Chapter 4
Ego
Delaney whistled through her teeth as the blacked-out SUV pulled up in front of the home I’d purchased in Willowhope. “Mini-castle indeed. Ego, this place is even more ostentatious in person than it looked online.”
I flicked an uninterested glance out the window, taking in all the little lights placed sporadically through the yard and the brass sconces next to the large double doors.
What did it matter now? I’d thought this would be my home when I wasn’t touring, somewhere I would come to relax and invite my cousin Sky over.
After my last visit, I’d left so excited, mentally planning dinners with Sky and his found family, who I’d thought were maybe becoming mine as well.
All of that was over now. This place would be my prison.
The door opened next to me, revealing a scowling Delaney. I hadn’t even realized she’d gotten out of the vehicle. Fuck, I was so out of it all of the time now. If she hadn’t been leading me around by the nose the last six weeks, I’d have missed all of my events and disappointed my fans.
A fresh stab of pain lanced my heart. The fans would be a thing of the past sooner than later, too. They’d forget all about me as I hid away, lost to vampirism.
“Get the fuck out of the car, Ego.”
Heaving a sigh, a totally human act that really didn’t serve a purpose for me in my altered state, I followed her up to my prison. She stood back while I entered the code into the discreet keypad I’d had installed. Delaney rolled her eyes. “Really?’
“What?” I asked. “I didn’t want to keep track of the keys to this place. Not while I was traveling. Plus, it gave Jetty and his crew easy access while I was gone.” Which reminded me. I pulled up the app and changed the code.
“What are you doing?”
“Jetty said they were almost done, and I asked them not to finish up quite yet. I told him I was letting a friend borrow the place for a little R&R, but just in case they forgot something, I don’t want anyone showing up and coming in.”
Walking in to find me wandering the halls in my misery, or…even worse than that, opening my refrigerator to find it stuffed with blood bags. Fuck! This was my worst nightmare.
Delaney clucked her tongue and strode into the great room, her high heels clicking across the hardwood.
Not sure what else to do, I followed behind her like a puppy.
She was leaving in the morning, and I had no idea what I was going to do with myself.
And vampires didn’t die, right? Like, the loneliness already eating away at me was my new lot in life.
Delaney planted herself in a wingback chair and pointed at the spot on the couch across from it. “So tell me about Lysandro,” she said as I settled back.
“Uh.” I thought back to meeting the eccentric man at the boardwalk. “He’s the town’s main librarian, and he’s a vampire.” I shrugged. “That’s all I really know.”
She checked the elegant watch on her slight wrist. “It’s the middle of the night, so I’m sure the library is closed. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to call him. Hopefully, he’ll be able to come by before I leave.”
“Why?” I sat up straighter. I knew we’d tossed around the idea of talking to Lysandro, but I really didn’t want anyone to know about my change.
What if it got back to Sky? Or one of his friends? They’d feel obligated to tell him, no matter how much I begged them to keep it to themselves. Until I figured out how to navigate this new life, all I wanted was to be left alone.
“Because I can’t leave you out here fending for yourself like this.” Leaning forward, she clasped her hands between her knees. “Look, Ego, if I could stay, I would, but I have a lot of work ahead of me. I need to clear your schedule for the foreseeable—”
“Forever,” I said, cutting her off. “Clear it off forever, Delaney. Do that, help my security find new jobs, and then you should start looking for your next star yourself. I’m—”
“Holy drama!” she yelled, cutting me off now.
“For fuck’s sake, there are vampires all over the world, living their lives.
We just have to figure out the best way for you to do that, and it’ll be business as usual.
Well, altered a bit, but still. We managed to finish your tour, didn’t we?
And that’s with me only knowing a little bit about what your kind needs.
Once we talk to this Lysandro, we can make a plan. ”
Closing my eyes against the intensity in hers, I shook my head. “You don’t understand. I’m so tired. The blood bags aren’t helping like they did in the beginning. I think something’s wrong, but I’m not sure what.”
But I did know, didn’t I? I thought maybe, perhaps, I needed to feed from a real-live person, and there was just no way I was going to do that. I’d shrivel up and die first.
That was the real reason I didn’t want my cousin to find out what was going on with me. It would break his heart to know that I essentially had come back to this place—that had once held so much hope—to wither away.
