Fingers hovered over pale, delicate flesh, tracing the space, and I imagined he could hear the racing pulse underneath.
“And if I am,” I replied shakily.
When soft lips twisted upwards and brought down upon my neck, I stiffened, shuddering a breath against his touch.
I didn’t feel the sharp pain I’d pictured or had witnessed in horror. No, the man simply pressed his lips to my flesh and drew back, taking a hold of my chin to meet his sorrow-laced gaze.
“What do you say we make a bargain?”
I shut my eyes, steadying my knees, which threatened to buckle once more in front of the man—a devil in sheep’s clothing.
Another cough boiled in my chest, needles prickling my throat as I rasped, “What kind of bargain?”
“Come with me willingly, and I will spare them.”
“And if I don’t?” I gulped.
The man sighed, dropping my chin to fold his hand in mine and slip William’s ring off. “I can easily sweep you away into the folds of darkness in which you may have a chance to outrun death if you so wished it to be. Just as easily as I can slaughter every man, woman, and child.”
The man dug into his suit jacket and pulled out a ring wrapped in black thorns with a ruby rose-shapedjewel at the center. After tossing William’s gaudy ring aside, he placed it onto my finger and pressed a kiss to my hand. “Choose.”
Miriam and Mama huddled together, gazes widened as they hugged one another. It’s always been my life for theirs, and this was no different.
“Give me your word.”
He dropped my hand. “You have my word.”
I shivered as the heavy placement of the ring seared through the gloves. “Then, I accept.”
The man turned to leave.
Sirens filled Endovier’s night air with the masses screaming inaudible words.
Halfway down the church aisle, he stopped. “I’ll be back to collect you. Don’t think you can run from me.”
He bowed his head and walked out of the church into the failing sunlight as twilight approached.
I crumbled to the ground and coughed up blood onto the stained floor.
“You can’t just go with him. That’s absurd and unbecoming of a lady.” Mama paced the floor of the waiting room in a flurry of panic. She clutched her finest white pearls strung around her neck, continuing to denounce the man—the beast. “For God’s sake, he killed the priest and nearly killed your sister.”
“But he didn’t,” I argued from the chaise lounge. I clasped my shaking hands together and dug my nails into the flesh, praying this was a dream.
“He could have, and now he wants you! As if it could not get any worse!”
Miriam sat in an armchair. She stared at the ground, picking at her nail beds, processing her near death.
“I don’t have a choice. I either go with him, or you all die.”
Mama slapped her fan into her palm. “We must think of another way out!”
“There is not another way, Mama.” I wiped my clammy hands onto the dress, noting the speckles of blood dotting the bright rose-pink gown—the blood jewel upon my finger twinkled. “The existence of the man defies every logic, and he will slaughter the entirety of Endovier without fail if I do not follow through.”
Out of the tiny room’s window, night settled in under the cover of darkness. The sun dipped below the horizon, fading into the black sky as the pale moon rose. I was running out of time.
Beautiful and deadly, his phantom touch etched upon my skin, and soon enough, his fangs would be buried into my neck, draining what was left of my life.
I placed my head in my lap as Mama and Miriam hatched a plot despite the warnings. For the last few months of my life, I’d been told of the impossible, and right then, a new impossible was before me. I should’ve been repulsed, demanding it was a mistake and fighting to stay here with Mama and Miriam. Yet confusion lay my mind bare as the memory of the graveyard encounter and our dance clashed with thebloodshed I’d witnessed. The crushing weight fell as the hour neared to a close, the quiet contemplation driving me mad in every sense of the word.
