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Dedicated to LameeceDaBookwurm for leaving me such beautiful comments ',..,'
Music; 'Living Dead Girl' by the marvellous Rob Zombie
Oh, and there is a sex scene in this chapter, I've marked it with black lines like this ___________ At the beginning and end. You know the drill.
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Animae damnatorum
Perdidit per Dogs Belli
Accepit
Pati magis
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Daegan
I sat on Callan’s bed like a statue as I tried to rein in the tangled mess that was my thoughts, whilst giving myself a stern talking to in the process.
You don’t want to go to Hell, then don’t bloody die! Whinging and moaning and crying isn’t going to help, so pull yourself together and get over it already.
I let out a shaky breath, “I think I need some more Brandy,” I smiled weakly. Callan obliged, filling my glass to the brim. I was surprised by how steady my hands were as I brought the glass to my lips and took several mouthfuls without spilling a drop.
“So who is Fext to you?”
“He’s the man who saved my life, so to speak. I would have died a little more... permanently if it wasn’t for him. He’s the King of the Seven Houses.”
“The King?” I asked incredulously, “Vampires have a Monarchy?”
“Not exactly, he isn’t a King in the sense that you’d bow or curtsey and call him your Highness, there just had to be a way of identifying who was in charge.” He shrugged his shoulders, “It does sound a bit silly in hindsight, doesn’t it?”
“Just a bit,” I giggled, “Couldn’t you have had a Guild or an Association or something?” It sounded so ridiculous I couldn’t stop laughing at the notion. Callan’s face began to grow slightly less pale as I clutched my sides with mirth.
“You’re blushing!” I exclaimed,
“I am not, Brandy gives me a ruddy complexion,” he protested, looking slightly embarrassed.
“You filthy liar, you’re blushing and you know it.”
He began to laugh with me, “Shut up!”
“Make me.”
My snickering was abruptly cut off as Callan took me at my word, one moment he was sitting opposite me and the next thing I knew I was flat out on the bed, the glass falling from my hand and shattering on the wooden floorboards. He crouched above me with eyes burning like liquid pools of night as he pinned me down before he pressed his lips to mine. I responded without hesitation, as I sought entrance to his mouth with my tongue.
He obliged with a throaty growl and I reached up to knot my fingers in his hair, pulling him closer as desire pooled deep within me. He deepened the kiss, increasing its fervor, his canines lengthening and sharpening until they sliced into my tongue. My eyes flashed open at the sudden taste of blood to see that Callans eyes were no longer black, they were red, blazing with need and passion as they bored into my own.
I tore my hands from his hair to grasp at his hoodie, unable to break away from his lustful gaze as I struggled to free the material from his shoulders, shredding it in the process before I wrapped my legs high around his back and yanked him down on top of me. Pulling his lips from mine long enough to shoot me a devilish smirk, he grabbed my arms and flipped us both over so that I was straddling him, somehow losing my dressing gown in the process.
I had never wanted anything more than I wanted Callan as I stared down at him, at his perfect features and blood tinted lips slightly parted as he panted for breath. I licked my lips in anticipation at the feel of him pressing up against my pubic bone through his tight jeans, discovering that my teeth had also begun to hone themselves into lethal points.
Taking advantage of my superior position, I released the button of his jeans with a flick of my fingers as he pulled his vest top over his head, leaving his hair in wild tangles across the bedspread.
“Are you sure you want to do this Daegan?” He whispered, “To lose your innocence to something like me?”
“There is nothing in this world that I want more,” I breathed.
He reached up to stroke my cheek as that irresistible smirk flickered once more over his features, “You realise this could possibly be considered to be Necrophilia, don’t you?”
I glanced downwards for an instant before dragging my line of sight back up, trying and failing miserably to pick my jaw back from off of the floor.
“Nothing dead has a... a... err... like that.”
Oh good god almighty... Wow, and then some extra wow on top.
“How old are you Callan? Two can play at this game you know, I could say you’re a pedo-”
He silenced me with another breathtaking kiss, yanking my borrowed tee shirt up and over my head as he kicked off his jeans, flipping us over once again as he moved his attention away from my mouth.
_________________________________________________________________
He rained a painfully slow trail of grazing kisses down my jaw and over my collarbones before taking my right nipple between his teeth, teasing and nibbling as my nails tore bloody gouges down his naked back whilst I groaned in pleasure beneath him. Moving his attention to my left breast, he continued his assault on my body and senses as he undid the knot I had tied on his pyjamas, sliding them gently over my feet and continued to move his mouth downwards, past my navel.
He spread my legs apart oh so carefully before lowering his mouth to my most sensitive area, moist and throbbing with need. I was unable to quell the primal growl that burst forth from my throat as his tongue licked and probed, my entire body seizing and quivering over and over before he slipped his fingers inside of me and I threw my head back against the bed with a scream of pure pleasure.
I let out a disappointed moan as he moved back up my body again, his nails digging into my shoulders.
