From the Darkness (Blackwood Vampires Book 1) Page 2

  Drake’s hand struck my cheek before I even realized what was happening. “No one speaks to William Blackwood that way,” he said. His fangs had returned.

  “Enough.”

  The entire room went still as William stood, his black robe billowing around him. For the first time, his eyes left mine and narrowed at Drake. “Do not do that again.”

  Drake was still close enough that I could feel his entire body tense. He didn’t like taking orders.

  William addressed the entire room. “Grace Hardwick is my guest. She is not to be harmed by anyone. If I learn that any Soul betrays my order, the punishment will be Postremo Mortem.”

  The room collectively sucked in a breath. I wasn’t fluent in Latin, but I had heard this expression once or twice in my time as a Hunter. Postremo Mortem meant the final death. It was when a Soul, a creature that was already dead, was staked through the heart. It was the only way to kill the undead creatures.

  William turned to a Soul that had been standing quietly by the wall. He regarded him with more affection than he had anyone else in the room. “Daniel, please escort Grace to the Blackwood mansion. Stay with her until I arrive.”

  I didn’t know if it was a good thing that this new Soul, Daniel, would be my guard now. But I did know that it was good to get away from Drake. It was obvious that he wanted nothing more than to drain my blood. At least when Daniel looked at me, his eyes weren’t filled with lust.

  “Come with me, please,” he said.

  Drake’s hand finally dropped from my arm. He reluctantly stepped away, his eyes burning with anger.

  Daniel waited for me to turn so that we could leave the room, but I had unfinished business that needed to be addressed. “What about my sister?”

  “Sister?” William’s head snapped in Drake’s direction. “What does she mean?”

  “A young girl was with her when we made our move. We left her behind, unharmed.” Drake had no trouble meeting William’s eyes, but I suspected that he was lying.

  William nodded. “That is good.”

  Liar! I wanted to yell. I didn’t trust Drake. With two helpless girls at his disposal, there was no way he would have resisted the urge to drink from one of them. It was clear that he knew he couldn’t drink from me, but there had been nothing stopping him from drinking from Norah.

  “We must leave now, Grace.” Daniel took my arm, his touch drastically different from Drake’s. I allowed him to guide me from the building.

  The sky was still purple, the air still filled with a supernatural charge. Now I understood- it was magic.

  “What is this place?” I asked, not sure if Daniel’s answer would be better than the one that Drake had given me.

  “This is the Capitol.” He gestured around at the open space. “It’s the center of the Darkness. You can think of it almost like the downtown of a city. We have markets over there, the government as you’ve just seen, the prison.”

  “Okay, but what exactly is the Darkness?” I allowed myself to look around as we walked. I didn’t feel as threatened by Daniel, wasn’t as determined to keep all of my focus on protecting myself with him.

  “This whole place is the Darkness. It’s a safe place for Vampires where we don’t have to worry about being discovered by humans or stalked by Hunters.” He pointed to the sky. “It’s been fortified by Dark Magic. No sunshine, protective barriers, and plenty of open space for us to move around.”

  I was finally starting to understand. Somehow I had been sucked into a Vampire cult. “You all live here?”

  “Yes.” Daniel led us down a path that began to wind through the trees. “We aren’t the kind of Vampires you are used to hunting. We don’t kill humans.”

  “Sure, you don’t,” I said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “And I don’t kill Souls.”

  Daniel chuckled. “It may be hard for you to believe, but it is true. We have spent centuries learning to control the bloodlust. I haven’t killed a human in over 100 years.”

  “How old are you?” I asked suspiciously. His human appearance wasn’t much older than my own.

  “I have been a Dark Soul for 500 years. My human vessel is 22.”

  He didn’t seem to mind answering my many questions, so I kept going. “What was the deal with the Council and the color coordinated outfits?”

  “You certainly are an inquisitive human,” Daniel glanced at me and there was mirth in his gold eyes. “The Council is comprised of four representatives from each of the three royal families.”

