Chapter 3 Nora
1240 Words
“Are we really going to your room?” Nora asked as she looked down the ornately decorated hallway. Unlike the business downstairs, which was very much a Gothic nightclub vibe, the upstairs was chic in an old fashioned Gothic way. Iron candle holders on the walls and plus, crimson carpet. Nora briefly wondered if it was to better hide bloodstains.
“Was there a different part of the club you would rather visit?” Vincent opened a door and gestured her inside. Nora had to admit the opulence was both surprising and impressive. Fine lined the wall opposite the full canopy bed. Crimson silk sheets and intricately detailed wool carpets. “Do you find this so unsatisfactory that you would prefer the hungry den of vampires below?”
“It'll do,” she agreed begrudgingly. She didn't want to actually admit to her captor that she liked his bedroom.
Vincent tilted back his head and laughed. It sounded rusty, like he hadn't laughed aloud in a while. And who knows how long a while is to an immortal vampire. She'd have to ask him how old he was if she survived long enough.
“I think you'll entertain me very well.” Vincent turned his back to her, but she didn't think he meant offense like the female vampire in the hall did. “Care for some wine while we discuss our agreement? It will ease your nerves, and don't bother denying it. I can hear your heart pounding like a scared rabbit.”
Nora willed her heart to calm, but she knew it was no use. At least she had the safety of knowing that he didn't plan to kill her right away. Not if he planned to make an agreement, but for what?
“What agreement? I never planned to enter one with you. I don't even know why you brought me up here.”
Vincent sat leisurely in an armchair by the window. Nora noted the sliding window covers with the locks, presumably for daylight when he spelt. She'd have to keep those in mind as a potential weapon when she needed to escape.
“And I'd thought we were becoming friends,” the Duke mused as he sipped his wine. “After all I did save you from Miles. Fear me all you like, but he would rip you apart just as quickly or given you to his pack to play with. I hear they're quite vicious. I could have simply… thrown you to the wolves, but I chose mercy.”
“I appreciate it. I truly do,” Nora told him. “I owe you a lot.”
“You owe me your life, as that is what I saved.” Now Nora began to truly panic. He was going to drain her dry after all. He'd probably brought her here so he could tie her down and take his time with her. Under other circumstances, she might have enjoyed that. But losing her blood was not that circumstance. She eyed the door, even knowing she would never make it out before he caught her. She wouldn't make it to the threshold. “Calm your heart, Little Rabbit. You're making me hungry.”
“Isn't that why I'm here?” She was either brave or foolish enough to ask. But if she were going to die with no hope of a fight, she wanted to get it over with. “Because you need a meal?”
“Oh no, Little Rabbit. We began this engagement with your amusing me and that's how it will continue. Please me and you'll be, not only perfectly safe, but well provided for.”
“Why would you do that?” It was stupid to ask, but the same curiosity that got her into this mess needed to know.
“Because I can't recall the last time someone had the audacity to spy on me and I admire that kind of gumption,” Vincent told her, almost pleasantly. “Besides, I would love to see if that smart mouth can do anything besides talk back.”
Oh. “s*x?! You brought me here for s*x? What about your girlfriend?”
Vincent looked perplexed. “As far as the s*x, you'll never do anything against your will, not with me or anyone under my command. The girlfriend, as you say, you'll have to clarify for me, I'm afraid.”
Was he messing with her? She knew he could do whatever he wanted and even if anyone here found out, they couldn't stop him, even in the unlikely event that they wanted to. But the girlfriend… “The woman, Clara? She seemed… intimate with you.”
The Duke nodded in understanding. “I understand your confusion, Little Rabbit. Clara, much as she would like to be, isn't a permanent partner of mine. We do engage in intimacy together somewhat regularly, but we have no emotional investment in one another.”
Nora wasn't so sure she believed that. Her skepticism must have been evident on her face because Vincent corrected, “Well, I have no emotional investment in her. She's an efficient assistant and we share physical needs occasionally."
“So she's a secretary that you f**k?”
“If you want to be blunt, then yes. Enough of that. I've grown bored of talking about her. Let's discuss our own relationship.”
“We don't have a relationship,” Nora stated. “I just want to go home.”
“And you will,” the Duke told her, “when I know that I can trust you not to spill my secrets. Until then you will work for me, nightly, in whatever capacity I require. As I said, nothing untoward until you ask for it.”
Nora scoffed. The audacity of this man. Vampire or not. Duke or not. His ego was insane. Sure, he was educated and wealthy and powerfully and undeniably attractive but… Well, Nora would never ask no matter what. But she also knew that she would have to agree to whatever his terms were… for now. She could gain his trust with a little time, she was sure.
“Alright, what are your terms?”
“So agreeable all of a sudden,” he mused. “What’s your plan? Gain my trust then flea, Little Rabbit?”
Well, s**t. “Let’s just get this over with.”
“That’s not the attitude I like.” he templed his fingers under his chin, then nodded. “But I understand it. It’s been a long night for you already hasn’t it? We’ll keep this short, then. You will be my human subjugate. You’ll run my errands, stay where I tell you to do, in short, service me whenever I ask.”
“I’ll be your personal assistant?”
“If you like. That wouldn’t be so bad, would it? A personal assistant to a Duke?”
“It is if the Duke wants to drain you dry.” She was being snarky and she knew it. But Nora had never been the type to suffer in silence or be pleasant falsely.
“As I said, I won’t drink from you. If I do, it will be because you are willing. Do we have an agreement?”
Nora couldn’t see an out, literally or figuratively. She would though. Soon.
“Agreed.”
“Good. Now take off your clothes.”
- Writer
