Exhausted and resigned, I didn't plead for mercy or tried to reason with him anymore. I just shivered in his lap, waiting for it to be over. His lips hovered above my neck for what felt like an eternity. Those sharp fangs were pressed against my skin, ready to sink deep into my flesh. But for some reason, the prince hesitated, almost like he couldn't bring himself to do it. I knew that was an impossible, foolish thought. He was probably doing it to prolong the torture. With every second that passed in this hellish limbo, I became more and more nervous. The last bits of my self-control dissipated when he buried his nose in my hair and inhaled its scent as his hand slowly closed around my throat to keep me firmly in place. The anticipation became unbearable and a small, helpless cry burst out of my mouth.
"Goddammit!" he swore in palpable frustration and lifted his head with incredible speed.
Before I could make light of his intentions, his lips were assailing mine, his expert tongue probing for entrance. The kiss was so much more intimate and powerful than the one he'd given me during our trip. The instant his tongue began massaging mine, a pool of warmth exploded in my lower abdomen and every last coherent thought evaporated from my brain. For one single heartbeat, I felt like I wasn't trapped in the embrace of a sadistic monster. But the feeling didn't last for long. As soon as he broke the kiss, the terror and insecurity returned, this time accompanied by a deep sense of guilt because I'd given in to him so easily.
My heart hammered against my ribcage as I gazed at him, utterly speechless and completely out of breath. And what was even more peculiar, he seemed just as taken aback as me, but his baffled grimace faded away in a split second and his features settled right back into that cold, unreadable expression.
"You get one night, human," he murmured in an unsteady tone, his hypnotizing grey eyes boring into mine. "One night without pain, tears, and blood. One night to sort out whatever fucking mess is happening in your head. Savor it and try really hard not to provoke me because I could change my mind at any given moment."
Taken aback by his confusing demeanor, I let out a shallow gasp and expressed my appreciation for his unexpected gesture, praying it would be enough to pacify his unpredictable temper. "Thank you, Master."
For a few breathless heartbeats, he merely stared at me, as though lost in thought, as though contemplating something horrible. Then, he exhaled a long, deep breath and ran his thumb along my lips that were still swollen from his kiss.
"I think it's time for you to go to bed," he whispered and suddenly lifted me off his lap. With his hands closed around my hips, he slowly stood up and steadied me against himself.
Trapped in his embrace, I looked up at him out of sheer reflex, once again deeply disturbed by the possibility he was merely toying with me.
"Don't look at me like that, little mouse," he instructed in a voice that sounded almost gentle and gestured toward the other end of the room. "Come. Don't waste my time. Do as you're told and we just might make it through this night without any further incidents."
Left with no other choice, I followed his lead, still convinced this was just another one of his mind games. As I ambled next to him, I couldn't help thinking he was like a cunning cat that played with its small helpless prey, giving it a sense of repeated false hope, until it finally grew bored and struck a fatal blow.
We strolled past his humongous bed and it was only then I noticed an old dirty mattress that lay on the ground a couple of feet further, in the dark, shadowed corner. The prince paused in front of it and my eyes froze on the small, stained pillow and a thin, worn-out sheet with a couple of holes in it.
"This is where you'll sleep," he informed and inspected the perplexed expression on my face. "What is the matter, little slave? Is the accommodation not to your liking? Perhaps you'd rather share my bed?"
"N-No, Master," I quickly blurted out. "This is fine."
He sneered and narrowed his eyes. "It's better than fine. Did you know most slaves are forced to sleep on the ground...locked in a cage like an animal?"
I shook my head, mortified at the thought of such an ordeal. "No, Master."
"Well, now you know so it wouldn't hurt to show a bit of appreciation for my gesture. Even though, I must admit the reason for this small token of mercy is entirely selfish," he said in a mysterious tone and stepped closer, brushing his cold knuckles against my cheek. "My slaves must be accessible to me at all times...day and night. When the bloodlust takes over, the last thing I want to do is fumble with a key and lock."
