Someone was touching me. I could feel the feint tug at my finger. No, not my finger. I didn't have one anymore. Suddenly my eyes popped open, sure it was Daniel who stood over me, but the face that greeted me was less threatening, though just as hated.
Ryan was standing above me. He wasn't dressed in his fancy clothes anymore, just simple jeans and a printed tee-shirt for some band I'd never heard of. It made him look younger, closer to my age than nearly 25. He held a towel in one hand, stained red with my blood, a bucket in the other, and was dabbing away at the stump of my finger. When he pushed particularly hard I whimpered and it made him jump, not knowing I was awake. He scowled at me and dipped the towel into the water again, continuing his work.
"So you met Daniel." He commented. I didn't respond, just stared up at him. He looked tired, but not from lack of sleep. It was an exhaustion that reached his bones, purely mental and no amount of sleep would cure it. It was the exhaustion that came with stress, as I'm sure living with a Seethe of psychotic monsters would do to a person. I'm sure if he weren't a piece of shit I could find the will to feel sorry for him.
"You really shouldn't smart off to him. I know you're used to Isaac taking it, but Daniel won't."
"Suddenly you care about my well-being?"
Ryan chuckled softly, "Not really. It's just a word of advice. You shouldn't have let Isaac kill Kayleigh, either. Daniel wouldn't have been so angry at you."
"That was angry?" I asked. He'd been horrible yes, but it had all seemed so good-natured…well good natured in the terms of a psychopath. Playful, not angry.
"If you'd just gone with her from the club, instead of fighting like you did-"
"That shadow was Daniel's?" I asked, wincing away from him when he pushed at my stump. As hard as I tried I couldn't believe it. She'd said she loved him. How could anyone in this world love something as disgusting and heartless as Daniel. It didn't make any sense and I stopped trying to understand it.
"I want to see Isaac." I said as he dropped the towel into the bucket and set them both on the floor. Ryan just laughed.
"Yeah, that's not going to happen. Colette's got him downstairs. I'm sure if you listen hard enough you'll be able to hear him screaming."
His smile was hateful and cruel as he looked back at me and I thrashed up against the straps trying to bite him or claw out his eyes. Instead, my thrashing sent a spurt of blood from my finger stump across his shirt and he cursed, jumping back.
"What the fuck?" he exclaimed, smacking me hard enough to turn my head. I worked my jaw a moment, ignoring the minor pain of this compared to my hand, which had taken back to throbbing now that I was awake and he'd been messing with it. "Stop it, ok, I came to make you better."
"I don't believe you."
"Yeah, well, it wasn't exactly my idea. I would have just left you in here, but Colette says she wants that little stump of yours healed up so you don't go bleeding all over your new room."
"My room?" I asked, but he ignored me, reaching for a glass that sat on the tool tray, full of deep red, shimmering liquid. Vampire blood. The shadow took hold of the back of my head and lifted it up, moving the glass to my lips, but I clamped them shut.
"Oh come on, don't you want to stop bleeding? What if I told you this was Isaac's blood?"
A chill raced up my spine and I shook my head, "You're lying."
Ryan laughed shrugging and leaned against the table. "Yeah. It was worth a shot though. Not sure he'd be able to spare this much right now, the way Colette's ripping into him."
"Stop it," I said, closing my eyes and squeezing out a few tears. "Stop saying that."
"What?" he grinned, "Isaac is being tortured? He's beaten and broken and not worth the blood it took to make him anymore. I'm not even sure they'll keep him alive much longer."
"I'll kill you, you heartless bastard."
He scoffed, "What are you going to do? Bleed all over me? You're doing a great job so far."
Again I tried to thrash out of the straps but they were too thick and held me tightly. Ryan, tired of talking now, fisted the back of my hair and forced my head up again. He pushed the glass up to my lips and as I struggled and choked on it, it went everywhere, spilling down my face and into my hair. Ryan looked furious and smashed the empty glass on the floor, back-handing me again.
"You're wasting it you stupid bitch! Do you understand how precious this stuff is?"
In response I spit the last of my mouthful onto the floor and glared at him. I hadn't been able to stop all of it though, and had swallowed some in the fight. Already I could feel the warmth of it tingling from my belly and outward making my head swim for just a moment before the room snapped into sharp focus. I could see him better in the dim light, hear the blood dripping off the side of the table in wet plops. My finger began to tingle as well, the skin knitting itself back together across the open wound, closing off the flow of blood. Briefly I hoped that my finger might grow back, but instead the wound just closed over, my stump healing into its blunt, useless self.
"There, don't you feel better now?" Ryan asked as he undid the straps across my legs. I went very still, not wanting to spook him and make him stop. He undid them quickly, pausing a moment to stare at me before unbuckling the last one.
