Lust Bites (18 page)

The next day Kristina brings Merle her breakfast in her new bedroom and asks if she wants to come and torment Oberon again. 'You could find out more about Blood Rites.'

But Merle gives her a firm negative.

Later, when Kristina returns, wantonly dishevelled and flushed, Merle says, almost thoughtlessly, 'So who does Cole perform his Blood Rites with?'

Kristina picks up an apple left over from breakfast. 'Me. Or Oberon sometimes, but mostly me. There's only three of us left here.' Shrug. She brings the apple up to her mouth and sinks her fangs into it.

'So, are you Cole's lover?'

Kristina pulls the punctured apple out of her mouth with an expression of distaste. 'Ew. I really don't know how you can eat these things. Darius doesn't take lovers.'

'But you said yesterday about the Blood Rites. About how vampires need another vampire ...'

'He does
that
with me. Like I just said. God, does he ever. Fuck, you know. With the psych-powers. Woah. You ever had sex with someone who could read your mind? Like nothing I've ever ... In fact, what with him and Oberon I'm having to double up on my plasma packs to keep my strength up. But I'm not Darius's lover.' Kristina stops and smiles. A smile that's more resigned than happy. 'Vampires usually bond. Completely. Like a life-mate type of thing. To a vampire a lover means someone exclusive. Someone forever. And, like I just said, Darius doesn't take lovers.'

'Why not?'

'Probably because it would ruin his smouldering locked-in-a-dungeon-for-twenty-five-years-lonely-freak image.'

That night Merle dreams about Darius again. It isn't like the dream she had before – all hyper-real with him appearing to be right there in the room. This dream is far more wispy and loose. She's lying next to him, with him propped up on his elbow looking down at her. She doesn't know where they are, some nameless dream-scape. All she knows, all she is sure of, is that she's in love. In the dream, she is utterly in love with Darius Cole.

Dream Darius runs the backs of his fingers against her cheek. They are deliriously cool against her heated skin. She's blushing. Her face is hot. Darius smiles down at her.

'I love to see your blood under your skin,' he says. His voice sounds like it had the first time she dreamt about him. Like it's coming from somewhere else.

Darius is wearing the same dark clothes as ever. Merle is wearing a revealing froth of a white dress – rather like the one Kristina wears. Darius says, 'I know another way to make your blood rise to the surface.' His voice is soft, muffled and cracking with desire.

His hands are on the hem of her slutty dress. He pushes it up almost to the top of her thighs. She squirms a little at the exposure, but lets him do as he wishes. With her skirts out of the way, Darius strokes the pale flesh where her thighs give way to the planes of her slim boy-hips. She's so aroused. Wet under the lace. Wet inches from his fingertips.

She hears the noise first. Then sees it. Then feels the sting. Then realises that he has just slapped her. Very hard. Looking down her body, she sees a pink mark appear high on her thigh.

But there's someone else in the bedroom.

'Oh,' Darius says, his voice full of weakness and desire, 'you are too beautiful.' And he bends his head and runs his cool tongue over the heated place he has made.

There is someone else right on Merle's bed. But she can't open her eyes. She can't leave the dream. She knows that Darius is going to make love to her.

She sighs under the touch of Darius's tongue.

Someone else. Not someone in the dream. Someone in reality. A weight next to her on the mattress. Someone kneeling there.

Merle opens her eyes. The dream splinters. 'Darius?' she says, still half sleep-headed.

It's very dark in the room, no moonlight with the curtains so tightly closed. Merle can just make out the bed canopy floating above her before someone is on top of her. Holding her down, pain in her neck.

She cries out, but the sound is trapped by a hand on her mouth. She writhes and fights, but whoever is holding her is too strong ...

She opens her eyes. The bedroom is dark. Someone is in the room with her.

She feels something – a pin prick – on her arm and a soft dark voice says, 'You need to sleep, Merle.'

She wakes again still in her bed. She tries to sit up, but feels so dizzy she almost immediately collapses back into her pillows. With a grunt she drags herself upright again to sees Darius, sitting across the room in a wing-chair and looking at her.

'Where am I? What happened?'

Darius doesn't say anything. He gets up and walks over to the bed. He takes her chin in his hand and moves her head from side to side. He looks into her eyes one after another. He's never been this close to her before. Her heart is racing. His face is less than an inch from hers. She stares at that wanton bottom lip as he opens her mouth – pulling on her lower jaw with his thumb hooked over her bottom teeth – and looks in there too.

