by Sophie Stern
That was it.
I was done hearing him talk about this.
“You tried to cause chaos, so I’d come running to you,” I finally said. “But it didn’t work.”
“Didn’t it? Your people don’t trust you anymore.”
“That’s not true.”
I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. My brother’s humans had sneaked into the room quietly. One of them gestured for me to remain silent about their presence. Something about their mannerisms let me know that I needed to listen to that request.
He’d been a dick to me, so there was no doubt in my mind that he’d been cruel to his human slaves, as well. Why he’d ever thought it was a good idea to keep people around as food, I didn’t know. They needed to have a choice. They needed freedom.
“It will be after today,” he said. “When I’m done, they won’t even remember your name.”
“You have a lot to learn, brother.”
“A lot to learn? Well, I-”
But his sentence was cut short.
The humans rose up at the same time and brought two stakes down into my brother’s back. One of them must have hit his heart, because one second he was talking, and the next second he was dust. I wasn’t sad at all about this turn of events. I simply nodded to them in silent gratitude before racing over to Juliet, who was lying on the floor. She was lifeless and her body was limp. Still, I reached for her body.
“It’s too late,” I murmured, pulling her onto my lap. “She’s gone.”
I started sobbing before I even realized what was happening. My entire body was filled with pain as I realized I’d let her down. I’d brought her to the mansion to play with, to have fun with. I hadn’t brought her here so she could die.
The only thing I wanted from Juliet was love.
The only thing I wanted was her heart.
Now I wasn’t going to be able to claim that.
Oh, we’d only had a few days together, but they’d been good days. We’d laughed, and we’d played, and we’d had the most intense sex I’d ever had in my life, and I was going to miss her. It wasn’t fair. None of this was fair. My body hurt from crying. I hadn’t sobbed like this since my wife died. It wasn’t fair. Nothing about this was okay.
“You tell him.”
“No, you tell him!”
“I don’t want to tell him.”
“You should.”
The humans were whispering from behind me, but I ignored them as I held Juliet and wept for her. I went for the life we could have had. I cried for the dreams that we’d shattered. Perhaps most of all, I cried because even though I was certain it made me seem weak, I knew that I was going to miss her. She had been incredible.
I felt a tentative tap on one of my shoulders, and I looked over. The human who was touching me looked scared. Despite having just slaughtered my brother, the human was afraid of me.
“Thank you for killing him,” I said. “Thank you.”
“It’s not about that,” the human told me. “It’s something else.”
“You can still save her,” the other one said.
“I can’t,” I whispered. “Norman is dead. He’s the only one who could have brought her back.”
“Usually, that’s true,” the first human told me. “But you’re brothers. You share the same blood. You can save what your sibling has destroyed.”
I paused, looking over at the two people. My brother had destroyed their lives. I didn’t know where they’d come from or what their stories were. Maybe they’d joined him willingly and then he’d screwed them over. I didn’t know any of that. All I knew was that this was it.
This was my last chance.
If they were correct, and there was a chance I could save Juliet, I had to try. I had to go for it. She was everything to me. She was incredible, and she was brave, and she was...
This was my only shot.
I bit into my wrist, tearing the skin open. Blood pooled and started to drip. I grabbed her and held her in my arms. I raised my wrist over her mouth and started dropping the blood down her throat. More and more went in. She was dead. She couldn’t swallow. I just had to hope against all hope that enough of my blood would go into her that she’d be able to live.
I just had to hope.
11
Juliet
I WAS COLD.
Everything around me was cold.
My body was cold, the blankets were cold, and the air was cold. I kept my eyes closed, but I tried to figure out where I was. It felt like I was in the middle of a snowstorm or a blizzard. It felt like I was in the middle of winter.
I realized that someone was close to me. My eyelids felt heavy, though, and I didn’t open them at first. Not right away. Instead, I focused on listening to all of the senses of my body.
“She’ll wake up soon if she’s going to,” a voice said.
“She has to wake up,” another whispered. That was Colin, I realized. Colin was with me. The other voice, I realized, was Ida. They were both here, but where was “here”? Why was I locked up in this ice prison?
“She was gone for a little while,” Idea told Colin. “If she doesn’t wake up, it’s not your fault.”
“Ida, she’s going to wake up.”
“I hope so, as well.”
“Is everything finished?” Colin asked.
Finished? What was he talking about?
Then I remembered.
All of my memories came rushing back all at once. I had been in the sitting room still. I’d been thinking about Clarissa and how a vampire rush on the hospital meant she’d died. It broke my heart, and I’d been crying. She’d always been a good friend to me. It wasn’t fair that she died defending what we’d created at the hospital.
Then again, there wasn’t much in the world that was fair, was there?
“It’s finished,” Ida said. “All of the rogue vampires are dead, and I’ve made an announcement on your behalf about the future of Darkvale.”
“You’re the best, Ida.”
“Well, you can tell me that after you see how people react.”
“They’re going to be fine,” he said. “We have a good community.”
