"My, my General," A sexy voice crooned in a gentle whisper. "That was, by far, the most enjoyable act I've ever indulged on."
Many things seemed to register in my mind as I opened my eyes, staring painfully up at the canvas ceiling. First of all, I was naked. Secondly, I was not the only one on the small, sad excuse of a cot. Finally, the other person in the bed was not only my boss, but my naked boss.
I quickly sat up, head spinning, covering myself with the only thing that laid across the bed—My general coat. "Maria, wha-what are you doing here?" I croaked out, unaware of how I could have gotten myself in this position.
"Why, General, do you not remember?" She questioned, standing as she began to dress. I shook my head and waited for her to continue.
When she didn't, my eyebrows cringed together, and I asked quietly, "Maria, what happened?"
"Lord, you must have one hell of a headache." She muttered, and I took note that she acted much differently when she was not surrounded by her colleagues or soldiers. Though she was true; My head was pounding as if someone had took a hammer straight to my skull and, as mamma would say, "beat me upside the head".
"Maria, what happened?" I repeated, this time with a stronger voice. I needed to know. I was not used to not knowing, and my military instinct was beginning to kick in.
"Well, yesterday around, oh, sundown you decided show up in the Sawtooth." That name rang a bell. "I just happened to be there, and you basically threw yourself at me. It was sick, really, though you were drunk enough that I decided, 'What the hell!' and came back here. And that, General Jasper Whitlock, is what happened, and how you took my virginity from me."
I sat very still, very quiet, trying to piece the puzzle together one square at a time. Something didn't make sense—There was a kink in the hose, and I desperately tried to remember what had indeed happened last night. I was sure that I had lost my virginity, though it was quite obvious to me that I wasn't the only man Maria had slept with. And she had said something about me being drunk—Was this true? Was this why I couldn't seem to remember anything from yesterday? I would have to ask Dallas what was in that alcohol and how it could make a vampire seem to pass out and have a major case of memory loss.
"You're very quiet, General." Maria spoke in a soft, gentle voice, staring at me with the best puppy dog eyes I had ever seen.
"You're a liar, Maria." I muttered, shaking my head and running a pale hand through my matching locks.
"I'm sorry?" She questioned, taking a few steps towards me and staring directly into my eyes.
I forced myself to stare into her bright red, creepy eyes, the ones that were outright gorgeous yet terribly dangerous; they were like quicksand—You knew better than to step into it, but curiosity would eventually provoke you to take a risk. And once you were in, you couldn't seem to get out safely. "You're a liar, Maria." I repeated in a stronger, firmer voice. "You're lying to me. You're not a virgin."
"Oh, really?" She asked, seeming quite amused by my accusation. When I nodded, she continued. "Well, General, that's such a strong statement for such a weak man." Her words stabbed through my self confidence and penetrated through the barrier that separated my emotions from my mouth.
"For your information, Ma'am, I am not a weak man. I weak man would have never agreed to help you with this idiotic task that you have assigned me to. A weak man would never have survived the "endurance" test you gave me. And a weak man certainly would never have selfishness to sit here and be falsely accused." I stood up, finding a clean pair of undergarments and clothing, putting them on in silence.
"This is not an idiotic task." Maria mumbled quietly, seeming quite hurt by my words, though I definitely knew better than to believe that act that she was so skillfully performing. "I would have thought that you of all people would understand. And I honestly believe that you're only acting out of turn is because you're upset that you're damned to this life as a vampire."
"That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." I muttered, though we both knew that the correct answer lied in the words she had just spewed. Though I needed confidence, confidence in myself, even if that meant that the truth came after encouragement. "I am going to finish my task, because that is what I promised you I would do. You'll soon find out that I am a man of word, and once I give it, there's no backing out. I will damn well train your soldiers, but that is about all that you can expect from me, Ma'am." Fully dressed, I turned around and was surprised that she was standing not a few inches away from me.
"General," She whispered, wrapping her arms around stomach and pulling me to her. I could literally feel the darkness in her thoughts and feelings, the darkness that wrapped around her actions and the sense that she was only using me for what I could do for her. She was clearly untrustworthy I decided, as I stared deep into her bloody eyes. I narrowed my eyes with a skeptical sweep. Maria leaned in as if to kiss me, and I pulled away, harsher than I had secretly meant to.
I pointed a finger hard on the muscle above her chest, staring her deep in the eyes, wanting nothing more than to get my point across to her. "You listen to me, and you listen to me once. I will not be put through your lies and schemes. I've seen what that has done to Dallas. I can barely get him to train well any more, let alone hunt. That is how I know that I am not the first men you've slept with. He told me, and he told me damn well what you were up to." She pretended to cringe at my swearing, though I knew better. "Perhaps you take a lesson from the leaf of your own book and begin to do some of the work yourself so that you get it done in whatever morbid way you have scheming in your head, and not depend on others to do the dirty work for you."
Turning on my heel, I marched out of the tent, feeling her anger bubble and fizz into a smug sense of pride. It was not until then that I caught a whiff of it—a scent of an unfamiliar vampire. My instincts immediately kicked in, and I slowed my pace, stalking through the tall fields of grass and corn and hay as my eyes darted around, searching for whatever—or whoever—was spreading their possibly-lethal scent. I soon felt a hand on my back and a questioning feeling lingering in the air behind as I let out a surprised yell, causing an echoing, high-pitched scream to follow mine as I spun around to meet her curious, questioning, innocent eyes.