Page 22 of Ghoul Kisses

I’m chained to the wall, naked. My stomach begs for raw meat, and I haven’t eaten in days—or months, who knows. Every time the vampire comes in here, he beats me. I see the hatred in his black eyes, the anger in his face when Leyla asks for me. When Dante leaves for another trip to the Kyoto coven to be with Aika, his mistress, Leyla seeks me out to fulfill her sexual desires. The guards gossip and snicker about it. The vampire slaps the whip across my back. Pain vibrates through my body. I taste my own blood in my mouth. My body is too weak to heal. So, I don’t scream, I just absorb the pain. The wooden doors open, and the leech stops beating me. Leyla appears wearing a nightgown. She smells aroused, ready to force me to fuck her. No matter how appealing she tries to make herself, she always looks ugly. I have never been attracted to vamps.

“Carl, did you feed him?” Her voice hurt my ears. I hate this bitch.

“No, not yet,” he answers, setting the whip down. Leyla smacks him in the face.

“You’re supposed to feed him and keep him well.”

“Lord Dante sa—”

“I don’t care what he said, I am his mate. You follow my orders.” She smooths out her auburn hair.

“Untie him, feed him, and then bring him to my chambers,” she orders.

My eyes snap open, and I feel a cold hand on my back. I grip the wrist tight. Sarah’s emerald green eyes pierce through mine. Her cheeks are rosy red, and her black hair is messy. She is dressed in a Loony Tunes nightgown.

“Let go of my wrist, you’re hurting me.” Her voice, like her touch, is soft. I do what she says.

“What are you doing in here?” I ask.

“I wanted to see your room; where the great king sleeps,” Sarah says, trying to lighten the mood.

She leaps off the bed, sliding on her slippers.

“Where’re you going?” My voice is hoarse.

“To my room, I didn’t mean to bother you.”

“You didn’t; don’t go,” I plead.

“Did you have a nightmare?” she asks, climbing into bed.

“No,” I lie, I’m not going to tell her about Leyla and what she did to me. Sarah will view me as weak. I have to contact Clayton soon, ask him for the repel potion, so I won’t recall any of the memories as a slave. Yanking Sarah into my embrace, I tilt her chin up and kiss her lips. Instantly, I grow hard.

She eyeballs the room, admiring the paintings on the walls. I love to paint. When my brothers rescued me from the Hudson coven, I started painting; it is a way of me expressing my emotions.

She rises from the bed and studies the picture hanging by the bathroom door. I painted it back in 1915. The artwork is a lighthouse with a full moon overlooking black water.

“This painting is lovely. Where did you buy it?” Sarah asks in her sweet voice. I stand behind her swaddling my arms around her waist. She flinches, then relaxes into me a moment later.

“I painted it.” She faces me with her mouth wide open.

“Really? When?”

“In the early nineteen hundreds,” I reply.

“You really are ancient,” she jokes, nudging my stomach.

“I wish I could paint; I can barely draw stick people.” She moves to the fireplace and touches my samurai sword.

“Have you traveled the world?”

“Yea,” I follow her, spin her around to face me and stroke her cheek.

“I have to be somewhere in an hour,” I murmur.

“Yeah, me too. Odessa wants me to help with your warriors.” Odessa must have convinced Nicholas to allow Sarah to help. I want to spend the day with her, but I have to figure out who the brunette is, so I can retrieve the paradox box.

“Odessa is hosting a gathering. You can come.”

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