My eyelids popped open when I felt Delaney take my hands into hers. She knelt next to me and stroked my hands with her thumbs with that weird tenderness she’d been displaying that I wasn’t really accustomed to from her.
“I know, my friend. I’ve known all along that they would only help for so long. That’s why we need Lysandro. We have to figure out what else we can do.”
The deep tones of the Westminster chimes echoed through the house, startling both of us. “Who the hell could that be?” I asked frantically.
I hadn’t told anyone I was coming, and it was the middle of the damn night. Delaney’s rental was out front, but my driveway was hidden, and the mini-castle was too far back for anyone to see from the main road.
She squeezed my hands once more, then rose smoothly to her feet. “I’ll go check.” She was halfway out of the room before she turned toward me. “You told Jetty that a friend would be using the place, right?”
I nodded, scared to utter a sound, even though there was no way anyone would hear me from the front door unless I was shouting.
She held up a finger. “Wait here.”
I’d had every intention of staying put, but my desire to know if it was my cousin overwhelmed me, and I crept to one of the marble columns in the entryway and hid behind it while she opened the massive door just a crack.
“Well, hello. Isn’t this Ego’s home?” a voice that tickled at the edges of my memory asked.
“It is. He’s letting me use it for an escape,” Delaney said, composed as ever.
“Splendid.” With a tut of his tongue, he pushed open the door and stepped in straight past her. “You’re not the vampire, so may I inquire who you’ve brought with you?”
It was Lysandro. While he didn’t have his purple raincoat on, he still had his rainbow-colored umbrella with him, tapping it on the ground like a walking stick.
As Delaney sputtered out a denial, he spun from her and strode purposely toward the pillar, rounding the corner to face me. With nowhere else to run and hide, I stood in stunned silence as he said, “Uh, Ego. Marvelous to see you again.”
“Ego, who is this?” Delaney glared at Lysandro for having the gall to breeze past her.
“It…it’s Lysandro.”
“The vampire?” she asked.
Lysandro swept a low bow in her direction. “Madame. It is always such a pleasure to be amongst one of your kind.”
Her eyes widened, and I wondered if he knew she was fae. Not that I had any idea what that meant yet, since all of our conversations had pretty much been about me and the predicament that I’d ended up in.
He turned back to me. “And, Ego, may I ask, where is your sire?”
My mouth hung open at his dramatic entrance, not able to answer as my mind reeled with questions. Why was he here? Where did he come from? How did he know I was here? And how the hell did he know I was a vampire?
“I… I don’t know.”
Lysandro nodded. “Why don’t we have a seat and chat?”
Thankful to get off my feet, I followed Delaney as she led us back to the great room, taking her previous chair. Lysandro settled in the wingback next to her, and I collapsed onto the couch in an unimpressive sprawl.
I felt so vulnerable, sitting like this in front of him, but the travel tonight and the short walk to and from the pillar had drained me of any energy I had left.
Eyeing me critically, Lysandro asked, “How have you been feeding?”
He turned a sharp gaze to Delaney. “I know it’s not you. He’d already be dead from consuming fae blood, so who? I hear no other heartbeats in the house but yours, fair lady.”
Shaking her head, she sighed. “I don’t know that much about your kind, but I knew enough not to give him my blood. I have…a source who’s been supplying me with blood bags.”
Lysandro sat back, looking aghast. “That’s not enough for a fledgling. No wonder you’re in such poor health,” he said, turning back to me.
“If it wasn’t for her and those disgusting bags, I wouldn’t have even made it this long. The morning I woke up…changed, I couldn’t even remember what had happened the night before. Delaney had to tell me that I’m…” I trailed off.
Lysandro frowned. “So you didn’t ask for this?”
Wearily, I shook my head, then proceeded to give him the details I remembered from that fateful night.
By the time I was done, he was up pacing the room angrily. “That is not how it is done. Our kind are not supposed to turn humans without their permission.”
“What can we do for him?” Delaney asked. “I can tell he’s languishing, but I’m not sure what else to do. Should I increase the number of his feedings? It’ll get pricey, but he can afford it.”
At least, I could for now. Once I disappeared from the public for a substantial amount of time, they’d forget about me. My sales would dry up, and the only time anyone would remember Ego—me—would be when they did one of those whatever happened to such-and-such star on one of those garbage tabloids.
