After leaving Mr. Cleary's office and returning to Dmitri's, Roxy was sent to her room, and then isolated. The only person coming or going was that same vampire, that had been positioned outside of her door. He brought her food and drink, but no blood, and she was not permitted to leave. She hadn't seen Dmitri, Hector, or Tatiana. She knew something was going down, but what she didn't have a clue.
In order to keep her thoughts from drifting to all of the possibilities she organized her clothes and shoes only to toss them around so she could do it again. It was ridiculous, but she did not do well with idle time.
She was in the process of rearranging her shoes by price, color, print, and heal size when she heard a knock at the door, that did not sound like the guard's. Her head snapped up, and then her hand was on the knob and she was opening it. It was Dmitri, he was wearing a navy track suit and its casualness distracted her from what was in his hand for a moment. The clothes didn't seem like him.
He said, "Hello Lovely," and held out a single long stem grey rose. She didn't take it. She pegged him with a hard stare and demanded, "Why have I been kept in this room?"
"I'll explain everything once you let me in."
"Are you going to keep me in here?"
"No. You are free to roam around the house, for now."
"Well if that's the case you can explain everything to me in another room, or outside even."
"As you wish."
Huh, she wasn't expecting him to agree, but while she was getting her way she said, "And I need blood," which in another day would have become an absolute necessity.
"We will talk and then we will hunt, if that's what you want."
"Yes."
"Then follow me."
Roxy followed Dmitri back to the bedroom she assumed was his that first day. He opened a thick black curtain and revealing a glass door leading to a large limestone balcony. He opened the door and extended his arm, "After you."
It was dark, but the moon was full and there were plenty of stars in the sky. After a few days cooped up it was beautiful to her.
"The moonlight suits you," Dmitri said, appreciative of her beauty.
"Thank you," she replied, knowing how to take a compliment though it made her more than a little suspicious and she asked, "Why, after being locked away, are you allowing me out?"
"I've had associates on the property that I did not want to see you. You presence here was a secret, and you were denied blood in the event that I needed to question you. I told you I would get to the bottom of what happened with you... and I have."
"What are you talking about?"
"I have a story to tell you. The other day when I mentioned that we had been deceived, it turns out I had no idea how deep that deception went. I have been on a fact finding mission and many things have come to light.
"What did you learn?"
He looked her straight in the eye and said, "Hector was paid to get rid of Dominique so certain members of my council could keep her business and line their pockets behind my back. They worked together to cover it up by pretending Hector was legitimately trying to keep you. He was given a lot of money, money that should have been yours. That's why he never actually pursued you, but when you showed up on his doorstep, smelling how you did, he welcomed you in, then called Octavius.
If Roxy's heart actually beat, it would have skipped.
"You're certain," she questioned.
"Absolutely. They have been playing you, and even more having been playing me."
"But, but Hector didn't kill Dominique. I would have recognized his scent."
"He contracted it out."
"Why not kill me too? Wouldn't that have been easier," she questioned hoping to find a weak link.
"Hector has a soft spot for you, but it's not big enough to overpower his greed."
"But, why would he call Tatiana for help if he was working with Octavius all along?"
"Tatiana's arrival was also a lie. She was already on her way. Hector sensed it, and told you he called her for help. He let her kill Octavius thinking they would use you to find the Rare Blood and the two of them would share it. They acted hastily and after the deed was done she realized they were trapped. If she got caught smelling how you did she would not be able to claim innocence. They would've had to live in absolute isolation... or get someone like me involved. She came straight here and tried to seduce me. Although I knew she smelled of death I did not know all that I do now."
Roxy turned from Dmitri and looked up at the moon. It was an overwhelming amount of information. Hector was responsible for Dominique's death. Hector. All of a sudden she felt something well up at the corner of her eyes and start to leak down her face. She touched her hand to the wetness and looked at the liquid... it was blood.
It was extremely rare for a vampire to cry, but that's what was happening to her. She was crying tears of blood over Hectors part in Dominique's death. She closed her eyes tight hoping it would stop, and when Dmitri put his hands on her shoulders she shucked him off, in fear of his response.
Dmitri turned her toward him, easily overpowering her attempts to keep her back to him, and when she opened her eyes and saw his face she felt another tear come out. He looked thrown, his eyes opened wide and then narrowed, drawing his brows together, and he shook his head disapprovingly.
She was ashamed, but what he did next she would never, for the rest of her existence, forget. He reached his hand out toward her face and wiped the moisture with his finger. He put that finger into his mouth, sucking her blood off, and then pulled her into his chest. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and made a promise, "I swear you will have your vengeance. We will get the Rare Blood and I will get you everything that should be yours."
