if you have not read up to chapter 4 of Vampire Consort, I would not recommended you read this. This contains spoilers for Vampire Consort up to that chapter. However, if you have no desire to read Vampire Consort, then you can read this independently of it.
She would never think that she would miss the breeze as much as she does. She misses everything so much. She misses the trees, the grass beneath her feet, and even the dirt. She remembers telling him that she misses the flowers. His responses it to simply to decorate the room with flowers. She now begins to hate flowers. Their soft petals and scent is only a mockery. A mockery of what she would never have again. She would never feel the sun, moon, wind, or rain ever again. This king had robbed her of everything. She was already a slave before this, it was true. But at least she had moments of happiness. Now her happiness had been took from her like the open sky had been.
She is now trapped in this tower. She remembers back to her beloved book of fairy tales and the tale of Rapunzel. The girl who was locked in the tower who grew her hair long enough for a man to scale it. Her so called lord loves her deep brown locks and he has 'requested' her to grow it out. She knows it is foolish to fancy her hair growing long enough for her to escape or for someone to rescue her. The windows of the tower are sealed shut.
She doesn't dare hold the hope that Jacob will save her. Jacob...Jacob...and Dorthy. Her parents had died earlier in an escape attempt. They had taken her, but she had only been spared because she was nothing, but a baby at the time. Dorthy and Jacob's parents had taken her in. Dorthy had always been a sister to her, but she could never feel that way about Jacob, despite loving him so much. It was only when she got older that she realized she loved him in a different way.
It had taken her a long time to work up the courage to finally confess her love to him and when he accepted she thought it was the happiest day of her life. However, the day before she was going to ask the masters for permission to marry him she had been assigned as Cossete's handmaiden. She was disappointed, but she thought it was only temporary. As soon as the next human consort was selected she would be able to go back home, back to Jacob.
However, it was never meant to be. She remembers the day very well. She had just finished helping Cossete dress for her first dinner with the other candidates and King Clymenus. She remembered when she first saw him. He wouldn't deny he was handsome, for he certainly was, but that offered no temptation to her. She can also remember with a shutter the first moment he saw her.
Cossete had been wondering the halls in early night and she was following directly behind her mistress when she suddenly stopped and there stood the newly crowned king of the vampires himself. Cossete immediately blushed and bowed, but Persephone did not. Something about the king's gaze upon her caught her up in his thrall. He was staring right at her and neither of them could seem to look away. This would be something that Persephone would regret for the rest of her life, not looking away. If she had, he might not have felt she wanted him back. However, a part of her knew that was invertible. When she did finally bow her head, he came over to them and made polite talk with Cossete, but she could knew that Clymenus kept stealing glances at her. What for? She was not sure at that time.
Perhaps if she had only been given warning she would have had a chance to do something? But what could have she have done? There was no escape for her and she had done nothing to gain his attentions except being there. Perhaps the fates had simply dealt her this hand and there was nothing more to be done with it? Does it matter in the end?
Persephone doesn't know if Clymenus approached their guardian, or if their guardian simply noticed the king's fixation on her every time she came around him. Whatever the reason, Cossete was removed as candidate and Persephone replaced her. Up to that point it was the worse day of her life. Now Clymenus had unlimited access to her and could almost do what ever he wanted. No, that wasn't true. He could have done anything to do. It was amazing he held himself back as much as he did.
Well, he did force a kiss on her lips. She remembers being in the library one night, sitting near the fire place with a copy of Grimm's fairy tales in her lap, she leisurely went through the pages. Then she hears footsteps and when she looks back, she sees Clymenus. This was the first time that they ever alone together.
At first, he is polite asking her about what she is reading. She answers all his questions, but her heart was beating fast. She just wanted him to go away, so badly. But much to her fears he sits down next to her. She wanted to run away more than anything, but he was the king. What the hell could she do? She kept on talking to him, answering his questions and then it happened. She felt his strong arms snake around her back and pull her into a forceful kiss. She automatically squeals in protest, but he doesn't stop. But when he finally does he looks shocked.
"Why did you give a cry like that?" He asked her and Persephone bit her lip. She couldn't tell him that she had someone else to love, she doubts that would end well for him. So she makes up something.
"I just wasn't expecting it, your majesty." She lied. She had fully been expecting the worse. Much to her horror he just smiles.
"You should expect a lot more, much more." He whispers to her and it just makes her shiver. When she finally goes back to her room for the day she lays on the bed and cries herself to sleep. She made sure to never be alone with Clymenus ever again. She stays in her room except for meals and events with the other candidates. She does take note that Clymenus seems to sense that she is avoiding him, by the longing way he seems to look at her. She prays he will realize that she has no interest in him, but she but inside she knows that is not the case. Whenever she enters the room his eyes always fall on her and she shrinks under her gaze, trying to make herself as small as possible. She knows it seems childish, but what more can she do?
