Page 70 of Love Heals
Chapter Twenty-Four
Iwas back in Nicolai's house. My sire was there too. He wasn't pleased with me. Not at all. I could tell by the way he looked at me, his eyes narrowed, his nose wrinkled as if there was a bad smell in the air, and that bad smell was me.
We were in his bedroom. I sat on the edge of his bed, he stood before me, arms crossed in front of himself.
At least his skin isn't melting off his face this time,I told myself. It was an odd thought to hold onto, but right this moment, I would have taken anything that made me feel even slightly better. Because I knew I was in for pain.
"I really thought I taught you better than this." Disappointment laced my sire's voice. Involuntarily, I cringed. I hated disappointing my sire. Disappointing my sire always led to bad things. I'd known that, and yet...
I let my head hang low.
Nicolai stepped a little closer to the bed, two of his fingers finding my chin to tilt it up. "I thought we were past this rebellious phase of yours."
"I'm sorry." My voice was barely more than a whisper because I knew it didn't matter if I was sorry or not. I'd screwed up. Now I needed to face the consequences of my actions.
Nicolai considered me for a long moment before saying, "You will be."
I tried hard not to flinch. It would only make things worse if Nicolai thought I was trying to get away from him. "How can I make this up to you?" I asked instead.
"I don't know if you can, pet. You betrayed me. You betrayed the whole coven. Do you know how many vampires died in that fire?"
I cast my gaze aside, unable to hold my sire's any longer. God, I really was sorry about that fire. "I didn't mean to—"
Nicolai's grip on my chin tightened. "I don't want to hear your excuses, pet. Look at me."
I forced myself to meet his gaze again. There was anger in his eyes. Cold fury. I shuddered. My sire wasn't a fan of violence, but when he looked like that, I never knew what he was going to do. It had been a long time since I'd seen him like this.
"Not only did you betray the coven, you went and slept with one of the people responsible for my death."
"I..." I didn't know what to say. How could anyone be responsible for Nicolai's death when he clearly wasn't dead? It didn't make sense, and yet, at the same time, it did. Because how could Nicolai ever die? He never would. I would never be free of him.
I chided myself for that last thought. Now was not the time to be moaning about my lack of 'freedom'. Nicolai would sense my rebellion, and he would only try harder to drive it out of me.
Honestly, I'd thought he'd extinguished the last flicker of it a long time ago.
Nicolai shook his head at me. "Whatever am I going to do with you?"
As if he didn't already have a plan... Nicolai's punishments were always carefully planned out.
"I believe some recalibrations are in order," Nicolai said, and the subtle hint of joy in his voice made me fear the worst. Whatever he had in mind for me, he was going to enjoy it, and that never meant good things. Dread pooling in my stomach, I watched him open the door to the bedroom. A dog came in.
My breath stopped.
It was Drizzit.
How did he have Drizzit?
You should have expected this,the voice in my head said.He always finds the best way to torture you. He always knows.
I scrambled back on the bed, even as the dog jumped onto it to greet me with his tail wagging and his tongue sticking out.
"You seemed rather fond of this... creature," Nicolai said. "Can you guess what I need you to do?"
I could, but my throat was too tight for me to get the words out. Nicolai loved to punish me with animal blood. He'd never made me take it from a living animal before, though. I couldn't do it, couldn't kill Drizzit.
At the same time, though, the hard look in my sire's eyes told me that I would.
The way I always did whatever he wanted me to do. It was all about what he wanted. The sooner I remembered that, the better.
