I hadn’t been invited to the shifter party. It was ridiculous to be upset by that, but I was. Not because I felt left out of the celebrations. I didn’t really know Owen or Selina, but I hated this emptiness. Feeling abandoned was irrational considering the Count owed me nothing, and Shane was barely able to look after himself, let alone consider my needs. I’d overheard Connor telling Balthazar that it wasn’t a birthday party but a surprise handfasting. I sighed, wondering what it would be like to go to an event like that as a guest. It wasn’t as if I’d ever been to parties as one, only ever as part of the entertainment. I wasn’t even sure I knew how to behave when I wasn't being paraded around as an aperitif.
I shifted my weight on the window seat and stared out into the inky night. Guards patrolled the grounds. I couldn’t see them, but I knew they were there. I shuddered. Guards had been present all of my life, and I’d just accepted it, never questioning why my home was protected in a way that most people weren’t. I’d always believed I was a vampire and never for a moment suspected my parents were lying. I’d been groomedto be subservient and well-behaved. From the age of thirteen, I’d been paraded around in front of vampires when they visited my parents’ estate. I’d understood I was destined to be the wife of a powerful vampire. I’d even looked forward to it. My parents had told me I’d be treated with great dignity and respect; that I would be loved and cared for. And I’d believed them.
As always, I was unsettled by thoughts of my childhood and how I’d been lied to. Before I knew it, I was marching down the winding stone staircase and into the most ancient part of the castle, heading towards the library. My bare feet slapped against the stone floors, echoing eerily, my toes soon stinging with cold, and making me grimace. Slippers would have been a good idea, but I’d rushed to see who was going into the garage, and not even considered them.
Goosebumps erupted over my skin, a shiver skittering down my spine. It felt as if the ghosts that haunted this ancient building walked by my side, brushing against me. I giggled at my fanciful thoughts, shaking off my fear.
“Let’s go to the library,” I told my imaginary companions. “I want to see it again.” I must be going mad, speaking to the dead.
With Bal and Shane away, and Davlov out, now was the perfect time to take another peek at the tapestry I saw a few weeks ago. It was beautiful enough to capture my whole attention, but the Count had closed the door to his private room far too quickly for me to see it properly. I wasn’t typically quite so inquisitive, but something about that ancient work of art had seeded in my brain, and I needed to see it again.
My heart started thumping against my ribs. Part of me knew this was wrong. The Count trusted me in his home, let me roam freely, and I was betraying his privacy by trying to get into his private space. I swallowed hard, my heart racing at the thought of even breaking the rules, let alone getting caught. I knew Johnson, Balthazar’s creepy butler, was away at the moment. Ihad no idea where, and I didn’t care to ask. All I knew was I had an opportunity to indulge my curiosity, and I wasn’t going to waste it.
Speeding up, I jogged down the dark corridors until I skidded to a halt outside some tall wooden doors. I grabbed one of the ornate brass handles, twisted it, and pushed the door open just enough to slip through the gap, closing it again behind me. The smell of musty old books hit me. There were books and other artifacts in this library that I was sure museums would kill to possess. But those weren’t what I was interested in.
I made my way past the Count’s desk to the old carved wooden fireplace. It was a stunning feature with vines, fruits, and birds depicted in abundance. With shaking fingers, I felt around the edge of the mantle, just as I’d seen the Count do when he opened the secret room. Taking a deep breath didn’t really help settle my racing heart or steady my shaking breaths.
“What the hell are you doing, Sor?” I whispered, not sure why I was so determined to see the tapestry again. Balthazar Rossi was the most powerful Original Vampire in the world besides the king, and I was sneaking around his home like a thief. For goodness’ sake, I knew what he did to his enemies at the Gambit; I’d seen it with my own eyes, the humiliation and depravity they were subjected to. My breath caught, but I still couldn’t seem to stop myself from pursuing this. It was like the image on that tapestry had its claws in me and was drawing me in.
My fingers met the coolness of glass a split second before something pricked my skin. I yelped and jumped back. An alarm started blaring as I glared at the blood that welled on my fingertip.
