Chapter 9
“Please, take your seat.” Devon pulls out a chair for me but I stand there, rooted to the spot. I’m marrying someone? What the fuck? It has to be Devon. After all, the man is supposed to knock me up with the next generation’s future vampire spawn.
But I swear the vampire named Mabel looked at Xavier when she spoke.
“Please,” Devon says again and I see the strain on his face.
Swallowing my apprehension—and reminding myself that since I can’t be held spellbound, harsher measures will be taken—I sit next to Devon.
We’re on the side of a large table, across from Mabel and the vampire she called Zeke.
Like Devon, he has a slight resemblance to Xavier, as does the vampire next to him.
They’re both dressed business casual, in dark pants and button up shirts.
“This is Florence,” Devon says and pushes my chair in behind me. Silence still fills the room, and the ticking of a fancy grandfather clock echoes loudly with each empty second.
“Why does she smell different than the others?” Mabel tips her head like a dog does when it hears the word “walk”.
“She’s a witch,” Xavier explains, leaning back. He looks both amused and annoyed and he lets out a heavy sigh, raising his eyebrows in an unspoken threat to Devon.
“Oh, goodness!” Mabel gets up, coming over to me with vampire speed. I hold my ground, not even so much as flinching. “We’re going to have a witch in the family? Will her children be witches, too? Can they come to my tea parties?"
Carefully, she picks up a lock of my hair and smells it.
“No one ever comes to my tea parties,” she says and her voice drops. “I spin and spin and I spin and still no one ever comes and then I’m in the doldrums.” Her voice is haunting, both smooth and soothing yet with an undeniable sadness.
“I can come to your tea party,” I tell her and she lets go of my hair.
“Really?”
“Really. When is the next one?”
“High noon tomorrow!” She claps her hands together. “But in the ballroom, not the garden. That silly garden is full of nasty sunlight at noon. I cannot go out there. No, Mabel cannot.”
There’s something not quite right about her, and I hate that I feel like she’s innocent in some way. She’s a vampire, and she could easily kill me.
But I can easily kill her, too. I can easily kill anyone in this room. The odds are against me, with it being four against one, but I’ve gotten out of worse scenarios.
I, uh, just can’t remember when.
“Who am I marrying?” I ask but then two waiters come in, bringing plates of food for Devon and me. It smells delicious, and there’s no meat in sight.
“I told them you’re a vegetarian,” Devon says quietly.
“Oh, uh, thanks.” I look down at my plate. It’s some sort of Asian fusion food and my stomach grumbles. I haven’t had anything to eat other than the smoothie I got on the way home from shopping with Nina.
“Humans need protein,” the unnamed male vampire states, but it’s almost like he’s asking a question. How long has this dude been dead?
“You can get protein from things other than meat,” I say and Devon shoots me a look. I’m guessing the previous human incubators were seen and not heard. Hah. That is not going to fly with me. “But about this wedding…the fuck?”
Mabel sucks in a breath. “Are we allowed to say naughty words at the table again? Mother never allowed it, but sometimes, I would tell my brother he was a skirt-chaser when Mother was in the kitchen. It’s true, though.”
“You will be signing the papers to become my wife tonight,” Xavier tells me, seemingly unbothered.
“Vampire-human marriage recently became legal here in North Carolina and the VC is breathing down my fucking neck about keeping up appearances.” His fist comes down heavy on the table, making Mabel jump.
She scurries back to her seat and takes Zeke’s hand.
He soothes her like a scared puppy and I wonder if she had these oddities before she got turned into a vampire.
Physical maladies go away when someone is turned into a vampire. Diseases can’t really affect you if you’re dead, I supposed. But mental health…that I don’t know about. An anxious human would probably make an anxious vampire.
I close my eyes in a long blink, remembering a conversation I overheard not too long ago.
We were at another hunter-owned bar, but one with more non-Order members.
They were talking about the very real ramifications of the Vampire Council—or the VC as it’s commonly called.
