Compelled Read online

  The girl didn't move, but she was still alive. I hadn't taken a life.

  One victory for the night.

  "Juliet."

  "What is it now, Vittore?" She let go of me and faced him, hands on her hips.

  "Full moon tonight, my lady."

  "What is the significance of the moon?" I asked.

  "We have not heard a wolf howl throughout this countryside, Vittore," she said, ignoring me. "I am not worried about the hunt."

  "More things are ruled by the moon than the lycan. Take the boy out once it has passed."

  "Vittore...do you honestly think I cannot take care of myself? I walked this earth a hundred years before you were born."

  "I have eternal faith in you, my lady, but the boy is a weakness the clan does not need. Send him out to Fate or be done with him."

  A low growl started in my chest. The demon was posturing.

  "Silence, childe." She walked to Vittore on silent feet. "Are you jealous of the puppy, lover?"

  "Of course not. I merely question the strategy of bringing a newborn into our house. He could bring ruin upon us with one night of folly."

  "Pffft. The boy is enthralled. He can't scratch his nose right now without my command."

  Vittore did not look convinced. My mind was open to her, yes, but I was listening and learning and so was the darkness inside. Juliet might make my life miserable, but she had a short attention span. He was the bigger threat. Could he be made into an ally? Perhaps we could reach a mutually beneficial agreement that would let me escape.

  His eyes narrowed at me. He could see me thinking. I lowered my gaze and waited for instruction.

  “Come, Adamo,” she ordered. I followed her upstairs, through the house to the kitchen, and out the back door.

  The moon was the only light for miles.

  “It is time for your first hunting lesson, childe. If you catch me, there may be a reward.”

  Juliet took off running, her ebony hair flying behind her like a horse’s mane. Feeling excitement and anticipation well up from the demon inside me, I gave chase.

  ****

  The weeks that followed were a blur to my conscious mind. Juliet existed to shun boredom. Never satisfied, she moved the clan from town to town, region to region, acting like a noble or princess all should bow to one night, then masquerading in boy’s clothes the next. From how skilled she was at it, I guessed she’d been keeping the ruses for most of her four hundred years.

  She dressed me in fine clothes and made me dance at balls while she lured some poor unsuspecting gentleman to his death. Women fancied me wherever we went and I did not understand why. Though I wasn’t experienced in the ways of the world, I had been classically educated and could handle small talk with them. I wanted to scream at them to run, but that was the first thing Juliet took from me when she allowed me in public. Couldn’t they see…sense…I was evil? A wolf in sheep’s clothing.

  The sights, though…sheltered in the monastery, I had lived as if wrapped in wool batting. The vampire senses were so acute, even the taste of human food still appealed to me. She never ate more than a bite or two at the fancy suppers, but I reveled in every normal morsel served to me, hoping they would lessen room for the blood she would force me to drink later. For minutes, a precious hour, I could pretend I was like them.

  I would give it back in a heartbeat to be the master of my thoughts again.

  When we weren’t charlatans, there were lessons. So many lessons. Vampire codes of conduct, human codes, languages, politics, fencing with Vittore where he took pleasure in every drop of blood, and pleasing her. A prisoner to her spell, I watched myself do things I never would have imagined. I retreated furthest into my mind during the sex, letting the demon take over. She was sick and twisted, and pleasure and pain went hand-in-hand, though the pain was usually mine. She punished me until I got the lesson perfect.

  There was no such thing as perfect.

  Juliet left me with few moments of autonomy, preferring to mold me into her image of the perfect vampire.

  Bits of information tucked into the back of my mind, though, the safe place where I plotted my escape or revenge in my dreams. I took note of Vittore’s jealousy of the attention she showed me. She made me hunt, but didn’t order me to kill. The discovery of that loophole gave peace to my soul and I drank only enough to quiet the hunger. The compulsion made me answer her commands with honesty, but the literal nature of the magic gave me choice.

  I watched, and I waited, and hoped something would break me free of her will.

