by K A Young
"Nuh uh uh," I coo at him, taking his wrists in both of my hands and pinning them outward from the sides of his body.
Locaine grunts as I shift myself over his obvious arousal. "Oh really?" His voice is husky while he challenges me.
I run my tongue from the top of his belly button, flicking up the center of his chest, teasing him with every part of my being. His fangs are bared, knowing full well he does not like to surrender his dominance, his control.
My hands leave his wrists as I slide down my sweatpants along with the boy shorts underneath.
My breath is taken away as I find myself once again under Locaine, a cocky smirk set on his face. Pushing against his chest, I feel his lips on my earlobe, slowly nipping it as a pleasurable moan escapes my lips, arching toward him.
"See," Locaine's whispers into my ear, "now you did half the work for me."
"No," I growl back at him, pushing against him harder. This time, he is prepared, taking both of my wrists into his left hand, securely restraining them above my head.
I bite my lower lip innocently, giving him a sly look, "What now?"
"Oh, don't worry," Locaine slides off his sweatpants and boxer shorts, "I'm sure I can find some way to entertain you."
I feel his familiar hard member already at my entrance, coating himself in my own arousal. Locaine presses his forehead against mine, our eyes locking together when he declares, "I love you, Annika."
"I love you too, Locaine," I whisper sweetly before the animal took over me once again, "now fuck me."
"With pleasure," his hips rock into mine as I felt him thrust hard, burying himself deep inside me. He runs his right hand down the side of my rib cage, raking his nails against my skin until they come to my thigh.
He dug his nails into my thigh as I rasp out, "Harder..." my lust is growing the faster his pace picks up, wanting him to consume all of me.
My carnal desires are thrown over the edge as Locaine's fangs elongated, the tips pressing against my neck.
What I thought would have been pain, is in fact, pure pleasure; Locaine's fangs piercing into my flesh before clamping down harder. His warm tongue licks my blood as it runs down my neck in two small trickles.
I'm begging him now, wanting him to have every part of me, never wanting to be out of his reach again.
"Fuck! Locaine," I growl at him, my own fangs now growing in length. He releases his hold on my neck, grunting as I feel him expand, his member increasing in hardness while my own pooling fire explodes, clenching hard on him.
With a few strokes, Locaine's grip on my wrists loosen, letting me go. He sighs happily, pulling out of me and sitting up against the headboard. The traces of my blood creep from the corners of his mouth. I already feel the marks seal shut, holding Locaine around the waist as I lay my head against his muscular chest.
"I-I'm...happy," I can't find the right words, but happy is the only word that describes exactly the feeling of cloud-9.
"I'm glad," I feel Locaine's chest reverberate his strong voice, "because...we have one more loose end to tie up."
"What?" I ask him, pulling away from his chest to gaze into his deep blue eyes.
"Scratch that," Locaine sighs and closes his eyes, "two loose ends."
"I'm not sure I understand," I reply, confused by his words.
"I didn't kill your parents," Locaine's eyes snap open, taking in the look of shock on my face, "not yet anyway."
Chapter 25
-Annika
He what...
I'm briskly keeping up with Locaine as he walks down the hallway to the dungeon. This is the familiar pathway he once took for me. However, now we both head toward those who had tried to kill me for the choices I've made. For once, I'm not the object of his hate that he has his sights set on as we move quicker...I'm not the one being punished. Locaine wears dark cargo pants, a white tank top, and combat boots, having changed after we'd claimed one another in a now unbreakable bond for eternity.
I'm right at his heels, dressed in faded blue jeans and a black T-shirt, my feet are encased in boots I'd been given. I have tied my hair up high in a ponytail, as I feel it swing back and forth as we near the door.
Flynn and Henri are guarding the very door we are approaching, their gaze quickly lifting to see the two of us walking together.
He's expecting them to escape?
If I couldn't escape, what makes him think that they can? Actually...technically...I had escaped, it had been a moment, but it had still happened.
Henri backs away slowly, his eyes first meeting Locaine's before he regards me...differently. After a split second later, he says, "Locaine...Annika, they're inside."
He just said my name...
"Thank you, Henri," Locaine unlocks the door and opens it inward. As I walk behind him, passing in between Henri and Flynn, their looks are something I've never seen before.
Almost...respect?
Yes, it is.
The room is cold, the stone ricocheting the sounds our feet make off the stone floor. I hold myself back, as I glimpse my parents...both have been pinned to the stone wall with a chain around each of their necks. Heavy thick nails are hammered into their elbows and knees that keep them restrained.
Adam is standing near the wall...
He brings me back to the day I had arrived, and he had been watching over prisoners, only this time, the prisoners are my family. I don't even know what to think anymore, including whatever decision is about to be made regarding their lives.
Dry blood coats my father's chin, running down the front of the chain that binds his neck against the stone wall. My mother's eyes are watching us as we enter the room, shifting slightly when she notices my presence.
"Annika..." her voice drifts off in complete and utter disbelief like she sees a ghost. That's when my father comes to, lifting his gaze only to narrow his eyes on the both of us.
