Bite me

Chapter 13

Verity sat cross legged on my bed, scrambling on about something my weakened brain had lost over 17 minutes ago.

I nodded whenever I felt it neccessary, looked intrigued whenever I could. But truthfully, I couldn't get over the twisting and contortions of the room itself from my battered head.

"But the other humans will come and clean it for you." Her words were what finally caught me. With the echo of Humans resounding around the room, my head snapped up and I watched her almost painfully.

"What did you say?" I asked slowly.

"What? That I like my bracelet?"

I shook my head at that- I didn't even remember that topic. "No, about the other humans."

Verity opened her mouth to talk, and then quickly, like a blink, snapped it shut again, using her hand to cover any other words that could possibly force themselves out. "Oops." She muttered into her palm.

I practically leaped on her with my questions. "They keep humans in here? In the Kings house?"

"Palace." She corrected curtly.

I nearly rolled my eyes. "Whatever. You have to take me to them! Where are they? Do they all stay here or just a few of them?"

"Whoa, calm it speedy gonzales. Take a breath."

"I am." I took a deep intake of breath and signalled with my arms to prove my point. "Now take me to them. Please," I added desperately.

"Sorry, no can do. You're not even supposed to know that."

"Why? Why can't I see them?"

She studied her wrist like she had earlier this morning. "It's really late. Do you know what time it is? I do." She sniffed. "And I can smell food."

I clicked in front of her face. "Focus." I said sternly. "Tell me where they are."

"I can't."

"Please," I was right about desperate, ready to beg. If there were humans near me then... maybe Miranda was here? "Please."

She watched my face for a long time, and for a second, I thought she might say yes. "Oh, that's definitely burgers." And then she was skipping towards the door like my pleading hadn't effected her in any way.

My heart sunk as well as my shoulders, but determination took their place. If she wouldn't help me, I would find her myself.

As she reached for the door handle, ready to exit, it swung open before her. My intake of breath was the only thing that pierced the unpenetrable silence that crept into the room when he himself, the King, entered through the small frame of my door.

"Verity." His voice was strong, much like it had always been. It was definitely made to rule the most unsteardy of creatures.

"Hey, chicken." Verity hopped right up beside him, and I had to bite my lip to stop from calling out to her, telling her to get back. Surely nobody spoke to him like that. She even had the audacity to reach up, pat his head, and dance past him.

I flinched in my standing position, ready for the wrath that only a King could create.

But, suprisingly, the wrath never came. What replaced it was merely an eye roll, and then the King was stepping forward.

He made the room look so much smaller, petite than it actually was. The door barely fit his frame, and he almost dwarfed the large chest of draws beside him.

"I've come for my part of the deal." I winced at his words. The way he said 'part of the deal', made it sound so heartless, so emotionless, when I was scared more than I dared admit, terrified and disgusted of the ultimate pain of having a vampires teeth biting down through my flesh.

But I guess, that is just what they were like- heartless, emotionless, cold.

I lifted my chin and crossed my arms, not ready to show him just how much he intimidated me. But I did not speak, for I knew his mere presence could waver my voice until it was nothing but a slur.

"Sit. Bed." He instructed.

His ash-blond hair shone in the slowly fading light that blinded through the window. Today, he wore a simple pair of dark trousers and a shirt, messily untucked and creased.

He took two more steps towards me, until he was at most a foot away. "Sit." He said a little more strongly this time, due to my hesitation.

I managed a small curl of my lips, but I did not meet his eyes. The room had turned a sullen grey through the misery of my heart, destroying all the shredding like that happened to shine through part of the rooms darkness. Here I was, Coral Johnson, ready to let the one thing I swore to always hate, feed from my neck without even so much as a fight.

All I could tell myself, to at least calm my rising blood pressure, was that I was protecting my family. They deserved this, no matter what I felt right at that moment. If I didn't go through with it, I'm sure he'd have my neck anyway and ultimately kill my family.

My knees pressed into the back of the bed, and I was forced to sit onto the soft quilts. The bed dipped beside me as he perched close.

My neck tensed as his large hands moved towards it. I sucked in a breath and closed my eyes, facing the wall instead of anywhere near him.

"This may feel odd." His deep gravely voice churned out. He sounded strained and terse. I turned my head a fraction to catch a small glimpse of his face, which, with a gasp, I realised was completely anamalistic. A drop of read had stained his full eye, even the whites, like dye spreading through water.

"Your... Your eyes." I whispered, my breath unsteady.

He nodded, his eyes burning a hole through my neck. "Mmm." He agreed tersly.

I pinched my eyes shut.

"This..." He breathed. "After, you'll feel different. Towards me."

I opened one eye in caution. "What do you mean towards you?" I didn't look at him, scared of what I'd see.

"Just, different." And then, without another second, I felt the light pinch as his teeth pressed to my skin.

A sharp, burning pain blasted through my neck and through all the nerves in my body, and I felt like a blade had been pulled along my skin, my veins, my heart. Everything burned and I swear I was on fire.

But my body was still, completely frozen to the spot. And slowly, steadily, I felt myself start to relax. The burning was replaced with a tingling that numbed the tips of my fingers, and then a light pleasure took its place. I regretably marveled in the intensity of it as it spread through me.

A slight sigh escaped my lips, but I couldn't care because I was somewhere near euthoria.

I felt my back go slack and the only thing holding me up was the almost merciless grip that dug into my neck, and for a second, all I thought was, What if he can't stop?