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
I breathe in relief as Petra walks away from me, hiding the knife behind the flurry fabric of her outfit, smile already plastered on her face. “Oh it’s nothing, Gladis. I was just… giving Don Rafaele’s pet here a proper welcome” She turns to me, voice dripping with mockery “Right, pet?” “She doe
“What is this” I murmur, reaching out to touch the smooth surface just as she presses another button and the enclosure slides close making me panic. “Wow so you can speak… Oh well this strangely claustrophobic space we’re in, is called an elevator. It’s not going to hurt you. It just… takes us ups
─❈─ AURELIA ─❈─ I don’t know what’s worse, almost being raped by a vampire or being forced to whore for another I stand still, panting, as Marco clips a golden choker around my neck. I can’t even look him in the eyes because, no matter how much he claims to care about me, he can’t actually hel
“Lose the cloth, baby.” his gaze lingers on my neck through the mirror and the sight… with his hands inside of my bloodstained dress… I’ve never gone naked in front of a male before… not even in dervane. He repeats the words again slowly, dragging his hands up to the underside of my breast… and







