Chapter 20 Maeve
Maeve
Istood nervously in the common area. It was empty, all of the vampires who lived in this basement apartment out working on behalf of their king against the Ancients or keeping the royal dynasty functioning as normal.
Francois was still with Kayla while she tried to examine his blood for herself.
It was incredible—that this whole system of community and even royalty existed alongside human society. Beneath our society in a way, just out of sight. I thought I’d known but I hadn’t suspected anything this big or widespread, anything this rich.
They had history, wealth, property, tradition, and vampires were cold-blooded killers. Except I trusted them. I was living among them without fearing for my life, without wanting to leave.
Leia appeared from the direction of the bedrooms. “Are you ready?” She smiled as she adjusted her top, smoothing out invisible creases.
“Yep.” I smiled. It was still weird to be talking to the equivalent of a queen like she was my friend.
“Come on then. We’re going up to the VIP area of the club and Chef is already preparing you a feast. There’s nothing he loves more than cooking for a human. The rest of us keep disappointing him by letting our mates turn us.” She smiled again, but my giggle was nervous.
Francois wanted to turn me, too. He wanted me to join him as an immortal. And I wanted the same. Right?
I followed Leia up the stairs and back into the club.
It was quiet, the stage empty, and only background music played softly as staff set up for later in the day.
I’d lost all concept of time from being underground, only following a schedule of mealtimes when the vampires told me it was time to eat.
“Do you like the club?” Leia turned around as she spoke to me.
It was just small talk, but I nodded. “Sure. It’s very…nice.” Who was I kidding? It wasn’t like I’d seen very many nightclubs in my time. At least, not to spend time in and enjoy. If I was in a nightclub, I was looking for something paranormal there, following a tip.
She laughed. “I’ll let Sebastian know.” Then she lowered her voice. “It didn’t used to look like this. Francois used to own it, back when his father ruled, and it was very different. It’s better now than it was before.”
We walked up a staircase where the steps were lit with tiny lights that looked like stars and a chrome banister guided our way. The VIP balcony was plush and luxurious, and the corners were dimly lit, affording anyone who sat up here plenty of privacy.
“This is our table.” Leia walked to a table that had already been set for two.
“I don’t eat very often but apparently this baby is already craving beignets.
” She patted her stomach lightly and laughed.
“I never dreamed I’d be ruled by a parasite.
” But her tone had softened and the words held no malice.
I sat and drew my chair in, taking a deep breath as I did. The fact that I was living with vampires hit me again. Everything I’d ever wanted to know.
Nothing I could ever tell.
“So, you’re Francois’s mate,” Leia said as soon as we were both sitting down. Apparently, she didn’t believe in small talk.
I nodded. “Yeah. He said so.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “They’re never wrong about it, but you should feel it too. Do you feel anything for him?”
I paused. How could I confess that it was as though I’d known him for years? Like he was the only man I ever wanted in my life? I had so little experience with men…it all sounded so ridiculous and fanciful.
“I think I know how you might be feeling.” Leia watched me carefully as she spoke.
“It’s the same for all of us, to be honest. We all get swept up in feelings that we don’t understand.
I just want to be sure that Francois has explained everything to you.
” Then she tilted her head. “No, that’s not quite right.
I’m sure he tells you what he understands of the process.
But I wanted to tell you, as someone who has gone through it.
I want you to know what I know. What the other women know. I didn’t have anyone to talk to me.”
I nodded. “I appreciate that.” Then I laughed. “I still can’t believe any of this is real. I mean… Shit. Of course it’s real. I’ve been trying to convince people it’s real. I just never expected…”
Leia laughed too. “I get that. But in a way, you had a head start. I had no idea about vampires. I had an alcoholic father drinking the profits from our family bar and a house that was falling down around my ears when Nic found me and kissed me.”
“He what?” I spluttered a little. “But…but…”
Leia raised an eyebrow.
“Consent,” I finished, although if Francois had grabbed me and kissed me, I couldn’t have guaranteed I would have cared about consent. My heart had already given that man consent to do anything he wanted to me. My head wasn’t stupid enough to not know that.