“Oops,” I muttered, adrenaline surging through my system. I spun on my heel, ready to sprint back to my room and deny all knowledge of why the alarm was trying to burst everyone’s eardrums. Before I could take a step, a spider web of lasersdescended. I jumped back onto the hearth and found myself caged there by the lethal lights. “Double fudge with cream on top!”
Seconds later, the doors banged open and five guards ran in, all wearing body armour, dark combat clothes, and black boots. Each held their guns at the ready. I didn’t really know anything about guns, but I knew enough to not want five of them pointed at me. I squealed and tried to make myself as small as possible inside the laser cage. They all halted. The guard in the centre motioned for the others to spread out. They all watched me as they followed his command, none of them lowering their weapons. I gulped, peering at them warily when I realised they weren’t going to shoot me outright.
“No, it’s all secure, Sir. It’s Miss Solomon,” the one issuing the commands said. His face was familiar—Vito. I recognised him from when I’d taken a walk around the grounds with Elliot, and he’d explained who each of the Count’s personal guards was. I wasn’t very good with names, but I had a decent memory for faces. Maybe Elliot would come and get me out of this. He was a nice guy, even if he did work for the Count and was a trained assassin.
I watched with interest as Vito spoke into a device fixed over his mouth. I wasn’t completely ignorant of the world and the way it worked, but I had been kept sheltered my entire life, isolated from technology as well as other people. My parents, or the people I’d thought were my parents, had kept me sequestered in their estate. They’d told me nothing of the outside world, only that it was dangerous. I’d believed them, of course; I’d had no reason not to. Until I’d been sold off. Even then, I’d not seen much in the way of technology. I’d never been allowed to sit and watch a television, let alone use a computer or smartphone, not until the Count took me from Nicolai.
The guard tilted his head as if listening, his attention never wavering from me. “I don’t know, Sir. Are you hurt, Miss?”
I shook my head. I didn’t want to point out that it was just luck that I’d jumped onto the actual hearth of the fireplace before the lasers came down. Clearly, they were set to slice and dice anyone who still had their finger attached to the glass pad. There was no reaching it now, not without severing my body into itty-bitty pieces. But I guess that was the point.
“She’s fine, Sir. Yes, Sir.” He nodded at the other guards. “Stand down!”
All of them lowered their weapons, and the lasers shut off, but none of them moved out of the room. Well, there was nothing for it; I was in deep trouble, and all I could do now was wait for the Count to get home and dole out my punishment. I shivered. I hadn’t gotten on his bad side since he’d brought me here. Even when I’d started working at his club behind the bar and made mistakes, he’d treated me with patience, but I’d seen what happened to those who did anger or betray him. I twisted my hands, trying to shove away images of those poor souls cuffed to the poles in the club. Nikolai, my previous master, or husband, or whatever he was, had been an expert at doling out punishment, too.
I bent my knees into my chest and hugged them. All the powerful Vampires I’d been shared with were the same. I’d even thought the Count had helped me escape just to keep me as a blood slave for himself. He’d literally whisked me out of Nikolai’s house and to his own. I’d been shocked when he’d given me my own room and hadn’t locked me in. I hadn’t dared come out of the room for days. When I eventually did, he had mostly ignored me. He’d had clothes delivered to my room and told me that if I decided to stay, I was welcome to explore and to help myself to whatever food and drink I found. It had taken days for his words to actually sink in. He wasn’t going to use me.I could leave or stay, my choice; the very first one I’d made for myself in my whole life.
I’d stayed, and over the past eight months, I’d gotten braver. When I’d asked for a job, maybe cleaning the castle or cataloguing the library, anything to keep me occupied, the Count had taken me with him to his club. He’d instructed the girl, or rather, vampire, behind the bar to train me and make sure I was educated in how to stay alive in his club, and then left me to fend for myself. Kind of. One of his men was always nearby. I didn’t know for sure, but I liked to think it was because the Count wanted me to be safe. I wasn’t a fighter. I’d never done physical exercise in my life. My parents had deemed it unseemly for a young woman to sweat or have muscle. I’d been brought up, or rather, groomed, to be subservient and compliant.
