Blood Lust

Chapter Four

The vampires' mouth twitches with disapproval at my utterance, and the hold I'd had on him disintegrates like bark to lava. He moves languidly to the other corner of the room, fast enough that I blink and he's gone. He's searching for something. I'm too mentally and physically exhausted to be on alert. This vampire could kill me now and I wouldn't fight it.

"If you knew Akan, he'd have told you not to refer to me by that name. I don't answer to it anymore."

He has a hint of an accent that has softened over time. I can't quite place it. De Ricci is Italian though, so maybe that is it. An Italian vampire.

"He told me. I'm sorry. My...my brain fumbled."

"It's the weather. Its 60 negative out there. Your body was dying from lack of protection."

"I thought I was...um...sufficiently dressed."

"Your face was exposed. You have one thin layer of gloves on your hands. Your boots are nowhere near thick enough to be lounging through the snow the way you were."

"Well, forgive me if I was a little nervous to enter the house of a...of a..."

He smirks, dipping a steel pot into a basin of water. "So you've just recently been enlightened then." He hooks the pot to a rod over the fireplace. "Well, undress then. You'll need warm wet cloth to avoid any burns."

I'm swaying on my feet, but I manage to glance around, searching for a bathroom.

"Where?" I finally ask.

"There. You have snow all over you." My face must fall with disbelief because he rolls his eyes, turning. "I will go retrieve the strips from my surgery, so you may begin."

"Thank you."

His absence both relieves and frightens me, only because I'm sure this is real. I haven't gone crazy. My body seems to be locking, making it difficult to disrobe quickly. I've removed the furry coat and my gloves by the time he re-emerges with thin strips of cloth. I'm too busy staring at my hands to care that he's gotten back before I could change.

He lowers them into the pot, allowing them to soak in the boiling water. His gaze is on me, impassive as he moves around the furniture and stops in front of me.

"I'm going to touch you."

Before I can argue it, his hands have turned my palms over to examine them. His slender fingers are the color of seashells, long and surprisingly gentle. He bends down, untying my boot's laces.

"Why has Akan sent me a human?"

My heart stops, and at that very moment, his eyes flicker up to me, dark and piercing.

"You don't know? He said...he said..."

"Do you know?"

"I don't know anything," I confess. "One minute I'm serving coffee to one of my regulars, Brent, was what he told me his name was. Then next minute, he's eating people in front of me and forcing me on a plane to get to you. I...I thought you would know the purpose."

"Well, I have no electricity, as you can see. Postage is frequently delayed. Perhaps the letter hasn't arrived."

"This is unreal." I know nothing. He knows nothing. Why the hell am I here? "Maybe he was lying to me. Maybe this is a trap. You...do you eat humans? If you're going to kill me, the least you can do is let me know."

Bent on his knees, he regards me with a puzzling look. "I have fed on humans. I'm out of practice. You see, there is limited supply of them here. Also, most vampires feed. They do not kill."

I'm fucking terrified and he's hardly fazed by it.

"Eli—Lyle," I correct myself when his gaze hardens, "I'm a big girl. I've just flown half way around the world because I was told you were the only person who could protect me, and keep me safe..."

"That's curious to me. Akan valuing a human's safety...he's not usually such a preservationist. What is so important about you?"

"I don't fucking know."

His brows arch at my use of the explicit, and I stare at him blankly, refusing to take it back. Smartly, he chooses not to comment, pulling off my boot with enough force to rattle my bones.

"Well, I trust him to have a reason. I will heed his request until he can provide me with details."

"Why do you trust him?"

"I made him."

He straightens, removing my hat, throwing it onto the couch.

I'm not experienced in their ways, but I can guess what he means. He's created vampires, changed humans before. He grabs the thin coat I'm wearing and slides it off, moving next to grab the hem of my sweatshirt, stilling when I try to slap his hand away. It doesn't move in the slightest.

"You get your fucking hands off of me," I whisper, glaring up at him.

"I am a doctor."

"I don't give a shit."

"Wow, your mouth is truly something, woman," he mutters, regarding me coolly. "Fine, you want to freeze in your wet clothes? So be it. Your fingers are as cold as mine."

"I want you to back up."

He releases me, a sigh of frustration leaving his lips as he lowers into a leather chair.

"Sit down then. And keep your mouth shut."

Too weak to move but too stubborn to let him near, my legs simply slacken and I slide down the wall until I'm on the floor by the door, the furthest distance I can be from him. There's no music, no distractions.

Just him and me.

I feel my eyes shutting after a while, but the everlasting weight of his gaze which remains constant despite my resistance, keeps me resurfacing.

"It's the shock. You're going into shock," he states, his voice low and distorted.

My head rolls toward the sound of his voice. "I'm fine."

"If only you knew how precious your life actually is...and how quickly it can be taken."

"Death doesn't scare me...not really."

"Well, that's curious."

"What is?"

"Humans are programmed to fear death. I don't trust ones who don't."

"Too bad."

"Perhaps you've known worse. That's usually the case."

Numbness spreads through me like the rush of a current. Sleep sounds delightful.

My eyelids are heavy now, too heavy to budge. Time slips, becoming inconclusive, unimportant. At the exact moment I'm drifting, a flinch slams through me at the feeling of weightlessness. I'm in the air, and then I'm not.

"You are a fascinating creature, Cassandra," the monster whispers above me. "Stubborn, ignorant...but fascinating."

"Don't hurt me," I beg him, immobile as he begins to remove the wet clothes from my body. "Please, don't...don't do this. I know this."

"What?"

"You're pinning me down."

His silence lasts forever. "No...I'm not, Cassandra."

I feel his hands against my bare skin, hands that don't linger.

"I'm saving your life."