Chapter 19
Imove backwards, only stopping when my ankles brush against something. I don’t dare look, knowing that it will just be another body. A body this monster likely killed.
Beside him stands a timid girl with stark white hair and eyes as blue as I imagine the sea to be.
In her hands is a book with a weathered brown cover.
She grips it so tightly her knuckles whiten.
An apologetic look passes her face, and her cheeks color red beneath the many freckles that cover them.
She pushes a pair of black-rimmed glasses up her nose before her eyes fall back on the book.
My stomach tightens at the scene. Is she another human that he intends to add to the mass of bodies? Did he punish them to teach me a lesson? My head pounds at the thought of more lives being taken because of me.
Are you there?
A moment passes before Athriel answers.
I’m here, but I’m out of ideas.
My heart races at the sound of defeat in his voice. I’m going to die here.
“I’m going to ask a simple question and wish to receive a simple response.
” The prince’s words grab my attention, and despite my fear, a scowl fills my face.
Since the day I met him, he has slaughtered humans as though they mean nothing.
If he wishes to kill me, then he can, but there will be nothing simple about anything I do for him. “What are you?”
His question catches me off guard—it’s not at all what I was expecting.
“Human.”
He tips his head back and laughs, but not a drop of humor fills his eyes.
He moves closer to me, the tick in his jaw clear from this distance.
I desperately want to step back and put some distance between us, but showing a vampire your fear has never been wise—and I won’t start now. Especially not to one I tried to kill.
“A human cannot do with their blood what you can, little witch. So, I want to know how that kind of power runs through your veins?”
Witch? That’s an old term that was used centuries ago, according to some books I once read.
A term used to denote a woman with magic running through her veins.
I’m no witch, but I’m not about to correct him or tell him about Athriel.
Especially since it seems that he still wants information from me.
“Or perhaps you do not know as much about my kind as you think you do.”
His face twists in anger, and his eyes darken.
“I have been too kind to you because you fascinated me, but make no mistake, I will not hesitate to rip your heart out where you stand if you speak to me like that again.”
His words send a chill down my spine, and I know that he means every last one of them.
I tried to kill him, and he wants revenge, but for whatever reason, he cannot yet take it.
I hear footsteps behind me, but I dare not turn away from him.
I keep my eyes firmly on him in a silent challenge.
I’m too tired to keep playing this game of the unknown.
I no longer wish for fate to be in the hands of the vampires.
If I’m going to die, then I’ll do it on my own terms. I will take death over returning to that dungeon any day.
Gritting my teeth, I sneer at him. “Then kill me.”
I’m sorry, Willow. I close my eyes, awaiting the final blow, and pray that there may be little peace where I go next, but nothing happens.
I open my eyes and find the prince watching me intently.
A scowl twists his features, and I can tell that every fiber of him hates me. At least we have one thing in common.
“You might as well because if you don’t, I won’t hesitate to try to take you out again.”
He cocks his head to the side, watching me curiously.
“Are you sure about this?” his words are thrown over his shoulder to the girl with the white hair. She nods her head.
“Yes. There is no other logical explanation.”
He offers a curt nod, and before I can even process what’s happening, he wraps a hand around my wrist, pulls me close, and sinks his fangs deep into my neck. I cry out and try to push him away, but it does nothing. Even if I wasn’t in my weakened state, I’m no match for him.
Athriel. I call out his name in desperation, but I sense an apprehension that has never come from him in all the years that we have been together.
I cannot, he whispers as if telling himself rather than me. Something is preventing me.
My stomach drops as realization dawns and the delicious sensation of the bite takes over.
The hands that were once trying to push the prince away pull him closer.
I am disgusted with myself, yet I cannot stop.
A strange pull is making me long for his bite.
If he drained me right now, I wouldn’t even care. I would die in blissful pleasure.
Without warning, the prince pulls away, stumbling back as though he, too, is as enamored by the feeling of the bite as I am. Surprise is etched onto every inch of his face as he looks down at his arms and hands.
The healthy glow has returned to his skin, and his body has filled back out to its deadly size. My eyes widen. I’ve watched vampires feed many times, but the effects of our blood have never been that fast.
He turns to glance at the girl again. “You were right,” he all but whispers.
A smile splits her face, and her grip on the book eases.
“What now?” he asks.
Her eyes flit down to the text in her hands, and she scans across the words at speed. I watch the exchange, and confusion fills me. What the hell is happening?
“You must complete the bond by partaking in the ritual of bindings. Otherwise, it will mean certain death for both of you.”
“In Kalish, please, Iza,” he says.
“Sorry, Your Majesty. You must feed her your blood.”
I shake my head and move back a couple of steps, but my back slams into a hard wall of flesh. I turn to find Eamon looking down at me, thunder swirling in his eyes. He nudges me back toward the prince, where I find him biting into his own wrist.
“I’m not drinking your blood,” I hiss.
He ignores me.
Crimson red blood trickles down his arm as he moves quickly in front of me.
Before I can question him, he presses his wrist firmly against my lips, filling my mouth with the heat of his blood.
I try to fight, but Eamon holds me in place.
A muffled scream leaves my mouth, sending threats of violence, but the screams turn to moans as the caress of his blood fills me, stroking every inch of my body in a sensation that has my head falling back on Eamon’s chest and my eyes fluttering closed.
