A Shade of Kiev 3 (6 page)

I
stared
at the dark green liquid. I’d concocted it in the castle’s spell room with Rhys. But now that it was made, I’d asked to be left alone while I went about wiping the memories. I’d retreated to the spare bedroom of our apartment. He’d understood my desire for privacy.

I sat on the edge of the bed and reached for the jug I’d filled with the potion. I poured some into a metal goblet. Sniffing it, I almost choked from how foul it smelt.

I placed the goblet on the bedside table and stared at it. My eyes glazed over with tears and my hands were trembling.

This is it.

There will be no going back after this.

Now that I was on the verge of losing the vampire forever, the full impact of how much I had grown to need him hit me full force. I felt winded.

What were you thinking, Mona? Of course, if you erase everything that’s happened, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever be with him again even if you do manage by some miracle to remember to break free from Rhys. He’ll be a stranger to you. And he may have already found someone else. He has no problem finding women to share his bed.

I shook my head, trying to clear my head. It was useless having these thoughts now.

Trying to steady my hand, I picked up the glass again.

I shut my eyes and took the first sip.

Before I swallowed, the memory of the first time I’d laid eyes on the vampire flashed across my mind. I forced out memory after memory with each gulp of the potion I took, each another puncture to my bleeding heart.

By the time I’d finished half of the jug, tears were streaming down my cheeks. It was hard to control my sobs.

Rhys knocked on the door. “What’s wrong?” He sat down next to me on the bed.

“I’m sorry,” I gasped. “It’s just these memories... I’m going to miss them.”

He remained silent, sitting with me for a few minutes while I cried. Then he got up and left the room again. I guessed he thought this was just something I had to work through on my own.

After I’d finished the jug, I left the room and climbed into Rhys’ bed, sliding beneath the covers. He wrapped his arms around me, stroking my forehead.

As I lay there in his arms, I was determined to stay up all night. Because now those memories were alive in my mind, more vivid than ever before. And for once, I allowed myself to get lost in them. I allowed myself this one last indulgence, because by the morning, they would all be gone.

W
hen morning arrived
, I woke up to feel Rhys’ breathing against the nape of my neck. Whatever I’d taken that potion to forget was gone from my mind. I couldn’t remember anything about it. But it must have been dear to me because my cheeks were stained with tears.

I rubbed my temples, realizing that I had a headache. And my bladder felt like it was about to burst. I’d drunk a whole jug of that liquid, after all. I rushed to the bathroom. In the mirror my skin was looking pale as usual, the circles beneath my eyes dark as ever.

When I returned to the bedroom, Rhys had woken up. He sat leaning against the headboard, looking me over as I approached the bed.

“Get dressed,” he said, standing up. “I want to take you somewhere.”

Once we were ready, he held my hands in his and we vanished. The next few seconds were chaos as wind howled around us. Then I felt a warm breeze against my skin and solid ground beneath my feet. Opening my eyes, I took a step back.

We were standing at the foot of a waterfall, the crash of waves filling our eardrums. I gasped at the sheer beauty of the place. The trees towered up almost higher than I could see and their leaves spread out to form a shimmering canopy, sheltering us from the sun. There were bright flowers, and butterflies the size of Rhys’ hand. A lilac mist hung over the churning waters.

Then it dawned on me.

“Aviary,” I gasped, looking up at Rhys.

He nodded, giving me a small smile.

Memories of being trapped here serving Arron came flooding back. I’d escaped this place. But for some reason I couldn’t remember how.

“Why are we here? Isn’t it dangerous?”

Rhys chuckled and shook his head.

“Not while you’re with me. As to why we’re here…”

He scooped me up in his arms and led me closer to the water. I thought that he was going to jump in with me. Instead, he walked around the edge of the pool and ducked behind the waterfall. The sounds were deafening now as Rhys walked into a cave behind the falling waters.

The beauty of the place took my breath away. There was a wide patch of soft moss in the center, surrounded by an array of precious stones and gems. He walked over to it and put me down. He lowered himself next to me. We both sat staring at the gushing water.

Although it felt odd, I appreciated Rhys’ romantic gesture. He was making an effort to make this easier for me.

“Thank you for bringing me here,” I said softly, looking up at him.

He nodded.

I reached for his hand, a few inches away from me. I held up his branded palm and ran a finger over it, tracing the outline of the black rose. I pressed my lips against the center of his palm and watched the brand come alive, even as my own rose began tingling.

Rhys raised a brow, as if asking for permission to take things further.

I lay back on the grass, never breaking eye contact with him. Slowly, he bent over me and began easing me out of my dress. Then he stood up and undressed himself. Just looking at his muscular physique made me feel weak and vulnerable.

“Kiss me,” I whispered.

He leant over me and gripped both of my arms, pulling me into standing position against him. Goosebumps ran along my skin as he propped me up against the wall of the cave.

And then his lips were on mine. He kissed me slowly at first, but soon he was ravishing me. He left my lips and began pressing his mouth against my neck, sucking on my skin and grazing me with his teeth.

He touched my feet to the ground, leaving a trail of kisses as he made his way down my body. He stopped just above my navel.

I gripped his hair as he ran his hands down my legs.

“I’ve always loved you, Mona,” he breathed against my stomach. “And I can fulfill you, if you’ll just let me.”

He fell silent as he began to make love to me.

It was strange. Although I’d made love to Rhys before, somehow, that morning felt like the first time.

A
t first
, I found my mind wandering occasionally, wondering what it was I had made myself forget. It was strange having a blank space in my memory. But then I stopped thinking about it. It was idiocy trying to remember. Whatever I’d forgotten, it was to help move me forward.

I was surprised by how easy it was to fall for Rhys. Over the following weeks, Rhys kept me alone with him in the castle. With his attention on me night and day, he became my life as much as I became his. It was as if nobody existed in the world but us.