  ****

  My moment came in 1731; nearly a year after Juliet changed me. She ordered me to tell her my past.

  We were in her bed, after a morning of fornication. She sat up, her palms on my chest, and asked, “Do you still have family alive, Adamo?”

  In my fatigued and sleepy state, I made the mistake of saying, “What does it matter? I could never go back.”

  She leaned her weight on her hands. “Look at me.”

  I felt the compulsion make me meet her eyes, and locked my jaw. She would have to take information about my family by force.

  “You will tell me where they live, Adamo.”

  “I…will not.”

  Her eyes widened. “You refuse me?” Her nails sunk into my skin. “How dare you, you insolent little worm.” Her hand shot for my throat, but I caught her wrist.

  Months ago, the pain would have helped her cause. Now I was used to bearing it.

  “I’ve let you corrupt me in every other way. My past is not important.” Using all my speed, I grabbed her at the waist and threw her off the bed.

  She’d landed gracefully by the time I was on my feet. Her eyes were glowing red and I had never seen her so furious.

  “Vittore!” she yelled.

  I put on my trousers and dove for the window. With any luck, the awning still shaded the wall outside and I could get away without burning.

  Damnation!

  The shutters were nailed shut. The moment I gripped the edge of them to rip them off the wall I felt Juliet’s claws in my back, shredding skin while she shrieked like a banshee. Striking on instinct, she was knocked back, a ribbon of flesh going with her. The scent of cold blood filled the room. Her nostrils flared and she pounced at me again. Using her momentum to roll both of us, I caught her and flung her away.

  Despite the power of her age, she was a small woman and light in weight.

  With another burst of speed, I reached the door and opened it, prepared to run.

  Vittore was there.

  When I regained consciousness, I was chained to the bed. I hated chains almost as much as I hated Juliet. They were arguing, and she was dressed again.

  “How can he fight me? It should not be possible!”

  “Perhaps you underestimated his will. I told you he was trouble when you found him.”

  “Say ‘I told you so’ one more time and I will wear your tongue for a pendant.”

  “Threaten me all you like, my love, but truth is truth. The boy isn’t right. His heart still rules the demon too much.”

  “Killing his heart is the point of finding his family!” She suddenly turned to me. “You understand that, don’t you? We are your family now, Adamo, and the sooner you accept that, the easier the world will be. The humans did not want you. Cast you aside. Couldn’t see your potential.” She leapt onto me. “I do. Don’t you want to be powerful? Feared? I gave you sight, childe. Would you throw that away over people who never loved you?”

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it. A recruitment speech? “What do you know of love, demon? Kill me or let me go. This farce has reached its end.”

  She shook her head, clucking her tongue. “Silly fool. I always get what I want. Vittore.”

  He handed her a flask. When she moved it toward me, I struggled with the chains, trying to buck her off of me and make her spill whatever potion he had concocted. She punched the side of my face, rattling my brain and making my jaw go slack for a second
. It was all she needed to force my mouth open and poor the foul brew down my throat.

  Drug or magic, I felt it start to work, slowing my reflexes and making sounds seem far away.

  “…Tell me, Adamo…tell me where to find your family.”

  “I don’t know! It was years ago.”

  “He’s lying. Push harder.”

  Juliet took hold of my chin and bent down to stare into my eyes. She pried one lid open with her other hand. “Adamo. Tell me the absolute truth. Where are your family and what are their names?”

  God help me, I did. She wormed so deep into my mind, she might have snatched the information out. The psychic attack left me shaking and colder than my dead body already was. My only hope was the knowledge was over a year old, from Mother’s visit for my last birthday in the monastery, and rural Italy wasn’t the streets of Rome, Paris, or London with street names and addresses. Any of my sister’s husbands could have moved them away. From our current location in Vienna, it would take days to reach one of the settlements.

  “Tell the men we move at nightfall,” she said.

  “What about him?”

