AllFreeNovel
Share Us
With a final wave of goodbye, she turned and left the room, her heart heavy with worry but with a resolve that would not falter. She had to keep Jay safe, even if it cost her everything else.
Rosalie lifted her gown and hurried through the ancient palace, her heels clicking down the otherwise eerily silent hallways toward the dining room. Two guards in silver and blue armor stood outside the enormous doors leading into the dining hall.
They nodded to her and nudged the doors open on her behalf. Candlelight streamed from the chandeliers above, reflecting off the crimson tablecloth and the nude, pale-skinned woman who was draped over the table. Thin blood trails leaked from the rows of holes along her body from where the assembled vampires had begun their feast.
King Dominick sat at the head of the table, a crystalline goblet hanging from his large hands. He was a tall, imposing figure with broad shoulders and a muscular build that demanded attention, even when he was on the other side of the room. His dark hair was short and carefully styled, matching the trimmed beard growing along his powerful jaw. Every part of him was at ease except for his amber eyes. Those, he narrowed on her as she entered, and conversation around the table ceased at once.
"Rosalie," he said coldly. "You're late."
She swallowed hard and bowed her head. "Yes, Your Majesty, I apologize."
"I trust you have a good reason for your tardiness?"
"Of course, Your Majesty." Rosalie took her seat and tried to keep her hands from trembling. "I've been having trouble maintaining a nighttime schedule to promptly attend these dinners. These days, I've been waking up later and later ..."
The look in Dominick's eyes showed thatheknew it was a lie. Of course, he did. He wasn't a fool. Humans like Rosalie didn't thrive in a world of vampires and then get shy of the dark. It was a misstep, and when he opened his mouth, surely to contradict her story, another vampire beat him to it.
"Humans," the woman scoffed, fluttering a black and white folding fan. "They're so fragile, and like plants, they begin to fall asleep when they're deprived of sunlight."
"Far tastier than plants, wouldn't you agree?" another voice joined in, making Rosalie's blood run cold even while the rest of the table broke out in agreement with laughter.
She lifted her eyes to meet her brother Roland's cold yet playful gaze. Roland was four years older than her, but he didn't look it anymore since Dominick had turned him into a vampire over fifteen years ago. Much like the king she'd much rather be avoiding right now, she and her brother didn't exactly get along.
It was good that he never had much interest in preserving his mortality or hanging around humans after he turned. Rosalie had hardly seen him this past decade, especially since Jay was born since he spent all his time with Dominick or as his emissary in the other kingdoms—lately, she'd learned far more of Roland's exploits at King Vinir's court than she ever cared to know.
But because of his disinterest in her and her life, he still didn't know about her son, Jay, and it needed to stay that way.
Dominick chuckled along with the rest of the laughing vampires. He placed his goblet down and leaned forward to get a better look at her. "Little fragile Rosalie, I suppose I can make a concession for you tonight, as you’ve never used your human frailty as an excuse with me before, so it must be true. But you will have to make up for the absence of your company." He gestured to the empty chair beside him. "Sit."
Rosalie swallowed her pride and offered the king a thankful smile, genuinely grateful that she'd somehow made it to the table without being humiliated by the king. He and his court of vampires liked to mock humans often, and she seldom avoided becoming an object of their jabs. But Rosalie didn't gain a reputation powerful enough to earn the king's interest without being able to defend herself against vampires.
She seated herself next to Dominick, just behind the head of the woman resting on the table. Closer to her now, Rosalie could see the shallow rise and fall of the woman's chest and hear the ragged breaths whistling from between her lips.
Rosalie looked at Dominick. "She's still alive?" she asked, though she already knew the answer. Dinner parties like this used to be a regular part of her dealings with Dominick, but because of the curse on the palace, the king hadn't been frivolously wasting human lives as he usually would. They were in limited supply so long as they were barred from the outside world, after all.
Dominick nodded, his eyes alight with a hunger that made her skin crawl. "Of course. The best way to enjoy a human is to let them live as long as possible while feeding. But you know that already, don't you?"
The woman on the table whimpered then, and Roland chuckled from his place on the other side of her. He reached out and ran a finger down the woman's cheek, tracing the line of her jaw before dipping lower to brush against the swell of her breasts.
"What do you say, sister? Shall we join in?" he asked, his voice laced with amusement and something else—something dark that Rosalie didn't want to put a name to.
She shook her head. "I wouldn't dare."
Roland cocked an eyebrow at her. "Ah, that's right. I suppose I keep forgetting how dreadfullyhumanyou are."
"Tell me, have you ever tasted your sister's blood, Roland?" the vampiress with the folding fan said. She was one of six other vampires at the table selected for tonight's party, her thin, red lips enhanced with crimson lipstick, her eyes exaggerated with black eyeliner and mascara. "I've always wondered. It's not every day you find a vampire with human relatives still intact. Usually, they're the first to go, if you know what I mean."
Roland's eyes flickered, but he did not look at Rosalie. This was good because she could feel herself paling with how the other vampires were looking at her and could feel Dominick's gaze burning into her side.
His gaze was always intense, always burning and staring at her like she was a possession—as he had when they'd been together long ago.
To him, she'd always been a possession. One that he hadn't stopped staking a claim on just because she dumped him.
"While I've been tempted, no, I can't say I have," Roland said casually. "Unfortunately, Rosalie has such a stick up her ass that her foulness would sour the taste of her blood, and I couldn't risk her ruining my palate for months just to sate a curiosity."
"Of course not," another vampire chuckled, a regally dressed male that Rosalie had only met a handful of times before. "There was one time I drank from an old woman who'd had a bad diet her whole life, and the taste of her blood wasterrible ..."
Rosalie squirmed in her seat while the conversation of the worst blood the vampires had ever had the displeasure of drinking did the rounds on the table. Meanwhile, Roland leaned over the woman on the table and sank his teeth into her neck, sating his thirst once and for all.
