Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine

T atyana woke to fire eating through her veins. She screamed in agony, wailing in confusion and pain.

Someone threw a bucket of water on her; then a door slammed. The water crawled over her skin, spreading and soothing the angry, itching sensation that covered her.

She opened her eyes and blinked in the darkness that wasn’t dark. There was a rank sweetness in the back of her throat and an aching in her jaw.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

The dripping sound came from everywhere, and Tatyana realized she was lying on a floor pooled with red-tinged water. There was a body in the corner.

Elene?

Tatyana’s throat already hurt, but she burst into another wracking sob when she remembered the still form lying on the floor of the creaking freighter.

She wasn’t at sea anymore. Wherever she was, she could feel the ground steady beneath her. There was a skittering, electrical shock of energy along her skin, and her mind raced, trying to classify the new sensation.

Electricity? Buzzing. Brightness. Heat. Coursing rivers of blood in her body. She could feel her blood she could feel her heart and her heart should be racing her blood should be racing and the water surrounded her like a current flowing over her skin and scattering her senses too much too much too much.

She closed her eyes and listened to the thump of her heart.

Her heart.

Thump.

Silence.

Thump.

Silence.

Too slow.

Her heart was too slow.

Her skin was cold, and the water threaded over it like raindrops crawling along her body.

The water soothed her. It loved her. The water was her only friend.

Tatyana sucked in a breath, and the scent of sweet blood threaded the air. Her mouth watered, and something sharp pierced her tongue.

The body in the corner twitched and Tatyana rolled to her heels, crouched in readiness as she watched the body in the corner with a predatory stare.

Not Elene. Elene was dead.

Her throat was burning and the strange, manic energy skittered along her skin, making her muscles twitch and her mind spin.

Take.

Need.

Take, take, take.

The pain in her jaw became agony, and she opened her mouth, bringing her fingers to touch the elongated canines that were growing between her teeth.

She was ravenous and her throat was burning and her fangs?—

Her fangs.

Tatyana screamed in realization of what she was. Of what she had become.

The blinking human flesh rolled over, his drugged eyes wide and his mouth bound with a dirty rag. His eyes went even wider when he saw Tatyana, and he tried to scream. The noise pierced her eardrums, and something in her brain snapped.

Too late.

She lunged toward him and sank her teeth into his neck.

A moment later a door slammed open, someone pulled her hair, dragging her off the body of the human, and slammed her against the wall.

The next time Tatyana’s eyes fluttered open, the incongruous image of a green mosaic fan palm filled her vision. She lay still, taking in her surroundings as her eyes slowly focused in the pearl-grey light.

It only took her a moment to remember.

Vampire.

She brought her fingers to her mouth, but though her canines were preternaturally sharp, they weren’t elongated. Her throat didn’t burn.

The stabbing pain was gone, but an itching sensation remained everywhere her clothes touched her body.

She lifted her head and looked down. She was dressed in another set of navy-blue overalls, but she wasn’t wearing anything beneath them. She could feel the rough seams rasping against skin that felt feverish and aching.

She sat up slowly, looking around, but nothing made sense.

She was high on a hill and saw the sea in the distance, illuminated by the moon. She looked up at a sky that wasn’t grey at all but swirling blue and silver, the stars nearly blinding her if she looked at them too long.

She was sitting under a massive semicircular portico in front of a house on top of the hill. There were tall columns and manicured gardens that sloped down to the rolling hills that overlooked the water.

Twisting up to the house was a serpentine drive, but there were no cars in sight. All she could see was terraced gardens filled with waving palms and citrus trees heavy with fruit. Lush green gardens rose around her, and the air was filled with the scent of earth, pine, and some heady flower she couldn’t place.

She heard something moving behind her, and she sprang to her feet.

“Zara?” Had Zara turned her into a vampire? Had someone else done it?

Did it matter?

Tatyana moved like a stranger in her body.

The ground was too hard. Her footsteps too jolting. Every sense was heightened, from the bright light of the starry night to the taste of sour adrenaline that lingered at the back of her throat.

She looked around her and realized the sound she heard was the rigid frond of a large palm brushing against the house as a warm breeze swept up the hills.

The wind rolled up from the sea, laden with salt air that washed over Tatyana and soothed her anxious mind.

