Chapter 25
Edie
Pacing up and down in Dorian’s bedroom, I wring my hands, trying to figure out how the hell I’m going to get myself out of this.
I’ve been locked in his room for hours now.
There are no windows to pry open, no phone I can use to reach the outside world.
There’s just a huge bed in the centre of the room, and a single lamp sitting on a side table beside it, throwing shadows across the wooden floor.
The space is oppressive; the walls painted black, the satin sheets a deep red.
It’s a room-sized version of a fucking coffin, and if I don’t get the hell out of here, I’m going to end up a corpse.
“Think, Edie.” I tell myself.
I clench and unclench my fingers, angry at myself, fucking furious at Dorian. Scared for Henrietta, for Elizabeth and Nina, for myself. I’ve put us all in danger.
A light knock on the door has me backing up against the far wall, bracing myself for Dorian’s entrance.
Only it isn’t Dorian who enters, but Viktor.
My relief is quickly overshadowed by fear.
He’s one of them, too.
“Edie, Dorian asked me to bring you some food and something to drink,” he says, stepping into the room. I trace his steps as he places the tray on the side table next to the bed. The scent of braised beef and roasted vegetables lifts into the air. I gag.
“I’m not hungry,” I snap.
He sighs, meeting my gaze. “You’re angry. Scared. You have every right to be.”
“You think?” I retort, flinching as he takes a step towards me.
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Is that a line all of you feed your victims before you drain their blood?”
“I don’t drink from humans. I never have.”
“What?”
“Edie, despite what you might think, I am not like—”
“Dorian? Well, that just makes me feel a whole lot better.”
“He’s trying to control himself around you. He’s feeding now so when he comes to speak with you, he won’t be tempted to—”
“He’s feeding from someone right now?” My voice rises with every word, punctuating the air between us with my intense jealousy. I shouldn’t feel jealous. I should be worried about the person he’s drinking from. I hate that’s my reaction.
“Not from a person. We have a blood bank. Since meeting you, Dorian has avoided drinking from a human as much as possible.”
“Well that’s good of him,” I snap, folding my arms across my chest.
Viktor sighs. “He can’t help his cravings, but he is trying for you.”
“I don’t fucking care. He already drank from me. He’s already proven to me that I can’t trust him. You’re vampires. He’s a predator, and I’m nothing but prey.”
“You’re more than that to him.”
“Bullshit.”
“Edie, the only way you’ll survive this is to draw out Dorian’s human emotions. I can fight the draw of blood by remembering who I was, by feeling. I know he can do the same. He cares for you. He doesn’t want to admit it, but he does.”
Tears prick my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall. “If he cared so much for me, he’d let me go.”
“He can’t do that. You’re immune to his compulsion. He can’t risk you revealing our existence It would put us all in danger.”
“People deserve to know they’re at risk. I deserved to know,” I choke out, turning away from him so he can’t see the tears threatening to fall.
“For our survival, we have hidden our existence for centuries. We have found a way to exist in this world by abiding by strict rules. The main one being none of our clan can feed outside of Avant Garde. It has kept us safe all these years,” he explains.
I round on him, refusing to be swayed by his gentle tone.
“So, what you’re saying is that Avant Garde is basically nothing more than a restaurant for your kind. You fuck and feed off the people who go there, then you make them forget. Is that what happened to Robert?”
“Robert?”
“My ex-husband. He was a member of your club.”
“Avant Garde serves many purposes. Yes, my fellow clan members feed there, and they’re free to be who they are under the watchful eye of Dorian, Logan, and me. But I want to reassure you that no human who enters dies, and no one is turned.”
“And that makes it okay, does it? How can anyone make a decision about their safety when you wipe their memories?”
“Yes, our human patrons are glamoured, but every single one of them came to our club of their own free will. They come for pleasure, and that’s exactly what they get. If a clan member drains a human completely, they are dealt with swiftly.”
“So, they’re not safe then.”
“It has happened only once since we opened the club. When it did, Dorian set an example.”
“He’s killed your own people?”
“He had to, though it wasn’t an easy decision to make. If a siring vampire dies, so does their progeny. This is why we now insist any new vampires do not sire another. Only the most powerful of us are granted permission.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“We are connected as vampires through the blood of our maker. I have never sired another through choice, not just because I wouldn’t wish this life on anyone, but because if I die, so do any vampires I make.”
“And by connection, do you mean more than the fact that a vampire can die if their sire does?” My cheeks heat, wondering if Viktor had somehow felt Dorian’s sexual attraction towards me.
