Knowing she had no choice and wanting to appease whatever he was, she descended the stairs. But it wasn’t because of any promise he’d made. She could never trust a man who kept people in cages in a cellar like so many monkeys in a test lab.
She kept her distance and backed to the farthest wall from him. “W-what happened to your face?”
Maybe he had some awful disease. But he’d been fine and perfect and beautiful when she’d seen him outside the flower shop a few days ago. Something in her mind desperately wanted to click over and put the pieces together. It already hinted at a supernatural cause, but she pushed the thoughts away. Those thoughts were for children, not adult women. Whatever this was, there had to be a normal explanation.
“I waited several days between feedings. I needed you to see the extent of what I must suffer and why I need you to save me from this curse. This doesn’t just look bad. It feels as bad as it looks.”
He moved to one of the cages and withdrew a key from his pocket. The door creaked open on its hinge, and with a blur of speed, August cornered the man inside and pulled him out as if he weighed no more than a feather. The man was in good shape. About as big as August. Tall. Muscled. And yet, he flailed against her captor like a broken fabric doll.
The man struggled and screamed—sounds she never would think could come out of a strong man like that. August dragged him into the light.
“You will watch, Nicolette. Or I will do this to as many people as it takes until you do.”
She had her hands over her eyes, peeking through the cracks, unable to stand the barbarity of what was about to happen without a barrier in place.
Though his face was a wreck and nearly gone, his teeth were fine. Fangs grew from his mouth, glistening under the light, and he struck at the man’s neck like a viper.
Vampire. The thought pushed through her mind with such force that she almost heard the word aloud and choked on it.
It wasn’t possible. Things like this didn’t exist. She had to be dreaming, but no matter how hard she pinched herself, she couldn’t wake up. As the life drained from the man in August’s arms, the vampire’s face healed and re-knit itself together. No longer did he look like a rotting corpse, but like the man she’d first seen in the coffee shop. As his face healed, Nicole recoiled at the bliss she could now see in his features.
August flung the man’s body away and collapsed, sobbing like a small child. He tried to hold it in, but his shoulders shook from the force of the emotional outpouring. After several long minutes of torment, he collected himself, wiping his face with the back of his hand. He turned suddenly toward Nicole, his eyes glowing, every ounce the predator. He appeared angry that she’d witnessed his breakdown.
Unstable was somehow worse than evil, and this man—or whatever he was—was clearly unstable.
He rose in a preternaturally fluid way and strode across the cellar floor. Nicole cowered, as if she had any hope of escaping him when she’d seen the futility of a powerful man’s attempt. She had nothing like the strength of that man, and now he was so much meat, waiting to be returned to the earth to fertilize something else.
August took her hand more gently than she’d expected after what he’d done. She couldn’t stop shaking.
“Please… please not me,” she whispered, her eyes focused on the ground. She couldn’t meet that terrifying, glowing gaze. Although a man had died, her thoughts and fears were for her own fate.
His hand trailed through her hair. “Not you,” he agreed. “And not any of the rest of them if you’ll consent to what I propose. Their lives are in your hands, Nicolette.”
She turned to the cages with four people still alive. They looked like prisoners of war. Shell-shocked. Almost like animals instead of people.
“W-what do you mean their lives are in my hands?”
Was this because she wouldn’t date him? He’d terrorize people until she did? Did he think she could ever love him amidst such conditions? What was wrong with him that he would become so fixated on her? Why her? Why not move on to someone else who returned his affection? Now that his looks were back, it was impossible to see how he couldn’t find someone to share his bed willingly. As long as they didn’t know the gory details. Those light hazel eyes glowing against the backdrop of warm, brown skin and jet-black hair. That tall, sleek athletic frame. Man-candy was the phrase her friends at work would have used.
“Vampirism is a curse,” he said quietly. “It’s not like in the movies. I am made to suffer. If I don’t feed, I suffer until I do. Inevitably I must feed. When I feed, I can’t stop until my meal is dead. I must take one each night or what you saw happening to my body starts. At first I just age, but after about three days it turns into what you saw.
I don’t want to kill. I don’t want to hurt anybody, but I have no choice. Do you know the heavy weight that is on my soul? All those human lives?”
“Why don’t you end your life, then? Is survival of such great value that you would kill every night to keep it going? Am I supposed to feel bad for you when you could greet the sun?”
He smiled sadly. “Would that it were so simple and easily remedied. Do you think I haven’t tried? I’ve tried everything to end my life. Nothing works. I’m only allowed death if I should pass this curse to another. I wouldn’t die automatically, but I would be capable of it, at least. If I passed the cup to someone else and died, what new torments would await me on the other side for such a heinous sin against another soul? After what I’ve suffered, do you think I could bring myself to give it to another to carry? If I did, I truly am a monster with no further excuses.”
Nicole’s gaze shifted to the cages. “I don’t understand how I can save them.”
“By giving yourself to me.”
Her heart stopped for a moment and, after a great effort, started up again. “W-what?”
