Taken by The Hunger: A Blood Thirst Novel (Book 1) Paranormal Romance/ Erotica/ Urban Fantasy (4 page)

“You’re trembling baby,” he whispered as he licked my ear. I felt confused, bereft, and weak. He must have read my thoughts because he said, “You’re weak Emma,” offering as an explanation, “we are treating a rare illness, if you leave… you die. Your father pays me a lot of money to keep you safe. There are things out there searching for you, trying to harm you… you’re too young and naïve to comprehend… I want you, I always have Emma, but I can’t have you. At least not until I know with all certainty that I won’t hurt you when I take you… that no one will, but most importantly Emma… that I can keep you alive. Your father knows I’m the only one who can help you.”

“What do you mean by hurting me when you take me?”

“Everything has consequences, it’s time you learned that. You must start listening to me.”

He continued, “Don’t worry Emma. I won’t ever give up. I’m the best person qualified to see you through this. I have everything at my disposal.” He spoke slowly, soothingly almost like speaking to a child when they wake up after a nightmare.

He told me all this while I was vulnerable- standing in front of him holding the chemise against my breasts, preventing it from falling to the ground. I felt broken, just like he said he found me, and I wasn’t capable of listening to his explanations. “What did you do to Jeffery?” I had to ask knowing he’d probably kill me, but it should have been the first thing out of my lips because Jeffery was my only ally.

“I killed him.”

I stepped back, away from him so suddenly. I felt my soul had left me, and I was slowly falling when he held me up against his chest. Nothing registered. I don’t even think I struggled when he touched me, and I felt his skin connect with mine because I had finally become numb, sedated, and completely lost.

“I never wanted to cause you any harm, baby… you must listen to me. He wouldn’t give me your location, not even when I thought him your kidnapper, and I tried to beat it out of him,” he said with what sounded a little like desperation in his voice. “At first, I followed him, but he knew or guessed someone would follow. I didn’t have time for chasing games, not when your life was at stake. I eliminated the threat, Emma.”

No...
I shook my head…
no. no. No. You’re lying,
I screamed soundlessly, yet he replied nevertheless.

“I wish I was, but both of you gave me no other choice. Your father didn’t think you capable of your actions, so he told me to find Jeffery… that he was somehow working for the enemy. I didn’t know what to think, and I was losing precious time. Your father gave me orders to get you back by any means necessary. We both believed you to be in grave danger, and when I confronted Jeffery he told me you would never be mine… that he was following orders to keep you safe, far away from me. I saw it as a complete disregard of your life, or worse he had already handed you over to our enemies.”

“This doesn’t make any sense,” I said more to myself than him- not recognizing the emotionless tone of my own voice. “No, you didn’t kill him, you’re saying this to be cruel… you want to punish me… you knew, you had to have known that he would never hurt me.”

Chapter 4: Love at Death’s Corner

“Emma,
that’s what you don’t want to understand,” he whispered as he kissed my temple before trying to ingrain his next words, “he did hurt you, you were closer to death than I’ve ever seen you, and baby it’s been bad- it was his fault.”

He then picked me up against his chest and carried me over to the bath tub while I pounded my fists against his heart, and shut my eyes on a soundless scream. He stopped my pitiful pounding against him by holding me tighter- molding us together. When I was too tired to continue, I breathed him in- his scent pacifying me before he gently laid me in the roman tub, and stayed close behind me while the darkness surrounded us. The water smelled of the tuberose oil I loved to use so much. It soothed me, a rare obsession of mine. He’d prepared it just as I liked it with the water close to burning me.

I turned and looked at him then, he was standing there, watching me, and looking so beautiful with his wet shirt pressed close to his abdomen… I hated him because I loved him. As I stared and his gaze pierced mine, I wondered how he knew so many things about me, and I asked myself how much more did he know that was still unknown to me? I asked him imploring with my eyes, “Why don’t we just end this, why keep looking for that cure? Are the lives of the people around us really worth keeping me safe? Please, I just want to Live… even if it’s merely seconds of a normal life.”

