Round and round they ran.
One by one, the runners in the rear dropped back until they finally stopped running and walked out of the arena.
The three leaders ran on. “How long do they have to run?” Dara asked.
“Until someone wins,” Andrei replied.
“But that could take all day,” she countered.
“It won’t,” he told her. “They’re only human, and they can only run so long, especially since they’re racing so hard against each other. Pretty soon, one of them will get too tired to continue. When it’s down to the last two, they usually go until one of them collapses.”
“Collapses?” Dara repeated.
“If he wants to win badly enough, he’ll run to the limit of his strength.”
“I thought you said no harm would come to them,” Dara pointed out.
“It is their choice to compete,” he told her.
She gave him a horrified look.
He added, “It’s extremely rare that anyone is seriously injured in the games. No one has ever died.” He shrugged and pointed to the three men left in the race. “They simply run until they can’t run anymore. The man who outlasts all the others will win the prize.”
“What is the prize?” she asked.
“This particular race will decide which of these men will be the new chamberlain in the king’s personal cabinet.”
Dara stared at him, then at the runners. “Do you mean to tell me that these men are running to the absolute limit of their endurance for a chance to change the king’s clothes?”
Andrei laughed. “Something like that.”
“And that job also comes with the honor of supplying the king with their blood?” she asked.
Andrei nodded. “That’s what all companions are here for.”
Dara gazed down at the race. As Andrei mentioned, one of the three leading runners started to fall behind the others.
In his exhaustion, he missed his footing and tumbled to the ground. He rolled through the dust and lay still. The other two ran on, but even from the top of the stands, Dara saw the gleam of sweat on their faces. The runner in the lead didn’t step so high when he extended his leg out in front of him.
The other runner inched closer, and in an explosion of energy, put on an extra burst of speed to pass his opponent. The leader dropped back until the two ran neck and neck. The leader struggled to maintain his position, but his rival was too strong for him. The first man fell behind, but gallantly fought on.
Dara’s heart leapt into her throat. If she could have caught her breath, she would have shouted and cheered for both of them. Her blood thundered in her veins. Thoughts of the prize for which they competed disappeared from her mind. All she could see was the race being decided right before her eyes.
Andrei rose to his feet and shouted encouragement to the runners. Who was he cheering for? It didn’t matter. Someone would come to serve the king, and in the end, that man would carry the same bite marks on his neck as all the other companions.
Dara examined the runners. Could the arrangement between humans and vampires really be so bad, if people would willingly fight for the chance to be part of it? Andrei was right. All these people couldn’t be deluded or sick.
At the moment when his victory appeared secure and the second runner left the leader behind him, his own great strength evaporated in mid-stride. He put one pace between him and his opponent, then two. But at that moment, he coughed. He bent double, and in one treacherous stumble, he pitched full length on the ground. Dust billowed up around him, and he moved no more.
The first runner danced past him with his two fists raised in the air. He bellowed to the skies in triumph, and he made one last victory lap around the track before he stopped in front of the Royal Box. He waved and pranced in front of the king and queen, and the crowd cheered him. He blew kisses up to the Royal Couple. The king rose to his feet and waved back at him. Then the victor pumped his fists into the air several more times before he trotted off the track.
The attendants carried the loser off the track, and then they swept and sprinkled the ground in preparation for the next competition.
“Is it going to be another race?” she asked.
Andrei shrugged. “That depends on what the competitors want to do. If there are enough competitors who want to wrestle, they have a wrestling match. If the competitors want to race, they race. It’s up to them to agree.”
“How many of these games are there going to be?” Dara asked.
“There’s only the one empty position this month that needs to be filled,” Andrei said. “The previous chamberlain is retiring.”
“So, what’s next?”
“Now, there will be the individual challenges. Three matches are scheduled for today, including Reeva’s. Then, depending on the outcome of those challenges, there could be more multi-person games.”
