Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
YORICK
“Come, sit,” Morpheus invites as he pats the couch he’s lounging on. There are others frolicking around the large house we’ve stepped into, but most seem to be here because of him.
“Is this your home?”
“Heavens, no. You think I would live in this quaint thing? Please, Yorick, don’t put me on the same level as your maker,” he says.
I look around the mansion and decide that we have wildly different opinions of what quaint means, especially if he thinks where Atticus lives is uninhabitable. I’d hate for him to see my place.
“Come on, sit,” he says again.
I sit down next to him while an extremely young vampire turns the TV on.
“What do you like to watch?”
I shrug. “I’m not picky.”
“How can someone as beautiful as you not be picky? You deserve to have anything you could possibly want,” Morpheus says as he leans into me so he can slide his fingers through my hair.
“Maybe I just haven’t found anything good enough for me yet.”
He laughs before leaning in and kissing my forehead. “Well, perhaps we can change that. You see, after living for as long as I have, I feel like I have everything at the tips of my fingers. Anything you want, I will happily give you.”
I don’t quite know what to do with the kiss, but I won’t lie…
I like the attention. What if I just… don’t stab the man and live in luxury inside his giant mansion instead?
I doubt any of us would even live through stabbing him, so what if I just…
don’t? It’ll piss Atticus off even more, but when is he not pissed?
“That poison really did a number on you,” Morpheus says as he draws the bandage off and softly runs his finger down the gash in my arm. “Your beautiful skin is all marred.”
My eyes follow his fingers, and I feel uncertain.
A strange part of me wants to lean into him.
I like the attention and I’m almost prepared to do anything to get more of it.
If I keep his attention on me, then maybe he won’t mess with Casimir or Atticus.
I mean… if he was actually fond of me, he’d listen to me, right?
But another part of me keeps thinking about that aggravating Atticus, and why is that?
He has spent most of my life making sure I’m well aware that I’m like a mosquito buzzing around him and causing him issues.
“Your mind keeps drifting.”
“I’ve been known to make horrible decisions in my life,” I inform him. “The first was ever involving myself with Atticus.”
“I don’t believe that. If you hadn’t, we’d have never met. And you would no longer be alive. Atticus has been known to do a good thing here and there… maybe not often, but he sprinkles it in.”
My mind drifts back to the past… the past that involves both Atticus and Morpheus.
I close my eyes and try not to think about that.
“How well do you know Atticus?” I ask. All I know about their relationship is what I’ve seen. It was never good, but what I want to know is what happened before.
“Not well at all. After I changed him, he immediately ran off to do his own thing. He’s always been a free spirit. But maybe that’s what I liked about him. We are similar in that way.”
What he “liked” about Atticus? I’m quite confident he doesn’t like anything about Atticus.
“Yeah? Well, I’ve gotten to know him over the years and he’s a pain in the ass,” I grumble.
He laughs before I notice a young woman come in with two glasses of blood. Morpheus takes both of them, swirling a cup beneath my nose.
“Smells good, doesn’t it?”
The scent of blood wafts up to my nose, but ever since I drank from Atticus, I’ve had a wild craving for his blood and only his. The smell of this almost makes me want to pull away.
“Is there something different about it?” I ask as I take it from him.
“A group of humans whose blood is more tantalizing than a normal human’s. They’re treated like royalty in exchange for their blood.”
I take a sip and find that it tastes as bland as any other blood I’ve drunk since I had Atticus’s, but Morpheus hums in pleasure while he sips it. I make a show of pretending like it’s delightful, but he probably doesn’t even care what I think.
“Do you ever find vampire blood appealing?” I ask curiously.
“Never.”
I take another sip and set it down next to his glass as my mind races and seems to only know how to find its way back to Atticus. Morpheus leans back when a movie starts and pulls me close, his arm wrapped around my shoulder. I stare at his arm, uncertain how to feel about it.
“I’m already bored. What about a show somewhere? That could be fun. Veronica, can you find us something to do?”
“Of course,” she says.
“You need new clothes. Something that’ll really make those beautiful eyes of yours pop. Danny, get my dear guest here some new clothes.”
“Right away.”
And off they go while Morpheus turns to me. “How is your relationship with Atticus these days? We haven’t talked in years, have we? Do you belong to him now? You two seemed closer than the last time I saw you.”
My face scrunches up. “There is no relationship. Since the day I met him, my main goal in life has been causing Atticus problems. I belong to no one.”
“You wouldn’t even belong to me?” he asks as he puts a finger under my chin.
