by Callie Rose
Ugh, that was cute. Dammit all to hell.
Monsters shouldn’t be allowed to be charming. They should be gross and scary and scaly, all teeth and bad breath, not baby-faced amateur comedians.
I should turn him down. Too much time with this one will have me questioning all of my concrete values. But vampires are competitive predators, and his attention has already lit me up like a beacon for those in search of an easy win. I can feel them circling me like wolves, waiting for their chance to strike.
Connor doesn’t seem to be all that hungry. Not for blood, anyway. If anything, he seems almost… lonely.
Goddammit, Mikka, I said stop humanizing him!
I have to think of this in terms of tactical advantage and practical measures. A dance with this vampire will keep me out of reach of the others. Besides, I could use the distraction. My nerves are all the way on edge, raw with the urge to act and having no outlet to do so.
“Sure.” I take a deep breath and then let it out, pushing my chair back to stand. “I’d love to dance.”
Chapter Nine
There are way more eyes on me now as Connor leads me to the dance floor. Some curious, some pissed off, some—like the prince’s—completely unreadable. I really wish Bastian would find something else to look at, he’s creeping me out. Either eat me or don’t, but quit salivating from afar. It’s creepy as fuck.
Same goes for the stone-faced bouncer guy. I think he’s still watching me too, but I don’t glance his way to get confirmation. Honestly, I’d rather not know. I’d rather not think about it at the moment.
A waltz begins just as Connor and I reach the edge of the dance floor. Graceful couples sweep by us in perfect synchronicity, not even deigning to grace us with a glance. I’m pretty sure Connor is going to get in trouble for this later. I can’t imagine what possessed him to ask me in the first place—but, shit, why do I care? It doesn’t matter to me if they tear him limb from limb. One less vampire in Baltimore is always a good thing.
“Oh, I should have warned you,” he says with a crooked little smile, looking at me out of the corners of his eyes. “I can’t really dance—not the waltz, anyway. I can do a mean running man, though! A little boogey, maybe. Anything you’d see at a forty-year-old dad’s barbecue, basically.”
“I’m sure that’ll go over well out here,” I reply, letting a little gentle sarcasm creep into my voice as I watch the deadly beauties before us move in perfect time.
He chuckles and leads me out onto the floor, then slides his left hand awkwardly around my waist and grabs my hand with his right. I shake my head at him, a small gesture meant only for his eyes.
“Other way around,” I whisper.
“Ah, fuck.”
He grimaces and switches hands, then stares at the feet of the couples around us as he starts manhandling me back and forth across the dance floor. He stumbles on my foot and turns his breathtaking eyes back to me.
“Shit. I’m so, so sorry. I suck at this. I shouldn’t have asked you to dance. I’m still getting used to all the vampire court customs. There are so many of them! I mean, they’re more than happy to teach me, but there’s so much to learn, and vampires don’t really have a sense of urgency, you know. Side effect of being immortal, I guess.”
My brows furrow as I listen to him, and I can feel myself staring, but I can’t make myself stop.
What is it with this guy?
He looks so out of place here. He doesn’t even talk like a vampire. It doesn’t make any sense, but it’s none of my business. If I start wondering about vampire backstories, I’m going to make a mess of my entire mission, now and for the rest of my life. I can’t afford to give a shit.
On the other hand, I’ve never seen a vampire like him before. If the nest has started a suburban outreach program or something, I should probably know about it. At least that’s the excuse I’m making for what I’m about to do.
“How did you end up like this?” I ask him, cursing myself inwardly for my curiosity.
“Like a terrible dancer?” He chuckles as he steps on my toes again.
“No. A vampire. You’re… unexpected.”
He flashes me a grin, then gestures toward the high table with a look that borders on hero worship.
“Bastian,” he tells me, then quickly amends, “I’m sorry, Prince Bastian. It’s so weird to use titles and things like that, isn’t it? I didn’t even call my doctor ‘doctor’ when I was human, I called him Paul. Anyway, Bastian—Prince Bastian, dammit, I swear I’ll get it right one of these days—he saved my life.”
