CHAPTER 15 #2
“You’re out. You never have to go back there. You’re safe now,” Del comforts, his hand rubbing her arm.
Aurelia sits up, dark hair falling around her shoulders, lilac eyes bright and flitting about the room. Her focus lands on Charlotte beside her.
“Thank you for choosing me,” she says.
Charlotte’s perfect smile lights up her face with honest joy. “I’m thankful for that, too.”
The girls awaken around us. Second’s choices, Hannah and Samantha, sit up and huddle against one another, eyes jumping from one vampire to the next, chests puffing in fear.
“You’re safe,” Del says quickly, and they settle instantly at the sight of him.
Amelia stirs, eyes wild in her sobriety as she takes in a room of vampires, but, like the others, she finds Del and relaxes.
They trust him.
“You can trust these vampires,” Del says to the girls.
Amelia’s gaze lands on Emmanuel as he kneels down next to the settee.
“He’s right. You will trust me, Amelia,” he says to her.
Her brown eyes latch onto his. “All right,” she says firmly.
“Good.”
My siren is the last to wake, and I crouch before her. “Sophie,” I say as she opens her eyes, and the boldness of emerald gleams so much brighter now. “Welcome back,” I tell her.
Her eyes shift to Del, the tension in her shoulders softening, and then her focus homes in on me. “Make me a fucking vampire,” she commands.
A small smile plays on my lips. “It’s not a life I would have asked for,” I tell her. “Are you sure? We can get you to the Night Kingdom if you’d prefer.”
“I’ve had enough humanity. I’m certain.”
“I understand.”
I turn toward the others. “Make your choices, darlings. Vampire, and you remain here with us. Human, and you leave for the Night Kingdom at sunset.”
Amelia shoves her wrist at Emmanuel’s mouth. He catches her slender arm with his strong hand and closes his fingers around her with a clear of his throat. Eyes flashing red, he moves her delicate wrist away from his lips.
Del is two for two on his guesses.
“I will go to the Night Kingdom,” Samantha says, her smile wide. “I’ve heard stories about how wonderful it is there.”
“It is,” I tell her.
“How do you know for certain?” she asks, eyes eager.
“Because I’m her queen, and I built her.”
Her mouth falls open, and her cheeks flush rose. “Oh my gods,” she whispers.
“Aurelia will join you,” Del interjects, and Aurelia scoffs at him.
“I get a say, too,” she protests, looking at him with teenage indignation.
He raises his eyebrows, and she plants her arms over her chest. The staring contest is one for the ages.
Aurelia finally groans. “Fine. Night Kingdom for me.”
“And for you, Hannah?” Second asks his blonde girl.
She looks up at him and shakes her head. “I have nothing to live for,” she says, voice hollow as her arms wrap around her flat belly.
Second watches her solemnly for a moment and then comes right out with it. “You want to die instead?”
She nods. “I lost my baby.”
“I know. Loss gets different with time,” he tells her. “But it will never go away.”
Is he trying to talk her into the grave?
“Who have you lost?” she asks Second.
He swallows. “My best friend. He was my brother in every way the word matters.” Second kneels before her. “Let us help you through it. Just give us a few years. If you still want to die, I’ll do it myself,” he promises her.
Well, that’s one way to go about it.
Hannah’s eyes search his. “Six months.”
“One year,” he jabs back.
I smirk at the negotiation. Only in the vampire world are we negotiating death sentences.
Hannah sighs. “Fine. One year. And I’d like to spend it as a vampire.”
Second looks at her as she extends her wrist. Then he sets it back on her lap. “I’ll give that to you if it’s what you want. But we’re not doing it yet. You need to bask in the sun one more time.”
Silence falls heavy.
Second’s deep voice filters out with kindness. “And not your wrist. Your bite marks are the last scar you’ll ever have. It’ll mean something to you. Choose a place you can cover.”
She rubs her wrist. “Good to know.”
I roll out my neck. It’s midday based on how my body is forcing itself to stay awake. “Second is right. Those who are turning should spend some time outside.”
Hannah looks back at her rescuer. “Your name is Second?”
He narrows his eyes at her. “It’s a good name.”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t.”
Second cracks the faintest smile, and my heart wrings.
