Chapter 2

Isla

“Where are we going?” I ask the two men who drag me outside.

They don’t answer me, just bundle me into the back of a carriage. “Lie down,” they order.

“Why?”

“Humans are not allowed to gaze upon my property,” Aeron says. I look for him in the complete darkness, but I can’t find him until his eyes flash red. “You are bleeding.”

His voice has a strange effect on me. It’s like hot chocolate on a cold day, warming me from the inside out. It’s delicious and nourishing, and I want more of it.

I crawl into the carriage and grab the seat to pull myself up. “The human. In the hall. She cut me.”

“What’s her name?”

“I don’t know.”

Cold fingers glide against my skin, and then Aeron sighs. A minute later, he taps the roof of the carriage. “Get me out of this fucking pit.” He roughly shoves me down onto the seat. “You were told to lie down.”

My heart drops into my stomach. His touch burns and soothes at the same time, and I can’t decide which one of the two is better.

I should really be afraid. I should be terrified. I’ve seen what happens when vampires lose control. When they’re driven mad by the bloodlust. “Prince?” I whisper softly. “Why did you choose me?”

No one knows what happens during the harvest, because no one ever returns to tell stories. Those who are taken are never seen alive again.

“What do you mean why?” Aeron asks.

“F- for what purpose? Y- your personal donor?” My teeth start chattering as the cold hand of fear grips me and a tongue of terror licks my insides. “A familiar?” Not the worst fate. But not the best either.

I sense the prince move, and then something warm falls over my torso. His jacket. “Nothing like that,” he finally answers me.

Then what? His pet? I’ve heard of vampires adopting humans like we adopt dogs.

“My father once told me that back in the day, there were these things called motorcars. He showed me pictures. Carriages without horses.”

“Hm,” Aeron grunts. “Dreadful things. So noisy.”

“So it’s true?” I ask and sit upright, but he pushes me back down. “And moving pictures? Did they exist too?”

“Yes. Once upon a time.”

I sigh and close my eyes. “That must have been something to see.”

“It was. I miss it sometimes.”

“Why did you stop it?”

I hear a smile on his voice when he says, “After a while, those moving pictures start to rot your brain.”

I close my eyes and listen to the clip-clop-clip of the horses hooves on the cobblestones. I’m perfectly at peace. Calm. It feels as if I came home.

I hear some soft shouts outside – humans probably, vampires don’t need to shout – and then the squeak of the heavy, iron gates as they swing inwards.

I’ve seen the outside of the Prince’s castle many times. During the day, it’s heavily guarded by werewolves, and at night, the initiates stand sentry. No human has ever been able to breach its defences.

As a little, I’d sneak up here, testing to see how far I’d get before a wolf spotted me and barked at me to go home. Once, the Alpha phoned my father to complain about me. The first time my father only threatened me. The second time, he locked me in my room for two days straight.

Then I started coming here at night. The initiates didn’t pay much attention to me. They used to laugh at the little human girl who’d walk up to the big gates and stare at the castle. I was no threat to them.

I picture the castle looming over us. A dark sentinel in the night. The mossy growth snaking up the walls. The little windows, like eyes, dotting the grey stone, the fountain at the end of the circular driveway. The steps leading up to the large, ornate double doors.

The carriage lurches to a halt. “Whoa,” the driver soothes his animals.

The horses whinny.

And then the door clicks open.

It’s not quite as dark here as it was down in the city. We are higher, and the mist doesn’t reach us. I can just about make out Prince Aeron’s features by the light of the moon.

I shiver as a cold wind whistles around the corner; it lifts up my dress, and licks my naked legs. “Show your backs,” Aeron calls out.

His voice is low, commanding, and fucking terrifying. I can feel it. The force of that order. It rips at my insides as if I’m being punished for something I haven’t done yet.

As one, all the familiars turn their backs on me, and I turn my back on Aeron. Only then, does The tearing sensation finally stops and I can breathe a little easier.

“Not you,” Aeron snaps, and takes me by the shoulder, spinning me to look at him. “My apologies, I should have been more precise with my orders. You may look at me.”

