Fated In Secrets (Nocturne Vampire Clan #2)

Chapter 1

1

EVANGELINE SILVERWOOD

I n the shadowy silence between midnight and dawn, when ghosts wandered Darkmore’s empty halls, screams still echoed from fourteen nights ago.

Sometimes, they were joined by a deep, male voice calling from the depths of the castle, an eerie, haunting cry that stopped the moment I opened my eyes, my frantic gaze battling the dark.

Always losing.

I hadn’t slept—couldn’t sleep—in this place.

From my four-poster bed, I gazed out over Thorndale’s city park, a soothing landscape of mist-wrapped trees in full bloom, dawn illuminating the cheerful patchwork of pink and white stretching as far as I could see.

I tucked the luxurious bedspread tighter under my chin, the expensive silk cool as water beneath my fingertips. Matching drapes turned the bed into my own private refuge, the rugs on the floor were downy soft. Everything in this room had been chosen for my comfort, and my pleasure, by two males who were out of my reach.

They’d spared no expense turning this room into a sanctuary.

Then stuffed me inside this pretty, luxurious cage.

The guards posted outside never spoke, rigid in their stiff black uniforms with the Nocturne star and crescent moon logo emblazoned on their chests, armed with automatics and enough steel to take down ten revenants.

Polite and deferential, they had one duty. Keeping me contained.

As of one week ago, I wasn’t allowed out of my room except to visit Angel. I hadn’t seen the sun in over a week, and I had a bad case of cabin fever.

Metal and glass rattled in the outer hall, and I glared up accusingly at the perfect rosette of fabric adorning the center of the canopy.

Mornings were full of movement and anxious, fearful murmuring as uniformed staff tiptoed through the halls, quietly sweeping out grates, opening drapes, serving trays of fruit, eggs, and croissants, and then there were the roses that appeared every morning beside my bed.

Off putting, really, having a stranger burst into your room at the crack of dawn to arrange a bunch of velvety dark red roses on your nightstand, when the previous ones looked perfectly fine. For the past two weeks, I’d pretended to be asleep when the woman arrived with breakfast, but today, she caught me staring at the ceiling.

Glassware rattled as she jerked to a halt. “Oh, I’m sorry to disturb you, my lady.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not a lady and it’s too early for flowers. Why go through all this trouble every morning? Is it because of Riordan? Or was this Blake’s idea?”

Maybe this was my ‘reward’ for killing Tyrell, even though my success had been sloppy and mostly luck. Not that we’d ever discussed the Ancient’s gruesome demise, since neither of them had spoken more than ten words to me for weeks.

Blake had an excuse. My mate couldn’t get within a hundred feet of me, ever since he’d tasted my blood and fallen into bloodlust.

Riordan…well, we were back to our business arrangement .

One time. He’d let me feed once, from his wrist, then vanished, like I had the plague.

“The uhm flowers…those are not my doing. As for the food, erm…miss, this is how we’ve always done things.” Right . There was someone in my room. I blinked the girl back into focus. “Lord Tyrell insisted on everything being in place before he arose, so he did not have to…see the help.”

“Well, Tyrell was an asshole.” I pushed up to my elbows. She was a few years younger than me, with dark brown curls spilling down her back and wary, hazel eyes. “My name is Evangeline. But call me Evie for short. So you’re just…doing the same thing you did for Tyrell? Nobody’s told you anything different?”

“No, my…Lady Evangeline.” She winced. “There have been no instructions from the new king as to protocols. But we are all glad,” she murmured, her wariness replaced by a surge of fierceness, “The High Master is dead. Things have already improved, something we’ve all noticed.”

“Evie will do. What’s your name?”

“Rebecca, Bex for short, miss…Lady…Evangeline.”

I gave up on the honorific lesson. “So the flowers didn’t come from you?” Her eyes just got wider, so I took that as a no.

“New rules. No flowers in here or any of the other bedrooms. Most of them are empty, so all that effort is a waste.” I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. “Except for my sister. Make sure Angel always has flowers, she needs some color in her life.”

Not that my sister would notice. Much like me, she spent her time staring out her bedroom window, even during my daily visits. Unlike me, she was perfectly content to never stray from her gilded cage.

Angel was two doors down, and the morning after I’d killed Tyrell, I’d put a match to every red dress, silky negligee and revealing outfit Tyrell ever bought her and grinned the whole time that fire burned.

