Limerence (24 page)

“Where is she?” I grab the closest chair—the only chair left unbroken—pick it up by its heavy wooden arms, and heave it against a wall. All three Pawns stand unflinching as it shatters into pieces with an overtly loud crash. The Pledge, however, jumps. His wide eyes betray him as he struggles to conceal his fear.

I can smell it though; it pours from him in waves. I hear him swallow, the sound strained whilst he tries to keep every muscle tensed.

I look at them all, standing in a line, waiting for me to speak again—all eyes upon me, all eyes waiting for me.

Waiting…

Waiting…

Waiting…

Always waiting for me. Always doing what I ask. I just wanted one thing for me. Just one thing, in this pathetic existence, that I can call my own. And I had it. I had her. I finally had her. And now she’s gone again.

My hands run through my hair, pulling at the roots in exasperation. Where could she be? She could be hurt. She’ll be getting hungry soon. I can’t stand the thought of my beautiful Mia being hungry. My stomach turns at the thought—desperate, lonely, in pain. What if
they
have her? What if
they
hurt her to get to me?

My Mia.

I turn in a circle, wide-eyed and dazed. Bloody bile rises in my throat. I turn to them once more, assessing each one of them, each one partly to blame.

“Where is she?” My voice quavers and I attempt to steady myself. The room is spinning. I need to sit, but I just broke the last chair in the room.

“Sir, I believe the Emancipators have her.” Ava steps forward calmly.

“How did they even get in here?” I’m seeing two of her, her face blurring.

“We aren’t sure, Sir.”

Anger grows inside me. Twice now we have been broken into. Twice now someone has been taken from me. Twice. How did this happen? I look at them all, knowing that the only way that this could have happened is if one of them were in on it. None of them say anything. Why do I have to ask every damn question? Can’t they think for themselves? I pinch the bridge of my nose and close my eyes.

“We need to find her.” I open my eyes and look at them straight-faced.

My human Pledge and three Pawns, all standing there like quirky adopted siblings: Ava, petite, with her dark brown eyes and hair, and a sprinkling of freckles across her nose; Donovan, as big as a giant and as dark as the night; and Cleo, with her short, curly hair, green eyes, and heart-shaped mouth. So childlike and innocent looking. Even Chris has an evil glint to his handsome features. All of them deadly in their own right, and yet somehow, someone has infiltrated my home and taken my most precious thing:

Mia.

I don’t know how long I have been sitting here thinking of her. My thoughts are coming in slowly as I listen to the movement around me. I look up with sad eyes and a broken heart. All three Pawns stand exactly where they should be—however, the Pledge has moved. He’s shifting from foot to foot, impatiently looking about the room. I can hear the slow, steady rhythm of his heart, the slow, steady rhythm of his boredom. He notices my glance and freezes, yet he doesn’t look frightened by me.

I stand up in one fluid movement and walk towards him. Still he doesn’t look frightened.

I stand before him, staring him down. Still he doesn’t look frightened.

I reach for him and straighten his collar with a smile. He looks warily to the others. I glance at them also, but they stay in their formation. Standing upright and staring forward, like good soldiers.

“Are you okay, Chris?”

He nods meekly at me.

“I didn’t catch that.” I lift my eyebrow obnoxiously.

He shuffles from foot to foot again. “Yes, Sir. I’m fine. I erm…”

“Yes, Chris?”

“Nothing, Sir.” His heartbeat is quickening, the blood pumping faster.

“No, go ahead. I can see that you have something on your mind. Do tell. We’re all eager to hear what you have to say.” I look to the others again. “Aren’t we?” They glance sideways at Chris but say nothing. “I said, aren’t we?” Silence pervades the room. I smooth the back of his hair, my hand cupping his neck.

“So? Come on then. Out with it.” I smile, my fangs releasing. His heart kicks up a gear, pumping his blood through his veins like a runaway train. He swallows, once, twice. He clears his throat as I lead him away from the others.

“I was just going to say…” he begins.

I turn to him sharply. “Yes, Chris. Yes…tell me. What is it? What was it that you were going to say?”

“That, erm…” I can smell his blood. Smell his sweat and panic. I press my forehead against his so that we are nose to nose, leaving him nowhere to look but at me, into my eyes—letting him see my empty soul.

“Yes, Chris?” The words come out a whisper.

A shudder runs through him and I close my eyes, picturing her face. She must be so scared, my beautiful Mia.

