Chapter Twelve #3
Firelight danced in his too-bright eyes—captivating me, scaring me, drawing me in, pushing me away. “You are correct,” he hissed, “but only partly so.”
“What?”
“Yes, I did write this book. And yes, this is my story. But no, I am not the noblewoman. I... am the painter.”
“You...? You’re...?” I trailed off, speech failing me.
Closing the book, he set it down on my lap.
“Can you picture it, sweet one? Me, a young man of twenty, moving to the city for the very first time.
My life had been spent in the countryside with my mother and sisters.
All I knew of life were chores, playing with my sisters, and doing odd jobs in the village to make enough to buy paint.
“Lust, sex, betrayal, and possession were unfathomable to me, so why should such things overtake my brush when I painted the fair noblewoman I so admired?” he whispered, gazing into the fire.
“For it was her kindness that drew me to her in the first place.
Every other noble who crossed my path looked at me like the scum at the bottom of the chamber pot, but the first time I saw her, she was treating a group of peasant children to a snack while she sat among them, listening to all their stories.
“After she killed my wife and had me dragged back to her, she told me that was why she tried to spare me,” he said. “She saw something of the innocent, sweet child in me when she looked at my paintings. Because of that, she couldn’t kill me any more than she could kill an innocent child.
“The only thing she wanted that day was to keep me close. In that moment, she wanted to have that innocence all to herself, and the thought terrified her,” he hissed.
“She realized she was becoming like the men who ruined her life and family.
She saw that she was seeing me through their twisted lens, so she tried to save me and herself by sending me away.
“But as the years passed, her world only grew darker, colder, and more soaked in blood. She couldn’t face an eternity like this—she needed to bask in my pure love and innocence again.
She needed to know that all that had been, would not be all there ever was.
And so, she returned me to her side”—Radu pulled down his tee and slouchy cardigan, revealing the mark over his heart—“and turned me.”
I could barely breathe; I was shaken all the way through.
“Just like that, she bound herself to the innocence she thought would save her, and in so doing destroyed us both.”
My jaw worked for a solid minute. “She was a vampire the whole time? Was that how she carried out the murders?”
“Not the whole time,” he corrected. “One of the men she targeted one night rather got the best of her... and killed her first.”
“Wow...” I let that sink in. “But, did you really have to stay with her just because she turned you?”
Radu chuckled. “That’s like asking if you really have to stay with your parents just because they gave birth to you.
How exactly is a mewling newborn who can’t walk, talk, or feed themselves supposed to leave?
In the first few years after the bite, you’re wracked with excruciating pain, day and night, as your body undergoes the change. ”
“Years?” I squeaked.
“Years.” He sighed. “In that time, you’re helpless.
You can’t move. You can’t think. You’re entirely reliant on your sire to bring you blood.
And then, after the change is complete, there are even more challenges.
You need your sire to teach you how to hunt, how to navigate a life in the dark, how to stay hidden, how to control your bloodlust—everything.
Your sire becomes responsible for you in every way, and that rule became ironclad after the witches rose up and began persecuting us.
“We had to live in total secrecy, which meant there was zero tolerance for clueless newborn vampires running amok,” he said.
“So yes, sweet one, under pain of being hunted down and killed by the elders, I had to live under the ironclad rule of the person who killed the only woman I ever truly loved. My Annabelle.”
A long, heavy silence filled the room.
“I’m sorry, Santino,” I whispered. “I really am. That kind young man and his innocent wife deserved so much better.” I rested my hand on the book. “Thank you for sharing your story with me. It’s really helped me see... how you became such a shitbrained bastard.”
Radu barked a laugh, startling himself. Doubling over, he laughed loud and heartily, uncaring of my worsening glare.
“Dick,” I muttered. “You don’t like people using and entrapping you for their own selfish desires, but here you are, imprisoning me.”
“Once again I remind you, the door is unlocked.”
“Shut up about your stupid unlocked door!”
That set him off laughing again.
I sniffed. “The point is, if you were any different from her, you’d pick me up and carry me out of here. And then, and this is the most important part, you’d back the hell off and not get in the way of me finding Dora and bringing her home.”
