Page 64 of Inevitably Yves

“Fucking hell,” Syn murmurs.

Yves stumbles back and I wrap my arms around him to steady him. “That’s impossible. I would’ve sensed him.”

Hemsley tilts his head. “No. He’s not here. He’s coming though. He’s coming for you, Number One. He’s going to imprison you.”

“The fuck he is,” Raphael growls. “Where is he now?”

“Close,” Hemsley says.

Yves rubs his forehead, still processing the info, so I take charge.

“Why are you in chains, vampire? What happened to you?”

“It’s the only way,” he whispers, “to fight the poison. I don’t want to kill vampires. I don’t want to kill anyone.”

His voice flickers between soft and hard, one second nearly a whisper, and the next as clear as day.

“What poison?” I ask.

“He makes us drink it when we’re brought to him. Every day, we have to drink it, and every day it makes us a little crazier. At first, it seems like a dream. He rescues us from the street, gives us a bed and food and warmth.” Hemsley smiles, but it’s brief. “But then the abuse starts. We have to be with him, and it’s…” Hemsley squeezes his eyes closed for a moment. “He’s so gross. Smells bad. He’s rough and old. He’s getting better though. He said we’re healing his sickness.”

“Did he bite you?” Syn asks.

“Yeah,” Hemsley says, nodding. “He bites all of us. Then, one day, the guards took us into the basement and chained us to walls. I thought it was gonna be kinky, but they cut my throat.” He glances away at nothing, shivering, before returning his gaze to Yves. “I thought I was dying, but then he came to us and he made me drink his blood. Now I’m this. This thing he created to make me do things I don’t want to do.”

“Gods,” Eros says. “He’s feeding first to make himself stronger.”

“How did he make you do things?” Yves asks. “The poison?”

Hemsley nods, swaying as if mesmerized by Yves. “But we get weak after a few hours if we don’t have more. If we rebel, he has us killed. Wrapped in chains until we’re too weak to fight back. I don’t know what he’s done to the others. Your men stole me away before I could find out.” He smiles, his pale lips cracking from dryness. “But I like the chains. No more poison, and I can’t hurt anybody. I can’t hurt you.”

“Take the chains off, Thorn,” Yves says.

“Happily.”

“No,” Hemsley says. “I don’t want to be like this. I want to die.”

Yves kneels, cupping the young vampire’s face. “I can help you. We’ll take the chains off and give you something to feel better.” He glances up at Vivienne, who looks distraught but nods.

“I can help,” she says.

“I won’t be a vampire anymore?” Hemsley asks.

“I can’t reverse that, but I can keep you safe and you won’t have to kill me or anyone else. No more poison.”

“Um…I don’t know.”

“I can’t let you sit here and suffer, and I won’t kill you. You’ve done nothing to me to deserve death.”

Yves’s response tickles something inside me. My instinct would be to let the vampire die if that’s what he wants, but Yves’s humanity lingers. He can’t stand the innocent suffering.

Hemsley gazes up into Yves’s eyes. “Everything he said about you is true except for one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“He said you were evil and greedy and enjoyed suffering, but that’s not true, is it?”

“No, Hemsley, it’s not true.”

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