14. Cassandra
CHAPTER 14
Cassandra
“ Y ou know,” my mother said from where she sat across from me at the formal dining room table in one of three formal dining rooms in the estate. “I have to admit, I am actually quite surprised at how easily you’ve folded yourself back into our family home, after so much time being away.”
“The heart never forgets,” I said, raising my glass of blood toward her before taking a sip.
The human feeder laid unconscious in the middle of the table, surrounded by some of the finest crystal filled with human foods—fruits and cheeses and breads. All foods I normally enjoyed in supplementation to blood, but my stomach was turning with each dinner I'd been forced to have with my mother.
Not only because I both feared and loathed her, but because of her archaic practices.
We'd gone two weeks with no information, almost hitting the three-month mark of enduring this mission and I wasn't sure how much longer I could go on.
“No, you're absolutely right,” Mother said, putting down her crystal goblet and rising from the table. “The heart truly never does forget, does it?”
I did my best to watch her with a casual sense of boredom as she rounded the table to come to stand and look down at me. I wanted to tell her that no, the heart never ever forgets, especially when it came to betrayals and grievances delivered at the hand of parents. I wanted to tell her that she may have broken my body over and over again, may have raised me to be a vessel to further the bloodline, but she’d never broken my heart . She had never been a part of it, never had any power over it no matter what mask I may have presented to survive. She’d never been able to break that.
My heart had always belonged to me and no, it’d never ever forgotten anything her or my family had done to me.
And one day she would understand the severity of that.
“I want you to know that I have genuinely been surprised at how much I've enjoyed your company these past few months,” she said, and a sense of foreboding bloomed in my chest.
My instincts prickled, and I did a casual scan of the room, wondering if Talon was back from his check-in call in the jungle yet.
He wasn't.
I forced the sensation down, chalking it up to my mother always eliciting this panic and fear in me.
“Which,” she continued, “is going to make this all the much harder. Quite honestly, I never thought you and I would be able to reconnect on common ground, but these last few months you have truly proven yourself to be every inch the daughter your father and I hoped you would be. But you allowed your panther to commit a heinous crime within this household, and the Wrights have demanded retribution.”
Icy terror sluiced through my veins, freezing me from the inside out.
“Oh, darling, don't look so scared. It makes you look weak,” my mother said, flashing me a pitiful look as she snapped her fingers. Joffrey appeared right behind me, throwing a thin chain of iron around my chest and hauling me against him.
I hissed, the sensation of fire and sickness wrapping around my body from the effects of the iron. My fangs punched out, and I reached up to try to rid myself of the wretched material, but her talem held strong. He wore thick black leather gloves, covering his hands and protecting himself as he tightened the chain and dragged me out of my chair.
I fought, my body remembering every single thing Talon had taught me, and I dropped my entire body weight to the floor, slipping out of the chain as I gripped Joffrey’s leg and yanked, sending him flying to the floor.
I tried to use my vampiric speed, but the iron had dulled it—my senses, my body, my muscles. Everything felt sluggish and weak.
“Now who taught you that little trick, darling?” my mother asked with a level of calm that was borderline eerie. She snapped her fingers again, and Joffrey was on me, doubling the chain around my neck and hauling me hard to the ground.
Every second the iron touched my skin, the strength drained out of me. My stomach rolled, threatening to spill everything I’d consumed before. Tears leaked from the corners of my eyes, my heart slowing to a dull thud the longer he held me there. I felt the blackness tickle the edge of my consciousness, the effects almost a welcome retreat from the pain.
My mother bent over me, clucking her tongue at me as she shook her head. “Now, now, darling,” she said. “You will take your punishment with honor, like any Zorin would. Be grateful that I talked the Wrights down from demanding your heart on a silver platter. They were agreeable to you spending an evening in my special little closet I had made for you.”
More tears streamed down my cheeks, and I tried to shake my head but the iron chain around my throat was too tight.
“Mother,” I managed to say. “Please.” I tried to appeal to whatever connection she thought we’d formed in the last three months. “Help me.”
“Help you? What do you think I'm doing? That family wanted to murder you and your panther, but this was the negotiation. Honestly, you act as if I'm about to drive a stake through your heart.” She rolled her eyes and waved at Joffrey. I could barely even kick my legs in an attempt to fight as he dragged me by my neck, that chain searing my skin and melting my flesh through the dining room, down the hallway, right to the double-door closet that in a human estate might be used for linen storage or extra kitchen appliances.
But not here.
Joffrey threw open the doors and mercilessly deposited me inside, leaving the chain around my neck like some macabre necklace. My skin sizzled and seared as it touched the wall, the Night Thistle-laced paint sucking the power right out of me.
“Please,” I said again, but the talem didn't even look at me as he closed and locked the doors.
I managed enough strength to sit up, to rip myself away from the poisonous wall, but being surrounded in it, breathing in the subtle hints of the very thing that could kill me made me feel like death was embracing me in a cruel, cold hug.
