Chapter One
Crap… I didn’t mean to be out so late. Mom was going to kill me.
Ding-ding-ding
Damnit! Of all the times to need to fill up on gas!
I saw a big glowing sign up ahead advertising their fill-up station and swerved out of my lane to turn in. A car behind me honked but I didn’t care. They didn’t know that if I wasn’t home soon there would be hell to pay. Worse than there already was.
All I did was go to a bridal shower for my best friend. A couple drinks later I forgot to pay attention to the time and before I knew it, it was 11 pm.
“Shit shit shit shit…” I mumbled to myself as I tore open my gas cap and shoved the nozzle in.
It clicked along, taking its sweet damn time to fill up when I heard voices. I looked over my shoulder. It wasn’t safe for a twenty-something year old girl to be out alone this late at night. Especially in this neighborhood. People got kidnapped all the time and were never seen again.
My stomach turned immediately in anxiety as I gave up on filling the tank and just worried about getting enough to make it home. I shoved the nozzle back into the slot and pushed the button for the receipt. It slowly printed as I heard the voices again.
There was a woman’s voice, and she sounded in distress.
I stood there, receipt hanging precariously off the printer as I had an inner war with myself.
Logically I knew I was safer if I just got into my car and left, but to leave someone who might need help… I couldn’t do it. Too many people had done it to me for me to be so heartless towards another human being.
I cautiously took a step toward where the voices had come from and peeked around the corner toward the back of the gas station convenience store.
A girl was shoved up against the wall, her arms and legs flailing silently as a man pushed up against her, his mouth on her neck, hand over her mouth and nose as if to suffocate her.
Oh shit… This was a bad idea.
“Hey!” I yelled, stomping toward them in the most intimidating way my 5’9” frame would allow. “Get off her! You’re hurting her!”
The girl’s eyes looked panicked but glassy, as if it were almost too late to help her. My audacity went into overdrive.
The man didn’t move, just kept doing what he was doing until I reached them as quickly as I could, shoving him with all my might.
He moved alright, but what greeted my eyes would haunt me for the rest of my life.
Blood dripped down his lips, large teeth showing as he glared and growled at me, his skin was pasty white and his eyes… Lord his irises were almost clear.
I took a step back as the girl fell, blood gushing from the wound on her neck.
“Time for dessert,” the scary looking man said, tweaking his neck a little as a grin spread over his blood-stained lips.
My mouth dropped open and I started backing away until I felt a solid mass at my back.
“Be quiet, do as I say,” came a whisper into my ear.
“This isn’t your fight, Drakos. Go home to your master.”
The solid mass of man behind me pushed a little closer until I was moving forward against my will.
Now I was literally surrounded.
My heart was pumping out of my chest.
“Drakos…” the man growled and suddenly the scenery was flashing by me and I was pushed into a room, a heavy door shut behind us.
Within a microsecond there was pounding on the door from the other man, the metal denting as he beat on it. The other man leaned against it, keeping it from opening.
“The room is concrete and steel. He can’t get in,” the man said with a deep, quiet voice.
“What the hell!” I shrieked in a voice so shrill it didn’t register as mine,
“Calm down,” he sighed, still pushing back against the door as more dents were made. “And you’re welcome, by the way.”
I heaved in big breaths as my head started to get foggy. So much of what was happening couldn’t be happening.
“Who are you?” I managed to force the question out of my mouth. “What’s happening?”
“That…” the man grunted as a particularly hard bang resonated through the cold cement room. “Is a vampire. And he was about 2 seconds away from eating you.”
“A V-…” I couldn’t even get the word out of my mouth.
“Yes. Now please, sit down and breathe before you pass out.”
I sank down to my knees, the cold concrete leaching into my skin.
“And your name is… Drakos?”
He shot out a single laugh. “No, Paidi mou. It’s what I am, not my name.”
“What do you…?”
The words stopped their assent out of my mouth when he looked at me for the first time. The hoodie over his head had blocked him from my sight before, but now I saw the same pale skin and the same icy eyes as the man outside. His almost black hair fell over his forehead a little and his nose was prominent and straight, leading up to thick dark eyebrows and high cheekbones. The man was nothing less than exquisite. Intimidatingly so.
“What do I what?” he asked curiously, eyebrow lifted.
I stumbled over a few nonsensical syllables before I managed to ask a half sensible question.
“What’s your name?”
“Calix,” he smiled condescendingly down at me. “What is your name?”
“Lily. Lilly Dahlia James.”
“Lily Dahlia?” he almost scoffed. “Parent’s weren’t very creative, were they?”
