Blood Cursed (25 page)

30

My cheek prickled hot, and I jerked awake.

Violet eyes stared at me coldly, and rich perfume made me retch. Another slap, throwing my head back. “Wake up, bitch.”

I cursed and shook myself, and hair tumbled wet in my face. Hot glare blinded me. I hooked up a hand to drag my hair aside, but something rough and tight held me back.

I jerked my arms again, and looked down.

Rope. Thick and wrapped twice, cutting into my bitten forearms. I kicked my ankles. Same. My wings crushed behind me, the ends jammed under my butt against hard wood.

Tied to a chair. Naked, except for a familiar bloodstained white robe. And scarlet cuts slashed my body everywhere, blood seeping from my legs, my arms, my torso. I hurt all over, my skin raw, and my head ached dizzy like I’d slept too long in the sun.

I struggled and cursed, and memory flooded in. Hot delirium, the slick slide of blood, teeth hard and rapacious in my skin. Ange had taken his own sweet time with me, and with the moon playing its lustful tricks with my desire, pain had contorted darkly with pleasure until I didn’t know one from the other. I’d screamed, moaned, thrashed as he and Rosa swallowed blood from every part of my body. Excruciating, luscious and prolonged, until I’d finally slipped into welcome blackness. And now they’d tied me to a chair in some dirty basement, boxes and piles of junk and dust creeping in the corners.

My wounds crawled and squished, the dying virus in their spit already doing its healing work. I hissed at Rosa, baring angry teeth. I hoped Diamond’s poison killed her quickly. “You’ve taken what you wanted, you greedy whore. Let me go.”

Rosa grinned, her creamy skin flushed with satisfaction. She’d showered and put on a shimmering blue gown. An oil lamp burned on a dusty table, orange flame wavering. She dragged my head back and forced a cup of tepid water to my lips. “Drink. Can’t have you dying on me yet.”

My head wobbled dangerously, and thirst parched my throat. I wanted to spit in her face. But I wanted the water more. I gulped, liquid spilling over my chin. It tasted like dirt.

“That’s enough.” Rosa tossed the cup away and gave a wet, hacking cough. She wiped her mouth swiftly, but not before I saw the dark smear.

My smile tweaked. I’d expected something more dramatic. But maybe the poison was working after all.

She waved my bag before my nose, taunting me as she tucked Diamond’s silver bracelet into it and snapped it closed. “Thought yourself pretty clever, didn’t you? Stealing all those gemstones. Quite the master thief.”

She cleared her throat again, and I glared.
Cough until you choke.
“Screw you.”

She slapped me again, slamming my head back. “Shut up, fairyblood. The gemstone’s mine now. You can keep yours, if you like. It doesn’t matter.” She leaned in, her smile cruel and fragrant with my blood. “Because I don’t owe Kane! I don’t need to beg for my life with him like you do. All I care about is making sure you never come after me again.”

I swallowed hacking laughter. I’d met Kane, and I didn’t like Rosa’s chances of getting away scot-free. She was welcome to him.

Strange calm settled me. I’d already been bitten so many times. At least this time it’d be quick. “You talk too much. Just kill me and get it over with.”

“All in good time.” She plucked a plastic packet from the table and popped it open.

Bugs jittered under my skin. A syringe? What the hell? Truth serum? Drain cleaner? A deathsparkle hit?

She flicked the plastic cap, and the needle glittered sharp. I shrank, my pulse gibbering. But she pumped her fist and jabbed the needle deep into her own bulging vein.

Thick vampire blood leaked into the fat plastic tube, rich like raspberry syrup. She gritted her teeth, breath short, and held on until it was full. And then she pulled it out, a tiny red bead glimmering on the needle’s tip, and stepped toward me.

I thrashed, but the chair was too heavy. I couldn’t move.

Rosa grabbed my bulging arm and shoved the needle deep into the crease of my elbow.

Pain spiked. I yelled. She pushed the plunger, and hot vampire blood surged into my vein.

Horror pierced my burning bones. They’d kept away from my mouth earlier. I hadn’t swallowed any, at least not much, and it took a lot to get you infected that way. But now she’d squirted the vampire virus deep into my blood.

