Crimson Desire (6 page)

I flopped next to him and he touched my cheek with a cold finger and grinned. I wiped the blood from my mouth and exclaimed, “That was great.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it, my dear,” he uttered. “But now I must go, and you must face reality. Do not forget me and who I am. Ever. I am Darius, you lover, your sire, and your master.”

“Wait! Don’t go. Please don’t go yet.”

I reached out a hand as he faded away into the air, and my dream crashed into oblivion, and I woke up.

My head hurt like a bitch, and I felt nauseous. The door swung ajar, and Annabelle entered in a flurry of emerald fabrics and golden chains, Sang beside her on all fours with a leather collar around his neck. He quivered, and I rubbed my eyes and stared at him, an angry growl forming in my throat at the way he was being treated, treated like some animal, and I lunged at Annabelle with an enraged yell, hands sharpened into claws.

She evaded my attack, and I slammed into the wall of the hallway, blood pouring from my head. “You bitch! Sang doesn’t deserve this! Look at how you have him!” I seethed, my heart aching with the mistreatment that my lover was going through. Sang’s eyes were glazed over and dull with submission, and it sent me into a rage I’d never known before. I swiped at Annabelle again, and she tugged on Sang’s leash, and he yelped, and Grey grabbed my arms and twisted them behind my back painfully.

“What a naughty little girl you are,” Annabelle said and lifted my chin with a finger. “But, I suppose you are justified. To see your
lover
like this…” Her words dripped with malice.

“Bitch! Whore!” I hollered. “How dare you do this to Sang. How dare you.” Grey shoved what seemed like a metal bit into my mouth and tied it around my head. I thrashed about, but his hold was strong. I head-butted him, and he stumbled back.

Annabelle shouted, “That’s enough! Grey I want Lily prepped and ready for tea this afternoon. You shall take appropriate measures when necessary, yes?” She stared at me and squeezed my cheeks together. “I will tame you,” she hissed into my ear before walking down the corridor with Sang struggling to trot beside her.

“Now, little one, what did I tell you about disobeying the rules?” Grey said sternly.

I whipped my head back and around and tried to hit him, but he dodged and kicked me to the ground. “You need to learn manners. Proper manners.”

I wanted to be with Sang so badly. To free him from Annabelle, to free him from this humiliation. I gathered my aura, focused it into a flaming pink blaze, and directed it at Grey. Right before it hit him it dispelled into the air, and I watched in amazement as my aura did nothing to him.

“I can vanquish an aura, Lily. It’s one of my bloodline’s powers,” he said and picked me up over his shoulder and began to step into the corridor.

My muffled cried meant nothing to him as he kept walking, and I kicked at his back, pounded him with my fists. It didn’t affect him in the slightest as he entered a large steamy room and threw me into a pool of water.

“You may walk on your feet now,” he said sharply.

The water was a clear light blue color, very warm, salty, and felt good on my skin. The nightgown clung to me and felt awful in its wetness, so I stripped it off and didn’t care if I ripped it as it floated to the surface. I came up for breath and covered my breasts with my arms as Lord Grey peered at me from his perch on a folded chair beside the pool.

I wanted to say, “Stop staring,” but I was instantly reminded of the bit in my mouth and grumbled in annoyance. Grey snorted, and his steely eyes raked over my body.

In that moment, I felt truly helpless. I was naked in the enemy’s lair, gagged, and my powers would not work.

What the hell was I going to do now?

Two women entered what I guessed was the bathing room, and I sank into the water so they wouldn’t see my body. One of them giggled as she saw me, and the other one scoffed. They both had short brown hair, hazel eyes, and were of medium weight and wore the same black dressed with white aprons over them. One had eyes that were slit with boredom, while the other’s eyes were tender with kindness. I watched them intently as they stripped their clothes and brought two buckets over to the side of the pool, and one of them jumped into the water.

“I’m Johanna,” said the one with the gentle eyes.

The other woman stared meekly at the floor and grumbled, “Kristy.”

“We’re your ladies-in-waiting,” they both said at the same time.

I opened my mouth to say my name but couldn’t as my gag forbid me from doing so. Johanna and Kristy seemed almost identical, but Johanna’s features were softer, more youthful looking, while Kristy appeared older and more compact.

