by Ana Calin
Irina still seems uncertain, chewing on her cheek. “I don’t know what to do right now. Stay here and wait in case you need help, or take him along with me, and go find Lord Dracula.”
“And I don’t know what to tell you. All I know is that I need to get to that door as quickly as possible, we have no time to lose.”
Rux
I STARE AT THE OMINOUS black cast iron door in front of me, taking a deep breath to muster my courage. My heart beats like crazy, my knees are shaky and my palms wet, and I feel like I’m about to meet my destiny. The emerald necklace feels so fucking heavy on my chest as if it weighs a ton. Or maybe it’s just the fact that using my power on Dobre, trying hard to control the dose and not have his organs burst, careful not to cause any lasting damage to them either, has taken a serious toll me. I realize it’s not the darkness that tires me like this, it’s the control.
I’m facing the door, but part of me isn’t sure about this anymore. Maybe I should have sought out Vlad first, and not even tried to deal with this alone, but here I am.
I expect the door to be locked, so I slowly place my ear to it, listening. Complete silence, only the draught from the stairwell wheezing through beams and cracked walls. The beating of my own heart is loud in my ears.
Then, all of a sudden, the latch bolts from the lock, and the door springs ajar. As it opens slowly, making a creaking sound, I’m afraid I’ll faint with fright.
It takes only an instant for me to understand what’s happening—whoever opened the door knows I’m here, knows I wouldn’t have knocked and I wouldn’t have tried to enter, so they opened the door to let me in. I feel like a hamster drawn into a trap.
I could turn around now and run, couldn’t I? My brain throbs, urging me not to enter the dark place—what chance do I stand to protect myself if I need to. I’m too tired, my tanks empty from what happened with Dobre. What if there’s not enough dark power left inside of me to deal with this.
There’s sweat on my forehead. I’m overthinking this. For fuck’s sakes, you’ve come this far. Get a grip, and just do it.
I touch the cold iron door with trembling fingers, giving it a slight push for it to open wider, so I can step inside. I’m hyper aware there will be no going back once I step over the threshold into this black apartment, and there’s no one underway to help me. If whoever is waiting for me inside knows I’m here and is inviting me in, they know about Irina as well, and they won’t let her make it out to get Vlad and Tristan.
My best bet of helping her is to negotiate with them now. With her, actually, because I expect to find Geneva Daniel. But what reaches me is a male voice. A deep, pleasant male voice.
“Lady Ruxandra Basarab, what an honour,” he says from the darkness. Tracing the sound, I think he’s somewhere in a corner. The door behind me is still open, which I take as a good sign.
“Dracula’s wife in the flesh,” he continues. “I hear you are a woman of special talents.”
His tone is accommodating, and my muscles begin to relax. It makes me feel like he doesn’t intend to hurt me, but it might be just a mirage.
“I heard you have quite a few of your own.” I reply calmly. “You’re the man who calls himself the Devil’s Son, am I right?”
He gives a short laugh.
“Oh no, no, no, Lady Rux. I never called myself anything. It was the world that gave me the name.”
“I suppose there must a reason for that.”
“Sure there is. The devil is my father.” I can hear the smile behind his words.
“Strange, you don’t sound like someone who sprouted right from Lucifer’s lap.”
“Who said anything about Lucifer?”
“You’re playing with words.”
“I’m being more literal than you think.”
I pace around in the darkness, relaxing enough to feel my surroundings through my skin. I even half-close my eyes, compensating for the lack of sight with my other senses. I hope maybe I can even create an image of his face in my mind, using sound and the projection of his energy onto my skin. Like a blind artist sculpting the face of a model they’ve only ever ‘seen’ with their hands.
His energy feels familiar, and my eyes snap open in the dark. They’ve adjusted enough to make out the shape standing in the corner, indeed like a shadow, or a hidden foe from a horror movie. I can tell he’s tall, with short hair and broad shoulders, like Vlad but more svelte. He has the frame of a swimmer rather than a warrior, but I guess a demon doesn’t need to use his body that much. His energy makes me think of Moros, the demon that hid in my bloodstream for the first part of my life.
