The Venatores had secrets; that much I understood. But the ease with which the master had spoken of them; of the laws they shared; seemed an unlikely lie. Besides, lying to me seemed like a waste of time. Rachel sat in the chair next to me. Her body was so still, it was impossible to mistake her for a human. There was a quality to the stillness that made my heart pound and my lungs seize and I fought to control my reaction.
“Why are you suddenly so afraid?” she asked. Her voice was normal, without power or glamour in it.
“You seem so, human, I forgot to be afraid of you, and that scared me more than I was before.” Rachel laughed, an unexpected coarse, raucous sound that startled me almost out of my chair.
“Who told you to be afraid of me?” she asked, her voice condescending.
“I don’t know, aren’t most humans afraid of the undead? Even the ones who don’t know vampires really exist?”
She stared into my eyes long enough that my bravado failed me, and I was the first to look away. When I glanced back at her, she was looking away, as though listening to something in the distance. When she saw me watching, she smiled at me gently.
“The master returns shortly,” she reported and I tried to ignore the bump in my pulse. “Would you like me to tell you how I came to be here like this while we wait on him?” I nodded and she continued. “I am young for a vampire, though I was older when I was turned,” she began, cupping her cheek in her hand. “That’s why I look older than the master,” she sighed. “I was hit by a drunk driver while walking home with my sister,” she said. I swallowed hard and my bottom lip tucked between my teeth as I listened.
“What happened?” I asked when she didn’t continue. Her face was sad, almost teary. It struck me that she chose to exhibit her feelings even though she didn’t have to. She obviously liked her humanity.
“My sister died instantly, but I didn’t know that at the time,” she replied. My chest tightened for her and I shifted to see her better while she spoke. “I was bleeding, holding her hand, when the most handsome man approached. He bent over my sister first; then touched my wounds and felt my heartbeat.”
“The master?” I asked. She nodded.
“He leaned in and whispered to me, saying that I didn’t have to die. That he could save me, if I wished. I thought he meant both of us and I agreed readily.”
“And when you awoke?” I asked.
“I was starving. If I had happened upon a human being, I would have torn them to shreds like a rabid bear.” I shuddered, thinking about my own family.
“Did you?” my voice betrayed emotion where I meant to hide it.
“No. I had Nicholas to teach me. I was the last he turned before it was his time to sleep.”
“How long ago was that?”
“The masters sleep every five hundred years, for fifty. They take their strength from their coven and their hibernation slows the decay of their bodies.”
“How many times has he done this?” I gasped, leaning toward her.
“You witnessed his third awakening.” I fell back into my chair. For fifteen hundred years, he’d been a vampire; the living dead.
“That doesn’t give me a reason not to fear you.”
“Oh, I don’t mind you fearing us. You are weak and ignorant. But the master is not a monster and we are quite civilized, once you know our ways.”
“But, your kind murder people for food.”
“Oh, do we? And how would you know that?”
“Rachel.” The voice was low and stern. Rachel blinked slowly, then stood.
“Master.”
“Tend to Colette. She is injured. And treat the boy. He needs to be ready to be sent back to his people.” My pulse skyrocketed.
“Wait, the boy? David? Is he here? I need to see him.” I was out of my chair and at the door faster than even I thought possible. Nicholas apparently agreed, as he lunged after me and threw me back on the bed with a hiss.
“Kill me, or let me go to him. I won’t stop trying to reach him.” I slid off the bed onto my feet and braced for a blow from his raised hand.
“Damnit, girl.” He nodded to Rachel, who bowed and left the room without a sound. “He is in no shape for company right now. You will see him when Rachel has had time to see to his wounds.”
“Oh, my God. How badly is he wounded?” Tears stung my eyelids.
“Badly enough that I would advise against another round of astral projection into his body.” Nicholas turned to go without another word.
“How long am I to be alone in here? What are you going to do to me?” I called out to his retreating back. His shoulders slumped in a very human gesture as he glanced back over his shoulder.
“I have to deal with some coven business. I will return shortly. If you haven’t used the bath in the adjoining room, do so, and be ready to eat when I return.”
He slipped out the door and I heard the sharp click of the key in the lock before I was once again alone in silence. As I expected ; when I halfheartedly tried the door ; it was shut tight. I heard running water from the other room and entered to find more of the lush bath towels Rachel had used on me when she had dressed me for the awakening.
I dragged a chair to the door and shoved it under the latch, to hold the door shut. I knew it wouldn’t stop a vampire; but at least it would make enough noise that I wouldn’t be surprised. Wishing I’d thought of it sooner, I slipped into the en-suite and did the same with the door that lead from the bedroom to the corridor.
David had been taken too. My heart broke for his pain, possibly even caused by an attempt to save me. I shut off the water wondering how an old stone building not only had running water, but heated water too. “Vampires bathe too, I guess,” I thought to myself as I added a handful of the fragrant soap flakes Rachel had used before. After one last check of both doors I finally undressed.
