Mark of Blood

by Jody Morse

  “No.” He shook his head. “They need to believe you’re dead, too. I need to keep you somewhere secluded—somewhere the other girls won’t see you and where Alessandra won’t think to look for you.”

  “And where would that be?” I questioned.

  His blue eyes slid over to meet mine. “The Chambers.”

  “You’re going to send me back to the Chambers?” I whispered, trying to fight back the tears that were rising to the surface. I couldn’t cry in front of him. I wouldn’t cry in front of him. But the thought of going back to the Chambers made me want to.

  He shot an apologetic glance in my direction. “I’m sorry. I hate the idea just as much as you do.”

  “I highly doubt that, Sebastian,” I snapped. He could say whatever he wanted, but the reality was that he had never been locked away in the dungeon like I had been. I hadn’t been there for very long, but I’d hated every second of it.

  It was the closest thing to torture that I’d endured since I’d ended up here.

  The Chambers were the one place in the whole castle where I’d actually felt like the prisoner I had become—the prisoner he had made me.

  “I’m sorry. It’s just the only place I can think of right now. I promise it will only be a temporary situation, just until I can figure out a more permanent arrangement for you.”

  “You make me sound like I’m a piece of furniture that needs arranging,” I commented bitterly.

  “You’re anything but, Lila. I don’t think you realize just how important you are to me.” He rose from his seat and came closer to me. To my surprise, he knelt down on the floor in front of where I was sitting and took my hand in his.

  “I never imagined myself saying this, but... you’re the love of my life, Lila. You’re the love of my three-hundred-year life.”

  I allowed his words to sink in. This vampire who had been around for 300 years was in love with me.

  As he leaned in to kiss me, I spotted it: a smear of red, just below his bottom lip. At first I wondered if it was blood, but the color was a shade too vibrant to be blood.

  It was red lipstick.

  “You kissed her,” I whispered, blinking back the tears that sprang to my eyes.

  “She kissed me,” he insisted, his blue eyes locked on mine. “I couldn’t just not kiss her back. She would have been suspicious. I need her to believe you’re dead.”

  I tried to swallow the lump that was lodged in the back of my throat, but it remained there, preventing me from being able to speak.

  Releasing my hand, Sebastian brushed my cheek with his fingertips. “Don’t be angry with me, Lila. I can’t handle the idea of you being angry with me.”

  Like I could handle the idea of him kissing someone else? He had some nerve.

  “Tell me something. Are you still planning to marry her?” I asked, barely able to form the words.

  “Yes. No. I don’t know.” He shook his head, avoiding my gaze.

  I let out a little laugh. “How can you claim that I’m the love of your life and then be unsure if you’re still going to marry her? You told me earlier that you didn’t even love her. Did you lie to me or have your feelings already changed?”

  Sebastian’s eyes locked on mine again. “Me marrying Alessandra has nothing to do with love, Lila. It’s much more complicated than you can understand.”

  “Then make me understand,” I insisted. “Make me understand how you can love me and actually consider spending the rest of your life with her.”

  “You were there to witness my conversation with Celia,” he reminded me. “It looks like we will have forty-eight hours to either evacuate the island or we will have no choice but to go to war with my aunt.”

  “I know I overheard all of that, but what does it have to do with you marrying Princess Alessandra?” I questioned.

  “As much as I wish I could tell you otherwise, the truth is that I need her right now.” Sebastian’s blue eyes remained on mine as he continued. “Emilio Craven, one of the princes of another vampire coven—not to mention one of the most powerful vampires in the world—wants to take over all of the other covens. It looks like a war is brewing, whether it’s with the Craven coven or Aunt Caroline and my cousin Daniel.” He sighed.

  “What does Alessandra have to do with any of this?” I asked.

  “Our coven alone isn’t strong enough to go to war with anyone right now. If our coven joins forces with Alessandra’s coven, we might stand a fighting chance.” He paused for a moment and then sighed. “And if we do choose to evacuate to avoid going to war with Aunt Caroline, we’ll need somewhere to go. I haven’t discussed it with Alessandra yet, but I’m sure that she would be willing to allow us to move into the Allegro palace if it should come to that.”

  I stared at him evenly. “If you move into the Allegro palace, what will happen to me?”

  “You’ll come with me, of course,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “But if Alessandra wants me dead, she won’t allow me in her kingdom.”

  “I’ll find a way.”

  I paused for a few long moments. “It’s because of me, isn’t it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The war. It’s because of me... because of the prophecy. My blood has the power to spark the first world war,” I recited the prophecy. I shifted my eyes over to his. “If I had never come here, none of this would be happening.”

  “I wish I could tell you that it wasn’t, but truthfully? I don’t know,” Sebastian admitted with a sigh.

  I shook my head. “I shouldn’t have come here. If I never came here, you wouldn’t be forced into marrying Alessandra.”

  “Please don’t say that, Lila. If you had never come here, I never would have had the honor of meeting you. I wouldn’t feel the way I do for you right now.”

  “Maybe that would have been a good thing,” I muttered, darting my eyes away from him.

