Page 23 of Death Comes for Her
A trophy for the heads of the Ambrose Coven to parade around other vampires. I should have seen it coming, but the loneliness of the past several weeks had lulled me into a sense of deluded comfort. The routine and boredom of my captivity had disillusioned me to the state of the world I’d almost willingly forgotten.
All I did was bleed and bleed and bleed. When would fate deem that I’d given enough?
Chapter 8
A week passed without a single visit from the lords of the manor. Imani might have mentioned one or both bastards being away on business. I half-heartedly listened to her ramble and lacked the energy to tell her I didn’t care where they were, if it left me alone and unmolested.
And I didn’t have the heart to admit to myself that it would be a lie.
Their venom had warped something crucial inside of me. Corroding the gold nature of my blood over time and deluding me to the sanctity of my mind. Craving the intoxicating and aphrodisiac side effects of their bites was a confession I shoved deep and buried behind a wall.
I didn’t miss the arrogant, brooding vampire with cold eyes and his new penchant for leaving poetry books on my nightstand. And I certainly didn’t miss the loud, gruff, dark-haired undead with wandering hands and a fondness for tying my hands up.
If I found myself thinking of them, it certainly didn’t stem from an inclination to run my fingers through the silky strands of Simon’s white-blond hair when his fangs buried in my thighs. And it wouldn’t be from a passing fancy to meet Dante’s lips with mine before he sank his teeth into my throat.
No, a profane addiction produced those desires. One growing at a profoundly frightening rate. And if I thought that myblasphemous craving to be injected with vampire venom rivaled their bloodlust for me, well, it was simply madness settling in and nothing more.
In the early hours of the day, when a rust-colored horizon faded under a red dawn, I ghosted through the dark corridors of the manor. With the electric lights off, beams of red light wept through the windows and cast the halls in a bloody haze.
Crim purred in my arms as I scratched between his ears. The wonky eyed cat had become a regular companion of mine since our first encounter. He didn’t allow the vampire staff to pet him and only begrudgingly accepted scraps and milk from Imani. But he’d taken to following me around and sleeping on the foot of my bed.
And I found myself talking to him more and more, to the point I was convinced he understood me perfectly.
“The manor wouldn’t be so ghastly if it had some normal sunlight coming through the windows,” I told him.
“Mrow,” he replied.
“Yes, the electric lights are interesting. They still don’t compete with the radiance and warmth of sunlight.” I peered down into his yellow eyes. “You are an old thing, but I still don’t think you’re old enough to remember the sun. It’s a shame, really.”
I paused at a window, gazing outside from between the heavy, dark drapes. The bloodstained sky brightened, giving way to a ruddied excuse of daylight. Far in the distance, a massively oversized wolf-shaped shadow loped along the lawn. A shudder shot down my spine.
“Mrow,” Crim complained.
“Apologies.” I continued petting the orange beast. “I might be able to escape if they didn’t have bloody werewolves guarding the place. What do you think my odds are?”
Two yellow eyes blinked lazily up at me.
“Yeah, not great without wings.”
My ambling continued through the second floor. Noises from house staff starting the day’s chores echoed from down the stairs. My nerves had gradually settled enough over the past few weeks that their presence no longer bothered me. An odd development, to be sure.
A fairy walking comfortably through a vampire lair? The world truly had gone to hell.
Footsteps around the corner made me stiffen.
Alright, so not as comfortable as I thought.
A dose of fear around the undead, fangless or otherwise, seemed healthy. And it was pure, electric fear that coiled around my heart and chilled my blood when a dark head of hair rounded the corner.
A heated pair of hazel eyes flared when they caught me. His mouth slashed into that wide, unrestrained smile that always heralded a barking laugh. The vampire halted, hands on his hips as he took me in from toe to head, starting at the pale-yellow dress on my body and doing a double take at the cat in my arms.
Then his barking laugh erupted.
Crim squirmed in my arms, twisting until he leapt free. Little paws thumped away until the ball of orange vanished, leaving me abandoned with the vampire lord.
Traitor, I mentally hissed.
“There’s the pretty little thing I was looking for.” Dante’s gruff tone rubbed against me as he spoke. He strode forward, gesturing for me to join his side.
