Crimson Desire (9 page)

I waited until she let go and let my head rest against the horse's side.

Annabelle kicked and off we went back to the castle. The sun was a tiny orange glow on the horizon as the moon began to fade into the sky. Somewhere along the ride, I lost consciousness and cursed myself for my own stupidity.

Sometime later, I awoke and found myself suspended off the ground in a pitch-black room. I had an itch on my nose and went to relieve it, but my arms were stretched above my head, wrists bound together by a metal chain. I had on a white dress shirt with long sleeves that were buttoned on the ends and nothing else. The shirt was see-through, and my cheeks burned with embarrassment as a door was swiftly opened and closed. A woman walked in and stood in front of me.

Her hair was a light golden color and rippled across her back to below her knees in a spectacular wave. A braided strand circled the crown of her head like a halo, and she looked like an angel with her dazzling deep sapphire blue eyes and very curvy figure. The silk dress she wore was the same brilliant color as her eyes. It was as if a goddess was before me, with her tan skin and rich ruby lips, eyelashes so long they brushed her brows.

“Hey, Lily. So, this is the first time we meet. I’ve heard so much about you from Anna that I was excited to see you, but I’m really disappointed that you tried to get away. That’s bad.” She pouted her lower lip.

I laughed and kicked out my feet, but she was already half-way across the room. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

She wiped her dress with her hands as if it was dirty, which it wasn’t, and stepped in front of me again. “I’m Priscilla, one of Anna’s blood-children. I hear you’re Chester’s lover now. I was so sad to hear that. I wanted him all to myself, but Anna loves him too, so I thought we’d share.”

“I don’t share,” I growled.

“You will,” she sighed and came beside me. “It’s been three days since you were taken here. And since you’re a little newborn kitten, do you know how you’ll fare without your blood-master’s blood?”

Priscilla sniffed my neck, and her tongue darted out and flicked at my skin. “Mmm, you smell so good.” Her cold breath tickled my throat, and in seconds, her fangs pierced my throat and dug into me. I whimpered as she drew on my blood, and it was painful, so incredibly painful my whole neck throbbed and ached, and tears began to drip down my cheeks. I’d never had someone bite me and had it hurt as much as this.

“My bite isn’t pleasurable like your master’s,” she uttered cruelly. “It’s more on the painful side.”

When she was done, she circled me as if examining my body, lips bright red. I shut my eyes as her fingers traced lines on my legs, feet, stomach, and the flat center of my chest. Then she beamed at me with a fascinated grin and chuckled as she walked to the door and left me alone.

Moments later, the burning seared through me, a roaring inferno.

My throat was ablaze and bone-dry with thirst. I shook uncontrollably, tossed my head wildly back and forth, teeth clenched together as the desire ripped through me, became me. I was hot, so hot; bullets of sweat poured off my skin and soaked the long-sleeved shirt. I writhed against the chains, yanked and yanked, but it was useless. I began to pant as the intense thirst overcame all my senses, devoured me whole. It spread like wildfire through my veins and consumed my body as if it were a raging sandstorm.

I knew my eyes glowed a bright scarlet red like Sang’s. I was exhausted by the heat, and so tired from its clutches. It pulsated and grew, grew so fast I felt I was on fire. My throat ached and yearned for that sweet thick liquid. I cried out as the need became dreadful, unbearable.

I was startled when I finally realized that Annabelle was beside me, cool fingers roaming across my right leg. She glanced up with a beaming smile and whispered, “Paybacks are a bitch, aren’t they?”

“Not so much a bitch as you,” I retorted weakly.

She stood up on tiptoe, and in an instant, she clamped her jaws on my left breast. It was such an intimate place to touch, such a humiliating place to be drank from by
her
. Her fangs pierced through the shirt and into the skin. Blood dribbled down. I whimpered as she nursed off me, sucked my blood hard and fast. I couldn’t help but moan at how blissfully good it felt. She had mitigated the throbbing in my throat but intensified the hunger within. Pleasure swept through me from my head to my toes. When she was finished, she yanked free and the blood came out in quick, small streams.

I was engulfed by the need, the need for another’s blood, now more than ever. My throat was a torch, and I struggled against my bonds to get one drop from her, just one measly drop to stop the excruciating hunger that roared within.

