Thrall (A Vampire Romance) Read Free Page A

When I take a step I feel like I’m going to fall down. I move towards him, not sure what I mean to do when I get there. He watches, and sighs softly as I run head first into an invisible wall. I feel it with a brush of my hand, then reach out and touch it. I can see my skin flatten against the gentle curve, liked pressing against glass, and look down.
    The floor is carpeted but where I’m standing there’s a circle of bare stone. Deep channels cut across the surface in a pattern I don’t recognize. The lines form many symbols, most prominently a five pointed star, the kind I used to fill my notebooks with when I was a bored little girl in… I blink a few times. The memory is gone before I realize it’s coming back. I choke it down. Nothing is worse than those random flashes, reminders that I used to be a human. Almost nothing.
    Something is going to go bad here. I can feel it coming.
    “What is this?”
    “It’s a magic circle. A Greater Circle of Binding, to be exact.”
    I snort. “There’s no such thing as magic.”
    “Said the vampire,” he sighs.
    “That’s different.”
    He moves closer to the circle’s edge and I step back, backing my way across until I hit the other side, another invisible barrier. Or the same, I suppose, running around.
    “How is it different?”
    “I have a disease.” I don’t sound very confident.
    “You don’t know anything about yourself, do you?”
    I keep still, fighting the impulse to shake my head. I’m not giving him anything.
    “Where are we? What do you want with me?”
    “We’re in my home and it’s complicated.”
    “Complicated how?”
    He sighs and looks down at his hands. “You wouldn’t understand half of what I had to say.”
    “I’m not stupid.”
    “No, you’re not. You’re as smart as you are…” he trails off.
    I swallow. “Last night, you… what are you?”
    “My name is Michael. Yours is Christine.”
    “How do you know that?”
    He reaches in his pocket and pulls out a creased square of paper. Then it hits me. He has my picture.
    In a blind, shrieking fury, I throw myself at him. I hit the wall and push against it, clawing the air.
    “That’s mine . Give it back!”
    He unfolds it and shows it to me.
    “Who are they?”
    “I don’t know. That’s me.”
    “The other one?”
    “I told you, I don’t know.”
    “What’s your last name?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Where were you born?”
    “I don’t know!” I shriek, stamping my foot. “Give me my picture back.”
    He folds it and puts it in his pocket.
    “I might if you can behave.”
    “Behave? Fuck you,” I snarl.
    “I need you to listen to me.”
    There’s a sadness in his voice, and it matches his eyes. He really does have striking eyes, big puppy dog baby blues, the kind that swallow you up when you stare at them. Except when I lock my gaze on his I just get static and an eerie sense of familiarity. Like deja-vu.
    I step back from the edge of the circle, warily. I’m so tired. From what happened last night, I don’t think I could defend myself if he came after me. It feels like I’m swimming in lead.
    “Is this is about revenge?”
    “No. It’s about justice.”
    He walks behind the desk. I eye him as he moves to the windows and opens the shutters. For a moment I don’t understand what I’m seeing. It’s as alien as a rose in a field of snow. By the time I comprehend, the beam of sunlight has already swept across the room and engulfed me.
    I throw myself back in a screaming mass, but the sounds come out choked, agony flaring through me as I cough out a cloud of ash. Thin trails of smoke waft up from my fingers and I can feel the heat building up behind my eyes as I burn from the inside. My bones are glowing red hot, the heat charring through the flesh around them.
    “Stop it,” I choke, “Stop it, please, stop…”
    He swings the shutters closed but it’s too late. I’m burning. He rushes to the edge of the circle, maybe a little too fast,