Celia

When I woke up this time, the nightmare still wasn’t over. I opened my eyes and blinked at the ceiling, then slowly took stock of my body. I was a little sore, but I could move all my fingers and toes. My head was pounding, and my mouth felt like it was growing fur, but I was alive and intact.

I lay on a bed in another windowless room. I slowly rolled my head to the side to see another large vampire in the room with me. It was a bit déjà vu, except this vampire wasn’t Idris. He wasn’t sitting in a corner quietly sharpening his knives.

This one was leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his broad shoulders—and he was staring at me like he was going to rip me to pieces. He wore a pair of leather pants and a T-shirt. His jaw was bearded and his head was shaved bald. He was the one who’d killed my father.

My breath caught in my throat as I remembered what had happened the last time I’d been conscious. The blood, so much blood. My father’s voice. Idris’s broken body on the ground. My lungs seized up, and I rolled over onto my side as I fought for breath.

The vampire didn’t move, didn’t speak, only observed me with a look of disgust.

He didn’t hold me, or tell me to take deep breaths. He was content to watch me in the grips of a panic attack as my body shook and my heart pounded so loud, I swore my ears bled.

I closed my eyes and sought for something that would bring me solace, peace…Idris’s arms and his quiet murmurs. The way he smoothed my hair off my face and forced me to breathe.

He’d said I’d forget about him after all this. That I’d hate him. He was fucking wrong.

I lost track of time as I fought for breath. As always, I thought maybe this was the one; this would be the panic attack that killed me. And for once in my life, I wished for it to do me in. Then I wouldn’t have to face whatever that vampire wanted from me. Unfortunately, my heartbeat slowed, and my lungs finally filled with much-needed oxygen. But I didn’t get a moment to collect myself, because a hand tangled in my hair, wrenching my head back with such force that I screamed.

“What’s wrong with you?” The vampire bared his teeth in my face. “I knew you were defective, but are you sick, too? Some human disease?”

What did he mean I was defective? “I-I have panic attacks sometimes.” I could barely talk. My neck was twisted and he hadn’t loosened his grip, so the pain in my scalp was reaching critical levels. I pressed my lips together, refusing to whimper, or let him see how much he was hurting me.

He shoved me back onto the bed with a snarl. “I don’t know what a fucking panic attack is. Weak humans.”

I heaved and raised a shaky hand to my scalp, which was sore to the touch. “Who are you?”

“I’m Keno, the king of the Valarians.” A smirk passed over his lips. “Now that your father is dead.”

“You killed him,” I whispered. “Why?”

“Because he would have negotiated with the Gregorie clan. He’d grown soft lately. I was the one who turned the Gregorie king against his clan. I’ve been the one training our army. And I was the one who hired the Quellen to kill you. I always knew you were his weakness. Should have killed you years ago, but I thought since you have the veil, your father would realize how worthless you are. Unfortunately, he didn’t.” His lips turned up into what was supposed to be a smile, but to me was a grimace that stopped my heart. “When the Quellen didn’t kill you in your sleep, and I found out the king arranged to see you, I thought to myself, maybe Celia isn’t worthless.” He smiled, that same smile he’d given me last in the warehouse while I lay at his feet. “I’m not going to kill you, because you’re going to birth my children. Welcome to your new life, Queen Celia Valarian.”

If I had anything in my stomach to vomit up, I would have done so right there. Keno’s eyes blazed, and he licked his lips. He approached the bed, and I scurried to the other side, holding a hand out. “Wait, what? Now?”

He opened his mouth, and his fangs touched his bottom lip. My God, he was huge. His mouth alone looked like it could bite my entire face off. “I’m hungry, and my cock is hard.”

I willed myself to die of a heart attack right there. He gripped my ankle and yanked. I yelped as I slid toward him, and then his giant body was looming over mine as he undid his belt buckle. This was it, for fuck’s sake. This was how I died—deflowerization by a massive vampire.

I had to stop this, buy myself some time. “Please.” It took all the effort in my body not to sob and plead and debase myself. “Please wait.” I tried to wriggle away again. Big mistake. Goddamn huge. Keno drew his hand back, and although I saw it coming, even though I braced for it, the backhand he cracked across my face still felt like a goddamn firebrand.