She turned and began to leave the room. I made little crying noises so that maybe, just maybe, she would take pity on me and give me some of her blood. Instead, she stopped in the doorway and waved a hand. “I hope you learned your lesson.” And then she left.

I was alone now. Just me and the need inside. The infinite thirst. The wicked thirst for blood.

I grunted and twisted my hands, pulled and pulled but accomplished nothing. I took in shallow breaths, chest heaving. The sight of my own blood excited the hunger and made it fiercer. I screamed as it enveloped me completely and changed my throat into a burning hell.

I slipped in and out of consciousness dozens of times before the door handle wriggled and pushed open. In strode Johanna and Kristy, eyes downcast to the floor.

They unlocked the chains binding my wrists together and threw them to the side. I sagged into one of their arms. Cool water splashed onto my face, and the bloody shirt was stripped off of me as more water washed onto my body. I groaned and wanted to speak, but I was tired, so sleepy. I was set onto a plush bed with the most amazing pillows and let myself sink into it.

My vision soon dotted with darkness and became totally black as my mind dissolved into heavenly slumber.

I was woken by Johanna calling my name sometime in the night. I groaned and pulled the blanket over my head, but she yanked it down and grabbed my legs.

“Come on, Lily. Annabelle requests your presence,” she grunted as she pulled me onto the floor.

I thudded off the bed and rubbed my behind, peered up at her with my most annoyed look—the one with the knit eyebrows. She scoffed and began to laugh. It wasn’t funny. I was being serious here! She stopped laughing and took hold of my arm.

“Please, Lily. I don’t want to be tortured again.”

“You were tortured? Why? When?” I asked.

Tears welled in her eyes. “For your escape. I was one of the people entrusted to look after you along with Kristy, and I let you escape. I was,” she whimpered as I assumed she was remembering the ordeal, “tortured really bad.” She lifted the hair from the back of her neck and showed me a rose shaped brand. Then she peeled back her skirt and showed me another brand, this one on her inner right thigh. I gasped in shock and anger flared through me. How could someone do this to another person?

Oh, right, we were talking about Annabelle here. The wicked bitch of god-knows-where.

And Annabelle had known about the “escape” anyway, so why even hurt Johanna and Kristy to begin with?

Oh, right I almost forgot again. We were dealing with Annabelle.

“I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” Tears dripped from my eyes, and I clenched my hands into fists.

She sniffled. “Will you come with me now?”

I nodded my head. “Yeah.”

She offered me her hand again, and I grasped it, and she hefted me up. My legs were wobbly, and I stumbled into the bed, but Johanna had a firm grip on my hand and wouldn’t let me fall.

“Are you sure you can walk?” she asked, voice dripping with concern.

I was about to say yes when my knees gave out, and I crashed onto the floor. She quickly scooped me up into her arms and walked briskly down the lit corridor. I was embarrassed I had to be held like this, but my legs just wouldn’t work, and I wondered why.

When Johanna was right outside Annabelle’s door, the hunger began to tear through me. I snarled in desperation but bit my lower lip to keep from screaming. The burning ignited into life inside me and engulfed me in a fiery field, and I wildly thrashed in Johanna’s arms. She was fast and opened the door, gently set me on the bed, and turned to leave.

“Oh, Johanna, wait,” said Annabelle.

The maid turned around and her eyes locked with her mistress. “Yes, my queen?”

“You failed to knock before you opened the door,” the mistress said curtly.

Johanna’s face became pale as a ghost. “I-I’m very sorry, my Queen. She was flailing around and looked in pain, so I hurried to get her in here.” She bowed her head.

Annabelle glided to her and clapped her hands on either side of her face. “Johanna, Johanna, no need to be so bashful. I won’t do anything bad to you. Just maybe a bit of punishment later, okay?”

Johanna made a small whimpering sound and nodded, hazel eyes glossy. Annabelle shoved her through the door, closed it, and then fixed her full attention on me. I lashed about, gripped by the intense burning need. She came over and caressed my forehead.

“Your eyes are red, and your fangs are bared. Good. You’re readier than I thought you’d be. But then again, you haven’t drunk in more than three days and certainly not from your blood-sire.” She chuckled.

Three days? I was in that hellhole for three fucking days?