“Sure?” He asked again, I just nodded mutely as he grasped my hips in both hands and thrust into me. I felt a fleeting pain as my virginity left me before he began moving rhythmically, touching and arousing parts of my body I never knew existed.
Pushing myself higher, I sank my fingernails into his shoulder blades until we were both upright on the bed as I kissed him greedily once more, tasting my desire on his lips as we toppled from the bed and crashed into the shattered glass on the floorboards.
“Oh Daegan,” he groaned out my name in pleasure, his movements becoming rougher, more urgent, more demanding as he picked me up, my legs wrapping instinctively around his waist as we smashed into the wall sending plaster flying from the impact.
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I clasped his sculpted cheekbones in both hands as we climaxed as one, making sure his gaze was trained on my face as I screamed out his name in ecstasy. He stumbled backwards away from the wall, still holding me to him as the orgasm he had just given me turned my body to putty in his embrace as we collapsed onto the bed together in a mess of tangled limbs.
I let out a contented sigh as I lay facing Callan, watching with interest as his eyes changed slowly from red to black.
“Are you okay?” He asked,
“I’m better than okay,” I smiled, tracing the line of his jaw with my fingertips, “That was amazing.”
I frowned as I noticed several shards of glass from the floor protruding from his arm.
“What’s wrong Daegan? Did I hurt you?” The concern in his husky voice was heartbreaking.
“God no,” I laughed as his expression relaxed in relief, “You’re covered in bits of glass.” I pulled one of the slivers from his arm, the small wound healing instantly as I held the glass for him to see.
“So are you,” he replied, “We did sort of roll around in it...”
I sat up and looked down at myself, “Is um... Vampire sex always so... destructive?” I raised an eyebrow at him and began to remove the offending shards from my skin.
“Always,” he purred seductively, red flashing through his eyes once more as I smiled shyly back at him.
“Good.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The last surviving rays of the weak winter sun were engulfed by the mountains, replaced by the soft glow of twilight as I sighed contentedly in Callans arms beneath the silken sheets. I wondered how it was actually possible to experience the worst and the best day of my life all in one go as I surveyed the wreckage surrounding us.
“What are you thinking about?” Callan asked curiously.
“Not a lot,” I mused, “Just that we’ve completely destroyed your room...” The door to the walk in wardrobe crashed from its last surviving hinge with perfect comedic timing. “See,” I smirked.
“Indeed we did,” he said, desperately trying to put on his best ‘sweet, young and innocent’ face. “But we had a damn good time doing it though, didn't we? No pun intended of course.” He buried his face in my neck as he laughed, giving me goosebumps of the nicest kind all over.
My expression returned to seriousness as I turned to face him. “What colour are your eyes Callan?” I blurted out the question that had been bothering me since Monday.
“Black.”
“But why are they black? Everyone else has normal coloured eyes. Shit, no, that’s not what I meant, I don’t mean you’re not normal...” I slapped my hand to my head in frustration.
“My eyes are black because Fext’s eyes were black, are black I mean. The blood that made me... what I am, it was mostly Demon blood. It still is. The others, well, it was my blood that made them Vampires. It’s more diluted so it doesn’t show through as much.”
I nodded in fascination, “What colour were they?”
“I don’t remember,” he lamented, “It’s been so long. I was born in fifteen-seventy, I was twenty one when I died.”
Cut down by another man’s sword at twenty one?
“I’m so sorry Callan, I shouldn’t have asked.”
“Don’t be daft,” he said as he pulled me closer, “I would have died anyway. If Fext hadn’t shot my opponent he would have decapitated me. Have you seen the Pirates of the Caribbean films?”
I nodded,
“The one where they’re on the stolen Galleon, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, I served on its namesake, the original Revenge. See this?” He pushed down the covers and ran his fingers along a jagged scar above his hip, “I fell out of the rigging,” he laughed, “If I hadn’t fallen on to a cask of Rum it probably would have become infected. They were good times,” he said with a chuckle.
“It’s just that... every now and again, your eyes have a flicker of green in them, they’re beautiful.” He smiled, “What colour are my eyes?” I hadn’t seen a mirror up close since we got here.
“They’re red Daegan, you’re hungry. You need blood.”
“People blood?” I ventured tentatively, afraid of the answer.
"People blood.”
I felt my sanity shatter all over again as fragments of the previous night flashed before my eyes.
“Why?”
“Because Vampires don’t eat bunnies Daegan. It doesn’t work like that, I’m sorry.”
I sat up, curling myself into a ball upon the bed.
“Why not?”
“The blood is all wrong, it’s the same reasoning behind why humans can’t have blood transfusions from animals. It isn’t compatible, The reason we need blood is because we can’t make our own, and now you’ve had blood that part of you has awakened. It won’t let the power you have slip away.
Our bodies reject foreign substances, infections, foreign bodies... They create antibodies to consume what shouldn’t be there. If you tried to drink animal blood then your body would kill it off before it could be absorbed, with people... well, the closer their blood type is to yours, the longer it will stay in your system before your body consumes it.”