I immediately tasted iron as my teeth sliced open the skin on the inside of my mouth. Stars danced in front of my eyes and I blinked, my head spinning as my entire face felt like I’d just stuck it into an oven.

I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak, my heart sinking lower as despair set in. Keno didn’t give me a moment to think about my new life. He gripped my chin in his massive hand, and tears fell down my cheeks as he forced me to face him. The pain was traveling down my neck now, and I bit my lip to hold back a sob as the hateful eyes of Keno stared into mine. “I. Don’t. Wait,” he gritted out.

I didn’t say anything. There was nothing to say. All I could do was nod, and hope that he didn’t split me in two.

Pounding echoed in my head, and it took me a minute to realize it was coming from the door. Someone was knocking. With a snarl, Keno shoved me away from him and stalked toward the door, fixing his belt.

I took the reprieve for what it was worth. I had to do something. I couldn’t freeze like I’d done with the Quellen. Blending into the shadows was going to get me raped and knocked up with a damn vampire baby. Think, Celia. Think. I wasn’t a fighter, but I was smart. I had to start acting like it.

“He’s conscious, my king,” said a voice through the open door. I couldn’t see who was talking because Keno’s body blocked the way.

“Good. I need him alive.”

“He is.”

“If there’s one thing I learned, it’s that the Gregorie clan gives a fuck about family, so maybe his brother will be stupid enough to try to get him back. He’s our bargaining chip to take out King Athan.”

Idris. They were talking about Idris. He was alive? Hope bloomed in my chest, like a withered flower reaching for the sun.

“He trusts me,” I said.

Keno’s body stilled, then he turned his head to face me. “What did you say?”

“Take me to him. I’ll get information out of him for you. Tell me what you want to know, and I’ll ask.”

Keno’s eyes narrowed as he watched me thoughtfully. Then he threw the door open wider to reveal another vampire, armed with two daggers at his belt. Keno flicked his fingers in my direction. “Come with me.”

I scrambled off the bed. My face was throbbing, and my balance seemed off like he’d knocked something loose in my head. Fuck, I probably had a concussion. Either way, I managed to make it to the door without tripping over my feet. Keno grabbed my arm in a punishing grip and marched me down a hallway. The building we were in had a similar smell to the old subway tunnels where the Gregorie clan lived. Here, the smell was a little less damp concrete and more earthy. Were we underground? Flickering fluorescent lights in the ceiling were the only illumination.

We reached a room with a large window. I expected to see Idris, but instead, a young girl—maybe early teens—sat on a bed reading a book. Her long, dark hair was pulled into a ponytail on the top of her head, and I watched her little nose scrunch up as she turned a page. She was human. I could tell by the shape of her jaw and what I could see of her eyes.

She didn’t glance up. Could she see?

“She can’t see us,” Keno said as if he read my mind. “All she sees is a mirror. It’s soundproof, too.”

“Who is she?” How many other humans did he have down here?

Keno’s hand tightened on my arm. “That girl is your sister.”

My brain shorted out. I whipped my head to him. “Excuse me?”

“Your sister,” he repeated. “Different human mother, since yours died, but same father.”

“You’re lying,” I whispered, my gaze once again returning to the girl.

“Am I?” Keno asked. “Don’t you think Amelia looks like you?” He tugged on my hair. “Same color, texture. Her eyes are like yours, a deep brown. Sure, I could be lying to you, but you don’t know, do you?”

I looked at the other vampire, and all he did was nod at me.

I took a step closer and placed a hand on the glass. Her head came up slowly, like she sensed someone watching her. After placing her book on her bed, she stood up and stretched. Then she walked toward the glass. I didn’t move, watching her as she blinked deep brown eyes at me. She wore a pair of cutoff jean shorts and a plain gray T-shirt.

She looked like me. In a way I couldn’t deny.

She stopped when she reached the mirror, and her lips moved. “What’s she saying?”

Keno pressed a button on the side of the window.

“Dad? Is that you?” Her voice was raspy with a pretty lilt to it. When she received no answer, her body stiffened. “Should have figured it was you, Keno. Go fuck yourself.” She turned around with a whip of her ponytail and collapsed back onto the bed. “I’m hungry whenever you feel like feeding me!” Then she pulled the bedcovers over her head.

“She has a mouth on her,” Keno said as he once again pressed the button, silencing the sound from inside.

