21 May
I know, I know.
It’s been a long time since I journaled.
But I was hanging with my father’s people.
(That’s my excuse, and I’m sticking with it.)
This is how it went when I first clapped eyes on Castle Noapte (the seat of the Vampyre Dominion):
“Shut up!” (Me)
Deep sigh. (Ash)
“We are so totally never leaving here.” (Me)
Deeper sigh. (Ash)
Low chuckle. (Aidan)
Yeah, it was just…that…gorgeous.
Topping a dark mountain, the stone walls were black, the roofs blood red, the trees about it dense, the roads to it misty, the foundation of it rocky.
It was huge.
It was towering.
It was formidable.
It was terrifying.
I adored it.
We arrived in the day so, since the head honchos that lived at Castle Noapte were purists (as in devout, as in, to be considered head honchos and leaders of the Dominion, they’d vowed while in service to practice the ancient ways of the vampyre, so they didn’t take any potions or slather on any lotions so they could walk in the sun and were completely nocturnal), we couldn’t meet them upon arrival.
As an aside, I did not think I could be a nocturnal type of gal.
I could do a binge watch into the wee hours and murder a girls’ night out, wringing it for all it was worth, even if the end of the fun came with the rise of the sun.
But mostly, I liked sleep so I tried to be in bed by ten.
I had vampire blood though, so I’d find it didn’t take long for me to fit right in.
We had some gals who settled us in our rooms and then some head gal (I knew this because the chicks who settled us in wore virgin-sacrifice white and the head chick wore blood red) came and shared that they were delighted that we were there, but they had their monthly orgy planned that night, and although we were welcome to attend, they were afraid they couldn’t delay it as it had never been delayed for five hundred years.
I was kinda interested, not in participating, in watching.
Before I could ask, Ash flatly refused.
Humph.
How was I going to get to know all the supernaturals if Ash played a wet blanket?
Ugh.
Next night, red-wearing chick came to take us to the vampyre Şefs (that was what they were called, it’s Romanian for “chief”…not to mention cool).
(By the way, she had a number of puncture marks on her neck and looked a wee bit pale.)
Aidan met us in the hall.
We walked the miles and miles and miles it took to get to some double doors on the first floor.
Ash stopped us at the double doors and asked, “They’ll respect Mathilda?”
“Of course,” the chick replied.
“As in, they’ll be presentable?” Ash pressed.
“But…of course,” the chick repeated.
“The way I, as her partner, standing at her side, would expect them to be presentable?” Ash pushed.
Yeesh.
What was with him?
Her eyeballs scanned the area of her forehead before she mumbled, “One moment,” slipped through the double doors and disappeared.
“What’s that about?” I asked Ash.
He scowled at the double doors.
“What’s that about?” I asked Aidan.
Just in case you didn’t figure it out, Aidan was with us because he wanted to be.
I mean, we were in the seat of the vampires.
And supernatural shit was his gig.
And the Institute had lifted a centuries-long ban on its watchers interacting with subjects.
So he wasn’t going to miss this.
“How far have you gotten in your reading about vampires?” Aidan asked.
“I got waylaid in all my research by getting kidnapped, losing a friend, my boyfriend getting shot, moving back home, starting another business, being attacked at Target, planning a war, my other boyfriend kinda-sorta breaking up with me, signing a huge-ass book deal, deciding against planning a war, starting a social media empire, then abandoning it due to busyness of life, descending into the Elfin Realm, getting thrown into gaol—”
“Your father is a vampire,” Aidan cut me off to state.
“So?”
Aidan looked to Ash.
“They’re sexual,” Ash grunted.
“So?” I asked.
Ash looked to Aidan.
“Your presentable-to-receive-company and their presentable-to-receive-company are two different things,” Aidan said.
“And?” I asked.
Aidan looked to Ash.
“Mathilda, anything could be happening down there. We could walk in and they’d all be getting sucked off or they’d carry on a conversation with you in the middle of fucking one of their women or they could be fingering one of their disciples, keeping her on the verge of orgasm without letting her—”
I waved my hand in his face. “I got it.”
We all faced the doors, but I did it feeling kind of sick.
Don’t ask me why.
(Okay, I knew why.)