That needle was fat and full. More than enough to infect me. Already, fever munched my blood, attacking my cells, pumping to every part of my body. And soon I’d be mad and ravenous like Vincent, no control, no care. Nothing would matter but insatiable hunger for blood.

And if the hunger didn’t finish me, Diamond’s poison would. Surely no longer immune, not with the bloodfever burning in my veins.

A scream scraped my parched lungs, and I let it free.

Rosa just laughed, tossing the syringe away. “Diamond is gonna love this. His pretty new girl, a vampire. Just like old times … Oh, wait. I gave him to LaFaro to play with after I took my gemstone. He’s probably already dead! Never mind. I honestly believe it’s the thought that counts, don’t you?”

I yelled, bloody sweat springing on my skin. He hadn’t lied. He was true to me. Rosa had tricked us both, and in spite of everything, my bones ached in sympathy with my lurid fairy prince’s broken heart.

Anguish ripped me raw. He hadn’t betrayed me. I knew that now. Maybe he’d even meant it when he said he loved me. Either way, I didn’t have an excuse to push him away any longer, and it delighted and terrified me at the same time.

I wanted to claw Rosa’s smug face off for hurting him. To be with him, to wrap him in my arms and kiss him and promise it’d be okay. I wanted to curl up in the warm glassy shadow of his wings and drift away.

But too late. Rosa had probably already killed him.

My heart swelled tight. I wished I could grab the hours we’d spent together and bottle them so they’d never be lost. Even the bright torture of Famine’s dungeon seemed a treasure. Diamond had seen the abject depths of my soul there. He’d come face-to-face with the darkest, most rotten part of me, and he hadn’t turned away.

I couldn’t wipe him from my thoughts. His eyes, his crystal laugh, the strange bliss of his touch. I needed him with me. I felt safe in his embrace. Without him, it all seemed pointless. Jesus, was I in love?

I felt like howling. Why did this have to happen now? With the moon and vampire hunger raging in my blood and hell only a few hours from claiming my soul?

But I’d known what I was in for. I’d had my chances to leave him, forget him, push him away. If I’d fallen for him, I had only myself to blame.

Rosa clicked her tongue, stifling a cough. “Wouldn’t waste your energy, pet. You’ll get quite hungry very soon. Pity you won’t be able to get out.” Her beautiful face hardened. “Stay here and starve, bitch. And when you die, that pretty ring will drag you to hell and you’ll burn forever. Good fucking riddance.”

She flipped me a wave and sauntered out, slamming the rough wooden door. Metal clanked as the bolt drove home.

I wriggled and yelled, but the rope wouldn’t give. I was trapped.

The oil lamp flickered and puffed out.

Leaving me in stifling hot darkness, with hellscorched bones and sickdirty fever already simmering in my veins.

31

Diamond grips a jagged shard of his own broken wing-glass, and jams it with a rotting rip into Vincent’s throat.

Vincent chokes, blood frothing scarlet. Diamond twists the glass, hacking it deeper. Razor edges slice his palm. “Toldified ya, shithead.”

The vampire jerks between Diamond’s thighs, but the fairy holds him down grimly with bloodsoaked hands and tears the glass free.

Vincent slumps, bloodshot eyes fluttering. Rich arterial blood gushes from his throat, spreading in a bright red puddle on the floor.

He’s not moving.

Diamond lets the glass drop from numbcut fingers, and collapses, oozing blood and exhaustion.

Seems like hours he and Vincent fought, metal slashing, claws raking, the iron manacle hacking into his wrist. His skin is torn, his wings cracked, his shirt fangslashed away. His shackled arm aches, hyperextendified from dodging Vincent’s fangs. In a delirious haze, he slams his shoulder into the floor over and again, until the bastard pops back in and he yowls in bonegrating torture.

Panting, he drags himself to hands and knees. Blood puddles on the floor beneath him, blue with fatigue from what seems like a thousand screaming cuts. His wings ache, edges splintercated sharp. He wants to curl on the floor and sleep forever.