“I won’t be able to die, but there is a way to stop this. It’s the one loophole the old ones provided those they cursed. If I can find a human whose mind I can’t control, and she gives herself to me, we’ll be bound together, my life to hers. She’ll feed me nightly. I won’t have to kill. And she can’t die, either. I can’t control your mind, Nicolette. It has to be you.”
Pieces began to come together in a vague sort of way—the instant change in Dominic from loving husband to cold and absent. “You took him from me. You made him stop loving me.” Maybe she should be grateful August hadn’t killed him, but in some ways what he’d done was worse. He’d stolen their love and life together and forced her to watch it become a farce.
“I had to. You wouldn’t come to me any other way.”
“I still didn’t come to you!” she shouted. “You took me! You think this fulfills your cure? You think kidnapping me and blackmailing me isn’t a violation of my free will?”
“The curse only cares about direct supernatural mind control. I require your verbal consent. It doesn’t matter what methods I use to achieve it. Please believe me when I say I don’t want it to come to that.” It was clear from the determination on his face that his methods would become ugly if she didn’t agree to this madness.
Never. His curse wasn’t her problem. He took the man she loved away. He’d kidnapped and imprisoned her. And he thought she would willingly let him hurt her every night, pull the blood out of her through sharp fangs so he wouldn’t have to kill people anymore? And what other things would he come to demand besides her blood? The thought of sharing his bed sickened her. If she remained strong, eventually he would snap and kill her. If that was the price out of this nightmare, she would pay it.
Nicole pulled away, and he let her go. She needed to put distance between herself and the vampire. And preferably the dead body as well.
“There are probably thousands of women out there who would have gone with you. Willingly. You could have found someone single, someone unhappy. You could have wrapped your story up like a romantic tragedy without them ever having to see any of this.” Her arm swept out, indicating the
cages and the corpse.
“There is no one else. I searched the world for centuries until I gave up hope. I thought it was something to drive the knife in deeper, a cure that didn’t exist. In over six hundred years you’re the one person whose mind I can’t penetrate.”
Nicole began to pace, shaking her head. She knew she must look like a crazed lunatic talking to herself on a city sidewalk, but she refused to believe this was real. There had to be someone else. She couldn’t… give herself to him. Not after he’d taken so much from her already. The one man she’d truly loved, who had loved her with the same fierceness. Gone. Erased.
The diamond bracelet glittered at her wrist. When she was unconscious, August could have taken it. He knew Dominic had given it to her, that it was her only way of holding onto him. She tried not to let it mean anything that he hadn’t, that he’d allowed her to keep this one piece of her husband’s love.
“Why were you cursed? You must have done something hideous to deserve this. Why should I free you from it?”
His eyes narrowed and flashed with anger. If she weren’t the only living soul who could save him, she had no doubt he would kill her for daring to withhold his precious cure. If she were the only human whose mind he couldn’t control, he’d spent centuries getting used to the fact that no one would resist anything he ordered them to do. Either through force or mind control, he was never denied.
“They didn’t curse me, but one of those they did had less scruples than I. He passed the curse to me. I was a monk, trying to find a way to kill the vampires. I fed hungry children, Nicolette. I worked to protect my village from the monsters. And one of them turned me into a monster for that effort. I’m sorry I can’t give you the comfort of believing I deserved this. I didn’t deserve it, no more than you deserve it. I’m sorry for taking you. I’m sorry for erasing your husband’s feelings for you. But I will never release you. You will give yourself to me because I can’t go on like this. No man could.”
Nicole’s chin rose in defiance. “I am not your sacrifice. I’m not some virgin you can throw into a volcano for the greater good. I’m not responsible for rescuing you!” She shook her head and began to pace again, staying clear of the cages, because even now she saw the accusation in the eyes of his prisoners… his future meals.
“Dominic and I were so happy. My life was… it was complete. Do you think enslaving me to you forever is less evil than killing people? You want to make someone else suffer forever so you can stop hurting?”
He sighed. “I believe I can give you enough, make you happy enough that you’ll come to care for me.”
Nicole’s eyes blazed, her fists clenched. There were tears in her eyes, but she managed to keep them from sliding down her cheeks. “Never,” she shrieked. “Not ever. I will never give myself to you. So you may as well kill me now.”
August closed his eyes, taking a long, slow breath as if trying to keep control of his temper. “I wish you hadn’t said that.”
He grabbed her and tossed her in the cage he’d just emptied. She fought, but her strength against his was like a moth trying to fight a bull. The key creaked in the lock as he turned it.
“Think this through, Nicolette. Your old life is gone. I will never kill you. You will die of old age first. You are my only chance. How many decades do you wish to live in a filthy cage?”
“How many centuries could I tolerate living with you?” she retorted. “Why do you keep them down here? They’re scared. Why don’t you hunt and kill every night if you must? This is cruel.”
“You think that wouldn’t be noticeable? I have to canvas a very large area to hunt. I can’t do that every night. I’m sorry for their suffering, but it’s a week out of their entire existence. For me, it’s forever.”
“Why can’t you use mind control? Make it so they aren’t so afraid.”
“When I enthrall someone, I use energy that I have to replenish with more death. And they can’t go peacefully. The curse demands a sacrifice. Please rethink this. Can you live with all the death on your hands? The death you could prevent? It will wear you down until you’re a carved-out shell. I don’t want that for you.” He reached through the bars, the back of his hand brushing her cheek.
