Lust Bites (22 page)

Darius rises from the floor, sudden and majestic. He moves himself onto her. He's already naked and he slips inside, his cold hard cock adding a new layer of sensation to the mix of heat and blood and pain and pleasure.

As he begins to thrust inside her, he takes her face in his hands and rolls her head gently to one side. There is an instant – a flash of clarity in the mass of overwhelming sensation – when she sees his fangs, whiter and longer than ever before. And then his mouth is on her neck sinking deep, deeper, and she is coming and so is he.

Blood Rites. Letting him bite her. Making him come. Inviting him in. It is everything she'd imagined it would be in a life growing up with vampires – with Darius Cole – as the ultimate totem of the forbidden.

Late the following afternoon, after many, many recreations of that first set of Blood Rites, Merle finally makes it back to her own bedroom, tottering and swaying down the corridor like she is aboard a ship on the high seas.

In the bathroom washing her face, she feels a sudden thrill as she glances in the mirror and sees the multi-layered wound on her neck. It's low enough in the crook of her shoulder that an ordinary shirt will cover it. She tries several from her case until she finds the best one, and then lies down on her bed.

She drops into sleep. The moment of unconsciousness seems fleeting, but when she opens her eyes again, in answer to a knock on the door, it feels like night.

'Hmm? Yes?'

The door opens and Kristina appears carrying a tray piled with bread, cheese and fruit. She feels her stomach jump for joy.

Kristina sets the tray down on the bed and returns her smile. 'And that's not all,' Kristina says happily. She leaves the room and comes back moments later with a second tray holding a teapot, milk jug, sugar bowl and cup and saucer. As she sets this second tray down on the bed Kristina says, 'Darius said it was vital I learnt how to make tea properly. He says tea is to humans what blood is to vampires.'

Merle feels herself blush. 'Maybe not quite.' She runs her tongue over the scab on her lip.

Kristina gives a little laugh as she starts to pour. 'Well, I guess, I do remember being human. Just about. And drinking tea, and, well, hmm...' Kristina passes Merle a warm cup. 'But I think I've got it so at least you'll have some nice tea for your final two days here.'

Merle pauses mid-sip. 'Oh.' She'd completely forgotten that she's so near the end. 'Actually,' she says slowly, 'I might stay a little longer.'

'What? Why?'

'There are still some things I need to work out. With Darius.'

Kristina catches Merle's eye with an expression that makes her feel instantly on guard. 'Merle, what has he told you? You do know you can't trust him.'

'No. It's not like that. I do trust him.'

'You know he has incredible psych-powers, don't you? You remember you saw that thing he did to me – ripped my thoughts right out of my head? And don't think that wasn't set up. Getting me to try and kill you so he could 'punish' me like that. It was probably all for you. You can't even begin to imagine how his brain works. Some people say he isn't even a vampire. Or he's some kind of super-powered version. No one knows what he really is or where he came from. He
says
he doesn't know. But why trust him? The only thing we know for sure about him is that he's dangerous. And he is controlling everything. Everything. He has all your reactions planned out before you even know what they are.' Kristina pauses and her gaze fixes on Merle's lower lip. 'Oh, God, he hasn't taken you to his bed, has he? And bled you? Merle, he's playing with you. You have to resist him. Just hold out for the antidote and get out.'

Merle shakes her head. 'He's already given me the antidote.'

'Then leave! Look, Merle, if you won't do it for your own sake, do it for his. You're no good for him. While you're here, while he's performing Blood Rites with you, he's marked for death. The Clan Council will take this castle back and stake him. If Cobalt doesn't do it first.'

Merle swallows. 'You're only saying it because you want him for yourself.'

Kristina's shoulder rise and fall. 'If that's what you ... OK, fine. You know, I thought you might say that. Look, Merle, I have an idea. I have something in my room I can give you. It's a draft that can block his psych-powers temporarily. I've been saving it for emergencies. It can't stop his manipulation but it can block the telepathy. And it will help you see him more clearly.'