“I thought they had their orgy last night,” I mumbled.
“That was the ritual blood orgy,” Aidan said.
“What?”
“They fed last night,” Aidan explained.
“And fucked,” Ash muttered.
I was discovering a common theme in supernatural personalities.
No wonder they’d been romanticized out the ying-yang.
They all seemed to have indefatigable hard-ons.
And since everyone apparently knew about this ritual, I was wondering why, in planning our little trip, they didn’t delay our departure for twenty-four hours.
Later note to Journal: Found out they hadn’t told Ash about this either, “probably because they wanted us, that being you, to join them.”
Hmm.
“Your father is true.”
Ash said that and I looked at him.
“Sorry?”
He looked down at me. “Vampires who take mates are nearly unfailingly faithful. There is only one sect of our community who is more loyal than vampires. And that’s members of Le Société.”
Super good to know.
I smiled up at him.
He took my hand.
I pulled away and glanced at Aidan.
“Darling, I’m over it,” Aidan said.
He was?
“I’m seeing someone.”
He was?
“I’ve known her for a while. I was just…well, consumed by you. And when I wasn’t…”
He shrugged.
“I’m so happy for you!” I cried, jumped into his arms and gave him a hug.
And I was, and not just because it got me off the guilt hook that he’d lived thinking he’d have me or die for me, and it was good he didn’t have to endure the bad part of that, but he didn’t get the good part either.
I was just happy he was moving toward his own happy.
He hugged me back.
We pulled away and I asked, “Can I meet her?”
“Let us have some time to see where we’re going, and if it’s where I think we’re going, then yes. I’ll tell you all about her.”
I smiled at him big.
Red Lady came through the doors.
“My Lords need a few minutes to get…presentable.”
“We’ll wait,” I chirped.
Ten minutes later we were led down six flights of stairs.
Six.
No hope of sunlight getting down there.
What I did hope was that they had an elevator to get us back up.
(Found out they didn’t, bluh.)
I know what you’re thinking.
It was going to be all red and candles and alters and cobwebs and caskets.
Or flocked wallpaper and a floor covered in velvet pillows draped with mostly nude female bodies and dudes wearing snowy-white, lacy cravats.
It wasn’t like that.
Okay, so sure, the furniture provided its user a variety of…activities.
But if you were creative, all furniture did that.
Mostly, it looked like a super posh den.
So I guess that was appropriate.
One thing I noticed right off the bat was that these dudes slithered.
Dad and Gabe didn’t slither.
They were graceful, for dudes.
But they didn’t slither…
And glide.
Like these guys.
Then again, Dad and Gabe also didn’t observe the purist ways.
And you bet your bippy I looked them up, and these ways included:
Regularly consuming virgin blood before, or preferably during deflowering said virgin.
No sunlight at all, ever.
Copious amounts of sex or sexual-type activities.
Copious intake of blood during sex or sexual-type activities (even not with virgins).
Daily meditation (and yeah, this happened in sarcophaguses).
Performing of rituals to strengthen prana (that, you guessed it, included altars, candles, incense, bloodletting, and engaging in copious amounts of sex or sexual activities).
Regular periods of prolonged consumption of nothing but blood (and by regular periods, this meant one to however-many-they-wanted decades without any other food or beverage passing their lips).
So, we had Fane, Asa, Dimitri, Constantin, Wadim and Bill.
The Big Guy (as in head vamp) was Fane.
The vamp who went to the Gathering I went to was Wadim.
But, in the game of marry, fuck and kill, it would be Fane, Fane and Fane.
Though it was Ash who’d want to kill him.
Fane:
Three hundred years old.
Since he was sired had never (never!) seen the sun.
Since he was sired had never (never!) consumed anything but blood.
Did not look like Edward, Eric Northman, Damon Salvatore, Angel or Lestat.
Could give Sar and Trae a run for their money in height and heft, had loads of long, flowy black hair, red eyes (red!), pale skin, wore his red-velvet vampire robe with silver-on-black vampire-knot border over black trousers with bare chest as sole wardrobe attire and kept his fangs extended at all times.
Oh, and he was way into me.