I pulled myself up so that I leaned into the headboard of the bed and panted. It creaked as Annabelle swiped the curtains away and sat on the mattress beside me. She eyed my body up and down, and I realized that I was in a lacy pink nightgown with a butterfly print. She reached out a hand, twirled her fingers in my hair, and rubbed it against her cheek.

She mused with a wide grin, “What should I do with you now?”

I shuddered with immense pain and cried out. Annabelle’s neck looked so good, so delicious. I just wanted to set it free, let the blood rush out in a scarlet river.

“Oh, I know! Let’s go on a hunt,” she said.

I choked, “A-a hunt?”

“Yes, a hunt. It’s when vampires go out and find a human to feast on. It’s nothing new, just that your master wanted to retain at least some of your innocence. I’m going to break you of that and show you how cruel we can be, how monstrous we can become because of our need, the hunger for blood inside us. I’m sure that soon you’ll grow accustomed to it and won’t be able to wait until the next one.”

“May I please go along, my Queen?” asked a familiar voice. I searched around the room and noticed Priscilla sitting on a black love seat. Her corkscrew blonde hair was tied in tiny little braids, and she was dressed in a tight dark blue A-line dress and white pumps. Her face was as angelic as the first time I had seen her. It seemed as if it was glowing.

“Of course you can come, Priscilla,” she replied.

Annabelle stood, and I glimpsed what she wore; a black V-neck polo shirt with dark jeans and stilettos. I moaned in my misery and just wanted to pounce on her and drain every last ounce of her blood.

Priscilla’s heels clopped against the carpet, and she came over, lifted me from the bed, and held me in her arms. The pain I felt, the extreme thirst, overtook my entire body, my entire being, and strangled me silently inside so I couldn’t speak.

“All ready to go?” asked Annabelle.

Priscilla smirked. “Of course.”

“Then let the hunt begin.”

* * * *

My vision was red and blurred, and my mind reeled with the thought of blood. Annabelle had me wrapped in her arms as she flew from the castle into a quaint little town. Priscilla trailed behind us, her dress bellowing in the wind.

“I can fly,” she told me, “For just a little bit if I focus very hard.”

As the trees thinned out and we neared the town, Annabelle landed on a sidewalk. She squeezed me tightly before letting me go, and I stumbled onto the hard cement. Priscilla arrived soon after and rushed to help me up, but Annabelle held out an arm and blocked her from doing so.

I was dizzy and nauseous, and my head spun. The thirst roared inside of me, clawed at me like a wild beast from within. I searched everywhere for a suitable meal but found nothing.

A voice inside my head screamed,
You can’t drink from a human! You can’t! Don’t you want to retain all that you have left as a human? Don’t you still want that piece of you that’s still mortal?

I laughed and spoke back to the voice, “I don’t care. I really don’t fucking care anymore. I must…I have to drink. I have to drink. That’s all there is to it.”

Annabelle squinted her eyes and did the same, and then, she sniffed the air and said, “Lily, there’s a man coming our way. Can’t you smell that delicious blood streaming through his veins?”

I inhaled deeply and recognized the scent of a man. It was husky and smelled of alcohol, but I didn’t care. The thirst throbbed inside me; every cell ached and sang through my bones. I watched as the man approached on running sneakers, his breath reeking of beer.

He was rather young and had a thick head of brown curls. The rest was fuzzy and scarlet as my vision honed in on the one thing I was interested in—biting into his neck.

Right before he passed us, I pounced on top of him. He struggled and yelled for help, but I quickly sank my fangs into his throat. I tore at his flesh and buried deep, held his arms down and straddled his legs. He immediately ceased all action. His body went limp, and his eyes rolled with ecstasy as I greedily pulled at his blood, savoring the carmine liquid and relishing the exotic taste. I drank and drank, and I didn’t know why, but sometime later, which was like years, I yanked free of him and licked my lips in contentment.

My vision cleared, and I felt like myself again. However, when I stared at the man, I shrieked in horror. He looked like a shrunken prune. His cheeks and stomach were caved in and his flesh hung in sickening flaps on his body. I strained my ears for a heartbeat but heard nothing.

My god, what had I done?

Annabelle and Priscilla strode to me and caressed my face, my shoulders with light fingers. They told me I was “such a good girl” and drowned me in some kind of praise.