Scorned (9 page)

“Yeah, that’ll be fine.”

I slipped into the thong, wiggled until they
were comfortable, then smiled. “Do I get to look in a mirror?”

Calliope touched a portion of the wall where
there appeared to be nothing. She pressed on it, using a good bit
of her weight, and it turned, revealing a mirror.

“He doesn’t half do anything, does he?” I
asked absently.

“No, he does not.”

The dress fit me perfectly, and I had to
wonder how Roman knew my size. There was gold embroidery and those
feathery red appliqués in an Asian-style pattern across the front
of the strapless work of art. The bodice fit like a dream. The full
skirt was ruched high on my right hip, and again, low on my left
thigh, forcing it to fall in little pleats. In the back, the bodice
was fitted all the way down to the back of my legs, giving it that
mermaid look when I turned around.

I loved the dress, and the color, and
everything about the way it fit me. It was almost too much to take
in at once.

“He knows fashion well.”

I looked at Calliope. I’d truly forgotten
she was in the room. “Yeah,” was all I could manage.

Adelina came in with a pair of red satin
stilettos with pleats across the length of the shoe. Diamonds shone
on the toe of the shoe and at the end of the heel.

“My god,” I said softly. “I can’t wear
those. I’ll break them. Or I’ll break me. One way or another,
something’s going to break.”

Adelina waved it off like she heard this
every day as well. “You will be fine. Put these on and we will work
on your hair.”

Twenty minutes later, after having two women
tugging at my head from both sides, my hair was blow-dried and
piled neatly on top of my head with little gold and diamond pins
shimmering everywhere, and I had my feet stuffed into shoes that
should have been uncomfortable. They should have been in a display
at a museum or with the crown jewels, but they were on my
feet
of all places! I laughed at the absurdity of the entire
situation.

“Does he always indulge in such dramatics?”
I asked.

Adelina only smiled. “It is not often that
he has a chance to dress up for company.”

I suddenly wondered what Roman had been
doing while I’d been off letting myself be pampered. I didn’t have
much time to wonder, however. Adelina and Calliope seemed to think
my transformation was complete. They showed me out of the bedroom
and into the hall, where they took up their places with one in
front and one behind. We descended the stairs this way, slowly so I
wouldn’t trip over my ridiculous shoes, down where Roman was
waiting.

Seeing Roman in his black military uniform
standing there at the bottom of the stairs, his pale-ish skin
luminescent against the dark color, his blue eyes sparkling with an
otherworldly light, and a jaguar on a chain by his side, was
breathtaking. A jaguar! The big cat was a dusty gray color with
black and grey markings. I’d never seen one with this kind of
coloring.

I didn’t want to think about what I looked
like coming down the stairs to him led by two beautiful women. I
didn’t want to think about what significance this simple act had. I
didn’t want to think about the possibilities that he had tucked
away in his twisted mind. It would have ruined the moment.

I was having too good of a time pretending
to be someone I wasn’t in a world that didn’t exist to allow myself
to point out any particular problems with going along with a
vampire’s delusions. For all I knew, he’d grown up in an age where
throwing these kinds of parties was a way of showing your wealth.
The theatrics of the evening weren’t considered theatrics several
hundred years ago.

Adelina brought me to the bottom of the
stairs and Calliope moved around me. The girls dropped into low
curtsies before Adelina literally announced my entrance.

“LeKrista Scott.”

Roman bowed and took my hand, kissing the
backs of my knuckles as I stood there in shock. “A pleasure.”

I couldn’t do anything but cock my head to
the side and stare up at him. Wasn’t this the kind of thing I’d
always wanted to happen? For the past to suddenly reveal to me
that, somewhere hidden deep within the modern world, it wasn’t
really dead and I could be part of it? I curtsied the best I knew
how, and that seemed to impress him.

“Shall we?” he asked, my hand still in
his.

“Are you for real?”

“Always, my sweet.”

I felt Adelina and Calliope stiffen where
they’d moved behind me, but Roman didn’t give me a chance to find
out why. We turned and he led me down a hall to a set of double
doors that didn’t look the least bit native to the house.

