Page 26 of The Midnight Order (The Thorngray Vampires Duet #1)

Lowell

After helping her shower and change into pajamas, I lie beside Silver and hum as she curls into me. Her breathing evens out as the room quiets.

Her cries and little moans of pleasure drew me to her from clear across the manor, but the thought of one of them sinking inside her before me angered me.

Then I heard him say he couldn’t, which angered me more.

Her pleasure means more than his silly pride and bullshit guilt.

She deserves to be coveted like the fucking queen that she is.

And when it’s time for that, I’ll be the one to deliver that attention.

“Tell me something,” she whispers, looking up from where she’s snuggled against my chest.

Holding her feels like the rawest, most straightforward thing in the world, as if I was always meant to do this.

“What?” I ask.

She shrugs with one shoulder. “I don’t know. Tell me one of your favorite memories.”

“I’m over nine hundred years old. There are so many.” It’s not that I’m trying to get out of telling her. It’s only that traveling back and reliving memories as old as I am sometimes hurts.

“Tell me whatever comes to mind.”

“A story?”

“From your life,” she presses, unwavering.

I think back to all the lives I’ve lived, all the names I’ve gone by. Trying to pick one I loved the most wasn’t hard, but it would be difficult to think of such an auspicious time before it all fell apart.

Before I became the shell of my former self at the hands of witches who used me for their gain.

“I don’t want you to be sad. Forget I asked,” she whispers, gently caressing my cheek.

It’s the softest anyone’s touched me since Soliel, the one woman I thought loved me over all else.

Until she, too, tried to use me.

I remember that fact and let a guard wall fall around my heart.

I’m unwilling to go through that hurt and betrayal again. I can’t.

“I was born in Transylvania,” I begin, allowing my mind to travel back to a time before my mind broke.

Silver snorts, and I eye her. “Sorry. It’s just, could you be more on brand for a vampire?”

My lips turn down. “Are you going to listen or not?”

She settles in, waving me on.

“You’ll now know the territory as modern-day Romania, but before it was Romania, it was my home. My parents, who were vampiric royalty, raised me in a massive coven, which afforded me many luxuries.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere. I bet the woman fawned over you.”

I shake my head, fighting a grin. “That came later when I lived at court.”

“Court?”

“Mm. I was summoned to the court of the Vampire King, then known as King Strixx. My parents were higher in the ranks of the coven. It was a natural ascension for me to serve my king.”

“Wow! A king? Do vampires still have a king?”

“No. We’re governed by a central coven now, The Severn.”

She’s pulled up now, sitting with her back to the headboard. “I thought you were going to sleep?”

“Well, I feel like your story will be interesting.”

I smirk. “I was only telling you a story, so you’d go to bed.”

“So eager to be rid of me?”

“No, it’s just you asked me—” I sigh. “Never mind.”

“So, what was your standing at court?”

“I was a lord, essentially. I represented my family and their interests while there.”

“What’s your last name?”

Her curiosity isn’t misplaced, but it’s been so long since I’ve had someone so curious about me that it feels foreign to be in the hot seat.

“Thorngray.”

“But I thought Jasper said that none of you were Thorngrays, but that it was the coven name?”

“Mm, I’m the coven leader, so the coven takes my last name.”

“What?”

“The others have told you their stories, yes? I’m the oldest of us; therefore, I’m the leader.”

“I just thought?—”

“You just thought Jasper was in charge because he’s the natural leader, right? It’s an honest mistake. I don’t take offense. My progeny does me proud. But no, I’m the head of the coven of the Midnight Order, and all things go through me.”

“Well, then.” She swallows, and I follow the motion of her throat with my gaze.

I don’t know if I’ve shocked her and made her more uncomfortable in my presence or if my being the head of this coven appeals to her, but she doesn’t run.

That has to be a good sign, I tell myself.

“So, in court, there were ladies, yes? All I know about courts and kingdoms is what I’ve watched on television.”

I can’t fight the smile that curls my lips. “Why are you so concerned with my love life at court? You’re the only one with my attention now, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

That seems to have stunned her, and a very intriguing rouge coloring fills her cheeks, calling my fangs to descend in my mouth at the sight.

“I don’t know. You’ve lived a magical life, and I’m just curious about it, I guess.”

She winces as I stiffen and sit up, tossing my legs over the edge of the bed.

“I’m sorry, Lowell. I didn’t mean to make light of what you’ve been through. What they did to you wasn’t okay.”

“It’s not that. It’s that anyone could think living this long is magical. I’ve well exceeded my expiration date, and yet, I’m still fucking here.”

I don’t mean to turn the mood in the room sour, but Silver has this aura about her that allows me to be open and honest with her, to be myself, my true self, that I even hide from my coven members.

“I don’t know what to say to that other than I’m so sorry you feel that way. I can see how you would, though. You lived most of your life being tormented and abused, and then another major portion of it cursed.”

She sits beside me, sideways, looking at me as she reaches for my hand.

I give it to her and turn to face her on the bed’s edge.

“Many people have hurt me. Even when I was at court, it wasn’t a tranquil life.

You have to watch your back in an environment like that.

There’s always someone trying to warm your bed or line your pockets for a leg up, to move up the ladder to get closer to the king. ”

Her eyes soften as she rubs her thumb over my hand. “Hey, what did you mean earlier? When you told them I was yours?”

