Blood Throne

chapter four

Melanie

I awake with a start and my eyes fight to focus but fail against the darkness. I sit up quickly but regret it almost instantly when a sharp pain shoots like lightning down my spine. I groan, rubbing the base of my neck and freeze, my mind being bombarded with memories: Soren, Isabel on my couch, and me stupidly and willingly giving myself up for her return.

Maybe it was all a dream; the club, Isabel going missing and the dangerously handsome Soren.

I'm never eating leftover Chinese before bed again.

Before my blissful mirage can put me back to sleep, I notice my surroundings feel different. These sheets are far nicer than my own, and the smell, this intoxicating smell, is not mine and that's when I realize I'm still living in a nightmare.

I quickly peel the blanket that lays over me from my sweaty body, ignoring the protests in my neck.

"Don't move so much, it'll hurt less." I freeze at the familiar voice and my breath hitches in my throat.

"What the fuck did you do to me?" I hiss, staring into the darkness. I hear a shuffle from across the room and there's movement, but I don't know where it's coming from. My eyes search the dark, desperate to find some sort of figure but fail miserably. I can't see shit.

I feel my heart hammering inside my chest like a drum and hold my breath, my fingers gripping the sheets like my life depends on it. Suddenly, I feel a cool hand at the base of my neck, and I jump, but the grip holds me in my place.

"Calm down," he says in a low voice. "I'm trying to help you."

"Fuck right off." He chuckles a response but doesn't remove his hand. Instead, he reaches with the other and grips my jaw, causing me to thrash and kick at him, but it's pointless. My efforts are futile against his strength. His hand pries open my mouth, and he holds it open with his fingers. I groan in response and shake slightly, tears brimming in my eyes. This is it. He's going to rape me, and probably kill me and throw me off a bridge with a cinderblock tied to my ankles. After a moment, something coppery coats my tongue. I spit at him, not even knowing if I even make contact and he laughs again, as if I'm a toddler having a little tantrum.

"It would only help you if you just swallow."

"I'm not swallowing!"

"We'll see about that." Again, his hand forces my mouth open and just like before, copper rolls over my tongue. His fingers grab my jaw like a vice and make it impossible to spit again. He's treating me like a stubborn dog who won't take their medication, and it's working. To my horror, the mysterious liquid courses down my throat.

"There you go." He murmurs before he releases me and I fall back, pushing myself along the bed to put as much distance between him and I as possible. Finally, a light turns on and my eyes focus on Soren who stands beside a lamp. He has a smear of crimson along his bottom lip that he wipes away with the knuckle of his thumb. He carefully sits on the bed, his weight dipping into the mattress.

"What did you just put into my mouth?"

"My blood," he says simply.

This guy is a poster child lunatic; certifiably insane.

"Your what?"

"It's to help your pain. Move your neck," He commands, watching me carefully. Against my better judgment, I humor him and twist my neck slightly, expecting to feel the pain I once felt. I'm shocked to feel there is none, but I don't say anything.

"Where the hell am I?"

"In my bed."

"Why am I in your bed?"