Page 42 of Sexual Appetites of Vampires

Strangely enough, she missed him being there as well. His absence from her thoughts had left a void, left her feeling alone.

An awkward silence hung over them, as if each were waiting for the other to speak first.

Lara finally did. “I would like to have a look, in bright daylight, at the room of torture.”

“Whatever for?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Curiosity? Perhaps to view history up close with someone who has lived it?”

“It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

“Once we’re done, your bedroom is only a few steps away and I did mention a ride.” She smiled, stirring her libido that had been simmering ever since she had suggested the idea.

Michael was off the couch in a flash, tugging her up along with him. “Let’s go.”

Lara laughed softly as she followed him, though her laughing smile died when she stepped into the room of terror. The room was brighter than she had expected, though it was more from the daylight shining through the bare windows.

Michael must have heard her thought, since he said, “My grandfather insisted that the windows be left unencumbered so light could always shine on this room. It was his way of exposing evil.”

Lara reached out and took hold of Michael’s hand, as if needing his protection from the awful devices.

He held her hand firmly and guided her around the room, offering explanations of certain ones, while others were self-explanatory.

Lara cringed when Michael pointed out the breast pincers, though did not go into detail how they were used, the name saying it all. A pear-shaped device hanging on the wall caught her attention and when she looked to Michael, he shook his head.

“You don’t want to know, though I’m sure the shape tells the tale.”

Lara turned away from the device, only to cringe when she saw the spike-studded chair she had accidentally sat on. She had been lucky to only catch the end of it.

“Who does this sort of thing?” she asked

“Those who believed themselves righteous people,” Michael said. “You have to realize the time period, the ignorance, the fear, and the righteous who believed they could save everyone from evil. Unfortunately, evil had yet to be justly defined.”

“Your grandfather was caught up in this madness?”

“He and countless others and even when rules were passed to ban the use of torture, it continued in secret. And while my grandfather left his homeland for many reason, the driving force had been the torture that had been inflicted on my grandmother.”

“Your grandmother? What happened?”

“It had been a harsh winter between weather and wars, leaving food scarce. My grandparents had taken their two small children to hunt for food when soldiers came upon my grandmother. She mentally warned my grandfather to get the children to safety and she would join them shortly. Unfortunately, the soldiers managed to subdue her, since she was so weak from not feeding. They beat her unconscious, so my grandfather heard nothing from her. And when her captives saw how quickly she healed, they hurriedly chained her and began the torture.”

Michael paused for a moment and Lara could almost feel how much the thought of what his grandmother had suffered upset him.

“If only my grandmother had fed, she would have been able to defeat them, but she made sure her children fed before she did, leaving her vulnerable when they attacked. But as soon as she regained presence of mind, she reached out to my grandfather.” Michael grinned. “You have to hear the pride and love in my grandmother’s voice and how it shines in her eyes when she tells this tale. She swears two of her captives died of fright when my grandfather burst into the room, his eyes glowing a fiery red and his fangs dripping with the blood of themen he took down to get to my grandmother. Needless to say, there wasn’t a man left standing, and my grandfather got her out of there and fed right away. As my grandmother proudly says time and again, you can always count on Valaine men to protect their women. And she’s right. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to protect the woman I love.”

Love me.

She hurriedly chased the thought away, not wanting him to hear it, not wanting him to know how she felt, but wanting to make love with him, but when didn’t she not want to?

She tugged at his hand. “There’s someplace else I’d rather be.”

“Where’s that?” he asked.

“On top of you.”

She was up in his arms and out the door in the blink of an eye.

CHAPTER 14

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