After a long drive the car finally came to a stop and the chauffer opened the door to let me out. With every minute that passed I grew even more frightened of what was to come. I reached my hand out for the chauffer to grab and he escorted me up a flight of stairs. The air outside smelled crisp and there was a cold breeze that I could feel on my skin. The breeze tossed my hair about my face.
“Where am I?” I asked.
“Draven Manor,” The chauffer answered.
“Draven…I know that name.”
I tried to remember where I knew the name Draven from but it didn’t come to me. I was handed off to a second person that instructed me to watch my step. Wood. Wood floors. Next I was taken through a house that had an old musky smell and the temperature was less than sixty degrees.
“Where are the others? I don’t hear the others.”
“You’ll be joining them shortly,” a second gentleman replied.
“Oh, okay.” I smiled. There was a long silence and then the gentleman shifted nervously. He quietly guided me through another hall and for the first time since leaving the comfort of my home I was scared. “Can I call my family?”
“I’m afraid not Madame.”
I was taken to a room and placed in a chair. I could hear the gentleman leave the room and close the door behind him. I started to get up when I heard a noise. There was someone else in the room. I strained my ears to follow the person’s movements but there were none. I struggled to hear the person breathe and couldn’t hear that either.
“Is anyone there?” I asked. I waited for an answer but it never came. A fierce wind blew past me and I whipped my head in that direction, “Hello?”
Again there was a long silence. I started to get up when a strong hand pushed me back down into my seat startling me. “Good afternoon Giselle. Do you know who I am or why you’re here?” A man asked.
“This is a home for the impaired. I’m here to learn to be more self sufficient,” I answered, adding, “And no, I don’t know who are you?”
There was silence on his end for a moment and then he spoke, “Well I suppose that’s the best they could come up with for what they’ve done,” he drawled. His voice was strong and his tone was deliberate with an heir of confidence. He continued, “I am Viktor Draven, and you’re not in a home for the impaired. Your stepmother Elizabeth has given you to my son Darius Draven, who is indisposed at the moment, as an offering. I am accepting you on his behalf until he’s ready for you.”
Offering. Not an institute of learning, but an offering. The words echoed in my mind drowning everything out until all that was left was that one damning word…offering. Suddenly the name Draven rang familiar. The Draven’s were Lords over my faction.
“Surely there’s been some mistake,” fear and confusion anchored me to my seat, “there has to be.”
Viktor like the man before him was quiet. He was so quiet that I couldn’t hear him anymore. I wondered if he was still there.
“I’m blind so if you’re still there, please speak,” I swallowed hard.
“There’s been no mistake Giselle. Your father and my son had many dealings together. Your father also owes my son a great deal of money, but it appears your stepmother has squandered it all and run your family fortunes into the ground,” he explained, “She has offered your life in exchange for clearing your family’s debt.”
I swallowed hard.
She sold me to the damn night-dwellers? Expendable…that’s what I was to her…and now I’m to be a slave to one of these creatures.
A computer chimed to life and I could hear his fingers tapping at a rather high speed. As if I needed any more reminders that I was no longer in the company of humans.
“You’re trembling dear,” Viktor grabbled hold of my hands. I flinched letting out a small gasp and quickly tried to regain my composure. I didn’t want to show any sign of fear. His hands were ice cold to the touch.
“There must be some kind of mistake. I was under the impression that I was going to a home for the impaired…a human home,” I repeatedly. Within moments I was on my feet trying to find my way to the door. My hands frantically touched everything until I found what felt like a door handle, but before I could open it I felt his icy fingers wrap around mine, removing my grip.
“That’s not the way out,” he told me. I backed away from the door and allowed Viktor to take me back to my seat.
What had I done to be sent here like this? I couldn’t even defend myself against them. Even if I could I still wouldn’t be strong enough.
“Your father was a fine man unlike the rest of your kind. Working with him restored my hope in humanity. For him, rather than locking you in a cell, you will be given a fine room and amenities. If you try to flee, you will die, and if you try to harm any of us in any way, you will die. Have I made myself clear?”
I gave him a slight nod. It was all I could manage as I let what she’d done to me sink in. Damaged. I was damaged and like all damaged things she opted to get rid of me.
I thought about Eliza and Lucas. They were so worried about me. Did they know what was happening? Did they know what she’d done? I was disposable, not them. She could have sold any number of things in order to settle my father’s debts, her debts. I bet she didn’t even try to think of anything else. She couldn’t part ways with her material things, but a damaged seventeen year old girl who belonged to the man she claimed to love…that she could part ways with. Tears formed in my eyes.
