LOGIN“You are an interesting woman,” he says finally, as though he has been collecting sentiments about me like curiosities. “I am not for your amusement,” I say. “Amusement is a generous way of putting it.” He turns his face to me and finally, which is nothing like mercy, he kisses me. It is a small t
“You will come with me tonight,” he says suddenly, and when I look at him the certainty in his eyes is a rope. “Where are we going?” I ask. I do not like the sound of my own voice in the dark halls. “To the club,” he says, as if the clubs he owns are nothing more than rooms he has arranged for his
The dinner goes on without ceremony. I wear a dress that fits like a promise and is less comfortable than anything else I own. The woman who dresses me fusses at the strap and at the hem with an intimacy that is practiced, like a ritual done daily for decades. The room where dinner is served is a pl
“You should not have broken a tray,” he says in that voice that is silk wrapped around steel. It makes everyone quiet because it is a voice that is treated like currency in this house. The words are simple but the way he says them says a thousand more complicated things. He is not angry the way I am
I come back from the memory to find sunlight in my eyes and orange juice dried on the carpet like the outline of a wound. My hands are trembling now for reasons I cannot name. The house clock in the hall ticks the way a heart does when it is being measured. There are noises behind the walls, small h
Oh God, I hate him. He is the center of everything I cannot control in this place. He is the reason doors close and keys rattle and the nights feel like traps. He is the reason my throat tastes like metal at dusk. He is also the reason, absurdly and against my every better judgment, that sometimes
He hasn’t come for me— their Don. And the guards outside, barely move from their posts. But behind those curtains… there’s a window. I hadn’t tried it before. I thought it was useless—too high up to even think about jumping. The kind of height that makes your stomach churn just by looking down.
~~AURELIA~~ I throw on a plain shirt, a black jumpsuit, slip into flats, and grab the empty food tray—just in case anyone sees me. They’ll think I’m headed to the kitchen. Every hallway I pass is draped in the same thick, blood-red curtains as the ones in the room, blocking out all sunlight. Af
~~ROMANO~~ “I’ll kill that stupid girl,” Estela screeches as Godon, her loyal spy and fool, presses honey into her burns. They should be fading by now as any normal vampire, but the skin still reddens and puckers beneath his fingers. Quite unusual. “She has no use to me. Her blood won’t work. You
“Don Rafaele! You always have the habit of showing up unannounced.” Madame Cherry’s merry voice assaults me before i can even walk up the stairs. Turning, i see her standing at the foot of the stairs holding files. “Why make announcements when you can just show up as a surprise” i answer werily,