Now tell me, how had I gone thirty-three years of life being the magnet for losers and suddenly had every hot guy on planet (and in magical under-realms) wanting in my pants?
Why?
After first meeting, sharing of names, drinking of wine (or blood) and having some getting-to-know-you time before the vamp boys clearly needed their next fix of disciple, Ash and I returned to our rooms and had our first fight (or the first one after we got together, or, okay, the first one in a while).
Ash: “You will never be alone with Fane.”
Me: “You have nothing to worry about with Fane.”
Ash: “You will never be alone with Fane.”
Me: “Seriously, why would I want someone like Fane when I have you?”
Ash: “Mathilda, you will not ever be alone with Fane.”
Me: “It’s like you don’t trust me!”
Ash: “I don’t trust Fane.”
Me: “But you can trust me.”
Ash: “This isn’t about you.”
Me: “Seems to be about me to me!”
Ash: “Just do as I say.”
Me: “You aren’t the boss of me!”
Ash: “Trust me, it’s for your own good.”
Me: “So I’m supposed to trust you when you don’t trust me?”
Ash: “Again, this isn’t about trusting you. I trust you. Him, I absolutely do not trust.”
Me: “You’re not understanding what I’m saying.”
Ash: “Darling, I know how you feel.”
Of course, I slammed out, and since none of the disciples had extended an offer of sisterhood so I could go gripe about my man to them, I went to Aidan.
Which was a mistake.
Because Aidan agreed with Ash.
This was what he had to say:
“For the most part, Matty, vampires are good people. That would be vampires in the wild. These are not vampires in the wild. These are males who made the conscious decision to eschew everyday life and live, breathe and eat their culture. Make no mistake, these males are intelligent, learned and want the best for their people. But they are also zealots and believe in their way of life above all others. And the way of their life is that females of their kind are rare, and there’s a reason for that. Women serve two purposes for them. Only two. And Fane made no bones about the fact he wants you in red in his bed. He wants your blood, he wants your body, and he does not give a damn you belong to Wilding. Avoid Fane. He gets what he wants, and he’ll pull out all the stops to seduce you.”
“Can they glamour you?” I asked.
“Yes.”
Oh boy.
“Though it’s difficult for anyone to glamour a witch, especially one as powerful as you.”
Well, that was good.
“That said, Fane isn’t just any vampire either. He’s the oldest and strongest of their race. So if you could be glamoured, it’d be by Fane.”
Fantastic.
So, for the next five days, had evening (of course) appointments with Asa, Dimitri, Constantin, Wadim and Bill to get into the mind of the vampire and understand what were their hopes and desires for a world and all its peoples that lived in harmony.
Ash was with me during these meetings for reasons obvious to Ash.
Aidan was with me during these meetings so he could get to know vampires firsthand.
I learned nothing in these meetings except that vampires were seriously misogynistic.
They all spoke to Ash or Aidan, even if I asked a question.
They hardly even looked at me!
They also were riding some serious ego trips.
They thought their shit didn’t stink.
I had no idea if they engaged in that act (and I didn’t want to know), but I can’t say I was super fond of any of them after leaving our meetings.
What I did learn was that they didn’t really care about what happened in the world.
They were going to do whatever they wanted anyway.
They always did.
So what’s the big deal? (These exact words from lips of Bill, though they were said to Ash.)
Was thinking this trip to Castle Noapte was all one big waste of time, when Red Lady (in all our days there, not a one of the women introduced herself to us by name, to the point they didn’t even give them when asked!) showed with a classy envelope sealed with a red wax button.
This on top of a big white box bound with a wide, red satin ribbon (mm, gifts, me likey).
She handed both to me.
Ash glowered over my shoulder as I read the invitation from Fane to attend him in his bedchamber.
Alone.
And wearing what was in the box.
Cue second fight with Ash.
Ash: “You’re not going.”
Me: “I am.”
Ash: “You are absolutely not going.”
Me: “I so totally am going.”
Ash: “We’re not fighting about this, Mathilda.”
Me: “I know. We’re not. ’Cause I’m going.”
Ash: “That male is unsafe.”
Me: “I know.”
Ash (voice rising): “So you aren’t going.”
Me (voice pitching higher): “How am I supposed to know about these people if I don’t talk to these people?”