'I do see him clearly.'

Kristina stands up and her eyes suddenly flash. She points to her forehead and then raises her eyes to the ceiling. 'Let's talk later,' she says brightly. 'Perhaps tomorrow night.'

Merle wakes back in Darius's bed. Great red spidering shapes of her blood are staining the linen everywhere. She feels light-headed. Darius is crouched over her, nude and holding an apple in his hand.

'Take care, Magdalena. Don't sit up yet. Eat. I don't want to deplete you completely.'

She grasps the apple gratefully and takes a large bite. She's ravenous. But as she eats, she can't help staring at Darius's beautiful naked body.

'You can't still want more from me, Magdalena,' he says. But his voice is thick and heavy with desire.

She sits up and kisses him, her mouth still full of apple flesh, but he pulls back, wiping his mouth with his hand, his features wrinkling in disgust. 'You taste of food,' he says. 'Let me make you taste of something far sweeter.' And he's already digging in his drawer for a fresh razor blade.

That evening Merle excuses herself.

She's been naked all day and her clothes feel alien as she pulls them over her skin. She goes down a flight of stairs and then wanders down the corridor looking for Kristina's room. Three doors down from her own, her knock is met with a cry of 'Come in'.

Kristina's room is a mess. But underneath the flurry of clothes and bed sheets and what appeared to be ripped up soft toys is a room as smartly sumptuous as Merle's own. Kristina sits on the bed, holding a glass of black liquid in her hand. She grins at Merle.

Merle stares at the content of the glass. 'Is that it? Is that the draft?'

Kristina nods. 'Well it's not my night cap, is it?'

Merle starts to cross to the bed. 'And if I drink it ...'

'You'll find it easier to see through his lies. It'll keep him out of your head. What he's done by persuasion, well, that can't be undone, but where he's twisted your mind deliberately to entice you to believe his lies. That'll go.'

Merle reaches out and takes the glass. She pauses. 'I don't know.'

Kristina holds her gaze. 'If everything he says is true, you'll still be his after you've drunk it.'

Merle inhales and raises the glass to her lips. But just as it touches them she freezes. Her hand suddenly jerks and she throws the glass across the room. It smashes against the wall. Confused, she whirls around to see Darius standing in the doorway. He is across the room before she's even properly registered him, diving onto the bed, pining Kristina down, pulling out a stake. Merle blinks, looking again at the black liquid dripping down the wall. She's still astounded at how easily he took control of her body. She's never seen him do anything like that. What is he? His powers are frightening.

On the bed, Kristina is screaming, terrified as Darius holds the stake to her heart. 'No, no, no.'

Darius looks up at Merle. 'You can't trust her,' he says, 'she slipping from my control.' He turns back to Kristina. 'Aren't you?'

'Merle, make him stop,' Kristina screams. 'Tell him. He'll listen to you.'

'No,' Darius snaps,
'she'll
listen to
you.
Tell her. Tell her what you just tried to give her.'

Kristina starts sobbing, beginning again her chorus of, 'No, no, no. Darius, please. I saved you from them, Darius. Without me ...'

'Tell her,' he snaps, interrupting her. 'What did you just try and make her drink.'

'Death,' sobs Kristina.

'Death?'

'Death,' says Darius. 'Poison. It's poisonous to humans. Black Emeralds like Kristina and Oberon drink it like a liqueur. They find it amusing. Don't you?'

Kristina – still sobbing – nods.

Darius lowers his mouth to Kristina's ear. 'You remember what I promised you your next punishment would be?'

Kristina nods again.

'Well, we've moved a long way past that now.' He lifts the stake.

'No, Darius, not me. Never me. I love you.'

Darius lifts the stake higher above Kristina's heaving chest, poised to strike.

'No!' Merle is shaking as hard as either of the vampires.

