And with my eyes shut tight, I have no will to stop her from taking my blistered hand and leading me into my bathroom. With steady, gentle fingers she unbuttons my shirt, pulls it off me, and then does the same with my pants. She washes the blood and earth away, pulls the splinters from my palms, and dries my raw skin with a towel. Finally, she finds a clean nightshirt and shorts, which I pull on.
It’s only when I curl up on the bed, my head in her lap, that the pain comes. It comes in through the door she’s opened. It comes in without knocking. It comes in, and it shakes me to the bone.
Tears of ruby red stain her dress, but she stays with me. She strokes my hair, my cheeks…
When my Creator turned me, he turned my twin brother too. Xavian was creating as many vampires as he could, hoping to start his own empire, like his Creator had before him. My brother and I rose from the earth, equal in power and strength.
And we served Xavian well, along with his other progeny. We fought rival vampire clans and helped cement Xavian’s power in Midnight City where he had settled.
But then it started to get crowded. He had made too many vampires, and resources were scarce. There were only so many living humans we could drain and drink from before we started to threaten our food source.
And some of the older vampires were getting restless. Eying Xavian’s throne. I wasn’t the first progeny he created, but I’m the oldest to have survived until now. Many more before me were staked by Xavian himself, or destroyed each other in various coups and conflicts throughout the years.
Xavian wanted to know which progeny were loyal to him, and him alone. How far our loyalty would go.
And he didn’t like that my brother and I were close. That we had a bond formed before we were turned. We tried to avoid his wrath. We downplayed our relationship, insisted to him that we were loyal, that we would do anything for him.
Then he asked us to do just that.
To prove our loyalty.
To demonstrate how far we would go to survive.
To fight each other, to the end.
When he put the stake in my hand, I didn’t know if I could do it.
I still can’t believe I did.
And I still remember the expression on my brother’s face, right before I drove my stake into his heart. Like he didn’t recognize me at all. Like I’d become the monster that had created us.
I gained everything that night: Xavian’s trust, and my position as his right hand.
And I lost everything. I buried my brother in an unmarked grave.
Every time Xavian needed a vampire to stake one of his progeny, I was the one who did it. I carried all his worst sins. I bore the burden of what I’d become.
And I buried each vampire that I ended with my own hands.
Paige gazes down at me, wipes the bloody tears from my cheeks.
“You don’t have to carry it alone,” she whispers. “I’m here, Roslyn.”
“Nobody ever calls me that,” I reply, my voice hard and numb.
She runs a finger across my temple, more gentle than I’ve ever been touched. More gentle than I deserve.
“Maybe someone should.”
CHAPTER 32: DEEPER
Paige
“My king, the city looksincrediblefrom up here,” I whisper, gazing down at the lights far below.
“Your champagne, miss,” says the flight attendant, putting a gold-rimmed flute on the table before me and pouring a glass. She nods at Crimson. “I’ll be right back with your blood, sir.”
I smile at Crimson, who sits opposite me in a comfortable chair, no seatbelt around her waist, of course.
