19. Darius Speaks
Chapter nineteen
Darius Speaks
I return to the manor after sunset. Bella made Tom comfortable and cleaned up his wounds. She’s going to watch him tonight, look through medical journals, try to figure out what is happening.
There was nothing more I could do. I returned home.
I stand alone in the great hall, listening to the waves batter the shoreline below and trying unsuccessfully to regain control of myself.
Control.
Gods. I have built an entire existence around that word.
Control of hunger.
Control of instinct.
Control of violence.
Control of desire.
And then Arabella Russo arrived on my island, out of my very dreams, looked at me with those impossible eyes, and this afternoon kissed me like she already belongs in my arms.
I close my eyes briefly. I can still feel it. The softness of her mouth against mine. The warmth of her human body. The way her heartbeat accelerated the closer I pulled her.
I had imagined kissing her. For longer than she could possibly understand. But imagination did not prepare me for the reality of it.
When she touched me, when she leaned forward and kissed me, something inside me came apart. Centuries of restraint unraveling in a single moment.
And God help me, I wanted more. Far more.
I wanted to pin her against the wall beside the fire and kiss her until she forgot her own name. I wanted to breathe her in. Taste her. Hold her against me until sunrise painted the cliffs gold. And take her to bed.
Dangerous thoughts. Especially for a vampire. Especially now.
I walk slowly toward the windows overlooking the sea. Fog moves across Bloodhaven Cove in pale shifting waves below while the distant bell tower stands dark against the storm.
She’s seen me in her recurring dreams! That truth continues to shake something deep inside me.
For over a century I’ve dreamed of a woman I could never fully see. Always just beyond my reach. And now she is here. Real and breathing. Looking at me with recognition and wonder and desire.
“You found your way back to me.”
The words echo through me. Exactly as in the dreams. That should be impossible.
And yet nothing about Arabella Russo feels accidental. Not her arrival. Not the dreams. Not the timing. Especially not the timing.
The hunger has begun again. I know it in my bones.
The blood corruption. Donors weakened. The attacks in The Wilds. This time vampires grow unstable. Beneath it all, I feel that old hunger stirring beneath Bloodhaven Cove once more.
The same hunger that nearly destroyed this island twenty years ago.
And before that … many times before.
The island histories describe them carefully. Sanitized. Edited. “Bad winters.” “Disappearances.” “Madness outbreaks.” “Animal attacks.”
Lies wrapped around truth. Every generation rewrites the horror differently.
But I remember. I remember the screaming. The attacks. The panic. The smell of blood saturating the night.
And Drake.
My chest tightens.
Twenty years ago my brother vanished into The Wilds during the last hunger. We searched for weeks. Months. I searched long after everyone else surrendered hope.
Nothing. No body. No remains. Only blood and torn earth and silence.
The island eventually accepted his death.
I never truly did.
And now … something moves in The Wilds again. But there may be two things. Silas said a second creature stopped the attack. Something intelligent.
Drake. He couldn’t have survived, could he? Now, I don’t know whether I fear finding Drake alive …or confirming that he’s dead. I’ll relive the grief all over again.
Thunder rolls across the sea.
I loosen my shirt button, my thoughts returning inevitably to Bella again. Always back to her.
She thinks like a scientist. Careful. Rational. Precise. She wants evidence and patterns and truth she can hold in her hands.
And what truth can I offer her?
That I’m an immortal predator who survives on blood?
That around this beautiful house, on The Cliffs, lies a hidden vampire society centuries old?
That the donor system she’s beginning to uncover was built by my own hands with humans from Hunt’s Harbor?
Will she understand why I created it? Or will she see only blood monsters?
I move toward the fire and pour blood wine into a crystal glass, staring into the dark red liquid.
The Ceremony.
Damn!
How do I explain that to her without frightening her completely?
The first full moon in June. Candles below the manor. Silver vows spoken before ancient witnesses. Donors paired formally with vampires. A promise of secrecy and protection. A ritual meant to preserve peace between humans and creatures like me.
It sounds monstrous when reduced to facts.
But the alternative was far worse. Before the donor system, vampires hunted at night. Fed recklessly and killed.
I refused to let Bloodhaven Cove become that kind of place.
So I built rules, structure, control and protection. And for a long time, it worked. Until now.
Lena is infected.
Which means her matched vampire, Marcus, may be infected too. Charles already told me Marcus is restless. Who is Adrian’s donor? I’ll have to look it up.
If I’m right about how the new corruption spreads … then this disease moves both ways now.
Donor to vampire.
Vampire to donor.
Back and forth.
An endless poisoned circle.
And whatever exists in The Wilds is accelerating it. Or maybe was the source of it.
Bella will uncover all of this eventually. She’s too intelligent not to do so. Too persistent and brave. I admire her for it. But I should glamour her now.
The thought settles heavily in my mind.
Erase her curiosity? Blur the edges and facts? Or even send her back to the mainland before the island consumes her, too?
It would be the safer choice. The responsible choice. But the moment I imagine her leaving, something savage rises inside me immediately.
No!
The answer arrives with terrifying certainty and speed. I cannot let her go. Not now. Perhaps not ever.
That realization should horrify me. Instead it feels inevitable. Fated.
I stare into the fire, remembering the taste of her kiss. The softness of her hand in mine, when she touched my chest.
The way she looked at me after recognizing the dreams.
She had no fear, only wonder and mystery and excitement. Even desire. Like some part of her soul already knew mine.
“You should be careful with me.” I warned her. God help me, I meant it.
Because Bella Russo does not yet understand what she is becoming to me. And what I am. A powerful immortal vampire.
How quickly she has worked beneath my skin. Into my thoughts. Into my hunger. Into every silent corner of my immortal existence.
I have known her for less than a week. That’s insanity. But of course, I feel as if I’ve known her forever.
I would already destroy anyone who would try to harm her.
That alone tells me I am in very serious trouble.