Page 17

Chapter twelve

Rae paced the corridor for her fifth, maybe sixth lap.

She’d circled the entire manor multiple times by this point checking for escape routes; she’d been trapped in the dark before and had no desire to repeat it.

Everything was locked except for the natatorium, but she decided to leave that particular treat for her second night if she made it through the first. Swimming made her an easy target and she didn’t need to make it any easier right now for a Vampire to ambush her from the shadows.

She hadn’t slept well for years, but she sincerely doubted she’d be sleeping at all for the foreseeable future.

Not in a house of at least seven Vampires.

The moment she’d arrived earlier with Aidan, she’d realised what a monumentally huge mistake this had been and how stupid she was to agree to be his Odalik. His wife .

In theory, it gave her everything she wanted.

His finances, his resources, his protection, to a point.

In reality, it was very, very stupid. Omnia was small, with less than a hundred recruits in total, and though she’d have no issues making them understand her position, it was going to be difficult to keep things from the Vampire Lord.

Impossible, if she were being honest with herself, but impossible had never stopped her before.

In practice, it couldn’t have been worse timing.

The last thing she needed was to be locked inside a manor big enough to house ten families and with the Goddess knew how many Vampires walking the grounds, instead of out in the city, searching for Nim.

Her PAD had started going to voicemail, and her boyfriend wasn’t answering either.

Though Rae wanted to believe the little Witch had just gone home with Reed for the night, something felt off.

A huge mural sprawled this corridor, Vampires and Fae fighting together for perhaps the only time in their history against the angels who had abandoned them.

The painting did nothing to shy away from the brutality the humans had suffered at the hands of the immortals, nor did it represent their status as anything but inconsequential.

Rae untucked her sketchbook from the crook of her arm as she studied it, her pencil moving across the page in a piece that twined together.

Already the manor felt suffocating. Felt too much like days and nights spent alone in years past. What she’d give for a drink to ease her nerves, to quiet her racing thoughts.

Or a joint. But breaking into any of the rooms on her first night in this house seemed unwise even for her, so sketching it would have to be.

Rae knew their agreement back in that cell had its weaknesses, but she was relying on the knowledge that Aidan would do anything to get his missing magic back, that he was truly desperate. And she’d been right, because that desperation had pushed him to take her in as his Odalik.

A floorboard creaked, one Rae had learnt to avoid after her first pass through the corridor, marking Aidan’s presence before he came to a halt beside her, his subtle sandalwood and leather scent drifting from him.

Rae didn’t peel her attention away from her sketchbook, her pencil already working on something new.

This time the feathered wings from the mural before them. “Bad dream?”

A puff of air from Aidan. “I don’t sleep, Farren. I have no dreams of my own.”

She looked up at him. “Liar.” He wore the same clothes from the ceremony, but he’d ditched the jacket: black shirt sleeves rolled up revealing his tattooed forearms, hair ruffled as if he’d dragged a hand through the waves one too many times.

Rae turned her attention back to the mural.

“There’s a single Witch in this painting.

” The female was almost entirely encased in a cage of roots and vines she’d no doubt created for herself, so small she was barely visible.

As if she were an afterthought, a tiny speck in the vastness of the piece.

“Baelin will find her.”

His Ascendant, the one who had officiated their ‘union,’ though neither he nor the other Vampires who’d been present were anywhere to be seen.

Even though the morning sun had long since risen and they’d need to stay inside.

Aidan had told her it would be seen as strange if he allowed them to remain in the manor for their first day together, and though it made sense, she hadn’t let her guard down.

It only confirmed a suspicion she’d had for a while: there were Vampires watching him closely too.

She considered his words. Ran through options of where Nim might be, silently praying to the Goddess for her safe return.

“And what if your kind have her?” she asked, unwilling to let her thoughts drift to the sight of those bodies in the cells from the night of the attack on Rush, to how easily it could be Nim.

Might already be. Witches were immortal, just like the other Orders, but they had their weaknesses too.

It was well known Vampires had often used them as pets, and some likely still did. Calder was evidence enough of that.