I tried to lift my arms to remove the iron chain, but the motion only made me fly backward. My face pressed against the wall, and the smell of my own searing flesh made me vomit up all the blood I’d drank prior.
Every beat of my heart made my body hurt, a searing sort of pain that made my bones feel brittle and my muscles liquid.
I tried to move but couldn't.
I tried to breathe, tried to scream, but couldn't.
Nothing.
I was nothing.
I was nothing more than that little vampire, scared and confused as her mother threw her in this closet over and over again any time she messed up.
I was worthless. Useless to my family. Useless to the king.
Untrustworthy to Talon.
I was worthless.
I was nothing.
I’d failed this mission. Three months and no useful information on the whereabouts of my brother. I had nothing to offer the king, Talon, or myself.
She’d won. She always won.
The darkness at the edge of my vision increased, vibrating and pulsing until it kicked me between the eyes, sending me spiraling backward into an abyss that had no end.
A lethal growl ripped me back to consciousness, my basic survival instincts snapping to life at whatever creature I was about to have to battle even in my weakened state.
A blinding light rushed over me as the double doors of the closet were clawed open. Shadow hissed and whimpered as she came inside, her silk snout sniffing me.
A terrifying growl roared so loud I swore it shook the closet walls.
But Shadow wasn't here.
My thoughts were erratic, thick and heavy, like walking through syrup.
Still, my panther maneuvered around me, sprawling down on its haunches and nuzzling its head beneath my stomach until I was draped over its back. Carefully, it walked through the estate, hurrying me to my chambers. The farther I got away from the Night Thistle walls, the littlest amount of strength came back to my limbs. Just enough to close the door behind me as my panther gently laid me down.
And then Talon was there instead of the panther, his fangs bared, his pupils completely blown out as he grabbed a sheet off of my bed, covering his hands before unwinding the chain as carefully as he could from around my neck.
The pain was blinding, and I screamed, thrashing before he tossed it across the room,
“Thank you,” I managed to whisper, the debilitating sharp sting of the iron and Night Thistle leaving my body so quickly that I almost passed out.
Talon fell to the floor at my side, gathering me in his arms and hauling me into his lap. His features were panicked, and he sank his fangs into his wrist before holding it up to my lips.
“Drink,” he commanded, no room for argument in his voice. “My blood is over a thousand years old, Cassandra. You have to drink it. It will heal you.”
As weak as I was, I couldn't punch my fangs out, but had enough strength to put my lips to the wounds he'd created and swallow weak mouthfuls.
Each one was restoring, knitting together the abrasions on my flesh, soothing every single fiery sting in my bones, my muscles.
I drank, leaning into his embrace as he held me there, feeling as if he alone was putting me back together.
I drew back, my mind clearing of all of the poisonous clouds, and I looked up into his eyes, and saw a thin ring of blue showing through his rage. Then I started crying.
He held me closer, his entire body shaking with fury as I cried.
“I'm going to murder every single being in this house,” he said with lethal quiet, his fingers so gentle as they stroked through my hair.
I backed away enough to look at him, his statement sobering enough to stop my tears. He wiped them away with his thumbs, and looked like he might stand up and deliver on what he just promised.
I clung to his shoulders, shaking my head. “You can't,” I said in a panic. “We haven't completed our mission. We can't. You can't?—”
“You can’t expect me to forgive what she did to you. What they’ve all done to you. Cassandra, you could have died in there?—”
“I've been in there more times than you know,” I said. “I survive. It's what I do.”
“You cannot expect me to ignore this,” he said.
“You have to,” I said. “We can’t blow our cover now. We can't. All of this will have been for nothing and so many people will die?—”
“ You could have died,” he snapped, holding me tighter. “Cassandra, you could have died.” He emphasized each word, and I couldn't tell if I was imagining the pain that laced them or not.
I reached up to cup his cheek, shaking my head. “I survive,” I said again. “Please,” I said. “Stay with me.”
It might have been the most vulnerable I'd ever been with another being. That desperate plea, that for once, I would be put above a mission or some ridiculous familial bloodline duty.
I needed him to choose me over his primal instincts.
I needed him to choose my desires, my wishes, over his in that moment.
No one ever had before, so I had little confidence he would listen to me now. He was a hunter Viking god and could easily lock me in this room and do exactly what he’d threatened to do.
“Please,” I said again. “Talon. I need you to stay with me.”
A little bit of the black in his eyes ebbed, showing more of that stunning blue.
And then his mouth was on mine, his lips dominating and desperate as he kissed me.
I threw my arms around his neck, my heart racing against my chest as I shifted against him, situating my thighs on either side of his hips right there on the floor. I didn't dare break our kiss, didn't dare stop crashing against him again and again.
“Cassandra,” he said between our kiss. “Cassandra.”
My name. He kept saying my name.
Not viper. Not Cassie.