Darius pauses, but he turns on her with livid eyes. 'She tried to kill you, Merle. For the second time. What am I to do? Keep on forgiving her until she finally manages it?'

Merle looks at Kristina's terrified face. 'I just, just want to know why. What did I ever ...?' she walks over to the bed and sit down next to where Kristina is lying, pinned under Darius's thighs. 'Please, Kristina, why?'

Kristina narrows her eyes. 'You know why.'

'Because you're in love with him? Because you're jealous?'

Kristina nods.

'But you know that he doesn't love you, right?'

'He should,' Kristina says, her voice cracking to more tears. 'He's just some filthy feral thing and I
saved
him.'

'How did you save him?'

'I brought him blood. Oberon was starving him. It helped to control his psych-powers to limit the amount of blood he got. But he looked so wretched. I brought him some extra plasma packs. I didn't know then what it would do. But that's how he broke loose. Because of me. And he killed everyone. And now I don't have anything – anyone – left except him. And he doesn't even care.'

Kristina stops talking and rolls her face away. Merle looks up at Darius. 'Come on,' she says to him, 'let's leave her. You don't need to punish her. You've already punished her enough.'

'No I haven't,' Darius says and he thrusts the stake right into Kristina's screaming chest.

In bed, Merle says, 'Where is Oberon?'

'In the dungeon. I know I ought to kill him too. But it's so hard to give him the peace he denied me.'

The coolness in Darius's voice makes Merle shiver. 'Has he been down there long?'

'About ten days. I shut him down there for making Kristina put you back in the cells. I don't know why I even keep letting him out. I just get rather overwhelmed sometimes by the reality of him being down there suffering as I did ... And I let him out again, until he tries something.' Darius shrugs, looking strangely sheepish.

'If you can't kill him Darius, I will.'

'Oh, Magdalena,' Darius says, rolling over on top of her and dipping his head to open up one of the wounds on her neck.

Merle rolls over in Darius's arms. The curtains are drawn as always, but it feels like morning.

Darius is awake, looking at her. 'You can leave when ever you want. You don't have to wait until six o'clock.'

'Do I have to leave?'

Darius smiles. 'No. You know that. Do you want to stay?'

Merle smiles back. 'Maybe a little longer. And there was something I told you I'd do.'

'Of course.' Darius runs a cold finger over her collar bone. 'I do have some things to do today, too. I would love to lie with you all day, of course, bleed you, taste you, see if I can find a part of my dead body that hasn't yet made you flush pink and come, but ...' He stops and grazes his plump bottom lips with his teeth.

Merle puts her hand on his cheek and moves to kiss him. 'Perhaps later.'

A little later, down in the dungeon, Merle peers through the barred window into Oberon's cell. He's manacled and lying on the floor staring at the ceiling.

Ten days without blood.

Merle draws back the bolts and steps into the cell. Oberon lifts his head. Lord Oberon of the Black Emerald Clan. The man who arranged it all.

After she's closed the door behind her, Merle keeps her back pressed against it. She knows the exact limit of Oberon's chains very well. He won't be able to reach her where she stands.

'What do you want, Miss Cobalt?'

'I have something for you, Oberon. Food.'

'Food?' Oberon snorts.

Out of her pocket Merle pulls one of Darius's razor blades. 'Well if you're not hungry.'

'Oh.' Oberon's eyes go wide. He starts to get to his feet.

'You can get off the floor,' Merle says gently, 'but then I want you to sit down on the bench. You remember how it goes. You have to earn your food down here.'

'You want me to kiss you?' he says as he sits down, grinning, almost high – on nothing but the promise of her blood. This was going to be too easy.

'No. No kisses. Remember the other time. I want you to answer my questions. I want to know the truth.'

Oberon smiles. 'You know, in the end, that's often all humans want from vampires. Funny. We do know how to make you dizzy so many ways, don't we?'