  “Royal families?” My eyebrows shot up. “Like Kings and stuff?”

  “Not exactly. We don’t use titles like that. But the royal families have been around for centuries. They are the oldest of the Vampire clans. Three of them banded together to create the Darkness.” Daniel’s long legs made big strides and I had to hurry along beside him just to keep up. “William is the Premier, or the head of the Council. He is the one that made all of this a possibility.”

  I looked closer at Daniel, seeing past the tough Vampire exterior for the first time. He looked a lot like Drake, and even more like William. “Are you member of one of the families?”

  “I am.” A look of pride passed over his face. “I am a Blackwood.”

  “William is your brother?” I guessed.

  He nodded. “There are five of us. Four boys and one girl. William, Drake, Alexander, myself and our sister, Kathryn.”

  “Are your parents also Vampires?” I didn’t quite understand how the whole royal family thing worked.

  “No,” Daniel answered abruptly. “The other royal families aren’t actually related. They are just a group of Souls that have spent many centuries together. Our clan is unique in that we were all related prior to the transition.”

  I had so many more questions to ask, but we had arrived at our destination. The woods we had been traversing gave away to a beautiful body of water. The water was a stunning blue shade that reminded me of summers spent at the beach.

  A glass house, more massive than any house I had ever seen, reached out over the water. It was an architectural marvel, appearing to have been built on top of the water. Parts of the house were nearly see-through with the glass walls nearly invisible.

  “Wow,” I breathed, amazed.

  “This is Lago de la Vita,” he said with a smile.

  “Lake of Life,” I translated easily. Those last few years of Italian classes were finally paying off. “It’s beautiful.”

  He nodded. “The Blackwood family has always lived near the water. We draw our strength from it.”

  “You all live here together?” I asked.

  “We do.” He led the way toward the house, keeping us on a stone path that ran parallel to the sandy beach. “The house is quite large and we each have our own wing. Don’t worry, you’ll have privacy.”

  It seemed like a strange thing to worry about, privacy. Up until a few minutes ago, I had assumed that I was about to die. Now I was being ushered to a glass house built over a mesmerizing body of water.

  “Why am I here?” I asked.

  “Because William asked me to bring you here,” Daniel replied.

  “That’s not what I meant,” I said with a soft shake of my head. “Why am I in the Darkness? It’s very risky for you to bring a Hunter here. If you aren’t planning to kill me, then what?”

  He gazed at me for several seconds. “That’s not for me to tell you. William will explain.”

  The door swung open silently and we stepped onto a glass floor. As I looked down, I fought back a wave of dizziness. It was utterly bizarre to see the water churning below my feet. The inch of glass separating me from drowning didn’t seem nearly thick enough.

  “Do you have any documentation proving the structural integrity of this place?” I asked, trying my best not to sound nervous.

  Daniel smiled complacently. “It’s safer than any human structure. It’s protected by magic.”

  Magic. While the supernatural world put their faith in magic, Hunter
s were inherently distrustful of it.

  The glass entryway was over twenty yards long and opened into a surprisingly normal looking foyer. From there, five different pathways led to the other wings of the house. “My home is over there,” Daniel said, pointing to the left. “Alexander’s is next, then Kathryn, then Drake, and finally William.”

  “Now what?” I asked, feeling slightly trapped in my new glass prison.

  “Now you go to William’s chambers. He will be along soon to answer your remaining questions.” Daniel took a step backward.

  “You’re not coming with me?” I asked, surprised.

  His head shook. “We may share a home, but we don’t trespass into each other’s chambers. Privacy, remember?”

  Despite the circumstances, I found myself returning his smile. In my defense, he was a very attractive male and I was a teenage girl. My smile faded as I ventured alone toward William’s chambers. In the brief time I had stood before him, I hadn’t been able to determine if he was like Daniel or more like Drake.