I sigh, dropping my head as guilt takes full possession of me. “I shouldn’t have said that. It was a gut reaction. We have to share you, and I’m fine with sharing you, Silver. It was just thinking of me not being the first of us to have you in that way?—”

“Oh.”

I snap my eyes up tentatively. “Are you mad I claimed you?”

She clears her throat, the lovely rouge returning to her cheeks. “No. Not… no.”

“What does my being a Tenebris mean for your coven?” she asks, and the question’s weight nearly knocks me breathless.

“I don’t think any of us know just yet. We’ll figure that out as we go, I guess.”

She nods, biting her bottom lip. I suddenly wonder what that lip would taste like.

I clear my throat, subsequently clearing my brain of such useless thoughts. It’s a slippery slope to give cravings too much thought. They grow and grow, and then they rule you.

I can’t go back to who I was before.

After the cave.

I refuse to.

“You should get back under the covers. It’ll be dawn soon. You need to sleep.”

“Eh, I can sleep when I’m dead.”

She realizes what she’s said and immediately apologizes. Her embarrassment is enough leverage for me to coax her back beneath the covers beside me.

For the longest time, I thought she would ask another question or ask me to finish the story. I never actually told her, but she didn’t.

She lies on my chest, her hand moving over the many scars there, until her body finally relaxes, and her breathing deepens and evens out.

I turn my face and kiss her forehead, breathing in her sweet scent as I close my eyes and try to warn the nightmares to stay away from me.

Not that they ever listen.

“Goodnight, little lamb,” I whisper.

I flick my eyes to the ceiling, fully intending to slip away after I know she’s sleeping deeply, but I feel my eyes droop, and the heavy weight of sleep paralyzes me as I give over to its power.

“Lord Thorngray,” King Strixx says as I enter.

There’s a nude lady of the court at his feet, fawning over him, with her head resting delicately on his knee. He’s petting her as if she’s only a stray animal he must show attention to.

“King Strixx,” I reply, bowing deeply before straightening.

“You’ve had word from your parents on the matter of this year’s crops?”

I grit my teeth as he mentions the women that will become his new harem as if they’re no more than a bushel of food. It fills my body with a flood of anger.

“I have. They said the crop is good, and you’ll have a delivery by the end of the week.”

My parents have been in business, supplying human women to the sitting king, since before I was born. They keep the king pliant and satiated until their harem falls ill or dies of blood loss.

This is the fastest the king’s killed his harem that I know of, and it shows such a disregard for human life that it makes me angry..

All life is precious, but I’m the only one who sees things this way.

I know better than to speak on the matter, too.

Only last week, Lord Celot lost his head over much less than backtalk.

“That’s good to hear because this one isn’t long for this world, are you, sweet girl?” The king’s eyes draw down to the woman lying on his knee as she sobs.

But ever the good girl, she shakes her head. “No, Your Majesty.”

“Mm, it’ll be a shame to see you go, but all things must end. How are your accommodations in the east wing? Charleston tells me you’ve only just arrived back to court.”

“The accommodation is perfect, Your Majesty. Thank you. Yes, I returned as soon as possible with word from my parents. I rode through the night and arrived this morning. I would’ve come to you sooner, but ? —”

He cuts my words off with a wave. “Don’t fret, Lord Thorngray. I was otherwise engaged, wasn’t I, sweet girl?”

He grins at the frail human girl, and a sick churn twists my stomach in a knot.

When the woman gets off her knees, King Strixx draws her into his lap, sliding his hand up over her exposed breasts that are covered in fang marks.

I want nothing more than to escape this hell and go back to my chambers, but I haven’t been released yet.

“Was that all you needed, Thorngray?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” I reply.

“Well, go on, then. I don’t need an audience while I get rid of this loose end.”

I grit my teeth again, fighting the urge to lose it on him. “King Strixx.” I bow in my middle, backing out of the room.

One never allows a powerful vampire to be at one’s back, no matter who one is.

I breeze through the halls toward the east wing, stopping when I encounter a woman standing before my door.

A human woman, I realize as I get closer and hear the steady thump of her heart.

She’s in a flowing gold gown with her face hidden beneath a massive, brimmed hat.

“Excuse me, are you lost? This is my chamber, and—” She looks up, her beautiful lips colored the barest pink.

“Lowell,” she says.

My knees nearly buckle. “Osanna?!”

Sweeping her into my arms, I lift and twirl her around in the air.

Realizing I shouldn’t be embracing her out in the open, I open my chamber door and shove her inside before crashing my lips to hers, the rush of her blood in the chambers of her heart becoming the only thing filling my ears besides her whimpers that my kiss swallows.

“What are you doing here? How did you get in?”

I sit up as I hear my name shouted. Jasper is at the end of the bed, with Silver beside him.

“What is it? What’s happened?” I ask, wiping sweat from my brow.

Sweat?!

I look at my wet hand, confused by the bodily function altogether.

When was the last time I broke a sweat?

“You wouldn’t wake up. I was so scared,” Silver gives in a quick reply.

Jasper looks at me, concern tugging his features together. “The nightmares are back, then?”

I swallow. “I suppose so.”