Blood & Amber Eyes: A Craving Crimson World Story

by Kate Bonham

  “Close the blinds.”

  She ran to close them, and soon darkness took the room. I felt my eyes return to normal.

  “What happened?” she gasped, running to me again. “Can you get up?”

  I pulled myself up.

  “Come on,” she said, helping me into the bathroom. “Take a shower and clean yourself up. I’ll get you some new clothes.”

  She helped me to pull the ragged clothes off me and pointed me toward the shower. Before I could speak, she was gone, leaving me to step under the hot spray. The water ran over me, red water pooling around my feet, but instantly I felt better as I washed the grime and the blood off me. I could feel the exhaustion taking over, my head spinning. Mae was back already, within minutes, and entering the bathroom. I turned to see her, looking concerned.

  “You look sick,” she said. “What do I do?”

  “I need blood.”

  Mae began to pull off her clothes, revealing that stunning body I had been dreaming of for weeks. She moved toward me, stepping into the hot water and moving her hair to the side and offering her neck.

  I couldn’t resist, and my fangs extended as I sunk them into her soft skin. She gasped, grabbing onto my shoulders as I pulled her close to me. Her blood ran down my throat, filling me with desire and exactly what I needed. I pulled her up against the wall, releasing her neck from my mouth and looked into those amber eyes.

  In seconds, I kissed those thick lips and positioned her against the wall so I could hold her up with my hips. She moaned into my mouth as I deepened the kiss. I grabbed hold of my hardened cock and placed it at her entrance. In one slick move, I entered her. Her warm, wet walls squeezed me, enveloping my cock. I groaned as I pulled almost all the way out of her and slammed back into her. Mae gasped and moaned, her nails digging into my back, urging me on, picking up the rhythm. She kissed me hard, before biting down on my neck. The water made slapping sounds as we moved against each other, on the wall. I pushed her down the wall, yanking her out of the shower and toward the sink. She held her hands out to hold herself up, looking into the mirror. I could see the desire there, she wanted me as much as I needed her. I bent her down, her ass sticking out closer to me. I positioned myself at her entrance again, and slammed into her, moving in further than before. Mae’s hands moved out from under her and shoved the bottles from the sink, onto the floor. Her groaning sounds only spurned me on further. I dug my fingers into her hips and slammed her back and forward on my cock, pushing toward a release. Her pussy walls were squeezing me already. Using one hand, I moved a finger down to her clitoris and began to rub as she screamed out her own release. Her breathing became labored as the spasms enveloped my cock, which had me close to tipping over the edge. Mae recovered just as I felt my balls tingle. I pumped into her hard, looking into her eyes as I fucked her from behind. It didn’t take long before I was spilling inside of her.

  ◆◆◆

  “We have to leave?”

  “Yes, and I don’t have time to tell you why. We just need to go and now.”

  “What about Hallec?” she asked me, innocently.

  “I’ll explain once we get away from here.”

  “Did you escape?” she asked me, looking to my shredded clothing from before.

  “Yes, with the help of your brother.”

  “What?” she asked, getting off the bed. “You know my brother?”

  “You met him,” I said. “He was the guy who came here to tell you to stay away. His name is Kolten. He’s the youngest son to Hallec and the kindest one of his family.”

  “Okay,” she said. “I trust you. Where should we go?”

  I thought about it as I buttoned the shirt she’d gotten me. “We need to find your stepfather, right? Wasn’t that the plan all along?”

  “Yes,” she replied. “Bastien… I can’t believe I’ve waited so long to pick the search for him back up.”

  “It’s okay,” I replied, helping her off the bed. “We need to find someone to track his essence. If he’s in stone form, the only way we can find him is with a powerful Alchemist.”

  “Okay… so who?”

  “I know someone, but he’s a little eccentric,” I told her, placing a kiss on her forehead. “But if we were to be successful at all, he’s the only one who can help us.”

  “Who is he?”

  “His name is Frankie, and he’s in the middle of a fucking war with a few different kinds of species, but he owes me a favor or two.”

  “Okay, so where is he?”

  “Last I heard he was holed up in Spain. We’ll go there first.”

  “Okay. I can’t believe this is still happening. Will we ever be able to just live normally?”

  I sighed. “Probably not. It took centuries for me to be able to be alone in this world.”

  She wrapped her arms around me, and I hugged her back, wishing I could save her from the horrible family she was born into. Wishing I could save her from everything.

  TWELVE

  Mae

  Bram was holding something back from me. Ever since we left London, he had kept me at arm’s length, and it hurt a little. I tried to keep my mind on Spain, the beautiful buildings and friendly people, while Bram looked for this friend of his.

  The one who could save my stepfather from a grisly fate.

  The one he was worried about me meeting.

  So, therefore, I was worried about what kind of friend this was; he just had such a history, he’d been around for centuries and he knew everyone. I felt intimidated when we walked into a place and most everyone knew him. He was like the popular jock in school, and I was the little nerd no one paid any attention.

  “Mae.”

