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  DARLING

  Book 1 of the Beloved Series

  By Claudia D. Christian

  Published by DelSin Publishing, LLC 2011 at Smashwords

  Copyright © 2011 by Claudia D. Christian

  All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission from DelSin Publishing, LLC. DelSin Publishing, LLC and the author assume no liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Photo Credit: Andrey Kiselev

  Cover Design: CGM Web Designs

  Smashwords Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  Table of Contents

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  0

  About Claudia

  Other Works

  1

  She was born for him.

  Loving him, admiring him, wanting to be his, Cassandra innocently believed she understood what it would mean to be the Beloved of a Pureblood Vampire King.

  She was wrong.

  ***

  A tall, stunning brunette burst in with a flurry of silken dresses and matching heels piled high in her capable arms. “Your lord comes, Mistress Cassandra! Hurry now or he will see you in disarray!”

  “Lord Constantine is here, Lenore?” Cassandra lurched up from her chaise, book forgotten as it hit the stone floor. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, yes! Now hurry!” Lenore set her elegant burden down on the bed. In a blur, she spread each exquisite dress out along with its delicate footwear. “Which would one you prefer, Mistress?”

  Cassandra stood up, anxiety thrumming her limbs but tempered by excitement. “But, he is not due yet…” She joined the other woman and attempted to focus on the matter at hand. Cassandra’s attention jellied.

  He has come back to me!

  “Of course. Who else would he come back to?” Lenore waited until the younger girl composed herself appropriately. Satisfied with Cassandra’s compliance, she asked, “Would you like this one?” Lenore’s bejeweled hand pointed to an ornately beaded hem. “Lord Constantine has such a fine eye for what would suit you, does he not?”

  Cassandra’s infatuated grin widened. She attempted to hide it by placing clasped hands over her rebellious mouth, knowing her companion’s impatience with her constant lack of poise. “He always takes such wonderful care of me. I wish I could wear them all at once!”

  “That would be a strange sight to see.” Lenore shook an artfully curled head of inky hair. Due to her charge’s childish enthusiasm, she was never quite sure when Cassandra’s words were meant to be taken literally.

  “I suppose I must choose else I shame my lord with my oddity.” Cassandra measured each gown against one another. All black, their uniqueness might have gone disregarded by untrained eyes, but she could appreciate and worship their individual charms. Enamored by the bounty spread before her, Cassandra paced around the bed, small hand hovered over each one for a time. Finally she pointed to the lustrous confection furthest away from her. “The pleated bodice.”

  “You will look lovely, Mistress. Now come along. It is time for your bath.”

  Like the proverbial moth to an emerald flame, Cassandra trailed behind her elaborately dressed caretaker into the bathing chamber. The cavernous room echoed from the sound of her steps—no matter how dainty she attempted to make them. She shivered before steam quickly appeared to take the chill off the stone floor. Cassandra’s bare toes wiggled in appreciation. Stopping at the bathing pool’s edge, she waited for Lenore to finish preparing the bath.

  “Did Lord Constantine appear in good health?”

  “Of course, Mistress. As if our lord could appear any other way.”

  Although sharp, Lenore’s words lacked bite. Cassandra ducked her head regardless. “I meant…did he appear…content?” She held her arms out so Lenore could slip off her dressing gown. “Did he…”

  “You will be pleased to see your lord, Mistress Cassandra.” She removed the much younger girl’s fine underclothing with fingers as deft as the words cutting into Cassandra’s graceless query.

  “I am so happy Lord Constantine is here.” She clasped her hands over her bosom and made her way into the pool. “I wonder if he will stay long.”

  “How can he resist his Beloved?”

  “Not yet,” Cassandra stopped and corrected with frown. Petulance tugged at her full mouth. “I am not his Beloved yet.”

  “Officially. Everyone in the kingdom knows you are to be his.”

  Pleasure dusted her cheeks. Cassandra met Lenore’s eerie obsidian stare. “I am so very lucky, aren’t I?”

  “That you are. Lord Constantine is a fine choice, Mistress. A very fine choice indeed.” Lenore nudged Cassandra forward. “We must hurry, Mistress. Time is flowing now and we do not want to keep your lord waiting any more than we need.”

