“I won’t let you do this,” she wailed. “I’ll find a way to stop you.”
Andrei smiled. “I’ve drunk from you once. You can’t hide yourself from me. Wherever you go, I’ll find you. You put yourself in my power, and you’re mine now. Mine to feed from. No one did this to you. You gave yourself to me. You are my personal property. “
“You tricked me,” Dara snapped. “You made me think you wanted sex. You tricked me into saying those things.”
“No one can become the property of a vampire against their will,” Andrei replied. “I asked you point blank if you were mine, and you said yes.”
Tears sprang into Dara’s eyes. “You can’t do this to me.”
“Dara, Dara, Dara,” Andrei crooned. “Let’s not kid ourselves. When I asked you if you were mine for all eternity, you knew exactly what I was and what I meant. Why are you acting so shocked now?”
Dara lowered her eyes. “Get out. I never want to see you again.”
“You’re tired,” Andrei replied. “You’re weak after last night’s feeding. But that will change. You’ll get your strength back, and then you’ll be ready to give yourself to me again.”
Dara shook her head. “You might be able to do this to me against my will. But I’ll never give myself to you that way again.”
Andrei smiled. “You already have.”
Dara’s head shot up. “What do you mean?”
“I told you, Dara,” he replied. “I couldn’t do this if you weren’t willing. That’s our most fundamental law. You gave yourself over into my power, not just that one time, but for all time. Even now, you want to give yourself to me.”
“What are you talking about?” she cried. “I’m not doing anything of the kind.”
Andrei took a step closer, and Dara’s heart leapt in her chest. He was the most stunning man she’d ever laid eyes on. He radiated magnetic energy. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. Even now, she wanted him, even when she didn’t really want to want him at all. If only she could hate him, but she craved him instead.
His nostrils flared. What did he smell? Did he crave her body or her blood? Couldn’t he hear her heart struggling to beat? She panted for breath. Was he coming for her again?
“You want me to take you, don’t you, Dara?” he purred. “You to be my consort forever, don’t you, Dara? Come on. You know you want me to own you. Tell me you do. It’s okay. I already know you do.”
Dara tried to scoff at him, but she only made a sobbing sound instead. “What are you going to do to me? Are you going to butter me up so I’ll let you bleed me again? I’ll never do that. I might want you, but I won’t have you feeding off of me that way.”
He tilted his head to one side and took a step back. “Such power in you.”
Then his expression softened. “Let’s not talk about that anymore right now. Let’s talk about you.”
Dara stiffened. “What about me?”
“How have you been?” he asked. “Why didn’t you go out with your friends after work today?”
“I wouldn’t go out looking like this,” she told him. “I should even set foot on the street looking the way I do now. I wouldn’t want anyone to see me.”
“Why not?” he asked.
“Why not?” she cried. “I look like death warmed over. I’m like a walking corpse. That’s why.”
“You don’t look like that.” Andrei chuckled. “You are stunning and beautiful.”
Dara snorted. “That’s a good one.”
“I’m serious,” he told her. “You are magnificent.”
“Are you crazy?” she snapped.
“It’s true,” he told her. “You should look at yourself in the mirror.”
Dara tried to get up, but she still couldn’t get off the couch.
She sank back down and said, “I have looked at myself in the mirror, and all I can see is this.” She pulled back the scarf and pointed at the puncture marks on her neck. “This is what I see when I look in the mirror. You did this. You tried to kill me.”
“I didn’t try to kill you, Dara,” he told her. “If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it, and no one would ever know it was me. I drank from you, and I left you alive so I could do it again. You’re upset, but you’ll get over it. Soon, the marks won’t bother you so much.”
“I’ll never get used to it,” she grumbled. “I’ll never let you do that to me again. I’ll kill you first.”
“That’s what they all say,” he told her. “Do you know something? Most vampire companions consider their bite marks a badge of honor. They show them off and wear specially revealing clothes so everybody sees them. They consider their positions as vampire companions a special privilege.”
Dara listened with her mouth hanging open. Her voice cracked when she answered. “What do you mean—most vampire companions? Do you mean there are others besides me?”
Andrei sighed. “Dara—my dear, sweet, delicious Dara—will you listen to yourself? I want you to be much more than a companion. I want you to be my one and only consort.”
“But,” she said, not understanding the difference.
He cupped her face in his hands. “Of course we have many companions. How do you think we have survived for so long?”
“By sucking innocent people dry.”
He pursed his lips together. “If we went around killing people all the time, humanity would hunt us down and exterminate us. Besides, we dislike killing. Yes, we feed on people; but they give themselves to us freely for that purpose.”
“Like who?” she demanded.
Andrei drew himself up. “Would it surprise you to know that entire races of people have made themselves our slaves and minions, just for the honor of serving us and giving us the blood we need to survive? And they’ve done it happily and willingly.”
“Then why don’t you go get one of them?” she sobbed. “Why do you have to pick on me.”
Andrei dropped to his knees in front of her. She stared into his eyes, something changed in how she saw him. The way he spoke was completely different from the way he looked at her. He longed for her. Maybe she had him at a disadvantage after all. Maybe she wasn’t as helpless as she thought.
“Isn’t it obvious why I want you, Dara?” He spoke in a low voice, so she had to strain to hear him. Some of her fear left her, and her pulse slowed. “I chose you because I want you. You, Dara, not some craven piece of meat.”
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 pa
rents 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?”
My Blood To Rise Page 3