Sweet Cravings (18 page)

I became enraged he’d seen my dream. “Who are you to peek into other people’s dreams? You didn’t have to do that. It freaks me out. I’m freaked out right now.” And I was. How dare he see my dreams! I was violated in so many ways, and my anger boiled inside like a whistling teapot. Before it was okay, but now? What gave him the right to see into my thoughts now?

He took another drink of wine and said coolly, “I am your blood-sire. It is my right to do what I want with you, even if you do not approve of it.”

“Not approve of it? I feel like I’ve been violated. I don’t sneak a peek at
your
dreams.”

He put his glass on the table and dabbed his mouth with a napkin. “That is because you do not know how, and I do not wish for you to see them yet. Now, cease your temper and speak casually with me.”

I clenched my fists and then let them go, letting all the anger pass through me as I relaxed them. I couldn’t lose my cool, especially not in front of Darius. There’s no telling what he might do.

“Drink the rest of your wine,” he suggested, and I gulped it down just to show him I could. I cringed at the bitterness when I was done, but being tipsy paid off. Oh no! Was I really tipsy just from one glass of wine? Oh no! When I get tipsy, I tend to get loose and say things I wouldn’t normally say and do things I wouldn’t normally do.

I got up and sat right next to Darius and laid my head on his shoulder. “You’re so beautiful,” I said.
No! Don’t say stupid things.
Why were my thoughts semicoherent, but my body already succumbing to the alcohol?

“So are you, my dear,” he said and stroked my hair. I laughed and snuggled against him more, wrapped my arms around his waist, and pressed my face against his chest.

“I love you so much!” I yelled in a slurred voice. The thought of being with him made me all warm and fuzzy inside. I grabbed his collar, pulled him down to my level, and kissed him roughly on the lips. He responded and kissed back harshly, his lips so smooth and cold against mine. I moaned in pleasure and entered his mouth, and he did the same. We briefly explored each other before I pulled away and began to kiss his neck in an uneven frenzy.

A passionate fire blazed within me. I actually did love Darius. I loved him more than I had realized. I couldn’t imagine life without him. He had twisted around my mind and stayed there like a rosebush—a soft pain but a beautiful flower that captured my very soul in its delicate petals.

Darius bound his arms around me and caressed my hair again, touched a finger from my cheek to my forehead, and then smirked. I let my body ease up and rested my head on his legs before the alcohol completely took over my mind, and I couldn’t remember the rest, only that at some point I fell asleep.

When I woke up it was almost time to leave, and I had a killer headache. I was lying on the couch with a pillow beneath my head and a heavy blanket embroidered with horses over my body. My mind spun a mile a minute and my vision blurred for a while before it focused and became normal. I tried to move, but I couldn’t even lift a finger, and I panicked inside, wondering just what Darius put in that wine.

“I did not put anything in the wine,” he said sternly and stepped into my range of vision at the end of the couch.

I spoke in my mind.
“Then why can’t I move?”

He sighed. “This is your first time consuming alcohol since becoming a vampire, am I correct?”

“Yeah.”

“You see, my dear, and pardon me for not explaining it sooner; recently changed vampires become paralyzed for a minimum of eight hours when consuming alcohol for the first time. Their bodies have to become used to it again. I do not know the exact reason, but it coincides with the vampire virus inside us.”

Vampirism was a virus? What?

“Then why did you give me the alcohol? Now I can’t move and it’s time to go!”
I mentally hollered, staring at the clock that read eight at night.

“The effects will wear off in approximately two hours. I did this because I do not wish for you to join us tonight. It is too dangerous, and I could feel Nyx’s killing intent in your dream. Those are her true feelings.”

He began to walk toward the door that led to the main hall.

“Hey! Wait! I have to go. I have to know why Vex wants to kill me, and I have to stop Nyx and tell her what a cold motherfucker Vex really is!”

He shook his head, his long wavy hair slightly bouncing. “I am sorry, but I will not allow such behavior. I do not want you to get hurt.” His eyes shadowed with regret and sorrow, and then he opened the door and closed it quietly behind him.

“Hey! Wait! Wait! Goddammit!”
I inwardly screamed.

