I wondered how long I would stand there before Cassius would either say something or get up from his chair.
Instead, his eyes dragged over me as he sat in an unmoving silence. Since he felt no need for social pleasantries, neither did I. I walked over to the giant four-poster bed, layered in piles of violet blankets and heaps of furs, and plopped myself down onto the edge of the mattress. I folded one leg over the other and stared at him from across the room.
For a moment, his face contorted into a mix of anger and intrigue. But then he stood from his chair abruptly and walked toward the bed, only stopping when he got close enough for his knees to touch mine. He leaned forward onto the mattress, putting one hand onto the comforter beside me and pressing his body down toward mine until I had to lean back on my arms to keep his chin from sticking against my face.
“Who do you think you are?” he snarled. His breath lingered on my face until I was dizzy with the scent of him.
“Nobody,” I answered quietly. It was an honest answer; I was nobody. Maybe back in my world, I could have been somebody. Maybe I could have been the most sought-after dancer in Boston, with dance companies vying for my contact with them. But here, in this other world, I was no one. And as much as my stubborn hot-headedness wanted to believe that I could defy this fate I had been abducted into, I couldn’t. I was here…and that was the end of the story.
Cassius didn’t seem satisfied with my answer, which surprised me, considering I thought his ego would have been more than happy to hear me admit my insignificance under his reign. He stayed hovering over me as if he were waiting for me to make a run for it, like a predator waiting for its prey to try something stupid. I stared at him, and he stared back as I felt his chest rise and fall against mine.
Is he going to bite me? Maybe if I turned into a vampire, this would all seem more normal.
“You have the most stunning blue eyes,” he said in a whisper that seemed completely uncharacteristic.
“What?” I asked.
Cassius didn’t answer me. He simply pushed himself up from the side of the bed quickly and stood firmly on his feet in front of me. The black pools of his eyes were hypnotizing. Athan’s eyes were dark, but not that dark.
“How come you and Athan look so different if you’re half-brothers?” I asked without first thinking if it was out of line to ask such a personal question.
Cassius seemed both annoyed and intrigued by my inability to keep my mouth shut. “Athan and I share the same father, but Athan’s mother was a vampire like our father, and my mother was a human.”
“That’s a thing?” I asked in surprise. “Humans and vampires together ?”
“Yes,” he answered. He definitely seemed to be leaning more toward annoyance now. “It’s a thing .” He annunciated the last word dramatically as he rolled his eyes. “In fact, it’s more than just a thing; it’s a forbidden advantage.”
I was wary of prying more and pushing his patience too far, so I just stood there and waited for Cassius to elaborate.
“I am a Dhampir,” he said as if I ought to know what that meant. When he remembered that I was just a “naïve mortal” he explained. “Since I was created by a vampire father and a human mother, I am a special breed of vampire known as Dhampir . There are not many of us, since sexual relations between humans and vampires are strictly forbidden since we pose a threat to the numerous common vampires.”
“What kind of threat?”
“Dhampir have all of the powers and abilities that vampires have, but none of the weaknesses. I can walk in daylight and am immune to most things that would kill a common vampire. Dhampir are a superior species, and common vampires are typically afraid of us since we have but one weakness to their many.”
“What is it, your weakness?” I asked.
Cassius laughed. “Do you really think I would tell you what my weakness is?”
No, I guess I didn’t. But perhaps he’ll still tell me a few other things.
“Why are relations between humans and vampires forbidden?”
“The common vampires are a large population, and they do not wish to lose their power and be ruled over by Dhampir. If the Dhampir were to increase in number, even by a small percentage, we would ascend to rule, and the common vampires would have no choice in the matter. Because of that, a law was created to prohibit relationships between vampires and humans and to prevent the birth of any more Dhampir.”
I thought quietly for a moment, and when I asked my next question, the words that came out of my mouth surprised us both. “What about relations between a Dhampir and a human? Is that allowed?”
Cassius looked suddenly uncomfortable as if he’d just been stripped bare. I didn’t even know why I had asked that question, curiosity I supposed.
“You need to leave,” he said abruptly as he turned around and walked back to his chair.
“You’re the one who called me here,” I retorted. He made me so mad I could scream.
“Has anyone ever told you how exceedingly obstinate you are?” he asked as he threw himself back down upon his chair and reached for a carafe of what I assumed to be wine, although it seemed to be way too early to start drinking.
“Has anyone ever told you how exceedingly arrogant you are?” I shot back at him with hatred in my eyes. I detested that I was trapped here. I loathed that I was taken away from my life just when I was so close to achieving my dream of becoming a professional dancer. And I despised Cassius for being the one who kept me prisoner.
He glared at me from his chair, and it looked like the tips of his knuckles turned even whiter than his usually pale skin as they gripped the edge of the chair’s arm. There was a feverish tension brewing within him, and I could see it start to rise to the surface. I backed up toward the door, still unsure why he had even called me in here if all he intended to do was chastise me, but I couldn’t read exactly what his expression now meant, and it made me nervous. When my hand reached behind me and touched the door handle just enough to jostle the metal, the door swung open, and Quinn grabbed me by the wrist quickly and pulled me out of the room.
“What happened?” he asked as we walked together quickly down the hall.
“I’m not really sure,” I answered. “He told me he was a Dhampir and called me obstinate.” I’m sure there was more than that, but at the moment, it was all I could remember.
“He told you about being a Dhampir?” Quinn looked shocked that Cassius would have revealed that information to me.