He doesn't speak, but his eyes hold nothing but pure hatred for who I am and what I've become...
"You don't get the privilege to speak to your daughter," Locaine backhands my mother across the face. She slowly brings her gaze back to us, the blood trails from her split lip as she releases a shaky breath.
I stand in complete silence, looking upon the ones I once referred to as my mother and my father...they are monsters...
...just like vampires, hunters are capable of being monsters...
Rynn startles me, the door opening to only swing shut behind her the second she steps through the door. She comes to a stop next to Locaine before informing him, "Everything has been taken care of."
"Good," he replies shortly, his temper on edge.
"What's been taken care of?" I ask curiously, not afraid to speak any more in front of the other vampires of his coven.
Locaine glances down at me before saying, "Where at the very least, your father's body can be disposed of."
"What!?" My mother screams. However, she's met with another slap across her face the moment the word leaves her lips.
"I didn't say you could talk!" Locaine hisses at her, grabbing the back of her hair and yanking it sideways to expose her neck. I'm almost positive her neck is going to snap at the force he is exerting, though I'm in shock when it doesn't.
This is what it must have looked like when Locaine attacked me for the first time. I'm glad I no longer must worry about that.
My father fights against the chain and nails, blood seeping from the outside of his wounds trying to protect his wife. It's incredible that he will bleed to save her, yet he shot me without a second thought...
Locaine's fury is unleashed on him, his eyes a black rose when he lashes out, "Oh, I see you have no problem jumping in to save your wife...yet you would kill your own daughter? You are a filthy, disgusting species. You treat your own kind worse than your enemies."
My mother flinches when Locaine steps back and locks his sights on her, her features shifting as she remains silent due to his threats. "What, you look like you have something to say?" He d
ares her.
I shift from one foot to the other, feeling uncomfortable, but at the same time, very angry as the words he speaks are filled with truth. They had tried to kill me for being captured by a vampire and then deciding to remain by the vampire's side...
...perhaps they had every right to kill me as I was now labeled a traitor in their eyes.
It's clear now...
"We would rather a hunter die by our hand than be turned into a sick monster like you! Crossing species is dangerous...for both sides," my mother spits her blood at Locaine, hitting the side of his cheek.
Locaine brings his hand to his face, flicking the blood away in annoyance as he states, "How very righteous of you..."
"How can you be so...so...so hateful!" I lash out, my mother, father, and Locaine staring at me. "You had NO idea what I went through, and then you come here, the only people I thought that might save me...though I didn't need saving any longer...but instead you try to kill me?!" I pause a moment, breathing hard before I snarl, "Marking me as a traitor...that's what happened...wanting to see me better off dead than in his arms."
Locaine's glint in his eye meets mine, and I'm the first to speak, "So...who dies first?" I ask, letting him know that I no longer hold feelings for the two individuals in front of me.
My mother gasps, almost like she shouldn't be killed as she wasn't the one to try to kill me...however, she did nothing to stop my father. My father tries one last time to break free of his binds but to no avail.
"You're...just like them!" My mother hisses at me, but I see the fear she is trying to hide in her eyes.
In fact, I can smell it...
I advance toward her, "YES!" I yell, the anger surfacing, "I'm so sick and tired of hearing everyone say that! Yes, I'm just like them!" I pause a moment before I say, "And do you know what? I don't give a damn..."
It's weird, finally admitting what everyone has been telling me since the first moments here. I'm just like them, but at this point, it's better to be like them...than to be like my parents who hadn't hesitated to kill both of their daughters...though I was brought back as their worst nightmare.
"I want my mother," I glower at her, but speaking to Locaine. My mother struggles, trying to shift away from my changing irises...the once pure white is now stained with bloody vengeance.
Locaine places a hand on my shoulder and replies with ease, "But of course...I was only ever truly after your father."
I'm about to take another step toward my mother, but I halt in my tracks. Sure, I want to rip her throat out now, but a surge of energy seems to take on a life of its own. I feel warm traces of particles within my veins, my blood magic is brimming with ascendancy while the spark within my chest heightens to a new power.
I clutch onto the power, raising my two hands to clasp together. I feel a slight tug, a pull sending me deeper into this bottomless abyssal regency.
I exhale sharply, tilting my chin up slightly and then closing my eyelids. Locaine's hand leaves my shoulder as I feel his presence pulling away from me, along with Rynn as they step away.
Fear?
Is everyone afraid of me now?
My eyes snap open and the look of complete horror and despair that fills my mother's face...I will never forget. I unfold my hands and snap both of my middle and thumb fingers together, a darker pull surging through my being.
Her agonizing screams pierce the dungeon, resonating off the stone walls and floor. Blood erupts from her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Her pain, her terror, it only eggs me on. The blood I control is her own running through her veins, no longer having to physically see it to manipulate it.
I clench both of my hands into fists, pulling them to the center of my chest, glaring with all the fury and rage I have toward the ones who 'loved' me.
I rip my arms away, spanning them to their fullest. My mother's veins rip outward from her skin, every...single...vein. She gasps once, her eyes stuck in a state of dismay. Her blood pools under her body, branching out toward my feet.