Finally, comes the moment she is dreading. The day the king picks his bride. All girls are lined up, hopeful that it would be them...all except for Persephone. She prays to every God she has ever read about she will not be chosen. Surely, out of all the Gods she petitions at least one will head her cries. Then when they are before Clymenus, his eyes land on her and she loses all the blood in her face. He walks over to her and takes her hand.
"Persephone is the one I choose." She barely hears the deafening roar of the crowd. It takes everything she has and then some not to collapse to the floor. However, she can not stop the tears from flowing freely down her face. Everyone must assume they are tears of joy. She wonders if Clymenus is naïve, or blind enough to believe they are, as he takes takes her face into his hands and kisses them away. She closes her eyes and only thinks one thought; over and over.
I will never see Jacob again.
The week up to the wedding is a complete blur to her. She is too caught up in self pity and a lack of care for what is around her. She feels as though her life is ending. In a way, it is. She will be the consort of the Vampire king, and the mother of his heir. Life would never be the same again. She would gladly give up this life of luxury in a moment's notice if it just meant she could be with Jacob and Dorthy again. Just the three of them. Persephone couldn't help, but wonder what the world would be like if vampires were still thought of as creatures that haunted children's stories and never truly existed, or at least never took over the world. Where she, Dorthy, and Jacob were just normal humans living out there lives. A world where no one could force her hand at marriage and she could only be with the men she wanted to be with. But she knows this is nothing more than a flight of fancy.
She remembers back to the tale of Thumbelina. Everyone wanted to marry the tiny creature, but in the end she found her true love, the person she was meant to be with. That would never be her. The day of the wedding was finally at hand. She was dressed in the most beautiful dress that had ever been seen. At least that is what her handmaidens told her. She barely paid much attention to the details of her dress.
Her guardian walks her down the aisle. She looks down, not meeting the eyes of her groom. Even when she gets before him she doesn't look at him. Her eyes are still downcast, even when he takes her hands into his. She remembers that in human tradition they asked the bride if she wanted to be with the groom. That tradition has been cast out between vampire masters and human concubines. So she is made a consort without a single word leaving her lips. The priest says the final words and her fate is sealed with a kiss, that was no more wanted than the first time. Once again, she begins to cry again. The people assume it is joy instead of misery and she is lead down the aisle with her arm intertwined with her new master.
The wedding night is unpleasant as she expects. Clymenus barely gives her time to take her veil off before he is already on her, stripping her of all signs of white virginity. He is hungry and he doesn't make any effort to hide his lusts. With every white that is stripped away he peppers kisses over her mouth, neck, breasts, stomach thighs, and finally into her womanhood. She hates her bodies response to such illicit and unwanted actions. The actual sex is no less rushed. He thrusts into her like a man who has never had his needs meet. It is too much for a virgin's first time and very little pleasure is felt for her. In the end she is sore and raw. He pulls her into his arms and rests his head in the nape of her neck.
When he is asleep, she starts to cry until she herself finally falls asleep.
She thinks that perhaps the worse is over and she will fall into the routine somehow. But how wrong she is. The nightmare has only begun. The next evening she wakes up and to her surprise he is not in the room with her. Persephone looks around the room with caution as though her unwanted lover will pop out at any moment, but he does not. She goes to the washroom, bathes and smooths the soreness between her legs with cold water and salve. She then goes to her wardrobe and picks out a simple green dress. She then goes to the door, but it won't budge. She looks in confusion, not understanding why she would be locked away in her new room.
She bangs on the door, but gets no answer. Persephone then sighs and walks away. She takes a book from off the shelf, Jane Eyre, it had always been a personal favorite of hers. She lights a candle and puts it on the table by the window seat and sits on the window seat under the moon and candle for reading light. Within an hour of reading, she feels the air become hot and heavy. She places the novel down by the candle and goes to open the window beside her much to her surprise and worry it won't open. A surge of panic reaches in her and she begins to try to pry the window open with all her strength, but it will not budge. She actually starts to sweat from the effort, but her heart is racing too much for her to care.
The consort gets up and rushes back to the door and tries to pry it open and even slams against it a few times in a surge of panic to get it open. Something is wrong. Something is gravely wrong. Even with the little evidence she has, she can just taste it in the air. She shouts and pleas for someone to open the door and no one does, even though occasionally she can hear footsteps past by. Why is no one answering her cries for help? She is the Vampire King's consort now; not a common human slave. No one should be ignoring her. This only gives more and more evidence to her fears?
