Page 4 of Love Bleeds
Chapter Two
"You disobeyed again."
Crimson lowered his head. He hadn'twantedto disobey, not really, because he knew it meant punishment, but what Nicolai had asked of him... There'd been no way for him to follow that order, to tear himself away from the human before he was done drinking.
Nicolai should have been able to predict this outcome. After all, he hadn't given Crimson any blood before siccing him on the mortal. What had he expected?
Maybe exactly this.
So Crimson didn't say anything to his sire, only kept his head low.
"I wonder," Nicolai mused. "Did you even try to do as you were told?"
Crimson looked up at that. "Of course I tried!" It wasn't like he'dwantedthe mortal to die. Even if Nicolai kept telling them that their lives or deaths shouldn't matter to him unless he was under orders to care. Even if he couldn't remember ever having been mortal himself.
He still felt a certain kinship with his victims. He would have been one of them, if Nicolai hadn't chosen to turn him instead of letting him die.
Sometimes Crimson wondered how he would have picked if he'd been given a say in the matter.
"The problem with you is that you never try hard enough," Nicolai admonished. He looked around, as if there was anything interesting to see in the bare room that had been assigned to Crimson. There was no heavy lock on the door, but it was a prison cell, nonetheless. Crimson knew he could never go anywhere his sire didn’t want him to go. Nicolai didn’t need locks to confine him to this room. His words were enough.
His sire turned to him again. "You're not the first vampire I’ve sired, you know."
Crimson wasn't sure how to respond to that. So what, if he wasn't the first?
"Your brother was easier than you," Nicolai continued. "Or maybe, that's only because I'm being easier on you. I keep thinking that you'll see the light and do as you're told without excessive prompting. You're supposed to be smart."
See the light? What light? Crimson didn't ask, but he couldn't help wondering.
Nicolai came closer to him, laying two fingers under Crimson's chin to tilt it up. Crimson wanted to draw back, but he'd learned better than to give in to that instinct. If his sire wanted to touch him, that was what he would do. Crimson's opinion on the matter wasn't important, so he stood still.
"I can tell you want to move away," Nicolai said. His lips tucked up as if he was amused by this. "You're still trying to deny our connection, but I promise you, it won't always be this way. The bond between a sire and his child can be a strong thing when fostered properly." He spoke as if he knew what he was talking about. Crimson tried not to consider the consequences of his words, tried not to think at all, in fact.
Nicolai let go of his chin to circle him instead. He had this way of inspecting Crimson as if he was an animal he wanted to show off in a competition.
Suddenly, Crimson was glad that his spirit animalwasn'ta dog, or else, he'd probably have found himself on a stage by now.
"It's lucky for you that I enjoy a challenge," Nicolai said. "You certainly present more of a challenge than Silas ever did." He paused, considering. "Maybe it's time you two met."
"Who's Silas?"
"Silas is what you'll be when you've outgrown this annoying little rebellious phase." Nicolai stopped circling Crimson to stand in front of him instead, one hand on his own chin. "He's the perfect picture of obedience."
The other vampire Nicolai had sired, then. His ‘brother’. Crimson wasn't sure he wanted to meet the guy. He could do without getting a glimpse of his future.
But of course, whether hewantedto meet Silas or not didn't matter, so he said nothing.
Nicolai spent a moment in perfect silence as well.
Crimson could imagine what he was doing, though. Summoning his little servant. Via telepathy. Crimson hated it when Nicolai did that to him. There was just something disconcerting about hearing the other vampire's voice in his head.
But Nicolai said it was his special skill. He was proud of it, so he used it all the time. Said it was a sign of what a good sire he was, that they could communicate this way.
It's because I took such good care of you when you were reborn, he'd say.
Crimson didn't remember much of the first two or three days of his life as a vampire. He'd gone from sleep to being hungry to feeding to going back to sleep. Every time he'd opened his eyes, Nicolai had been there to feed him. Crimson had never questioned it, not those days.
He hadn't questioned the fact that he'd frequently woken up in his sire's embrace, either.
