Page 6 of Love Bleeds
Crimson wasn't convinced of that, but what choice did he have? He took a sip of the foul-smelling blood.
He nearly spat it right back out again.
This wasdisgusting. Blood wasn't supposed to taste like that. It made his throat burn and his stomach curl as he forced himself to swallow. He stared at the rest of the bottle.
"The whole thing," Nicolai reminded him.
Crimson recoiled. Nicolai had asked him to do a lot of things he hadn't wanted to do, but this ranked among the worst. Whatever was in this bottle pretending to be blood, no vampire was ever meant to drink it. Crimson was pretty sure of that. Nicolai might as well have asked him to drink his own vomit--if vampire could throw up.
"You can't do it, can you?" Nicolai wore a smug look on his face. That was when Crimson knew his sire had never expected him to pass this little test. "It's animal blood," he said. "It's not as bad as dead man's blood, but every vampire instinctively knows that it shouldn't be ingested. Theoretically, you can survive on it, but it makes you sick, poisons the mind."
Crimson didn't even want to ask why Nicolai kept something like that in the fridge in Crimson's room. "I'd rather starve than drink that."
Nicolai smiled. "I thought that would be your choice, but don't worry. I only threatened to punish you to prove a point."
Crimson didn't have to ask what point before his sire took the bottle from him and turned to Silas. Silas eyed the bottle, but if he had any feelings at all about drinking its contents, they didn't show on his face.
"Rise," Nicolai commanded, and Silas did. Nicolai gave the bottle to him. "Do you think you can succeed where your brother failed?"
Silas glanced at Crimson, who had to look away. Great. Now it was his fault the kid was being punished. Silas didn't complain, though, he simply set the bottle to his lips and began to drink. No questions, no nothing.
The perfect picture of obedience, indeed.
Crimson would never know how Silas managed it, but he took several quick sips without flinching before pausing to take a breath. The hand in which he was holding the bottle trembled a little bit, but otherwise, he showed no signs of distress.
"Go on," Nicolai encouraged him, running the backs of his fingers across Silas's cheek. "You're doing so well for me."
Silas nodded and raised the bottle again. Though he showed no hesitation, he didn't drink as quickly this time. Crimson sympathized. He had no idea how the other vampire got the stuff down at all. His stomach curled just watching Silas.
By the time Silas had finished half of the bottle, his hand had begun shaking so badly that some of the blood ran down the corners of his mouth and his chin instead of passing his lips. Nicolai laid an arm around his shoulders and took the bottle from him as if he was doing Silas a favor by steadying him. "Halfway there," Nicolai murmured.
Silas nodded. His face betrayed no emotion, but instead of acting repulsed by the man who made him drink animal blood, he leaned against Nicolai as if grateful for the support. Nicolai responded by tightening his grip on him, and by tilting the bottle so that Silas could drink.
A few more sips, and silent tears started streaming down the younger vampire's face.
He still never protested, though. Not until he'd made it to the last quarter of the bottle, and even then, his protest was so minuscle that Crimson would have missed it if he hadn't been watching so closely, unable to tear his eyes away from the scene playing out in front of him. With only a few more sips to go, Silas tried to turn his head away. Except he never got very far, because Nicolai caught that movement too--had likely anticipated it--and gripped his chin to keep him in place.
"Almost done, pet," he said, as if he was performing an act of love rather than force-feeding the other vampire.
It wasn't until Silas had finished every last drop of the animal blood that Nicolai discarded the bottle. Once he did, Silas turned in his hold to rest his head on his sire's chest, his shoulders shaking even though he made no sound.
It was an odd sight.
Even odder to see Nicolai offer him comfort, petting his hair and rubbing his back. It was almost as if they had both forgotten that Crimson was in the room with them.
At least, until Nicolai looked straight at him.
Crimson didn't try to hide his discomfort from his face, even as his sire studied him.
After a moment, Nicolai whispered something into Silas's ear that made the younger vampire withdraw and leave the room, his cheeks wet, his lips smeared with blood and his gait more than a little unsteady.
"Is he going to be okay?" Crimson asked before he could stop himself.
"He'll require some attention, but he'll be fine. And before you ask, no, he's not always been able to do that. We've worked on that trick," Nicolai said as if his favorite show animal had just performed particularly well.
Crimson wanted to punch that self-satisfied smile off his face, but was smarter than to try.
Nicolai, meanwhile, walked back to the fridge and pulled another bottle out of it. It had that same purple label.
