by Sofia Daniel
An unnamed favor in exchange for his protection.
The dreadlocked dickhead had even flirted with me enough to make me think I was buying his protection with sex. Taking his blood and accepting the oath had sealed my fate. And when Micalla had cornered me in a basement room with the help of Zarah, Nero had strolled in and activated the blood oath.
And worst of all, he’d set up a smartphone to record the magic of the oath, forcing down my hand and plunging a stake into Micalla’s heart.
“That’s it?” said Zarah. “You’re just going to give up?”
I gave her a pat on the back and walked to the doorway. There could only be one reason why she would ask me a question like that after trying to convince me all term to obey the vampires. She was fishing for something to use against me.
With a casual shrug, I continued through the room with Zarah on my heels. “Just following your advice. Next term, I’ll have three hungry vampires to feed, and I don’t want to anger them.”
I opened the door. Miss Margolyes, fellow frumosi and teacher of Basic Protection, stepped out of the shadows and gave me a benign smile.
My hackles rose — another vampire sympathizer.
The older woman’s strawberry blonde hair was arranged in a loose chignon with tendrils framing her pretty face, and she wore a floral summer dress with spaghetti straps that revealed her neck and cleavage. Maybe she felt comfortable exposing more skin with the vampire students gone.
“There you are, Miss Stephens,” she said. “Professor Proust wishes to see you in his office.”
Chapter 2
My heart thudded. If the headmaster had noticed Micalla had been missing from the leaving ceremony, I could already be in deep shit before I’d even learned how to escape. So far, all I had learned was how to peel a garlic bulb, and that wouldn’t even equip me to work in a kitchen, let alone escape a centuries’ old, magically enhanced vampire fortress.
Trying to keep the tremor out of my voice, I asked, “What does he want me for?”
“He has a contract for you to sign.”
A breath of relief slid from my parted lips. I’d go to the professor’s office, tell him I hadn’t agreed to become the Stryx brothers’ concubine, and sneak off to the kitchens to see if I could find the onion woman.
I followed Miss Margolyes out into the hallway and through the wooden door that led to the darkened stairwell. Even though I still wore my blazer, cold radiated through the stone walls, through my skin, and into my bones.A typical December night in a creepy castle in the middle of nowhere.
We descended the stairs in silence. I was about three paces behind the woman, glaring into her messy, blonde hair. How could she teach basic protection classes that offered only the most paper-thin resistance against vampires? Did she honestly believe what she taught, or had someone mesmerized her to within an inch of her sanity?
A kinder part of my mind told me to ease up on the woman. She was Professor Proust’s consort and probably had to do whatever he said. Maybe her situation was like the one Micalla had put me in when she’d shown me videos of Mom, Steve, and Daniel and then threatened their lives.
The teacher turned around and beamed. “Congratulations on landing yourself all three of the Stryx brothers. They’re extremely handsome and can offer you a wonderful life.”
“As a blood whore.” The word ‘whore’ echoed through the hallway.
Her smile fell, and annoyance flickered across her attractive features. “Concubine is the politically correct term.”
“Ah yes,” I said between clenched teeth. “Like how we shouldn’t call those enchanted to have no free will knockers. They’re sanguinary servants.”
She pushed open a door and stepped out into a white hallway. As I followed after her, she whirled around, eyes flashing. “I’ve seen you transform from belligerent to beleaguered to besotted with the Stryx brothers. You have the prize that every frumosi girl cherishes within your grasp. Don’t waste their goodwill with that attitude.”
I reared back. Miss Margolyes never showed her temper, not even when Gates and I had interrupted her class by pointing out how vampires were our captors and would discard us the moment we’d proven ourselves no longer useless.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“I apologize.” She smoothed down her summer dress. “It’s just that most girls hoped to snag one of the brothers, yet you’ve gotten yourself all three. Was that your game plan?”
My brows rose. Why did everyone in this place give me more credit than I was due? The vampires thought I had some strange frumosi power that could burn them whenever I pleased, and based on what Kat and Miss Margolyes had said, the frumosi believed I had schemed to catch the attention and the interest of the Stryx brothers.
