A Bitten Curse: A Darkness Bites Paranormal Romance Novel

by Nicole Marie

  I stood angrily for a moment, but then decided I might as well join him. I had a lot of questions and I was only to get answers if we actually had a conversation. As much as I hated the creature for doing what he did to me, I knew he was my only chance at escaping here alive. I stepped forward slowly towards the couch and sat down at the farthest end from him. I leaned against the curved arm of the couch and pulled my knees up close to my chest. He watched me curiously as I settled into the corner of the couch and got comfortable. I stared into the fire as I tried to think of what to say. What could I possibly ask the creature whom I shared an unfortunate link between our two very beings?

  Finally I turned my attention back to him. “What’s your name?”

  His face relaxed as he grinned at me. “Erik,” he said. His voice was smooth and icy at the same time, sending shivers down my spine.

  “Eric with the C?” I asked.

  “With a K,” he said, I mused.

  I nodded. “Ah, how modern and hip of you. So you’re young?”

  “No.”

  I nodded awkwardly and diverted my gaze around the room, focusing on anything but him.

  “What are you?” he finally asked. He squinted his eyes at me as if trying to peer into my very soul. I looked back at him and couldn’t help but feel strange and confused. I wanted nothing more than to run, but at the same time I knew so desperately my heart that I need to stay with him. The idea that I could no longer control my own thoughts and urges terrified me, and I needed to break the connection between the two of us. Although, part of me desperately wanted it to remain.

  “What do you mean?” I asked. I raised my eyebrow at him and tried to give him my most courageous and charming look. If I wasn’t able to run, I might as well try and befriend the creature and maybe then he’ll let me go. It might be the alternative, anyway.

  “You’re not changed,” he observed. He cocked his head to the side and looked at me curiously. “I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t changed from my bite, and yet I’ve never experienced the connection that I feel with you.” Fear and confusion flashed momentarily across his eyes before he narrowed his gaze again and looked at me expectantly.

  I shrugged. “Oh, you know. That good ol’ Chicago blood, I guess.” I then groaned to myself at my stupid response. I was nervous. Why was I nervous? Oh yeah, maybe because I was in the basement of some strange vampire lord’s lair, and was likely about to be the victim of the next savage vampire ritualistic murder.

  The strange thing was that the idea didn’t scare me. Perhaps, after being on the run for the past few months, I was ready to just give up. I was ready to sacrifice myself and the connection we had. I was ready to give myself to him completely if it meant I could finally find an end to all of this.

  “What are you?” he repeated, his voice taking on an edge of anger this time.

  I stared at him seriously and shrugged again. “Honestly, I don’t know. I assumed you had intentionally caused the pain-in-the-ass connection between the two of us, and let me go. How else could I have ended up at my apartment, alive?”

  He watched me in silence for a while, and then finally adjusted his position on the sofa to face directly at me. “My memory of that night is black after I bit you. I’ve never experienced such intense pain or confusion. Not in my two-thousand years. You are the first human that I’ve ever bit that hasn’t changed, and the first creature that has ever managed to block me the way that you have.”

  I laughed a nervous giggle and then quickly shut my mouth, pressing my lips together until they went numb. Again, I shrugged. I was never all that good at forced conversation, and after being cooped up in my tiny shithole apartment by myself with no friends to talk to for the last few months, I really couldn’t think of anything clever to say. “Really, I have no idea why I didn’t turn. My memory of that night is blank as well, and I just assumed it was you’re doing. I haven’t been able to shake the connection since it happened.”

  Sadness spread across his face just then, and I raised my eyebrows in confusion. “Can you at least explain what is going on?” It was weird having a civil conversation with a vampire. A ‘master’ vampire, at that. But given the strange direction my life had taken these past few months, I guessed anything was possible.

  “I wish I knew,” he said. “Are you human?”

  I burst out in an intense fit of laughter. “Of course, I’m human,” I said. “Can’t you sense my heart beat?”

  The vampire tilted his head and stared at me, like a predator stares at his prey. “You’re not a were-beast. I don’t sense any magic in you, but you must be something other than human to resist my bite. To resist my pull these past two months.”

  I was curious suddenly, and a flood of questions came to me all at once. “How did you find me? How did this link spon between the two of us? How come I’ve been able to hear you, but you haven’t answered any of the questions that I sent out in my mind? Why didn’t you come find me earlier?”

  Erik raised both hands in front of himself, motioning for me to be silent. He slowly lowered his hands back down and turned to stare into the fire. I sat and waited, my own heart beating so loudly in my chest that it was nearly all I could hear. The silence consumed me, and I began fidgeting with my fingers, picking at my nails anxiously.

  “I do not have any answers, Miss Rose.”

  As I stared at his perfectly chiseled, pale face, and the urge to run to him grew stronger. I craved his touch on me, and I longed to reach forward and touch him. My need for his body consumed me, and I knew desperately that I had to be with him.

  But the memory of the night before briefly flashed in my mind. The heat of the shifter’s body against my own pulled me into the present. The vampire turned so fast to look at me that I didn’t see his face move. He was angry and the link between us flared to life again.

