Did I actually want to hear of her snuggling with the Prince of Darkness?
Not in the least.
But it would keep her talking.
Once more, Vinx sank down on the edge of the mattress, this time gathering Batdog onto her lap. “You would think, but he always wants to be the little spoon.” Her wry huff of laughter morphed into a wide yawn. Outside the moon was sinking toward dawn, its fading beams casting silvery cascades down on the world below. “I’m not the least bit fooled by Vlad’s so-called plan for the night, by the way. He says he is going to give his son space, but if you went outside right now and looked up, you’d find him staring down at his son like a creepy stalker.”
“Did the Dragon tell you that?” I ventured. Vlad filled us all in on the entity that now lived within her, not that I understood in the slightest what any of it actually meant.
“No, I saw him.” Untangling herself from puppy snuggles, she grabbed a tattered Nirvana T-shirt from her suitcase and tugged it on over her lycra top. She reached under it, unzipped the shirt beneath, and pulled it off through the sleeves. “I have no doubt the second he knows Rau is asleep, he’ll be right beside him marveling at what an angel he is when he’s sleeping.”
Stepping into the adjoining bathroom, she replaced her skin-tight pants with a pair of plaid men’s boxer shorts that looked old enough to vote.
“And what does tall, dark, and fangy think about the fact that you haven’t been sleeping?”
Before she could answer, a soft knock shook the door. Striding to answer it, Vinx fixed her royal mask back into place. It seemed an uncomfortable fit. “He doesn’t know. I drift off with him beside me, then wake up when the ghosts in my mind begin their nightly haunt.” She cracked the door open and accepted the tray with a gracious smile. “Yes, this will be all for tonight. Thank you.” With her elbow, she bumped the door shut.
Bringing the tray to the bed, she gestured for me to join her with a jerk of her head.
If it meant getting her to eat, I could choke down human food… as repulsive as the mere idea of that was.
Flopping down on the mattress, I plucked a sliver of meat off the plate and dropped it down my gullet. “Your turn.” I talked around the mouthful, trying to swallow without tasting it.
“Yes, sir.” Managing a weak smile, she treated herself to a slice.
Batdog army-crawled closer, hopeful one of us would share.
Vincenza’s complexion took on a greenish hue the second the meat touched her tongue, yet she powered through and choked it down. She was reaching for another piece when the bedroom door flung open.
All forms of normal etiquette long since forgotten, Finn sauntered on in. “I smelled food. What are we eating, kids? Micah won’t let me touch the food bags downstairs. I’m telling you, she’s drunk on power. Someone gave her the fridge keys, and now she thinks she runs the show. But if you had a bag to spare…” Stepping closer, he peered down at the tray and dry-heaved. “What the hell is that? Where are all the real vampires? You know what I miss? A good hive frenzy!”
Head tilting, Vinx’s eyebrows rose to her hairline.
Biting my lower lip, I stifled a laugh. “In case you’re wondering, this would be the time to retract that statement.”
I would never give Finn the benefit of being the smartest undead boy around, but he knew enough to backpedal. “Not like the one that killed her parents. I’ll admit that one got away from me. But, you know, just some good, bloody fun where everyone gets fed, fucked, and leaves happy. You’re giving me a look.”
It was true. She was murdering him with her glare a thousand times over in a million different ways.
“I should go. You… enjoy your dead flesh meal.” Quick as he entered, Finn disappeared. The door clicked shut behind him.
Still staring after him, a hint of amusement bubbled through Vinx’s tone. “Why is he here?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I didn’t even see him get on the jet. For all I know, he stowed away in the luggage compartment.” Glancing down at the tray, fought off a grin. Distracted by Finn’s intrusion, she had either eaten every last bite... or Batdog managed to steal the meat. I decided to remain hopefully optimistic it was her.
“Well, in addition to the press conference,” Vinx yawned, “there’s a good chance I’m getting arrested again tomorrow. So, I should head for bed. Those horrible, mind-scarring nightmares aren’t going to have themselves.”
