Page 15 of Vampires of Eden: Oliver
“I apologize, your grace, but apparently, I do, because you are brazenly coming on to me from across a crowded room full of rigid dignitaries, and while you sit beside your fiancé. What are you thinking, exactly? What is your objective?”
Coming on to him? My throat is tight as I rub my palms against my face. An intense heat rushes up my neck. “I don’t have an objective! I just—” I drop my hands and look at him.
What do I say?
Aries watches carefully. His square shoulders rise and fall in a breath. He straightens his spine. “Your grace, while I’m very flattered, I… don’t appreciate being manipulated, or subjugated by your power without my consent. Please don’t ever force your aura on me. And if you’re thinking that you’d like to take liberties with the hired help before you’re officially bonded, my apologies, but I don’t engage in those sorts—”
“Oh for God’s sake—no, it’s nothing like that!” The weight of his words and how I look from his perspective crashes down on me. Depleted, I sit on the edge of his bed.
This is what comes from living a sheltered life. From being escorted to various rooms within your own home and having your books and electronics taken away as punishment for producing tangible thoughts. From being painfully secluded and unable to experience the world.
After taking a deep breath in, I blow it out. These truths are humiliating, so I stare down at my feet to avoid his direct gaze. “I-I would never force my aura onto you or subjugate you. I’m not making excuses, but I… My existence is very sterile. I don’t leave the estate without multiple escorts and my schedule is planned out for me every day. I’m not allowed to do anything or go anywhere or meet anyone of my own will, so I…”
Gripping the edge of the mattress in my palms, I take another breath. “When I met you, I felt something in my nature. Organically and for the first time in my life. But I was sloppy in controlling myself. I sincerely apologize for my behavior today. And I—I’ll make sure to do better going forward. Thank you for telling me honestly like this.”
There it is. I’m a naïve idiot. My only hope now is that he doesn’t complain to Lord Blakeley. That would be devastating. I can’t imagine what he’d do to me.
Standing from the bed, I walk forward, refusing to look at him as I pass.
“Why don’t you have a phone?” he asks, surprising me. “You used to have a social media account, didn’t you?”
Hesitating, I meet his gaze. “I did. But Lord Blakeley confiscated it. How… did you know I had an account?”
“Because I research my clients before accepting a job. Why did he take it, if I may ask?”
I rub my palm against the back of my neck. “He was upset about some photos that I took.”
“The ones from the Evanshire Summer Fête with the derelict houses and abhorrent living conditions for ranked vampires?”
My heart skips as I suck in a breath. “You saw them? I thought he had them taken down?”
“Indeed, he did.” Aries turns, then walks over to the bench on the adjacent wall. He sits, and I can’t help but admire his perfect posture as he casually folds his arms. “But nothing online ever really disappears, does it? Several international news outlets republished those photos with corresponding articles. Did they not ask for your permission?”
This surprises me, and I shake my head. “No, but I… They wouldn’t have been able to reach me.”
“They credited you, regardless. I also found the scathing editorial essay that you wrote for theEden Gazetteseveral years ago.”
Lifting a palm, I want to clarify. “I-I didn’t write that for theGazette, technically. My tutor at the time took me on a trip to the Eden Museum of Art History and asked me to write a report about it afterward. So, I did, and, well… she secretly submitted it to the paper.” After which, she was promptly and forever banished from the Eden aristocracy.
She’s in Thailand now. I envy her.
“I can certainly see why she would. It was thoughtful and unprecedented—especially from the mind of a young Eden purebred. A quality exposé on pilfered art. And the photos you took at the summer fête spoke volumes toward the inequalities between purebreds and ranked vampires across your aristocracy. It was a narrative both haunting and poignant.”
Wow. “Thank you very much for saying that.”
“May I ask how you acquired those shots?”
I think back to that hot summer day. A rare moment when there was enough chaos for me to slip away and be alone while outside of the castle. “Evanshire was having their annual summer fête—which the Akuffo Clan throws a bunch of money into once a year for the sake of showing off to the other, lesser purebred families, like ours…”
In talking about this, the usual, frustrated feelings boil over. I shouldn’t be frank with him, but I can’t dance around this topic and play ignorant like everyone else does. It drives me crazy. “There were champagne and wine fountains set up in the old town center—hugeones, continuously flowing with real alcohol! They’d hired and flown in chefs from Italy, France and Spain to make specialty cuisine. It was ridiculous, especially considering we don’t even need to eat to survive as purebreds. It felt lavish and wasteful, so I decided to wander through the outskirts of the town.
“Beyond the city center, the houses and buildings were practically falling apart. The contrast was awful. I met a local vampire while I was walking—Roland, and he was really kind. He told me that he was working on rehabbing one of the houses. I asked if I could see it. He said yes, and I took photos along the way.”
I shrug, because the rest is history.
Aries’s midnight-blue eyes consider me as he sits with his long legs crossed at the knees and his arms still folded. “Your caption, ‘A Tale of Two Evanshires,’ did you write that as well?”
“I did. It felt like two different places. One for the purpose of impressing Eden’s ‘elite purebreds,’ and the other, a village in ruins. Vampires actually live there, and it shouldn’t look that way.”
