Vampire Girl (14 page)

Baron stands by my side, his head under my hand, as the two men take up their swords and face each other.

"My father will hear about this," Rodrigo says as they circle each other.

"Your father owes more than his weight in gambling debts. And I own the note on those. He will not raise so much as an eyebrow at me. Now fight."

Rodrigo lunges. Fen counters. The whole thing is over so fast I almost think I lost time. It was no fight at all, but a slaughter. Rodrigo's body lies on the ground, his blood seeping into the dirt, his head a few feet from his torso, staring blindly into space.

In one move, Fen beheaded the man with no effort.

***

I
'm quiet on the ride back to the castle and excuse myself to my room once we return. I wanted blood and I got it, but it didn't make me feel better. Instead, I feel sick. Sick of the violence and the attempts on my life. Sick of the games. I just need a break.

In truth, I want to go home. I want to check on my mom and sit on my old couch and see my best friends. I want to have a coffee and check my email and text and watch cat videos on Facebook. This world is so archaic. I feel lost. Alone.

When I get to my room, Julian and Kara are already there, cleaning and checking the fire. They both curtsy when I come in.

"We didn't think you'd be back yet," Julian says, by way of apology. "We will come back later." She drops her eyes and waits. She acts demure. Subservient. But I sense more within her. She's a petite girl with green eyes like mine and bright red hair. She reminds me of my mother in some ways.

Kara is taller, with a curvy figure and long golden hair with dark eyes. She always looks bored, but I think she plots more than she lets on.

They are both Fae, assigned to be my servants. Their pointy ears give it away, but I think I would know even without them.

"Don't go," I say. "Sit with me and have some tea. I could use the company."

There's a knock at the door and I open it to see Baron waiting beside Mario, the soldier Fen sparred with earlier. He's with another man. "Your Highness, the Prince asked us to stand watch. This is Roco. He and I will take shifts guarding you while you live here. If you need anything, please let one of us know. There will always be someone standing guard outside your door at all times, or with you when you move about the castle."

Baron pushes past my legs to walk in, and Mario's eyes widen. "Also, Fen said Baron will be staying with you from now on, except during hunts."

I nod and pat the wolf's head. "Very well. Thank you both."

Mario bows and closes the door, leaving me with my servants and the wolf. The girls are both wide-eyed and standing in the corner, as far away from Baron as they can. He just ignores them and hops onto my bed to sleep.

"Doesn't it scare you to have that wolf in here?" Kara asks.

"No, Baron would never hurt me. In fact, he protected me today." I tell them both the story of what happened as we move into my sitting room and Kara serves everyone tea.

When I'm done, Julian covers her mouth in shock. "You don't know who Rodrigo is, do you?"

"Honestly, I don't know who anyone is yet." Not even myself, in this crazy place.

"He's the son of the highest ranking demon in all the realms, outside the princes themselves," Julian says. "He was the Head Advisor to the King, before His Majesty was killed, and is responsible for enacting all the King's rulings. I can't believe the Prince killed his son."

"Fen mentioned something about gambling debts the father owed?"

Julian shrugs. "There are rumors, but the Prince would know better than us."

I sense Julian isn't telling me everything she knows, but then, why should she? She's a slave. We can sit here acting like friends, but at the end of the day she has no rights.

Kara shakes her head. "I can't believe that bastard tried to feed on you. But even still, the punishment was harsh for one of his ranking. His father won't take this lightly."

"Why was he working as lumber jack if he's so high ranking?" I ask.

"The King ordered him sent here to work 'a hard day's labor' for one year and one day, following an incident at a tavern with a local girl who ended up being favored by a nobleman," Kara explains. "It was his punishment, in hopes of teaching him some values."

"I don't think the lesson took," I say.

We spend the rest of the afternoon talking about our lives, our families and how different our experiences have been. Both Kara and Julian are slaves, taken as part of the spoils of war when their village from the Outlands tried to attack Fen's city. Normally their sentence would have been death, so they both seem happy to at least be alive. But still, they have no freedom, no pay, no choices at all.