The hot water soothed my aching muscles and started to finally warm the icy center of me. That’s where my contact with David had made me feel almost hypothermic from the sudden agony of his wounds; both physical and psychological. Part of me prayed that David had simply been caught away from the crowds of the resort and that I had no responsibility for the state he was in. But there was that selfish core of me that hoped he’d fought to get to me and been taken as a result.
“And you say we’re monsters?” A sly voice scoffed from the corner of the room. I gasped and splashed as I tried to see Colette, glancing all around me for something I could use as a weapon. “Oh, I’m not going to hurt you, but only because the master forbids it. You stole my new toy, Caroline. I’m very cross with you.”
Past the pounding of my heart, I realized her voice was in my head, not in the room with me. Strangely, knowing she wasn’t physically in the room while I was naked was more comforting than worrisome. She was nuts, and too powerful to keep out of my head. Better that though than have her hands on me again. Even so, I finished my bath quickly and when I heard the chair fall away from the bedroom door with a rather satisfying crash; I was already dried and dressing.
“Really, Caroline. Must you?” Rachel’s exasperated voice floated in from the bedroom. Despite myself, I giggled, pulling the dress up over my shoulders
“Sorry, Rachel. But with Colette in my head the way she was, I wasn’t taking any chances with being caught off guard.”
Rachel peeked into the bathroom and motioned for me to turn around so she could tighten the laces at the back.
“She had David. She was the one torturing him.” My voice cracked and my hands fisted at my sides. For a split-second I hoped Colette could hear my thoughts and see the death I had in mind for her for beating and bleeding David.
“It appears that way. That lost soul was physically and emotionally tortured by her own father. The vampire that changed her did so to make her harder to kill, so she could survive worse. He then violated her in every way imaginable and more frequently than he could were she human. She healed every physical injury he gave her. But, her sanity wa
s hanging by a thin thread. The horrors he visited upon her, physically and sexually, caused irreparable emotional damage.”
“So, Nicholas wasn’t her maker. Can he stop her?” Rachel sat me at the vanity so she could squeeze more water out of my hair and brush it.
“Colette has sworn a blood oath of fealty to Nicholas. He loves her like a cherished sister and she loves him. She could no more hurt you, than hurt Nicholas himself, unless he wishes it.” She sighed and placed her hands on my shoulders. “But, you must focus on your safety. Obey the master with no more demands. He’s patient, but only so far.” I clenched my hands in small, white fists in my lap, but said nothing.
I looked up at her. Her face never changed from the pleasant blank she’d perfected as a serving woman to her master, perhaps even before. But her hands stayed busy, even when they accomplished nothing.
Perhaps the master would be pleased enough to let us go, if I was obedient like Rachel had warned. I stood and twirled in the center of the stone floor, the voluminous skirt of my Victorian dress billowing out around me. It was beautiful and despite everything that had happened, I felt a tiny spark of satisfaction in my appearance.
I started searching the bookshelves and piles of books for something to teach me what the school had failed to. I needed to learn about my captors. When I reached the fireplace and the ancient, leather-bound books stacked next to and between the chairs, I had a small mountain stacked in my arms.
I created a new pile next to the chair by the fire and moved the stacks that were there already back towards the bookshelves. I had almost finished setting myself up my reading pile, when I noticed a folded leather envelope, tied with a cord.
I unwrapped the leather and laid it flat, whistling under my breath at the yellowed parchment inside. The handwriting was eerily familiar and very quickly I could see that I was looking at the same spells Dominique had given me. My heart lurched as I tried to wrap my head around how old Dominique really was.
I reread the spells that were still legible, but the ink on the others had faded past the point of usefulness. Those I set aside. If Nicholas had kept notes from his friend for so many hundreds of years, perhaps he had read and memorized them.
I arranged my dress as comfortably as I could and sat to read while I waited for some news of David or the other girls who were taken. The old spells and psychic practices were a comfort to read; but made me think about the parallels between my life and the lives in which my captors lived. They were the ‘big bad’; the monster in the closet; the ultimate evil in the world. But now, more and more, it seemed that they were very much like the hunters.
Poor Rachel seemed like a nice person who had kept her humanity locked somewhere inside her. Even Colette was not just some empty predator. She had a history; a dark and tortured past that made her into the person she was. Nicholas was well over a thousand years old, and so powerful that none of his coven questioned him or how he dealt with them. The civility that I had been treated with was a jarring contradiction to the way I had been taken and what had been done to David.
The contradictions weren’t helping my crisis of faith. In my heart; I knew the vampires weren’t the scourge I’d been taught; or at least that’s not all they were. Maybe the hunters weren’t as pure as I’d thought, either.