What the hell was I going to do? Sang was expecting me to be there, and I couldn’t even tell him where I was. Darius would probably tell him that I decided not to go, the bastard. Oh, the struggles you go through in life.

As I lay there completely paralyzed except a tiny movement in my mouth, which I used to bite my lower lip, I wondered if they’d be okay without me. Well of course they’d be okay, but I wouldn’t get the answers I wanted, and that irritated me. I wanted to go so badly, but how?

An hour and a half passed, and I assumed that everyone had already left. Lawrence came into the room and set down a plate of cake and tea for me. I tried to thank him, but I still couldn’t speak and he left silently.

Just when I’d decided to give up and wait the night out, the door slowly creaked ajar and in stepped Haru.

“I knew you were in here!” she exclaimed in excitement. “Fang smelled you in here, and here you are! Oh, what a good puppy!” The hellhound came in beside her, panting heavily.

I tried my best to form words. “H…Ha…Haru.” I managed to speak! Yes! I was finally becoming able to speak and move again.

She briskly walked over and scrutinized me. “Hey, Lily, I saw that Darius left you here. Fang smelled everyone’s absence but yours and the butler’s. I don’t know why he did that, but get up and come on, we’re going too!”

I used all my willpower and concentrated and finally sat up. “Haru,” I said, “thank you. Darius gave me wine and it paralyzed me and he left without me because he wanted to
protect
me, but the truth is, I really wanted to go, and you’re my savior!” I hugged her and squeezed.

“I don’t really get it, but come on. Follow me.” She ran out of the mansion with me beside her and clicked a small black remote. I saw the headlights of a nifty little car light up. She took the driver’s seat while I hurriedly got into shotgun position. Fang jumped into the backseat and lovingly licked my face, in which I responded with a few pets to the head.

She stepped on the gas and squealed out of the driveway and onto the main road. She went ninety, and it baffled me how no police were out to stop her, and in about three minutes we were parked along the curb by a luxurious Victorian house that I would’ve loved to own.

It was made of red brick and had a round turret and white patio. Vines crept from all sides and slithered up to the pointed roof. It had four oval windows in the front, and a double door with intricate flower designs and two Greek columns. It was beautiful and so fancy, the house I’d always dreamed of. But now was not the time for admiring the house. I was after what was inside.

I could smell Darius’ cologne and Sang’s distinct scent, which was like a strong aroma to me. We entered the house as we pleased; the doors weren’t locked. Haru suggested that someone may have picked the lock, but she wasn’t entirely sure.

As we walked in I was overwhelmed by a horrid scent, a terrible, indescribable smell that shot into my nose like a rifle. It was so putrid I gagged and collected myself so I wouldn’t throw up. This was probably the worst thing I’d ever smelled in my life. Yuck!

Fang whimpered and put her paws over her nose. Haru shushed her and told her to go back to the car. The hellhound whined but accepted the command and trotted outside to her master’s vehicle.

It was dark in the house—really, really dark; blacker than the night sky. We stepped warily over broken glass and furniture and that’s when I heard the low moaning.

Oh, please don’t be a zombie! Please! I absolutely hate zombies!
They freak me out now worse than ever before.

I advanced farther, deeper into the house. Suddenly, something cold grasped my ankle, and I fell face first on the floor.

I twisted my body to see a sickly woman with sunken cheeks and hollowed eyes crawling next to me, her skinny arms shaking from the effort.

“Haru?” I called loudly.

“I’m here, Lily, we just got stuck by these people.”

As the woman continued to creep near my face, I glanced around and saw white heaps lying everywhere. There were at least twenty of them, and they all moaned and coughed. They seemed like zombies with their pallor and dark circles under their eyes.

I was rather horrified at the sight of all these people, humans, all on the floor like seals on a beach, groaning and barely moving. The woman who’d grabbed my ankle stuck her face a few inches from mine, her lips quivering and pale.

Her voice was raspy. “Do you have the pills? Do you have the pills? Give them to me. Hand them over. Please? Please?” She collapsed to the floor and began sobbing uncontrollably.

I felt horrible for not being able to grant her the pills she wanted. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have any pills.” She was probably talking about NEXUS. The other people in the room rolled onto their sides and stared at me with such intensity that I had to blink and look away. A great guilt welled inside me because I didn’t know how to help them.