“Lord Darius is ready for her now,” A woman’s voice announced to the room. Strong arms nudged me out of my seat and a warm, petite hand slid into mine. Human. She was human.
I took a deep breath and swallowed hard. Holding my head up high I clenched the girls hand to make sure I didn’t lose track of her. Not here. Not with so many of them stalking about ready to devour me.
“Ms. Mason, I will be your assistant. My name is Cara.” The human girl introduced herself.
“Assistant?” I breathed, “Assistant for what?”
“To guide you and help you while you’re here.”
“With them? I’m staying here…with them?”
“Yes. The Draven’s have taken the liberty of preparing you a room next to Lord Darius Draven since it is he you are promised to.”
“I…I’ve never kept company with a night-dweller before.”
“Don’t worry. They’re a very serious sort and they lack a sense of humor at times, but for the most part they are just like humans,” Cara explained, “Minus the wanting to eat us and drink all of our blood part. Watch their eyes. They always stare at the veins in your neck.”
Again I swallowed hard. God help me. “I’ll remember that if I ever gain my sight,” I joked.
“Oh shoot, that’s right. Forgive my absentmindedness. Although I must say…you get along awfully well for a blind person.”
We moved from carpet to hard wood floors and then we came to a stop in a room that was even colder than the rest of the house. I was made aware of the presence of someone else in the room as the sounds of a pen scrawling across paper caught my attention.
There was a long silence and I lost track of where he was as his pen stopped scraping across paper. “What are you waiting for? Come.” A man in the room told us. His voice was rich, deep, and commanding.
Cara gripped my hand and brought me closer. She helped me sit down in a seat and then she went to step away but I quickly grabbed her hand again, “ Where are you going?” I asked her.
“I’ll be right outside,” she assured me.
I hesitated for a moment then let go of her hand. I listened as her feet took her to the door and then it closed behind her. She stopped just outside the door. She was right outside just like she said she’d be.
“I should have known better than to trust your stepmother,” Darius spoke from across the table. He wasn’t writing or doing anything I could detect with my ears. He must be staring at me.
“What do you mean?”
Silence. There was nothing but frightening, unnerving silence. He finally spoke, “My name is Darius, and you must be…?”
“Giselle…Giselle Mason.”
“Giselle,” he spoke my name contemplatively, “You look familiar.”
“My father is Silas Mason.”
“Ah, yes. Your father is a good man,” his pen finally began scratching across paper again, “How he ended up with the likes of Elizabeth is beyond me. And now that he’s dead it appears as if your life is forfeit. I asked for a healthy offering, are you healthy Giselle?”
I swallowed hard, “Um…yes.”
“How long have you been damaged?”
I winced at the word he used to describe me. I had half a mind not to reply to him, but my fear of him outweighed my anger at the moment. Still, I said, “I’m not damaged, I’m special. Unique.”
“You’re blind, which makes you a liability. If your stepmother thinks sending me a blind girl settles our debts then she’s sorely mistaken,” he ranted, “It’s insulting is what it is.”
He was no different than she was. They both discounted me because of my blindness and I’m sick of it. I’m sick of being talked down to like a child and treated like I’m nothing. Letting my anger get the best of me, I decided to give him a piece of my mind. “What should be insulting is the lack of whit you displayed by not doing your homework before entering into such an agreement. Had you have done so, this blind, damaged girl wouldn’t be sitting before you giving you a much-needed lesson in business dealings,” I quipped.
More silence. He was probably circling me right now trying to figure out the best way to end my life. Whatever. As long as I don’t have to become his slave. I’d welcome death at this point.
“It says here you’ve been blind since you were a child.”
Damn. He was still sitting on the other side of the desk. I guess death will have to wait for now. “Yes, my mother was in an accident that killed her and I was left blind,” I told him, “She died on the delivery table.”
“That’s tragic. But I’m sure she wouldn’t have had it any other way. Humans and their maternal instincts…it takes precedence over their self-preservation.”
“Should it not?” I asked, offended.
“I didn’t mean to offend you, it’s just that for our kind it’s the exact opposite.”
“Well we can’t all be savages,” I narrowed my eyes in the direction his voice came from. “Perhaps your kind hasn’t found anything worth dying for…other than the thirst for blood I mean. Which, by the way, is completely selfish if I may point that out.”
“Hm,” Darius scoffed, “How very astute of you Ms. Mason. I think Draven manor has acquired its first rebel.”
