Chapter 18 Sam
Sam
Isat in a small parlor-like room and glanced around. It was something out of Regency France. Kind of, anyway. The furniture was delicate, and I couldn’t imagine a big guy like Kyle sitting comfortably in any of it.
It was entirely different than how Esmé decorated.
Or how Brock decorated, anyway. And it was only the first indication these people were different than the vampires I was used to.
The house was quiet for a start. No thralls, blood slaves, or bloodwhores hanging around, desperate to donate, or sleeping off a high in the corner.
And the people I’d met here didn’t seem feral, either. There was even a fucking butler, like something out of a stately home in England.
“How are you finding things?” One of the women smiled at me as she spoke, and I smiled back, hoping my expression was suitably bland. I didn’t want to seem too impressed, even though I totally was.
“It’s…” I looked around again and failed at my attempts at being casual. “It’s a lot,” I admitted.
The second woman — Kayla? — laughed. “I’ll say. But at least you already knew vampires existed, right? Leia didn’t even now that much before she met one. And what a one to meet — the king.”
I grimaced. “I knew. Maybe not the right kind of vampire, though. I knew about monsters more than anything else.”
Leia nodded. “The Duponts aren’t monsters. Nic sees to that.” She sounded so sure of her mate that I smiled.
Weirdly, I felt the same way about Kyle. That I could trust anything he did and all of his intentions.
“Has Kyle told you much about us?” she continued as she tucked some of her hair behind her ear and leaned forward like I might impart some excellent gossip.
“You’re the mates of the Baton Rouge King and New Orleans Regent.” I stopped there. He’d probably told me more, but the finer details of things he’d told me when I was still a thrall were lost in that haze of venom lust.
Kayla nodded. “Yep.” Her bright smile said everything. “And we were both human, just like you.”
“Just like me, though?” A small sliver of shame cut through me. I hadn’t just been human. I’d been a thrall. Something disgraceful and not spoken of. Something humans aware of the world avoided and vampires seemed to despise, despite the fact that thralls were a food source.
Leia shook her head. “Not exactly the same, no, but we were humans with lives and a certain degree of ignorance of the supernatural world, which you must have been once, too?” She shrugged. “Kayla knew more than me but even now things can surprise her.”
I nodded. It all seemed like a very long time ago. “Kyle behaved like turning a human is really difficult.” I didn’t want to tell his stories for him, so I left it there.
Leia nodded thoughtfully. “It was hard for me.”
“Sebastian said Nic thought he’d lost her. The men seem to panic.” Kayla imparted information like it was all precious nuggets of knowledge, her expression serious and knowing.
Leia appeared to agree. “I had quite a hard time with the transition. I remember some of it.”
“But is it rare to turn, though?” I pressed. “Kyle made it seem like it might be.”
Kayla pursed her lips. “I guess it might be? I mean, I’m pretty sure the whole finding true mates is a rare thing in of itself.”
“That’s right.” Leia pitched back in. “Nic’s sister is happy with her vampire mate, many of them are, but they don’t bring the power and connection of true mates… like we are.” She glanced between Kayla and me. “There’s something special about us, I think.”
“But why is that?” I didn’t understand any of this.
Leia shrugged. “I don’t know. But Nic is head of the Dupont line, and he’s a born vampire. That might make his House extra powerful right now.”
Kayla shifted a little like she was growing bored, but she’d been more of a fidgeter than Leia, anyway. Leia seemed more regal, but she was the actual queen, if Nic was king – although both women seemed so down to Earth.
There was something just amazing about being around other women and not feeling as if I was less. Well, no less than usual social anxiety. It was as if these two would understand my journey. Well, most of it, anyway, and certainly this last part and my introduction to their men.
“Let’s show her to her room?” Kayla glanced at Leia.
Leia nodded. “Sure, but it’s Kyle’s space, right, so it’s a little…” She waved her hand briefly. “A little sparse?”
I laughed. “Yeah. He seems to travel light.”
“Tell me about it.” Kayla rolled her eyes. “And he’s the exact same at Nightfall. An office of cardboard boxes of files rather than comfortable furniture. It’s like he’s never quite ready to put down roots, like he’s always waiting for the next mission, the next destination or location.”
“Hmm…” Leia eyed me thoughtfully as she stood. “Maybe that will change now, right, Sam?”
My cheeks heated. I couldn’t imagine influencing Kyle’s behavior to that degree. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to. I liked him as he was.
