Desecrated Beauty (Twisted Fairy Tales #1) by Kyleigh Castronaro Page A

would’ve had to ask his permission for his subscriber if they wanted a taste. She assumed.
    “Isabelle.” He said her name so sharply she turned to look at him in surprise, not realizing she had been babbling out loud. He had moved closer to her this time, reaching out and taking her waist between his hands as he drew her body close to his.
    “Look at me.” She refused to, he said something earlier about compelling, she wasn’t going to fall for that again.
    “Look at me,” he commanded, the tone of voice he used made her do it out of instinct. “You are safe. I understand that you believe differently, but you are safe. No one, not even myself, will touch you against your wishes. This is my home, but you are not to be hurt or frightened by anyone within it. They are here to ensure your comforts are met but otherwise they will not interact with you unless you pose a danger to my safety. Do you understand?”
    His words helped to calm her thoughts as she nodded slowly, letting herself relax a little more.
    “Now, you will sit down and you will let me tell you everything as I attempted to do downstairs. This time you will not interrupt and you will wait until I finish to interject.” He released her waist and let her move to the bed, slipping down on it dreamily. He should’ve felt a little guiltier using the full strength of his abilities on her, but she was only going to endanger herself if she carried on with her self-induced panic.
    “When the Blood Baths began it had been decided this was the way to rectify some of the impurities in the human race. We systematically wiped out the weak and the spoilt - that is, the gangsters and criminals. Low-lifes who didn’t contribute to the society we intended to create. After that the tests were put in place. Because of the necessity to keep our secret there needed to be the agents, as you call them, who would be the militia force to ensure that everything ran smoothly. The patronage system was created to ensure that something like the Blood Baths never happened again. Each Vampire was forced to enroll his presence and then he was able to take on a subscriber to act as his own source of blood. Part of his job though was to provide a comfortable lifestyle for his human. We are the stronger race, Darwinism they call it. This is how it was supposed to be all along. For too long we have lived in the shadows, even now we stand on the cusp but with the humans who know of our existence we are far more free than we used to be.”
    “Then why do you live on the outside of society?” He had told her not to interrupt, but the question was too burning to ignore.
    “Because, I didn’t wish to enroll in the system. I am old. I am far older than most Vampires who are here and I have no interest in the politics that come from being known.”
    “How is it possible that you’re that old and unknown?”
    “I have lived my life very much under the radar.”
    “Then why did you come to the one place that seems to be the least conspicuous of them all?”
    “It is complicated.”
    “Tell me.”
    “I was intrigued, even interested in the idea that the council presented. I have never been interested in being a part of the council but the opportunity they have presented my kind... This is the first time they had put aside their self-serving habits and done something for the greater good of our kind. I fear that by enrolling ourselves may present a danger that they haven’t foreseen yet. The human race, by nature, is based very much on the idea of survival. They want to survive. It might not be now or it might not even be for a hundred years, but there may come a time when someone has an idea to fight back and from that idea they build their following. Then this following gets their hands on the enrolment of every vampire in North America and suddenly we are being hunted like the witches.”
    “Witches.”
    “Yes, witches. Of course witches are real.”
    “Of course,” she said