Enslaved Read online

  "I believe you now," she said quietly and ghosted away, leaving Vince stunned and confused...leaving him wanting more; knowing he couldn't have what he craved the most.

  Chapter 3

  Vince sat down on the bench Viktoria had just left, pleased that her scent could be found all over the carved block of stone. He watched as she walked off, and for the first time in the last year, his eyes weren't examining her rump. They were staring after her, and he was wondering what had just happened. His hand slowly moved to the warm spot on his cheek – the ghost of her lips lingering on his flesh.

  He could hardly believe what had just happened, how she had reacted. Most servants would not have just kissed his cheek and walk away. They would not have just wanted the peck on the lips that he had given her. Why couldn't Viktoria be as willing as all the other servant girls? With a jolt he realized something that he already knew – Viktoria she wasn't like them, she didn't have a low self-esteem or unsatisfied longings like the rest of the humans.

  He wished she did though. Any other servant would have wanted more than they could get, more than he was willing to give. With another a shock he came to the realization that he was in the same mind-frame as the the human girls...He got bits and pieces of Viktoria's attention, yet he wanted more. Vince wanted what was not in his reach, the one person he could not reclaim after what he had – and is – putting her through.

  He sighed, asking once again for the hundredth time this year, why?

  Why did he bring Viktoria back into his life?

  Why had he awakened those lost...feelings?

  Why?

  Why?

  Why?

  Viktoria's name was the one thing that made Vince restless, yearning...lustful. But with it inevitably came a torrent of memories, emotions, desires, and nightmares. Within seconds he was engulfed in a memory of the moment that had changed everything. It had steered the both of them apart, made him a vampire, and her the oblivious human.

  "Aren't you excited, Vince?" Viktoria asked, happily twirling around in the small room they shared while he sat back on his bed watching her. "We'll have a family, parents, maybe even brothers and sisters!”

  She stopped spinning and looked at him with eyes as clear as a sunny day, alight with the rays of the sun and the light of joy. “Aren't you happy?" She wondered when he hadn't answered.

  Viktoria's brow furrowed when he looked away, avoiding her sensitive gaze. Vince could tell that Viktoria knew something was wrong, and before he could do anything she was climbing onto his bed and cuddling into his side.

  "You're not happy, Vincey." She said definitively, using the name no one else dared to call him, the name he allowed her only to call him. It sounded right coming from this girl who he had known since birth. "Why?" She asked as his arm wrapped around her, stronger and more muscled than any ten-year-old's should be.

  "Because, Viktoria," he breathed, still looking at the ceiling, anything to make sure he didn't catch a glimpse of those eyes, the eyes that made him melt inside and do anything for her, the eyes that allowed Viktoria to wrap him around her little finger.

  "Because why? Vince you're not telling me something." She said, sitting up, his arm falling away from her shoulders.

  Frustration built up inside of Vince as he, too, sat up and glared harshly at Viktoria. "Because, Viktoria! You're not coming with me! The adopters only want one of us, they want me!" The moment he saw the hurt on her face, the betrayal and pain in her now stormy blue eyes, he wanted to take it all back, to lie to her just to make her happy. Just so she wouldn't look at him like she had just killed her best friend, and if he looked at it from her point of view, he had indeed killed her best friend, he had taken away the only person who actually knew her...who actually cared about her.

  But before he could get a word in edgewise she slid off the bed and ran out of the room...and out of his life.

  Vince sighed, shaking his head to expel the dark memory that had murdered the old Vince. He re-hardened himself, fording himself to return to the cold, lustful Master Vince, to return to a powerful vampire who had control of all the vampires, controlled the humans, drank their blood, and looked at Viktoria like another one of his whoreish servants.

  Too bad the later would prove to be easier said than done.

  Chapter 4

  Vince left the spot he had been sitting in after two hours of brooding. Despite the fact that he wanted to return to his "normal" self he still needed to see her. He was like a crack addict, and Viktoria was the drug that he needed to survive the night.

  He could tell she was asleep judging by the sound of her slow, even breathing. Quietly, he eased the door open, shocked to see that Viktoria's chamber was so dark, darker than any other servant's room. He shook his head, closing the door behind him. He needed to understand that she was like no other servant girl, she was different, unique, she was Viktoria Cabot. Silently, he moved to the bed where her body laid curled up just like it always, and watched her while she slumbered.

  Vince squatted by her bed, brushing away the strand of paper-white hair that had fallen into her face and eyed this beautiful human who didn't deserve to be treated the way she was. But it was her life now, she wasn't leaving the Hotel.

  It was against the Vampire Code. If a human finds out about The Secret than they either needed to be killed on the spot or condemned to a life as a human slave. Vince couldn't kill this angel, so he did the next best thing, he kept her alive, even though he knew that she would be better off dead.

  Sighing quietly, he gently caressed her cheek, his touch lighter than a whisper. Her eyelids fluttered for a moment before her delicate hand reached up and grasped his, unconsciously drawing it to her waist, her fingers lacing with his.