She told Keno to fuck himself. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard. “Wha—”

My head was wrenched to the side as Keno forced me to face him with a strong grip on my chin. “I’ll take you to Idris. You’ll get the information I want. You think to disobey me? I’ll take it out on your sister.” He pointed to the lump on the bed. “When your father was alive, she remained unharmed, but now that he’s dead, who’s to say I can’t take a child bride?”

I gasped. “She’s right. Go fuck yourself, Keno.”

He clucked his tongue. “See, now you saying things like that makes me think I can’t trust you.”

“I’ll do what you want,” I spat at him. “We both know I’ll do anything to prevent Amelia from being harmed.” Whether she was my sister or not, she was a young human girl. I wasn’t about to willingly let her come to harm. “So just lead me to Idris and let me get this over with.”

Keno smiled, all fangs and evil, and my stomach shriveled.

Idris

Everything hurt. I healed faster than humans, but injuries like this didn’t go away quickly. Even now I could feel my body try to mend my bones. With a sinking feeling, I knew it wouldn’t have much luck unless I fed.

I blinked around the room I was kept in. There were no windows, only a bare bulb overhead. A sniff told me that we were most likely underground. I scanned the room for any other wires, any detection of a camera or microphone but saw nothing. I knew the Valarians had been hiding out somewhere, and this must be it, an underground bunker. So I assumed my cell, with its damp concrete walls, was rather primitive.

I was slumped on a metal platform with one wrist chained to the wall. I had just enough slack that I could lie down, but my arm would still be elevated because of the short length of the chain. I tried to move my chained arm, but pain roared through my shoulder. Fuck.

The Valarians must have brought me back to their compound. But Celia…I closed my eyes with a groan. I didn’t understand what had happened back there. Why had the Valarians killed their king? What did they want with Celia?

And I couldn’t understand why they hadn’t just killed me. Although if they didn’t bother to feed me, I was going to be dead soon anyway.

I fucked up. I fucked up so bad. In my single-minded desire to see the Valarian king’s head separated from his body, I’d put myself and Celia in danger. Athan was going to fucking kill me if I didn’t die before seeing him again.

I took a moment to despair, to feel sorry for myself, because there was no fucking way I was getting out of this. At least, I couldn’t think of a way now. And without fresh blood, I was barely able to even scratch my beard. It itched, by the way. I stretched out my jaw, and it cracked. Well fuck, even that hurt.

I had to think. I was still alive. Still here, and that meant there was hope. It might be futile, but that was all I had at the moment. So step one was to convince them to feed me. I wasn’t doing jack shit without that. “Hey!” I called out. But the door was steel, and there weren’t any windows. “Hey! Could use some blood!” I tried louder, but my jaw protested again and I fell silent.

I was so fucked.

I tried to move, but pain roared through my body, and my vision went dark. I fought to stay conscious and lost the battle.

I came to again when something slammed into my side, and valuable body parts crunched. I moaned and opened my eyes to see a Valarian soldier standing over me. He stared down impassively. “You’re alive.”

“Unfortunately,” I muttered. My tongue felt thick in my mouth, and my fangs ached.

He didn’t say a word, only turned around and walked back toward the door. “Not going to be alive much longer unless you get me some blood!” I called after him.

He walked out the door. “Hey!” I yelled and tried to surge off my platform, but I remembered too late that my one hand was chained to the wall. I crashed to the floor in a pile of broken bones, and my shoulder dislocated with a pop.

The door slammed shut.

My head swam with pain. I raised a trembling hand to my face to feel a cut along my cheekbone. The open wound was dry. If I wasn’t bleeding, then my body was almost out of blood. Any longer and my heart would run out of blood, screeching to a rusty halt like a car out of gas. I somehow managed to get back onto my pallet. After popping my shoulder back in place, I passed out again.

When the door opened for the second time, I didn’t bother opening my eyes. I tried to say blood, but it came out more like blum because my tongue wouldn’t work.

“Oh, God,” a voice said.

My eyes shot open. That was Celia’s voice. I tried to sit up but nothing was working. My brain was sending signals that my body wasn’t answering. Why couldn’t I see? A hand slipped along the back of my head, and then a warm hand brushed my brow. “Oh, Idris, what did they do to you?” Celia said.

Something touched my lips, and I smelled iron. I opened my mouth and blood poured into it. It wasn’t fresh, so it would really only stave off my death for another couple of hours. But it was better than nothing.

