by Susan Harris
“Cut the BS, Max. What the hell could you possibly want to know about me that your little spies haven’t already told you?”
That muscle in his jaw ticked again at the acid bite of my tone. “There is only so much they can tell me, for I suspect there are many layers to you, my butterfly. I will offer you a boon if you answer my questions truthfully.”
Now, this was tempting. I could ask for anything I wanted? I knew he wouldn’t let me go, but he might let Edison go if I answered his questions.
“Anything I want?”
“Within reason,” he replied. “I will not release you, nor your guard dog. But I promise to give you anything else you want that is within my power.”
Well, that blew my chances of getting Edison out of here. But Maxim had something that belonged to me, and I wanted them back.
“Promise to give me back my sai, and I will answer your questions.”
“Promise not to wield them against me or mine, and I will give them to you right now.”
I clamped my mouth shut as the female rogue came back in and set a plate of steak, exceedingly rare, in front of me. My stomach lurched. I pushed the plate away, wanting to lick the blood even if I was weird and couldn’t eat meat unless it was cooked.
Maxim eyed me with curiosity as I reached for some bread. “You do not like steak?”
“I prefer my steak to be less able to moo back at me.”
The rogue almost choked on his own steak at my words before he smiled and called for something else to be brought to me. While we waited, Maxim set down his fork and knife. “What is your favorite color?”
A breath later, I replied, “Cerulean blue.”
That muscle in Maxim’s jaw twitched again. We both knew whose eyes were that shade of blue.
“Do you just give me lip to irk me, Ryan? Does it please you to anger me?”
I reached out and wrapped my hands around the wine glass, taking a sip as I tried to convey a coy expression. “You asked me a question, Max, and I answered truthfully. You never told me I had to give an answer that wouldn’t annoy you, only that it be true.”
The coiled anger in his body was strained even further, his fists clenching and unclenching. My heart pounded in my chest and I inhaled a breath to try and steady it as I drained the last of my wine.
Between one breath and the next, I smashed the glass on the table and drove the rigid shards into Maxim’s throat. Blood gurgled as it gushed from the wound when I yanked it out and repeated the action. Maxim’s eyes held mine in disbelief as I again pulled out the broken glass and poised to strike again when I was hauled back and slammed to the ground.
I managed to lash out with the broken glass once more, swiping across skin and tearing flesh, blood dripping down on my skin as I snarled. Then the glass was wrenched from my grasp and my arms and legs were pinned down by a contingent of rogues.
Maxim stood, allowing one of his minions to hold a cloth to his throat. He clicked his fingers as I bucked, trying to free myself.
“Bring her to her feet.”
The tone was harsh, brisk, the wounds in his throat adding a wet overlay to his words. I was dragged to my feet and forced to watch as two of Maxim’s rogues dragged in a young man who looked terrified… and shockingly familiar.
I’d seen him before, playing football with Nickolai, attending classes, and hanging out at a party I’d rather have forgotten. This was the boy who’d stood by while Brayden Smyth drugged me and planned to…
The young man lifted his gaze, and surprise and shock contorted his face as he looked at me.
“You’re Nico’s friend?”
I didn’t get a chance to answer as Maxim struck like a viper, sinking his fangs into the student’s throat. A normal vampire would drink five, maybe six pulls before disengaging their fangs. However, Maxim kept drinking and drinking, his eyes on me as they flared even more bloodred.
I watched every agonizing gulp of the human’s blood, his eyes glazing over more with every drop of blood he lost. I listened as his heart began to slow, the faint caress of death coming for him as Maxim tore his fangs from the boy’s neck. Then, with madness in his eyes, Maxim sank his fangs back into the boy's neck with such force that I heard the boy’s neck snap.
Maxim tossed the body at my feet, stalking forward until he stood over the body. Gripping my chin in his hands, he jerked my head to the side and pressed his fangs to the curve of my neck. I could smell the dead guy’s blood on his breath.
