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“Phoenix came upon me in the Carpathian Mountains and saw the curse that had been laid upon me,” Layden says smoothly, looking Vlad in the eye. “She said she had friends she thought could help me.”
“A curse,” Vlad muses, “how interesting. What kind? Who set it?”
“I’m a curse to all people I walk among,” Layden says. “I have been given immortality yet am cursed never to be around anyone else without their food turning to dust before it can get to their mouths.”
Vlad’s eyebrows raise a notch. “A lonely existence.”
“Phoenix is the first person I’ve met in many years who is immune to my curse.”
Vlad’s eyes slide to Phoenix. “And your gifts…?”
I feel my face go flat. He’s talking about compulsion, and the only reason he can be asking is that he wants to know if he can somehow use Layden as a weapon. “It doesn’t work on him.”
“Ah,” Vlad sighs. The disappointment on his face flashes briefly before he smiles again.
“Sabra thinks she can find a way to help him control it,” I say quickly.
“Perhaps you will find your home here,” Vlad says with a sweep of his arm. “There’s no need to be lonely anymore. I have many sons who could become brothers to you. You might find it’s a shame to leash such power.”
Layden’s face hardens. “No thanks. I am not in need of brothers,” he all but spits the last word, and I remember what he told me of his brothers burying him alive. “All I want is this curse removed from me.”
Vlad’s eyes narrow. He doesn’t like resistance to his plans, and I can already see schemes shaping and reforming in his head. Anyone with power is another weapon to add to his collection. We’re all just little marionettes to be dragged around according to his twisted and exacting expectations.
Time to cut this little meet and greet short. “I’ll show him to his room.” I grab Layden by his forearm and tug him forward. Away from my grandfather and many of my uncles, who are always near him like a little swarm.
I look over my shoulder at Sabra.
“I’ve gotta go get something to eat,” she says, “but I’ll be back tomorrow so we can start getting to work?”
I nod, wanting to run and give her a hug. I need to sit down with her and have a proper chat. When we made up our minds to run away in opposite directions of each other to try to throw Vlad and his minions off, I didn’t think there was anything that would ever bring her back here. Vlad held her mother prisoner in the state mental hospital for decades until she died.
There has to be more to her decision. I glance back at my grandfather. Did he find her after all and threaten her to make her come back?
But as she waves and starts walking back to her car, she doesn’t look scared at all. There’s no tension in her shoulders. Does the difference of being here voluntarily instead of essentially being held prisoner really make all the difference?
“Phoenix?” comes Layden’s soft voice. Nothing to do but turn to the burning problem at hand. Namely getting Layden out of my grandfather’s presence as quickly as possible. God, what was I thinking, bringing him here?
I tug him through the courtyard as my eyes flick around at the four walls of my grandfather’s compound. I can’t help the panicky feeling creeping up my throat. This was the best place to come. There was no other choice. Maybe I’m just the one overreacting because Grandfather can be manipulative. Sabra obviously thinks there’s a way to work with him.
And considering my need to be close to him in order to stay healthy, maybe there really is no other choice. Still, it’s like I can feel Vlad’s eyes on me as I walk Layden toward the nearest entrance. Grandfather let me have a wing of the compound when I moved in a decade ago because I never felt safe around my uncles. They creeped me out. I don’t know how else you’re supposed to feel about men who kidnap you away from your parents in the middle of the night.
We enter the compound, and I drop Layden’s arm, even though the warmth of his skin is comforting. Instead, I stomp down the hallway under the LED lights that run in tracks along the ceiling. There aren’t any windows in the compound, just this cold, unnatural white light.
Contrary to the myths about vampires, my grandfather and uncles can stand to be out in the sunlight—they just find it irritating and usually avoid it at all costs. Still, when meeting newcomers, Vlad makes a point of meeting them in the sun to help dispel any rumors.
“What is this place?” Layden asks as we walk down one empty hallway, then down a set of stairs to yet another empty hallway.
“What my grandfather thinks of as a perfect palace,” I reply, my voice hollow.
“You hate it here.”
“It’s that obvious?”
“Yes.”
“We can leave.”
I sigh. “It’s not that simple. There are things I didn’t tell you.”