“The Queen picked me,” he barely breathes the words out.

I open my eyes back up and pull away to look at him more closely.

“If anything happens to me…”

I’m still holding our heads together, squeezing his neck too hard.

“Yes, she did, didn’t she?” I release him from my stare and guide him over to the large window that looks across to the forest. His shoulders sag under the tension. “She hand-picked you, Chris. Chose you especially for this trip.” I let my eyes drift across to the tall trees, the moonlight creeping out from behind them. “She sees great potential in you, Chris.” I turn and smile at him. His neck is clammy under my hand.

“Yeah, she told me that too,” he replies cockily, keeping his eyes on the view.

“I’ll be honest though, Chris,” I turn back to admire the view with him. “I don’t. I think that you’re going to make a horrendous vampire. You’re going to be unforgiving and ruthless. Greedy and narcissistic.”I pull him by his neck so that he faces me. “Do you understand what I’m saying Chris?”

“She’ll kill you if anything happens to me.” he says in panic. He keeps his eyes on the view, too afraid to look at me. I watch a single bead of sweat trickle down from his hairline, travelling down his neck until it slips out of sight under his collar.

“I am just trying to find out whose fault it is that we were infiltrated by our enemy.”

“Well it wasn’t me.” He swallows again, loudly. When he opens his mouth, I can smell the vomit in the back of his throat.

I turn him to face The Pawns. “So, whose fault is it then, Chris, our Queen’s most trusted servant? Do tell me.”

He glances nervously at me and then over at the others. They stare past him, already foreseeing what is coming.

“It could have been any of their faults really.”

I laugh—a full, out loud, over-the-top laugh. I laugh until tears form in my eyes, until my stomach hurts and I am hungry. I laugh until he tries to join in and when he does, I rip his head from his neck.

Blood spurts out from the opening where his head should be, covering me from head to toe, when his body falls to the floor in a crumpled heap. His eyes stare back at me blankly, his mouth forever silent. I don’t even want to drink his blood, he’s that pathetic. I turn and face the others, who remain standing still.

Chris’s head dangles in my hand as I clutch his hair tightly —the drip, drip, drip of his blood on to the floor.

“Does anybody here know where she is?” I survey them all once more until Donovan steps forward.

“I think that they are on the mainland, Sir,” his voice still holds his native French twang that I’ve become accustomed to.

I drop Chris’s head, letting it fall upon his crumpled, lifeless body, and step towards Donovan.

“And what makes you think that?” My fangs are still drawn. I thirst for blood. I realise that I’ve done it again. I haven’t fed in days. I can’t even remember the last time. Now I don’t even have my Pledge to go and retrieve me someone to drink.

“Sir, I could smell the mainland after they left. I could smell the humans on them.” His dark eyes, almost black, bore into mine, challenging me.

“You could smell the mainland? You mean, you think that they are living amongst the humans?”

“Yes, Sir.” He steps back to his place.

This is interesting. “Could you be wrong?” I ask.

He seems lost in thought for a moment whilst he considers my question, before finally he answers. “Possibly.”

I feel the rage building inside me. I’m no closer now than I was two hours ago. I survey the room. The furniture is destroyed, and Chris’s body lies in a bloody, lumpy mess. The Queen will be mad. I run my hands through my hair for the hundredth time today. No, she will be furious.

“But I don’t think that I am.” Donovan steps back in line with the others.

My body is slowing down, the colours fading as my body struggles to conserve its energy. I need to sit. I once again glance at the broken chair, and tut to myself. I need to focus before this all gets out of hand, and I can’t stop the yarn of my life unravelling before my very eyes. I step away from them all. I need something to drink. I refuse to drink from this little maggot on the floor.

“Ava, go fetch me something to eat. Donovan, check the security cameras around the perimeter and see if you can figure out which direction they went, and how the hell they got in here! Cleo…” I stare around at the mess. “Sort this out.” I wave a hand around me. “I’ll be in my study.”

She raises an eyebrow at me, but thankfully doesn’t question my authority. I haven’t the energy to argue with her, or anyone else. At least not until I’ve eaten.

All three of them set about their given tasks and I leave by the exit at the back of the room.

