“This is never going to work out fairly.”

I was standing blindfolded in the spacious area of the room, my hands half extended and looking to tag supernatural beings that were as quiet as death and as fast as light. I honestly could not fathom how this game would be entertaining to them when I probably wouldn’t be able to tag them without the blindfold either. I reached up to grumpily pull the blindfold off, but felt what had to be Aveline’s hands smacking mine away.

“Don’t be a spoil sport, just try. We’ll make plenty of noises,” Aveline giggled when I lunged out to grab her, but missed no doubt by her darting away with her super speed. I sighed.

“Xander?”

“I’m over here,” I heard his voice extremely close just behind me. I quickly turned to grab him, but my hands reached nothing. “Here.” He was further to my left. I could practically feel his smirk in the air. But I lunged again to find my hands brushing a solid wall.

“Are you sure this is safe? I’m not going to end up in the fireplace, am I?” I was certain I was going to trip and snap my neck somehow.

“We’ll make sure you don’t,” Xander laughed from just to the right of me. I felt his fingers brush my cheek and lunged to grab him. Again, I missed. I growled in frustration, but found my frustration was turning into determination. I concentrated on listening, trying to pinpoint where one of them were at any point in time before leaping towards them. After a few more tries, I groaned and almost stomped my foot on the ground like a child.

“You’re only making me do this so you can openly mock me!”

“No, come on, it’s fun,” Aveline called from nearby to my left. I didn’t even try to attack her position, but rather crossed my arms. I would have narrowed my eyes and glared at them if I hadn’t been blindfolded.

“I feel so stupid right now,” I stated honestly. I didn’t see what type of normal people decided on whim to play a form of Marco Polo. I reluctantly reached my hands out as though I’d feel where they were, moving slowly across the room. I could hear Aveline giggling and Xander would occasionally call my name to draw me towards his direction. I just had to look stupid.

As I concentrated on locating them, something strange started to happen. It started just vaguely, like the temperature rising in a room only by a single degree. I didn’t notice anything different occurring immediately, only that I had stopped lunging and instead was listening as though something were calling to me. Perhaps something was calling to me. I couldn’t hear Aveline or Xander any longer. Instead, I could only hear a low hum, like a note on a keyboard echoing underneath the floorboards.

I lifted my hand and reached forward towards the darkness where the… whatever it was called for me. My fingers traced it, just the tips, and I felt a chill move over my body causing me to shudder unexpectedly. It wasn’t a bad feeling, but it was powerful. It called to me, wanting me to more than touch it, but to grab it… connect with it. I withdrew my hand to my chest and stepped back a couple paces in fear.

“Do you feel that?” I asked Aveline and Xander with a subdued whisper. I didn’t hear a response, and wondered if maybe I was dreaming again. I hesitated, but took a step closer and then another. I began to hear whispers upon whispers rushing over my mind, trying to tell me things I couldn’t understand.

Pl… Te… Cob…

When I started to reach towards the darkness that called me, the whispers grew stronger… not louder, but clearer. By now my heart was pounding in my chest out of fear and excitement.

Ple… tell… Cob…

Syllables were between the rains of whispers that rushed like water. I wanted both to answer the request of the call, to connect with it, and I wanted to know what it was the whispers were trying to tell me. My fingers brushed it again, whatever this was, sending that cold electricity through me that rose the hair on my arms.

Please. Tell. Cobi.

Something snatched my wrist sharply. The whispers were immediately silent and the hum along with… whatever it was that had attracted my attention so indefinitely was gone. It felt like I had been floating and then had been thrown back to the Earth violently. I lost my breath for a moment. I quickly reached up with my free hand and pulled off the blindfold, blinking until my focus landed on the figure in front of me. My heart failed the minute I realized Jacobi was standing there with my wrist in his grip, my fingertips once again only inches away from his chest.

If I so much as hear the thumping of your disgusting heartbeat anywhere near me again, I will rip it from your chest…

“I… I…,” I couldn’t think of anything. I couldn’t remember how to speak or how to scream. I couldn’t remember even what I had previously been doing. All I knew was that this man, this creature, absolutely loathed me and wanted to tear me apart until I was nothing more than an unrecognizable corpse. This fact had been proven repeatedly, so much so that the very sight of him so close to me sent my body into an uncontrollable fit of tremors and caused me to forget how to breathe.

I avoided looking directly at his face after a brief glimpse purely for recognition sake, instead looking at his hand clamped around my wrist. It was better not to see my death coming through the hate in his eyes.

“Master Jacobi,” Xander’s voice suddenly spoke somewhere behind me. I had forgotten Xander and Aveline were still in the room with me. For some reason, this didn’t reassure me. Maybe a part of me recognized what being their master truly meant; that Jacobi could order me dead right now and they would do it. I would be silly to think I was in any way safer with them than without.

I was suddenly pulled closer to Jacobi, causing me to gasp in terror. Using his free hand, Jacobi grabbed my jaw with a surprisingly gentle but firm grip and lifted my face up to look at him. On instinct, I wrapped my free hand around his wrist as though I could remove his grip on my jaw. I had no real choice but to either close my eyes or meet his. The strong coward part of me that usually dominated my actions wanted to shut out the world, to close my eyes and pretend I was somewhere else. The sickly curious part of me that wondered how terrifying my death was going to be told me to look on, and for some reason I did.

