Justice woke up to darkness.
She felt like she was in a coma. She was awake but couldn't find the strength to open her eyes.
A slow pulsating ache ran through her body and there was a heavy sluggishness weighing her down like an anchor.
Trying hard, she blinked her eyes slowly. They opened slightly, taking a while for things to come into focus. She wasn't sure if it was because of how she was feeling or just because of how dark it was.
Feeling around to see where she was, she felt the soft silk beneath her fingers and realized that she wasn't in her bed.
Like clockwork, dread sunk in when she figured out where she was and what had happened before she blacked out.
Oh god ....
A light flicked on in the room and her gaze shifted to it before landing on Luc's figure sitting there in the darkness.
He sat at his desk, his face illuminated by the lamp light, his posture rigid and stiff as he sat perfectly still on the chair.
She was in his room.
In his bed.
Images flashed through her memory. His body on hers, his lips on her lips, his teeth on her skin.
"Oh god ..." she whispered closing her eyes.
When he said nothing, she looked back at him, suddenly unable to look away.
"You're awake." He said in a monotone.
"I'm awake." She repeated quietly.
He wasn't moving. He just sat there stationary, his eyes glued to her.
She cleared her throat slightly and tried to sit up. It took a lot of effort on her part but she eventually managed it, pushing herself back on the headboard so she could support herself.
"What happened?" She asked after a short but long pause.
He didn't answer her, instead he rose slowly and moved over to the door to switch on the light.
She shielded her eyes from the brightness, and once her eyes had adjusted to it, she took in his face.
God, it was like after their encounter he'd gotten more beautiful.
How long had she been out?
His eyes had returned back to their gloomy silver color, so different from the dark black orbs that he previously looked into her soul with.
His eyes raked over her, making sure that no part of her remained unseen and she wanted nothing more than to pull the duvet up over her face and cover herself.
Not wanting to be the subject of his penetrating gaze any longer, she looked down and tried her luck with the question again.
"What happened?" Only this time it barely came out as a whisper.
"You passed out." He said tightly.
She peeked up at him through her lashes, trying to decipher the emotion in his face. Was he angry with her?
"Oh." She said unable to look at him. "I ... uh ... I'm sorry. I'm gonna go now."
Slowly, she pulled her legs out from under the covers, thanking god that she was still fully clothed.
She carefully swung her legs over the mattress in a feeble attempt to get up and placed her feet on the ground.
And what an epic fail on her part because as soon as she stood up, the room started spinning in a way that left her nauseous.
"Oh god ..." she groaned as she began to sway.
Luc was in front of her in seconds, grabbing her by the shoulders to stop her from falling forward.
"For fucksake," he sighed frustratedly. "Can you pull yourself together?"
He pushed her back down on the bed and ran his hand over his face.
"Sorry! It's just that I'm not used to having the blood drained out of me," she glared at him suddenly incredibly annoyed by him.
"Don't be so dramatic." He tutted. "If I'd drained you, I highly doubt you'd be alive to be giving me sarcasm."
"Right now I'd welcome death." She said massaging her temples. "It has to be better than this."
He didn't say anything but she could feel his eyes on her.
"Did you .... I mean, how much more did you take?"
"What?" He snapped.
"After I passed out," she said carefully. "How much more did you drink?"
He narrowed his eyes as his jaw muscles twitched. When he spoke, his voice was a low growl that set her on edge.
"Do you think this is the right time to piss me off?" He snarled. "After you been lying there in my bed for hours, preventing me from going to sleep?"
"Hours?" She repeated wide eyed.
"I didn't drink anything." He growled. "You passed out, I caught you and I put you in my bed. I never feed on a woman without her consent Justice."
Her cheeks reddened as he glared at her and immediate regret set in.
Stupid girl. Why would you accuse him?!
"Sorry, I didn't mean to ...."
She trailed off as he walked over to the dresser and grabbed a bottle of water before walking back and thrusting it into her hand.
When she took it, he looked at her expectantly and she opened it pushing the bottle to her lips.
"Drink it, and get out." He barked.
She flinched but didn't dare defy him, gulping it down when she realized how thirsty she was.
When he saw the bottle was empty, he snatched it out of her hand and pitched it across the room before grabbing her wrist, again more gently than she expected him to, and walking her to the door.
Opening it, he urged her outside and let go of her, slamming the door in her face.
She stood there, blinking at the shut door in front of her while she inwardly kicked herself.
Great, she'd offended him.