“You just had to try and be foolish. You could not have one nice dinner without being so utterly stupid. I offered you a crown and a kingdom, and you throw it continuously back in my face.”
A growl made its way into my throat. “Are you dense? I can’t stand to be in the same room as you. You disgust me. I want to spill your blood and guts on the floor. I want to snuff the life out of your eyes and then hand your head to my liege as a prize. Stop romanticizing this, Max. See it for what it is. You kidnapped me, and I would never, ever choose to be with you.”
Maxim’s palm met the side of my face a second later, rattling the sense in my head.
Spitting out some blood and probably even a tooth, I grinned. “Was that little love tap supposed to hurt me?” I asked with humor in my tone. “You want to fight me fairly? Then pitter patter, bitch. Tell the goon squad to release me, and let’s go.”
I was pretty sure none of these goons had any clue what I was on about, but Maxim snarled, and I knew I was in deep trouble. Maxim gripped my chin again and leaned in so close I thought he was going to kiss me.
“I tried to be nice. I tried to do this the easy way.”
Maxim barked an order in Russian, too quick for me to pick it up, and then my stomach fell to my feet as his pet came into the room.
“But now,” Maxim said with a sickening grin tugging at his lips. “Now, you have left me no choice, Ryan. This is all your fault. Remember that just before you break.”
3
I was dragged kicking and snarling to another room and strapped to a metal table, unable to move. Maxim and his little pet were the only ones in the room as I fought against the restraints, knowing it was useless but knowing I also didn’t have it in me not to fight.
Maxim’s little pet, whose name I didn’t yet know, watched me struggle with veiled amusement. I glared at him as he walked around to where my head rested. I made myself still as I peered over at the young-looking boy—who was anything but—and asked him how old he was.
“I do not remember. Time passes more slowly here.” His voice was melodic, wistful, as if he were remembering a long-forgotten place.
“And where does time pass quicker?”
He tilted his head like a cat waiting to toy with a mouse. “It matters not, for it was lost to me long ago, when I was bound to this wretched place and the doors to my homeland were closed to humankind.”
Craning my neck, I said, “Well that sounds awfully sad. You got a name? I can’t keep calling you Maxim’s pet; it seems rude.”
“I am Dresden.”
The boy's amber-colored hair and freckles didn’t scream Dresden to me, and since I liked to dance with danger, I decided not to stop now… even though I could almost taste the tartness of his magic wafting from his skin.
“You don’t look like a Dresden to me,” I said. “I’m gonna call you Bob. Bob seems less intimidating, and I have a habit of giving people nicknames.”
“My name is Dresden.”
“Okay, Bob, just go with it. You really need to google it—do you know what Google is? You would like The Dresden Files. I liked the TV adaptation, but it's not the same as the books. You should totally check out the books.”
Maxim, done with watching me tease his little pet, sauntered forward. He cupped my cheek and grinned, his teeth still stained with blood. “Ryan, such a unique name for a unique vampire. Do you know what your name means?”
“My parents liked it, so they chose it. That’s all I ever needed to know.”
; Maxim grazed his thumb over my lips, and I fought the urge to bite him, knowing he probably would enjoy it.
“Ryan means ‘descendant of the king’ and ‘little king,’” he continued, a smug look on his face. “It’s fitting, do you not think, considering in your mother’s tribe? She was a princess of sorts, soon to be queen, who gave it all up for your father.”
Removing his hand from me, he nodded at Dresden, who hesitated before gliding to the top of my head.
“Can you do as I require?” Maxim asked the creature.
“Her mind is a fortress. I will need to hack away at her defenses. If only I had full control of my powers, then I could break her mind ever so quickly.”
There was a hunger in his tone, like he craved the power as much as I craved blood. Dresden was powerful enough already, by Eve; if Maxim didn’t have control over him, what couldn’t he achieve?
“That will not happen,” Maxim replied. “The moment I release you, you would strike out at me. Do what I ask, Dresden and I will shave a decade off your sentence.”
