He stopped and turned towards me, then he sat next to me and put his hand under my chin. “I have found someone to take you in.” He looked away for a moment, swallowing, then looked back in my eyes. “He can be kind, if you do not anger him. He’s not to be your husband but you are to work for him. And I…” His eyes drifted to the chest. “I don’t know for how long.”
I blew out my breath. “Is that all?”
His head jerked towards me. “It is not something I chose lightly, because it is the very thing I feared all your life.”
I gripped his hand, afraid of the words he would speak. “Tell me.”
His face darkened. “I am ill, and don’t know how much longer I will live. I regret the curse I brought upon your head.” His face fell, giving in to the sadness he felt. “I am a poor father and I wish that I could’ve lived the kind of life that would make you proud of me.”
“You have lived in kindness, and I couldn’t ask for anything more. I’ve always been sheltered and bathed in your love and affection, that many others with riches and treasures cannot say as much.” I pulled his hand so it was in my lap, still gripping it tight. “Tell me, Father, before I go mad.”
“Your mother was so proud of you,” he stared off into the light reflected from the window. It was dark outside now. “And on her dying breath, she made me promise to take care of you.”
I was afraid now, my father never spoke of my mother, although I often caught him staring off, a smile on his face and I knew that he was thinking of her. They had been happy, we had been happy.
I pulled my hands away and stood up; I was so afraid that I was tempted to run from the room.
My father finally spoke. “It is Detrand.”
“No.” My voice was a whisper. I had never met him, but I knew how he saved my mother. And I also knew that he was another one of those. A strigoi. “I will not be safe. What if I do something wrong? Will he hurt me?” I gasped. “Will he turn me?”
My father pulled at my legs, trying to get me to sit with him on the floor but I would not.
“He will not turn you. He has great control over his lust, and he will protect you from all the other beasts of this city. You will be safe with him and he will take care that you are provided for.”
I shook in anger. “You have sold me to the devil.”
He sighed, his body bent over again in weariness. “I have, and for that I have nothing to atone. But I must make payment for the life that he gave your mother, and you have need of shelter and so, we must accept our lot in life.”
The agony in his voice made me fall to his side and I held him. “You are right.” I was silent as his breath labored.
“You are to go to him tonight.” He sat up and took my face in his roughened hands. His voice shook as he spoke to me. “Keep your head down and do your work quickly and efficiently. If you do not stand out, he will keep you and you will have no fear.” He shoved something into my hand; it was a small, but deadly, wooden stake.
I slipped it into my pocket and nodded but my heart beat madly. The apprehension flowed through my body and I thought that I would die of fright. Only a night before, I was in the arms of a strigoi, unafraid and so filled with lust that I was unable to control myself. But my father’s revelations opened my eyes to the danger and my face reddened in shame at the position I dared put myself in. I wondered if I would see him more often now, the man of my dreams, and I shuddered. As long as I stayed to the day, I need not fear seeing him again. I would work myself to the bone during the daylight and exhaust myself so vigorously that I would sleep like the dead in the night.
My father looked away, staring off. “But he can be kind, and may grow fond of you.”
I stood up and held out my hand to my father. “Don’t worry about me, I shan’t be afraid. Come and sit, put your legs on the table, and I will rub out the knots one last time. And then I will go to him.”
The man we hired to take my belongings in the carriage helped me bring it to the door of the mansion, and after I paid him, he left me standing on the doorway. The whole way over, I shook in my seat, tears streaming down my face. I would visit my father when I could, but I would miss him dearly. He’d held me in his arms as we said our farewells and I tried to be brave so I didn’t cry in front of him. He had been a good father and I knew that from now on, I wouldn’t be so blessed to have someone so kind to watch over me. I took in a shaky breath, trying to gather my courage.
I brought my hand to the door but before I could knock, it opened quickly, slamming against the inner wall. And in the door, stood the man from my dreams. My breath caught in my throat and I stared at him with wide eyes.
He stared back at me saying nothing, his eyes wide, and the glass in his hands broke. I was both petrified and filled with fervent longing that I knew not what to do.
Finally, he opened his mouth. “What do you want?” He was extremely angry and my shoulders jerked at his question in anticipation that he would pounce on me. I had barely met him and he was already outraged; I had no hope for my future. Despair threatened to choke me but I managed to answer him.
“I’m Adelade. My father sent me.”
He growled at me. “I know of no such thing. Go home.”
He gripped the knob of the door to shut it, but I took a step closer, determined and desperate at the same time. “My father is Bennett. He said I was to serve you.”
He stilled, and was so motionless that he seemed as a statue. Then he slammed the door in my face.
I jerked back, and now my despair was at my full disposal. I fell to my knees as my sobs shook me. I didn’t know where to go, or who would take me in. I would not go back to my father, I could not do that to him. Then the door opened and the man walked out, his jacket and hat on. He said nothing, but glided briskly past me. Then there was another set of feet and I looked up to the face of another strigoi. A shudder ran down my spine, how many were in this city?