Del crosses the room with a snort. “I’ll gather travel clothes and supplies for Aurelia and Samantha.” He points at Second. “I’ll be back with a map to show you the best route and where to acquire horses for the rest of their journey without you tomorrow.”
Second nods at him. “Good.”
“Come with me, ladies. You can spend time on my balcony while I gather things,” Del says and strolls out of the suite, with scrambling girls in his wake.
Two hours later, we convene in my suite again. Sunkissed cheeks and hopeful smiles dot the sitting room, ready for their next chapter.
“Who would you like to turn you, Sophie?” I ask as Del and Second review the map of Goreon at the mahogany desk in the corner.
Sophie’s upper lip curls in a sly grin. Already an alluring beauty, she’ll make an even more stunning vampire, the bite of her confidence sure to keep her alive for centuries.
“The queen, of course,” she purrs with a bow, her blazing hair falling forward.
“Where would you like your mark?”
Sophie strips her nightdress, naked before me, and holds her arm above her head. “Ribcage, near my heart.”
I smile at her, my fangs elongating.
Confidence. Beauty. Commanding.
Bold and brave.
“It’s my honor. And what will I call you from this moment forth?”
She looks at me around her arm. “Nix.”
“Are you ready, Nix?”
She swallows and nods. “To forever in the dark,” she says, and my mouth brushes against her skin, fangs sinking in.
My body races as the taste of blood from the vein hits my mouth, but I hold everything back, forcing myself to release my puncture from Nix without drinking.
The trickle of blood in my mouth is enough to sustain me for days, or so it feels that way.
“What now?” Nix asks.
I step back from her. “It only takes a few minutes,” I say kindly. “It’ll hurt when your fangs grow in, and your eyes will sting with their first flash of red, and your body will experience pain as you harden into immortality.”
A tear slips down Nix’s cheek. “Yes, I feel it.”
“Welcome to hell, Nix.”
She shakes her head. “I’ve been to hell. This will be my heaven,” she says, and my guilt flits away at her words.
Hair that was already fire becomes a brilliant, curling orange as Nix turns.
Her cheekbones sharpen, lips plump, and the pigment of her skin lightens into porcelain glowing beneath blazing, lengthening ringlets.
Nix draws her fingertips up her arm, her muscles defining, and the scars around her wrists from endless hours in chains fade.
“Oh my gods,” she whispers, stepping in front of the mirror in the room and gazing upon herself. “I didn’t realize we got prettier.”
“You were beautiful as you were,” I tell her.
She smirks at me in the glass. “You’re kind, but now I’m … striking.”
Charlotte giggles from the sofa. “You’re going to get any attention you want. We might need to assign a bodyguard for you,” she teases.
It might actually be necessary.
“I’ll just take one of the hundred blades from Uncle Del’s chambers.”
My eyes dart to Del as he looks up from the map and gives Nix a wink. He downplayed his devotion to these girls, his kindness, his influence in their lives. You don’t earn a familiar name like that without effort and love.
Amelia catches my attention as she saunters across the room to Emmanuel.
Leaning against the wall, my assassin watches her with rapt attention.
She stands before him, staring up into his blazing eyes.
Definitely an unforeseen weakness.
“Ask for what you want,” he says.
She takes a step closer. “Will you turn me?”
“If you make me one promise.”
She frowns up at him. “What’s the promise?”
“You can never touch me.”
Her mouth parts, and her eyes narrow. “But—”
“Never,” he says fiercely.
Amelia’s expression clouds. “I don’t understand—”
“Promise me,” he growls.
“Don’t growl your words at me, sir,” she shoots back, and I hide my grin behind my hand.
He doesn’t flinch. “It’s Emmanuel, and you will trust me.”
“I already said I do.”
“Then act like it.”
Amelia glowers at my assassin, and then her chin tilts. “Can I touch you before you turn me?”
His eyes blow wide in surprise. I wasn’t expecting that question either.
His gaze assesses Amelia, her soft brown hair brushing at her waist as she steps closer to him.
“Careful, I bite,” he says through a smirk I’ve never seen and a smolder that could bring us all to our knees.
She takes another step, her delicate body poised before one of the deadliest males I know. “That wasn’t a ‘no.’”
“It wasn’t,” he says tightly.
She reaches her fingertips to his face and draws them along his sharp jawline.