I tried to fight it but I couldn’t. Night-dwellers are dangerous, lethal creatures whose cunning abilities alone could disarm you. I should be running away in fear, and yet, my lips curled up into a smile. I’d never really thought of myself as much of a rebel. I mean come on…I’m blind, terribly thin and I have the coordination of an old woman.
“Come, I’ll show you to your room,” he offered. I waited for him to grab my hand and when he did, again I let out a small gasp. His hands were even colder than his fathers.
As we walked, I counted the steps it took to get me from his office to my room and noted any turn we took. All together it was about forty-seven steps. The bottom of my shoes made a clunking sound as they thudded across the wood floor.
We came to a stop and he placed my hand on the doorknob to my room. I familiarized myself with it and opened the door. Finally…an ounce of warmth in this place.
“You have your own bathroom, the room is fully furnished and as you probably already know, Cara will be your attending.” Lord Darius spoke from behind me.
He guided me around the room and helped me familiarize myself with where everything was. There was a desk to the left when you first walked in, a large bed big enough to fit at least four people in across the room and a vanity to the left of the bed.
As I ran my fingertips over the hand mirror, the brush, comb and bottles of perfume on the vanity the reality of why I’m here sunk in. I was his offering. Beyond his feeding on me, I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant.
“Forgive me Lord Darius, but might I ask you a question?”
“Yes.”
“As your offering, what is it that I’m expected to do?” I swallowed hard, “You’re to feed from me, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Does it hurt?”
“Yes.”
Again I swallowed hard. Everything about them was so inviting. They were graceful, elegant, and poised. Not savage. Not from what I could tell. But what do I know? I’d never encountered one of their kind before. My father prepared me for so much in life, but he never prepared me for this. He probably never thought it would be necessary.
“What else am I to do for you?” I dared to ask.
“Whatever I ask of you,” he replied, “tell me, have you been broken in?”
“Broken in?” My brows pursed together in confusion.
“Sexually,” he clarified. I shuddered and took a step back, “have you had any partners?”
“N-no.”
“Human or immortal?” He seemed surprised.
“No one.”
“So I will be your first then?”
He said it so eloquently and nonchalantly that I almost didn’t catch it. My knees buckled, but he caught me with his strong hands before I could hit the floor and carried me over to the edge of my bed. I’ve never even kissed or held hands with a boy before and now this…monster was free to violate me whenever he saw fit?
“My first?” I clasped my hand over my chest, “but I’ve never even touched a boy that wasn’t my brother before. I can’t have a first. Not with you. You’re not even…”
I couldn’t finish my thought. It would insult him and at the moment I was at his mercy. “I’m not what?” He sounded calm, “Human?”
Oh God. He’s offended. His tone is calm, but I can sense his irritation with me. I haven’t been here for more than thirty minutes and I’ve already offended him. As prickly as these creatures seem to be, Darius hasn’t tried to hurt me yet. The last thing I want to do is start this…whatever this is off on a bad note.
“Prickly? Cactuses are prickly,” Darius responded to my thoughts. I jumped of bed and panic gripped my entire body. Did I speak my thoughts out loud? “No, but I can hear them,” he explained, “I’ve accepted you into my home and so far you’ve likened me to both a monster and being prickly. I don’t know which description offends me most.”
Immediately I dropped to my knees and pressing my head into the floor, begging him for his forgiveness. “Please, forgive me.”
“For what? For telling the truth about what you think of me?”
“For having those thoughts.”
“Rise girl,” his icy fingertips, lifted me up off my knees, “I don’t offend easily and I’ve been called worse.”
“Still, I’m so sorry.”
“Breakfast is at eight every morning, lunch is at noon and dinner is at six,” he rattled off a meal schedule to me, “If you miss any of those meals you’ll starve. I like my companions with meat on their bones.”
Companion. I was his companion to do whatever he wished to do with me. His slave…his offering. If I ever got out of here I’d offer Elizabeth both middle fingers and then all ten of my bare knuckles. Or maybe just the ones from my right hand…twice.
“Thank you.” I flashed him a fake smile.
No footsteps. He had no footsteps. The only indication I had that he’d left the room was the sound of the door closing behind him. Lethal indeed.
The bathroom was to my right. On the right side of my bed a few feet away was the door to a deck. I opened the door and stepped outside to let the air hit my face. I followed the deck and discovered a bench, where I sat down to listen to the birds chirp. There were cars nearby and water…it sounded like a fountain.
As I sat there thinking about my plight, one thing was clear. I had to get out of here. Only I hadn’t the slightest idea how. I didn’t know the layout well enough and even if I did get out I didn’t know which way took me to the front gates. There’s no way a night-dweller is touching me.
ns 15.158.61.37da2