My heart sinks. I feel like I know where this is going. Connor got wrapped up in some kind of criminal activity, got pressured by a gang—probably one run by vampires—and made a deal with another vampire to get out of it. That’s always how these things go.
“I was hit by a car,” he says quietly, breaking me out of my thoughts.
I look up at him, startled. That wasn’t what I was expecting at all.
“A… a car?”
He nods somberly. “Yup. Downtown Baltimore, one rainy night, I was walking home from work. You know how the sidewalk sort of just disappears sometimes? I wasn’t paying attention, and I stepped off a little awkwardly. Would have gotten away with nothing worse than a twisted ankle if that car hadn’t come flying around the corner. I didn’t even see the headlights until it was right on top of me. Crushed my chest.”
He shudders at the memory, and I rub his shoulder comfortingly for a second before I catch myself. This is exactly what I was afraid of. He’s too damn pure to be a vampire, the confusing bastard. He sighs heavily and shoots me a grateful smile.
“It was a hit and run with no witnesses. Nobody to call an ambulance. And honestly, even if someone had called nine-one-one, I would’ve been long gone before the ambulance got there. I knew I was dying. I was drowning in my own blood, and my heart couldn’t seem to find a rhythm. Kind of like my feet.”
There’s that self-deprecating grin again. How can he joke about this?
“After the initial burst of pain, I couldn’t feel anything,” he continues. “Couldn’t hear anything. Darkness was creeping in around my vision. Just as the world shrank down to two little pinpoint dots, I tasted blood in my mouth. I thought it was mine, at first. But the more I tasted, the stronger I felt.”
He twirls me around, out of sync with the rest of the dancers, but doesn’t drop me or step on my toes. He beams, thrilled at his success. I smile at him encouragingly and tell myself it’s just the part I’m playing. I have to be nice to him, because that’s what blood tributes are supposed to do. They’re here to serve the vampires.
“It was really freaking weird too.” Connor shakes his head, his nose scrunching up a little. “You ever popped a rib out of place? I never had, not until then. Even then, it was less of a pop and more of a crush. But when the bones grew back—or came back together, I guess. Grew again? I don’t know exactly how it works. Anyway, it hurt like hell but in a satisfying kind of way, like popping a joint into place.”
I don’t try to fight the shudder that creeps down my spine. It seems like an appropriate reaction for the role I’m supposed to be playing anyway. I have to imagine an average human would be a bit grossed out by his story, so there’s no reason to hide that I am too.
He smiles at me apologetically. “Sorry. Not the nicest thing to imagine, right? I won’t even mention the nastier stuff. Anyway, the point is, I drank a bunch of Bastian’s blood and re-inflated like a cartoon character. I had to spit out a few teeth afterward, but somehow I wasn’t missing any. See?”
He grins wide, proving to me that his mouth is, in fact, intact.
“I see.”
He chuckles, and the sound washes over me like warm waves on a beach. “So obviously I can’t just go home or back to work after that. Bastian took me to a little coffee house on the corner and explained everything to me. Since I worked outside in a nursery—and since the place I was living was full of windows and roommates—
it was safer for me to come here and live in the palace.”
“So… he kidnapped you?” I ask. It’s not the most polite question, but I don’t care. Honestly, I’m partially trying to goad him into telling me how he really feels about all this. He’s too damn cheerful.
Connor’s eyes widen, and he looks truly shocked. “What? No! Bastian would never do something like that. He gave me a choice, but let’s be honest—I’ve never been good at lying or skulking around keeping secrets. I would have gotten myself killed, either by telling the wrong person about all this or by forgetting about the whole can’t-go-out-in-sunlight problem and stepping outside for coffee or something. This is way better for me. Bastian really, truly saved my life.”
I give him a skeptical look. “You really think you’d forget about the sun problem?”
He nods earnestly. “Oh, yeah. I’ve forgotten things you wouldn’t believe. You know those nightmares people have about going to school without their pants on?”