Why did she have to open her mouth? Of course he hadn't drank from her. Despite all that he was, a part of her knew that Luc wasn't the monster he made out to be. She knew that now, from the way he'd touched her. The way he'd kissed her ...
Thoughts of him consumed her as she made her way down the hallway. She could barely walk. She still felt sluggish and slightly lightheaded but that wasn't important to her.
The only thing she could think about is what Luc had actually done when she'd be comatose in his bed.
If he hadn't fed on her then he'd just, what? Sat there waiting for her to wake up?
She shook her head, not wanting to ponder on it because if she did that then that would require her to believe that Luc actually cared about her...
And that was ridiculous.
Suddenly overwhelmed by tiredness, she allowed herself to slump into the wall, sliding down until she was crouched on the floor.
She felt weird. She felt weird and she felt somewhat rejected.
How could it be that mere hours ago, she'd been in a passionate embrace with the guy and now he'd practically kicked her out like she was some lousy one night stand?
She knew it was her fault, kinda. But that didn't stop her from feeling shit about herself.
She thought about getting up, but knew she had no energy to do so.
She could sleep there for the rest of the night. Yeah, it had gotten dark so it wasn't like anyone would see her...
She heard a distant sigh and turned her head to see Luc standing down the hallway rolling his eyes.
She could only blink and look on as he stormed over to her with the same snarl on his face that he'd had when he shut the door on her.
"I can't catch a fucking break..." He mumbled.
Before she had time to ask him what he was talking about, he bent down and scooped her into his arms bridal style.
Dazed and confused, and too tired to question it, Justice let him carry her.
She tried her hardest not to look up at him. She really did. But she found her gaze lifting up to his face regardless of her efforts.
She gasped when she found him looking back at her, her breath hitching in her throat.
He was staring at her with a little frown in his brows which made her frown because for the life of her, she couldn't figure out what this man was thinking.
He was staring at her with such an intensity that she couldn't look away this time. The two of them engaged in a silent staring competition, him looking into her eyes and vice versa. She wondered how he could even see where he was going.
Surprisingly, he was the first to break eye contact, but it wasn't to look away. Instead, his eyes roamed over her face, almost as if he was taking in every one of her features. When they finally rested back on her eyes, she found it too much to handle, and finally looked down.
By then they had reached her room, and she found it surprising that he even knew where her room was.
Kicking open the door, he stepped inside and effortlessly moved towards her bed.
She half expected him to drop her down and scram, but he freed one hand to pull back her covers and then softly placed her on the mattress.
She lay there still as he unfolded her duvet and her blankets and felt her stomach flutter as he draped them over her.
Then, saying nothing, he took one last look at her and left the room.
Justice lay there for a second, trying to understand what had just happened.
He tucked her in.
He tucked her in.
Suddenly energized, she kicked the covers off herself and flailed around frantically and childishly.
She wanted to scream!
This man confused her.
This man frustrated her.
She'd know this man for five minutes and he was sending her crazy.
She calmed herself down and lay still staring up at the ceiling.
She came to the conclusion that she liked him. And she knew it wasn't going to go away.
***************
The next morning, she'd already been awake as Ava burst into her room.
"Rise and shine sweetheart!" Ava beamed.
She always found it odd that Ava could be so cheerful so early in the morning. And it was early. 7:00am to be exact.
Ava practically skipped over to the window and drew back the curtains, letting the daylight blaze through.
"So today is the day you-" she stopped talking as she turned around to face Justice who was sat up in her bed. "What the hell happened to your neck?!" She gasped.
"My neck?" Subconsciously, her hand moved to the spot where Luc had bit her and she shot up, running over to mirror.
"Oh my ..."
Her neck was bruised. A beautiful mixture of blues and browns and purples and greens. She should've been horrified. To anyone else, it looked as if she'd been assaulted but to her, it was his mark.
It sounded so stupid, even to her, but her pride swelled at the fact that he'd done it to her, and she couldn't hide her smile.
"Are you- are you smiling right now?" Ava stood over her shoulder, looking at her through the mirror.
"No .." Justice moved around her, walking to the closet to grab her robe. She could feel Ava's eyes on her but refused to meet them, feeling like if she did all her secrets would be spilled.
"What happened?"
"Umm ... I walked into something?" She tried.
"You're such a bad liar!" Ava narrowed her eyes.
"Then don't ask me questions!"
Ava continued to eye her as she fumbled through her clothes pretending to look for something to wear.
Then it clicked and she let out an even bigger gasp than she had done before.
