"You?" she breathed, momentarily distracted from her physical ache at the sight of the man from the library. His lips were still swollen from their embrace, and his eyes were so heavily lidded she could barely make out the molten brown. His chest inflated and deflated at the rapid succession of breaths as he panted before her, like an animal in heat or on the hunt.
There was a desire in her that could not be so easily forgotten, even at the revelation that The Immortal and the man from the library were one and the same. Her instincts were divided, one longing to reach for him and feel the closeness of his body to hers, and the other to cover her exposed flesh before the not-so-anonymous immortal man before her. She chose modesty.
"You may have what you came here for," he began, his eyes searching hers rather than her body. "You will have the resources you need to live well, to never again feel hungry or find yourself in need of shelter. In exchange for your virginity I will give you a taste of immortality. Do you agree?"
"Yes," she answered quickly, breathlessly, and without any hesitation. The promise of never returning to her life in Raving Thistle was enough for her to say yes to anything, but the anticipation of enjoying the exchange made it all the sweeter. "Yes, I agree."
It was then that she noticed they were in a bedroom similar to the one she'd slept in for three days, only far grander and larger in scale. Behind him was an immaculate bed so tall she'd need a ladder just to climb into it. It was wide enough to sleep half a dozen people. When her eyes returned to his face she was surprised to find him looking out past her shoulder. When she turned to follow his gaze she saw the old man in his equally old suit, nodding wordlessly, obediently.
"He will escort you back to your room," The Immortal spoke quietly, the depth of his voice betraying his cool demeanor.
"My room?" she echoed uncertainly. "But I thought-"
"When I want you," he whispered forcefully, his eyes ablaze even in the dim room, "I'll come for you."
Frustrated confusion simmered beneath the surface of her own incomprehension. "We made a deal!" she protested.
"And that arrangement will be honored to the letter, Rielle." The Immortal took a step forward, the warmth of his body hitting her once more like a wall. "You will have everything you desire, but the guarantee of a life lived long and well does not extend beyond the barriers of this place."
Everything inside her dropped, tumbling from their place of security into the unknown, her tears included. She resisted the urge to wipe away the moist droplets from her cheeks. "I can never leave?"
"Until you are relieved of your virginity - which I now own - you will remain here. With me." His eyes swept down, taking in the sight of her naked body from breast to thigh. He leaned in and brushed his lips gently across her ear, as he had done before, and she closed her eyes at the sensation of her skin awakening once more. " It was you who said that if I could give you what you wanted then I could do whatever I wanted with your virginity. We never agreed as to when." He quickly kissed at her ear, his tongue caressing over the folded ridge of skin before retreating. "The world is a far better place in here with me than it is out there. Trust me."
When she opened her eyes she was back in her own room, the crackling fireplace occasionally interrupting the silence. She was alone.
"Shit! Doctor Lewis!" There were several grunts of, 'Hey!', 'Watch it!' and 'Be careful, Amanda!' as she rushed out into the hallway in search of the attending physician. "Has anyone seen Doctor Lewis?"
"I think he's in his office!" someone called out. Without acknowledging the owner of the voice Amanda sprinted around a corner and down another two corridors before sliding to a stop in front of the doctor's office door. She knocked vigorously before bursting in through the door, startling the man sitting behind the desk, his eyes squinting as he read something on a computer screen.
"She's gone!" Amanda managed to breathe, her heart pumping furiously in her chest from the full speed sprinting.
Doctor Lewis' eyes drooped in incomprehension, a scowl twitching at his mouth. "What?" he asked dumbly.
"The young psych patient lying comatose in room 329? She's gone!"
Doctor Lewis moved as though a fire had been lit under his feet. He stalked down the corridors to the patient's room, Amanda following him like a frenzied shadow. Several nurses looked up at the commotion, whispering amongst themselves. He stopped at the threshold of the empty room 329, his face agog with shock.
"Call security and tell them we have a Code Yellow!" he shouted towards the gathering at the nurse's station. "Get me the name of every person on staff for the last twelve hours, and find out who this patient's emergency contact is."
"What's the patient's name?" A nurse called out, hovering above a computer keyboard.
"Nullus. Rielle Nullus."
* * * * *
To be continued…
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(Psst! Hey! There’s a preview of OBSERVING RIELLE on the next page!)
Preview of OBSERVING RIELLE
The allure of virgin blood was Death's most captivating song, and like a siren she sang to The Immortal, the melodious tang of coppery sweetness igniting a desire within him to drink. Two floors and thirty feet above him Rielle's beating heart reverberated like the breath of a wanting lover, enticing him. Only when she slept did the resounding summons quiet to a placid beating, and in those long stretches of time The Immortal could concentrate and consider the scant options before him.
His greatest fears had come to pass when he touched Rielle and her body responded. The test was the same as it had been with every other woman who arrived in supplication, their virginity a gift they were willing to sacrifice. It began with a touch of his palm near her center, calling the blood to flow towards him until he could feel the heat beneath the surface of her skin. If she were not as pure as she claimed the blood thinned, its tainted nature flowing like a lazy river. On these women he could sustain himself. It was the purer ones whose blood thickened at his touch, in his mouth. Their taste was honeyed by their purity, and he drained them with one drink, taking their life force into his own until Death claimed them into the beyond.
Occasionally a woman's reaction to this test was beyond qualification and she would ripen at his touch, her body blooming with a need his own desires reciprocated. But with the consummation of those desires came the primal need to feed, and it was always in his arms that she would expire, the last drop of ecstasy on his tongue in the moment after rapturous zenith. Hundreds of years had been required for him to discipline his hunger to consume only after his lust had been satisfied, no matter how a woman's blood called for him. It was far easier to keep the less pure ones alive and feed from them longer, but with the plague of Liberation claiming more of the pure with every passing generation his offerings were less and less frequent.
Replenishment was key. At one point he'd taken to collecting his sacrifices and providing them with anything their hearts desired. Food and drink, entertainment, the finest jewels and trinkets, anything they wished for. The pull of Liberation, however, would seep in through the roots at the base of the mountain where Raving Thistle thrived and climb its way up into his harem, infecting his food source with the lust and desire that tainted them beyond repair. When the women realized that their blood could no longer nourish him, they begged for forgiveness. Not a single one of them could resign themselves to a fate without his generous resources, and more often than not would offer their bodies instead.
"Why would I want what another has taken?" he'd ask before dismissing them back to the lives they came from before their offering, never once caring for their fate once they left the safety and protection of his home.
Only when the numbers
in his charge dwindled did he take to hunting for fresh purity. Liberation had only grown more potent when it left its infancy, and not even he was immune to the pull of lust - lust that led to a great hunger only few could satisfy. A trail of bodies lay in his wake during the last hunt, his hunger barely fed, and it was in that moment he knew that only the purest - those untouched by Liberation - could sustain him. If only they could be sustained.
Titles By Crystal Cierlak
THE BIDDEN SERIES
Candidate Four
Sinful Reunion
Secret Desires
Beyond Ruin
BIDDEN ORIGINS
The First Candidate
THE ROMANCE OF NICK AND LAYLA (SERIES)
Walk Away
Sorry
White Flag
Damaged
Undone
Heartlines (coming soon)
ZOE THANATOS (SERIES)
Zoe Thanatos
Hydra Luna: A Zoe Thanatos Short Story
Awakening Rielle Page 3