Dara asked, “Why are there only three challenges? I would think more people would want to fight for a better position.”
“There is a downside,” he told her. “Before someone can issue an individual challenge, they must give up their current position. Should the challenger lose the match, they will also lose all standing in society, and have to spend at least a month without the comfort of a household. They are given the worst jobs to do until the next games, when they can compete for a an empty position.”
Dara remembered what he said from earlier. “And if the defender loses, they swap positions.”
Andrei smiled. “Now you’re starting to get it.”
“Can anyone challenge anyone else?”
Nodding, Andrei said, “Of course. And if you are issued a challenge, you must either accept it, or concede your position immediately to the challenger.”
Two people entered the arena, and Dara fixed her attention on them. Reeva and another woman faced off against each other.
“What are they going to do?”
“I don’t know.” Andrei’s eyes were bright with anticipation. “The last time Reeva competed, it was a wrestling match. I expect this will be one, as well.”
The other woman looked bigger and stronger than Reeva. She could very well become Dara’s next handmaid.
“Who is she?” Dara asked.
“Her name is Bronwyn. She’s only been in Sanctuary a few months, but has already won two challenges. There is some ambition in her.”
“What if Reeva loses?”
Andrei tilted his head. “Then she will be sent to the Cuillin household and serve them.”
“Don’t you care that she’ll be gone from your house?”
“She will be well taken care of with the Cuillins.” He put a hand on her arm. “Besides, the only one I truly care about is you, my darling.”
The king stood up then, and signaled for the match to begin.
Reeva and Bronwyn circled for a few seconds, as if gauging each other’s defenses.
Then, with a roar, Bronwyn charged in.
Instead of backing out of the way, Reeva darted forward. At the last moment, she bent into a crouch and dove straight at Bronwyn’s legs.
The bigger woman, unable to stop her forward momentum, tripped over Reeva and went down on the field in a heap.
Reeva immediately changed direction, and jumped on Bronwyn from behind before she could recover.
In seconds, she had her in a chokehold. Not even Bronwyn’s greater strength could help her as Reeva held tight.
With one last effort, Bronwyn tried to surge up, but before she could even get her shoulders off the ground, the strength fled from her and she fell over.
A moment later, Reeva jumped to her feet and raised her hands in the air, victorious.
Dara was glad; she liked Reeva, and wanted her to continue to be her handmaid.
As several attendants rushed onto the field and carted Bronwyn off, after making sure she wasn’t seriously hurt, Dara turned to Andrei.
“She won.”
He winked at her. “Didn’t I tell you so? She’s very good.”
Chapter Five
Reeva set a plate of food down in front of Dara, but not for Andrei.
She looked at him from across the table. “I guess you’re not eating.”
“I’ve already fed,” he told her. “You go ahead. I’ll just sit here and keep you company, if that’s all right with you.”
“What do you mean, you’ve already fed?” she asked. “Do you mean…?”
Andrei smiled. “You know what it means, Dara. Why do you even ask that?”
“But I thought…” She faltered.
“I just fed from you a few days ago,” he told her. “You still aren’t strong enough yet for me to do it again. I fed from somebody else.”
Dara’s anger flared. “Who was it?” She looked at Reeva, who blanched. “From her?”
Andrei shook his head. “If I had fed from Reeva, she would be lying in her bed downstairs instead of serving you your dinner. Never mind who it was. When you’ve been in Sanctuary for a while, you’ll understand that I have to feed every day, and I can’t feed from the same person more than once every two weeks at the most. I have to feed from a different person every day. Once you understand that, you won’t get jealous of my other companions. You’ll understand that me feeding from them doesn’t change the way I feel about you.”
Dara stared down at her food, but the sight and smell of it turned her stomach. “You didn’t tell me this. You didn’t tell me you had so many other companions.”
He waved his hand. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I’m here with you now. I picked you to be my consort, my princess.”
Dara shook her head. “I don’t think I can deal with this.”
