The Celestial Kiss Read online

  Frustration and confusion surged through me. Overwhelmed, I lay my head against the wall and tried to sort through what I knew. But none of it made sense, other than the understanding that I had run from one prison to another. It was a sobering thought.

  The temptation of sleep was so enticing, with its promise of escape, no matter how temporary. Within minutes darkness had mixed together, twining so deeply that I could not distinguish sleep from wakefulness.

  The grating of the doors opening again pulled me from a sleep I didn’t know I’d slipped into, and I opened my eyes against the light that came in through the doorway. Blinking rapidly, I noticed a figure silhouetted in the door. Although he looked very much like Julius, this wasn’t the same man. They were undoubtedly brothers, but this one was taller, had a more commanding presence. When I met his eyes, I noticed something else— this was the man who’d bitten me.

  My heart hammered an entirely new rhythm in my chest, beating double time, skipping, and faltering. The shackles seemed heavier and the room smaller, the air suddenly toxic, but I looked up at him, determined not to let him see my terror.

  “How are you feeling?” His voice was deeper than Julius’ and yet somehow more gentle. It was the last thing I’d expected from him. He hesitated before dropping his weight on his legs, bending down so his face and mine were level, yet he maintained a respectful distance. “If the pain is too much, I can ease it. But you have to tell me or I can’t help.”

  I eyed him shrewdly, afraid to speak, to move, even to breathe. Something flickered in his eyes—the ghost of compassion—but it was gone as quickly as it had come. “You bit me.” It was a painfully simple accusation, but it was all that mattered.

  “Yes.” His eyes were unreadable. More than half of his face was concealed in shadow, but what I could see of it did not look nearly as menacing as Julius.

  I’d expected more, a defense perhaps, but when he offered nothing, I asked, “Why?”

  “You were a threat.” His eyes held mine, but I could feel his desire to look away and the disgust that permeated the air. He just didn’t have enough regards to waste his hatred on me as Julius had.

  “Funny, I was the one who felt threatened.” I turned away, my eyes burning as the memory came flooding back to me. Don’t cry. Don’t give him that.

  “Hunting in the city is strictly forbidden. You must have known.”

  “I wasn’t hunting.” The rage, the indignity from earlier was all absent this time. Now it was hollow and tired, much like me.

  “Then what were you doing there?” It wasn’t accusatory; instead, he seemed to be imploring me to give him an acceptable answer. I bit my lip, not wanting to trust him with the truth. But the way he spoke, the way he looked at me, and the fact that I didn’t have many other options all appealed to my good sense, and I found myself speaking the truth.

  “I ran away.” The admission made my cheeks burn as I realized how stupid it sounded. Of course, yesterday it hadn’t seemed crazy; on the contrary, it had seemed perfectly excusable. I’d reached the end of my rope there, but how could I possibly explain that to a stranger? No, he didn’t need to know why I’d left.

  “From what?” He asked, his soft voice entreating me to continue. I appraised him suspiciously. He seemed to want to help. He was solid, built lean and strong; he could have killed me before, but he didn’t.

  I skimmed his face, unsure whether I should answer, but there was something there that told me to trust him, even though everything I already knew about him told me I should do the exact opposite. “Imprisonment.” I said, and then unable to stop myself, I laughed. “That worked out real well.” The chains rattled on my wrists as if to illustrate my point. I bit my lip, having divulged more than I’d meant.

  “What kind of imprisonment?”

  Already I’d confessed more than I wanted. “You don’t deserve anything from me.”

  He stood, backing away from my anger, and scrubbed his hands over his face as if he could wipe away his frustration by the very act. A sigh escaped him. “I can’t help you if I don’t understand.”

  “You clearly aren’t in the business of helping people.” I deadpanned.

