Chapter 9 #2
“Enough of the doom and gloom. You are here now and if Helana could see this, she wouldn’t be mad about this match.” Sorcha continues.
“Match? I was forced into this. Your husband and son kidnapped me and are holding my brother for ransom.”
She waves her hand again. “That’s neither here nor there. What’s important is that we’re family now. Around here, we protect what’s ours.” She turns and plops my nose with her pointy finger.
That’s it. They’re all insane. That or I am. I’m going with the former.
“Ah. With that said, in a few days we’re shopping for wedding gowns.
With you and Viessa being around the same age, this will be a good girl’s bonding time.
I don’t mean for this to go to your head but as a human, you look pretty good for your age.
You still have that early twenty’s glow about you. Anyway, this should be a fun outing.”
I cut my eyes to her. “Vladmir got my background back already?”
“Of course, sweet child. And it seems like you and your brother are familiar with our kind. That makes things easier.”
“I hope they didn’t scare you too much. Dad and Niko can take things too far in order to get what they want.”
“Well, I am held against my will. What, next they’ll me turn into a vampire?”
Which I know can’t happen since I’m already one.
Sort of.
“Goodness sweet child, no. Real vampires are not like the ones you see in the movies. We can’t turn anyone into us, well not ethically, anyway. We do consume blood but not in that grotesque way.”
I already know this because of my mom’s rigorous lessons on vampires and from watching her feed off my dad from time to time. Only in dire situations, of course. But those times were few and far between.
The Volkov’s will never know that.
“Oh,” I breathe in relief. “I would hate to become one of Sunday’s meals here.”
They both chuckle as if I’m joking. I’m not. Push comes to shove, if a vampire is starving enough, they won’t play by any rules.
We stop walking once we get to the side door that enters the infamous breakfast hall.
Sorcha pulls me into her embrace once more. “I am so glad we ran into each other today. Go get some rest.” She pulls back. “Because in a few days, we will be dress shopping and planning the biggest wedding of the year!”
Oh. How. Great.
***
It’s well into the night when there’s a single light knock at the door. I’ve already had dinner here in the room so who could it be?
The door opens and Vladmir strides in.
“Good. You’re still up.” His voice is gentle, it’s disturbing.
I close one of Helana’s journals and sit straighter in the desk chair .
“I brought you some tea.” He holds a small tray in his hand that contains two cups.
I blink in confusion. “You’re drinking with me?” I asked for tea when the servant picked up my dinner tray earlier. Who knew Vladmir would come serve it to me.
“No one likes drinking tea alone. Well, my brother does but he was always the weird one.”
I’ll take the weird one any day over the one that moves with quiet lethal ease. I fidget in my chair trying to think about what his angle is. He has me. He’s holding my brother until I wed his spawn. Am I a prisoner or am I a future daughter-in-law being captive in her pretty gilded cage?
His kindness is giving me whiplash and false hope that there is true affection behind those murderous grey eyes.
“I got your fertility results.” He says as he places the tray down on the desk.
“And?”
“The wedding is next week.”
I shake my head. That’s incredibly too soon. I scan the room looking for a quick exit. It’s useless. I can’t escape as long as he has Roman and as long as the blood contract is in place.
He places a hand on my shoulder. “Will a year really be that bad, little one? You lost a family but you’re gaining another one.”
“My brother is my family. He’s all I have left,” I say above a whisper.
He takes a moment before speaking. “Once you’re married, he could stay here. He’ll be family too.”
No. Roman needs to leave. That’s the only way my family can find me and break me out of this hell hole. Though my short time here hasn’t been too bad, I’m still being held hostage.
“Why are you being nice to me? Isn’t this supposed to be transactional?”
He bounces his head from side to side. “You remind me of someone I met many years ago. She was strong, fearless, and defiant. She had this edge to her.” He drops down until we are eye level. “My son needs someone who won’t break.”
“Helana wasn’t all those things?”
His eyes drop to the floor. “We didn’t think she needed to be.”
“He doesn’t want me and he doesn’t want this marriage.”
Niko seems to be amused by me, but he’s reserved. When I was negotiating under gun point, Nikolai was a man of few words, but his eyes did all the talking. He doesn’t want this, but he’s intrigued and it seems like I have most of his attention.
Every question and response that was made, his eyes stayed locked on me, assessing and evaluating.
When Vladmir mentioned having a baby and I asked about custody arrangements, his shadows tightened.
When I spit venom on killing him and his family, there was no reaction from him or his shadows.
But anytime I mentioned leaving, he would tense up and his shadows would slightly squeeze me.
Nikolai is a big mystery, an entire brainteaser to try to figure out.
Sighing, Vladmir stands. “He doesn’t want anyone. But he needs someone. That’s the difference.”
Does he know that the first opportunity I get, I will cut down that precious son of his until there’s nothing left but dust?
He sits in the bigger chair in the room with his cup of tea and points at the tray. “Take those pills with your tea. ”
Looking down at the pink pills, I ask, “what are they?”
“There are much scarier things in my world than,” he wiggles his hands in my direction. “Shadows.”
Lifting the pills to my nose, I sniff them. They’re anti-thraller medicine. I’ve been taking them for years and I’m due for another set. This came just in time.
I swallow them, then chase them down with my tea.
It’s chamomile.
“Now,” he leans back. “How do you want to plan for your wedding? I will spare no expense. You will get whatever your heart desires.”
“What if I want a new groom?” I ask around the rim of my cup.
He sucks his teeth. “I’m sorry, little one. The one you have is not exchangeable. Who knows? Maybe in a year, you will feel differently about your groom.”
“I doubt it.”
“It’ll be grand. I’ll make sure your mother-in-law and sisters are heavily involved. Niko doesn’t have an eye for something like this. You may end up hating him more if he was a part of the planning.” He chuckles to himself.
It’s fine if Nikolai doesn’t help plan this sham of a wedding as long as he plans to die before our one year is up.