“What happened back there?” I asked. “The smoke, the explosion?”
“The gala was targeted by a terrorist organization called SUN,” Khalil said.
“Terrorists,” I stuttered, as if shocked. “Has someone called the police?”
“It isn’t something the police would handle.”
“Because it’s… related to vampires?” I asked.
He nodded tightly. “SUN wants to steal the wealth and knowledge of the immortals for their own exploitation.”
That wasn’t what Trace had told me, but of course, the vampires had a different story. No one was sympathetic to the goals of their enemies.
We reached the apartment, and Khalil parked in the parking garage and hustled me inside via the private elevator. He took me straight to the bathroom with the big black tub and found gauze, disinfectant, and bandages. He cleaned the injury with expert hands and then bandaged me up carefully.
I shivered violently. I was probably in shock. My ears were ringing faintly, and my reflection, when I looked in the mirror, stared back at me with pale cheeks and wide eyes.
“Here,” Khalil said, taking off his jacket and slipping it over my shoulders.
I studied his face. “Why aren’t you one of them?”
Khalil smiled sadly. “Mr. Branaugh saved my life, and I owe him the debt of mine. But I do not want to be an immortal. I do not wish for their weaknesses, their temptations.”
“What about me?” I whispered. “What does Victor want with me?”
“He wants a daughter,” Khalil said. “Truly, my girl, he does. He had an heir once, but she died. He has been looking to adopt another heir for years now. There have been other young women, but he has not managed to find the one he seeks, the one strong and smart enough to receive his fortune.” He paused. “Until now.”
Maybe that was meant to be a compliment, but to me, it felt more ominous than anything else. Mixed with what Dmitri had said about the curse on his family and mine
I had more questions, but I had to be careful. I didn’t want to betray too much knowledge, lest I make him suspicious.
“Will he… was he planning to tell me?” I asked. “Before…?”
“Before he adopted you? Yes.” Khalil said it firmly, as if to assuage any fears.
“But…” I paused and bit my lip. “You guys are going to make me forget again, aren’t you?”
Khalil’s look was kind. “I’m sorry, Miss Alexandria. It is better this way. You won’t forget everything—just the most traumatic parts.”
“The vampire parts.”
He sighed. “Human minds often struggle to integrate the frightful things they’ve seen. Disorders develop. Phobias. This way, you will be protected.”
He almost had me convinced that this was for my good, and not theirs.
I had more questions, a thousand more, but then we heard the door open in the main room, and footsteps clipped across the bare floor.
Victor appeared in the doorway of the bathroom. His gaze flicked from my face to Khalil’s.
“She knows,” he said.
Khalil nodded.
“Then let us not waste time,” Victor said.
They looked at each other, and Khalil reached into his pocket.
In that moment, I made a decision. One I’d been thinking over all day, wrestling with. In a flash, I saw Lucy’s face. Saw what I could do for her with the kind of power I could have.
I wasn’t going to give that up.
“Wait,” I cried. “I want to give you my answer first.”
“Not yet—” Victor began.
“I’ll do it,” I interrupted. “I’ll— I’ll become your daughter. Your heir.”
Victor’s eyes widened in surprise, and his nostrils flared as he exhaled sharply. Clearly, he’d been expecting me to say the opposite. His mouth opened, but he didn’t speak for a moment. “Aren’t you frightened, girl?” he asked after a pause.
“Khalil says you’ll make me forget the worst parts,” I said quickly. My heart was pounding. I could taste nervous sweat on my lips.
“Yes,” Victor said slowly. Shrewdly. “And you don’t object to this?”
“I saw some frightening things tonight. I’d rather not remember them.”
Did he believe me? Did he suspect the truth? That I had means of circumventing the Lethe?
No, they would never think me that clever.
“I have some conditions,” I hasted to say as Victor reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and withdrew a furled paper.
“Conditions?” Victor’s eyebrow lifted delicately. “Name them.”
“I want spending money,” I said.
Victor named a sum that seemed impossibly large. I tried not to look shocked.
“And I want to see my sister Lucy as often as I like,” I continued.
“Perfectly permissible, as long as she isn’t in the way,” he said.
“And,” I paused, feeling weird. “No one, ah, drinks my blood.”
Victor looked genuinely repulsed. “Alexandria,” he said, putting a hand to his mouth. “I assure you, no one shall lay a finger on you without your express consent. Any vampire that tries will receive my full wrath.”
“And mine,” Khalil said.
“And what about my mother?” I asked. “What am I going to tell her?”
“I will take care of that,” Victor said with a wave of his hand. “It will not be a problem.”
That was a relief. I nodded.
“Any other questions?” Victor asked.
“Lots—will I be free to make my own decisions, or are you going to keep me in some kind of gilded cage?”
“No cage,” Victor said, smiling. “My dear, you will be my daughter. That comes with rights and privileges.”
“What kind of privileges?” I asked.
“For one, Khalil will be your permanent bodyguard. He will swear an oath to you, to defend your safety and follow your wishes.”
I looked at Khalil. Did he mind this? His face was serene.