I bristled, even in the intense circumstances.
“I like my name, thank you.”
Calix rolled his eyes but stayed silent.
“What kind of name is Calix anyway? Sounds like an apocalyptic video game name.”
Calix threw his head back and laughed, turning around with his back pressed to the now quiet door before sliding to the cold, hard ground.
“It’s Greek,” he grinned at me, this time it was genuine.
“So Calix, what the hell is going on here? And please stop messing with me. That dude just murdered that girl out there. We need to call help or the police or something!”
Calix shook his head.
“The body is gone by now, Lily Dahlia. I wish I could say the same for us.”
“The body is… gone?” I choked.
“Most likely.”
Panic swirled around me in a daze again.
“I-I have to get out of here. I have to go. Right now…”
I stood and moved toward the door, toward him but he stopped me with an outstretched hand.
“He is likely still waiting out there for us to open the door. If you leave you will die.”
Chills blew through me and I began shaking, my teeth chattering.
“What do I do?” I whispered to myself.
Did I risk murder by a stranger’s hand or just wait so it would be done by my mother’s hand.
“I’m in so much trouble…” I groaned, hyperventilating again. “She’s going to kill me… She’s going to kill me!”
“Who will kill you?” Calix interrupted my panic attack.
“My mother…” I panted. “I’m already late. She’ll kill me if I get home after midnight!”
“What mother would kill her own child? Or do you mean figuratively?”
God I wish it were figurative.
“She…shit she doesn’t believe in figurative.”
His thick brows dove in a frown and knitted together as he watched me with those icy eyes.
We sat in silence, no more attempts at the door to echo through the concrete room. I explored it with my eyes but didn’t see much in the dark.
“What is this room?” I asked finally, after something close to an hour had passed.
I was irritated at myself for leaving my phone in my car.
“It’s a storage room. They use it for overflow and cleaning supplies.”
Pressing my thighs together I looked around again. Spotting a yellow mop bucket an idea sparked. A disgusting, embarrassing, resourceful idea.
“I have to pee… Is he gone yet?”
Calix looked up at me from the spot he’d sat perfectly still in through the silence.
“He wouldn’t give up. And he’s probably called backup by now. The Dorians just can’t let well enough alone. They’re a bloodthirsty lot. No pun intended.”
He smiled at his joke. Actually smiled.
“Did you just make a joke about the poor girl who was murdered out there?” I whispered disbelievingly at him. “She DIED Calix. That guy… he slit her throat or something.”
“He bit her,” Calix shrugged. “It’s an awful waste, but I have no power over them. YET.”
“Yet?” My stomach was still upset and churning, and the things he said made no sense.
“How can you be ok with a girl being murdered?”
“People are murdered every day, Antheia. Life goes on.”
“Not for her it doesn’t,” I growled. “Her life ended tonight.”
Calix waved his hand, fingers long and slender. Well groomed.
“Yes but it was her time. You mortals live very short, very meaningless lives.”
There was so much wrong with that statement.
“Mortals?”
“Did you miss the part about vampires?” he tilted his head, looking at me like I was stupid.
Throwing my hands in the air I prowled around the small room like a caged animal.
“I’m sick of you fucking messing with me! There’s no such thing as vampires and I don’t know why you’re being such an asshole about it!”
His eyes darkened and suddenly I was afraid. I was so, so afraid.
“Pretend as you will, Lily, but the truth is looking you in the face and you are choosing to remain ignorant. You know what you saw. You can’t explain it away.”
What DID I see?
“Just stop… Please stop…” I pleaded, finding a spot as far from him as I could manage before I slid to sit down again.
Calix looked another way and it was silent again.
After a while my bladder got so full I kept looking over at the yellow bucket I’d spotted earlier. Eventually it turned into an emergency and I stood.
Calix followed me with his eyes.
“I have to pee,” I explained. “I’d like some privacy please .”
“Privacy? In here?” he snorted. “Are you delusional, Lily?”
“It’s called being a gentleman, which I’m sure you never heard of,” I practically yelled.
“Gentleman,” he scoffed again but did turn away as I hovered by the yellow bucket.
I watched him like a hawk as I reached for the button of my jeans, but got no further than the zipper when his eyes turned to me again.
“Hey! watch where you’re looking!”
“Enough of this stupidity, Lily. Dress, bathe, do whatever it is you’re going to do.”
“I want some privacy please,” I whispered, wondering how I would pee if he didn’t turn around.
“You’ve nothing particularly special.”
It was supposed to be helpful, but the words stung. Mom always told me that, too.