“Actually,” I said. “I was snatched from a night club by a pair of vampire guards and forced to enroll in the academy or become a knock—” I paused to watch her wince. “Sorry. Forced to enroll in the academy or become a sanguinary servant. My only game plan was survival.”
Miss Margolyes’ eyes shuttered into a half-lidded look of disbelief, complete with pursed lips. Whatever.
Without acknowledging the truth of my situation, she continued down the hallway. All I wanted right now was time alone to learn enough frumosi magic to escape and hopefully to stay hidden until they’d forgotten about me.
I walked by the teacher’s side and kept my gaze on the portraits gracing the white walls. Many of them were of Dracula in various styles of dress. The old vampire seemed to spend most of his time posing from the looks of the sheer quantity of pictures of him. I wondered if he had any time to run the Vampire Parliament with that level of vanity.
Twin knockers with pale skin and mahogany hair stood outside the headmaster’s office. I studied their young, handsome features and wondered about their background. Were they former students of the academy, consorts returned for not fulfilling their mistresses’ requirements, or the children of hunters like the onion woman?
They bowed, and the one on the right opened the door.
Miss Margolyes placed a hand on my elbow and guided me into the headmaster’s room. My nostrils twitched at the coppery scent of blood, making me wonder whether it belonged to a frumosi.
Professor Proust sat behind his desk, scribbling on a piece of parchment with a feather quill. The thin vampire didn’t glance up to acknowledge us, instead signing a long, flowing signature with a flourish.
He hovered his thumb over the document and let a few drops soak into the parchment. Stiffening, I backed out of the room. That explained the scent of the blood.
“Going somewhere?” asked a familiar voice from behind.
I turned around and bumped into Captain Tanar, the vampire who taught Hunters 101. A breath caught in the back of my throat. The man reminded me of a hawk with his hooked nose and unblinking, amber eyes.
Next to him stood Commander Shanks, the silver-eyed guard who had followed me around for half of the previous term, foiling my attempts to find an escape route. He still wore black body armor and still looked as menacing as the day he and his red-eyed colleague had snatched me from the bathroom of the Velvet Lounge.
I backed away and hit my ass on the edge of Professor Proust’s wooden desk.
“Thank you for joining us, Miss Stephens,” he said in a cheerful, upper-crust voice. “Dante, Nero, and Raphael have all signed your contract of concubinage, and—”
“When?” I turned around and met the headmaster’s eyes.
Beside me, Miss Margolyes let out a discreet huff.
He tilted his head to the side. “I beg your pardon?”
“When did they sign the contract?”
He rubbed his chin. “Shortly after young Raphael had recovered enough to rise from his wheelchair.”
I clenched my teeth. That could mean any time, considering Raphael had used his illness as an alibi for murdering Pigtails. “When exactly was that?”
Captain Tanar edged forward, his cold breath fann
ing against the back of my neck. “The day after you fed him your nectar.”
Humiliation burned across my skin, and my gaze darted to Miss Margolyes, whose cheeks turned red. It seemed like she was the only member of staff who hadn’t witnessed my degradation at the hands of Nero and Dante.
The blue-haired vampire had spanked me, making sure to arouse my clit to the brink of orgasm, while the blond bastard had teased my nipples until I cried out with frustration.
The memory of my punishment sent heat rushing between my legs. The headmaster leaned forward and flared his nostrils. Behind me, the two vampires sniffed. I squeezed my legs together and cursed the over-sensitive noses of intrusive vampires.
Professor Proust reached into his drawer and pulled out a fresh quill. “Slash your thumb on its razor edge, sign your name in blood, and we’ll arrange your bonding ceremony as soon as the boys return from Yule break.”
Shuddering, my mind conjured up an image of myself lying naked and spreadeagled in the middle of a circle of slathering vampires. A variation of what had happened when I had healed Raphael. Dante lapping juices from between my legs under the pretext of healing the fading scar I’d given him from the sunstone-infused slap. Raphael sucking my right nipple, and Nero teasing my left.
