Yew Queen Trilogy, стр. 8
The pale guy spoke first, his gaze snapping to Lucus. “I don’t know what you’re dicking around for. Feed on her all you want. Then I’ll take her blood. Why keep her alive? Every time we appear, you want to keep them alive. What is the point? We are living on one human every one hundred years!”
“We sleep, Kaippa,” Lucus said. “We survive.”
“I don’t want to simply survive. I want to live.”
I froze. There was no way I’d heard that correctly. Right?
I shut my eyes, mind on overload.
So this pale guy—Kaippa—was a vampire? He wanted my blood, and vampires were real. My insane Aunt Viv had been right.
Holy shit. My body began to shake, my teeth clattering together like I was freezing to death. A vampire. A real vampire. My brain twisted the information, trying to thread it through my life. Aunt Viv had mentioned blood suckers. I remembered one summer when we watched a black-and-white movie with a vampire that was seriously hideous and scary as hell. This Kaippa guy wasn’t hideous at all, but scary? Yep. He had that going on one hundred percent. The shaking wouldn’t stop. Would they notice? Surely they would. I felt like I was going to jiggle right off the table they’d set me on. How was this real? Vampires. I prayed to everything in the universe that this was all a really terrible dream.
And if Kaippa was a vampire, what was Lucus? He was obsessed with my supposedly golden aura, not my blood. The term slithered into my head.
Psychic vampire.
Dots blinked behind my closed eyelids. I was going to pass out. For sure.
A memory floated to the surface of my crazed thoughts. Aunt Viv had called me gold girl when I’d visited her during childhood summers. She’d claimed our blood was rich. I’d thought she was referring to Granddaddy’s money, but maybe she had meant something else entirely. Her stories about magic and immortals were coming to life right here. Could the stories be true? If they were, well, take that, Josh Butterbanks of fifth grade. I was right about magic. But really? Was I in one of Aunt Viv’s cautionary tales right now? No way. Could I actually have a golden aura that some supernatural creature wanted to feed on?
“Lucus.” Kaippa ran a cool finger down my forearm, and my skin literally crawled under his touch. “I’m starving,” he said to Lucus, “and you are too.”
My heart clawed at my chest, trying to burst free. But I didn’t want to die of a heart attack yet. I still had a chance here. I could listen and learn, and then plan an attack. Supernatural or not, these bastards were going down. If I allowed my fear to take over, I’d be handing them a victory. Not today, folks. Not today.
“Silence, Kaippa. She is awake, and you ruin her aura with your threats.”
“They aren’t threats,” someone near Lucus hissed.
I opened my eyes a tiny bit to peer at who had come into the room. This man had the same facial structure as Lucus, but he was leaner, his skin rougher, and his eyes screamed psychopath. As he looked over my body, disgust pinched his handsome features. He did up the top button of his black shirt. His throat pulled at the fabric, but he didn’t seem to mind.
“Who cares if she temporarily releases us?” new guy said. “We need to feed.”
“Baccio.” Lucus’s voice was a command. “Please,” he said as if he wanted to soften the order, “I must think. The only time any of us have left the castle without turning to ash was when I was in her presence.”
“Don’t speak of Francesco in front of her,” the one he’d called Baccio snapped. Through my slitted eyes, I saw green light flash from his black eyes.
Lucus continued like Baccio had never mentioned this other person—Francesco—who must have died after leaving the castle. “The fact that I left the premises and am here to tell the tale…that is no coincidence. Her aura is so unlike any I’ve seen since the curse.” Lucus’s voice rumbled low as he began speaking foreign words.
A fourth man walked into the chamber. I had to do something now. I was only getting more and more outnumbered.
“Lucus is right,” the fourth said. Dark circles marred his lighter eyes. He also looked like Lucus but was a few years younger maybe. Fire from the wall sconces flickered off his golden hair. He tilted his head and nibbled his lower lip, like he was trying to figure me out. “He didn’t suffer at all when he crossed the threshold with her. There has to be something here to help us. Something more than just one meal.”
“Thank you, Aurelio.” Lucus’s gaze traveled over the fourth man. I saw something in Lucus’s eyes when he looked at the blond-haired Aurelio. Kindness? Love? Was this a brother? They really did favor one another, and the vicious Baccio too. Perhaps they were three brothers—Lucus, the first I’d met; Baccio the psycho; and Aurelio the younger, fair one? And one random vampire named Kaippa.
Despite their frightening appearance and all the horrible shit they were saying and this whole thing being insane, an odd thought popped into my head.
They were all scared.
It showed in the tautness to their mouths and the hollowness in their gazes. Kaippa had said they were starving, and I had to believe that was true.
But it didn’t change my feelings or decrease my level of fear. If anything, their desperation only made them more dangerous.
What to do… Puke? Yes, I did feel like hurling my brains out, but that wouldn’t really get me anywhere. Scream my face off? Definitely a possibility. Fight? Yeah. I wouldn’t get them all, but they were going to hurt before they turned me into a Number Three on Weird Castle’s daily deal menu. I wished I had