“And of course, you will have clothes, furniture, vacations… The money we discussed as allowance. And eventually, an inheritance beyond your wildest dreams.”
I swallowed hard. It was overwhelming. I felt dizzy. Part of me wanted to be swept into this twisted fairy tale. I forced myself to stay shrewd and focused.
“What kind of rules will you have, then?” Surely there would be rules.
“Ah,” Victor said. “You must go on birth control, my dear. The hormonal kind. It is… necessary when in the presence of vampires.”
Gross. I nodded.
“You will take lessons in etiquette and history, to learn our ways. And you will attend regular galas and other functions at my side. Otherwise, my dear, the world is yours.” He spread his hands as if indicating all that he was offering me.
“One final question, and I need you to tell me honestly,” I said. “You’re going to make me a vampire, right? How long do I have to remain human?”
I held my breath. This part was important.
Victor tilted his head thoughtfully. His eyes gleamed, and he pursed his lips. “As soon as you’re ready, my dear.”
“How long?” I persisted. “I need a concrete date. A time frame. I need to know, for… for psychological reasons.”
That seemed plausible enough. Victor didn’t question it.
“Twelve months from this day,” he said after another moment’s consideration. “Agreed?”
A year. I had one year. I released my breath.
I could work with that.
“Okay,” I said quietly, my heart beating loud in my ears. “Where do I sign?”
Victor smoothed out the paper he’d pulled from his pocket. It looked like vellum. He reached back into his coat and produced a slender knife and a quill. He pointed to my left hand and handed me the knife.
“If you please,” he said. “Prick your finger.”
I hesitated. “Is it safe?”
“Yo
u will be fine,” Victor promised. “I have satiated my thirst already this night, and I would never harm you, my dear.”
I pressed the tip of the knife to my pinkie finger. A bead of blood appeared. Victor captured it with the quill, and then, I signed my name at the bottom of the paper he held out.
Victor sighed his name after mine, also in blood, and then he took my hand and pressed the bloody tip of my finger against the bloody tip of his.
“Now,” he said, “We are of mingled blood, and I will never thirst for you and seek to harm you. I swear it.”
With that, I was adopted by a vampire.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
KHALIL TOOK ME back home—my former home, I guess it was now—after the signing of the papers and after they gave me Lethe to drink. I told them I wanted to grab my things, even though Victor assured me before he left that I would have a new wardrobe and new furniture. Anything and everything I needed, he promised, I would receive. But he couldn’t buy the things that mattered to me because of sentiment. I wanted to get a last glimpse of Lucy’s room to remind myself why I was doing this.
And besides that, there was one more thing I needed to do.
My mother was passed out on the couch when I let myself inside the front door. I moved past her for the hall, barely pausing to glance at her.
When I reached Lucy’s room, I turned on the lights and shut the door for a moment. I stared around me, thinking about my sister. She was still away with her dad, which I was thankful for, because it would be even harder to leave if she were here. And this way, I still had time to think about how I was going to explain things to her.
I planned to start the conversation with a trip to her favorite amusement park, though. The one we never could afford to visit. A smile cracked my lips at the thought.
The Lethe was swimming in my veins, making me feel calm and sleepy. I resisted the urge to lie down on Lucy’s bed.
There were things to do.
When I opened the door to my room, Trace was waiting.
“You did a good job tonight,” he said, handing me the pill to ward off the effects of the Lethe. “My superiors are pleased with your work.”
I took the pill and swallowed it dry. Trace watched. I couldn’t get a read on his thoughts from his expression. Was he pleased with my work?
“Good improvisation at the end,” he said then. “You took a risk, and it paid off. But you ought to be careful mixing with vampires in the future. Sometimes things like that can go sideways fast.”
I flushed, remembering again that I’d kissed Dmitri.
And liked it.
“I told Victor yes,” I said quickly, pushing away the memory and my discomfort. “I signed my name in my own blood.”
Trace was startled, but not surprised. “You aren’t wasting any time,” he said.
“Neither is my sister’s disease,” I shot back.
He nodded, understanding.
“Victor promised me one year as a human before he makes me a vampire.” I paused. “I don’t intend to stop being human, so that means I have one year before I’m gone. I’ll take my sister and do whatever I have to do to disappear.”
I looked at Trace expectantly. I knew why he was here. I was just making it easier for him.
All he had to do now was ask.
“I’m here to offer you a job,” Trace said. “Spying for SUN.”
His words felt like the satisfying click of a key sinking into a lock.
This was what I’d planned.
“It would be like tonight—lifting keys from pockets, distracting targets, sometimes relaying information to me. I would be your handler.” Trace paused, searching my face. “Questions? Concerns?”
“I want payment,” I said. “And I want help leaving with my sister when the time comes. What will SUN offer me on that front?”
Trace named an eye-widening number to be paid to me each month, and an even bigger lump sum that I’d get when I’d finished working for them. “SUN will help you and your sister find new identities in a new city too, so you need have no fear of retaliation,” he said.