“You don’t know what you ask Emma! You will never have a normal life.” He said slowly lowering his eyes from my face, to my neck, and lower still. My hands reached up searching for my chemise, but instead found my exposed breasts. Covering them with my palms and forearms while remembering,
I must have dropped the chemise when he last confronted me
. He watched me very closely while his hands fisted at his sides. I couldn’t keep gazing at him because I was going to make a fool of myself.

I half turned bringing my knees up to my chest; sinking into the water trying to hide I was only in my silver panties. I needed to ask him one last thing, and I needed to see his face when I got the courage to ask, so I slightly turned.

“You’ve hardly lived,” he was saying, as his eyes devoured my naked skin, “you don’t know the things you’re giving up.”

“You’re responsible for making me give all those things up- keeping me trapped here. Is it the money?”

“Tell me Darius, are we chasing this intangible thing that may elude us forever just because you want whatever my father is paying you?” I asked without any trace of emotion; finally finding the courage because he’d never looked so torn between need, desire, and duty. I wanted to shake him with my words- to tear him apart, he who was always so in control of everything. Even if I didn’t for one second believe them to be true, I said them to hurt him.

He shot up and crossed over to me looking like he was going to climb in and drag me out of the tub by my neck only to strangle me. I sprang up, fumbled, and splashed away from him… watching as he changed course and punched through the stone wall. I screamed as I heard the pieces falling from the wall.

“Emma, I told you never to run from me,” he took a deep breath as he rested his temple on his forearm while his fingers picked at the broken tiles. “Your fucking beautiful tits are slaying me baby, swaying…” he sucked in his bottom lip, “so fucking beautiful… begging me for touch. Stop fucking moving will you!” He warned.

I choked, shocked while trying to hold still, and cover myself.

“Emma you’re trembling now and that only makes me wonder if you’ll tremble like that underneath me while I take you… please stop, or I will soon find out.”

My teeth started chattering, so I bit my lip and tried to stop moving as if my life depended on it.

What the hell is wrong with me! Get it together.

“God, you need to put some clothes on because I’m about to lose all control.” He stayed against the broken wall for mere seconds… then abruptly turned away from me when he roughly said, “Now, I feel I have to answer this question, to get it through to you, but never ask something so ridiculous again.”

“Do you understand me?”

He looked at me then, and I nodded yes.

“I put your life above all others including my own, and I do it because it’s the only way I know how to LIVE, it’s in every fucking breath I take, so don’t ever imply I do it for something as dirty and worthless as money. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME EMMA?”

I shook my head no while trying to remain perfectly still. How could I, understand? No, I refused to believe that he was telling me he loved me when all he did was push me away causing me pain.

He moved so suddenly, he didn’t even give me time to try and move away. He was breathing hard and his hand was shaking when he reached for my face as his thumb touched my lips.

“No of course you don’t... I’m doing what I can to wait Emma, to give you the time to heal your scars from within… the ones you have buried deep inside, but stop making it so completely impossible for me.” His hand lowered to my neck caressing my pulse there. “Don’t ever socialize with the guards for the safety of everyone involved.”

When I went to reply, he grabbed my jaw while looking down at my lips with a dark glint in his eyes and said, “If you get lonely you now have Kamila, or come to me… I’ll figure something out, but don’t ever again try to make
Angels
out of mere mortals.” He turned, walked away picking up the chemise from where I must have dropped it, fisted it within his grasp, and left.

My legs couldn’t sustain me any longer. I fell into the tub and clasped my hands over my ears to keep the humiliation along with so many regrets out of my mind. I never forgot Jeffery, and I never tried to escape again… the guilt was too much; it never left me following me like a dark shadow. From then on Darius kept a closer eye on me never trusting me again.