"Were you part of the attack?" I ask.

Kara shakes her head. "We were too young at the time. We were taken when the demons retaliated on our village. To be honest, we have lived in this castle most of our lives. It's really all we've known."

"What does your contract say, exactly?" I ask, my mind whirring with ideas.

Julian frowns. "I haven't looked at it in ages. But I can get it for you if you'd like to see it. I think you technically own the contract now that we've been given to you."

"What? I own you?" My stomach turns on itself. How could Fen make me a slave-owner without telling me?

They both nod.

"Get me both of your contracts, at once."

They leave to do as I've asked, and I go back to my bedroom and crawl into the bed with the wolf, laying my head on his body. "What am I doing here, Baron? Do you have any clue?"

***

M
y day passes with some reading, some journaling and more talking with Kara and Julian about their contracts. I'm still trying to understand all the nuances of their terms. The language and style of writing is more obscure than the legalese of my world, and that's saying something. I might need to get help with this. When the dinner bell rings I realize I've skipped lunch entirely.

Fen waits for me at the dining table, and I take my seat across from him. There is an awkward silence between us as Olga brings out baked duck with salad, garlic rolls and fried vegetables.

I eat quickly, wondering the whole time what I will do each and every day in this new place. I have no real job now, and I guess I don't really need one. But I need some purpose. Some direction.

"Fen?"

He looks up, surprised I broke the silence. "Yes?"

"Thank you for defending me today. I know it will cause some problems for you to have killed someone with such a high ranking father. So, thank you."

His eyes soften. "I thought you were angry with me."

I shrug. "No. I wanted him to die. I was just surprised at the violence. And the blood." I shiver at the memory. "But this isn't my world anymore, is it? I have to adapt to this culture if I'm going to make it here."

He nods. "That you will."

"About the girls you assigned to me. Kara and Julian?"

"Are they not working out? Would you like someone different?" he asks.

"No, they're great. I was just wondering... do I own them? Is that how this works?"

He puts his fork down and looks at me more closely. "Technically, yes. I know you find that distasteful, given where you're from and the values you were raised with. But here it is the way things have always been."

"So I own their contract then?"

He frowns. "Yes," he says carefully. "But that contract was sealed in blood. Even you cannot break it. Just as we could not break your mother's contract once it was secured."

"I understand. Thank you."

I take another bite and he just looks at me, likely wondering what I'm up to now. He'll find out soon enough.

––––––––

"A princess? No. She's a bastard. A Shade. Everything she has in this life she's had to work for. My father... my father did not treat her kindly."

—Fenris Vane

I
may not
be able to break the contract, but I'm determined to improve it. I train late into the night with Fen, then wake early and finish breakfast before he and Baron return from their morning hunt. I'm leaving just as he arrives.

"You look to be in a rush," he says, when I nearly slam into him as he enters the dining hall.

"Just have some research I want to do," I say vaguely. I don't want to tell him my plan yet, because I don't want him to try to talk me out of it.

"Anything I can help with?" He raises an eyebrow, clearly curious about my intentions.

"Nope. I'll be in the library most of the day if you need me." He's standing so close to me I can smell him. I want to step back, to clear my head from the influence he has on me, but I don't. Instead, I step closer and lay my hand on his chest, pointing to a spot on his shirt. "Blood?"

He looks down and frowns. "Apologies. I'm usually more careful."

"Fen, yesterday when Rodrigo attacked me. He said something about how you don't let them feed properly. What did he mean?" I'd been thinking a lot about the hierarchal structure here with the different races, and some questions were starting to pop up. Like how did the vampires get their human blood?

"My realm is stricter than others about feeding on humans. It causes some... unrest." He averts his eyes and I can tell we are dancing on a sore subject.

"Do you feed on humans?" The thought of him doing so does not settle well with me.