  “Please,” His voice seemed strained. “I need to know why you were there that morning. I need to know what you were running from.”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  I thought for a second he might laugh, and then his expression darkened. “I bit you.” He said, as if the pain were not a visceral enough reminder. “You are my business. I call the shots where you are concerned. I control your fate now.” He paused, then deciding that he hadn’t yet made his point, added with a smirk, “You’re my puppet.”

  His words rattled me to the bone. Any pretense we’d had of being pleasant was gone.

  “So kill me then!” I snapped, practically shaking with unbridled rage. “You’ll do it anyways!”

  He looked momentarily stunned, but then the corners of his lips turned up. “Why kill you yet? I have plans for you.”

  I laughed to disguise my fear. Because although I couldn’t possibly imagine what his plans were, it wasn’t exactly an inspiring promise. The words struck a chord, and I wouldn’t sit quietly. “You don’t know who you’re messing with.”

  The man laughed too, but his wasn’t to throw a veil over fear. Instead, he seemed to be truly amused by my comment. “I think I do. You see, there aren’t many instances of people like you, not quite a vampire and certainly not a human. You’re nearly indestructible prey, and you admitted yourself you ran away from something. I’m smart enough to gather that you are something of a rarity, and rarities always fetch a price.”

  In an instant, he managed to touch on my deepest fear—being returned to the darkness after just barely escaping it. “Well, then you’re even dumber than you look if you think you can negotiate over me. I’m nothing to them.”

  “Something tells me that’s not true. After all, you don’t lock up things that mean nothing to you.”

  I swallowed, feeling feverish. I’d have said anything to get him to abandon the idea of returning me to that torture. “They don’t want me now. Unless you want to be stuck with me forever, I’d just cut your losses.”

  “Forever?” He gave me a level look. “You have precisely twenty four days. If I haven’t gotten what I need by then, you’ll no longer be my problem.”

  Twenty four days was a long time. The number shocked me. He couldn’t honestly keep me here for more than three weeks, could he? It was my turn to pose a question, and I tried to keep my voice steady as I asked, “Until what?”

  He glanced at me, and there was something there that hinted at pity. It caused a surge of anger to shoot through me. It was quickly followed by a shooting sensation.

  The pain in my shoulder was crippling as it made itself remembered, and I bit back a groan, clasping a hand to the offending spot. Touching the skin there didn’t hurt...the pain actually seemed to radiate from within me.

  “And so it begins,” He muttered. I looked up at him, gauging his fathomless eyes with every intention to find out what that was supposed to mean, but he turned away abruptly and headed for the exit. “For what it’s worth,” he turned back toward me. His face was mostly concealed by shadows, and his voice sounded distant, but something in the way he spoke almost led me to believe the next words to leave his lips, “I’m sorry.”

  Chapter Four

  The next time the door opened, I had no way of knowing how much time had passed. I only knew that I was angry, and I’d ove to sink my teeth into either of them so that they could understand even a fraction of what I felt. I wanted to bite them, even though the thought of their metallic blood disgusted me. I wanted to throw myself at either of them and kick, scream, anything that would ease this corrosive hatred burning a hole through me.

  But this time it was a girl, probably around my age, tall, and beautiful.

  She stepped closer, and when I shrugged away, looked as though she had be
en slapped. “You don’t have to be afraid of me,” The girl insisted, flashing a key and a small smile, “I’m going to unlock you.”

  My heart faltered. Was this a trick, or was she taking me somewhere worse? Either way, I didn’t have much choice, and so I let her support my wrist with her hand as she twisted the key. I eyed her cautiously, considering her kind face, until the chain dropped free, and she moved to the second one. When it fell to the ground with a resounding clank, the relief was immediate. I felt lighter, shaking my wrists to return the feeling to them.

  “Oh, I’ve forgotten my manners,” The girl said, stretching her hand out to me. “I’m Janna.”

  With her hand out, she looked like a child trying to earn the trust of a stray dog. The irony of that imagery wasn’t lost upon me. I fixed her hand with a reproachful stare until she retracted it.

