Chapter 3
Vesper
“Ibet he smells,” Charlotte Leclair said as she leaned against the wall, bloodred ruby-like candies in her hands.
A child at heart who still likes to pop blood candies whenever she gets the chance.
She looked over at the man her parents were talking to with a pout. We had been stuck in this corner for most of the event as she sulked. Great for me because I didn’t have to move, sucked for her because she—well, both of us—would be hearing about it later.
Her curly bright blonde hair bounced as her gaze kept darting around the room. She was done up as any princess would be in this situation, but she hated these gatherings, opting to look unapproachable and bored instead of greeting her suitors with a warm smile.
“He’s a vampire, he can probably hear you,” I warned and shifted her empty glass in my hands. “Plus, your parents won’t stop until you’re married. At least he looks like he has money. You’d be well off.”
Charlotte let out a scoff.
“As if they’d marry me off to someone who wasn’t rich. It would be an insult and unthinkable to myself and the family to marry for anything other than the expansion of the family’s wealth or heirs.”
She said it like she had once dreamed otherwise. I gave her a long look, noticing her childlike nature. She was probably being forced into this role without so much as a say.
Much like Aurelia.
With a sigh, I stared off at the party, letting my mind wander.
It had been three weeks since I’d been stuck with the Leclair family. Three weeks assigned to be their youngest daughter’s best friend, servant, bodyguard, and anything else they wanted.
Charlotte was a lonely vampire who, just like Aurelia, had grown up in the confines of her parents’ palace. But Charlotte wasn’t as cruel, spoiled, or temper-tantrum prone. She wouldn’t hurt a fly.
And that line of thought only served to remind me of all of Aurelia’s so-called flaws and how much I loved all of them.
“Oh god, can she just not show up to these things?”
Well, there was one fly she absolutely detested and might actually harm.
There was a reason Charlotte wasn’t cruel. Why she was able to grow up as a pampered vampire princess with no duties in the world other than to be married off to someone she thought worthy.
It was because the Leclair family had a dirty little secret.
Right at the side of the ballroom, near the back exit, a small hybrid vampire came slinking in. Her stark white hair hid most of her face, but the deep scars still showed through. They were impossible to hide.
Jewel-like eyes, one green and one blue, shone from across the room. She spotted us immediately before fixing her gaze back to the floor.
In the world of vampires, witches, and humans, Rose Leclair was as black a sheep as they came. She was the product of an affair her father had with a human feeder who had kept her pregnancy hidden until her birth.
At her mother’s insistence, the feeder had been killed and the baby given to her mother to raise. And, like Aurelia, she received the wrath of her family for it.
“She’ll leave soon,” I murmured, noting she was heading to the long table filled with blood, blood candies, and even some human food for the half-humans, herself included.
I felt bad for her, but honestly I didn’t care to intervene. Not when my mind was always on Aurelia and Cedar. I didn’t have the time or headspace to attempt a rescue mission.
Especially when it felt like I needed rescuing myself.
These three weeks had been worse than the time in the Castle palace when I was trying to kill Aurelia. At least then I could escape if needed. Here there was a vampire at every corner just waiting for me to step out of line.
“Fine,” Charlotte huffed, pulling me back from the darkness. I was awarded a few more moments of silence before she added, “She still hasn’t picked a suitor, if you’re wondering.”
My eyes met her blue ones. She had a small, pitying look on her face. These were the moments when she truly seemed to care.
My heart threatened to break in two. I didn’t want to hear about it. While I was here, forced to serve another vampire family, Aurelia was out there getting married off.
Again. How could she?
I had waited while they locked me in the dungeons. Starved me. Humiliated me. Forced me into this station and to act like I was theirs.
My eyes burned. My throat ached. My teeth pulsed with a need I didn’t want to name.
Did they forget about me?
Maybe they were secretly happy they would never have to deal with me and the vampire hunters ever again. If I could even be called that anymore. They’d forsaken me, just like everyone else.
Charlotte handed me a candy. “For your eyes.”
I hesitated to take it from her. I knew I wasn’t supposed to, but just like the poorly hidden bastard child of the Leclair family, I was starving. It was a constant thing. Ever since the dungeons, I just could never get enough to fully satiate me.
