Across the way, his uncle shifted in his seat, drawing Atticus's eyes to him. Even though five years separated them, his uncle and father looked enough alike that they could be mistaken for twins. His uncle's mouth was fuller than his father's, his eyes were hazel instead of brown, but there was no mistaking the family resemblance between them. Merle's coloring was more like his mother's with his blond hair and dark blue eyes, but his features were very much his father's.
"There will no longer be a king."
Atticus almost choked on his wine at his father's words. Merle's feet dropped onto the ground, his pretense at indifference vanished as he sat straight up in his chair. His eyes were questioning as they shot to Atticus but he didn't speak. "Who will lead us then?" Atticus inquired.
"We will be forming a council. The Council will govern over the vampires, laydown the laws, and make sure that they are carried out."
"Who will be on The Council?" Merle asked.
"The eldest of each of the noble bloodlines will make up the sitting Council." He knew it wouldn't matter if the eldest were male or female. Women had more restrictions placed on them than the men in their world, but nowhere near as many as the human women had placed on them. Vampire women were required to be faithful in a marriage until an heir was produced, but other than that they were considered equals and allowed the same freedoms. Sex didn't matter to vampires; the thing that mattered most amongst them was age. With age came power and that power would be key to any member of The Council. "It is time to put an end to the fighting before we all destroy each other. No one is willing to be king at this time," his father continued.
Atticus didn't blame any of the aristocrats for being unwilling to step up as he took another sip of his wine; he sure wouldn't want the position. The king had to look over his shoulder at all times, had to worry that everyone was out to get him. And if history was any indication, everyone was out to get them. That was no way to live.
"How many members will that be in total then?" Merle inquired.
"Fifty."
"And everyone on The Council will get an equal say?" Atticus inquired.
"Yes."
"That should solve everyone's problems then," he murmured.
"The Council meetings will take place four times a year. The first one will take place in London." That unsettling feeling was starting to fill the pit of his stomach again. "We leave tomorrow at daybreak."
There it was, what he'd been dreading all along. "Well I hope you have a good trip." He knew full well that it wouldn't be that easy, but he was hoping that somehow he would be able to avoid this trip. Even Merle gave him a look that clearly stated, good try but that is never going to happen, as a snort of laughter escaped him.
"You will be coming with us," his father stated flatly, not at all amused by his attempt to avoid going. "You're no longer going to be allowed to shirk your responsibilities. I've allowed you too much freedom these past few years but it's time to step up now and take responsibility."
His jaw clenched as resentment slid sinuously through him. Thoughts of Genny flooded his mind; his hands fisted, he had to fight the urge to smash them onto the table and refuse to go. There was no choice in this matter though, there never had been, not for him. He'd been born into this life and though he'd had the luxury of wealth and privilege, he'd never had any freedom to make his own choices.
"How long?" he grated through clenched teeth.
"A week, two at most," his father replied casually.
Atticus almost jumped up from his chair; his hands remained clenched in his lap as he forced himself to remain calm. He was supposed to accept this. If it had been just days ago he still wouldn't have liked the idea of going, but he also wouldn't have felt like bashing the table to pieces with his bare hands. As he forced his hands to unclench all he could think about, all he could remember was the smell of asters clinging to Genny's skin.
What was wrong with him? He'd known the woman for two days but he couldn't shake her from his system. Maybe the best thing that could happen was to get away from her for a couple of weeks, get his head together. Even as he thought it, he had to fight the urge to go back into the woods to find her. To tell her he was leaving but he would be coming back. But she wouldn't be in the woods right now and to hunt her down at her house could only frighten her away. He wasn't sure he would blame her if it did. Besides he wasn't about to start chasing after a woman he barely knew; he would see her when he returned.
He forced himself to his feet. "I must go pack then."
Turning on his heel, he left the room before his father could say anything more.
***
The servant dropped his trunk into the corner of the room before hurrying out. Atticus walked over to the window slit to stare at the meadow of grass blowing in the wind. They were at his Uncle Thaddeus's manor on the outskirts of London but his mind was still on his father's home to the south.
"I think we should take this as our chance to escape." He glanced over his shoulder at Merle before looking back out the window again. At any other time he would have taken the first chance he got to get away from his father and uncle. Now all he wanted was to escape his own skin, it felt as if it wasn't even his anymore. He had no idea what was wrong with him but it had to stop before he tore the flesh from his body.
"Atticus?"
"Yes, let's," he murmured. Maybe getting out into the world that he knew so well, and had always belonged in, would help him to shake the strange sensations growing within him.
He turned away from the window, grabbed his cloak from where he had tossed it on the bed and followed Merle from the room. They retrieved their horses from the stable and rode the three miles into the crowded London thoroughfares. They kept to the side streets, avoiding the main roads in favor of the seedier areas of town that vampires often frequented.
