“What is it?” Kaius asks from behind me. I turn to face him with my hands on my narrow hips. He’s flipping a silver dagger between his fingers. It does not leave cuts across his skin.
Why carry a weapon that cannot harm vampires in a vampire settlement?
“This place. It’s lifeless.” To add venom to my words, I raise my eyebrows in challenge. “Like you.”
“Trust me, Adelasia, I have plenty of life left in me. I cannot say the same for you, as you insist on testing my patience.”
I huff. “You want me to dance as a way to beg for my life? Fine. The least you could do is not force me to do it in silence.”
His face falls from bitter amusement to anger. “Perhaps I’ve spent my lifetimes doing things more important than being polite to crass humans and filling their ears with music.”
As he finishes his sentence, he lunges for me and takes my wrist in his large hand. He examines the skin of my inner wrist as I whimper from the tightness of his hold.
A ruby the size of my palm dangles from an ornate silver chain around his neck, and it begins to glow a brighter shade of red and hum softly. When it stops, I feel a sting at my wrist and jerk my hand free from his grasp. I clutch it to my chest as the pain subsides and then examine the area.
A small, red, eight-pointed star now mars the delicate milky skin of my wrist.
“What is this?” I ask in a panic. “What have you done to me?”
“If you want music, make your own, Adelasia.”
“What?”
“It’s magic,” he growls, frustrated. “You want music? Light? Warmth? Make it yourself. I’m not your servant.”
“You’re right, you’re my warden.”
“You have two minutes to dance, or I’ll rip out your throat.”
“Then do it!” I shout. “Stop filling my head with empty threats. You’ve already taken me away from everything I loved.” I don’t mean to, but my voice begins to quiver. “If you’re going to kill me or feed on me then just be the monster you want me to believe you are, and do it.”
He stares down at me with a completely blank expression on his face, but something in those bright red eyes seems…disappointed.
“What do you know about vampires?” he asks again, carefully enunciating each word as if he believes I’m slow. My silence displeases him, and he shakes me. “Tell me!”
The anger in his voice combined with the way he shouted it has my resolve cracking. I know I shouldn’t be testing his patience. I know that I’m stuck in a valley surrounded by other vampires, and possibly more demons. I have no way out.
“I know vampires were the first demons. At least, that’s what we’ve come to believe,” I begin, swallowing the fear in my throat. My eyes flicker down to the ruby hanging heavy around his neck before I meet his eyes again.
“Is that truly all you know?” he asks quietly, his grip on me loosening a bit. “That we were the first?”
“That, and vampires were created shortly after the Tenth Priestess disappeared. We…we assume the events are related, but we have no proof.” I gulp. “Arethey related?”
“What makes you think I would know?”
“Why else would you care about what knowledge I have? I thought I was just a stupid little human girl?”
Kaius lets me go and turns his back to me, stepping a few paces forward before turning again. “Yes. They’re related.”
It’s silent between us. I stare up at him as he stares back down at me. The tension in his shoulders is on full display as if that’s a truth he himself hasn’t come to terms with.
And then I begin to wonder how many vampires there are out there who were turned unwillingly. How many people were silly, inconsequential humans like me once, only to be forcefully turned into a monster?
I begin to wonder if Kaius is one of them. In the intimidating crimson of his eyes, there’s a sadness there too. Maybe if I oblige him, I can take advantage of that sadness and earn enough sympathy to gain my freedom.
Quietly, I ask, “Will you watch me dance?”
I see shock in his face, in the way the muscles in his jaw fall before returning to their usual stoic expression. He stands up a bit straighter, his shoulders poised more elegantly instead of turned in and tight. His chin is tilted more upward in a regal sort of way. His presence dominates the room, even between just the two of us. The way he holds himself makes me feel…small.