As I make my way to my study, I pass Mia’s room. Standing outside the door, I trail my fingers down the grooves of the wood. Resting my head against it, I think of her face. I don’t notice when I enter and lay down on her bed, curling myself into a tight ball in the same space that she had been not a day before—the same space that she had lain waiting, and wanting, for me. How could I have been so stupid to let the opportunity pass? It was my time, my chance, and I let it slip through my fingers like the sands of time. My body feels cold and weak—twice as powerful as any human, yet twice as weak as any of these vampires right now.

I push my face into the soft material of her pillow, several strands of her perfect hair still cling to it. I can smell her sweet scent, her shampoo and just…Mia. She has a scent like no other. I rub my face against the pillow, rubbing her smell onto me. Grabbing the duvet, I wrap it around myself hungrily, pulling it over my head so that I am enveloped in her smell, her allure. I can really feel her now, as if she were here with me. A fire burns within me, hot and futile. My fangs release again when I think of her: her face, her smile, her body. The way she was begging for me to take her, opening her thighs to me and pressing my hands against her. I can almost taste her. I groan. She tasted so good. Better than anything I had ever tasted before. I writhe in her covers, rubbing her scent over all of me, wanting to bathe myself in her.

I hear someone in the room and pull the covers back from my face, looking up warily.

Ava stands by the doorway with a whimpering woman beside her. The woman is gagged and naked. A blindfold covers her eyes, and her wrists are bound in front of her. I pounce from the bed and grab the woman, throwing her back onto. Then I am on her. I lick up her throat to the sweet throbbing of her jugular, sniffing her from lobe to throat again before I bite into her, gulping down her offering. It’s over before it has begun. She is over.

I feel alive once more. Rejuvenated and alert. Ready to find my Mia. Ready to rescue her.

“How?”

The word flies from my mouth far too eagerly, at almost breakneck speed. I have shown my cards, given up my ace, so to speak. I roll my eyes at my own stupidity.

Mr San smiles, a lopsided, creepy smile. It slowly starts at one side of his mouth and ends at the other. Yes, he has me. What’s worse is that he knows it now. “Come with me, Mia.”

We make our way slowly down the darkened corridor, my head hanging in embarrassment, when I hear footsteps behind us. I chance a glance over my shoulder and realise that the vampires are following closely at our heels.

“Why are they following us?”

He smiles again. “Don’t worry about them, Mia. They’re just curious about you.”

I stop walking and turn to face them. “Curious about me? Why?” My eyes narrow, whilst I take in the deadly threat before me. I huff out a frustrated breath that I still feel clueless as to what is going on. Everyone else seems to be in on the game. Anger bubbles inside me and I struggle to contain it as my emotions begin to get the better of me again. They seem to be ruling my every decision at the moment, I realise wearily.

“All in good time, Mia.” He gently leads me by the elbow to a large door at the end of the corridor, but I hesitate on the threshold, suddenly apprehensive of my own judgement to trust him.

He enters and makes his way across the room to a large, comfy-looking chair by the fireplace. Turning back, he sees me still waiting, my indecision showing on my face, and he only smiles in response. He looks powerful, and he must be; why else would there be so many vampires ready to follow him?

The horde is still behind me. I can feel their stares burning into my back, and I turn to examine them. They are all beautiful, but their eyes are another matter. They are cold and empty, like staring into a black abyss. They seem empty of emotions, which is the total opposite of me. Since becoming a vampire, I have been on a rollercoaster ride of emotions, swinging from insanely angry to extreme devastation. I can only imagine what I must look like, wild-eyed and mentally unstable. I shake myself and come back to the present.

“Mia.” I look at Mr San with irritation as he says my name. I waver, one foot going forward and then rocking back on my heel as I change my mind, in some sort of crazy dance.

“I would make your decision quickly, my dear. They grow ever impatient with you.” He watches me sternly as I look back to the horde behind me. They have crept further forward. I should feel fear, but my overwhelming emotion is possibly the most inappropriate: anger.

“You said I was free to leave.”

“And you are my, dear. You are free to leave whenever you want. However, I cannot guarantee your safety.” He calmly clasps his hands in front of himself as I stay fixed to the spot.

“So.” I narrow my eyes, unable to stop the sarcasm from reaching my words. “I’m free to leave whenever I want, only if I do, these guys are going to chase after me and bring me back. Great, yeah, I can see how that’s fair.”

He chortles loudly, making even the vampires behind me jump.

“Oh, Mia. I can see why he likes you. Your honesty really is quite refreshing.”

