Mark of Blood

by Jody Morse

  Of course, it made me smile.

  Anger flashed through Alessandra’s eyes. “Need I remind you that this union is for your coven’s wellbeing? Would you rather fight off the Craven and Dezerea covens on your own?”

  Sebastian’s jaw muscles tightened, but he shook his head. “No.”

  “That’s exactly what I thought,” she murmured. “Also, I just want to remind you that you still need to put a ring on my finger.” She held up her hand to reveal her bare finger. “I think your mom’s engagement ring would be an appropriate choice, don’t you?”

  “I will not give you my mother’s ring,” Sebastian said firmly.

  “But what would all of the other covens think? It’s tradition to pass down Royal gemstones whenever possible. They may find it suspicious if you’re unwilling to give me the ring your mother wore.” She met his eyes. “They might think there are ulterior motives behind our decision to wed.”

  “I don’t give a damn what anyone else thinks.”

  “Well, you should. Besides, what’s so wrong with giving your wife your mother’s ring?”

  “I’m not going to have this discussion with you right now. And you’re deflecting,” Sebastian pointed out. “You neglected to answer my question. What are you doing near the Chambers?”

  “I just wanted to check out the holding cells. You know, make sure they’re secure enough for prisoners. One of my slaves has been a bit... naughty,” she replied, amusement swirling around in her eyes.

  “Well, I can assure you that they are fine holding cells,” he replied. “And our guards aren’t too shabby, either.”

  “I’d still feel better if I saw your dungeon with my own eyes,” Alessandra insisted. “Mind if I take a look?”

  Sebastian stepped away from the door, allowing her to enter. “Go ahead.”

  “Thank you.” A faint smile crossed the princess’s lips. “You and Zoe have fun. But not too much fun.”

  As she descended the stairs, closing the door behind her, Sebastian glanced over at Zoe. I couldn’t help but notice that uncomfortable look in her eyes again.

  Not that I could really blame her. Princess Alessandra made me feel uncomfortable, too.

  “Let’s move on,” Sebastian suggested and began to continue his way down the hallway.

  Meeting my gaze, Zoe motioned for me to follow after them.

  As we rounded the corner, I realized where he was planning to hide me.

  The secret passage.

  Chapter 15

  Sebastian

  THE PASSAGEWAY WAS the only place within the castle that I could think of that Alessandra didn’t know about. It was the only place I could think of where Lila would be safe from harm.

  Unlocking the door, I stepped into the darkness of the passageway. Zoe stepped inside, too. I assumed Lila must have come in after her, because she closed the door behind her.

  I grabbed a lantern from the wall and lit it up. “Zoe, please lift the invisibility spell.”

  “Are you sure about that?” The witch’s eyebrows rose in question. “What if Princess Alessandra comes here?”

  “The risk is practically nonexistent, since she knows nothing about this secret passage,” I explained. “Now I wish to see Lila. Please lift the spell.”

  Zoe didn’t look happy, but she focused her gaze on what I assumed must’ve been Lila.

  A moment later, Lila appeared before me.

  I could hear the sound of her heart pounding. It sounded fast, almost like the beating wings of a hummingbird. I realized that our run-in with Alessandra must have put her on edge.

  “You’re still wearing your clothes from the Chambers,” I realized out loud.

  She nodded. “I am.”

  “I’ll bring new clothes to you,” I assured her.

  As she began to unpin her chocolate brown hair, allowing it to cascade over her small shoulders, she shrugged. “There’s no rush. I’m a little confused about what I’m supposed to do here, though. It’s so dark in here. It may be even worse than the Chambers.”

  “I don’t expect you to stay here, Lila. I want you to go to the Shore of Tranquility,” I explained.

  Her eyebrows lifted. “You want me to just stay at the beach?”

  “You’ll be safe from vampires there, and the weather is always perfect.” I handed her a blanket. “Take this with you.”

  “How do I get there?”

  I pointed down the dark passageway. “If you keep going straight, you’ll come to a door. Go outside and keep walking for about half a mile.” I paused. “I would escort you if I could, but going outside right now would be dangerous—possibly even deadly—for me. The protection spell has been lifted, which is why the sky is no longer red.”

  She nodded. “How long will I need to stay there?”

  “Until I come for you.”

  “I’ll miss the other girls. It will be lonely there,” she commented.

  “You’ll be safe there.”

  Her emerald green eyes met mine through the darkness of the passageway. “I hate knowing that I’ll be so far away from you.”

  “I’ll come visit you any time I can,” I promised.

  Lila nodded, even though the disappointment was written all over her face. “I guess I should probably get going, then. The sooner I’m gone, the less likely Alessandra will be to find me.”

  She began to turn away from me, but I reached out and caught her by the waist. “Lila, wait.”

  As she whirled around to face me, her eyes met mine questioningly.

  Before she had a chance to say anything, I brought my lips down on hers. Her hands wrapped around the back of my neck as she pulled me in closer to her.

  As we kissed in the darkness, it was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. I wished that I could keep her close to me, that I could never let her go. But deep down I knew that wasn’t a possibility.

  What I wanted more than anything was for Lila to be safe, protected. And I knew the further away from me she was, the safer she would be.

