Wanted: A Blood Courtesans Novel (9 page)

Chapter Fifteen

Nash

“Get that little bitch out of here!” Desiree snarled, pacing in front of me. The pain of losing Sabrina cracked her perfect façade. She’d handpicked her and Sierra from the crowd of a giant festival, and they’d served her for almost fifty years. It was hard to remember Desiree without her favorite courtesans by her side.

“No,” I said simply. We all mourned in our own ways. I’d brought Corynne to the brink last night—her heartbeat had slowed, barely able to recover from her orgasm, and I feared I’d gone too far. I’d given her enough blood to ensure she woke up this morning human.

This was my coven, but we ruled by committee. We’d always done it that way to protect ourselves from each other. But there were some areas where I wasn’t willing to entertain the council’s opinions—and Corynne was one of them.

“I can’t even look at her without wanting to rip her to shreds. The only reason I didn’t do it last night was because Sabrina needed every last bit of my energy. But that… She’s not human, Nash, you know that, right? She’s a black hole.”

“She’s human. Most humans can naturally suppress the urges that Corynne struggles with. Instead, they’ve strengthened within her. It’s fascinating--”

“Fascinating? She’s a murderer!” All the blood Desiree had stolen from her courtesans rushed to her face. “I covered for her when the police came, and that wasn’t the first mistake I made when it comes to your little blood slut. No more. I should’ve never let her go to auction, instead I should’ve tossed her back to whatever hellhole she crawled out of and let nature take its course.”

I laughed. Desiree pursed her lips but said nothing. “You’re a hypocrite. What’s kept you alive for the last couple of centuries? Murder. Deceit. You want to punish Corynne because she’s just like you, but she’s got the one thing you can’t have—a heart that still beats. And a way out of here. Alive.”

Her expression softened, absorbing the blow of the truth. “She’s brought this coven to the edge of disaster. Sabrina is dead, those savages in the forest are surely planning retaliation for whatever the hell you hoped to accomplish the other night, and we’re waiting for a useless vampire to awaken.”

“Olivia is the least of our problems.” I remembered her the minute I found her in the forest. She’d stood on our stage many times, remaining hopeful even when she received no bids. The light in her eyes had been snuffed after Oscar and his feral followers used her as a human chew toy, but she had the strength to smile when she saw me. No one could kill Olivia’s spirit. For her sake, I hoped she brought it with her to the afterlife. She was going to need it.

Desiree rolled her eyes. “Our coven doesn’t want her. She kept coming back, too stupid to get the hint. I wanted to throttle Oscar’s guy when he slipped in that last minute bid. She’d used up all her chances. I have half a mind to throw her back to the forest and--”

“No. Absolutely not. We need her—she’ll have information about the forest vampires that we can’t get anywhere else, without risking anyone else in our coven.” That shut Desiree up. “If we have any hope of quieting that uprising without causing a war, we need her.”

“It’s her or Corynne.” Desiree folded her arms across her chest, tapping her heeled foot. “It should really be neither of them. There’s only so much this coven can tolerate.”

I shook my head, relishing Desiree’s glare. “You don’t give me ultimatums, Desiree. Do I need to strip you of your responsibilities while you mourn, and give you a chance to find some humility?”

“No.” Her answer was sharp. “Someone needs to exercise some common sense with the girls that come in here. I’ve learned my lesson, and I won’t make the same mistake again.”

“That’s more like it.” I gathered my things, this conversation was over. My intention had been to check on Desiree, knowing the pain of losing a chosen one.

“Nash.” She stopped me with my hand on the doorknob. “The council won’t allow them both to stay.”

“Yes, they will.”

“You know the rules. The council exists so no one vampire has too much power over the coven. If the council is unanimous in wanting Corynne and Olivia to go, you have to respect their wishes.”

I left without responding. I had to help Corynne learn to control her mind before I turned her, yet I didn’t have the luxury of that kind of time. I had to turn her now.

There was a catch—becoming immortal wasn’t a cure all to disease, and this plan could backfire.

