Darkly Devoted (Book 1, 2, 3)

DD Chapter 4 - Night In Remin

Chapter 4

VIVIENNE SLEPT the day away and woke up around nightfall. In boredom, she explored the other rooms on the ground floor. They were all furnished sparingly and impersonally, as though the furnishings belonged in a catalog. There were no personal effects anywhere. There was one painting that hung in the lobby of a scaled dragon with amber eyes. Underneath, it said "Orius Balan."

She recognized it because her father had a ratty old black-and-white photograph of one of those paintings, which he had taped to the head of her bed. That was one of her earliest memories: that photograph and her mother telling her that one day her father would take her to Manna City.

One day, she'll finally understand why that city captured her father's imagination and heart so much so that he had no love left for his daughters. Vivienne used to look at that photo on nights when her father didn't come home and wonder if she would one day make it to Manna City, stand before these artworks, and find a secret to winning her father's love. But, now she knew, that there was no mysterious riddle to solve — there was only acceptance that her father wasn't all that interested in her.

Vivienne spun around when she heard a man clearing his throat.

"Miss Minthe, the dining room is this way," Conall stated with a respectful, apologetic bow as though it was his fault she had gotten lost in this vast house on her way to dinner.

Vivienne allowed Conall to lead her into the dining room, where an artistic chandelier of gnarled driftwood hung. It seemed fitting for a dining room with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out into the pitch-black forest.

Blake was already there. He sat at the head of the table, but he hadn't touched any of the food. Blake had been preoccupied with something on his phone, but he immediately set it down under a napkin when she entered. He had cleaned up well. He was wearing a matching black dress shirt and jacket. The color suited him well, as it contrasted wonderfully with his light features. Now that he had washed the blood off, he looked like himself again, like a dashing human boy. The only hint at his vampirism was that he was perhaps a little too handsome. His skin was slightly too flawless, his eyes slightly too captivating, and his smile a little too inviting.

As Vivienne studied him, she could tell his wounds still weakened him. He was standing with his shoulders slightly hunched, and he used one hand to prop up his head when he didn't think anyone was looking.

Now, he had straightened up and had taken on an appearance of being completely whole again.

Vivienne had planned to sit at the other side of the table, but Conall led her to the seat at Blake's immediate right. She sat down, and an awkward silence ensued. Vivienne noticed that the table was set with a variety of beautifully plated foods. There was a salad closest to her with what looked like truffles mixed in. Her stomach growled just at the sight of it.

"Go ahead, eat," Blake offered quietly. Vivienne cursed their bond. Could he sense she was starving? Or was it simply the sound of her noisy stomach?

"Can you eat?" Vivienne asked as she helped herself to a scoop of salad. Conall looked as though he wanted to intercept and help her because she made a mess of the table. Blake gave him a sharp look, and Conall immediately left the dining room altogether.

"I can," Blake started quietly, softly. "But I don't need it, not the way you do."

"Do you hunger for other types of foods?" Vivienne asked quietly.

"Yes," he whispered, even though there was no need to keep their voices down now that the house manager was gone. "I have eaten earlier. An animal." He chuckled at the way her eyes widened. "Don't worry, I can survive without human blood. In fact, these days, I prefer the taste of demonic blood."

"You eat your own kind?"

"They're not my kind," Blake retorted as he helped heap some more exotic scoops of food onto her plate. Vivienne wondered if he was trying to be generous or if he was trying to torture her with little black fish balls. "I still consider myself human."

"A human couldn't do what you did, back on that pier," Vivienne stated. Her words came off more defensively than she intended. "You may identify as human, but a human would have died a hundred times over."

"Yes, Maglania. That mad woman. She brought an entire battalion out to kill a teenage girl."

"She might succeed next time."

"No," Blake insisted. "She will not reach you here. You are safe in Remin. Maglania cannot leave Manna City. Her power over her handmaidens does not extend beyond the city's confines. Even within the city, there are places she cannot go. The only way she can reach you is to send someone like me, one of the 'Princes'."

"And as you said, she has nine more."

"Their powers wane all the way out here as well. The Princes draw their power from Aemon Gorge in the Capitol. The further they travel from it, the more they become mortal."

"Will your powers also wane out here?"

"Perhaps," Blake replied with a coy smile. "But I do not draw my power from Aemon. Those who draw from Aemon find their demonic powers wax and wane with the phases of the moon. Mine do not. I am able to draw from many sources. That is why I was able to deal with Yagerin. I am not bound by the same rules as the others."

Vivienne chuckled. She wondered if Blake was bragging that he was better at being a vampire than Maglania's other bodyguards. She didn't doubt that something was fading. Blake's eyes, which had a vague supernatural glow at the masquerade, were now a rather ordinary green. They were still beautiful, of course, but nothing one would recognize as inhuman.

"When you were first turned, it was in River Way, wasn't it?" Vivienne asked. "The day you were attacked by that vampire. That was around the day the cameo necklace fully turned gold."

"Yes, this is a secret which does not leave this room, but there is a spring of Black Waters in River Way. It isn't enough, not nearly enough for me to save my company."

"But enough to turn you."

"Yes," Blake seemed to think back. Vivienne saw his eyes drift toward the forest beyond. Somehow, he suddenly seemed younger. She could see the boy inside him, somehow hidden all those callouses, frown lines, and muscles. He was only twenty-one, but when he spoke of Yagerin and Maglania, he seemed older, as though he had been rushed out of boyhood and into adulthood far too soon. "No one knows about the spring under River Way. My father did, and it got him killed."

Blake chuckled then and hid his nostalgic smile under his hand.

"When she was alive, my mother used to frighten me with tales of the Reaper King. She said from Tahel, there is a path to Mearnox, wherein lies the kingdom of the damned. Fairy tales. The only empire I know of exists on earth, and I intend to build it."