by L. L. Ash
“Actually, I do.”
“I really, legitimately think you’re a psychopath. You need help.”
Calix’s smile turned to a grin.
“You’re probably right, Antheia Mou,” was all he said before moving down a long pathway in the dark.
I looked back towards the door that closed behind me, not really seeing anything in the dark from the tiny bit of light filtering through a couple miner cracks in the wall.
“Lily, come,” came the echo of Calix’s voice.
And I went.
I couldn’t see anything as I continued to walk, no light filtering in and I tripped on an uneven stone on the ground.
A hand reached out and grabbed around my arm, catching me.
“Good girl,” Calix’s voice breathed into my ear, a hand stroking my hair at the top of my head before he pulled me forward.
Suddenly we stopped and a door in front of us opened and flooded the hallway with light. I looked back and saw the slight uphill angle of the hallway we’d just come from, which meant we were underground.
“Prince,” a man’s voice greeted us as we walked into what looked like some sort of medieval hall.
Calix nodded toward the man who closed the door behind us and moved back to stand in front of it again.
“Prince.” Another man dropped to his knee as Calix passed.
“What are you wearing?” a woman approached, a patronizing smile on her face.
Calix raised an eyebrow, then noticed the white sweater sleeves still over his forearms.
“It’s a long story.” He sighed, pulling the sleeves off and dropping them as he walked. “Petrick!”
A tall, slender man approached as we still walked through the massive hall where a few people sat in couches, chairs, and tables.
The man Petrick, looked very similar to Calix with the pasty white skin and piercing ice eyes.
Actually, everyone looked a little similar. The woman had black hair but the same skin and eyes. The guard at the door too… What the hell?
“Petrick, show Lily to the chamber. Get her prepared.”
“Prepared?” I asked as the woman who’d spoken earlier grinned.
“Another?” she asked Calix and he simply nodded.
“There will keep being more until it is done.”
“What do you mean? Calix what’s going on?” I asked, feeling panic rolling through me again,
“Come, this way,” the man Petrick said, and took my arm, leading me away from Calix.
“May I go?” the woman asked, looking after me.
“I’m sure she would appreciate the female company,” Calix rolled his wrist in dismissal.
The woman jogged quickly to catch up.
“I am Nyx,” she introduced herself to me. “I’m Calix’s sister.”
“Calix’s sister? What the heck kind of place is this? Is this like…a club or something?”
Nyx laughed.
“Oh Darling… Didn’t he tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
She quirked her head at me as we walked.
“That we’re all vampires, of course.”
“What the hell is up with the vampire stuff? There’s no such thing!”
Nyx smothered another laugh.
“You’re some kind of wannabe vampire enthusiasts aren’t you? Like…santinists or something?”
The thought made me nauseous.
“Oh God… and very dedicated to the roll.” Nyx laughed.
She looked over at Petrick and they grinned at each other.
“Where are you taking me?”
“The sacrificial altar,” Nyx said with a straight face, then she started laughing. “We’re taking you to get cleaned up and new clothes.”
“Where’d he find this one?” Petrick asked with a smirk on his face.
I didn’t like him already
“I dunno. I kind of like her. Not like the others. And maybe we can be done with Tatiana. Ugh...” Nyx shuddered at the name.
I followed for a good couple minutes until we reached a room dressed in white curtains on every wall and a few trunks and wardrobes against the wall.
“Pick one,” Petrick said, waving his hand toward the wardrobes.
Nyx followed me to one and opened it. I sorted through the contents.
Inside were dresses of every shape and size. White dresses. They looked like sacrificial dresses.
“You’re not...sacrificing me…?” I started but Nyx shook her head.
“Of course not. You’re too valuable.”
“Valuable? What do you mean?”
“Your virginity. It’s too valuable.”
I gasped. How the hell could they possibly know? Did these people know my mother?
“It’s your blood,” Nyx answered my unasked question. “You reek of it. Calix has been going through one after the other. He’s in search of his mate. It’s a bloody waste of good sweet virgin blood if you ask me, but it is what it is. All my brothers are in a hurry.”
My brain was sputtering now.
“Virgins? Mate? Hurry?”
Nyx laughed again.
“Calix is looking for his mate. Only way to find it is to drink their blood and sex the fuck out of them. Poor guy is on… Oh God… What is it now Petrick? Thirty-eight?”
“Forty-three,” Pertick answered absently.
“Drink their blood? That’s sick!”
“Vampires, sweetums. It’s part of the gig.”
“How would that even possibly tell you who your mate was anyway? Shouldn’t you just know who your mate is?”
It was Petrick’s turn to laugh.
“There’s thousands of people that could be mates.” Nyx shrugged. “He just has to find one he’s compatible with.”
“Compatible?”
“One who will take his blood, who will give him babies. Only a mate can give him children.”
“Children?”
That’s it. I’m out.
I turned sharply and started toward the door.
“You can’t leave, Darling,” Nyx called after me. “Humans never leave here. Not without their master.”