“You may pamper me and tell me I’m pretty, but I belong to no one.”
Morpheus laughs. “You are very pretty… and stubborn.”
I beam at him. “Thank you.”
When I wake up in a large bed wrapped in sheets of the finest silk, I wonder what I should do about stabbing my new benefactor.
He took me out last night to see a show and treated me like royalty the entire time.
But it’s just an act, right? He’s trying to convince me he’s better than Atticus. This is all a game to him.
A knock on the door makes me realize that something had woken me up.
“Come in,” I say, sensing that it’s Veronica.
She pushes the door open as I sit up. “Morpheus has a doctor here to see you when you’re up and ready.”
“A doctor?”
“To see if he can help with the poison.”
“I’m fine,” I tell her, but I climb out of bed and get dressed before following her to another room. Morpheus is on the phone as I get near but ends the call and sets a hand on my shoulder.
“Let’s see if someone can get you healed up,” he says. “I hate seeing anything mar your beautiful skin.” His finger rubs over the spot on my neck where my throat had been slit. “Did Atticus kill those who did this to you?”
“No, he didn’t.”
“He doesn’t treasure you, does he?”
Before I can answer, Danny peeks into the room. “Morpheus, Lou and Niles are here.”
Morpheus hesitates. “What are they doing here?”
“They’d like to talk to you.”
He sighs and runs a hand through his hair before setting it on my shoulder in exasperation. “Save me, Yorick. They’re both so dreadful to talk to, but Niles is my brother and I have no choice but to chat with him.”
“Brother… like real-life brother?” I ask in surprise. All these years and I had absolutely no idea that he had a brother. I wonder if Atticus knows.
“Yes. We were turned at the same time, and Lou is his wife. Danny, tell him that I’m currently busy but will be out in half an hour.”
“Oh, I’m fine by myself,” I say.
He kisses the side of my head. “I know you are, but I want to go with you to make sure you get the best treatment.”
“Why are you acting so caring?”
“It’s not an act.”
I watch him closely but I can’t fight the odd feeling creeping over me.
He doesn’t actually care about me, right?
But what if he does? Morpheus wasn’t always kind to me.
Hell, he used to be downright cruel to me, but it’s been hundreds of years since then.
And anytime he was mean to me, it was to fuck with Atticus, which he hasn’t done in at least a hundred years, maybe more.
“Come on,” Morpheus says, setting a hand on my back and guiding me over to a room where the doctor is waiting.
“Do you know what kind of poison this was?” the doctor asks as he examines my wounds.
I shake my head. “No. I just know that it took about ten minutes to start working. It has significantly altered my healing.”
Once he finishes examining me, the doctor looks at Morpheus.
“I’ve honestly never seen anything like this.
I would have stitched his wounds back together when they happened, but it’s been too long now.
My only other suggestion is to remove some of the blood from his body and cycle it with new blood.
If the poison is still lingering in his system, new blood could possibly help with healing. ”
“What do you think, Yorick?” Morpheus asks, and I find myself wanting to tell him no simply because the blood I currently have was given to me by Atticus. But why the fuck would that matter?
“What’s wrong?” Morpheus questions. “Is it hurting?”
I hastily pull my mind away from that nonsense. “No… I’m okay. Yeah, we could try that… but I don’t want to remove too much blood,” I say, not loving the idea of being weakened. What if this is a ploy? Then again, Morpheus definitely wouldn’t need to remove any of my blood to kill me.
The doctor nods. “I need to gather my supplies, so I’ll be back. I promise it’ll be fast and easy.”
Morpheus pulls me out of the room. “You seem apprehensive.”
“Maybe just disappointed there isn’t a quick fix.”
“You’re better than yesterday, I can tell. It’s just ridiculously slow.”
“Yeah.”
“Does it hurt?” he asks.
“It doesn’t feel the best, but it’s definitely better than it was.”
“I bet. Come on,” he says before leading me into the foyer where a man who resembles Morpheus stands. It’s apparent with just a look that they’re brothers. “Niles, I didn’t know you were coming.”
“You were in the area, how could we not visit?” he asks while a beautiful woman in a pantsuit places a manicured hand on his arm. Her eyes flick to me almost immediately.
“Who is this?” she asks Morpheus.
“Atticus’s.”
“I am not property,” I remind him.
“Right. Lou, he was turned by Atticus. Is that better?” he asks me with a grin. “You’re so picky.”
“Would you want people to think you belonged to Atticus?”