From the way the headmaster’s eyes gleamed, I was guessing my impression of this concubine bonding ceremony wasn’t far off.
I’d rather peel raw garlic for the rest of my life, thanks.
The twinkle in his eyes dimmed, and his brows rose. “Miss Stephens?”
“I don’t consent to become a concubine.” I folded my arms across my chest with my shoulders wound so tight, they practically covered my ears.
“Indeed?” He glanced at the vampires standing over my shoulder and shrugged. “Very well, then. Miss Margolyes, will you make sure Miss Stephens reaches her room?”
All the tension building around my shoulders evaporated into the ether. Where were the threats? The counter-arguments? There was no way the vampires would let me get off so easily. I opened my mouth to ask, but common sense slapped me upside the head.
Despite the way they’d captured me and forced me to join the Sanguine Academy of Vampires, they still paid lip service to the notion of consent. Maybe saying no to becoming the blood whore of three vampires was okay.
“Actually…” My tongue darted out to lick my lips. “I was going to see if there was a library—”
“Go. To. Your. Room,” the professor said with an edge to his voice that made me flinch.
My nostrils flared, but I inclined my head. Being confined to my dormitory was far more preferable to signing my name in blood. “Yes, sir.”
Miss Margolyes wrapped her slender hand around my bicep. “Come along, Miss Stephens.”
We walked out of the headmaster’s study in silence and back down the hallway of Dracula portraits. My gaze wandered to the picture windows that offered a view of two statues locked in an embrace.
At first, I had thought that they were hugging, but from this angle, it was clear that one was biting the other’s neck. How nice.
The older woman’s staccato footsteps echoed through the hallway, perhaps the noise was her way of telling me she wasn’t amused. I got what I wanted—my freedom at least until the Stryx brothers returned—and I didn’t care what she thought.
After several moments of not talking, I itched to know what she thought of my latest act of defiance. She retained her silence and continued down the hallway until we reached the doors leading to Frumosi Tower.
Miss Margolyes gestured for me to go first.
With a shrug, I pulled open the door. A huge fist grabbed me by the lapels, and a large form pinned me against the wall. Panic exploded in my heart, and a loud gasp ripped from the back of my throat.
“Little frumosi.” Captain Tanar’s voice rumbled against my body. “How did you know that one grown vampire would be infinitely more fulfilling than three little boys?”
“Let me go,” I shouted into his chest, but his body armor muffled the sound. I tried shoving him away, but I might as well have shoved at the wall.
“What’s that?” Stepping back, he hooked his large hands under my arms and held me up to meet his alarming, amber eyes.
I jerked my head to the side, not wanting to be mesmerized into finding him irresistible, and met the smiling eyes of Miss Margolyes. The curl of her lips was a mix of satisfaction and schadenfreude—the delight in the misfortune of others.
A cold sweat broke out across my skin. The captain had seen me splayed out like a bitch in heat, begging for Raphael’s tongue. Then he had smelled my arousal in the headmaster’s office. In his twisted mind, my refusal to become the boys’ concubine was an invitation to belong to him.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I shook away those thoughts. Making assumptions was dangerous. This offer could be a bluff—his way of scaring me into signing the contract. “P-please, let go. I don’t want to belong to anyone.”
“What do you think is the purpose of your presence in this academy?” Impatience laced Miss Margolyes’ voice. “You can’t work the vampire males into a frenzy and then refuse to make a choice. They’re natural hunters.”
“I don’t understand,” I squeaked, trying to buy myself some time.
Maybe the captain would get sick of holding me if I kept my eyes shut like a coward. He couldn’t bite me without my permission, and he couldn’t trick me into liking him if I didn’t meet his gaze.
She let out another of those annoyed huffs. “You dangle yourself like a fun toy, then you run away, inciting the vampires’ hunting instincts.”
