Page 10 of Incandescence

I had no real idea how many other vampires there were, but I’d concluded from the bits I’d learned and unwittingly picked up from the bloodsucker that the vampire race was a rare breed. Of course, being an eternal being, one probably didn’t need progeny to continue the genetic line.

Her smile dimmed. “I never thought to kill him. I just want to cut him so you can drink all that you need. At least until we get to a hospital.”

The only hospital we’d go to if we told humans the truth was a mental hospital, but I’d save that argument for when we got out of the nest. Still, I was suitably impressed she’d realized no cutlery was stored here, no glasses or cups. Nothing that could be used as a weapon. Everything was taken away with each meal.

But there were some things Maya didn’t know. “Too much of his blood will kill me,” I rasped, my belly roiling and cramping with hunger at the thought of sustenance.

“Is that what the monster told you?”

“Yes.”

“And you believed him?”

She had a point. Whatever else the vampire was, he wasn’t a saint. Evil lived inside him, a darkness that left him unable to care for humanity. What were a few lies to keep me even more under his control?

Then she blinked, as if clearing her head, and said, “Lead the way.”

Something flared inside me. Excitement. Hope. Emotions that had too long been dormant. I stepped outside the bathroom and stilled at the vampire’s door. I looked at her. “And if we succeed, what is your plan for the security guard and chef?”

She shrugged, though her eyes gleamed with inner fire. “We’ll wing it. Stab them both if we have to.”

Something beat faster inside me. My heart. It had been too passive, too dreary for too long. Maya’s fierce passion tugged at something deep within, an answering passion and desire to be free. To break away from this forced existence I’d grown accustomed to living.

I nodded and opened the door. I’d been in here before. Of course I had. Someone had to clean the room. Though I’d long ago realized it was the vampire’s way of keeping me busy and out of trouble. After all, it would have been effortless for him to groom another weak-minded mortal to do his dirty work.

Still, I’d only entered once before when he had been sleeping. I’d known it was sacrilege to enter without invitation, but I’d burst into the room anyway, panicking about Sophie slowly dying in the bathroom, her wrists hacked and slashed by a knife the chef hadn’t noticed was missing.

I hadn’t been able to wake him, despite my shouting and swearing. But when the vampire had woken hours later he’d known I’d entered his chambers. There’d been no need for violence. Instead he’d withheld his vein from me, watched dispassionately as I’d writhed on the floor, clutching at my belly.

I had no idea what punishment he’d dealt the chef for the missing butter knife, but the man no longer showed any personality. He was as devoid of life as Sophie had become.

I shrugged away the horrid thoughts and focused on the moment. The room was huge, a master bedroom where the mattress had been removed from its base so that my master could lie comfortably on his back on a pallet. No coffin for this vampire, though I suspected that was another myth.

A telescope sat idle at the huge tinted windows, which were presently blocked by thick, heavy curtains. I knew the sun wasn’t fatal, but it certainly wasn’t comfortable for the vampire, not with his albino complexion and an inability to drink water to rehydrate.

Blood was his one and only staple.

The wall behind his bed had inbuilt shelving that was crammed with old books. Many of those books, I guessed, were even more ancient than the vampire himself. But though I’d often wondered what the books contained—there were no titles on the colored spines—I was forbidden to open and read them. I was only ever allowed to touch them with a duster.

The vampire would know if I opened one, and he’d taken great care to explain I’d face a slow, torturous death if I read even a single page of the tomes.

I stopped at the pallet and stared down at the vampire who’d been my master for so long. The same vampire who’d changed my life dramatically, made me his living, breathing slave and blood donor.

He lay asleep with the smooth, relaxed features of a little boy. I compressed my lips.

Awake or asleep, the vampire’s evil was hidden behind an innocent mask.

Maya handed me the wedge of glass, her voice inflexible. “Don’t overthink it. Just do it.”

I clasped the shard, hatred for the vampire coiling through me, almost as powerful as my hunger. I wondered then if the glass could do more damage than just a little blood loss.

“We need to hurry,” she urged beside me. But it was the giveaway tremor in her voice that made me realize she too suffered from desperate hunger and more than a little fear.

I nodded and clutched the vampire’s arm, slicing a long incision across his wrist. Blood beaded in a thin line and I dropped the shard, careless that it shattered across the floor as I bent and sucked the crimson drops down my throat. I groaned at the flavor that danced across my tongue, savored the trickle that had my synapses snapping to attention and my taste buds rejoicing.

Strength flooded through my system, tearing away the ever-present weakness that had become a part of my everyday life. I’d only had a few sips at most, yet already I felt as if I could take on the world. Conquer it. The rush of power swept away my hunger, even as I was greedy for more.

But, the moment I heard Maya groan, I stopped and turned to face her. She was white with need. I held out the limp wrist that could easily lift a man of my height by the throat. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

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