He was right. It was a long drive, an eight hour drive. I fell asleep halfway through. Only the tingle of magic woke me up.
“Where are we?” I said.
“We just crossed into Vampire Domain.”
I looked out the window and stared out. There was heavy fog stretching out and I couldn’t see anything.
“Is this normal?” I asked.
Luke nodded. “It’s a block. It’s to keep you from knowing where you are and how you got there.”
“How much longer?”
“Can’t you tell?”
I thought about it. Something had settled over me, drawing me forward. Michael was close, very, very close.
“Minutes.”
Luke nodded again. “I took the liberty of packing a few things in here.” He handed me a small bag. “Hairbrush, make up, tooth brush.”
“How am I supposed to brush my teeth?”
He held up a water bottle. “Use your imagination.”
I brushed the knots out of my hair and used the compact mirror in the bag to reapply my eyeliner and lip gloss. By the time I’d put it all back in the bag, the car had come to a stop.
“Ready?”
I sent my feelers out, stretching out along the bond. Michael was right outside the car. I suddenly felt very, very nervous. I was able to control my heartbeat, Luke having taught me a few things since I’d seen Michael last.
I finally nodded. Luke got out first, leaving me alone in the car. I heard him greet whoever was out there and then come around to my side. He opened my door and stuck in a hand. I took it and he helped me out.
I saw a vast green field in front of me, the driveway we’d just driven up stretching out and into the fog.
I suddenly felt Michael’s emotions flood through the bond. Before I could feel any of them I shoved them back behind a wall. I looked at Luke and he nodded. I took a deep breath and turned around.
My eyes automatically locked onto Michael’s. They were the same, a crystal blue that twinkled even though there was no light. The emotions shoved against the wall I put up and it crumbed worse than a wall made of sand at the beach.
Happiness, joy, love, desire…they all flooded into me. I couldn’t control my heart beat anymore and it raced.
When Luke closed the door it brought me back. I blinked and looked away from Michael. Luke still had a hold of my hand and I squeezed it, hard.
He led me around the car and stopped a few feet from our welcoming party.
There were two people other than Michael. One was a woman and the other was a man. The man was taller but the woman seemed to have more presence. Her face looked stern. Her hair was in brown waves and stopped at the middle of her back. The man had short red hair and his features were just as stern as hers. Both of them watched me keenly as I walked around the trunk of the car.
“Georgiana, this is Epson and Claire.”
Epson stepped forward and extended his hand. I took it and I felt a tingle travel up my hand and to my arm. The tingles traveled up my skin wrapping around my arm and passed my elbow, shoulder blade, and continued up my neck. Then it stopped.
Epson frowned and his eyes traveled to my neck. He released my hand and turned to Claire. They both had brown eyes I noticed. Claire turned to me suddenly. “You are not what we expected.”
“I’ve been told that several times.”
I thought I saw the corner of her mouth twitch. Then they turned to Michael. His eyes had never left my face.
“She’s not how you described. There is a subtle difference. Did you know?” Claire said.
Michael nodded. “I did.”
I kept my features controlled and looked over at Luke. He raised an eyebrow.
“No matter,” Epson said. “You are still…unique.”
I looked over at him. “I’m glad you think so.”
“Sarcasm won’t get you far here,” Claire said.
“I wasn’t planning on going further than I had to.”
“Smart girl,” Epson said.
“But very stupid in so many other ways,” Claire said.
“Before we launch into insults can I get the reason for why I’m here?”
“You are here to provide testament,” Epson said. “According to your Counsel you’ve been attacked twice by a Vampire known as Jason and you’ve killed a Vampire named Finn. Questions must be answered and you won’t be leaving until you’ve answered them sufficiently.”
“Ah. So you feel I’ve offended your race.”
“Doing violence to our kind is a serious offense unless it’s provoked.”
“Well, maybe we can share battle scars later. You know, girl time.” Claire sneered. “No? Too bad.”
“The girl is obstinate and offensive,” Epson said.
“The girl is right here,” I snapped.
“Georgiana,” Michael said in warning.
My jaw snapped shut and I looked at him. “Michael.”
