Page 12 of Club Blood

She was just beyond the glass windows, down the hall and into one of my many bedrooms. The nicest, I might have added if I was trying to sell it to her. I sat down in one of my pillow-ey couches, sinking until I was comfortable. The good thing about being immortal was the endless patience and eternal focus. Today, however, I found it hard not to drift off, picturing her as she gathered herself and got used to the new surroundings.

That tub was something to marvel at, especially when it was bubbling with lavender scented foam soaking in warm water. She would not be able to resist it, that I was sure. I pictured her as she looked at her own reflection in the water, wincing at the hollowed out face I remembered when I left her. Hollowed or not, it was still beautiful to look at—full of a child’s wonder—besides the fear harbored there.

She would undress slowly, cautiously, as if Cissa or myself were hiding just behind the door, waiting to strike. She would shiver at the cool air, her hair standing on end and her nipples erect. Her tits would bounce as she took a step down into the tub, yelping at the surprising depth of the first step— it always caught its user by surprise.

My eyes closed and my mouth opened in a silent pant the deeper I fell into the couch. I felt my hands grip around her body, felt the blood pumping through her, begging me to taste it between my lips. My hand went to grope at my chest, a low hiss escaping me as it traveled down that deep purple blouse, settling at the hem of my denim jeans. My fingers played with the button before sliding further south, nearing the heat that raged between my thighs.

Cecelia, those eyes and those lips. She was fully submerged in the water now, wading over to me and tilting her head to allow me better access to the flesh of her collarbone. I lowered my mouth and kissed her shoulder gently, tracing my teeth delicately across her skin, careful not to puncture. When the hunger couldn’t wait any longer I latched my lips to her neck, my teeth sinking in deep and sucked hard. She thrashed against me in pleasure, not pain. When she whispered my name I almost burst . . .Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.

“Mercy!” My eyes shot open, my body stiffened and I jumped up faster than the naked eye could see into a defensive crouch. When the bloodlust left my eyes and reality seemed to set back in I relaxed, though not fully. My face settled into a recognizable frown and I narrowed my lids towards the sound of her voice. Cecelia’s voice.

“Mercy!” she said again, louder this time. I ground my teeth together.

“I doubt you’d like for me to come get you myself, little flower. Find your own way.” I growled just loud enough for her to hear. My voice still wasn’t fully composed, what thefuckwas that?

She was timid in her walk, entering the living room with those doe eyes full of fear. I lowered myself back onto the couch, careful not to let it overwhelm me again. To have her sitting next to me . . . in the same place where I just . . . I shook my head. No, I would need to control myself. It was blood lust, of course. That was all it was.

“Did you not help yourself to the delicacy of the marbled tub in your room?” My eyebrows raised curiously, and if only she knew the images that flashed through my head. She nodded slowly, but stood at the entrance of the room, wrapped in a velvet robe that touched the floor. I wondered if she even touched the clothes that I had made ready for her.

“What a waste,” I hissed, beckoning with my hand for her to come closer. I could tell she didn’t want to, there was a hesitancy and a waver that made me angry.

“It was not so much a suggestion, rather, an order.” I said sternly. But still she did not move.

In one giant leap, I was standing in front of her, looking down. I stood about five inches taller, not realizing how small she was until now. I didn’t want to frighten her, not really, but this was the only place I could move in the way my kind was meant to move. I was not going to hide myself around her, not in my own home.

“Sit,now,” I commanded, leading her to the couch across from mine. She should be grateful; if it were anyone else she would have been six feet underground by now.

“I told you, I will not harm you here unless you disobey. My home is your home.” Cecelia nodded again. She had been screaming just an hour before, and talked to me just fine as I was leading her to her room. I wondered what had changed between now and then. If she wasn’t going to speak, then I needed to. I had other business to attend to tonight, my newfoundneedbeing one of them after being interrupted, and I didn’t have time to babysit the human.

“I figured since you will now be staying here for the foreseeable future, some ground rules must be put into place.” I waited. Still, nothing from her lips. I was almost disappointed.

“One, you may walk around this home as if it was your own. You are welcome to any form of entertainment and food, but I would ask you not to contact anyone outside of these walls, lest we run the risk of you telling someone about our littledilemmaat the club. Everyone living and working on the premises knows that you are not to be touched unless asked. Like at my club, consent is everything.”

“Two, you are welcome to the gardens. They are out the back door facing the mountains, gated , and well guarded, so you will be safe within those walls. You arenotpermitted outside those gates. If one foot steps outside of my property, you will be killed on the spot.”

That got her. A little squeak told me she was still listening, anyway.

“Three, and this rule is meant to keep you safe, not keep you prisoner, you must be in your room with the door locked before 9 PM. Hungry vampires roam these halls after dark, and I’d hate for you to become a meal.” I trusted my coven, my court, but I could not fault their instincts.

I raised my nails to my teeth and sanded them down casually. My eyes drifted towards the windows and the city they overlooked. “I know you’re frightened, but unfortunately you were collateral damage in a silly turf war. Even if it isn’t your fault that you are here, youmustfollow these rules. If not for my sake, then for your life. And I better remind you that this is my personal residence. I sleep here in a room not far from yours. Trust me, my hearing isquite good. If I hear so much as a crack of a window, or your footsteps when the sun goes down without permission, I promise I will not come to your rescue. I will let them rip you limb from limb. I will let them kill you.”

It was probably the most I’d ever spoken to one person at one time— at least without yelling at them. I didn’t want to look Cecelia in the eyes, that would be a weakness. I needed to be strong today, I had to remember that I ran this city now. If no human was afraid of me, how could I keep a city of vampires in line? I lowered my fingers from my mouth and tapped my chin, as if I had forgotten something.

“Cissa?” I said casually. She manifested almost from thin air besides me, though I knew she had been listening in the other room. I felt Cecelia jump at her arrival. Cissa looked absolutely delicious, it made the ache from before return with a vengeance. The fuckingneed.

“Please have a key to my room made for Cecelia.” A low growl emerged from Cissa’s throat, but she said nothing.

“Are you sure that is the wisest…” The sound of my teeth snapping together echoed through the room.

“I am out of my room for most of the day, Cissa. She will not touch a thing. And if she ever needs something, anything, she has access to me. She is no prisoner, she is a guest.” Albeit a guest that I wanted to drain each moment I was around her— but a guest nonetheless. I turned to face Cecelia again, dismissing Narcissa with a wave of my hand.

“I ask that you are in my room at ten thirty, Cissa. I am in need of your assistance.”

She cooled at that, nodding before walking away, the hard claps of her heels echoing off the walls until she was out of earshot.

“I suggest you make yourself comfortable, do whatever it is you humans do,” I said at last, standing up and smoothing down the front of my shirt. Before I turned to walk away I sucked in a small breath, tasting the air around us one more time.

“I don’t know if you understand the severity of what happened tonight,” I mused aloud, “But Nathaniel was the King of Sin City. Word of his death will travel fast. They do not know it was me. Or at least, that is the plan.”

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