‘Your blood does taste most sweet. Has anyone ever told you that?’ he mocked, smiling up at me. I couldn’t answer.
All of a sudden, he drew back for a moment. I held my breath against my will, waiting for his next move. He reached out a hand, grabbed my skirt and bunched it up. There was a ripping sound, as he tore that too. He pressed himself into me once more and I felt something hard against my abdomen. Pulling me up straight, he paused to look right into my eyes. All I saw was lust. Burning, flaming lust. Reaching a hand underneath my dress, he ran it up and down my inner thigh until he traced the outline of my knickers. He slowly pulled them aside, and I felt his other hand reaching for the fly of his trousers.
‘Get off her!’
Abruptly, his body was ripped away from mine and I crumpled to the ground.
‘You will pay for this, Ilta Crimson! You’ll burn at the stake, you fucking bastard!’
‘On what grounds, Kaspar?’ Ilta’s voice mocked. ‘I am sorry to correct you, but she is a human! I am perfectly within my rights to do with her what I will.’
Kaspar?
‘You forget something. She is under the King and Crown’s Protection. And on those grounds, drinking her blood without consent is punishable by execution. You should read your law books, Crimson.’
‘You lie,’ Ilta hissed back.
My eyelids were stitched together, but I forced myself to open them to catch a glimpse of two outlines for a second. But the effort made my heart falter, forgetting to beat for a second.
‘Do you want to test that?’ I heard Kaspar reply. I heard no more sound, but felt breath on my cheeks and fingers pressed to the vein on my wrist. Beneath them, I could feel my faint pulse. ‘You’ve lost too much blood,’ he muttered, and again, I forced my eyes open, catching a peek of his eyes, passing straight through green, dropping to a clear, colourless shade. They ran up and down my form, almost naked, examining my torn flesh. He shrugged his jacket off and placed it around me, before gently lifting me from the ground. Only then did I notice the true pain I was in. A rasping breath scratched my throat and my eyes snapped shut. I shuddered, both from the agony in my arm and the freezing air.
I felt a gentle pressure on my uninjured hand. ‘Hold on, Violet. Don’t give in.’ I could hear his panic. It added to my own.
Cold air assaulted my skin when he sped up; but within a few minutes, he stopped again. Even with my eyes jammed closed, I could tell where we were. The darkness glowed orange and I felt warmth engulf me, the clatter of footsteps below my back. The light became even more intense.
Die, child. Die before it is too late.
The echo of my voice’s earlier words resounded in my chest and my heart caught and spluttered. I thought about breathing, but the effort was too much.
‘Don’t you dare, Girly. You’ve come too far. Stay with me, Violet …’
With the thud of the doors, my heart constricted again, but it was pitiful and trying to force my ribs up and out was too much.
‘Open your eyes, Girly! I’m the bloody Prince and I’m telling you, you can’t let go!’
My eyelids twitched and I saw a thousand vampiric eyes staring at me, as I lay in the Prince’s arms, fading into blackness.
But not before I heard one last colossal roar, as a single word echoed around the mansion from the mouth of the vampire clutching me.
‘Father!’
TWENTY-SIX
Kaspar
Thousands of vampires stared at Violet as she lay limp in my arms. Immediately, my father’s tall, dark figure emerged from the thousands of utterly silent, motionless onlookers, all staring at Violet’s desecrated, limp form.
‘Get her inside,’ he ordered, as soon as his eyes fell on her. I jerked forward and the crowd parted to reveal Galen, the family physician. He jerked his head, motioning for me to place her on the floor as he bunched his jacket up to form a pillow for her head. Seeing her, torn and caked with blood, the expressions of my family became horror-struck. Lyla let out a dry sob.
Galen’s amber eyes bore into mine, as though he thought I had done this to her. ‘What happened?’ he asked in a brusque tone.
‘She was attacked,’ I growled. A collective snarl washed across the room, and eye after eye turned jet black.
‘Who?’ Ashton spat, loosening his cummerbund and shrugging his tailcoat off.
‘Ilta Crimson. He was going to rape her.’