He was not disgusted by her tears after all, so she closed her eyes and just stood there, letting him hold her until her eyes stopped... leaking.
When it was done, she pulled back and said, "I can't believe Hector did this."
"He's as good as dead, I promise."
"Can I see him?"
"I don't know if you should," he said softly.
"I want to ask him why, to his face."
"Alright, he's down in the dungeon."
That was unexpected, "There's a dungeon," she questioned in disbelief.
"Yes, and he's found his stay rather bloody."
"Can we go now," she asked.
"Let's clean your face first," he said, opening the door for her to go back into the bedroom.
Dmitri showed her to the en suite, where she washed her face, after marveling at the solid twenty-four karat gold tiles and fixtures. It was opulence in overload and on her way out she joked, "If I ever run out of money, I know who I'm robbing."
He smiled, "Feeling better?"
"No, not really."
"You will be by the end of the night."
"Well, lead the way, I'm ready."
He took her hand gently, and took her through a series of halls, then finally down a set of steps where the walls turned from finished to heavy grey stone. The stairs ended at a tunnel, they walked to the end of it where there was a keypad to enter a code, but what it unlocked, she didn't know. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all the same grey stone blocks, she saw no door. It seemed like the tunnel led only to the keypad.
He let go of her hand and entered a code, then backed them up a few feet as the wall slowly shifted forward. The stench of death and decay greeted her, and as they entered the room, she was taken aback to find there were really in a dungeon.
The room was a large circle with cells along the half opposite the door. They had spiked bars and inside she could see coffins made of the same kind of metal as the bars. All of the cells faced the open area they were standing in. There was a large table, and a lot of bloody chains hanging over it in the center of the room. She could only imagine the types of torture inflicted on that table.
"He's in that one," Dmitri said pointing towards one of the cells, then gestured to the one next to it, "Tatiana's in there."
"What holds them," she asked, because a coffin and some spiked bars did not seem an unstoppable deterrent to her.
"You'll see," he turned and smiled just as the biggest Vampire she had ever seen came out of a room she hadn't even noticed was there. He was wearing a black rubber apron and gloves, and looked very much like he belonged right where he was.
Dmitri said, "Show her Tatiana, and she wishes to speak to Hector."
"Would you like me to get him out, or turn on the speaker," he asked, his voice ,slow and monotone.
Dmitri deferred to her with a simple incline of his head, and she said, "I want to see his face," she wanted to see into his eyes.
The Vampire looked to Dmitri for approval, then he went to the cell that held Tatiana. He hit a button and the coffin slowly rose putting the occupant in a standing position. He hit a switch and what she thought was metal somehow turned transparent. She could see Tatiana, and what held the prisoners in place. There were at least fifty spikes sticking up through her skin, everywhere except her head and neck, to ensure she remained alive... until Dmitri ordered otherwise.
Tatiana's eyes were closed and she looked to be in pain, which did make Roxy feel better. She turned to him and said, "Thank you."
"My pleasure," he politely responded, then said to Andre the Giant's Vampire twin, "Now Hector."
Tatiana's coffin was once again opaque, then tilted back down, and the same process was repeated for Hector's only this time the top opened along with Hectors eyes.
"Roxy," he rasped, barely audible, "Help me."
"Help you," she repeated, stepping closer to the bars.
"I spared you," he said making her rage bubble out.
"You spared me? You spared me," she yelled then spat, "You sicken me! I thought you might try to deny it. That you would say it wasn't true but you say you spared me? Well what about Dominique? Did you spare her?"
Nothing, he said nothing. She turned to Dmitri, "Can I have his head, now?"
"Soon. I promise."
"I need to kill," she said, absolutely seething.
"Let's go hunting then," he responded and took hold of her hand.
They were out in the night air a moment later, on their way to find some people to slaughter, and she did mean people, as in multiple. She was going on a rampage.
Anyone that crossed her path was dead. She drained the first person she saw, and after that she just killed to kill. A jogger, two motorcyclists, some lady watering a chrysanthemum. They were both good and bloody by the time Dmitri suggested they head back so she conceded.
When they entered his mansion everything seemed different to her so when Dmitri escorted her back to his room she didn't balk. He had one of his staff bring her a change of clothes while she used the gold trimmed shower. She spent a long time under the hot water, as if somehow it could wash away the stain Hector's treachery left on her.
When she got out, she found Dmitri clean and lying in his bed, dressed in light grey silk pajama bottoms and no shirt. She was in the green nightgown he'd given her, and neither spoke. She simply crawled into the bed with him, he put his arm around her, and she slept. There was no sex, or talk of sex, or games. Just sleep, that's all.