The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire

Tucked away in what must be the back of the mansion, I came across a large wooden door. Scratches lined the frame and someone or something had gouged chunks out of the wood, exposing the paler rings below. The brass doorknob was blotched and smeared, like it had been used over and over. Unlike the ones downstairs, it didn’t warm up as I wrapped my fingers around the metal.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I glanced each way down the corridor, as what sounded like a whisper floated along the walls. Far away, a door slammed shut and the gas lamp flickered and with a pop, went out.

Startled, I ripped my hand from the brass and turned and fled. I didn’t stop, even when I realized I must have taken a wrong turn. I wasn’t superstitious, but something about that corridor had chilled me to the bone and I didn’t want to be anywhere near it.

I was getting more and more lost when the wood panelling ended and I found myself in a whitewashed corridor, lit with bright, artificial light – a stark contrast to the rest of the mansion. I doubled over, catching my breath.

‘Excuse me, miss, but are you okay?’ I jerked my head up, startled at the new voice. ‘Sorry, miss, didn’t mean to scare you,’ the voice said, thick with a cockney accent. It came from a young girl, not much older than I was by the looks of her. She was dressed in a plain black dress and a maid’s cap. Her face was round and plump, her mousy-blonde hair framing rosy cheeks. She would be quite stunning, if it was not for the lines of hard work that adorned her face.

‘Don’t worry, I’m fine,’ I replied, trying to smile and failing.

‘You must be the human the Varns took from London. Violet, isn’t it?’ I nodded. ‘I’m Annie,’ she said, smiling, revealing two small fangs.

I eyed them, my eyes sliding down to her dress. ‘Do you work here?’

‘I’m one of the servants,’ she replied. ‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ she added.

I shrugged. ‘Lost, I guess.’

‘Well, I can help with that.’ She smiled and picked up the bucket and mop beside her feet. ‘Take the servant’s stairs. They are at the end of here.’ She pointed in the opposite direction from where I had come. ‘Go three floors down and follow the main corridor and it will bring you to the entrance hall.’ With one last smile, she hurried off before I could even thank her.

Sure enough, at the end of the corridor there were a set of narrow spiralling steps, which twisted around and around a column until they opened out into a wide hallway, which in turn had smaller passages branching from it.

I stopped, staring down its length. The emptiness of the place left me feeling very alone and very vulnerable, as the scale of the situation hit me again. At the end of the corridor, blending with the darkness, I could see a man crumpling to the ground, rubbing his neck and scrambling away from me.

I shook my head, smacking my palm against the panelled wall.

‘Shit,’ I breathed, as I realized a tiny trickle of blood was flowing from my raw knuckle. I quickly wiped it away, not wanting to attract any unwanted attention.

‘Father says you shouldn’t swear. It’s unladylike,’ said a quiet voice from below me. I looked down to see a little girl with the widest, most emerald-green eyes. Her long blonde hair fell in tight ringlets around her face and she had perfect features, right down to her button nose. She looked to be about four.

‘Who are you?’ I asked, taking a couple of steps back.

‘I am Princess Thyme,’ she sung, twirling around, making her pink frilly dress whip around after her. She smiled, revealing two pinpricks for fangs. A kid vampire. ‘And you are Violet, and Kaspar brought you from London.’ It was a statement, not a question. I said nothing, astounded at the sureness she had of her words.

After a minute, I recovered my voice. ‘You’re Kaspar’s little sister?’ I asked, bending down to her level.

‘And Cain’s and Lyla’s and Jag’s and Sky’s,’ she chimed, doing another pirouette.

‘Who are Jag and Sky?’

‘They are my big, big brothers. They are really old,’ she stated with pride. ‘I like them better because they are fun when they come and visit from Romania.’ She pouted, looking down at the ground. ‘All the others are mean when I ask to play games.’ Her bottom lip quivered and I panicked at her complete change of mood.

‘Hey, don’t get upset.’

Her little eyes filled with hope, and she looked up at me. ‘You’ll play a game with me, won’t you?’ She tightened her grip around my hand. ‘Will you carry me?’ She didn’t wait for me to answer, but took a few steps back and made a running leap – I only just caught her in my arms. Realizing I didn’t have much choice, I complied and followed her directions down the corridor.

‘Do you have a sister?’ Thyme asked, twiddling with my hair.

