Mark of Blood

by Jody Morse

  The truth was that I didn’t care if I ever made it back home. I had come here on a mission, with a purpose, and that was only to ensure Lila’s safety. That was the only thing that actually mattered to me. I didn’t care if I died in the process. Getting her back home where she belonged was the only thing I wanted.

  The only problem with returning Lila back to the human world was that I didn’t even know where she was. When I had woken up in the dungeon, her cell had been empty.

  I knew there was always a chance she was dead, but I didn’t want to think that way. I wanted to think that she was very much alive, that if Prince Sebastian was going to kill her, he would’ve done so already.

  No, I was going to stay positive about everything. Lila was alive somewhere within this castle, and I was going to find her again... somehow. I just needed to figure out some sort of way to get past the princess.

  The worst part about it all was that I was completely defenseless. The guards had taken away the sword and stakes Peter had given me to protect myself from the vampires of Deadwood. I was going to need to find a way to get past them and to Lila.

  At that moment, the door opened and Princess Alessandra stepped back into the room, carrying a mug. “Here you go. I added some extra whipped cream. You do like whipped cream, don’t you, Sean?”

  I shrugged. “Yeah, I like whipped cream.”

  “Good.” She handed me the mug and then sat down on the sofa next to me. She crossed one leg over the other and smiled at me. “So, I imagine that you must have had a long journey.”

  “Actually, it didn’t take that long to get here.” Falling through the portal was what I imagined was the equivalent of through the rabbit’s hole to Wonderland. It had been really dark and flashes of color had surrounded me until I’d ended up in the ocean with a big splash.

  “You must have been so scared, though.” Princess Alessandra reached out and touched my hand. Her skin felt so cold against mine.

  I shrugged. “Yeah, a little.”

  It probably sounded crazy, but coming to Deadwood hadn’t scared me—not even a little bit. I probably should have looked at it as the scariest thing I’d ever done, but it wasn’t.

  When I’d stepped foot inside the portal in Peter’s closet, I hadn’t even needed to think twice before allowing myself to fall into it. There hadn’t even been the slightest doubt in mind that coming here was exactly what I’d needed to do.

  As scary as Deadwood had sounded, there was something that scared me more—and that was the idea of losing Lila forever.

  “You have nothing to worry about anymore, Sean,” Princess Alessandra said, shooting a reassuring glance in my direction. “You’ll be safe here with me... as long as you’re cooperative. Do you think you can do that?”

  I nodded. As much as I didn’t want to be cooperative, I knew I really had no other choice. Being made Princess Alessandra’s slaves was one of the only things that stood in the way of me getting to Lila.

  “Very good,” she replied with a smile. “I think the two of us are going to get along quite well. At least, let’s hope so, for your sake. If you do anything to upset or anger me, I could rip your throat out in a heartbeat. We wouldn’t want that to happen, now would we?”

  I shook my head.

  “Do you know what I am, Sean?”

  I swallowed hard. “Yes.”

  “Oh? And what am I?” Amusement swirled around in her eyes.

  A monster, I thought to myself. I knew I couldn’t say that out loud, though—not if I wanted to keep my throat intact. So, instead, I told her what I knew to be true. “You’re a vampire.”

  “Impressive. How did you figure that out?” Princess Alessandra asked with raised eyebrows.

  “Just a lucky guess,” I lied.

  “I figured you were a smart cookie when I first laid eyes on you. I just didn’t realize how smart,” she said. “Since you know what I am, what do you think that makes you?”

  “I’m not sure.” I shook my head, deciding to play dumb. She would become suspicious if she thought I knew too much. I was pretty sure that the less she thought I knew, the better. I didn’t even want her to know I knew Lila.

  “Oh, come on. Just take a guess,” Princess Alessandra insisted. “It’s really a no-brainer.”

  “You’re a vampire, so I guess that makes me... your next meal?” I asked, trying my hardest to pretend to be clueless.

  The princess smiled. “Actually, you’re the next of many, many meals to come,” she replied with a giggle. “You’re my slave now—the newest member of my harem. Being my slave comes with a number of responsibilities. For starters, you will allow me to drink your blood, any time I want, anywhere I want. Do you understand?”

  I nodded, even though the idea made my blood boil with anger.

  “You will also serve me in other ways, too,” Princess Alessandra went on. “My slaves all do whatever chores or handy work needs to be done, and they make sure my needs are being met.” Her dark eyes flicked over to meet mine. There was an intense look behind her gaze as she said, “I have many needs, Sean. The better you’re able to satisfy my needs, the more likely you will to become one of my favorite slaves and the more privileges you will be granted while you are under my ownership. Do you understand?”

  “Yes,” I replied, swallowing hard. I was pretty sure I knew exactly what she was hinting at, but I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. There was no denying that the princess was inhumanly beautiful; she had curves in just the right places and I almost had to fight the urge to reach out and touch her bare, endless legs.

  But Lila’s face was the first thought that came to mind. How could I ever truly satisfy this woman who planned to own me when Lila was all I could think of?