  “Keep him in chains. He cannot have the chance to warn them.” With a final cold look in my direction, she stomped out of the room. I didn’t want to know what she would do to exercise her temper.

  Vittore remained.

  Staring.

  “Get it over with,” I said.

  He continued to glare.

  “Whatever punishment you think I deserve today, do it.”

  “You possess intelligence, Adamo, but you are an idiot. I don’t understand why she keeps you. You have been a constant disappointment. If you had any sense of self-preservation, you would have recognized the gift she gave you the first night she lifted you out of the dark.”

  “You are the deluded fool for worshipping her, Vittore. It will lead to your eternal ruin.”

  He laughed. “Back to the Bible again, are we? We’re gods on Earth, Adamo. It is just words on paper.”

  “The Book and the cross wouldn’t burn without power behind them. How much more proof do you need?”

  “The people give them power, boy, not any deity. Belief gave the legends of old power until the belief faded away. No one worships Zeus or Odin anymore, and one day no one will worship your god, either. It’s the nature of mortals—they change their minds.”

  It wasn’t the first time we’d had this argument, and if I remained a prisoner, I doubted it would be the last. But I knew—I knew—he would burn in Hell one day.

  “No retort?”

  “You are hopeless,” I said. He laughed.

  “Hope is the denial of reality, boy. Sooner you accept what is, the better off you will be. I’ll return for you at dusk.”

  ****

  Juliet set out to sever my ties to the mortal world and make me watch while she did. One of my younger sisters’ homes was first. Compelled to knock on her door, I rapped my fist on it three times and waited.

  She blinked when she saw me and it took a moment for the memories to surface. “Adamo?”

  “Good evening, Serafina.”

  “How…what…Mama will be very cross with you for not telling her you are alright!”

  “I am sorry. I have not been able.” Please don’t ask, please don’t ask…

  “Well, come in, come in, and tell me all I have missed.”

  Her fate sealed, I walked across her threshold with Juliet behind me. I watched, unable to act while she attacked and drained my little sister of her life’s blood. Serafina’s mouth was covered by Juliet’s hand, but her eyes…her eyes begged me to help her, then showed such betrayal I could not stand it.

  When my sister went limp, Juliet looked up at me and laughed at the tears streaking my cheeks. Then, she bit her wrist and trickled her blood into my sister’s mouth, and dropped the body.

  “Follow me,” she ordered, searching the rest of the house.

  No…Please, God…

  We found a nursery. A baby’s room.

  Juliet didn’t bite the child and I began to hope some mercy had befallen upon my nephew. That seed of hope died when my sire laid the baby in my sister’s arms.

  “Sit and watch.”

  I did. There was no other choice. Time passed, I don’t know how much.

  My sister opened red eyes, the eyes of a monster.

  “Sera--” The baby cried.

  Those red eyes dropped to the squirming prey in her lap and I saw her new fangs descend. To my everlasting horror, she greedily fed from her own offspring. I wanted to snatch the baby away and run, but my feet wouldn’t move. My fingernails dug bloody welts into my palms, the only sign of my impotent rage.

  “This is only the beginning, Adamo. Keep fighting me, and I will make everyone you love just like this.”

  Serafina dropped the corpse and rose to her feet to meet her maker, blood dripping from her chin and staining her dress.

  “Is everyone in your family so pretty, Adamo? Maybe I’ll keep this one.”

  “No.”

  The command to watch complete, I regained use of my limbs. The chair leg plunged into my sister’s chest with ease.

  Her eyes faded to brown an instant before her body disintegrated to dust.

  “That was rude, childe. Oh, well…” Juliet cleaned her face with a rag, stepped over the pile of ash, and went to the door. “Follow, Adamo.”

  Feeling the tug of my supernatural leash, I was forced to leave the scene without burying my poor nephew. Serafina’s husband would receive a terrible shock when he came home and it was all my fault.

  I could not let this happen again.