“Absolutely, I’ll head out.” Pushing off the comforter—and annoying Batdog enough that he grunted in my direction—I rose to my feet. “Seriously, though, if you wanted to talk at all, I’m here. It might help you come to terms with how the Dragon—”
She moved in a blur of speed. Frisbeeing the tray against the wall, she dropped fang. “I took lives with my bare hands! You think a conversation can remedy that? The Dragon wasn’t to blame. It didn’t choose me until it saw the horrific things I’m capable of. Me… all on my own. I can say I was drugged. Hide behind my brother’s murder. It doesn’t change one thing about what I did. I said I didn’t want to talk about it, Carter, now fucking drop it!”
Clamping my lips shut, I dropped my chin to my chest. “As you wish, my Queen.”
She took her suitcase off the bed, scooched her pooch over, and curled up under the covers. I expected to be ignored or shooed from the room. Instead, a soft whisper came from under her huddle of blankets. “Would you… stay until I fall asleep?”
Without a word, I dragged the high-backed chair to the head of the bed and sat down beside her. In the heavy silence that followed, my mouth opened and shut in the hunt for words I could utter that would magically erase all the sins burned on her soul. No such sentiments existed. “Vincenza?”
“Carter, so help me I will chuck you out the window—”
“No more talking. I promise. But my hand will be right here on your pillow if you need it.” Not waiting for a response, I clicked off the light.
We lapsed into silence long enough that I thought she had drifted off to sleep… until the tips of her fingers lightly brushed mine.
Day was giving way to night as far as I could tell from behind the blackout curtains. Batdog’s snores filled the room like the sweet symphony of a chainsaw. Vincenza slept restlessly, but she slept. Whether my being there had anything to do with it, I couldn’t say. Still, I refused to doze for even a minute and kept a constant vigil over the sleeping queen.
As a beam of sunlight streamed in from beneath the curtains, the door quietly creaked open. Vlad Draculesti stepped inside, his finger pressed to his lips to hush me. I had been in his presence numerous times before, but that never made him any less imposing. Even without the Dragon, he radiated with an old-world strength that couldn’t be denied.
“Lord Draculesti.” Leaping to my feet, I dipped in a formal bow.
Gaze locked on his sleeping wife, he shushed me once more.
Only then did I become painfully aware that I was in a room… alone… with the woman he vowed his eternity to. “I-I can explain th-this,” I stammered, seeing my death play out in a million horrific ways.
“Explain what?” His face was devoid of any emotion, making it impossible to determine if he was going to shake my hand or rip it off and slap me around with it. “It looks like you were watching over your queen. Should I view this moment of finding another man in her quarters as anything more than that?”
“I mean… no one could watch over her like you can. You’ve got that whole OG Creature of the Night thing going for you. Chicks dig that. OG means original gangsta. With an ‘a’ not an ‘er.’ Not sure you knew that. Not calling you ignorant or anything, maybe just not hip on the lingo.”
“Carter.” Vlad’s voice was melted molasses over a French vanilla sundae. Chilled aloe on sun-burnt skin. A relaxing breeze on a sweltering day. “Stop talking.”
“I would rea
lly like to.” Voice coming out an anxious squeak, I clamped my mouth shut before more words came vomiting out of me.
Gliding into the room, Vlad moved with the natural grace of a rolling storm cloud. “It has not escaped my notice that my queen is troubled. I hated to leave her tonight. Yet, kind soul that she is, she knew my attention this night would be focused primarily on Rau. She bid me to go and see to my boy. That said, you have my gratitude for sitting with her. You’re a good man, Carter.”
“Thank you, sir.” Even to my own ears that sounded like a prepubescent squeak.
“Did she rest?”
“She did. Fitfully, but a few solid hours nonetheless.”
Standing at the head of the bed, Vlad brushed a lock of hair away from her face with a whisper soft touch. “Her soul will be troubled until she can finally forgive herself and find peace.”
“Have you?” The words slipped out before I could stop them. The second I uttered them, I wished for the ability to reel them back in.
