"I know."
He raised his head slowly; she could sense the question behind those dark lenses. She didn't answer it, as far as she was concerned he didn't have to know how it happened. He already knew who, and why, and that was enough for her. Instead, she remained immobile, frozen beneath his touch. His hand remained against her as it cradled the broken bone just beneath her skin. His touch was far kinder than she had expected from him, he was the one that had allowed this to happen after all.
"And she did this to you?" Aria remained silent, trying to keep the tears in her eyes back. She didn't want him to see them, didn't want him to know that his gentleness unsettled her so much. Especially when she had decided that he was nothing but evil and that she preferred to have nothing to do with him. That she would kill him if given the chance. "Arianna?"
She turned her head away. "Yes."
She could feel the tension that seized him, the anger that locked his bones, and yet his hand against her ribs remained surprisingly gentle. He leaned closer to her, his mouth momentarily pressing against her ear. She could feel the brush of his lips against her skin as he spoke. Though she was determined to hate him, her body betrayed her by pressing closer to him. Instinctively she sought the strength that radiated from him as her heart beat a little faster and her skin tingled for more of his touch. "It won't happen again."
A single tear slid free, a shudder tore through her, neither of which she could hide from him. He wiped the tear away before sweeping her into his arms. Aria gasped, expecting fresh pain to explode through her, but the way he held her kept the expected suffering from coming. It was so gentle, so sweet that she could only gaze up at him in dazed surprise. "Don't."
He didn't respond to her simple word, didn't look at her again as he left the room. Aria tried to squirm against him, tried to break free, tried to feel some irritation again, but she was so beat down, so broken, that she couldn't muster much of a protest. True panic ripped through her when he placed her down in the middle of his room. She tried to jerk free, but he grasped nimbly hold of her wrist and pulled her back.
"You should be watched over. Broken ribs can be dangerous." He said simply, as if this was enough of an explanation for everything that was happening now. It wasn't, but she didn't argue. She simply coveted sleep again, if she could.
They stared at each other for a minute more before he released her wrist. He lifted her smoothly again and placed her down upon the softest, most fantastic thing she had ever experienced. It was only after she sank into the mattress that she realized she was in his bed. Her hands stroked over the thick blanket and silky sheets. It was a little bit of heaven here on earth.
Then, the apprehension kicked in. She was in his bed! She tried to sit up, but pain lanced through her side causing an involuntary groan to escape her. He was at her side instantly; his hands were tender upon her shoulders as he tried to push her back down. She attempted to strain against him, but there wasn't much fight left in her at the moment.
"Rest Arianna, relax, I won't harm you." She eyed him warily, unable to believe him. He released a low, regretful sound as he shook his head at her. "You can't sleep alone tonight, you might puncture a lung. You must be watched over, and since I much prefer my bed, you will be staying here for the night." She gawked at him. He was going to stay in here, with her? She thought her heart was going to leap out of her chest. "I can tape your ribs for you…"
"It's ok, I'll be fine," she assured him quickly. It would be a little too intimate if he did such a thing; it was bad enough he expected them to sleep beside each other tonight. Plus she preferred not to have her ribs taped, especially before going to sleep.
Rolling it up within his grasp he held the nightgown out to her. "Put your arms up."
She frowned at him before gingerly lifting her arms. She strained to keep her face blank as her body screamed in protest. He studied her for a moment before rolling the nightgown over her head with subtle ease. She lowered her arms back down, relief filling her as her body relaxed a little. He adjusted it, pulling the material easily down her legs. Heat flooded her face; she ducked her head as his hand brushed against her thigh.
He quirked an eyebrow at her, but refrained from commenting on her reaction to his touch. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"
She tilted her head as she studied him. "Why would I?"
Frustration darkened his face, his square jaw clenched. "You are to tell me whenever someone mistreats you."
"Don't like it when your property gets bruised?" she retorted angrily.
She didn't know why she was baiting him, didn't know why she was being so rude when he had been nothing but kind to her tonight, but she couldn't stop herself. There was something about him, and this whole situation, that caused a volatile and swift reaction from her. Apparently he hadn't known what Lauren was doing to her, and hadn't condoned the girl's violent actions, but she still couldn't stop the bitterness she felt surging toward him. He had been rude to her when his brother had been here, but she couldn't expect him to be nice to her in public, could she? Aria shook her head; she was too tired and too wounded to even try to wade through the conundrum that was him.
"No, I don't," he replied icily.
She scrutinized him from beneath her lashes. Her question had truly aggravated him. "I didn't mean…" her voice trailed off, she didn't know what to say to him.
"Didn't you?" Aria shook her head, but there were no more words within her. Mainly because she was certain that she owed him an apology, and she hated to be wrong, and hated to say she was sorry. Especially to someone that was her enemy, wasn't he? "Come on, you need to rest."
She lay woodenly upon the bed, her fingers dug into the blanket as he laid it over her. He didn't lie down beside her but stood up, pulled off his coat, and disappeared into the bathroom that she had used upon first arriving. She listened to the water as he washed himself before returning.
"You will have to eat tomorrow."