“What were you doing?” Jacobi’s voice wasn’t angry… it wasn’t dark with venom or promising blood and death. It was then that I first noticed the expression on his face. It wasn’t one of rage and hate. It was curious and confused. His golden brown eyes were searching for something in mine. Perhaps he was looking for an expression that would betray the secrets he thought I had. I only stared with wide eyes, feeling my tremors slowly fading as immediate danger wasn’t quite present as of yet.

“Master, we were just playing a game,” Aveline’s voice said quietly with uncertainty.

“We were seeing if she showed signs of the skills Monets typically have… if she could sense us without sight,” Xander backed her up. I would have turned to throw him a very confused look, being that I had no idea that was what the intention of that so called game, but Jacobi hadn’t loosened his grip on me at all.

“What were you doing?” Jacobi asked me again, not even glancing at the two vampires behind me. His curiosity was slowly beginning to fade back into that suspicious determination he typically held towards me. It reminded me of when I had slept walked to his room.

“I… I don’t know,” I replied breathlessly. Then I bravely asked, “Did you feel it, too?”

Jacobi promptly released me as though the question frightened him. I stumbled back and would have fallen except for a pair of hands catching me gently. I was suddenly being hugged against what felt like large and very comfortable breasts. I blushed rapidly. Aveline was obviously hoping to protect me from Jacobi’s wrath, though I knew it would be pointless.

“Please don’t take her,” Aveline suddenly pleaded, “Darsana might say we can keep her instead of killing her. Please, Jacobi… Master. I know you’re upset about… I know you’re upset, but she’s innocent. She’s…” Xander suddenly cut her off by grabbing her hand firmly, squeezing to give her comfort. Jacobi narrowed his eyes at her, moving from her face down to me in her arms.

“I didn’t come here to kill the Monet girl,” He said darkly, though now he certainly seemed to be considering it. “The coterie was upset with her freedom in the Headquarters. I came to tell you to take her back to your room and keep her there. She’s not a guest. She’s our prisoner. You are her guards.” I moved my eyes from Jacobi to my left where Xander still stood with Aveline’s hand in his. His face was as serious as I’d ever seen since I met him.

“You may take out your needs on her if you wish, as long as she isn’t disabled or killed. That’s the only thing I’ll grant specifically to you two… as a reward for your loyalty to me all of these years. That’s the closest she’ll be to being yours,” Jacobi’s words made Aveline tighten her grip on me. I wished I could look up to see what her expression was; if this was affecting how she thought of me. Instead, I could only pick between Jacobi and Xander, so I kept watching Xander. His face was expressionless, but I knew he purposely was avoiding looking at me.

Jacobi moved to leave, turning only to add, “When the time comes, she will not be granted to you two to keep. I order you not to even ask Darsana for this. The Monet girl will be made an example of to her family and she will die.” The last words he spoke so determinedly that I felt the beginnings of my terror-filled tremors taking over once again. He turned and left us in the room, a deafening quiet left in his wake.

He had directly ordered them not to even try to save me by keeping me as theirs. I was completely doomed. After a moment, Xander began to tug on Aveline’s hand to get her to release me. At first, she resisted due to still being in some form of shock. I would have described it more like being a child that had been told their puppy was going to be put down soon but that they could still do what they want with it until then. Aveline obviously didn’t like the end result. I just hadn’t known exactly how much she didn’t like it until now, when she suddenly had me crushed between her and Xander as she sobbed into his chest.

“I don’t want her to go,” Aveline cried. I rather thought it was unfair that she could cry for me when she wasn’t the one that was going to be tortured to death. “Why’d you bring her to me, you idiot?” Aveline shoved Xander away abruptly and was gone before I could even catch myself from stumbling over. I looked around in confusion before looking at Xander, who looked immensely uncomfortable.

“Let’s go, Elysia,” He said, moving to lead me back towards what no doubt would be their room where Jacobi had ordered me to be imprisoned until further notice. I sighed, but knew there was no point in arguing. Xander didn’t have a say in what happened to me. I knew some part of me should be grateful he had picked me up from the floor of that torture room. If someone else had volunteered to remove me from sight, I couldn’t be sure I would be in the position I was now… unharmed and relatively untouched. Whoever else I would have ended up being ‘guarded’ by would have no doubt let Corentine kill me. And I’m sure they wouldn’t have tried to cheer me up often.

“Do you regret me?” I asked Xander quietly as we entered his room. I didn’t know what I wanted to hear. Perhaps one part of me feared he would hate me now that I had caused Aveline to be upset. That same part also wondered if he would feel the need to detach himself from me and possibly take out whatever need he had on me, be that rage or hunger or revenge, as Jacobi had granted.

Maybe I actually just feared I would lose his and Aveline’s affection. I knew their affection was unorthodox, if not just insane, but I had grown a need for it during my time here. And I knew it went beyond their protection or the preservation of my life. It was the affection itself, something I hadn’t felt since my mother was alive, that made me feel a sense of safety. It was a false sense, I knew, but it was what kept me as sane as I was during a time when my life was anything but.

Xander hadn’t turned to look at me the entire walk to the room and now that I had asked of his regret, he only stood looking to the side at nothing. I clamped my hands together and looked down, trying not to begin crying myself. I couldn’t think about a future where Xander and Aveline would begin to treat me terribly because I was just dead meat to them. It made my heart constrict in fear.

I felt his fingers suddenly under my chin, lifting my head up easily before pressing his lips over my forehead softly. Then he brushed the back of his finger over my nose teasingly, flashing one of his charming smiles even though it appeared sadder than usual.

“Of course not."