“I know,” I felt tears springing to my eyes like an idiot.
Calix rolled his eyes again but he could sense the hurt in me. It radiated off me like toxic gas.
“Think not of your sadness. You won’t have to deal with it again. ”
Of course he didn’t understand.
“Please… just cover your eyes or something. Please Calix.”
He met my eyes, intrigue shaping his face.
“Fine. As you demand,” he dipped his head, leaning his forehead against the arms crossed over his propped knees.
I pushed the bucket into the far corner and quickly unzipped, looking over my shoulder to see him still looking down.
I hurried, trying not to be embarrassed by the tinkling sound of pee hitting the dry bucket, but it was useless, and by the time I had my pants up and zipped again, I didn’t think I could face him again.
“Are you finished?” he asked in a dry tone.
“Yeah, done,” I squeaked.
He lifted his head again, looking as if I’d just wasted his time, even though we were both stuck here.
Silence for the next who knows how many hours. It was likely morning by the time I saw Calix jump up with a gasp and wave his hand around saying words I didn’t know. Words that sounded Spanish or something.
“Kariolis…” he breathed as he stood away from the door, looking at his hand.
“Are you ok?” I asked him, getting up to stand next to him.
“The sun is moving through the sky,” he said, looking at the sliver of light coming in from the bottom of the door. “It burned me is all.”
“It…burned you? Are you one of those people who’re allergic to the sun?”
He looked at me like I was stupid.
“Right, something like that,” he mumbled before shaking his hand out again then leaving it at his side.
“Yeah! I heard something in there!” a disembodied voice filtered into the concrete room. “Look at it! Looks like someone rammed a car into it!”
The voice got closer along with another one and they talked outside the door for a few minutes before the handle jingled.
My body was instantly moving, trying to help them open the door.
“Óchi!” Calix whispered harshly, moving faster than lightning to stop me as I pulled.
He shoved me off the door and pushed so the men outside couldn’t get in.
“Hey!” the voice shouted. “You ok in there?”
“Vlaca Lily!” Calix growled under his breath at me, glaring holes through me in an expression that would’ve had me peeing my pants if I hadn’t already left it in a mop bucket. “Be. Quiet. They cannot help us and you will get them killed.”
My lips tightened up immediately. Was that man still out there? I’d thought we were just stuck because the door was stuck from all the dents and warps.
“Hey!” came the voice again. “I’m calling the police. Are you ok in there? Is anyone hurt?”
We stood still, and I held my breath. I couldn’t let another person get hurt. Even if it meant staying with Calix a little bit longer.
Finally the voices faded, saying something about calling the police.
Calix kept glaring at me and glaring at me, then finally he moved away from the door and pressed his hand to my throat until my back was to the hard, cool wall.
“Vlaca Lily. That was incredibly stupid. You will pay for this.”
His hand squeezed a little and my breath hitched in my throat where his fingers cut off my air, then he removed his hand and and started pulling at my sweater.
I shrieked, fighting off his hands when I realized he was going to rape me.
“I just want your fucking sweater, Lily,” he said, ripping my favorite white sweater off my arm.
I pulled it off as quick as I could and shoved it at him where he proceeded to rip it up.
“W-what are you doing?”
“I’m covering up. We’re not going to be able to wait this out, thanks to you.”
He glared at me again, wrapping one arm around his hand, then the other before making a sort of tent with the torso of it, wrapping it over his head and face.
“Now MOVE,” he growled, and I danced out of his way as quick as I could.
I’d never seen a human being as intimidating as the man in front of me. I didn’t feel safe, I didn’t feel ok.
I felt scared.
Calix pressed his shoulder to the door and with one great heave, the entire thing came off its frame.
“Do you have sunglasses,” he asked in a quiet voice, as if he was in pain.
“In my car,” I nodded.
“Then move. Lead the way.”
I moved through the heavy, sunny southern California afternoon, straight to my car. More strange words were rolling out of Calix’s mouth as we went at a fast clip, Calix pushing me along any time I slowed. Going around the corner, I saw that my car was gone and police were turning in.
“My car’s gone, Calix. And the police are here.”
Calix growled an inhuman sound that curdled my stomach just as his hand circled my arm, threw me over his shoulder and we were gone.
The ground flew beneath me as he ran, then we were flying. I screamed the moment the concrete of the street left my vision and buildings flashed by.
“Stop screaming!” Calix growled at me again before we landed in front of a huge cemetery. “I’ve done nothing but save your pitiful human life tonight and you repay me with screaming and getting us kicked out of the only safe spot for me. Enough! Do as I say and be quiet about it!”
