Chapter 15
Ali wasn’t with the nightwalkers long before she was made to believe that it was the bear shifters, not the vampires, that meant her harm. She had changed completely now, and it was like a whole new world had opened in front of her because she was seeing it from a new perspective. She didn’t know what to say or what to do about it all, but Trenton kept her close, not letting her out of his sight.
“So, am I a prisoner here?”
Trenton’s maid smiled and told her that she was the lady of the house. “You aren’t a prisoner. You’re his queen. Do you know how many people would kill to be in your position?”
Ali had learned to hold her tongue because she wanted to say something disparaging about it all, but she knew that it would do her no good. She wanted them to believe that she was on their side, when in fact she wasn’t. She wasn’t on any of their sides, but now, Ali was a vampire, or nightwalker like the shifters would call her. She’d fallen for the pack leader, but now he was her enemy, and she didn’t know how to feel any of it. All Ali knew was that at least she wasn’t running crazy in the woods, trying to figure out where she was going to hide from the sun.
Her dreams of going back home and restarting her life were over now. She looked different. Her eyes and skin were lighter now and the longer she tried to refrain from drinking blood, the harder it became to function. All she could think about was the hunger inside of her and how it made her want more and more. Nothing could stop the cravings, and even though it was pushed on her, that didn’t mean that she wanted to partake.
The cleaner left, and Ali was left to her own devices in the small room. It had a cemetery in the back, and the place was creepy. The fact that they wanted her to sleep in a coffin was horribly creepy as well, and she couldn’t do it. It was more mental than anything else, and it was supposed to ensure that she was fully revived and recharged in the morning, but she just couldn’t put herself up to doing it.
The hours were also hard to master. How badly she wanted to go out in the sun, but she’d been reminded repeatedly that this was how it was going to be. Supposedly she would be burned up in the sunlight and die. Not much could kill her now, but the one thing that she wanted more than anything else was to be able to go out into the sun. She wanted to feel it on her face and out of everything, Ali mourned the sun the most. She wanted it, badly.
“I see you’re still sulking then.”
Trenton’s booming voice came out of nowhere, and it made her jump. She was supposed to be his queen, and that’s what he told everyone, but Ali wasn’t drawn to him as much as she was before, and they’d done nothing. He told her he would wait until she was ready for it all, but she had to question if she ever would be. It was hard to figure that it was all going to be okay one day, no matter how little choices she had now.
“I’m not sulking. I just don’t have much to do.”
Trenton smiled and told her that he could think of lots of things to do. He had a glint in his impossibly dark eyes, and she looked away. His eyes held something that she didn’t understand, but she knew what happened if she investigated them for too long. If she looked into his eyes for too long, then she would be lost in them, and bad things happened when that occurred. It was like he was putting a spell on her and she had to resist it no matter what.
“I don’t think that’s what I have in mind.”
Trenton’s smile turned to a frown. He didn’t understand why Ali was resisting him. It was true that most of the coven women wanted to be with him and would have killed, literally, to be at his side like Ali was, but Ali acted like she was too good for it all and it drove him crazy. He wanted to ask her if she knew who he was and who she was messing with, but undoubtedly, she would have something smart to say. He had learned that her words were far more potent than her bite.
“Well, what do you have in mind? You need to come out with us at night and get used to how things are. It doesn’t matter how much you want to be human again; it will never happen. You will always be a vampire, till the day you die.”
Ali was afraid of that, and she didn’t know what to say to him. She wanted to tell him that she knew he was going to fall soon, but Ali wasn’t sure now. Even though she was a vampire and she was supposed to be the man’s queen, all she could think about was Cal. She knew that he was going to come and get rid of Trenton. She just had to wonder if he was going to get rid of her as well. He’d said that they were together for life, but that hadn’t lasted very long. He’d picked another side as soon as the point was pushed.
“I know. You made me this way.”
“I did. I saw you in the club, and I knew I had to have you. That doesn’t happen to me all that often. I’ve never been drawn to a human as much as I was to you. I have to believe that it was for a reason.”
Ali wanted to scream. If one more person talked about how they were attracted to her and had to have her, she might just lose her mind. It was just that simple. She didn’t want people to be drawn to her. All she had ever wanted was to be left alone, get her degree, and get a good job. Now it looked like she was forced into a new life and Ali didn’t know what to make of it. While the vampires went out to terrorize, eat and build the coven, she was left behind to think about it all.
He picked up the bags of blood that he had left for her, and he looked at the full ones with disdain. She didn’t want to drink blood, she’d made it clear, but Trenton was sure that her hunger would get the best of her if nothing else and she would have to cave in eventually. Today was apparently not the day that she was going to do it.
“You are going to have to eat eventually, Ali.”
“I don’t have to eat. I’m not hungry.”
Ali was starving, and she knew that she was going to give in soon enough, but she was doing her best to put it off as long as possible. She didn’t like the idea of killing a human to sustain her. She was told that animals weren’t enough, but even that was hard for her. She didn’t want to think about even having to kill any animal. Ali was trying her best to deny what she was, but every day the hunger grew worse. Now it was starting to eat away at her and it was even waking her up in the middle of the night with pangs in her stomach.
“We both know that it’s a lie, but you will have to come to terms with this. I’ve tried to give you as much time as I can, but it’s getting to be too much. You are getting weak when you should be getting stronger. You have to feed.”
“Then give me what I want. You know that I don’t want human blood. Give me something else that will sustain me.”
Trenton didn’t want to give in. He didn’t want her to have another way, but his plans for her needed her to be strong and would be ruined if she keeled over and died from being too stubborn. He’d never met a girl like her, and he’d never seen a new vampire hold out as long as she had. It was remarkable and admirable, and it was getting on his last nerve.
“Maybe this once I will get you something else, but in time you will see that it will not be enough. It will never quench the hunger inside of you. Ever.”
Ali thanked him and ignored all the rest. It was going to have to be enough because she may be changing on the inside and the outside, but she wasn’t going to change who she was at her core. No matter what happened, her character was never going to change. She was who she was and that was the end of it. Ali was no killer, no matter how hungry she got.