"I'll take you to your room now," he said nodding to the door and turning his back on me.
That was his first mistake. The second was that he'd made me hate him. Without a sound, I launched myself off the table. With the vampire blood in my system, even the small amount gave me much needed strength and energy. I speared him against his back and we went crashing through the door, into the wall outside the room. Ryan cursed, thrashing to get out of my grip while I sat on top of him and began to pound my fists against his head. When that didn't do much but make him angry I grabbed a fist full of his hair and bashed his head against the floor.
The shadow was dazed and went limp, so I did it again as hard as I could, happy to hear the snap of cartilage breaking in his nose. Blood spurted out onto the hardwood floor, trailing across the symbols painted there. As the blood touched one of them the symbol began to glow. It wasn't any kind of light I had ever seen before, as if the paint were leaching the light from the room as the blood melted into it, spilling it back out backwards. Inverted light, not really glowing but somehow too bright to watch. When the blood had all been absorbed, the symbol throbbed and I reached out, brushing my forefinger across it. It was warm and shuddered like a living thing beneath my touch so I jerked away. It seemed to reach out toward me, but I crawled backwards off of Ryan and it dimmed, the inverted light fading away.
"Ow." Ryan was pushing himself up now, I'd taken too much time with the symbol. He fell once, his pupils swollen and uneven with the onset of concussion, and I stood. He probably couldn't take anymore head trauma, if I kept at it, I might even kill him.
I grabbed a bust that decorated the hall and smashed it down over his skull.
This time he didn't get back up, and I turned on my heel and ran. I'm not sure where I was going, but I pictured the front door, dashing outside to Cern and throwing myself into his strong arms. Out to safety, out to salvation and away from the monsters.
My thoughts went back to Ryan, limp on the floor and I grit my teeth. I hoped I'd split the fucker's head open, I hoped he was twitching on the floor with the grey mush of his brain matter leaking out onto the hardwood. Would the strange living symbols eat that too I wondered? He deserved worse.
"Now, what could you be doing?" The voice made me trip as I ran and I stumbled against the wall, eyes wide. Daniel's terribly friendly voice met me as I turned around and before I could run, he'd traced the distance between us and held me tightly by my arms.
"Let go!" I cried, not that I thought he would listen, but it was worth a shot anyway.
"I take it Ryan can't play a convincing jailor? Really, that boy. What will I do with him?"
"I hope I killed him." I snarled, shooting acid at him through my eyes. I tried to knee him in the balls, but Daniel shifted and lifted me off my feet instead, slinging me over his shoulder, and slapping my ass when it was bared from under Isaac's shirt. I had forgotten I was mostly naked, and fought to pull the back of the shirt down and cover myself as he began to walk.
"We mustn't get our hopes up," he said with a sigh.
He carried me down the hall, passed the torture room, pausing once to grab Ryan's wrist and drag him down the hall with us. Ryan was groaning, but after a brief kick in the side from Daniel he stopped. The vampire took us deep into the house, passed a dozen different doors and finally stopped in front of one made of dark wood. A deadbolt had been installed into it recently, but the lock was on the outside, to keep me in I thought.
Daniel took us into the room, which looked very much like one of the guest rooms in Isaac's house. It was white, with dark cherry wood trim and floorboards. There was a canopy bed against the far wall and a bookshelf with a high-backed chair to my right. It all reminded me of something I might see in an old French period piece, all very much Colette's style. Daniel left Ryan in the middle of the room after closing the door and carried me over to the bed, tossing me down on it. I scrambled to cover myself and bent my knees under my body. Daniel grinned and offered assistance, but I slapped at him with my good hand and he grabbed my wrist to stop me.
"Little bitch," Ryan was slurring, trying to push himself up and falling back to the floor. "Think she…shit I'm dizzy."
Daniel shot him an arched look and sighed, releasing me. He walked over to the bumbling shadow and grabbed the back of his shirt, lifting him up with on hand and tossing him across the room and onto the bed beside me. I scowled and scrambled to the edge, not wanting to be close to him. Especially not with the way he was glaring holes into my head. The shadow reached for me, sneering furiously, but I pressed myself against the headboard and grabbed the first thing I could find. A small stone statue of a fat woman without a head, a fertility statue I think, and I cracked it across his head. Ryan yelped in pain and rolled away from me, clutching his skull as if it might fall open and hissing a creative string of curses.
"Now, now children," Daniel smiled, taking the fertility statue away from me. "Do I have to separate you?"
"Yes," we said in unison.
Daniel chuckled and sat down between us, pulling me roughly across his lap by the front of Isaac's shirt and bit into his wrist. I clamped my lips closed and turned my head away, thinking he meant to make me drink it, but instead the vampire held it out to Ryan. The shadow saw it and his eyes snapped into focus, grabbing the wrist and latching his mouth to it like a drunkard beneath an open cask of wine. I watched this distastefully a moment while Daniel wrapped his free arm around my waist to keep me still.