Balthazar didn’t seem to want anything from me. I’d caught him watching me when I dared to look his way, but he never demanded I strip naked for him or forced himself on me for my blood. I gave a bitter smile. Why would he? I was just a used human. He was this godlike creature with stunning looks, a level of wealth that I couldn’t even comprehend, and a ridiculous amount of political and personal power. He’d proved that by taking me by the hand and leading me from Nicolai’s clutches without a word. Nicolai’s fury had been written in every tense line of his body, his eyes flashing with the kind of hatred that had made my knees shake. But he’d said nothing. It confused me then, and it still confuses me. Balthazar Rossi could have any man or woman of any species he wanted, so why had he rescued me?
Mystery aside, I’d resolved to enjoy my stay here while I could. He paid me well to work in the club, and I was saving a steady amount of money so that I could support myself and buy a flat somewhere if he decided to throw me out of his home. Most of the time, I was as quiet as I could be and avoided him.I’d always believed if he didn’t see me, maybe he would forget I lived under his roof, and I’d have enough time to sort out my life and my head before I was on my own. Other than Elliot and occasionally Davlov, I didn’t really speak to anyone, or I hadn’t until Shane arrived. The butler was just weird, and the other guards were too scary. I’d never had friends, mainly because of being isolated, first by my parents, and then by Nicolai. I didn’t trust anyone. Not anymore. But neither did I want to be out in the world on my own. There was at least some measure of comfort in knowing the Count, and now Shane, was around somewhere.
When I was at work at the Gambit, I stayed at the Count’s London flat, but if he came back here, he always brought me with him. I was still trying to figure out our strange relationship. He barely spoke to me, but didn’t ever leave me alone for long. If I went out for a walk, I could always feel eyes on me, as if one of the guards stayed nearby. I’d never spotted anyone, but I knew if Nikolai could get to me without consequences, he would, if only to kill me. He never gave up his belongings, and that's all I was to him, a commodity, one he’d paid a hell of a lot of money for.
Things changed when the Count brought Shane back from Canada. I’d been surprised by the new addition to the Count’s household. Balthazar Rossi was such a private person that I didn’t expect to see anyone else living with us. It was really nice, though. I hadn’t been asked to care for Shane, but I’d done it anyway. He’d been emaciated and clearly tortured, and his quiet anger had called to me. I got it. I understood. There was no point in raging about what had happened because there was no turning back the clock. It was what it was.
Bite marks had covered his skin just as they had mine months earlier. His healed better than mine, though. That’s when I realised he wasn’t human. Wounds like that left scars; they were just less obvious on someone with supernaturalhealing. His species didn’t matter to me, I couldn’t let another person suffer alone.
It took a while to build up my confidence enough to talk to him, even though I’d taken him food several times a day and been the one to fetch his laundry and deposit clean clothes in his room. Eventually, though, I built up enough courage to talk to him. From there, I’d gotten to know him as well as he would allow, though I saw the ghosts that haunted his eyes when he thought I wasn’t looking. Then again, those same phantoms haunted my thoughts if I let them, too. Maybe that was why I felt such kinship with him; I saw my own past reflected in his eyes. I hadn’t asked what had happened, just as he didn’t ask me. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that we were both fighting our demons and coming out on the other side. We were survivors.
The Count left us both alone in the castle over the next few months. I hadn’t asked where he went or what he did. I wasn’t brave enough, but I guessed he was running his clubs and doing whatever someone as powerful as him did on a daily basis.
It had surprised me how much I missed his brooding presence, though the Count’s absence gave Shane and me time to grow closer. Before his first trip, the Count told me to stay with Shane and had even given me a phone, with instructions to ring him if Shane’s behaviour changed. I’d only worked in the club every other weekend after that, though Balthazar continued to pay my wages as if I was there the three nights a week we’d agreed on. Shane hadn’t been physically able to go far, and when he’d slept, I’d used the time to explore the castle in more detail, especially the old parts.
Of course, I’d been stupid to believe I was clever enough to get into the Count’s private room. I shook my head. What had I been thinking? That there would just be a handy little button to press, and open sesame? The guy was powerful, rich, and ancient, for goodness’ sake. Not only that, he had a small armyprotecting his home and his back at all times. Of course, the security in his home would be state-of-the-art.