  Vince couldn't help his suddenly rapid breathing, or the way that his face burned as Viktoria unknowlingly drew him to her. He could not stop himself as slipped onto her bed, meeting her gaze when her eyes fluttered open once more.

  "Vincey?" She whispered dreamily as if they were back in that bland bedroom, her cuddled under his arm, quizzing him about what had him saddened.

  "Yeah, I'm here, Viktoria. Sleep now," he said quietly, rubbing her cheek with his thumb until her eyelids fell over her blue eyes and she was still again.

  Vince brushed his lips against her parted ones before slipping out of her grasp and exiting the room, dazed and longing for the past like never before. Wordlessly, he trailed hazily to his room and fell onto his bed, unaware of the eyes that had been watching him from the shadows.

  * * *

  Jon knew it! He knew it, he was now positive that Master Vince was attached to that human. Why else would he enter her room while she slept? He knew his brother well enough to know his routine, and going to a servant's room was not a part of it.

  Jon welcomed the broad smile on his face, he would've cackled with joy if his windpipe wasn't in the process of mending itself. Sighing, he skulked back into his room, a spasm of pain slitting through his throat as another part of his windpipe stitched together. He let out a low growl that sounded like a distorted gurgle of agony.

  Slipping up the stairs to the third floor where all the other vampires were staying at the moment, Jon went to his own chambers to think. Once there he sat down on his bed and smirked to himself. The Guardians of Death didn't allow vampire-human relationships. If they did than the world would be littered with hybrids. They allowed vampires to be entertained by humans, to keep them as house pets, but as mates? That was illegal unless the vampire in the relationship changed the human before the Guardians found out.

  But how could Jon get rid of his unwanted brother permanently? He had tried dozens times since he had been adopted, but Vince had always been the smarter of the two. Jon was cunning, but Vince could easily outwit him in his sleep. Look at the Hotel!

  It was illegal to have more than twenty vampires in one area and Vince housed sixty-two – all at once, keeping them at bay, breaking up fights, feeding them. And the most impress
ive part was, Vince charmed all the Guardians when they did the routine check-up on him.

  Vince didn't act like a twenty-year-old vampire, no, he acted like a hundred-and-fifty year old Wise One. And in order to get Vince removed permanently Jon would have to act like Vince – at whatever the cost.

  Jon sighed and fell back against his sheets. He wasn't just mad at his step-brother for not allowing him to feed, no, he was aggravated because Vince had stolen his spot in their parents' eyes. Before Vince was adopted, Jon had been the apple of their eyes. Now...now he was just a piece of trash compared to Vince. But how could he make that all change?

  The Gathering! He thought happily. This year their parents were to be the hosts of the Vampire Gathering, when vampires from all over met at this Hotel with the Guardians in order to discus issues in the vampire society.

  If Jon could catch Vince in the heat of his affections towards the girl, then Vince's world would be smashed into oblivion. Jon had a month to get everything in order while his brother tried to organize the Hotel for the meeting. It was perfect.

  Unthinkingly, Jon began to laugh – and in the process, choked, coughed, and then gagged. Stupid windpipe, he thought, and went off to look for a servant girl

  Chapter 5

  As the sun rose high into the sky over the Rocky Mountains, and so did Tori, from her bed, that is. She knew that it was sunrise, and didn't want to awaken, but she had to in order to prepare the vampires' meals; it was her day to prepare breakfast. They, too worked on a human's schedule, but the only reason they did so was because when humans awoke they were “more tasty.”

  But at night, the vampires were more powerful, more thirsty. The only time the vampires actually did sleep was during twilight, when it was neither day nor night, the time when they were neither weak nor strong.

  Tori went through her routines, brushing her teeth, doing her make-up, brushing her hair and pinning it up in an exotic way that she only dared to wear, for it made her more...attractive if she did. But the other vampires knew she was Vince's property, so they looked and taunted, but never touched. She slipped into her "uniform" and heels before heading for the kitchen.

  Maria greeted her at the stove, handing her a carton of blood and raw stakes. "You just need to heat those up," she pointed to the meat,"and set up the drinks."

  Tori nodded, dumping the bowl of steaks into a frying pan, flipping them around until, while the outer layer was a cooked pinkish-brown complexion, the inside was rare, and sopping wet with animal blood. She then put them on plates and headed for the dinning room with its fifty yard long table, crafted chairs, crimson walls and blacked out windows.

  Servants, comprised of both men and woman were bustling about, setting up the plates, the napkins, the silver wear, the works.

  Vampires began pouring in, their stride saying they were alert and hungry, but their crimson eyes telling you differently. They took their seats in their usual places and conversed, argued, hissed, and screamed at each other. But once Master Vince and Master Jon waltzed into the room the animal-like behavior eased – slightly.

  Tori was bending over the table, placing three stakes on one male vampire's plate when she felt a pinch on her bottom. She jumped and nearly dumped the food onto the immaculate white table cloth.

  She turned around sharply while Vince let out a low, warning growl to....Jon had pinched her rump? Shocked, she slowly backed away from the handsome blond vampire as Vince switched his blazing gaze towards his brother. Jon was smirking slyly at Vince, while Vince...well the head vampire just looked enraged.