**

Corynne would wake soon, sore and hungry. As much as Desiree considered her to be uncontrollable, she was the least of my problems tonight. I ventured to the basement to check on Olivia.

We brought humans here to make the transformation. At one time, this building had housed a bank, and we’d left the heavy vault door in the basement. There was no way to predict how a vampire would come into the world. It was much like a human birth—many of them came in screaming. The locked room kept them safe from the sun, and most importantly, themselves.

The room was kept cool. New vampires struggled with sensory issues. Everything was much more intense and vivid, and many of them had a hard time adjusting to their new body temperature. This eased them into it, and gave them a chance to acclimate.

No surprise that the vault was dark, but I didn’t expect to find Olivia alone. Unacceptable. A courtesan should’ve been guarding her and been ready to guide her when she rose. This was a direct violation of coven protocol.

Olivia was being set up to fail.

She hadn’t spent many nights in the forest, but if the vampires there had gorged themselves on her blood without replenishing her, she may have been too weak to make the transformation. Even in the best circumstances, there were no guarantees. Her tiny body lay chained to the stone slab, again for her protection. But no one should’ve wrapped a chain around her neck.

I’d given Olivia my blood, and that was enough to make her a member of this coven. This treatment was extreme. Reactionary. It would not go unpunished. I slipped my fingers between the metal and her throat, crumbling it under my grip. Her color instantly improved, from a sickly lavender hue to something brighter, more hopeful.

I picked up the sheet to make sure she’d suffered no other retaliation. Her skin was smooth, healing from the bites and the slices she’d suffered in the forest. For all the advances our kind had made, the forest coven spiraled backward. Instead of simply drinking blood from her like civilized vampires, they fed from her like cannibals. There was no way I’d let anyone associated with my coven be sent to that fate.

The forest vampires would be punished for this. I had a feeling no one in the human realm had been looking for Olivia, but it was only so long before the feral vampires chose the wrong girl and sent us all back into the Dark Ages, forcing us to hide in the shadows and gutters of society.

Her head rolled slowly, her fingers curled around the cuff that held her in place. I ran my hand lightly over her forehead, trailing down to her cheek. Just enough so she knew she wasn’t alone.

She licked her lips, squeezing her eyes when the sensation was unfamiliar. Her eyes snapped open, trained on me, and she pulled against her restraints hard, angry. The noise that came out of her was somewhere between a scream and a hiss, and exactly as she intended.

I bit through the skin on my other wrist. Her fangs hadn’t formed yet. If anyone else had been down here, they may have let her struggle for her first drink, starving her and driving her mad. No. We didn’t create savages in this coven.

She made a much more welcoming sound as the first drops of blood hit her tongue. I held her head up, but there was no need to coax her to drink. She’d come to our world hungry and knowing what she wanted.

No vampire was created without a purpose. It was in our coven contract. Olivia was no exception.

Olivia blinked when I withdrew my wrist, blood and foreign emotions coursing through her. She didn’t let a drop of blood go wasted, licking her lips clean. “You found me,” she rasped.

“Yes. Do you remember what happened to you?”

“The producer--” her voice was weak, “—said he wanted to film in the woods, that it was a vampire sacrifice scene. I thought it sounded freaky, but hey, I’ve done worse. They drank from me over and over. Everyone had a turn. I begged for blood, for water, for anything…but they wouldn’t give it to me. I thought I was going to die.”

“You did die.” I was glad she’d come here so many times—her smile confirmed she welcomed this news. “And I’ve brought you back to the coven that you came to auction at.”

She nodded. “I thought you looked familiar. Does that mean I’m a courtesan?”

“No. It means you’re a vampire now. A member of this coven. At first, the two roles will be very similar, and I expect your transformation to be smooth.”

Her eyes widened, and she didn’t respond right away. “Wow.” She craned her head, taking in her surroundings. “Does that mean I get to stay here forever?”

“As long as you follow the rules.” I could make her no guarantees. My promises were empty until the council welcomed her. Olivia needed acclimate to being a vampire, until then I’d worry about coven politics for her. “But you no longer have to worry about food, money, or a place to live.”

