Page 14 of Vampire's Bite

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Cordelia

Milo finally returned to my cell and shoved a tray of food at me. He still refused to speak, I supposed it was because I completely disgusted him.

But there was food and I was hungry. Or rather there was what he was calling food. I took a moment to study the grotesque, and mostly congealed meal laid before me. Bread that had to be several days old and covered in cold, baked beans was the main entree. No way was I going to be able to eat that. Lucky me, I had a half rotten apple for dessert.

My stomach flopped at the sight, but I forced myself to take a small bite, choking down the contents as Milo continued to stare at me from across the room. The more I poked and prodded at the food the more intense his scrutiny became as though he didn't want to miss a single moment of my discomfort.

He was enjoying this way too much.

Bastard.

It made me wonder just how much of a mask he'd been wearing the whole time he'd been pretending to be friendly with me. It must have been a damn good one since he had flipped so much since revealing who he really was.

I glanced up at him again which only made him smirk at me. Were they ever going to have me make that phone call? The idea of talking to Rook, of hearing his voice outside of my dreams was almost intoxicating enough that I didn’t think of the food in front of me. I didn’t notice the acrid stench of it. I didn’t feel ill.

Almost.

There was no hiding the rot that was in the food though, and in the rest of this place. I could feel it seeping into my bones. It was making me sick to my stomach, or maybe I was still recovering from Massimo's feeding earlier.

How long had it been since then? I honestly wasn't sure, the light filtering in through the tiny window never changed which made me think that there was something shining toward it that blocked out the natural light.

It seemed like more than enough time had passed since my unfortunate interaction with Jonathon. Surely they were anxious to trap Rook, or maybe they had decided to take a different route?

Just as I finished chewing my second bite, Massimo appeared behind Milo. The bite I'd just swallowed threatened to come back up. "I'm a bit hungry," he stated, licking his lips and walking toward my cot.

So they had decided to add further insult to injury before having me betray Rook. Shit. Maybe if I vomited on him he'd leave me alone.

Milo watched in disgust but did not attempt to stop Massimo. For a moment, I thought I could see a hint of remorsefulness in his eyes. After all, he was a vampire hunter. Yet, he was allowing—encouraging by his inaction—a vampire to feed from a human, with no apparent consequences. It had to be killing him inside and that made suffering through this a tiny bit easier.

My hands started to sweat as Massimo prowled closer to my cot. After a few moments of hovering above me, basking in his superiority, he lowered himself to the ground, to kneel in front of me, laid his hands on my thighs and rubbed them back and forth. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of a cringe, but inside, I was ill.

Violently, sadly ill.

It took everything I had to stay frozen and let him think that he wasn't bothering me, when, in fact, I wanted to scream and shout and kick him in the balls.

Massimo inhaled as if he needed breath then closed his eyes and savored my scent with his lower lip pulled between his teeth. "Mmm, my dear. You smell absolutely delicious. That slight tang of fear, really accentuates your natural scent."

His cold hand ran up my right hip and grazed my breast. He smirked as my body automatically jerked away from his touch. I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t take more.

"What's the matter, Cordelia? I thought you enjoyed being felt up by vampires?" His tone dripped with disgust and I couldn’t imagine feeling worse than I did right then. His fingernails, which he apparently kept sharpened to points, dug into my shoulder as he pulled me close and then shoved me down onto the cot. Despite all my best intentions to not let this bother me, to not let this get out of my control, I tried to fight him off, but I was too weak, and he seemed to have grown even stronger since he last fed from me.

"Don't play coy with me, dear. I know what you want.” His sneer was enough to make my stomach turn. “Allow me to meet your needs." Massimo pinned me to the cot with his body and plunged his fangs into my neck.

I refused to scream this time, and clamped my lips together. I would die before I gave him one second’s satisfaction. But the absolute helpless position he had put me in only made the pain that much worse. My resolve faltered and I couldn’t hold it back.

The sound tore up my throat and I screamed and wept, praying that Milo would find an ounce of dignity within himself to pull Massimo off of me, but he just continued to watch from the opposite side of the room, silently. I held his gaze, pleading, never more horrified by the turn of events in my life than I was in that moment.

Every pull he took from my veins made me feel like I was being stabbed through the heart. My blood wasn't meant for him. It never would be.

He was a thief, and an arrogant one at that to think that he could do something like this and get away with it. When Rook finally found me, and I had to believe that he would, he'd find out what Massimo had been up to and then it would be a bloodbath, only this time it would be Massimo's blood that was spilled.

And I'd enjoy every second of it.

Eventually, Massimo pulled away from me, my blood dribbling down his lips for a moment before his thick tongue swiped across his lower lip and caught the last few drops. He watched me for a moment, as though debating having more before he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "My, my. You really are something special, Cordelia. I can see why Rook is so taken with you. It's hard to pull myself away."

I could barely keep my eyes open. The dizziness had become overwhelming, the whole room seemed to move in my vision, like we were circling a drain, and the pain in my neck was throbbing. I could tell that Massimo had taken more than he should have and it had affected my perceptions, but he didn't seem overly concerned. In fact, his smirk said he was quite pleased with himself.

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