Though it was a command, his voice was nowhere near as gruff as it had been before. She didn't take offense to the order; in fact she sensed a hint of worry in his tone and demeanor. It warmed her further. Maybe she was far more bewildered and exhausted than she had realized she thought dimly. Especially if she was already feeling as if she could trust him again, when she had so firmly decided that it was the last thing she was ever going to do. "I will."
She closed her eyes and settled in beneath the thick comforter. She had never been in someone else's bed before, let alone a man's, but for some reason this didn't feel wrong. The mattress sank beneath his weight. Aria didn't open her eyes again, despite her determination to stay vigilant, she was already falling asleep. Strangely secure in the bed of a vampire.
- CHAPTER 9 -
"Lauren?" The small blond rose to her feet, a bright smile lit her pretty features.
"Yes Your Highness?" Hope sprang over the girls pretty features as she looked eagerly at him.
Leaning against the doorway, he studied the girl as he fought against the antipathy surging through him. Other than the few times she had arrived to tend to Arianna, he had seen her only a handful of times before. He may have fed off of her in the past, he didn't recall doing so, but her reaction to Arianna's presence here led him to believe that he had. "I'd like to know why you think you have the right to lay your hands on my blood slave, for anything other than to help her in the way that I told you to?"
She looked confused as she frowned at him, but Braith had not missed the alarm that flashed through her eyes. "I don't know what you mean."
"Don't play with me," he growled, losing patience with the girl. "I will not hesitate to kill you." She took an instinctive step back as her fight or flight instinct kicked into gear. "Now tell me, why did you feel you had the right to damage her?"
Her mouth opened and closed for a moment, he could almost see the wheels in her mind spinning as she tried to think of answer. "Your Highness, I uh… I uh…"
"Have we encountered ea
ch other before you were summoned here?"
Tears bloomed in her eyes as her lower lip began to tremble. Her reaction gave him the answer to his question. He didn't feel bad about the fact that the encounter obviously meant more to her than it had to him. What he did feel bad about was the fact that Arianna had suffered abuse because of his forgetfulness, and extreme lack of caring about the girl before him.
Her head fell back as he moved to stand before her. Fear radiated from her, but beneath it all he could sense the distress his obvious disregard of her had caused. "And you felt that gave you the right to treat my property poorly?" he grated.
A single tear slid down her face, her lip began to tremble even more. He was indifferent to her obvious distress, her race meant little to him, and she meant even less. "I am sorry," she whispered.
"Yes, you are. You are not to return here." He grabbed hold of her chin, drawing her attention sharply back to him as her gaze darted to the doorway behind him. He knew that Arianna had entered the room; her presence caused it to brighten considerably. "Don't look at her," he commanded. Apprehension radiated from Lauren as she began to shake within his grasp. "You are to leave here and never return, if you step foot in this palace again you forfeit your life."
The color drained from her already pale face as she swayed unsteadily. Being barred from the palace was a social punishment that would haunt her for the rest of her life. Not only that, but she had just lost the wages and prestige that this job had awarded her. "Do you understand me?" She managed a small nod as she battled back the tears that swarmed her eyes. He released her, disgusted by the feel of her skin beneath his hand. "Get out."
The girl scurried away, shooting only a brief hate filled glance at Arianna before she fled the room. Braith turned toward her, surprised by the severe frown marring her features, and the dark hostility simmering in her eyes. Was this the same girl that he'd woken up to find half sprawled over him, and her hair spread across him? The awkward position had made it difficult to extricate himself without waking her. He'd been half afraid that if she'd woken he wouldn't have been able to stop himself from easing the frustration her body pressed against his had aroused.
She'd been so peaceful and trusting in her sleep that he'd almost forgotten she could be as prickly as a cactus. It was impossible to forget it now. "You didn't have to be so cruel to her."
"Are you defending the girl?" He had to fight to keep the disbelief from his voice.
Arianna tilted her head. The radiance streaming through the windows accentuated the deep red of her hair. She was still wearing the nightgown, but in the sunlight he could see through some areas of it. He didn't think she was aware of the effect the light had upon it, if she had been he was certain she wouldn't be wearing it right now.
Something new began to curdle through him, rising up out of the hopeless pit that had been his soul for so long. Something that had nothing to do with his unfulfilled desire from this morning, or his increasing craving for her blood. He didn't know what was going on with this strange girl, why she affected him like she did, but for the first time he admitted to himself that whatever she did to him was deep and profound. It was something that he had never experienced before.
He knew that she was special, that she caused a strange reaction within him, but for the first time he admitted that he was not going to let her go. He had been keeping her here, under the delusional assumption that he would one day trade her off. He realized now that he never would. He may not be using her in the way that a blood slave was supposed to be used, but he wasn't ever going to allow someone else to use her in that way either.
"I'm not defending her," she responded quietly. "But you didn't have to be so mean to her. You were the one that forgot about her, and then you brought her here to take care of what she mistook as her replacement. That's an awful thing, you hurt her."
His eyes narrowed upon the frail slip of a girl. Was she really scolding him? Was she really questioning his way of life, and the things he did? She was a child for crying out loud, a human child. His hands fisted at his side, he fought the urge to go to her, to shake some fear into her because he was beginning to realize that she didn't have a healthy enough dose of it for him.
