“It’s her,” someone whispered. I glanced around and the other ladies in the room were staring at me. They talked in another language so I wouldn’t overhear their gossip about me. They had no idea which languages I knew, and I spoke quite a few of them. Enough to know they were saying very rude things about me.
“Arabella?” I heard Olivier’s voice in the doorway of the parlor. She was peeking in and looking around for the young girl. I waved to catch her attention. She walked over to me and sat in the other shampoo chair. “Damn, I can’t find that girl. Whenever she sneaks off, she’s always in some corner reading a book and looking wistful about life.”
“Ah, to be young,” I said reflectively, though also sarcastic.
Olivier rolled her eyes and surveyed the room one more time in case Arabella was hiding somewhere. Instead, she noticed the clusters of women talking about me. She looked back at me and I gave her a half smile. I expected her to lean in and offer to kill them, but instead, she reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze, then a pat, and she stood up. “Let me know if you see her.”
I didn’t see Olivier again until that evening, and Arabella still hadn’t been found. Renard was looking worried, so I offered to help them search for her. Cameron came as well, though he still wasn’t speaking to me. Our search over the castle revealed nothing. We widened our hunt to the forest and split up in all directions. I pushed out my senses and took a deep breath as a wave of information flooded into me. I started to get a picture of the forest around me, animals, scents, and tracks, when bright bursts of light came over my eyes. I had to brace myself on the nearest tree. I felt a twinge in my power as it spiked to the level of power I had during my blood binge, and since I didn’t have the blood supply to back it up, it left me weary. Focus. Just focus.
I flipped through the information I’d gotten all at once. Something caught my attention, branches that had been broken. It wasn’t like we never went out here, but it was worth following. I shifted back into my own head and trudged forward. The trail led me deeper still until finally, I caught the scent of someone’s blood.
Arabella’s blood.
My heart stopped and my face went cold. I pulled my phone from my pocket and quickly sent a text to Cameron, Olivier, and Renard. They were too far away to hear me shout. I focused on Arabella’s scent and kept going. It was getting stronger when I started hearing voices. Panicked voices. I smelled more of Arabella’s blood, and it overrode my sense of smell for anything else.
I didn’t stop to survey the danger, I charged head on towards the smell, bursting into a clearing where Randall and a few of his friends stood. Arabella was lying on the ground in a crumpled heap.
“We didn’t…” Randall started when he saw me, his face a mask of terror and confusion.
It took me a few moments to process everything I was seeing, including the inescapable scent coming from Arabella. I was horrified. This couldn’t be happening. Not here. Not now. I ran to her and lifted her head from the ground.
She was dead. She smelt of death.
My rage came quickly, my fangs dropping and my nails lengthening into claws. I had never been this angry in my entire life.
“What have you done?” I shouted at them, watching them cower before me. “WHAT HAVE YOU FUCKING DONE?”
I almost attacked them. I wanted to. I wanted to sink my claws into their throats and splatter their blood on the ground. My friends arrived just in time to stop me. Olivier rushed over and screamed when she saw Arabella’s lifeless body. She wailed in French, her cries of agony so intense I felt her pain seep into me. It only fueled my wrath.
“Explain what happened. NOW,” I demanded with a deep growl, my fangs still down.
Randall looked shell-shocked, but he still tried to regain his usual thoughtless attitude. “We… well we were just trying to… we didn’t mean to kill her.”
I looked down at his bloodied wrist and then back to Arabella’s body. There was a bite mark on her neck. “You tried to change her.” Randall’s face confirmed it. He didn’t look like he felt guilty. He was just surprised it hadn’t worked.
Olivier sprang up, shouting in several different languages how stupid she thought he was, and was very descriptive about how she was going to make him pay. I held her back and she collapsed on her knees, holding my hand so tightly it hurt. “Did you ever listen to what we said to you?” she wailed. “We told you that the turned cannot change humans. We told you…” she broke off into sobs that wrenched at my soul.