Ash: “You can talk to him in the den with me sitting next to you.”
Me: “None of them are saying anything in the den. Especially to me. And this dude’s top dog.”
Ash: “He wants the blood of the SuperWitch in his veins.”
Me: “He can want what he wants. I’m not going to give it to him.”
Ash: “He’s a male who’s had everything he’s wanted since he was sired.”
Me: “Well, he hasn’t met me yet.”
Ash (kinda shouting): “For fuck’s sake, Mathilda!”
Me (grabbing my diamond bracelet and throwing it on the bed, then grabbing my wand and swirling it over said bracelet, and chanting): “Love of life, sacrificed by him, earned by me, naught to part, naught to doubt, naught but he for me, and me for he, from the roots to the skies as reached by my tree, as I will, so mote it be!”
And with that, a sharp zap of hot pink, shell pink and sizzling silver shot from my wand and the bracelet jumped on the bed.
I swept it up and put it on.
Me (shaking wrist at him): “Happy?”
Ash: “I know when I’ll gain my wings.”
Me: “When?”
Ash: “If he touches you, right before I drive a stake through his heart.”
Yeesh.
Not incidentally, in the box was a red, gauzy dress with an off-shoulder neckline (held up solely by a thin, red ribbon), a floaty bodice, gathering at the midriff and waist with some ultra-wide satin ribbons (red), and a long, swirly skirt, all of which was, okay, I’ll admit it, a bit see through.
And yeah.
Duh.
It was awesome, so I totally wore it.
Fortunately, I was me so I was always prepared (wardrobe-wise).
So under it I wore full-coverage black panties (not granny, but no cheek exposed) and a black strapless bra.
There was also a red velvet ribbon to wear as a choker.
I wore it in my hair.
No need to invite interest to that area.
Oh yeah, and I wore Ash’s bracelet.
Fane’s bedchamber was down eight flights of steps past those double doors (I was going to have to take a breather in the den on the way back up).
Kid you not, it seemed there was a whole town carved out down there and I don’t think any of them had anything to do with the seemingly hundreds of rooms towering above ground because I not once saw them up there (except on the roof, but that’s for later).
But, whatevs.
It wasn’t my castle.
Although the den was all masculine colors and leather and thick rugs, Fane had a thing for red.
Red bedclothes. Red drapes on his massive four-poster. Thick red carpets.
The tapestries, however, were dark.
Sure, there was crimson (as in the blood flowing from the naked ladies’ necks and, uh…other places).
But mostly, in lots of warm, deep colors, they depicted a lot of vamps and their chicks getting it on.
I was studying one, and marveling at the flexibility of a woman in it, wondering if this was artistic license, or stitched from memory of actual events, when it felt like someone breathed on my neck and Fane’s voice was in my ear.
“Do you like it?”
He had a deep voice and it wasn’t all, “I vant to drink your blaaaaaaahd.”
It was rough and kind of guttural and all…
That.
I whirled, but he wasn’t right behind me.
He was across the room, all velvet robes, black hair flowing around his head like we were outside in a stiff breeze, and wall of naked chest.
“Hey,” I greeted.
He drifted toward me. “I will gift it to you if you like it.”
I tended to shy away from decorating in porn.
“Thanks, that’s sweet, but you keep it.”
He stopped a few feet away, yep, hair still drifting, robes drifting too.
I mean, seriously, another world, another time, another me, I’d get lost in this guy.
But I sensed getting lost was the only way it could be with him.
I totally preferred being found with Ash.
“That gown suits you,” he noted.
“Thanks,” I said. “Listen, could you get the chicks to tell us their names? It’s a little weird, they bring us food, make our beds, exchange our towels, etcetera, and we don’t know what to call them.”
He appeared bemused. “Their names?”
“Yes, the women, your women, the ones who look after us, and I assume you. I’ve asked a few of their names, they just smile and walk away.”
“They have no names.”
Whoa.
“They don’t?”
“Why do they need names?”
Whoa!
“Uh…”
“They serve, this is their only purpose,” he shared.
“Okay, then, what do you say, like, when you need something and they’re there, but they’re doing something else, and you want their attention?”