  When Juliet let me go to bed that morning alone, I lay there trying to overcome the command on my body. And prayed. I did not deserve forgiveness, but my family was innocent and I was the only one who could save them. I fought with the demon’s fear of disobeying its master until I felt it weaken in the face of my resolve.

  Grief? Rage? Divine intervention? It did not matter why I moved, but I sat up, hung my legs over the side of the bed, and stood. A lead weight gathered in my stomach, the warning to not push against her command. Breathing through the unease, I gathered my belongings in silence.

  The clan had partied due to Juliet’s good mood about her successful evening and I could feel the house was dead this close to dawn, but I still needed to be quiet to have any chance of escaping. She had taken Vittore into her bedchamber, so that was one more plus in my favor. I crept down the stairs and encountered no one in my journey out the back to the stable.

  Vowing to one day be strong enough to kill Juliet, Vittore, and the whole damn lot of them, I left on a stolen horse and urged the beast to put as many miles between them and me as possible before sunrise.

  ****

  Stopping at an inn in the opposite direction of my foe’s next target, I got safely inside just in time and grabbed the stable boy. “Can you ride?”

  “Y-yes, sir.”

  “Good.” Finding quill and paper, I sketched a quick note. “Deliver this where I tell you with your best speed and there’s a whole coin in it for you.”

  “Yes, sir!” He was a spindly youth, not yet grown into his limbs, but he seemed capable enough.

  I told him where to deliver the note and what to say and sent him off. The innkeeper eyed me warily at this hour until I produced twice what the room was worth for the night. He took the coins without complaint and handed me a key.

  “You need a meal?”

  “No, sir. Just the bed will do, and to not be disturbed.”

  He grunted and left once he’d pointed to the right door. The bed was serviceable. I didn’t need much after living a monk’s life for so long, though the luxury Juliet preferred had been nice. In another bit of providence, the room was without windows, so I would be hidden from the sun.

  I could not move about during the day, but neither could my enemies. The tension easing between my shoulder blades, I sat down to write more letters to send of
f. I hoped Mother could leave home in time. If Juliet was truly determined to exterminate my family, she might resort to more drastic measures now she didn’t have me for invites.

  For the moment, I was safe. First time in a year. With a dagger and wooden stake under my pillow, I slept.

  My days of independence started with a routine of running the horse most of the night and finding shelter for the day. Sunlight stung, a lesson Juliet taught me. She thought it amusing to compel me to hurt myself in the early days. The months with the vampires showed me many things about the modern world. She wasn’t a patient teacher and left most of the work to Vittore. His contempt for me was evident in every word and deed, but he was fair, possessing an odd code of honor for a murderer, and instructed me in the current affairs of men. Most importantly, I knew how to avoid trouble.

  When I reached Rome, I hoped the great population would help me hide. I secured a room and discreetly asked for a young woman to be sent to me. Vittore taught me prostitutes were easy prey, though my plans for them were slightly nobler than his.

  There was a knock on my door a few minutes after I went upstairs.

  “Enter.”

  A girl came in, maybe no more than seventeen. She was reasonably pretty, with black hair to her waist and delicate bone structure. “How may I please you, sir?” When I turned around from washing the road dirt off my face, she smiled. She still had good teeth.

  I extended my hand. “Dance with me?”

  She put her hand in mine, an amused glint in her eyes. “But sir, there’s no music.”

  Twirling her around, I made her laugh, and proceeded to lead her in a simple waltz. She picked up the steps with ease, enjoying the unique request. Women found me attractive and mastering the ability to charm them hadn’t taken much time with Juliet compelling my confidence. When I kissed the girl, she eagerly participated.

  Making her breathless, I kissed down her throat until I found the artery and gently slid my fangs into her skin. She moaned, her fingers clinging to my shoulders. I fed until she grew sleepy and laid her on the bed. I always slept on the floor.

  The routine repeated every time I got hungry. By the time the girls awakened, I was out of the room and they thought they’d had a gentle customer.