The vampire nudged the fertility statue at the end of the bed with his polished dress shoe and smiled to himself. "I do hope this thing isn't active," he said glancing at the moaning Ryan. "We wouldn't want you breeding."
"I won't stay here." My voice was strong, even this close to him and it made the vampire turn to me with a patient smile, as if he were speaking to a child.
"Brave words when I'm holding you," he said and wrenched his wrist away from Ryan, flinging the shadow to the edge of the bed.
"I'm not going to sit here and let you hurt me."
He nodded with a patronizing smile and dabbed away the remaining blood with a bit of Ryan's shirt. The wound was already healed, now only a slight reddish line and even that was fading. He healed faster than Isaac did. Ryan was too stoned to care it seemed. He was just lying there now, his eyes closed and smiling in a daze. I wondered what exactly that much of their blood would do to a person, what he was feeling, but had no desire to find out for myself.
"So, "Daniel said working his fingers a moment. "What you're telling me is that the moment I leave, you'll be attacking our simple little guard here?"
I nodded. What point was there in lying to him when he would have seen through it anyway?
"Well, I admire your perseverance. It's admirable for someone in your position." The vampire smiled and brushed my hair over my shoulder, trailing his finger down the side of my neck. Too late, I realized what he meant to do.
"Wait!" I cried when the vampire's icy blue eyes bled to oily black, his curved fangs sliding down from their hidden place in his gums. "No!"
Daniel wrapped my hair around his hand and wrenched my head to the side painfully. "Thank you, Mira," he murmured against my skin, his tongue flicking out and making me wince in disgust. "I've been waiting for an excuse to taste you properly."
He didn't dampen the pain as Isaac did. I felt it all, the wet pop of my skin splitting beneath his fangs, the draw at my veins that seemed to try and pull me inside out. He wanted it to hurt me, and when I whimpered, he jerked his head, tearing skin and chuckling when it made me cry out. There was no use fighting him, he caught my swinging fists and held them tightly as he drank and soon I lost the strength for it altogether. My body grew heavier with each pull at my vein, and my breathing slowed with the beat of my heart.
Daniel made a soft inhale against my throat and pulled away panting. He didn't need to breathe for anything other than talking, but I had made his black eyes flash and his cheeks flush with color and warmth. He was winded from me and it seemed to delight him.
"I get it now," he said breathlessly against me, refusing to let go even as my head rolled down to rest on his shoulder, too heavy to hold up anymore. "You taste like sunshine because your god has blessed you." The vampire pulled back to search my eyes and his smile was excited. "His blood flows through you, did you know that? That's why you taste so wonderful, so full of life. I can only imagine what you would be like undiluted by human weakness."
"Get off of me," I growled, my voice breathy from fatigue. His feeding had left me exhausted as my body struggled to function with too little blood. My heart wasn't beating the way it was supposed to and it hurt in my chest, but I was still awake, and something in me whispered that I needed to stay that way if I wanted to keep breathing.
Daniel was laughing to himself and stood suddenly, shoving me off of him onto the mattress beside the still blissed-out shadow. I didn't have the strength to push myself back up, but managed to drag myself to the headboard and use it to prop myself up. Daniel was busy straightening his expensive suit jacket; he seemed to favor casual suits. They made him look like a young tenacious business man, a wolf from wall street or some heartless lawyer. Slate gray with a starched off-white shirt beneath. He looked handsome and powerful and it only made me hate him more.
"You have developed quite the reputation, child." Daniel said suddenly, giving a charming smile and running his fingers along the spines on the bookcase. "Mira who lives with a vampire but is not his shadow. Mira who runs with werewolves. Mira who enters the deepest woods of the Seelie court and returns unscathed." His cold, blue eyes snapped back to me.
"Mira who beds a god. Who traded her soul for…" he trailed off to smile, "but there is the most interesting part of your tale. What did you get for such a precious thing?"
Suddenly he was right in front of me, inspecting me like I were some sort of lab rat, "You have shown no incredible strength or speed, nor resistance to pain." My eyes drifted to my nub of a finger and back to him, narrowing angrily. "So, the world is dying to know, Mira, what did you get?"
"The world will just have to be disappointed." I snapped, letting my head rest back against the headboard. It had started to pound furiously. Daniel, arched a brow and leaned forward, resting his hands on either side of me and making me lean back to get away from him, though I had nowhere to go.
