Chapter 2
Wriggling out of Vycandor's hold, I dropped my hand and shuffled over to one of the enormous windows to watch raindrops begin to fall like tears from Heaven. The only thing that gave me any comfort was knowing that Thomas was no longer a murderous corpse. My blood had healed him just like everybody else affected by the Breath of Immortality. The poisoned youth would live, but that didn't necessarily mean they were out of the woods yet. Just like Carmen and the guys, Thomas was still suffering the effects of the eclipse. How long the drunken stupor would last, I had no idea. Moonstruck and delirious, he was most likely wandering around the city of Kalamazoo lost, wet, and freezing cold.
More than anything else, I wanted to find him. Needed to find him. But I also knew time was running out to save everyone already battered and scarred from the first attack.
I just wish I knew how.
Vycandor cleared his throat to get my attention. Meeting his gaze he smiled seductively as his eyes roamed slowly over me from head to toe, making my skin overheat with thoughts of joining him underneath the thick purple bedding to get warm. As if putting me under a spell, he had a way of engulfing me in a fiery passion that sent shards of arousal slicing through my entire body. The power rising, swirling between us turned into an intoxicating inferno. Unlike Thomas, I knew Vycandor could stand the heat. That's why he was the perfect match for me. He's the oxygen that ignited my flame. Together we made an explosive combination.
No wonder the Dark Ones wanted to keep us apart.
Snapping out of his spell, I shook my head knowing he was trying to disarm my warring emotions of desire mixed with equal parts of discomfort by playing the role of a darkly romantic, turn-of-the-century villain straight out of a gothic novel. He may be a stuck up snob, but he was a stuck up snob who looked suspiciously a lot like Dracula. Yeah, if Dracula were over seven feet tall and had creepy blue skin.
Other than that, they could've been twins.
Irritated, I tried to hide the fact that I was undeniably attracted to him by playing stupid. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Admiring you," he replied evenly, studying my wardrobe. Or lack thereof.
Something told me that wasn't a compliment. Not even close. Besides, I felt an insult coming on.
Cocking his head to one side, Vycandor gave a disapproving sniff. "What are you wearing?"
And there it is.
I wasn't about to get sucked into his little mind games again. At least, not on purpose.
"I'm wearing clothes." Returning the insult, I glanced at the red tassels on the shoulders of his formal white waistcoat and frowned. "Who are you supposed to be, Sergeant Pepper?"
Choosing to ignore the snide comment, Vycandor produced a red velvet cape with a matching hat from a bedside table and tossed it to me. "Here, put these on."
I caught them one handed and lied through my teeth. "Why? I'm not cold."
It was his turn to frown. "Chaos, I feel horrible about what happened to Thomas. Whenever life doesn't agree with me, I like to listen to music. Especially when it's raining." This time Vycandor reached down and produced the violin he'd given to me as a gift, holding it out in front of him like a peace offering. "Will you play something?" Before I had a chance to tell him exactly where he could shove that violin, he added, "Music is magic. It has the power to heal the soul. Perhaps Thomas will hear you play and be guided back to the castle."
Begrudgingly, I put on the cape and matching beanie, snatched the violin from his outstretched hand along with the bow, and promptly stomped outside without uttering a single word. I wasn't about to give Vycandor the satisfaction of agreeing with him. Although he did have a point. My heart soared at the thought of Thomas being able to hear me play a song meant only for him.
And I knew just the one.
A violin piece by his favorite composer. Bach's Air on the G String was a slow, melodically moving piece with an emphasis on a deep, swelling vibrato that continually grew in intensity. If there was ever a song with enough magic to help Thomas find his way back to me, this was the one.
I walked to the edge of the tower facing the city of Kalamazoo and began to play. Soft and gentle at first as an expression of the spirit, I allowed the song to sweetly build to a final spine tingling conclusion matched only by my yearning to be reunited with the boy I loved beyond all reason.
Before even reaching the end of the song, I found myself crying a molten river of tears mixed with near freezing rain drops that bathed my face. Clutching the violin to my chest like a security blanket as the final heartbreaking note echoed eerily in the darkness, I don't know what I expected to happen next.
I only know what didn't.
No Thomas riding up to the castle on a white horse. No Thomas scaling the walls like my hero. No Thomas wrapping his strong arms around me and wiping away all my tears.
I sensed movement and turned to find Vycandor standing right behind me. Peering up at him, I still felt that overwhelming drowning sensation whenever I looked deep into his eyes. Despite wishing he were Thomas, I found unexpected comfort in his arms as I allowed him to guide me back inside his crystal palace. Shedding the soaking wet outerwear, I couldn't help noticing that he was crying too.
Or maybe it was just the rain.
Curious, I had to ask. "How did you know where to find me?"
"I already told you," he whispered. "Your blood called out to me."
"What are you, some kind of vampire freak?"
He nodded. "Yes."
"I was kidding."
"I wasn't"
Narrowing my eyes, I groaned, "There's no such thing as vampires."