'Darius!' she says, suddenly coming to her senses and pulling away from him.

'Do you feel well?' he says, standing up.

'Yes. I think so. A little dizzy. What happened?'

'Kristina. She nearly snuffed you out. I came by just in time. Luckily you were not at the point where you would have had to drink my blood to survive. So do not fear, you are still human. We didn't have to break the laws against conversions.'

Merle's fingers touch her neck. But there's nothing there although it feels tender.

Darius watches her and says, 'The puncture heals fast. There is a little bruising. That'll go soon. You were very shocked and weakened. I gave you sedatives. You've been sleeping for more than twenty-four hours. It's day twelve now, I expect you're counting.'

'Kristina? Why would she ...?'

'She is jealous of you,' Darius says in a very plain matter-of-fact way. 'I am sorry. I thought she was fully controlled. She is fearful of me and I didn't think she could tell when I was in her mind watching her. Perhaps she is getting better at controlling her own psych-powers. Or perhaps she was lucky.'

Jealous?
She finds it hard to believe that Kristina, who looks like a debauched angel and regularly performs the divine-sounding 'Blood Rites' with Darius, could be jealous of
her –
the girl who spends her time locked up, red-eyed and dowdy. 'Where, where is she?'

'Kristina? In the dungeon. Now Oberon's the one playing jailer. I expect he's having some fun with that.' Darius turns and gestures to the table where Kristina usually puts Merle's food. It's laden with fruit and cheese and bread. 'I have to go now, but there are some things for you. It is important that you eat now. I'll lock you in again. For safety.'

As he turns to leave, Merle says, 'If you weren't in Kristina's mind just then how did you know to come to my room and save me?'

Darius stops and turns a little so he's angled half towards her, half away. 'Because I was in
your
mind. You remember.'

Merle is lying on her bed, reading a magazine, when the door bursts open.

Darius stalks in, looking so stern and haughty that she finds herself drawing away from him across the bed. He's dressed a little differently. In a long black frock-coat and black knee boots. He looked much more like a vampire
ought
to look. Formal, even. Formal for him.

Darius stands aside and Oberon strides into the room next. He's towing Kristina, leading her by a rope that is tied around her wrists.

'Anywhere,' Darius says.

Oberon flicks the rope in a way that sort of flings Kristina onto the floor in one corner. Merle flinches, but Kristina doesn't even glance at her.

Darius says, 'You can go.' He's looking at Oberon.

'I'd like to stay,' Oberon says. 'I'd like to see what that bitch gets.'

'You can go,' Darius says.

Oberon says quietly, 'Don't I get to witness the dispensation of justice in my own house?'

Darius turns away from him. 'What do you think, Merle?'

'What?' Merle says, trying to sound cool rather than completely confused and intimidated.

'This is your retribution. Does Oberon get to stay and witness it or should he leave?'

'Actually, Cole, to her, that's
Lord
Oberon of the Black Emerald Clan.' Oberon's voice begins sounding hard and firm but starts to waver as Darius turns to look at him.

'Sometimes I really think it was a big mistake to keep you alive,' Darius whispers.

Oberon smiles. 'Really? You won't do me the mercy of killing me though, will you, Cole? Not after I made you beg for it and refused you so many times. You just don't know how to deal with me.'

The two men face each other off for several heavy moments, then Darius glances at Merle. 'Sorry,' he says, 'change of plan. I've made the decision.' He turns back to Oberon, but not before Merle sees his eyes start glowing, black. 'Get. Out. Now.'

Under Darius's gaze, Oberon weakens visibly. He doesn't even attempt to disobey.

Darius turns his attention to the snivelling Kristina, still cowering in a corner. He starts to walk towards her. She's shaking with fear and staring up at him as he moves closer and reaches out, his palm forwards, his fingers spread.

His hand is inches from her head when Kristina begins to sob, 'No, no, please, Darius. Don't.'

Darius pauses. 'Now, Kristina,' he says, smoothly, 'I need to deep read you to know how to punish you, don't I? I thought you people liked this traditional stuff.'

'No, please, it hurts ...' Kristina sobs again, shaking her head and trying to guard herself with her bound hands.

Darius ignores her, swatting her hands aside as he presses his palm firmly against her forehead, his spread fingers cupping her scalp. Kristina stops sobbing and screams in pain. Darius doesn't appear to react to her new distress at all.

He holds Kristina long after her scream has died away. There's a long frozen moment and then Merle sees Darius smile. 'Well, of course,' he says to himself, 'I should have known.'