“To answer your question, no, we will not chase after you and bring you back. We are not the enemy, Mia. He is—Mr Breckt and all of his Pawns, his slaves. We are just humble Emancipator vampires, struggling to survive and free ourselves from the tyrannical jaws of the Queen.” He smiles widely. “You have stumbled upon something that has been hidden for centuries, something that most people will never be aware of. And I, we…” he gestures to the others, “want to keep it that way. However…”

He pauses mid-sentence, as if considering his next words more carefully. “Look, just come in, we can sit, rest…have a drink together and I will tell you all about it. I’ll tell you anything that you want to know.”

It’s tempting. So god-damn tempting. He’s offering me the truth, and vengeance. And best of all,
blood
. After the exertion of destroying my room and the overwhelming emotions awash in me, I know I’m in short supply. I can feel the coldness creeping back into me, but the blood buzz always makes me zone out for so long, and I need to leave. I need to check on my family—on Rachael.

“It won’t always be like that, Mia. You won’t always have such a strong reaction to the blood. Soon enough it will be like taking a protein shake. The more you have, the sooner that will happen and the safer it will be for you to return home.”

Home!
I feel hot tears spring to my eyes. But home isn’t what it used to be anymore, not without Oliver. Not without my family. Damn him, reading my mind again.
I look at him with a pinched expression, tapping my foot impatiently.

“You’re doing it now aren’t you?” I say, my brow furrowing.

“I’m afraid so, Mia.” He watches me intently. “Sorry, it’s a habit, albeit a bad one, I know.”

“Well then you know that I need to check on my family. You said that he killed Oliver, and has destroyed everyone,” I snap, trying to shut off the pain inside before I cry.

He looks to the floor sadly and for the briefest of moments his aura changes —a flicker of difference at the outside. The colour change is so subtle that I almost miss it. I frown harder, wondering what it means. I don’t trust him. I can’t trust him until I have seen for myself that he isn’t the bad guy. I do believe that he is more dangerous than he makes out. But if there is anyone left that I care about, my only way of protecting them is to stay alive—
or as alive as a vampire can be.
Mr San smiles blatantly at me as he listens in to my thoughts again and I scowl.

“Okay, but just an hour. Then I’m leaving, with or without your help.”

He looks up and claps his hands together triumphantly. “Very well.” He turns to a vampire standing behind him. Her eyes seem much too dark in her ivory face, yet they hold a certain glow to them that the others don’t seem to have. She’s beautiful in a remarkable way, set apart from all the others I have met.

“Shauna, if you could fetch us some blood from the bank.” He sits in his chair as I finally choose to come fully into the room. His greyish-black hair trails around his face as he looks at me with yet another creepy, wide smile.

The pale vampire nods and turns away from us, threading herself through the entourage of vampires still standing on the threshold. They are all exceptionally attractive, all blessed with pristine skin, pink lips, and shiny hair. It’s only their eyes that give anything away. It’s like a goddamn models’ house in here.

He gestures to the chair in front of him and I sit, taking in the room around me. It’s sparse of furniture, like the rest of this place, with no windows, and as far as I can see, just the one door in and out. Bookshelves line the back wall, but they are almost empty of offerings. Apart from a large torn painting above the un-lit fireplace, there is nothing on the walls either. The painting is of Mr San, but one half of it has been ripped clean away.

He looks at where I gaze but says nothing, and I don’t question him about the painting—or the missing half—although every muscle in my body is screaming at me to ask. I look back to Mr San, who is watching me tensely as I glance behind him and spy another door tucked away in the corner.

Mr San notices my glance and leans forwards, then whispers with a grin, “That’s where the dungeon is.”

My eyes widen in horror. “What?”

There is a sharp knock on the door before he can respond to me and Shauna, the pale vampire from earlier, comes in. Her shiny brown hair frames her face, seemingly frozen in place as she moves across the room. There is no bob to her head, no move to her shoulders. She literally glides to us; her feet are moving, but she seems to almost skim the floor with them. I wonder if I walk like this now. I’ve never been graceful, more tending to bump into things or knock things over.

She carries a round tray, and upon it, a decorative glass carafe filled with liquid. It could have been a good red wine, matured and darkened with age. However, I know its blood when the smell drifts towards me, growing ever stronger the closer she gets. I can’t take my eyes from it and feel almost hypnotised by its hold over me. As our gliding waitress reaches us, my stomach twists in hungry expectancy. The rich iron smell fills my nose and head, and my mouth begins to water at its proximity. I stand abruptly, almost ashamed by my eagerness for it, almost.

