I was absolutely humiliated by my actions. As hard as I tried to forget, the images of me reacting to my ticklish nature by that… that brute kept reenacting in my mind. That squeal. Oh God, that squeal was so embarrassing. And the worse part? I slapped my own face at the memory. I honestly curtsied before that man. I, a twenty-first century woman, curtsied before a vampire and my future-executioner. Jumping off the building was looking far too good at this point in time.

Luckily, I remembered the way from Jacobi’s room to Aveline and Xander’s. When I was presented their door, I hesitated, wondering if I should just walk in or knock. My answer was given when the door was swung open roughly and Aveline was pulling me into the room. Before I could say or do anything, she was touching my body nearly all over and babbling about being hurt.

“I’m fine,” I cried out in alarm.

“You really picked the best vampire to piss off, didn’t you?” Aveline scolded, grasping my face in her hands. “Honestly, that blow to your head was so loud. You weren’t breathing. I thought you were dead.” I hesitated at her words. Was it really that bad?

“It’s a good thing Jacobi gave me his blood,” I sighed in relief.

“He didn’t,” She replied, releasing my face from her grasp.

“Was it you guys then?” I looked around the room to find Xander sitting on the far side of the bed with his back turned to us. It was strange that he didn’t even look at me. I frowned.

“No… the type of healing you required was only able to be given by Jacobi.” Aveline smiled softly at the mention of his apparent rescue mission. “He can heal by touch, you know.” She traced her fingers over the skin of my now healed arm, which only held the dried remains of my blood. I was completely confused, though.

“I didn’t read that in the books you gave me. I thought only Royals had special powers.”

“Yes, well, the books don’t mention that Eve’s Kindred tend to be a little special, as well,” she winked at me. I was stunned.

“You mean Eve Raene?”

“The one and only,” She stated proudly. I could understand her pride. Her Master-and-Maker was the Kindred of the first vampire. No wonder Jacobi was the Master of the largest and wealthiest coterie. “Eve had a few Kindred, but only a handful. All of them have been killed except for Jacobi. I’m assuming you can guess by whom.” She moved away towards the closet for something.

“Monet,” I whispered, enlightened further on why Jacobi would hate me so much. I looked up at her suddenly. “Was Adelaide his Kindred? Like you are?” Aveline paused at the door to the closet, holding her hands together in front of her stomach as if nervous for a moment.

“Adelaide was Eve’s Kindred, her newest one. She bound her to our coterie while Adelaide was still bonded to her Maker. In a way, Adelaide was entrusted to Jacobi for protection, like a little sister. They were close. Some thought they would be Mates…” She seemed like she was going to say more, but then turned to go into the closet and pick out a new outfit. I was grateful for the information she did give me. It helped me understand why Jacobi hated my bloodline so much.

It was then that I decided to focus my attention on Xander, who hadn’t turned to greet me once since I walked in. I hesitated, wondering if something was wrong with him. Had I done something to offend him recently? I couldn’t recall. I didn’t lock the door when he said to… yeah, that could be it. Maybe he thought I was too much trouble after all.

There was only one way to find out. I crawled onto the bed, making my way across to his solid unmoving figure. When I reached him, I paused but then leaned back on my knees and extended my hand to lightly touch his shoulder. I felt his muscles tense impossibly beneath his shirt, but he didn’t move otherwise.

“Xander,” I whispered, calling to him softly. “What’s wrong?” I tilted my head, waiting for a response but got no answer. I scooted closer to him, moving my hand over his back slowly in order to comfort him. His muscles were solid marble underneath my touch. He was so tense and I didn’t know why.

I leaned towards him and moved my arms under his arms and across his sides before clinging against his chest softly in order to embrace him in a hug from behind. With my body pressed against him warmly and my face resting between his shoulder blades, I inhaled deeply and noticed for the first time that he smelled of mint and light lavender.

“Did I do something wrong?” I muttered against him. Suddenly, Xander took a deep breath and I felt his hands move over mine almost protectively.

“You did nothing, Elysia,” He finally said sadly. I missed his cheerfulness and his charming smile. He removed my arms from around him, keeping a hold of my hands soothingly before turning around to look into my eyes deeply. “It’s my fault you were attacked. Vincent is…” He struggled to continue.

“I know. You don’t have to say it.” It was obvious to me now that Vincent had to be his Maker; the one that Aveline had told me made him do terrible things when he was still bonded to him. How many times did Vincent refer to Xander as his? And Vincent had told Jacobi that he had taken away his Kindred.

“He’s vowed to make the remainder of my life as painful as he can, especially since I left his coterie for Aveline,” Xander’s eyes looked up behind me where I felt a dip in the bed. His expression instantly warmed when looking at Aveline. I was nearly in awe of it. But then his face frowned as though he were in pain. I knew it to be guilt. “He heard I was protecting you. It was an easy target for him.”

