He placed both his hands on her knees. A lightning bolt shot up her legs into her gut, and what blood she had left in her body roared to life.
“I can’t resist you, Dara,” he murmured. “I have to have you, and only you. I’ve fed from thousands, but none of them hold a candle to you. I can’t live without you.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I want you for all eternity,” he told her, “and not just for feeding. I want you, Dara. I want to join my life to yours, so we can be together always. You’re mine, aren’t you, Dara?”
Did he want her body or her blood? She couldn’t think straight anymore.
He pleaded. “Don’t you want me, too?”
“Maybe,” she said after a time.
“I know you do.” He moved closer.
Dara struggled against the gravity of his presence.
She said, “You sway you want me to be one of your companions. But I’m not like all those others that give themselves away.” She couldn’t stop the buzzing in her head. It traveled to the far corners of her body and changed every cell of her being into something different.
“I know,” Andrei said. “That’s why I don’t want you to be just my companion; I want you to be my consort. I can’t keep my hands off you. My body aches for you. You wouldn’t turn me away, would you, Dara?”
He leaned down and rested his head against the inside of her thigh. Dara fought, but she couldn’t keep her thoughts clear. Was he going to bleed her again, or was he planning to take her to bed? She couldn’t say yes, and she couldn’t say no.
His hand ran up her sides to her ribs. Dara couldn’t resist. She had to have him. Her hands rested on his shoulders, and he fell into her arms.
He smiled, and the lamplight gleaming on his white teeth sent a shiver up her spine.
She dropped her hands, but Andrei took over where she left off. His lips hovered over her.
She threw her head back to meet his kiss, but he veered off at the last moment. He lowered his head and nuzzled the side of her neck. He stroked her sensitive skin with his rough cheek, and he breathed her in.
“So good,” he murmured. “So sweet and strong and good. You don’t know.”
At the last moment, he pulled back. “I can’t. You’re too weak.”
But Dara wanted it. “I can handle it. Take me.”
“No, I won’t bite you tonight,” he said, then he kissed the marks on her throat. “But soon.”
Chapter Five
Dara rested her head on Andrei’s chest. His hand caressed her cheek and brushed the hair back from her forehead.
“How old are you?” she asked.
“I don’t know exactly,” he told her. “I’ve been around for a very long time.”
“Have you had many other…?” She struggled to remember their conversation. “What did you call them? Companions?”
Andrei smiled. “Yes. Many. I hope that doesn’t make you jealous.”
“I don’t envy anybody who has to go through that,” she replied.
“They love it,” he told her. “They beg for it. There was a time in the past that humans would hold competitions for the opportunity. Many people died trying to win the right to serve our kind.”
“You’re making this up,” Dara shot back.
“You should have seen it,” Andrei told her. “There are still those who compete for the honor, though the rules have changed.”
“Why do they do that?” she asked.
“Why give themselves to us?” he asked. “Because your stories and films portray us as evil, people fear and hate our kind, but it wasn’t always that way. A thousand years ago, humans worshiped us as gods. We lived in the open. People knew about us, and they wanted nothing more than to serve us. We wouldn’t have taken people into our service against their will. Humans begged us to feed from them, for the simple pleasure of mixing their mortal blood with ours. They saw it as a way to achieve a kind of immortality.”
“And what about now?” she asked. “What happens when someone finds out about you?”
“The world has changed.” He shook his head. “We are very careful now. If word got out that vampires were roaming the streets, it would become difficult for us.”
“What about vampire hunters?” she asked. “Are there any?.”
He smiled. “Yes, there are slayers, but not as many as you might think. Most of the humans who find out about us wind up as companions. Once a person has been bitten, we don’t let them slip through our fingers.”
Dara shuddered. “That doesn’t sound so nice.”
“Being bitten is like a drug,” he told her. “You might be scared out of your wits the first time, but after a while, that fear fades away and you want it again. Pretty soon, it becomes normal, and then you don’t want to live without it. Once a person has been bitten, their benefactor brings them to Sanctuary, and that’s where they stay.”
“Sanctuary?”
