Blood Deception: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Royal Covens Book 2)

by Kaylin Peyerk

  A sour pit begins to form in my stomach, and I’m almost sure of who she’ll say it was. “Who?”

  She whirls on me, fire in her eyes. “My sister. He didn’t even wait until my body was cold, didn’t love me enough, and neither did she,” Alina hisses, stalking closer to me as if she’s going to take out all of her anger and misery on me. I flinch, and she stills, pulling her fingers in to form tight fists instead. “So, I killed them. I killed them all.”

  It’s impossible to keep the shock and horror from my face as I stare back at her. She’s breathing hard, and her hair is sticking to her sweaty face, making her look frightening. Well, that, along with the strange glint in her eyes that speaks of too many years on this earth alone, too much time to stew and form plans that slowly drive a person insane. This woman, Alina, whoever she is, isn’t all there. I’m not sure if that puts me in danger or not. Would she hurt another vampire?

  A bright flash of a memory hits me. A severed head rolling across the ground, sticky with blood. . . but then it’s gone just as quickly as it came. My blood chills as I take in the image. Was that my answer? Did Alina kill whoever that was? I scramble to get it back, squeezing my eyes shut in the process, but it’s gone for good. I open my eyes to see Alina watching me, her face once again that impossible mask, her fingers uncurled.

  “I apologize, Blair. I don’t know what came over me just now, I didn’t mean to frighten you,” she murmurs, a flash of guilt overtaking her features. When I don’t reply, only stare, she sighs. “I’ll leave you alone for a while to process this, okay?”

  I shake myself out of my shock and fear enough to mutter a quick reply. “Yeah, sure.”

  “Alright, I’ll be back around dinner time with more blood. And then we can discuss your new training schedule.”

  She shoots me one last smile before ducking out of the room and closing the door behind her. And I can’t help but cringe when I hear the lock click into place.

  Chapter Nine

  While she’s gone I keep the fire stoked and roaring to warm my permanently chilled body. But no matter how close I sit with the blanket wrapped around me, or how many logs I throw on, it doesn’t stave off the inherent cold I now know will be a part of me. It might even be an indication that I’m hungry for more blood, but the notion of drinking blood makes me nauseous. I can only hope that I'll be just as starved and uncaring as the first time I drank it. A shiver runs down my spine and I tunnel deeper into the cocoon of blankets I’ve been laying in for the past two hours after my shower.

  That was the only thing that made me feel remotely normal, even if I am forced to wear nothing but the fluffy white robe that hung on the door in my bathroom. There were no clean clothes in the drawers when I looked, and I had refused to put the nasty ball gown back on. It was covered in sweat and dirt and blood. I have no idea what the hell happened before I was turned, but it must have been bad if the state of that dress is any indication. I sigh, rubbing at my aching temples. My head feels both empty and full all at the same time. Like there’s a veil over my past life, and I’ve been clawing at it for the past hour, trying and failing to get in. It’s infuriating how little I know about myself. Who I was and who I am now just aren’t aligning at all.

  “I’m coming in my dear!” Alina shouts from outside, the lock on the door jiggling and clicking open.

  I don’t move from my position lying across the floor in front of the fire. While she was gone I had come to terms with being her captive, and the fear of her melted away. Not because she isn’t dangerous, she is, but because I know in my heart that she has some sort of plan for me. And that will at the very least save my life for now. So I’m going to stick it out and cooperate with her to learn as much as I can about this new, foreign body before taking my chance to flee. I know it’s not the best plan, and it might even be a little bit naive, but it’s all I got.

  “Are you hungry, Blair?” Alina asks from above me.

  I look up at her, my eyes zeroing in on the pitcher of blood in one hand and the two glasses in the other. And instead of waiting for my answer, Alina surprises me by sitting on the floor next to me, legs folding beneath her gracefully. She doesn’t strike me as a woman who sits on the floor in front of the fireplace drinking tea and reading a good book. But she does look more approachable now that she’s wearing soft cotton pants and a navy blue tee shirt. Plus, she had pulled her black hair up into a messy bun at the top of her head. It almost makes her appear young, maybe even soft hearted when I know that image couldn’t be further from the truth.