  “Perfect,” Alessandra whispered, her lips twisting into a smile again. “As much as I’m just dying to drink from your neck right now, I understand how overwhelming all of this must be for you. So, instead, the first thing I do is sample your blood another way.” She rose to her feet and walked across the room.

  I watched her rummage through a cabinet and then come back over to me. She was carrying a needle, syringe, and some vials.

  “I’m going to draw some of your blood so I can sample it later,” she explained as she sat down next to me again.

  As she began to feel my arm for a place to draw the blood from, she said, “You have beautiful veins, Sean—quite possibly the best I’ve ever seen. It means your blood will flow really well. You’re the perfect candidate for a blood donor. And I mean that as a compliment.”

  “Um, thanks,” I replied. That was one hell of a compliment.

  As she inserted the needle and my blood began to flow into the vial, I saw her bite down on her lip.

  She must have noticed me staring at her, because her eyes flicked over to meet mine. “Your blood smells divine. I’m fighting the urge to drink it right now,” she explained. “But I’ve only just drank from another one of my slaves and while I could drink all day, I try not to be a complete glutton.”

  I forced a smile.

  She continued to fill a few more vials with my blood. As she twisted a lid on the last of the vials, she glanced over at me with a smile. “All done. I’m just going to store these in the fridge.” She walked across the room and opened the refrigerator door.

  From where I was sitting, I could see that the fridge was filled with hundreds of other vials containing blood of all colors. Just seeing how much blood a vampire required to live made me feel sick to my stomach.

  As she came back over to me, she said, “I’ll walk you to my Slave Chambers now, where you’ll join my other slaves.” She must have seen the nervousness that swept across my face, because she quickly added, “Don’t worry, it isn’t a prison. It’s more like an apartment.”

  I nodded as I rose to my feet to follow after her.

  As she stepped out into the hallway and we moved past the guards, she glanced over her shoulder at me. “Oh, and Sean?”

  “Y
eah?” I asked.

  “Don’t even try to escape this castle. The moment I drink directly from your neck, our souls will become linked. After that first sip, your emotions will become my emotions—and mine will become yours. I won’t be able to see everything, but I’ll be able to feel everything, and I have excellent intuition, if I do say so myself. It might take me a little while to figure out your whereabouts, but I will always be able to find you,” she said proudly. “Do you understand?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I murmured.

  A smile crossed her face. “You’re so adorable. You have such good manners. I couldn’t have chosen a better slave.”

  As she continued to lead the way to the Slave Chambers, I couldn’t seem to ignore the bad, stomach-dropping feeling that had settled upon me at her words.

  For the first time, I began to mentally accept that Lila was right.

  Well, she was almost right.

  Getting out of this situation and past Princess Alessandra was going to be a lot harder than I thought it would be, but I wasn’t going to give up.

  Chapter 19

  Sebastian

  THE ODDS OF ME ACTUALLY finding my father dead or alive seemed incredibly slim, but I knew I had to start looking. The only problem was that I didn’t even know where to begin. It made only one question come to mind.

  If I were Charles Stark, where would I be?

  I supposed that the best place to start would be with his best friend, Ernesto Cordero. He’d once belonged to the Delrusso, but he had left after having a major falling out with Vincenzo, Lorenzo Delrusso’s late father. The last time I’d heard anything about him, he was living on a small private island on the outskirts of the island the Craven Coven lived on.

  I would need to take my ship to get to where he was. I decided I would leave first thing that evening, sometime after the sun went down. The last thing I wanted to do was deal with the heat of the ship if I didn’t need to.

  I thought about taking Lila with me, but I decided against it. Even though I hated the idea of being away from her for so long, I knew she was safer at the Shore of Tranquility than she would have been with me.

  We would both be safer if we were away from each other. There would be no need to fight the urges, no reason to maintain my self-control, if we were far apart.

  As I began to head for the Slave Chambers, I debated the idea of bringing one or more of my other slaves along from the journey, but I decided against it. I would have a drink right now and that would hold me over for a few days. I would also pack some blood vials to hold me over until I got back home.

  When I stepped into the living room of my Slave Chambers, all of the girls were sitting on the sofas. They glanced up at me, and the looks on their faces told me they were waiting expectantly for answers.

  A silence lingered in the air for a few moments. I tried to find the right words to say. What would I have said if Lila had actually died?

  If she died, I would have been speechless. I wouldn’t have been able to form words. Just the thought of her dying made me feel sick.

  Natalie was the one to finally cut through the silence. “Julia’s dead, isn’t she?”

  “Yes. Julia is dead,” I lied. I felt bad about lying to my slaves—to Lila’s friends—especially when I knew how close they all got with one another. But was it technically a lie when Lila’s real name wasn’t even Julia in the first place?

  I saw a tear trickle down her cheek, just as Hannah broke out into sobs. “I don’t understand. Why did this have to happen? We’ve lost not just one but two girls this week.”

  “Well, I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but it was her own fault,” Lexi said without even a hint of sympathy in her tone. “It’s not like we didn’t warn her. And she saw what happened to Marjorie the first time she went in those woods. Obviously going into the woods was just asking to get herself killed. She was probably the dumbest slave who’s ever lived in this palace.”