Calix was quickly at a huge crypt where he pounded on the stone door. I was beginning to think he was crazy.. Think WE were both crazy when the door opened and he disappeared inside.
“Come, Lily,” his voice echoed past me.
In my head I battled. While I strangely wanted to follow him, see where the stone door led and maybe take an adventure… I also knew that I had to get home and face my mother. With any hope I would survive to see another day.
Before I made up my mind, he was suddenly in front of me again, his hand wrapping around my wrist and dragging me through the door.
“Ignorant skila!” Calix shouted, throwing off the sweater from his head. “When I say come, you COME!”
“You don’t own me!” I shouted back and his face went weirdly still before he smiled calmly.
“Actually, I do.”
“I really, legitimately think you’re a psychopath. You need help.”
Calix’s smile turned to a grin.
“You’re probably right, Antheia Mou,” was all he said before moving down a long pathway in the dark.
I looked back towards the door that closed behind me, not really seeing anything in the dark from the tiny bit of light filtering through a couple miner cracks in the wall.
“Lily, COME,” came the echo of Calix’s voice.
I went.
I couldn’t see anything as I continued to walk, no light filtering in and I tripped on an uneven stone on the ground.
A hand reached out and grabbed around my arm, catching me.
“Good girl,” Calix’s voice breathed into my ear, a hand stroking my hair at the top of my head before he pulled me forward.
Suddenly we stopped and a door in front of us opened and flooded the hallway with light. I looked back and saw the slight uphill angle of the hallway we’d just come from, which meant we were underground.
“Prince,” a man’s voice greeted us as we walked in to what looked like some sort of medieval hall.
Calix nodded toward the man who closed the door behind us and moved back to stand in front of it again.
“Prince,” another man dropped to his knee as Calix passed.
“What are you wearing?” a woman approached, a patronizing smile on her face.
Calix raised an eyebrow, then noticed the white sweater sleeves still over his forearms.
“It’s a long story,” he sighed, pulling the sleeves off and dropping them as he walked. “Petrick!”
A tall, slender man approached as we still walked through the massive hall where a few people sat in couches, chairs, and tables.
The man Petrick, looked very similar to Calix with the pasty white skin and piercing ice eyes.
Actually, everyone looked a little similar. The woman had bright blond hair but the same skin and eyes. The guard at the door too… What the hell?
“Petrick, show Lily to the chamber. Get her prepared.”
“Prepared?” I asked as the woman who’d spoken earlier grinned.
“Another?” she asked Calix and he simply nodded.
“There will keep being more until it is done.”
“What do you mean? Calix what’s going on?” I asked, feeling panic rolling through me again,
“Come, this way,” the man Petrick said, and took my arm, leading me away from Calix.
“May I go?” the woman asked, looking after me.
“I’m sure she would appreciate the female company,” Calix rolled his wrist in dismissal.
The woman jogged quickly to catch up.
“I am Nyx,” she introduced herself to me. “I’m Calix’s sister.”
“Calix’s sister? What the heck kind of place is this? Is this like… a club or something?”
Nyx laughed.
“Oh Darling… Didn’t he tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
She quirked her head at me as we walked.
“That we’re all vampires, of course.”
“What the hell is up with the vampire stuff? There’s no such thing!”
Nyx laughed.
“You’re some kind of wannabe vampire enthusiasts aren’t you? Like… santinists or something?”
The thought made me nauseous.
“Oh God… and very dedicated to the roll,” Nyx laughed.
She looked over at Petrick and they grinned at each other.
“Where are you taking me?”
“The sacrificial altar,” Nyx said with a straight face, then she started laughing. “We’re taking you to get cleaned up and new clothes.”
“Where’d he find this one?” Petrick asked with a smirk on his face.
I didn’t like him already
“I dunno. I kind of like her. Not like the others. And maybe we can be done with Tatiana. Ugh…” Nyx shuddered at the name.
I followed for a good couple minutes until we reached a room dressed in white curtains on every wall and a few trunks and wardrobes against the wall.
“Pick one,” Petrick said, waving his hand toward the wardrobes.
Nyx followed me to one and opened it. I sorted through the contents.
Inside were dresses of every shape and size. White dresses. They looked like sacrificial dresses.
“You’re not…sacrificing me…?” I started but Nyx shook her head.
“Of course not. You’re too valuable.”
“Valuable? What do you mean?”
“Your virginity. It’s too valuable.”
I gasped. How the hell could they possibly know? Did these people know my mother?