I tell them to come to me.
Right.
Shit.
There you go.
Because, that was not spoken out loud.
Fane said that in my head.
“You should know, I have a mind-meld with Ash,” I blurted.
“You have nothing of the sort when you are in here…with me,” he returned.
Right.
Shit.
“I—”
I got no more out.
He lifted his hand.
I lifted my hand.
Though it was not me lifting my hand!
And the very sturdy clasp of my diamond bracelet released, the bracelet flew off my wrist, through the air, and Fane caught it.
Right.
SHIT!
Mental note: ListentoAsh, ListentoAidan, ListentoAshListentoAidanListentoAsh.
“Uh…Fane. I’d like my bracelet back.”
He smiled, lazy and hot.
Mathilda, come to me.
Don’t panic.
Now even you’re doing it.
But remember, I’m Mathilda.
SuperWitch.
I so totally had the urge.
Because a) he was hot and b) he was giving me the urge.
And the power was strong with this one.
Seriously.
But I fought it.
And I did not go to him.
I walked to his bed (the only piece of furniture in the room, outside two nightstands—bed was four-poster and had crimson drapes, nightstands had candelabrum with red candles, about a gazillion of them, all lit—this dude went for the vampire gusto).
I climbed in, turned around, sat cross-legged, arranged my skirt to best cover me, folded my hands in my lap and looked to him.
“You should call them by their names,” I said.
Another lazy, sexy smile as he glided my way, murmuring, “Impressive.”
“We can do this for a while, but I’m kinda powerful, so it isn’t going to get you anywhere. It might be fun, but it’d be a waste of time. And as of this moment, Ash is trying to talk himself out of pissing me off by demonstrating he doesn’t trust me, stalking down here and staking you. We probably shouldn’t give him time to fail in talking himself out of that.”
Fane stopped at the foot of the bed and noted, “I find this intriguing. This actually holds a threat. I’m not accustomed to that. But he is Fae.”
I smiled up at him. “Yup.”
He tipped his head to the side. “The Lament?”
“Yup.”
“Formidable protection, indeed.”
“Yup.”
“I suppose with the way he looks at you, and the way you are with him, I could not convince you to dally with me?”
“Nope.”
“Pity,” he muttered, casting his red eyes all over me.
“Shit got real on Hallowe’en, Fane,” I brought the matter to hand.
“This was reported to us.”
“Dad’s reported the vampires are in. But you’re the Big Kahuna. So to make it official, I kinda need to know what your feelings are about that.”
I stiffened when he fell forward, but he only did this so he could lounge negligently across the foot of his bed in front of me, on his side, up on a forearm, ankles crossed.
Okay.
Yeah.
Another time, another me, I could so get lost in this guy.
“Your sire is loyal to you, but even he prefers shadows, Mathilda,” he said softly.
“I’m not sure that gives me anything to go on, Fane,” I replied.
“We are not a people of the light.”
“Can I read into that, that in speaking for your kind, you’d prefer to remain hidden?”
His red eyes glowed redder.
“Hidden is not the word I’d use. However, the hunt is much less exciting when the hunted know they are prey.”
“So, right, you’d like to keep things quiet about vampires. I hear you.”
“You hear well. Though, I will say, I will personally tear out the throat of anyone who would harm you.”
Yowza.
How did I earn that honor?
Nope.
No.
I didn’t care.
One could say I’d had my lifetime fill of brutality.
As such, there would be no throat tearing.
Not in my name.
“Well, uh, we can hope that’s not nec—”
“Hear that well, Mathilda. I will…personally…tear…the throat out…of anyone…who would harm you.”
I stared into his glowing eyes.
“It goes without saying,” he whispered, “that those who have already done so may be breathing, but they are still very dead.”
Uuuuuuummmmmm…
So, I heard him.
Anyone against me would answer to him.
I just needed to be sure about that second part.
“Maybe you need to be kinda specific here, Fane.”
“You…are…vampir.”
I swallowed, because the way he said that was a lot like how Ash fucked.
Very, very…
Claiming.
“Fane.” I was now whispering.