"Well..." Locaine's voice holds its own unsettling tone, "...that was new."
I turn around to see Rynn and Locaine standing behind me, awestruck as to what I've just done.
"Apparently...being a vampire not only heightened my normal senses...but my blood magic as well," I smile at the rush settling beneath my skin, the spark slowly flickering away. I have never felt so powerful in my life and more importantly...
...I'm not afraid any longer.
Is this what my mother was afraid of all those years ago?
I'm stopped mid-thought, wondering if this is what the dangers of crossing species means.
"Apparently," Rynn's voice is barely a whisper as she stalks over to Adam, hunkering down by the door. I mean, after what I did to my mother, who knows what Locaine is going to do to my father.
He's been waiting for this day for a very long time...
I release a sigh as Locaine walks right past me and I turn on my heels to watch him come face to face with my father.
They removed his tongue?
I finally notice as he is gurgling and hinting to back away from him. Locaine won't have any of it, the time for him to exact revenge is now.
His fist connects with my father's upper arm...going through his skin and then harshly snatching the bone, pulling it from his body. My father's howls are extraordinary...that must be excruciating pain. At least I made my mother's death quick.
Locaine never used his full strength on me...ever.
I see the raw power behind him as he begins to tear apart other bones from his legs and remaining arm viciously while my father cries out loudly.
I understood something at this moment...
...if Locaine had ever wanted to kill me, at any point in time...he would have. There is no question about that as the horror continues. The savagery behind his movements now is undeniably impressive.
"Now, I'm going to kill you, just the way you loathe so much," Locaine's voice is fierce as he plunges his fangs mercilessly into my father's vulnerable neck. I watch him struggle against Locaine, unable to get away from the very thing he hated so much.
With one final groan, Locaine rips the front of my father's neck wide open, the blood pouring to the ground as he wouldn't even let his bite decide my father's fate alone. I glance at him, the blood marring his face, his eyes changing ever so slowly back to their icy blue.
If it weren't for the chains and nails that bolt my parents' lifeless bodies in place, they would have collapsed to the ground. I place a hand on Locaine's cheek and whisper, "You finally got what you wanted..."
"My revenge is complete," Locaine smirks at me, wrapping his arms around my waist and whispering, "I have you as well...I didn't expect that."
"I can relate," I reply, thinking of how I was going to slaughter this coven. Instead, I have become a part of his coven.
Forever.
Chapter 26
-Annika
Locaine had finally completed his revenge, and I was okay with that, never realizing I would take part in it until the moment arrived. It's a bizarre sensation, these new and heightened senses that I possess. What scares and thrills me at the same time is how my blood magic drastically altered during the transformation process.
"Little hunter?" Locaine asks, walking up behind me as I stand in front of the mirror, admiring the sapphire dress he had arranged for me to wear. He wraps his arms around my upper arms, letting his chin rest on the top of my shoulder while breathing in my scent deeply.
I close my eyelids, leaning back into him as I return, "Yes?"
"Are you ready to be presented properly to the coven and to the leaders?" Locaine's voice envelopes me, creating a loving and robust barrier around the two of us. I'd almost forgotten that this time around, I'm not sure what the leaders' reactions will be.
"I don't want my life in jeopardy from the hunters again..." my voice trails off, breathing in sharply as his hands trail the sides of my body, resting gently, but firmly, on my
hips. His icy orbs meet my eyes reflecting at him in the mirror. He appears to be in deep thought, his grip altering slightly as I see something cross his features.
"It will just be here, with the leaders," he replies softly, placing a kiss on the side of my neck. The warmth lingers where his lips had pressed, my breathing coming short. Security has increased since the day my parents managed to infiltrate his mansion.
If my parents had come for me just because they saw me over the live broadcast, I can't begin to imagine what might happen if anyone else saw me...as a vampire. It worries me that they might come after my new family, and I don't want to take any chances. I know it will be hard enough with just the coven leaders to recognize me as Locaine's queen, but the hunters who will now blatantly see me as a traitor...I don't know.
Queen?
Can this really be happening?
First, I was nothing more to him than a slave, slowly learning who he was and coming to trust him. Next, placing my life in his hands, only to have it almost taken away from me...to realize that I will now spend eternity with him.
I'm glad it is with him.
"Locaine?" Rynn's figure appears in the doorway, her long red hair falling down her chest in tight ringlets. She is wearing an emerald green dress, reflecting her eyes beautifully. She smiles softly, admiring the two of us.
"Have they arrived?" Locaine lifts his chin from my shoulder and glances at her, his hands still holding onto me.
Rynn nods lightly, Michael walking up behind her and stating, "Everything is all set in the ballroom. The leaders have gathered and are just awaiting your presence."
My heart speeds up, frightened of what the coven leaders will think of Locaine's decision and how they will see me. Will they view me as a threat? Or will they accept me into their world even though I still retain my hunter abilities?
"She looks terrified," Rynn motions toward me, her features shifting showing signs of concern. Locaine's eyes glance away from Rynn to see her keen observation. She isn't wrong...I'm petrified of what might happen.