He looked at my tech suit, his eyes settling on my stomach. “This was supposed to protect you from us?” His knuckles grazed my arm. I jerked it away and took a step back. “I wonder… Will it protect you from a bullet? Not that I’d aim for your body, when I could take off your head instead.”
I stared at him emotionlessly until he gave a mirthless chuckle and turned on his heel. Just before he exited the tent, he paused and glanced over his shoulder. “Oh, and when you step outside, my men will assume you are my fiancé. You will act the part… or you will never see my brother again.”
“Why would they think that?” I scoffed.
He gave me a look of warning before leaving the tent. His fiancé? Why in the hell would they think I planned to marry someone like him? Maybe in this time, it was safer for a woman to travel if they were married, or about to be.
Then I turned to see what he wanted me to wear. I expected a simple, plain, cotton or linen dress, or maybe a canvas bag with holes cut out for my arms, but no… Asa apparently expected his fiancé to wear something much finer. Hanging in the corner was a pale green gown with a bodice that looked impossibly tight. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to breathe in it, but maybe that was the point. A wide skirt flowed from the cinched waist. I tugged the gown off the hanger and cursed, realizing I would have to roll down the top of the tech suit and shimmy into the gown like I had the whore’s gown in Brutulo.
Would my suit’s fabric stop a bullet? Probably not, given how quickly Enoch tore through Abram’s. But the upper half of my body would be completely unprotected in this gown, which Asa knew and planned to exploit, making his threat more potent.
Not to mention that he was in the military, and probably as good as shot as he boasted to be. From the number of bodies littering the battlefield I landed in, it seemed all of them were adept at killing.
Behind the gown hung a tangle of pale undergarments, the use of which I was clueless to. As I was wondering how I would possibly figure out the asinine contraptions, daylight swept into the tent and a young woman entered.
“Miss Eve, Captain Asa sent me to help you dress.”
She was beautiful. She looked to be a few years older than me with silken caramel skin and bright matching eyes.
“I’d really appreciate it. I have no idea what I’m…” I should probably keep my mouth shut.
She smiled, revealing two dainty fangs. My eyes flicked to the sliver of light on the ground from the space between the tent’s door flaps.
“How can you walk in sunlight?” I blurted.
“Sun don’t bother me unless my skin’s uncovered.” She held out her arm to show me her sleeve, and I realized she was covered from head to toe, including a wide-brimmed hat to shield her face and neck.
“Did Asa sire you?”
“My name’s Mary, and yes he did.” Her eyes raked down me. I held the suit top over my breasts. “He’s mad you followed us again, but I think he’ll simmer down soon enough. It’s dangerous for you out here. You aren’t one of us. Not that I blame you for wantin’ to be as close to that man as you can. He is…” Mary paused and a blush crept into her cheeks. “Well, I can see why you chase him, is all. But you won’t keep a man like Asa if he has to keep adjustin’ his plans just to keep you safe. You’re gonna have to learn to mind him, or else convince him to turn you,” she advised.
I wasn’t sure what to say. She was obviously crushing on the one who sired her. I wondered if that was common, a blood bond formed between the two. Then I wondered if Enoch had sired anyone just as appreciative…
“Captain Asa just wants what’s best for you, Miss. You’re lucky to be marryin’ him. He’s a good man.”
He is?
Maybe my eyebrows raised. Maybe my brow furrowed or one of them quirked. But she saw the question I managed not to say.
“Most white folks don’t like our kind.”
“What kind is that?”
“My skin and yours might be light, but we ain’t white,” she answered matter-of-factly. “But Captain Asa don’t believe in slavery. He set me free… in more ways than one. Now, I’d like to see anyone try to force me back into the fields.”
She gave me a defiant, proud grin, one that promised she would unleash hell on anyone who tried to hurt her again. And I could plainly see someone had. There was a haunted shadow in her eyes, the same Titus once told me he saw in mine. Maybe, I realized, we had more than our skin tone in common.
“The color of a person’s skin shouldn’t matter,” I argued.
I remembered when I first arrived at the Asset program, Kael analyzed our DNA before upgrading began. He said I was unique – a blend of all the world’s races – every single one. And my heritage, Kael hypothesized, might have been what made it easier for my DNA to accept his edits.
I wanted to tell her that in the future, a person’s skin color wouldn’t matter. All that mattered were that humans were human and they banded together against vampires, but I believed her when she said it mattered now. Apparently it mattered a lot, and I was suddenly thankful for Asa’s protection, which frankly, was something I never expected to be.
She looked at the dress I was wrinkling and laughed. “Let’s get you dressed. Asa tends to get impatient, but I suppose you know that all too well.”
Mary argued with me over my suit, but I won. It was staying on, at least partially. I knew if I removed it, Asa would take it and hide it away like he had my stakes. I wasn’t giving him my suit, too. It could still heal me, although slower with every leap, and still push me through time. It might be my only way out of here.
Mary was efficient, and she knew the purpose of each piece of my gifted trousseau. In no time, she stuffed me into a shift, layered it with stays that pinched my ribs together and pushed my breasts up, tugged a petticoat on over my suit, and then covered everything with the pale green gown. The sleeves were tight on my arms and the ruffles spilling out of them looked ridiculous, but Mary wore a satisfied look when she stepped back to appraise her efforts.
“Twirl around. Let me make sure everything looks all right.”
I twirled. But just because she asked.
“You look beautiful, Miss Eve.”
“Well, I wouldn’t if you hadn’t come to the rescue.”
She waved off the compliment, but we both knew it was true. Mary held back the flap of the tent and then her eyes caught on my bare feet. “Well, would you look at that! I thought Captain Asa would’ve thought of everything. I’ll have somethin’ to tease him over now.”
“I can go barefoot,” I countered.
She shook her head. “In this day and time you have to be ready to run, and you wouldn’t make it far without somethin’ on your feet. I have an extra pair of stockings and boots. I’ll be right back.”
She must not have hidden her vampire speed, because she was back before I could take a step, already bending to help me roll on a pair of thick stockings. I sat on the cot and laced the delicate, fabric boots. They were a size too small, but would work for now. I didn’t plan on staying with Asa long. If Enoch wasn’t here, I needed to get to him.
I appreciated her loan of the stockings and boots, but hoped I wouldn’t need to run. If I did, I’d probably tear the delicate soles apart.