"DID LUC BITE YOU?!"
Justice ran over to her and covered her mouth as she jumped up and down excitedly.
"Will you shush?!" She said before taking her hand down.
"OMG!!" Ava covered her own mouth at the news. "He really ... like, fangs and everything?"
Justice bit her lip and nodded, her body heating up at the mere memory of it all.
Ava sunk down on her bed, ogling at her.
"So," she shook her head in shock. "What does it feel like? Does it hurt?"
"Do we have to talk about this?" She held up a dress to Ava who gave it a thumbs down.
"Come on! You have to give me the details!!!" She whined. "Was he an animal? Was there blood every where? I mean, how did you even survive it!"
"Ava! Please ... let's just drop it?" She pleaded.
"Fiiiiine." She rolled her eyes and dragged her feet towards the closet, picking up a white midi dress and thrusting it in Justice's hands. "But we need to cover that," she pointed to the bruise. "We can't have you meeting everyone with that on your neck."
"Huh?"
"Your etiquette classes? You're meeting all the girls today."
Ugh. She'd been dreading them ever since Demetri had mentioned them to her.
Girls didn't like Justice. It had been that way since her first day of school and had only gotten worse over time. Vanessa and Michelle had been exceptions to the rule, and Ava obviously, but other than that they just seemed to hate her for no reason.
So how was she expected to get along with these girls in the etiquette classes? Not only was she the new girl but she was different. Not growing up in the realm would only isolate her further and she really wasn't looking forward to it.
"Don't sweat it." Ava rubbed her arm sympathetically. "They're not so bad. And Valentina will be there so at least you'll know somebody."
She gave Ava a look.
"She's really not that bad once she warms up to you." She rolled her eyes. "And you're practically her family now, so she has to deal."
She walked over to the vanity and started getting all the make up and hair equipment together, all the while ushering Justice into the bathroom with one hand.
"Hurry up and go get ready so I can start on covering that humongous love bite of yours."
"It's not-!" She gave up realising that denying it was useless with Ava. Once she had an idea in her mind about something, that was it. So if to her it was a love bite, then who was Justice to argue?
By the time Justice had gotten ready and eaten, Demetri had come to get her to escort her to her lessons.
She knew why, of course. It was to make sure she didn't bail, which had already crossed her mind at least 100 times.
"What's wrong with your neck?" Demetri asked as they walked together.
"Nothing ..." She said side eyeing him. God, how had he noticed? Ava had done a pretty good job of covering it up.
"Why did you ask that?"
"Well you keep touching it," he frowned. "Are you not sleeping well?" He pulled her to a stop examining her face.
She couldn't help but chuckle a little, which only deepened his frown.
"What are you laughing at?"
"When did you become so cute?" She tapped his chin causing him to flinch back a little.
"Cute?" He wriggled his nose, not sure how he felt about the word.
"Yeah," she smiled. "Look at you, all concerned about my sleep. It's adorable."
Justice did her best to hold back her laugh as Demetri's face contorted into utter confusion.
She loved teasing him, simply because of the reactions he gave. And plus, it was taking the attention off her neck ...
She started to walk on, only to have Demetri catch up with her and pull her back.
"I'm not ... cute." He shuddered. "A man like me can't be cute, Justice."
"But you are." She said adamantly. "You never used to be but lately, you've just been so ..." she made a cooing noise and squeezed his cheeks.
Embarrassed, he lightly brushed her hands off. "Oh, you're mocking me."
"Not even!" She shook her head in fake shock! "Demetri, it's not a bad thing for me to find you cute!"
"But it is though," he muttered under his breath.
"What?"
"Nothing," he said shaking his head. "And anyway, if anybody's cute it's you. With your big, innocent eyes. And your small stature."
"You making fun of my height now?" Her eyes widened with feigned offence. "We can't all be giants!"
"I'm not making fun, I said it's cute. It's not a bad thing for me to find you cute Justice." He said mockingly.
"Fight me!" She said putting her fists up. "Come on,"
"I'm not gonna fight you." He said with a smirk.
"You're taking shots at my height, while I was being nice," she pushed him playfully. "Come on, I'll show height doesn't mean anything when it comes to strength."
"Oh yeah?" He laughed. Demetri took two steps towards her picking her up by the waist and effortlessly swinging her over his shoulder, chuckling at her startled squeal.
"What now?!" He yelled over her squealing.
"Watch when you put me down!" She said through her giggles.
"Yeah, what you gonna do?"