  My eyes flickered to the door that she’d left open. Was she testing me, or did she think I didn’t stand a chance of escaping?

  “I want to help you.” She said.

  “Is this what you consider helping me?” I sneered. “Locking me up in your cellar?”

  “I know you won’t believe it, but that’s really for your own good.”

  “Of course it is. And attacking me, was that for my own good too? Some sort of initiation into this little gang of yours?”

  “Gang?” Janna repeated. Her mouth turned down a little, and a delicate crease formed at the bridge of her nose as she tried to understand.

  “This whole good cop, bad cop routine you’ve got going on with the other guys,” I said, “It’s not going to work on me, so just tell me what you want from me.”

  Understanding lit her eyes. “You mean my brothers?” She laughed. “Julius can be callous, yes. But James…he just doesn’t know how to react right now. No one does, really.”

  “You can answer some of my questions.” I suggested. “Like what you are doing with me?”

  “Okay, fair enough.” Janna nodded at the door, but I remained still as she began to walk toward it. “Unless you don’t want to know what we’ve planned for you. In that case, you’re welcome to stay here ‘til you’ve changed your mind.”

  She was practically out the door by the time I gathered myself up. The pulsing had taken up residency in my head again, and the moment I stepped from the previously dark room, the afternoon sun that poured in through a nearby window assaulted my eyes. Yet I followed her, fingers skimming the stone wall in an effort to keep steady, because my other choice was to go back to the darkness and lay there until I was dead. With each step we took, I grew more confident in my own balance, and the light began to hurt less. I took the newfound sense of clarity as an opportunity to take in my surroundings, but there was not much to see.

  We were walking down a very long hallway, with large wooden doors on either side every couple of feet. Simple brick walls were about all that there was to the space, except for the window at the end of the hall behind us. The further we went down the corridor, the darker it got, until we stopped in almost complete blackness. I’d been focusing on everything but the direction we were headed, looking for any route of escape other than the one I was being led to. For that reason, I hadn’t noticed we’d come to a dead end.

  I fixed Janna with a suspicious look, but she placed her hand there and found a latch. Moments later the bricks parted to form a space just large enough for us to pass through. Janna stepped through immediately, obscuring my view, but as I followed I saw that wherever we had come from, we were now in what appeared to be a house. Here, the surroundings were far less dull.

  Sunlight illuminated everything, so intense that I cringed away from it. The entire ceiling was a glass dome, supported by concrete beams that came down to form columns in the walls. The entire room, in fact, was circular, and I took a step back to observe it better without the barrage of the sun.

  Dark wood floors gleamed against the light, and archways nestled in between the columns, all open, offered an unhampered view of other parts of the…what was it, actually? A mansion?

  The archway directly opposite us was closed off by two heavy oak doors. I realized it for what it was—my escape. With no one else around, I might have the perfect chance now, if I just made a break for it. Janna did not seem to be impressively athletic. I contemplated the thought a moment too long, because in the next second, two figures emerged from the archway right next to us. I saw James first, but when my eyes fell on Julius, I took my chance and ran.

  I had barely made it halfway across the expansive room when I ran into what felt like a brick wall, and felt hands on my arms, locking me in place. I tore out of Julius’ grasp so quickly that the force knocked me backwards. James offered me a helping hand, palm up. I looked at him with such disdain that I expected him to withdraw it, but he didn’t let his hand fall to his side until I was on my feet and had put a little space between us.

  “What number did you do on her?” Janna scowled at her brothers.

  “Janna,” The younger brother’s voice sharpened on her name. James.

  “I’m just saying, she’s terrified of you. Look at her.” Janna placed a gentle hand on my arm, but her touch burned right through me. I tore away, angry that she thought she had any right to act like we were friends. Julius’ lips twitched, but Janna seemed unaffected. “Anyways, we were just going to get ready.”

  “An hour early?”

  “Well, I don’t know, Julius,” Her voice was sprinkled with sarcasm, “but I think if I’d been thrown into a cellar for days, I’d want a long, hot shower before meeting the King’s council.”

