No guards were outside the door when she ventured from her bedroom in the morning.

Kay had a restless night. The bond thing might sound nice in romance novels, but it was a nuisance in real life, and her brain struggled to accept her change in circumstance.

She always scoffed at the word yearning, often and casually thrown about in life. In the dark hours of the morning, she learned to fathom the full depth of the word.

Her cousin Doreen would call it hot and bothered, and it was a shameful emotion for her, especially with her vivid imagination.

Doreen always said there was something wrong with Daniella, and after all that she had witnessed and heard in Azera's house, Kay had accepted the fact, finding the things men and women did together disgusting.

Azera screwed like an animal and must have invented kinky.

Kay shuddered, suppressing the images in her head. She doubted that ordinary people were like that. At least, she hoped they weren't, but her dream was different.

Where the images of her and Marcus, entangled and enthralled with each other, originated, she did not know, but he was gentle, patient, and sexy as all hell. It did nothing to ease her discomfort; quite the opposite, and although she understood it was unrealistic, born from her innocence, it kept flashing into her head.

Not to mention she woke up several times having dreamed that she had been returned to her dungeon, and the feeling of the manacle stayed with her in her sleep.

How could she occupy her mind? She once studied to be an art and history major, and it was so Danielle to choose those subjects when both her parents were doctors, and her sister aimed to be one.

Artsy and flighty. Little innocent, vegan, pro-life, anti-this and that, Danielle. No wonder Thane wanted her nowhere near him; her life had been a Disney movie.

Now it was a little less Disney and a lot more Stephen King. She could barely relate to that innocent and now viewed herself as others must have seen her.

Truthfully, she would not have amounted to anything much more than having a pretentious, fancy job at some art gallery while playing at painting. Unlike her mother, she lacked depth and would never have developed any.

Daniella would have met some cookie-cutter guy who was just as perfect and clueless as she was. They would have produced two children and boring lives that satisfied their limited needs, yet never quite reached happiness.

They would have secretly yearned for more and stubbornly clung to the belief that they were satisfied, too afraid to break free of their plastic wrapping and live.

Kay would have preferred not to be yanked from her dream and abused, but she could not go back to her life, leaving her stranded and without purpose.

She figured out what she didn't want and didn't like, but not what she needed and desired, having skipped that developmental step in her life. How long was she Azera's slave?

Kay walked down the hall, and no one stopped her, so she just wandered through the house, liking its feel and textures, the subtle homey feeling beneath the chic design.

She wanted to be more than a sex toy, needing something to fill the gaping void in her chest that would occupy her mind and keep her memories at bay, keeping her fear at bay and preventing her from going insane.

Without hope, she coped with pain, abuse, and the knowledge that she would live no other life, but now that she was free of that path, it ate at her.

There was no going back; she would rather kill herself if there was a way.

***

The outside doors were locked with a keypad, but she avoided them. She discovered a flight of stairs going up, but the one going down drew her.

Did Marcus have a dungeon, too, and did he torture people for his pleasure? Her legs found their way down, almost of their own volition.

The door at the bottom clicked open under her hand, and she walked forward. The corridor was silent, with many doors, but none opened until she came to the last one that swung open easily, and she walked inside with a sense of trepidation.

Sounds of fists hitting flesh reached her, and she stared in rapt fascination. The room was filled with fighting vampires. It was an unbelievably vast practice area, possibly larger than the house above.

Kay had never experienced hand-to-hand combat like this. She saw the guards train at Azera's and witnessed some altercations, but training in this way, no.

This was a group training for battle, and although perhaps only thirty vampires were in the room, it could hold many more.

"Are you lost?" Cat asked from behind her, and Kay barely stopped herself from jumping out of her skin.

Vampires moved so damn quietly.

"Sorry, I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to be here," she apologized, preparing to leave, although she wanted to remain a little longer and just... watch.

The fighters' symmetry and control intrigued her, but their ability to defend themselves and see after their welfare created a yearning in her.

Although she expected the violence would repel her, it did not. She would kill to be able to... she stopped the thought short.

The vampires would not allow her such liberties. Was she not enough of a perceived danger to them? Although how they got to that assumption, she didn't understand.

"Do you fight?" Cat asked unexpectedly, and Kay shook her head.

"No," she admitted, and the vampire frowned.

"All immortals get trained for battle," Cat scoffed, and she shrugged.

"True immortals, perhaps. They bred me as a servant type, and we're only supposed to work, f*ck or scream, not defend ourselves," Kay turned away, but the vampire caught her arm.

She froze, and Cat let go.

"Sorry, I keep forgetting you don't realize what you are. Come, you can watch. Maybe, if you want, Talia can teach you a few moves. She is better with beginners than I am. Although usually, beginners are about five," Cat said, walking away, and Kay hesitated.

Why did she not trust the other woman's motives? She squared her shoulders and followed.

"Sit here," Cat said, seating Kay with a group watching a fight between two equally matched females, and although it was brutal, it was also beautiful.

Even though she possessed little knowledge of fighting, she divined the skill, thought, and strategy going into every move. This was not mindless fisticuffs; it was art.

Fascinated, she didn't even see Cat walk over to another woman and point in her direction before they engaged in a short but serious discussion.

***

The fight lasted for a while and ended abruptly as the lighter, swifter opponent found the flaw in her enemy and moved in for the "kill," pinning the larger woman helplessly to the ground.

The winner forced the other woman's face against the mat and hit her with a fake punch against the neck, which would have severed the spine if it had landed full force.

The others clapped and cheered.

Kay found her hands itching to applaud, but she did not dare.

The rest got up and left, but she was unaware of them as she stared at the center of the blue mat, her mind replaying what she had watched.

"Kay," the slight impatience in Cat's tone told her she spoke more than once.

Rising to her feet in an instant, she faced the vampire.

"Sorry, I was lost in thought. Thank you for allowing me to watch," she turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" Another voice asked casually, and Kay turned back, glancing from Cat to the stranger she had not noticed.

"Cat said you wanted a lesson. Did you change your mind so quickly?" The challenge beneath the mockery made her frown as something in her reacted to it, and another part of her screamed that this was a trap.

The room was empty now, except for the three of them.

"No," she sounded uncertain, and the woman smirked. Taller than Cat but not taller than Kay, she was blond with icy blue eyes and reminded of a Viking princess, while her lean body had a fighter's stance and muscle.

"Come over here," the woman challenged, and with a nod from Cat, Kay followed. The lady took in her leather-clad body.

"Take off those, put on these. You can't move in those clothes, and next time, no shoes in here," she commanded, and Kay complied.

She had long since learned not to react when people stared at her body and didn't even hesitate to take off her clothes to don the pants and sports top.

"I'm Talia. You will call me Talia and nothing else," the vampire commanded, and Kay nodded.

I don't think this is wise. Newest Version ©2014-2023 All rights reserved. If you find this on any other platform but Wattpad under @CSDreamer, please report it. No part of this book may be copied or reposted without the author's permission.