Merle holds up her left hand. With the razor blade she snicks the pad of her thumb and turns her hand a little so Oberon can see the wound. 'You know, I'm sure there's a huge stash of blood – what did Kristina call them? Plasma packs – somewhere in this castle – but, I thought this might be more effective. You still like it fresh best of all, don't you? Vamps? I remember my mum telling me about how vamps sometimes kidnap people for a little of the warm stuff then do a mind wipe before they send them back. Very occasionally the mind wipes don't take – that's when Cobalt hears about them.'

Merle tilts her wrist so the blood from her thumb starts to run down her arm. 'You ready to talk yet?'

'You really think I'm going to tell you the truth?'

'Actually, yeah. You've been starved down here, haven't you? Makes it much harder for you to spin me tales, doesn't it?'

'Sounds like you got a few psych-powers there yourself, missy.'

'Are you going to tell me the truth, or not?'

Oberon leans over and spits on the floor. When he looks up his face is defiant. 'If you want the truth, why don't you go and ask Cole. He seems very keen that everyone knows his side of the story.'

'He does, doesn't he? Except I'm not sure he really knows the truth. He only really knows what you told him, doesn't he? And why would you tell him the truth? You're a vampire. All his information about what was done to Magdalena really came from you. If anyone has the real answers you do.' A splatter of Merle's blood hits the floor. Oberon's eyes go wide looking at it. Merle waits for him to look back at her. 'Did Cole really believe in Righteous Power?'

Oberon looks sullen for a moment. 'No,' he says quietly. 'No. He was just a trouble maker. He had no line and nothing to lose. He said he wanted the Clan Council reorganised, more contact between vampires and humans, Clan leaders elected, that sort of thing. I doubt he knew about Righteous Power, probably never even heard of it, feral thing like him. But you'll never convince the Clan Council of that. It'll be his word against mine. Darius Cole is a legend. My legend. And every last vampire that heard him speak joined his cause, and every one of them was killed. There's no one left to say what his doctrine really was, but it wasn't Righteous Power.'

Merle nods. 'And was he performing Blood Rites with humans?'

'Oh, yes. Well, with one human.'

'Magdalena. The woman you had killed. The woman whose soul you trapped in a glass prism.'

Oberon's eyes flash like he's suddenly pleased about something. 'Oh no. That part's not true.'

Merle swallows. She knows she's getting close. But close to what? The truth. The truth that she isn't Magdalena at all? 'Talk to me, Oberon, or you can rot here. Starved into insanity. I mean it.' Another red splat fell onto the dirty floor.

'I am telling you the truth,' Oberon says softly. 'You're right. I can't manipulate you right now. I'm too weak. I can't see in your mind, you're just a blood sack to me right now so you might as well listen. I did not put Cole's creature's soul into a prism. Of course I didn't! Have you any idea how much that would
cost?
Why does everyone think old vampires have unlimited resources? Covering the running of your parents stupid Cobalt operation was bad enough – but then a soul prison on top! If I'd really done that I'd have been ruined. I'm 300 years old; everything is so bloody expensive these days.'

'Oh for God's sake. It's called inflation and I don't see you vamps complaining about it when it works in your advantage. You're all richer than gods.'

Oberon spits onto the floor again. His juices must really be flowing. 'I would never have had to have bought witchcraft in. Vampires and witches, never a good mix. And I had already spent enough on Cole. So I...'

'Oh,' says Merle, her stomach flipping over with the realisation of what Oberon is saying. 'I get it. It was a trick. A vampire mind trick. You just made him
think
you had her soul. So he wouldn't have hope, right? That's the point.'

Oberon nods. 'That's how vampires operate. It's all games. It's all lies. It's not what you can do as much as what you can make people think you can do. Everyone believed I had Magdalena Wright's soul trapped in a glass prism, and that knowledge destroyed all Cole's hopes as surely as if I had really done it.'

'So why did you change your plan. I mean, why tell him you'd put the soul in me?'

