My first few days as an offering were stressful. Every time a door opened I thought it was Darius coming to claim his prize. It wasn’t. It was always either a servant or Cara coming to tidy up or show me the ropes.
I missed my family and my old home. There was nothing more stressful than having to learn the layout of a new place all over again. It was a relief when Cara informed me Darius asked the kitchen staff to teach me how to cook. He must’ve known I was bored. Cooking was something I never had to do because I’ve always had servants to cook for me, but I’ve always wanted to learn.
There was a lot of smelling, feeling and tasting involved. I burned my tongue twice, and burned my hands a few times before I learned how to use my senses to help guide me around the kitchen and open flames.
After a month, the kitchen staff couldn’t keep me away. I guess being Darius’ offering wasn’t too bad. He was hardly ever around, and if he was around he never bothered me.
I decided to make him dinner as a show of gratitude for allowing me to learn. He’s the first person to treat me like a person and not an invalid. My ailments didn’t automatically lower his expectations of me. If anything, he pushed me. And because of it, I pushed myself. I made shrimp and crab etouffee. It’s a Creole dish I fell in love with while in Lousiana one year.
I wasn’t allowed to bring it to him, because I wasn’t allowed in his chambers without an invitation, so I would have to wait until our next meeting to find out what he thought of it.
In the meantime, I lay back on my bed and allowed the pillow-top mattress to put me to sleep. “Madame, you’re awake,” Cara walked over to me as I rubbed my eyes, “I must help get you cleaned up for Darius.”
“Are we alone?”
“Yes Madame. He’s waiting for you.”
Cara ran me a bath. She began to undress me when I stopped her, “I can do it myself. Thank you.” I hate being treated like an invalid.
Once undressed, I followed the sound of the water over to the tub and climbed in. My limbs were sore from all of the exercise I’d gotten over the past month so I let the warm swaying of the water massage my body and closed my eyes.
I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I know I’m being awakened by a panicked Cara. “Jesus Christ Giselle! You’re going to catch your death falling asleep in the tub like this!” She yanked me upright.
“I’m sorry Cara, I must’ve been really tired,” I yawned.
“I’ll say,” Darius’ voice startled me. I flinched and frantically searched the edge of the tub for my towel. “Are you looking for this?”
I followed Darius’ voice and reached my hands out to feel for him. He placed the towel in my hands and I quickly wrapped myself with it.
“It’s rude to spy on people,” I snapped at him.
“I knocked on the door and when you didn’t answer I got worried, so I let myself in. I didn’t realize you were taking a bath until I walked in and saw you asleep in the tub.”
“And you decided to do what? Watch?” I glared.
“Dress her, groom her and then I want you to send her to me,” Darius barked orders at Cara.
“Yes Lord Darius. Right away.”
As soon as the door to my bathroom closed Cara sprung into action. I was dressed in a silk gown that felt cold against my skin. My hair was washed, brushed and fell in deep waves down my back.
She painted my fingers and toes and sprayed perfume on me. “What is all of this for?” I asked, curious.
“Lord Darius will explain it to you when you arrive,” she explained.
When Cara was finished poking and prodding at me, she led me by the hand from my room through the adjoining door that led to Darius’ chambers. There were other people in the room. Girls like me. I could hear them shuffling to make room for me as I was stood next to them. Offerings. Some were sniffling, some were fidgeting, and some were trembling. Cara let go of my hand and I tried to reach out for her but she was already gone.
“Leave it to you to collect such beautiful things.” A woman’s voice purred.
Like Darius, I couldn’t track her. Nor did I hear any footsteps. Night-dweller. She had to be. Their silent footsteps made it hard to track them.
“Ooh. Something smells delicious,” the woman inhaled. I could feel her warm breath on my neck. The foul smell of dry blood was present on her tongue. She was a night-dweller. “Is this one of your new toys?”
Darius and the woman began to speak in a language I’d never heard of. It was probably some sort of night-dweller dialect from God knows when. It bothered me not to know what they were talking about. What if they were talking about me?
“What is your name?” The woman whispered into my ear, “My name is Aria Van Holston.”