  I jumped up off the couch and backed away from him.

  “Stop that!” I shouted at him angrily. “Stop that magic. Stop pulling me towards you against my will. It’s not real, you know it’s not real. Just let me go!”

  The vampire flew to his feat in response and looked at me in shock. He opened his mouth and closed it again, and shook his head slowly. He watched me curiously and waited for me to continue, but I simply stood there shaking in anger. He had complete control over me, and it terrified me. I wanted him so desperately, but I knew in my heart that it wasn’t real. It was the result of his bite, and that was the only reason I felt drawn to him. It was a desperate, pleading need that I felt. And I knew it wasn’t mine.

  I collapsed to my knees and started to cry. “Let me go. Please, let me go.”

  The vampire stepped towards me and put his hand on my shoulder as I sat shaking on the floor. His gentle touch had a strange calming effect on me, despite my effort to hate him. His cool fingers felt good against my hot skin, and I leaned into his hand to feel the full effect of his icy cool skin.

  I couldn’t control my shaking, despite my best effort to calm myself. I pressed my hands against the cold damp stone of the floor around me, and traced the edges of the rough stone with my fingertips. Tears streamed down my face, and I willed myself to stop crying. I had never been a crier, and I knew I was stronger than this. But I’d never felt such intense need for anything or anyone in my life, and I was having an all-consuming battle with myself over whether I wanted to stay or leave.

  “We are forever bonded,” he said. “I cannot undo what has been done, for I do not understand it completely myself.”

  I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself to stay warm. The warmth from the fire had subsided and all I could feel was the cool damp around me, consuming my body. I shook in silence for a moment and then whimpered quietly, “Kill me. Please, just kill me.”

  I spent the last few months alone. I didn’t know myself anymore. The girl I once was no longer existed. I had nothing to live for, and I knew I couldn’t leave the city and keep my mind sane. If I wasn’t going to be myself anymore, I
didn’t want to live. Simple as that. “Kill me.”

  “Go,” he said finally.

  I looked up at him, my vision blurry from the tears. “What?”

  He then turned in anger and strode towards the back corner of the room where the shadows were blackest. I heard a door creak open that I hadn’t noticed before, and he walked through it. “Go,” he shouted again through darkness.

  The door slammed shut with a loud bang that echoed through the room, and I sat frozen on the floor near the fire by myself. I finally pushed myself up and looked around, noticing the door in the far wall that I had come through, now opened. I turned and began slowly walking towards my freedom. The chatter in my mind had stopped, and I couldn’t feel the link anymore.

  Could it really have been that easy? A part of me knew there was no way I could be let off the hook that easily, but for now, I had my freedom. I quickened my pace and ran out of the room and into the darkness.

  5

  The two vampires who had led me to the Oxford building had left, apparently. I walked back up the winding staircase alone, my footsteps echoing against the bare stone walls of the stairwell. The entire building was deserted, it seemed. I walked right out with no one hassling me, and stepped into the cold late autumn air on the quiet Oxford street.

  I looked both ways and noticed that there was not a car or person to be seen. The sun was setting, and I must’ve lost track of time. I must’ve been down there longer than I thought. I realized just then that I didn’t have my phone on me, and I patted my jean pockets frantically as I cursed myself for forgetting something so stupid.

  I didn’t even have a jacket, and it was beginning to get cold. It’s amazing the kind of normal things you forget when being escorted out of your apartment by two vampires.

  I let out a deep sigh and made my way down the road. I would have to find a pay phone and call a cab, which will be extremely expensive to get all the way back to London. I had to find a train, perhaps, and maybe even see if I can swindle my way onto the train to get home. I had virtually no money, and while I managed to get by in my tiny little apartment in Camden by exchanging favours with people, I had a feeling it was getting harder to do the same to get home from Oxford.

  I walked down the winding streets, the cold air sending shivers up my arms as I contemplated the events of the day. I just spent the day with the vampire who had bit me, and I survived. Not only did I survive, but we had a seemingly deep conversation about our bond. He seemed just as confused about it as I was, and I didn’t know whether that was comforting or something I should worry about. At least the chatter in my mind seem to have subsided, and I wasn’t even sure that the link remained. Something nagged at the pit of my stomach though, suggesting that it was still there. I had a feeling simply meeting him in person wasn’t going to be enough to break the link. My fingers traced the bite marks on my neck as I walked, and I knew in my heart that the mental bond was going to be forever. At least, until I died.

  A shiver went up my spine as I realized I had begged him to kill me. I smacked my palm against my forehead as hard as I could as I walked. Stupid. How stupid had I been? Asking a vampire to kill me. So stupid. After about twenty minutes of walking, I realized just how absolutely angry I was about the whole ordeal. It was all because of this vampire that forced me into a life as a nobody, with no particular identity, with a forever bond with an undead creature. Who could read my thoughts and sense my actions at any given moment. I hardly believed that he knew nothing about how the bond happened, which made me even angrier. The stupid link between us had made me weak. Again, so stupid.

