She snaps her fingers to call me to her side.
“This is Captain Commander Smithson,” she says. “He will be escorting you to the very generous visitor quarters we’ve provided. Try not to do anything stupid on the way there. I’d hate for you to suffer an accident… and end up in a painting.”
Victoria blinks in momentary confusion at the painting reference.
I take her elbow and jerk her away.
“Trust me,” I whisper, my voice soft but cruel, “you don’t want to know what that last bit means.”
I shove the silver sack over her head and push her forward.
Chapter Five
PHILLIP
April stands trembling before me. A thick tension fills the space between us. There are cuts all over her body, freshly given by the guards, obviously as a tactic to tempt me.
“Just do it,” she whispers. “Do it. I know you have no choice.”
Dear God, how I want to.
“No,” I say. I stagger away until my back hits the cave wall.
“They’ll kill Patricia if you don’t.” She takes a small step toward me. “But you don’t have to kill me. You can use the Little Drink.” Her eyes connect with mine. “You know what will happen if you resist.”
I look at her in a mix of awe, shock, and wonder. Has she been brainwashed? Is that why she is offering herself to me like this?
Is that why Mother left me alone with her?
“I know what I’m saying,” she says, as if having read my thoughts. Maybe they’re so transparent that she can see them on my face. “I’m fully lucid. The Queen’s guards did things to me—” A flicker of shame crosses her face, “But they never broke my mind. That was not their intent.”
“Then what?” I ask. I’m desperate to steer the conversation away from the choice facing me.
“Do I have to tell you? You’re one of them. You know.”
It’s taking all the self-control I have to not launch myself at her. Having a taste of The Convicted blood has opened my appetite for more. Mother’s taunts have not made any of it easier.
My hands grip the rocky wall behind me.
“Why are you delaying?” she asks. “Do it! Don’t be a coward. You can save Patricia!”
I swallow and shake my head. No matter what choice I make, it’ll be the wrong one.
Mother made sure of that.
“Take the Little Drink and save her!” April commands. “That’s all the Queen wants.”
“You don’t know what she wants,” I breathe. How can I explain that if I taste her blood, I’ll never be able to stop? How do I explain that if I give in now, nearly six hundred years of restraint, of restriction, of self-denial will all have been for naught?
If I take her blood, I’ll lose myself. The monster whom I would emerge as on the other side would be a far cry from the Phillip who stands before her now.
Taking Convicted blood is different. They are creatures without sustenance in their veins. But a fresh, ripe human, full of thick, viscous, hot blood…
“She wants to get her son back,” April says, defiant and strangely confident. She was so subdued when my Mother was here—was that just an act? “I heard everything from the cell where they held me. And James told me certain things, too. Your Mother wants to strengthen the coven—that’s why she needs you.”
April takes another step to me. “I heard how you protested against what the Queen has done. Don’t you want to save Patricia from that same fate?” She thrusts her arm out. "I do. So don’t be a coward. Drink!”
I marvel at her. How can she be so firm and determined? The spark of something I’d long-since considered lost comes to life inside me. I’ve never felt love for a human before, but April’s bravery makes my heartbeat quicken.
It’ll only make tasting her blood all the worse.
“You’ll die if I do,” I say in a faint whisper.
That makes the girl stop and blink. But then she shakes her head.
“No,” she says. “You’re lying. James has—“
“James has drunk human blood his whole life!” I snap. “James knows how to stop! James was your lover. I know what he promised you, and I know the sacrifices you made for him! But James is gone, and if you think you can come over to our side by latching your claws into me, you’re mistaken.”
“So you’re going to let your Mother kill Patricia?” April asks. “Because you’re too frightened of what you are?”
“Did you not hear me?” I snarl. “If I start now, I’ll never be able to control the thirst. It’s not just Patricia’s life that’s at stake. It’s yours. How don’t you understand that?”