“Master? You’re all psycho!”
I picked up my pace and ran. By the time I got myself absolutely lost, my heart was pounding and I was surrounded. Petrick and Nyx were there, and another man I didn’t know.
“Running won’t do you any good, honey,” Nyx looked at me with sympathetic eyes. “And honestly, we’re all kind of over the whole innocent virgin thing. Just work with us, huh? Makes things easier for everyone.”
“You want me to just lay down and let you sacrifice me? I’m a person and I have rights!”
“Maybe we should call Calix...” the unknown man said, but another voice cut him off.
“No need,” Calix said coldly as he approached.
Gone was the hoodie and jeans. Now he wore a slim black suit and a charcoal shirt with no tie. His shoes clip-clopped on the stone floor as he approached.
“Leave us,” he said and all three of my companions fled without another word or a look back.
“The hell is wrong with you people?” I demanded in as harsh a voice as I could manage. “I demand you release me!”
“No,” he said simply.
“You can’t just say no! I have a family to go home too. If I don’t show up they’ll come looking for me!”
“You mean your mother who would kill you?” he asked with one raised eyebrow.
His arrogant attitude was really starting to get on my nerves.
“Yes,” I said harshly. “And you’re pretty much cementing the whole killing outcome every extra minute you’re keeping me here for your sick little games.”
“Sick little games?” He grinned
Oh God his smile was perfect. Dangerous but perfect.
“Believe me, I have no interest in doing this either. I’m tired of the whole thing. But it’s what must be done. There’s no other way to find my mate and I must find her. My father
will retire soon and I have to have my mate and a child at least on the way to be eligible for succession. Four of my brothers have already found theirs. And I’m running out of fucking virgins in LA.”
“Succession? You all talk like we’re in some terrible historical fiction or something.”
He took two more steps forward, his chest bumping against mine as he pushed me back until I was pressed firmly against the wall behind me, my breath heaving again, but for a different reason this time.
“My father,” he said quietly, “Is the king of all the Drakos. He will soon retire after four thousand years of ruling. He’s ready for a quiet life, he says...”
Calix scoffed at the idea.
“My brothers cannot rule. It would be the end of us. We would lose the war with the Dorians and we would be no more. I need to find my mate so I can become king after my father. I don’t care how many virgins I have to go through, I will find the one, and she will rule beside me. I’m sure it’s not you, but I must be thorough.”
“And what if it’s not me? You’ll let me go?”
He actually chuckled.
“With the knowledge you have? Absolutely not. You will become one of my servants. We take good care of our property and you’ll like it here. You’ll never have to see me, I promise.”
But what if I wanted to see him?
Oh dear Lord what was I thinking?
“I want to go home, Calix.”
“We all want a lot of things, Lily. Prepare yourself. I will take you whether you do or not, but I will be much more harsh about it if you resist.”
Tears finally burned in my eyes.
“I’ll never leave here again?”
“No. Get used to the idea,” Calix said as he turned and headed away from me.
“What about… what about my siblings? They need me.”
Calix stopped abruptly.
“Pray they never meet the likes of us,” was all he said before continuing on.
I leaned there against the wall, suddenly cold to my bones. Sobs bubbled up my throat and suddenly I was on the ground wailing.
Nyx was quickly at my side, helping me back to my feet.
“Keep your chin up, sweetums. Be good and he will be good to you.”
“A slave?” I questioned her, and I saw the truth glittering in her ghostly eyes.
“I’m hoping not.” She gave me a weak smile before walking me back to the white room.
Chapter Two
How did I get here? How did I get myself into this mess? This is what I got for helping that poor woman. Now I’m sitting here in a white gown in a strange room with archaic architecture and furniture.
A lounge couch rested near a corner of the room and a huge bed took up a big portion of the other side. Large, fluffy pillows and blankets covered it in the most lush style. The bathroom through the door to my right was all modern and clean.
It was Calix’s room.
I was just waiting for him to arrive, rape me, then go to the chambers where they kept the servants. Servitude was all I had left. So much for my design degree and my family. So much for the entire future I had planned. My thoughts had been on my little brother and baby sister since my talk with Calix. Now I couldn’t help them. Now they were better off without me, if being with me meant servitude for them as well. They were better off dealing with my mother, as terrible of a thought as that was.
The door opened, and Calix's large figure stood in the doorway. I had been waiting for him the last hour but I still wasn’t ready. I would never be ready for something like this.
He took a couple steps into the room and closed the door, meeting my eyes across the room.
“I heard you’ve been an exemplary sacrifice this evening,” he said in a gentle voice, unbuttoning the double buttons down the breast of his jacket.
“I thought I wasn’t a sacrifice,” I answered.
“Maybe not to us, but for you, it is.”
He shrugged his jacket off his shoulders and folded it, laying it gently over the back of a chair.
“Then why do you do it? It’s wrong, Calix.”
He nodded.