  He shook his head. “Before you came here—before I met you—I thought my heart had turned black. It had been such a long time since I’d felt anything for anyone. But now? Now I know that my heart was simply frozen, that all it needed was for you to come along and melt the ice.” He reached over and touched my hand gently. “Alessandra means nothing to me, Lila. You’re the one I love.”

  I wanted to believe him. I wanted to believe everything he was saying, but there was a part of me that knew better. It was the part of me that was unable to ignore the fact that Alessandra was a princess—royalty, just like him—and I was nothing more than his slave. How could he love me? I couldn’t even begin to compare to everything she had to offer him.

  “Lila, please say something,” Sebastian whispered after I had gone completely silent for a few long moments.

  I met his gaze evenly. “I guess you should probably take me to the Chambers now.”

  He looked saddened, but he nodded. “There’s a secret shortcut through my office. We’d better take that route so that we don’t bump into anyone in the hallway,” he explained as he rose to his feet and opened the door to what I thought had been a closet.

  As we stepped into the darkness, I swallowed hard.

  I was about to be made a prisoner yet again. Actually, who was I kidding?

  As long as I was stuck in this world, I would always be Sebastian’s prisoner. And the worst part of it all was that I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

  Chapter 5

  Sean

  THREE WEEKS AGO, I never would’ve believed that I would end up handcuffed in a dungeon, held captive by vampires. And yet, here I was.

  To say that I was angry would have been an understatement. I’d never been more pissed off in my life.

  Nothing had worked out according to plan. Sure, part of the plan had been successful. I had made it to Deadwood and I’d found Lila. I’d even saved her from that thing—that rabid-like thing that reminded me of the zombies on The Walking Dead but that I could only assume had been one of the bloodthirsty vampires Peter had warned me about.
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  But after I saved Lila is where the plan completely fell apart. Instead of making it back home with her, I’d ended up in this dungeon. I’d been made a prisoner.

  I had no idea what fate had in store for me at this point. I didn’t even want to know. To get to Deadwood, I’d needed to come through the portal, which was, essentially, a hole in Peter’s closet. Except now I knew I had fallen into more than just a hole.

  What I had really fallen into was a nightmare.

  I tried to look at the silver lining, which was that Lila was alive. At least, she was alive for now. I wasn’t sure how much longer either of us would survive in Deadwood.

  Then again, what was the point in our survival? I would have rather died than remained a prisoner.

  Except I knew I couldn’t let myself look at it that way.

  I needed to live. As much as I may have wanted to give up, I needed to survive. I needed to find a way to get Lila out of here and back home, back where she belonged—where we bothbelonged.

  At that moment, I glanced up to see Lila walk past me. The vampire who owned her—Prince Sebastian, she’d called him—stood behind her.

  “Troy, I need to speak to you,” the prince said.

  The redheaded guard walked over to him. “What is it, Your Highness?”

  “Please do not allow any other vampire to enter the Chambers. It’s very important to me that no one else gets anywhere near Julia, my slave,” he said, placing his hand on Lila’s back.

  Julia? Why was he calling her that? Did he not know what her real name was?

  “Of course. Anything you say, Your Highness,” Troy said with a nod.

  “She’s not in here as punishment, Troy,” the prince continued. “The reason I’ve brought her here is for her own protection.”

  “Who are you trying to protect her from?”

  Prince Sebastian seemed to hesitate for a moment before saying, “Princess Alessandra.”

  “Isn’t Princess Alessandra your fiancée?” The guard looked a little surprised.

  “Don’t ask questions,” Sebastian replied. “All I need you to do is ensure Julia’s safety.”

  Troy nodded. “Of course. Should we place her into solitary confinement?”

  Prince Sebastian glanced over at me. As his eyes locked on mine, they flashed with anger.

  He turned back to the guard. “As long as you keep every vampire out of here besides me, solitary confinement won’t be necessary. In fact, that cell right there will do.” The prince motioned to the empty cell right next to mine.

  It surprised me that he was allowing me to be so close to her. After all, the moment he had laid eyes on me with her, he’d had me carried off to the dungeon. While there was a possibility that he may have made me a prisoner because I was a human intruding on his territory, I knew there was a good chance that it had more to do with me being Lila’s boyfriend than anything else. It was as though I’d committed some sort of crime by kissing my own girlfriend.

  Lila glanced over at me. The surprise I felt was reflected in her eyes.

  Prince Sebastian moved to stand in front of her. “Like I said, this is only temporary. I will get you out of here the moment I can figure out where to put you.”

  She nodded, but she didn’t say anything. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that she wasn’t happy with him.

  I watched as he cupped her chin and leaned in closer until his lips brushed gently against hers.

  So, apparently, I was wrong. Being made a prisoner wasn’t the angriest I’d been in my life. Watching that asshole kiss my girlfriend from behind the bars that confined me pissed me off even more. Who the hell did he think he was to touch my girlfriend like that?

  When he pulled away from her, he stared at her for a moment longer. Then, without saying another word, he walked past her and headed back up the stairs.

  Lila turned to face the guard. “So, since I’m not actually being punished for anything, that means I don’t have to wear handcuffs this time around, right?”

