Chaos Descending

Saved by the King

Chapter 15

Eyes narrowed into thin slits, I held up my index finger. "Number one, don't call me little." Holding up my middle finger, I added, "Number two, don't call me little if you want to live." I didn't give the King a chance to respond. I wasn't in the mood to be toyed with. Especially when the hunger raging inside, that constant, never-ending, hellish hunger threatened to chew me up and swallow me whole. But something the King had said piqued my interest. "What do you mean you saved Vycandor?

The King's eyes went wide. "Vycandor didn't tell you?"

I shook my head impatiently and tried to think beyond the hunger. "He told me his Uncle Edgar raised him and taught him how to be a Drainer instead of a Drinker."

"Ah, yes," the King mused to himself. "Vycandor was born a Drinker, as are all Underlings. They rely on blood for survival after they shift from animal into human for the first time. It took great strength and determination for Vycandor to resist his true nature. Not many have the mindset, or the physical ability to be able to feed off psychic energy alone and survive. Most fail, or go insane."

I digested that in silence and chewed on my lower lip as a distraction. Part of me, a really, really big part teetered on the edge of insanity myself. So I basically knew exactly how he felt.

Like shit.

"If it wasn't for me," the King admitted, breaking into my thoughts, "Vycandor wouldn't be standing here today. While it's true that Lisette followed in her father's footsteps and collected animals as trophies, it wasn't until after her father's death that she placed a curse on the animals she'd collected to do her bidding. I was the first one she turned. A mighty panther. I didn't know how to be a man. We were like caged beasts fighting to survive inside a human body. The others, they naturally looked to me for guidance. Lisette put me in charge of training all new Underlings to carry out her orders. Punishment for disobedience was swift, but never quick. Failure to comply came in the form of a man-eating manticore that hunted them down, feasting on their helpless bodies while they were still alive. As the number of Underlings grew to ten thousand strong, so did the difficulty of the heists Lisette ordered us to pull off."

I tilted my head in confusion. "Heists?"

The Kind nodded. "If there was something Lisette wanted, she simply sent us to retrieve it."

A chuckle bubbled up in my throat. "So what, your like bank robbers?" The thought was ludicrous. "What did you steal?"

The King shrugged. "Priceless works of art, diamonds, gold bars, weapons of all kinds, you name it. Whatever she wanted, she got. Lisette sold everything of value on the black market, and stockpiled the weapons."

"For what?" I asked.

"She never told me, but I know she's planning something big." If possible, his obsidian eyes darkened. "Greed and power has gone to her head. She answered to no authority, until now." 

I was only just morbidly interested. "What do you mean, until now?"

"Don't you get it?" When I failed to respond, the King pressed on. "You killed the monster that kept the Underlings under control. We're free now, thanks to you."

I craned my head to the left, and craned it some more to look up. Vycandor stared back at me, his handsome face fighting to remain neutral and not quite making it.

I turned my head to the right and gazed up at Thomas. He was so insanely hot and he smelled so good. They both did. The combination of leather and vanilla mixed with apples, musk and...blood was beyond drool worthy. Seriously! If someone had told me last week that I would have to drink my boyfriend's blood at the same time to survive, I'd have said they were on drugs. I mean, it's not like I didn't care that the King and his Fantasy Island of shape-shifting animals were safe. I'd killed the beast that had kept them enslaved to Lisette. But only because it tried to kill me first. It was just that simple. I wasn't trying to play the hero. What thanks did I get for my efforts? Cursed with the worst hunger ever, times a bazillion. And now, the combined scent of my boyfriend's blood was making me desperate to taste them. I stared at Thomas' neck and liked my bruised lips. "You smell divine."