My throat convulsed, and an image of a chew toy bobbing in front of an excited tom-cat flashed before my eyes. What was the alternative to walking away from vampires? Say yes, offer up my neck, and let them feed on me until they got bored or drank too much? Seriously, if I could think of anything else, I would do it. My mind couldn’t muster up any clever, vampire-avoiding strategies.
“I didn’t mean to.” Tears of terror, self-pity, and hopelessness trickled down my cheeks.
“What do you say, Alicia?” Captain Tanar whispered into my ear. “Become my consort, and you’ll never need to worry about those annoying boys.”
Clamping my lips and eyes and legs shut, I shook my head.
His erection ground into my thigh. “I can break whatever hold they have on you. Choose me, and I will give you unimaginable delights.”
If I wasn’t already drowning in my own helplessness and despair, I would have laughed out loud. But this was no joking matter. Even if Captain Tanar would destroy the video footage of me murdering Micalla, I’d still be beholden to the older vampire. Still have to be the equivalent of his vampire wife.
He was not a person I could wrap around my little finger. I had no idea of his age, but he had to be at least thirty. Maybe even three-hundred. He was far too intelligent to succumb to any of my attempts at charm or subterfuge. The vampire was unmovable. As pliable as a boulder.
Didn’t cats lose interest in the toys once the wielder let go of the string?
I made my muscles slump and my head loll to the side. In a bored, non-committal voice, I said, “If I’m playing any hard-to-get games, it’s with the Stryx brothers. Sorry if I gave you the impression that I’d be interested in anyone else.”
“What?” He set me down on my feet.
“I have a history with Dante, Nero, and Raphael.” I stared into his broad chest, hoping he would accept my babbled nonsense. “They’re expecting me to refuse to sign the contract, and I’ll bet they have a naughty surprise waiting for me when I return.”
Captain Tanar stepped back to examine my face. From the way my skin tingled bloodlessly, it was probably the color of sour milk.
His brows drew together. “You refused to sign the contract to anger them at the beginning of term?”
“Yes, sir.” Actually, I’d hoped to learn enough magic to escape the academy before the brothers returned, but I wasn’t about to
reveal that to anyone except the onion woman.
My gaze darted to the left, where Miss Margolyes stood by the door with her arms folded. Her look of satisfaction morphed into disapproval. I ground my teeth. If I didn’t know any better, she wanted to reserve the boys for her class favorites.
He drew close and whispered into my ear, “Be careful how far you tease a vampire.” His cool, damp breath fanned against my skin, spreading a feeling of creeping dread. “One day, he might snap and tire of your little games. The end result may not be pleasurable to you, little frumosi.”
Disgust rippled through my belly. My eyes fluttered shut, and I lowered my head. What was wrong with everyone in this awful academy? The best way a frumosi could survive was by not being noticed, but the mistakes I’d made on my first term had seen to that.
On my first night in the entrance hall, my pathetic attempt to escape the boys had gotten them to notice me. Maybe my refusal to kiss Dante’s feet had riled up his hunting instinct. I shook my head. Coming here wasn’t my choice, and blaming myself wouldn’t fix my dire situation. I needed to get out of here. Now.
“May I go, sir?” I whispered.
“Remember my words,” said the captain. “Play games with vampires and they play them back just as nasty.”
“Yes, sir.” I edged toward the stairs until the back of my foot hit the first step. Scrambling about for the handrail, I raised my leg and started my ascent.
The vampire watched me hobble backward up the stairs until they curled a forty-five-degree angle, and I became out of sight. I continued climbing with my heart pounding in my throat, not stopping until I reached my floor of the tower.
Zarah stepped out from the bathroom. “Where did you—”
“Leave it.” I flung myself face-first onto my bed and held my head in my arms.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
I closed my eyes and didn’t reply. Anything Zarah had done to me in the past paled in comparison to having Captain Tanar’s amber eyes on my neck. I still didn’t know if he had been serious about making me his consort or if he’d been playing a game to make me sign the contract.