'Because, even with his brain starved of blood he was still a cunning creature. Even when he was rolling around on the floor of that cell naked, filthy and deranged, he worked out, or found out, what keeping that soul secure would have been costing me. He realised I wouldn't be able to afford it forever. He started to get hopeful. Started to believe that one day I would have to release her.'

'So then you came up with the idea of me. Of telling him you'd put her soul in me.'

'Not exactly. Cobalt came up with that one. I thought if I shut down Cobalt Cole would think I was serious about his woman's prison. When I told your parents – mummy and daddy – they basically sold me their firstborn child. You. As a receptacle for Magdalena's soul. They didn't even want to have children until this little problem came along. They were both too committed to making money. No wonder they had such an affinity with vamps. Nice people. But it was their idea to conceive a child, place the soul there, and then raise that child to hate and despise vampires. And to hate and despise Cole most of all.'

Merle puts her hand on the cell door behind her for balance. 'My parents suggested it!'

'You can't blame them. They were desperate. Cobalt was a cushy number and they knew it. I owned them. That nice house you grew up in? That fancy office building just off Whitehall? Who do you think pays for all that? Me. Well, the Black Emerald Clan.' He leans forward on the bench. 'Want to know something really funny? Guess who's been rubber stamping all of Cobalt's expenses for the last two years, since he took this place over?' Oberon's eyes rolled to the ceiling.

'Never mind that.' Merle's shaking, Oberon might be too weak to lie to her, but his truth was still devastating. 'So you fooled Cobalt along with everyone else. They think it's all true, too. They think you really did put her soul into their child. Into me!'

'Yes.' Oberon looks impatient. 'Your parents think it's true, Cole thinks it's true. The only people who know it isn't true are in this cell.'

'So what really happened to Magdalena's soul?'

Oberon shrugs. 'Whatever you believe happens to the soul when someone dies. She was shot. She's dead, that's all I know. I'm sure when you tell him he'll start trying to find her.'

'Oh.' Merle feels her heart drop straight through her body as she realises the truth in what Oberon is saying. She isn't Magdalena. She isn't Darius's lover.

She pulls the stake out of the back of the waistband of her jeans and stakes Oberon before he's finished laughing at her. She's never staked a vampire before. It's surprisingly easy.

Merle slides the bolts of the cell door closed and turns around, Darius is standing right behind her, right up close in the tiny corridor. She starts. 'Darius, are you OK? I thought you were busy.'

'I was. But I thought I'd come and check on you. Did you do it?'

'Yes.' Merle swallows. Oberon's dead. Which means she's the only one left now who knows the truth. 'You weren't in my mind when I was in there with Oberon?'

'No.' Darius smiles, a little confused. 'Why? Were you doing something I wouldn't like, Magdalena?' He catches Merle's left wrist and lifts her bloody hand.

'Darius, I ...' Merle's voice trails away. She isn't Magdalena. But that's her secret. She doesn't have to tell him. But he can read her mind. How can she keep a secret from him? There's a look in his eyes. Something dark and comforting. Unless it wasn't a secret. Unless he'd known all along. 'You know, don't you? You know I'm not ... Not her.'

'I know. And, yes, I've always known. Oberon isn't half as clever as he thinks he is.' He reaches out touches a wisp of hair that's stuck to her cheek. 'She's dead. They killed her because of me. As for where her soul is now. Gone into the ether to find another place to rest. Who knows, maybe you
are
her reborn.'

'It'd be a billion to one chance if I actually was ...'

'But she brought me to you. Her story. My love for her. Something in what was done to me and the lies I was told drew me to you. Only to you. And when I look on you I feel something that I only ever felt before when I looked on her. Maybe ...' He looks intently at her. 'Maybe there is some part of her. Somehow ...'

'Darius ...' Merle's voice trails away.

Darius brings her bloody hand to his mouth and licks at her thumb with his cool tongue. 'Let me get that for you, Magdalena.'