The Blood Bride (Blood Secrets) Read Free Page B

child.” Cressida touched Hope’s forehead with icy cold lips one last time as the door opened. With long, tapered fingers, Cressida indicated for her to be removed, while she waited stock still in the vehicle.
    Hope didn’t look back. Somewhere deep down, she knew if she did she would cry at the pain and loss. And her mother had always told her, a nestling never cried.

Chapter One

    Hope hauled the last heavy box up the stairs of the manor house, occasionally catching glimpses of the way her midnight black hair shone in the sunlight, when she passed the window in the living room of her apartment. “Thank heavens this is the last one,” she muttered to herself, sliding the box down to rest on the floor, before straightening and rubbing the nagging ache in her back. She could have had help, all she needed to do was ask, but now that she was an adult she needed to stand on her own two feet, she reminded herself.
    Straightening up, she looked around at the mass of boxes waiting for her to delve into. “Well, gone away and back again. Where do I start first?”
    The phone trilled and she started for an instant, before extending her hand to the receiver on the shelf beside her. “Hope.”
    “Miss Hope, do you require any help? Lisi is wondering if you require her assistance.” The muffled voice of one of her guardians flowed out of the earpiece. She had forgotten that living at the manor meant the goldfish bowl lifestyle she had tried her best to escape at college. Not that she’d had much opportunity to live a free lifestyle. She’d been lodged with a guardian family within the college grounds. Even then, her personal team of five guards had shadowed her every move—to classes, shopping and even to the hairdresser’s.
    They hadn’t escaped her notice, the looks some of her classmates had thrown her way. Longing for the lifestyle they’d thought she enjoyed. Little did they know, Hope would happily have swapped, a lot of the time. Downtime had existed within a carefully vetted group of companions, each from houses of similar status. The cloying atmosphere she hated, but, nonetheless, she had submitted to her parents’ will. Only a few times had she sought to do activities that they would have deemed inappropriate, but her conscience had always kicked in, and she had derived no enjoyment from the guilty feelings that had overcome her.
    “No thanks, Jeffrey. I have all the boxes up here and I am going to take my time going through everything.” How could she explain that she needed a freedom that had been denied? That this small and almost insignificant rebellion was one she embraced? But she couldn’t. It wasn’t fair to Jeffrey to share that.
    “Fine, Miss Hope. Oh, and I am supposed to remind you, the new Master has requested your presence in his library after sundown.”
      She nodded, knowing it was expected that she would take her oath of fealty. “Oh. Right. I’ll be down for sunset.” She laid down the receiver. It’s one thing to owe your continued safety to a vampire nest Master, but quite another to be at his beck and call all the time, just as her parents had been. Her temper spiked momentarily. The emotion coiled through her then she shuddered, pushing away the negative thought, while absently reaching for the boxes she needed to stack, store or unpack. The rough exterior of some of them brushed against her hands. For now, she had time. Lots of time.
    Ripping the tape off the first box, she then started to root through it, unwrapping reminders of her slightly more free college life, formulating arguments to put to her parents, knowing that the dice were stacked against her. Her life had been mapped out since her birth, but perhaps she could find a way around some of the roadblocks. At least she hoped so. With that thought, she set to work.

    * * * *

    He stretched in the bed, feeling the cool sheets around his body, savouring the experience of knowing he could rise when he wanted to.