Sometime that evening I awaken and Darius is nowhere to be found. Just as I’m sitting up, Cara pokes her head into the room to check on me.
“Oh good, you’re already awake,” she smiles, “So how was your first time?”
I blush. It wasn’t at all what I expected it to be. In a lot of ways it actually exceeded my expectations. I imagined it would be rough and passionless, but it wasn’t. Darius isn’t the Neanderthal I imagined him to be as a husband. He’s actually quite attentive.
After several moments with no response from me she utters words that fill me with dread, “Well, it sounded pretty intense.”
I whip my head in her direction and my mouth drops open, “You heard us?”
“No, I heard you,” she chuckles.
Embarrassed I palm my face, “Oh God. That’s so embarrassing,” I continue turning a bright shade of red, “how many people heard?”
“Pretty much everyone on the east coast,” she teases.
I throw a pillow at her, “Shut up!”
“I’m just kidding, but you were pretty loud. Whatever he was doing, he must’ve been doing it very well.”
“I hate to admit it, but he’s every bit as good as he says he is,” I sigh, “Don’t tell him I said that. Where is he anyway?”
“Dining hall with his family. He asked me to check on you to make sure you were still breathing. And if you should happen to be awake, he wants you to come join him. And judging from the looks of these sheets, you definitely need a bath.”
I look down at the sheets and notice there’s blood on them. Alarmed, I place my hand between my legs and when I pull it out there’s a little blood there.
“Don’t be afraid. Every virgin bleeds during their first time.”
“It’s not serious is it?” I ask, “Like I’m not going to die or anything, right?”
Laughing hysterically, Cara pulls the sheets off the bed and toss them into the nearest hamper. “No, silly, you’re not going to die…but you are a woman now.”
A woman…I was made a woman by a night-dweller…and not just any night-dweller…one made up of pure fantasy with enough charm to disarm even the worst hater of their kind. It’s not fair they’re made so perfectly. It’s not fair they’re armed with ungodly beauty, strength, and power. I should hate Darius and his family for what he’s done to my people, but my traitorous heart won’t let me. After the night we spent together as husband and wife, one inescapable truth weighs on my conscious.
I am falling in love with Darius Draven…a night-dweller...one who’s made it perfectly clear he will never love me back. In short…I am doomed…
I nod and head into the bathroom to shower and change my clothes before heading down to the dining hall. A woman…if I’m a woman now then what was I before? A girl? I can hear Darius and his family talking as I near the dining room. They’re making fun of me.
“Poor girl sounded like she was being slaughtered like an animal,” Jackson laughs.
“It’s not my fault. I was gentle with her she’s just extremely tight down there,” Darius laughs with him, “If she wound herself up any tighter I would’ve been castrated.”
Jerk! I have half a mind to storm in there and give him a piece of my mind. “So how was she on a scale of one to ten? One being a human corpse and ten being the best piece of ass you’ve ever had? I’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to sleep with a human girl, but they can be such vile, disgusting creatures…I haven’t found one worth taking the risk.”
“Truthfully, she’s easily an eleven. I’ve been with many human girls, but never a virgin. She let me do whatever I wanted with her, and she just lay there and took it…all of it.”
“We heard,” William teased. They all began laughing at my expense. Even Viktor joined in. How can I face them after this? God this is embarrassing and I’m probably never going to live this down.
“Seriously, Aria can’t take all of me without tapping out. And Giselle, she’s so tight down there…and warm…and wet. It feels fucking amazing. Who would’ve thought that the prudish human girl with a sharp tongue would be anything more than a corpse between the sheets?”
Prudish…so that’s what he thinks of me? He thinks I’m a prude? I can’t believe what I’m hearing right now.
“Come now gentleman. This is no way to talk about Darius’ wife. She’s a person, not a hood ornament,” Esme scolded them, “Show some respect for the new lady of the house.”
Taking that as my cue, I push open the dining room doors and step inside. They all stop talking and pretend to be into whatever they’re eating. All except Jackson who’s laughing so hard he’s turning a bright shade of red.
I take my seat next to Darius and as I look around the table all of the men are either trying to stifle their laughter or smirking.
“Did you sleep well?” Darius asks.
That’s all William needs to hear before he began to choke on his food. At that point Jackson loses it and holds his head down so I can’t see him laugh.
“Just get it over with,” I shake my head.
Jackson and William practically fall out. “I’m surprised you’re standing upright after all the screaming you did this morning,” Jackson teases.
“Screw you Jackson,”
“Poor choice of words,” William laughs.
“I’ll leave all the screwing to Darius, but I’ll make sure and invest in a lifetime of earplugs so we don’t all have to share in your joy.”
I looked to Darius who can barely hold a straight face. “You’re all children…every single one of you,” I bark at them, folding my arms across my chest.
“Ignore them,” Esme swats Darius, “We’ve never had another woman in the house so forgive them for being so insensitive.”
