Broken Read Free

"Well you're prettier than Marie ever was."
    "You really think so?" Camille asked eagerly.
    "Vanity is a sin," Genny reminded her.
    "You just sounded like one of those pious humans," Camille retorted with an inelegant snort before bumping Genny's hip playfully. "Besides I know you're right, I'm just teasing. Men aren't in the plans, especially not noble ones; they're as trustworthy as a snake. But even you can't deny that they were both exceedingly handsome."
    Genny laughed as she placed her hands on a downed log currently blocking their path. Climbing over the toppled tree, she wiped her hands clean of the bark that clung to her palms before continuing toward the vampire village with her sister. She glanced toward the darkening sky and picked up her pace as dusk began to descend. "We have to hurry," she urged Camille.
    "I know," her sister said and scrambled to catch up with her.
    Though she was only four years younger, at eighteen Camille was still too young to have fully matured. Genny believed it was coming soon though. She herself had stopped aging earlier than most, at nineteen, and Camille had always been mature for her age, but then they'd had no choice but to grow up fast. Genny didn't know who her father was, but she could vaguely recall a vampire with auburn colored hair whom she thought might be Camille's father. There had been so many different men in Marie's life over the years, but when Camille asked about her father, Genny liked to tell her about the nicest one she could remember, who would have been around at about the same time Camille was conceived.
    Genny lifted her skirts and leapt over a puddle before scrambling up the embankment to the dirt road beyond. She turned back to help Camille up the last few feet and onto the road. "Go on without me," Camille insisted as she straightened her skirt.
    Genny shook her head and wrapped her arm through Camille's as she pulled her down the street. Her ankle boots slipped in the mud but she hurried on, passing by a group of chickens that were pecking at the worms rising from the earth. The King's Watchmen bowed their heads as they passed by a couple of them guarding the club where vampires sometimes went to feed. Though the humans inside the club had volunteered to be there, they weren't allowed to wander freely around.
    More of the Watchmen, which belonged to the aristocrats now that King Harry was dead, were scattered throughout the vampire village to keep watch and to protect the village in case there was an uprising amongst the humans. Uprisings were rare, as most people didn't believe in vampires or know where to find them, but there had been one in Germany recently that had caused the now dead king to order all vampires out of that country for the next fifty years.
    Camille strained to keep up but Genny wasn't about to leave her sister behind as she tugged more firmly on her arm. Genny waved to the vampires she knew along the way but for the most part she paid them little attention as she honed in on the hut sitting away from the others at the end of the road. The thatched roof glistened with rain but it wasn't the weight of the water that was causing it to sag, it was the neglect it had experienced over the years since it had been built.
    Genny's belly already turned in disgust and apprehension before she'd even arrived at the open, sagging wood door. "Go straight to our room," she said to Camille before stepping through the door.
    "You're late!" The words were barked at her from the direction of the fireplace and caused her lip to curl into a sneer. Her nose wrinkled at the stench of stale ale and body odor that permeated the small house. Marie's newest find, and her worst by far, was the cause of most of the stench as he sat in the corner in the only rickety chair left in the house. Furniture never lasted more than a couple of weeks in this hovel.
    "Good to see you too, Felix," she muttered and pushed Camille toward their room in the back.
    Camille gave her a