“Shall we continue this inside?” Claire said, “There are many people waiting to meet you.”
I didn’t look away from Michael but said, “Sure. Let’s go inside.”
Epson and Claire turned and headed up to the massive building I’d only glimpsed in the background when I was looking from one Vampire to the next. I however, remained statue still, my eyes still locked with Michael’s. Luke tugged on my hand.
“Can you give us a minute?” I asked Luke.
“Right now is not a good time,” Luke whispered. “You two can yell it out later.”
I finally looked away from Michael and at Luke. He had the look on his face that told me there was danger nearby and I had to do as he said. I gave him a slight twitch of my head and we started forward.
I completely ignored Michael and let Luke tow me forward. I finally took in the building. It was huge and monstrous. It looked like it was several centuries old and I tried not to be intimidated by the massive building.
Claire and Epson were waiting for us at the top of the stairs.
“We’ve prepared rooms for you, conjoining rooms. We thought you’d be more comfortable having your Guardian within arms reach.”
She said a few other things but I was paying more attention to my surroundings. The entryway was huge. The ceiling was painted with images of war. There were various different carvings of gargoyles and other various creatures. I gripped Luke’s hand suddenly and stopped walking. He followed my line of sight and looked up. I had spotted a scene where several people dressed similarly to me were being attacked by Vampires. One girl was stretched in between two Vampires…
“She told you not to look up” he whispered.
He pulled on my hand and we continued forward. I turned away from the ceiling and noticed on the top of the stairs there was a landing, and on the landing several people were gathered. They were all staring at me. I tried not to freeze under the several dozen sets of eyes. At some point Michael had moved passed us and now stood at the bottom of the stairs, waiting on us.
“Do you really think this was the most appropriate place to hold this meeting?” Luke asked him.
“I didn’t choose it,” Michael sneered.
He turned his attention to me. “Are you ok? You looked up didn’t you?”
I nodded meekly and he sighed. “I’m sorry about this. I told them they should have chosen a different building but they insisted. You’ll be fine, just try not to look too hard at the various paintings.”
He extended his hand out for me to take. I looked at Luke and he just nodded. Luckily Michael’s hands were gloved which meant no skin-to-skin contact. No mind reading. I released Luke’s hand and took Michael’s. He guided me up the stairs, talking softly.
“These are the various representatives from the Coven. They won’t say anything to you as we pass but they couldn’t resist fresh blood. Not many non Vampire heartbeats come through here too often. Let alone a Slayer.”
I gripped his hand. The gathering parted and as we walked through I heard sniffing. They were breathing me in. I focused on Michael’s back, not looking at the various people around me. Then a hand shot out and grabbed my arm. I was pulled through the first line of the crowd, my hold on Michael’s hand breaking.
“Michael!”
I felt a sting of pain on my leg as I was continuously pulled through the crowd. I came to an abrupt stop and whirled around. I stared up at an older man, about the same height as Michael. His hair was gray, as were his eyes. They seemed to bore into me.
“Young, younger than I thought you would be,” the man whispered.
I tried to yank my arm out of his grasp but he didn’t release me. He smiled down at me. Michael fought his way through the crowd and was now standing behind me with his hands on my shoulders.
“Let her go, Uncle.”
“Nephew.” He addressed Michael without taking his eyes off of me. “I was just taking in your…friend here. She’s quite intoxicating. I can just imagine what she smelled like only ten hours ago.”
I wrenched my arm out of his grasp and backed up until my back was pressed firmly up against Michael. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders while the other wrapped around my waist.
“So protective,” the man said, an evil grin crossing his face. “Pity you weren’t the one who took it. That would have been an experience.”
“That’s enough, Uncle.”
“You’re right. You might as well take her upstairs now. She seems to have a—” he touched the side of his nose “—problem.”
The pain in my leg. Blood dripped down from a cut on my calf. I felt Michael tense behind me and my heartbeat sped up. He picked me up swiftly and growled at his uncle.
“You’d do well to respect your elders, boy.”
“You’d do better to respect a guest of the Coven.”