But urgency scrabbles holes in his skin. Long time since Ember went with Angelo. She could be dead already. Could be unconscious, alone, bleedifying out slowly … .

He drags his bruised forearm into the light. Chain rattles, dripping blue and yellow. Key’s lostified, gone with Rosa. But he has to get out.

The manacle is misshapen, metalstrip curled from stress. A smidgin bigger than before.

Fuck. This is gonna hurt.

He squeezes his eyes shut and slams the heel of his hand down on the iron bedstead.

Hollowglass bone cracks, a spike of red-hot bad.

Diamond yelps, his thumb crumpling, and he squeezes his hand from the manacle before it unhurtifies. Bone heals faster in the heat. It’ll get better. Forgettify.

He lurches up on chipped wings, crunches on his wavering faesight, and staggers out.

Corridors wobble and dissolve, bright outlines glaring golden. Ember’s echo is everywhere, screaming like a curse, a ripe accusation bleeding scarlet down the walls. He tumbles down curved white stairs from the mezzanine into the entrance hall. Out in the garden, spectral guests still laughymingle, glasses and jewels edged in fiery purple. Moonlight pours in the top-story windows to light his way, and the moon’s perilously close to full.

He follows her scent’s bright scarlet twist, curling smoke from a lost candle, and it leads him deeper, darker, into the bowels of the old house where his skin creeps and strange smells twinge his nose in corridors undisturbed in a long time. Heat swallows him, sucking his breath tight. His glow flickers bloodstains on the cream-papered walls, his shadow leaping like a ghost.

A scream pierces the air, needlesharp.

His ears prickle in agony, and his skin ripples scarlet. They’re torturing her. It’s Famine’s dungeon all over again. This time, let him not be too late.

He skids around a corner, the sound still scraping his heart raw, and another scent slicks his tongue like grease.

Perfume, delicate and expensive, the hot splash of spice.

He stumbles down one last hidden stairwell. Glowing shapes mingle and confuse. At the bottom a door stands bolted, and the timber rattles with a brittle fairy scream.

His wings flare, ready to jump, slash, fight. Last night, he almost got his head slicified, leaping in fastways.

Lesson learnified?

Hell, no.

He blasts the bolt off with a vicious bloodspattered kick and dives in headfirst.

The door imploded, wood splintering, and Diamond crashed through in a hail of blood and glitter.

My fairy was alive. And he’d come for me after all.

But I barely heard it above my shrieking ears. My throbbing veins. The awful gnawing hunger. The vampire virus had me in its jaws, and it was ravenous. Unless I drank blood real soon, my insides would melt with fever and I’d die screaming. But the virus didn’t want to die. It wanted to feed, and its rampant thirst consumed me.

Light slashed my eyes raw. Fever shivered me rigid, and I strained against my ropes. Sweat streamed off me, precious moisture I couldn’t afford to lose. My skin swelled clammy. My hair plastered my shoulders, unbearably hot.

Already fresh sharp teeth slashed through my gums, ravenous, and my mouth streamed with hungry spit and blood. The bloodfever had gobbled me up frighteningly fast. Maybe because Rosa’s vampire blood was already mixed with mine. Maybe the full moon. Maybe bloodfae essence and the virus played hard. I didn’t care. I just wanted it to end.

Diamond scrambled to his knees at my feet, luminous. Shirtless again, muscles quivering tight with fatigue, his sweat-slick skin slashed blue and scarlet in a hundred places, sliding wet with lusty fairy blood.

And the virus’s delirious urge to survive seized my brain with famished claws.

Spit splashed down my chin. My hands quivered in talons, and the rope bit into my arms as I struggled to be free. I had to eat. Now.

He spoke soft and swiftly, bleeding fingers working at my ropes. “Ember, it’s me. You’re okay. Let’s get outta here.”

His dusky crystal voice sparkled dark desire in my flesh. His bloodstained scent inflamed me, running on my tongue, his skin’s rosepetal flavor blotting my mind with lust. Kiss him, take him in my mouth, taste his pulse throbbing under my tongue. My gaze zoomed in on his throat, just above his collarbone where the vein swelled, and his heartbeat drowned my ears wild.