  When we pulled away from each other, Lila stared up into my eyes. I held her gaze for a few moments before whispering, “You ought to get going.”

  She nodded and then began to continue her way down the secret passageway. I heard the sound of her opening the door and then the light streaming in.

  Once she had gone outside, I turned back to Zoe. “Let’s be on our way.”

  The witch nodded and took a few steps ahead of me. She twisted the doorknob open.

  We stepped out into the hallway and I closed the door behind us.

  As we began to head in the direction of the side entrance of the palace, I glanced over at Zoe. “What does your intuition say about this?”

  “My intuition?” Her eyes didn’t move in my direction as she spoke.

  “Do you think she’ll be safe there?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know?” I asked sharply.

  “You know how my intuition is. It comes and goes, mostly through dreams. I don’t know if she’ll be safe there or not.” Her facial expression remained stony as she continued to avoid my gaze.

  “You’re mad at me,” I noted.

  “What makes you come to that conclusion?”

  “You won’t look at me. That’s something you do when you’re mad at me.”

  “You’re being ridiculous,” she replied, but she still didn’t look at me.

  “Zoe, stop this. What have I done?” I moved to stand in front of her, giving her no choice but to meet my eyes.

  “You’ve done nothing, Sebastian.”

  “Then why won’t you even look at me?” I pressed.

  She shook her head. “It’s nothing. It’s stupid, really.”

  “I’m sure it’s not stupid. I can’t imagine you ever having a stupid thought,” I insisted. Staring harder into her eyes, I said, “Tell me, Zoe. Please.”

  She sighed. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
<
br />   A hint of a smile touched my lips. “Nope. Not until you tell me.”

  “You Stark men sure are persistent,” she muttered. Swallowing hard, she glanced up at me. “It’s just... I was wondering what Alessandra would do if she ever found out you’re lying to her.”

  I studied her face for a few moments. It was long enough for me to know that Zoe was lying to me.

  I knew that she was keeping something from me, but I wasn’t sure if it was for my sake... or hers.

  Chapter 16

  Alessandra

  AS I WALKED DOWN THE stairs that led to the Chambers, I tried to maintain my composure. I’d wanted nothing more than to rip Zoe Blackwood’s neck off, but I knew there was no way I could do that, not without Sebastian turning on me.

  Actually, the whole Stark coven would turn on me. Even Kade probably would have sided with his brother, for once in his life. For some reason, they all believed they needed that witch, as though she were some sort of means for survival.

  It wasn’t her magical abilities I was questioning. I was sure she was a fine witch. It was just that I didn’t trust her around Sebastian. For all I knew, she would feed him some sort of love potion.

  No, once I became Queen of the Stark kingdom, my first order of business would be to see that Zoe Blackwood was exiled—even if that meant framing her for a crime she didn’t commit.

  As I reached the ground floor of the Chambers, I glanced around into each of the cells. I wasn’t sure what Sebastian had been talking about in regards to the guards. There weren’t even any present. They must have taken a breakfast break.

  My eyes scanned the prison cells, even though I knew it was pointless to even look for Sebastian’s slave. She obviously wasn’t in the dungeon, or he never would have told me that I should just go inside.

  I still checked each cell just to make sure. I even eyed the confinement cell just to make sure that she wasn’t inside. She wasn’t.

  Though it made me feel better to know that Sebastian didn’t take me for a complete fool, I also felt incredibly frustrated. If Julia wasn’t in Sebastian’s Slave Chambers and she wasn’t in the dungeon, then where was she?

  I was just about to go upstairs when my eyes fell on one of the prisoners: a teenage guy with light brown hair and sun-kissed skin. While his facial features were soft, his body looked solid, hard even. He had broad shoulders that descended into muscular arms.

  Best of all, I could smell his blood from a mile away. There was no doubt in my mind that I needed to have him.

  I needed to add him to my collection.

  I took a few steps closer to his cell. As I approached him, I held onto one of the bars that separate us and smiled. “Hello. What’s your name?”

  He eyed me suspiciously, but he said, “Sean.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Sean.”

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  “I’m Alessandra. Princess Alessandra, to you,” I informed him. “Though if you exceed my expectations, I might allow you to call me Allie. It’s never happened before, but I’m always open to the idea.”

  His eyes widened a little. “Your expectations for what?”

  “We’ll get to that a little later. Tell me something, Sean. Are you a new arrival?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I just got here earlier tonight.”

  “Splendid.” My lips curved into a small smile. “Then I call first dibs on you.”

  “First dibs?” His eyebrows rose questioningly.

  I smiled again. His naivety, his innocence, was charming. “You do know the reason you were brought here, don’t you?”

  Sean hesitated for a few moments and then shook his head. “No. Why don’t you enlighten me?”

  “Better yet, why don’t I show you?” I grabbed a key that hung from the wall above the jail cell. Twisting it into the lock, I opened the door and stepped inside with him.

  I debated for a few moments before deciding I wasn’t ready to feed from him. Not just yet, at least.