“And you? Really?” I turn my gaze to Darius, “I’m glad to know our private moments are a punch line for you.”
“Actually your private moments stopped being so private once you started singing like a canary,” William jokes.
He and Jackson fist-bumped and continue laughing at my expense. Sensing my irritation, Darius places his hand over mine and entwines our fingers together. He lifts my hand up to his mouth and kisses the back of my hand.
“I’m sorry. We’re just being men, we don’t mean to offend you,” he apologizes.
“Can we please just change the subject before your brothers kill over?”
Viktor cast William and Jackson a stern glance. They wipe the smirks off their faces, sit up straight and clear their throat.
“Now all we need to do is find William a suitable wife instead of that offering he’s been traipsing around with,” Esme focuses her eyes on William, “What is her name? Oh yes…Cara. Darius isn’t she your offering? Perhaps one of you would like to explain why she keeps ending up in Williams bed.”
Darius looks confused, but both William and I know exactly what she’s talking about. He’s been secretly seeing Cara behind everyone’s back. I only know because Cara confided in me. From the looks on Esme’s face, she’s not happy about it.
“You and Cara?” Darius asks.
“How’d you know?” William ignores him and speaks directly to his mother.
“I’ve seen the way the two of you look at each other. Besides, as you so cleverly demonstrated a few seconds ago…these walls are thin. There isn’t much that goes on that I don’t know about.”
Williams takes a deep breath and sighs, “I love her,” he confides, “Besides, it’s no different than Darius being with Giselle.”
“Except Cara is no Giselle. She’s lowborn.”
“Giselle was an offering once too. Or have we all forgotten that?”
“Yes, but she never should’ve been one,” Esme fires back.
“But she was,” William argues. “I know you don’t think much of humans, let along those who are lowborn, but Cara and I are in love. If any of you harm a hair on her head, you won’t have to worry about any outside threats.”
“Are you threatening us?” Darius’ temples flare. “Are you threatening our mother over some human girl?”
There was fear in William’s eyes when he looked at Darius. For the most part, everyone seemed to be afraid of him except Jackson.
Unable to stand the tension, I decided to play mediator. “I think William is letting his heart speak his truth but he doesn’t mean any harm. He only wants to protect the girl he loves. He wants you all to know how much she means to him.”
Darius slowly turns to me and says, “This is a family matter. It doesn’t concern you.”
“I thought I was a part of this family.”
“Only in the sense that you’re useful to our cause. Beyond that you are to be seen and not heard, especially on matters you know nothing about. Go back to our room and wait for me there.”
“What?” I scoff.
“Are you deaf? Go back to our room.”
“What about dinner? Or am I to starve for simply having a mind of my own? I’m not your damn puppet.”
Suddenly my mouth disappears and I am no longer able to speak. Darius motions for two guards to remove me and I look at him in disbelief. I began fighting the guards and Darius loses it. He jumps up so fast that his chair flies into the wall behind him, shattering into pieces. As he stalks up to me I’m afraid and I want to scream, but I can’t. I have no mouth. He places his thumbs to my temples and then everything goes dark.
I have no idea how long I’ve been unconscious; just that I’m in my old room, not the room I share with Darius and my mouth has returned. There’s no food though and I’m starving. I try pounding on the door but no one answers. I can hear someone on the other side but they wont talk to me or let me out. I’m locked in. Not even as I beg for something to eat and drink.
After several hours I no longer have the strength to scream for help or bang on the door. I’m so hungry that all I can do is curl up in a ball and hold myself until either someone brings me some food or I die from starvation.
At some point I must’ve fallen asleep, because the next thing I know I’m awakening to Darius sitting on the edge of the bed, watching me. I quickly sit up and back away from him, but I’m dizzy. Unable to sit or stand, I lie back down.
Darius grabs a bowl of food from the tray next to the bed and begins feeding me. It’s because of him I’m starving in the first place.
“Don’t ever defy me and don’t ever raise your voice at me ever again…am I clear?”
I want to kill him, but how can you kill someone whose immortal? You can’t. Instead I say nothing, but if looks could kill I’d filet his immortal ass as many times as it takes for me to feel better.
When I don’t answer him right away, he takes my food away. He wants me to submit, but I’m too proud. He hurt me. Instead of begging for the food I so badly need and complying with whatever he wants, I turn my back to him and curl up into a ball.
“If you don’t eat, you’ll die,” Darius sighs.
“Then you won’t have to worry about seeing or hearing me. Consider it a favor.”
Darius grabs me by the arm and forces me to sit up. He holds a spoonful of soup up to my mouth and demands, “Eat.”
I look at the spoon then at Darius, “I’m nothing more than a political tool for you, aren’t I?” I sulk. “All you care about is how much I can influence my kind to buy into your political propaganda.”
“Eat,” is all he says in response.
Snatching the bowl from his hands, I feed myself and then hand him back the bowl and spoon. “There, your political puppet is well again. You can go now. I promise I won’t die on you before you get what you want.”