Trembling, I said, “Giselle…Giselle Mason.”
“She’s Silas Mason’s daughter,” Darius informed her.
“Is she now. I only know of one daughter he has.”
Darius sat silently while Aria laughed. I didn’t find anything funny about what she said and I wanted nothing more than to impale her through her black heart.
“Elizabeth offered her to me in exchange for wiping out her debts. Debts she incurred in Silas’ name. She’s blind.”
They both went quiet and moments later I could feel vibrations in front of my face. It was enough to conclude that Aria was waving a hand in front of my face to see if he was telling the truth. Again they went back to talking in a strange language.
“Well…which one do you like?” Darius asked.
“Why not give them all to me?”
“Because they’re mine.”
“Well I have no use for a blind girl, so I’ll take…this one.”
I don’t know which girl she chose. I’m just relieved it’s not me. All I heard next was the sound of piercing flesh and then screaming. Whoever it was, after a few seconds they stopped putting up a fight.
“The rest of you are dismissed,” said Darius.
Feet shifted towards where the door must’ve been and I quickly followed. The door closed before I could make it out into the hall and cold fingers gripped my elbow. My heart began to race.
“Not you. You stay,” Darius whispered so close that his breath tickled my ear.
He guided me to what I could make out was a bed and sat me down on the edge of it. “Her hair…I hate it. I think you should cut it all off. Or better yet, let me do it,” Aria twirled my hair around her finger.
I reeled back. I had long hair that went down my back and I didn’t want it to be cut. I’d been growing it since childhood. “I like her hair. It stays,” Darius replied.
“When you’re finished with her, am I allowed to play with her?” Aria asked as if I were a puppy. I didn’t like the sound of that. I wasn’t a toy or a puppy. I was a human being and I had rights. A scowl spread across my face and I could no longer hide the fact that I didn’t like her.
I couldn’t see if they were watching me, but something told me they were. Darius’ strong hands gripped my shoulders and I flinched.
“A little jumpy, are we?” Aria chuckled. Her fingers went through my hair and I began to panic. Whatever this was…whatever’s happening right now…it’s not right. My instincts are telling me to run.
“Darius?” I called out to him.
“Sh,” he shushed me, “I promise it will be over soon.”
Both Aria and Darius were now quiet. I wondered if they were listening to my thoughts and I tried to stop thinking. “Your mind is entertaining,” Darius seemed amused. He was listening. Another person entered the room and not a moment too soon. Whoever it was reached out to me and I sighed with relief. “Giselle this is April Cosgrove and April, this is Giselle Mason.”
Warm hands. Human hands. April was human. Other than Cara, April was the only other human person I’d come into contact with here. I clung to her, not wanting her to leave me as Cara had done. She placed her other hand over mine and rubbed the back of my hand.
“It’s okay. You’re okay,” April whispered to me.
“What’s happening?” I demanded to know, “What’s going on?”
“Oh sweetheart,” Aria purred, “Don’t be afraid. Darius is as gentle as a jungle cat.”
“I’ll try and remember that,” I backed away from her.
To hell with being compliant. I need to get out of here. I turned and ran right into a brick wall. No. Not a brick wall. Human…sort of.
Running my fingers across whoever it was I could decipher I’d run into a man. The planes of his chest and the definition in his abs told me as much. But his skin…it was so cold. Had they kept him in this cold room? I traced my fingers up to his face, taking in as much about his features as I could.
Full lips, strong jaw…pronounced, young…at least in his early twenties, long eyelashes, high cheekbones, and a head full of silky hair, cut into a style. Clean. His hair was very clean and he almost didn’t have a scent. Lavender. I detected a small hint of lavender.
“I don’t know who you are, but I need you to help me. Get. Me. Out. Of. Here,” I whispered to him.
In one quick motion he removed my hands from his face and pinned them behind my back. I gasped. Not human…night-dweller. But he felt so…human. I tried breaking free from his grasp but it was no use. My efforts were futile at best.
Caressing my cheek with his free thumb he whispered to me, “I can’t influence you to feel no pain given your current condition, so I’m afraid you must endure.”