I gulped and clenched my hands into fists, forcing myself to remain silent and hold perfectly still. I refused to fall into his trap and respond to his obvious taunting. But his mocking smirk told me he got exactly what he wanted. He managed to peel off another layer of my dignity since the idea of being locked in a cage suddenly seemed a lot more appealing because of this ridiculous notion it might offer a layer of protection from him.
"Go to sleep," he ordered in a silky soft voice. "As much as I'd like to keep you company, I have some work to do before I retire for the evening."
Too happy to comply, I lay down and closed my eyelids halfway, staring after the prince, unaware I was about to witness something incredible. As he imperiously strode to his desk, one by one, the torches behind him extinguished without anyone's interference, leaving the part of the room where I lay in semi-darkness. Astounded, I held my breath, wondering how he'd done that. What kind of witchery did he employ to blow out those flames without even looking at them? Holding my breath, I was half-afraid that wasn't the end of it.
I reacted to every little sound and flinched at the smallest sign of commotion, but he paid me no further attention. Instead, he was busy studying that stack of documents on his desk. After a while, one of the servants entered the room to clear up the table. As soon as he began to greet him, the prince gestured to my mattress and instructed him to be silent. The man quickly nodded and disappeared out of the room in less than a minute.
As soon as we were left alone, I curled into a small ball and pretended to be fast asleep. Though I couldn't see him, I could feel his cold gaze on my skin and I was determined to remain vigilant and stay awake for the remainder of the night. But eventually, my determination wavered and the fatigue started to get the best of me. I drifted away, deeper and deeper into sleep, until everything around me faded away and I found myself trapped in the frightening world of nightmares.
It was that same haunting dream. A group of angry vampires circled around me and I had nowhere to run. The wounded woman in white tried to say something but she couldn't speak because of the blood that gushed from her mouth. She looked up and froze in instant terror.
Suddenly, the world around me dissipated into nothingness. Blackness yawned before me and I felt an overwhelming hostile presence. He stood there, and just as always I could only see his glowing grey irises. Nothing else. For the first time, he spoke, demanding to know why I was there. I didn't know why so I offered no explanation. I could feel his bubbling anger. Whoever he was, he was extremely powerful and dangerous.
"I'll ask you one last time." His voice held a threatening demand. "What the hell are you doing here, human?"
I woke up with a piercing scream, gasping for air and gazing at that same pair of grey eyes from my nightmares. It took me a moment to separate dream from reality, and it was then I realized the prince's large body hovered above me and he didn't look pleased in the least.
One moment I registered he was naked from the waist above and the next, he scooped me in his arms and crossed the short distance to his bed, throwing my body onto the soft satin sheets. The second I was freed from his grip, I raced to the opposite side of the bed to get as far away from him as possible, but in the blink of an eye, he was beside me, a mere inch away, his powerful arms closing around my shoulders and pulling me toward his massive exposed chest.
"No...no...please don't...please don't!" I cried out and my mind went into total panic mode.
But contrary to my expectation, the Saybrien didn't do anything sinister. He merely held me in his arms and then gently cupped my chin and leveled my gaze with his. The sight of his beautiful pale face and those mesmerizing grey eyes rendered me completely silent.
A knowing smile crossed his lips and his soft voice sounded in my ears. "Please don't what, little mouse? You're going to have to be a bit more specific since I don't appear to be doing a single thing to cause you discomfort, now am I?"
I squeezed my eyes shut and stuttered the words in a voice that sounded so tiny and foreign as if it was not my own. "Please don't h-hurt me."
After those words left my mouth, I kept my eyes closed, desperately trying to block out the threat of his consuming presence.
He exhaled in clear annoyance. "You can try to pretend I'm not here, but that won't make me disappear. Look at me."
