Honeysuckle: Red

Chapter 4: Bite

Eustass' idea of having you do what he wanted seemed to be mostly chores. He had you dust, and sweep, and clean almost constantly. If you weren't eating or sleeping, you were doing chores. He'd toss you roughly onto a nearby couch or chair and spend time inspecting your work, but after a few rounds of this you realized he was just forcing you to take breaks.

Your only real concern was that there wasn't much conversation between the two of you. The one time you brought it up he said that you'd just have to wait and see. Well, his exact words had been to not worry your "fairytale filled head about it."

Over the course of about four days, you were slowly pulled into his schedule. Sleeping during the day was unusual for you, but it was surprisingly easy to adjust to. You'd been up most of the night the first day you'd stumbled into the manor as it was.

Meals were simple, but certainly more than enough food. He would grumble that you'd better not complain, but you were just glad to be getting regular meals.  You had been certain in your mad dash to leave the facility behind that you would be going long stretches without food. If you'd died of starvation while being free, then so be it, and so this was a far cry better than you had anticipated.

The beginning of the fifth night, as you were eating breakfast – a few slices of toast with honey on them and some fruit – your curiosity got the better of you.

"Have you, um, eaten?" You ask the question, but you're pretty sure you know the answer. If he's left the manor in the last few nights, it hasn't been for long as far as you could tell.

Vampires could subsist on animals, but they usually had thralls – humans willing to be fed from in exchange for protection, or lodging, or money – or some mix of the three. The only people with more land and wealth than the vampires were the Celestial Dragons. Not even most nobles could compare to the wealth amassed by the long lived race.

The balance of power was shaky at best. Vampires were powerful, but few in number. Turning humans into vampires was tricky business, and vampire procreation was a long process, as such humans out numbered them nearly a million to one. Before there had been thousands of vampires, but a great war some centuries ago had wiped out most of them.

Now there were a few hundred at most.

Honeysuckles were in the middle of that power struggle, but you didn't like thinking about it.

"Vampires don't eat, princess."

"It... seems impolite to refer to it as feeding." You admit, looking over at him carefully.

"It isn't." He answers gruffly. "Call it drinking if you want. You wanna talk rude? Most of us call drinking from honeysuckles dosing."

You can't help flinching at the term. Convincing the world that all honeysuckles were addictive was the greatest lie the World Government had ever gotten away with.

"I'm still not convinced." He says his tone freezing you in place as he stands behind you. "Everyone should be back by morning. I was going to wait, but if you've been lying." His hands rest on your shoulders and suddenly you wish you hadn't eaten breakfast.

"I haven't." You insist. Your voice is quiet, and your heart is pounding.

Eustass' hands hold you in place easily, as he leans down and speaks low into your ear. "You've heard the stories, same as me, I'm sure. The Government protects the little honeybloods, because the terrible, monstrous, evil, blood-sucking vampires can't help from drinking the little darlings dry. So sweet is your blood, so powerfully addicting, that we fall into a terrible bloodlust from it."

"I'm not addicting." You say the words, but there's a vivid image in your mind of your cold and lifeless body on the floor, drained of blood and a feral Eustass Kid screaming in the dark manor.