Mark of Blood

by Jody Morse

  I had more dark secrets than I could count on one hand; I had buried most of them years ago, and I had no intentions of digging them up any time soon—not for Vernelle, or anyone else.

  Chapter 30

  Sean

  HOW WAS I GOING TO kill Princess Alessandra?

  That was the only question that swirled through my mind as I sat on the sofa in the Slave Chambers, pretending to watch The Hunger Games with the other guys. My mind was on anything but the movie, though.

  All I could seem to think about was the fact that Alessandra was a vampire... and I was, well, completely defenseless against her. I’d already looked around the Slave Chambers for anything that could have possibly have been used as a stake, but there was nothing.

  Not that it should have surprised me that there was nothing I could use. Of course vampires weren’t just going to leave out objects that could potentially be used to kill them.

  “Where’s Vernelle?” Garrett asked, interrupting my thoughts.

  Joe shrugged from his spot on the couch next to me. “I don’t know, but he’s been gone for a really long time.”

  “A couple hours, at least,” Garrett agreed.

  “I have to admit, it’s really quiet around here without him,” Alec commented.

  “Good quiet?” I asked out loud. I couldn’t help but wonder if any of the other guys thought he was a jerk.

  “For sure, dude. It’s not that I hate Vernelle or anything, but the guy’s always had a stick up his butt. He seems to think he’s so much better than the rest of us because he used to model for GQ,” he explained. “His ego is higher than the New York skyline.”

  “The worst part of it is that Princess Alessandra loves him,” Devon commented.

  “Oh? Who do I love?”

  I glanced over my shoulder to see Alessandra standing in the doorway, her arms folded over her chest. She looked angry.

  “Oh, uh... Prince Sebastian,” Devon mumbled quietly.

  “And that’s a problem why?” The princess took a few steps closer to him.

  “I just... don’t like the prince very much. That’s all,” Devon lied.

  She moved so that her face was inches away from his. “Are you sure that’s all this was? Or do you think I don’t deserve happiness?”

  “I would never think that, Princess Alessandra.”

  “Hmm.” She stared at him evenly for a moment before glancing to the rest of us. “You should all know by now that I don’t appreciate it when anyone talks about me with ill intentions. In fact, I’d prefer if you didn’t discuss me at all. Keep my name out of your mouths unless you’re addressing me or we’re together in private.” Her eyes flitted around the room at each of us. “I will not hesitate to kill each and every one of you.”

  “Is that what happened to Vernelle?” I spoke up. “Did you kill him?”

  Her dark eyes locked on mine as she nodded. “Actually, that’s why I came here—to tell you about Vernelle. The answer is yes. I did kill him.” Then a faint smile hit her lips. “But I brought him back to life.” She turned to the others. “Vernelle is now a vampire.”

  A brief silence took over the room.

  Princess Alessandra continued. “While Vernelle will no longer be residing with you, he will be responsible for maintaining order around here. He’ll be checking in on you to make sure you’ve all done your chores and keeping tabs on you. Does anyone have a problem with that?”

  Everyone shook their head, including me as the princess’s gaze shifted over to meet mine again.

  A smile hit her red-painted lips. “Good. I’m glad no one disagrees with this arrangement. I’ll let you all get started on your chores.”

  As she walked across the room and back out the door that led into the hallway, I realized she had just given me my answer.

  There was only one way I could kill Princess Alessandra.

  I needed to become a vampire.

  Chapter 31

  Sebastian

  MY HANDS TREMBLED AS I filled a glass with blood. Blood splattered on the countertop, but I didn’t bother to clean it up. I needed a drink, and I needed it now.

  Bringing the glass to my lips, I took a few huge gulps.

  I should have realized what a bad idea it was for me to be alone with Lila, knowing that I was already thirsty. She had smelled so alluring.

  The last thing I wanted was to be responsible for killing the girl I loved. And yet, every time I was around her, I had to fight the urge to sink my fangs into her pretty little neck and go to town.

  Lila wasn’t safe with me. She was neither safe in my presence nor alone with me.

  It didn’t matter how much I loved her; the reality was that I was dangerous to Lila DeHaven’s life.

  I knew I couldn’t allow myself to think of this right now, not with all of the other important things that were going on with our coven.

  What would my father have done in a situation like this?

  Yet again, I found myself wishing I could just speak to the man. In fact, never in my life had I felt such an incredible urge to speak to my father. Our relationship could only be described as a love-hate relationship at best, but it felt like I needed him now more than ever before—and I was Sebastian Stark. It was rare for me to ever own up to needing anyone, let alone someone who I didn’t align with on anything.

  It didn’t matter that Alessandra had found a loophole around the Abandonment clause. The fact of the matter was that I needed to at least try to find my father. I needed his advice. I needed to figure this whole Lila thing out.

  Part of me thought that I should go looking for my father before agreeing to marry Alessandra. If I could find him, the situation could have been diverted and there would have been no need for me to marry Alessandra.