Nicole shrank from him and turned her back. Her jaw clenched. He wouldn’t paint her as the monster. She wasn’t being asked to give her life to save others. She was being asked to belong to someone who would hurt her every night for the rest of eternity. It was far too much to ask of anyone, particularly for a man who’d already taken everything from her. She didn’t turn back around until the cellar door opened and shut. When she did, she found he’d taken the body up with him. She didn’t want to think about where or how he disposed of them.
For a long time it was quiet. In the other cages were three women and another man. Nicole was grateful there were no children. She wondered morbidly what his criteria for taking a victim was. Did he hunt people with no family to lose? Did he pick criminals or those who had abused others? Or did the curse demand the blood of innocents?
She wanted to believe he was lying, that there was no curse. He simply wanted to manipulate her into his arms. But she wasn’t that special. The only logical explanation was that he couldn’t control her mind. And she hadn’t imagined how much he’d hurt over the man he’d killed in front of her. Nor had his rotting face been a trick of the light. If vampirism wasn’t a curse, he was making a convincing show of it.
The man in the farthest cage stood just out of the range of light, watching her silently. He hadn’t begged or pleaded when August had come down. He was strong, not just physically, but mentally. The women in the other cages cried quietly on their cots.
“It’s a dirty piece of business that’s been asked of you,” the man said. “I don’t envy you. Within the next few days, I’ll be free. Your fate is worse than mine.”
“Gee, thanks,” Nicole said. She wished the other prisoners could take their deaths so stoically.
“You know he’ll torture you if you don’t give him what he wants.”
She shuddered at that revelation. A quick death? Okay. But there were so many other things that were worse than a quick death. “If he’d torture me, there is nothing worth saving in him. He can’t suffer too much from this if he’d do something like that.” Even as she said it, she knew her words were a brave front; there were things he could do to her that would break her, because she was only human.
“He’s a desperate man.”
“He’s not a man at all.”
“I just don’t want to have to watch him hurt you.”
“Like you said, you’ll be free within a few days. He might hold out for a while before it gets grisly with me.” Nicole retreated to her cot and lay down.
“Please,” the woman in the closest cage said, “Give him what he wants so we can live. I have a child at home.”
And the guilt train rolled into the station. “How many centuries would you let him feed from you and do whatever else he plans to do, so that I could live? Do you think he’ll just want my blood? So you’re asking me to fuck him every night and let him puncture my skin and take my blood for endless centuries so you can go back to your neat and tidy little life? Yeah, that’ll happen.” Sacrifices were always more reasonable to the person who didn’t have to give up anything.
The woman looked away but not before Nicole caught the expression of shame on her face.
“I’m sorry you’re here, but it’s too much to ask. I don’t care who I am to him; he has no right to me. His crimes are not my fault. I would much rather be in your place, trust me. I won’t willingly spend my life with the man who took me from my husband and family and everything else I love.”
It was several hours before the last of the crying stopped and the cellar grew quiet enough for Nicole to find a troubled sleep for herself. However unreasonable it was, the guilt twisted around her soul like a noxious smoke.
Chapter Five
August sat at the kitchen table, stari
ng at the mess he’d yet to clean. The cellar and his captive were directly below. If Nicolette knew how good his hearing was, she would never dare breathe a word down there, because sometimes he sat and listened for hours. Every frustration, every fear reached his ears. She should count herself lucky that he wasn’t the monster she feared he was, that all the things she had dreamed up that he could do to her sickened him just as much as they terrified her.
“You should eat that,” the prisoner in the cage next to Nicolette’s said. August had taken food down just a little while ago.
“What’s the point? I’m going to die down here, anyway.”
“Just give him what he wants.” Another prisoner, a woman.
There was no verbal reply. Perhaps she’d shaken her head or simply turned away and given them her back. August took every opportunity to make sure each batch of prisoners knew Nicolette held the key to their salvation and freedom… and his. They were all the same, working toward their own self-interest and the hope of release from their prison—if the sacrifice would only cooperate.
It had been two months since he’d taken Nicolette and she was no closer to giving herself to him. If anything, witnessing death each night had pushed her further from possible acquiescence, her resentment and disgust growing more each day as her heart hardened further against him.
“The way he kills and with how hopeless he is, do you think he’ll keep this up forever? He’ll do whatever it takes in the end,” said a man on the other end.
Nicolette’s reply was so quiet, August barely heard her. “I know. He’s hundreds of years old. I know he knows how to get someone to give him what he wants. I know I can’t take very much of whatever he has planned, but right now… I can’t.”
August closed his eyes against the memories of earlier conversations she’d had with different prisoners. Conversations that had turned dark. Much of it had come from a student of history who had felt the need to enlighten Nicolette to all the gruesome torture methods of the past which he was sure the vampire must be aware of and would be willing to use if this all dragged on too long. That night, August felt less remorse than usual when he killed that particular man. But the seeds had already been planted, and from that moment, Nicolette had watched August with even more fear and suspicion than usual.