Chapter 5: Lucid Need of Mine

I
started having nightmares from that night on of someone coming for me while I tried to get away unsuccessfully. I sometimes thought it was Jeffery, but I would wake up screaming and very frightened, and thought it surely wouldn’t be Jeffery’s ghost because I would like to think he would protect me, not seek revenge.

Darius would always be there in my room shaking me awake from the nightmares. He’d gently caress me soothing me back to sleep, and in the state I was in it was the only time I allowed him to be near.

Through unshed tears, gasping for air, I told him he didn’t have to keep waking up every night. But he always said he didn’t sleep that he usually kept watch outside my door. I decided to let the lie stand and not confront him. I knew him to sleep in my bed. For almost two years, this was our moment of truce- the only moment when we were in such close proximity that I could hear his heartbeat while my cheek lay against him, breathing him in, as he caressed my back soothing away the tears until I fell back to asleep. I don’t think he went back to his bed, in fact, in my sleep I sometimes felt his skin against mine, and I welcomed it. Later, I would always find the time to hate myself for it, but in those few moments his company kept me sane… safe.

Until one night when I woke up straddling him, trying to take a chunk off his neck. His shirt was gone. I awoke kissing and biting his bloodied lips. I saw him through a haze laying beneath me with half cast passion filled eyes. It thrilled me as I drank him in. I was barely aware of my actions only enjoying all the sensations, the power of this man’s captivating blood, and the taste of his strained hard body underneath mine. He kept repeating my name, “Emma, Emma… not like this. I want you to know it’s me, say my name Emma.”

“Names who gives about names, I just want. I’ve wanted you so bad for so long, I hurt. I feel empty… I need you to fill me,” I argued as I licked and bit his jaw.

“Yes,
fuck baby
… your kisses burn my soul, I’ve wanted to be inside you for so long now… longer than you’ll ever know.” He groaned, lifting his hips and me in the process as his hands left my thighs to unfasten his jeans. I laughed biting into his neck… knowing he would soon be inside of me. I’d wanted this for so long I was panting with anticipation, but then… something unexpected happened.

I saw us very much as we were now- only it wasn’t. We were in an indoor patio with the sound of a fountain nearby and he was shaking me, telling me my plan was madness that she would find us out. “It will never work. She will come to me and know.”

“I can’t stay away from you anymore. I don’t care if she thinks you’re a slave. I want you Darius… you are a burn in my heart. What will you have me do? Come to you, seek comfort with you, or find solace with ano…”

“I know what you’re doing, but don’t… do not think to play games with me. I warn you, don’t you fucking say that, or your first time with a lover will only be about me imprinting myself in every cell of your body… you won’t be able to find yourself any longer when I’m through. You want only me Eva… and fuck the world around us.”

He continues, his gaze dark with lust, “If this is what you want then fine have me. I’m done with fighting you, but you will doom us all to hell.”

Was I fearful I’d gotten the desired result? A part of me was, I can’t lie, but the other demanding part met him half way because I knew I would find pleasure like no other… I existed only to be with him. It was that simple.

We came together clashing in a tangled mess of arms, legs, and lips. He grabbed and lifted me over his waist. I climbed as he went down on his knees, and I felt the cold rough floor at my back. Our actions were rushed. He wasted no time as he tore my dress placing himself between my thighs, and I lay moaning at the feel and smell of his nearness. I didn’t recognize myself as I tore at his tunic. He lifted my blush silk muslin dress all the way up over my hips to my waist, exposing luminous, smooth, pale skin. His eyes where an iridescent blue which from his kind, I had learned, only meant one thing... he was marking me as his own. He’d formed such a deep attachment to me, he was claiming me. We were too far gone to notice my mother and Eros the King, her favorite lover, were watching us.

