He sighed and shrugged again. “I don’t know. Honestly. They’re upset. And every time they meet to talk about it, they get even more upset. It’s getting bigger and bigger.”
Renard had recovered enough to turn back to us. “The point of no return is near,” he said, his voice scratchy. He was right. If this wasn’t contained soon, it never would be.
13. Visions of love
I tried hard to think of how I could talk to the turned and steer them off this path. If we did that with all the turned in all the Orders, they’d stop causing trouble and things would go back to normal.
I hoped.
Olivier followed me down to the turned dormitory, but it was empty. Rows of coffins with not a soul in the room. I pushed my senses out to examine every coffin, and even the bathrooms at the end of the long chamber, but there were no vampires to be had.
I made quick work down the walkway until I got to the companion dormitory. The humans were in their living room area, watching tv and playing cards. They all stood and straightened when Olivier and I came into the room.
“Where are they?” I demanded, trying to keep my tone less harsh than I was feeling. I wasn’t about to hurt the humans, but they might try to lie about where the turned were, and I wasn’t in the mood for it. “I will not tolerate lying, so tell us where they are.”
An older woman looked terrified, but she spoke up. “They went for a walk.”
“A walk?” Olivier questioned, like that was a ridiculous idea, going for a walk. The human’s heart rate sped up.
“All of them?” I asked the woman. “That seems improbable.”
Another human took the woman’s hand for comfort. Her heartbeat slowed down just enough where it didn’t sound like a racehorse at full speed. “They do it a lot right at sunset,” said the human male holding the woman’s hand. “They just go for a walk together. They come back a few hours later.”
“All of them?” I repeated.
He shrugged and gulped. “Not usually all of them.”
Olivier grasped my elbow to turn me away from the humans. “Why are they so afraid of us?”
I glanced back at them. They did look scared. “Because I just yelled at them?”
She shook her head. “No. They looked that way before you even spoke.” I scanned the humans with my senses this time, and I saw marks and bruises on their bodies. The ultimate sign of mistreatment by their masters, for only we could make marks like the ones I was seeing. I put my hand over my mouth, trying to keep the shock hidden.
Fucking Christ, what was happening?
“How,” I asked her between my fingers. “How could we not have seen this? Damn it.”
She sighed heavily and scrubbed a hand down her face. “Because we weren’t looking. We expected obedience.”
“We’ve been fools.” I stepped away from her. “Pack up your things,” I told the humans. “Your contracts are over. Once you’re packed, I will take you to Othello’s secretary to get your contract payout. Transportation into town will be provided for you.”
The humans got to action, but their masters returned before they were finished packing. Olivier and I stood in the doorway, a barrier between the turned and the humans.
“Have a nice walk?” Olivier said sarcastically when the turned reached us.
It was clear that they had a new leader now, the man standing at the head of the group, looking at me like I was something he’d stepped in. He appeared as cold-hearted as Randall, though sadly more volatile. I searched my memory for his name and came up with Wyatt.
“Are we not allowed to leave the premises?” he answered, with just as much sarcasm as Olivier had offered. He tried to glance over my shoulder and saw the humans packing their things. His eyes narrowed but he managed to maintain his composure. “Did you tell our companions they could do that?”
“They’ve been dismissed,” I informed him, moving to block his view. “You breached the contract by harming them.”
He grinned in an innocent fashion. “Harm them? We did no such thing.”
I took a step out of the doorway to get closer to him. “What, are you going to tell me those bruises happened on their own? That the humans are running their own little fight club down here?” I poked a finger to his chest. “I’m not stupid. And you’ve crossed the line. Your companion privileges are revoked indefinitely.”
He grinned down at me with full confidence, even though I still had a finger against his chest. “You don’t have the authority to dismiss our companions.”
“Actually, I do.”
“Right,” he said with humor. “Because you’re Born, and I’m turned. Is that it? Any Born can dismiss our companions, but I can’t dismiss yours, even if you’re beating it black and blue. Isn’t that true?”
He had me there. He was correct.
“That’s irrelevant,” I said firmly, but I’d already lost my control over the situation. He twisted back to his fellow vampires and gave them a knowing look.
“Like always,” he said with a practiced air. “The rules only apply to us, but not them. Never them.”
I felt Olivier grab my elbow again and push me gently out of the doorway. The humans followed her, and the turned moved out of the way for them to pass.
“No response?” Wyatt said, grinning in his triumph. I gave him a long look before I followed Olivier out of the dormitory.
“This is so bad,” Olivier whispered as we made our way through the castle. “Companions mistreated and we didn’t even notice.” Her shame matched my own. I was supposed to protect the humans here. I was failing at everything.
“They mistreated them on purpose. The turned wanted us to dismiss their companions to make a point, damn them.”
“And we walked right into it,” she grumbled. We explained the situation to Marie, who promptly wrote every human a check double the amount originally promised and called someone to bring a bus for them. This one time, she didn’t look at me with contempt, rather that she and I were on the same level. It comforted me until the humans were all gone and she glared at me so I’d go away.
Othello was shocked when we relayed what had happened, but he informed us to all go to bed and try to salvage the situation the next day.
