Page 13 of Blood Bonds

Bloody Interruptions

Victor

As the taste of blood caressed my tongue, the tension left my body and I finally relaxed for the first time since I had last fed. I was unable to recall when that was, but that was the beauty of living as a pure blood… and a powerful one at that. It meant that we didn’t have to feed as often as the turned. Although clearly, I had needed it, if for nothing else but to ease my dark and twisted soul.

To sate the monster inside me.

The shadows swam inside me, like coiled demonic snakes lying in wait for me to release them and give way to my true nature… The dark predator lurking beneath the deadly calm exterior. Well, not today, because I fed from whatever dark-haired beauty had been on the menu tonight. Brunettes… that was all I would permit myself to feed from lately.

Ever since the dreams.

The dreams of her.

I had but barely a glimpse of her when the gates to Hell finally opened. But when they did, it could have been to the gatesof Heaven, for what awaited me had surely been sent from the Gods above. That halo of blonde hair touched by the faintest of reds, brushing her bare shoulders in waves. A white dress, flowing around the most delicious curves. A conjured memory making me hold the woman currently in my arm tighter. The irrational disappointment washing over me when feeling only slender muscle and bone.

Since when did women think that men no longer wanted softness?

You picked her, asshole.

Yes, and why? Because I could no longer stand to be with any woman like the one haunting my dreams. So, I always picked the total opposite… to the point that Andras had started only bringing me tall, slender brunettes because that was my preferred choice this last decade. Even the women I brought as my plus-one to human events were all the same type. As successful businessmen who owned an empire, having to attend these things were sometimes unavoidable.

The irony that I was craving someone I was never seen with was not lost on me.

But I was furious even by the sight of a curvy, strawberry-blonde in my presence. The distasteful curl of my lip was a dead giveaway and made those around me take a cautious step back.

Those fucking dreams!

When would they ever cease and leave me in peace? But every morning when the sun rose, I would still choose to sleep in bitter hope of seeing her once more. I would still ask myself if this was finally the daylight sleep where I would make it through the door without having it close on me just before I got there. Those black demonic doors, the size of a fifty story building, always shut me out and I ran as fast as my supernatural body would take me. The powers I had been born with were sucked from me, leaving me a shell of the Vampire I once was.

I had been useless to reach her in time.

My fist hit the impenetrable wall of Hellish stone in anger just before I awoke to meet the night. And my brother wondered why my mood had soured, this last decade especially.

It wasn’t the same for Tal though, oh no, he was draining every ounce of life this world had to offer. Well, I was happy for him, for there was no sense in both of us growing weary of this world.

Luxury had long ago lost its luster and the glow from the gold that had paid for it all dimmed just as quickly. Even blood didn’t hold the same taste as it once had, it was nothing like the nights where I had overindulged… like all my kind did when our fangs came in and our first bloodlust had hit us. Like puberty to a mortal boy, it came quickly and hit twice as hard. I had fucked like a Trojan and drank like blood was going out of fashion.

Oh, those were the good old nights.

Speaking of nights, the end of mine was about to get interrupted as suddenly the door burst open and in entered my happy counterpart. The only living being I would not kill for such intrusion.

“Good you’re here!” he said, the look on his face one I couldn’t read for once. I truly didn’t recognize it. But if I were to guess, I would have labelled it as being a level above excited.

So, I extracted my fangs from the female’s neck, one I had not bothered to ask the name of… for why would I? She was as deposable as fast food. Not that I would kill her. No, I had no need since Andras joined our family. He would simply be at the ready to take the woman and make her forget all about the evening, having already taken hold of her mind to calm it enough for me to feed in peace.

Once upon a dark time, I would have relished the fear, the fight in them. But those times were long behind me.

“Unless you failed to notice, I was busy, Tal,” I drawled dryly, wiping my mouth on a handkerchief I plucked from my pocket.

“Fuck that, trust me, you are going to want to hear what I have to tell you,” he argued, his green eyes bright and full of glee.

Damn him and his happiness. It was often sickening, despite loving him more than any living soul this world had to offer. The very definition of bittersweet if ever I heard of one.

So, I appeased him as I often did, and with a roll of my eyes, I opened my arms and released my now barely conscious meal. Then I rose and took her limp body with me, walking the unstable woman to the door. I only had a few pulls left before finishing with her anyway. For like I said, I no longer killed for blood, not unless it were of my enemies…the sweetest blood of all.

I opened the door and passed the woman to the awaiting Andras and nodded my thanks, being a man of few words. Then I turned to my brother, who admittedly looked ready to fucking explode with whatever information he was about to award me. Gods, but I hadn’t seen him this excited since the eve of our last battle.

The Battle of Agincourt had been an English victory, with the help of Vampires. Not that mortals had any idea that aiding in it had helped our own agender in the Hundred Years' War. Fuck, had that really been the year 1415…? Gods, I felt old.

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