I only felt how I was burning, sensually covered, and cherished one moment, and then the next… bare, his weight was gone as he was thrown off of me. I screamed from the pain of my heart being squeezed a feeling triggered from no longer being near him. The sound of his shoulder dislocating against the marble column and both falling had me crawling towards him.

“Darius please look at me,” I begged.
Need to know he is alright, he needs to be alright for both our sakes.
He did as I asked, and it’s when I saw his face was bloodied and swollen from what I could only guess was a kick Eros had struck in order to get him off me.

“HOW DARE YOU, I should have you put down like the dog you are for having marred the Princess, and soon to be Queen of the Vampires with your touch,” my mother yelled. “As fitting as that would be I think it would be a worse punishment having to see what I have planned for her future.” Then she looked towards Eros and nodded.

Instantly, I sensed his presence behind me… moments before, I felt his forearm under my breasts lifting me against him as my hand reached for Darius while the other tried to ease his hold. Tears fell down my face. “Mother if you hurt him,” I said as I struggled against Eros, “You won’t have a future. I’ll tear out your black heart.”

“You dare cause us shame. All of this fight for a worthless slave, You Dare!”

“Let me go… Eros, I demand you to,” I ignored my mother and uselessly fought to free myself. He growled in my ear and whispered so my mother wouldn’t hear, “You are fortunate you are my mate, and that I thought twice before killing you.”

“You are mad. What you say is impossible,” I replied. “No vampire has ever mated to one such as I. My blood is poisonous to your kind.”

“Yes… there’s my merciless daughter, always trying to fight no matter if it is a worthless battle over a worthless slave. Gone is your father’s kindness and pathetic conformity; all the attributes you share with him. I knew you had my will. I knew you were your mother’s daughter,” she laughed as she approached Darius and grabbed his long hair pulling his head back. She’d never before mentioned my father to me, “Take her to her quarters and lock her in while I have some fun with my favorite pet.”

“And don’t worry Emmaley, I’ll make sure you hear every last one of his screams, so maybe next time you’ll learn to stay away from the paid for warrior. Yes Darius, I shall enjoy teaching you your place.”

Darius looked directly at Eros when he said, “Keep your defiling claws off her, or I’ll
behead
you, my king.” Then while still looking directly at Eros, he said to my mother, “It is a shame, you my queen have allowed for him to lie to you since the beginning- so blinded by your desire for him. Did you know, Aurora… that while your lover fucks you, crawling his way into your heart all these years, all he’s ever thought about is… your daughter? I recognize the look in his eyes when he sees her, he wants her as his mate. All these years… using you… just with you as a means to your daughter, my dishonored queen. You think she is safe with him because he cannot taste her blood?”

“Darius, No!” I screamed feeling panic at his words. She would kill him.

My mother’s shriek broke the mirrors hanging on the walls around us, as Eros lunged himself at Darius. I pulled Eros back by digging into his back with my bare hand and upon reaching his heart I squeezed… but it wasn’t beating, so I drew away terrified from the heartless bastard. That hesitation nearly cost me my life because he yanked me around, and drove his fangs into my artery while he fondled my left breast through the thin fabric of my dress, anchoring- holding me against him, so they could see. I felt his fangs momentarily release me, “Ah… sweeter than ambrosia. Emmaley my love, there’s no need to try to take my heart, it has always belonged to you. It is time you give me yours in return.” I fought him, but his fangs returned, pinning- claiming me he drank. His voice was in my head.

Now you are finally mine. Finally, I’ll know what it feels like to openly love you without restraint. To sink myself deep into your heat and not just pretend to anymore.

I felt and heard his elation, making me sick, while I was slowly losing consciousness. I stood in front of the two people who loved me most being drained right before their eyes. Darius was immobile due to my mother’s spell, but his gaze was filled with such desolation and fear it cut right through me like a sword.

My mother of all the people came to my rescue, but right before she reached me he traced us from them. The last I saw was her falling hysterically to her knees while she brokenly cried, “What have I done, forgive me my precious child.”