Kayla led the way up a beautiful staircase with a sleek, polished banister that finished in a perfect closed spiral at the bottom.
At the top, she pointed briefly left. “That’s Sebastian’s and my wing.
But this way—” She walked out of a door and onto a bridge outside. “This is where the guest rooms are.”
I glanced over the side and into the small garden courtyard below. Sebastian’s home was all fenced in, but not in the way that Brock’s compound looked like a prison.
“There are more guards here now,” Leia sad. “Nic brought some more with him from Baton Rouge, and they’re all on high alert since the attack by the Blackbloods.”
Kayla stopped by a plain door. “This is Kyle’s room.”
“And Nic and I are just down the hall.” Leia pointed vaguely down a hallway to the right.
Kayla smiled but it looked grim as she swung the door open. “I haven’t decorated in here, and like I said, Kyle’s taste verges on utilitarian.”
I almost laughed at the sight of the bed and nothing more than other essential furniture. “It’s perfect,” I said, meaning it. “I’ve never known anyone like Kyle before and this is exactly him.”
“So, what’s your family like?” Kayla sounded curious as she stepped inside the bedroom.
“Oh. There’s only Mom now. She doesn’t know about vampires, though. I didn’t until we lost my brother in an attack.”
Leia caught her breath. “It’s better that way. Vampires don’t play nice when they can use family as leverage.” And something about the expression in her eyes suggested there was far more to her story than that sentence could sum up, but my head was full of thoughts of Sean and Mom.
“We’ve both lost people, too.” Kayla wrapped an arm around my waist, and I leaned my head against her shoulder in an uncharacteristic gesture of trust and affection. I’d only known these women for a few hours, and already they felt like family, like we had a bond between us.
“Esmé nearly killed me,” I whispered as a single tear found its way from the corner of my eye.
“Some of them are monsters,” Leia agreed as she laced her fingers with mine. “But we’ve got you now. You’re safe here with us.”
We stood for a little while, three women who used to be human and now plunged into a new world, until Kayla moved away.
“We should leave you to get some of your bearings – or whatever good hosts do when they don’t want to overcrowd their new guests. I’m sure Kyle will be back soon, and you’ll want some time with him, too. This is a lot to get used to all at once.”
After a flurry of see-you-laters and unexpectedly warm hugs, they left, and the room fell silent. I breathed out a sigh and sank onto the foot of Kyle’s plain bed, smoothing my hand over the comforter.
There was a knock at the door, and I glanced over as it began to open. Kyle walked into the room, carrying two mugs, and I sprang off the bed and almost tackled him to the floor as he laughed.
“Whoa, Sam. Don’t spill it.” He held the mugs out of my reach, but the aroma from them tantalized me, and my gums ached.
“Mine,” I growled, and he laughed again.
“I’ve never seen you look this fierce.” He dropped the volume of his voice. “It’s very sexy.”
“Mine,” I blurted again, almost not sure what I was asking for, but whatever was in those mugs, I wanted it.
The coppery tang hit me again and I inhaled deeply, my body almost fizzing in response.
“Blood? Is it blood?” Where I should have felt only revulsion, a roiling, gut-clenching nausea, there was only temptation… desire to consume and never stop.
“I brought us a drink.” He held one of the mugs out to me and I snatched it from his hands before slamming it back like the world’s biggest shot.
I didn’t even chug. I just emptied the contents right down my throat.
Then I grabbed the second mug from Kyle’s hands and put that one to my lips. He moved to take it back, and I growled, the sound surprising me. It wasn’t one I’d ever made before.
“Hey!” But he laughed good-naturedly before backing away, his hands in the air, palms toward me. “I see your need is greater.”
I nodded but had more self-control this time and sipped at the drink.
He dropped onto an uncomfortable-looking wooden chair and watched me.
I really was lucky that Kyle had found me, that I’d been his mate.
If another vampire had found me… could they even have done that?
A small stirring of a memory in the back of my brain suggested that yes, another vampire could have found me first if they’d realized what I was.
Luckily, the Blackbloods had only ever seen me as a pet. Kyle was sane and trustworthy. I just felt that knowledge. I just knew. We’d known each other for such a short time, and I knew it anyway.
Before Kyle, I’d only seen the bad side of vampires, the darkness. But now there was something else. The House of Dupont was different. They were family. And now that I knew there was another way, it doubled my resolve that I never wanted to be anything like Esmé or Brock or the other Blackbloods.