“Isn’t everything to your liking here?” he asked. “Don’t you have everything you need and want? You can’t be thinking about your life back in New York. You were living hand to mouth in a freezing cold closet. You can’t complain about the care you’ve gotten here. Look. You’ve probably never eaten food this good. You’re sleeping on satin sheets and wearing gold and silver dresses. You’re the envy of our society.”
“I’m not complaining,” she murmured.
“Then what’s wrong?” he asked. “Aren’t you happy here?”
“I am happy here,” she replied. “Maybe, like you say, I just have to get used to it.”
He glanced down at her untouched plate. Then he stood up and led her to her bed. The fire crackled in the fireplace, and the room glowed with warmth. When had she felt this comfortable before? She couldn’t even remember. So why couldn’t she be happy here?
Andrei laid her down on the bed and stretched out next to her. He enfolded her in his arms and hugged her against his chest. His body radiated more heat into her than the fire. Dara tucked her head into the hollow of his arms. Tears sprang to her eyes. What was wrong with her? Hadn’t he given her everything she could possibly wish for?
“I’m sorry,” she told him. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me. Does everyone go through this when they come to Sanctuary?”
“Some people fit right in,” he replied. “Some people seem to be born for it. Others take longer to adjust. It just depends on the person.”
“Does anyone
not
adjust?” she asked.
“How do you mean?” he asked.
“Does anybody fail to adjust?” she asked. “Does anybody come here who just can’t get used to it? Does that ever happen?”
He took a few seconds to reply. “I can’t think of any time that happened. Everyone fits in sooner or later.”
She sighed. “I’ll try harder.”
“You’ve only been here a few days,” he reminded her. “Don’t push yourself too hard.”
“You told me once,” she went on, “that I wouldn’t go back to my old life.”
“You won’t,” he replied. “You’ll get comfortable here. You’ll start to like it, and you’ll stay. Everyone does.”
“Do you mean I
won’t
go back,” she asked, “or does it mean I
can’t
go back? If I didn’t get comfortable here, would I be able to go home?”
“That doesn’t happen,” he replied. “No one has ever gone back. Once they come here, they stay. We make sure they build happy, fulfilling lives here so they don’t want to go back to their old life.”
“But if I wanted to,” she asked, her voice intense, “you wouldn’t do anything to stop me, would you? You would let me go if I decided I wanted to, wouldn’t you?”
He hesitated before answering. “First of all, you wouldn’t be able to go back on your own. I would have to take you. You wouldn’t be able to find your way through the Passageway. And besides, what would you have to go back for? Do you want to freeze through another New York winter eating cheap noodles for dinner when you could be here in front of the fire with me? I don’t think so.”
Dara cast her mind back to the life she left behind. Her job, her room, her armchair by the heater—even in the short time since she left them, she could hardly remember them. What in the world could induce her to go back to that miserable life?
At that moment, Andrei turned toward her and buried his face in her neck. His cheek rubbed against the scabs of the bite, and Dara went rigid. Andrei sensed her alarm and pulled away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“I don’t know if I can ever get used to that,” she told him.
He raised himself up on his elbow and gazed down into her eyes. The firelight gleamed off the surface of his eyes.
“I give you my solemn word of honor, Dara, as your benefactor and your lifelong consort, I will never bite you again without your express permission. If you want to go through the rest of your life without ever letting me bite you, I will honor that decision.”
Her tears blurred her vision. “Do you really mean that?”
He nodded. “I swear it.”
That was all she needed to hear.
“Of course, I could never deny you, nor could I ever deny myself your embrace.”
to be continued in
My Blood To Bind
About The Author
Paula Paradis has had a life-long obsession with all things paranormal, having grown up with a grandmother who spun tall tales of the mysterious and unexplained.
She currently lives on a beach property in O’ahu, loves swimming, sunning, and travel.
Visit her at
PaulaParadisBooks.com
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