‘I have a little sister,’ I answered. ‘She’s thirteen.’

‘What’s her name?’ she asked with vague interest, more preoccupied with my hair.

‘Lily,’ I answered.

‘That’s a pretty name. Do you have a brother?’ she carried on.

‘I did. But he died,’ I mumbled.

‘That’s sad,’ she replied.

‘Yeah, it is,’ I breathed.

‘Do you have a mummy and daddy?’ I turned my head and saw her cute little face twisted with something I couldn’t read and she tugged a strand of my hair, making me wince.

‘Yes, I do.’ I stopped myself, wondering why I was volunteering so much to a little girl. My eyes misted over and a sick feeling clutched at my throat. Homesickness. ‘What about you? Do you have a mummy?’

‘Mummy can’t be here at the moment,’ she said with a blunt tone far beyond her years. ‘My daddy is always too busy to play with me. He is always in a bad mood.’

We fell into silence for a while. She started playing with my hair again, twisting it around her finger.

‘You’re really pretty.’

‘Thanks,’ I said, unsure how to take the compliment. ‘You’re really cute,’ I replied.

‘I know.’ She gave a little sigh. ‘I wish I had a sister like you. You are nicer than Lyla and much nicer than those horrible girls Kaspar keeps bringing home,’ she muttered darkly, again sounding far older than she must be.

‘Girls?’ I asked, trying not to seem too interested.

‘His friends. But they always stay for the night and they are really mean to me,’ she blabbered.

It didn’t take much brainpower to work out what these ‘friends’ were here for. Again, she seemed content to play with my hair until I felt a cold breeze on the back of my neck and I almost dropped her.

‘What the heck are you doing?’ I screeched as she ran her teeth up and down my neck. She pulled away, giving me a toothy grin.

‘I’m not going to bite you, silly!’ She giggled. ‘I’m smelling you.’

‘Well, don’t do it. It’s not very nice.’ I replied, trying to keep my cool whilst eyeing her with suspicion.

We wandered through the corridors until she finally pointed out a door, telling me it was her playroom. We went in and she soon had her dolls lined up, ready to attend a tea party. She kept me captive for what seemed like hours, although it can’t have been much more than one.

‘Thyme, I think I had better go back now,’ I announced at last, setting aside my imaginary cake and tea. Her eyes became round and a sheen coated them, but she gave in when I remained firm.

‘Okay,’ she said in a wistful tone. Taking a hold of my hand, we headed off again. She led the way as I had no idea where we were until we broke out into the light of the entrance hall. We crossed and were just passing the staircase when Kaspar appeared from behind the banisters.

‘Thyme! Why aren’t you with your nanny?’ he barked. I froze. Thyme wiggled out of my grip, scurrying behind me and peeking out from behind my leg.

‘Give her a break, she was looking after me,’ I explained, trying to dislodge her from my jeans.

His face went from blank to furious in less than a second and I saw his eyes become black. ‘Thyme, go to your room. I need to have a word with your friend here.’ His voice echoed across the hall and Thyme disappeared in a flash. Although his tone remained steady, there was a steeliness to it that made me regret opening my mouth. I knew he meant business when he grabbed my shoulder and pulled me through one of the grand doors that mirrored the entrance.

Wow, talk about a ballroom. The door we had just entered through was raised on a balcony overlooking a huge room, at least the size of several tennis courts put together. The walls were made of white marble flecked with gold and the huge pillars that were embedded within the walls were coated in gold leaf. The floor was wooden and so well varnished it resembled liquid more than anything else. At either end there were two arched, cathedral-style windows and to the left a throne had been set upon a slightly raised platform. But what really caught my eye was the chandelier dangling precariously from the ceiling. Hanging from a central ring, tiny baskets woven from glass cupped thousands of black candles, all unlit. As Kaspar shut the door behind us, a gust of air whipped through the air and stirred the glass. A few of the baskets jostled each other and they were so delicate that I half-expected them to break. Instead, they chimed and continued to ring long after the baskets had stopped moving, chased by the echo of the door closing.

‘How dare you tell me how to treat my own sister?’ He only needed to whisper as his voice travelled across the empty room. ‘You know nothing of my family! Nothing!’ he hissed, as he clenched and unclenched his fist.

‘I know enough.’

