My back presses against the closed doors to my rooms. Black, heavy drapes hang over the windows, blocking the outside world from view. More hang from the four posts of my bed tied back neatly with silken rope.
I fight the urge to find my way back to that infernal woman. I have lost my appetite… no, it’s the opposite, it is sparked, and the fact that she is the root of it disturbs me.
At dinner, my gaze had caught on the sensitive patch of skin where her neck and shoulder meet.
I'd planned on making her uncomfortable during dinner—to make her squirm in her chair as she ate each and every bite of her food—I wanted every sip of blood I took from my glass to be a threat so she would know that her blood is next.
It had worked, but she did not fear me. Every word I spoke seemed to set off her temper. And then she had tried to stab me. Her willingness to murder an innocent, and her attempt on my life, as pathetic an attempt as it was, only serves to remind me why I have never taken a human during the claiming before.
To look her in the eye, her expression—she had appeared fearless, but the pulse beneath my fingers, wrapped around her wrist, betrayed her true feelings. The contrast of the two is enticing even now.
I have unknowingly let her into my mind, allowed her space there, giving her the power to make me forget myself and let my hold over my control slip when she insulted me.
She makes an attempt on my life and calls me vile. It was not the word itself, but the venom with which she spewed it that did it. She was the murderess. She had struck down Rosalie. Rosalie, who would never have harmed a human, no matter how awful.
I wanted to kill Clara, to drain her of every last drop of blood in that dining room… but I couldn’t. So many years of living the way Rosalie wanted—it seems as though I am now incapable of the same cruelty as this mortal.
“You seem awfully out of sorts today, Alaric.” Cherno flies into my chambers, passing through the wood paneling as though it were only fog, a sealed letter hanging from their clawed feet.
I turn to face the fire blazing in the hearth, choosing to ignore the prying tone.
“What is that you have?”
“Nothing,” Cherno says, flying farther across the room. “Tell me, Master, about the girl.”
“There is nothing to tell, so hand over the letter.” I cross the room, intending to snatch it from the little imp.
Cherno flies higher out of reach, large red eyes growing wide, a pout on their furry little mouth. I groan, knowing I’ve lost the battle.
“She infuriates me,” I grind out the words unwillingly. “Claiming her was a mistake.”
Cherno lets out a snort. “From one insult? I would have thought you would be impervious to that sort of thing by this point.”
“You were at dinner,” I say flatly. “Why must you insist I tell you about it?”
A smile. Damned demon sent bat.
They fly to the chandelier in the center of the room and hang upside-down, holding the letter in their tiny, clawed hands.
“She killed Rosalie.”
“So you have said…” Cherno hums thoughtfully. “But barring that, perhaps there is more to the situation. After all, if revenge and hiding from the court was your goal, then why does she still live?”
“That is the only thing that matters,” I snap.
“You knew this fate would come to Rosalie sooner or later.” I flinch at the truths they speak. “There are a number of humans that would see all vampires killed, and Rosalie made herself vulnerable to mortals. Her heart was too soft to resist them.”
I stare into the fire, watching the flames as they dance. “I don’t know what it is about her that gets to me,” I admit quietly. “She is nothing like I expected.”
“You are used to humans cowering before you in fear or worshiping you. She does neither. Perhaps that is why you find yourself drawn to her.”
“Do not make me kill you, bat. Because I will if you continue to spout such nonsense.”
Cherno drops from the chandelier and flies around the room in quick erratic movements, laughing with childlike glee. “We both know you would never harm me.”
I glare at them, but the effect is lost by the smile that forces its way across my mouth. “I wouldn’t, but do not push me, or I might change my mind.”
Landing on the fireplace mantle, the envelope dangles from Cherno’s feet. I recognize the seal, and suddenly, I have no interest in the contents of the letter within.
“You should get to know her.”
“Clara? Why should I waste my time? She will be dead soon enough.” I pace the room feeling restless in this space but not trusting myself to leave my room just yet.
“Because you call her Clara and not Miss Valmont.”
I stop walking. “I brought her here to make her life hell for what she did, not to befriend her.”
Cherno takes to the air once more, hovering before me only the way a bat can. “Do not be so arrogant as to think there is no other reason for your paths to have crossed.”
Demons free me from this cursed beast. I narrow my eyes. “Shouldn’t you be watching her? And take the letter to the study.”
“You don’t wish to read it?” they ask, flying near the fire. “Perhaps I shall burn it for you instead?”
“No, you mischievous demon. As much as I would love that, I will… read it later.”
With a grunt, Cherno flies off the way they came.