But what is she afraid of? She is far to scared to know. She fidgets around the room for the next few hours, finally giving up her fruitless quest to get someone to open the door. Her nerves are shot to bad for her to read a book, or to lay down and rest. It feels like an entire night has passed before the door opens and there is her master.
She immediately walks up to him. He seems to take this as a welcome home greeting and pulls her into his arms for a kiss, but she pulls away before their lips can touch. She doesn't have to look at him to know that he is unhappy by this resistance.
"I couldn't open the door...or the window." She tells him, "And when I called for help no one came to my aid." She finally looks up the snow white face of her master.
"I have enchanted the room so only those I allow can enter and exit." Her eyes widened and her mouth drops.
"So why can't I open the door?" Clymenus looks to the side for a moment before meeting her brown eyes again.
"Because I don't want anyone to see you, but me, my dear." He caresses her cheek, at this she slaps his hand away and breaks free of his embrace. A look of rage comes over his delicate features, the first time he has made that expression to her. She knows inside she is approaching dangerous territory, but she is too enraged to care.
"You can't do this to me! You have no right to keep me locked up!" She screams at him. His dark eyes flash with anger and he approaches her and now her heart is full of fear. What is he going to do to her. She backs up until she feels her back hit a wall, and before she can move he is on her. She looks away from his glare and feels him cup her cheek and turn her face back to him. He leans in and whispers in her hear
"I can do whatever I want to you, my dear." He takes the other hand and begins to twin her brown locks around his fingers, possessively. The actions reminds her of an owner petting his little pet.
"No...I beg of you...don't keep me locked in here. Please..." Her voice isn't as angry now. It is soft and humble. She prays this act will get him to change his mind.
"No...it is for the best. You will be safe here. There are many who would wish harm on the consort of the Vampire king." He rationalizes with her. She doesn't quite meet his black eyes now.
"But what if the run gets caught on fire, or an invasion? I would be helpless." She tries to reason with this madman. He shrugs such suggestions off.
"I have charmed this room to be fireproof along with all possible aliments that could threaten it. This room is likely the safest place in the world and it is beautiful. You should feel lucky to be here." At this she glares at him.
"Are you serious? You are treating me like a songbird in a cage."
"A lovely songbird." He tells her. This angers her so much that she loses all self control and before she knows it a loud pop is hear in the air.
She has slapped him.
His face is turned away with a red mark on his cheek. He is stunned from her sudden attack on him and so is she. Her heart begins to pound. What have I done? She thinks. Persephone makes a movement quickly and gets out of his grip and tries to run past him, but a sudden pain seizes her entire body. She cries out in pain and falls to the cringe, shaking. She feels her lord over her.
"You should not have done that, songbird." He tells her, his voice deep and dark. She supposes songbird is her nickname now, as she withers from the aftershocks of pain. She tries to speak, but her jaw twitches from the movement. She feels him pick her up, she is still hurting her and moving doesn't help. He lays her on the soft bed, which she admits is better than the floor. But the aftershocks of her lord's attack are still strong and sensitive in her.
"Songbird," She hears his voice calling her and she can't respond, "I didn't want to do that. I hated doing that, but you left me no choice. I could not let a slap go unpunished. Now don't incite me again. I can make you very happy...if you let me. If you do not..." His expression and eyes darkened, "Then I can make the world a living nightmare for you. It is your choice, my beautiful songbird, your choice." With that he takes his leave. She is paralyzed so she can't see the door shutting, but she can hear it.
She doesn't know if it take half an hour, an hour, or even several before she finally regains the ability to move. Her first act is to cry. She has been doing that so much lately, her weakness is making her sick. She is as helpless as the maidens in her stories, but there was no knight to rescue her from the dark vampire lord. She was his.
She would always be his.
Later on, after much weeping, she hears the door open. Persephone thinks it's Clymenus and doesn't look back then she hears the squeak of wheels. She turns and sees a slave with a tray of food and tea. She stares in shock for a moment. Has her lord removed the spell without another thought she jumps off the bed and rushes to the open door, but before she can go past the threshold, a force pushes her back. Her heart sinks. She tries again, and again, but the force field will not bulge.
"No, no, no...no!" She screams at the invisible barrier that separates her from all the world. Her tears are renewed. She know wonders if by the end of this day if she will ever cry again because it seems as though she is spending all her tears now. She slowly turns to the slave who seemed undisturbed by her cries. She was setting her food and drink on the small dining table.
"How...come...you can come in.." She whispered to the slave.
"Well, you have to eat. I was given special permission to come in."
"Any others?" The consort asks.
"None that I know of." The tone of the slave's voice tells her she is annoyed by her questions. As though she is unsympathetic to the plight of a girl trapped in a tower. Perhaps she only saw the luxury of the room compared to the slave's quarters and thought that she was lucky, Persephone darkly mused.
