Bathe In Fire - Shadows of the Night 2

Chapter 20

Hi!

Time for another update! I was really looking forward to posting this one because I liked the 'dynamics.' If you do as well, please let me know! Have a nice week all of you and thank you so much for staying with this story!

Lara

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Chapter 20

Asking him about his beginnings as a living corpse had been a mistake. A huge mistake. The vampire looked at me with a blankness that razed and burned everything in its sight. There was so much force behind his gaze, I had trouble not looking into his eyes directly. I had to look. Even though the corpse was stillness impersonated, frozen, I saw the color of his irises deepening, bleeding to an aquamarine blue from the corner of my eyes. Not only that. I felt it.

It was overpowering, not only in a physical sense, but on a metaphysical level: the feeling of his eyes on me, the beating of power against imaginary skin. He looked at me, regal and unmoving. Silence was filled with the hissing noise of blood-rush in my ears stalked by my own heartbeat. It was in these moments that I remembered what he truly was. It was in these moments that I remembered to guard myself against him.

"Alexander, they're in front of the Club," someone said.

My head whipped around a few seconds too late. Zack had appeared in the black mass of satin cloth at the entrance without me noticing.

"Bring them in," the head vampire stated calmly without averting his eyes from me.

I didn't need to turn around to be able to tell that Zack had vanished in the depths of the satin curtain.

You will stand to my left. You will neither speak nor act unless I ask you to. Alexander's voice was steady and silent, in my mind.

This was insane. It felt like I was careening from one mental catastrophe into the next and there was nothing I could do to make it stop. I pressed my eyes shut forcing myself to still and breathe. I could do this. And even if I couldn't, there was that knowledge inside of me that told me I had no choice.

I got up wordlessly and moved to the other side of the bed-couch with shaky feet. I didn't even see him move, couldn't react before the head vampire grabbed my hand. Muscles contracted as my fingers folded into a fist. A nauseous wave of fear made me neglect invisible red flags pleading for a severe reduction of my usual sassiness.

You will stay close to me. You are my human servant, little witch, whether you like to admit it or not. Open your eyes. Feel the strength of the bond between us. Know what it means to be a human servant.

In one instant he put my palm on his shoulder. Burning ice on the warmth of my skin. I couldn't help looking at him. For the briefest of moments our eyes met. I felt his power vibrating, singing in my veins. My blood recognized him for what he was. The sensation washed over me, overwhelmingly unexpected and strong.

Calmness. Strength. Familiarity. And for once I understood. I could understand them all. Human servants. Was this how they felt around their masters?

This was safety. It almost felt like ... home. Father, brother, lover – in that one second I felt Alexander could have been all.

I gazed into his eyes, my heart hammering in my chest wildly. My blood exploded and ran wild, testing its vessels and veins with a fierceness I had no name for. I tried to make sense of what it all meant and came up with nothing.

I felt the urge to weep, not even understanding why. I knew that he was doing something, but had no idea what exactly. Was that the blood bond he had been talking about? Was that really what it felt like?