Cassandra.
He said it with such emotion, such need , that I could barely comprehend it. I could only feel this overwhelming sense of need—the need to be closer to him, to feel him and touch him and know he was real. Know that he was here with me and that I was not alone.
The need to know that someone, even if it was only a tiny amount, cared about me.
And as pathetic as that was, I didn't care.
I didn't care.
My strength returned thanks to his incredibly potent blood, and I ripped off the clothes that’d been drenched in blood from the wounds the iron created, and was thankful he was completely naked from his shift, having not even taken the time to get dressed before he healed me.
I didn’t waste time. I didn’t play or tease or toy with him. Not now.
Not in his state of mind.
This was primal.
This was instinctual.
This was a carnal need that couldn’t be ignored.
I situated myself over his hard cock and sank down, immediately joining our bodies in a rush that felt propelled by something greater than just two beings who needed completion.
I kissed him, my hands roaming over his entire body, anywhere I could reach as I rocked against him.
He was here with me. He was staying.
He was choosing me over his own need to enact vengeance on what was done and that meant more to me than I could ever explain.
So I showed him.
I showed him with my mouth and tongue and body. I worshipped this male, moving against him in ways that drove both of us crazy, our bodies clenching and greedy as we reached for each other.
“Cassandra,” he said as we reached a crescendo, the waves of pleasure cresting over and over again until we both fell over the edge at the same time.
His fangs sank into my neck, and I threw my head back, the pleasure mounting and intensifying with each deep pull he took of my essence into his mouth.
This is what heaven felt like.
This pleasurable explosion that made everything in the world align and make sense. The way we came together created this beautiful white-hot light inside me that burst into a thousand pieces of starlight beneath my skin.
I wouldn't be shocked if I looked down and I was glowing, that's how much I felt that bond between us. A bond that could be chalked up to the shifter connection he'd made at the beginning of this mission, but I didn't care. It was the most real and genuine thing I'd ever felt. And I clung to that as if my very life depended on it.
After a few moments, we separated, our bodies and souls stated. And it was only after I had asked him three times if he would be in that bed when I returned that I allowed myself to shower.
I needed to feel clean after being locked in that horrible closet, and I think he knew I needed to do that alone, but I knew he would have joined me if I'd asked. I took the solitary time underneath the hot stream of water to soap myself up, trying to mentally wrap my head around how easily I’d been overtaken.
Talon was right, we’d have to kill her. There would be no mistaking that, but it was all about picking the right moment.
I scrubbed and scrubbed until I finally felt clean of any Night Thistle or iron despite having rid myself of those things the minute Talon saved me.
I stepped out of the shower, towel-drying my oversensitive skin, but I froze when I caught sight of myself in the mirror.
My heart stopped.
I glanced down at my thigh, just inside of it, and gaped at the black ink that decorated the spot that Talon loved to touch.
A mark.
His mark branded my skin.
Talon’s mating mark.
Talon was my mate.
Holy shit, Talon was my fucking mate.
My parents had paraded me in front of hundreds of vampire prospects, allowed them to touch me in the hopes that their mark would appear on my skin, but no marks ever appeared.
I thought Fate had deemed me un-matable. Unworthy. Because only Fate would decide who your mate was, if you got one at all. Only Fate allowed your mate’s mark—one they were born with—to appear branded on your skin after a physical touch and an internal connection.
I thought I’d been meant to walk this world alone. I’d made peace with that, especially because I never wanted to match up with any of the vile vampires my parents hoped for.
But now…
I checked and rechecked the mark, unable to deny what decorated my skin. What branded my heart. That connection I felt? That white light that felt like it seared between the two of us? It was this. It was fate .
My heart soared at the thought, at how much sense it made and how little it made too.
Then my heart plummeted into my stomach and tears gathered in my eyes.
Why would fate pair him with me?
Why would fate chain him to somebody riddled with darkness and baggage? He was a thousand-year-old hunter, a powerful Viking of a male vampire who deserved a queen , someone who could elevate him. Not someone who would tie him down.
I shook my head, forcing my own toxic mother's thoughts out of my brain.
No. I was the best match for him. That's why fate tied us together. Because I could give him what he needed, which was fire and passion and support and comfort.
But despite knowing this, a wave of terror crashed over me. My entire existence, I’d never felt fear like I did in this moment. Because before him, if I died, I died. Before him, I had nothing to lose.
And I knew if I walked out there right now and showed him this mark, everything would change. He would put me above the mission. He would have to give in to the demands of his instincts and take me off this island for my own safety.
And we couldn't afford that. There was no way in hell I would ever put him in that painful of a position where he had to choose between me or his dedication to orders.
So, I slipped on a silk nightgown that was long enough to cover up my thigh and ensured that all the lights were off when I walked out and joined him in bed. I knew I wouldn't be able to hide it for long. But I hoped I'd be able to hide it long enough for us to finish what we’d started.