He narrowed his eyes and the dark circles below them became even darker and the area between his nose and the corner of his eyes became shadowy too. He stared and something began to feel out of place in my mind. I searched through, feeling restless all of a sudden. I thought he might say something, but he just kept staring and as the bugging sensation increased, it hit me. He is in my mind.

I realized he could see every memory and struggled to focus on one thing. Thoughts seemed to slip through my grasp like water and, giving up, I settled on the word jerk. I screamed it in my head and pretty quickly, I felt him withdraw.

‘Jerk? I suppose Fabian told you how to guard your mind. Pity.’ He placed a hand on the wall beside my head and I went to sidestep away, but he placed his other hand on the other side of my head, trapping me. ‘No. You know nothing of my family.’ His body pressed up against mine and my nose wrinkled in disgust as I tried to fold into the wall, away from him. He bent to my ear and spoke. ‘Do you fear me, Violet Lee? Do you know what I could do to you?’

I could smell blood on his breath, copper and iron, mixed in with the heavy musk of cologne that smelt identical to the one that hung in the air of the bedroom with the painting.

‘I know what you can do.’ The tip of my tongue ran over my lips and I could taste salt. ‘But I’m not scared of you.’

He hummed a low, disbelieving note, which I could feel rumbling in his chest, pressed to mine. ‘Do you lust for me, Violet?’ He might have said something else, his voice was so low, but there was no mistaking that smirk as he drew away to enjoy my reaction, allowing his lips to brush my ear, sending shivers down my spine.

I forced myself to keep my voice steady. ‘No.’

‘Then why is your heart beating at twice the rate it should be?’ I bit my lip, realizing he was right. It was pounding against my ribs like there was no tomorrow. ‘And why are you flushing?’ My cheeks were hot like I had stood in the sun for hours. ‘And why,’ he said, roughly grabbing one of my wrists and pulling it up to my eye level, ‘are your palms sweaty?’ I didn’t want to look, but I stole a glance. Right again. I averted my eyes.

He hummed again, satisfied this time. ‘Humans. You hide nothing.’ I watched him out of the corner of my eye as he let go of my wrist and ran a hand through his hair, pushing his fringe back, which just flopped right back into place. ‘Don’t be ashamed of it though, Girly. I’m royalty, I’m rich and I’m damned good looking. I’m designed to be attractive to humans. But you’re resisting.’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘Why is that?’

Oh, where to begin? ‘Because you are a bloodsucker and a murderer. And a jerk. The list goes on.’ My body might betray me, but I wasn’t truly attracted to him: I was repulsed.

His head snapped up, and his eyes, a dark, forest green around his large pupils, met mine. ‘Is that so? Well I will get to you, Violet Lee,’ he lingered on my name, drawing his sentence out. ‘You will give in to me; I will make sure of it.’

‘No. You really won’t get me.’ I made to move to the side, away from him, but he placed his hands either side of my head again, dragging his nails down the wood, making a horrendous screeching sound, like chalk on a blackboard. He ran his hands all the way down, until they reached my waist. His hands moved around to my back, pulling me into him, and he began to close his fist around my waist, pinching the skin just below my ribs.

‘Get off me! You have whores for this!’ I shrieked. His eyes found mine in an instant and I saw recognition in them.

His irises became as black as his pupils. They lost all shade and tone – they were black, just black. ‘You will pay for that one, Girly,’ he said, his voice trembling.

In one swift movement, he had brushed away the hair from my neck and pushed my head away. In the corner of my eye, I could see him lowering his jaw to my neck and I began to duck away. But he grabbed a fistful of my hair and tugged. I yelped, seeing him bare his fangs as he forced me onto my tiptoes.

‘Don’t!’ I begged, cowering away from him.

‘I will teach you to fear me,’ he growled, taking no notice of my pleas for mercy. ‘And I will make you regret the day you ever stood in Trafalgar Square.’ With his taunting words, I felt pain as his fangs pierced my skin. They drove deep into my flesh, ripping my skin. I cried out in pain, unable to stop curses spewing from my mouth as stars flickered in front of my eyes. But every time a word formed my jaw moved and the skin on my neck stretched taut over his fangs, releasing a dribble of something warm, which trickled down to the round collar of my T-shirt.