Instead, she focused her thoughts on something she was happy to give the Provident beside her. Hatred. Vitriol. Loathing so thick she hoped he could fucking taste it. The bastard bloodsuckers had fucked everything up for everyone in Demesia, over and over, and their Lord was no exception.

Aidan didn’t react. She imagined he’d have had more than enough practice over the years.

“We’ll find her,” was all he said. Rae didn’t question how he knew Nim was a Witch.

The less she shared with him, the better.

His attention dropped to her sketchpad before he pulled a joint from his pocket, smoke filling the space between them as he lit it and took a drag. “Why do you hate Vampires?”

Rae glanced back at the mural with a frown.

“A Vampire was the reason for everything I do. Everything I’ve done.

The reason my mother treated me like vermin.

” He wouldn’t have needed his Provident abilities to feel the truth pouring from her, and she didn’t try to contain it as she slid her pencil into her hair and reached for the joint.

Aidan tracked her movements as she positioned it between her fingers and brought it to her lips, his eyes unmoving as he asked, “Why?”

“The details are irrelevant,” Rae said on an exhale of smoke, handing back the joint. “An answer for an answer. Why do you hate humans?”

He turned his attention to the mural and waved the hand that held the joint at the image.

“Humans, Vampires… the rest of the Orders. It’s as if everyone has forgotten that there’s life outside of fighting.

That Demesia… Mazyr… could be something wholly different without it.

” He took a long drag, and then said, “Something better.”

“I knew you were lying when you said you don’t dream.” She watched the way he inspected the painting, studied his face, his posture for any signs of what he was feeling, but he gave nothing away.

“They trapped us in as punishment,” Aidan added, passing the joint back with a flick of his chin. “Left us here to rot.”

“With humans as your playthings, your never-ending supply of food and entertainment. How terrible that must have been for your kind.”

The Vampire hummed, pulling a silver box from his pocket, and flicked it open.

Rae didn’t hesitate to deposit the stub into it.

“So, how about we stay out of each other’s way as much as possible until we both get what we want?

” She pulled her pencil from her hair and turned her attention back to her sketchbook as she let the sensation of the weed slide along her bones, her thoughts a little easier to bear.

“I can feel every space you occupy in this house, Farren. Every door handle you’ve tested, every picture you’ve stopped to look at, every creaking floorboard you’ve avoided.

There is no place you can be here that qualifies as staying out of my way .

” A pause, and Rae resisted the urge to look up and see whatever expression was on his face.

“But if a pre-requisite of getting my power back is giving you space whilst you’re here, then you’ll have it. ”

Rae swallowed. Willed her fingers not to tremble as she returned her pencil to the paper, focusing on the slide of the lead as Aidan’s words rattled through her.

“Tradition dictates I take you to the council dinner tomorrow night.” He’d taken a step away, she realised.

Her pencil stilled, and she willed her expression to neutral as she met his silver eyes. They hadn’t discussed what would happen when their agreement came to an end, and she wasn’t fool enough to believe he didn’t already suspect her. “Am I to be on the menu?”

Aidan held her gaze, his eyes darkening as his hand slid into his pocket. “No one touches what’s mine.”

Rae’s skin prickled. Nothing good could come from those words. They only served to cement what she already knew. One: this had been a monumental fuck up on her part. And two: she was going to need more of her spells. A lot more.

Aidan walked away without another word, the threat hanging heavy in the air even when he was long gone.

He hadn’t been lying when he said he wanted Demesia to be something better.

Rae couldn’t say how she knew he was telling the truth, only that she did, but she couldn’t let that get in the way of what she was there to do, of what she’d worked so hard for.

Becoming the Vampire Lord’s Odalik had been far too easy; his desperation would only be his downfall, and Rae allowed herself a small smile at that. Cillian would be laughing in his grave if the old bastard had actually been buried somewhere.

She would play her role. Accompany Aidan to whatever pointless events Vampire tradition dictated. There was very little Rae wasn’t prepared to do when push came to shove. And when she was done, there would be no Vampire Lord. No manor. No council.

There would be nothing left but ash.