“I have a price on their heads, Mathilda. Agatha Darling. Endora Eccles. Jeremy Bligh. And that fucking faerie who’s bound to Darling. They harmed you. And they will pay with their lives. Though the faerie cannot die, so he will pay through an eternity of our kind making him wish that he could.”
“Jeremy Bligh is already dead.”
“Jeremy Bligh likely wishes he was dead, for magic can go a long way to lengthening life, but when a human’s skin is melted off, there’s no growing it back.”
Yikes!
But, um…
This was news.
“So he’s, like—?”
“They found some not-voluntary skin donors. I am told that the doctor they used and the results, however…”
He lifted a shoulder.
I made a gaggy face.
He grinned at me.
“So if you know this…?”
“They’ve been tracked. Thus far, even if we’ve gotten close, they’ve eluded capture. But from recent reports, I suspect we will have much better results soon.”
“Okay, then, uh, Fane, can I just ask that you not get overexcited in this whole vengeance for the daughter of one of your own thing and—”
I didn’t finish because he held up a large hand, palm toward me.
“You are mine, Mathilda, as sure as you are Wilding’s.”
That wasn’t exactly true.
Before I could get into the specifics of how it wasn’t, or, say, speak at all, he kept going.
“And I protect what is mine. I avenge what is mine. And I can assure you, Mathilda, there is not a single vampire breathing who doesn’t agree with me.”
“Dad?”
“Of course.”
I sounded strangled when I asked, “Gabe?”
“Absolutely.”
“They haven’t mentioned that they’re down with hunting and torturing then killing my enemies,” I told him.
“They wouldn’t. You are female. You’re to be protected from these things.”
I opened my mouth and he lifted his big hand again.
I tried not to get ticked as I shut my mouth.
“They do not want names, Mathilda,” he said so softly, when I replied, I was in his zone, and I was talking softly too.
“Who?”
“Those who serve us. I do hope you and Wilding enjoy spice in your life and play many games with each other to heighten desire and offer greater intensity when release is found. But I suspect from your response to our disciples, you are not of a certain bent. However, even if it is not your bent, I would assume, due to your purpose here, you can come to understand, it is ours. We are their Masters, Mathilda. They come to us through their wish to serve. This is our way and it is their way. They are not coerced. They are not glamoured. They offer their servitude freely because it feeds and gratifies them as much as making them serve feeds and gratifies us.”
All righty then.
Message received loud and clear.
His gaze moved to my neck and he murmured, “Though, for just a sip, I would consider serving you.”
“Fane, let’s stay focused.”
His face got lazy again and his eyes came to mine.
But his next words were serious.
“My brethren fear they’ve offended you. But Wilding nor Seymour gave them leave to speak directly to you. It is old-fashioned, but it is our way. You do not see it as respect, but it is. True, it is respect to Wilding and Seymour, specifically Wilding. But in this of all places, where the art of seduction and the act of copulation are revered, it is important to bow to the old ways. To communicate male to male that their female is safe from our proclivities, and not communicate with the female until we’re certain the male understands that. Or the other way around, we are given leave to seduce the female. Wilding needs to give them leave to look upon you and speak to you. And then all will be well.”
Well, that explained that.
“I’ll have a word with Ash. Now, Agatha and Endora—”
He shook his head. “There is no escaping their sentence.”
“But—”
“Mathilda, if they did this to a male vampire, the response would be the same. Perhaps their end would be less tortuous, but it would be the same end. However, they didn’t do it to one of ours who was male. They did it to one of ours who was female. And thus their end will be prolonged and tortuous.”
“First, I don’t think they knew I was half-vampire.”
“We do not care.”
“Second, I get you’re all BDSM up in this joint, but that’s just plain old sexist.”
“Do you know,” he said, his voice suddenly so cold, it felt like frozen fingers grazing my skin, and due to that, I shivered, “what happened in times past when the daughter of a vampir was taken by the angry hordes?”
Uh-oh.
“I can guess,” I whispered.
“I should hope not,” he bit out. “I should hope your mind is not that depraved. Our sons were vampir, they could protect themselves. Our daughters, if not born with the taste for blood, were quarry. The Vengeance of a Vampire was earned, Mathilda. We cannot falter in making certain that message remains clear. And that message is, you do not…touch…our women.”