“I added this room,” he told me, just before
he opened the doors. A rush of sound - music and laughter and
conversation - assaulted my ears like we’d just walked out of a
dead zone. As soon as we were noticed, however, the sound of the
crowd died.

“Presenting, LeKrista Scott!” A man only
slightly taller than I announced and I jumped. The room went up in
applause, but I could see on their faces that not everyone was
happy to see me.

"What am I being presented for?"

He didn’t answer, only smiled at me like I
was a child who’d just done something cute. That irked me, but I
kept all smart comments to myself.

We stepped into the room and my skin began
to crawl. It was all I could do not to rub at my arms to make it
stop. A shudder ran down my spine and I knew Roman noticed.

“Are you unwell?” Roman asked.

I shook my head and concentrated on not
running from the room. My skin felt like it was trying to crawl
away from my body.

"Vampires. There are some young ones here
who do not know how to hide their essence as we older ones do. That
is why you feel this way."

I turned to my right, just in time to see
Roman’s black jaguar led through a door, but as he disappeared
around the corner, I saw his shape begin to change, lengthen,
shift. I swear I saw it turn into a man.

No, freaking way!

I turned back to Roman to ask, and as I did
I caught a glimpse of a familiar face. Porcelain skin, ruby red
lips, long, dark, curly hair, and a navy blue gown that hugged her
curves and pushed her breasts up until I thought they would pop out
of her bodice. I froze as she made eye contact with me. She didn’t
know me, but I knew her. I tried to look away, but she had me
caught in her gaze. Within seconds, she knew who I was. He’d told
her.

I felt my fear build. Panic rose in my
chest, tightening around my lungs and restricting my air flow. It
wasn’t natural or of my own doing.

“Roman,” I gasped. “Roman, I can’t
breathe!”

“Come,” he told me. “This way.”

He led me off to the side where a sitting
room was available and made several giggling women leave with a
simple look. The moment the door closed I collapsed to my knees
with a hand to my chest, struggling to breathe. Black spots
encroached on my vision and I felt my arms give way like wet toilet
paper. I sank to the floor, my right cheek pressed to the cool wood
paneling.

“What’s happening?” I croaked, just before I
lost consciousness, but I could still hear what was going on around
me. Roman was shaking me, trying to wake me. He’d pulled me off the
floor and onto his lap. I heard him call Adelina and Calliope in to
try and revive me. I heard Adelina say that I was breathing and
Calliope assured him I had a pulse. I tried to call out to them, to
let them know that I was okay but I couldn’t. I tried to shout,
scream, kick, hit, lick my lips, anything so they would know I
could hear them, but nothing worked.

My eyes finally flew open, so big and so
wide I thought they would burst from my skull. I felt that presence
pinch at the back of my mind and I knew it was about to do
something bad.

“Get away from me!” I shouted. Adelina and
Calliope dutifully stepped back and I could see hurt and anger in
their eyes. They didn’t understand and I couldn’t warn them. He
wouldn’t let me warn them! So, instead, I shouted words into my
mind where I knew that thing was lurking and where I knew Roman
might be able to hear me.

I jumped up onto my feet, wobbly because of
the dangerously high heels, and turned to face them.

What are you doing?!

I pressed the heels of my hands to my
temples, because the next moment my mind felt like it would
explode.

Get out of my head!

Roman stared at me a moment. “Adelina,
Calliope, move behind me please.”

The women did as they were told, still
unsure of what was going on.

“I am afraid LeKrista is not herself at this
moment.” He began to speak to me in that old forgotten tongue and I
understood him and answered in the same language.

“Your fight is not with this woman, it is
with me.” Roman addressed the man inside my head in Latin.

“My fight will be with anyone I choose as
long as it will hurt you,” I answered. It was my voice, but the
words and the language had nothing to do with me.

“And how was it that you came to learn such
a potent...trick?”

I laughed, harsh and angry. “Trick? No, my
father in death. It is no trick any more than your ability to
project your thoughts and feelings onto women is a trick.”