I nod. The fear that’s been playing keep-away with me for the last several hours has finally caught up with me.

Until this exact moment, I still somehow thought that it wasn’t real. That being chosen by Prince Aeron doesn’t mean certain doom.

But now I’m here, staring at the castle that has always fascinated me so much, and I can feel it crashing in on me. The end of my life as I knew it.

“Come,” Aeron says and starts to walk out ahead of me.

I have to run to keep up with him. He’s moving so fast, and it’s difficult to keep him in sight. “Prince!” I call out, desperate for him to slow down.

He stops and turns to look at me. There’s an irritated smile on his face. “I forget how slow you are sometimes.”

I jog up to him, huffing, and puffing as if I just ran around after my two-year-old sister. The youngest of the Oliver clan. I grab my waist and bend double. “Shit,” I gasp.

Aeron just stands there, looking at me. “Are you quite all right, or should I send for the human doctor?”

I don’t know if he’s being condescending or sincere. It’s hard to tell. “I’m actually pretty fit, but you are very fast.”

He nods curtly. “I shall try to keep it in mind as we continue on.”

He takes off again, clearly forcing himself to move slowly, but I still have to jog at a pretty good pace to keep up with him. He doesn’t take the steps like a normal human being - he glides up them, the tips of his shoes skimming across the slate grey tiles.

I don’t have that luxury, the steps are high, and I really have to stretch to reach them. By the time I make it to the top, I'm ready to collapse. Breathing heavily and feeling even more unsteady on my feet, I walk up to Aeron who is waiting for me on the stoop.

“You are truly useless,” he says dryly.

“Well, I’m sorry,” I snipe, “I can’t fly.”

He raises his eyebrows at me. “Careful now.” His voice is so low and dark that I can feel it vibrating in my soul. “You may be my chosen pet for this year’s harvest, but you are still just a human. Lower even than my familiars.”

An invisible hand wraps around my throat and starts to squeeze. My breath catches in my throat and I can’t exhale.

Now I’m scared. Balls out terrified.

“Breathe,” Aeron says, and the air explodes from my lungs. “I will take you to your quarters.”

Without so much as a by your leave, he lifts me up and throws me over his shoulder. I don’t fight. I don’t kick or scream or bite. It would be ridiculous. Aeron is ancient and insanely strong – he wouldn’t even feel it, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to piss off my new vampire master on my first night here.

He carries me as if I weigh nothing at all, moving through the castle so fast that I can’t take in any of the details.

It’s not completely dark. The lights are on for the sake of the familiars, but they’re muted, barely casting a glow.

It doesn’t bother me. I like the darkness. Always felt at home in it.

Abruptly, Aeron stops and pushes a random door open, revealing a bedroom on the other side.

It’s not huge, but bigger than the room I shared with my three younger siblings in our father’s mansion. “Make yourself at home,” Aeron says.

I step inside and look around. There’s a single bed pushed against the far wall, right under one of those small windows. A dresser and wardrobe on the opposite wall, and a vanity next to the door.

He watches me for a while, his icy eyes sliding over me as if he’s trying to read me. “What’s your name?”

“Isla.”

“Isla. There is a bathroom down the hall,” Aeron says. “You will share it with the other familiars on this floor.”

I nod and lower my eyes. The light in here is a little brighter than the ones in the many, many corridors and passages.

“You are not to leave your floor,” he instructs, “or use the bathroom when the other familiars are inside.”

I just stare at him. Am I so low that even familiars aren’t allowed to interact with me? Is that what he’s trying to tell me?

He steps into the room and closes the door behind him. “Take off your dress,” he orders.

I gulp. So a bed slave then. That’s why he chose me.

Now. Now is the time to scream and run, but I don’t. Vampires are known for being hedonistic in every sense of the word, and they are not bashful in the slightest.

Still, I don’t want to do it. Breeding more stock for the vampires is all I was good for in the human world, and now all I’ll be good for is the prince’s sex toy?

“I told you to undress,” Aeron growls, his eyes flashing red.