  It probably sounded crazy, but I preferred to actually get to know my slaves before I fed from them—especially the ones who I wanted to keep around for a while. And just one look at this guy told me I would want to keep him around. His looks were a fair match for Vernelle’s. Whether or not he had the potential to become my new favorite slave would depend on how his body responded to mine, or if he knew how to treat me as good as Vernelle did.

  As I stood next to him, I allowed myself to inhale his scent. It was so alluring. I could just tell his blood was going to be decadent.

  “Come on, Sean. Why don’t we go back to my quarters? I’d really like to get to know you a little better.”

  He nodded. “Okay.”

  As I led him out of the dungeon and to the stairwell, I glanced over at him. The look on his face made me feel uneasy.

  A part of him looked relieved to be freed from the prison cell, but there was something else behind his gaze, too. It was a look that went way beyond anger, a look that I recognized all too well.

  It was a desire to kill.

  Chapter 17

  Lila

  THE SHORE OF TRANQUILITY was exactly as it sounded. A strip of land with beautiful sand that was rose gold in color sat alongside the ocean, which appeared calmer than ever. There was hardly any movement in the water. For miles, all I could see was only the slightest ripple of the waves.

  As I dipped my toes in the water, feeling a small tickle from the fish as they brushed against my toes, I couldn’t help but feel at peace for the first time since I’d arrived in Deadwood. Somehow, I just knew I would be safe there. It was everyone who I cared about that I wasn’t so sure about.

  I hadn’t questioned Sebastian further about what he planned to do with Sean, mostly because I was too afraid to know. As much as I wanted to believe Sebastian was only capable of doing good... Well, I wasn’t stupid. He had killed girls—many girls—just for claiming to be me. I didn’t even want to think about what he could potentially do to a guy who loved me.

  And that wasn’t even to mention the fact that I was afraid for Sebastian’s safety. If he did end up having to go to war, whether it was with that other vampire prince or his own aunt, would he be safe? Would he be able to fight? I knew he was strong, but how much stronger were the other vampires? I was afraid that things could get ugly, that I could lose him in the crossfire.

  The idea of losing either of them completely scared the hell out of me.

  Trying to shake the thought away, I focused on my surroundings. I glanced around the shore. There was no shelter in sight. How long did Sebastian really expect me to stay out here? I knew it probably was the safest place for me, but it wasn’t a long-term solution.

  Then again, what was the long-term solution? Was it for me to stay in Deadwood forever, to live as Sebastian’s slave? Just the idea of that sounded crazy. The hard truth was that, eventually, I would grow older... and he wouldn’t. He would lose his attraction for me, and he would either give me up to another vampire who needed a blood donor or... do whatever he did with the slaves he no longer wanted.

  The alternative was to go home. And as much as I wanted to see my parents again, even if it was just to let them know I was okay, the truth was that I still didn’t want to go home.

  The reality was that if I went home, I knew there was no way I could ever go back to a normal life as a human teenager, not when I knew there was another world where vampires and mermaids were real.

  I would have rather been held a prisoner, a captive, in this completely foreign place than go back to the human world knowing that Deadwood existed.

  Maybe I had a major case of Stockholm Syndrome, but just like Beauty, I didn’t want to leave my Beast.

  Sighing, I laid the blanket that Sebastian had given me on the sand. Plopping down on it, I stared out at the ocean. I could hardly believe how complicated my life had become. It was crazy to think any of this was reality—my reality.

  A part of me really wished I could tell Juniper a
nd Krista, my friends from back home, everything that had happened. I wondered what their reactions would have been if I told them I was in love with a vampire prince who had made me his slave. As if that weren’t bad enough, they also probably wouldn’t believe I’d fallen out of love with Sean. I had loved him for as long as I could remember.

  Well, just add that to the growing list of things that had changed in my life, to the list of things that had become more complex since the night I’d fallen into that lake.

  Maybe things weren’t as complicated as they seemed at the moment. Maybe there was a solution that would fix everything, a solution that wouldn’t require me to stay here and grow old orgo home and pretend to live a normal life again. It was an idea I’d thought of once before but hadn’t given any serious consideration to. I wanted to pursue it more than anything now.

  I wanted to become a vampire.

  Chapter 18

  Sean

  “WOULD YOU LIKE SOME hot cocoa, Sean?” Princess Alessandra asked me with a smile.

  “Uh, sure,” I replied with a small nod. Hot cocoa was the last thing I really wanted, but I was going to do everything I could to stay in the princess’s good graces.

  “Okay. I’ll be right back,” she replied with a small smile. She walked across the room and through another door.

  I was no longer restrained, but I couldn’t walk out of the room I was in even if I wanted to. There were guards standing post in the hallway, guards who were ready to take me down at the first sign of rebellion.

  No, whether I liked it or not, I was stuck between these four walls.

  I was stuck as Princess Alessandra’s slave.

  She hadn’t broken the news to me just yet, but I knew enough about this world to understand exactly what was going on. And I didn’t like it, not one bit.

  I still had a goal in mind: get Lila the hell out of Deadwood and get her back home.

  Even though Lila didn’t seem to think it was a feasible goal, I wasn’t about to lose sight of it. I didn’t care how long it took, what sacrifices needed to be made or how unrealistic it really was. I would do it.