“The right women,” Roman replied, and I
thought I heard a bit of tension in his voice. “No all women.”

“No. Not all women,” my voice said. “My
ability is merely an extension of yours. Is it not from the one who
made me what I am that I receive my abilities?”

Roman only nodded.

“This one young woman means more to you than
all the other women in your harem.”

What?

“Enough!” Roman’s anger flared and his voice
echoed around the room, but more than anger I felt something like
fear. “I will not have you refer to my women as a harem! They
deserve much more respect than that!”

“Do they?” I asked. “Do they not come to you
willingly?”

“Of course they come to me willingly. I
would never force myself on a woman.”

“No? Does this one come to you
willingly?”

I felt that strange presence drop its
control over my mind. I had a moment to look at Roman wide-eyed,
breathing hard before I felt it take over my body. I screamed.

“No!” My body launched itself toward Roman,
faster than it should have been able to, arms out stretched,
fingers curled into claws. But I wasn’t fast enough, or strong
enough. Roman caught me in midair and pulled me against his chest.
Close enough that I could smell his skin and hear his heartbeat.
That shocked me for a moment. I didn’t think vampires had
heartbeats. Weren’t they supposed to be dead?

The presence took over my body again and I
fought to wriggle from Roman’s grasp. Perhaps the person inside my
head thought I was stronger than I really was. Either way, I could
feel Roman’s grip on me begin to bruise.

The door to the room burst open and the roar
of a large cat filled the space.

“Back!” Roman called, flinging one hand out
and stopping it in its tracks, the great animal reduced to a tabby
cat.

“LeKrista, I am sorry.” I couldn’t ask what
he was sorry for. He touched a finger to my forehead and I felt my
mind fill with...something. Then I felt nothing.

I was hunched in the woods in the cold
wearing nothing but a pair of black jeans. I could see my knees
from where I was squatting down. I had my back leaned against a
tree and my arms wrapped around myself, but I wasn’t cold.

I was angry and breathing hard, drawing in
ragged, raging breaths of the cold air trying to calm myself, but
it wasn’t working. I stood suddenly, quicker and more graceful than
I’ve ever been able to move and I realized I wasn’t myself but
Lucretious.

“
Why are you trying to kill me?” I asked,
hoping maybe I could reason with this...thing.

“
Careful, little human,” he warned.
“You’re in my head, but we share one mind right now. I know your
thoughts just as you know mine.”

“
Okay, but why are you trying to kill me?
What have I done?”

“
What has he told you?”

This was not the answer to my question.
“About what?”

“
That’s answer enough. Perhaps I should
give you a preview.”

I thought that would be nice. I’d really
like to know what I’d unknowingly gotten myself into.

Lucretious laughed. “You humans. Always
looking for an adventure or a release from your boring lives. It’s
what makes you so damned easy.”

I didn’t like being called easy, and I made
sure he knew it.

“
Your vampire love has been lying to
you.”

“
He’s not my love.”

“
What has he told you of Vivian? What has
he told you of me?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. Who is
Vivian?”

“
Allow me to enlighten you.” He sounded
so pleased that he was able to do this.

I found myself in a great room. The ceiling
was high and cavernous and there was more golden decoration.
Something obstructed my view. I pushed it away and found it to be a
gauzy curtain I was hiding behind.

In the center of the room, Vivian was on her
knees. Long golden hair fell down her back in waves and candlelight
made her porcelain skin glow, but she wasn’t a vampire. Lucretious
kept part of his mind closed to me, but he wanted me to know that
she wasn’t a vampire.

Her scream cut through the night like a
knife. Her hands clutched her head, pulling at her hair to try and
alleviate the pain.

“
Answer me!” Roman shouted, but it wasn’t
in English. He shouted his native Latin at her and she understood,
I understood.

“
Answer me!” Roman shouted again and,
when he did Vivian made a strangled sound in her throat. She began
to speak in a string of Latin words, but I wasn’t able to follow
because they were all strung together. Not even Roman could
understand her.