I popped it in my mouth. Sweet blood burst across my tongue, and the stinging went away immediately.
Something happened during my time in the dungeons. I tried to stay away from the blood, but I was starving. It felt like I was dying. I drank it, and in turn… I changed. Changed into the one thing I spent my entire life trying to kill.
I hadn’t even realized it until I wasn’t passing out on the cold floor. Instead of my stomach cramping, my throat ached for blood. The darkness became clearer, my anger stronger than ever.
Will they accept me after this? Knowing how I changed?
The hints had all been there.
Everyone but me knew that half-vampire children were like a plague in the hunter organization. Vampire blood never hurt me like it did humans. And then there was my strength and my ability to smell magic, not to mention the feeling of it burning as it entered me.
More and more came to me the longer I was stuck in the small broom closet they deemed my bedroom. I couldn’t sleep anymore. The ability was taken from me when they forced my vampire self out, killing the human part of me through starvation and beatings.
I couldn’t reply to Charlotte, much to her dismay. She kept mumbling to herself while I watched Rose slink back out of the room.
My breath caught when I saw a flash of red.
Is that…
My body moved on its own, taking a step forward and trying to follow the flash. But as soon as I got there, it was gone, and I was left with a burst of disappointment.
I’m seeing things.
That had been common in the dungeons as I went from sleepless nights to the last bits of slumber I ever got as a human. But even if I were, it didn’t stop me from feeling things.
Hope.
All this time, I kept hoping someone would come save me. That I would be freed from that cold, lonely place. That maybe I would wake up and this would all be some type of nightmare.
But this was my cold, cruel reality, and I was stuck here. Never to leave again—
“Vesper?”
That isn’t Charlotte’s voice calling my name.
My heart leapt into my chest. This is real… right? Please, please be real. Too many times I prayed to the gods in my mind. Krae, the witch gods, the human gods. Any who would listen.
But they never answered me, let alone in a way that sounded this real.
I was scared to turn around. Scared to hope and be disappointed.
But I couldn’t stop myself. Because hope, the annoying addictive emotion that it was, seized my body.
It made me wish, long for things that could never happen, and no matter how many times reality crushed me, hope was still there, pulling me up through the tiniest of cracks.
I turned toward the voice. There, before me, standing tall, was the witch who had changed my life.
Cedar looked at me with a pained expression that slowly morphed into a small smile. She looked so different as I watched her with my new eyes. Her gaze was brighter, her skin more freckled. I wanted to memorize it all and was upset that I hadn’t thought to do it from the beginning.
I was so taken by her that I almost didn’t notice the long-haired vampire by her side.
“You’ve gotten taller,” Cedar said, swallowing thickly as if she had some sort of knot in her throat.
I tried not to flinch at her words. And then I tried to stop my mind from going back to the cold, dark place they locked me in. But it did anyway.
I couldn’t breathe. My stomach was so hollow, it hurt to even exhale. The blood, once metallic tasting, was getting sweeter as the days went on.
Day? Weeks? I couldn’t tell.
Pain. All I felt was pain. My teeth ached. My mind was going crazy. Hallucinating. Hunger. Always so hungry. And the blood poured over my lips—
She said I’m taller. Does that mean she knows? Is it that hard to look at my changed form? Does she hate it? Hate me? Does she still want me like this? Will she ever want me again?
I needed to know. It pained me to think that I was going to lose her because of this.
I moved to step toward her, but Charlotte was there, pulling me back by linking her arm with mine.
“Let’s not get my Vesper in trouble, hm?” Charlotte commented, a reminder of my status here. Right. Hope began to dissipate, and I deflated. “Atlas, it took you long enough. Have you thought about my proposal?”
The vampire looked at her with an expression I could only describe as disgust. She looked the same, the only difference was the power that emanated from her. Atlas seemed to be a lot more powerful than I ever thought. Or maybe I just couldn’t tell until now.
“One dinner, one chance, no promises, and then—”
“You give my Vesper back to me,” Cedar said, her voice full of the kind of strength that had me wanting to fall to my knees in front of her.
She came. For me. This is happening. It’s not all in my head.
But regardless of how happy I was, there was still one overarching worry.
Where is our vampire princess?