  I turned around, looking over at Bram who had been speaking with someone by a shop. He beckoned me over.

  “He’s not here,” he said. “He left Spain about a month ago, but they do know he’s been spotted in Wales for a while now.”

  “Wales?”

  “Yes, there are certain types of people there that interest him.”

  “Like who?”

  “I’ll tell you on the way,” he said, and he moved away from me to thank the man who had told him. No contact—again.

  What the hell?

  Bram moved back to me and took my hand. The first sign of affection in days, and I was happy, but I knew it was only to guide me on our run to Wales.

  Oh well, I’ll take what I can get. My main concern needed to be on finding Bastien before it was too late and I lost my stepfather for good. So much had happened since I last saw him, so much I wanted to tell him, like how I felt about Bram. I wanted to tell him how he was right when he told me the perfect guy was out there for me, I just had to wait. Even as a sixteen year old, I knew he’d been right, somehow. The world blurred around us as Bram ran and ran, with me holding onto him and keeping up with him. We started to slow around Paris, and soon I realized we were moving to the airport.

  “We are flying?”

  “Yes, it will be easier over the water. I don’t like boats.”

  “Bram,” I said, pulling my hand from his. He turned to look at me, concern on his face. “We need to talk about what happened.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Bram, you’ve barely touched me since we left London.”

  He sighed. “I’m sorry, I just… I need to be prepared for Frankie.”

  “What is so wrong with him that you need to prepare to see him?”

  “He started a war, Mae, a war that is still raging while he runs from country to country to start up mini wars.”

  “He can’t be that bad,” I said. “Maybe he’s being influenced to do it by someone bad.”

  Bram sighed. “You haven’t been in this world long, Mae. There are species and kinds of people who do bad things, and they do them for power, or for respect, not for anything that matters. Frankie was once a good person, and he got power hungry. I saw the change in him. I’m worried he’s going to want to get to know you because of what
you are, and I need to protect you.”

  “Why don’t we let it play out?” I asked. “Didn’t you say you were once friends? Maybe he isn’t as bad as you assume he is.”

  “We’ll see,” he said, holding his hand out to me again. “Come on, the next flight to Cardiff is in an hour.”

  Somehow, he talked his way through the ID process, where we could get through without showing it. Then through customs. I didn’t even want to know how he did it, and yet I was impressed enough I wanted to undress him and have my way with him.

  “Once we get to Cardiff,” he said, as we moved to the lounge to wait for the flight. “I think you should let me find Frankie first, and figure out how he is now.”

  “You know I’m not going to go let you do that. We’re in this together. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have been threatened with death, locked in a cell, or be on the run for your life. I owe you, not the other way around.”

  “Well,” he said. “That’s where you’re mistaken.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve never felt so alive,” he told me. “Since you came into my life, I’ve felt like I was actually living, like being turned Nosferatu was for a reason… so I could meet you.”

  My heart just about exploded. After feeling like he was pushing me away for so long, he comes out with a baby like that and I wanted to remove every item of clothing and take him right here.

  He took hold of my hand and brought the back of my hand up to his mouth, placing a kiss on the back of it.

  “We’ll be there soon enough, and then hopefully we can find your stepfather. You told me his last name once, what was it again?”

  “Delacroix.”

  “Right… as in the Delacroix’s from Belgium?”

  I looked over at him. “How did you know that?”

  Bram

  1640, Belgium

  “Bram!” Anatolia called out to me, her voice panicked. “Please, Bram, you must help her. They are to kill her!”

  “What are you talking about? Where is Beatrice?”

  “They have her,” Anatolia cried. “Please, you must save her.”

  I looked behind her to see her sister being dragged away by the townspeople. The entire village was on fire, buildings had been set alight in the horror of the hysteria sweeping through.

  I ran after her, calling out to the men who thought they could exact the law on a misguided fear. After so many dying, and superstitious old bats spreading the fear of vampires rising from graves to visit their family members after death, more and more were accused and killed for nothing.

  “Release her!” I yelled. They couldn’t hear me, and as she looked back at me, she tried to hold her fear at bay. Where were her family? Her sister Anatolia was the only one I could see, and she was on the ground crying.

  How could these humans be so damned stupid? I was the damn Nosferatu, I was the one they should be hunting and flaying alive, not these people who just happened to contract human diseases and died from them. They desecrated graves for nothing, the dead couldn’t rest in peace. Not here.

  I followed them, until I saw them throw her into a cell they’d built into the ground, just like the gallows in France not so long ago with the witch hysteria. They left her there, and went on their way to drink themselves into a stupor while their town burned.

  Idiots.

  Slowly, I made way to the cell and looked down to see her on the ground.

  “Bea,” I called to her. She looked up at me. “Come on, I’ll get you out.”

  “No… Bram, it’s okay. They are too far gone, they need someone to blame.”

  “This is not on you,” I said. “If anyone were to take the blame, it should be me.”

  “No, they will not believe you, they know you love me.”

  “Bea… we can run.”