He listened to me with the same look a parent indulges on a toddler. “Ah, my dear, sweet, tasty treat. It’s true, I did once have such fanciful notions that I was a better person and vampire than my sire...” His eyes darkened. “And then I starved for three hundred years.
“If you want me to let you and your precious sister through the gates and out of my grasp, you’d better find a way to take me with you.” Leaning forward, Radu licked the tip of my nose like he was licking a lollipop.
No. Like he’s licking a tasty treat.
“Because I have no intention of ever going hungry again.”
With that, he stood up and walked out the door without another word or backward glance.
Storytime was over.
I STRAINED AND GRUNTED, dragging my body to the edge of the bed. It was only a queen-size, but right then, it felt a mile wide.
“Come on,” I gritted, willing strength into my arms. “Little... more...”
I slid across the silk, and pitched headfirst over the side. Pain rocketed through my skull, but all I felt was triumphant. This was the first time in over three weeks that I’d left this bed. If that isn’t progress, what is?
Fingers gripping the wood, I heaved.
Slowly. Painstakingly. Inch by inch. I dragged my weak body around the stacks of books, getting ever closer to the spinning door.
Dizziness has to be the cruelest symptom ever! Stop making the door spin, so I can get out of it!
Despite the twisting, swirling, vomit-inducing world my brain was plunging me into, I didn’t stop.
Radu’s threat to rip away my glamour and expose me to all of hell would have to be dealt with when the time came.
Right then, the only thing that mattered was getting out of this room, and finding Sabrina.
It was her who entered the room of the person behind it all that night. She was caught by the culprit and labeled the spy she was, then she was used as bait to take me down and silence me for good.
Too bad for that psycho murderer, Sabrina and I were still kicking. Once I found her, she’d tell me who was behind all of this, and I’d finally find Dora and get her home.
“Come on.” I knocked into a stack of books, bringing them crashing down on top of me. “Ah!”
If I were at full strength, I was sure it wouldn’t have hurt more than a stubbed toe. But as it was, it felt like someone just tried to club me to death.
“Ahhh,” I groaned, pain singing through my body.
The bastard sure did leave a treacherous maze between me and the door, but it wasn’t going to stop me. I kept going—taking the three books on my back with me. I was almost there, I was fairly sure of it. The door kept spinning, but it wasn’t getting farther away. That had to be a good sign.
After what felt like an eternity, my fingertips brushed the bottom of the doorframe.
A smile stretched my lips. “Take that, bloodsucking bitch.”
The door flew open. “As you wish, my sweet one, and where would you like me to take it?”
Snapping my head up, I met Radu’s smug grin. My heart fell out of my butt.
“But— You—”
Radu picked me up. He let the books hit the ground, and carried me back to bed.
“But you never get back this early,” I cried, finally getting a word out past my shock. “You’re supposed to have class!”
“Mmm, so you weren’t quite as out of it the last few days as you made it seem.” He kissed my forehead, making me growl. “The whole time you were tracking my comings and goings. Good. It’s not fun playing with you when you’re lying there like a lump.”
“If you want a lump, all you have to do is get within punching distance.” That earned me another laugh. “Seriously,” I snapped. “What are you doing here? Do you have me under surveillance or something? Have you been watching me every time you left?”
“Nothing as convenient as that.” He propped himself up at the end of the bed, smiling back at me like the treasured little pet I was, and as always, my weak, traitorous pulse quickened at the sight of him.
Radu said the vampire noblewoman fell for him because he was sweet and innocent, but you only had to look at him and you’re in love. With his hard, broad jaw in perfect contrast to his soft, pouty lips. The prominence of his Roman nose, and the delicate lushness of his ebony waves.
Even then, as he reclined there in the simplest and plainest outfit, he excluded lust and sex like the Greek god of love.
“I’m back early because class was canceled,” he explained, “and it was canceled because of you.”
“Me? What are you talking about?”
He clicked his tongue. “There’s been quite an uproar these last few weeks, ever since it was announced that you died under questioning and your body had been disposed of.
That explanation wasn’t good enough for the young fae prince,” Radu said.
“And the boy definitely didn’t like hearing that you died denying Lucifer’s involvement with witches or murders.