I wanted to suck him dry. Fling him down and sink my teeth into him, tear his skin open and let the blood flow, swallow and swallow and swallow … .

A dying animal’s howl pierced the air, and I realized it was me.

“Hushify, angel. S’okay.” My ropes swelled tight with sweat and blood, and his murmur twinged with frustration as he couldn’t get me undone. He hadn’t seen it. Didn’t know what I was.

His breath’s tiny caress tortured my skin raw. I screeched, terror clawing me bloody inside. “Go ’way! Please. Don’t set me free.” I lisped, my new teeth slashing my lips, and blood spurted onto his fingers.

His gold-flashed gaze jerked up, and he stared at me, his face paling pink.

I sobbed, thrashing my head aside. He’d seen my deepest shame at Famine’s, and he hadn’t deserted me. He’d nurtured a flame inside me I’d barely known was still alight. I couldn’t bear his disgust, not now. But I’d become the thing he despised most. The monster we both hated, the thing that had ruined his life and made a fearful misery of mine.

But he wrapped strong arms around me, and his whisper broke with sorrow and rage. “Ohmygod, Ember. This is all my bad. I was stupid, I couldn’t … Fuck. I’m so sorry.”

His hot body made my skin scream. His hair brushed my face, tempting me to touch, bite, devour. His blood-scent maddened me beyond sense. Hunger shrieked and cackled inside me, tainted rich like moonshine but a thousand times worse.

I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t stop myself. I dragged my tongue up his knife-slashed cheek.

Bright fairy blood tingled on my tongue, and my nipples jerked tight. My sex flowered hot and wet, deepest pleasure stirring inside.

I moaned and licked again, arousal hacking my nerves to a ragged mess. Disgust skewered me on a hot iron needle, but I couldn’t stop. I wanted my mouth full of him, dripping with him, swallowing him. “God, get away from me. I’m so hungry. I can’t …”

But I didn’t mean any of it.

He pulled back, gripping my head in his hands, and planted a kiss on my mouth.

Deep, hot, fleshscented. His lips slid wet on mine, swollen with desire. The inside of his mouth was so slick and hot. I groaned when his tongue met mine, and helplessly I bit down.

Blood burst into my mouth. Thick, delicious, tingling with life. I swallowed, desperate with longing, and the sparkling fluid spilled down my throat.

Oh, god. It was like sex, the pleasure flowering deep inside me. Was this what it was like for them, tasting me? My body swooned, the ache deepening, intensifying. Hunger tingled inside me, stroking me to shivering fire …

He pulled back, his breath ragged, and tugged harder at my ropes.

I choked, my mouth sticky. I wanted to lunge for him. I wanted to hide my face forever. “What you doing?”

“You’ll die if you don’t eat.” He yanked my ankles free, tossing the rope aside.

Dismay threaded my veins with hot wire, and I wriggled, trying to get away even as the hunger thrust my snapping teeth forward, frantic to reach him. “No. Don’t! I can’t stop. I’ll hurt you—”

He scraped my hair back and pressed his forehead to mine. “Don’t care. Love you, Ember. Takify.”

I strained to bite at his wrists, desperate, even as I sobbed, tears a fresh fever on my face. “But—”

“Takify. Drink me. I’m yours.” And he slashed my rope one final time, shredding it with bloody glass claws, and I was free.

Insane lust jabbed my muscles aflame, and I burst from the chair and dived for him.

We fell to the floor, thrashing wings and sweat and blood. His hot skin slicked on mine, but it wasn’t enough. I tore my robe aside to rub myself naked on him, thrusting his thigh between mine where I was wet. God, he was hard, his swollen cock pushing against my leg, and my breath rasped faster. He was already bleeding, and it tingled my skin all over like hot kisses. His glorious rosy scent scorched deep inside me. I grabbed his hair and dragged his head back. The glassy fibers slid a silken caress around my fist, every sensation a torture of pleasure. He didn’t fight me. Just exposed his throat, strong and beautiful, the veins pulsing and glowing with hot fairy desire.

