Xander’s blood had sent me off into a restless sleep, unlike the first time he had fed it to me. It had a feel to it like being ill, in which I found myself motionless and asleep but occasionally gained consciousness throughout the night. My dreams were a mess of chaos involving black eyes, blood, and screaming fear. But they were normal dreams and not the sleepwalking dreams that plagued me.

At some point, I half woke up to the sound of unmistakable sex. A glance to my side showed the image of Aveline riding on top of Xander, moaning as he bit into the flesh on her shoulder. I couldn’t even bring myself to blush in complete mortification before I was back in the darkness of unconsciousness.

When I finally awoke from the effects of the blood, I felt refreshed and oddly determined. Something had clicked in my head that told me I couldn’t stay here much longer without losing my mind completely. I knew that I was typically an introvert and that a good week for me was staying inside watching movies and pretending society and the real world didn’t exist. But a life stuck inside with unreal creatures waiting to find out if I was going to die now or later couldn’t be what was left for me.

I carefully turned to the side to see if Aveline and Xander were there still and found them cuddling next to me in their own cocoon of happiness. Both appeared to be steadily asleep, which according to The Biology of Vampyre meant it had to be daytime outside. Due to a vampire’s inability to walk in the daylight, they were naturally adapted to sleeping during the day and active during the night. The only exceptions were Royals, who were the only vampires able to move in the daylight. Still, the book had informed me that vampires didn’t need to sleep during the day, so I had to be quiet.

I crawled off of the bed, thankful that this time I wasn’t in between the two vampires. Of course, that would have been awkward if what I had seen in my half-sleep state wasn’t a hallucination. I looked down to see I was still wearing my white shirt and jeans, only now they had dried blood from my now healed wounds still on them. I didn’t feel like this was a good time to change clothes though… I slowly moved across the floor of the bedroom in bare feet, reaching for the door with my breath held. I felt like the doorknob sounded entirely louder than usual when I turned it, but I kept my eyes closed as though it would make me invisible should either Xander or Aveline wake.

Then I was outside of the door, closing it softly behind me. I felt like celebrating my small first step to victory. My first decision was deciding if the nearest exit would be towards the direction of the kitchen or more where the stairway led to the third floor (where Jacobi’s room was) and the first floor… where no doubt an exit would be. I decided to make my way to the stairway, hoping my memory would lead me towards the correct way.

At first I nearly crawled towards my destination, as though someone would wake up if I moved too fast. Then the further away from the bedroom I got, the faster my feet moved. At the same time I feared I would move too fast, supernaturally fast. But so far it didn’t appear so. Instead, I sprinted down the hallway until I came upon the stairway that led both up and down. I quickly descended down the stairs until I reached the bottom floor, and then looked around in hopes of seeing an exit or perhaps some windows.

Perhaps I had been mistaken in thinking it was the first floor, though, because the only things I saw were wider hallways and less doors. I moved to the first one on the right and reached for it, but was too frightened to open it. What if someone was in there? Maybe I should have stayed with Xander and Aveline. Maybe I should go back.

I almost sighed in frustration, but kept quiet before continuing down the wide hall. There had to be an exit. All buildings had that main front area, like a lobby. And typically large buildings had multiple exits. Whereas the top floors were apparently residential rooms, these had to probably be more business related rooms. Maybe this was the areas where the coterie had their meeting. In that case, I probably shouldn’t go opening doors blindly.

In my haste to find an exit, I nearly walked across an opened door without noticing a glow of light coming from it and a voice that followed. I sharply halted, moving back to stay out of view of the door’s threshold.

“…requested an audience days ago and haven’t heard back…,” The voice was saying. It was a familiar voice, deep with that constant rage. Somehow I had just fallen back into the path of my torturer and future executioner. I quickly began to back away from that forsaken path.

“I need Darsana to look at the Monet girl. I need to know I can proceed safely,” Jacobi snapped, causing me to pause. Of course he was talking about killing me, but when it came to me being the topic I thought perhaps I should listen in a bit. A glance around the corner of the opened door revealed him looming over a desk with a phone in his hand. He looked extremely pissed even from behind. “Yes, no, I apologize for my tone. This is an extremely personal matter to me and my coterie.”

There was a silence for a moment.

“No, no one else will be sure it isn’t a trick except for Darsana,” He growled, his grip tightening on the phone in irritation. “I understand that, but I don’t believe you understand the gravity of this situation.” For a moment, he only stood still and then he sighed, looking up at the ceiling.

“Sure, I can host the event, but unless Darsana is one of the Royals there it’s going to be fucking pointless,” Jacobi nearly yelled at the unknown person on the other end of the line. I felt sorry for them. “She’s the only Royal with the sight, you know this. Yes, I know, again I apologize.” I was curious what he meant by the sight. Perhaps, being that he was addressing her as a Royal, it was one of the select few vampires with the witches’ gift. I tried to remember if I had seen her name on the list of Royals, but there were so many… I vaguely remembered her being of perhaps the Thron bloodline…

“Yes, I’ll host. Let the Royals know and please try to tell Darsana I need her. It’s only a matter of yes or no,” Jacobi sighed in frustration before slamming the phone down. I quickly moved back to press myself against the wall. Maybe it would have been smarter if I only listened to part of the conversation and had crawled off before it had ended. Now he wouldn’t be distracted and based on previous events I could guess he would hear me if I tried to move.

