Of Witches and Warlocks: The Complete Series

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Excruciating pain ripped at my throat and I screamed, awaking to find myself pinned to the bed under Vance's strong body. I realized with horror he was feeding heavily from me and I knew he'd finally lost the reins of his carefully controlled demeanor.

"Stop it! Stop it!" I shrieked out hoarsely, my natural instinct to fight him taking over. I thrashed beneath him, but he wasn't deterred at all, taking great gulps of my blood.

Closing my eyes, I tried to pull my thoughts together, concentrating on evaporating away. I dissolved, albeit seemed slowly, and I was horrified when I reappeared right next to him, just a few inches over on the bed.

In an instant he was on me again and I screamed as he sank his sharp teeth into me once more. I tried to push him away, but he was too powerful, drawing several more large gulps from me in his feeding frenzy, keeping me easily pinned to the bed.

I struggled to concentrate, wishing for my body to rematerialize outside of the bed this time. I felt myself begin to fade away, but I reformed fully, solid, right back underneath him. With a sinking feeling, I realized he'd consumed too much blood already for my powers to be effective. He was going to kill me.

Fighting, I called his name, trying to break through to him as he fed. The familiar weakness settled through my limbs, and I knew I was too far gone to hold up much longer.

Suddenly, I remembered him saying how he liked it when his victims struggled against him. Immediately, I let my body go limp.

"Vance, you're killing me," I stated, my voice barely a whisper and he stilled against me.

Pulling back from my neck, he looked down at me through his demon features, watching me for a moment, before he threw himself away from me as if I had burned him with a hot poker.

"What happened? What have I done?" he choked out, the horror plain on his face.

Unable to hold my eyes open any longer, I let them close, the image of his frantic face burned into my mind.

I had no idea how much time had passed when I felt my body being jostled around and lifted from the bed. Slowly, I opened my eyes, looking into a face I'd never seen before, a male demon face.

"Vance?" I called out weakly.

"He isn't here," a female voice said, one I recognized instantly as it belonged to Mayla.

This isn't good, I thought, struggling to maintain my conscious state.

"Where is he?" I asked her while the demon holding me followed her out of the bedroom and down the stairs. I vaguely realized it was still nighttime since the windows were dark and the house lights were on. I wondered how long I'd been out of it.

"He's fine," she replied. "He's out on the grounds somewhere blowing off some steam after harming you. Killing you has never been part of his plan."

"Well, I'm positive he didn't bring you here to help me," I said groggily.

"No," she answered. "Killing you has always been part of my plan. Vance is unaware I'm here."

Again, I attempted to center my thoughts so I could evaporate from this demon, but found I was still too weak, causing only a slight shimmer to ripple through my body. We entered the beautiful formal dining room, with its long gleaming table that could seat fourteen. There were several unlit candles and trays of incense lining the table and even more were clustered in the corners.