Bloodbound [Alpha-series (II)]

Chapter 14

“Is the food not to your liking, consort?”

The food wasn’t the problem – it was the female vampire standing motionless beside the bed, watching my every move with hawk eyes. How was anybody supposed to eat like this?

“No, Lín, its delicious. I … I am just taking my time.”

I almost had a heart attack earlier when I woke to find the guard having taken position by my side. She wore a dress of darkest green, making her all but melt with the shadows around her if not for her pale white features. Her silken black hair, a token of her Asian ancestry, was pinned up in two neat braids that were draped around her head like a crown. A pair of simple, white pearl earrings was the only jewelry that adorned her. She looked stunning.

When I asked her what in the name of the goddess she was doing there, she explained that the Council had urgent business to attend to, as did June, so she had been tasked with taking care of me. After what happened yesterday, the Council wasn’t exactly keen on leaving me alone with the countess, so he insisted that I had breakfast in our room.

“Are you sure you don’t want anything?”

The overbed table was stuffed with all kinds of delicacies – fruits, freshly baked bread, cheese, … – but it was way too much to finish on my own.

“I appreciate the gracious offer, consort, but I already ate.”

Terribly polite and standoffish. June had been the same, had only recently started to open up a little even though I had spent most of my time since I woke from the coma with her.

Head over heart – that was the guiding principle all vampires religiously abided by, and the two female guards were prime examples for that. In their world, showing one’s feelings and emotions openly was seen as a weakness that could easily be exploited. The reason for that lay in the permeable power structure of their kind. Contrary to wolves or mermaids who lived in closed communities where it was a given to care for and be considered of one another and hierarchies were basically set in stone, vampires were loners for the most part. Being forced to leave their human live behind and thus freed from all prior responsibilities and relationships, their priorities solely centered around their own interests and goals which made for a hell of a competition amongst vampires.

So much for the theory. What that meant in practice, I never bothered to imagine. Now, confronted with this very reality, I slowly began to understand just how many-faceted and dark a vampire’s world truly was. What’s more, this darkness didn’t necessarily come with having being made a vampire.

“They call you the slaughterer of Arundel. From belittled bastard to the heir of the Duke, feared and respected by the peers and held in high regard by the king himself – a true masterstroke, indeed!”, I recalled the chilling statement of Earl Colchester, the Sire of the Council. Yes, for some unfortunate souls, this darkness was merely a continuity of their human lives, even the very reason they had been turned in the first place. It made me wonder what might have been the reason behind June’s and Lín’s making, what sinister shadows lurked in their pasts.

“I never got the chance to properly thank you for protecting me when I was assassinated.”

A realization that came quite late, which made me feel ashamed. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t asked for any of this and that the guards had merely done their jobs. There was something called common courtesy. Consumed by anger and sadness, I had treated this concept with contempt for far too long. That was about to change. Without missing a beat, the guards had thrown themselves between me and harm’s way, readily putting their own safety at risk. That merited at least a heartfelt thank you.