Rebel Blood

Simone's POVRocks and thorns pierce through the soles of my feet as we run through the dark town. The bottom of my feet are torn to ribbons and every step is sheer agony. I want to stop, but Mommy keeps going, and no matter how much I beg and plead with her, she won’t turn back around and go home.Mommy isn’t thinking right. We should have left at daybreak when the vampires run into their hidey-holes, but she said we couldn’t because the werewolves were out, patrolling Baron’s grounds.I told her, but she wouldn’t listen to me.I hadn’t seen Mommy in days and days, and this morning she came to me and told me we were running away. “Right now, Mommy?” I asked.I was tired. The sun had just come up and Darma, my nanny, came to pull my curtains so the sunlight wouldn’t bother us.“No not now,” Mommy said. “Later.”“But we have to go now. While the vampires sleep.”“Later, Simone,” Mommy said. “After sundown.”I told her it wouldn’t work. I told her, but she thinks I’m just a silly littl

Aldric's POVI hover outside the girl’s bedroom window, delighting in the confused expression on her face. She can’t see me because I don’t want her to see me, but I won’t be able to hang out here all night watching her. Sooner or later, Baron will come looking for me.I float back to solid ground and head to the catacombs that are carved into the mountains behind Baron’s mansion. I push the heavy wrought iron gate open, and without bothering to light one of the torches, I step inside the gallery.The walls are nothing but mountain rock and the floor is compacted earth. The tomb in the middle of the catacomb belongs to our oldest ancestor, Asmodeus. No one has ever looked inside, we dare not open his tomb, but we’ve all heard him. On the last night of the Festival of Creation, we can hear him wailing from inside his sepulchre.Along the walls, each vampire in his own sarcophagus, are the rest of the originals. Twenty-one in all. I walk past them, down the first corridor to the right.

Simone's POV Before I can even think about it, I put myself between Aldric and Baron. “Stop,” I say and put up my hands. Baron stops dead in his tracks. He gives me a confused look, maybe because I’ve never given him an order before, I don't know. “Why are you with him?” he asks in a watery voice. “You are mine.” It’s my blood doing that to him. I’ve seen it before. It changes him. Sometimes he'll be all giddy and nice, other times he'll be weepy like he is now. “I asked him to bring me up,” I reply and slowly walk towards him. “All those vampires were looking at me,” I make my voice small and try my best to sound more like the child I used to be. “I was scared.” “You should have come to me, not him,” Baron spits. "I look after you. I protect you." “You're right-” I lay my palms flat on his muscular chest -"but you were busy. You are an important man. You don’t have time for silly little girls that are afraid of silly little things like a few vampires looking at her.” I kick my f

Simone's POV I wake with a violent start. I inhale sharply and bolt upright. “Good afternoon, Poppet,” an unfamiliar voice says to my left. I let out an involuntary little squeal and grab at thin air, looking for something, anything, I can use to defend myself against a possible attack. It takes me a hot minute to realise I’m no longer in Baron’s mansion. I’m lying on a soft rug in front of a warm fire. For the first time in my life, I feel…cosy. I have no other word for it. “You are safe,” the man says, his voice calm and comforting. Frowning, I turn my head to look at the speaker. A vampire with long, spider-white hair, wearing a robe made from roughly woven material sits on a couch on the other side of a coffee table. He closes the book on his lap and puts it aside, then rests his head between his thumb and forefinger and gives me a little smile. I should probably be scared, but I'm not. It's just more of the same. At least I understand them - vampires. I am kind of relieved t

Aldric's POV“Yes,” I say and step into the kitchen. That strange pull she has over me is compelling me to move forward. It’s almost as if I have no control over my own limbs. “I am sorry I didn’t come to say hello right away. Vesper said you were asleep.”“I can’t sleep at night,” she says.“Of course. You’ll get used to it.”She nods. “I guess so. I didn't really like it to be honest.”"The daylight?"Her head keeps bopping up and down. "It hurts my eyes and stings my skin.""You're just not used to it. You need to go outside. You need sunlight. It's good for you.""Maybe," she says and starts to chew the inside of her mouth.“Are you okay?”“I don’t…I don’t know what to do.”“Whatever you like.”“No,” she says and shakes her head. “No, it doesn’t work that way.”“Why not?” I take the seat on the bench opposite her and try to ignore her enticing scent. I just fed, and still my mouth waters for her.“Surely I have duties? If I’m not to be your or Vesper’s donor, then I must do somet