The Lair

“I thought perhaps your tastes had changed,” she says with a look in my direction.

My heart stutters as I realize the implications of their conversation. First, unlike Sebastian, Sabrina clearly drinks from humans with no concern for turning them. And secondly, the “guard” isn’t a guard at all. He was the refreshment she’d offered us.

She smiles smoothly. She strokes the fingers of one hand across the tips of the other. On another woman, the gesture might look diffident, but on Sabrina, it’s menacing. Her nails are as long and pointy as a lion’s claws. “But surely you’ll at least share a drink with me. We have glasses aplenty on the sidebar.”

She is not merely playing with her hands; she is testing the edge of her weapon, preparing to slice open a vein on the man standing stupidly in the corner.

I’m backing away, panicked. I can’t drink human blood. I can’t. But I muffle my screams, because Sebastian’s warnings are too loud in my ears. I edge back away from her, but Sebastian grips my arm, keeping me in place.

“No, thank you,” he says. “I remember the ancient laws as well as you. I will not partake of your kine.”

She nods graciously. “If you do indeed remember the ancient laws, then you know as well as I that I had to offer.”

“You did not have to make the offer so enticing.”

She throws back her head and releases a husky chuckle. “So enticing? Your straits must be dire indeed if a single pint of human blood is enough to entice you.”

Sebastian makes a sound low in his throat that is almost a growl, but I’m unsure if she even hears it.

She is still laughing as she waves the guard from the room. She slinks across to the sofa in front of the windows and curls into a seat. “Now, down to business. I assume since you refused to drink, you are not ready to pledge your loyalty to me and become my vassal.”

Sebastian snorts in derision. “You know I am not.” His hand is at my back, guiding me to a seat opposite Sabrina. I want to fly against the glass like a hummingbird caught in the skylight, but Sebastian nudges me forward now and so I sit. “But I noticed Jackson has fallen.”

I have no idea what Jackson is. A city, maybe?

But Sabrina knows instantly what he means, because her smile freezes. “Your intel is extensive.”

Sebastian smirks. “Please. We crossed through his territory on the way here. You think I would not notice this weakness along your border.”

“Notice? Or prey on?”

Sebastian’s chuckle sounds genuinely amused, as if he’s enjoying this game of wits, despite the strain of being with her. “If I was going to prey on your weakness, I would never have come close enough for you to even know I was here.”

Sabrina’s smile widens. “And yet you have sought sanctuary,” Sabrina purrs, and her eyes light up as she sweeps her hand toward me. “And you brought me gifts. To help with my little problem?”

It takes me a moment to figure out what she means, but I still answer before Sebastian does.

“Gifts?” I ask, speaking for the first time. I bob to my feet. “I am not a gift.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Sebastian mutters.

Sabrina grins, clearly delighted by my outburst. “You didn’t tell her? Oh, Sebastian, you are so deliciously naughty I could just eat you up. And if you were human, I suspect I would.”

I turn on Sebastian. “Did you bring me here to get rid of me? So she could, what?” My mind races, but I have no answers. I am out of my depth and drowning. “Why?”

Sabrina comes to her feet and pulls me into her arms. “Now, dear one, you needn’t fret.”

Needn’t fret? I jerk away. “I have less than six months before my own territorial instincts kick in and Sebastian is trying to hand me over to you like a . . . like a . . .” But I don’t even know what. I know so little about being a vampire. Sebastian has been my lode stone for the past six weeks. If he abandons me now, I don’t know how I will function.

She strokes a hand down my arm. “My dear, you are being a tad overdramatic. Perhaps if you could . . . what is that phrase? Reign it in?”

I nod without really agreeing.

“If you become my vassal, I promise I will take very good care of you until it is time for you to leave.”

Her words are tender, but they still chill my heart. I look to Sebastian, but his expression is unreadable.

Why? I want to scream at him. Why are you doing this?

But instead I ask that other great question: “How?”

Sabrina slithers closer. “Sebastian is very . . .” She savors choosing the word. “Pragmatic, shall we say. Not all vampires are isolationists like he is.”

“So then you can be around other vampires?” I ask, something strangely like hope filling my heart.

“No. Not in that sense. Not long-term. Once you were fully grown I would boot you out, so to speak. But we would have so much fun in the meantime.”

“Oh,” I say. I shudder at her words, unwilling to imagine what her idea of fun might be. I can’t help but look at Sebastian, who is lounging disinterestedly on the sofa. “It’s only a few more months. Why not just let me be? Is it so awful, being my mentor that you can’t just let me stay?”

He returns my gaze, looking more bored than concerned, then he turns to Sabrina. “Perhaps you could give us a moment?”

She has been watching the exchange, her gaze bright with interest. Her face falls as she realizes she’s being asked to leave. Her lip juts out in a pout. “Very well.”

A moment later we are alone.

My emotions roil inside of me. I never used to be like this: awash in feelings. In my Before, everything was so much simpler. I lived within myself, under a bell jar made of music. The jar protected me, from the world and from the darker parts of myself—the parts that feed on my control and weaken it. The parts that want to rise up and howl, Tick-like.

Alone with Sebastian, I pace, trying to outrun my anger and fear.

“Come now, Kitten. Surely it’s not as bad as all that.”

I whirl on him. “You tried to barter me to that woman in exchange for sanctuary!”

“Did I?”

“Yes! She thought I was some sort of hostess gift.”

“I am not responsible for what she thought, only for what I intended.”

“What you intended was to get rid of me.”

“Was it?”

I’m tired of his oblique questions. “Yes! You brought me here to ditch me so that you wouldn’t be responsible for training me. You never wanted to turn me. You turned me only because Carter made you do it.”

Sebastian raises his eyebrows at this and for a moment, he looks disconcerted. “Carter made me? You believe there was anything that boy could have done to make me turn you?”

“What other explanation is there? You hate turning vampires. You’d rather go hungry than risk it. And yet now you’re stuck with me and so you’re trying to ditch me.”

“My dear, if I was that desperate to be rid of you, I would have merely waited until Carter and Lily had left and I would have beheaded you. If I wanted you gone, you’d be gone. I brought you to Sabrina’s not for my benefit or for hers, but for yours.”

“Mine?”

“Of course. Sabrina has fared quite well since America fell. Much of her financial and personal empire is intact. Most of her enemies have fallen. She is in need of powerful allies on her border, and would likely do much to help you establish your own empire. You could do far worse than to become a vassal to a vampire of her strengths.”

Everything inside of me stutters to a halt. Is that possible? That Sebastian has not brought me here to drop me off like a bag of kittens to drown but for some other reason? I don’t even know what to think of that, so I