“Cold,” she whispers, and her hand travels down the side of his throat as Emmanuel swallows.
My eyes flick to Charlotte gaping at them from the sofa. Glad to know I’m not the only one amazed by what’s happening.
Amelia runs her hand along his bicep. “Strong,” she says and steps into his space, pressing herself against him, the wall at his back and bravery at his front.
She leans up on her tiptoes and brushes her lips against his. “Soft,” she whispers into his mouth.
Emmanuel’s hand cups the back of her head as she pulls back just enough to put her wrist to his lips.
“That’s a difficult spot to cover,” he says, eyes pinned to hers.
“I want to be able to see it every day, whenever I want. Mark me, Emmanuel,” she commands.
A snarl rips from his lips, and his fangs dart for her skin.
“You can take more,” she tells him, and his eyes flash crimson, never leaving her gaze, but he unlatches himself without drinking and plasters his body against the wall. He breathes heavily, a finger swiping her blood from his lip.
“You can call me Hartley,” she says, eyeing her new marks.
“It suits you,” Emmanuel says, eyes on fire.
Hartley grins at him, then backs away, a small moan escaping her as the pain sets in.
Turning to me, her eyes flash red. “I look forward to having a ruler worthy of my service,” she says with a deep bow, and her fangs release for the first time through her thankful smile.
“And what service would that be?” I ask curiously, loving her confidence as her acorn-brown hair shifts into layers of honey, dark caramel and chocolate.
“Whatever is required. Although, I’m quite skilled with a bow. I hunted for my village before I was captured. Perhaps you can train me to fight for you.”
My suppressed smile and raised eyebrows find Emmanuel. “I know just the trainer.”
Hartley follows my gaze and spins back to Emmanuel.
“You?” Hartley asks, tilting her head, eyes running up him. “Who are you?”
He spins his blade. “The devil you never see coming.”
Del snorts in the corner, fingertip pointed on the map in front of Second. Emmanuel’s blade is airborne and pinned in Del’s heart before his snort fully forms in my ears.
“Fuck!” Del shouts, yanking the knife from his chest.
Emmanuel winks at Hartley.
“Asshole,” Del spits and throws the blade back at my assassin with perfect aim.
Emmanuel catches it between his fingertips, nose wrinkled at Del’s blood soiling the steel.
Del fires a blazing gaze at me, and I shrug. “You’ll be fine in two minutes,” I offer in response.
He rolls out his shoulder and stabs his finger back on the map. “As I was saying,” he tells Second, who chuckles softly next to him.
I smile at Hannah, catching her attention.
“Guess I’m last,” she whispers from the sofa next to Charlotte.
Second abandons the map and charges across the room to Hannah. “Where do you want it?” he asks abruptly. “And pick a spot that will do for a shit-ton longer than one year.”
“Mark me next to my other scar.”
“And where is that?”
She opens her thighs for Second, and I wonder what her other scar is from.
He doesn’t balk. He gets on his knees, slides open her dressing gown, and finds the mark on her inner thigh. Second sinks his fangs into her flesh, and Hannah lets out a relieved sigh, like she’s thankful the journey to her end is beginning.
“What will you call yourself?” he asks as he releases himself from her and swipes her blood away with his finger.
“Ellie.”
“Not much of a vampire name,” Second teases, backing away from between Ellie’s legs.
“It’s the name I would’ve given my daughter.”
Her words slice through the air, and Second’s eyes flick to mine. I return his gaze with a soft smile.
“Ellie it is, then,” he says, standing to inspect the travel packs Del brought.
Across the room, Del is whispering to Aurelia, her tears running and head nodding. She rushes him, hugging tightly before he releases his palms gripping her shoulders.
Del meets my eyes. “Write the letter,” he tells me. “It’s time. And we need to start a very large fire.” He grins, plum eyes flashing through his dripping charm.
I pull parchment from the desk drawer in the corner and scrawl the message for Officer Holton at the wall.
Second drags Samantha’s and Aurelia’s travel packs over his shoulders beside me.
I savor the ink drying on the page before I fold it, the edges of my signature bleeding my promise into permanence.
“Be safe. Be swift,” I say, shoving the note into Second’s palm.
He looks down at me. “We will be, my queen.”