  As great as that option the sounded, I couldn’t just ignore Zoe’s prediction, either. If I didn’t get married, there was a very real possibility I could have been murdered by members of my own coven in just a few months’ time.

  Therefore, I had no choice but to go through with this wedding. I had to marry Alessandra, but I promised myself I would embark on the journey to find my father the following day.

  I wondered what my father would think when he learned of my relations with Lila—who, to him, would only ever be known as Julia.

  I doubted he ever would have understood the situation. If anything, he would have told me I was a fool. I knew that, because I knew exactly how my father felt about me developing feelings for someone.

  My mind drifted back to a conversation we had once had. It had been January 29th, 1991, but the memory still replayed through my mind like a movie:

  My father had been sitting in his office, reading The Deadwood Times, one of the two main newspapers that reported about our world.

  As I stood in the doorway, I cleared my throat.

  His nearly black eyes moved to meet mine. “Sebastian. What do you want?”

  “Do you have a few minutes, Father?” I asked. ‘There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.”

  “Now isn’t the best time. I’m reading.” He motioned to the newspaper in front of him.

  “My apologies. Some other time then,” I replied quietly.

  I turned around and had just entered the hallway when I heard him say, “Wait, Sebastian. Come in and have a seat.”

  As I reentered the room and sat down in a chair across from his desk, he laid the newspaper down and sighed. “I’m sorry, Son. I was just very involved in the goings on in our world today.”

  “What is it that you were reading about?” I asked, feigning interest. Despite my Royal lineage and the fact that I was the next heir to the throne if anything should ever happen to my father, I had never been all that interested in current events. It’s not that I didn’t think the world around me was important. It was just that reading about them bored me.

  “Horrible things... unspeakable things. But things that are bound to affect our future in years to come,” he murmured, shoving the
paper in one of his drawers dismissively. “Enough of the news. What is it you’d like to speak to me about?”

  I hesitated for a long moment. “What are your thoughts of a vampire falling in love?”

  My father chuckled. “What would ever make you ask that, Son?”

  “I just wondered what your thoughts were.” I shrugged.

  His eyes met mine curiously. “Surely there’s a reason you’ve come to question such a thing. Are you in love, Sebastian?”

  “No,” I replied, even though it was a lie. I was in love—or what I thought was love, at least. I wasn’t so sure just yet. This girl made me feel something, but I wasn’t entirely sure if it was love. I wasn’t sure if a vampire could love, even if they wanted to. “I just wonder if a vampire can ever experience love in the same way that a human does.”

  “A vampire cannot love as a human does in the same way that a human and vampire can never fall in love,” he replied matter-of-factly.

  “How do you know?”

  “Because when humans fall in love, regardless of who they are, there’s one quality that they look for—a quality that we, as vampires, do not possess.”

  My eyebrows lifted. “What quality is that?”

  My father stared into my eyes. “Humanity, Sebastian.” He rose to his feet and began to pace. “We will never have the humanness, the compassion, that humans have.”

  “That doesn’t mean that we’re unable to love someone completely, does it? We must be able to love in our own way,” I insisted.

  “Vampires are too selfish to truly love anyone. Think about it, Sebastian,” he replied as he stared out the window. “If you were to fall for another vampire, what would happen if the two of you were locked in a room with one another with only a limited supply of blood? Once your hunger took over to point where you knew you wouldn’t survive much longer without that blood, what would you do? Would you allow your vampire lover to have the blood? Would you die for them?”

  “I suppose it’s possible that you would,” I insisted.

  My father glanced over at me. “You wouldn’t. Believe me. Your own hunger, your own needs, would come before hers.”

  “Are you saying that you don’t love Mother?” I questioned.

  He seemed to hesitate for a few long moments. “Your mother and I have come to a resolution of sorts. We provide each other with what the other needs, but make no mistake, Sebastian. I have never allowed myself to get too close to your mother, because I know that what we have is a fallacy of sorts.”

  “How is it a fallacy? Unless you’re locked into a room together without blood, you’ll be okay, won’t you?”

  “I will do whatever it takes to protect myself and my throne, even if it means putting your mother’s life at risk.”

  Although my parents had never shown any real signs of affection, it was the first time my father had ever admitted to me that he didn’t actually love her.

  “Well, what if you fell in love with someone who wasn’t a vampire?” I pressed. I wanted to believe there was a chance that what I was feeling was real, a possibility that it could have been everlasting.

  “That would only be worse,” he replied, shaking his head. “What would you do if you allowed yourself to feel for a human but then your hunger took over? What if you killed the human who you believed you loved?”

  When I didn’t answer him for a few long moments, he continued. “We’re simply too selfish to love anyone, Sebastian. Do you want my advice?”

  “That’s why I’ve come to you,” I replied with a nod.

  “Whoever she is, let her go. One way or another, you will end up killing her.”

  As my father’s words from so long ago echoed through my mind, I sighed.

  I’d listened to him at the time, coming to the conclusion that maybe he was right. I’d thought that maybe a vampire really couldn’t fall in love—that maybe I couldn’t fall in love.

