The demon child who had beat the living tar out of Rhiannon was doing her best to repeat the process as Rhiannon knelt beside a bathtub, trying to wash the grime from the little beastie. Other vampires aboard the ship that was their temporary home, had taken on the challenge of the others, and she couldn’t help but wonder if they were having more luck than she was.
“I know you can understand me,” she said, holding the powerful child’s arms as she kicked and splashed water everywhere. “I don’t know if you can speak, but I know you can understand.”
The girl wrenched one hand free, swung it and hit Rhiannon in the jaw. Rhiannon flew backward into the wall, but sprang to her feet again as the little girl launched herself out of the tub and landed in a ready crouch in front of her.
“I do not want to fight with you. I am not your enemy. The people who raised you were liars. And you will never be made to fight, nor kept in a cage ever again.”
The child’s frown was deep, her lips trembling, and her breaths came rapidly. “What mean...cage?”
“Your room. Where you lived. Where I found you.” Rhiannon edged toward the bathroom door and opened it. “You get to live here now. With me. Until we find an even nicer place.”
“I no live with vamper,” she said. “I kill vamper.”
“Vampire,” Rhiannon corrected.
Roland hopped into the doorway, and when Rhiannon turned, she saw him holding one hand over his eyes, and extending a hand with a chocolate bar in it. The little girl attacked her while she was looking the other way, but Rhiannon caught the top of her head and held her at arm’s reach.
“Enough!” she shouted, and the vampiric power in her voice stunned the child into stillness.
Rhiannon pulled her arm away, looking down at the claw marks and shaking her head. Roland came hopping in, keeping his eyes averted until he’d tossed the girl a towel. “Wrap that around you. I have something for you.”
The little girl obeyed, which shocked Rhiannon to no end. She wrapped up in the towel, staring at Roland’s leg.
“Where gone, you leg?” she asked.
“A big fish ate it. Here,” Roland said, unwrapping the chocolate bar. “This is for you. To eat.”
“Hungry,” The girl said.
“Well, take it then.”
She looked suspiciously at Rhiannon as she edged forward, one hand holding up her towel, her black hair soaked and still tangled, but clean, dripping down her back. She snatched the chocolate bar from Roland’s hand and brought it near her face, sniffing at it, before taking a bite.
And then the look on her angry little face turned into one of rapture. Her eyes widened, and she gobbled the rest of the bar, then licked her fingers and chocolate coated lips.
“Now,” Roland said, “If you will try to be a good girl and do as we say, I will give you one of those every single day for the rest of your life. Would you like that?”
She nodded.
“We’re not going to hurt you,” he said. “Not ever.”
She lowered her head. “Hurt...when don’t fight well.”
“You never have to fight again.”
The girl lifted her head. Rhiannon noticed how dark her eyes were. Almost as dark as her own. And her hair, just as black. Like the wing of a raven. She might even have a bit of Egypt in her poor, mixed up DNA.
“Your life will be good now,” Rhiannon said, moving closer to Roland, sliding an arm around his waist. “You will have anything you desire, from now on.”
The little girl blinked as if trying to understand, and Rhiannon thought the poor child probably couldn’t even think of a thing to ask for. Then she saw something beyond Rhiannon, and her little eyes rounded. “Who is it?” she asked, pointing at her own reflection in the mirror.
Rhiannon moved beside her. “That’s you. See? Wave your hand, like this.” She demonstrated. The child copied, her eyes widening when her reflection did the same. “It’s just a piece of glass people made so they could see what they look like. It’s called a mirror.”
“But...I no see you.”
“Mirrors don’t work on vampires, child.”
She didn’t seem to understand that, but Rhiannon thought it was all right. The little girl touched her own tangled hair, then turned to look at Rhiannon’s.
Rhiannon smiled. “Would you like your hair to be like mine?”
She nodded, wary, untrusting.
“I can do that,” Rhiannon said. “Come with me. I’ll tell you a story while I comb your hair. And you can meet my friend, Pandora. She’s going to love you.” She held out a hand.
The little girl looked at it for a long moment. And then she lifted her own little hand and slipped it into Rhiannon’s.
Something in Rhiannon’s heart seemed to hiccup as she closed her hand around the much smaller hand of the little girl.
Her little girl.
“I think I shall call you Nikki. Short for Rhianikki, which was my name long ago. Would you like that? Nikki?”
Staring into Rhiannon’s eyes for a long time, the little girl seemed to think on that. And then, very slowly, she smiled.
The End
For now....
Continue reading for an excerpt from
TWILIGHT VENDETTA
Chapter One