Darius lets go of Kristina and turns to Merle. Kristina crumples onto the floor like a rag, moaning, 'No, don't, please. Not her.' Darius starts to advance on Merle, his face set.

Merle is terrified but she tries really hard not to humiliate herself by cowering like Kristina. She's still sitting on the bed, her legs stretched out and her back against the wooden headboard. She just sits there as he climbs up onto the bed and draws his body towards her with a cat's sinuous moves. He straddles her legs and reaches out, but he doesn't grab her forehead like with Kristina. Instead he puts one hand on either side of her face, moves in and kisses her.

She holds her breath beneath the touch of his lips. A vampire is kissing her. Darius Cole is kissing her.

And it's amazing.

Darius's cool mouth is familiar somehow. Familiar and arousing. He begins using his tongue and his hands to coax her mouth into opening for him. Very slowly. Savouring each new sensation, each new piece of her lips and the flesh inside her mouth as it is revealed to him. There is no hurry. It's all so controlled. The coldness of his tongue feels a little strange, but not unpleasant. He doesn't smell or taste sour or like rotting flesh. He tastes just like a man. An aroused man.

As he keeps on kissing her, achingly slowly, almost worshipfully, she feels her whole body tauten. Her nipples go hard and super-sensitised. Every hair on her body is up on end. She feels the skin on her face get hot and tight under Darius's hands.

Darius moans softly into her mouth. He loosens his grip on her face and strokes her hot cheeks gently, turning his hands over to use the cool backs of his fingers on her heated skin.

And he's hard. The moment she feels it – the distinct pressure of his hard cock pushing against her thigh – she knows what it is, yet can't really believe it.

Eventually Darius pulls away and she slumps back against the headboard, breathing hard. Darius is still crouched over her on the bed. He turns to speak to Kristina over his shoulder. 'Well, I hope that's taught you a lesson,' he says, his cold voice sounding, for a moment, a little wry and amused. But only for a moment. 'Cross me again, and you can watch me fucking her.'

Kristina – still a whimpering bundle in the corner of the room – wails into her frothy skirts.

Darius turns back to Merle. She's panting. She can't help it. She knows she's wet with arousal – her face isn't the only place that's burning, flushed with blood.

He can read minds. He knows what he's done to me.

Darius gives her a long look of barely contained lust, then slides off the bed and grabs Kristina's rope as he strides out of the room. 'I'll be needing a little of you to finish me now, girl.'

They are both gone before Merle has swallowed the last taste of Darius from her mouth.

When Kristina comes in the next morning and plonks down the breakfast tray, Merle is a little surprised. Didn't she try and kill her the other day?

Kristina isn't really her usual chatty self. Her dress seems even more wanton than usual, the neckline sliding off her shoulders which are ringed with bruises and bitemarks. The way she looks at Merle, she seems almost proud of the marks Darius has left all over her. Like she's displaying them.

'He wants to see you in his study,' she says sulkily, as Merle starts to eat. 'Next floor up, third door on the left.'

When Darius calls her in, she opens the large polished oak door into a long elegant room with huge floor to ceiling windows. The room should be flooded with light, but – as with everywhere else in the castle – the curtains are drawn and the lamps are lit. At the far end of the room Darius sits at a large desk, looking far more imposing than the impressive decor. Merle feels self-conscious, fiddling with the hem of her T-shirt, as she walks the endless length of the room to stand before him.

He looks at her for a long moment. 'About yesterday afternoon. I apologise. I shouldn't have done that. You're not here to help me keep Kristina in line.'

'Oh. OK.' She feels herself start to redden. She puts her head down, remembering Darius's usual reaction to her blushing.

'Yes,' he says. His voice sounds even. Perhaps he hasn't noticed? 'Really, I think it would be best if we could just pretend that it never happened. How would that be?'

'That would be, uh ... That would be fine,' she stammers, still not really looking at him and feeling like a fool. She takes a deep breath and forces herself to look up. 'I guess then,' she says lightly, 'that you'll just have to hope that you don't have to make good on your final threat.' She thought that comment would seem jokey, like she didn't think anything of the kiss they'd shared. She regrets saying it instantly.

Darius looks at her. 'My final ...? I don't understand. What was my final threat?'

She feels another thrum of blood rushing to her face. She drops his gaze again and looks at the carpet. 'Oh, sorry, nothing.'

'No, Merle. What was my
final threat!'