Merle stopped outside of a gaming hall they'd both been to multiple times a couple of years ago. He handed his reins over to the vampire stable boy that had been lurking in the shadows and followed Merle down a set of stairs to the door tucked below. If a human had passed by the hall they never would have noticed it there, and if they did notice it they would never make it inside. If they somehow did manage to get in, they wouldn't survive to tell the tale. It was easy for people to go missing in this area of the city and never have their whereabouts questioned.
At the bottom of the stairs, Merle knocked three times before pausing and knocking twice more on the door. A small window at the top pulled back, a pair of beady brown eyes peered out at them before the window slammed shut. Metal screeched against metal as the bolts in the door were slid open and a dwarf vampire opened the door to give them entrance. The beady black-eyed guard that had opened the window stood behind the dwarf. His face had been twisted into a permanent scowl by a vicious looking scar that ran from the center of his forehead, down the bridge of his nose, lips and chin. Whatever had happened to the man had been bad enough that the scar still hadn't faded away.
"Welcome milords," the vampire dwarf greeted and bowed to them as beady eyes closed and locked the door again. "It's our pleasure to have you here tonight. I'm sure you will be able to find anything you require within, but if there is anything special," he said the word in a tone that made Atticus curious about what more could be offered that wasn't already here. He didn't want to find out as he knew there were things within these walls that he'd never tried before, and had no intention of trying. "You need only let me know and I will procure it for you."
"Thank you," he said and turned away from the small man. "I'm sure we will be fine."
The dim candlelight inside flickered over the blood red cloth that covered the walls. It cast a reddish haze throughout that did little to illuminate the shadowed corners. He suspected the color and sparse lighting were supposed to help set the mood for the vampires and humans gathered within to exchange blood and sex, for a price. It was an unnecessary visual reminder as the scent alone was enough to reinforce the club's purpose
. The room reeked of the mineral scent of testosterone, the sweeter aroma of human blood and the musky scent of arousal just like every other club he'd been in over the years. Every club had their differences of course but no matter what country it was in, or what language was spoken within them, they were all basically the same.
The thirty or so vampire men gathered within this building were amongst the wealthiest and most powerful in the land. There might be some members of The Council within, but for the most part the men in this room were their offspring, nephews, cousins, and so on. Most were men that got to experience the life of money and luxury without the responsibilities that came with it. He envied their ability to do as they pleased, he would never know what that was like.
There were probably one or two others within that were as trapped as he and Merle were. His uncle Nyles was on The Council, not because of the line he shared with Atticus's father, but because he was a stand-in for Merle's mother's side of the family. She had been lost in a fire fifteen years ago and Merle had been too young to take her place. As the only living member of his mother's line, one day Merle would rise to take his father's place, but he wasn't in any rush to do so and his uncle Nyles wasn't in any hurry to step aside.
When he'd entered this building the last time, excitement and lust had burst through him at the promise of what was within. Now his stomach churned with disgust and it took all he had not to walk out, but there were appearances to be kept and reputations to uphold amongst his kind.
Grinding his teeth together, he brushed off the grasping hand of a human. When she grabbed for him again, his lip curled in a snarl that sent her reeling backward a few feet. The nearly transparent, sheer red skirt she wore hung enticingly low on her hips and almost tripped her up. His gaze raked over her half-naked body but instead of finding her exposed breasts appealing, he felt as cold as an English lake in January. The brown eyes of the woman across from him became a pair of raven colored eyes, her pale blond hair blurred into a shimmering black that reflected the glow of the sun.
He shook his head in an attempt to clear it of the disconcerting mirage and turned away from the woman. "If I didn't know you so well, I'd think perhaps you had decided that it was no longer women that appealed to you with the way you've been behaving," Merle said with a nudge of his elbow. "If that's the case though, there are plenty of men in here to keep you entertained."
It was a comment he would have laughed off before, now he had to bite back a sharp retort as he fought the urge to drive his fist into his cousin's grinning face. He turned away from Merle and made his way over to a dim corner of the room. Leaning against the wall, he folded his arms over his chest and stared around the crowded room. Though most of the vampires waited for their turn to go into the back rooms with the human men and women, there was a few that weren't so discreet in the recessed alcoves of the room. He could hear their panting and moans, but what had once been something that wouldn't have bothered him, now made his skin feel as if centipedes were crawling over it.
The men and women who worked in here had been brought up with the sole purpose of knowing how to please the men that entered these clubs. The aristocratic and noblewomen that weren't married, or had been set free from their marriages, had their own clubs to go to, but he imagined they were much the same as the men's clubs. Maybe even worse from what he knew of women.
The experienced professionals in here weren't what he desired right now though. In fact, his thirst for anything within this building was about as much as it would have been for the gutter rats running through the shipyards. Unfortunately, his hunger could not be denied.
Another blond approached him but he shook his head at her and pointed to a brunette across the room. "Send her over," he commanded gruffly.