His uncle sneered. He turned and walked away. The crowd had dissipated. Michael carried me the rest of the way. We caught up to our guides rather quickly. They were stopped in front of a door.
“We’ll send a medic up to help with her injury,” Epson said.
“No need. I’ll take care of it,” Michael said.
Epson nodded and opened the door. Michael slipped inside with me and set me down. He slammed the door and stood there, facing away from me. I saw him take a deep breath before turning to look at me. We stared at each other for a while, neither of us looking away. There were various things flitting through the bond, none I focused on for too long.
“You look good,” I said softly.
“So do you. The dreams don’t do you justice.”
I gave him a small smile. “You too.”
We lapsed back into silence, staring at each other. I don’t think either of us knew what to say to the other.
Until he finally did.
“When did it happen? When did you take him back?”
I sighed and turned away. That was not something I wanted to talk about, least of all with him. I undid the buttons on my coat, stalling as long as I could. “The answer to your first question is none of your business. But it seems everyone here already knows. As for taking Aidan back, I technically haven’t. I felt like I needed to give him a piece of myself in case I didn’t make it back.”
“And what makes you think you won’t be going back?”
I turned around and looked at him, wondering if his question was sincere. He had to know that me being in Vampire Domain was like serving sugar at a weight loss camp.
“I’m in enemy territory, Michael. There is a good possibly one of the members of your race will try and possibly succeed in killing me.”
“No one can touch you. Didn’t you see what happened when Epson shook your hand? He was trying to read your mind. My mark prevented him from doing it.”
I cocked my head to the side. “And yet it didn’t stop one of them from puncturing my skin.”
Michael’s eyes flicked down to my leg. “Take your coat off. I’ll grab the first aid kit.”
He went to what I assumed was the bathroom and I took my coat off. The room was warm so I didn’t get cold. The apartment like room they’d set us up in was made up of a series of different rooms. I was currently standing in the living room and from what I could discern from the amount of doors, there were at least two bedrooms attached to this one. In the living room was a couch and a love seat. A large plasma screen TV was mounted up on the wall across from the couch. I stood there taking it all in and didn’t even hear Michael come back in the room.
“Georgiana.”
I turned, my dress swishing around my legs. “Yeah?”
He was staring at me, first aid kit in hand. He’d taken his gloves off so I saw the whites of his knuckles. I’d successfully put the barrier back up, blocking out his emotions. But once his skin came in contact with mine, I knew that barrier would crumble like Feta cheese. And from the look on his face that was what he was thinking about.
“Have a seat,” he said, clearing his throat.
I sat down on the couch and he knelt down in front of me. He set the box on the floor next to him and opened the lid. He looked back at me and raised an eyebrow.
“Go ahead,” I said. “I’ve got nothing to hide.”
He looked down and his hands hovered above my leg for a few seconds before touching my skin. That suction cup feeling took hold and I took in a deep breath as the barrier came falling down. He was calm, blissfully calm. He hadn’t been this calm since he’d left me at the school. Because that’s what I did to him, I calmed him down, cleared his head before filling it up again with everything that was me.
He wasn’t angry at me for sleeping with Aidan, not really. Part of him was relieved. There were many people here who would have seen that as a challenge and pursued me just to take it. The other part of him was upset. For what I couldn’t figure because he wasn’t thinking it at the time. But I could probably guess, even though I didn’t want to.
The feeling of my thoughts not being my own took over as he spoke into my mind. Find anything you like?
That was never the problem.
You know if you probed my mind harder you’d find everything you were looking for. All the reasons to why I’m feeling the way I’m feeling.
That’s an invasion of privacy.
He looked up at me then. His eyes glinting with mischief.
“Is it nice to be back?” I asked, avoiding what he was about to suggest.
“Here? No, I don’t like living in Vampire Domain.”
“And that man…?”
“He is my uncle…on my mother’s side.”
“Right.”