She shifts, takes a deep breath and looks up at him again. Her face is practically glowing. 'You told Kristina that if she misbehaved again you'd, uh, fuck me. In front of her.'

Darius's face breaks into a smile. 'Oh,
that.
Don't worry. I really don't think that will be necessary. Do you?'

She blinks. 'If you say so. Um, I mean, no.'

Darius says, 'But that's not why I wanted to see you. You've been here for more than half the term I specified. I was wondering if you wanted to go home.'

'Go home?' she says, still concentrating hard on her breathing and finally feeling her face start to cool.

'Yes,' says Darius. 'Just for a visit, you understand. And the terms remain the same, the terms of my, er ...' He scrambles for the word.

'Of your blackmail?' she says.

'If you like.' He smiles, clearly amused. 'OK. The terms of my
blackmail
remain the same. I have arranged for a car to take you to London to see your parents. You will return here in twenty-four hours.' Darius looks back down at the paperwork on his desk, shooing her away. Clearly he's done.

Merle takes a breath. 'Thank you,' she says softly. He shoos her again. Not looking up.

An hour later, she's walking through the corridors of Cobalt. It feels like a dream. Everything is so cool and bright – sunlight! – and clean. So different to the sumptuously-threatening dark of the castle. There are a few people in the foyer who nod hello to her. No one thinks it's odd that she should be there. Cole's attack on her father has been kept deadly secret. No one knows she's meant to be somewhere else.

She uses her swipe card to take the lift to the secure floor. Out of the doors, she finds herself running. She bursts into her father's room so hard she makes her mother scream out loud and drop the book she's reading.

'Oh, darling,' her mother says, turning around, in tears, then rushing to take Merle in her arms. 'It's OK. No one expected you to stay the whole time. We knew he'd make it impossible for you. It was just a trick, darling. Thank God he stuck to his word and actually let you go.'

'No, Mum ...'

'We've got a squad ready to storm the Black Emerald Castle. They don't know why yet of course, but it's all under control. Now you're back we can take in him tonight. Interrogate him.'

'No. You can't do that. It says in his letter that if we try and take the castle by force he'll destroy the antidote.'

'Oh darling, what choice do we have?'

Merle slows her breathing and looks into her mother's eyes. Appealing for calm. 'No, you don't understand, I'm going back. I haven't given up, Mum. I'm only here because he told me I could come and visit you. I'm going back tomorrow.'

'Oh.' Her mother's face twists.

'I know, Mum. But I'm past halfway already.'

Her mother swallows. When she speaks her voice is taut with emotion. 'Is he – is he treating you well? You look thin. They don't understand food. Is he feeding you?'

'Yes, Mum, it's fine,' she says. 'I have my own room. A very nice room. They bring me good food and magazines and other stuff to read. It's fine. Just a bit boring sometimes. It's like being in a hotel.'

'And he hasn't ...' Merle's mother looks away from her, almost as if she can't bring herself to say the words. 'He hasn't
bothered
you? He hasn't done anything to
disturb
you?'

Merle shakes her head, trying not to think about the way she felt when Darius kissed her – that memory suddenly flaring hotly. She bites at her lips and feels those two hot pink spots appear on her cheeks. 'No.'

Her mother pulls her close into an embrace again. 'Oh, darling. I've been sick with worry. I thought we'd never see you alive again.'

Merle nuzzles up close to the smell of her mother and tries to make herself believe that she can stay forever.

Late that evening, Merle watches as her mother falls asleep in her chair. Then she takes her security swipe card from around her neck and goes walking.

She's not sure where she's headed. But when she gets into the lift and sticks her mother's card into the slot a second secure floor appears on the control panel that she's never ever seen before and she knows that has to be the place.

The lift goes down. Down and into the ground. The secret level must be below the basement. When the doors slide open she gets a weird shivery flashback to the castle dungeon, but she steels herself and steps out into the gloom.

Feeling on the walls with flat hands she finds a light switch and flips it. Fluorescent strips flick on, sprinkling the light out to the furthest reaches of the huge room. All the room contains are filing cabinets.

The entire history of Cobalt.

Darius Cole has his own aisle. There's so much information. But she finds a likely looking file about his interrogation – so thick it takes up half a drawer on its own.

In the empty foyer she finds a carrier bag behind the reception desk and slips the file into it. Then, because she doesn't know where else to stash it, she goes out onto the pavement where the blacked-out car Darius provided is still parked and leaves the file with the driver.