  “Here you go,” she murmurs, pouring a thick glass of the blood and handing it to me.

  The moment my fingers close around the crystal of the glass, my stomach begins to naw with hunger, growling. Saliva gathers in my mouth, and the aroma is sweet and tangy this time, borderline masculine in nature. Does that mean this blood came from a man? I wonder to myself, biting my lower lip, only to gasp when my elongated fang pierces it. Alina leans in after licking her thumb, running it over the spot I had nicked. The wound seals up instantly, and I look up at her in surprise.

  She smiles. “The healing properties of our saliva work on both humans and other vampires.”

  I reach a shaking hand up toward my face to feel along the sharp plains of my front teeth. They grew out at the smell of the blood, so quickly and painlessly that I hadn’t noticed. Each canine is nearly an inch long, coming out over my bottom lip and resting precariously there. If I were to bite down again, I would sink both of them right into the vulnerable skin of my chin. Alina watches me closely as I explore the new feature, her eyes missing nothing.

  “This feels,” I blurt out, my speech slurred and strange, almost like a growl, as I try to speak around my teeth.

  “That’s because it is,” she says simply, face impassive. “Vampires are an abomination, bodies who should be dead, but aren’t. We feed off of other living things to survive, there’s nothing right about it. All you can do is learn to accept it.”

  I close my eyes against her words while bringing the cup up to my lips, inhaling deeply. The blood doesn’t smell like blood. It smells like all of my favorite foods; like chocolate, rose wine and pasta. I take an experimental sip and the flavor explodes across my tongue just as it did before, maybe even more so this time now that I can stop to truly enjoy it. But the thought of enjoying it makes my stomach heave even as I chug the rest, gasping once it’s down.

  “And what if I can’t accept it?” I ask, my tongue darting out to lick the remaining blood from my lips and fangs.

  Alina shrugs, sipping out of her own glass. “Then it destroys you.”

  “That’s comforting,” I snort, looking away from her to the fire.

  “It’s not supposed to be.”

  We lock eyes again, and hers draw me in. The darkness within them is so eternal, so inviting, that I think I wouldn’t mind drowning in it. In the back of my mind, I know that she must be using her magic to draw me toward her, to get me to trust her but it barely registers. All I can think about is how beautiful she looks in the glow of the flames, how utterly touchable. I sway forward with the compulsion to touch her, only to violently snap myself back again, eyes widening as the spell lifts. What am I doing? Was I really going to touch her. . . even kiss her? Heat flares across my cheeks and I wrap my blanket tighter around my shoulders. Was my human self into women? That curious thought makes me flit my eyes back to Alina. She isn’t looking at me, but at the fire, eyes far away and contemplative. Instead of dwelling on questions my blank brain will obviously never answer, I try to make awkward conversation.

  “So. . . you said something earlier about training? Is that something vampires normally need?” I ask.

  She seems to shake herself out of her thoughts before looking over to me again. “Ah, yes I did mention that, didn’t I? And no, most vampires learn their skills based on instinct alone. It’s for survival. But you are special, Blair, your rare human blood type gave you something even the royal vampires do n
ot possess. A second ability beyond the alluring magic.”

  My stomach drops out as I remember what happened earlier, the projection of my emotions and how they basically forced her to reveal her past. I gulp, looking anywhere but at her and closing off my mind as best as I can just in case she can read it. A deep part of me knows that’s my power. The ability to manipulate emotions, whether it be by projecting my own to use it against someone, or otherwise. Does she know that’s what happened? And if not, should I tell her?

  “Oh,” is all I say, my mind blank and trembling.

  She taps her chin inquisitively while biting her lip. It’s yet another gesture that makes her appear young, almost childlike. Is that another reason vampires gain the trust of humans so easily? They look innocent when they are really the apex predator? My stomach heaves again at the thought, swirling painfully. Hopefully, part of my training won’t have anything to do with feeding off of and manipulating humans.

