I was reading through the literature in front of me, Social Science of Vampirism- A Look at the Spiritual Bond. Xander had left not long after leaving me in the bedroom and both he and Aveline hadn’t come back for well over a day now. I had assumed he was off to find his mate and console her if not ask for forgiveness. If I had a say in it, I would point out that he did say not to get attached, but that probably would result in my head missing from my body. Anyway, neither of them had returned and I was resolved to continue my readings and glad to know that the very annoyed kitchen staff was told to bring me foods and liquids occasionally.

Of the books I had left to read, I knew Human Slavery; Unethical or Simply Natural was the second book Aveline hadn’t suggested for me to read so I decided to read that last. A part of me wanted to read the other, The Tyranny of Vampire Hunters, but I had long since decided not to piss off my roommates by bringing that up anytime soon if ever. This left me the book on spiritual bonds, which I was very interested in knowing about, and then Civil Rights and Laws as Passed by Royals. I wondered if I would be dead before I finished the complete collection.

The Social Science of Vampirism began by explaining what exactly the spiritual bond was. Apparently, humanity and vampires were common in that they were social by nature. Vampires often went rogue though, void of all bonds, and tended to become crazed and blood thirsty creatures: true monsters. Vampires who bonded naturally found peace and were more civilized.

The spiritual bond was a connection vampires had to their life force. It was a supernatural connection that allowed them to manipulate their life force on a spiritual level, allowing it to be shared and even strengthened by mutual bonding. There were six levels of bonding: Royal to Royal, Royal to Master, Master to Coterie, Mate to Mate, Maker to Kindred, and Vampire to Human.

The first level, Royal to Royal, was the most powerful being that it was eternal and unbreakable. This bond was created simply by being a Royal, birthed by another Royal. It was the bond of their bloodline. It was simple; their existence was created by sharing their life force by blood, flesh, and spirituality. That’s why Royals continued to be the most powerful vampires in existence. The bonds of their bloodline allowed them to always know where each other were and to lend strength to one another. It also allowed a mental link between the Royals in a bloodline, so that they could even speak to each other thousands of miles apart.

Royal to Master, the second level, was a rare form of bonding due to the fact that it was considered invasive and dangerous. A Royal who bonded with a Master would inherently bond to any and everyone else bonded to that Master. It was different from being accepted into a coterie. It was having control over an entire coterie. There was a law in place by Royals themselves that forbade this type of bonding, though it didn’t specify the true reason for it. I assumed it gave the Royal too much power which was bad for business.

The third and most common bond was that of Master to Coterie. Reading through this section, I found I basically had this already figured out. The Master was what made a Coterie and it was through the Master that the Coterie was bonded. It was like a web, in which all the members were bonded to each other, but in the center of the web was the Master that held them all together. Without a Master, the coterie would degenerate and the members would be lost among themselves and alone. Being in a coterie meant the members could sense each other when needed, send out distress signals in a way, and have protection from dangers be that other coteries or hunters. The more bonds created, meaning the more members there were, the stronger the coterie was which in turn meant the stronger a Master was. Masters were only as strong as their ability to bond the members together, though. While some Masters could hold a bonded coterie of about ten people, others could hold hundreds. It just depended on the power of the Master at hand.

This ended the mass bonding between multiple people. The next three levels were known as more intimate, one on one, bonds. Mate to Mate was a bond that could only be created through mutual agreement- not even a Royal could force this. Not only did this agreement have to be mutual, but it also had to be spiritually compatible. Basically, if two vampires just agreed to be Mates but weren’t meant to be Mates, the bond wouldn’t happen. Typically it was easy to tell when two vampires were “soulmates”, their life forces recognize each other and they’re drawn to each other. Sometimes bonding between mates can even happen automatically, usually during intimacy, but again it only could happen if the two wanted it to happen on some level of their consciousness.

Maker to Kindred was also a very intimate bond, similar to the Royal to Royal bond in that it’s made through creation. All Kindred are bonded to their Makers initially even if they aren’t consensual. It was believed this was so that Makers could control their Kindred through the bond, preventing the newly turned from going rabid and rogue. After a certain amount of time, the bond wears off, depending on the Kindred’s ability to gain control of their powers. This detachment of the bond was also guaranteed, without consent, so that even if Kindred wanted to remain bonded to their Maker the bond would still break away.

Finally, there was a whole other section of bonding that was dealt between Vampires to Humans. These types of bonds were always one-sided, being that humans couldn’t manipulate their spiritual life force as vampires can. Humans couldn’t bond to any vampire, which meant they were unable to join coteries or be mated. However, vampires could share their life force with humans in multiple ways. One way was through their blood, which is how vampire blood could heal human wounds. Another was through claiming a human being as their own, under their protection.

Blood seemed to be the key factor in bonding with humans- whether sharing life force for healing or claiming protection. When claiming a human, the human would have to be bitten, drawing blood so that the life forces can meet within the vampire. The vampire then could create the bond, which left a claim over the human. It meant the vampire could know where the human was at all times and know if the human was in danger or in pain. It also meant the human gained some power from the vampire: increased healing, speed, strength, and senses. These side effects weren’t even close to the magnitude of true vampirism, but they were perks.

There was so much more information in addition to the levels, including exceptions in which multiple vampires could claim the same human. It went on to explain how Royals could break and build bonds in coteries, and how levels of powers were important towards claiming humans. Claiming a human could only protect them from those equal to or less powerful than the vampire, and this only completely guaranteed from those in your own coterie. A vampire without a coterie claiming a human was less likely to be effective, except by law. Masters could break claims over humans from lesser vampires, and Royals could break claims on humans from Masters.