He extracted his fangs and his tongue chased the drip, leaving a trail of saliva. He sucked at it, his lips forming words against my skin. ‘Sweet,’ I thought he said.

He rubbed his thumb across the material of my collar and brought his eyes up to meet mine once more, but my eyes flicked to his lips, which I saw were coated in blood. My blood.

I felt weak and my knees began to buckle. Only the force of him pushing me into the door kept me upright. ‘The Princes of this Kingdom always get what they want,’ he breathed and drew away from me, leaving me to crumple to the floor, pale and sickened. He watched me slide to the ground and, unable to bear the smirk on his lips, I buried my head in my arms, drawing my knees close to my chest.

‘Keep denying me and you could make your time here very unpleasant. And believe me, Violet Lee: your time here shall be long.’

With that, the door slammed, leaving me whimpering on the floor, very quickly learning how to fear him.

NINE

Violet

‘How about this?’ Lyla jabbered, pulling clothes down from the racks of her gigantic wardrobe and passing them into the arms of a waiting maid – Annie. ‘Seems like your style.’

She held up a black skirt – more like a belt – and pressed it against her stomach, modelling it. It was short, to say the least.

‘I think the dress I was wearing the other day was a one-off.’

She hummed with an obvious tone of disbelief and added the skirt to the growing pile in Annie’s arms. I shifted, uncomfortable, leaning up against one of the mirrors. ‘Listen, Lyla, you really don’t have to lend me all this, I—’

She cut me off. ‘Violet, you might think we are all murderers, but we have a basic standard of hygiene here and that includes changing your underwear. So while you’re here, you play by our rules.’ She shot a warning look in my general direction and I closed my mouth. There was nothing I could say to that.

My thoughts wandered as she continued to pick out clothes for me, insisting they were cast-offs she never wore. The scene with Kaspar yesterday preoccupied my mind as it kept playing itself over and over like a stuck record, tormenting me. I hadn’t told anyone about it. I didn’t plan to. Not out of consideration for him, but for the sake of avoiding even further humiliation. It felt private.

‘Earth to Violet,’ an exasperated voice called. ‘I said try them on. You’re bigger than me and I want to know they fit.’ She pushed me into the washroom and one by one, Annie handed the outfits through.

When I emerged, she was draining a glass of something red that smelt faintly of alcohol. ‘All good?’ she asked, turning to me as I walked out. I nodded. ‘Vodka and blood,’ she explained, noticing that I was eyeing the drink. ‘Enough of that and that’s about as close as a vampire can get to sleep.’ She drained the last few drops and handed Annie the glass. ‘Fetch me another one. I’ve got a blasted headache.’ Annie curtsied with the faintest trace of a disgruntled expression, but Lyla didn’t seem to notice the rudeness in her words.

I began to pick up the clothes when she piped up again. ‘If you ask me, it would be far easier just to buy you more clothes – I mean, you’re going to be here a while – but Kaspar doesn’t seem to think you’re worth it.’ My hands balled into fists around the handful of clothes I was carrying. ‘No offence, of course,’ she added, watching me.

It wasn’t Kaspar’s lack of concern that bothered me, (although I was keen to avoid the subject of him) but the assumption that I was hanging around. I nodded, trying to look unbothered.

‘So vampires can get headaches? You’re not immune to all that?’

She laughed. ‘God, no. We can get headaches, stomach aches, sore throats, that type of thing, but not anything serious or complicated. And not any STDs, luckily for the likes of my brother. Still, vigilance at all times. Use condoms and all that.’ I blushed at her reference, trying not to think too much about it. She walked into her bedroom and I made for the door, clothes in hand.

‘Hey, no rush,’ she said, smiling. ‘I get bored of just having the guys around. Female company wouldn’t go amiss.’ She patted the cream sofa in the corner of the room and, after hesitating, I joined her, letting the pile rest on my lap. After a moment of awkward silence, I spoke.

‘Do the others live here?’

‘Fabian and Felix and the rest of them? Yes. This is their second home,’ she answered.

‘Why?’ I probed.

‘Oh, they like to go hunting together, kick slayer butt, that sort of thing. Passes the time.’

‘Right,’ I replied, pretending that her answer sounded normal. More questions bugged my racing mind, but I knew better than to ask them. I had to be tactful with those questions if I wanted to remain alive.

