29 #2
He gives me a measured look but doesn’t suggest I’m lying and doesn’t ask the question I’m silently praying over.
I came on this game under a false name, true, but I don’t intend to outright lie to him.
The truth will eventually come out, of course, when I win, but now, right now, my cover needs to remain intact.
“Why are they chasing you?”
I meet his steady gaze.
“I didn’t fulfil an obligation, and now I’m being pursued to answer for that. I’ve been on the run for three years. This is the first inkling they have of my location.”
‘Technically true.’
“I see.”
‘No, you really don’t. But you can’t. Not yet. I’ve said enough.’
“So what really prompted you to enter The Games? The truth. You could have continued running. You’ve obviously done a good job of it up until now for a young woman alone in the world.”
I shake my head, but the words come out as I know they must if I’m to gain his trust and stay in the Game.
“Well,” I shrug, “I not only want to evade retribution for my failure. I also want to kill someone. Someone who did me a great wrong.”
“Ah, ha.” He nods as though now he’s finally getting to the bottom of the matter. “Go on.”
“I was twelve,” I scowl, looking down at my hands and digging my fingernails into my palms as I recount my dark past without revealing any hint of who I am, my words coming out in a whisper, “he was twenty-five.”
‘And he said he wanted to ensure no other man took what was his before he could formally claim me. But you can’t know that.’
My words fade away. I can’t actually voice what happened that day at my birthday party, as all the guests played games on the lawn, unaware I was upstairs at the mercy of a monster. My throat constricts, and the words simply won’t come.
“You don’t have to tell me more,” Jag says quietly.
“No,” I shake my head. “You need to know why I’m here. One day, I’m going to take everything he loves, everything he owns, everything he is. Then I’m going to kill him.”
“So this is why you didn’t care who you married on this show, as long as he was Vampire?” Jag nods. “You want help wreaking your vengeance.”
“You don’t take a pit bull to a fight when you can take a T-Rex,” I shrug. “I want someone powerful by my side, someone unflinching, someone with a reputation that makes men think twice before they mess with him. And I want to be immortal.”
He laughs quietly and shakes his head.
“I’ve been called a lot of things. A dinosaur is not one of them.”
I smile at his reaction, but subconsciously place my hand to my neck.
My motion doesn’t go unnoticed.
“I apologise for my brutish behaviour last night. I don’t know what came over me. I won’t bite you again. I asked you to wear the ribbon because seeing the result of my actions…” he frowns and looks down at his hands. “It won’t happen again.”
“Don’t lie to me, Viscount,” I shake my head.
“Not after I’ve just been so honest with you.
We both know you have to bite at the end of dates.
You made that clear last night. And this show sanctions a death bite.
You’re going to eliminate contestants by sucking them to death.
I get that, although naturally I don’t want it to be me. ”
“You don’t get it,” he shakes his head. “And I am being truthful, I’ll always be truthful with you, Catriona. I’m not going to bite you again; I won’t risk it. And I’m not going to bite anyone to death.”
“But… how will you choose a wife? Someone has to win the Game.”
“I couldn’t care less who wins,” he snorts, rising and beginning to walk back the way we came, clearly bored with the conversation now. “I’m going to leave it to the contestants to sort it out themselves.”
“But…?” I frown, trying to make sense of what he’s just said. “You won’t eliminate anyone?”
“I don’t drain women,” he murmurs, “not now. If anything, my attack on you last night just reinforced my fervent commitment to adhere to my vow. I agreed to nip, nothing more. I never anticipated harming you — I apologise again, I don’t know what came over me.
If you would be so kind as to continue to wear a ribbon when close to me, I’d appreciate it. ”
I bite my tongue. I suspect I know why I taste so good to him, but that’s not something I can reveal.
If he knew who I really was, what I really was, he’d know the reason too.
It’s more important than ever that I keep my identity hidden until I win The Games.
But at least now he knows some of the truth.
‘But if HE isn’t going to kill anyone….’
“Let me get this straight,” I stop walking, forcing him to turn back and meet my gaze, “you’ll allow us to eliminate each other as The Game dictates, but you won’t kill anyone yourself?”
