Page 28 of Servant

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All of the other fathers were there too, or at least that was who I assumed they were. They seemed to be lined up facing their individual sons. Rowan’s father crossed the room and stood right in front of where Rowan knelt.

“Boys,” he spoke, and all eyes in the room landed on him. “I got your message. We all got it, but I have news for you—saying no isn’t an option. When I tell you how something is going to be, that is how it’s going to be.”

Tanner quietly reached over and took my hand in his. He squeezed our fingers together. It was a sweet gesture. He was warm. Rowan said they were warm. That was what made them human. Had his father been cold when he’d bitten me? I really didn’t know. I’d been too terrified to take note of the temperature of his skin.

Rowan’s bedroom was huge, bigger than Caesar’s, and unlike his friend, he didn’t have drawings on the walls. Instead, he’d hung framed prints of various cities all over the world. Had he visited these places or just wanted to someday?

It didn’t matter right then, and I needed to focus. It must have been the saliva running through me, messing with my head.Really, could it be any more gross to think about?Ugh.

“August is not so far off, Father.” When Rowan spoke, it was to the floor. “Not so unreasonable. We have done everything you asked of us. We are asking for one summer, that is it.”

“It is unreasonable because I said it is.” His father practically snarled. “The others will be rising any day. You will take your place on the night of your graduation.”

I blinked.What does that mean?Tanner squeezed my hand harder. He wanted me to keep quiet. I had no intention of speaking right then.

“So, you want us to take our place next week.” Rowan looked pained, his face scrunched up. “It’s a lot to digest. I know you have next to no memories of this time for yourselves, but you have to know how unfair it is, what you’re asking. And now to bring in a girl? A person with no ties to our life, who would have gone without ever discovering any of our secrets? To bite her. To…”

This time, it was Ace’s father who spoke. “There is a poetic justice to it. So much more than you’ll ever understand.” He smiled, but there was no mirth. “You’ll graduate from one life to the next. You’re eighteen. It’s time. If we’re right about what happens next, there is real…irony, because you all got caught up with a human woman. By this time next year, I imagine you’ll understand why.”

“She is here so that you will behave. So you’ll stop pestering us with your complaints, with your demands. So you will do what you were born to do. Next week. Without fail. Because if you displease any of us again, even a little bit, we will make things much harder for her. Right now,” he stared at me for the first time, “she’s been bitten once. That means, for a little while longer, she will feel the blankness—the nothing, as my son who is too poetic for his own good, referred to it in the car. She will feel compelled to do as I tell her, but that will fade shortly. Unless she is rabidly unlucky, and maybe she is, she won’t be addicted from our one encounter.” He smiled. It was a sick, twisted expression that turned my stomach. There was no happiness in him, none at all. Besides, I was feeling sensations just fine. Yes, the saliva induced yuckiness of nothing—I liked Rowan’s description—must be fading. “But she could be addicted if we kept biting her. And we will. Over and over again until you comply. You’ve known her mere days, and I don’t know why you all took to her the way that you did. It seems senseless, but I am happy to use it now. You can keep her well or you can make her just like her mother.”

I caught my breath. That really was my biggest fear. Or I could be worse than my mother, that was always a possibility. My mother still looked good. She wasn’t homeless. She had all her teeth. The way I imagined things, they could be much, much worse than being my mother. Not that I wanted to test that theory. Not at all.

He shook his head. “I visited with her mother an hour ago.”

“What?” Now I had to speak. “What did you do to her?”

“Maci.” Griffin met my gaze. “Quiet. Trust me. That is the smart move here. Be as silent as you can be.”

Doesn’t he understand?“Griffin, my mother—”

Rowan’s father interrupted me. “Is alive and very wealthy now. Not as wealthy as she could have been, but wealthier than she was. About twenty thousand dollars wealthier.”

Tanner’s father rolled his eyes. “Humans.”

“What did you want for that money?” I wanted to scream. Not doing so was taking real effort.Hugeeffort.

“You. And she handed you over, so now you are mine, Maci. No one will be looking for you. Not at home. Not at school. The police will turn away if someone says your name. From now on, you are part of our collection of people. Congratulations. You are now our servant, as so many have been before you. The question is…do you want to live through the experience?”

Caesar lifted his head. “Say yes. Trust me. Say yes.”

That wasn’t hard. I absolutely wanted to live through the experience, and hopefully lots of future ones too. “Yes.”

“Good.” He nodded. “The training starts now. The four of you who don’t live here will go get your things and return. You live here now for the remainder of your time. You do too, Maci. You are always here. That is how this works, or she gets bit. Again and again.”

With that, he stormed from the room. The other grownup vampires followed him, all of them moving with an alien gliding stride unlike normal human walking. I wasn’t sure I could ever move my feet that way, like they didn’t quite touch the floor. I’d noticed it at the bar. Caesar’s father stopped and turned to face us. “The war is coming. We have years left, not decades. I see it more and more. The Betrayer is everywhere. There is no time to waste. Youwilldo what you were born to do.”

Tanner was on his feet as soon as they left, and he pulled me into a hug. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

I wanted to hug him back, but I couldn’t. It was as though I couldn’t make my arms move. I’d been bitten by a vampire. These guys were all the children of them, who were…what? I didn’t understand what was happening.

“Maci, you have to let us explain,” he whispered in my ear. “Believe me, this was the last thing we wanted.”

“I do. I believe you never wanted me to know about this.” I stepped back. “But I think you’d better start explaining some things, because now I’m in it. With a bite on my wrist and a lot of fucking questions, including the fact that my mother has twice tried to give me away over the last two days, and this time, apparently she fucking did it.” By the end of my words, I was downright screaming at them. At all of them.

I made it through most days without getting too worked up about anything, but lately, it was like I was loaded with emotions I had nothing to do about except yell or cry.

“Guys,” Rowan answered. “This is too much. I know. We knew this day would come. It’s not fair that it’s now, not even a little bit, but there is nothing to do. Not one fucking thing. So go home and get your shit. We’re in this together. We always have been. And I’ll explain it to Maci. All of it. Every little bit.”


Tags: Rebecca Royce Erotic