Chapter Eight

Around the dinner table we were silent. The chandelier hung above us, casting everything in a golden glow but I somehow wished they hadn't blocked out the sun with their thick curtains. Everything seemed a little too dreary. Although, perhaps it was due to that dreariness that had me thinking I was like a damsel locked away in a haunted mansion. In a way, I almost was.

The brothers never talked much during meal times. They hardly talked at all when I thought about it. They may have lived together as brothers but I wondered if they really had much in common other than the fact that they all seemed to crave my blood. I couldn't recall ever having walked in on any of them having a cheerful conversation with one other. It was hard to imagine them ever being cheerful.

I joined in on the silence as I ate. The two holes in my tongue from Laito's fangs just a little earlier had made it hard to eat without hurting myself. I tried to eat delicately by breaking my food into miniscule bites but ever so often I would wince and sometimes I thought I could see Laito smirking when I did.

After taking a bite that may have been too big I accidentally knocked my wound and instinctively brought a hand up to cover my mouth as the pain was sharp. The brothers glanced at me as I did so and I tried to play it off normally. It didn't stop Ayato from frowning at me with concern.

"What's wrong with your mouth? Honestly, a mouse could take bigger bites than the ones you're taking."

I blushed a little. He must have been watching me intently to notice something like that.

"It's nothing" I replied quietly. "I just bit my tongue, that's all."

"Is it bleeding?" he asked. I would have liked to believe that he asked with concern but even I could see a kind of greed settling in his eyes.

"No" I answered. Laito's saliva had made sure that the sores were healing over quickly. I hoped they would be gone by the next day.

Ayato disappeared from his chair and reappeared standing next to me. He leant down so that his face was close to mine and his frown deepened.

"Show me" he commanded.

I brought my hand up to cover my mouth again and shook my head.

"Thank you, Ayato-kun but I'm fine. Really."

He slapped my hand away from my face and I widened my eyes as he gave me an irritated look. Ayato grew touchy quickly so I decided to comply. I wondered what kind of reaction he was going to have.

I stuck out my tongue and I saw Ayato snarl as the two puncture marks were immediately obvious.

"Which one of you lowlifes did this?" he asked, his voice rising quickly with anger. He turned his glare onto his brothers one by one but they all looked back at him with blank expressions. "She belongs to Yours Truly! Don't go damaging my property!"

"Your property?" I heard Laito say with a small snicker. "It doesn't look that way to me."

"Was it you?" Ayato asked furiously of his sibling as his face darkened at the remark. "Did you do this to her?"

"So what if I did?" he sighed with a careless flick of his hand. "I thought bitch-chan liked it."

The blood rushed to my cheeks and I looked down at my plate as if embarrassed.

"You– you've got it wrong" I began to stammer but it seemed like none of them were listening to me.

As Ayato silently fumed next to me I wondered if maybe I was going to be fought over. Perhaps a fight to own my blood didn't sounds particularly attractive but if I thought of it as a fight for me then I couldn't help but be a little excited. I'd never had somebody want me before.

"Ayato" I heard Reiji sigh from the head of the table. "It is customary to sit at the table while everyone is eating. Honestly, the manners in this household are something to be ashamed of."

"I'm done with dinner" he replied, turning his head away in disgust. "I'm moving straight on to the dessert."

As it turned out, I was dessert. Ayato leant over the back of my chair and lifted my chin up forcefully so that my neck stretched out before his teeth. As I felt his breath on my skin I shivered and closed my eyes to prepare myself for the pain I was about to feel.

"Ayato!" Reiji said louder, causing him to retreat from my neck. "If you're going to play with her, do it somewhere private. How many times do I have to tell you?"

"Tch. What a pain. Come, Chichinashi!"

I didn't have much choice in complying with his beckoning because he yanked me out of my seat and hoisted me up so that I was draped over his shoulder.

"Ah! Put me down!" I said frightfully as I struggled in his hold. He paid no heed to me and strolled casually out of the room. No one stopped him from leaving.

Ayato walked, with me still held over his shoulder, into the closest parlour and finally threw me down onto one of the couches. I winced as he was not gentle but I could ignore the pain when I knew
I had to prepare myself for whatever was coming next.

He sat down heavily beside me and grabbed my arm with a vice-like grip, pulling me towards himself. I tried to pull away but his other arm snagged me around the waist and he brought me close enough to him that I was nearly sitting in his lap. He buried his face into my collarbone and inhaled deeply.