“Eavesdropping can get you killed, Monet.” I felt my heart jolt in terror, knowing I had been caught, and of course turned to run. But then he was there, arm against the wall in order to block me from running away. I hesitated before looking up into his rage filled citrine eyes.

“I… I wasn’t eavesdropping, I was… lost,” I said weakly, knowing I shouldn’t try to lie at this point. I was terrible at lying. It was evident in the narrowing of Jacobi’s eyes as he glared at me. I guess it was still better than admitting that I was trying to escape and failing miserably. His eyes gave me a small amount of relief when they trailed down my face to my clothes. He reached out to touch a spot of blood on one bit of my shirt.

“What event are you hosting?” I asked to try to draw attention away from questions that would lead to me confessing that I had showed signs of being an actual Monet. My question drew his rage back to my eyes, nearly stopping my heart with fear.

“Oh, don’t worry about that, you’re not invited unless Darsana shows and then you’ll be mine to pick apart piece by piece,” Jacobi said darkly, his words thick with venom. It took my breath away and made my heart race in my chest. I felt that unwelcome tremble begin in my limbs.

“Please, I didn’t have anything to do with Adelaide-,” I began but automatically regretted it. Just the mention of this unknown woman’s name cause a ripple of rage through Jacobi and his eyes bled black like a demon. I felt sick to my stomach, anxious with fear and at a loss of the breath I needed to scream.

Jacobi grabbed my arm and tossed me furiously into the office I had found him in. I landed on the ground roughly, gasping at the contact with the solid floor. He stepped inside before closing the door behind him dangerously. I rolled onto my back, leaning on my elbows and crawled backwards as he approached me. I tried to think of something to say to prolong my life, but all I could think of were things that would probably only piss him off further.

I pushed myself up to my feet to back up quickly, falling short when my back met with the wall. Jacobi was suddenly in front of me faster than I could see, causing me to yelp in surprise. And then he had my hair in his hand, pulling back and to the side. I cried out in pain and fear, my throat bared.

“Wait, wait,” I begged, reaching up to grab his arm and push a hand to his chest as though that would help me any at this point, “Wait, y-you said you needed D-darsana first!” His rage was so thick around him that I felt as though it alone would crush me into oblivion, but he still paused. Then he twisted me around, pushing my face against the wall roughly and pulled at my shirt. I cried out when his hand trailed roughly across my back, following the birth mark left there.

“This is the only reason you’re alive right now,” Jacobi growled into my ear dangerously, “If it’s a trick, you will suffer even more than I planned before.” I was panting now, nearly hyperventilating as he barely moved away from me before pushing me against the wall again. I grunted at the force, feeling tears beginning to build with the fear.

“If you ever mention her name again, I will feed you your tongue. Do you understand me?” He threatened me angrily. I nodded furiously, praying I wouldn’t accidently say or do something stupid that would get me killed even faster than planned. He let go of me so suddenly that I stumbled and nearly collapsed to the ground. “Get out. I don’t care if you’re lost. If I so much as hear the thumping of your disgusting heartbeat anywhere near me again, I will rip it from your chest.”

I didn’t need to be told twice. I stumbled out of the door, racing down the hall and up the stairway without hesitation. I found the bedroom of Aveline and Xander and made no point of being quiet when I fled into that room. My moment of relief was drowned by the terror of my encounter with Jacobi. I didn’t even notice the two vampires in the bed now sitting up and asking me things. All I felt was fear and then nausea. I fled into the bathroom and promptly vomited into the toilet.

~…~

The last time I had gotten sick, unrelated to actually being sick, it had been during the year after my mother had passed away. I wasn’t the type of person who crashed parties and did body shots or chugged beer kegs. No, I was the type of person whose alcoholic neighbor brought over a flask of moonshine in order to express their condolences. At first I had found it slightly annoying if not just a bit rude, but I found myself alone and curious as to what it was like to be fully trashed.

Needless to say, after about an hour and a half, the rest of the night was virtually a blur of memories that didn’t make sense. And waking up on the floor of the bathroom smelling like the aftermath of one of Lady Gaga’s outfits after a concert, I had finally experienced what it was to be drunk and swore to never do it again.

At this point, I would choose the vomit-inducing loss of sobriety over the fear for my life I was now constantly in. I had curled up into a ball on the floor of the bathroom I was now in and closed my eyes, wishing above all wishes that I was back in my dingy apartment looking for a stupid job. A nice boring life would be extremely better than this life.

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Thanks so much for the feedback! Really, it's been nice. (I still am waiting for the rage-filled hatemail, but so far so good!)

I'm dedicating this one to EmGem17, who offered to pay me in bacon for an update. <3 Nom nom nom.

Oh and nyaaaaa :3