“Haru, are these people hooked on NEXUS?”

Two young men were clinging to her legs and begging for a pill. Haru shook them off, apologized, and came over to me. “Yeah, they’re hooked on NEXUS all right. Really bad, too.”

I took a step and heard a
crunch
and gazed down to see a crushed white pill. The woman who’d collapsed perked up and rushed beside my boot and then licked the crumbled pill off the floor like a dog would a piece of meat. I couldn’t stand it and moved forward.

There was a white painted door with a broken lock next to a kitchen, and I figured it might lead to the basement, so I pushed it open with Haru at my back. It squeaked noisily and revealed a set of wooden stairs. I slowly made my way down the steps, and when I touched the ground floor, I almost slipped on a dark, scarlet liquid.

No. It wasn’t just liquid. It was blood.

My body became excited at the sight and the hunger awakened a raging storm inside me. I massaged my throat and swallowed a dozen times, but it wouldn’t quench the extreme thirst for that crimson goodness.

It overtook my senses, my mind, and all I could think about was how much I wanted blood; needed it. Haru smelled so intoxicating from behind me, so delicious and warm. I spun around fast and stared into her dark green eyes.

“Lily, what’re you—” She stopped midsentence and gave in to the glamour. I went beside her and smelled the confusion brewing around her and sank my fangs deep into her neck. She gasped as I sucked out her precious life substance and pulled at it harder and harder. She wrapped her right hand around her throat as I kept drinking and drinking, and then her hand relaxed and swung to her side.

Her blood was so different, so unique from any other blood I’d tasted before. But those were all vampires and she wasn’t. She was a homunculus, a man-made creation, and she was so scrumptious against my tongue and lips that I couldn’t stop myself from taking more of her blood.

Yes, I would keep at it. It was so good, so great; I couldn’t stop if I wanted to. And I did want to stop, but I just couldn’t tell my body to. It started to raise panic in me, how my own body wouldn’t listen, and I feared for Haru’s safety.

A low voice shattered my concentration. “You cannot go any further, Lily. That is enough.” It was Darius.

At the sound of his words my body reacted and I yanked free of Haru and licked the blood from my lips. She staggered onto one knee and asked weakly, “What just happened? Lily, did you suck my blood?”

I nodded, ashamed of myself, and I didn’t look her in the eyes. Instead, I put all my attention on Darius, who was just a few feet to the left at the end of the stairs.

“Lily!” Sang called as he appeared from the shadows. I ran down the stairs and embraced him, smelled his ebony hair and the apple shampoo he used. It was great to see him, wonderful to see him, since it was Darius who’d stopped me from coming damn near to killing Haru.

Darius sighed and gestured to the right in an elegant manner. “Lily, my dear, you weren’t supposed to come here, although I knew you would find a way.” He smiled faintly.

I burst out and raged, “Then why do that shit in the first place? You just should’ve taken me along to begin with instead of fucking paralyzing me!”

He shrugged. “I wanted to test your will, and you have a strong one. I never doubted that you didn’t, my dear, but I had to confirm my expectations.”

“Expectations? What expectations? You’re not my father, and I’m not a child, so stop treating me like one!”

“I do not see you as a child. I am your blood-sire, so I have certain responsibilities to take care of. You are my love, and I was trying to protect you, but I cannot make you do what you don’t want to.”

I grumbled under my breath, “You have before.”

“Yes, I have, but time has passed, and I am more confident in you to make your own decisions.”

I stomped my foot and was going to erupt with anger, but Sang pinched my arm and gave me a pleading look that said
don’t do it
.

I untensed my muscles and glanced back at Haru. She was holding onto the railing in a daze, eyes glaring at the floor.

“Are you all right to move on?” Sang asked softly.

Haru raised her head and replied, “Yes. I’ll be down in a minute.”

I said, “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t—I couldn’t control myself.”

“It’s all right. I’m fine now.” She smiled.

“Where’s Hira?” I asked Sang.

“Oh, Hira. He’s sick so he couldn’t come. It’s super rare for him to get sick, too, so I’m worried about him. I'll have to check on him when all this is over. Shifters have really good immune systems, so I hope this is over fast so I can see him.”