His passion consumed me, so much that I couldn’t help but return it. When someone desired and wanted to please you so intensely, it was hard to not reciprocate.

And that reciprocation—although small at first—set me on the right path. It was the spark that lit the fire I’d thought was long extinguished.

I found myself wanting to satisfy Rhys as he was satisfying me. I found myself wanting to bring a smile to his face, to lavish my own affections on him.

Although we remained away from everybody, he didn’t just keep me on the island. He took me to some of the most beautiful places in all of the supernatural world. Most of the realms he took me to I had never visited before, some I hadn’t even known existed. He romanced me in each of them.

Slowly, I found my mind becoming aligned with his. My desires beginning to match his own. I fell deeper and deeper into him.

He consumed my mind so much that I even wondered whether he was using magic on me. But I doubted it. My feelings for him had to be genuine or this whole exercise would be pointless. Rhys had told me that no magic could last during the transformation, whatever it was.

One evening, we were lying next to each other on a deserted beach in The Cove, the realm of the mermaids. I stared up at the starry night, holding his hand in mine, listening to the waves crashing against the shore. A warm breeze blew over us.

I leaned on my elbow and looked down at him. Running a hand through his dark hair, I placed a kiss on his cheek.

“Why do you love me?” I whispered, staring into his eyes.

His Adam’s apple moved as he swallowed. I thought he was about to answer, but he stood up and pulled me to my feet. Holding my hand, he led me toward the waves. He stopped once the water was at my waist.

“There’s fire in you, Mona.” He ran his hands through my hair. “And I don’t want you to lose that.”

I had no idea what he meant by fire. I thought back to my past. I couldn’t remember a time since I’d left the Sanctuary that I had felt much fire in me. Except for these past few weeks with Rhys, it felt like I was gasping to keep my head above water and not be overcome by the darkness surrounding me.

“Maybe I see a piece of myself in you.”

He leaned down and touched his nose against mine, closing his eyes.

We both remained silent, listening to the lapping waves around us.

I realized that whether I liked it or not, Rhys also held a piece of me now. How large a piece it was, I was beginning to be fearful of. But now that I’d let him in, I wasn’t sure that I could ever fully let him out. These weeks had been so intense, just the two of us. It felt like I’d allowed him to make a mark on me that ran far deeper than my rose.

I
t would have been
a lie to say that I didn’t see it coming. I’d known what I had with Mona was temporary. Even that small respite I had bought us by kidnapping the humans had come with a heavy price.

So when she told me it was over, it was hardly a surprise. There wasn’t much else either of us could do. Mona was bound to Rhys. She couldn’t leave him, even if she’d wanted to be with me.

Still, I couldn’t shake the frustration that had boiled up within me as she spoke the words. When she’d left the island, I’d thought it would pass, but it didn’t. If anything, it grew worse.

I tried to distract myself around the island. But there wasn’t much to be distracted by other than the ghastly rituals that were held each evening. The rest of the time, there wasn’t much to do. Even my siblings didn’t appear busy despite the fact that we were supposed to be rulers of this island.

Helina had explained that there were often long periods of inactivity. Then suddenly, some of us would be sent on random errands that were often urgent and could take several days to complete. But most of the time they were free, as long as they turned up to the rituals in the evenings.

It was still unclear to all of us what exactly Isolde felt close to breaking through. The witches didn’t discuss anything important with the vampires, confirming my suspicion that they just saw us as slaves. Pawns in whatever game they were playing. I didn’t bother asking. It wasn’t like there was anyone I could ask now anyway, now that Mona and Tiarni were gone. I wasn’t on speaking terms with any of the other witches.

I spent as much time with my siblings as I could to take my mind off of the witch’s absence. There had been such a huge gap since I last saw them that we never ran out of things to talk about. And I appreciated the time to get to know my siblings better.

I still grilled them now and then about what they’d done to Matteo. But deep down, I knew that they hadn’t done it to hurt me. They had acted out of panic, thinking they were protecting me.

I felt the urge to seek out Matteo and Saira, but it was an impossible task. For one thing, my siblings told me that I was bound to this island now and wasn’t allowed to leave for more than seven days without permission—thanks to their initiating me while I was drunk. I’d asked what would happen after seven days, but they refused to tell me. I wondered if they even knew themselves.

In any case, I decided that it was wise not to risk it, and Helina had made me promise that I wouldn’t.

We continued to attend the rituals every night along with all the other vampires and witches on the island. It seemed that for some reason Isolde had decided to start sacrificing more than one human at a time. I assumed she thought it would make the ritual more powerful and bring her closer to whatever it was she was trying to achieve.

In any case, Isolde announced one morning at breakfast that they were running low on humans. Since Rhys was away and Efren still locked himself in the spell room all day to mourn over his sister, Isolde did something out of the ordinary.

After everybody else had left the hall, while my siblings and I had stayed back to finish our discussion, she approached us.

She cleared her throat. “I could use your help,” she said.

“For what?” Erik asked.

“I think you three will be as good as any in helping me stock up on humans. I’d like you to come with me.”

Erik stared from me to Helina.

“Yes,” I said immediately. “We’ll help.”

This was perfect to take my mind off things and I’d been curious to know where they got these humans ever since I arrived on this island.

“Obviously, you are sworn to secrecy.”

“Of course,” Erik said, following my lead.

I was still surprised Isolde had asked us. I supposed that she knew we were all bound to this island and at their mercy, so it wasn’t like there was much we could do with this knowledge. And now that her regular companions were gone, we were as good as any.

“I’m planning to leave tonight,” she said. “Meet me in the courtyard after the ritual.”

“Is there anything we need to bring with us?” Helina asked.

The witch stared at her. “Just your obedience.”