He knelt in front of me. “You are not just a girl. And yes, you are tangled in this. Now is not the time for you to die. We all have a time when we die. Vampires do it twice. You are going to come back, and you are going to rest. There is no one who can save you in these woods right now. You’re not eighteen yet. It’s not time.”
I didn’t understand half of what he said to me. That was true for a lot of vampires, unfortunately. Their minds didn’t always run in the same direction as mine. They zigged, and I zagged. Some vampires were entirely mute. They didn’t seem to be able to speak at all. Ace’s dad was spurts and stops. Fine, I tried to interpret what had been said to me. The gist of it was that he wasn’t going to kill me. The whole bit about me turning eighteen? I didn’t know what that meant, not at all.
“I can die just as easily at seventeen.”
He shook his head. “Doesn’t turn on until you’re eighteen, and I made a promise. A long time ago. A deal. So you will come with me now. Back to the compound, and you will rest. There is movement in the coffins.”
I stared at him. That last bit… I was pretty sure I understood it. “They’re waking up?”
He nodded. “Yes. They say the longer we sleep, the more powerful we are. That’s a falsehood. The truly powerful wake sooner.”
I didn’t give two shits about vampire power. My heart rate kicked up. “They’re all moving around in their coffins?”
“Yes. Just started. They’ll likely not be even aware of what’s happening yet. Then they’ll start to fight to get out. Days. Maybe a week. I don’t think you want to die without seeing them wake.” He took my hands and helped me get to my feet. “You need to rest. Tomorrow there are meetings. They will likely leave you alone.”
That was even worse. “When they don’t bite me, I go into withdrawal.”
He didn’t respond to that. “Come. Before anyone notices you left. They will hunt you then.”
“Why don’t you feed off of me?” That was something he could answer. The rest of it was going to remain a vampire mystery that I was stuck in the middle of, whether I wanted to or not.
“You are a child.” He looked away. “I have other arrangements.”
There it was. The vampire didn’t lie to me, but he didn’t tell me the truth, either. Did he have some kind of hidden paramour he saw sometimes? When he wasn’t feeding randomly off servants, just to make do? That was interesting. My head started to pound. That was fast. My running had probably brought the need for venom on more quickly.
We made it back to the compound, and he let me go. “Rest. That is my advice for you right now. Rest. Things will be changing.”
In the way that vampires glided, he took off.
“Hey.” Charlotte walked up behind me. “Where did this broom come from?” She held it up, and I stared at the broom like it was a foreign object. That was the one I’d grabbed. I guessed I dropped it and I hadn’t even noticed.
“Someone must have dropped it.” I was pulling a vampire and being vague.
She shrugged. “Come on. Let’s go back inside. You know what I heard? There’s movement in the coffins. Do you think that means they won’t be very strong?”
I widened my eyes and sucked in a breath as though this was the first time I’d heard of it. “Wow. I’m shocked. So soon. And…maybe they’re actually just so strong, they don’t need the extra time.”
“Anyway, it’s exciting. Whatever is going to happen, it will happen soon. After they go through the wild, animal-like raving need to eat and kill every human they see, of course.”
Certainly, after that. Gross.
Caesar’s father appeared before us, gliding into my view faster than any human ever could. He grabbed me, yanking my wrist to his mouth and biting without so much as a word spoken. I winced and looked away. It was always my arms. Paramours got the neck. I was lucky I didn’t have to put up with that.
My headache passed. Blissful nothingness overtook my body. Charlotte hadn’t moved, her gaze on the ground. Then it was over, blood pouring from my wound onto my hand and dripping onto the ground. I didn’t merit them making the effort to even lick the wound, which would close it and prevent the bleeding.
Charlotte grabbed my wrist, and with a rag she must have had on her, she wrapped the fresh wound. “Come on. You need to rest. This will all be over soon.”
That was what I wanted. One way or another. The torture had to stop. Although I had no idea how that could be. I was still going to be addicted when the guys broke out of their coffins. And after that too.
I scrubbed the floor of our living quarters on my hands and knees. It was raining outside, and the sun going down hadn’t stopped that. The compound, always lit well, had a sort of surrealness as I glanced out the window. The water hitting the lights made it look as though everything was sort of not real.
Humming, I scrubbed some more. While I had energy, I had to use it.
A noise caught my attention. Outside, someone was yelling. I pulled myself up to stare further through the old glass. The outside door of the coffin room gaped open, and right outside of it stood Caesar. I caught my breath and placed my hand on the window like I could touch him from a distance. Three vampires held him, but he struggled against them, yelling loudly. It looked like he was going to break through.
This was unheard of. Vampires stayed in the coffin room until they were fed enough, then they could be safe to roam the compound. Humans were brought to them. I hadn’t heard that any had been going in, but it wasn’t like I had seen anyone today to tell me.
I could hardly breathe. Another figure emerged from the coffin house. Rowan. He strode to Caesar and placed a hand on his arm. The latter stopped fighting, grabbing his head instead. I couldn’t hear what they said, but after a long moment, the three vampires holding Caesar let him go and they all went back inside.
“They woke up. Two days ago,” Laura, one of the older servants, said to me as she entered the room. “So far, they’ve been fed twice. That’s all I know. I thought someone would have told you.”
It had been a week since Ace’s father warned me this was happening. I’d lost track of time. It didn’t matter how long they’d been up. They’d risen from the dead.
They were vampires.
Sixteen
For all that I’d avoided looking at the coffin room for six months, I couldn’t take my eyes off it now. But not much happened. At least not that I could personally see.
Days passed before I could find the guts to ask Bethany what she knew. All the servants were home, lying on their beds, when I turned to her. As Charlotte braided my hair, I found my voice. “Bethany, do you know what happened? Who woke up first? Or maybe never. Maybe it doesn’t matter.” She rolled over onto her stomach. “I do have information, but I don’t know if actually hearing about it is going to make you happy.”
“I’m never happy.” I paused. “Are you?”
I might have hit a nerve, because they all shifted in their beds, and Charlotte’s hand faltered. It was she who answered me. “No, but we all hope to be. I know that’s not what you want, to be a vampire. It is what we still hold onto, even when we sometimes falter.”