Water. Whatever else she was confused about, she had no doubt that her amnis came from water. She nearly wept when the humid breeze clung to her skin and soothed the burning irritation from the stiff canvas clothes.

Where was she?

The mansion at the top of the hill was old, decorated with marble columns that encircled the portico and large glass windows along the front of the house that framed the sea view. Elaborate floral murals decorated each column, each one different than the next, and those paintings crawled up to the roof of the portico, joining the vining border that surrounded the palm frond that made up the center of a massive mosaic.

As Tatyana walked, her footsteps sounded like firecrackers on the marble tile.

“Hello?”

Nothing. Her voice echoed against the tile and the marble.

She turned in circles, but there was nothing. She saw it then, the faint glow of light on the edge of the horizon.

Daylight was coming.

Thump.

Her heart gave a single thud, and she ran to the front door of the house, but when she yanked at the doors, the solid carved wood didn’t budge.

Her heart beat again.

Thump.

“No.” She hadn’t survived all this just to burn to a crisp at her first hint of daylight. “Hello!” she yelled. “Anyone?”

Her throat was starting to burn again, and she scented something rich and sweet when the breeze turned.

Following the scent around the side of the house, Tatyana saw just how massive the edifice was, stretching two broad wings back into a dense evergreen forest filled with shadows and the flapping of birds.

As she approached, the birds fell silent.

“Hello?”

Thump thump.

The smell grew stronger and her fangs fell.

No. Oh no. “Whoever you are, please stay away.”

There was a human near, and she could smell their blood, but something about it smelled… wrong. Soiled and rotten, like meat that had gone off in the heat.

Her body began to shake as she continued to walk around the mansion to the back of the left side of the house where a stone path lined with more palm trees led around carved marble steps leading to a raised terrace that spanned the back of the mansion, creating a curved crescent that embraced another lush garden.

Tatyana walked into the garden, blinking as she tried to understand the sight that met her eyes.

The body of an old man lay naked at the base of an apple tree, his blank eyes staring at the sky. His mouth was open in shock, and his body was pierced by fang marks.

Over.

And over.

And over. They were everywhere.

His man was pale, nearly blue, and his cap had fallen to the side of his head.

Tatyana felt the groan wrenching up from her belly as she realized what she was seeing. She looked at the rough work clothes she was wearing.

Smeared with the old man’s blood.

“Nooo!” She screamed and fell to the ground, rocking back and forth when she realized what she’d become. And yet even over her horror and pain, she was hungry. She was so hungry her throat was burning. Even though the old man’s blood was cold, she craved it.

She wept bloody tears, wiping them with the back of her hand as she stumbled to the front of the house and collapsed under the marble portico.

She wouldn’t look for shelter. She should die. It was the only justice.

Her only release.

She didn’t know what had happened with the man, but she knew in her heart he was dead because of her. She should die. She was a monster, and she’d killed an innocent old man. She was a murderer.

It would be better for her to die.

She curled into a ball as her body convulsed and she threw up the blood that curdled in her stomach. It spilled from her mouth, black and rancid to her nose.

She deserved it. She deserved to die.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered to the dead man in the garden.

Mama, I’m sorry.

Elene, I’m sorry.

She saw the sky growing lighter and felt darkness creeping over her mind. She would fall asleep. She would burn in the daylight when the sun marched across the ground.

Tatyana would die and that would be just.

She’d had enough. Enough horror. Enough blood. Enough pain.

Enough.

“Tatyana!”

The moment of her death and she heard the damn vampire’s voice? Did heaven really want to torment her so much?

“Leave it and get the house open!”

Tatyana dreamed of strong arms that picked her up as if she were weightless. She was tucked against his chest, and she turned her face to his shoulder, drinking in the scent of cedar and incense that seemed to emanate from his skin.

She was dying, and this was the last vision life offered her?

“Why you?” she murmured.

“Get the doors open.” His voice was just as commanding in her dreams.

Terrible. Oleg the Terrible.

“I don’t care what you call me, but you’re not dying just when I have you back.” The sound of wood cracking and something crashed in. “I have you, Tatyana. You’re safe.” The brush of tender lips across her forehead. “I have you now. You’re safe. I have you now.”

No.

Didn’t he realize?

Tatyana finally understood what was happening a moment before darkness swallowed her mind.

She would never be safe again.