Chapter 67 Take Her Place
❀ Maeve ❀
On my knees, hand wrapped around the thick bedpost, I heaved, but nothing came out.
Head swimming, I furtively licked my raw lips.
If it weren’t for the water system in the bathing room connected to this chamber, I’d have died of thirst.
I’d grown too weak to scream, too weak to wear down the heavy iron-cast doors.
Had Nikolai abandoned me to teach me a lesson? Refusing to believe he’d been killed, I again wondered how that night had played out in my absence.
Bastian and Nikolai pitted against each other would make for an ugly, savage outcome.
Both predators.
One brimming with raw strength and brutality, the other boasting lethal calm and controlled menace.
I groaned.
Partly from hunger, partly fear.
I’d give anything… anything, for a piece of dry bread, and the safety of both my mates.
A whiff of my own scent had me retching anew. I’d stopped having baths sometime along the line, nearly mindless with rage and starvation.
My hair hung in limp clumps over my bony shoulders.
The only thing that had prevented me from gouging out the windows of the bathroom, was the notion of falling straight into a crowd of vampires, as a wolf.
Brief spells of hallucinations plagued my mind, visions of my mother and Queen Lyssa merging until neither existed in the final form.
My fist trembled in a pitiful attempt at a clench.
This was all her fault. If she hadn’t forced me into Nikolai’s arms and into Bastian’s world, we’d have been content with our basket weaving.
But I’d dared to dream.
A dizzywave hit me.
How much longer must I survive this torture?
The door opened.
A sliver of golden light from the lamps in the hallway cut through the darkness around me. I flinched.
I hadn’t figured out a way to open the dark shutters on every window, so my eyes were sensitive to the light.
The face shadowed in the doorway made me swallow, with its pitch dark eye sockets and a blood red mouth.
Lilith.
Her lips curved in a grin, and she glanced down. That was when I realized a girl stood in front of her.
Lilith’s palms rested on the girl’s shoulders, her claws extended. The girl trembled.
Then Lilith’s gaze slid back to me, hostile and cruel.
“Where is Nikolai?” I didn’t recognize my own voice. I raised a hand to my throat.
She didn’t respond. Instead, she shoved the girl into the room with me and closed the door slowly.
No. I wanted out of this room!
I jerked for the door.
“Wait—”
It slammed, the mechanism locking with a heavy clang.
My hand slipped from the bed post and I crashed to the ground. My shoulder and knees burned as bone met the floor.
My chest heaved at the bare idea of motion, my body sagging with exhaustion.
I’d been locked in Nikolai’s chambers for more than twenty days. I’d only started counting with lines etched into the wood of his bedframe after the first week.
The scent of eucalyptus clung to his clothes, his bed, the walls. It diffused into my brain. I was sick of it.
Then the most intoxicating scent hit me. Lush. Warm.
My head snapped to the corner. The human girl Lilith had pushed in.
When our gazes locked, she whimpered, lips trembling.
“W-who… are you?” I croaked.
Was she a prisoner too? Had her mate caught the leech’s affections as well?
I wasn’t stupid. I knew Lilith wanted Nikolai, enough to kill me. But then—where was Nikolai?
Movement caught my eye and I focused back on the girl.
She’d straightened her shoulders, as if for confidence.
“I am Jessica, milady. I’m vegetarian. Lady Lilith said that’s your preference.”
“Preference?” I asked, even as my fangs itched and I could suddenly hear her every heartbeat.
Could feel the organ’s soft vibrations as it pumped warm, living blood.
The girl shifted a step closer to me, her face heavy with pity.
“Will you come to the bed? Or should I join you down here?”
Her voice droned in the background. My gaze remained locked on her fair, fleshy throat and pulse point.
I shook my head, hard.
“Is there a kitchen?” I pleaded. “I need food. Lots of meat, if possible. I don’t suppose vampires make bloodmeal?”
“Oh,” she said, “I didn’t realize… but I can’t leave unless you feed. Lady Lilith’s orders.”
Tears prickled my eyes.
Was this some kind of joke? Had Nikolai told Lilith about my anemia, and she decided to play this cruel game?
Were they upstairs laughing at me right now? The anemic wolf so desperate for food she drank a vampire’s blood and almost couldn’t keep it down?
I drew my knees to my chest.
Nikolai owed me an explanation.
“Where is Nikolai?”
Jessica shifted on her feet. “Uhm, I’m sorry. I can’t tell you that.”
My vision pulsed with heat.
“Why the fuck not?”
My throat burned from using so many words after such a long break.
“Lady Lilith. She said to feed you and answer no questions. She… threatened me.” Her face paled.
Gritting my teeth, I swore. I would get out of here, and I would kill Lilith.
Lilith must have told the girl I was a vampire. I’d use that to my advantage.
“You’re locked in here with me. Do you really think I can’t hurt you worse?”
“I—I…”
“Where is Nikolai? He’s in on this, isn’t he? What does he plan for me?” I rose with my last strength, each word costing me.
I glowered with all the rage bubbling within me.
“Please don’t hurt me!” she whimpered, raising an arm in defense. “He’s been injured and recovering, the last I saw. Lady Lilith cares for him herself.”
My heart stuttered in a flare of irritation.
And he never thought to check up on me? The kidnap victim? The starving wolf?
I’d been a fool. I let him lure me into his world, different and alone—just like I’d been in Blackbridge. Wolfless. Alone.
“Open the door,” I growled. “Open it right now.”
The girl blanched. “It’s locked from the outside. I’m trapped in here with you. Until you feed…”
“I’m not a vampire,” I snapped.
“Oh? B-but your eyes are red.”
I felt dead on my feet. Hollow. Spent.
“Not a vampire…” I mumbled, leaning my aching body against the wall.
A presence on my left. Her scent was dizzying and insistent. My mouth watered.
Oh gods. The symptoms of the fog hadn’t cleared.
“You can feed from me. It’s alright,” she whispered.
Her offer clenched my stomach, stoking the hunger.
But the memory of my reaction to feeding from Nikolai made me hesitate.
What I wouldn’t give for her blood—but boiled.
Irritation coiled in my chest. I turned from her.
“Get away from me…”
“But you need to—”
“Stay away!” I screeched.
My arms shot out. Her body flew from me.
She crashed against the bedframe, cradling her arm.
A splinter of wood had torn her flesh. Blood flowed between her fingers as she frantically tried to stem it with little success.
Blood.
Sustenance.
Life.
I moved with a speed that shocked me.
The girl screamed and balled herself up, but I was stronger. Hungrier.
I watched like a spectator from the sidelines as I wrenched her arms forward and leaned my face toward her wound… just a taste.
I shuddered in anticipation, fangs throbbing painfully.
“Maeve!”
Had the door opened? Another victim, perhaps?
A strong arm grabbed my shoulder and wrenched me backward. I turned on them, hissing savagely.
“Leave us…” he said.
Jessica scrambled to her feet and ran.
No!
When I lunged for her, he held me back, and the door slammed in her wake.
Shaking with murderous rage, I turned on him.
He’d let my prey escape.
Now he would take her place.