  “I wouldn’t waste our water on the likes of her.” His dark eyes seemed to see right through me, as though I were insubstantial. My life meant nothing to him, but for some reason here I still was. “Besides, she probably only likes to bathe in the blood of the innocent.”

  “Don’t be crass.” His sister chided. “She’s a guest.”

  “She’s worthless,” Julius rolled his eyes and walked away, then offered a warning over his shoulder, “Don’t be late.”

  Janna rolled her own eyes by way of response, and then turned to her other brother. “We’ll see you in an hour.” He didn’t answer except for a nod, his thoughtful gaze fixated on me, and went off to follow his brother. Janna turned to me. “I promise they’re not always so intolerable. This way.”

  She led me under one of the arches, and I was surprised to see that the room was relatively small. Janna made her way to a tall staircase that spiraled upwards, and I followed her, knowing I couldn’t go back the other way. At the top there was a landing with several doors, and she showed me to the first of them. “Just about everything you’ll need is in there, including a change of clothes. Makeup too, if that’s your thing, though you clearly don’t need it.”

  I really looked at her for the first time, and saw the compassion in her eyes, rich and warm like melted chocolate. It made me uncomfortable. I reached hesitantly for the handle, uncertain whether I should believe that I was really headed to take a shower and not to have my head chopped off. But something about her made me want to trust her, so holding my breath, I opened it and stepped into what was easily the largest bathroom I’d ever seen.

  True to her word, Janna had set out clothing for me, neatly folded on the counter. The shower seemed large enough to accommodate several people. I pulled back the curtain quickly, wary that there was someone waiting to lunge out from behind it. But I was alone in the oversized bathroom, and that left me with an opportunity. Unfortunately, there was not a single window in the entire space. The only door revealed nothing more than a linen closet and I even tried the door I’d entered through, which had locked behind me. With nowhere to go, I decided I may as well take advantage of the shower.

  The hot water did a number of services for me, from relaxing away the aches in my body to clearing away the cobwebs in my head. When I emerged from the steam what seemed like hours later, I felt nothing short of refreshed. I dressed in the clothes that ha
d been set out on the counter, a simple pink dress that was just a bit too bright. I thought of the lithe girl outside who’d no doubt plucked this from her closet for me, and couldn’t help but feel silly. I had been attacked and imprisoned without much of an explanation, and still with no answers, I was playing dress up.

  I felt too vulnerable, too exposed when I looked in the mirror. The thin straps didn’t cover much of my marred neck, but I brushed my hair out and laid it across my shoulders. It was the best I could do, but it wasn’t enough.

  This time when I tried to open the door, it was unlocked, and Janna stood on the other side. She too, looked refreshed, wearing a fresh dress and a smile. “You look great.” She said, as though we were old friends. “Now just relax. The king isn’t as bad as his sons.” Janna smiled to herself, and before I could ask anything, she led me down the stairs and into one of the various entryways. Behind yet another door, she stopped and led me down a short hall.

  It occurred to me then why they hadn’t bothered adding anyone else to my security detail. This place was a labyrinth, with doors and hallways all intersecting each other to the point where it felt like we were walking in a big circle. I’d never be able to find my way out from here. At least, not alone.

  We stopped finally in a large chamber that echoed when the door closed behind us. A platform ran the length of the wall, with a long line of people sitting in tall-backed chairs. The man who sat in the middle was distinguishable from the rest, not only by a significantly larger, more ornate chair, but because he was easily the oldest. His head was bent, focused on something that lay on the table before him, but I still noticed the silver that threaded his hair. To his left a woman sat unflinching, her green eyes shooting daggers my way. Her vibrant red hair was pulled into a braid that draped over her shoulder, and her skin was so fair that in comparison with the others at the table, she might have passed for a vampire. Certainly with that pinched look, she seemed far more likely a candidate than I.