  The room at the end of the hall was oddly normal compared to the structure surrounding it. Two large couches surrounded a fireplace. A grand piano took up an entire corner of the room. It was fancier than any place I had ever lived, but wasn’t as extravagant as I had expected.

  At first, I perched nervously on the edge of the couch. Adrenalin was still running through my body and thoughts raced through my head. After an hour passed, I let myself get more comfortable, sinking back into the cushions. Sometime after that, my eyelids closed.

  When I finally opened them again, I wasn’t alone anymore.

  William was there- watching me sleep. When he saw that I was awake, his perfect mouth formed a faint smile. “Welcome to the Darkness, Grace.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  William

  When the heavy wood door swung open, I expected it to be Drake returning with disappointing news. I had been sending him on missions for years and he always came back empty-handed. But not this time.

  This time, she was with him.

  She wasn’t like the other human girls that had been brought to the Darkness previously. She didn’t tremble in fear or beg for her life. But then again, Grace wasn’t just a human girl. She was so much more.

  As she stood before me, eyeing each of the Councilmembers with hatred in her eyes, I took the time to study her carefully. From all outward appearances, she didn’t appear to be all that special. She was pretty, sure, but not in an overwhelming way. Tall, slender, with long blond hair- I was sure that human boys would find her attractive. But she was also frail and vulnerable. I could break her neck without even trying.

  Her eyes find mine right at that second and she held my gaze without blinking or looking away. It was in those eyes that I saw her true beauty, even more remarkable than her outwardly stunning appearance. For as tough as she tried to appear, I saw kindness and sadness in those eyes. I also saw hope. It was those same eyes that had captivated me in the past, leading to this moment.

  “Your majesty.” Drake bowed toward me, annoyance in his eyes. “I am pleased to report that after ten long years, we have found her. This is the Mulier Fortis.”

  I nodded slowly and studied her again.

  “Why is she shackled?” I asked, feeling oddly disturbed at the sight of her bound with heavy metal chains.

  “She is still a Hunter, brother,” Drake said. I heard his mocking tone and decided to ignore it.

  “Unbind her,” I said in a level voice. “She has nowhere to run and the magics will suppress her fighting abilities.”

  While she was unbound, I looked into her eyes and asked, “Have you been harmed?”

  “No.” She twisted a freed ankle. “These shoes are starting to hurt though.”

  A strange sensation washed over me and I smiled. She amused me.

  “We can take care of that.” I turned to my left. “Octavia, be sure to find our guest appropriate footwear.”

  “Of course, your majesty.” Octavia glared hard at Grace. For the last decade, I had been denying Octavia’s advances. She was convinced that we were destined to be together as our union would create an allegiance between two of the most powerful clans.

  I was not interested in forming any allegiance.

  “Is there anything else we can do to make your stay more comfortable?” I forced all emotion from my voice, determined to remain impassive.

  “You could all die,” she sneered.

  I knew what would happen next. No human was allowed to speak to any of the Councilmembers that way. A young girl like her was definitely not going to speak to the Premier without being punished. But I didn’t want that to happen.

  For some reason, the thought of her being harmed made my breathing accelerate. I was so distracted by the changes in my own vital functions that I didn’t see Drake lift his arm. I didn’t understand his intentions until it was too late.

  Grace’s face whipped to the side as he made contact. “No one speaks to William Blackwood that way,” he said. Drake bared his fangs at her.

  “Enough.” My heart thudded loudly and I stood swiftly. Every eye in the room was watching me. I waited until I had control of my anger before saying, “Do not do that again.”

  Drake regarded me with his usual disdain. He hated that his brother had the authority to give him orders.

  I wanted it to be clear to everyone that my order had not just been directed at Drake. “Grace Hardwick is my guest. She is not to be harmed by anyone. If I learn that any Soul betrays my order, the punishment will be Postremo Mortem.”

  The final death wasn’t a punishment that was often enforced. But when I looked at Grace, her eyes wide as she stared at me, I knew that I would have no problem delivering that order if anything bad should happen to her.