  When I met Lila, I realized that maybe he was wrong all along. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe it was possible for me to fall in love... even with a human. And maybe it was possible for her to love me, too, in spite of my lack of humanity.

  Except now, I couldn’t help but wonder if my father was right during that conversation back in 1991.

  Was I so selfish that I would end up killing the girl I loved?

  Chapter 32

  Kade

  AS I LAID IN BED FLICKING through the TV channels, all I could think about was the fact that my brother was about to go through with this wedding in less than 12 hours.

  I wondered how our father would have felt if he knew Sebastian was getting married, without even telling him, in order to take the throne away from him. But I figured he couldn’t have felt any worse about the whole thing than I did.

  If only Sebastian knew Alessandra’s motivations for marrying him were far from genuine. If only he knew her entire reason for marrying him was so she could later eliminate him, take over the Stark coven, and become the most powerful vampire in the world.

  I knew I probably should have warned Sebastian. I should have given him the heads up that Alessandra was playing him and that, like a fool, he was completely allowing it to happen. But there was no way I could tell him without letting him know about my own involvement.

  As much as I hated to admit it, there was another reason I couldn’t tell him the truth, too.

  I cared too much about Alessandra. Even though she had somehow been able to give me up like cold turkey, I wasn’t ready to let her go quite yet.

  I never would have thought I’d be so affected by Alessandra deciding she didn’t want to be with me anymore. I hadn’t been lying to myself or to Aunt Caroline. I did hate Alessandra even more than I hated Sebastian.

  But the thing about Alessandra and me was that as much as I hated her, I did feel something for her, too. It might not have been the feelings of love she wanted me to have, but I felt something for her unlike anyone else I’d ever been with.

  We were like fire; it could warm you up just as easily as it could burn down everything in its wake if you weren’t careful.

  The toxicity of our relationship wasn’t the only thing that made me want to keep her secret safe from Sebastian. Up until now, Alessandra had always been an option. She had seemed to be so in love, so infatuated with me, that she had always been a guaranteed partner.

  If I wanted to become the most powerful vampire in the world, it would have been easier to do it with her by my side.

  As much as I hoped the option may reopen in the future, the reality was that things between us had changed and they would never go back to the way it was before. Once Alessandra dropped someone, once she made the decision to move on, it was always for good. If I knew her as well as I thought I did, chances were she had already set her sight on someone new.

  Now, Alessandra was just another one of the vampires who I would have to kill if she got in the way. And knowing Alessandra, she would get in the way.

  Even though I almost felt guilty about that, she was the one who had chosen this path. She had made her bed. Eventually, I’d have to be the one to make sure she would lie in it.

  As much as I didn’t look forward to that, I knew I had to do what needed to be done. And, truthfully, I had way more important issues to deal with right now.

  I still needed to figure out what I was going to do about the Aunt Caroline situation.

  I now knew there was no way I could fight on Caroline’s side. I couldn’t be her ally, but it was already too late. Unless I could figure a good way out of this arrangement, Sebastian would know I’d ratted out Celia being on our side. So, what to do?

  I could have just avoided seeing Caroline again and hoped she wouldn’t say anything to my brother. But that seemed like a risk.

  Another option was killing her. If I could get her alone in her captain’s quarters again, maybe I could be the one to end her life. But I knew there was a chance her coven would catch wind of it before I even got off the boat and, as powerful as I
may have been, there was no way I could defend myself against 300 of them.

  Then an idea came to mind. It wouldn’t be easy, but it was the only thing I could think of that would get me out of this whole mess.

  I would let Caroline think I was acting as her informant, but really what I would be was an information for our own coven or, more importantly, for myself.

  Something my father had once said to me came to mind.

  “In order to conquer thy enemy, you must first know thy enemy.”

  Chapter 33

  Alessandra

  I HAD BEEN SEARCHING the palace for Sebastian, but I couldn’t seem to find him anywhere. And I needed to find him. There was something I really wanted to discuss with him before the two of us tied the knot.

  A thought had come to me—a way to prevent Caroline or Kade or any of the other Stark vampires from trying to take the throne back from us.

  “There you are!” I breathed a sigh of relief when I found Sebastian sitting at his office desk.

  He glanced up at me as I entered the room and shot me an obviously forced smile. “Yeah, I’m here.”

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, noting the look on his face.

  “I’m just wondering if there’s a chance we can actually find my father.” His eyes lifted up to meet mine. “Alive.”

  I crossed the room and sat down on his desk in front of him. “Why would you want that?”

  “He’s my father.”

  “I understand that,” I said slowly. “But don’t you think finding him would hold you back?”

  A puzzled look crossed his face. “Hold me back from what?”

  “From being King, of course.”

  “I would gladly give up the throne if it meant that my father could take over and deal with all of this instead of me,” Sebastian replied.

  “Do you really think that would be doing the best thing for the kingdom?” I questioned.

  He nodded. “My father has been King of the Stark coven for two-hundred-and-three years.”