Once Bitten *On Hiatus*

𝕰𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖞 𝕾𝖎𝖝

• 𝓜𝓪𝓮 •

Later in the day, Seraph sat next to me silently, his eyes on my window. The sun was setting, and he was on Mae-watch because apparently Kite thought I was going to go out and do something stupid. And for some godforsaken reason, Seraph had agreed.

I wasn't going to go to Zero. Not yet, anyway. It would be too suspicious. I had a feeling that Titus would have eyes on me and Zero for a while after the stunt I pulled, and me immediately going to Zero to find answers would raise questions.

But this tense silence going on between Seraph and I was putting me on edge.

"Seraph?" I leaned forward to try and catch his eye.

He glanced at me. "Mae."

I pursed my lips. I hadn't known him for a long time, but something told me he was angry. But with me, or with what happened, I had no idea.

I tried giving him a smile, to which he stared blankly at me.

"You can't be mad at me too," I said, falling back in my bed and draping an arm over my eyes dramatically.

"No?" His voice made me lift my arm. He stared down at me, his reddish-purple eyes narrowed. "I can't?"

I had a feeling it was a rhetorical question. The entire time we were in the throne room, I could physically feel the anger pouring from him - from the moment his powers were taken to the moment we left. It had only dimmed slightly since we left, and I'd caught him clenching a fist on more than one occasion since.

"Which part are you mad about," I finally asked on a sigh.

"Why didn't you kill Zero," he asked instead of answering.

I sat up and looked at him, narrowing my eyes. "I told you. Titus would have-"

"I wouldn't have let Titus touch you." His voice when he cut me off was deep. Angry.

I shook my head. "Seraph, he would have hurt others before he would touch me. He made that clear when he hurt Noah."

"Titus put a target on the back of his head when he made you drink from two blood whores in front of me," he said, his voice low. "Titus ensured his death when he forced you to do something you weren't comfortable with by harming Noah."

So he wasn't actually angry at me, per say. That was good. Nobody needed Seraph angry at them. I knew what he did with people who pissed him off, and I never wanted to be on the receiving end of his anger.

"So, you care about me, huh?" I teased, grinning at him.

He still didn't smile back at me.

"More than I would like," he finally said, his voice soft. His eyes dropped to my neck, then back up to my eyes. Those words, mixed with that look, did things to me they had no business doing to me.

In the time that I'd known Seraph, I'd come to the conclusion that he didn't do feelings well. And whatever it was he was feeling for me was throwing him off kilter. Big time.

"Did you enjoy drinking from them, Mae," he asked, his voice quiet. His eyes dropped to my neck again, then back up.

I shook my head, my eyebrows drawing together. "No, I was trying to not drink from them, if you remember."

"You didn't enjoy the rush?" His voice was so quiet it was almost a whisper. "The power?"

I didn't know what he wanted me to say. I was thankful in the end that Titus made me drink from them. I doubted that I would have been able to do half of the things that I did without it. But that was where it stopped. I didn't like the anxiety it came with. The fear of draining them dry and killing them. Their trust in me, mixed with the knowledge that no one would have stopped me if it went too far...

I didn't like the way my body took over during the fight with Zero. With the way it felt like an out of body experience. But I'd felt everything. Zero's hand through my chest had been excruciating, but the hot blood had pulsed through me. Pushed the pain to the back of my mind as an instinct I didn't know I possessed took over and allowed me to get my heart back.

I didn't like how little effort it took to melt someone's mind. I didn't like looking down and seeing the damage on someone who was simply doing their job.

But how was I supposed to explain that?

I shook my head, and Seraph's hand was around my throat so quickly I didn't have time to react. His fingers pressed just below my jaw.

"I want to kill them," he said. His eyes flashed, and he bared his teeth at me. "For enjoying your fangs in their throat. For kneeling in front of you. For holding you against them like you were theirs."

I stared at him, my eyes wide in shock.

His eyes lowered to my lips. "I want to make them watch me fuck and claim you before I rip their heads from their bodies so they know who you belong to before they die."

A shiver danced down my spine as his words. I had to be wholly and completely fucked up mentally for that to turn me on as much as it did.

His fingers tightened around my throat as his eyes raised to meet mine again as he whispered, "What are you doing to me?"

I open my mouth to respond - likely something like "fuck if I know" - but his fingers tightened on my throat, stopping me. His jaw tightened.

I felt my cheeks heat under his stare.

"You still blush so pretty for me," he growled, pushing me to my back by my throat. He leaned over me, scanning my face.

I stared up at him. "Seraph-"

"No." He cut me off. "I am not angry at you, Mae. But I am pissed off. So I recommend you don't speak."

I nodded. 'Use me.'

His eyes widened slightly, then narrowed again. "You going to be a pretty little slut for me, Mae?"

Shit.

I nodded again. He didn't want me to speak, so I didn't.

"Do you remember those visions I gave you?" He caressed my throat.

I did. He'd shown me images of me running from him and him ultimately catching me. Fucking me in the grass. But he'd also shown me images of me tied up. Blindfolded.

I stopped breathing.

A wicked grin split his face. "You're going to need new sheets."

Holy fucking Christ.