“You are a devil,” I whisper.
“Only half,” he says, starting to move toward me. “I thought you’d understand better than anyone.” His voice still gives me a sense of tranquillity, and I’m beginning to wonder if that’s not his method of getting me in his grasp.
“You know things about me,” I reply, keeping a stiff spine and my chin up. “And I thought you wouldn’t even know that I was here.”
He stops close to me, towering over me, but I still can’t see his face. When I squint to adjust my vision, driving the blackness to the entire surface of my eyeballs—improves eyesight by a lot—a strong light blasts on behind him. It makes my blackness constrict in an instant, hurt by the brightness.
“I always wondered,” he says in that calming voice, “what the woman of his dreams would look like.”
My heart jumps.
“You’re talking about Vlad?”
“The great Lord Dracula, yes. He interests me. After all, he is the King of Vampires, an important character to most of us.”
“Most of you?”
“Those powerful enough to take his place someday.”
“Is that your purpose? To become King of Vampires?”
“The position doesn’t interest me, but his power and influence do. He’s very feared among supernaturals and humans alike, you see.” I can hear hostility gathering in his voice as it deepens. “As half vampire, I cannot tolerate fear and oppression.”
“You can’t tolerate it as a vampire, or as the Serpent Lord’s right hand?”
“I see you did your homework.”
I step away from him, still keeping my eyes on the shape of his shadow as I pace the dark room. I can feel the objects around us, their energy projected onto my skin just like his energy, so I don’t bump into anything.
“I know that Vlad has enemies in the world, and some are more dangerous than others. The Serpent Lord once whipped him to the bone with a silver lash. Now that Vlad is immune to silver and sunlight, he became indestructible. I’ll bet the Serpent Lord—your adoptive father—is now very interested in finding another way to bring him down.”
“Vlad Dracula is now indestructible, yes,” the shadow man says, beginning to pace as well. Somehow he manages to keep his back to the light all the time, so I can’t even glimpse his face for a second. “This is something that bothers us indeed. Lady Rux, I hope you won’t feel offended by my saying this, but you haven’t been married to Lord Dracula for a very long time, so I think you don’t grasp the entire scope of how dangerous he is. Even to you. He’s not a creature that you can control or predict.”
He pauses as if what he’s about to say is of great importance. “Lord Dracula has made a career even among people who don’t believe in his existence. He’s one of the most famous supernaturals out there, and deservedly so. For such a creature—a vampire, a creature of hell—to have absolutely no weakness is a great danger for the entire planet.”
He walks over, coming so close to me that I feel intimidated. It takes all my strength not to budge and step back, showing weakness.
“His only soft spot is you,” the Devil’s Son concludes, and all the muscles in my belly tense. “But relax. I haven’t drawn you here in order to hurt you.”
“But why?”
“To persuade you to leave his side, and join mine. I want you to betray him, and help me find
a way to bring him down.”
My brain is slow to wrap itself around what he just said, but when it does I burst into laughter. “You must think me either an idiot or a whore to betray my husband just like that.”
He steps dangerously close, his arm coiling around my waist without warning. I stiffen.
“Sir, pace yourself!” It hits me how British I sound in moments of crisis. I flex my sixth sense, the dark power, putting pain inside of him. I can sense his body tightening, but he takes it better than all those before. When he speaks, it’s like I didn’t have an effect on him at all.
“Let’s make a deal, Lady Rux, a very simple one. Just give me one kiss. I admit, from one half-demon to another, it is a magic kiss. If after that you still don’t want to leave your husband, I won’t ask again, and I promise you and I will never meet again.” His voice becomes sweeter and more attractive with every word. It goes to my head like a freaking aphrodisiac, and even though I know I should be scared, I’m not. “Just one kiss, and then you can decide if you stay on his side, or come to mine.”