My wings trembled, afire. Hunger rushed my blood burning, and I bared my infant fangs and struck.

Flesh crunched, and my teeth forced in. He bit back a yowl, shuddering beneath me, and I shuddered, too, the sensation overwhelming, his skin’s delicate pop in my mouth almost too much to endure. He gripped my waist, yanking me closer. Unbearable sweetness twinged my tongue, and I bit harder, urgent, digging for the vein.

At last, it broke. Blood exploded in my mouth, hot and bubbling and glorious. I groaned. So delicious. I swallowed, dragging him into me, filling me with him. Blood spilled sticky over my chin. I didn’t care. My body tingled alive with thirst. I sucked harder, and this time it flowed easier, pulsing in time with my heartbeat, all resistance gone.

Delirium throttled me. This rich intimacy of feeding made me ache inside. It was like joining, melting together, an endless mingling of blood and flesh and heart that stripped my fear away, and hunger’s rich madness drowned me.

Eager, I crunched my teeth harder, drinking him in. Diamond growled, in delight or agony. “Yes, Ember. Drink me.”

His heartbeat throbbed in my mouth, swift and strong. He reached between my thighs to caress me, and I gasped as he touched hot wetness. He found my pleasure easily, stroking my secret places, and my nerves cried out in delight.

I murmured, blood splashing in my haste. His touch vanished for a moment, and I whimpered, lapping desperately at his throat while he shifted underneath me, and then his hot naked cock pressed hungrily between my legs and I bore down.

He thrust into me, hard and deep, and we both cried out. Now he really filled me, blood and body, and frantically I sank my teeth into the wound again, seeking more, harder, hotter. Blood pushed into me, too, like our sex. His pulse drove stronger with his pleasure, sparkling the luminous fluid with life. I moved my hips, and he rose to meet me, forcing me down harder, impaling me deeper. My claws scrabbled helpless at the floor, it felt so good.

I sucked and swallowed, his bright fairy blood washing down my throat. The intimacy swelled like moonshine on my heart. I felt so close, his skin sticking to mine in a hot glow, his hair in my face, his skin in my mouth, his heartbeat echoing through my veins, the delicious friction of his cock deep inside me. He groaned my name, and it vibrated through my lungs, my breasts, into my blood, down between my legs where I shuddered and swelled, tension throbbing tight.

This was home. This was love. And I’d consume it all.

He thrust harder, and I felt him start to come, his flesh throbbing in mine, pressing on delicious places that made me moan. I drove my teeth deeper, swallowed him with mouth and sex, dragging him into me. He gasped and let go, his fluid sparkling into me. His blood pulsed hard and fast into my mouth, salty with his pleasure. I cried out with my mouth full as I broke apart.

Fast, hard, the intensity whiplashing my spine. Tension exploded like fireworks in my belly. My limbs melted hot, unbearable delight, and my muscles milked the last drop of his pleasure while his blood still gushed down my throat.

I swallowed and groaned, hot fluid spilling, never wanting it to stop. Emotions dizzied me, a heady mixture of terror and delight. Before, I hadn’t believed him when he said he loved me. But now I could taste it, shimmering like flame on his blood, and it felt so good inside me, I wanted it all. I’d swallow him whole if I could, keep drinking until there was nothing left.

Beneath me Diamond groaned and shifted, weak. His chest heaved swift and shallow. His pulse thrummed on my tongue like a hummingbird’s, and the bright magenta glow of pleasure in his wings dimmed.

I pulled back, panting, my body sated but virus-mad hunger still chewing inside. The rubyhot blood leaking from the wound I’d made in his throat mesmerized me. It pulsed luminous over his skin, pooling in his collarbone’s hollow, trickling over his chest, drop by glowing drop … .

But I couldn’t. I was killing him.

My stomach gurgled, stuffed with blood, but already the burning essence filtered through my strange new digestive system. Soon, I’d be ready for more. And the hunger raked my skin like claws, demanding, begging, screaming at me to feed.

He smiled, breathless, and even though his glitter had faded, his beauty still tore my heart. “S’okay,” he murmured, licking his lips. “More.”