Bollocks.
“Does that make sense?”
I just nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
We were interrupted by a loud banging on the door as Isaac burst into the room.
“You realise that the fucking ceiling is starting to fall in downstairs, don’t you?”
Callan and I both shrugged simultaneously with an unspoken “And what?”
He stalked over to the bed, pushing his face to mine as his lips twisted into a sneer, “We’re going hunting, living dead girl, and you need blood. It’s written all over your face.” He continued, “I want to massacre a Night Club, preferably Newport.”
“You can’t,” Callan stood up, squaring up to him in all his naked glory. “Gray isn’t back yet, and you know damn well you can’t clear a few hundred bodies.”
“Fine Cal, whatever you say Boss. No Night Clubs. What about the squat by the docks?”
“They taste bad,” Callan frowned. “I always get the urge to go out and score some smack afterwards.”
My eyes flicked between the two, the animosity between them was glaringly obvious.
“Well then, if you don’t want the clubs and you don’t want to go to the Docks, what do you want?” Isaac gave him a speculative look.
Callan’s eyes blazed red in the darkened room. “Castlewood,” he snarled. “Forensics are still all over the place, they’re taking too long, I left nothing there for them to find but they’re digging. Let’s keep it closed down for a while longer.”
That was Callan? I should have guessed, but why the hell was it like I was looking through his eyes as he killed people?
“Fine. Just put some fucking clothes on first.” Isaac spun on his heel and stalked out of the room, slamming the door closed behind him.
“He’s right,” Callan said gently, picking up his jeans from the detritus on the floor before sitting back down on the bed and pulling them on. “You need blood and you need it soon.”
The nasty feeling in my gut agreed with him, but my mind abhorred the notion.
Soon enough, I found myself clad in Callan’s skull and crossbones PJ’s once again as we descended the stairs into the main reception of the Mansion, Bette, Julius, Isaac and Ann all waiting by the door.
All six of us piled into a nondescript MG Metro where I found myself sandwiched between Callan and Ann. Isaac took the passenger seat whilst Bette sat behind the steering wheel, Julius sat inconspicuously in the rear footwell, sunk far down out of sight with his legs stretched out across our feet.
We tore away from the mansion, accompanied by the stench of burning rubber as we hit the lanes. Bette stuffed a tape into the stereo as we slalomed around a sharp bend, punching the buttons with her left hand as she spun the wheel in her right, Rob Zombie blasting from the tortured speakers.
We spun into the car park of Castlewood, screaming to a halt just before we got to the police tape which was still encircled the building.
Isaac threw himself from the passenger seat, before he moved to the other side of the vehicle to open the door for Ann. I was astounded by his chivalry for an instant before he slammed the door in my face.
Bastard. He did that on purpose. I swear I’ll have his bollocks again if it kills me...
Julius just chuckled as he moved into Ann’s vacant seat, reopening the rear passenger door to join the others in the shadows that clung to the building as he and Bette vanished into the night, closely followed by Ann and Isaac.
Thunder rumbled in the distance, signalling that another storm was closing in. This weather was getting creepy, it had been unrelenting since Monday and showed no signs of letting up anytime soon.
“Why did you come here? I mean, why does a four hundred year old Vampire even go to College?”
Callan turned to face me, “A lot of the mansion is crumbling away. We can’t really have people round to fix it up, it just arouses too much suspicion. I was going to try and learn about Gothic Architecture, techniques, building materials, try and patch it up a bit. That and I was just plain bored.” He leaned forward, cupping the back of my head in his hand before he kissed me passionately. “I’m not bored anymore,” he rasped.
I knew what he was going to say next, but that didn’t mean I was any more prepared to hear it.
“You have to do this Daegan, It’ll only get worse if you don’t. You saw me lose control, I went after the one person I never wanted to hurt, and that was you.”
He opened the car door and we climbed out into the rain hand in hand. As we skirted the edge of the building I noticed three police squad cars, a van and two nondescript black sedans parked by one of the side doors. Six vehicles, six drivers, six Vampires. It felt strange, thinking of myself as a Vampire, a creature which before this week I believed was the stuff of myth and legend as I reluctantly allowed Callan to pull me through a heavy fire door into a deserted hallway.
He gripped my shoulders, pulling me around so we stood face to face. His eyes blazed through the darkness, lips slightly parted as he breathed.
“Can you feel it?” His canines elongated as he spoke. I nodded. I could feel it, the need for blood, it began in the pit of my stomach - a slow burning ache, creeping into my veins. “It means that your body is eating away the last of its reserves. It will get more painful and it will consume you.”
I heard a soft thud from the next floor up, it was the sound of a body crumpling against a carpeted surface. My eyes widened as the scent of blood filled my nostrils and my teeth became razor sharp. I barely heard Callan promising not to leave me as I tore out of his grasp and raced in the direction of the beautiful sanguine aroma, a red haze descending over my vision...