“He’s just as ruthless as my mother, having to refrain from drinking humans has been hard on him. Many are like him but there are the few that have an easier time I guess you could say. Not many agreed to the peace treaty with the Slayers. The man who owns this estate is one of them. That’s why all the paintings and the ceiling is the same. He is a powerful member of the Coven. You will meet him tomorrow night. Not many Vampires are going to like you, or even believe you about what happened with Jason. You can’t get upset. They will take offense.”
“Right, don’t piss off the Vampires. Check.”
“I’m serious, Georgiana.”
I cocked my head to the side.
Are you? He was still touching me.
Yes. Do you need me to illustrate?
No the paintings and the continuous mural on the ceiling drove the point home quite nicely.
And this needs to stop. No more silent communication.
Why?
Because these types of bonds are rare. Almost as rare as Slayer Hybrids. We don’t need someone probing around in our brains.
Why am I here then? There’s something more, something other than what’s been going on with Jason.
“You are here for several reasons. The ones given in the letter were true, but not the most important. You are an anomaly. I think I’ve told you that. They also want to see how we interact. They’ve had reports sent to them about it but they want to see it first hand. In their minds you are already mine, claimed to me by my prophecy and my bite but some of them believe you’re not the right one, that if there is one of you, there must be more. There will be…tests. Luke will be present for all of them. He is well liked among Vampires so he will blend in well.”
I sighed. More tests? I’m still recovering from the last one.
“Georgiana, I’m serious.”
Then stop touching me. The link will go away.
He didn’t move his hand from my calf. I raised an eyebrow.
Are you at least going to administer first aid?
It was a scratch. It’s already healed. You’ll just need to wipe the blood off.
Why don’t you do it for me? It’s what you were going to suggest earlier, isn’t it?
Georgiana, don’t.
What? It’s the truth. You want to know if I taste the same now that I’m not a virgin. You want to know if you’ll crave it just as much as before.
“Stop it.”
I blinked at him. “You wish it was you. Don’t you?”
“There’s no reason to talk about this.”
“Why? You brought it up and it’s all over your thoughts. You can’t hide them from me. You can only do that if you stop touching me and you don’t want to do that either.”
“This is neither the time nor the place to talk about this.”
It would have been you. If you’d stayed.
“Stop.”
But you left me. You left me alone and I tried to move on. Too bad that’s not going to work out. Your uncle will see I don’t return home. I saw it in his eyes.
I won’t let him hurt you.
Just like you promised not to leave me?
I had no choice. We have no good choice here. You made a choice when you slept with him. You chose him over me. Case closed.
I blinked at him. “Get out.”
He released my leg, cutting off the flow of thought and raw emotion. I put up the wall as fast as possible. It was now a low hum, one that I could ignore. He flipped the first aid box closed and stood up.
“Wait,” I said.
He froze by the door. He turned back slowly.
“What do you mean by tests?” His face was flooded with relief.
“They are going to want proof of your parentage. They will want to see my reaction around you. That particular test will be the most dangerous…for you. But with every test that acquires blood, everyone will be fed. The only person you will have to worry about is me and I can handle myself.”
I took this all in. I wondered if my parents had known about this. Then again my father must have known something about it, if he hadn’t he wouldn’t have given me his…present.
“When is all of this going to start?”
“In a few hours, you should probably get some rest.”
He turned away again and again I had to ask him to wait.
“Can you stay? At least until Luke gets back?”
He stared at me.
“Please? Besides, I don’t even know where…”
“Your bags are in the bedroom.”
Oh I was getting tired of that. Being in the same room with him was suffocating and giving me a headache.
“Tylenol is in…”
“I know where it is.”
“Sure you still want me to stay?”
“Considering I’m going to be around you for the next three days…I might as well get used to it now.”
He leaned against the wall next to the door.
“Can you not look at me like that?”
“Like what?” he said.
“Like I’m the dirt under your fingernails that you can’t quite get rid of. You find it amusing for like a split second until it’s not anymore and you just can’t wait for it to go away.”
“No.”
“No?”
“No. Georgiana, you’re not dirt under my fingernails.”
“Well at least I know where I stand.”
I got up and headed to the bedroom. I stopped in the doorway and turned back.
“You are going to stay? Right?”
He nodded. I went into the bedroom and closed the door.