"Ahhh... even just the smell of it makes me crazy" he said quietly. "I don't want to share your blood with anyone. I don't want my brothers to contaminate you."

"A- Ayato-kun!" I said as I tried to push myself away from him. It barely made him budge.

I gasped as he bit into my neck and shuddered as I heard the gulping sounds that I knew to be my blood that he was drinking. Ayato always seemed to suck the hardest on my skin, rubbing it raw with his tongue so that he left a pink mark around my wound that would take hours to disappear.

The blood rushed to my cheeks when I realised that the act was very much like giving me a hickey. Perhaps that was the point. After all, Ayato seemed to be obsessed with the idea of making sure everyone knew I belonged to him although from the amount of times the other brother's had drank my blood I didn't think any of them cared at all.

"You're cheeks are red" Ayato commented as he finished making his love-bite. "Not falling for me now are you, Chichinashi?"

"Wha! I-! Of course not!" I stammered. "And don't call me that! You're so cruel!"

My face flushed more then. Not because I was falling for him but because a sudden rush of the dirtiest thoughts had gone streaming through my mind while he'd been biting me. My body was the part of me that was getting weak. Not my heart.

"Show me where Laito bit you again" he instructed me. I looked at him suspiciously for a moment before slowly opening my mouth and sticking out my tongue to show him. I couldn't look Ayato in the eye as a thought ran through my head that I wouldn't have disliked it if he used my tongue much in the same way as Laito had done earlier.

Even with such a thought still playing in my mind, it still surprised me when Ayato really did lean forward and licked his tongue against mine before sucking my tongue into his mouth and pressing his lips onto my own fiercely.

I whimpered and whined into his mouth. Several times I managed to rip myself away but could only catch a short ragged breath before he would cover my mouth with his own again and push his tongue deep into my mouth. He wasn't as rough as Laito had been but he sure was persistent.

I kept whimpering and crying out in pain as his tongue kept sliding over mine, brushing over the bites. I feared that they really would reopen with how forceful he was being but I found I could ignore my worry if I let myself indulge in how sweet the pain felt.

With his free hand I felt him grab my legs and drag me so that I really was sitting on him. I had my eyes pinched closed but they sprang open wide when I felt his fingertips start to brush gently over my knee and slowly slide their way up my leg, along my inner thigh.

Had I finally awoken his need to be sexually satisfied? My heart thudded with the thought of it and my brain started to spin with the exhilaration. However, it wasn't going to be sadism if I didn't at least try resist. I ripped my mouth away again and pushed him harder from me.

"Stop it! Stop it please!" I said in a way that sounded almost tearful. I knew Ayato well enough to know he wouldn't obey and sure enough I saw a wickedly dark smile spread across his face.

"Don't get so excited now" he tutted at me. "Just sit still."

His arm around my waist gripped me tighter as he tried to hold me still. I let out a small squeal as once more he pressed our mouths together. Our teeth crashed together painfully but Ayato hardly felt it as he licked every bit of my mouth that his tongue could reach. I could hardly breathe due to the ferocity of his kiss.

I squirmed as I felt that hand on my leg rising higher. My hairs were all standing on end and I imagined that I could feel my own blood pumping right under where his fingers touched my skin. He was pushing my dress up higher as he went. His hand was cold, causing me to shiver and I made a useless attempt at trying to pull my dress back down to my knees.

His hand kept going however and I made another protesting whimper as I felt his finger brush over the fabric of my panties. I wondered if he could feel my need from the heat between my legs. His fingers were so gentle however that I was almost growing impatient.

What are you waiting for Ayato? If you've gone this far, simply keep going! I practically screamed in my head.

He pulled his tongue out of my mouth and panted heavily for a second from the effort. He looked at me with such a mischievous look that I was almost embarrassed to hold his eye.

He leant in close to my ear where I could still hear him breathing deeply.

"Touch me, Yui" he said so quietly that I wondered if I'd heard him right. "Touch me like I'm touching you."

I gaped at him and he chuckled darkly as my face had probably turned a bright crimson colour. I wondered if he was going to make me touch him.

His fingers brushed over my panties again, as if trying to elicit a response. I held my breath as I tried not to let a moan escape my lips. I didn't know how to respond to him. I didn't know how to continue resisting him.

"Do it" Ayato insisted.

I opened my mouth to say something but at that very same moment the door to the parlour burst open and Subaru walked in...