Justice was just about to answer him, but a pair of feet came into her view. Hanging upside down, she looked past the feet up the long jean clad legs, lifted her head so she could look up the broad torso and finally lay her eyes on the person's face.
"Luc." She breathed.
Demetri whipped around at the sound of his name and turned to face his brother who was looking at them both with a straight face.
Had it not been for the slight twitch in his jaw that was giving him away, Demetri wouldn't have even known that he was annoyed.
"Not interrupting anything am I?" Luc asked being unpleasantly pleasant.
Justice tapped Demetri to let her down, and he did, reluctantly, but he did.
She landed softly on her feet, smoothing out her clothes as she tried to pluck up the courage to look Luc in the eye.
"I was just escorting Justice to her etiquette class." Demetri unconsciously reached over and tucked one of her stray hairs into place, and Justice watched the way Luc's eyes followed the movement.
She sensed a lot of tension all of a sudden and yet she couldn't pin point why.
"What a coincidence," Luc said in a bored voice. "I'm heading over there now. Father thinks it's important that I make myself known to all my 'subjects'."
"Fun for you." Demetri rolled his eyes.
Nobody said anything for a while. Justice stood there staring at Demetri because it was so much easier to look at him than to look at Luc. Just him standing in front of her had her face heating up and she knew she was blushing, she just hope that he hadn't noticed.
Suffocating under the silence, she decided to look at him, just to let him know that they would be going now but when she did, she found that no words could come out of her mouth.
Ugh, he was handsome. And something about the way he looked at her made her body tingle in a way that excited her. And she couldn't shake it.
"How's your neck?"
Luc reached out and stroked the exact spot, as if he memories where he'd left his mark on her.
Justice shuddered at his touch and closed her eyes for a second.
"It's fine." She whispered opening them again.
"No pain?"
She shook her head slowly, trying to control her breathing as his thumb still traced over her skin.
Demetri looked between the two of them, not really sure what was going on. He had an idea though ...
"We should go."
Justice snapped out of her trance, almost forgetting that Demetri was even standing there.
"Don't worry, lil bro," Luc purposely took a step in between them. "I'll take her."
"No, that's okay. I'm-"
"I wasn't requesting."
Luc glared at him almost daring him to argue and when he didn't, he took Justice by the arm and dragged her with him.
She looked back behind her, ready to give Demetri an apologetic stare but he had already gone.
She felt bad.
Why had Luc come and done that? It's not like they'd been doing anything wrong.
Once they rounded the corner, she plucked up the courage to ask him what his problem was, but Luc beat her to it.
Backing her up into the wall, he crowded against her, speaking in a low tone almost as if he only wanted her to hear him.
"What are you playing at?" His grip tightened on her wrist.
"What?" She said perplexed. "What are you-"
"You and Demetri, that's what I'm talking about." He hissed.
"What about us?" She said yanking her wrist of his grip and pushing him off her.
Seriously, one minute she was entranced by him and the next minute she found herself wanting to punch him.
"Is that why you came in playing the alpha male?"
"What?" He made a face.
"You tried to show him up! ' I wasn't requesting.' " she said imitating him. " And mentioning the neck thing? What was the need?"
"I don't like being disrespected," he said through gritted teeth. "And I don't share."
Justice looked at him and she was convinced that he had at least a couple of screws loose.
What was he even going on about? Share? Share what?
She scoffed. "I'm not even gonna pretend to know what you're talking about, but Demetri is my friend and I don't like the way you treat him."
Luc laughed with disbelief. "You don't get it do you?"
"Get WHAT?"
He shook his head. "God, I knew you were a bit naive but stupid?"
"Excuse me?" She took a step towards him. "Listen you-"
"My brother," he said slowly. "has a thing for you, Justice."
She paused for a second, just to gauge whether he was being serious. When she saw that he was she snorted.
"Yeah right!" She let out a laugh. "And you know what? Let's say that he did. So what?"
"So what?" Luc's eyes blazed as he walked towards her. "So what?"
In the space of two seconds, Justice was back against the wall and Luc was on her, invading every little inch of her space.
He bent down so that his face was level with hers and she had to remind herself how to breathe.
"I see that after last night, you still don't get it yet." He whispered.
Justice frowned as she looked up at him. No, she didn't get it. And she had the feeling that he wasn't about to explain it either.
He eased up off her and dragged his eyes over her before looking up ahead of him.
"Come on." He pulled on the collar of his top as if he was uncomfortable. "You're gonna be late."
*********************