I swallowed hard, so disturbed by the fact he had guessed my thoughts with such insolent ease that it made me fail to follow through with the simple command.
A low growl sounded in the room.
"I said look at me, human!" he bit out an order in a bone-chilling tone, and my eyelids lifted in a split second, my gaze flying to his of its own accord.
It was almost as if he controlled my reaction with some kind of invisible power, as if his icy grey irises kept me frozen in their terrifying spell.
"That's it, little mouse. Do as you're fucking told," he whispered and pulled me even closer. "Now that I finally have your attention I want to know what's going on in that pretty head of yours since you seem to be set on erasing the very last traces of my patience. Could it be you are on a suicide mission? Is that it?"
I shook my head and shrank back. "I'm just...scared of you...I'm r-really s-scared...M-Master."
He sneered and inclined his head, staring at me with near contempt. "It is to be expected. After all, you're a weak, helpless slave. But there is one thing I don't understand. If you're so terrified of me, why do you bring yourself to my attention?"
"I...I didn't m-mean to..." I mumbled in a sort of delirium, shivering in utter dread of this huge powerful vampire. "I...I had a nightmare."
He arched his eyebrows. "A nightmare?"
"Yes, Master," I breathed in the humblest voice I could produce.
"Tell me about it," he demanded.
My throat closed up and I couldn't make a sound. I parted my lips to speak, but all I could do was dry heave.
A derisive smile twisted his lips and he uttered softly, "Don't worry, little slave. I know exactly what you dreamt about since you kept screaming my name from the top of your lungs. Not Your Highness, not Master...but Lucian. I can't help but wonder...what made you so bold in your dream to treat me with such blatant disrespect?"
"I don't remember," I mumbled in naked horror, finding my voice as I tried to disappear beneath the covers. "I don't remember calling your name, M-Master."
He pushed the covers off my body in a single swift movement. "How very convenient. And what do you remember from that scary dream of yours, human?"
I peered up at him in fear, aware I had to appease him no matter how traumatic it was for me to talk about my recurring dream.
"I was chased by a horde of huge vampires," I confided in a low, frightful voice, releasing a shaky sigh filled with fear and tension. "I couldn't run away from them so they attacked."
After a moment's silence, he trapped a lock of my hair between his fingers and merely said, "The apprehension is starting to take its toll on your sanity, isn't it?"
"Probably," I muttered, feeling completely beaten down and lost. "I don't think I can take much more of this."
I had no idea why I shared a piece of information that only made me more exposed and vulnerable, but it was too late to retract it, and his heartless reaction made it all the more embarrassing.
"So? Do you expect me to care?" he asked, sounding almost bored.
"No, Master," I whispered in sole-crushing defeat. "I don't."
"Good, because I don't give a damn about your feelings. The only thing I'm willing to do to lessen your anxiety is to simply get it over with," he announced with unabashed cruelty. "You know, I could claim your body and drink your blood right now so you would at least know what it feels like...hmm, how does that sound?"
I froze as his fangs came into my view and whimpered in earnest fright, frantically cowering away from him.
"Breathe...don't forget to breathe...your fragile mortal heart needs oxygen to keep on beating."
His fingers trailed my neck, and every hair on the back of my neck stood up straight.
"M-Master...p-please," I begged softly, quivering in unstoppable terror.
He laid a finger on my lips and whispered, "Please what? Please don't?"
I nodded my head, praying for a miracle, praying for him to honor his promise and leave me alone.
He snickered. "It's almost entertaining how you keep wasting your breath to plead for consideration. If I'm intent on doing something, slave, no amount of begging is going to help. It will simply happen."
A tiny sob escaped my lips and I looked at him with transparent misery.
"Hush...I've had just about enough of your childish tantrums." His fingers trailed down my face. "What will it take for me to teach you to fucking behave? I thought I'd let you be for this one night, but my resolve is starting to waver. Silly human, if you only knew the things I yearn to do to you...the things I'll make you do..."