“Your brother caused a lot of trouble,” she said. “There are going to be people who don’t like what they did, and there will be citizens who want to leave.”
“They’re allowed to leave. Nobody is going to be held here against their will.”
“Running a vampire community isn’t easy. Nobody thinks that it is,” Ida told Colin. “But you’re a good leader, Colin. Your people trust you. They trust the world you’ve built and how you handle relations between the people and the vamps.”
“You make it sound idyllic,” he muttered.
“It is, in some ways. Now that Norman is dead and his vampires have perished, the humans he brought with him want to stay here. They want to be part of this world,” Ida said.
“And what about Norman’s city? What will happen to that?”
“The humans have already sent word of his demise,” Ida sounded happy about this. “Apparently, there was a plan in place to usurp his throne while he was here. A new vampire is already ruling his city, and from what I hear, she’s a much better ruler than he ever was.”
“Good.”
Colin squeezed my hand, and I felt a little bit of warmth there. My legs and arms were starting to feel warm, too, and my nose didn’t feel like it was going to freeze off. They talked for a few minutes and I faded in and out of consciousness as they did. I caught bits and pieces of the conversation, but then Ida lowered her voice and spoke in a tone that let me know she was talking about me, and I was alert almost instantly.
“Are you going to tell her?” Ida asked.
“About what?”
“About her brother. You know, apparently, she thought he was human.”
Wait a minute...
Matthew had been human. They couldn’t be talking about Matthew...could they? Was that what they were talking about?
Only, my brother had fed me some misinformation about vampires. He’d told me they couldn’t eat, for one thing. I’d been surprised to see Colin eating real food. Had Matt said that so I would think he was human when he wasn’t? And he’d worked nights forever. Come to think of it, I never actually saw him during the day. He was always “busy” during the daytime.
Holy dragons.
My brother had been a vampire, and I hadn’t even known.
It hurt a little to know that he hadn’t trusted me with his secret. It hurt even more to know that I hadn’t had a clue. How dumb had I been? If I could open my mouth I would have cried. Matthew had died defending Colin’s wife, but he’d also died a vampire. My brother was an immortal, and I hadn’t even known.
As it was, I couldn’t move my body. I tried to move my toes, but they wouldn’t do anything at first. Why couldn’t I move? And why was I cold?
“It’s been a long time,” Colin said quietly. Something in his voice sounded pained and hurt. Why did he sound sad? It seemed as though we’d won whatever skirmish we’d been facing. That was a good thing, wasn’t it?
“She might not make it.”
“Ida, if you say that again, I’m going to stake you.”
“I’m just trying to be helpful.”
“Telling me the woman I love might not make the transition from human to vamp isn’t exactly comforting.”
Wait.
What?
Then I remembered more.
Norman had attacked me. He’d bitten me while I was crying, and I hadn’t fought as hard as I should have. By the time I realized what was happening, I was already weak from sobbing, and I hadn’t been able to push him off of me. He’d been relentless, and he’d drained my blood, and while I was dying, I had been sad about not getting to see Colin to say goodbye.
Colin had turned me.
I didn’t know how he’d been able to. I knew that to turn, I had to drink the blood of the vampire who had drained my blood. Had Colin given me Norman’s blood? Had Colin given me his own blood? Had it been enough that they were brothers?
I didn’t know.
I tried wiggling my feet again, and I felt the sheets against them. It was working. I was coming back to life. I was going to be a vampire.
I squeezed Colin’s hand, trying to let him know that I was alive. I was dead, technically, but I was conscious. I was a vampire now. I was his vampire.
“She’s here,” he whispered. He had felt it. “Fucking hell. She’s here.”
I HAD A LOT TO LEARN about being a vampire. Colin and Ida rushed to get me blood. They wanted to fill me with nutrients, apparently. It seemed like even though I was officially one of them, I had a way to go before I would officially be strong enough to live like a vampire. It took me three days to be able to sit up in bed and another three before I could stand. Colin was wildly patient with me. Although he still had business to attend to, he stayed with me as much as he could. Ida and Alice were wonderfully helpful, too.
Once I could speak again, I asked about the hospital, and I found out that Dr. Thompson had temporarily taken over my duties while I recovered. I asked Colin if I’d still be allowed to keep my job even though I was a vampire now, and he didn’t see why not.
About two weeks after I turned, I finally started to feel like a vampire. Okay, I’d been drinking a lot of blood and that was definitely pretty vampirish, but actually getting up and slinking around the house, staying out of the sunlight, and avoiding sharp wooden objects?
Yeah, that kind of did something for me, too. It made me feel like I was actually one of them. It made me feel like I belonged in this new group. I was walking around the house, touching different things and looking at paintings when Colin found me.
“Hello, beautiful,” he murmured.
“Hello, my Vampire Master.”
“Vampire Master? I like that title.”
“Good. It suits you.”
“I didn’t ask you to call me that.”
