“Vladislov.” I’m not sure if I had ever spoken his name before.
I couldn’t do this. Be here with demons playing dress-up, who I had been told would be dining in their usual style when humans were brought in for sampling later.
“Deep breath. Drink your wine. Look at me.” The orders were effortless. The way he subtly squeezed my fingers, familiar.
Those eyes….
Lifting the snack from the tray, he held it to my lips. “So long as I am with you, my soul, there is nothing ever to fear.”
I ate, unsure what a canape was. I ate from the hands of Luci—
“Vladislov.” With a wink, he smirked. “We’ll work on it.”
Acidic tomatoes, something savory I couldn’t place. The flavors on my tongue paired with the wine and left gooseflesh on my arms, because a drop or two of the host's blood brought all the culinary glory together. Almost as delicious as the various immortal blood vintages I had been served over the weeks.
Probably from the very donors in this room.
“You look lovely, Pearl. The most beautiful woman ever to walk the earth. And I would know,” he added with a chuckle. “I’ve walked it for ages. Never thought I’d be quite so pleased to be robbing the cradle.”
Men only gave compliments when they wanted something, most likely to lure a girl into sex.
“As much as I would love to lure you into bed, that was not my goal in the praise. I love you and simply cannot help myself.”
Bed? The last memory I had of a man taking me to bed was so utterly awful the canape was about to come up.
Like a snap of fingers in my mind, what was in one instant horrible and so real I could smell the damp of the cell and feel the burn between my legs, was gone. Just gone.
“Now that, I will stop. I’d rather not fiddle where too much has already been done, but no thoughts of that nature will ruin your party.”
The book. The journal. All the entries and explanations of a mind wiped clean each day.
Another mental snap.
“Not tonight, Pearl. All of this can be discussed tomorrow. Tonight, be in the present. Get to know your kind. Feel safe.”
And instantly, I did.
Contrition was in his voice, in his countenance. “I apologize. Really, I’d prefer not to, but you require a bit more than handholding to progress into our future.”
A servant appeared to pour more perfectly chilled wine in my glass. Wine I drank staring over the rim at my host… Vladislov.
Who smiled an extremely beautiful expression on an interesting face. “Well done, brave queen.”
“She really is a vision.” A female interloper. One who approached so regally I felt the need to call her ma’am. And would have had Vladislov not clearly unh-uh’d me under his breath.
“Maya, might I introduce my bride? This is Pearl.” He kissed my fingertips, met my eyes, and finished, “Pearl, she was meant to be your breakfast.”
The statement was so utterly ridiculous that I snorted a quick laugh. Mortified an instant later. Cheeks flaming, I faced the insanely beautiful woman, and said, “Hello.”
Insane had to be the perfect word for all of this. All of me. The fact that my hand was still caught in the clutches of the name I would not think.
To which he laughed, full-bellied and thoroughly amused. When glittering eyes left mine, after an improperly long stare, he addressed the patiently waiting woman. “She’s shy.”
“Weren’t we all when life was new? Now come, Pearl, I promised the other ladies I would tempt you from your lover’s side so they might meet you.”
My fingers were freed, and a hand came to my lower back, propelling me gently toward the woman who countered the space to assure no physical contact was made. Yet still smiled and waved me nearer.
This too made the host chortle, the same host urging me to follow her. “Go on now. Everyone here will be lovely. Just don’t touch any of them.” At my back, his voice darkened. “I wouldn’t like it. And they wouldn’t like what I’d do.”
Maya chuckled yet still stepped back, assuring, “He won’t always be so obsessive. It’s not in our nature to deny physical touch. You’ll be hungry for it soon enough. Besides, he’ll give you whatever you ask for, including mercy on our poor souls.” I followed as she continued. “Besotted, utterly. A fool in love.”
Though Vladislov must have heard her, there was no waspish reprimand. Instead, I heard his tenor picking up a conversation about livestock with another, leaving me to the women who crowded as near as they might without the risk of physical touch.
“This is Eloisa, Kami, Fhulendu…” Each lady introduced by dark-skinned, glowing Maya—most of their names beyond my ability to pronounce. Features and hair, histories, body shapes, and style all so foreign, so out of place in the world I knew. Each beautiful to the point it might leave a person breathless.
All patient as I drank more wine and chose silence over conversation with demons. So they spoke to one another for my benefit, of pleasant things, of trysts, of jokes, of modern luxuries I’d never heard of. Of travel and far-off wonders. Of lost wonders. Of their children, their children’s children. A few bragging about the pure bloods they had produced, causing others to narrow their gaze as if in envy. Yet all had dozens—if not hundreds of offspring—chosen from the finest quality of humans to enhance Vladislov’s vision of Vampirekind.
As if this was normal, they were normal, and the broken piece of this puzzle was me.
I was a Daywalker. I walked in the sunlight, lived with humans, ate their food....
A kiss fell atop my head, a strong arm circling my middle. More tipsy than I realized, I leaned back into the