I gulped the liquid, relishing the warmth of the flow as it flooded my body. My hands finally worked, and I raised my non-chained hand to grasp the cup from whoever was holding it. My eyes began to focus and by the time I threw back the rest of the blood, I was sitting up and staring into Celia’s concerned hazel eyes. She was alive. Whole. The relief that rushed through me was better than any blood.

“Idris,” she said, brushing her fingers over my cheek where I knew the skin was split. “I thought you were dead.”

“Close to it.” My voice sounded like I was, in fact, dead.

She pointed to the empty cup. “Do you need more?”

“I need fresh,” I said, “but that’ll tide me over for now.”

Her brows furrowed and she turned her head toward the door. That was when I saw the budding bruise on the side of her face. “Who did that?” I growled.

She turned her head to me. “What?”

“Your face, Celia.”

She lifted her hand to the corner of her mouth. “Oh, uh, that Keno guy.” She was distracted, her gaze shifting around the room, straying toward the door.

My hands curled into fists, ready to pummel whoever Keno was. “Who’s that?”

“The one who killed my father.” Her voice cracked and my heart lurched.

I lifted a hand to cup her neck, fingers brushing the abused skin. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry. I fucked up.”

“You didn’t know—”

“No, Celia, you don’t understand.”

“What don’t I understand?” she said, a bit of force in her voice. “I’m tired of being confused, I’m tired of—”

“I was going to kill your father,” I said.

She stilled, her eyes widening. “What did you say?” she whispered.

“All this time, before I even knew you existed, I promised myself I’d kill your father. I didn’t tell Athan about the meeting because Athan wanted to talk, not kill. He wasn’t focused on revenge like I was.”

She didn’t speak for a long moment. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

“Because I heard what you said about wanting a family. More than anything, I wanted to be able to give you that. I wished your father was anyone other than the Valarian king.” I inhaled sharply and winced at the pain. “And maybe there was a part of me that wanted to enjoy the time we had. I wanted to hate you, Celia, so goddamn bad. Instead…” I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t say the words.

“What?” she said, leaning closer. “Tell me.”

“Instead I’m falling for you. But my selfishness and impulsiveness put us both in danger. And for however long I have to live, I will be racked with guilt.”

She didn’t say a word, just lowered her head until her forehead rested on mine. We sat like that for a while, her perched on the platform by my hip while I lay immobile. With her this close, I forgot for a moment how much I hurt, how fucking hopeless this situation was.

Finally, she lifted her head and ran her fingers through my hair. “Keno said I have to give him children,” she blurted out.

The blood that had been giving me life stopped in my veins. “No.” The word was a growl.

She still smiled that sad smile, and it broke my heart. Was she resigned to her fate? Her fingers continued down to play across my swollen face. “I have a sister. Her name is Amelia and she’s young, a teenager. Keno said if I don’t do what he asks, then he’ll just use her instead.” Her eyes welled with tears. “I can’t let that happen. She’s a teenager.”

“So that’s it. You’re just going to sacrifice yourself?” My blood was flowing again, racing through my body like floodwaters.

Tears streamed down her face. “Quit yelling at me! I didn’t ask for this. He was going to force me now, but I managed to convince him to let me see you. I said I’d get information from you because you trust me.” She swiped at her face. “That was as far as I got in my brilliant plan.”

I took a deep breath. Getting angry at her would get us nowhere. “So tell me what you know. Why did Keno kill your father?”

“He said that my father saw me as a weakness, that he’d be willing to cast off all the Valarian plans in order to ensure my safety. So Keno decided to kill him, and keep me to give him children.”

“He won’t turn you?”

“He said I have something called the veil?”

I stared at her. A dhampir with the veil was rare—it was a blood defect that meant they couldn’t be turned. Not much was known, because the last dhampir born with the veil that anyone knew about was killed hundreds of years ago. I racked my brain trying to think of all I knew about the veil. It wasn’t much, because my father hadn’t deemed that worthy of my attention. “How does he know?”

“I don’t know.”

I remembered back to what her father said—that there were things about her that I didn’t know. If this was true, she was in for a life of misery. Keno would fuck her and feed from her all he wanted—his own blood slave and breeder.

Anger roared through me, swift and fierce. “You gotta get out of here,” I said. “Is there any way you can escape?” Even as I asked, my mind began to knit together a plan.