I curse myself for giving in again. I have never drunk vampire blood.
It’s not something I’ve ever known to be done, and yet I feel a rush of euphoria swelling through my veins.
The prince pulls away, and I can feel the cuts in my skin knitting themselves together and the ache of the bruises beginning to fade. The weakness that kept me fragile dissipates as the weight returns to my body. I look up at the prince, my mind reeling from the entire exchange.
“That’s impossible,” I whisper, but he’s staring at my arm like it just grew a head. I follow his line of vision and almost scream when I find a strange black pattern wrapping around my upper arm. I wipe at it, but it doesn’t budge.
“What did you do? What is this?” I scream, but the prince is too busy ripping the tunic from his body, revealing a rippled chest of muscles. His eyes trace over his own arm, and right there in the same spot as mine is an identical mark that wraps around his bicep.
Ajax comes to stand beside me, his eyes flitting from me to the prince as though we’re both insane.
“I don’t understand. I can’t see anything,” he says.
The girl with the white hair, the one the prince called Iza, steps forward. A slight smile of wonder curves her lips upwards as her eyes dance between me and the prince.
“You won’t,” she says. “Only they can see the marks, that’s what makes them so special.”
Her words seem to awaken something in the prince, and an actual growl falls from his mouth.
“There is nothing special about this.” He stares at me with an anger that causes me to take a step back, and then he looks at someone over my shoulder. “Get that little witch away from me.”
His voice booms through the room, and nobody dares to disobey. As much as I crave answers, I keep my mouth firmly shut, knowing it would be foolish to push him now.
A firm hand grips my arm, and then I find myself disappearing into a mass of darkness once again.
Since the prince demanded I be removed from his sight, I was taken back to the room I had first been brought to when I arrived.
I waited until after dinner to make my escape.
Dinner was brought to me by one of the palace servants before the familiar sound of someone locking my door filled the silent room.
It was then that I leaped from the bed, making my way to the bathroom and squeezing through the stupidly small window.
Scaling the wall had been nothing like sneaking out of the bloodhouse.
For one, it is ten times the size, and two, there was barely anything to hold on to.
In the end, I decided to use an old pipe that trailed the entire length of the wall to climb down.
The plan was going well until the damned thing started to detach from the wall, almost causing me to plummet to my death.
I don’t think I’ve ever moved so fast in my life.
And now I’m hiding in the shadows of the bushes that decorate the lower edges of the castle as I search the darkness for guards. It’s been a few minutes, and I’ve seen no one. I need to take my chance now.
My mind is still racing with all the questions as to why the prince has chosen to keep me alive. What does he want from me? That Iza girl mentioned some kind of bond, but I don’t even know what that means.
Perhaps you should first focus on getting out of here.
Athriel’s sarcastic tone fills my head as I creep across the palace grounds toward the tall gate in the distance.
Oh, you’re finally back. Funny how you were nowhere to be found when the prince was drinking me dry, and not to mention the hours afterwards.
I told you…something was wrong.
How convenient.
Need I remind you that you are the one who commands me, so if it refuses to work, then it is because you won’t let it.
I would never pass up an opportunity to kill that bastard.
You may not know it, but you certainly would. Perhaps it has something to do with the new branding on your arm.
I rub a hand aimlessly across the black ink.
I tried to scrub it away in the bath as soon as I got to the bedroom to no avail.
I’m stuck with the thing, and I have no idea what it is.
I focus my attention back on our plan of escape, too afraid to really figure out what the mark on my arm means. I only know that it is nothing good.
I keep to the shadows, ducking and diving through the night. This place is too big. From where I am, I can see the large gate drawing closer and almost curse at the fact that I’m going to have to climb again. But I push away my tiredness and keep moving.
I’m surprised that no guards are manning the area, but then I remind myself that it probably means that they are walking the perimeter and will likely be back any time now.
I fall into a run, keeping my footsteps light and clutching at the iron gate like it is my lifeline.
I step into one of the gaps and heave myself up and begin my climb.
I’m so close. All I need is to get over the fence and I will be a step closer to my freedo—
“Damn it, you were right.” The voice startles me, and I almost lose my footing.
I look down in frustration and find Ajax grinning up at me, his arms folded across his toned chest. He shakes his head at me and then looks across to where I notice another figure tucked into the shadows.
I consider continuing my climb, but there is no point when they’ll only drag me back down.
“Karius said you would try to escape, and I made a bet with my dear friend here, Ivana, about how long it would take you to reach this gate. I underestimated you, Red. You’re fast.”
He dips a hand in his pocket and pulls out a few coins, handing them over to the woman with the shaved head, or as he called her, ‘Ivana’.
She takes them, and I’m surprised when I find a small smile on her face.
She pockets the money and then shakes her head at me in amusement before turning and disappearing into the darkness.
“Surely some of that belongs to me since I’m the one you were betting on,” I grumble as I climb down from the gate, dusting my hands against my leggings.
Ajax tips his head back and laughs.
“I think I’m going to like you.”
“Well, I don’t like you. You just ruined my chance at freedom.”
His grin widens.
“You’re living in a palace full of the best-trained vampires. Did you really think you could escape?”
He lifts his brows at me, and I flip him off before storming back in the direction of the palace. Behind me, I hear the sound of his stupid laughter as I make my way back to my gilded prison.