“It is a place we have made our home.”
“And what of the people you take there to be your slaves?” she asked. “Do you put them in dungeons—”
“Nothing like that,” he said. “You’ll understand how things are when we get there. When we say they are slaves, it does not mean we enslaved them. They are slaves to their own desires and passions. You’ll see how much they covet their positions.”
“They all submit to being bit?” Before she was bitten, she didn’t know what it meant; all she knew was how much she wanted Andrei. What she felt the morning after was not an experience she ever wanted again.
He pulled back, and his startling blue eyes caught her in their power. “Is it really so bad? You might have been surprised when I bit you, but you can’t tell me it was painful. I’ve asked other companions, and they tell me the sensation is really rather pleasant.”
“Pleasant! Ha!” she scoffed. “That’s the last thing it is. It feels like dying. It feels like you’re being washed out to sea and never coming back.”
He gazed straight into the bottom of her soul. “That sounds a little like getting drunk. Some people pay a lot of money to get that sensation from drugs, or jumping out of airplanes. They get a thrill out of it. You weren’t expecting it, so you got scared. You thought I planned to drain you dry and leave you dead on the floor. But I didn’t, and I wouldn’t. You’re perfectly safe with me. I’ve drunk from thousands of people, and I’ve never killed a single one.”
“If you’ve drunk from thousands of people,” she asked, “what’s so special about me? Why did you choose me to be your consort?”
“I’ve had many companions in my life,” he told her. “But I never felt this way about any of them. I never wanted to join my life to any of them for all eternity. You are different.”
“How?” she asked.
He put his head on one side without breaking eye contact with her. “There is something about you, a power, an attraction. It’s raw and primal. I could never walk away now that I’ve fed from you. I wish I could, but something about you won’t let me.”
Dara frowned. She always thought she was just an average girl.
Andrei continued. “The companions worship vampires, but you look and smell and taste like something
I
want to worship. I want to surround you with gold and jewels to show the world how precious you are. I want everyone to know you’re the best humanity has to offer.”
“I’m just a girl from the suburbs,” she argued. “I’m not all that special.”
“To me, you are,” he told her. “To me, you’re the crown of humanity. And you’ll be much more than my consort. You’ll be my princess, and one day, my queen.”
Dara dropped her eyes and turned away. “Tell me more about this Sanctuary of yours. Where is it?”
Andrei shook his head. “Not so fast. You’ll see it soon enough, but you can never know where it is. Only vampires can know that. Every human being gets blindfolded on the way there to make sure they don’t reveal its location.”
“Every one of them?” she asked.
“Every one,” he repeated. “All except the ones who are born there, that is.”
“Humans are born there?” she asked.
“Of course,” he exclaimed. “Once we bring a human to Sanctuary, they stay there for the rest of their life. They marry, have children. It’s a good life for them.”
Dara frowned. She still had doubts.
Andrei raised himself up and looked down into her face. “It’s a glorious partnership. You should see it for yourself. You would feel differently about coming with me if you saw how the other humans live in Sanctuary. You would realize what an honor and a joy it is.”
“Is that what the other companions say?” she asked. “Do they say it’s an honor and a joy?”
“All the time,” he replied. “They wouldn’t have it any other way. Giving themselves, body and soul, to their vampire benefactors is the highest fulfillment they can hope for.”
“I’ll bet they just say that,” she pointed out. “They have to. Their lives depend on it.”
He shook his head. “We can tell when a person is lying or saying something they don’t really believe. They worship us, and they get more pleasure out of a vampire feeding from them than they do out of ordinary sex with another human being. That’s for certain. They fall on their knees and swoon just thinking about it.”
Dara blinked in astonishment. “I can’t believe that. I can’t believe any human being would actually crave being bitten and bled like that.”
“They grow up with vampires,” he told her. “They hear from their parents and everyone they know how glorious it is to serve the vampires and to experience the ecstasy of our bite. They dream of it all their lives, and when they finally earn the right to serve as a vampire’s companion, they experience all the excitement and rapture of fulfilling their lifetime ambition.”
