, drunken fool. I pushed the thoughts from my head since they started to make me upset and focused on the fact that I was with friends tonight and would be able to go back to Cassius tomorrow, now that Quinn was near fully recovered. The fae corridors were quiet for a while, as most everyone was attending the festivities.
“Sen, come quickly!” a voice screamed from outside the room, breaking the peaceful evening of reprieve we’d been enjoying.
She got to her feet and ran outside to see what had happened. When she popped back into Quinn’s bedroom a few minutes later, her face looked troubled. “Mara, I think you need to come,” she said.
“What’s going on?” Quinn asked as he started to make his way off the bed.
“Nothing, everything is fine,” Sen reassured him. “Honestly, you need to stay in bed.”
Quinn wasn’t about to argue with his sister because he knew she was right, and he trusted her assessment of whatever was happening outside the door. I got up and went with Sen. When I got to the common area, I saw several of Cassius’s fae servants with blood dripping from cuts in their cheeks and shards of glass being picked out of their hands.
“What happened?” I asked. “Is it Athan’s men?”
“No,” Sen said as she shook her head. “It’s Cassius.”
“What?” I said in shock. “Why would Cassius hurt the fae in his care?” There must be a misunderstanding. There’s no way Cassius would hurt his own people.
“Well, he did,” one of the fae girls who was removing a piece of glass from her shoulder called out. “One minute we were all just doing our jobs, serving drinks, applauding when the vampires danced, and keeping out of everyone’s way when nothing was needed, and the next minute Cassius was acting like
a crazed lunatic, throwing wine glasses at everyone in his sight.” She pulled an especially large piece of broken glass from her flesh and held it up to show me. “See? This piece was from his own glass.”
“Mara, you need to go to him,” Sen said with urgency. “You’re the only one who can calm him down.”
“Me? But he’s already mad at me, and I—”
“Mara, please, if you don’t, he’ll continue on his rampage, and more people will be hurt.”
“No,” Quinn called from the doorway he was leaning against.
“I thought I told you to stay in bed,” Sen scolded.
“You did,” he smirked at his sister. “But Mara can’t go, Cassius is wildly unpredictable.” He looked over at me. “You shouldn’t get involved,” he said.
“I have to try,” I said. “Sen is right; if he hurts more people, it will be my fault. I have to at least try to talk him out of whatever tantrum he’s having.”
Quinn knew it was useless to try to talk me out of it. “Fine,” he said with a heavy sigh. “But, be careful.”
I raced quickly back to Cassius’s bedroom to change clothes so that I didn’t have the scent of fae incense and the dust of fae magic all over me. I had a feeling that would just serve to piss him off more. I grabbed whatever I could find to put on, one of his white T-shirts and the torn blue jeans that I had worn several days ago. Then I ran barefoot down the tunnels toward the main hall. I could hear the shouting and panicked voices even before I arrived at the door.
The sight that sprawled out before me was a mass of chaos. Cassius was standing next to a long table filled with goblets and platters of food, grabbing the wine glasses up in his hands and hurling them at any of the fae who dared to peek their heads out from behind their hiding places underneath tables or behind the trees which lined the walls. The other vampires howled in laughter and egged him on as his loss of control escalated. He looked up at me when I walked in but didn’t pause his outburst. I walked straight up through the center of the main hall toward him as goblets flew past either side of my head.