The VC pushes for vampires to assimilate and conform to societal norms. The hunters were pissed about how it was working.
The more “human” vampires appear, the more accepting the general population is.
And vampires marrying or just cohabitating with humans has been a big thing. Because if you can fall in love and live with each other, it makes it hard to paint all vampires as scary monsters we should want to stake.
The same feeling of anxiety starts to creep over me. “So I’m—we’re—we’re not—” I look at Devon, who just has a blank look on his face. I am so fucking glad I can’t be held spellbound.
“You are to conceive and carry my offspring,” Xavier tells me.
He pushes his broad shoulders back and my god, that man could break me in half without even trying.
The anger on his face isn’t directed at me, but it makes him even more intimidating and annoyingly attractive.
His strong jaw is covered in stubble, and I find myself wondering how often vampires have to shave instead of thinking about what he’s actually telling me.
I’m going to marry him. Be his legal wife. Take his last name and be toted around as his. And then his biological human brother is going to knock me up.
What. The. Fuck.
“Wait,” I say, rapidly shaking my head. “Tonight?”
“Yes, tonight,” he sighs. “The magistrate is coming over and then you will be fitted for a ring.”
Mable leans in, bumping her antique teacup full of blood over.
Zeke moves with vampire speed and catches it before it spills.
“Do you like diamonds? I’m more of a sapphire girl myself, but this little number’s the berries!
” She shows me her left hand, wiggling her fingers.
The light catches on a large diamond center stone, surrounded by little blue sapphires.
Mable and Zeek are a couple, I note. Interesting.
“I expect four carats,” I say without missing a beat.
“At least,” Xavier replies back, not fazed by my sassiness.
“My wife only has the best. That goes for everything going forward. As soon as you take on the Malus name, you are part of this family and will be treated as such.” He picks up his goblet and takes a drink, staring at me the whole time.
“And you will be expected to act like a member of this family.”
I pick up my fork. “So I have to act like a pretentious undead prick with a breeding fetish?” Before I have time to process what happens, Xavier is in front of me and the back of my chair hits the wall.
“You will respect me,” he growls.
“Respect has to be earned.” Also moving fast, I muster every bit of strength I have and stab my fork into his chest. Xavier just looks down, and a low grumble comes from his throat.
“I liked this shirt,” he says slowly and leans back. He pulls the fork out, stands up, and heavily puts it back on the table. “Enjoy your dinner and mind your manners.”
Focusing on my breath seems almost pointless. I know everyone in this room besides Devon can hear how fast my heart is racing right now.
“I like this one,” Mable loudly whispers to Zeek. “She has much more spunk than Ellie.”
“Was Ellie the last brood mare?” I ask, surprised at the strength of my voice. Xavier is back in his spot and I can see Devon looking at me out of the corner of my eye. He clears his throat and elbows me.
“You should eat,” he says quietly.
I pick up the other fork laid out at my place setting and pick at my food.
“Theo, can you pass me the sugar?” Mabel asks the remaining unnamed vampire.
He also has a crystal goblet of blood in front of him, as does Zeek.
Smiling at her, Theo picks up a pink and gold sugar bowl that matches Mabel’s teacup.
I take a bite of my rice as I watch her pretend to add sugar to her blood “tea” and then take a drink.
“Father said he saw Cary Grant at brunch today. I don’t believe it, do you?”
Zeek takes her hand and gives it a squeeze. “He is filming a new movie, according to the papers.”
I silently watch, trying to learn everything I can about this fucked up family. Theo and Xavier have similar mannerisms, on top of looking alike. They could pass for real brothers, if not close cousins. Knowing the weird desire to carry on the family line, maybe they’re brothers and cousins.
Zeke has a family resemblance, for sure. None of my biological siblings looked that crazy alike, and Gia honestly looked more like me than Larissa. Thinking about my hunter family causes pain to wash over me, and unwelcome tears burn in the corners of my eyes.
