Page 33 of Blood Claims
“Then perhaps you have managed to save your soul after all,” I said, making her visibly relax enough that her eyes closed. Because as much as I wanted to kill the useless bitch, I also knew if I did, then the spell she had cast would be lost with her life. Hence why I forced myself to let go of her completely, knowing that snapping her neck or watching the life drain out of her was going to have to wait until next time.
“Where is the source of the mind storm?” I asked, after I first allowed the vines to unwind completely from her body before my darkness released its hold on the plant altogether. She watched in trepidation as it snaked its way to me, like a master calling back its demonic pets, she wanted to ensure they wouldn’t lash out unexpectantly.
“I was forced to leave it. It fell from my hand the moment the Vampires appeared… their shadows… they…” Her eyes widened before they shot to the floor, watching as the last of my darknessreturned to me. The cogs now turning in her mind as she pieced things together, making her gasp. Because it was clear that she now recognized the same power my brothers and I shared, making me grit my teeth. Before, I would have simply killed her for making the connection but now my fucking hands were tied.
Well…not completely.
I moved quickly, so her eyes were incapable of tracking me, meaning I had her throat in my hand before she could finish her gasp of shock. This time I lifted her whole body up, making it dangle in my hold as she tried to kick out when I choked her. The sight fed my tainted soul as I relished in watching her struggle for life until, this time, her eyes did hemorrhage. Something that told me I had found her limit before death took hold, and it was time to pull her close and warn,
“Don’t give me another reason to consume your soul, Circe, for I am… so… very… close.”
She started to lose consciousness, so I dropped her to the floor knowing it hurt, this time relishing in the sound of her pain. Then I bent to a knee and enforced,
“Understood?”At this she coughed and wheezed out,
“Ye-ss… m-my… Lord.”
I patted her cheek and in a condescending tone, told her,
“Good little witch.” After which, I rose to my full six foot eight inches and walked back the shadows, pulling them toward me with every measured step. Then as they swirled around my feet, rising up to take me where I wanted them to, I left her with one last threat.
“I will be seeing your soul soon, Circe.” The whites of my fangs were the last sight I left her to tremble at as I disappeared from the room, to find myself in another. And it didn’t take me long to discover the clues as to what had transpired in the back room of the old hardware store. Starting with the scent of blood that hit me like a physical blow.
“Fucked by the Goddess,”I hissed as it drew me closer, the source of my growing madness stained on the floor and, for the second time, I lowered to a knee so as I could get closer. I then swiped my fingers through it before bringing it to my nose so as I could consume the scent. Now drawing it in deep, stealing it all in its purity. It smelled like pure innocence and summer nectar. A scent that took control of a part of me I thought long ago dead and buried. My reaction to it was so strong that I almost feared it. Feared what it could do to me. Feared what I would become should I indulge in even a single drop.
I feared its power over me.
Hence why I rose and quickly grabbed the first piece of material I could find, ripping it from the table so as I could wipe the blood from my fingers. As if it would infect me if it remained there any longer. With a grimace I tossed the tablecloth aside, hating the effect her blood held over me. Like some icy fucking grip that wouldn’t thaw enough to release me.
I sneered down at the blood like it was the enemy before my thoughts finally focused on why. Why her blood was there in the first place?
“Circe,”I growled, knowing she must have hurt her before being forced to let her go and flee. Fuck that witch, I should have killed her when I had the chance, spell be damned!
Speaking of the spell, I was eager to leave this room and start putting a new plan into place. Or should I say, I was eager to leave what the girl had left behind, and my gaze kept wandering on its own accord back to the spot she had bled on.
“Finally,” I muttered to myself as I found the crystal ball, one that looked cracked as it had clearly been dropped in Circe’s haste to escape. I picked it up, taking note of the swirling grey storm caught at the center that was slowly seeping from the single crack. I gritted my teeth, hoping enough remained for theconnection to be made. But then an idea surfaced before I gave into impulse to mend the fractured glass a different way.
“Let’s see how well you fight against this, little mortal,” I said aloud, now holding the tip of my finger an inch away from the crack. Then I released a thin ribbon of my darkness when something curious happened. For even before I needed to command it to do so, it instantly slithering inside the crack as if it too was drawn to this small piece of her. One I held in the palm of my hand.
Then the moment it surrounded the storm and consumed it, I threw my head back and roared as the connection was made. My black eyes were now two orbs of glowing silver I could see in the reflection of the skylight above. A reaction that morphed the rage in me into something more…something different.It manifested itself into something other than darkness. Which meant that for the first time in my life, I found myself growling a single word that had the power to scare me. One that, this time, wasn’t born from the Hell I knew, but from the Hell that I didn’t.
A word I was powerless to stop from slipping past my lips.
“Mine!”
It was the consuming need for a soul but, it wasn’t one I wanted to take by the hand of death.
It was one I wanted to possess, it was one…
Given freely.
10
DARKNESS UNITED
VANESSA
“Vanessa.”
