Chapter 6
SIX
PHOENIX
Sabra chatters the whole way back to the city as I sit up front in her little Dacia with Layden stuffed in the back.
He barely fits in the little European car.
He’s so tall and now that he’s filled out after eating the deer, broad.
I sneak a couple looks back at him, and each time, he’s shifting to awkwardly fold his long limbs a different way while also holding onto the ceiling, watching with wide eyes out the front window as Sabra swerves in and out of traffic.
I realize, holy shit, this has got to be his first time in a car. If he had been in the woods for two hundred years, he doesn’t know anything about the modern world. Which is when I also remember where I’m taking him.
I turn around to give him my full attention. “Look, you kept asking where I come from, and I should have told you about everything you’re about to walk into before you decided to come along.”
“It won’t matter.” He sounds absolutely confident.
“Fine, but you still need to know so you aren’t walking in blind. I’m not a vampire, but my grandfather Vlad is. So are the rest of my family, so you’re whole,” I wave a hand, “Famine thing shouldn’t be a problem. They don’t get hungry or eat food.”
“But never forget the most important rule.” I wave a finger in his face. “Never let him bite you or accept an offer of a blood oath from him.”
He nods, not looking a bit phased. “Got it. Vampires. Don’t accept blood oaths. Anything else I should know?”
“I’m serious. No blood oaths. Even if he tries to phrase it in friendly terms, like it’s just an easy exchange. He’ll try to trap you so he can enslave you forever.”
He nods again. “No oaths or promises of any kind.”
I breathe out. “Vlad and all of my uncles are serious dicks. Don’t trust any of them or tell them where you come from.”
He nods, and again, I’m a little taken aback at how easily he’s taking in all this information. I’ve spent my whole life terrified to open up to anyone or bring them into my dangerous life, but to this guy, it feels like it’s just another walk in the park on a sunny afternoon.
His confidence and lack of fear make me feel a little less terrified as Sabra pulls onto the long stretch of driveway leading into Vlad’s estate.
I ran away, and I’ve never known Vlad to be lenient when somebody breaks his rules.
He was born in the Middle Ages. His namesake, the historic Vlad Dracul Tepes, got his reputation from spearing his enemy’s bodies on spikes while they were still alive so they died gruesome deaths and drenched the fields in the blood of the armies he conquered.
“Let’s go around back,” I tell Sabra, my chest tight with tension as we come up to the front gate.
Sabra nods, but as she starts to turn, the front gate opens, and Vlad is standing right there waiting for us.
“Shit,” I hiss out.
Layden reaches forward from the back seat and squeezes my shoulder. “He cannot hurt you. I am here.”
His gentle assurance makes my chest squeeze for an entirely different reason. I never should have brought him to this shark pool. He’s too kind. Too good.
But I’m not. I’m bad and selfish, and I always have been. I reach out for what feels good in the moment and don’t think about consequences until it’s far too late.
I spin around, wanting to shove Layden out the back door and tell him to run, but Sabra’s already pulling to a stop in front of Vlad.
Layden reaches for his door but fumbles around, not knowing where the handle is. I take the opportunity to jump out of the car so I can try to calm Vlad’s temper before he explodes and takes it out on the stranger who’s appeared at his gate.
Sabra steps out with me and walks around to help Layden out while I brace myself in front of my grandfather. I want to turn around and tell her to stop. To wait.
But to my surprise, Vlad smiles at me and holds out his arms. “The prodigal granddaughter has returned. I trust you enjoyed sowing your wild oats, child?”
“I—Uh, I—” I stutter, not knowing what to make of this reception.
He pulls me in for an embrace. “And who is this you’ve brought back to me? Two little mice run away, and three come back?” His voice sends a chill down my spine.
Sabra opens the door for Layden, and I watch Vlad’s hungry eyes fall on him. His nostrils flare as he inhales, and a crease appears on his forehead. Can he smell that Layden isn’t human? Does he know what he is? Has he run into Layden’s kind before?
Nothing else shows on Vlad’s face as he shoots a welcoming, only slightly creepy grin Layden’s way. “And who might we have the honor of welcoming into our home? My sweet granddaughter does not bring home strays often.”
I’m suddenly very glad that Layden is wearing the farmer’s bulky jacket, even though I see Vlad eyeing his wardrobe distastefully.