  Tori shook herself mentally and moved along, placing steaks onto plates then filling up glasses halfway with day-old blood. They would be getting fresher drinks when they were finished with their meals.

  Following routine, Tori made her way back to the kitchen, looking over her shoulder subtly at Vince who met her gaze with no emotion. Something was wrong, she knew it. It was in the way Vince's jaw muscle twitched, the way his eyes went from hungry to cold and reserved. They reminded her of the day that...

  Tori leaned against the kitchen counter and thought back to when one of the boys in the foster home would pick on her, she recalled the fraction of a moment when Vince would change from a quiet ten-year-old boy into, well, something nearly as dangerous as what he was now.

  The bell every vampire carried around was chimed and, in a single-file line, the servants strode out of the kitchen and to their designated vampire, the one that liked that servant's blood the most, except today, all hell broke loose with three words.

  "I want her," Jon murmured, crossing his arms over his chest and smirking at Vince when Tori had moved to his side, Vince moving a protective arm around Tori's shoulder.

  "Why a change in taste, brother?" Vince inquired in that chillingly steely tone, his arm sliding to her waist and tightening ever so slightly

  "I don't know, I guess it's one of those days. Do you have a problem with this...change in taste?" There was a challenging air to Jon's smooth voice- Tori didn't like where this was going. Vince glared at his brother for a prolonged moment while everyone else in the room held their breath. Vince slid his scarlet gaze over to Tori.

  "What do you think, Viktoria?" He asked quietly.

  Tori felt all the eyes in the room slice towards her, she knew every vampire's eyebrow was raised with intrigue and she knew that she wasn't going to get out of this easily. When a vampire challenges another of its kind in a territorial demur, than it was bound to end with one of the two's head being ripped from that vampire's shoulders. But everyone in the dinning room knew that this wasn't a usual confrontation, a vampire didn't usually ask the craved item what they thought!

  Panicked and hiding it well, Tori bowed her head so her hair hung around her face like a curtain. She answered quietly and politely, "It does not matter to me, Master."

  Visibly clenching his teeth, Vince ground out, "Let this blood-trade only last for this meal, brother, she is mine." He made it very clear that Tori was not to be shared as she made her way over to the blond one and Maria, Jon's usual choice, glided nervously towards Vince.

  "Begin feeding," Vince ordered.

  Tori was cautious as she sat on Jon's lap and stared into his fiendishly smiling crimson eyes, he was up to something, she could tell....she promised herself right then that she would find out what he was planning, even if it killed her.

  So, brushing her hair away from her throat, ignoring Vince's eyes that bore holes into her neck, she bared her jugular. Tori expected the usual sharp jab of pain and then the bliss of being fed from....but she wasn't prepared for what was going to happen next.

  Chapter 6

  The pain was so intense that Tori knew right away that Jon was purposely creating her agony, she had tried the best she could to keep in the shriek of torture that achingly clawed its way up her throat. Every time she swallowed back the cry, Jon would push harder...and finally, it was too much.

  The scream bounced off the walls, causing everyone but Jon to stop sucking at their servant.

  "No! No, stop, please!" Tori whispered, gasping as she repeated and repeated those simple words. She shrieked again, her body going numb, pins and needles racing up her arms, legs, neck, and face.

  She was aware of a roar of rage, but all she could focus on was the ache and the color draining from the room....within seconds the universe swallowed her up...nothingness claimed her...and the pain ceased.

  Vince pulled away from the slave he had been feeding from the moment he heard her cry out in torment. It wasn't like the scream she would give when the pain got to her, mixed with the ecstasy that always came from his feeding. No, this sound was of pure distress, something Vince thought should not come from an angel.

  He was in a daze as he wordlessly slid his seat back and roared with anger as he stalked closer to his brother who held the body of Viktoria in his arms. It was like Vince was watching from outside of his body as he took hold of the girl and seized Jon by the collar of his sh
irt, hoisting him into the air before flinging him easily across the room into a wall.

  Vince could tell that Viktoria was out cold by the way her limbs lolled uselessly like a rag doll's. Seeing that Viktoria needed attention soon he growled in a nearly silent voice that, despite its quietness, chilled and filled the room, "We'll deal with this later, brother. It will not be as pleasant as the snapping of your windpipe, though ripping your head off will be quite enjoyable for me. I'll summon you at midnight, until then...." Vince didn't bother to finish the sentence as he walked out of the room stiffly, Viktoria nestled safely in his arms, well as safe as Viktoria could ever be in his presence.

  Vince laid Viktoria down on his bed, glowering at the large and animal-like tear in her throat, it poured blood and it took everything Vince had not to feed from her that very moment. Though what he was about to do next would surely test his restraint. Leaning down he moved his tongue over the wound, licking clean the blood, his saliva mending the gash in her flesh.

  He sighed when he pulled away, every part of him thirsting for her blood, her life as it's being sucked out of her, her pleasure as it transferred to him, making everything around him blur away. Vince wasn't sure how a human such as Viktoria could possess so much power of him, it was disconcerting, yet he welcomed it every moment he got.