“Correct.”
“Huh,” I start walking again, the hacienda now in sight, the windows sparkling with golden light, the voices of the contestants and the tinkling of glasses carrying across the grass.
“You don’t seem surprised,” he says quietly, stopping to turn and look at me. “Even though I’m the first to ever make this decision on The Game.”
“I’m not really surprised, no.”
“Why?”
“Because everyone knows vampires drink donated blood. It’s not as if you hunt humans for food or anything any longer,” I shrug. “It stands to reason you’d be uncomfortable killing us.”
“You think we only drink donated blood because that’s what we want you to think,” he scowls, “but this game is not a place for secrets or lies, at least not between you and I. We kill for our meals. We always have; we always will.”
I look at him sceptically. My family, my kind, owe our wealth and position to a covenant made with vampires during the Dark Ages.
We exist, our thirteen bloodlines never crossed with vampires and never consumed, to support and maintain vampire royalty as the rulers of humankind.
We maintain the human financial, religious, propaganda and education systems that keep their power structures in place.
I know my kind are evil; my father gave daily evidence of this.
I’ve seen how we rule, how we operate. But my understanding was that we’re part of a covenant to protect both vampires and humanity.
‘Surely we wouldn’t allow humans to be eaten?’
“If what you say is true, there’d be murder reports daily,” I roll my eyes.
“It’s true,” he says quietly, his eyes earnest, “you’re right that vampires can drink donated blood; some do. But all royal vampires prey upon humankind. We would never pollute our bodies with stored blood.”
“Hang on,” I hold up my hand, unable to believe my ears. “You’re telling me you hunt and kill people for food? For real? Still?”
“Men. Yes.”
“You go out and catch someone each night?”
“No,” I snort. “We have employees, procurement officers. They go out and fetch our meals weekly.”
“Even The Queen?” I gape, wide-eyed.
“Even The Queen. Although your queen is not as bloodthirsty as some, and at least she has reasonably normal tastes. I understand she has regular blood donors who she prefers to drink from.”
“People can be living blood donors?”
“For a time, yes. If your blood is considered rare or special in some way.”
“For how long?”
“A decade usually, no more. The donor is then retired.” He looks away from me.
“When you say retired….”
“Killed, Catriona. Eventually all donors are killed.”
“Why?”
“Because, as you so recently pointed out, the human population believes we live on donated blood and that we no longer hunt and murder. We can hardly have people running around the world knowing how we really survive.”
“Then,” I frown and throw my hands into the air, “how can you tell me this now if it’s something we’re not supposed to know?”
“Because,” he murmurs, “only one woman will leave this show alive. That woman will become a royal vampire’s wife. She must know what she’s getting herself into.”
“But,” I look at the stars to try and order my thoughts, my whole understanding of the world and my place in it now completely blown apart, “if you kill humans for food, why won’t you kill any contestants on this show?
This is a sanctioned space; we all know the bachelors eliminate contestants, and we all know they’re bitten.
It makes no sense for you to abstain from killing, at least in this setting. ”
“What makes no sense,” he growls, “is that billions watch this show and understand we bite to kill, yet still believe we only eat donated blood in the real world.”
“When you frame it like that…we really are fucking stupid,” I murmur.
‘Me more than most. My whole history, my life, is a lie.’
“Yes.”
“And yet,” I frown, “is it true though that you can’t have babies without us? That you have to marry human women to procreate?”
“One of nature’s cruel jokes,” he mutters. “Wouldn’t you say?”
‘At least not everything I’ve learned is false. God, so much to wrap my head around. So much deceit.’
“What are you thinking?” He murmurs.
“I’m thinking I made the right decision coming on this show.”
“How the hell do you come to that result from the conversation we’ve just had?”
“I wanted to marry a killer.” I hold up my hands as if to say obviously. “And I’m very relieved to find you are one.”
Without waiting for his reply I turn, and we both begin walking back towards the light.
“And, Viscount, you should know that I like rubies, not diamonds.”
He stops walking, but I keep going, making my way towards the light.
“I beg your pardon?” He calls after me.
“For my ring,” I answer over my shoulder, not looking back.