“It’s not your fault,” I said quietly, reaching up to touch his face as though I could wipe away that guilt. It wasn’t his fault his Maker was an abusive and manipulative bastard. I wasn’t the type of person who victim-blamed.

“If it wasn’t for his hatred of me, you wouldn’t have been attacked. Our Master wouldn’t have been nearly assassinated. You wouldn’t have nearly died. Jacobi had to use his spirit to heal you. It’s not something he does for many people. It makes him weak temporarily. He had to spend the rest of the event attending to your wounds and then himself,” Xander was reaching a point I obviously hadn’t been told. I was frankly surprised Jacobi would bother healing me if it affected him that way. Xander touched my face lightly as I had his, frowning even deeper. “He didn’t greet the Royals when they arrived. They were offended. He’ll be punished for it and it’s my fault.”

I gulped, feeling my nerves bunched up. I didn’t know healing me and missing out on hosting the event would cause so much trouble. “Honestly,” I responded breathlessly, “I’m starting to feel like this is my fault.” Xander shook his head and cast his eyes away in shame.

“The fault isn’t either of yours,” Aveline said from behind me, “We can’t foresee the future and we can’t change what has already happened. What we can do is prevent any more accidents from happening.” I finally moved away from Xander to face Aveline on the bed.

“What do you mean?”

She reached for my hands, pulling me closer to her and stared at me determinedly. “When a human is claimed, they’re unable to be harmed by others in the coterie except the Master. It’s illegal for any vampire to attack and harm a claimed human, no matter if the human belongs to a different coterie or not. Some vampires may dare to break that law, but at least we’d know that our own coterie couldn’t harm you, my little tiger.” I understood where this was going fast. I immediately reached for my neck protectively, as though I was going to be bitten any second.

“I don’t know,” I responded uncertainly. “You’d be able to know where I am always. What if I don’t want that?” She pulled my hand away from my neck but didn’t make a move to claim me, so I relaxed a tiny bit.

“It wouldn’t be permanent. After Darsana sees you, we’d break the claim. That or Jacobi would himself. He won’t allow us to feel your death if that’s what’s to be,” Aveline tried to sound hopeful, but I could feel the desperation in her grip. She feared for my life, which I knew was pointless. It was pretty much guaranteed I was going to die, so she shouldn’t fear it so much. Still, her determination brought a small spark of hope to me. “Even if you’re allowed to live, we’d break the claim… if you wanted us to.”

When I didn’t say anything, I felt a shift in the bed behind me. A glance back showed Xander moving closer towards us with a strange expression on his face. I remembered when he had first offered to claim me and how his lips and hands had traveled over my body. A deep blush was rising in my cheeks. Would I really agree to do something like this? Give my body and spirit up to two vampires at an attempt for safety? It was getting increasingly harder to breathe.

“Would it hurt?” I looked from Xander to Aveline, and then down at her hands in mine.

“Not at all. It will be…,” She hesitated, probably guessing her next words would disturb me on some level, “…invasive. Intimate. Maybe even uncomfortable at some point. But not painful. Not with us.” My heart rate was rising. I could feel it in my throat, but not because I was afraid of being hurt. It was because I was actually considering doing it. My own daring was beginning to pulse adrenaline through me just at the thought of giving myself to them, to be claimed and officially theirs. It would be for my own safety. No one in the coterie would be able to hurt me any longer. Those outside the coterie would know I wasn’t to be touched, unless they wanted to be punished by law. It would be the safest I could be in this place.

It also would mean no escape for me. Once their bond was connected, they’d find me always. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, considering they’d feel my pain if I were lost or hurt. They would be able to find me and protect me. I only wished I could protect myself.

“Can you trust us, Elysia?” Xander’s voice was soft against my ear. He barely touched my hair to move it from my shoulder and I felt like trying to hide my flesh immediately. But I restrained from pulling away, knowing they wouldn’t attack without permission. It was something they had stated from the beginning. They only took the willing.

Aveline leaned in then extremely close, her hands rising from mine and up my arms sending chills through my extremities at her soft touch. She clasped my face in her hands and had me meet her eyes. In those hazelnut eyes I saw her complete sincerity and affection. It nearly took my breath away.

“Can you trust us?” She repeated Xander’s question. A part of me knew it was stupid of me to trust them. They were keeping me captive, even if they were only following orders. I should be fighting teeth and nails to escape, to force them to either chain me down or release me.

In the end, I knew there was no chance in escaping from creatures like these once they had you in their grasp. It wasn’t always guaranteed that they’d offer to extend their protection to me. I had to know that they were risking something themselves by giving this to me. To them, this could possibly mean their death as well, if they meant to protect me with their life. So after a long and extremely stressful deliberation of their offer, I gave them an answer.

“I trust you,” I finally whispered.

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After plenty of responses, I'm gonna go ahead and remove this A/N. It previously asked: Would you prefer longer chapters or would you prefer speedy updates?

Enjoy the story. :3