She shrugged. “I don’t even know where we are. Underground maybe? And I can’t leave you—”

“You can leave me.” Except I knew that neither of us was getting out of here on our own. We had to work together. I just wasn’t sure how. My brain was sluggish from lack of blood, and my body ached.

She looked stricken. “They’ll torture you. They want you alive to use as collateral against your brother.”

“Well, they can try. Not the first time I’ve been tortured.” I rubbed my thumb over my shortened finger.

Her gaze tracked my movements, then she carefully took my hand in hers and touched the maimed digit. I loved the way she touched—carefully, like she understood my body. Maybe it was because of her nurse skills. “You never told me what happened.”

Her hazel eyes were so deep, so warm, that I wanted to stay lost in them. I cursed myself again for this stupid plan. How had I thought I could kill her father while still ensuring her safety? I hadn’t known the inner workings of the Valarian clan. And there had been my downfall.

“This”—I twitched my maimed finger—“is the reason I wanted to kill your father. The reason for my focused revenge. Did you hear him mention mine?”

She nodded.

“Well, they got to him, somehow, some way, either before we were born or right after. We didn’t learn until recently that our father had been plotting with the Valarians most of our lives, going against everything we believed and the prophecy we followed. Athan and I didn’t know that we had separate mothers, or that our father killed them and lied about our birth order. So I was raised to believe that I would drink from the Sanguivita, gain powers, and be the next king.” I shook my head. “That was never going to happen. I was the younger brother, and my father lied because he thought I was…” My voice gave out and I swallowed despite my dry mouth. “Weak. Easily manipulated. When the truth came out and I refused to go along with his plans, he said he’d burn me, piece by piece.” I held up my hand. “This was as far as he got before Tendra and Athan saved me.”

She looked horrified. “Your father…would have burned you alive?”

“Yep. Slowly. Painfully. This was just the tip of my finger and I can’t even describe the pain…” I clenched my fist. “So the Valarians can do what they want. I’ve already been betrayed and burned by my father. Whatever they do will pale in comparison.”

“Idris…” Her voice softened, and she cupped my cheek.

I leaned into her touch. “What information do you need from me? I can tell you just enough to keep you alive…”

She shook her head. “I don’t care about that. Let me make shit up. I just want to be here with you until they come and get me.”

“I can—”

“No,” she said firmly. She swallowed and glanced again at the door. “Idris, I’m scared.”

Helplessness swamped me. I was chained to a fucking wall. My strength was flagging. I had nothing for her. My father had been right—I was weak. “It’s killing me that I can’t help you.”

She bit her lip, then shifted closer to me and placed a hand on my chest. “Well, there’s one thing.”

“What is it?”

She lifted her hazel eyes to me, and I sucked in my breath at the rawness of her stare. “Fuck me.”

My body tightened at those two words, and they sounded far away, like she spoke through a tunnel. I blinked at her. “What did you say?”

“I’ve never…” Her fingers dug into my pectoral. “I’ve never had sex. I’ve barely been touched. I want you to be the first, so I can know what it’s like to be with someone I care about before Keno touches me.” My Celia. She was trying to be brave, but her eyes were brimming with tears. “For a moment I want to stop surviving and live in this moment. With you. Can you do that for me?”

Could I? Knowing I was sending her off to be a brood mare for another vampire? One who had already struck her and was blackmailing her? Of course, all those thoughts were fleeting bouts of selfishness. My heart was already hers, and I’d do anything for her. I knew it and she knew it.

The only problem? I needed blood. Real, fresh blood, or I wasn’t going to be able to carry out what she wanted. I needed blood flow to my dick or it was going to remain a soft, useless thing. I clasped her trembling hand. “I would do that for you. But Celia, I need blood if I’m going to use any body part other than my tongue or my hand.”

She flushed, her cheeks blooming pink, and she licked her lips. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing I have a whole body full of blood. But what if Keno—”

“Tell him I attacked you.”

Her eyes widened. “No! He’ll punish—”

“Little one, he’s going to punish me no matter what.”

Her lips pursed, and I hated the hunted look in her eyes. “I hate him.”

“Forget him.” I cupped her neck and swiped my thumb along her jawline. “Focus on me. If this is what you want, truly, then I’ll do it. Just say the word.”