As Cameron and Renard had not done anything wrong, their companions had not been dismissed, and we brought them upstairs with us. I’d been decorating one for a nursery, and one for guests, in case Balthazar came back after our daughter was born, so everyone had a bed to sleep in.
I wasn’t in the mood for sleep. I sat outside the massive birdcage in my living room and watched my cardinal and lovebird play together. Kanoa and Blythe. They were always happy. The horrible way my life was going didn’t affect them.
Would that I were a bird, where my joy in life was sitting on the same branch as my only friend. I knew exactly who that friend would be. The one I would never see again. He wasn’t my only friend if I was being honest, but he was the only one I wanted by my side.
With my eyes closed, I consciously tried to conjure my delusion of him next to me on the plush, fawn colored carpet. What would he say about all of this?
“It’s all going to shit, isn’t it?”
Knight was suddenly sitting next to me on the floor. He smiled at me and I wanted to reach out and touch him, to hold him to me, but I didn’t for fear it would break the fantasy. His eyes went down to my round stomach and I put my hand over it as if that would hide it from him.
“You got fat,” he remarked. I wanted to smack him on the arm, but I just laughed in happiness that I could hear him be insulting again. Both times I’d seen him before I hadn’t really talked to pretend Knight.
“Are you dead?” I asked him, a stupid question, but I didn’t care.
He shrugged and smiled. “Am I even real?”
“Fair point,” I said with a grin. My mouth curled downward and it trembled a bit as I looked him over. His hair was longer and starting to curl past his neck. Thick black shanks of it fell forw
ard in front of his eyes, and I wanted to smooth them back. His skin looked a shade darker from being in the sun. He was wearing a faded brown and white plaid shirt with blue jeans, clothes I’d never seen him in before. His feet were bare and his toenails were caked with mud. I couldn’t smell the mud or his scent, or anything of the man sitting next to me.
I wanted to tell him how much I missed him. How much I was dying inside without him. How the only thing keeping me above water was my child, but I couldn’t mention her around him, even if he was just a mirage. I was still ashamed, and I couldn’t bear for his eyes to no longer look at me with love. I wanted to tell him how much I needed him, how much it was destroying me inside not knowing if he was dead or not. How hard it was to live with myself after the choices I’d made.
“I’m a failure,” I said finally, letting out a big breath.
“I doubt that,” he replied.
“No. No, I am. I’ve failed the other vampires. The Born counted on me to keep the turned in line, but I failed. They’re rising up everywhere. I failed the humans. I failed to protect them. And I failed…” I tightened my hand around my stomach. “I failed you.”
“Are you still trying?” I looked over at him. He’d straightened up and was facing me, his gaze stern but gentle. “Have you given up?”
“No.”
He gave me a small smile. “Then you haven’t failed me. You promised to stay strong. That means never giving up.” His optimism saddened me, and I felt even worse than I had before I’d started dreaming him up beside me. I looked away and felt tears come to my eyes.
“You’re not real. You’re gone.”
I felt his hot breath in my ear as he planted a very real kiss, on my cheek, and for the slightest moment I could smell his scent beside me. “I’m not.”
A knock on my door brought me out of the fantasy, and the warmth on my cheek faded, as did Knight’s image. I got up, wiped my cheeks, and answered the door. It was Olivier.
“Get everyone up. Othello’s been taken.”
14. Don’t look at me
The news that Othello had been abducted was shocking. More than shocking. Unheard of. Like hearing that Christmas wasn’t a thing anymore, or aliens had arrived on the planet. My brain simply could not process the information.
Othello was gone.
I stood in the bigger drawing-room with its hunter green walls and velvet curtains as the rest of the Born were roused from their sleep and came down for the news.
They didn’t take it well.
First, we had to tell everyone he’d been abducted. Then Olivier had to describe over their shouting and talking that the turned had taken him and they were also gone. It was a two for one night.
The shouting got louder. My senses became clogged with their fear, anxiety, anger, and shock. I could barely breathe for the emotions around me. I felt Arthur’s hand on my arm to steady me, and I heaved in several big breaths. My baby’s little feet came into play, kicking upwards at me to get my attention. Both helped me calm down enough to hear what everyone was saying.
“We have to get the Council back here now.”
“What could they do? They’re not in charge of our Order. They can’t bring him back.”
“We should question the humans in town. See what they know.”
“Maybe someone here knows something.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, no one here would willingly participate in the abduction of a vampire leader.”
“But the fact remains, we are leaderless.”
Olivier got a word in, enough to say, “In the event of a Head being unable to do his or her job, the leadership goes to the next oldest vampire.”
And that’s when everyone turned to stare at me.
Oh fucking hell. Yep. That’s right. I was the next oldest vampire. Even Olivier was a few decades my junior. It was hard to believe that I was older than Arthur as well, but I had him beat by at least a century.
“Surely,” one of them huffed, “Othello had a say in who took over his position?” Maybe Othello had appointed someone else? Please say he appointed someone else.
I thought Olivier showed great restraint in keeping her fingers off that vampire’s neck. Instead, she took a deep, dignified breath, and stared him down.
