Tainted Love ~Muke Clemmings~

Chapter 11

It was later that day, the sun was down, and stars scattered the dark sky. It was a clear night, the moon almost full. This leaked light into the dim bedroom, as I looked out; wishing so desperately to be out of this room.

"Luke." I hear behind me, and I nearly jump out of my seat.

"You are disposable. Believe me when I say this. But... I don't want to kill you. I need to learn to control my anger around you." He sighs.

I knew he was going to come around to apologise.

"You can leave." I reply.

"No, we are going somewhere. Just us, and I swear that there will be nobody watching us. I am going to trust you. This is my last attempt with it, and it is your last chance." He warns.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

He smiles and replies, "It is a surprise."

He just gestures toward the door and I get up from the seat and walk over to him. I follow him out of the room, blinded by the lights in the hallway. Maybe he was just leading me to my inevitable death. I wouldn't be surprised.

He opens a door at the end of the fairly long hallway.

I was wrong.

It led out to a balcony, he had candles lit. I am not surprised that it is on the property. But it is the closest I will get to freedom... I guess.

There was a table, and a dinner set up. "A date?" I ask him.

He pauses for a moment but pulls a chair out for me. "If that is the terminology you would like to use." He smiles. I roll my eyes and sit down in the chair and he pushes me in.

On the plate was... I think it is called meat-bread or meat-slices. I am not sure. I have never had it before.

"I am going to guess you do not trust me to leave the premises yet, and honestly I do not completely blame you." I sigh. I sometimes wish I could have that same hatred for him I had the first few days. The first few days that I ran away, the first few days I was tortured down in his dungeon or whatever.

But he was nice. He never sent me to The Cages, and he never gave up hope on the fact that I could learn to respect him. That he could give me a limited amount of freedom without anything bad happening. I even walked back to his mansion, and I am going to guess that he did not completely expect me to do so. He probably expected me to run, out of vampire city, into hiding. But I did not. I did not want to get risked getting hurt, or killed, or even tortured again. But that wasn't the only reason. He was trying. He was proving that everything I had once believed about vampires, was completely untrue.

"I know I should not talk about it, but honestly I think I need to." He tells me and I look across the table. He was eating his meat-bread. I looked down at mine and took the fork in my hand; taking a piece off of mine. I take a bite, as he examines me doing so. I was hungry, but I wanted to make sure I did not eat it too fast so I could appreciate it better.

And it was good.

"You can continue." I say to him, realising that he had cut himself off.

"I am going to grant you freedom. Away from me. Away from this. I am going to give you one chance to leave. And that is tonight, after this dinner. If you leave, I will not stop you. Nobody will stop you. But in one week, you are nothing to me and you are fair game for the killing." He tells me and I almost choke on my food.

I sigh and respond, "I think you know that I am not going to leave."

It is this odd thing, though. For the first time in your life you are given quality food; when you are able to eat. You are granted with showers and other hygienic products. You are given clean clothes, and better footwear. You wanted so desperately to leave the life you were leading before. Your family is dead.

I guess the only thing I had was these gifts from a vampire. I despised him, at times. He was impulsive, violent. He was arrogant and had an inflated ego. But in the end, he gave me what I needed. He provided for me.

"Why not, may I ask?" He asks me, he was obviously confused.

"You provide me with shelter and food. I may not like what you are, but I think you have a bit of humanity in you." I tell him truthfully.

I didn't want to feel it, but I started to feel something towards him. Not in any way romantically, but... A form of respect? Maybe just myself not completely hating him.

That's the thing. If you let yourself open up, you'll actually begin to care.