Building the Tension | ✔ | 18+

Chapter 36 - Fallout Shelter

Author's Note:

This chapter was not reviewed by a beta. Please forgive any spelling or grammar mistakes, confusing wording, or just plain not-well-thought-out ideas.  (Or feel free to correct in the comments.)

The first two sections are a graphic, disturbing, creepy, and violent Strigoi Adrian POV. I agonized over them. It all makes my skin crawl just a little bit. I highly debated writing those sections and felt super-uncomfortable with them, but I felt like they revealed necessary parts of the story that another character's perspective wouldn't have known. If you want to skip them, feel free and you can read a quick overview here at the top.

High-level overview of what you'll need to know if you skip the first two sections: Tasha has had her neck broken and was chugged like a frat keg. Because of slurping down so many royals, Adrian is probably the strongest Strigoi Dimitri has ever met and he has spent the time while he was away from the Moroi community as a Strigoi training to learn how to fight. Dimitri was left alive and knocked out with a prize-fighter punch followed by a roofie so that Adrian could leave him for his eventually-turned-Strigoi Rose to finish. Jill was nearly drained by Adrian. He would've finished the job if he hadn't been interrupted by Lissa, but she was about two seconds from death. Adrian was too distracted by Lissa's body and the hallucinated Rose in his head to notice her stake, so Lissa got it straight into his heart.

-=o0/&\0o=-

Adrian POV:

As I sniffed at the welling blood on Tasha's neck, I knew that I couldn't hold out much longer. I had to drink her dry. Her blood smelled better than the finest vintage of whiskey I'd ever savored. With her royal blood, youth, strength, power of her element, and her fear, she smelled better than any other Moroi I'd tasted.

I wanted to save the honor of killing Dimitri for Rose, but if I was going to forego that pleasure, I had to taste someone's blood. The extra power from drinking Tasha would be staggering and I was looking forward to it. Still, I knew that I needed to get Dimitri out of commission before drinking her down. I was really looking forward to seeing the misery in his eyes as Rose tortured him, though. I had to make sacrifices if I was going to get to enjoy seeing her killing him slowly. I'd be sure to bring her back here to finish him off as soon as I awakened her.

Thanks in part to Uncle Rand and the others at that camp, I'd already drank more Moroi blood than most Strigoi ever see. And a good bit of it was closely related royals, making me even stronger. It might be arrogant to say that I could be the strongest Strigoi who ever lived. I am just that arrogant.

Over the past few weeks, I'd been training at a human gym. It was challenging not to eat my trainers, especially once I made some of them bleed, but I knew that, even with my speed and strength, I would need all the training I could get to bring down a guardian like Dimitri, who had killed so many others like me. The extra Strigoi speed and strength would make a big difference and I knew that with the right punch, I could knock him unconscious with only one. I also knew that I'd only get one chance.

Lucky me that the ass-clown doesn't keep his stakes handy when he's fucking his skank.

I couldn't help but sniff Tasha's neck again as I said, "You didn't let me finish, my beautiful, delicious-smelling, royal Moroi! I promise that I will let you die quickly and painlessly. I really could use the power-up. Nothing like a little top-off of related royal blood."

I thought again of Christian. He's not quite as related as Tasha, so he wouldn't provide as much power, but he'd be easier to keep around until I finish him off than a Moroi who had been teaching humans self-defense for the past several years. I bet he'll still be as delicious, though.