He nodded once more. "You are correct again. However, not in the way you think."
Confused, I drew my gaze from his remembering only too vividly what it felt like to be possessed by him. The moment I made the decision to share my blood with him in an attempt to save his life, I'd been so certain I loved him, so confident in my ability to accept him for who and what he was. Now that I'd finally come face-to-face with the ugly reality of his existence, I wasn't sure if I could accept it.
"It's all my fault this happened to you," I blurted out.
Something moved behind his eyes, something dark and dangerous. "I know what you did, Chaos. You force fed me your blood and now it flows through my veins like an angry river." Pausing, Vycandor placed a cold as death finger under my chin to tip my head up. Meeting my gaze, he breathed, "Your touch fills the emptiness you made me suffer when you turned me into a beast."
"I didn't mean to," I insisted. "I thought I was saving your life."
He blinked in surprise. "Chaos, do you have any idea what your dark gift has done to me?" When I failed to reply right away, he continued admonishing me. "First of all, I'm not a drinker. Drinkers prefer the method of drawing blood from their victims in order to absorb their life force. Drinkers are also not vampires like you would think. They're actually a highly developed breed of animal with the innate ability to shift into human form at will. When they feed, they don't just drink the blood of their victims, they devour them until there is nothing left. My family, on the other hand, has survived countless generations by drawing on the energy of our victims through look or touch without harming them. We're called drainers, also known as psychic vampires." Letting go of my chin, Vycandor leaned heavily against the bed for support. "Because of you, I am no longer able to feed off energy. I can't even remember how. It's almost like something inside me died. That's why I came to your house. Locked in pain and hunger since you left, refusing to curb my appetite with any other, I longed for one person – knowing my only chance at sustenance was to find you."
I knew I should have been repulsed by the thought of letting him feed off me again, but watching him struggle to control the hunger that burned through him because of me, made me actually want to relieve his pain. Tears of sorrow, tears of pity for what I'd done to him welled in my eyes. But it was tears of regret that burned the most. Tears for what we could have been if Serenity hadn't interfered and drove us apart. I blinked them back knowing if I let them fall now they would drown us both.
Carefully sitting on the bed beside him, I took his ice-cold hand in mine and felt his vitality ebbing. Only then did I remember Thomas warning me that my blood forever linked me to Vycandor. His very life was now bound to mine. While I was no longer subjected to weakness of the flesh, that same ability didn't apply to Vycandor. Somehow he still managed to retain his humanity despite Sebastian claiming otherwise.
Hope burned in my chest. That meant I still had a chance to save him. As long as his timer didn't go off and turn him into a warrior of death first. Blood bond or not, I couldn't just sit here and let him die. Even if I had come here to kill him.
Swallowing hard, I knew this was going to hurt. A lot.
"Okay, so how do we do this thing?"
His fangs lengthened in response to my question. A low growl escaped from deep in his throat as he slowly leaned me back against the bed and hovered over me. Heart threatening to pound out of my chest, he used the the tip of his forefinger to gently tilt my face away from his in order to expose the delicate curve of my neck. Lowering his head, he fanned my skin with hungry pants as he traced his tongue along my pulsating jugular vein. A soft, urgent sound escaped my lips in response. I couldn't help but shiver in delicious anticipation as I waited for him to satisfy his burning need to feed. He surprised me badly by placing a tender kiss on the sweet spot just below my earlobe first, before trailing a line of kisses all the way down to my collarbone.
Teeth grazing my skin his tongue found the hollow of my throat lingering there, stroking in circles, claiming my flesh before working his way back up my neck again. Bluring the thin line between pure annoyance and pure arousal, I muffled a cry into a nearby pillow. If he was trying to make me beg him to take me over the edge, it was working better than he knew. So much so, in fact, that the inner turmoil raging deep inside threatened to explode all over us like an absurd fireworks display.
Pushed to the extreme limits of my sexual boundaries, his tongue never stopped its gentle exploration as his feathery kisses stripped away the final hints of my hesitation. One thing became perfectly clear in that moment. I needed him as much as he needed me. I just never knew it until now.
His cherry red lips became more and more insistent, mouth suckling my neck as if trying to find the courage to consume my life force. Finally reaching his breaking point, he drew his head back like a cobra preparing to strike. Mouth stretched open wide as if he was about to take a bite out of a very large apple, he lunged at me -- driving a mouthful of fangs deep into my flesh. Pain mixed with intense pleasure washed over me, igniting a flame of dark desire. As pain quickly turned to passion, I felt the cool rush of his power crash into mine, felt his sadness for all that had been stolen from us, but more than that I felt his burning love for me and the overwhelming bond between two opposites deepening to dangerous levels.
More than a little dizzy from being possessed by him, I felt like I was floating in an ocean with waves of ecstasy crashing all around me when a familiar voice pierced the storm in my head.
"Chaos, what have you done?"
I gasped in surprise and sat up to find Thomas standing in the doorway.
All I could think of to say was, "Oh, shit."
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