My curiosity was piqued, but the two didn’t say anything more. Dresden blew out a breath, and I glanced upward to where he stood. Eyes closed, he readied to place two fingers from each hand on my temple.
“Wait!” I exclaimed, fear choking me. Dresden hesitated as I addressed Maxim. “C’mon, Max, you let whatever the hell he is root around in my head, and I won’t be the same girl you want anymore. Let me go, and I promise to behave.”
Maxim looked like he’d consider it for a moment, but then he turned away from me and leaned against the wall with his arms folded across his chest as if he were waiting for the popcorn to arrive.
“I would ask you, Ryan, not to fight what is inevitable. Doing so will only cause you unnecessary pain.”
“What kind of monster are you?” I hissed, turning back to Dresden.
“Your father was Irish, yes? Did he tell you tales of Faerie?”
I paled as I remembered sitting on my father’s knee in the woodlands around the compound, listening as he explained to me about fairies and magic and everything in between. Growing up, I’d assumed it was all mythology and fables he’d spun to entertain me, but by Eve, I’d been wrong.
“I see that you are versed in my people. I am what is known as a Fear Dearg, or Red Man. And we like to play with people’s minds.”
It didn’t sound like Dresden was too happy about what was about to happen. As he laid his fingers on my temple, I felt the weight of his magic rooting around in my brain until darkness engulfed me and I was trapped inside my mind.
Blood poured down my throat in rapturous glory as the life drained from the human I’d been feeding from. Detaching my fangs, I let the body fall to the floor without another glance. I had gorged on blood and death, but I still felt hollow, an insane hunger still burning my throat.
My skin prickled as I sensed someone surge forward, and I swung my sword out, decapitating the vampire without a second thought. The hem of my dress was soaked in blood, the darker shade not so noticeable against the crimson fabric that hugged my every curve.
I was feared and desired among my court of rogues, a queen as deadly as she was beautiful. I wielded power as skillfully as my sword, even if the blade felt foreign, my left hand twitching as if it were used to holding a weapon also.
Fanning out the long cape that rested on my shoulders, I sauntered barefoot through the bodies, my bare feet staining with blood as I walked, dragging the sword along the concrete as I kept moving, ignoring the rogues who bowed as I passed, making my way to my love and my king.
His hungry eyes watched me as if he craved me. I might be dressed up in diamonds and lace, but my body and face were smeared with blood. Maxim licked his lips as I stopped a bare inch from him and tilted my chin up.
His lips captured mine in a rough, possessive way that chilled the blood in my veins, and I wondered why this felt so wrong. Faint memories of a kiss that had set my blood on fire, a kiss that had stolen my breath and captured my heart, made me pull back with a hiss.
“What is it, my love?”
But I wasn’t his love. I glanced at my bloodstained hands in disgust and fought against what I felt in my head and what I felt in my heart. This was not who I was. This was all wrong.
“I do not belong here; this is not me.”
Maxim’s hand clasped the back of my neck as he spun me to gaze out at the carnage before us. Hundreds of dead humans lay in broken, bloody heaps, and I recoiled as I remembered the savagery that I had indulged in, the lives I had drained because I had wanted to.
But had I really been so callous and cruel?
In the back of my mind I could feel pressure, as if my actions were not my own. Maxim tilted my head and bit down hard on the curve of my throat. My body told me I liked this, that this was what mates did when they were passionate with one another, but an image of a blond-haired vampire with a sinful smile and eyes of the most beautiful cerulean blue flashed in my mind and I reached for the dagger at my waist.
Fingers wrapped around the hilt, I struck quickly and plunged the dagger into one of Maxim’s eyes. He let loose a roar of pain and stumbled back, yanking the blade from his eye as it oozed blood.
“My love, how could you hurt me so?”
“This is not real. I don’t belong here. I know it in my heart.”
Maxim leered at me as he clasped a hand around my throat. “Your heart is mine. I own it and you. I made you who you are—a queen, a dealer of death—and you will not leave me.”