"Am I supposed to care?" he grated.
She blinked in surprise, her crystalline sapphire eyes darkened in disbelief. Then, she shook her head, her eyes cleared and her face became blank. Her hands folded demurely before her, but he was beginning to realize that it was just an act. There was nothing demure or weak about this girl, she may play the part well, but there were many layers beneath her docile exterior. "I suppose not," she responded, even her voice had taken on that decorous tone.
"She also harmed you."
Arianna shifted subtly; though she remained outwardly meek he sensed the raw loathing that spiked through her. "That doesn't make what you just did right. You took her job, and her pride, away from her. Two wrongs don't make a right, or at least that's what my dad always told my brothers and me."
Despite his frustration with her, and his growing urge to shake her, his interest was piqued by her words. It was the most she had talked about her family since arriving. "How many brothers?"
Her fingers nervously played with the sleeves of the nightgown. Her gaze was sad and distant as her thoughts turned toward her family. It was the first time she hadn't looked cross or frustrated with him this morning. He found he preferred the animosity to the sorrow that engulfed her now. "Two. Anyway you didn't have to frighten her. She was simply jealous because she thought that I was a threat to her when it came to you."
"And why would she think that?"
She rolled her eyes at him as she folded her arms over her chest. He didn't miss the subtle wince of soreness the action caused her. "I don't know. She was wrong of course; I mean I am most certainly not a threat to her or anyone else. Especially when you were feeding from her…"
"I was what?" he interrupted her rush of words sharply.
Arianna began to fiddle with her nightgown sleeves again, obviously uncomfortable with this topic. "Feeding from her."
"I don't know where you got your information, but it is wrong."
"Oh," she said faintly, her forehead furrowed in consternation. "Oh, I see. I thought…" her voice trailed off, she shook her head. "I must have misunderstood her, or you. I simply assumed that the bites on her were from you."
"You think I would forget her that quickly." She shrugged, but there was a hint of remorse in the set of her shoulders. "You really think that little of me?"
She observed him with a keen new interest. "I don't know what to make of you," she admitted. "I really don't. This whole situation…" She held her hands out before her, her gaze darted over the room before turning back to him. "I don't know what to make of any of it. It's scary and it's disconcerting, and I'm so far out of my league here that I have no idea what is going on. I don't know if you're playing with me while plotting my death. I don't know if this is just the calm before you drain me dry. I don't know what is going on here and it's tearing me up inside! I've heard the stories, and I've seen the damage your kind can do. I don't know how to play these games; I don't understand the hatred and resentment that festers here! How the hell am I supposed to know what to think, or what to do, when I don't even know how much longer I'll be allowed to live?"
Her voice was ragged and filled with raw emotion by the time she stopped speaking. Her shoulders were heaving; her eyes were earnest and pleading. For the first time her façade completely crumbled and he was able to see the terrified, irate girl beneath the timid exterior. She took a ragged breath as her shoulders bowed again. She folded her hands before her and tried to appear sedate once more, but they both knew she couldn't un-ring that bell.
For the first time he began to understand how she truly felt. She had kept so much of it hidden from him, but in that one brief moment she had laid it all bare. He started to see her in a new light, and though he had known something more lay beneath her doc
ile exterior, he began to truly see the pride and heart of this trapped, cornered girl. He felt the stirrings of a new emotion and was surprised to realize that it was sympathy. He'd never felt sympathy for anyone before, and had never thought he would be able to experience it, or ever care to.
"Well, anyway, she thought more of what transpired between the two of you."
Braith clenched his fists, struggling against the strange feelings stirring within him, feelings that would only make him weak, feelings that he could not allow himself to experience. "I don't care what she thought." The words were sharper than he had intended, but he didn't like the thought that the girl had mentioned such a thing to Arianna, and he didn't like the fact that it bothered him.
Her words also served to remind him of the fact that he was hungry. There were a few different women that he would often visit when the thirst came upon him, but he found that the idea of feeding from them wasn't appealing at the moment; especially not when he had Arianna standing across from him looking unbelievably striking, and smelling tantalizingly delicious.
His veins thrummed with hunger, his hands fisted at his sides. He recalled her words about having to take anything from her by force, he wondered if she still felt the same, or if maybe, just maybe, she might allow him to feed from her. He didn't think that was very likely, not when she still looked at him with distrust most of the time. And not when she believed that he tossed women, especially human women, aside like they were nothing. Though, if he were to be honest with himself, he usually did.
He had tried to be as temperate with her as possible, but after the events of today he realized it was going to take a lot more to earn her trust, and he was beginning to understand that he wanted her trust even more than he wanted the alluring blood flowing through her veins. The temperature in the room was suddenly stifling as he became focused upon the temptation of her pulse. If he was going to get that blood, then he was going to have to earn her confidence.
It was strange to realize he was going to have to work for this; he was used to getting whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. He was used to women throwing themselves at him, not ones constantly challenging and refuting him. She wasn't even quite a woman, not yet anyway, she was young, and she had known so little in her short life. Yet she was strong willed, vibrant, and far more willful and captivating than any woman he had ever known.