"When I must." He steps back. "But I limit the frequency of trips to your world for feeding, and I've curtailed the keeping of more than a minimum number of human slaves in our world."

"There are human slaves here? For feeding on?" This is the first I've heard of that.

"Not many, and nearly none in Stonehill. My brothers aren't as particular. Weren't you in a hurry to get to the library?"

Feeling summarily dismissed I nod and wish him a good morning before leaving. Baron follows me, and I hear my two guards trailing far enough behind me that I don't feel totally stalked.

I explore the castle looking for the library. I could just ask Marco or Roco for directions, but I'd rather find it on my own and see what else I discover in the process.

Sadly, I do not find any secret passages or exciting rooms full of treasures. I do, however, find a room full of dusty furniture and rugs that look like they haven't been moved since the dawn of time. I also find several empty chambers, that Marco informed me had been empty as long as he could remember. "The Prince isn't much of a decorator," he tells me. Roco smirks at that.

When I finally discover the library, I feel as if I've found the heart of the castle. Roco and Marco stand outside the door, apparently confident that nothing will harm me within the sacred walls of so many books. I've always loved libraries, always loved being surrounded by books, so many books I could never read them in a lifetime.

And this library, with its ancient scrolls and leather-bound books, is full of its own kind of magic. The room has a high ceiling spanning several floors, with stairs going up, and tall rolling ladders spread throughout to help access books and scrolls on the highest shelves. It smells of old leather and parchment and magic and mystery. I run my hands over the spines of books I've never seen, never even heard of. Books not written or available in my world. The thought boggles my mind.

"May I help you?" a deep voice asks.

I spin around, my heart pounding. "I'm sorry, I thought I was alone."

Before me stands a tall, lithe man with long white hair and a long white beard. He wears white robes with symbols embroidered into them in silver thread. His face is unlined, though his eyes and hair give the impression of agelessness. And his ears are pointed. He looks different than the Shade. Less vampire and all Fae.

"You are never alone in here," he says. "This is my domain."

I hold out my hand. "I'm Arianna Spero."

He looks at my hand, but does not reach for it. Instead, he bows deeply. "It is an honor to meet you, Princess. I am Kal'Hallen, the Keeper of the Castle, at your service. You may call me Kal. Or Keeper."

"What does a Keeper do?" I ask.

He frowns at my question. "Why, he Keeps, of course."

Right. Obviously.

"I'm looking for information about the slave contracts in this realm. And anything I can find about how the slave trade works in this kingdom."

He nods and begins to walk down aisles while I follow. Balls of white light illuminate the large room. I point to one. "I've seen these everywhere. They are powered by magic?"

"Yes," he says.

"By you?" I guess.

His eyes widen. "How did you know?"

I shrug. "You look like the castle wizard."

His face pinches in distaste. "No. I am the Keeper of the Castle. Not a... " He flicks his wrist as if trying to get dog shit off his fingers... "wizard."

"But you are magic? You are Fae?"

He nods. "I am."

"Does that mean you too are a slave?"

He purses his lips. "There are no free Fae save for the Shade, and to call them free would be to play with the truth. All Fae are slaves to one degree or another in this world."

"And yet you are in a position of authority here?" He wears that authority in every step he takes.

"I am. Prince Fenris has bestowed upon me a great honor." We stop in front of a set of shelves lined with scrolls. "Now, what kind of information do you require, Princess?"

I tell him what I'm up to and he frowns again, but helps me. We spend the afternoon looking through books and scrolls and talking about the slave force in Inferna and how it's been exploited. "Why can't I just make it so Kara and Julian are paid?"

"Where would the money come from?" he asks.

"I don't know. Where does any of the money come from?"

"Each realm has its specialty. For Stonehill it is lumber and defense. For the Prince of Gluttony's realm it is food and herbs. There are also taxes on the cities and villages."

"So can't they be paid from those?"

He shakes his head. "The majority of our labor force are enslaved Fae. If we had to pay them all, there would not be enough funds to survive."