  I ordered Daniel to see her safely back to my home. In the entire community, he was the only Soul I trusted completely. I knew that he would keep Grace safe.

  She wasn’t ready to go just yet, asking, “What about my sister?”

  “Sister?” I clenched my teeth as I turned to Drake. “What does she mean?”

  “A young girl was with her when we made our move. We left her behind, unharmed.” Drake didn’t break our eye contact, but I still didn’t believe him. He had never had any problem lying to me and this moment was likely no different.

  I nodded. “That is good.”

  Daniel led her away, but not before she caught my eye one last time. This entire time, she had looked disgusted, annoyed, and angry, but this was the first time she had looked afraid. She knew that Drake was lying about her sister.

  I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her retreating form.

  “Your majesty,” Octavia said when the door had closed behind Grace and Daniel. “With your permission, I would like to open the floor for discussion. The presence of Grace Hardwick in the Darkness is worthy of debate.”

  “There will be no debate and no discussion. Grace is my guest here, and my order is that she be treated as such.” My words were clipped and forceful. I had years of practice giving orders.

  Octavia appeared to be feeling insolent. “It is not that simply, sir. She is a Hunter. It is dangerous to have her living amongst us.”

  “Do you not understand the meaning of the word order?” I barked.

  She flinched and her mouth dropped open. I had never spoken to her so harshly. Truth be told, she didn’t deserve it. Her concern about Grace was valid, I just didn’t care.

  “Tobias, please close out the meeting.” I crossed my arms over my chest and stared straight ahead as the last minute items were completed. More than half of the time in our Council meetings was spent observing formalities. It was tedious and boring. I just wanted to leave and spend more time with Grace. There were so many things I wanted to ask her.

  While the other Councilmembers took their time leaving, I raced for the door the minute the gavel signaled our dismissal. Drake was waiting for me outside.

  “You didn’t tell
me she would be so beautiful,” he said, a familiar smirk on his lips.

  “How would I have known that?” I barely glanced at him as I headed toward the path that would take me home.

  “You seem to know all of these other details about her.” Drake pretended not to notice that he was being brushed off. “I don’t think she likes you very much.”

  “I don’t need her to like me, brother. I just need for her to trust me.”

  Moving at our ultra-fast Soul speed, it didn’t take long to reach the mansion. I could smell her blood before we even entered.

  “Ahhh.” Drake inhaled deeply, his fangs protruding. “Smells delicious in here.”

  “Put them away,” I said, feeling even more annoyed than usual with his antics.

  He grinned. “Don’t get your panties twisted. I’m not going to disobey your order.”

  “Good.” I left him in the foyer and approached my chambers with caution. Though I had been avoiding drinking for humans for many decades, that didn’t mean that the urge was any less consuming.

  Finding Grace asleep on the couch took me by surprise. I stood over her sleeping form, captivated by the look of peace on her face. Her body was a slivered curl on the cushions, her hair cascading like a platinum curtain over the armrest. She had her hands folded together and tucked under her head like a child feigning sleep.

  I sank into the chair closest to her and rested my elbows on my knees as I watched her sleep. It had been a long time since a human had been so helpless before me. If I wanted to, I could drain every drop of her blood before she even had time to open her eyes.

  Again, as if hearing my thoughts, her eyes fluttered open. It took a second for the guarded apprehension to reappear. When I looked into her eyes in that brief moment, it felt like I could see her soul.

  I smiled, filled with wonder at how connected I already felt to this strange woman. “Welcome to the Darkness, Grace.”

  She sat up slowly, moving to the side of the couch that was farthest from me.

  “Why am I here?” she asked immediately, her voice still heavy with sleep.

  “Because I need you.” I ran a hand through my hair, unsure of how to proceed. I didn’t want to scare her away with the full truth before I was able to earn her trust. “I’m not going to hurt you, Grace. You don’t have to be afraid of me.”