“I would remove the head of any man who did such a thing to one of my sisters.”
“Then why?”
“Because it is how it’s done. Whether I like it or not is of no issue. Traditions are traditions.”
“So you do this because of traditions?”
Calix sighed, a bone weary sigh.
“It is how it’s done,” was all he said.
Removing his cufflinks, he dropped them into a silver dish on a table by the door with a plink-plink.
“How old are you, Lily Dahlia?”
“Twenty- six.”
“And still with your virginity? Saving it for someone special?”
“Not one person in particular,” I hedged.
“In this day that’s unusual. You know that, surely.”
“Are you trying to make me feel bad about it or something?”
He gave a little half smile.
“No, Antheia Mou. It’s kind of beautiful. I’m sorry to take it when you were saving it for someone else.”
I shrugged.
“If you were sorry, you wouldn’t do this.”
“It’s the way things are done,” he said again in a sad voice before sitting on the lounge couch. “Come. Sit with me, Lily.”
I moved toward him slowly as he extended his hand to me, giving up on pacing the stone floor.
Taking it hesitantly, my fingers brushed over his palm, skin touching skin for the first time and it felt cold. Unusually cold. I sat, brushing out the skirt of my dress.
“Why the white dress?” I asked, taking my hand away from his when weird tingling warmth started crawling up my arm.
“It’s just—”
“The way things are done?” I finished.
“Yes.” He gave an amused expression.
I clasped my hands together, now sure of what was going to happen. I worried that he’d just throw me over the bed and take what wasn’t his. Or would he be gentle and at least try to make it pleasant?
“Give me your hand,” he spoke gently, brushing the back of my hand on my lap with his fingertips.
“What for?”
“So that I may touch you.”
“And you’re asking my permission?”
“I’d prefer you were open to my advances. It would be far more pleasurable for the both of us.”
I could either accept what was happening, accept my newly acquired fate, or I could fight tooth and nail. In my current situation though, I didn’t see how it would help me to fight. He would take my virginity whether I gave him permission or not. But he was still asking for it, in a way. I would have to just bide my time.
I loosened my hands and gave him one.
Calix feathered his fingers across the back of it before turning my hand palm up in his, fingering the lines in my palm.
“Did you know,” he started in a soft voice. “That Alexander the Great used palmistry on his officers?”
“He did?”
What was palmistry?
“He did. It helped him decipher which men to trust and who to not.”
“Didn’t exactly help him in the end.” I snorted then shut up instantly.
Calix just grinned as he kept tracing.
“I suppose you’re right.”
Another moment of silence before he murmured over my hand.
“Your heart line is short and straight. You’re not interested in relationships.”
“No I’m not. I’m interested in getting my career going to get my siblings away from my mother.”
“It is broken.” His fingers stopped moving. “You have had emotional traumas.”
“Hasn’t everyone?”
He continued to brush his fingers over my hand, ignoring my quips.
“Your life line is deep and long. That means good health and that you are well balanced.”
His hand froze again.<
br />
“You have a double line. You have a soul mate.”
“What?” I asked surprised, looking over my palm too.
Another moment and he grinned again.
“You’ve the girdle of Venus.” His smile grew, eyes lifting to meet mine in a mischievous grin.
“What does that mean?”
Again, he didn’t answer, just turned my hand and ran his finger over the knuckles there.
“What else?”
“Nothing relevant or necessary.” He shrugged.
“When did you learn to read palms?”
“A very long time ago.” He chucked under his breath. “I, too, find it...interesting. And useful.”
His fingertips traveled over my palm again and it sent tickles and tingles all the way up my arms and down my spine, all colliding in the long neglected apex between my thighs.
Nyx and a couple other women had helped me clean up, which included a shower and waxing. I’d never been bare ‘down there’ since I was a child. It felt weird, but just a little thrilling too.
“First I must take your blood, Antheia Mou. will you give it to me freely?”
“Why do you need my blood?”
The thought had me all anxious again, forgetting all the nice feelings I was starting to experience.
“To bind us. If you were my mate, we could not bind without an exchange of blood.”
“Exchange?”
“Yes, but you only need a drop of mine.”
I swallowed past the knot of anxiety in my throat and gave a jerky nod.
“Then come, sit in my lap, little one.”
I moved off the couch and he sat back, opening his lap to me. He helped me settle over his knees then pulled me closer until our chests touched.
“Close your eyes. Think of pleasant things.”
With that I squeezed my eyes closed and sat there, waiting for...something.
A moment later his hand touched my cheek, tilting my head back against his cool palm before something brushed against my neck on the other side.
Lips. Lips touched my neck for the first time.
“Your hair is beautiful, to Korítsi Mou.”
My hair? It was nothing but a mop of wavy black tendrils that I never knew what to do with besides the bangs hanging over my forehead.
But he liked it.
“Thank you,” I managed as he continued to brush gentle kisses over my neck, his breath skimming every nerve, making them all fire with pleasure.