I turn my back to him again and lay back down. I hate him. I hate him. I HATE HIM! I feel Darius climb off the bed and I’m disappointed. He hasn’t even bothered to try making me feel better. He just gives up and leaves.
Hurt, I allow myself to fall back to sleep. When I awaken, I notice the door to my room with Darius is open. There are servants going back and forth from my room to the room we share carrying my clothes, jewelry and other items. I spring from the bed and hurry into the room I share with Darius. He’s barking out orders as usual until our eyes meet. I’m hoping he’ll come hug me and apologize for his behavior, but what comes out of his mouth next only makes me want to smash his face in.
“While you were enjoying your tantrum, I took the liberty of helping you pack for our campaign tour.”
“Are you always an ass, because if so I want a divorce.”
“You’re adorable when you’re angry and as usual you’re in way over your head and severely ill-informed,” he laughs, “There’s no such thing as divorce in our culture. You and I are stuck together for life buttercup. So if I were you, I’d learn how things work around here fast. Only humans feel the need to devise ways of making their failures acceptable.”
“Great,” I sulk. Sitting down on the edge of our bed, tears fill my eyes.
Alarmed Darius gets rid of all the servants and locks the doors behind them. He sits down next to me on the bed, but I pretend not to care or even notice he’s there. Not even when he reaches up and wipes my tears away.
“Why are you crying?”
“Are you serious?” I stare at him in disbelief.
“I don’t understand what it is you have to be upset about. You’re a modern day Princess. Many women would kill to have what you have.”
“Then let them have it,” I sigh, “If this is all you have to offer then I’ll gladly step aside so you can give it to someone else.”
“What’s your problem?”
“You…you’re my problem?”
“What?” He scoffs, “Why? Because I don’t cater to you?”
“No, because you’re insensitive! You have no feelings or emotions and no consideration for me or my feelings whatsoever.” I blurted out and instantly regretted it. I have no idea where that even came from. The last thing I want is to throw a tantrum or show weakness by crying in front of him, but his indifference towards me is driving me crazy. Especially now that I’ve shared myself with him. I betrayed my people by marrying him and then to add insult to injury I gave myself to him intimately. I gave him a part of me I can never get back, or share with another human being and I’m still just a pawn in a chess game for him.
Darius looked shocked. He stared at me in stunned silence, allowing my words to hang over my head like silent torture.
“I’m not insensitive. You just want something from me that I can’t give you,” Darius finally spoke. God I hate him. “I get it. This morning was amazing and I can see how you can get confused, but my kind…we don’t operate as humans do Giselle. The sooner you realize that, the easier our union will be for you.”
“You know what, you’re absolutely right. The sex is so amazing that it confuses me into thinking you could actually be a decent person,” I reply sarcastically.
“You’re poking fun at me,” Darius realizes.
“Yes, I am.”
After a brief silence he turns to me and the look in his eyes makes my heart sink into the pit of my stomach. It’s pity. He pities me.
“You and I…this is business Giselle, not pleasure. I already have someone I care for deeply.”
“Whatever happened to me feeling loved, or has that changed now that you have me right where you want me? You know so much about being a night-dweller but you know next to nothing about being human,” I turn away shaking my head, “I wish I could be more like you, but we don’t get to just shut off our feelings when they don’t fit into our plans. As much as you get on my nerves, you’re my husband. I’ll never get to have another and I will die your wife…the least you could do is show a little compassion. You’re it for me…so forgive me for hoping for a little romance. I don’t want to die never having known love.”
“I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to respond to that.”
“Just…leave me alone. Please.”
For a moment he just stares at me. Then he nods and gets up to leave. The moment he’s gone, the servants come rushing back in to pack our things. When they’re done they take our things out of the room and I’m left alone with my thoughts.
“Knock-knock,” Esme let herself in. I’ve seen her more in the past seventy-two hours than I’ve seen her in the month’s prior.
“Come in.”
“I hope you don’t mind me checking on you. Darius told me what happened and I just wanted to make sure you’re all right. Us women…we have to stick together, you know.”
“I shouldn’t have made a big deal out of it,” I sigh, wanting to kick myself.
“He’s your husband. There’s nothing wrong with hoping for romance. I get it, but Darius has always had eyes for one girl and one girl only Giselle.”
“I know.”
“You have to stop thinking about this marriage with a human mind. It’s business, not pleasure. The quicker you accept that, the better off you’ll be.”
She sounds just like him. I wonder if they rehearsed this little speech in the hallway. I nod and she leaves. A loveless marriage…that’s what I’ve been doomed to. At least from his end anyway.
Memories of how Darius followed Aria’s every move the night of our wedding and how he went to make sure she was okay filled my mind. It was supposed to be my day, but he made it all about her. He may be my husband, but he’s completely and undeniably hers. It’s just one more way the Universe has dealt me a bad hand. And so my nightmare begins.
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