Hisses of disgust passed around the room, and several vampires walked from the room then and there. There was a commotion too as a small party of trackers assembled, darting from the room. Ashton, an efficient, merciless vampire known for his ability to track, gave me a terse nod as he left the room, leading the others into the grounds.
‘For Pete’s sake, man, clear the room, will you? Don’t you think her dignity has suffered enough?’ Galen insisted in an undertone, taking her pulse and dipping his fingers into the puncture wounds on her neck. Hearing, Jag and Sky snapped into action, instructing the servants to clear the room whilst my family closed in, forming a protective circle around her.
‘Fracture to her right wrist and considerable blood loss, presumably drained via the neck.’
‘How much blood?’
‘Too much. She is going into shock. If she doesn’t receive a transfusion, her major organs will fail.’
He didn’t need to continue. ‘Get her a transfusion.’
‘It’s not that simple. The blood you have stored here is untested, whole blood, which is unsuitable for transfusion and it would take too long to acquire suitable blood from human blood banks.’
‘Then turn her!’
Galen shook his head, laying her arm back down on the floor and rolling back until he sat upright on his knees. ‘It’s too late for that. Her body would not be able to cope with the change. I’m sorry.’
My mouth opened. I closed it again. Instead, I took her unbroken arm, stroking it, stunned at how she was colder than me. I heard somebody suggest going to the Sage, before another dismissed it.
‘Couldn’t we give her a small amount of our blood?’ I began, an idea forming in my head. ‘Enough to keep her alive and let her body heal, but not enough to turn her.’
Galen looked at me sceptically. ‘That would make her a dhampir.’
‘So? It would save her life! Father?’ I appealed, desperately, to my father’s mercy. He did not say anything, but motioned for Galen and Eaglen to join him away from the circle. I caught snippets of their conversation I didn’t want to hear, but was interrupted as Fabian appeared at the doors, joining me in a flash. He was still crying and when he glanced at me, his eyes told all.
‘She’s fading,’ I murmured, and watched as my oldest and closest friend broke down, falling to the ground, sobbing. I looked on, unsure of what to do, unable to cry, as I told myself I would not, could not, cry for a human.
Her breathing was becoming more rapid, but her pulse was fading. Beads of cold sweat slid down her neck to the long slits he had given her across her collar and breasts; her skin was getting ever more icy.
‘Come on,’ I muttered, staring at the men huddled near the doors, catching my father’s gaze as he glanced towards her.
You have nothing to say, Kaspar?
Her life is in your hands, father, so what would be the point?
I saw him sigh and turn to Eaglen, speaking aloud and raising his voice a little. ‘This decision will gravely affect the fate of the Kingdom, will it not?’
‘In more ways than you can imagine,’ Eaglen revealed, smiling. He knows things we can only dream of.
‘Arabella?’ my father said, turning to her. She nodded, confirming what her blood father, Eaglen, had said, and strengthening her father-in-law’s point.
If I let her die, we risk angering Lee and the human government and giving him his excuse to become aggressive. If I allow her to live, and become a dhampir, we risk the same. I must think of her too. Even if she were to consume a small amount of vampiric blood, there is no guaran
tee it will work. And of course, you must remember she despises us with a passion. Would she really want to be connected with the dark beings in even the slightest way?
His last words caught me and he knew it. She wouldn’t. But neither would she want to give up so easily. She was a fighter.
Lee will never even know she’s a dhampir. And this isn’t her fault. She didn’t choose this. She shouldn’t even be a part of this world in the first place. I’ll give my blood. I owe it to her.
I didn’t know whether my words were working, but then his eyes did something unheard of: they turned blue.
‘Do it.’
Galen snapped into action, hoisting her up into his arms and snapping for the servants to have a fire lit in her room. I froze in shock for a second, before grabbing Fabian and leading Galen up the stairs.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Violet
‘Violet, it is time to wake up,’ a musical voice sang from beside my knees. There was a gentle pressure on my leg from a tiny hand and I found myself wrenched back to consciousness. My eyes fluttered open to reveal a giggling little girl with wide emerald eyes, framed by tumbling blonde ringlets. Thyme. ‘You have been human asleep-y for a very long time, Violet!’