  “No, that is not what I want to show Seren. He’s so young, he needs a strong father figure to show him the way of the world. Show him the good. There’s been no good in this village.”

  I’d fallen in love with Bea because she was unlike any other human I’d met since I’d been turned. Her son was just as intriguing, and creative. We’d bonded instantly, and already I considered him to be a son to me. But I couldn’t raise him without Bea.

  “Please, Bram, you must let them do as they will.”

  “I cannot watch them kill you over something so stupid.”

  “You must!”

  I could hear people milling around the center of the village. Looking up, I saw them all gathering with the men who had locked her in the gallows.

  “What’s happening?” she asked me.

  “I don’t know. I’ll go and find out.”

  I pushed up from the ground and moved in through the crowd to listen to what they were saying. The ringleader was screaming about vampires and what they would do to our town. How Bea was the originator and with her demise, the disease would disappear.

  Idiots.

  “Here she is!” he called out. I looked to where he pointed. His goons were holding and dragging Bea up onto the podium like structure they’d been building for weeks now. She could barely stand on her own, the virus she’d caught ravaging her body. It was the reason they thought she was what she was, or what they assumed she was, fools.

  “This wench has put this town in danger, she wants to infect us all and make us rise from our graves. With her death, we will be free!”

  The townspeople cheered. She was pushed forward, and I locked eyes with her. No… I couldn’t let this happen. It was me they needed to kill. I moved forward to stop her, when she screamed out.

  “I admit it!” she yelled. I stopped in my tracks, my heart hammering in my chest. “I am a vampire and I have been making your family rise from their graves. Only with my death will the torment end.”

  The townsfolk gasped and cheered for her to die. I tried to push my way through the crowd only to have the crowd jeer and scream for her death, stopping me from getting through. I looked up at her just as the sword came up from behind her, and sliced through her neck. Her head falling forward, and rolling down off the podium and onto the ground. The crowd all cheered as I fell to my knees. Her eyes were looking up at me from between people’s legs and my heart broke. I’d never known what that felt like because I’d never known love before.

  Bea had changed me. And now she was gone.

  Because she had protected my secret. Now the crazy town were cheering at seeing her die in front of them.

  ◆◆◆

  For days I have been searching for Seren. Bea had wanted me to protect him, to show him the good in the world, even though I couldn’t see it myself right now. I wanted to bury myself in a blood coma, although I had drained the man who had taken her from me, I still had an entire village to drain just to feel even halfway decent.

  Bea’s family had disappeared and so had Seren. I had failed Bea for the last time. It was time for me to move on.

  As I made my way through the cemetery, I unveiled the plaque I’d had made in another village with Bea’s name on it.

  Beatrice Delacroix.

  Died at 29 years of age.

  Mother, Daughter, Sister, Friend.

  I laid the flowers down near the plaque and moved away, stepping into the shadows before I drained the townsfolk and went on a rampage like I did when I was first turned. It was time to hide away from the humans because they all acted like idiots.

  No wonder we kept our identities secret.

  ◆◆◆

  Modern Day

  Cardiff, Wales

  Mae was still in awe of Wales, and to be honest, I wished I could feel that but I had been everywhere. Nothing was amazing anymore, and that was the saddest part. I led her up the rocks of Melincourt Waterfall, toward where I knew the veil had been placed and where Frankie stayed while he was here.

  “This is incredible,” she said, as she heaved herself up one rather large rock. “Why would he be on a waterfall?”

  “It’s hid
den,” I replied. “That’s what he likes. He hates it when people know where he hides. It’s a protection for him to be able to be hidden.”

  “I guess I understand that.”

  Once we got to the area I knew the veil was at, I turned to Mae. “Okay, try and keep your amber eyes at bay. We don’t want him to know what you are, not just yet.”

  “Sure, but why?”

  “Why?”

  “Why are we here? Why is Frankie the person to go to if you are so scared of him?”

  I turned to her and sat down on the closest rock. She did the same, and looked up at me, her eyes full of innocence. An innocence that was quickly dissipating because of me.

  “Frankie’s real name is Francois. He was born in France to a woman named Sidonie. He never really knew his father until he was a man, but he turned out to be more like Christopher than Sidonie had hoped. Don’t get me wrong, Sidonie and Christopher were in love but Sidonie knew they couldn’t be together. There were circumstances, but Frankie never understood that. I knew him when he was just starting to understand power. We were friends, and still are, but there are times when I know he isn’t going to be helpful. He only helps when it benefits him.”

  “What is he?”

  “He’s an Alchemist,” I told her. “A powerful one, but he’s also a Nosferatu.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “No one knows, but with every kill he makes, he absorbs their power. Judging by how strong he is, he’s drained a lot of Alchemists. His love of power is blinding. That’s why I don’t want him to know what you are.”

  Mae nodded. “I’ll control it.”

  I leaned down and kissed her, trying to work up the courage to take her in to see Frankie, knowing full well what he could do to her if he were to find out the truth.

  “Come on,” I said, finally, taking her hand and pulling her up next to me. “It’s just up here.”