  Anger built in the pit of my stomach, and I had to stop walking for fear that I was going to purposefully walk into something or break my wrist as a bash them against the brick walls of the nearby buildings. I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, trying to mentally orient myself in a place of calm. I had listened to enough self hypnosis tapes in my effort to rid my mind of the vampires link, to no avail, but at least it taught me to calm myself when I needed it. They say that self hypnosis calms you, and I did meditation as often as I possibly could, but none of it worked. I guess I’m just too agitated for any of that sort of shit to have any effect on me.

  I continued my walk and wondered how the hell I was going to get back to Camden from Oxford. I knew there had to be a budget train, I could even possibly hop on a bus, but realistically I had to find something soon because the sun was setting and it was going to be late, and finding any way back home was that much harder without a cell phone. I then stopped again, and patted the rest of my pockets.

  “Shit,” I sweared to myself. I didn’t have any money on me, let alone a credit card. So much for taking the train home.

  I then remembered something that made me deliriously happy. The memory of the night before came flooding back, and I remembered that there was a shifter bar in Oxford that was infamous around the UK. Hell, it was even known internationally as people from all over the world came through to visit that place. I knew it was hard to get into, but I think as a human if you are willing to loosen up and be the victim of some exceptional flirtations by local shifters, you’d be allowed in. I looked down at myself and assessed my tight jeans and my loose black sweater. I looked okay, all things considered. I could do with a bit of makeup, but hell, I was young enough that maybe I didn’t need it.

  I picked up my pace, thinking hard about where I might have heard this shifter bar was located. It was very cheekily called Meat, and I knew it was near the centre of town. By the sound of the traffic and the lights in the distance, I figured I was already heading in the right direction. After another few minutes of walking, I came upon a couple with their stroller and I asked them directions to the centre of town. I spared them by not asking the direction to the shifter bar, as I wasn’t sure how they would respond. But they pointed down the road and said it was another fifteen-minute walk until I get to where I needed to be. I smiled and thanked them before continuing on my way.

  I wrapped my arms tightly around my stomach as I walked, shivering violently in the cool evening breeze. I walked quickly, my heart pumping as the blood flowed through my freezing veins.

  When I got to the centre of town, I was pleased that they were a lot more people around. I saw a pub across the street and went over to approach the people waiting outside. There was a good-looking younger guy smoking a cigarette on the sidewalk, and I walked straight up to him.

  “I hear there’s a weird shifter bar around here,” I said casually to him as I approached him. He looked at me and raised his eyebrow. “Not that I’m into that sort of shit. But, do you have any idea where it is? I’m curious to check it out.”

  The guy blew out smoke from a cigarette and smiled at me, knowing full well that I had intended to check it out myself. “Yeah, had two blocks down that way. It’s hidden in the back of the two-story brick building. There’s a sign on the front that says Meat. Just go around back and you’ll see it.”

  I smiled at him and coughed through the cigarette smoke that he blew out at me, and turned to make my way back down the street towards where he had pointed.

  Anger bubbled up in my stomach after what I’d been forced to experience today, and even though the link in my head seemed to have subsided some, I would do everything in my power to piss the vampire off. If I got him angry enough, maybe he would break the connection between the two of us, and I could get my life back. The idea made me smile deliriously, and I hoped to God that my plan would work.

  If anything, I’d at least have a good night with some hot men. God knows I needed a distraction.

  I came to the building that the guy described with the sign that read Meat. I wiped my hands on my jeans, and pulled my sweater off one shoulder so that it at least looked like I was trying to be appealing. And I adjusted my bra as much as I could to show cleavage, and tussled my hair to give it a sexy, unkempt look.

  Taking a deep breath, I walked confidently down around to the back of the buildin
g, and was shocked when I saw the line of at least fifty people waiting in the back to go inside. Most were men awaiting to get in, and I guessed they were all hoping to go and hook up with some shifter women. I walked up to the bouncer, hoping that maybe if I flirted enough he would let me in without having to wait in line. Fortunately, I didn’t even have to say anything to him as he reached and unclipped the red velvet rope that barred the door, and motioned for me to go through.

  He winked at me as I walked through, and I wasn’t exactly sure who or what he thought I was, but I was thankful for my luck. Inside, there was a young woman, probably about nineteen years old who sat at a small table near the top of a narrow staircase. I approached her and smiled warmly. “Gimme your hand,” she said lazily to me as she chewed her gum loudly. She was looking at her phone in one hand, and as I extended my right arm towards her, she stamped it with her left and didn’t even bother looking up at me. She waved her free hand down towards the staircase, all the while focusing intently on the screen of her phone.

  I sighed and rolled my eyes, but I was grateful for the atmosphere. I had a mission tonight and it didn’t involve getting caught up in any sort of conversation. I steadied myself as a put one foot in front of the other and walked down the stairs towards the basement of the building and the rumble of music.

  I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t a hopping club with music blaring loudly. A heavy beat echoed through the room and pounded up through my legs. I could feel it in my chest as I made my way through the sweaty crowd of grinding bodies. I spotted the bar on the far end of the room. I immediately walked up and approached the bartender.