And tonight—well, morning for the rest of the world—would be the last night for years that I’d be going to bed alone. Not that Scotty would be in here sleeping with me, and there were plenty of rooms for him to choose from, but it was so lonely crawling into bed knowing that there wasn’t another soul under my roof. It would be nice to hear his heartbeat from another room in the house.
Getting to my room, I unclasped the chain from around my neck and set it on the nightstand so I wouldn’t rip it off in mysleep. Stripping naked, I slid into my silk sheets, luxuriating in the softness, and for the first time in as long as I could remember, I closed my eyes with a smile on my face.
Blinking,I sat up, taking in the fog that rolled on the ground and the tall trees surrounding me. This had to be a dream, which I hadn’t had one since I’d been turned. Actually, that wasn’t true, I’d had plenty of nightmares while wide awake of the night that…
Whatever. There was nothing to be done about that now. I was too excited to be in dreamland to waste time on that night. Looking down, I realized that I’d been lying on a large stone box. I snickered. Was I waiting for Scotty to come and kiss me awake? Maybe make all my dreams come true and transport me back to the days of being Ego, the sound witch. That would be cool.
“I can’t believe you made it,” a male voice said. The tone and timber prickled at the back of my mind, but I couldn’t quite place it. “I didn’t expect you to.”
“Hello,” I called, squinting through the fog and trees.
“Child, do you not know your Master?”
Fear crawled up my spine. I knew that voice. Whipping my head around, eyes wide open, I searched for the asshole who’d done this to me. “You’re not my Master. You’re nothing.”
I clasped my hands over my ears at the horrific chuckle that sounded all around me—from inside me—like it was part of my soul.
“Stop it!” I screamed.
“You have so much to learn, young Ego. I have so much to teach you,” he said, a silhouette appearing off in the distance.
I had no way to tell how far away he was since I could tell that my vampiric sight had kicked in of its own accord. “I don’t need you to teach me shit. Stay away from me.”
“Never.”
The creepy way he drew the word out made me shiver. This sucked. Was this just a nightmare, or was he really here?
“Sleep now, child. You’ll need your strength to cross to me.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
That maniacal laugh surrounded me again. “Of course you are. I made you. You’re mine until I say otherwise.”
He took a few steps backward, fading into the dense fog, until he was gone.
“Shit,”I panted, waking with a start, and scooching back on my bed with the sheet clutched firmly in my hands. I looked around my room quickly, making sure that I was alone. Reassured when I saw no fog, no trees, no shadow lurking, I let my head fall back against the headboard.
As I came all the way to wakefulness, the normal hunger registered, along with the steady thump of a heartbeat. Scotty’s heartbeat. I ran from my room, skidding to a stop in front of the bar where he stood with Lysandro, who was in the process of draining his blood into the new goblet Scotty had so thoughtfully brought me yesterday.
“You’re here,” I said to Scotty.
He peered at me in confusion. “As promised. Why are you…uh…” He waved a hand up and down my body.
Looking down, I realized I was naked. “Oh shit,” I said, covering my penis with both hands.
Lysandro shook his head like I was a disobedient child. “Good grief. Go put some clothes on.” I turned to trudge back to my room when he added, “Your lesson starts now. Be back in under a minute.”
I whipped my head toward Scotty with wide eyes, and he gave me a shooing motion. “Better hurry. You know the deal. If I’m going to be your?—”
I left the room.
When I came back, Lysandro looked at the watch on his elegant wrist. Geez, I’d noticed that he was colorful in his apparel before, but had he also always been so elegant? The way he held himself, the care he took, and the precision of each of his moments told me that he probably had.
He clucked his tongue. “Sixty-five seconds.”
“That’s pretty good, right?” I asked, feeling proud of myself and reaching for the goblet.
He pulled it away from me, disappeared, then reappeared in what felt like two blinks. “I just went to your room, took my clothes off, put them back on, and made it back down here without spilling even a drop of blood. So not impressive at all.”