I fought to remain calm under his touch but was still unable to relax. My anxiety was rising to the point it was becoming unbearable and I felt the bile rising in my throat. No, no, no...please no! If I threw up in his bed he would surely kill me in the worst way imaginable.
His eyes bored into mine while I pressed my lips tightly together, shaking with violent tremors while contemplating the idea he was about to decimate me in a blind rage.
The prince gazed at me for what felt like an eternity. A flashback of that moment he was about to bite me but ended up kissing me instead appeared before my eyes for some strange, incomprehensible reason. Unmistakable anger shadowed his gaze and his features turned more and more dark and serious with each passing second.
The air charged with suffocating tension and I sensed he was about to attack. He murmured a few curt words I didn't understand, but they sounded mean and furious enough to worsen my already feeble state of mind. My stomach convulsed and I was a nanosecond away from throwing up. Despite the prince's furious warning, there was nothing I could do to control it. It was going to happen whether I liked it or not...
But then, just as I was about to do the unthinkable, something seemed to have snapped inside him and he cursed under his breath, pulling me toward himself, so we were laying skin to skin. His voice suddenly stripped of all anger, he whispered a few consoling words in my ear and then lay a small, tender kiss on my lips. A rush of warm soothing energy instantly coursed through my body and a huge burden was simultaneously lifted off my shoulders. I felt safe. I felt at total ease. The nausea was gone. Every last trace of my terror disappeared as though it had never been. I could finally breathe.
Unable to make sense of what had just taken place between us, I looked up at him in utter shock. I don't know why, but I expected to see the same amount of wonder in his eyes. To my surprise, there was none. This was the second time that evening I'd witnessed him do something incredible...impossible, and I asked myself if he was used to flaunting his terrifying abilities in front of his slaves just for shock value...just because it amused him to see our baffled reaction.
"You know...this is the first time I've wasted my powers on a mere human...and as far as I'm concerned it will be the last," he answered my unspoken questions in a lazy whisper. "The official training of a blood slave is a sadistic, brutal process and if you demonstrate anything else than total submission to my wishes, I will embark on it with a vengeance. The ultimate decision is yours, but my advice is you accept this as your fate unless you want me to start making you docile by extorting punishments...because trust me, I will, and you won't like it. Do we understand each other, Raven?"
I swallowed hard and nodded my head, obediently uttering the words he expected to hear. "Yes, Master."
"Good. Now close your eyes and go back to sleep before you get the entire palace stirring," he ordered curtly.
As soon as the words left his mouth, I started to get up with the intention to return to that mattress on the floor but his massive arm swept around my waist and stopped my movement. I stilled and just lay there, frozen in surprise.
"Not tonight, human," he murmured in my ear, pulling my back against his hard chest. "I'd rather have you close...just in case you have another nightmare so I can give you a real reason to scream my fucking name."
Even though he threatened to hurt me, I didn't stir with fear. Whatever magic he'd employ on my mind still did the trick, at least for the time being. I gave no reaction whatsoever, and he didn't push me to say anything. Instead, we lay in complete silence until his breathing evened out and I knew he fell asleep.
The room was veiled in absolute silence. His grip around my waist remained firm and unyielding. His musky scent overwhelmed my senses and made it impossible to ignore his omnipotent presence. Every inch of my being was aware of his lean, hard muscles that pressed against my skin. The awareness he could crush me at any given moment, without breaking a sweat, lingered in the back of my mind like a distant warning. But since I was still under his spell, I paid it no attention. Nevertheless, even his trickery wasn't enough to make me reckless.
Adamant not to chance my luck and take the risk of having another nightmare, I lay awake until early dawn, trapped in his deadly embrace and staring into the dark blurry distance that represented my hopeless, ominous future.
***
Hi loves,
so sorry for the late update. I'll do my best to update faster. :)
Have a nice day.
Lots of love,
Astrid