  Cassandra placed her fingertips on Lenore’s arm for support and sat down. Automatically leaning forward, she gave into the soothing strokes of Lenore’s strong hand on her back. Her speech momentarily lost its formal edge, rushing forward in a girlish peal of excitement.

  “I can’t wait to see him. It’s been so long and yet not long at all. I can’t imagine what time must feel like in the human world.”

  “It is a much darker place than here. Time moves too quickly, turning pretty things like yourself into dust. Tragic.”

  Cassandra glanced at the window. Stretching from floor to ceiling, it gave her a magnificent view of Constantine’s glittering kingdom. “Have you ever been there, Lenore?”

  She scrubbed one arm and then the other before answering. “I have.”

  “Is it as beautiful as this?”

  “No. Too much light. Lift your leg, Mistress. That’s a good girl.”

  “I cannot imagine losing the moonlight for even a moment.” Cassandra scrambled out the pool, ignoring Lenore’s stern commands to return. She pressed against the glass, ignorant to the immodesty of her impetuous actions. “I never want to go back there. I love this world, I love you, and I love Lord Constantine! I love you all!”

  “Mistress Cassandra! What would your lord say at seeing your behavior? Anyone with a mind could see you naked as the day you were given to Lord Constantine.” Lenore firmly took hold of Cassandra’s raised arm, careful to keep from bruising it unintentionally.

  “Forgive me. I do not know what came over me.” She giggled once before dutifully suppressing it. The other woman’s heavy frowns made Cassandra feel quite the imp. She looked over her shoulder while Lenore led her back to the bath and tried to imagine a dimension trapped by broken night. It was terrible.

  “Lenore?”

  She waited until Cassandra re-entered the pool before answering. “Yes, Mistress?” Unsure if her charge would bolt again, Lenore summoned a water stream and thoroughly doused Cassandra’s dark hair.

  “I will never have to go back there, will I?”

  Long, capable fingers paused in the midst of m
assaging Cassandra’s scalp. “You are Lord Constantine’s Beloved. You will be the mother of his Half-Blood children. Your place is here.”

  “Do you think he will ever send me away?”

  “Mistress, your fears are unfounded.” She piled the sudsy mass up high on top of Cassandra’s head before cleaning her dainty ears. “You look for problems that do not exist.”

  “You are right. I am not sure why I do that.”

  I am so afraid he will forget me every time he leaves. There is such a big world beyond this castle that I am not part of. Eventually he will tire of the little human pet he keeps. . .

  “Banish those ridiculous thoughts from your head, Mistress. They serve no purpose. Lord Constantine would never abandon you.”

  Cassandra rested her chin on raised knees. “Were my fears so very loud?” Instead of replying, Lenore covered her eyes and proceeded to rinse Cassandra’s hair. “Your silence answers for you.”

  “No fear can be hidden in this world—except in your rooms. Even those do not stay secret for long.”

  The unspoken being, Because you do not control yourself as befitting your station.

  “I truly am sorry for annoying you with my insecurities.” She hid her face but revealed her pain anyways. Tears salted the air and mournful notes whistled through the walls.

  Lenore sighed. “You could give a demon a conscience, Mistress.” She brought Cassandra to her feet. Quickly washing the girl’s front, Lenore attempted to bring some measure of comfort. “Lord Constantine’s match with you could never be set aside, Mistress. You were brought here within the hour after your birth because you were born for him. You have been groomed to be his Beloved—the highest union that can exist between a vampire and a human. There is no room for fear, Mistress, even here in this world.”

  Cassandra wanted to curl into an insignificant ball. Shamed, she hissed in an uncommon display of despair. “Then why does it stalk me, Lenore? Why do I feel my lord only tolerates me because some committee from your Nephilim government declared me complimentary to him? What if he does not believe it?”

  The older woman cradled Cassandra’s face between her palms. She forced her charge to look her in the eyes. “What exactly is it you want, Mistress?”

  Stripped clean and unable to hide her longing from Lenore, Cassandra’s façade crumpled. A woman with adult needs broke through the maidenly adoration. “I want him to love me.”

  “Vampires should not love, Mistress. Their love is dangerous, expressed in a way humans do not understand. It could bring out the worst in both of you.”