“We know your name is Lily,” spoke Johanna. “You’re more beautiful than I had imagined.”

I grunted and knew I had blushed, because I was such a sucker for compliments, goddamn my undead soul.

“Now, stay still as we clean you properly,” Kristy told me firmly, She grasped my arm and began to scrub it with a sponge. I breathed in through my nose and let them clean me. I couldn’t do anything else anyway. Grey watched me like a hawk, and I didn’t even know where the hell I was other than that it was a castle in Europe.

Johanna and Kristy scrubbed me all over with soap which smelled like vanilla and lavender, and I let myself relax as they did so. It felt good and calming. I couldn’t protest, either, because of this thing in my mouth and that uncanny power that Grey had to get rid of auras. So I resigned myself to the two women as they bathed me and fawned over my flawless “beauty.”

When the bathing was done, Lord Grey turned his back as I climbed out of the pool, and the two women hastily dried me off and wrung out my hair. I noticed my hair was longer than it had been a couple days ago; it swept below my knees in golden waves.

Johanna began to comb my hair as Kristy went and found an outfit for me, and I realized that Grey was gone. She then buckled a corset onto my waist and tied it which made me cough from the sudden tightness, but I quickly got over it. She then handed me a pair of lacey, white panties, and I stepped into them, quite embarrassed. She told me to spread my arms as she placed a gorgeous white silk dress onto my body with flared sleeves and a pleated skirt.

White. The color of purity. Ugh.

Johanna placed a ruby necklace around my throat and clasped her hands together.

“You have such gorgeous hair,” Kristy mumbled.

Johanna grinned. “There. All done. My, my, are you a sight to behold!”

She held up a mirror, and I stared at myself. I admit, I was gorgeous, and the dress fit my curves perfectly; my hair fell in luscious waves down my back. They offered me a pair of heels which I slid on and almost stumbled. I was not very accustomed to heels, but I had no say in what I could wear, I imagined.

“The Queen will be very pleased,” Grey spoke from behind me. I jumped and turned around to see him in a black suit and top hat.

“Now, Her Majesty will see you,” he announced and looped his arm around mine.

Oh, no. What in the world was in store for me this time?

Annabelle sat at a round coffee table with a steaming cup of tea in front of her. I was shoved opposite her and tried my best to put as much contempt in my eyes as I could. She sputtered and almost spit out her tea with a laugh as she looked me over in approval, nodding her head as if I was an expensive porcelain doll dressed in all the right clothes.

There was a large, green, lacey doily covering the whole table with smaller circular ones placed at each seat for a teacup and a plate. In the center of the table was a pile of delectable cakes and cookies, and around it were teapots and teacups placed in a mannerly fashion.

Annabelle clapped her hands and whispered something into Grey’s ear. He untied the bit from around my mouth, and I gagged to get that metallic taste from my mouth. My hands were free to do as I liked, and I poured myself a cup of tea and gulped it down in the most “unmannerly” way that I could.

“You look lovely,” the vampiress commented, taking another sip of her tea.

I grumbled, “Thanks, I guess. Where’s Sang?”

She set her teacup onto the table, and it
clattered
rather loudly. “Oh, you mean Chester. He’s in the torture chamber as he disobeyed me last night.”

I balled my hands into fists and let them go. “What are your plans, Annabelle? Why did you bathe me and dress me in this extravagant dress, and now have me over for tea? You know all I want to do is punch that pretty little mouth of yours and take Sang back to Darius’ mansion.”

She chuckled a high, melodious laugh that sent shivers down my spine. “Oh, my sweet, don’t you think I already know that? I’m torturing you right now by separating you from your precious Sang and making you have tea with me, your enemy. Isn’t it just beautiful?”

I crossed my arms, shook my head, and then took another sip of tea. It was Earl Grey and was very sugary, but it had some weird taste I couldn’t shake off, that I craved. I poured myself another cup and swallowed it down and then another and another as Annabelle watched with keen interest. I’d drink all her goddamn tea.

I ended up grabbing the whole teapot and drinking from it until the very last drop. Annabelle said, “You know why you enjoyed the taste of that tea so much?”

The color drained on my face, and I became stiff. “No.”

“Because I laced it with Sang’s blood and my blood.” She giggled and combed a hand through her long ebony locks.