Back in the relative privacy of my own room, I curled up on the ledge beside the window. It was raining again – what little sun we would get for the year had been and gone in June. My eyes began to droop, and I walked over to the bed. I couldn’t be bothered to change, so I just slipped off my shoes and swung under the covers. I hadn’t even shut my eyes, however, when there was a loud bang, which sounded as though it came from the walls itself.

There was a second bang and I sat bolt upright. I stared in fear across the dim room; I was sure it was coming from the opposite wall, and therefore, the walk-in wardrobe. My fingers tightened over the sheets.

But there was no other sound and I plucked up the courage to slip out of bed and investigate. Taking a deep breath, I pulled the door open and dove for the light switch in one move, not wanting to look up until there was light. Yet there was nothing there and my hammering heart calmed a little. Glad of the carpeted floor as it cushioned my steps, I crept forward, until … bang!

I jumped back, startled as I realized it sounded like a door slamming, or heavy furniture being pushed across the floor in the next room – Kaspar’s room. With it, came a voice and my cheeks flushed so bright that I would put a tomato to shame.

‘Oh, Kaspar,’ someone giggled. A woman. ‘You’re so dirty.’

I back-pedalled out of the wardrobe, followed all the way by groans I didn’t want to hear. I bounded back into my bed and tried to muffle the sound by smothering myself with a pillow. But it didn’t work. I lay awake, my eyes wide like I had placed matchsticks under my lids, pulling out my hair in frustration as I was forced to listen as they went on and on and didn’t stop.

TEN

Violet

‘Annie!’ I screeched, running flat out down the downstairs corridor. ‘Annie!’ I repeated as I slowed down at the servant’s staircase, which spiralled downwards into the bowels of the mansion. At their bottom was a vast network of kitchens, used to cook for the royal family upstairs at formal events. Beyond that were launderettes and small, dim rooms for the servants to sleep in. It was here that I was spending most of my time, away from Kaspar and Fabian and the others. Here, no one took any notice of me, nor lusted for my blood because most of them hated drinking it as much as the idea revolted me – it was here, at Varnley, Annie had told me, that the vampires who never wanted to be vampires came. The vampires turned, not born.

I followed the walls of the unlit kitchens, hearing my footsteps echo off the stone walls and curved ceiling, shaped like a cellar. I knew Annie would have heard me a mile off, and sure enough, she stood at the opposite end, arms folded and her tone a little exasperated.

‘You shouldn’t be down here this late.’

I brushed her off. ‘But I have a favour to ask.’

She nodded her head, the blonde curls that she tried so hard to maintain – a throwback to when she was a teenager in the 1940s, she said – flat and dropping around her ears. Her usual cap and pinafore had gone, but the black dress remained.

‘You clean the bedrooms, right?’ I asked, biting my lip because I didn’t know how she was going to react. She nodded once more. ‘Could I help out?’

She gave me a puzzled look. ‘Why?’

‘I have a little surprise for Kaspar,’ I blabbered; keen to get it out as fast as possible.

A sceptic smile grew into an excited grin on her face. ‘What are you planning?’

I had not slept a wink in three nights. Every night had been interrupted by various moans and groans. Each morning, a girl would leave. The previous morning, I’m pretty sure it had been two girls. In the end, I resolved to do something. I hadn’t expected Annie to agree, but she hated the Prince: he treated the servants like the dirt beneath his feet and worse. But when we reached his door, my resolve began to weaken.

Annie knocked and called in a timid voice through the door. ‘Your Highness?’ There was no answer. Again she knocked, harder this time. We waited a minute, and there was still no answer. She poked her head in.

‘All clear,’ she muttered and, entering, quickly began sweeping up.

‘Where did you say he kept them?’ I said in a hushed tone, afraid he might return at any minute.

‘Try the drawers in the bedside table, under the bed, behind the clock and the bathroom cabinet.’

In the back of my mind, I questioned what the hell I was doing, knowing that pushing things too far with Kaspar could get me hurt or killed, yet getting revenge on him for bringing me here, even in the smallest way, was just too tempting.

Besides, they would have hurt you by now if they wanted to, wouldn’t they? my voice said, putting into words what I had become more and more sure of over the past few days.

I began dashing about, pulling open drawers; checking under the rugs. Sure enough, in the bathroom cabinet there was a box, three behind the clock and two boxes in the drawers.