The sum he’d named, while not Victor’s millions, sounded like a staggering sum to me. One that was enough to start over with a new life somewhere far away, I figured. Plus, we’d have whatever I managed to set aside from Victor’s allowance without raising suspicions—he would probably expect me to spend everything lavishly, and I’d need to fulfill that expectation enough that he didn’t think I was plotting anything. But I still intended to squirrel away a few thousand whenever I could. I would do everything possible to make sure that Lucy and I would have a good life when we ran.
Trace was watching me, his face unreadable.
I still had questions. So many questions. I was trying to arm myself with answers to keep myself safe.
“Dmitri mentioned a curse,” I said. “What do you know about that?”
Trace frowned in a way that made me think he didn’t like to not have answers to my questions. “I don’t know much about it specifically. Dmitri is of the Carthanage bloodline, an old line of vampires. They go back to ancient times.” He paused. “Curses upon bloodlines are not uncommon among immortals, but a curse between the bloodlines of a human and a vampire is rare. Nearly unheard of.”
“And my bloodline? Do you know much about that?”
“Your human bloodline doesn’t have a dynastic title. Victor is new money in the world of vampires, too. But I understand that your family tree has intertwined with vampires for centuries.”
A chill swept through me. It felt inevitable, this situation. Like the weight of all the years lived before me by my great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents were pressing down on me, keeping me in this spot.
I was cursed.
Cursed by some strange, invisible chain that connected me to a beautiful, deadly, resentful vampire boy.
I shivered again.
“The curse is useful to you,” Trace said then, as if he saw my fear and meant to reassure me. “Take advantage of it. Dmitri cannot see you harmed. You know that he is safe to you. Make an ally of him in secret, and you’ll have an advantage when it comes to staying alive.”
I closed my eyes for a second because I felt dizzy. Make allies with the vampire. What he was saying made sense, but that didn’t make it any less terrifying.
I felt like I was about to step onto a tightrope that stretched across the Grand Canyon, with Lucy on the other side and everyone around by myself confident that I was capable of making it across.
Could I do it?
“Well?” Trace asked. “What do you say, Alex?”
I looked Trace in the eyes and reached out my hand.
“I accept SUN’s offer.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
MY RIDE BACK to the apartment was quiet. Khalil watched me in the rearview mirror. He probably thought I was quiet because the Lethe was still making me feel calm and happy. I half wished it still was. That would be preferable to the storm of indecision and fear currently swirling in my gut.
I stared out the window at the dark streets as we passed them, trying to wrap my mind around everything I’d just agreed to. Deceptions. Betrayals. Curses. I was going to make Victor think I was his good and obedient heir when really, I was scheming to bring down his world around his ears with the help of his enemies.
I needed help navigating this world if I wanted to survive.
I could think of only one person who might—unwillingly—do that.
“There was a boy at the party whose number I want,” I said to Khalil, speaking as innocently as I could. As far as he knew, I was still in the grip of the Lethe. “Do you think you could get that for me?”
His gaze sharpened. “Maybe. Do you remember his name?”
“Dmitri.”
Khalil’s mouth thinned. “Victor wouldn’t like it.”
“Why not?” I asked, still faking innocence. “Is he going to try to keep me like a nun? Didn’t he say the world was mine?”
>
Khalil blinked, then sighed. He knew I had a point. “He did.”
Didn’t Victor say he was sworn to do what I wanted?
“I would like his number, please, and I would like you not to tell Victor you gave it to me if it is only going to upset him.”
“Yes, Miss Alex,” Khalil said. His tone was frosty.
I felt bad giving him an order like that, but I needed to talk to Dmitri.
I’d make it up to him later, though. I promised myself I would.
When we reached the apartment, Khalil accompanied me to the private elevator that went from the parking deck to my suite. He opened the door, and I hesitated.
“Are you coming with me?”
“I have my own place about a block away,” he said. “Don’t worry about your safety—the apartment is very secure, and vampires cannot enter your home without an invitation, now that it is inhabited by you. Not that you ought to be worried about vampires. Mr. Branaugh has few enemies, and no one would make you a target. You are absolutely safe.”
I nodded slowly, absorbing this. I wondered how safe I would be if anyone suspected I was a spy for SUN.
“If you need anything, Miss Alex, call me immediately,” Khalil said, and then the elevator doors closed.
The lights were all lit, and I stopped and stared at the furniture that surrounded me. The whole room had been decorated—the couch was now accompanied by end tables, chairs, and soft fuzzy throws. I went into the bedroom and saw a massive, king-sized bed. A folded pair of soft, plum-colored pajamas sat in the middle of the comforter.
I looked down at my phone from Victor, which had Dmitri’s number in it now thanks to Khalil.
I shut the door and fell onto the giant bed with the phone in my hand. It had occurred to me that maintaining a deception with Dmitri that I didn’t know he was a vampire would get tricky fast. But I’d thought of a plan for that. I typed a message.
This is Alex. I need to know a way to counter the Lethe. And we need to talk.
And I sent it before I could chicken out, then clasped the phone to my chest and closed my eyes, waiting for his response. After a while, I got up, took off the fancy dress, and changed into the pajamas. I returned to the bed and stared at my phone, wondering if he was going to reply or not.
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