I bit my lip and gave him big eyes.
“And for your information,” he carried on just as coldly, “if a single disciple in this castle, or any of them who have served and still live, I do not care if they’re in their second century and teetering on the edge of death, if any of them were harmed, it would earn our Vengeance.”
“I get you, Fane,” I said calmingly.
“So, you do as you wish in your war, Mathilda. We do not care. But if you are hurt, the Vampyre Dominion will fly, as one, to avenge their own. Do you understand?”
I nodded.
“Would you like wine?” he asked.
More like tequila.
I nodded again.
He slithered off the bed and offered a hand to me, hair and robes again drifting.
“We will go to the lounge,” he muttered. “I will ask Wilding be brought to us. We will enjoy the rest of the evening in each other’s company, us three.”
I took his hand and we did just that.
Well, we did, after he re-clasped my bracelet on my wrist.
So that was the first week we spent in Castle Noapte.
Things got a little, uh…murky after that.
This mostly had to do with the vibe of the place.
Well, that and they had really good wine, the disciple I called Bunny (because she had a cute nose) was a fantastic cook, once they were “given leave” to talk to me, I found the vamps were great company…
And Fane had put thoughts into my head.
So I tried out some stuff with Ash, Ash was into it, and we kinda had an ongoing orgy à deux punctuated by a lot of hanging with the vamps, oftentimes playing poker (Ash, by the by, was criminally good at poker (card sharp?)), sometimes bingeing Netflix.
Wadim taught me how to play backgammon.
Dimitri failed at teaching me how to play chess.
I sat for Asa while he did my portrait in charcoals.
I kicked Bill’s ass a dozen times at checkers.
Fane introduced me to his erotica collection, and it was impressive.
We stood on the parapet with the disciples (and Fane, he didn’t engage in such “antics”) and watched the boys dive bombing stuff as bats.
Etcetera.
(Aidan had left after my first talk with Fane. He had a life, for one, and although disciples were offered to him, he declined. But for another, the knowledge that Bligh, who used to be a watcher, and was now on the run, was alive, Aidan had to report, then the dudes at the Institute needed to figure out what to do about Bligh—and the fact they now knew he had a price on his head).
As an aside, my birthday was during this time, and seeing as my man was awesome, he’d come prepared.
And the theme of wearing a Wilding man’s regard continued when he bestowed on me a crazy-cool set of gold hoop earrings embedded with little diamonds.
Now, just to say, this was upping the ante to what I was going to do for Ash in a few months for his birthday because I had a feeling a coupon book of blowjobs or more shirts to fit his growing body were not gonna cut it.
Hmm.
Then Ash got a phone call and we were reminded that next up was the League of Werewolves and after that, the Banshee Nation.
In other words, again it was time for the fun to end.
We left in the dark, not only because our days had become nights so we could hang with the vamps, but so they could stand with us by our car and say good-bye.
I gave them all hugs but lingered over Fane.
What could I say?
We’d all gotten close, but Fane and I had formed a bond that was part knowing he had my back, part that he was just a super-cool dude and I liked him.
“If you catch them—” I began.
“We will see to our business.”
“I was going to ask you to tell me so I can come back and talk you out of—”
“Matty.”
I shut up.
He grinned down at me, hair flowing, eyes glowing, fangs gleaming.
“I sense you learned you liked to be spanked while staying in my home,” he noted.
“Fane!” I snapped,
Though he was not wrong.
“I wonder if I could learn the same from you.”
Goddess, he was such a flirt.
“Stop being bad.”
“It’s worth pondering,” he noted.
“Don’t let Ash know you’re pondering this,” I advised.
“You aren’t the only witch in the world, sweet Mathilda.”
It was then, I grinned at him.
He winked.
Ash got fed up with our taboo-naughty-brother/sister-type teasing, broke us up, gave Fane a handshake and dragged me to the car.
We had a driver so I could cuddle up to Ash in the backseat.
My arms were around him, but my eyes were out the window, aimed at the receding castle which would soon be swallowed by forest and mist so that only those who knew it was there could find it.
“Can we go back?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” Ash answered.
He might not admit it out loud, but he dug the vamps too.
And totally got off on spanking me.