Page 50 of Queen of Darkness
Now that I felt slightly stronger, Aaron let more blood flow into my mouth. I gulped it down, my body reacting from the inside out. Heat swelled like a forge stoked to life, its fires slowly reigniting after having long been put out. My body did the same as fresh blood coursed through my veins, bringing forth my Hunger and its baser emotions. Its desires.
My breathing deepened, and pulses of ecstasy beat their drumbeat against my brain with each mouthful. It was inescapable.
“Here,” Aaron said, giving me a straw.
I started sucking down more blood. Too much.
The sudden infusion of raw sexual energy pushed me to the edge. I trembled, gasping for air, my back practically arching as I shivered. I wanted more. I wanted it. Needed it.Cravedit. My lips closed around the thin straw, and I sucked on it, pulling more of it into my mouth.
The blood smacked me back into the bed as I writhed, a tiny moan slipping out from around the straw. My tongue flicked against the top of it suggestively as I stared up at Aaron.
“Not happening,” he growled. “You’re far too weak. You just don’t know it. You need to drink more.”
I greedily sipped at the straw, the darkness overwhelming the part of me that was retching and practically throwing up at how badly I desired this. My fangs slid out, jutting over my lower lip as I regained the energy for them to come forth. Still, I drank more.
It filled me with a pounding need that only drinking could sate. I gulped down pack after pack, my body absorbing the blood before it made its way to my stomach. It leached into me, spreading from my brain to my toes, bringing me slowly back to life. An energy I couldn’t ever recall feeling arose in me, urging me to get up, to move around.
“No,” Aaron said as I tried to get out of bed. He placed a hand on my chest—just above where Ireallywanted him to touch, to grab, totake—and without any apparent effort, pushed me back down into the bed.
“I’m fine,” I whispered, speaking my first words, my mouth finally working. “I’m just …”
“Horny as fuck,” he pointed out dryly. “And ready to hump anything that comes along. But your mind isn’t working straight yet. I pushed you down, and that was with barely anyhumanstrength. You’re not ready.”
“Sit me up, then,” I rasped. “So I can drink this faster.”
Aaron looked unhappy, but when I started struggling to do it myself, he relented and propped me against a wall covered with cushions. No longer having to pause, I all but chugged the blood from the cup. He watched as my eyes rolled back into my head and my breath shortened.
I can’t believe I’m doing this,a part of me thought as I all but had an orgasm in front of him. It should have been hot, in a way, but it wasn’t. Not to me. I was drinking blood. So much of it, and I wasn’t just liking it; I wasloving it.
I knew Aaron would never let himself give in to the clear and obvious demands of my body. I might be fully clothed, but it was obvious that I was beyond aroused. He could have done anything he wanted to me right then. Iwantedhim to. Needed it. My body was ready for him in every way.
Yet, he refrained. I continued to drink and quiver with pleasure in front of him, in some sort of sick, disgusting mating ritual, but he never lost control. Even the scent of blood, and knowing how good it would feel for him to join me, drinking it and fucking, he never gave in. He sat still and calmly fed me blood pack after blood pack, taking the straw from one and putting it into the next.
Stop it,I tried to tell my body.We don’t need more. We’re fine. Please.
It didn’t listen. It kept gulping it down. Taking more, even as it dribbled down my lips and neck, leaving my fangs a glistening, stained red. I fought with the darkness, with the Hunger, trying to overpower it, but it was in a feeding frenzy at this point, and I was too weak to fight it.
Tears streamed down my face, but I sucked it back relentlessly, both knowing it was necessary and yet hating myself for it. This was what I was. Who Iwouldbe for all eternity. I would never be rid of it, always forced to deal with this darkness, thisevil.
And then, just like that, there was no more. Aaron took the pack away and didn’t replace it. I reached for it, for him, but he shook his head. “That’s all we could get.”
Part of me frowned, and as the haze surrounding my brain cleared, I was able to note a discrepancy between my memories and what just happened.
“How much?” I asked. “How did you get so much? We didn’t save that much from your blood bank. I drank far more …”
“Your clan,” Aaron said calmly. “While you were out, and Vir was keeping you alive, Dani went to Seguin and took blood donations. She got as much as she could in a short time before coming back here.”
I sagged back against the wall. My pack had given their blood. For me? I started to cry harder.
“Jo? Jo, what is it?” Aaron asked, suddenly concerned. “Are you okay?”
“Why does everyone support me?” I asked through the sobs. “They’re donating blood to help make me better. I’m a monster. If they saw this, if they could see me now … I don’t deserve this.”
“You’re one of their pack,” Aaron growled. “You’re one of the good guys, regardless of what might be living inside you, and they know it.”
I shook my head. I didn’t want to hear it.
“You need to rest now,” Aaron said, stroking my head, leaning in to kiss it. “You must regain enough strength to finish this.”