“Come.” His voice wasn’t unkind and I sprung to my feet. He picked up my belongings and I grabbed my mother’s chest, pulling it behind me. “I’ll show you to your room.”
Chapter Four
Detrand
I practically marched down to Bennett’s house, willing my feet not to turn back to the woman on my doorstep. The feeling of my feet on the earth grounded me as I drew away from her. My strigoi was very angry, and he growled at me for leaving her without taking a taste, even as he threatened to emerge. I pushed him down, only barely, as I whisked myself to Bennett’s door.
Standing on the doorstep, I could smell her and for a moment, I was dizzy and confused. I gripped the doorknob to keep my balance and it crumbled under my fist.
Finally able to get a hold on my mind, I banged on the door. The wood bowed under my fist as I pounded into it. “Bennett, you did not tell me you had a daughter. You must take her back. I cannot have her.”
Realizing that I was knocking on his door, instead of merely entering, I determined that the call for her blood could disorient me, making me weak, and that could be dangerous. I shoved the door open, knocking it off its hinges.
“Bennett.” I advanced through the downstairs and, when I couldn’t find him, I moved to the second floor. He was lying in his bed, asleep. I shook him roughly, trying to control my strength so that I wouldn’t break him. “I cannot take your payment; she must return home. I will pay you so that she will have a living after you have passed, but I do not want her.”
Bennett was as still as death, his face shined in the moonlight that streamed through the window. I paused, looking for the pulse that should be at his throat and, finding none, my eyes settled on the bottle by his bedside, alongside a note. ‘I trust you will care for her,’ was all it said and the rage bust from me; I was unable to contain it any longer. I threw his chair and every other piece of furniture I could place my hands on, except for his bed which I would gladly throw if he wasn’t lying dead in it. I wished he was alive so that I could throttle him with my bare hands. When
I had destroyed everything possible in his room, I moved to the rest of the house like a tornado. I had the sense enough to pass over her room, but everything else was destruction in my hands, until I came to the vanity of her mother’s. I found that I couldn’t touch it and it halted my outburst.
As soon as I stopped, I was overcome with a sudden sense of shame, because now I had destroyed everything he had to pass down to his daughter. The furniture could be replaced with the highest quality I could offer her, but I couldn’t replace the happiness and love that she’d acquired in this home. Every time I entered, I felt a stifling sense of love and acceptance experienced in no other place, even my own home, and I had destroyed it all. Everything that could remind her that she was loved dearly by her parents. It had been his, it had been theirs, and I had destroyed it all.
I ran my hand through my hair, allowing my shame to pull me into a sordid sense of misery, and I circled the room, unsure what to do. I could set fire to it, only to cover my humiliation, but I would never defile his body in that way. I couldn’t bring his body out and then set fire to it, she would see through me instantly.
And so I determined to hire workers to set right what they could, or to replace the things that could be replaced. I would arrange to bring her mother’s armoire to her room, so that she could have it.
And then a dreaded sense of my predicament overcame me. How could I possibly be in my own house with her living there, a thin wall between us? I could leave the house as soon as I rose, every damn night. Or I could immediately leave the city, as soon as I arranged to have her house repaired. I would leave her with a stipend, and she could return home and be a free woman.
But what if others tried to take advantage of her? There were many beasts in the city, and only some of them the creatures that hid in the dark. What if they hurt her?
And yet, I couldn’t trust the other strigoi to allow her to stay in my home without me.
I swiveled, pacing the room. What did it matter to me? It was only her blood that called to me, and as soon as I was gone from this continent, provided I kept my strigoi completely satisfied for months after I left, the call for her blood would slip away and I would be safe. What happened to her while I was gone was of no concern to me.
But she was her daughter. And didn’t I have a responsibility to protect her?
The image of her trembling body under mine came to my mind, and of all the brazen noises I’d heard in my lifetime, the memory of her sigh was the roar in my ears that brought me to my knees.
I advanced towards the docks, the darkness following me. I found Stefano in his office, a man kneeling before him. Stefano rose, fixing the buckle of his pants, and the man, who was gloriously built with solid muscles and a twinkle in his eyes, sat back as he peered at me from the floor. I breathed in deeply and my strigoi bellowed. He smelled delectable.
Stefano growled, showing his teeth, and I grabbed him by his neck and held him to the back wall. My eyes, flaming with my need, warned him. I’d had enough desperation tonight, and would satisfy my strigoi, otherwise my blood lust would spread through my body and I would lose control. Looking at the floor to submit to my dominance, Stefano managed to choke out, “He’s mine.”
I growled. “I will determine that.” The boy’s smell lingered in my nose, threatening to overtake me, and Stefano recognized my need.
“You can have him tonight.”
I narrowed my eyes at him and tightened my hold on his neck.
“As payment for my error.” His eyes bulged out of his head, and his hand was on mine, not pulling, but tugging softly. I felt my eyes go dark as my strigoi emerged. “Please, take him as a gift.”
