Blood Dolls by Sophie Stern Page B

whispered, and Celia wondered if she had spoken aloud or if her friend had just known what she was thinking. “The party will be wonderful, Celia. It will be everything you want and more. It will be everything you need.”
    She let go of Celia and turned to get ready. Celia realized she needed to finish dressing and styling her own hair, and she wondered if Ariana was right.
    Would the masquerade be everything she wanted? Would it be a culmination of her weeks at the mansion? Would it be exactly what she had hoped for?
    For Celia, being taken into the mansion had been a trip down a rabbit hole she had never known about, but now that she did, she was beginning to think she never wanted to leave.
    She had moved from being a scared little girl who was afraid of everything to something else, something darker. She wasn’t a child anymore. She was very much an adult, very sure and certain of herself. She had grown in ways she never would have thought possible, and certainly not in such a short amount of time.
    Maybe this was what she’d been waiting for.
    Maybe life among the humans had always seemed so forced because she wasn’t meant to live among them. Maybe she wasn’t even supposed to be one.
    She had started craving more shortly after she arrived. Samuel had opened her eyes to a whole new world and Celia was drawn to the power as much as the sex. The Vampire Lord of Willowcroft Mansion was a beast, a predator. She wanted him even more for it, because of it.
    More than that, Celia wanted the same things Samuel had.
    When she was alone, which wasn’t often, she imagined she was the princess of Willocroft, the vampire mistress. She thought about what she would be like as a vampire, what dolls she would take. She thought about the ways she would feed.
    She thought about what desires she might have if she were one of the undead, if she were one of the creatures of the night.
    “It’s time,” Jade’s voice sounded through Celia’s thoughts and she turned. “It’s time,” Jade repeated, and motioned for Celia to come sit at one of the vanities. Celia quietly lowered her body onto the soft cushion. Ariana’s flavor still covered her tongue, and when Jade kissed Celia, she smiled.
    “You’ve been having some fun,” Jade whispered.
    “Only a little.”
    “It’s about to get more fun.”
    “How much more fun?”
    “You don’t want to know,” Jade began to curl Celia’s hair.
    “I might want to know.”
    “Fun you didn’t even know existed.”
    “They’re like a drug,” Celia said.
    “I know.”
    “I’m addicted.”
    “I know.”
    “Am I still going to exist after tonight?” Celia wondered. She hadn’t meant to ask it aloud, yet she did. The question was valid enough. Would she still be her?
    The girl her mother had raised was gone. There was no question about it. She had disappeared, vanished into the day. Celia lived in the darkness now. She lived amongst the dead, amongst the ones who had no concern for the living other than what they could offer: food, sex, companionship.
    The vampires didn’t love. At least, not in the way humans knew love. Celia scoffed as she thought of her upbringing, of the idea that a monogamous relationship was the epitome of true love. She didn’t even know what she believed anymore. All she knew was that the idea that a simple life no longer meant anything to her.
    She had been raised to believe she was supposed to go to college, find a man, fall in love, and get married. That was the dream. That was the goal, the ideal.
    So what happened?
    Samuel had happened.
    He was nothing like she expected, but everything she had ever needed.
    Jade gripped Celia’s shoulders and met her gaze in the mirror.
    “Look at me,” she said. “Just look at me. Do I look weak to you?”
    “No.”
    “Do I look like I don’t exist?”
    “No.”
    “I’ve been here a fuck of a lot longer than you, Celia,” Jade said. “So don’t you even think for one second that wanting to stay,