“Othello’s opinion on the matter is unfortunately irrelevant. Lisbeth is the next oldest of us.” I deflated in disappointment. Defeated by age. I didn’t want his job. I couldn’t even do my own job.
The question of ‘do I have to?’ almost passed my lips, but I glanced at everyone’s faces around me and knew how to slip into the position of authority, even if I didn’t want to. Reassurance.
I stood up, one hand on my belly and the other clenched into a fist at my side. Without me even asking, Arthur boosted me onto one of the green leather ottomans and helped me balance with my hand gripped tightly in his own. The room quieted just enough for me to speak.
“Tonight is a difficult night. I know you’re all upset, and I know you’re anxious for this to be resolved. We will do everything we can to find Othello and bring him back as soon as possible. And if he is lost for good, I hope…” I swallowed and noticed a quickly fading image of Knight in the back of the room. When had I conjured him back? “I hope that I can lead you with the same dedication that he did.” They waited for more, but as pep talks went, that was my limit. “The Hunters will be on guard, so please go back to your rooms and get some sleep. We’ll start fresh tomorrow.”
All of the civilians left, leaving me standing on the ottoman feeling like a fool, still holding onto Arthur’s hand in a room full of vampire Hunters. Arthur helped me down, gripping my thickened waist gently and setting my feet onto the carpet before taking a step back.
“Olivier, I need all hands on deck. We have to find Othello,” I told her once I’d steadied myself. “I want every Hunter we can spare out and looking.” She nodded and left with the group to delegate their task, but Arthur stayed behind, waiting for his orders. I wished I was holding his hand again.
“How am I supposed to lead them when I caused this?” I asked him, staring off in a haze at the green carpet.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” he commented, his tone dropping like he regretted mouthing off to me. “You didn’t do anything. None of this was your fault.”
Feeling weary, from more than just that night’s events, I started leaving the room with him right behind me. “If I want your platitudes, I’ll ask for them.”
“You’re assuming I care about your feelings. I have no reason to butter you up.”
Stopping at the door, I turned slightly to smile up at him. “You forget, I’m your boss now. Butter away, soldier.”
His mouth twitched with the effort to keep his face straight. “Fair enough.”
I did not want Othello’s job, as I said. I knew how to manage the turned, or I used to until they decided to go psycho and kidnap him, but I also knew enough about the Born to know that managing them, compared to the turned, was the difference between raising a pig and raising a cat. The turned being pigs that are usually docile, and the Born being cats that are preening divas. Plus, the Born liked the idea of being managed by their leader, but it didn’t mean that they liked someone else making their decisions, or telling them to do things they weren’t on board with. And I now had the authority to do so. I could literally tell anyone in the Order to do anything and they would have to do it. A manicure, killing someone, making me biscuits, having a tweet war with Anna Kendrick. I was the master now.
The master of the Order was lying in her bed, rubbing her ever-growing belly and staring at the embossed ceiling when there was a knock at her door. I had barely slept the night before, my mind too consumed with the knowledge that I could no longer be lazy and I’d have to actually work again. I’d have to learn how to do a job I had no experience in, and be an authority figure over people I either barely knew or disliked. Or they disliked me.
“Open the door, Lisbeth, or I’ll use the master key,” Oli
vier said from the hallway. I got up and put a robe on over my pajamas, passing Cameron on the couch still muttering Japanese swear words in his sleep, and opened the door to Olivier with a hand on her hip looking at me like I was late to my own party.
“I’m the boss now,” I reminded her in a sarcastic tone. “You can’t barge into my room.”
“Technically, you’ve always been my boss, and I get your job if you’re abducted too, so…” She shrugged with an excited grin so I flicked her arm with my finger. After I changed my clothes, I followed her downstairs to my new destiny.
Marie was there to greet us when we reached the business hallway that contained Othello’s old office, now my office. She was blocking the way, as if I was surprised, clutching a blue folder to her chest like I was going to take it from her.
“Madam Lisbeth,” Marie said respectfully. She tipped her head and did a short little curtsey bow, then she gave my simple black dress a disapproving once-over.
“I’m Madam now?” I asked her, genuinely curious since I’d never called Othello ‘Master Othello.’
“Othello never preferred the prefix, but it is standard protocol for a leader.” Her fingers were gripping the blue folder so tightly I could see her starting to rip it on accident.
“I prefer to not have it either if that’s acceptable,” I said.
She tipped her head at me again. “I was hoping…” she said quietly, her eyes darting around so she wouldn’t have to look at me. “I was hoping that I could keep my position as the leader’s assistant. I know that we aren’t exactly close, but I’ve been the assistant for two hundred years, and well… I don’t really know anything else.”
“Ummm…” I said awkwardly. “I mean, I wasn’t aware that I had the right to reassign the position?” Her silent glance was enough to say that I did. I shrugged. “I don’t want anyone else. I’m not familiar with this job. One of us should know what they’re doing. Might as well be you.”
She smiled in relief and loosened her grip on the folder before it could be truly torn. “Arthur has requested a meeting with you as soon as you’re ready.”
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 29