The Vampires #2: Heroux and Odette

Chapter 1 (Odette): As Always

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

***TW for abuse***

From the diary of Odette Vautour, age 8

A boy saw Basse knock me down in the hallway at school but my brother made it look like an accident because he was running to class but it was NOT an accident because Basse thinks it's funny to push me down all the time. The boy's name is Heroux Alarie and he helped me up and handed me my two library books that had fallen. I didn't know someone could be nice.

"I can no longer use the first-year excuse to attend events alone," Heroux said to me one night after he'd finished with me and called her name. He hadn't disappeared into the bathroom as he always did to shower off the remains of me from his body. Instead, he watched as I pulled on my robe, clumsy in my movements because his eyes were focused on me.

Many vampires who felt a strong connection to their wives wanted to keep them in seclusion the first year, until feelings calmed and settled a bit. It was a primitive throwback to our beginnings, when a vampire might have to fight another for his donneuse. 

As women, we might not like that; as vampires, we understood and were willing to appease the volatile Hunger who could become unstable with his woman in view of other vampires who might try to take her. The Hunger could not be reasoned with when there was a blood bond.

Of course, Heroux had denied me a blood bond when we'd married. When we were filling out the paperwork, I'd looked over at him, hoping against hope that he'd surprise me.

"For the blood bond?"

"No. Never." He'd packed so much hatred into those words, I could feel myself blushing in shame for asking.

Tonight, he was telling me my year in seclusion was over. I'd known it was getting close after he'd sent his beautiful secretary to help me buy a few dresses last week for whatever events were coming up that required Lady Alarie.

Thinking he was done imparting that bit of information, I grabbed the money he'd thrown down on the end of the bed and headed for the door.

"Vautour," his cold voice stopped my retreat. "Make sure you're ready by eight tomorrow night. I've asked Trilla to organize a team to help turn you into someone who looks worthy to be Lady Alarie."

I knew I was the only one in my husband's sphere who wasn't beautiful, who wasn't someone to look at with appreciation. My family always referred to me as a sparrow among swans. "Odious the Ugly," they called me. When Trilla had helped me shop for some evening dresses, she hadn't said too much to me, but I was grateful she hadn't been mean and, as beautiful as she was, she hadn't mocked my looks even though she easily could have.

After leaving his room, I walked to mine, discouraged and disheartened that my year in seclusion was coming to an end. It had been, without question, the very best year of my life. I was happy every day until Heroux had to feed and release, but even that didn't matter as much as I thought it would. He'd need to work a lot harder to be as cruel to me as my family had been.

Since Heroux would never allow my family to come onto his estate, I'd been blissfully free from their poison for three hundred sixty five near-perfect days. When I'd first married him, I'd let my phone run out of power and then shoved it in a drawer so they couldn't try to reach me.

My husband's ten-thousand acre estate was full of wonderful places to explore, horses to ride, trees to climb, gardens to wander, mazes to navigate and not one but three libraries in his mansion. There were paths for bike riding and walking, kayaks or canoes I could take out on one of the property's ten lakes, and there was always food I could take with me on my rambles -- I was never denied food here, nor was it ever blocked from me by servants following orders.