But it was more than simple consent. It was absolute trust, no matter how risky or unlikely that sounded.
“It goes against modern thinking, for sure,” Leia said.
“And there were other questionable things about how he engineered being with me, but what about vampires is truly modern? It’s a whole different culture.
It’s a possessive one, a territorial one, and they’re long-lived.
They’ve seen a lot of life, and when they find their mates, they get a whole new lease on that.
Everything in their world shifts.” She shrugged.
“It’s amazing, actually. The feeling of security and safety and of love and being loved that I have right now.
I’m not sure humans can ever experience it. I certainly never did.”
“You mean there’s more?” Surely my feelings now were already as good as they were going to get. There could be no superlative.
But Leia nodded as she tucked some hair behind her ear and gestured for me to eat the breakfast that the server brought to the table.
“I can’t eat all of this.” I laughed as I surveyed serving dishes piled high with bacon, eggs, hash browns, sausage patties, and grits.
“Don’t forget the beignets as well.” Leia sniffed the air appreciatively as the server approached once more.
“I think this baby has very good taste.” She helped herself to one of the sweet pastries and smiled.
“So.” She got back down to business as I put food onto my plate.
“What do you know about being a vampire mate?”
“That I’d be turned, that we’d be together forever, and that Francois thinks I’m a cure?”
She chewed slowly, like she was thinking. “Has he mentioned it can be dangerous? Not all humans make it. I nearly didn’t.”
Looking at her now, that was hard to believe. She was so full of life and vitality. Especially when compared to some of the human myths of vampires being undead and decaying.
“Could I…could I just cure him? Without the need to be a vampire?” Sudden anxiety gnawed at my gut. I didn’t want to die. I quite liked my humanity as well. Before I’d come to New Orleans, I hadn’t been living a bad life really. I had my own place and I was independent.
But the corners of her mouth pulled down and she shook her head as she tore off a corner of her second beignet.
“You can’t feed him without being turned.
I mean, you can. But you’d end up as a thrall and eventually, you’d die.
No matter how much care Francois took to keep you alive.
And it’s no life at all. Maybe I should have brought Sam.
” She looked toward the staircase as though she expected Sam to appear.
“She was a thrall before Kyle rescued her. But that’s really her story to tell. ”
Being a vampire or not being a vampire. That was heavy enough. But if I chose to not be a vampire, I couldn’t save Francois from his madness without ending my life. I swallowed at the starkness of that choice. Him or me.
I was quiet long enough that Leia spoke again.
“Are you okay?” Leia touched my hand. “Please don’t think I’m trying to put you off.
This is an amazing life. And the sex is out of this world.
The whole connection is like nothing I can describe to you.
But there are risks and I want you to know those risks.
This should be your decision and to make the right one, you need all of the information.
Especially because Francois…” She bit her lip.
“He has extra needs. Extra history. Extra baggage. He’s come a long way, but all of those things still exist.”
“This is a heavy choice to make.” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them, my doubt on full display.
She nodded but didn’t speak.
“I don’t know what to do.”
“And I can’t advise you. Not really. I can only give you information.” She sighed. “I wish I could tell you what to do, make it easier. But everyone has to make their own choice on this. We all did.” She looked at the stairs again as she spoke, as if she could see each of the women I’d met there.
“And your decisions worked out okay for all of you.”
She nodded.
“But it might not for me.”
She didn’t move at all this time. No acknowledgment either way.
My throat dried. Everything had seemed so clear before. I could stay with Francois forever and cure him of what he thought was wrong as long as I let him turn me into a vampire. And when he held me in his arms, that really seemed like the only choice.
But right now, here eating breakfast, I was scared and unsure. Uncertainty skittered inside me. I didn’t want to die. I’d risk everything, gamble on a future that I didn’t know existed.
“There are four of you.” I cycled through the women’s names in my head. Leia, Kayla, Sam, Ciara…
She nodded. “Yes, there are.”
“And you all survived being turned.”
She nodded again like she was aware which direction my thoughts were headed.
“The odds don’t seem exactly in my favor.” Four times. Four times, Nicolas’s family had already been lucky. Their luck had to fail at some point. What if I was that point?