I sighed and closed the book, my head throbbing at this point. I still couldn’t understand how the Royals, if they were bonded and so powerful, were dropping off the face of the Earth up to extinction. Whoever it was that was after them had to be smart. From what I could tell based on A History of Immortals, the younger Royals were being picked off first. It would be effective, knowing that Royals can’t reproduce after a certain age, so if all the young Royals were killed it would stop the bloodline. Still, I couldn’t see how exactly they were being killed. Especially now that I knew they were so connected with their bonds…

As for bonding with a human… I touched my neck absently where Xander had nearly pierced his fangs through. That’s what he had planned to do for me. I couldn’t imagine having heightened senses and strength, along with faster healing abilities. Speed, I could imagine, being that I apparently had that sporadically at this point in time. But for him to know where I was at all times? I would never be able to get away. I didn’t need to think too hard about it though. Sure I was in a dangerous place, but there wasn’t an actual need to protect me beyond the orders of Jacobi. It looked like the coterie wouldn’t hurt me until he ordered so. Until then, I was basically safe. Or so I hoped.

I decided to take a bath to calm myself down. The place where the full body mirror had been was bare, but I still glanced at it and shuddered when remembering running into it. When I found myself lying in the bathtub with massive bubbles and steam surrounding me, I sighed and began to drift off to sleep.

I dreamed of faces. They were peering at me through cages, writing things down and speaking in hushed whispers. One figure in particular was watching me. He spoke constantly, but I couldn’t hear the words he said. They were garbled and warped until they meant nothing at all. Then he reached for me and the words whispered in my ear.

Daddy’s here.

I was suddenly in a bathtub, only it wasn’t the one connected to Aveline and Xander’s room. It was a claw foot stand-alone tub that resided in the bathroom of one of my mother’s rental residences. I could hear humming and in front of me was a mermaid doll which I crashed into the water in attempt to splash some over the side of the tub. The humming, I realized, was me. I couldn’t have been more than five or six years old.

I looked up to see my mother sitting beside me next to the tub, reaching over to pour some shampoo on top of my head.

“I bit someone today,” I told her simply. She seemed startled, but continued to massage the shampoo into my scalp.

“Now why would you go and do that?” She asked in a scolding manner.

“She called me a bad word,” I replied in a sing song voice, obviously not remorseful. My mother halted her massage and grabbed my chin to have me look at her pale grey eyes. She never was an extremely feminine woman, more brutish and strong than anything, but I always felt she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Perhaps because she was my mother.

“What did she call you, Lysa?”

“Bastard,” I whispered as though it were a secret. My mom promptly released her gentle grip on my chin so I continued while playing with my mermaid. “She said it means my daddy doesn’t love me. She said nobody loves me.” I inhaled a sharp breath before releasing it just as quickly. “So I bit her.”

“Look at me, Elysia,” When I looked, I saw her face had gone all serious. She was gripping the edge of the tub and giving me her full attention. “Your father was an insane man, but he wanted you more than you can believe. And you are loved. I love you more than anything else in the world, do you understand?”

I hesitated, but then I showed her a large smile. “I know.” I started splashing the water some more, humming happily while I felt her pour water over my hair carefully. When she finished, I turned to tell her I loved her too.

Instead, a man was in her place. He was faceless and menacing, reaching for me. I screamed.

“Elysia!” I woke sharply, splashing water and nearly drowning myself in the process to the sound of pounding fists on the bathroom door. When I had control over my situation, I stood up and reached for a nearby robe. “Elysia!”

“Yeah?” I called out breathlessly, “I’m coming!” I opened the door to find Aveline standing there smiling stupidly at me. Her hazelnut eyes were shining, and she looked very well fed and healthy. She was dressed in mahogany, tight and form fitting as though she’d been to a formal meeting or party. I blinked, unsure of what to say, but then she reached out and hugged me to her tightly. I guessed that she missed me…

“I’m so sorry I’ve been gone so long, Jacobi had us go send some messages to neighboring coteries. We’re having a gathering soon to host the Royals,” Aveline stated happily. I, on the other hand, remembered Jacobi speaking on the phone. This must have been the event he was talking about. And he’s hoping Darsana will show up, which would mean I would finally be sentenced to death.

“How,” I squeaked, and then cleared my throat before continuing, “How soon?”

“Tomorrow night,” She announced happily, “I love these things. There’s so many new people and mingling and food… Not the type of food you’d like, but still.”

“She’s not going,” Xander’s voice called from the bedroom. Aveline hesitated, and then turned to go back to the bedroom. I followed her with low spirits. So I was going to die tomorrow then… I wasn’t sure how this felt to me.

“What do you mean, she’s not going?” Aveline pouted in disappointment. She immediately enveloped herself into Xander’s arms, hugging her head against his chest. I guessed that they weren’t fighting anymore. I made myself busy to avoid blushing by picking out an outfit for the day… or night. I was really starting to miss not being able to go outside or even see outside.

“I mean, she’s not going. Jacobi said her presence isn’t necessary unless Darsana shows up and the grapevine says she’s not coming either,” Xander kissed the top of Aveline’s head as I made my way back into the room with my outfit of a typical skirt and fitted tank top with a design of lips patterning it. I felt immense relief knowing that Darsana wasn’t going to show up. This meant I still had time.

Who knew? Maybe a gathering would be a great time to attempt escape, when everyone was far too busy to make sure I wasn’t up to anything.