To my great relief, Vlad huffed a humorless laugh. “I hadn’t for centuries. Then, this force of nature entered my life. She has the ability to make believers out of us all. She is a born leader with the strength to guide her people through the perils of war if they are wise enough to follow. Will you be amongst her followers, Carter?”
“Every damned step of the way.”
“Yes. I believe that to be true.” Tearing his attentions away from Vinx, he turned my way. His head tilted and eyes narrowed as he considered me. “Am I correct in assuming you stayed up with her all day?”
“I did.” My chin dipped in a nod of confirmation.
Rounding the side of the bed, he positioned himself between Vinx and myself. “The sun is setting, child. You’ve done well. But now it’s time for you to rest and release her into my care.”
Peering over his shoulder, I hesitated, not wanting her to wake up and feel I abandoned her.
“Carter?” Vlad craned his neck to catch my wandering gaze. “I will tell her you stayed with her. That only at my insistence did you tear yourself from her side. I command this of you, because a war is coming. Men with weapons designed to torture our kind could storm this estate at any moment. We all need to be at our strongest. Go fetch yourself a blood bag, and rest. That is an order.”
“Yes, my Lord,” I relented.
Like I said, the guy was really hard to hate.
Chapter Three
Vinx
I woke to eyes the same inviting ocean blue as the Caribbean Sea. Coming to with a start, I pushed myself up onto one elbow. “I slept.”
Crouched beside the bed, Vlad rested his chin on the back of his hand. “You did. For nearly ten hours. Clearly your body needed the rest.”
“Carter and Batdog?”
“Batdog is downstairs getting served breakfast by Micah. And Carter stayed by your side, until I chased him out and insisted he rest. He’s loyal, that one.” Reaching out, the side of his knuckle brushed my cheek.
“He is.” Pushing back the covers, I padded across the floor on bare feet to the bathroom. One of the few ways my body reminded me I wasn’t full vamp? The need for pitstops. “Sometimes, to a fault.”
I didn’t want to pull away from my painfully attractive husband. Far from it. It would have been so easy to sink into him. To let him take me in his arms and make the rest of the world fade away. But for the sake of the Nosferatu people, that wasn’t a luxury I could allow myself.
By the time I came out, Vlad sat perched on the end of the bed. Sandstone hair fell across his forehead in an alluring disarray. His button-down shirt was untucked. It hung open to the third button, revealing a smattering of chest hair beneath. Still wearing the slacks from the night before, his feet were bare. Something about seeing such a powerful man in that state of undress made a hot warmth creep up my thighs.
“Did you… uh… see Rau?” Clearing my throat, I rerouted my attention to my closet and my suit hanging there. I had hoped the wrinkles would magically fall out. No such luck. No one wants to be the diva queen asking for her garments to be pressed, yet that was the path life led me down.
“I did.” Vlad’s face softened into a sweet smile. “He’s grown into a man. Appears even older than I now. Yet I will forever see him as my bebelus. It’s funny, he still sleeps with one hand under his cheek just like he did as a baby.”
“Yeah, that boy of yours is quite the silver fox.” Holding up my suit to further inspect the wrinkle situation, I felt the heat of Vlad’s stare burning into me, his eyes wide and unblinking. “What? What’d I say?”
Vlad’s lips parted with a pop, his chin pulling to his chest as if terrified to utter the words. “You and he never…” He let the question trail off, but the message was received loud and clear.
“Oh. Oh, no!” Dropping the suit by my side, my face folded into a grimace I quickly fought to correct. “Not that he isn’t attractive, because he is. Job well done on the DNA cocktail there. But he was more like a father to me than anything else. Which is now kind of weird, considering I’m his stepmom. Sidenote: our group is really starting to get a real backwoods, brother-uncle vibe to it. We should work on that.”
Pushing off the bed, Vlad skirted up beside me body-skimming close. The tips of his fingers curled tenderly around my neck as he pulled me to him. “Good. I don’t want any such trivial things to hinder my desire to do this.” His mouth found mine with a gentle urgency, his tongue teasing between my parted lips. “It occurs to me that, despite sleeping alongside each other day after day, you and I never had a proper honeymoon. Or wedding night for that matter.”