I set aside the sheaf of papers and paced the room; thinking; until Rachel informed me that I had been summoned to dine with the master. My mind immediately filled with images of poor defenseless people stretched across banquet tables like so much meat and I shuddered. She stepped forward as I hesitated and held out a hand.
“He’s done nothing to bring you harm, Caroline. Don’t let your prejudices put you on the wrong side of his temper and your time here will be pleasant.” Her phrasing, “your time here” gave me the small hope that David and I could still leave here together.
I nodded and followed her out the door, congratulating myself on my bravery as bloody imaginings filled my head with every step.
Chapter 10
The banquet hall was empty but for a long table surrounding by high-back, velvet cushioned chairs. At one end there were candles and place settings for two. Vampires in the white uniforms of servants followed me in; placing fragrant platters of chicken and baked bread on the table before exiting silently. My mouth watered at the sight and smell of the feast in front of me.
My pulsed jumped at the realization that I was to be alone with the master. But at the same time I was relieved that not only was I not going to be on the menu; I wouldn’t be forced to watch the monsters feed. Rachel pulled back my chair and briefly touched my shoulder, then left me alone. The candles guttered and chills went down my spine as I tried to see into the shadows just beyond their light.
I was feeling the effects of a full day without sleep and reached for the glass in front of me; hoping to feel more refreshed with some water. It was a shock when the fruity tang of wine hit my lips instead and I choked a little on the liquid as it went down my throat.
“Miss Caroline. I hope you have found the accommodations to your liking, despite your earlier mishap.” Nicholas’ voice was suddenly at my shoulder and I gasped and froze. If it was possible, he was taller and more imposing by the candlelight of the banquet hall than he had been when first awakened. Pride; more than bravery, guided my nod of response. Watching him was like seeing a big cat at the zoo and realizing the glass between you had disappeared. I stayed very still; watchful and quiet. He stared back at me with eyes that appeared black and bottomless in the flickering light and my pulse sped further.
“Don’t you approve of the accommodations?” he asked. His face was unreadable, but his voice held amusement.
“I would feel better about it if I hadn’t just found out my fellow hunter was bleeding and broken. Is he going to be okay?” Nicholas sighed.
“He is in pain, but he will live.”
“I have to see him for myself. I’m sure you understand.”
“You’re very demanding for one in your position,” he growled. His voice was low and calm, but the undercurrent of anger raised the hair on my neck.
“Please, I apologize for offending you and you have provided me with everything I have needed since I was ta— since I arrived. But even you were worried when you saw me in that kind of pain. I can’t pretend I’m a guest at a party after that,” I pleaded with him.
“I understand that you will not be able to enjoy a meal until you have made certain we did not kill him,” he sighed again. “Eat what you can stomach, to regain your strength and I will show you the darker delights of my kingdom, if you have the stomach for it.” The look in his eyes when he said “delights”, made my stomach quake. Still, I forced a few forkfuls of food down, trying not to look like a cow with him watching me.
He stood and offered me his hand when he was satisfied. I’d had enough, and he led me through the kitchen down stairs to part of the building that reminded me of my first prison cell.
“Why was David here?” I asked, after a minute of
uncomfortable silence. Being quiet with Nicholas was not like the quiet between two humans. When he was quiet, there was nothing to indicate he was there. No footsteps or breathing. Even his clothes moved silently as he walked and the silence filled me with dread.
“Vampires who begin as humans keep all their predilections of their former life. Just as the two females who awakened me are likely to remain a couple; vampires usually have a strong opinion of which gender they prefer to feed from.”
“So David was brought to be food for someone other than you?”
“He was chosen, along with other males and females to be here for anyone who needed them. What happened to him was unfortunate. The rest of the donors have already been returned to their homes, with no recollection of what happened to them.”
“And the other two girls from your awakening?”
“To awaken me, we needed to drain them to the point of death. It’s an honor to be chosen to be the first new chil
dren of a master when he wakes. It takes a trusted lieutenant to make the choice. A matter I left to my brother, Vittorio, whom you have met.” I shuddered inwardly and hoped he didn’t notice. Vittorio had taken me. “Introduction” was too kind a word to use for kidnapping.
“So, I’m alive because I didn’t make the cut?” I scoffed, but inwardly felt torn between relief and being offended. I had no desire to be a vampire. But the attention Nicholas had given me made me feel more important than I ever had.
“You would have fed me, if I wished it,” he replied. “I wanted to learn from you.” My feet stopped moving and I stared up at him, wishing I could read his thoughts as he so freely did mine. I didn’t understand what I saw in his eyes; but my heart fluttered in my chest and for a moment it was hard to breathe.
“What could I possibly teach you?” I asked, hoping the dark hid the hot blush I felt in my cheeks. He laughed gently and tugged me into motion again, placing his hand over mine on his arm.
Love of A Dragon (Exalted Dragons Book 1) Page 82