I took my tongue and swiped the inside of my mouth, and it tasted so good, so sweet. I couldn’t make out the difference between Sang and Annabelle’s blood and that disturbed me. Was it because they were blood-mother and child that their blood was so similar? I didn’t know the answer, but I felt stupid for drinking the tea without even suspecting that it might’ve been poisoned or something. Ugh, sometimes I was such an idiot.

“Can I see Sang?” I asked in the most innocent of tones.

Annabelle titled her head in contemplation and replied with a giggle, “Sure, why not. I’m sure you’ll be so angry at the state he’s in that steam will spew out of your ears.”

She sounded just like one of the prissy cheerleaders I went to high school with.

I bit my bottom lip as she snapped her fingers, and Grey bound my hands behind my back. Annabelle led the way through a long corridor and down a flight of steps. It was eerily dark and quiet as I descended the steps. I heard the lash of a whip, and a person whimpered. When we made it to the floor, I saw Sang naked, back pressed to the wall, hands nailed down, and legs strapped wide apart on the floor. A large burly man flogged him with a whip, and I flinched as Sang cried out as it hit his chest and blood streamed down his torso.

“Stop it. Make it stop!” I begged. Annabelle smiled cruelly from ear to ear, and she got onto her knees and crawled to Sang, blood wetting the ends of her good dress as she did so.

“Oh, my poor, poor Chester,” she cooed and kissed his forehead. I wanted to hit her so bad at that moment! Just sucker-punch her right in that grimy mouth and knock a few teeth out for eternity.

The bitch. How could she do this to Sang? What had he done to deserve this?

“Bathe him and prepare him for my bedchambers tonight,” she said to the man that held the whip.

To Lord Grey she whispered, “Take Lily to my bedchambers right now and place her at the foot of my bed.”

She then went up the steps in a whirlwind of green fabric and high-heels
clinking
. Grey shoved me after her. I stared into Sang’s bloody eyes, and he stared back and gave me a smile before I was forced to turn around and continue upward.

Lord Grey covered my eyes with his hands as he pushed me along, and finally he let me go, mounted me on the bed, and tied my hands and legs spread-eagle at the foot and left me alone. My feet barely touched the blanket, and my arms were up above my head uncomfortably.

The bed was extraordinary. It was larger than a king-sized and had a soft blanket with red roses decorating it and plush pillows with golden fringes and silk cases piled by the headboard. The nightstands had dozens of vases of multi-colored roses and different types of flowers. Her wallpaper was black with lithe dragons flying across it, and at the head of the bed was a great mahogany board with a painted lion lunging out from the drawing. Her dressers were all decorated with scarlet cloth and were made of the finest wooded craftsmanship, the handles curling into claws and snakes. There was a great black filmy canopy over her bed in which I rubbed my head against and impatiently waited for someone to come into the room.

The arched window in the corner of the room by a red velvet couch was shaded by a midnight blue blind, and I didn’t know what time of day of it was; only it was late in the morning.

I sagged against my bonds and moved my wrist, an ankle, but that was it. Nothing else. Birds chirped their songs outside. One kept repeating itself which grew irritating. I kept my gaze rested on the bed, waiting for someone to come in. I didn’t know how long I stayed in that position, only that I nodded off a few times and my thoughts were focused solely on Sang and how I could get him and myself out of this mess.

Finally, the doorknob turned in the corner of my eye, and I saw Annabelle stride in with Sang beside her. He was dressed in a simple brown shirt with leggings and bare feet which were bandaged. Annabelle gently shut the door and came in beside me.

“My, my, what a trophy I have here tonight.” She sniggered and twirled around, dress flaring out like a fan before walking up to me and lifting my chin to look into my eyes.

“Your eyes are so defiant. I love that in a person’s eyes. It makes me want to break them even more,” she murmured.

“You’re a real nutcase, you know that, right?”

“Now, untie her and bring her to me,” she commanded, and Sang immediately unbound me, took me bridle-style in his arms, and gave me to Annabelle so that I was laid across her lap on my back. It was an extremely awkward position, and I scrambled to get off, but her right hand enclosed around my neck. She forced my chin up so that I could see her dazzling emerald eyes and cherry red lips. Her obsidian hair brushed against me as she moved her head to the side to get a good view of my face.