Lysandro stopped in front of Delaney, bringing me back from my melancholy thoughts. “Your name is Delaney, correct?”
“Yes.”
Lysandro bowed at the waist. “Forgive my rudeness, barging in here without an introduction. My name is Lysandro.”
He returned to his chair.
“What Ego needs is his sire’s blood. What you’ve been doing is an admirable stopgap, but it isn’t enough.”
“So I’m going to die…again?” I asked softly.
Lysandro swallowed audibly, almost bringing a grin to my face, knowing that it was a human habit he also no longer needed to do.
“You won’t perish, but you’ll go into a comatose state unless…” He ran a hand down his face. “Unless an older, seasoned vampire steps in and feeds you.”
Delaney sat forward, her eyes calculating. “Do you know someone?”
I pushed myself forward. “Aren’t you older? Delaney said that the myths were true and vampires couldn’t be outside, but I met you at the boardwalk during the day. You were covered in clothes from head to toe with your umbrella over your head, but you were out in the daytime.”
Lysandro glared behind me. I turned, expecting to find the psycho who turned me, but there was nothing there but an expensive-as-fuck painting I’d had Delaney purchase at auction because I thought it would match the mini-castle aesthetic.
Finally, his gaze tracked back to me. “I am. But I’ve never—” He shook his head like he was frustrated. “I’ve never sired another of my kind.”
“So you have no fledglings?” Delaney asked.
Lysandro snorted. “Most certainly not. That’s a responsibility I’ve never wanted. I’ve never even shown who I truly am to someone who might want to be changed.”
Deflating, I sank back. “Oh.”
His attention snapped back to me. “But that’s not saying that I won’t provide you with what you need. It is unacceptable that one of us would do this to you. I cannot make amends, Ego, but I will feed you for the necessary time for you to gain your strength.”
“That would be wonderful!” Delaney exclaimed.
Lysandro held up a finger. “But only until you’re able to get the necessary nutrients from a human. Living off blood bags will be unsustainable for you for at least a century.”
If it had been possible, the blood would’ve drained out of my face. That was the last thing I wanted. The idea of piercing someone’s skin with the canines in my mouth horrified me. I hadn’t even looked at them yet, only feeling them with my tongue when I first woke up after the sun went down.
Until I willed them up—or whatever it was that I did—I’d stayed hidden in bed. I didn’t want to see it, and I didn’t want Delaney having to witness that change in me either. It was bad enough to know without seeing.
Lysandro stood up, unbuttoned the sleeve of his shirt, and came toward me, his intention clear.
I shook my head. “No. I can’t do… that.”
Lysandro tilted his head, regarding me almost curiously before turning back to Delaney. “How have you been serving him his sustenance?”
She stood up and crossed the room to one of the duffel bags she’d brought in. Reaching inside, she pulled out a goblet in one hand and a bottle of sangria in the other.
“I mix the blood and sangria in this for him.”
Lysandro tsked and crossed the room, taking the fancy cup from her. Setting it down on an ornate end table, he freaking grew claws out of his fingers on one hand, and then slit his wrist where he’d rolled up his shirt.
The gash must’ve been deep because blood poured into the goblet before he raised his wrist to his mouth and licked the wound closed. Even from here, I could see his skin was once again as good as new.
As he crossed back toward me, Delaney rushed after him. “Here’s the wine.”
Glaring daggers at me, Lysandro held out the goblet. “You will not be tainting my blood with such nonsense. Those bags wouldn’t have sustained you much longer anyway, but you were doing yourself no favors blending it with that synthetic, man-made drivel.”
I wanted to recoil in horror. Not mixing it with sangria was bad enough, but it was fresh. Straight from Lysandro’s arm. Gag!
But the closer he got to me, the smell coming from that vessel made it like I didn’t even have my amulet on.
A hunger unlike anything I’d felt—even more than the first time Delaney presented me with her concoction after I was turned—consumed me.
The strength of the metallic scent of his blood acted like a live wire to every one of my nerve endings.
Lysandro smirked, his own canines dropping. “Yes, little fledgling. Drink.”
Shutting off the human part of my brain and everything I’d ever known, I swiped the cup from his hands and drank.