  I glanced over at Lexi sharply. “Take that back,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “Why? It’s true,” Lexi insisted. “She was dumb to think she was invincible.”

  Anger raced through me. The logical part of me knew that everything Lexi was saying was right. Running into those woods was, by far, the dumbest thing Lila had done since arriving in Deadwood. But hearing someone call Lila dumb infuriated me.

  I was so defensive over this girl who I had only just met, yet who I had fallen so deeply in love with...

  “She is not dumb,” I said firmly before realizing my mistake. “I mean... wasn’t... dumb. She wasn’t dumb.”

  “Say what you want, but I stand by my opinion. If she was smart, she would have known better than go into those woods. She would still be alive. I’m sorry, but Julia was dumb,” Lexi said softly. “We’re probably better off without her stupidity around here.”

  Without even thinking about what I was doing, I reached out and grabbed her neck. Lifting her into the air, I pulled her closer to me—so close that we were nose to nose. “You will never, ever speak such negative words about that girl again in my presence. Do you understand me?”

  There was a look of terror in Lexi’s hazel eyes as she nodded. “Y-yes, Prince Sebastian,” she whispered.

  I glared into her eyes for a moment longer before setting her back down on the ground. “Go to your room. Get out of my sight.”

  Shooting a half-confused, half-tearful look in my direction, Lexi ran to her room and slammed the door shut behind her.

  I turned to the other girls. “Today has been incredibly stressful. Who wants to be my drink tonight?”

  The girls all stared back at me in silence. I was sure that seeing the way I’d acted with Lexi made them all nervous.

  “No one volunteers?” I asked out loud. “Very well, then. I choose Hannah.”

  With a nod, she rose to her feet and followed after me.

  I hadn’t even closed the door to my drinking room yet when I allowed my fangs to come out.

  As I sunk them into her neck and her blood hit against my tongue, I tried to ignore the lack of satisfaction that washed over me.

  Of all my slaves, Hannah’s blood had never been my favorite, by any means. The only reason I’d chosen her as my slave at all was because I’d known that Kade had set his eyes on her after Emerson had decided he didn’t want her to be his slave, after all. But her blood had never really done it for me. It wasn’t my definition of good; it was only adequate, at best.

  I thought about taking her back to the Slave Chambers and grabbing one of the other girls to drink from, but I knew Hannah’s blood wasn’t the problem.

  The problem was that I couldn’t get Lila off my mind. What I wanted, more than anything, was to drink from her—even if it was just one sip, just enough to know how her blood tasted.

  The thing was, it didn’t matter how much I wanted to drink from Lila, because I couldn’t. I couldn’t allow myself to go there—not any time soon, at least.

  I was partly afraid for myself, afraid for her. I was afraid that her blood would be so delicious, so satisfying—too satisfying. I feared that if I tasted her blood, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from drinking more.

  I was afraid I would kill the girl I loved.

  But I was afraid of more than just that. I didn’t know just how powerful her blood was or what the consequences of drinking from her would be. I was afraid that the effects of drinking from her could be devastating for everyone.

  If merely falling in love with Lila had already sparked what may have been the world’s first vampire war, what would happen if I allowed myself to give into temptation?

  Chapter 20

  Alessandra

  AS I LAY ON THE BED in Sebastian’s room, I flipped through the pages of the Stark Coven Doctrine. There had to have been something in this huge book that would help us prove Caroline Dezerea was unfit to be Queen. I was a little bit nervous that there wasn’t.

  I wasn’t even sure what we would do then. I knew the
re were other options, other ways we could become rulers of the Stark coven. But that meant blood would be shed. It would have been easier for everyone if we could have just proved Caroline was unfit to rule.

  When I finally reached the section I was looking for, I took a deep breath before I began to read:

  Rule 278: The Fitness of a Stark Coven Ruler – There are a number of qualifications that must be met in order for a member of the Stark Coven to take their rightful place as ruler.

  1. Vampire status: In order to be ruler of the coven, the Stark in question must have already made the transition into a vampire. The transition must take place within one month of the coronation ceremony. If the heir to throne refuses to make the required transition, the throne will be given to the next heir or most qualified individual to rule the Stark Coven.

  2. Age: The ruler in question must be a legal adult. They must have lived for at least 18 years. However, they may appear to be physically younger if they made the transition into a vampire before the age of 18.

  3. Direct lineage: The first preference for ruler will always be given to a direct descendent of the original Stark family.

  4. Treason: Anyone who has committed treason against the Stark coven will automatically be disqualified from being ruler. The act of treason will be determined by the Stark Coven’s High Vampire Council, but the ruler in question will automatically be disbarred if there is evidence of one of the following acts of treason: a). Murder of a Stark Royal without cause; b). Aiding and abetting an enemy of the Stark coven; and c). Levying war against the coven.

  That was it! We already had enough to prove that Caroline Dezerea was unfit to rule the Stark Coven. She had already threatened to go to war with the Stark Coven, and she wasn’t even officially a ruler yet.

  I breathed a sigh of relief now that I knew there was no way she could become Queen now. As I flipped through the book, my eyes fell on another section.