Dark Liaison (First 10 Chapters)

Jesu’s door softly closed behind me. I glanced over my shoulder at room 715. My lip quivered as I entered and then closed my own suite door.

Well, I thought bitterly. I’m an adult. If Jesu doesn’t want to be my roommate, that’s fine.

Besides, Jesu was right; things would be easier with a couple of closed doors between us. So why did I feel so hurt?

After an hour of wallowing in self-pity, and thirty minutes of trying to make sense of German television, I came to the conclusion that Jesu and I weren’t going to do anymore extracurricular training together—at least not today.

The instant I stopped waiting for Jesu to knock on the door and apologize, the whole suite suddenly felt larger, emptier, and annoyingly silent. The only noise came from the hum of the refrigerator. I thought a windowless building would’ve been a blessing for a vampyre, but having to rely entirely on a digital clock to have any sense of time passing weighed on my nerves.

Minutes felt like hours as I ho-hummed around. Finally, I curled up on the couch with the text books Bridget gave me.

I picked up the lesson in vampyre government where we’d left off, scanning the pages until I found a chart listing the members of the Neo-Draugrian Council. If what Jesu had said was true—if Apollyon reclaimed the throne and the Council became my enemies—I wanted to know exactly whom I couldn’t trust.

Prince Jalmari ta Korento was recorded as the Head. He was already firmly at the top of my do-not-trust list. Naamah and Maria were the Hands. I trusted them even though they had to serve Apollyon. Jesu said Fredrick av Draken was the Swedish Arm and the chart in the text book confirmed it. The Neo-Draugrians also had two more Arms; Stefán á Drekann and a woman named Helldora av Dragen.

The more I learned, the more questions I had and the less I felt like I knew. I wondered what these people’s names were before they became vampyres or—if because they were in fact born vampyres—did they always live in the clan they were born to and referred to themselves as dragons all their lives? I found that hard to believe, given their long lifespans. What did a vampyre do if he wanted to buy property in France? Did his surname change to Wolf? Maybe that was why the territories were so huge. The major clans encompassed whole countries. It seemed like everything about vampyres was bigger, better, stronger, faster. It hurt my brain just thinking about it.

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