The image of the mansion from her dream flashed before her eyes. Had she dreamt of Sanctuary? Were the contented, smiling people roaming the halls of that place really the companions of vampires? Maybe they were vampires, and they kept their slaves locked up in a dungeon. But she knew that wasn’t true. Sanctuary was just that, and its people were happy.
Dara gazed up at Andrei. She could almost understand how a human being could worship such a perfect being. If only she could rid herself of her terror. How could she really be sure Andrei wouldn’t tear out her throat and leave her a corpse? He assured her he wouldn’t. Why couldn’t she fall under his spell and leave these nightmares behind?
“You’re sure paint an appealing picture of it,” she remarked.
“It is appealing,” he told her. “It’s appealing to the people as well as the vampires. It’s a match made in heaven.”
“A match made in hell, is more like it,” she shot back.
“Why don’t you try it?” he asked. “You might like it.”
“Would you let me go if I didn’t like it?” she asked. “Would you let me come back to my old life if I wanted to? If I decided I didn’t want to be your … your consort anymore, would you bring me back and leave me alone?”
“You won’t come back,” he told her. “No one ever comes back. Once you cross that line, you won’t ever go back to the way you were before.”
“Are you sure?” She didn’t have to ask. She already knew he was right.
“I’m sure.”
She pressed against him, and he held her close.
“Would you leave everything behind for me, Dara?” he asked. “Wouldn’t you leave this pathetic life behind to be mine always? Wouldn’t it be worth a few bites to have me? Think of the possibilities. You would be my true consort, my princess, my future queen. No one would ever come between us. We would share a bond far beyond anything ordinary humans can experience. Wouldn’t you like that?”
“I might like it,” she replied. “But what about…”
Andrei interrupted her. “We could share so much more than just our bodies. We could be joined in the cosmic heights through a bond that lasts the rest of your life.”
“That sounds like marriage,” she said.
“Human marriage can’t compare with the bond between a vampire and a consort,” he told her. “This bond goes all the way to the soul. It transcends death, because the consort’s blood becomes part of the vampire’s body. The consort shares the vampire’s immortality. No other human being can hope for that.”
She shook her head, but she couldn’t answer. She couldn’t say no to him. She cast her mind back over the brief time they’d spent together, but she couldn’t remember a moment when she wasn’t already his. From the first moment she sat down next to him on the park bench, she was his.
Still, she wasn’t going to just give in. “I don’t know,” she started to say.
“Come with me to Sanctuary,” he urged. “Leave this life behind. I could promise you riches and luxury and power, but you wouldn’t believe me until you saw it for yourself. You’ll be my princess. You’ll be the envy of all, and you and I will be joined beyond life, beyond your wildest imaginings.”
“What about my job?” How pathetic all these excuses were. Her job was a joke. Her parents had died in a car accident when she was a teenager. She had nothing holding her here.
She knew she was going to agree to go with him. He had to know it, too.
“Do you love me?” he asked. “Do you love me with all your heart and soul?”
Her eyes swam with tears. “Yes.”
“You’re human,” he went on. “You love me with a human heart. But I’m not human, and my love for you is deeper and more powerful than anything you can imagine. Think of the love you could feel if you lived forever. Think of the depth to which you would cherish humankind. You would hold every human soul precious. You would love every single person on the face of the Earth. That’s how I feel.”
“Do you love me the same as every other person on Earth?” she asked. “How could you love me for myself, then?”
“Dara,” he murmured. “I do love you for yourself. I love you more than any other human being could. Let me show you. I’ll be your family—me and my kind. You’ll see.”
Her heart shuddered in her chest. “I don’t think I can do this.”
His eyes wouldn’t let her go. “Would you rather I walk out of your life forever? Is that what you want? If you don’t come with me, I’ll leave, and you’ll never see me again. I won’t come back to feed from you. You can go on with the same life you have now. Is that what you’re telling me to do?”
“No, but…” She faltered.
“Let me show you the wonders beyond the human realm,” he told her. “You can’t imagine how rich and varied the universe is outside this apartment. Come with me. You won’t regret it.”