“It’s your blood,” Nyx answered my unasked question. “You reek of it. Calix has been going through one after the other. He’s in search of his mate. It’s a bloody waste of good sweet virgin blood if you ask me, but it is what it is. All my brothers are in a hurry.”
My brain was sputtering now.
“Virgins? Mate? Hurry?”
Nyx laughed again.
“Calix is looking for his mate. Only way to find it is to drink their blood and sex the fuck out of them. Poor guy is on… Oh God… What is it now Petrick? 38?”
“43,” Pertick answered absently.
“Drink their blood? That’s sick!”
“Vampires, Sweetums. It’s part of the gig.”
“How would that even possibly tell you who your mate was anyway? Shouldn’t you just know who your mate is?”
It was Petrick’s turn to laugh.
“There’s thousands of people that could be mates,” Nyx shrugged. “He just has to find one he’s compatible with.”
“Compatible?”
“One who will take his blood, who will give him babies. Only a mate can give him children.”
“Children?”
That’s it. I’m out.
I turned sharply and started toward the door.
“You can’t leave, Darling,” Nyx called after me. “Humans never leave here. Not without their master.”
“Master? You’re all psycho!”
I picked up my pace and ran. By the time I got myself absolutely lost, my heart was pounding and I was surrounded. Petrick and Nyx were there, and another man I didn’t know.
“Running won’t do you any good, Honey,” Nyx looked at me with sympathetic eyes. “And honestly, we’re all kind of over the whole innocent virgin thing. Just work with us, huh? Makes things easier for everyone.”
“You want me to just lay down and let you sacrifice me? I’m a person and I have rights!”
“Maybe we should call Calix…” the unknown man said, but another voice cut him off.
“No need,” Calix said coldly as he approached.
Gone was the hoodie and jeans. Now he wore a slim black suit, charcoal shirt with no tie. His shoes clip-clopped on the stone floor as he approached.
“Leave us,” he said and all three of my companions fled without another word or a look back.
“The hell is wrong with you people?” I demanded in as harsh a voice as I could manage. “I demand you release me!”
“No,” he said simply.
“You can’t just say no! I have a family to go home too. If I don’t show up they’ll come looking for me!”
“You mean your mother who would kill you?” he asked with one raised eyebrow.
His arrogant attitude was really starting to get on my nerves.
“Yes,” I said harshly. “And you’re pretty much cementing the whole killing outcome every extra minute you’re keeping me here for your sick little games.”
“Sick little games?” he grinned
Oh God his smile was perfect. Dangerous but perfect.
“Believe me, I have no interest in doing this either. I’m sick of the whole thing. But it’s what must be done. There’s no other way to find my mate and I MUST find her. My father will retire soon and I have to have my mate and a child at least on the way to be eligible for succession. Four of my brothers have already found theirs. And I’m running out of fucking virgins in LA.”
“Succession? You all talk like we’re in some terrible historical fiction or something.”
He took two more steps forward, his chest bumping against mine as he pushed me back until I was pressed firmly against the wall behind me, my breath heaving again, but for a different reason this time.
“My father,” he said quietly, “Is the king of all the Drakos. He will soon retire after 4000 years ruling. He’s ready for a quiet life, he says…”
Calix scoffed at the idea.
“My brothers cannot rule. It would be the end of us. We would lose the war with the Dorians and we would be no more. I need to find my mate so I can become king after my father. I don’t care how many virgins I have to go through, I WILL find the one, and she will rule beside me. I’m sure it’s not you, but I must be thorough.”
“And what if it’s not me? You’ll let me go?”
He actually chuckled.
“With the knowledge you have? Absolutely not. You will become one of my servants. We take good care of our property and you’ll like it here. You’ll never have to see me, I promise.”
But what if I wanted to see him?
Oh dear Lord what was I thinking?
“I want to go home, Calix.”
“We all want a lot of things, Lily. Prepare yourself. I will take you whether you do or not, but I will be much more harsh about it if you resist.”
Tears finally burned in my eyes.
“I’ll never leave here again?”
“No. Get used to the idea,” Calix said as he turned and headed away from me.
“What about… what about my siblings? They need me.”
Calix stopped abruptly.
“Pray they never meet the likes of us,” was all he said before continuing on.
I leaned there against the wall, suddenly cold to my bones. Sobs bubbled up my throat and suddenly I was on the ground wailing.
Nyx was quickly at my side, helping me back to my feet.
“Keep your chin up, Sweetums. Be good and he will be good to you.”
“A slave?” I questioned her, and I saw the truth glittering in her ghostly eyes.
“I’m hoping not,” she gave me a weak smile before walking me back to the white room.