Alexander-Fyn-Sanguinarian

she thought it was because she was a vampire, but that made no sense because they were all vampires at Castle Haven. Dominic had always told her it was for her own well-being, and she adored Dominic with a frightening intensity.
    The morning was especially cold and sharp. The high walls of her garden were rimed with a thin skin of ice. The grass was still sparse and yet crisp with frost beneath the leather soles of her slippers.
    Dominica felt the cold more than her brother, but still hardly at all.
    She was angry with Dominic. He had to go away occasionally and she accepted that. Just lately though, he had been going away a lot Sanguinarian 107
    and she missed him. Even when he was with her he seemed distracted, thinking of something else, or someone else. She knew he was looking for a wife. It was something about the castle and their inheritance, but it was all too complicated for her to understand. The thought of Dominic paying attention to anyone but her enraged her.
    Dominica reached out to touch a thorny rose bush still bare of buds—the few leaves still clinging to it had turned brown and perished in the cold. A footfall across the garden on the crisp grass made her pause. Her dear Munk come to keep her company? But no.
    One more light step and she whirled around, throwing her arms wide.
    “Dominic!” She always knew his step. Even though he was two hundred yards away, her acute hearing never failed her.
    With long strides he reached her and took her into his arms. She rested her head against his chest while he cupped her cheek and stroked her hair. “Feed me, Dominica, please. The hunger is upon me.”
    She made to comply, before remembering she was angry with him. Stepping away she looked up at him. “Talk with me for a while.
    You have not read to me in a long time.” She led him along the garden to the stone bench close under the wall. He looked anxious.
    “I read to you last week, don’t you remember? We read poems by Lord Byron.”
    “You keep going away,” she pouted. “Why? I miss you.”
    “I’m sorry, Dominica, you know I have things I must do sometimes. There are things away from the castle I have to attend to. I cannot always be here. Feed me,” he said again. “Please, Dominica.”
    “You will pass the rest of the day with me, won’t you? I love Munk but I get tired of her.”
    The doubt in his eyes caused anger to flare hot within her. “Are you going away again?” she burst out.
    “Just until tomorrow morning. There is something I must do.”
    Dominica’s full lips pulled back from straight white teeth in a vengeful, animal-like sneer. “If you leave me I won’t feed you,” she 108
    Fyn Alexander
    said, rising to her feet, her long cloak swirling about her She watched as the light drained from his eyes and his shoulders drooped. He needed her, he had always needed her, so he had better do as she wanted. “You don’t understand, Dominica, I have no choice. I will be back to stay with you. I’ll read to you, I promise.”
    Striding briskly, she crossed the garden and entered the tower heading directly for her parlour. Raven followed close behind. “Go away!” She turned on him from where she stood by the small fire in the great stone hearth. “Go away from me, Dominic, I don’t want you here. I don’t love you!”
    “Of course you do.” He held out his arms, using the tone that lulled her and made her want to be agreeable, but today it would not work. Nothing would make her happy but to have him beside her all day.
    “Go away, go away!” She flew at him, pummeling him with both fists, and then digging her nails into his cheeks until blood spilled down his face. “Drink your own blood,” she said through gritted teeth.
    Dominic gently extricated her hands from his hair and clothes and swiftly left the tower, locking the door behind him. Dominica ran after him to the big arched door, banging on its iron studded surface with both fists, but he was gone, his soft footsteps receding down the passage. She ran outside again as the wind rose, whipping the tired rosebushes and trees in the garden. Just as she could hear a pin drop in a bustling, crowded hall at Festivals, so could he hear her calling him from great distances. She screamed into the wind, knowing Dominic would hear her even if he was outside in the front courtyard already.
    “Dominic, come back, I will feed you, I will! Come back!”
    The wind caught her words, carrying them up and over the walls.

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