  “Do you feel any sort of power?” she asks, peering at me from over her half full glass.

  “Uh, erm, I think so?” I say, pausing to collect myself and mentally slap myself across the face. If she didn’t suspect me before, she might now. “If I’m having a strong emotional response to something, it permeates the room. Like earlier, I was frantic and upset, and maybe a little sad. It felt like it was a living thing, snaking around the room and infecting the both of us.”

  Alina stops moving to look back at me, her face blanching. “You're a manipolatrice?”

  “Um, yes?” I reply, shrugging.

  Is it really that big of a deal? This power of mine feels like the most inconvenient, useless even. Controlling how other people feel can’t be that much of an advantage unless I’m trying to rule the world, which is the opposite of what I want to do. I’d rather fade into the very recesses of society, barely to be remembered by anyone around me, especially the woman now staring at me like I’ve grown horns. When everything else is neutral, especially the alluring magic she keeps using to pacify me, Alina gives off a strange vibe. Like she’s hiding something important or putting up a front instead of showing her true self. Either way, it puts me on guard at all times when I’m with her.

  “That’s really rare, none of the other girls have it,” Alina replies, still white as a sheet. “Most of us have the ability to read minds or levitate things with our minds. The rare few have additional strength or speed. Never the ability to manipulate emotions. Only one other vampire has ever had that ability, and she’s dead.”

  I furrow my brows. “Oh. Who had it before?”

  “The vampire queen, our current lord’s mother.”

  The blood in my stomach sours, and I untangle myself from the blankets to launch my body toward the bathroom. I lean over the toilet just in time, retching and shaking. Alina is there in the next moment, smoothing my hair back and whispering things I can’t focus on, but is soothing, nonetheless. I dry heave three more times before the trembling stops and I sit back against the porcelain of the tub, wiping the sweat from my brow. My stomach is completely empty now, but I have no desire to fill it, maybe ever again. I have the same trait as the old vampire queen.

  “Yes, humans can also be abominations, can’t they?” Alina murmurs, crouching in front of me.

  My eyelids flutter open and closed, fatigue suddenly washing over me. “Is that your power? Reading minds?” She nods.

  “Yes, it is, but yours is difficult to read sometimes. Did they teach you how to block it out, I wonder?”

  I shake my head, squinting my eyes shut. “Who? Did you know me before?”

  Her expression falls away, leaving her face blank and unfeeling. “No. But I know where you came from, as all the other girls did before you.”

  I try, and fail, to sit up. “Where?”

  “You were with the four vampire lords, my dear. You were their human concubine, and you were falling in love with them.”

  Her words send a jolt of surprising sadness flying through my chest, but before I can ask more my eyes flutter closed, leaving me in darkness.

  ***

  I fly up and out of the bed, my heart racing as my dream fades altogether. My heart beats wildly in my chest and sweat clings to every part of my body. What was that dream? Was it a nightmare or a memory? No matter how hard I concentrate, it’s gone now. All I have left is the way I feel now, unsteady and aching in my chest. Whatever it was, I hope I don’t dream about it again.

  Throwing my legs out of bed, I stumble into the bathroom to grip the sink with trembling fingers. My face is pale and sweaty, but it’s my eyes that draw me in. They’re a startling blue with flecks of gold encircling the iris. I lean toward the mirror to get a better look, eyeing myself for the very first time since I’ve turned. I stripe down while I’m at it and turn on the shower, stopping only to look at my figure in the mirror. Whoever I was as a human, I sure did like to eat and it all went to my hips and ass. Not that I’m afraid to be a little bit thick, plus, my vampire blood seemed to smooth out my skin; making me look more muscular than plump.

  I twirl once, smiling when my long brown hair swirls with me, swinging in a bright arc. Was I popular as a human with a body like this I wonder. It looks like something human men would fawn over. Bigger but not too large, thin but not too thin, and curvy in just the right places. That coupled with the hair and eyes makes me alluring in a way that draws me back up to the mirror, studying my symmetrical features and button nose, wondering if this is truly how I looked as a human or if the vampire magic has perfected anything minorly off since the change.