I knew he meant that as a romantic sentiment, hinting at everything between us we had yet to explore. Unfortunately, all it accomplished was transporting me back to that gore splattered night.
Pulling back, I offered him a tight smile. “No, instead you had to help me wash dried blood out of my hair. Not really what you’d call a fairy tale wedding. Unless you’re talking about the original versions. Those were twisted as all crap.” Ducking around him, I snagged the phone from its cradle and dialed downstairs. “Hi, this is Vinx. Vlad’s wife…? Yeah, sorry. Of course you know me. I’m new to this. Listen, I… uh… have a suit that needs to be ironed. Can you…? Yes. Thank you. I appreciate that.”
Hanging up, I spun to find Vlad behind me with his hands in his pockets.
He gazed at me from under his brow, locks of silky sandalwood hued hair tangled in his forest of lashes. “I would help you through nights same as that a million times over. I, more than anyone, know of the demons within that you’re battling against. Never feel you have to hide those uglier parts of yourself from me. I’ve been where you are more times than I can count. Tell me, is the Dragon speaking to you yet?”
“Tell him you know he pissed himself the first time he heard my voice,” that malevolent voice hissed.
“A little, yeah.”
Catching hold of my hand, Vlad held it tenderly in both of his. “You’re handling it far better than I ever did. Still, you don’t need to suffer alone. If you ever need to—”
Feeling the need to drop fang, I snatched my hand away. “Don’t say talk. I’m getting really tired of hearing that. Let me save everyone some time. There are no words. Nothing I can say will bring my brother back or wash my hands clean of the blood of my victims. The absolute only thing I can do to make any of this better is to stop our people from being abducted, drugged, and forced into blood lust rampages they can’t control.”
Taking a step back to grant me space, Vlad nodded his understanding. “And how are we going to accomplish that, my Queen?”
“We aren’t going to do anything. I’m going to hold a press conference today… alone.” I tried to skirt around him, only for him to seize my upper arm and turn me to face him.
Fangs lengthening, danger flashed in the depths of his stare. “Give m
e one good reason I would allow you to put yourself in such peril.”
Shrugging off his hold, I dropped fang to match his intensity. “Where would you like me to start? How about the fact that I have made it crystal clear I don’t need protecting? Or maybe because I’m the one the cops are hunting? Want the logical approach? The aforementioned officers might go ahead and follow the reporters here. If they do, I need you to get the vampires I freed—one of which was your son—far from the manor so they aren’t immediately taken back into custody. Which of those reasons was your favorite? Take your pick.”
While his voice dropped to a calming whisper, a hint of warning snaked through his tone. “You fail to realize I’m trying to save you from yourself. You can lose yourself to the darkness, Vincenza. I’ve warned you of this before. The Dragon will tempt you to do the unthinkable, and each time you give in you will hate yourself more.”
“He’s not wrong. I’d see you kill everyone in this house for my own wicked delights,” the Dragon seconded with a menacing cackle that echoed off the walls of my mind.
Dragging my fingers through my hair, I laced them behind my head. The weight of the world crushed in from all sides.
My confession was there, on the tip of my tongue.
The festering truth that I had researched each and every one of the people I killed.
I knew who had a family.
Who was taking care of their sick parents.
Which ran a nonprofit charity for underprivileged kids.
All their faces and stories were scorched onto my heart, and for that reason alone I couldn’t hate myself more if I tried. “The Dragon isn’t controlling me.”
“How dare you! I’ll—”
“Silence,” I wordlessly commanded, shutting the Dragon out from my internal monologue.
Shoulders sagging, my hands fell to my sides with a slap. “Nor did he control me during our wedding. What I’m doing isn’t an act of violence, chaos, or any of that dark shit. It’s retribution. It won’t fix what I did, but at least something good will have come of it. At this point, that’s all I have to hold onto.”
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