“What kind
of punishment would it be?” She whispered.
I leaned close to her ear.
“Darling, pray that you never have to find out.”
I pulled away and walked to the closet. I selected a lovely gown, as well as matching undergarments, and I brought them to Kimberly.
“Put these on,” I said.
She accepted the clothes and dressed easily without complaint. She didn’t ask if I was going to stay and watch, and she didn’t pretend she couldn’t dress herself. She was clever, and she understood she was no longer in control of her own future. She would have to pick her battles if she wanted to survive. Fighting over clothes wasn’t going to get us off to a good start.
That much was for certain.
Once she was dressed, I took her out of the bedroom.
“You’ll need something to eat,” I told her.
“Do I have to...I don’t really want to...Must I...”
“Are you asking me if I’m going to make you kill someone?”
She nodded.
I choked back a laugh. It was something every new vampire asked. That was something they all seemed so wildly worried about. Were they going to have to kill a human? Were they going to have to end someone’s life? It seemed like a strange thing to worry about, in my opinion, but they all did.
“Don’t worry,” I told her. “You don’t need to kill anyone...yet.”
She swallowed hard and nodded, and we walked down the hallway.
The mansion I’d chosen in the Grove was a beautiful one. It was perhaps the biggest house in the area, and it had enough space for me, Kimberly, Helena, and Helena’s lovers. We also had a few other vampires who lived with us. There were servants, sure, but there were other vampires I was close to who had chosen a life of communal living. They were free to come and go as they pleased, and many of them did, but it was often nice to have a space to ourselves.
Some of the vampires liked to have a bedroom where they could leave their treasures before going off to have vampire adventures in the world. That was fine with me. I didn’t care as long as they pulled their own weight when they were around, and as long as they always had my back, which they did.
“How long have you lived here?” Kimberly asked me.
“Longer than five years,” I said.
“Funny.”
“What’s funny?”
“You remember when we fought,” she said.
“I remember that night very well.”
It was the first time I’d ever let a human go. Before that, if I caught someone, I never let them go. I never had any interest in taking survivors. Then she’d come along and apparently, proven that I wasn’t as badass of a vampire as I pretended to be.
“You let me go,” she said.
“I did.”
“Why?”
“You know why.”
“Because I’m your mate.”