Page 38 of The Sanguine Selection
I can feel it.
I can also feel the grumble of my empty belly, the ache of my regrowing fangs desperate to pierce soft flesh.
Patiently I sit, waiting for Jasper, lost in the storm of my own thoughts as Jasper takes Marek to our chambers. How he’ll manage to get my twin into his bed, I do not know. As reward for his service, we have given Jasper mouthfuls of our blood. But after so long, its potency must be almost non-existent. Whatever his methods, I trust Jasper. Trust him with our secrets, with our lives.
The quiet throne room unnerves me. Every sporadic thump of my heart is like a drumbeat, reverberating around the empty space. Outside, through a stained glass window in the shape of a chalice, snow falls in droves. I used to love the snow, the feel of it, something even colder than my heart. I loved to takeherout in it wearing almost nothing, watch how it affected her human form. Those tiny goosebumps that would ripple on her skin, her panting breath became a mist, and her peaked nipples, like shards of ice. How I’d suck them into my warm mouth, how she’d moan at the feeling. Then I’d pull her dress aside, baring her, and—
“Sire?”
I shake my head, lost in a stupor of memories I should not dwell on, a new ache throbbing in my torn pants. Thank fuck that didn’t completely deteriorate during those dark years. “Yes?” I try to keep my raspy voice normal but Jasper looks at me through narrowed eyes. Dirt from my brother’s clothes has left dust on his otherwise impeccable suit.
“Sir. I called your name three times.” His blue eyes rove me up and down as if my injuries weren’t already obvious. “Your hearing has not been restored, I see. Must be why you lacked conversation withanymembers of the coven.”
“They do not require my conversation,” I snap and immediately regret it. There’s a flare of hurt in Jasper’s eyes but he quickly schools his features.
He straightens his back and clasps his white, gloved hands in front of him. “While it may not be required, sire, it would be amenable to repair lost faith within Libarryn. It was they who survived a century without their leaders. A word or two wouldn’t kill you.”
I pause, would be gaping at Jasper's audacity if my jaw would concede to work, then burst out with laughter at his forwardness. No one has ever spoken to me that way aside from Merik. “Jasper! Seems our absence has afforded you a fucking personality at last! Come, take me to eat. I’m starving.”
The corner of his mouth twitches as he fetches the wheeled-chair and brings it to the bottom of the stairs. Now that I gaze down, wondering how the hell I’m going to climb down there on broken legs, I consider that I don’t even recall how I got into this throne in the first place.
Blood. I need more blood.
I swallow thickly as Jasper ascends. “May I, sire?” A swift nod is my only response as he scoops me up like a child and descends, gently placing me in the chair. I eye him with caution, for he should no longer have such strength. “Lord Navar’s blood fuels me, my lord. I drank it at his insistence since I began to age without your own to aid my human body.”
“Understandable. I will have to thank him for his loyalty. Now, take me to my slave, Jasper.”
Jasper moves behind me and pushes the chair. The wheels bump along the marble floor as we exit the throne room behind a tapestry and enter a maze of secret corridors only he and my brother are aware of.
After a few quiet moments, Jasper breaks the silence. “It would not be wise, my king, to drink from your slave just yet. The moon is still full and is taking a toll on her already weak body. She needs time to recover her blood supply until it passes.”
Disappointment churns in my chest though I understand his reluctance. As I’m not in the right frame of mind, and I know he has my best intentions at heart, I will take heed to his suggestions. I do not wish to mimic what happened before…
“However, I have been anticipating your reawakening and have prepared something for you that I think you’re going to like.”
I can hear his excitement, hear his little human heart increase its beating. As our path winds around a bend and over a wooden bridge, under which a warm current rolls by, I’m hit with a scent that has my new fangs aching to descend.
Blood. And lots of it.
“Jasper…” I start but he cuts me off.
“It’s better to see in person, sire. For if I tried to describe it, words would not do it justice.”
He couldn’t be more accurate. Through an old copper door dusted with patina, Jasper steers my chair, the scent growing stronger. Sounds hit me next. Moaning. Groaning. Crying? Then an overwhelming sensation—fear. Palpable, delectable feminine fear. And as we find our destination, my eyes alight in surprise and excitement.
“Jasper, you really have outdone yourself.”
He grins and wheels me over to the first woman, handing me her collection with a slight bow. “Enjoy, sire. Oh, and try to leave some for Merik will you?”
I’d laugh again if the hunger didn’t overtake me, and as I bring the heated blood to my lips with a shaky hand I know…
I am about to lose myself in bloodlust and for once, I give myself freely to it.
19
Oxana
I scream out,roused from sleep by nightmares. Panic claws at my chest and I swallow hard, letting my eyes adjust in the dim light of a dying fire. A room comes into focus—my room. Here, housed in some ancient castle locked away in a hidden room where no one will ever find me.