“No, our connection to our sires goes no further. I sense nothing of Dorian’s physical feelings—no pleasure, no pain. I don’t hear his thoughts. I don’t feel his emotions either. All I know is that if a siring vampire dies, shortly after, so too does their progeny.”
“I didn’t realise that…” My voice trails off as I absorb this information. I can’t help but wonder how many humans Dorian has turned knowing this.
Outside in the hallway, I hear the sound of footsteps approaching.
Taking another step towards me, Viktor lowers his voice.
“You’re here because you can’t be glamoured like other humans can.
We call people like you an Aegis. It means shield.
For whatever reason, you, and people like you, are immune to our compulsion.
Ordinarily, we have avoided people like you. ”
“Then why didn’t Dorian do the same? Why pursue me? All of this could’ve been prevented.”
“Only Dorian knows why, but I suspect it has more to do with how he feels for you than it does your blood.”
“How Dorian feels for me?
“Listen to me, this is important. If you don’t find a way to get Dorian to admit he cares for you, then he’ll have no choice but to—”
“Kill me?”
“No, turn you,” Viktor says. “I do not believe Dorian will end your life.”
“But he’ll make me one of you. Isn’t that the same damn thing?” Viktor opens his mouth to protest, but I shake my head. “No. Absolutely-fucking-not.”
“Then draw out his emotions. Make him feel, Edie,” Viktor persists.
“And you think that will work? Do you even really know him?”
“I know he doesn’t want to hurt you.”
I laugh bitterly. “He already has.”
“If he truly didn’t care, you’d be dead already. You have to draw out his emotions. It’s the only way to survive this,” Viktor repeats, throwing me one last sympathetic look before stepping out of the room.
Moments later, Dorian enters. He slips inside, shutting the door behind him, his intense gaze focusing on me.
I notice he’s changed, no longer wearing his suit.
He’s now in dark blue jeans and a black hoodie, his feet bare.
It makes him seem terribly human, and I can’t help but think he’s trying his best to disarm me.
“Edie, you need to eat.”
I don’t respond. I can’t.
Fear unravels inside of me.
I knew he was dangerous, but I thought that was because he was a criminal, a gangster, a man who had no qualms about ending the lives of two abusive men to protect me and other women and children.
But a vampire? That’s beyond anything I’d ever thought possible.
“Don’t be afraid of me,” he has the audacity to say.
But I am afraid. I’m terrified of him, of what he did to me, but most of all, of how he makes me feel.
Because it isn’t just fear that renders me speechless, it’s lust, too.
Beneath the quaking of my body is desire.
Thick, potent, desire. My body betrays me, my clit fluttering at the memory of his mouth on me, of his cock buried deep inside me as we fucked.
I recall the way his fangs impaled my neck, how the pain gave way to intense pleasure, how I’d come multiple times as he drank my blood.
My nipples harden, my pulse quickens, my heart thumps in my chest. My whole body is alight with want and need, and I hate myself for it.
“Stay the fuck away from me,” I seethe.
He hesitates, then strides towards the tray of food Viktor left behind. Picking up the plate, he approaches me. “You need to keep your strength up.”
“What, so you can keep me alive and feed off me?”
“I’ve already slaked my thirst,” he replies, picking up a sliver of beef and offering it to me.
“But you don’t deny you want to,” I say, smacking his hand away.
He drops the meat back onto the plate and places it on the floor at our feet.
Slowly, he rises, and I can feel his gaze track all the way up my body.
Desire punctuates the air between us, and I have to force myself not to reach for him.
I have to remind myself what he is and the truth he hid from me.
“It’s true,” he admits, his fangs dropping once again. “Your blood is like nothing I’ve ever tasted before.”
“So that’s all you want?” I shake my head, then force my feet to move, side-stepping him. That shouldn’t hurt me, but it does.
“Edie,” he snaps, his hand grasping my bicep as he forces me to face him.
“Yes, I want to drink from you, and I want to fuck you whilst I do it,” he says, his voice lowering to a deep rumble that washes me in sin, and the urge to let him do both almost overwhelms me.
“So that’s why I’m here? Not only am I your food, but I’m also your fucking sex slave.” I curl my fists, anger coursing through my body.
“No, you’re here because I can’t afford for you to tell anyone about us.”
More hurt wells inside of me, but I shove it aside. “And if I say I’ll keep your secret, will you let me go?”