My eyes continued to open, the haze disappearing. Dazed, I managed to discern that I was lying partially sitting up on my bed, soft pillows supporting my aching back. My wrist was wrapped in a support – but not a sling. Kaspar, Fabian and Lyla stood nearby, their backs to me.
‘Violet’s awake!’ The girl dived at me, wrapping her matchstick arms around my neck, her knees digging into my stomach. I winced, groaning as my entire body erupted into joint-wrenching pain. She kissed my tender neck over and over, clutching me tighter. I felt her pass over fresh wounds on my body and I tried to cry out in pain, only to hear a screech. Immediately, the three vampires turned and Lyla rushed to pull Thyme off.
‘Thyme! Can’t you see you’re hurting her?’
I breathed heavily as the pain dulled. Thyme’s bottom lip quivered, and her lips swelled to a pout. She scuttled from the room, sobbing without tears. I watched her, before slowly beginning to prop myself up. I inched back, wincing as I put weight on my strapped-up arm. Kaspar stood a way back, seeming hesitant to move closer. His cold gaze lingered on me for a moment, before he averted his eyes and looked out the window. Fabian plumped the pillows behind my back, and remembering my last few moments at the ball, I scooted away an inch. He didn’t seem to notice.
‘Here, drink this,’ he said, passing me a glassful of water. My throat was so dry I downed it in one and he poured me another from the jug on the bedside table. ‘Violet, I am so sorry for what has happened to you.’
I made a small choking noise in the back of my throat, wanting to shake my head but finding my neck too stiff. There was an awkward pause.
‘I’ll go get Galen,’ Lyla muttered, leaving the room. Nobody spoke for the next few minutes as I managed to sit fully upright with the help of Fabian: until the King entered the room, followed by a tall, imposing man, who I presumed was Galen. Behind him was Eaglen.
‘I shouldn’t be alive,’ was all I could say. Fabian and Kaspar exchanged looks whilst Galan took my uninjured arm and pressed two fingers to my vein, taking my pulse. I tried to pull it away but he wouldn’t let go, shooting me a subduing look. Fabian smiled in a reassuring way and I allowed the man to continue, as he had me clench and unclench the hand of my injured arm. I was amazed when it didn’t hurt.
‘How do you feel?’ he asked.
Ashamed. Hopeless. Sick. ‘Stiff,’ I answered.
‘You will be. You have been unconscious for the past three days.’ I gawped. Three days? That long? ‘She will be sore for a while,’ he continued, turning to the King and Eaglen. ‘And her wrist will need to remain in the support for two weeks. The wounds might take a little longer to heal, but other than that, she has made quite the recovery.’ He left my bedside and muttered something to the King, in a volume he obviously thought I couldn’t hear, but I could hear every word: ‘The long-term mental impact is quite a different matter. And I would bear in mind, Your Majesty, that this may greatly influence her decision on turning.’
I cleared my throat. ‘But how am I alive?’ Again, looks were exchanged and everybody seemed reluctant to speak.
‘You were drained of a third of your blood and went into hypovolemic shock,’ Galen eventually said with a clinical detachedness that told me I wasn’t about to hear good news. It was the same voice the doctors used when they told us Greg hadn’t made it; that Lily had cancer. ‘You required an immediate transfusion. Unfortunately, this meant there was not enough time to access human blood.’
My eyes bulged and the room went silent, waiting for my reaction. The only sound was the crackling of the fire in the hearth – lit for once – and the sound of my breathing, becoming faster and shallower.
‘Turning a human requires just over half the blood to be replaced with a vampire’s blood, which consumes the remaining human blood. A quarter of your blood was replaced with vampiric blood, meaning you are a half-blood, or what we call a dhampir.’
I didn’t pay much attention. I frantically checked my palm, checking to see if it was any paler than I remembered it. It wasn’t. In my chest, I could feel my heart beating.
‘You’re lying,’ I growled.
‘We’re not lying, Miss Lee,’ Galen countered.