Olivia closed her eyes, peace washing over her. “Thank you.”

I placed a light kiss on her forehead. She was my creation, and it was my responsibility to take care of her. Had she been my Lady, I would’ve climbed on top of her and taken her, so she could’ve had her first taste of vampire blood enhanced by the feeling of losing control. That was how it was meant to be. But she’d have to find someone else to do that for her. “Do you remember a courtesan named Corynne?”

The bridge between human life and the afterlife was cushioned with static. “Yes,” she finally said. “The last night I was here. She was so nervous. Wait, you made that huge bid for her, didn’t you?”

Her memory was much sharper than most new vampires. Olivia was not to be underestimated. “I did. Because of her, we found you.”

“You kept her?”

“I did. And once you’re ready, she’d love to see you.”

Chapter Sixteen

Corynne

“You changed her. Just like that.” I wasn’t mad that Olivia became a vampire before me. Really, I wasn’t. Envious? Hell yes.

Watching Nash get dressed was like watching performance art. He didn’t wear anything flashy, and I had no idea if his clothes were expensive or not, just that they looked amazing on him. But he took great pride in his appearance. Today he’d chosen a red shirt that someone had pressed perfectly. He’d tucked it carefully in to his signature black dress pants, and looped a butter-soft leather belt around his slim waist. He didn’t look up from attaching his cufflinks as I sat on his bed and pouted.

“That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? She’d be dead if I hadn’t.”

“She’s dead now.” I laughed at my own joke. I shifted onto my stomach, but Nash wasn’t paying attention. It didn’t matter, I loved watching him, getting to know all his mannerisms, and trying to guess what he was thinking. The more of his blood I drank, the easier it became. Today he was nervous. The council had called a meeting, and my presence had been requested. That’s putting it mildly; more like demanded. “Maybe you should change me before this meeting and we can get the new vampire orientation program over with all at once.”

Nash’s face fell when he looked over to me. “When we’re at the meeting, please, let me do all the talking. While I find it charming when you challenge me, many members of the coven are looking for any excuse to get rid of you. I promise it would not be as painless as packing your bag and showing you to the door. Keep your mind as neutral as possible. We don’t need any surprises during the meeting. Can you do that?”

“Yeah.” I tingled all over when he admitted he liked anything I did. It was so ridiculous that this ancient, powerful vampire was pretty much my first boyfriend. “I think of the color pink when I can’t think of one good thing to concentrate on.”

“You can think of me.” He knelt down so we were face to face and hooked his finger around a lock of my hair. Our gazes locked, and he didn’t need to purposely glamour me. I was under his spell.

I shook my head, the lock of hair slipped out of his grasp. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. What if the negative crap sneaks in there?” I stopped to study him, to see if I scared him as much as I scared myself. Not yet. But it was just a matter of time. “I’d be lost in a nice little Nash daydream, and then everything would go sideways.”

He frowned. “Is it really that out of control?”

“Why do you think I’m here? I just meant to get back at Amber, not kill her.” The more time I spent with Nash, the more he drew the truth out of me. “Have you ever been to a carnival, and seen that thing that men hit to see if they’re strong enough to send the weight to the top? That’s what it’s like. I can’t control how high it goes. It’s too strong.”

“The reason I haven’t turned you yet is because I need to know you can control these thoughts before you cross over.” He sighed. “Making the transformation isn’t a cure-all, Corynne. We don’t turn anyone who has advanced cancer or dementia. We had hoped our blood could help them, even if they stayed human, but it made the disease run rampant. I worry that’s happening to you.”

“No! It has nothing to do with your blood.” He couldn’t consider me a lost cause. He couldn’t. Because without him, I was. “It’s gotten stronger on its own over the last few years. Being here is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Nash didn’t answer. He stood up and walked to his closet, considering his jackets. Sometimes he was so cold, in every sense of the word. I scrambled off the bed and grabbed his arm. It was possible to startle a centuries-old vampire. “You said you could teach me to control it. You haven’t even tried.”