I just shrugged. It seemed fitting, I thought. It seemed like a good name for a guy like Colin. I was happy to call him my master because he’d rescued me. He’d saved me. He could have left me for dead, and many other vampires might have done just that, but he’d gone above and beyond. He’d breathed life back into me by sharing his blood, and it was a good feeling.
“You’re wonderful, you know,” he said. “I’m glad you’re here with me.”
“Me too.”
“It’s still quite crazy to me how we connected,” he told me, lowering his voice. He placed his hands on my hips, and he nuzzled his nose against my neck gently. “When I met up with you in that cemetery, I was angry with you.”
“Angry with me?”
“It was such a simple thing, I thought. I wanted you to fill an order, and you didn’t.”
“I probably should have just filled it,” I laughed. “But we’d been low.”
“Well, we aren’t low on blood any longer.”
Ever since the vampire invasion, people had been giving more blood than usual. They’d been donating regular amounts, plus plenty extra. Nobody wanted to be responsible for having weak vampires should we experience another attack. In some ways, Norman’s failed takeover attempt had made many of the humans trust the vampires of Darkvale more than before.
Now it seemed like we had vampires who were willing to do anything to protect the humans, and the people of the city were willing to protect the vamps right back. They couldn’t do much. They were weaker and smaller, after all, but they could give blood, and they had.
It had been quite wonderful.
Colin stroked my neck as he looked at me. I’d officially moved into the mansion with him. Someone had brought my things from home, and I’d settled in quite nicely, I thought. It had been a smooth transition, and I was glad, in many ways, that I got to stay with him at his home.
“I almost lost you,” he said.
“I know.”
“I can’t imagine a world without you in it.”
Colin kissed me deeply, pulling me close. His hands were in my hair and on my breasts and everywhere all at once. He grabbed my shirt, tugging it down so that my breasts popped out.
“Fucking gorgeous,” he said. He lowered his head to my breasts and started sucking on one. He grabbed the other, teasing my nipple with his fingers. Heat shot throughout my body. Oh, I loved this about him. He was insatiable and wild and hot as hell. I wanted him inside of me.
Now.
I wanted him inside of me now.
As if reading my mind, he stood back up and spun me around. I pressed my hands to the wall and spread my legs as he lifted my skirt. He bunched it around my waist, and I was bare to him.
“Gorgeous,” he murmured.
“I didn’t wear panties,” I said.
“I can see that.”
“It’s becoming a bad habit.”
“It’s the best habit I’ve ever heard of.”
He stroked my ass, rubbing his fingers over my skin. I closed my eyes as I focused fully on what he was doing. He rubbed his hands over my soft skin before dipping one hand between my legs. He stroked me there, touching me over and over until I was whimpering.
“You like that, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me what you want, Juliet.”
“I want your cock in me.”
A simple request, but one filled with so much need I could burst. That was what I wanted. That was what I needed. I needed his cock, and I needed it now. Luckily, Colin might be a sadist in his daily life, but he wasn’t when we were together. He wasn’t going to make me wait. He wasn’t going to taunt me or tease me beyond what I could handle.
“Your wish is my command,” he murmured against my ear.
I heard his pants unzip and then he was inside me. He buried himself deep in my core, and then he started to fuck me. It didn’t matter that we were in the middle of the hallway. It didn’t matter that it was the middle of the night and there were
vampires wandering around the house. The only thing that mattered was being with each other right here, right now.
He fisted my hair, tugging it back.
“Fuck,” I groaned.
“You like that, Juliet,” he hissed, licking my neck.
“I like it.”
I couldn’t seem to string together a coherent sentence to save my life, but yeah, I liked it. I loved it. Hell, I craved it. And I needed him. I needed this. Whatever was happening between us was incredible, and I wanted more.
I needed more.
I needed all of it.
“Please don’t stop,” I whispered, begging him.
“I won’t stop until you come,” he growled. “Come for me, little vampire.”
My body felt tight and tense. I wanted to come. I was close. The way he was fucking me was rocking my entire world, and I could feel the power of my orgasm beginning to grow inside of me.
“Come now,” he ordered, and he bit my neck as he said it. The moment his fangs sank into my body, I was done for. I came with a cry, trying my best to hang onto the wall I was pressed against. He fucked me relentlessly, sliding into me from behind, until I soon felt him release, too.
When it was over, he spun me around and kissed me over and over and over.
“Promise you’ll be mine forever,” he said.
“I promise.”
“I promise you the same.”
I couldn’t imagine not being able to make this promise to Colin. He was everything I wanted. He was what I needed. The Vampire Lord of Darkvale was an incredible man. He was strong and powerful and sexy as hell, and he was good. People seemed to think that vampires were these soulless creatures who caused nothing but trouble, but he wasn’t.
He was something else, something more.
Colin of Darkvale was something good.
And I was going to be his for all of eternity. As we leaned against the wall, kissing each other over and over again, I realized that no matter what happened next, we were about to enjoy a lifetime of excitement together.
And then another lifetime.