Glancing down at myself, I watched as the bloodstained dress withered away and was replaced by a royal guard uniform bearing the logo of the sanguine crown. I knew who I was, and it was not some skanky rogue queen. I was Ryan Callan, and this was my fucking mind.
I opened my mouth and screamed even as I somehow managed to shove Maxim away from me. A faint hum of magic tingled on my skin, and I pushed against it until I heard an audible pop.
I jerked to consciousness as if someone had thrown ice-cold water over me, gulping in air as Maxim studied me with intrigue. I snarled and wriggled in the restraints until I smelled blood, the bite of the manacles digging into my flesh.
“I’m gonna kill you! I’m gonna slit your pathetic throat!” I screamed, unsure if I was threatening Maxim or Dresden.
The Fear Dearg seemed surprised I had somehow broken through his magic, and as he walked away from my head and toward Maxim, I snarled, snapping my teeth like a wild animal.
“Again, Dresden,” Maxim said calmly.
The fairy blew out a breath. “I need time to regain my strength, and she needs to be weaker in body if I am to have much success. The first projection you asked for me to implant was one she broke through too quickly. I did not lie when I said her mind is a fortress.”
Maxim frowned, regarding his little pet as if he were searching for a lie in his words. Did he not know fae couldn’t lie?
“When can we proceed?”
Dresden came round and glanced at me. “We can try again tomorrow, if that pleases you.”
I chuckled, and they both looked at me. “Did you really think it would be that easy to get inside my head? If you thought showing me what a future with you could look like would make me say, ‘Oh yes, please, Maxim, make me your queen,’ then I’m glad to disappoint you.”
Even as his jaw clenched, Maxim ground out, “How soon before you get inside her head enough to twist her own thoughts?”
Dresden, his eyes still on me, shrugged. “That will depend on her. The more she fights, the longer it will take. In order for me to slip inside her mind without resistance, I would need my cap. Otherwise, you will have to make do with what I can do.”
“Tell me about the dream,” Maxim asked the fae. “Why did it fail?”
“Because I would never fall in love with a psycho like you or kill a human to become like you,” I spat, nearly screaming.
They ignored me, continuing to assess my mind as if I weren’t there.
“I proceeded as we discussed,” Dresden mused, running his fingers through his Irish red hair, “creating the warrior queen you requested. With that, she was content; the blood and death did not cause her any concern.”
“Then what did?”
Dresden scratched his chin as he said. “I fear my next words will incite your anger, and I do not wish to do so.”
I let loose a harsh bark of laughter. “It’s okay, Bob. I’ll tell him. You kissed me, and I felt nothing—scrap that, I felt disgusted. I knew I wasn’t yours and didn’t belong with you.”
“When she remembered her prince, it broke the spell.”
I smirked as Maxim growled.
“Maybe I should go to your prince and bring him here for you… well, his head at least.”
“You won’t get near him.”
“Care to wager on it?”
I answered him with another feral snarl, and he turned away from me to Dresden.
“Can you erase her memories of the prince altogether?”
By Eve, my heart ricocheted about my chest as panic flooded my body. For a moment, I couldn’t breathe or think; I didn’t want to believe Dresden could do what Maxim was asking.
“Not without my cap. Maybe not even then. The prince is embedded into the very fabric of who she is. Erasing that would make her a mindless zombie, and I assume you do not wish to rut with a living corpse.”
As crass as Dresden’s words were, the look on Maxim’s face was enough to ease the panic in my chest, and I couldn’t hold back a shuddering breath of relief. Maxim spared me one last glance and then stormed from the room. Dresden followed him out, while I lay staring at the ceiling, hot tears threatening to spill from my eyes.
I will not cry. I will not cry.
I repeated the mantra over and over to myself even when the rogues unstrapped me from the table and hauled me back to my cell. This time, they didn’t bother concealing the path leading to the cell. I wasn’t in any condition to fight them, the tiredness that seeped into my bones caused my eyes to droop.