He turned to me. “I thought the blood would do it. If I could get inside your brain…”

“Not a pretty picture, huh?” If I didn’t laugh, I’d cry. “Try living with it all the time. You do make it better, Nash. You make me happy. I like it here, and until everything happened with Sabrina, I felt safe. It’s when I think I’m under attack that things go crazy.”

“What happened, the night that you were in the forest? I know what you saw that made you run, but did you have visions of Sabrina after you left her?”

Images raced through my head, crashing against each other. At least I couldn’t hurt Sabrina any worse that I already did. “All lot of that night is fuzzy, thanks to Oscar glamouring me. When I got to the parking lot, he’d transformed himself into her image, and I relaxed, thinking everything was okay, we’d lost the police. But then he showed me who he really was. I remember a scream. I knew something was terribly wrong, and right now I’m remembering that I pictured her on the ground, and it wasn’t good. But I got the image out of my head as fast as I could, like I always do when I don’t want to hurt someone.”

“Does it always happen as you picture it?”

“Close enough that I’d run from the police.” I was so cold, thinking of that night. Nash may have glamoured me again to get me to remember. “But the thing is, I don’t know if my memory is influenced by what actually happens or if I cause the things to happen with this ‘power’ all the vampires say I have. I just know that what I picture and what happens are always the same.”

“Did you want to hurt Sabrina?” he asked. I’d been asked a form of this question a million times, by my parents, psychiatrists, doctors, and priests. My answer was always the same.

“Hell, no.” Every time I got defensive. “I didn’t do anything to Olivia, but I knew what happened to her. Same with Sabrina. What I’m trying to say is, I don’t know if I make bad things happen, if I’m a portal for whatever brings this evil to life, or if I’m clairvoyant. Everyone’s always been able to tie it to me, but no one can tell me why it happens.”

“Then it’s not a good idea for you to come to council.” Nash broke the spell and headed into the living room.

I chased after him. “Why not?” I already knew the answer, but I needed to hear him say it.

“Because you’ll be under attack. The council does not take violence against another coven member lightly. It doesn’t matter that we’re violent by nature, we protect our own. You’re not one of us--”

“Then make me one of you.” I stomped my foot and thought real hard about the color pink.

“You need to trust the process, love. Someday it will protect you. But the first step is for you to go into that meeting and get through it without incident. And there’s another thing.”

Nash licked his lips when my heartbeat sped up, pushing my blood to the surface of my skin. “Did something else happen?” I asked.

“No. It’s Olivia. She shouldn’t be around humans yet. She’s still becoming acclimated. Pay attention to what you see. That will be you, if I turn you. Soon I hope that Olivia will be able to participate as a coven courtesan, or that she’ll be chosen by another member as a mate, or she’ll be able to participate in the auction.”

Talk about things coming full circle. “Will I be able to bid on courtesans when you turn me?” I didn’t say if.

“No,” he said quickly.

“Why not?” I could barely contain my smirk. I knew exactly what he’d say.

“Because you’re mine.”

**

Getting ready for anything vampire-related was absolutely joyless without my friends. Sierra was too overcome with grief to leave her room. I’d been assigned two new courtesans. Nash said it was their custom when a woman came to live at the coven, no matter what species she was, to have them. I couldn’t risk spitting in the face of this coven any more than I already had. All the new courtesans did was lay out clothes and stare at me blankly while I put my own makeup on. I tried to get them to talk, but they were having none of it.

They may have considered being assigned to me a death sentence.

“You look beautiful.” Nash waited for me in the hallway. He put his hand on my back as we started walking.

“Do I look like I belong here?” I dressed like I was going to a funeral in a somber black dress. With the exception of Lady Desiree, the vampires here dressed like they worked at an office. I’d thought the formality around here was silly, but now I was beginning to take comfort in it.

He didn’t answer for a few steps. “You belong to me, that’s what matters.”