Mr Sans hand reaches for my knee. “Sit, Mia. You must learn to control your thirst better,” he scolds.

I sit obediently but pout through the motion. The cold in my stomach is like acid in my gut now that the blood—the cure—is so close to me, and I wince.

Shauna pours the blood slowly, into long-stemmed champagne flutes; if this wasn’t blood, it would be very debonair of us. Mr San leans across and takes a glass, handing it to me, and then picks up another one for him. he clinks his against mine as if reciprocating my thoughts.

He catches my eye. “To…us.”

“To my family,” I snap.

“To new alliances.” He retorts with a quirk of his eyebrow.

I take a sip, but the moment the blood touches my lips and I get my first taste, I tip the entire contents down my throat in one go. It tingles and pulses as it goes down, almost alive. I am in ecstasy, murmuring to myself. My fingers stroke the hair away from my eyes, the touch so gentle it sends shivers convulsing through me. My skin is so sensitive, the world so beautiful. I sigh loudly as it reaches my stomach and explodes through me in a series of climaxing sensations. The pain that has been slowly building over the last hour is instantly soothed, and I sigh louder.

I stand again, more brusquely this time. “More.” I hold my glass out towards Shauna. She looks with uncertain brown eyes to Mr San who nods, and she proceeds to pour me another glass. She has barely finished pouring it when I snatch it up and tip it into my eager mouth. The feeling is just as exquisite as the first time. However, now my senses are on fire. Everything is crystal clear.

Every speck of dirt.

Every colour.

I see it all.

I stare around me in amazement at everything, as if finally seeing the world for its true colours. I can see every crease on the books bindings, every notch in the wood of the bookcase that they sit upon. I feel the draft from the far corner and I know instantly that it is the way out. It may-or-may-not lead to dungeons, but cold daytime air also flits through that area. That is my escape if need be.

“Sit now, Mia.” Mr San is watching me with concern and I realise that my blood-buzz must be making it hard for him to read me.

I sit and try to focus on his face, finding the action of being still extremely difficult. My body wants to move, to touch, to taste, to experience all of the sensations that are coursing through it.

“So, where do we begin, Mia? What would you like to know?” He leans back in his chair and crosses his legs.

“I don’t want to know anything,” I say as flatly as I can. I think I’m slurring my words drunkenly, but I can’t help it. “I just want to know how we are going to kill him.”

He smirks. “There must be something else that you’re curious about. Something else I can help you with. Without a doubt, we will kill him.” He takes a sip of his blood. I stare enraptured by the image as I ponder the taste of it in his mouth, on his tongue. The way it feels when its velvety softness slides down his throat. I swallow instinctively and my body flexes towards him.

“Would you like another?” He gestures to Shauna who moves forward with the carafe.

I nod and then shamefully look away with a shake of my head, and I have to physically turn myself away from Shauna when she comes close, holding the carafe out to me. I need to concentrate, no matter how thirsty I am. And I am suddenly so very thirsty—parched to the core as I watch him take another slow teasing sip, swilling the blood around in the glass and watching my reaction. I stare mesmerised at the blood that sloshes up the sides of the glass. He knows exactly what he is doing to me.

I clear my arid throat. “When?”

“When?” He raises an eyebrow at me.

“When will we kill him?” I lick my lips, they feel plumper somehow, as if stung and inflamed.

“Soon, Mia. Very soon.”

“What has happened to my family?”

He looks away, the smile lost. “It’s probably best that I don’t tell you the details of that, Mia dearest.”

“Has Mr Breckt killed them?”

“Without a doubt he has. He was very angry when you weren’t there when he returned for you.” He sounds sad, but I notice the subtle change in his aura again.

“When you took me, you mean.” I cut off my words when I realise that the reason Mr Breckt has killed them—my family—is because I was kidnapped. He killed them in anger. Did he think that I had run away? “He killed them because you took me.” I snarl.

“No, Mia. He was intending on killing them anyway, it was just sooner than expected.”

“But still…”

“Mia, you would have been lost to him, swallowed up whole. Never to return to this consciousness, never being able to avenge them, never knowing—or caring—that they were dead.”

I breathe out slowly as I digest the information. My palms feel sweaty and I rub them along my thighs, leaving a dark trail in their wake. I look at them and find my sweat is pink. I grimace.