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My attention drifted from the prone servants cries to another group. This group I had to stare at for almost ten minutes before my brain made sense of what was going on. There was a small Asian vampire female with pale skin, large black eyes, and long auburn hair. She was absolutely gorgeous as she had her skirt hiked up while she was sandwiched between three male servants who all looked staggeringly alike. All three of her servants had dark eyes, light brown hair, and bronze skin. She clung to the one in front, her eyes constantly locking with his as he and the one behind her pounded into her tiny body while she giggled and kissed the one in front of her passionately. The one she kissed passionately had behind him, the third male servant who seemed to be mercilessly ravishing his bottom.

Again my attention meandered back around the garden and all of the groups who weren’t in the middle of some sort of sexual escapade. Plenty of vampires were just standing around talking, or waltzing on the dance floor as if yards away there wasn’t a naked servant being spanked, fucked or teased. Of all of the humans there, only a handful wearing more than stockings, a
collar, and shoes, and of those Leslie and I wore the most.

“Au
tumn!” Aleksi growled my name, snapping
my attention back to him. In his hand was a champagne flute filled with that pink champagne. I looked around for a moment confused about where the glass came from.

“S-sorry, I…” I panicked and smoothed my hair nervously.
He should put you over his knee for that. You should be more observant.
Miss Manners was no longer Miss Manners but another creature entirely which I don’t have a name for. I could practically see her there in my mind, naked, collared and kneeling on the floor next to a chair that had a shadowed figure in it. “I understand if I… you… you want to punish me.” I breathed as my pulse sprang to life all over my body. I felt that dull throbbing everywhere with those words and I chewed on my bottom lip as I stared at Aleksi, who watched me carefully.

“If I had any blood in my
body, poor Leslie would be on the moon right now. Isn’t that right, Love?” Tristan purred at Leslie who nodded mindlessly before they shared a few kisses.

“Autumn!” Aleksi barked my name again, his eyes darting to the glass dripping condensation in his hand. I took it and sipped the
cool, sweet champagne. He pet my hair and leaned in close, his breath was like icicles on my spine as he nosed against my ear. “It’s not real punishment if you want it, now is it?” He purred as he tightened his grip on me.

“If her royal highness doesn’t announce we can feed soon I am going to die of frustration.” Tristan huffed. Aleksi smiled at him and leaned his head against my shoulder.

“We’re all pets here aren’t we… humans, that is.” I murmured as I turned to Aleksi.

“Yes, to most vampires here right now you are a collection of holes and a pulse. How does that make you feel, dear Ophelia?” Tristan snickered as he toyed with Leslie’s curls like she so often did to his.

“I… I don’t know…” I trailed off and glanced towards Aleksi.

“Ah, did you see that? That slight
deference to you, the tilt of the head, the sliding of the gaze. You’re a dick, Aleksi.” Tristan smirked and Aleksi huffed rolling his eyes like a teenager.

“
A dick? Hardly.” He shifted me in his lap.

“Really? I want you to imagine you’re human for a moment. I know it’s been a
long-ass time, but imagine you’re frail and mortal again.” Tristan slipped his hand into Leslie’s panties.

“So?”

“So? You see all of this shit,”—He gestured around with his free hand—“I know it’s been a while. But try to remember… oh fuck that, try to envision you haven’t been exposed to this your entire life. Try to image this and all of its fucking trappings is brand spanking new. How would you react to someone saying ‘oh I love you but I just
tied this person to me for pretty much fucking eternity’ would you want to talk? Or would you think you’d been re-the fucking-placed. I love you to death Aleksi, but I know you lack
empathy. And if I had your life I would be too. But still, look at her, really look at her. Why the fuck aren’t you trying to keep someone so perfect for you sewn into your fucking flesh? Oh, she ignored you, boo fucking hoo. Have you thought about why?” Tristan ripped into Aleksi as he continued to finger Leslie idly. She moaned and pressed her body against
Tristan's as her eyes traced over the garden. I didn’t know what to make of the conversation between them so I sat and sucked on my bottom lip which had become exquisitely numb between sips of champagne. After finishing the champagne flute I had a surprising urge to suck on something, I settled for licking my index finger.

