It was like I was dead, which should have been rather familiar and comforting, but instead felt strange, dark, and unpleasant. My body seemed to have no interest in responding when I tried to move it. Perhaps I truly had left the world at long last.
More pain than I had felt since I had been properly alive wracked my chest, and that was saying something since I had survived the human suppression wars. My chest ached, sending sharp pains spiralling much further than my original injury.
Something touched my lips, warmth trickled into my mouth, something sweetly metallic. After a moment I swallowed the life that would continue to animate me.
Opening my eyes, I discovered Dean above me. His wrist was pressed against my mouth. He was sitting on the edge of my mattress, the edge of it sinking under his weight. I looked further to find that Leif was sitting off to the side in the chair most of my guards used.
I drank what I absolutely needed, then pushed Dean away. I felt somewhat better, although I was still ravenous. Apparently getting staked took a lot of energy out of a vampiress.
"Thank you, Dean," I rasped.
He nodded and with that, my gentle giant left the room.
I turned my attention to Leif.
"Did Jamie get away?" I asked. My voice sounded dry.
"No. We caught him."
"Why?"
"He tried to kill you."
I attempted a shrug, a foolish move since it shifted my chest and caused terrible pain. "Darn it, that hurts."
Leif looked sympathetic. "I can get more medicine."
"No, don't bother. It's wasted on me. Where is he?"
"He was taken to New Haven."
I groaned. "Why would anyone take him there?"
Leif was less self-assured than usual. I suppose my near end had shaken him. "He had to be taken somewhere, and he's a threat, Vienne. You know that as well as I do."
I rolled my eyes and even that seemed to be taxing. "And letting him see more of our secrets makes him less of a threat?"
"Yes."
"How much does he know?"
"Javier said that Lucas and Rene were there when he came to."
"Came to?"
"He wasn't cooperating so he was knocked out."
I frowned to demonstrate my annoyance. My games with Jamie had unravelled, but at least the influx of blood was beginning to work. Getting staked seemed to be a rather unpleasant experience, all things considered, although that kiss might just have made it worth the trouble.
Unfortunately, it seemed no game ever could last forever. Except perhaps Monopoly. Or War—now there was a card game made for someone with indefinite years to waste.
"So what in the world were you thinking by moving him there?" I asked, trying to fathom why my humans might have done something so foolish as to take him to the heart of everything.
"They were closer to there than here."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Marcel probably wanted to rub the truth of what he did in his face, and apparently Javier didn't see any reason to stop him."
That made more sense, but I was vexed.
"How about the other escapees?"
"We caught them, they're locked up in the dungeons."
Good. I could deal with them later at my leisure.
"And how is Madeline doing?"
"She survived. She was hit on the head and suffered from smoke inhalation, but it looks like she'll be fine with time."
That was good. I would hate to have suffered the pain of the fire for naught. That had likely sapped some of my strength as well. I wondered which of the new humans had started the blaze. It was one thing to burn down my kitchen, another to leave one of my humans for dead.
I would deal with that later, as well. First, I had a human that I desperately wanted to see. "Once I heal a bit, I'll have to go and talk with Jamie, I suppose."
Leif frowned. "You don't have to do that."
I sighed. Leif had been worried about my obsession since nearly the beginning and he had made his opinion known on more than one occasion, but he knew he could do nothing about my little amusements. He had been just as against my hilarious bill to try to force other vampires to properly feed their humans. It had not been strategic, he claimed, as if I had not managed to keep my secrets hidden for more than a hundred years before he had even been born. I rolled my eyes.
Let him try to live for centuries without amusing himself somehow, and then he could talk about pure strategy.
"I have to do exactly that."
"Vienne, don't you think it might be better to let sleeping dogs lie?"
I regretted my body's sad inability to obey my commands, because I was certainly much more threatening when I could properly move. This was terrible, the feeling very much like I imagined it would be to wake up a corpse, although at least my limbs seemed to be regaining some slight mobility. In lieu of body language, I scowled at him.
Leif looked discomforted, and that made me suspicious, not to mention the increased speed of his pounding heart. The last time he had seemed at all nervous with me was when he had confessed that he had branded Jamie.
I narrowed my eyes further. "What is it, Leif?"