“Wait,” I manage, even though it’s hard. It’s like my limbs have become heavy, and my voice drags as if my tongue trudges through mud. Speaking takes effort, but I force myself to keep from falling under his spell. I need a weapon of my own, if pain isn’t enough.
“If that’s the way you want to do this, then I have a very simple request as well. A token of trust for another token of trust.”
“And what will that be?” he says in that soothing voice.
“I’ll have your name, half-demon. Your real name.”
The Devil’s Son’s hand falls off the small of my back. He steps away from me.
“I understand what you’re doing. You think my name will give you power over me. But if that were true, Lady Rux, I should have power over you right now. I do have your name, you see, and you are, like me, a half demon.”
“Yes. If I think about it, you used my name a lot in this conversation, and now you somehow almost coaxed me into kissing you, even though I’m desperately in love with my husband. I would never betray him like this, not if I were myself.” I raise my chin. “You used my name in order to manipulate me, Devil’s Son. Now I’ll have yours in return—if you want the kiss. Otherwise you can forget it.”
If this devil thinks it’ll be so easy to make me betray Vlad, he’s in for a great surprise. But, one second later, I’m the one stricken dumb.
“Michael,” he offers, opening his arms in a gesture of surrender. “My name is Michael.”
My heart beats in my ears. He actually gave me his name, knowing full well what that means. It’s so unbelievable that I just have to test it.
“Michael,” I whisper, sending pain through his stomach. He cringes, balling his fists. Using his name and my power at the same time, I do feel like I could bend him to my will like play dough. The connection has been created, his body is in my power. I’m in shock—he didn’t lie, Michael is his real name.
Still, I can’t bring myself to hurt him badly enough to keep him from grabbing my waist again, and bringing his shadowy face close to mine. I’m beginning to see features, a well-contoured jaw, and sculptured cheekbones.
“Now I’ll have my kiss,” he says, strain in his voice. Just as I take a deep breath, deciding to send a strong electric current through him to make him stop, something knocks into us. It’s harsher on Michael than on me, but I am thrown aside, knocking into the wall.
I shake my head, trying to understand what’s happening. I look around as a low light begins glowing in a room that seems the usual living room in an old socialist building—tube TV, plush sofa and Persian rug included.
Vlad stands in front of me, his hammer-like fists balled. Seeing him like this, a huge beast in leather, his face angry as hell, it’s like a cold shower.
His sharp features are locked in an expression of red fury, the cracks under his eyes glowing.
“You were going to let him kiss you?” He hisses through his teeth. I look around, puzzled, as if I’ve just woken up from a dream. The Devil’s Son is nowhere in sight.
“He got away?” I manage faintly, taking a hand to my head. “W-why didn’t you go after him?” I start to realize what an opportunity Vlad is letting slip through his fingers. “My God, Vlad you need to get your hands on him, now!”
“I doubt I’d enjoy my hands on him as much as you were when I walked in,” he says through his teeth, his deep, dark voice a rumble of repressed anger.
“Vlad, I’d just gotten his name. He’s a half demon, that’s the best weapon one could ever have against him! I was just about to reject—”
“It sure as fuck didn’t look like you were about to reject him, but to suck his tongue into your mouth!”
“Vlad!” I screech, my head spinning. He can’t actually be thinking this, can he?
His jealousy becomes palpable as he approaches me and pushes me against the wall. He presses his body to mine, his chest like a metal breastplate under the simple V-neck he’s wearing under his open leather jacket. He rips the emerald necklace from my neck, the stones spreading to the floor, hitting the parquet and the Persian rug.
“Vlad, what in the name of—”
He sinks his enormous hand into my hair, fisting it and tugging lightly, just enough to make me hiss and lean my head back.
“I’ve been betrayed before, Ruxandra. Also by a wife, and also with a demon.”
“My God, Vlad. You can’t actually believe—”
His grip in my hair tightens, and he presses me closer, pushing the air out of my lungs.