Aleksi was silent for a very long time. My eyes traced over the gathered vampires again, sex in its various forms had erupted throughout the garden and Elizabeta watched on like she was a displaced queen. This was her garden, and we were her playthings. Even though I sat on Aleksi’s lap, more clothed than most other humans there was I still her play thing. More importantly, I was willingly Aleksi’s play thing. I turned to Aleksi and kissed him, my mouth seizing his aggressively and without warning, stopping him in mid-word as he responded to Tristan with words I didn’t hear. He was stunned for a moment and then kissed me back, savagely. He nibbled at my lips and lanced my mouth with his cold tongue. His hand on my waist wandered lower, stopping at the waistband of those frilly panties. I urged my hips forward attempting to gain more contact only to be met with his hand retreating. He continued to kiss me, moaning into my mouth.

“My friends,
fledgling, and fellows. You may at last, drink of your exquisite bounty,” Elizabeta called from her riser. The garden seemed to erupt in a collective hiss as most Vampires seized their servant’s throats. The fountains in the garden suddenly poured blood instead of water. Aleksi kept kissing me, his tongue seemed determined to explore every inch of my mouth. Near us Tristan fed from Leslie, placing soft, delicate kisses on her throat. I wouldn’t have been able to tell from his gestures that he fed from her, but Leslie’s gasp gave it away.

Aleksi released me abruptly and moved me from his lap to the bench. He stalked off, leaving me alone with Tristan
feeding from Leslie. Even though I could still see him, I still felt frightened as the garden had turned into a feeding frenzy. I tried to fix my gaze on Aleksi alone as he stood at the fountain filling a wine glass with blood, but it seemed impossible.

Everywhere I looked humans struggled against vampires, no one seemed obedient and docile anymore. Even Leslie was trying to push Tristan off her throat. All I could do was watch as my best friend grew pale, I couldn’t find my voice to say anything.

My gaze drifted out over what had since devolved into an orgy. No one was dancing anymore, all pretense of class and grace had evaporated. The human with his yellow stockings had lost his shirt, or rather it hung from him in shreds. One vampire fed on his throat and that yellow coated vampire knelt between his legs, buried to his nose in the dark haired male’s short pubic hair. I noticed his throat swallowing
and thought nothing of it until the vampire raised, revealing the glistening, twitching, veiny cock to the garden… with the blood dripping from just under the glans. The helpless human’s face contorted as the bright crimson started to coat the pink flesh, surprisingly he didn’t even start to flag. Two of the other vampires surrounding the victim
leaned in their tongues lapping at the blood that flowed freely. His hips strained forward, eager for their tongues and mouths. There was no way he’d survive giving that much blood, I forced myself to look away. I couldn’t watch someone die like that.

I drew my knees to my chest and started to hope that no one noticed I was sitting alone. My luck, however, wasn’t that great. Someone stepped into my line of sight, it was a male vampire who wore an earthy brown. He smirked down at me flashing his fangs.

“Well aren’t you just delicious.” He said leaning over me. I backed myself into the corner of the bench and felt the wicker digging a pattern into my back.

“I’m… I’m…” I started stammering as he loomed closer, my eyes darted around, Aleksi was nowhere to be found. “I’m Aleksi’s.” I blurted out, but that didn’t stop him.

“I don’t see Aleksi here.”

“He’s Vlad’s
heir!”

“Oh, I know and I don’t care. That doesn’t mean shit anymore, little morsel.” I knew that voice… Gregory. “No one fears House Dracul, this isn’t the
seventeen hundreds. Vlad’s asleep and his heir is a little whore.” His words might have been filled with venom, but his tone was whispered and cowardly.

“Wh-why… force him with Kendra?”

“Because if it’s a boy once Aleksi is gone I’ll have the
ne—” He didn’t finish, his nose twitched and he stiffened before taking a step back away from me. I was too drunk to follow what he had said right away.

“Gregory.” Aleksi growled. For someone who didn’t fear House Dracul, Gregory seemed awfully scared of Aleksi.

“Aleksi.”

“I take it you were offering your apologies to Autumn?” Aleksi continued as he sat beside me, sipping his glass of blood. I glanced further down the bench. Tristan now had a glass too and was holding Leslie close nuzzling against her.