I wince. Vampires I can deal with, but public humiliation nightmares are next-level torture. “Yup.”
“I’ve done that.”
My mouth falls open a little on a choked laugh. “Really?”
He grins, his eyes sparkling. “Yeah. Twice, unfortunately. Once in middle school, and once in high school. Hell, I almost did it again before heading to work one day a year ago, but my roommate caught me before I left the house. I don’t know, it’s like my brain is always a couple steps ahead and slightly to the left of my body. Living in this palace is the only reason I don’t wander into traffic in the middle of the day.”
Chewing my lip, I consider his words as we glide around the dance floor. We’re still not exactly moving with the beat of the music, but we’ve found a sort of rhythm that seems to work for us.
I don’t know whether to believe him or not. He seems smart enough, and I’ve already seen his sense of humor—but I’ve also witnessed his sense of direction, so his assertion isn’t entirely unbelievable.
“And… are you okay with it?” I ask slowly, looking up to study his face.
“Been this way my whole life.” He shrugs, a what are you gonna do expression passing over his features.
I huff another laugh. “No, I mean, being immortal. Having your life saved just to be turned into a killer.”
His eyes widen in surprise, and my shoulders tense. Shit. I got too comfortable talking to him and let my guard down more than I should’ve. That’s not a thing a good tribute would say. I want to take the words back, but I can’t. Backpedaling would probably just make it worse. I’ll have to figure out a way to spin this.
“A killer?” He looks a bit baffled again, then nods in understanding. “Oh, because I’m a vampire. That’s just a rumor, honestly. A stereotype, I guess you could say. Vampires don’t have to be killers. I mean, why would tributes come here willingly if they thought they were going to die inside this palace?”
He’s giving me a big, concerned, doe-eyed look, the way a mentally healthy friend looks at you when you’re making suicide jokes.
“Well, because they’re in awe of vampires, of course. Just like I’ve always been,” I say, letting myself lean a little closer to him as I soften my voice. Good. That’s more like it. Much more like a real blood tribute would sound.
We turn, and over Connor’s shoulder, I catch sight of Nathan looking up sharply.
“We are pretty awesome.”
Connor grins and spins me a little, distracting me momentarily. I smile tightly at him before turning my attention back to Nathan, worry rising up in my throat like bile. A female vampire is leaning over the back of his chair, stroking his chest.
Don’t fucking do it, bitch.
But even as the thought forms in my head, she drops her mouth to his neck. His eyes widen and his face goes a cold, clammy gray.
Every muscle in my body stiffens. Every instinct, every fiber, is telling me to run over there and kill the bitch who’s eating my brother. I have to calm down. I fucking have to. If I break them up, I’ll be painting a fat red target on both of our backs.
Kill her, now, the hunter’s voice in my head screams, undeterred by logic or caution. Kill the monster.
But nobody will buy the dutiful tribute act if I do, not for a second. They’ll have me executed on the spot, and maybe Nathan too.
I stumble in Connor’s embrace, barely paying attention to the dance anymore. I keep sneaking glances over toward the men's’ table, and every time I do, the vampire bitch is still latched on to my brother’s throat.
You’ve had enough, stop drinking. That’s too fucking much, dammit!
But I have to allow it. I’m going to have to let these bloodsuckers do the same thing to me, after all. A short-term sacrifice for a long-term win, like getting injured in a fight but still taking the vampire’s head off. It’s the same thing.
Still, for all my rational self-talk, I can’t force my body to relax. I’m not trained for relaxation, I’m trained to take out vampires. Giving them an inch feels like losing a mile.
“Hey,” Connor says gently. I snap my attention back to him and see concern shining in his eyes. “Are you okay?”
I nod—I think I nod—but I can’t bring myself to speak. When I glance back over at Nathan, the vampire woman is finally done feeding, but now there’s blood dripping down his neck to his shoulder. She’s letting him bleed, why is she just letting him bleed? The blood trail makes it halfway down his chest before she intercepts it. She slides over him like a snake, lapping up the blood as it runs, taking her sweet time cleaning up the mess before she closes the holes.