"Does the palace know I am suppose to remain in this tower...forever?" She remembers the footsteps she heard outside when she was banging on the door. The slave is now done putting the food in and begins to wheel out the tray past the consort, but she whispers.
"Yes." Then she leaves her alone to her silence.
She has not eaten all night, but the smell of the food doesn't tempt her. Instead she crawls back into bed and prays (Though she doesn't know why, since no God obviously cares for her) for sweet dreams. She is awakened by her lord's voice.
"Songbird," His voice is deceptively soft, and the consort is tempted to ignore him, but she knows it would be dangerous so she opens her brown eyes. He is standing over her, and she sets up, she looks down, a subtle rebellion.
"You haven't touched your food. Humans need more food than vampires." He stated, his voice was calm.
"I am not hungry." She mutters.
"You have not ate in almost twenty-four hours. That is not healthy for a human." He pointed to the table, "Eat." He orders her and at this she looks up and glares.
"No." She tells him and his calm expression gives away to a brief warning flash of anger.
"Your choice." He says, and this brings her back to the memory of the earlier pain he caused. Would he do it again? She didn't want to make him think he could get anywhere with her by threat. But the memory of the pain is too strong and raw. She gets up and goes to the dining table. He sits across from her and sips his tea. He doesn't say a word and neither does she as she finishes her meal in silence. When she is done she gets up, without a word and goes to her private washroom to bathe and changes into a simple nightgown.
When she is out, Clymenus is already in bed. She tenses her memory of their wedding night still fresh along with the pain. She wonders if he will want to have sex with her again tonight. She slowly crawls into bed and almost immediately her lord makes his amorous desires known. She tries to get out of his grip, but he whispers.
"Your choice." As a warning to her that makes her pause.
"You hurt me last night." She tells him, hoping to arouse some sort of sympathy from this monster. She feels him pause, but he doesn't lessen his grip on her.
"It was your first time." He argues.
"You were rough." She tells him. She feels him lower the sleeve of his gown to reveal her shoulder and he kisses it.
"I'll be gentle and bring you pleasure tonight." He whispers the promise into her ear. She sighs and knows that she will not get out of sex tonight. So she simply lets him take her. He is gentler as he said, she can say that. Much to her disgrace his more gentle actions cause her body to betray her and much to her disgrace and his triumph she comes for him.
The next nights, she is brought many items to keep her entertained from books, arts, paper, puzzles, paints, needlework, and all sorts of crafts. She hates to think that this might become her whole life. She lets her displeasure be known passive aggressively by talking to him little and barely responding to him in bed, as much as her body will let her.
"What can I do to make you happy, Songbird?" He asks her one night and she is taken a back by the question and thinks it over.
"Let the songbird out of its cage." She states simply. He shakes his head.
"No." He replies simply and she doesn't speak to him for the rest of the night. Then after he falls asleep after sex an idea comes to her. When he awakens the next night, she asks him.
"I am often lonely here." She tells him, "I would like for you to send me one of my old friends from the manor to keep me company." Clymenus is silent for a moment. She bits her lip in anticipation for his rejection. She knows how he is about her interacting with others. He is jealous and possessive, and that is putting it lightly.
"It is a woman." She adds quickly, hoping to smooth it over more. She knows there is no chance in hell that he will let a man be alone with her.
"Will you become more receptive to me?" He asks and it is Persephone's turn to be silent. Could she really be receptive to him after all he had done to her? How could she respond positively to him? In truth she has never had a pleasant conversation with him. She bites her lip again and nods.
"Yes...I will. I swear on my parent's graves." What choice does she have? If she doesn't implement her plan, she will go crazy. Her lord closes his dark eyes for a moment and then opens them back up.
"Then let's seal it with a kiss." He doesn't move to kiss her and she realizes that he wants her to kiss him. She takes a deep breath. Then she leans in and places a kiss on his lips. She is careful about the timing, not wanting it to be to short and displease him, or keep it to long and let him mistake it for enjoyment. She finishes the kiss and he smiles at her.
"So who do you want to be your handmaiden?" She tells him about Dorthy and their adoptive sisterhood. She doesn't dare mention Jacob. She is afraid her voice, eyes, expression might give away her true thoughts about him. For the next nights, she manages to talk to Clymenus about his day and simple things. It is not much, but it is something. She is also more open in bed toward him and that is much harder to do, but she somehow manages, but it feels like a great act of deceit for what she is about to do.
Finally, Dorthy arrives. When she sees, she runs into her open arms and weeps and for the first time in what feels like forever it is tears of happiness.
"Dorthy...I need you to do something for me." She whispers to her friend.
"What is it?" Dorthy hesitates, obviously not wanting to arouse the ire of the vampire masters.
"Sneak letters to Jacob for me, please."