“He called you a whore.” Leslie giggled out. I blinked, she was sobering
up—Tristan, on the other hand, was now obviously drunk.

“Did he?” Aleksi arched a brow. He seemed vastly unfazed as he smirked at Gregory. “Why is it that I’m not shocked by this? Normally, this is when I’d get angry and let everyone know what you said before I ripped your throat out and ruined all of our nice outfits. But you’re staying here for a few days, under
His
roof, so I’ll just let
Him
deal with you. He’s been active lately.”

Gregory took a slow step back and looked between Tristan and Aleksi before turning around and practically running through the garden. I felt a kind of pride as I looked up at Aleksi, who was tracking the retreating Gregory with his eyes. And then it hit me…if it’s a boy? Kendra was pregnant?

“She was pregnant?” I fidgeted and Aleksi sighed.

“Just when I thought we were having an enjoyable evening.” He sighed bringing the glass to his lips. He looked at Tristan for a moment, “Are you good?” Tristan nodded. “Leslie?”

“I’m fine, a little light headed.” She murmured as she kicked her feet over Tristan’s lap.

“Eat something, the food should come around in a little bit. If you don’t you’ll be no good to us in rehearsal this week.” Aleksi ordered as he stood and offered me his hand that loosely held my lace lead. “I don’t want to talk about this here.” I nodded and took his hand.

We wordlessly wound our way through the garden and then into the building. We paused at Vlad’s shrine. My head cocked to the side as I noticed, Vlad’s hand was curled into a fist and he was frowning deeply. Aleksi stared for a moment, and then turned and continued on, pulling me with him back to his room.

Once the door was closed,
he dropped the lead and slowly set his glass on the short white dresser next to the bathroom door. Then he threw his hat at the mirror with the embroidered coat and vest. He ran his fingers back through his hair,
lacing them behind his head as he fell back on the bed and closed his eyes. After a few moments passed he sat up and patted the bed beside him. I took a seat smoothing the laced draped from the cups of my bra.

“Kendra knew.” He sighed. “She might play
oblivious, but she knew. She was not innocent in this shit. She knew the part she was expected to play, and so she played it… with fucking gusto.” He mumbled out untying the black lace cravat at his throat. “Gregory had her spying on us through the Ballet Company while she was on enough fertility drugs to get pregnant six times over. It’s very difficult for a vampire to get a human pregnant, which is why when I thought she wasn’t taking anything I didn’t care. I have been whored out enough over the years before the miracles of modern medicine. The night I found the medicine in her purse I turned her… I didn’t realize I was too late. I was going to tell you, but you ignored me. And then I was going to tell you to hurt you… but I couldn’t. I really hoped it would all just go away, a vampire can’t carry life to term. But it’s been almost three months, I’ve never heard of pregnancy lasting this long before… I take that back, Vlad and Elizabeta had a child that lived for three days before it started to rot.”

“Rot?”

“Mhm, while still alive. It
happened the year I was turned.”

“So Kendra….” I trailed off.

“Don’t think about her, don’t think about it. I also…” He tilted his head to the side before reaching over and unhooking the lead from my collar. “I’ve been an ass. Granted you were too, but… I should have told you differently. I don’t want her, I didn’t choose her. I chose you, Autumn Darling.” He smiled weakly. “I still choose you. And I hope… maybe we could put everything behind us.” I blinked at him. I was still too drunk for this level of conversation. I nodded. “Good, because this feels right. Tonight I’ve felt more whole than I have in months.” He smirked ruefully and pulled me
to straddle over his lap. “And I would like to weather the coming storm with you.”

“What storm?” I raised a brow in confusion.

“Don’t worry about it. We’re safe, and we have each other. We’ll survive.” His hands slid up my sides and he stared up into my eyes. “We do have each other right?”

“I’ve always been yours, Aleksi.” I confessed with a smile. Smirking he leaned forward and kissed my neck, my body broke out in gooseflesh. He wasn’t cold anymore, his body was about as warm as mine. Those tiny tremors took my spine because I knew what he was going to do. I wanted him to
feed from me more than I wanted to feel him buried deep inside of me. I chewed on my bottom lip as he teased the vein in my throat with playful long licks of his tongue. He knew I wanted it as my hips rolled against his and he met mine.