Page 67 of Chain Me
Together, they escaped and were even blessed with a child along the way.
But ultimately, their romance was doomed.
A man her lover cherished like a brother tracked them down. Unwilling to accept their union, he slaughtered the woman and her unborn child, leaving her lover to mourn them alone.
And plot his revenge…
By the time the final scene before intermission drew to a close, I felt chilled to the bone, my throat dry. Even Dublin sat unusually stiffly, his gaze fixed on the stage. Something told me that this particular production had been chosen specifically.
For him.
“Marvelous! Marvelous!” Dmitri exclaimed, clapping his surprisingly slender hands. “They were going to perform a ballet,” he added as the lights returned to full brilliance and the curtains drifted shut. “Something about a swan. I casually slipped the director some inspiration, however.” He laughed, his teeth glinting like ivory in the orange glow of a hanging chandelier. “Dublin has always nursed a fondness for the arts,” he told me with a wink. “Theater. Music. What was that phrase you used to spout?‘Music is the only damn thing humanity possesses worth saving.’He was a different man back then though, called by another name.”
I shuddered in remembrance of it.Cael. A creature even Saskia had feared.
“I hope I’ve impressed you both,” Dmitri added, fingering the collar of his scarlet suit.
“It’s entertaining. That’s for damn sure,” Dublin replied. His tone was anything but impressed. He sounded uneasy.
Feeding off the grim emotion, I shifted, uncrossing my legs. Re-crossing them. I couldn’t keep still. Dread formed a physical pressure, crushing my stomach. More cramping? I brushed one of my hands against my belly, just for a second—but even as I drew it away, Dublin had already snatched my wrist.
Casually, he settled my hand against his lap instead.
“So, what has brought you here?” Dmitri wondered, eyeing us, a smile playing on his red lips. “All the way toItalia. I know you prefer the States—”
“Remember that favor you owe me?” Dublin interjected.
“Ah…” He nodded. “And how is the dearest Yuliana?”
“Consider this a collection call,” Dublin hissed, ignoring the question. “You want to remain in hiding? Well, my friend here has a morbid fascination with vampires. In fact, she’s too curious for her own good. You know more about our kind than anyone. So,humorher.”
“Lies,” Dmitri scolded with another hearty laugh. His eyes glinted, a mysterious mixture of brown and green. “I’m surprised it’s taken you so long to try and weasel out my many secrets, old friend. But you’ve never expressed an interest before. Especially not after my ‘exile.’”
“Ihave no interest,” Dublin insisted. “However, my companion has a rather naïve outlook on our condition. Her innocence amuses me, but I’ve grown tired of having to humor her questions. Enlighten her.”
It was a dare. One Dmitri seemed more than willing to accept.
He shifted in his seat to offer me his hand directly. As pale as snow, his palm glowed in the soft lighting. I eyed it, motionless, until I sensed Dublin’s gaze on my throat, issuing a silent command.It’s okay.But when I finally placed my fingers within Dmitri’s, his clamped over them in a vise grip.
“Such a sweet girl,” he murmured, his smile widening. “Where on Earth did you find her?”
“Don’t talk to me,” Dublin snapped. “You answer her.”
“V-Vampires seem…n-nice,” I managed to croak in the silence following their banter. Mentally, I berated myself for sounding so damn naïve—but then I felt Dublin nudge my shoulder.Keep going.“D-Do you get married?”
“Marriage? Oh, she is darling!” Dmitri chuckled in amusement. With deft grace, his fingers skimmed my palm and I shivered.
He felt even colder than Dublin.
“Marriage is a very human concept, my dear,” he explained in an almost fatherly tone. “When you’ve lived as long as we have, something as trivial as a ring ceases to hold any true value. There is much more stock placed in loyalty. Obedience. Isn’t that right, my darling?” He glanced at the blond, but I doubted she’d even heard him. Had she been drugged? If so, something told me that the poison in her veins wasn’t what most women used to chase a high.
Her dreamy smile concealed the taste of something a bit more…organic.
“What about children?” Dublin wondered offhandedly. His expert skills of manipulation were on display, steering the conversation while he still feigned disinterest. “She’s mused on that before.”
“Has she?” Dmitri’s eyes snapped in my direction so quickly that I recoiled. “What a strange question, my dear.” As he spoke, his frigid fingertips continued to stroke my hand, and it took everything I had in me not to yank it back.
“I… It’s just something I saw in a movie once,” I stammered. Not a total lie. In the early days of my self-imposed loneliness, I might have decided to torture myself by renting every vampire-based movie known to man. All of them. “Can vampires—and humans—have children—”