“Yeah, but I’m still not sure why he wanted to see me in the first place. He didn’t really ask me anything.”
“Maybe the point was that he simply wanted to see you,” Quinn said.
It took me a second to realize what he meant before I remembered the look of desire on Quinn’s face when I first put on these clothes. Could that really have been it? Was it possible that this all-powerful, elite vampire desired me? I found that difficult to believe, and even if it were the case, Cassius had made it very clear that it was forbidden. Besides…I hate him.
Quinn led me toward the main hall, where he said Cassius held most of the festivities that kept him, and the others, entertained. The main hall looked like a grandiose indoor opera house, with a giant raised seating area in the center that held a throne-like seat I assumed was for Cassius. On either side of the throne, there were two smaller chairs, both with elaborately carved wooden armrests and puckered red velvet cushions. I imagined these seats were for Cassius’s guests of honor, whoever they might be.
Strings of sparkling white fairy lights were draped from the corners and ceiling, casting a magical illumination over the entire space. The floor here was smoother than the stone throughout the rest of the place, more like polished marble that made it look almost reflective under the lights. Several natural elements looked real, but I couldn’t imagine how they possibly were. All around the edges of the huge room, trees lined the walls, making it look like a great indoor forest. And through their branches, the light of the moon seemed to cast its glow upon the room, all of which seemed highly improbable considering the lack of any natural light in whatever dim and cavernous place we were. Perhaps it was magic. Quinn was a fae, and fae folks were magical, hell maybe even vampires were magical; this stuff was all new to me. Whatever the origin, it was breathtakingly beautiful.
“This is where you will dance,” Quinn said as he looked around the magical room. “Beginning tonight.”
“Tonight? But what am I even supposed to dance to?”
“Cassius will have musicians playing. You’ll be expected to dance for as long as he wishes to watch you.” Quinn noticed my look of apprehension. “There will be wine, trust me it would be wise to drink some. It helps a bit.”
I spent the rest of the afternoon alone, well mostly alone, as alone as one could be while still sharing a room with several other girls. All of us were in different outfits, all of which were varying shades of shimmering and revealing metallic fabric. We looked like a beautiful assemblage of hostages, awaiting our fates in silence. There wasn’t really much to do except wait.
Quinn had told all of us that we were forbidden from wandering around the caverns. We couldn’t rehearse whatever it was that we were supposed to perform tonight because no one even knew what it was that we’d be doing. Most of the other girls were silently crying or mumbling to themselves about how they were going to be eaten by vampires. Honestly, I thought it was pretty pathetic, and I didn’t have the patience to deal with right now. There were a few guys who were chosen to go with Cassius’s group, too, but they were in a separate room somewhere.
I lay back on my bed and folded my hands over my chest and closed my eyes. I wasn’t tired, despite barely having gotten any sleep. I imagined the Boston Opera House in my mind; it was so beautiful. The rounded ceiling was painted and sculpted with an extravagance that made me feel like I was sitting among the gods. And the stage—oh my gosh, the stage. I wanted more than anything to dance there in front of an awestruck audience that sat in the dark theatre with expectant anticipation. I knew now that dream wasn’t likely to happen. So I let myself drown in the imaginings that played out in my head.
I had no idea how much time had passed when I heard Quinn calling for us. Some of the girls wiped their teary eyes and fell into line beside him as they readied to go to the party we’d be entertaining at. I sat up on my bed slowly, and Quinn looked at me as if he were wondering if I was going to comply or if he was going to have to walk over and convince me to follow the orders he gave. I would go, and I would dance for the simple fact that I had no choice. But I wasn’t about to make it easy for anyone. It was likely that I would die here, without ever realizing my dream at the Opera House, so why give them all the satisfaction of doing it without protest. I smiled secretly to myself, which seemed to make Quinn look even more nervous, and I thought about how many ways I could make this party as deliciously and defiantly entertaining as possible.
Cassius would regret keeping me hostage here, and Athan would regret ever having met me on the city street. I wasn’t too sure about Quinn yet. He seemed to be doing the best he could alongside us, so I would try my damndest not to get him into trouble. I walked over to the group and wedged myself between Quinn and one of the other girls so I could be at the front of the line.
“Are you okay?” Quinn whispered to me once we had all left the room and started walking toward the main hall.
“Yep,” I said, smiling at him as though my lips were infused with sweet honey and oozing with a syrupy fakeness.
“Are you sure?” he asked again. “Because you’re kind of making me nervous.”
“Why am I making you nervous?”
“Well, for many reasons,” Quinn darted his eyes across my face and body. “But currently, because you seem like you’re about to do something stupid.”
I suddenly found myself wanting to know what “many reasons” he was talking about, but I needed to stay focused and not get distracted. I shoved my thoughts about Quinn down deep and answered in the most incredulous way I could think of. “I’m human, remember? We are always getting ready to do something stupid.”
Quinn was about to say something to that, but we had just reached the doorway, and two other fae men, who were standing on either side of the doors, swung open the giant slabs before we had a chance to prepare ourselves for the sight inside. The giant, magical space that I remembered from earlier looked even more enchanting and beguiling. However, now it was also filled with vampires who were drinking, dancing, and engaged in an undercurrent of conversation. I must have frozen in place because I felt Quinn’s hand push against my back to walk into the room. I had only taken two steps inside when I saw Cassius, sitting on his throne and staring at me as though everyone else in the room had just vanished.