CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ALARIC
Gideon: I have news, Allie. One of my informants has told me of a local vampire, Baylor Godsven of the Blood Ptolemy, who may have unnatural tastes. He got into trouble with the Mora in Finland a couple of decades ago for inappropriate relations with a human. He’s now living on an estate not far from Argleton, and there have been rumours floating around about what he does to humans and vampires in his manor.
Sounds like he’d be the type to enjoy exploring a taboo like husking. Tell your mother to hold on to her tits, I will investigate. BTW, could I interest you in an investment opportunity? Guaranteed two hundred percent return, no money down …
In my study, I draw my favoured sword from its hiding place and, with the roar of a beast who longs for things that cannot be his, I attack the towering stacks of ceramic pots. My eyes cloud with the fog of the battlefield as I hack and slash and slay – the only things I’m made for.
By the time I surface from the fog, my chestheaving, my arms aching, I’m standing amidst the ruins of my art, Winnie’s moan a roar in my veins.
Reginald appears at the door, broom in hand.
“I’ll clean up, my lord. She need not know a thing.”
Disgusted with myself and buzzing with the thrill of my name on Winnie’s lips, I return to my office to work on my newest piece. But after several hours, I give up. The painting is a failure. I feel wretched. I debate tearing the canvas to pieces, but decide to keep it – sometimes, I will take elements from discarded works to reuse on a new piece.
But likewise, I don’t want to leave the painting on the desk for Winnie to see. Now I know that she … that she’s attracted to me, I don’t want to lower myself in her esteem by allowing her to see this worthless doodle.
Her breathy voice whispering my name pounds inside my skull as I pick up the canvas and hurry down the hall. There’s a small secret room opposite the dining room that has lain empty for some years. I once used it to hide a priest escaping the wrath of Queen Elizabeth. The narrow doorway can be hidden behind a tapestry, and the way the castle walls shape around the landscape hides its presence.
I fling open the door and drop my mistake inside. I will start again tomorrow.
I cannot sleep.
Usually, when I close the lid of my coffin, I am dead to the world.
(That’s my little joke, since I am always dead to the world.)
Inside the velvet-lined walls of my eternal resting place, both my body and mind usually find rest.
But not today. I toss and turn. Every time I close my eyes, I hear her voice whisper my name, soft and breathy.
I hear her come apart, her moans dissolving as the pleasure claims her body. My name burstingfrom her pretty lips.
And I wish, I wish more than I have wished for anything else in my long life, that I could join her. She’s more than a beguiling scent and delicious moan – she is brightness and celebration and laughter. She makes me feel light, as though the years I’ve endured are nothing but leaves floating past on an autumn breeze.
When she’s here, Black Crag doesn’t feel like a prison, but a home.
But she is not for me.
I made myself a promise when I took Black Crag from its last owner, when I first stood behind these stone walls and looked out at a world that wanted to burn me, that I would wall myself off. Not only would this castle protect me from the wrath of humans and my court, and enable me to create in peace, but it would be a prison to protect them fromme.
I would never grant another human the Kiss.
I have become so content in my routines and my distractions that I’ve allowed myself to forget Iamthe monster, the minotaur at the centre of my maze. I let Reginald talk me into allowing Winnie inside the castle, behind my walls, and now she’s inside, her sunshine and strawberry scent breaking down the defences I’ve built over centuries.
I never imagined that I could feel such things for ahuman…
And worse, despite my efforts, she feels something for me, something that makes her call my name with such ardentneed…
But we cannot sate our hunger for each other.
And I must find a way to destroy these feelings that are more than hunger. No matter the cost.
I give up on sleep. I must come clean about who I am, what I’ve done, and send Winnie far away from this castle. After what I heard last night, I cannot allow her to stay.
She needs to know that she’s working for a monster.