Not exactly the answer I needed to hear, but sugar-coating the truth helped no one. He led us to the same room that I’d come to the first night I was here, before he’d chosen me. The long table was the same, but instead of mostly naked courtesan wannabes getting tipsy on red wine, a coven of mourning vampires seeking retribution waited for me.

I pulled Nash back before he made it all the way into the room. “What do I do?” I whispered. He’d already given me my instructions, but seeing everyone in that room set me into full on panic mode. There wasn’t any oxygen in there.

“Don’t make it any worse.” His hand was on my back again, guiding me much more forcefully this time. He pulled out a chair for me and pushed me into place once I took it. He sat next to me at the head of the table.

I turned to see the commotion behind me. Two vampires led Olivia in. She made slow, awkward movements in her shackles. Her face lit up when our gazes met, and she attempted to wave her cuffed hands at me. I waved back, absorbing the incendiary looks shot at me from the rest of the table.

They had her so wrapped up it was hard for her to sit. Eyes wide, I looked back to gauge Nash’s reaction. He rolled his eyes but said nothing.

The courtesans and vampires I presumed that weren’t part of the council stood against the wall. Nash cleared his throat once everyone settled in the room. “A meeting of the council has been requested. Please state the occasion for this meeting.”

“We’ve lost a vampire and gained a vampire.” I didn’t recognize the vampire who spoke. All eyes in the room fell on me. I didn’t meet them, instead I looked down at the table and thought about every pink thing in the world. “And a human courtesan is responsible for both events.”

“If someone outside the coven had been responsible for Sabrina’s destruction, we’d stop at nothing to seek retribution.” No mistaking Lady Desiree’s voice. “But you’ve chosen to protect this courtesan, Nash. Even before she caused a disruption to our coven. Why do you think she brings value to us when she’s proven otherwise?”

“It’s in the contact. Every vampire added to the coven must bring a unique value,” another male vampire added.

“The only reason this meeting was called was to scare Olivia and Corynne.” Nash’s voice was sharp. “We’ve discussed all of this already. It’s in our best interest to welcome both of these ladies to our coven. Every coven in the area has their eye on us, knowing that we’ve lost ground to the rogue band of vampires in Greenwich Forest. If we have division within, they’ll attack.”

“Great way to protect your interests, Nash,” Desiree said. “What about the rest of the coven? My courtesan is dead. My companion. And you’ve chosen a child over your coven.”

“I take full responsibility for what happened to Sabrina.” Nash was more on trial than any of us. “As well as Oscar, Olivia, and what will eventually happen to Corynne. If there’s any retribution to be served, it’s on me. Tell me what my punishment is, Desiree. I’ll gladly serve it.”

A gasp rose from the table, and for once, Desiree was flabbergasted. I snuck a couple of looks at her. She opened her lacquered lips and pursed them repeatedly.

“I expected that would be your answer.” Nash drummed his fingers on the table. “If anyone deserves to be punished, it’s Oscar. Auctions are closed for the immediate future. Only our coven and vampires we trust may attend. The open door policy is too dangerous in the current climate. For the courtesans as well as our coven. The coven comes first.”

“Nash,” Pierce said quietly. “When will you turn Corynne?”

Was he planning a coming out party for me?

“Soon.” The word was sharp, and even though it was vague, it carried a finality.

“You can’t turn her.” Desiree rose from her chair. “There’s no guarantee that whatever’s going on in that head of hers won’t be intensified.”

“If she’s not turned, she can’t stay.” There were so many vampires here I didn’t know, but they knew all about me. “We’ve never kept a human long term. Even short term, it effects their mental health. And in this case—“

“That’s enough,” Nash snapped before the other vampire had a chance to call me crazy. “When Corynne is ready for her transformation, she’ll be turned. I won’t make another mistake we can’t fix. She’s already given us a reason to destroy the Greenwich Forest coven, which we’ve been trying to do for decades. Her power will help you all.”

Desiree sat back down, running her fingers over her chin. “We’ve trusted you so far, Nash. But two wrongs have never made a right.”