He tried to look innocent, and he did a pretty good job. I could respect his acting abilities, but I still wanted to know what he was hiding this time.
"Leif, you can see I'm in no condition to drag it out of you. Tell me what you're thinking or you shall regret it later."
"Jamie thinks you're dead."
I made a derisive sound. "I told him to drag me out into the midday sun, but he failed to obey, as always. I'm frankly insulted that he thought a little staking with a pretty dagger could finish me off."
Leif was starting to look vexed as well as nervous again as he paused. "Well, he may have been led to believe that it worked."
I stared straight into Leif's eyes and raised an eyebrow.
"Marcel assumed—"
"Why in the world did you let Marcel go after him, anyways?" I complained.
"Could I stop him? Have you met Marcel? Everything was in utter chaos after the fire, then the attempted breakout, and then your injury, I didn't even know he was leaving until after he was gone."
It was a fair point. Marcel's stubborn determination was one of his best, most troublesome traits. He was so adorable.
"Have someone tell Jamie I'm not dead, at least not properly." I smiled at my own little joke.
"Mistress—"
"Don't Mistress me. I will compel you if I must, Leif. I don't care that I'm indisposed or if every one of you are throwing temper tantrums. You surely know since you were watching, but I rather pushed him farther than I probably should have. I could have just let him in on everything, but I was too amused to stop."
"It's a miracle you managed to survive as long as you have." No one could vex Leif as much as I could.
I smiled, torn between amusement at his exasperation and perhaps feeling the tiniest bit touched by his—by all of their—protectiveness. "I probably would not have if I had met someone like him when I was younger. Luckily I'm so sturdy now."
"We thought we lost you."
I scoffed again. "A dagger alone can't take me out. I've said that a million times. I know Jamie does not, but do none of you listen to me? Furthermore, even if he had managed to take me out ultimately, you'd have been fine. Humans are tenacious. You mortals have surprised me time and again."
Leif looked troubled by my flippant attitude. His vexation amused me, as ever.
"Oh, relax. If Jamie isn't willing to properly kill me, I'm probably invincible. He was the only one who might have been capable who could get close enough to me."
Leif's brow furrowed further. I supposed the whole prone in bed thing did not inspire the confidence I would have preferred.
I was starting to feel tired again. I searched my windowless bedchamber and then glanced at the clock. It was nine in the morning.
Surprised, I looked at Leif and asked him, "How long was I out for?"
"Almost twenty-four hours," he said.
I had not been out for so long since, well, not even as a human. It was most vexing that I could be rendered so vulnerable outside my normal rest period.
I had things to do. This lying abed would never do. "Leif, I'm going to need more blood."
He nodded respectfully, and left to find whoever was next on the schedule. I closed my eyes and waited.
* * * * *
I went through six of my feeders, which was rather embarrassing, and then I fell into my usual deep rest of the day, but for a bit longer than was usual. When I woke up, I had largely regained the use of my body, although I still felt stiff and sluggish, as if I were more mortal than was strictly the norm. I certainly did not miss the state.
Jamie sidetracking me with his kiss and staking me had truly been a novel experience, but I was rather not enjoying the fallout of that little experience as it dragged on. I would see to it that he did not have a chance to repeat it.
On some level, I was rather happy to have an excuse and an opportunity to see him, but I was playing with fire as always. My unhealthy obsession styled me the moth to Jamie's flame and perhaps Leif's counsel to end my games had not been entirely borne of his unyieldingly nervous humanity. I bit my lip, trying to decide what to do.
I wandered down to the kitchens and smiled at my humans as I passed. Two of my guards trailed after me as if I were some weakling in need of protection. I imagined that was thanks to some combination of Leif's or Raoul's nannyish interference as well. Perhaps they thought me so foolish as to let myself get staked again.
My kitchens were a disaster area, I noted with great irritation upon entering. I was even more annoyed that whichever of the humans had torched my kitchen had also destroyed my precious coffee maker in the process.
Was nothing sacred? I had half a mind to go down into the holding cells and interrogate them immediately.
It was not good sense that stopped me, but only the understanding that they would be far more terrified of me once I was back at my intimidating full power. And I would have better control of myself. I was going to make them rue the day that they had crossed me.
But, that ruing would have to wait. It was far more important that I fully recover so that I could see Jamie again.