I carefully took my hand back from Olivier and stood up before I walked up to Randall, grabbing him by the throat. I saw my blood red eyes reflected in his, showing just how enraged I was. I wanted to shout at him. I wanted to tell him exactly what I thought of him. How he had wasted a human life because he didn’t listen to us. How his ego had destroyed Olivier and Renard’s family. He was ignorant and selfish. He didn’t deserve to be immortal.
But the words escaped me. Because nothing could bring her back. Not words, not punishment, and not revenge.
“Call Arthur,” I said to Cameron, my eyes never leaving Randall’s worthless face.
Arthur showed up quickly with the Hunters, escorting Randall and his friends to the castle. Renard carried Arabella’s delicate lifeless body, and we followed behind him. Olivier couldn’t stop crying. I’d never seen her like this. If nothing else from that night could’ve jarred me, her tears would have. Once we reached the garden, Renard placed Arabella’s body on the lawn and went inside for something to place over her. He came back with a long white tablecloth, and he covered her with it. Then he came up to me, took Olivier’s hands from mine, and led her inside, away from the body.
I stood outside with Cameron next to me. My fangs hadn’t withdrawn yet and my mouth was starting to hurt.
“Hey,” Cameron said quietly. He squeezed my arm and it calmed me down enough for my fangs to retract. As they did, my body collapsed and I fell to the ground. My throat ached with tears. I struggled to not cry. I couldn’t cry. I’d cried so much that year. I didn’t want to cry anymore. “Hey,” Cameron said again. He gently took my arms and folded me up against him. And I let it go. I cried. I cried harder than I’d ever cried before. Cameron held me close and stroked my hair while I fell to pieces on his sweater.
“I’m sorry,” I cried to him. “I’m so sorry.”
He squeezed me closer. “I know. It’s okay.”
We stayed on the lawn for what must have been hours. While neither of us ever looked directly at where Arabella’s cold body lay, it was constantly in the back of our minds. The darkness was beginning to recede when Arthur approached us, glancing at the body under the sheet as we stood to face him.
“We locked them up,” he said, looking me over carefully as I wiped my eyes. “The rest of the turned were questioned. No one else was involved. Only those three.” I had no doubt Othello had used mind probing on them after drinking extra blood. It was permitted in a situation like this.
“Will they get a trial? Are the Heads coming back?” I asked.
Even he looked disgusted at the prospect. “No. A crime like this does not deserve a trial. They will be executed when the sun rises.”
“Good,” I told him. He gave me a slight nod, and for the first time, I felt on equal footing with him. I went with Arthur to Othello’s office while Cameron went to his dormitory. Othello stood with the oldest of us, including Olivier. She looked how I felt. Broken, but determined.
“Sunrise is in an hour,” Othello said to us. “Lisbeth, you oversee the turned. You will supervise the execution.”
“Gladly.” It would give me much pleasure to push Randall into the sunlight. I didn’t even bother trying to rein myself in. This was not the time for it.
The hour passed quickly, and when Arthur led the Hunters to retrieve the prisoners, everyone else gathered in the foyer. The rest of the turned stood outside on the lawn, in the safe shadow of the castle. They would watch how we handled breaking the law. Randall and
his two friends, Ethan and Kent, came in. Arthur had hold of Kent, Olivier took Ethan, and I grabbed Randall. We marched them outside, past the crowd of vampires.
Randall struggled slightly against me the closer we got to the sunlight, but I held him firmly.
“You’re afraid,” I whispered in his ear, pushing him forward.
“Please,” he begged. “We didn’t mean–”
I turned him to face me and pulled him closer by his shirt, his putrid breath turning my stomach. “You destroyed a life that was not yours to take. We respect humans. That fact is burned into our minds from the day we draw breath as vampires, whether it’s from our mother’s womb, or from a bite. It is the most sacred rule we follow. And you spit on that respect.”
We’d reached the sunlight, a line of yellow against the black shadow cast by our home. Olivier kicked Ethan into the light without ceremony and he started screaming as his body caught fire. It took less than a minute for him to turn to ash. Arthur then pushed Kent across the line, who struggled and tried to escape. Arthur held him down as he shriveled and burnt up.
