This whole evening has been … taxing. Winifred is the first human I’ve been around in decades apart from Reginald, and as we are tied by the blood rites, he doesn’t count. I thought with my training in the village I’d be able to spend long periods with her without my hunger making a beast of me. I thought I’d been doing well. I’d even managed to tear myself away from that arresting woman at the pub, though I hated leaving her alone without explanation.
But that was before thesamearresting, delicious-smelling woman moved into my castle. Before she began to sift through my stuff, placing her delectable scent upon everything that I hold dear. Before I got close enough to hear the blood rushing in her veins or that damnedmoanissuing from her perfect lips.
Before I started to imagine all the forbidden things I’d like to do to her …
“You wish to say something,” I say to Reginald.
“I believe that you should tell her the truth, my lord.”
“I haven’t lied to her.” I’ve not hidden my nocturnal proclivities or the centuries of distractions scattered about my castle. I’ve even allowed her to share a drink with me. Callista would say that I am tempting the gods, but I don’t care.
However, I cannot break our laws and tell her the truth.
“She is going to be living in the castle for six weeks,” Reginald says. “We have never had to hide ourselves around a human for this long. She’ll figure out the truth.”
“I don’t see how. She has accepted everything so far with her human logic. She thinks I’m … what’s the word she used?” I screw up my face. “Odd.”
“She will become suspicious when you do not eat, and when you refuse to leave the castle during daylight. She will discover what you hide in the dining room. Or you will succumb to the hunger and …”
“I willnot.” I spit the words, and my fangs begin to descend with my anger.
Reginald lurches away. I incline my head in remorse, my fangs sliding back into place. I rarely lose my temper with him.
I sigh and hold out my glass. “I cannot reveal myself to a human.”
“The laws are wrong.” Reginald shifts uneasily as he moves to refill my drink. “But youcanreveal yourself under certain circumstances. I think she would agree if you?—”
“I will not askthatof her. I have hired Ms Preston to organise the house for my mother. That isall.”
The hunger rages.
“As you say, my lord.” Reginald kneels on the rug at my feet, his fingers trembling as they grip his knees. His knuckles are white. “But you need to keep your strength up. You appear even paler than usual.”
“I’ve told you before, I won’t take from you. That is the end of this discussion.”
Through the haze of strawberry, I smell something else – his hunger, hisdesperation.
I hate it, but it’s necessary.
I need Reginald as much as he has come to need me.
I draw back my cuff as my fangs slide down again. I slice a small hole in my wrist, squeezing until three droplets of blood bead on the surface of my skin. Reginald’s eyes blow out, his tongue snaking out of his lips at the anticipation of his reward.
Reginald takes my arm in his, bringing my wrist to his mouth. He sucks and licks, drinking his fill of my blood, tasting immortality on his tongue as he kneels in thrall.
I allow it, this curse, this violation, because it is what we have always done. To be a monster is to make a choice – I had a choice forced on me the night I allowed my mother to gift me the Kiss, and another the night I fled the Nightshade Court for this lonely,crumbling castle.
I’ve come to understand that I cannot survive here without Reginald, and thanks to the poison in my veins, he now cannot survive without me.
My head pulses as I turn over my mother’s latest text message and the news article I’d briefly glanced at while Winifred was in the bathroom. Out there is another vampire, hunting andkillingon my territory, one who has made a different choice. One who has embraced the monster within.Husking. All that separates him and me is my high walls and my thin veneer of control.
And Winnie Preston has proven that she can shatter my defences in a single evening.
CHAPTER TEN
WINNIE
Harudha: Winnie, I’m texting because you missed your appointment yesterday, which isn’t like you. I know you’re still having the nightmares but I think we’re making real progress. Also, when you reorganised my desk, do you happen to remember where you put my stapler? I can’t find it anywhere.
