Free My Blood To Give by Paula Paradis

Chapter One
    Dara opened her eyes and looked around. Where was she? The last thing she remembered was flying through the night sky with Andrei. After a time, she had fallen asleep. Had that been a spell put on her?
    Satin sheets rustled around her, and downy quilts brushed her bare skin. The morning sun shone through the window on the other side of the room.
    Even with the sun blazing, a fire crackled in a stone fireplace across the room. Curtains surrounded the bed, and brocade fabrics hung over the back of a chair by the fire.
    Where was Andrei? No one else was in the room.
    Dara hugged the sheets to cover her breasts. How had she gotten undressed? Who undressed her? She couldn’t even see her old clothes anywhere.
    Massive granite blocks formed the walls on every side. Wooden timbers stretched over the door and the window and across the ceiling. The chair by the fire was constructed of rough-hewn wood, but the ornate corner posts of the bed shone with a high lacquered varnish. Had Andrei taken her to a medieval-style castle?
    Eerie silence echoed through the room, and Dara bent her ear to listen. What was different about this place? Then she realized no bird songs came through the window. What sort of place had Andrei brought her to where there weren’t any birds? Was this a dream?
    She should get up and get dressed. At that moment, the door opened on silent hinges. Two young women glided in.
    Dara couldn’t see their feet move under their long, billowing dresses, and they wore their hair twisted in piles on top of their heads.
    They smiled when they noticed Dara.
    “You’re awake,” one of them chirped. “We hoped we wouldn’t wake you up. You’ve been sleeping so long.”
    “How long?” she asked.
    “Four days,” the other replied. “We wondered if you would ever wake up.”
    “What place is this?” Dara asked.
    The girl stood up straight. “You’re in Sanctuary Palace. I’m Reeva, and this is Angela. We’re your personal handmaids.”
    “Handmaids?” Dara asked.
    Angela set to work, cleaning up, tending the fire.
    Reeva smiled. “You’re Andrei’s consort, aren’t you? He is the Prince of Sanctuary. That makes you the princess. A princess needs handmaids.”
    “I’ve never had servants before.” Dara gasped. “I’m not sure I what to think about that.”
    With a laugh, Reeva said, “You should just enjoy yourself.”
    Dara’s head was spinning. “This can’t be real. Andrei said he wanted me to be his princess, but I thought … you know, that he was just using a figure of speech. I didn’t know he meant…” She waved her hand around the room. “I didn’t know he meant I was going to be an actual princess.”
    Reeva came to her bedside. “Come on. I’ll help you get dressed. Andrei wants to see you as soon as you wake up.”
    “He wants to see me?” Dara looked out the window. “But it’s day time. Don’t vampires hate the sun?”
    “Sanctuary runs by different rules,” Reeva said. “It’s not like anyplace else in the world.”
    Dara wasn’t sure she understood what Reeva meant. “Are we…” She didn’t know how to phrase the question. “Are we on Earth?”
    “Of course.” When Dara frowned Reeva laughed. “Think of it as a secret room in a big house. One that no one can find unless they are brought there. After being persecuted for centuries, the vampires created a place where they could be safe. Sanctuary.”
    Wrapping the bed sheet tighter around herself, Dara over to the fire. She stood with her back to the heat while Reeva picked out clothes from a walk-in closet and arranged them on the bed.
    “How did I get here?” Dara asked. “I only remember falling asleep.”
    “That’s the Passageway,” Reeva explained. “It puts everyone to sleep—everyone except the vampires, of course.”
    “Andrei said I would be blindfolded so I wouldn’t know where I was going,” Dara recalled.
    “You wouldn’t know where you were going even if you stayed awake