I only wished I could erase all her memories the same way.

I poked at the breakfast tray, every raspberry and grape arranged artfully by hand. “As far as all of this,” I wrapped my fingers around the warm handle of the mug. “Black coffee every morning will be sufficient for me.”

“Yes…miss…Lady Evangeline.” Her brow wrinkled in embarrassment.

“Evie will be fine, Bex.” I told her gently, sure Tyrell never gave the staff a choice but to call him his Majestic Lordship, or some such bullshit so he felt more important.

“Understood, Lady Evangeline. Will there be any other changes to the schedules? Simpson, the butler, oversees the household, I could have him meet with you today to go over the running of the castle?” Inwardly, I cringed.

Outwardly, too, from Bex’s expression.

“Oh, hell no, I can’t even run a meeting. But I don’t mind people moving around during the day. A little activity makes this place infinitely less depressing. Tell everyone they don’t have to hide.”

“That would make everything easier.” She sighed. “We’ve all…most of Lord Tyrell’s staff have remained to serve the new regime, only a handful left to seek employment with the other royal houses.” She dropped her voice. “The ones loyal to the High Master.”

I made a mental note to find out more about these “loyal to the High Master” royal houses, cursing myself for not already knowing. Ignorance was the surest way to die in the human world, in this one, I might as well sign my own death certificate.

“Yeah, the High Master’s dead, and there’s a new king in town, so the royals can fuck right off.” I blew on my pointer fingers, doing my very best cowboy impression, which was, unfortunately, completely lost on Bex. “Yeah. So. Anyway, Riordan’s planning to make life better for everyone.”

Her face brightened. “We know he will. And rest assured, everyone who remained is loyal to our new king.”

Everyone here was loyal?

I frowned, making a note to talk to Blake, before I realized… I couldn’t .

Fine, I’d speak with his royal majesty about security protocols, which would give me an excuse to escape this plush prison. While Bex was probably right, and most were glad to be rid of Tyrell, the staff provided the perfect cover to slip in a few spies.

Or assassins.

“What are the uhm…security measures like for you guys?” I peered at her over my cup of coffee. “Do you have key cards, or ID’s, or something?”

“Oh, Commander Nash checks us in and out every day, personally. He’s thorough and of course, there are soldiers posted throughout the entire castle.”

“Yeah.” I grumbled. “I’ve noticed. What I’d really love,” I sighed, “is to get out of this room for a few hours. But apparently the guards are dedicated to making me as miserable as possible by cooping me up in here forever.”

“Did you know,” Bex murmured, dropping her voice with a hesitant glance toward the door, “there are secret passages behind the walls? I heard they were built for the High Master to get around, and I’ve…uhm…used them on occasion.”

Well, color me intrigued.

“So there’s a secret passage behind that wall, right there?” I nodded to the wall behind the enormous armoire.

“The back of the armoire opens like a door.” She blushed. “It’s a shortcut. The passages are narrow, but there are secret doors in every room and along the hallways, if you know where to look.”

“So I could get out of this room without anyone knowing? Theoretically speaking, of course?”

She shifted nervously. “Well, yes. As long as you don’t tell anyone you heard about the passages from me.”

I had a coconspirator and a way out. And a big mug of coffee.

Suddenly, today held all kinds of possibilities.

“This passage intersects with a small landing, then you’ll take the stairs down to the first floor, they’re in that direction.” She pointed south. “There’s a servant’s entrance…”

“Which leads out the side onto a walkway.” I nodded a little too enthusiastically. “I’ve been there. Are there guards, once I get outside?”

“A lot of them. The king takes security seriously. And Commander Nash is competent at his job. This castle is quite safe, my lady, you have nothing to fear.”

Except for withering into a soulless husk inside my fancy bedroom.

“Where can I find this Commander Nash?”

“The old barracks out behind the castle now house the clan’s Knightsguard.” She peered at my blank expression. “That’s what we call our military. Lord Tyrell had his private guard, but King Riordan has already established an army.”

“I have no interest in minding the household, but I wouldn’t mind seeing this army of ours.” I pulled on my almost-clean shirt, then jeans and boots. “What’s this Nash like? I don’t want to leave a bad impression on our new commander.”

“Oh, Nash will like you.” Bex managed a shy, tentative smile. “I should know, since he’s my uncle. Based on everything I’ve seen so far, you two will end up best mates.”