  Grief tied her breath in knots. Cassandra fell against Lenore’s breast and sobbed. The vampiress stroked her head, not bothering to utter meaningless words, but comforting Cassandra with her solid, loyal presence.

  Am I so wrong for him? Do I not match him? Am I not good enough for him? Does he not feel the same for me as I do for him?

  Much later, wrung out from the devastating force of her emotions, Cassandra pulled away from Lenore’s cold embrace. She rubbed her itchy, swollen eyes and managed to ask, “Is that why Lord Constantine has his other companions? Is that why he has not made me his Beloved? Will I eventually be Beloved in name only but nothing more than a Concubine in reality? Does my lord favor someone else? Someone who is powerful and more beautiful?”

  “Who dared to carry tales to you?” Lenore’s eyes blazed crimson. Fangs elongated and scissored, ready to slice open anyone unwise to venture too close. A perfect face bleached to stone and the air vibrated from unholy rage. “What have you heard? Tell me now!”

  Cassandra babbled her apologies, afraid she had disappointed her caretaker. “I am sorry, Lenore! Please do not be angry with me!”

  Lenore’s face wiped clean. She once again appeared as before, calm and impossible to disturb. “I am not angry with you, Mistress Cassandra. Tell me what you know—”

  “Nothing.” She stepped out of the pool. “I am ready to be prepared for my lord’s visit.”

  “You know cannot lie to a vampire, Mistress, and go undiscovered. Now tell me—how long have you known?”

  “Long enough to understand my place.” Cassandra’s eyes darkened with pain. She constructed a smile designed to patch her agony. “Please help me. . .” Lenore spun and curtseyed low in obeisance. Cassandra didn’t have to turn around to know he was there.

  2

  “What goes here, Lenore?” Although delivered softly, Lord Constantine’s tone communicated grave displeasure. Formally dressed in black evening clothes replete with silver cravat, top hat banded in matching, lustrous fabric, and completed by a voluminous overcoat and sable leather gloves, the hauntingly beautiful vampire oozed colossal power and elegant menace. He glided forward, booted feet soundless as they traveled across stone, to tower over both women.

  “Lord Constantine, you honor us with your presence.” Lenore sank even deeper as a sign of reverence.

  “I am not in a habit of repeating myself.”

  Lenore rose at his signal. She bowed once. “Of course, my lord. Mistress Cassandra—”

  “Has been crying. Her misery found me in my rooms. Why?”

  Lenore’s expression remained placid, carved from living marble. Nothing seemed to touch her, but Cassandra knew Lenore more than capable of discomfort and disappointment. A lifetime spent watching these ageless creatures had taught Cassandra to watch for the minutia.

  There! She took a little longer to blink. She’s sad.

  Guilt suffocated her. Standing there without a stitch of clothing, Cassandra had to listen to her lord castigate her protector all because she wanted the impossible.

  If she hadn’t been so selfish, Lenore would have already finished preparing her for his visit.

  If she hadn’t been so weak, Lord Constantine would have never known she was upset.

  If she hadn’t been so disgustingly human, Cassandra would have been stronger than her fears.

  I must be who he wants me to be. A girl. . .not a woman.

  She summoned a radiant grin and spun around. “Lord Constantine! I have missed you so much!” Launching into his arms, Cassandra barely waited for him to lift her up before she peppered his face with innocent kisses.

  “Mistress Cassandra, allow me to put on your robe before you climb all over your lord.”

  Lenore’s censure made the human girl latch onto her vampire even tighter. “Please do not be upset with Lady Lenore, my lord. I fell to my fears today. That is all.”

  His icy aristocratic countenance melted with a gentle smile. “My darling Cassandra, what is there for you to fear? Hmm? Tell me and I will destroy it.” He kissed the tip of her nose and hugged her tightly.

  She giggled, relieved to have spared Lenore a continued tongue-lashing. “But you are the king of all fears, my lord. You make them appear so how could you ever destroy them?”

  “I am your lord, am I not?” He waited until she nodded. “Then my will is absolute.” Lord Constantine bounced her once. “Now tell me. What made you cry?”

  Cassandra thought to lie. She tried very, very hard to do so without him knowing. She failed.

  His eyes hardened. “Do not lie to me, darling. I will be most upset with you if you dishonor me with a falsehood.”