The woman nodded and hurried away from him. He spotted Merle in a chair with two half-naked women sitting in his lap. He took hold of the wrist of another standing behind him and drew it forward to rest it on his chest. The women giggled and laughed as they fawned over his good looks and known prowess. There was nothing his cousin enjoyed more than a beautiful woman; it would probably be his downfall one day as there was no one he refused to bed, not even the married ones. To be fair though, just weeks ago Atticus had been much the same way and would have had a couple of women sitting in his lap too by now.
The brunette that approached him had dark brown hair, deep brown eyes and an enticing figure. She wasn't even close to the woman he really wanted but she would do for now. Taking hold of her wrist, he tugged the woman into the back hall and past the closed doors to one of the open ones near the end. In every club there were always a few more elaborately adorned and larger rooms set aside for the nobility. He entered one of those rooms now but he barely noticed the massive bed, or the silk hangings lining the walls.
She smiled seductively at him when he closed the door but he grabbed hold of her hands before she could touch him. "I'm only here for your blood," he growled at her.
Disappointment filled her face as she took a step away and ran her gaze over him. "Oh."
Even though she was being denied what she wanted, she brushed the hair back from her neck to expose the vein that pulsed just below the surface of her skin. His eyes latched onto it but when he caught her vanilla scent, he realized that he couldn't stand to move any closer to her. Lifting her wrist, he sank his fangs into the inviting blue vein. She winced but didn't try to jerk away from him. Unable to look at her anymore, he closed his eyes and drank deeply.
- CHAPTER 6 -
June 15, 1050
It's been almost two weeks since I last saw Atticus. I don't know what I expected. I had said I was being a silly girl and yet despite all of my reservations, I still got my hopes up. I'm a fool, I know it, but I still couldn't help myself. Life is full of disappointments and now it is time to move on. The only problem is that I find myself struggling to do so. For someone I'd known for only two short days, he managed to dig his way beneath my skin and he's still festering there like a bad splinter.
The other night Felix's beating was exceptionally brutal, I'd brought him more money than I usually do, but it still wasn't enough to ward him off. He broke my forearm this time. It's healing well enough now but I couldn't move it yesterday and there are still faint purple and yellow marks upon it. The beating was so bad this time that I wasn't able to go to town for two days. I was able to return there yesterday though and I took three good-sized purses. I buried two of the purses out in the woods with some of the stash for Camille and I. The minute Camille stops aging we'll have enough money to get us far from here, and established somewhere else. I'm counting down the days until then but it cannot come fast enough.
I think Felix's temper was even fouler than normal because Marie hadn't been home for two days. She returned last night though, with a pouch full of money for him in order to smooth things over. I didn't ask where she got the money from, and Felix didn't seem to care either. The money, and her return to this hovel, was too late to keep him from coming so violently after me though, but that's not something that she has ever cared about.
Camille has gone off to watch the orphaned vampire children again. She doesn't bring in much money by doing so but we'll take anything at this point. I must go into the woods today to find something to feed on. I never got the chance yesterday, as I had to spend most of my time stealing for Felix. Feeding today should speed up the recovery process with my arm, but I know the real reason I want to return to spend some time in the woods is that maybe he will return today.
I really am just a silly, fool.
***
Genny pushed back the branch on a tree and climbed down the embankment to the clearing. Moving aside a rock that weighed about fifty pounds, and was settled at the base of an elm, she checked to make sure that the money hidden beneath it hadn't been touched. There were ten separate spots throughout the forest where she hid the money she stole. Just in case someone stumbled upon one of her stashes, they wouldn't be able to take all of t
he money if she had it safely spread out.
She put the rock back into place and rose to her feet. Striding across the clearing in the woods, she slipped into the trees that had offered her so much comfort and solace over these past months living with Felix. She slid down a hill to the edge of the riverbank where she discovered a deer drinking from the stream. Striking faster than a snake, she took the animal down before it even knew that she was there. She took her fill of the doe before releasing it to the woods.
Her head tilted back, her shoulders relaxed as she absorbed the sun filtering through the leaves above. She lifted her broken arm and turned it over; flexing her hand she was relieved that the motion no longer caused her any discomfort. Turning her attention away from her arm, she reached down to undo her belt so that she could pull off her tunic. She placed the belt over a tree branch, pulled her heavy tunic off and draped it over the end of a log that had fallen across the river. Bending down, she undid the laces of her boots before pulling them off and dropping them on the bank.
She relished in the air moving through the much thinner linen material of her chemise as it slid over her heated flesh. When she was in the forest, she didn't have to be concerned about money or Felix's next beating. When she was here she could just be alone, she could relish in the beauty of nature that surrounded her and the peace that it gave to her.
Placing her hands on top of the moss covered tree she lifted herself onto it and walked out to the middle of the log. She settled herself onto the log and dipped her toes into the cool water running beneath her. Slowly kicking her feet back and forth, she smiled as droplets of water flew from her toes to the stream beyond. The drops caused little circles to break across the surface of the river. It was all normally calm and relaxing, but she couldn't shake the discomforting feeling that had settled in the pit of her stomach since the last time she'd seen Atticus.