Vlad once told me you can tell everything about a person’s wealth in the first five seconds of meeting them—from the tailoring of their clothes and how worn their shoes are to the cut of their hair and the scent of their cologne.
Layden might look like a peasant relation, but I’m just glad his wing stumps only bulge slightly and might be seen as merely an odd lay of the jacket’s construction.
I make a note to buy him a lot of bulky outerwear.
At least it’s winter. But what about summer?
What will we do to hide his stumps, then?
Then I realize how presumptuous it is to imagine that he’ll still be here in summer.
“I’m happy to be here, sir,” Layden says, eyeing Vlad warily. “Thank you for your hospitality.”
“How did you and my dear Phoenix come to know one another? Sabra told me some, but I love to hear it from the horse’s mouth.”
My gaze shoots to Sabra, but she’s busy thumbing through something on her phone.
I frown. Just how much did she tell him about what she found when she got to the cabin?
I feel guilty the moment I second-guess her intentions.
She would never sell me out. She’s been my best friend forever and the only person I trust in the world…
At the same time, I don’t think I’m going to share any more of what Layden’s told me about where he’s from if I can help it.
She just knows he’s cursed. She and I might love one another like sisters, but he’s nothing to her.
“Phoenix came upon me in the Carpathian Mountains and saw the curse that had been laid upon me,” Layden says smoothly, looking Vlad in the eye. “She said she had friends she thought could help me.”
“A curse,” Vlad muses, “how interesting. What kind? Who set it?”
“I’m a curse to all people I walk among,” Layden says. “I have been given immortality yet am cursed never to be around anyone else without their food turning to dust before it can get to their mouths.”
Vlad’s eyebrows raise a notch. “A lonely existence.”
“Phoenix is the first person I’ve met in many years who is immune to my curse.”
Vlad’s eyes slide to Phoenix. “And your gifts…?”
I feel my face go flat. He’s talking about compulsion, and the only reason he can be asking is that he wants to know if he can somehow use Layden as a weapon. “It doesn’t work on him.”
“Ah,” Vlad sighs. The disappointment on his face flashes briefly before he smiles again.
“Sabra thinks she can find a way to help him control it,” I say quickly.
“Perhaps you will find your home here,” Vlad says with a sweep of his arm. “There’s no need to be lonely anymore. I have many sons who could become brothers to you. You might find it’s a shame to leash such power.”
Layden’s face hardens. “No thanks. I am not in need of brothers,” he all but spits the last word, and I remember what he told me of his brothers burying him alive. “All I want is this curse removed from me.”
Vlad’s eyes narrow. He doesn’t like resistance to his plans, and I can already see schemes shaping and reforming in his head. Anyone with power is another weapon to add to his collection. We’re all just little marionettes to be dragged around according to his twisted and exacting expectations.
Time to cut this little meet and greet short. “I’ll show him to his room.” I grab Layden by his forearm and tug him forward. Away from my grandfather and many of my uncles, who are always near him like a little swarm.
I look over my shoulder at Sabra.
“I’ve gotta go get something to eat,” she says, “but I’ll be back tomorrow so we can start getting to work?”
I nod, wanting to run and give her a hug.
I need to sit down with her and have a proper chat.
When we made up our minds to run away in opposite directions of each other to try to throw Vlad and his minions off, I didn’t think there was anything that would ever bring her back here.
Vlad held her mother prisoner in the state mental hospital for decades until she died.
There has to be more to her decision. I glance back at my grandfather. Did he find her after all and threaten her to make her come back?
But as she waves and starts walking back to her car, she doesn’t look scared at all. There’s no tension in her shoulders. Does the difference of being here voluntarily instead of essentially being held prisoner really make all the difference?
“Phoenix?” comes Layden’s soft voice. Nothing to do but turn to the burning problem at hand. Namely getting Layden out of my grandfather’s presence as quickly as possible. God, what was I thinking, bringing him here?
I tug him through the courtyard as my eyes flick around at the four walls of my grandfather’s compound.
I can’t help the panicky feeling creeping up my throat.
This was the best place to come. There was no other choice.
Maybe I’m just the one overreacting because Grandfather can be manipulative.
Sabra obviously thinks there’s a way to work with him.