Jesus. She was showing off. Proving her fucking power over him.
Playing with her food.
Hot fury lashes down my spine. I realize a moment too late that I’m squeezing Connor’s hand really, really hard. He follows my gaze.
“Oh. Beatrice,” he mutters with a grimace. “I guess she grew up in the era of old-timey vampire movies, you know, big productions, heavy shock factor, lots of blood and sex. It doesn’t harm her tributes, but it sure does freak out the new ones. ”
He spins us around so that I’m not looking at Nathan anymore, and I get the weird sense that he’s trying to protect me from something he can tell upsets me. I meet his eyes again, but the obvious concern in his expression doesn’t help my tension at all.
It’s like having a tiger groom you—you never know when he might stop licking and decide to take a little taste.
“You should lie down,” the blond man says gently. Empathy shines from his eyes, which crinkle a little around the corners as he gives me a wry smile. “This is a lot to take in. Trust me, I remember. My first night here, I threw up. It was all just too weird. But I’m used to it now. You’ll get there too, I promise. I’ll help you. Come on, I’ll take you back to your room—if you remember how to get there, ’cause I definitely don’t.”
I smile half-heartedly at his joke, then shake my head, glancing around at the feast that’s still going on around us. “I don’t think I’m allowed to leave. Am I?”
He drapes an arm over my shoulder and leads me off the dance floor. “Let me tell you a secret, Darcy. As long as you’re with a vampire, you can go wherever he takes you. And I’m fixin’ to take you to your room.”
“Oh. Um, okay.”
I shoot Nathan one last glance as Connor steers me toward the door. My brother doesn’t look gray or clammy anymore, but he doesn’t look healthy either. His eyes are too bright and his skin is all flushed, the way he gets when he’s been popping prescription amphetamines. I have to wonder again if they’ve been feeding his addictions while he feeds theirs.
Leaving the noise and blood behind us as we step out into the corridor doesn’t help my mood at all. I want to run back in there and start taking monsters apart. Sure, I don’t have my blades, but there were forks and knives on the tables. Even if they’re just butter knives, I could do plenty of damage considering the amount of raw fury coursing through my veins. I
can’t remember the last time I walked away from a fight, and I don’t like how it feels. Like surrender and passivity, like I’m becoming the woman I’m only supposed to be pretending to be.
I hate it.
Even more than that, I hate that I’m finding some semblance of comfort in Connor’s mindless chatter.
“Okay, so I think we turn right here. I turned left once and ended up in some kind of armory, but it was like this medieval armory?” He chuckles. “I guess some of the vampires here like to keep things from their earlier lives or something. It’s weird, right? Immortality? And the way some people cling to the past, even if that past was hundreds of years ago. I mean, I’m pretty sure Bastian is older than dirt, but he doesn’t look it, does he?”
“I guess he doesn’t,” I murmur absently. The hairs on the back of my neck are sticking up, but they’ve been at attention all damn day. What I need is a good, bloody battle followed by a whole lot of raucous sex, but that’s exactly what I can’t do. Trying to stop my mind from churning, I tune back in to Connor’s stream of chatter.
“—and I know you guys have kitchens and things back here, but the main kitchen makes some killer dishes.”
Poor choice of phrasing, I think, but I keep my mouth closed.
“Like, they make this little fruit tart thing? It’s tiny, but it’s got more flavors in it than anything I’ve ever tasted before. It’s fucking amazing. I mean, I don’t really need to eat food anymore—it kind of makes my stomach hurt for a while, honestly—but damn, some of the things they put together are totally worth the pain.” He grins at me, and I smile back at him.
I’m only playing a part, even though the smile came spontaneously. That just means I’m getting better at my role, right?
Eventually, after a few wrong turns and retracing our footsteps a couple times, we find my door. I open it cautiously. I wasn’t given a key, so I assume courtesy is the only thing keeping other people out, and I’ve never relied on other people’s courtesy for anything. I’m definitely not going to count on manners keeping me safe in a den of vampires.