‘But my heart is beating! You must be lying!’ I screamed at them all, refusing to believe it. Fabian stroked my arm but I wrenched it away so forcefully the joint clicked and I winced. ‘I don’t want to be anything like you. I’m human!’ Anger, such extraordinary anger, built up inside me, to the point where I wanted to hurl.
Kaspar was suddenly inches from my face, grabbing my flailing shoulders and pinning them to the headboard. He knelt with one knee on the mattress and his face was unreadable. Angry, because his eyes were flashing between their emerald and black, but something else was there. Pity?
‘Violet!’
I jerked away from him, thrashing about trying to release myself. ‘Get off me!’ I spat.
‘Look at me, Violet!’ I turned away, refusing to do what he said. ‘I said, look at me!’ he shouted. Still I refused. He grabbed my chin roughly and yanked my head around to face him; my neck stung where I knew there would be bite marks. I looked down at the sheets, not wanting to meet his eyes.
‘For heaven’s sake, just look! What’s different?’ Stunned, I conceded, raising my gaze to meet his. I reluctantly studied his face for a moment. Something was different. The colours. The green of his eyes was brighter, standing out more against the white.
‘I—’
‘Listen. Smell. Everything is better, isn’t it?’
Yes. ‘No,’ I breathed. ‘No!’ I began thrashing around again, needing to get away. I screamed and screamed, without any rational thought.
Swiftly after my third ‘no’, however, a hand came into contact with my wet cheek and I squeaked, shutting up, stunned into total silence. My eyes widened and Kaspar breathed heavily on my face, looking shocked that he had actually hit me. He slowly released me, backing off to the corner of the room. I reached up with one of my now free hands to touch my stinging cheek. It hurt. But it worked.
‘Fabian said vampires struggle to cry. I-is this the only time I can cry?’
‘No,’ Eaglen replied. ‘If you would let us explain, it may not be as bad as you first thought.’
Galen stepped forward again from where he had stoked the fire. ‘We had very little choice. The shock would have caused your major organs to cease functioning and your chance of survival without a transfusion was nil. None of the human blood supplies stored here are tested thoroughly enough for anything but consumption and, thus, vampire blood was our only option. And of course, vampiric blood has the added benefit of being able to heal wounds at an extraordinary rate. You are very fortunate that His Highness volunteered to donate some of his own blood to you.’
&
nbsp; I looked at Kaspar, my eyes wide in surprise, but when I caught his eyes he turned away again, staring at something interesting on the window. I owe him my life – again.
‘So, if I’m a dhampir, why is my heart still beating?’
‘Because a dhampir is more human than vampire. You will function as before and you will not lust for blood in any way. Legally, you are still governed by humans and not the Kingdom. The only difference, as the Prince pointed out to you, is your slightly enhanced capabilities. Vision and stamina, for example. You will also live for longer than the average human.’
The King nodded. ‘Thank you, Galen. You may leave us.’
‘Should there be any problems, do not hesitate to send for me,’ Galen muttered, and now I understood why I could hear them when they were stood on the opposite side of the room. With that he bowed and left with Eaglen.
‘Fabian, Lyla, allow us a moment. Not you, Kaspar,’ the King said as his son went to follow the other two. When the door had shut behind them, he continued. ‘Miss Lee, you are under what we call the King and Crown’s Protection, meaning that harming you in any way is a crime punishable by death. Ilta Crimson has fled, but we will endeavour to find him. When we do, he will stand trial. It was Kaspar here who found you and he has therefore been called as a witness. You have no objection to this?’
‘No,’ I replied, feeling my lips quiver. Below the sheets, I pressed my fingernails into my palm, finding it stopped the tears from welling.
‘Then we will leave you. I suggest you rest. Someone will not be far at any time, if you are in need of anything.’ They began to leave, Kaspar lingering for a second. The room fell silent, and swiftly, something clutched at my throat. Fear. I stared straight ahead, eyes bulging. I could not be alone. He would return to finish what he started.
‘Kaspar,’ I whispered. He turned. ‘Please stay.’