I held Randall right next to the line, as close as he could get without touching the sunlight, and I made sure it hit him just a little. Not enough to catch him on fire, just enough to make him sizzle.
“Mercy, please. Mercy,” Randall sobbed, trying desperately to grab hold of me and bring himself away from the light. I might’ve held back if what I saw in his eyes was remorse. I would’ve made it easy on him. But his eyes held no shame, no repentance. Only fear for his life. For his selfish, self-centered, and miserable life.
My fangs dropped down and I scowled at him as I said one word.
“No.”
I lifted him up and threw him as hard as I could. His body caught fire as it hurled towards the stone fence that surrounded our castle. He burned up just before he hit the wall, and the small pile of ashes bounced off the stones before blowing away in the wind. It was too quick. Too easy. I wasn’t satisfied. But it was done.
We turned around and faced the rest of the Order.
“This is what happens when you take a human life,” I shouted, my voice carrying to every ear. “There is no mercy for this crime. None. You take a human life, you die. You participate in the taking of a human life, you die. You have knowledge that another vampire is taking or has taken a human life and you tell no one, you die. I don’t care how old or young you are. Born, or the turned. Important, not important. Rich or poor. I will throw your fucking body into the sunlight, or a meat grinder. Or both. There are no excuses, no mistakes, no accidents. One and done.” I wasn’t looking for a response or confirmation that I’d been heard.
In the deafening silence, I marched back to the house and everyone parted in front of me. I didn’t stop walking until I was in my bedroom, and I didn’t leave it for days. I lay there, feeling nothing and everything all at once. Trickles of the insanity I’d felt when I was a prisoner washed over me, and I had to chase them away.
Eventually, Cameron came and brought the doctor with him. The doctor took my pulse, listened to my daughter’s heartbeat, and stressed that my mood wasn’t good for the baby. Satisfied we were both okay for the moment, he left, leaving me alone with Cameron.
“You okay?” he asked.
I turned my face away. “No.” I didn’t feel like pretending. Not with him anyway.
He nodded and sat down on one of my chairs. “I like the new furniture. Before, your room looked like a catalog. Now it’s homey.” I’d traded my sophisticated style with earthy, natural pieces. He was right, it did feel homier. More lived in. Maybe I’d leave my clothes everywhere like humans did.
Cameron sat waiting for me to talk to him, but when no words came, I stood up and walked to the window. It was the same view my old room had, just from a different angle. I could see the front gate and the massive stone walls. The wind was still blowing, tossing the shrubbery around, and removing all traces of the men we’d turned to ash.
“I feel awake,” I said finally. “Like I’ve been asleep for years and I just woke up.” A dry laugh shook my chest. “Nothing brings you clarity like pain.” I was drowning in pain. Angry pain. I closed my eyes and allowed myself a few seconds, just a few precious seconds, to miss Knight. Anything more and I’d start to break down again. I could picture the way he smelled, the way his breath felt on me. I imagined him holding me in his arms as I stood at my window.
I could even hear his voice in my ear.
“It’s okay, Lis,” Knight whispered against my neck. He was there, holding me close, his arms around my waist and shoulders. I knew he wasn’t real because I couldn’t smell him. He felt real, and that was enough for the moment. I put my hands to his arm and clutched his wrist like it could bring me strength. He tightened his hold on me but didn’t say more. We didn’t need to speak. Since he was a figment of my imagination, I didn’t need to tell him anything because he already knew.
Go away, figment. You’re not him. You’re not real.
My eyes snapped open and the fantasy was gone. “I failed him.”
“Who?” Cameron asked. I’d almost forgotten he was there.
“Knight. I never…” I turned away from the window. “I never looked for him. I never checked to see if he was really dead. At the time, just the thought of him gone was too painful. But now…”
“You need to know,” Cameron finished, and I nodded. “What if he’s alive? As improbable as it might be.”
My hand went to my stomach. I could never face him again. I couldn’t bear to think of him seeing me pregnant or holding my child. “He’s not. And he wouldn’t want me now if he was. An unfaithful woman.”
