Page 12 of The Vampire Castle in the Sky

“Bunny,” said Hector.

I pouted. “Poor bunny.”

As I offered him the glass, our hands touched, and a crackling current passed from his skin to mine. The vision came like that too—a strike of lightning running down the darkness of my mind, then a feeling of airlessness, of separating from my physical vessel. I saw a man, a tall, black-clad man, the only visible part of his body his hands, which were slender and so white they verged on grey. It seemed as though he was walking away from me, his dark figure shrinking toward an indistinct brightness. Then, in a heart-skip, he reappeared right before me, looming out of tendrils of fog in his black and crimson livery.Death, the words swelled like a hissing rush of wind in my mind.He’s coming.

Hector took the glass from my hand, and the vision washed away, the familiar room reemerging in all its dark finery.

I hardly had the time to make sense of who orwhatI’d just seen before I became painfully aware of the way I stood over Hector, right between his spread knees. I was so close I could see the chiseled valley of his sternum, peering through the undone collar of his shirt.

Slowly, without tearing his gaze from mine, Hector set the glass aside and reached out a hand as if to grip my hip. I froze in anticipation, but his fingers paused mere inches away, flexing over the fabric of my dress.

An unfamiliar, all-consuming longing kindled in my blood. I wanted him to touch me, to grab me and pull me down on his lap. But even as he stood up, his open hand glided from my hip to my waist without ever touching me, only the space around my body.

“Your heart is beating so fast,” he said in some kind of a trance. “Are you scared or excited?”

“Hector,” I croaked, my cheeks blazing. “You shouldn’t jest like that. We’re not children anymore.”

His chin tilted forward, his lips lowering to mine. “No, we’re not.”

Suddenly, the floor beneath our feet jolted. I pitched forward, falling headlong into Hector’s arms. Then the entire room tilted, the iron chandelier swaying dangerously overhead. Shelves popped open. Various knickknacks rolled over and crashed to the floor. The cup Hector had left atop the bench toppled down, and blood crawled around our shoes.

“What—what is happening?” I panted, holding on to him for dear life.

“The Castle,” Hector growled. “It’s moving.”

4

Thea

The dread-inducing use of the wordsCastleandmovingin the same sentence was underlined by Hector’s decision to slip an arm under my knees, lift me up in his arms, and bolt—literally bolt, for he shot out of the room and down the stairs faster than thunder could crack down a blackened sky.

The Castle became a swerving blur of colors and shapes, and although I had the sense of us darting forward, I also felt by the tug in my stomach that we were drifting up.

Very, very high up in the air.

His velocity, or perhaps the Castle’s velocity—I couldn’t tell the difference anymore—increased rapidly, and the ribbon in my hair unraveled with a flourish and flew away. Dizzily, I watched it go over Hector’s shoulder, the white silk fading fast into the darkening distance until my nausea became so acute that I had to snap my eyes shut.

“Hector! Let me down!” I shrieked, but I’d fastened my arms so tightly around his neck I doubted he could peel me off him even if he tried.

Hector jumped over the landing andfinallyput me down on my feet by the entrance. I teetered helplessly, raising my hands to cover my head as the chandelier-spangled ceiling hailed a shower of crystals over us. Hector wound an arm around mywaist to keep me steady before he flung the front door open. A furious gust of wind whipped into the hall and thrust both of us back. My hair flew over my face. My dress blew up like a balloon. Then the room slanted, making the door shut and me fall forward. I squealed, watching the marble rise up to hit me in the face, but Hector was quicker, and he managed to wedge his body between me and the floor to soften the impact.

For a moment, I just lay there, right on top of him, with my face buried in the crook of his neck while his two hands held firmly the back of my head.

“You okay?” he shouted so I could hear him over the manic roar of the wind outside the Castle. “Are you hurt anywhere?”

Our limbs entangled, and a fresh wave of embarrassment washed over me. Furiously, I shook my head and pushed myself up to a sitting position. But this was even worse. Now I was straddling him around the hips, with my skirts gathered around my waist and my palms pressing against the hard ridges of his abdomen.

“Get off me,” he grunted, his face heating.

“Well, help me,” I bristled, feeling as flustered as he looked.

In a flash of movement, Hector put me on my feet, then cast his enraged gaze toward the currently swaying ceiling. “Stop this, now!” he roared at the Castle, his clenched fists growing white at his sides. “I said stop moving, damn it!”

The Castle seemed to propel us even higher, making everything inside me drop and flip.

“Well, fuck you too!” Hector exploded, which was a shock all of its own, for I’d never heard him speak in such a manner before.

Shakily, I scrambled past the stairs to the row of windows, hiding under several mismatched draperies. As I drew back a set, a stream of golden light poured into the Castle and nearly blinded me. Squinting against it, I patted for the window’s latch,and when the shuddering glass gave in, I stuck out my head, grabbing onto the sill with both hands.

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