Page 41 of The Vampire's Mercy
“Is that better?”
A hiss for yes.
She liked to sit on my shoulders.
“What an exhausting night,” I told her.
She offered a hiss of comforting sympathy.
“Thank you, darling. I appreciate it.”
There were cadences to Medusa’s hissing—annoyed, happy, tired, sympathetic, hungry. Having her by my side for so long conditioned me to these sounds. We shared a special bond stretching across centuries, our friendship unbreakable.
My constant, my anchor in a stormy sea.
If only I could remember the years before we came to this world clearly. Most of my past was broken, shards scattered across my mind with no information within them. I only remembered Medusa being gifted to me as a child, and our bond, but not much more than that.
Curse it. I didn’t even know the name of the realm I’d come here from. I’d tried to find it; the only information I could gather was that I’d crossed into Quintrealm via the Hinterlands in the northwest.
I recalled no family, no lovers, and no amount of help from mage spells helped reconnect me to my memories. And because I didn’t remember, neither did my kin.
A huge frustration, to say the least.
But mage spells did help us to learn the languages of the world.
“I’m not supposed to be here,” I muttered as usual, stroking my friend’s scales.
Were we here for the blood of mortals? No. Here for…here for what? Why would we come here? Everything about our presence here wasn’t right. But we’d had no choice but to settle here with no answers and no path back to our mysterious home. Bargained for peace after sixty years of war. The mortals had been so hostile, leaving me no choice but to lead my people into a bloody battle to stay alive. I’d killed so many, the violence an eternal stain. Which is why the likes of Paris Raine irritated me so much. Didn’t he want to leave the horrors of the past behind?
Curse him.
Medusa hissed with reassurance. I stroked her head in response.
I knew the workings of my body, the responsibility I carried, and the strengths and weakness of my people. So why had the rest been taken away? A curse? A sickness? A spell?
Medusa hissed to say she was hungry.
“Go and eat,” I said.
I put her down on the carpet of grass, her emerald scales glimmering under the soft glow of the lanterns and fairy lights around us. She looked up at me with her bewitching amber eyes, hissing to ask if I’d be alright.
“Absolutely,” I answered. “Enjoy your food.”
She slithered away to a hole in the ground beside her rock, vanishing into the darkness to hunt in the palace gardens.
I stripped off my clothes before taking a quick shower.
Paris Raine…
My hand slid to my firming cock, his face infecting my mind.
Paris Raine…
My bloodthirst grumbled, in need of placating, my brain in need of silencing.
All I ever did was think and lose myself in an empty maze. No answers, unable to understand anything, forever searching for…where? Where is home? Why am I here?
“Enough,” I told myself, scrubbing my body with an exfoliating sponge.