Cameron shrugged. “You don’t know that.”
“He’s dead,” I affirmed, trying to reassure myself more than him. “But I still need to know.”
That moment, with my hand on my stomach, was when I first felt my baby move. A little sensation, like a goldfish was in my belly moving around.
“She moved,” I exclaimed, a spark of happiness blooming from within. “Feel, feel.” Cameron put his hand on my stomach and we felt my baby’s little feet kick against our palms.
Everything would be okay. It wouldn’t be, I knew it. I had no illusions. But I tried to believe it, if only for that little baby inside me.
I had no idea that what we’d done to Randall would end up spiraling out of control.
11. Connecting with ice
The castle had a blanket of quiet the next few days. It wasn’t a calm quiet, or a lull in life where we had nothing to talk about. It was a silence full of unspoken emotion.
I joined Olivier, Renard, and Cameron on the back patio for lunch. Our table was overcast by the shadow of the castle to protect the turned, but it still had a large umbrella over it just in case. I sat down with my tray and unrolled my silverware. I could see each of them had a million things rolling around in their heads, but weren’t ready to talk about any of it.
From the look on Renard’s face, though, I knew what he was thinking. Arabella had been so young and pure, and now she was gone. He’d been very close to her, keeping in touch and visiting ever since she was born. Every time he’d gotten a new photo of her, he made everyone look at it at least once. She was a beauty, with brains and a gentleness about her I rarely saw in others. Olivier knew what the money from a companion contract would do for her future, so Renard convinced Arabella to come here.
We failed her. We didn’t protect her like we promised we would. That was me, the vampire who never kept a promise. Not a promise to protect someone, or a promise to keep Knight alive. I sighed heavily as I mentally hated myself for a few moments. Yes, I was going to milk my sadness for as long as I wanted to. Being immortal, I had that right. Cameron nudged me with his elbow and broke the silence.
“Hey,” he said, his mouth full of noodles. He slurped them up and chewed quickly. “Did you reach out to the packs yet?”
My stomach plummeted and I felt the baby kick in response. “Umm
, no not really.”
Cameron gave me a disapproving look. “You chickened out, didn’t you.”
I stuck my tongue out at him in protest. “I did not. I haven’t made my plan yet. I need to be careful. You know how the packs are about us in their territory.”
“Wouldn’t want one of them to get in trouble for sparing you, now would we?” Arthur said ironically, approaching the table. I raised an eyebrow at him that warned I might hit him if he kept talking. “If you need to go to the pack territory, I can take you. Hunters are allowed in certain circumstances, which is a good thing since you don’t have that bracelet full of vampire teeth to protect you.”
“You knew about that?” But I’d been so careful!
He rolled his eyes at me, his mouth almost quirking up. “Please. I could smell it on you.” Let’s hope that’s all he smelled.
We left the castle together, on foot, to the Mohawk reservation. It was about ten miles away, which for humans would take several hours to trek on foot. For us, a quick sprint would reduce the time to about ten minutes.
With Arthur beside me, we took off at full speed. Another vampire nearby changed the dynamic of running. The forest unfolded in front of us, every creature, rock, and tree perfectly laid out in our minds.
I sensed his power and speed next to me, and oddly it excited me. He was more powerful than I’d thought. Running together gave us a small telepathic link so we could hunt more efficiently, and I could feel everything about him as if I was in his mind. Every sinew of his muscles, the sweat building on his skin, and he was feeling the connection as well.
Arthur’s strength complimented my abilities so well, we were perfectly balanced. Almost too perfectly balanced. It brought a pull inside me, a tug towards him, wishing to feel that connection more, one we would’ve felt if we had hunted together in the past. I won’t lie. I missed the thrill of hunting. It wasn’t killing them, or even drinking from them that was fun, because both of those things were abhorrent to me now. It was chasing them as a group. Connecting with other vampires telepathically the way I was with Arthur, knowing exactly how you needed to move or compensate for the rest of the group. You moved as one, together, until you had your prey cornered and everyone could feed.
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 27