“And how old are you?”
“Twenty-seven.”
“Twenty-seven,” he repeats, almost sounding disgusted.
I feel him step away, and his footsteps recede until he leaves the room, and the door gently closes behind him. The distinct sound of a lock clicks in place.
He didn’t even leave me with a light.
Several long hours pass, and I make it through them by thinking of home–of my friends–of dance. I can’t imagine what it was like for my mother to watch me get taken right in front of her eyes by two monsters.
I’m so cold I think I’ve permanently turned a shade of blue. Kaius left his cloak draped over the bed. I found it as I was feeling around for anything to use as a weapon, a lockpick, anything to help me out of this predicament.
I found nothing.
So instead, I curled up into a ball and used the cloak as my only source of warmth.
I don’t know exactly how long it’s been, but judging by how tired and hungry I am, I guess that it’s probably what I would consider dinnertime. I’ve been in this bedroom since dawn, but I have no way of knowing if the sun is still up because there are no windows.
The door opens, and the groan of the heavy metal sits like a rock in my gut. Red eyes stand tall in the doorway and stare at me as I cower behind the cloak for some semblance of protection.
He steps closer. My heart begins to beat wildly in my chest and in the dark, I once again feel around for anything I can use as a weapon. There’s nothing, but the door is open.
Can I really outrun a vampire?Most likely not, but I have to try. He finally reaches me, and I feel his cold hands grip my shoulders to pull me to my feet.
I do the only thing I can do. I lift my hand and smack him across the cheek. I think I’ve startled him, because he lets me go, and I run. I run for my life. I run as fast as my legs can carry me.
But when I reach the first turn at the end of the hall, I run into a cold chest and instantly, the braziers along the corridor light themselves, allowing me to see Kaius standing in front of me with a wicked grin on his face.
He grabs my arms again and pins them to my sides. I struggle against his grasp, but then dense red magic wraps around my body, holding me completely still. I shudder when he brushes my messy hair out of the way and nuzzles into my neck as he inhales deeply. “Careful, Adelasia.” I feel a slight prick in my skin and then his tongue licks along the column of my throat until he reaches my ear before he sensually whispers, “Fear makes your blood taste better.”
Five
Kaius
And it was…delicious. Perfectly sweet with the sour tang of fear on the aftertaste. I like it when they struggle. It makes for a more satisfying meal.
This girl isn’t like the other humans kept prisoner in the walls of my palace, to be kept as cattle and feasted on at the leisure of myself or my court. This human isn’t for consumption. She’s the key to undoing this wretched curse that was thrust upon me one thousand years ago. This agony I’ve endured for a millennium is all but over.
All I must do is protect her until the next full moon, when magic will be the strongest. Every curse bestowed by a Priestess begins and ends on a full moon. There is something inherently tragic in that—how one of the most beautiful things in the night can be marred by dark magic.
I have no way of knowing what breaking this curse means for the rest of the vampire race. It could cure only myself, or it could cure every vampire in the world.
If word gets out about who Adelasia is and her role in breaking the curse, lesser vampires who also wish to be cured may not be willing to gamble on it and attempt to take her from me.
I refuse to let that happen. I’ve waited too long and lost too much to lose it all now.
When the human told me her age, I was shocked. She’s been under my nose for nearly three decades and by chance, she’s found by two loyal subjects willing to give me whatever I desire in exchange for just a drop of my favor. I appreciate their loyalty, but it was better that I remove them from the equation, lest they open their mouths around the wrong ears.
Yekaterina, the Priestess who condemned me to this life was beautiful in her wickedness. It was the reason I fell in love with her so deeply. She was the same kind of relentless evil that I myself was all that time ago. She and I lived for the torment we inflicted on others because it brought us pleasure.
It was all a ruse.All of it.The years I spent falling carelessly in love with that beautiful creature, one of the most powerful beings in the world, came with a consequence I never could have fathomed: deception.
Yekaterina didn’t love me. Cursing me with bloodlust and immortality was her cruel way of ending things between us when she grew tired of me. In my rage, I ripped out her spine, and her nine sister Priestesses only cursed me further for it.
I was wild with anger in the beginning and created other vampires just to be cruel. But a millennium of loneliness has a way of putting things into perspective. I’m not the same beast I was a thousand years ago.
I hate Yekaterina for what she did to me, but that change in perspective is why I think I’m feeling…hesitationabout what I have planned for Adelasia.