I swallowed hard. Darius. All of the fight left my bones. I can’t outrun him, I can’t fight him and I can’t kill him. All I had left were my words as he walked me across the floor and brought me to a stop. Shackles. My hands were shackled in front of me and I began to tremble. He raised them above my head and the sound of metal clicking into place made me flinch. My hands were suspended above my head.
Darius backed away from me, “No-no-no. Darius please. Please don’t do this. I’ll do anything you want, just…please. I’ve never been with a man before. I’m no good at it. You don’t want me,” I pleaded with him.
Laughter. He was standing behind me now, “I’ve never forced myself onto a girl in the years I’ve been alive and I have no plans to start now,” he huffed and came so close to me that his lips caressed my earlobe, “When I do finally enter you, you’ll be begging me for it.”
Gathering up all of my courage I said to him, “I’d rather die than allow any of your kind to enter me.”
Again he laughed, “That’s what all of your kind says before I get a hold of them. Perhaps it will take a little longer for you though, given your…affliction.”
“You’re an ass!” I shouted at him. Darius roared with laughter, “And to think I actually thought you were a gentleman.”
“Only in the presence of a lady,” he mused.
“I am a lady.”
“Perhaps you were once,” the sound of metal creaked as I was hoisted into the air off my feet. Six inches. He’s six inches taller than me. Maybe more, “But from where I’m standing you look more like prey.”
Darius grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked my head back. He applied enough force to get me to comply, but it wasn’t too painful.
“What are you going to do to me?”
“It’s probably best that you don’t know.”
“You can’t spare me the pain, so why spare me the details of my torment?”
“Torment?” He laughed again, “Well I guess to you it might seem that way. But I assure you Giselle Mason, everything…and I do mean everything…from the shackles, the fact that you’re still clothed and untouched…everything is for your comfort, not torture.”
His lips grazed the contours of my neck and my arms felt like they were going to be ripped out of their socket. I whimpered and tried to find a comfortable position. There was none.
Don’t break…don’t break…don’t break…
Too late. The pain in my arms hurt so much that tears began to fall. I wanted to be strong, but the pain…the pain was unbearable.
“Wrap your legs around me,” Darius instructed from in front of me now.
I tried but each time I tried to lift my legs it would pull at my arms and the pain was just too much. Sensing my pain threshold was at its end, he hoisted up the silk gown I was wearing above my waist and gripped the back of my thighs, lifting my legs to his waist and wrapping them around him. Now that he was holding me up, it relieved the pressure on my arms. I sagged against his bare chest with relief.
Grateful, I whispered to him, “Thank you.”
My gratitude was short lived. He whispered into my ear, “You’re welcome,” and then he gently tilted my head to the right, exposing my neck. Night-dwellers loved to drink the blood of their victims. And from what I can recall from conversations I overheard, it often led to two puncture wounds on or about the neck.
“The more you move…the more you fight…the more it will hurt,” Darius warned.
“I’m afraid,” I shuddered.
“You should be.”
Those damning words did nothing to calm the panic sending my pulse spiraling out of control. In a move all to quick for me to register he clenched my neck with his hand, applying enough pressure to close my airways and stop my breathing. I couldn’t cry out for help…not that it mattered. And I couldn’t breathe as he gently grazed the nape of my neck with the tip of his nose until he went rigid.
I heard the piercing of my flesh before I felt his teeth puncture my skin and warm blood trickled from my wound. The only evidence of my pain was the fact that I was trembling and my eyes, which I’m sure, are wide with fright.
Beyond the pain I felt ashamed. I’m ashamed that his lips suckling at my neck provoked my senses to betray me. I’m ashamed that even though this monster is feeding on me…I’m aroused. Slowly losing consciousness, but aroused.
“Don’t scream,” Darius whispered against my skin, releasing his grip on my throat.
I didn’t. There was one undeniable truth in my situation. As long as I’m compliant he would keep his word and he wouldn’t hurt me. So I complied. Whatever he wanted and whatever he asked of me, I complied until I lost consciousness.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