I barely managed to choke out, “Stop me if I go too far,” and then I was on the man. He was still on his knees and I grabbed him and bit into his neck. He leaned against me, moaning softly as Stefano whimpered behind me. His blood was exactly what I needed and the moment it hit my brain, an elation rushed over me. I gripped him tighter to me, gulping down my need, and he clung to me, his hardened center pushing against me. I lost a sense of time and only felt the burn as it clung to my throat and chest. When Stefano yanked me from the man, I flew across the floor, crashing into his desk which splintered under my weight.
Then I was on Stefano, my fangs out, ready to rip his throat out when I realized that my strigoi had control over me. I stilled, fighting to control it, as Stefano quivered under me. I pushed it down, willing it under my control.
“Stefano, who killed Agosto?”
His eyes, red with want, widened, surprised that I had managed to control myself. He’d thought he would go to his final death. “I don’t know.”
I growled, pushing him higher off the ground.
“All I know is that the fae requested a quarter of the city, they wanted to control a part of it in exchange for payment.”
“And what was Agosto’s reply?”
Stefano’s eyes shifted towards the man who was now on the floor, groaning. I put Stefano down, but still held him tight.
“He sent home the messenger’s heart in a box. He never meant to give them control and they never meant to pay.”
I tilted my head, acknowledging his answer. “I need men.”
“How many?”
“About twenty. I need them to enter Bennett’s home and repair it and to arrange for his funeral.”
Stefano nodded. “I will make the arrangements personally and you will have my best carpenters, another gift from me.”
“I need them tonight.”
“You will have it.”
I released my grip on Stefano and he rushed to the other man, pulled him up, and led him to a chair. “And the tax on the contracts will be raised by thirty percent.”
Stefano gasped and turned to me but nodded his head once, and then his eyes grew dark as his need emerged with the smell of the man’s blood. He sat in the man’s lap, gripping him tight and pulled his head back, exposing his throat.
“It will remain so until I discover who killed Agosto.” I went to the door of the warehouse and called over my shoulder. “And send word to Bennett’s daughter that he is dead.” Only the moans of Stefano answered my command.
I moved outside the city, rushing like the wind and feeling an incomprehensible high as my strigoi purred in satisfaction. “Faerydae, komdu til min.” I was in an open field, near the border of the shifter lands, and for a moment I remembered how other fields like these, long ago felt under my hands. “Faerydae, don’t make me wait, or I will cut you open like a whale.”
A buzzing noise moved across the field. It zigzagged, moving in close and then spreading back out. The wind picked up, softly at first until it was rushing at my face. My hand snapped out, reaching for the bee, but I missed and it pricked at my cheek. I stumbled forward, reaching for it again but this time I caught the bee, put it in my mouth and swallowed it.
The ground shook and the shuttering earth sprayed mud into the sky as vines crawled out the ground, evolving into a vast forest. Large flowers clung to vast trees, and butterflies floated around me. I stepped into it, and realized that my cheek was bleeding. I wiped it, angry now. I climbed over vines as thick as trunks that slithered around trees as big as giants.
The bird song led me deeper into the woodland and suddenly I was in an open field with the sun blazing on my back. Surprised, I ran towards the trees looking for shelter. The sun’s golden rays hadn’t burned me to a crisp and I stood as still as death. A ray touched my hand and I marveled at it. I moved my hand so that it shimmered brightly. I flung my clothes off and flitted in and out, living and breathing the sun on my skin. Was this what it was like when I gave the strigoi back their memories, warmed their bodies and reminded them how it felt to be human again? No wonder they stalked me, addicted to the intimacy I could provide.
It grew dark, the sky blocked by the pressing trees and I dressed quickly, cursing the time it took to travel into Underhill. At this rate I wouldn’t return to my home within a fortnight,
the killer having long fled and the city ruled by another.
Maybe this was their plan all along.
The path under my feet hardened and a long scroll ran towards me. I stepped over it, refusing to read it even though the letters on the ancient page glowed in the dark, calling to me. As I drew nearer, drops of water dampened the scroll and I grinned; I knew my ghost was with me.
Rushing my steps, I used the music of the fae to guide me closer. They danced around me, wearing fine clothing and masks of gold about their face and found myself in an elegant ballroom. The high-ceilinged room was adorned with roughly cut diamonds and ornate hanging chandeliers, carved from the tusks of exotic Afrikan animals, lighting the room with dripping candles. I could blink my eyes and in an instant I would see the room as it really was. However, I did not need to see the ugliness to know that it was there, as most did, and so I chose to see the glamour of the fae, instead of their reality.
Couples embraced in corners sharing their secrets. I turned my head, ignoring them to face Orin, the Fae King who had stepped before me.
“Detrand. You honor me with your presence.”
I bowed, ignoring the scroll at my feet. “The pleasure is mine.” A silver platter was placed before me: venison dripping with grease and pickled grapes. It smelled delicious and I was temped to taste it.
“The fae food is purified against the sickness of the strigoi. You may eat it, you will not develop any illness.” The golden crown on his head shimmered in the light of the room, which was adorned with golden carvings that rose to the ceiling. The light of the room was absorbed by his eyes, which glowed a soft gold, and they stared at me curiously.
A Vampire's Seduction (A Dark Hero Book 1) Page 6