  “Ugh, stop it Blair, you’re being vain,” I whisper to the mirror, watching my blush red lips move in sync with my words.

  Taking two steps back, I grab my towel off the rack and lie it on the counter nearest to the shower before climbing in. It takes little time to clean up today as I had successfully scrubbed off all the dirt and blood from my initial change yesterday afternoon. But I long to sit under the warm spray forever, allowing it to bring warmth to my otherwise perpetually cold body. I’m not sure how other vampires stand this. It must be something I’ll get so used to that I don’t notice it anymore. From the bedroom, I hear the door open and close. Alina must be here already this morning, even if the sun was barely up when I left the bed.

  “Alina, is that you?” I call, sticking my head out of the shower curtain.

  The bathroom is full of steam; making the person standing in the doorway appear hazy. I narrow my eyes, trying to identify whether or not it’s Alina. It doesn’t look like it, the silhouette is taller with broad shoulders. A man is standing in my bathroom doorway silently while I’m naked in the shower. That realization colors my cheeks, and I glance down to make sure all of the vital parts are covered up.

  “What are you doing here? Who are you?” I ask, voice shaking a little as my emotions ratchet up into overdrive.

  They bleed out into the room, and I practically choke on the panic both in my chest and floating around me. The man doesn’t move though, only tilts his head slightly to the left. It strikes me as something a fellow predator would do. My limbs go rigid as he takes a step into the room, the steam clearing just enough for me to get a better look at his face. He’s a vampire; at least he must be with that snow white skin. And his face. . . I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man so beautiful, so perfectly handsome. He has high cheekbones and defined angles with a smattering of stubble over them, and these honey golden eyes that seem to glow from within as he stares back at me.

  “Blair?” the man says, his voice a deep unmistakable timber.

  By the way he said my name, he must have known me in my human life. The feeling behind it is almost tortured. It grips my heart and mangles it; as I know full well that I won’t be able to return the sentiment. I have no idea who this beautiful stranger is, and that won’t change no matter how much we might want it to. The man holds out his hands, palm up, to show that he means me no harm as he inches closer to the tub, grabbing my towel from the counter a
s he goes. I watch him closely, eyes wide, my body trembling.

  “Who are you?” I ask again, this time with more bite to my tone.

  He stops moving, opting to stand up straight rather than crouching and walking toward me like a mad man. “My bad, I didn’t think what Alina said was really true, but it is. You are a vampire now. You don’t remember me.”

  It’s my turn to tilt my head as I struggle to pull all the leaking emotions back into myself, raveling them up and into my chest like a loose roll of toilet paper. The man watches me closely as my shoulders slump and I let go of the curtain. He nearly squeaks in outrage as I climb out of the tub and reach for the towel in his hand. He’s so polite as he hands it over; even going as far as to cover his eyes. The innocence in the gesture makes me laugh for the first time since I woke up into this living nightmare. The sound surprises me as it spills out, a tinkling high sound that leaves a smile on my lips. At least my laugh isn’t annoying.

  “Would you tell me your name now?”

  He nods vigorously, hands still over his eyes. “Carden. Carden is my name.”

  After wrapping the soft fluffy towel around myself I walk past him into the bedroom. All the drawers are open, and two suitcases are lying on the floor, half full. It looks like Carden was filling my dressers with my clothing. Where did he get it from? Wait, I think, pausing; was he my boyfriend before I turned? I stop walking abruptly, leaving him to bump into my back, his hand still over his eyes.

  “You can take your hand away now,” I say dryly.

  He does as he’s told, a blush I didn’t know vampires could have rising to his cheeks. “Sorry, I just didn’t want to assume you’d be okay with me looking at you.”

  “Was I before?” I ask, watching him closely.

  “Were you what?”

  “Okay with you seeing me naked?” I clarify, giving him an expectant look.