  He considered it for a moment before shaking his head. “No, I suppose not. Not unless you give me a reason to put you in handcuffs, that is.”

  “Oh, I won’t,” she assured him.

  “I do want you out of that dress, though,” Troy said, motioning to the light pink gown that she had been wearing when I’d found her getting attacked in the woods.

  The dress reminded me of the one she’d worn to our prom. It was stained with dirt and what I was certain was blood, but it still looked beautiful on her.

  “I don’t want to change out of the dress,” Lila insisted.

  “Well, that’s too bad for you, isn’t it?” He folded his arms over his chest and stared her down.

  “Okay. I’ll change out of the dress, but I’m keeping my necklace on.” She tightly gripped the pendant that she wore around her neck.

  I’d never known her to wear a necklace before, especially not one she was so attached to that she refused to take it off. Of course, it only made me wonder one thing.

  Had Prince Sebastian given it to her?

  “Fine.” Troy nodded.

  “Can you undo the zipper?” Lila asked, turning for the guard.

  He unzipped the dress and she stepped out of it, revealing the lacy pink panties and matching bra that she was wearing.

  Rage soared through me.

  The guard had made me change out of my clothes and into these silky black boxers, but there was a difference. Lila was a girl. Shit, she was almost a woman. Didn’t they have a changing room for them down here?

  She didn’t look in my direction as she slid out of the panties and tossed them to the floor. Then she unclipped her bra and threw that to the side, too.

  It felt like I was violating her privacy, but I couldn’t stop myself from staring at her naked body.

  I had known Lila my whole life, but I’d never actually seen her without her clothes on before.

  Of course, I had always been curious. That was part of the reason I’d pushed her to have sex the night she’d disappeared, which had, without a doubt, been the biggest mistake of my life.

  Well, now I knew. Now I knew how soft yet firm her ass looked. Now I knew how round and full her breasts were. She was just as beautiful naked as I’d always thought she would be, but I hated seeing her that way.

  It wasn’t even because she wasn’t showing me willingly or because this wasn’t the way I’d ever envisioned myself seeing her without any clothes on.

  It was because I noticed the way this girl, who had once been so shy and too self-conscious to even wear a bikini, stood there in front of the guard, baring her body to him, to me, and to all of the other prisoners in the dungeon. And I noticed that way she seemed to be entirely unaffected by it, as though this was just what her life had become.

  It made me realize how much Deadwood had changed everything about the girl I loved.

  Chapter 6

  Lila

  ONCE I HAD MY NIGHTGOWN on—this time a light blue silky thing that barely covered anything—I sat down on the mattress in my cell.

  I made a calculated effort to avoid making eye contact with Sean. I should have been happy or even excited that he was in the dungeon to keep me company, but the truth was that I wasn’t actually sure how to feel about it.

  I knew he had been staring at me since I’d entered the Chambers. I felt his eyes on my back the whole time. As comfortable as I was around him, I also couldn’t help but feel self-conscious about it.

  The worst part about it all was that I didn’t even know what to say to him. I knew he would probably want to hear everything that had happened since I’d been here, but how did I even begin to put any of that into words? I could barely make sense of my own feelings. Besides, there was something else.

  Everything was different about me now. I’d changed since I’d fallen through the portal, but even more had changed since I’d kissed Sean when he had rescued me in the woods earlier that night.

  Sebast
ian confessing to being in love with me had changed everything.

  Well, at least, I’d thought it had changed everything. Not much would really change if Sebastian actually followed through with marrying Alessandra.

  “Hey,” Sean said quietly, his voice breaking through the silence that hung in the air between us.

  I glanced over at him and forced a small smile. “Hi.”

  He inched closer in his cell until he was just inches away from me, divided only by the bars that encaged us.

  I asked the first question that came to mind, the one thing that had been eating away at me since I’d arrived. “How are my parents?”

  A sad look filled his eyes. “They’re heartbroken. Devastated without you.”

  “I figured as much.” I sighed. “I wish there was a way to let them know that I’m okay. I’m sure they’re probably thinking the worst.”

  “Don’t worry. You’ll see them again—and sooner, rather than later,” Sean said in his best attempt at a reassuring tone.

  I’m not so sure about that, I thought to myself. But, of course, I couldn’t say that out loud, not without letting Sean know how hopeless I felt about the chance of reuniting with my mom and dad—or with anyone in the human world, for that matter.

  Sean leaned in a little closer. Locking his eyes on mine, he whispered, “They think your name is Julia?”

  “Yes.” I paused. “Except for Sebastian.”

  His face went stony when I said the prince’s name. “But why? Are you keeping it a secret because of the prophecy?”

  “You know about the prophecy?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. Peter told me about it.”

  I raised my eyebrows at him. “Who’s Peter?”

  “Peter is the one who helped me find my way here. He gave me the sword I needed to fight against vampires.” He paused for a moment and then added, “Peter is your uncle, Lila.”

  I frowned. “I don’t have an uncle.”

  “Actually, you do. You have a biological uncle.”

  My eyes widened at the realization of what he was getting at. “But... how can that be possible? If my biological uncle told you about the prophecy, then that means...” I trailed off, unable to put my thoughts into words.