Blood & Honey #1

VG~ Chapter Three

The tray of cheese, fruit, and bread Marianna had the kitchen prepare for my dinner remains untouched as I flop on my bed. Food is the last thing on my mind. It has been four hours since I found out I'm to be kept in my chambers for three whole months and already I feel imprisoned. It was miserable not being able to feel the sun but through a window the time I was locked up for a year. I had hope to never experience such a dreary existence again.

Wishful thinking.

What Thron says goes when the Dark Prince is not around. The instant visual of Tristan Darkos climbing on top of me warms past my cheeks to the whole of me. He's so handsome. His dark hair, his black eyes, even his black veins are attractive. They look like war declarations scribed onto his chiseled body. Satan may have placed warnings upon the Beast of the Damned's flesh, but what of his heart?

I roll over onto my back, draping my arm across my face as if I can hide from the truth I already know. Out of all the vampires for a girl to have a crush on, I pick the one that is uninterested in having a mate. Marianna won't tell me much about Tristan. Anytime I bring up Thron's most well known son, she changes the subject. I've never understood how the Prince and Thron can be so close considering Rakasha bore offspring from them both. Then again, I don't really understand the ways of vampires.

I'll tell you what I do know. Narran and Vera wish I were thirty feet underwater in an unmarked grave. I don't understand why the fledglings refuse to accept me. The older vampires seem to. I mean they ignore me but they would never think to try and lead me to my death. Maybe that is because as Thron said, they must tolerate me. It's hard to find comfort in my home when I know there is only one vampire who is the reason I'm still alive. If Mairanna wasn't charged with caring for me, would she snub her nose at me like all the others?

A gust of wind blows in through my open window, reaching all the way up my nightgown causing me to shiver. Groaning into the mattress at how unfair life is, I unhurriedly make my way to the window to close it up for the night. I like sleeping with the window open to let in the fresh air, but I have no intentions of freezing myself if winter sees fit to grace us ahead of schedule.

It takes all of my strength to push the wood shutters closed against the howling north winds. I slide the latch in place so the shutters can't blow open. Being in the highest front town means my chambers are always in the crosshairs of the mountainous airstreams that never seem in short supply.

Turning around my breath gets caught in my throat silencing the scream that wants to erupt. The tip of my nose is a centimeter away from touching informal warrior attire. I glance up to find Tristan is the vampire whose broad chest is blocking my view of anything else. His jaw is flexed as if he is biting hard on his back teeth. The way he keeps his gaze fixed on me is unnerving and, frankly, a little frightening.

Tristan's black eyes can be so intense it's hard to breathe when they lock onto me as if I am the only human in existence. Or, at least, that is how he makes me feel the few times he has looked my way.

There is a sense of mild panic at his being in my chambers. That could also be from the piece of human flesh hanging around his neck. The red dripping from it speaks to its freshness, but it's the raised symbol branded onto it that has my full attention. It's the mark that allows my human servants entry into my room.

I swallow hard.

Does that mean he maimed one of the servants charged to tend me to gain entry into my chambers?

"Did you come to see if I made it back safely?" I ask, fighting the urge to wrap my arms around myself as he takes in my lack of adequate clothing.