Well here is the long-awaited Chap. 5. I'm truly sorry that it is both short and EXTREMELY late. heh, ''
Oh well, enjoy !
Disclaimer: Sadly, none of these characters belong to me.
Whirls of color, pulsating flashes of blacks and reds.
Lithe panther limbs, twining and twirling.
The throb of the music, electrifying bones and bodies.
Battousai's lips cold and marble against mine.
The dark vampiric silhouettes slaughtering my father's court.
Eyes widening, light refracting.
Mangled bodies soaked in their own liquid life.
Crimson singing beneath my shoes.
Battousai's molten amber eyes, shredding through my gaze.
His icy palms stinging in pleasurable pain against my warm face.
"I'm sorry, Kaoru."
A sharp prick below my jaw.
A scream of raw anguish.
Blood swirling, contrasting against the polished floor.
Flung upon the walls, spattering the windows and tapestries.
Legs slipping, conscience failing.
Inexorably colliding, collapsing into a silk shirt
Spinning, sliding into arms.
Lost in that smell of winter.
I woke screaming.
My eyes flew open, and I was instantly blinded by the sunlight streaming through my window. It seared and burned my pupils, clawing at my nerve endings. Swearing violently, I threw the blanket over my head and buried my face in the pillow.
Something was wrong.
I sniffed the pillow, nose wrinkling in surprise. It smelled like ginger and orange spice. After another whiff, I decided there was an underlying scent of snow, crisp and fresh.
And distinctly male.
It cloaked everything: my hair, my shift, even my hands. The glorious fragrance was making me almost lightheaded. I felt like it was caressing every single pore of my body, rippling across my skin. My breath was laden with it as well. As if this scent had been branded onto me.
Almost…territorially.
Oh my god.
With a shriek, I threw off the covers and hurled myself to my feet. At least that was the intent. Blinded by the confounded sun, I slammed into the hardwood floor. Dazed, I sat up and buried my face in my knees. A million worst-case scenarios shot off at rocket fire behind my eyelids while I glared at his bed. What if he'd gotten me drunk? Had I left the ball with him? Was my father to drunk to realize what was happening too? What if we had….?
I pursed my lips into a thin line, suddenly trying to withhold my disappoint at being too drunk to enjoy it.
If "it" had happened of course.
Which it hadn't.
Or had it?
I cradled my head in my hands, trying to nurse my hangover and scorched pupils. Strangely, I couldn't remember touching any food or drinks at all. All I could remember was dancing, Battousai dipping and twirling me. The bright flash of reds and blacks as we tangled into one and broke apart again.
The blood sticky beneath my heels.
No. I swallowed hard. It wasn't real. That was just another dream. Another nightmare.
The brief flickers of passed time were slowly unraveling. Gradually, almost frame by frame, the dream replayed itself, riddled with gore and heat. The vampire delegates launching themselves at the member's of my father's court. Tables overturning, hoarse shrieks and screams of agony raking at the air.
And Battousai's mouth, so warm yet so cold, settling gently upon my jugular, my blood pulsating against his tongue.
Hesitantly, and terrified of what I would find, I pressed my index finger to my neck. The skin was freshly healed, still tender and sore, and a bite mark, two slender indentions, had scabbed over.
The sun passed behind a cloud, and for the first time I could see. I caught my reflection in the mirror by the washstand next to the bed, and my heart, or what was left of it, contorted in my throat.
My eyes were flecked with amber.
"I'm sorry, Kaoru."
His voice was lilting, regretful. The raw angst thrummed within his deep baritone.
"I'm so sorry."
Suddenly, rough, cold hands were cradling my face. His lips were soft against my forehead, comforting and apologizing.
"Why?" A dry sob racked my chest. I couldn't breathe. I felt so dirty, so violated. "Why did you do this to me?"
Battousai tilted my face upwards so my burning eyes met his. The familiar amber seemed so vindicative of my fate.
A calloused thumb dabbed at the tear slipping down my cheek.
"It was not a choice, Kaoru," he whispered. "It was necessary."