“Believe? I saw it with my own eyes, my sweet beloved wife. I saw him come on to you, and you accepting his advances.”
“Accepting?”
“Is it because he’s younger than me?”
“Jesus, Vlad, why would I—” What’s wrong with him, he must know he looks twenty-five.
“Then is it sex? Is there something I don’t offer you?”
“Vlad....” But I’m cut short when his beautiful blood-red lips crash into mine, his tongue pushing its way into my mouth.
I moan as he subdues me with a kiss, yanking me away from the wall and spinning me around. I manage to put my hands on his chest to the sides of my own body—there’s no way I can squeeze my arms between us, he’s much too powerful. I try to push him away, but his tongue reaches deep into my mouth, the hand fisted in my hair keeping me close. I can’t breathe anymore, which leaves me no choice but to send a current through his muscles, forcing him to loosen his hold.
He does just a little, then he continues kissing me with a vengeance, subduing me until I feel the thick Persian rug under my back. He lifts my skirt and rubs his rock-hard, thick manhood against my folds over my panties.
“Vlad, wait, we need to talk,” I manage with bruised lips as he gives them a break in order to go down and kiss my neck.
He touches my skin with his fangs, making me stiffen. Then he kisses the spot, but I can tell it’s hard for him to keep from biting me.
“Talk about what, my love? Your desiring other men? What is it that I’m not giving you, what is it that you’re missing in our marriage?”
“Missing? By God, Vlad, you’re everything I could have ever dreamt of.” I take his face between my hands. He’s so beautiful with those sculptured features framed by long, wild hair. I’m so into this warlord in leather.
“Vlad, you’re the ultimate male to me, you’re utter perfection. The thought of you is enough to get me wet, and that’s never gonna change. What must I do for you to understand that once and for all? Christ, I can’t believe you let the Devil’s Son slip through your fingers because you got jealous.” Though I understand what he saw must have wounded him deeply, which sends a stab of pain through my heart. I caused him this pain. This is all on me.
“Before I saw you with those men at the Red Diaz club,” he says darkly, “Before I tore down that door, I felt you, Rux. You enjoyed having them at your feet, and I sensed that
the Devil’s Son was under your power now as well. There is something you enjoy about control, on a sexual level.”
“The only thing I enjoy on a sexual level is love, Vlad. Emotional involvement, intimacy. You. I want only you, I never wanted anyone else ever, not since I first laid eyes on you, not for one second.”
“I know that’s what you believe, and it’s what I would like to believe, too.” He searches my eyes with hurt. “But I know you better than you know yourself. You’re very young, while I’ve been around for centuries. There is a deep, dark side to you that’s been starved for a long time, and now it boils to the surface, demanding attention.”
I grip his shoulders, boring into his eyes with mine. “I. Don’t. Just. Need. Sex. It’s always love-making to me.”
He sits back on his ankles, throwing off his leather jacket and his V-neck. He stares down at me intensely, and I can’t help eyeing him like a dirty wanton woman. The sight of him bare-chested, those warrior muscles bulging, it stirs yearning in my core. I should reject him, I should say no, I should try to struggle from under him, but I can’t bring myself to. I want him, badly.
I lick my lips, reaching up and pushing my fingers into the hair on his chest. I sigh as my fingernails rake those pecs, his entire body feeling like stone under my touch.
I expect him to throw himself at me and plunge his tongue inside my mouth and his cock inside my pussy, taking me ravenously right here on the Persian rug, but then he doesn’t. He opens his arms, his biceps rippling under his skin.
“Use me, mistress. Give me pain, if it gives you pleasure.” The words feel like a slap across my face.
“Say what?”
“Give. Me. Pain.”
CHAPTER VIII
Rux
I look him up and down, struggling to understand what he’s doing. This magnificent beast, the King of Vampires, the single invincible supernatural being in the world, asking me for....
“You want me to go sadist on you?” I make sure he hears the outrage in my voice.