“Oh my goodness,” Mabel quips after a few minutes have ticked by.
“I forgot introductions! I am Mabel Davis, or at least I was in a former life. Now I’m Mabel Malus but the M-Ms sound like candy, dontcha’ think?
But I don’t melt and I’m not chocolate.” She giggles and takes a loud slurping sip of blood from her fancy tea cup.
“And this is my Ezekiel, but you can call him Zeke. That’s Theo, Xavier, and you’ve met Devon.
Sometimes, his blood tastes like strawberries. ”
I turn slightly, just enough to see Devon cast his eyes down. So his family who supposedly loves and respects him uses him for food?
“So, uh, how did you all meet?” I ask, flicking my eyes up at Xavier. I’m a good bullshitter and have been able to talk myself out of a lot of situations. This, however, isn’t going to be one of them. Because in a few short hours, I will legally become Mrs. Xavier Malus.
“Xavier and Theo are brothers," Mabel tells me. “My Zeke is technically Xavier’s grandson.” There’s tension in the air and I’m guessing Mabel likes to tell everyone her life story and then whoever is just held spellbound to forget.
“What about you?” I ask.
“I don’t remember how I got here. Sometimes I dreamed I chased a white rabbit but then I remember that was Alice, not me.”
“I chased a gray rabbit into the woods once,” I tell her. “It wasn’t really a rabbit though.”
“What was it?”
“A rakshasas.” I take another bite of food and look up, feeling Mabel’s eyes on me. “It’s a type of monster,” I go on.
“Did you kill it?”
“I did.”
Mabel pushes her cup out of the way and leans forward, elbows on the table with her head in her hands. “Tell me everything!”
“Another time, my love,” Zeke tells her. “We have business to attend to.”
“Wedding planning! I’ll make sure you have something blue!”
“Thank you,” I say to Mabel and force a smile, so damn curious about how she ended up here. I finish my meal in relative silence, and then quickly excuse myself, taking my plate into the kitchen.
“We have staff to do that,” Devon tells me, and I try to play it off as if I’m being helpful. Really, I need to take a look at what herbs are in the kitchen. At the very least, I need a bay leaf or two so I can appear in Antonio’s dream and tell him to get me the fuck out of here.
I can trust him…I think?
Vivian and Marco betrayed me. I don’t want to believe my brothers knew this whole time. But there’s a big part of me that’s terrified that even if they didn’t know, they do now. And they would rather I be her than their actual sister.
The kitchen has been cleaned by the staff in the time it took us to eat dinner. I put my plate in the sink, startling the chef who comes out of the pantry, carrying ingredients to make some sort of pastry.
“Oh, thank you, but that’s not necessary,” he tells me.
“It’s no problem,” I say. “I wouldn’t mind washing dishes in a kitchen like this."
He laughs and sets the ingredients on the counter. “It’s one of the nicest kitchens I’ve worked in.” His eyes light up when he smiles, looking around excitedly. He’s probably about my age and a good half a foot shorter than me. “Do you like brownies? Or would you prefer something else?”
“Homemade brownies?”
“Yeah. You will never eat anything that comes out of a box here.”
“Or a blood bag,” I add in a loud whisper and the chef laughs.
“It’s nice having someone else to cook for.”
“I bet.”
“Let me know some of your favorite dishes, and I’ll make sure to prepare them for you, Miss.”
“Call me Wren.” I give him a polite smile.
“Wren,” he repeats and takes a step forward, holding out his hand for me to shake.
“I’m Alan. You are different from the others.
In a good way, I promise. Which is why I don’t understand why you’d get yourself tangled up in this—” All of a sudden, he’s cut off as he’s thrust across the room, moving so fast it’s just a blur.
Xavier has him pinned up against the wall, hand on his throat.
“Don’t!” I yell, but it doesn’t matter. Xavier flashes his fangs and sinks them down on Alan’s neck.