"The world, perhaps, but I have little patience for surprises. If you will not tell me, than I will find a way to convince you." The vampire took my injured hand, lifting it to his mouth with a smile, "You've seen my idea of persuasion." He drew the stunted tip of my finger into his mouth, drawing his tongue around the ravaged edge. Revulsion, like nausea, washed through me, dropping my stomach to the floor. I had never met a creature who disgusted me more than Daniel.
He smiled at my reaction, letting me pull my hand away and tilted his head in thought. He reached out to brush my hair from my face, ignoring the way I flinched away from his touch. "You really should have never shown me that I frightened you Mira," he said slowly. "It is a weakness I will exploit. You must know that by now."
"I don't have any special power, you fuck." I spat, wanting to hurt him and fearing that he would hurt me again at the same time. I didn't like that he was so close to me. I could feel the warmth in his skin now, warmth he had stolen from me, and it frightened me that he could take it so easily. I liked to think that if it really came down to it, I could protect myself, but Daniel had finally proved to me that this was a lie. I was helpless as a baby and I lived in a world full of creatures monumentally more capable than myself. How had I ever had such an ego? What the hell had been wrong with me?
The vampire chuckled, tracing the line of my jaw with the tip of his finger, because I was too frightened to pull away and excite him anymore, "I'm inclined to believe you. I think this is a waste of time and that killing you will yield faster results, but Colette loves her collection, and cannot help herself now. She would have me torture you for secrets you do not have, if it meant she could add you to the set."
"But you know I don't have powers. Why can't you just tell her-"
Daniel laughed, surging forward suddenly and pinning me to the bed. "There are many reasons, Mira. For one, Colette is stubborn and hardheaded. She will not accept that you are not lying until I have hurt you. Secondly, curiosity is a fault I have suffered since my beginning." He grinned, kissing my cheek though I tried to turn my head away from him, "I have questions of my own."
"Get off of me." I said, though my voice was weak, even in my ears. Daniel ignored it, brushing his lips against the cusp of my ear and chuckled maliciously.
"Thirdly, Mira, I just want to play with you."
I reached for something to hit him with, finding only Ryan who grunted distractedly and rolled onto his side. Daniel, thinking this was all just a delightful game, grabbed my arm and wrenched me closer.
"I didn't say we would play now," he laughed and settled me back against the headboard. "In fact, I'm feeling rather gracious today. You must be hungry."
"I was until you touched me, now I just feel sick."
The vampire frowned slightly and popped my cheek with the backs of his knuckles. "Don't be rude, Mira. We can always play instead." He grinned maliciously, "We've only explored the first food group of torture, there are still four others."
"Food groups of torture?" Ryan shocked me by speaking and rolling onto his back to look over at us. The vampire seemed to have forgotten he was there entirely. "Now I'm curious."
Daniel titled his head at me, brushing my ruined hand. "We've done sharp," he said. "There is still blunt, hot, cold, and loud. Think we can make it through all four in the next hour?"
"I'm sorry." I said, my head falling in shame and fury. That he made me submit only caused my body to burn, the familiar bubbling of rage was just beneath my skin, buried before by terror. "I'll be nice."
Daniel shrugged and sat down on the end of the bed to watch me with a smile. "We'll get to them later I suppose."
"What? No I just-"
He laughed, shaking his head as if I'd just said something adorable. "Oh, precious, you know I'm going to hurt you one way or the other. If not for my own pleasure, than for Colette's answers."
I opened my mouth to speak, but couldn't think of anything to say and shut it again. My throat was tight and I knew that if I wasn't careful I would start crying. I didn't want to cry in front of this bastard, he would probably get off on it as much as making me scream.
"Ryan, you useless lump," Daniel snapped, shoving at the shadow to get his attention. "Go get Mira something to eat. And orange juice while you're at it," he grinned. "She's looking a few pints low."
The shadow didn't waste time. Though he was slightly unsteady on his feet, as if he were drunk, he stood and hurried from the room. When the door shut behind him the room was silent and I busied myself by tugging at the bottom of Isaac's dress shirt. I really needed some new clothes.
Starting with some underwear.
"So," Daniel said softly, breaking the silence and watching me with a glint in his icy eyes that made me uncomfortable. "Since I'm feeling charitable, let's talk. You must have questions for me."
"What could I possibly have to learn from you?"
"Manners," he said, and the tone of his voice implied that if I didn't show some soon he was going to forget that he was being nice right now. I forced a smile and waited patiently for him to continue. "I'm sure there's something you've been dying to know. Something only I can tell you. I promise to be honest."
"Really?" I asked with a bit of sarcasm I couldn't hide.
"I find that for the most part, the truth is more painful than any lie I can conceive. Besides, what reason is there to lie to you? You pose no threat to me or anyone really."
"I can't think of anything." I grit out and he sighed.
"Not even about your beloved Isaac? I had thought you would jump at a chance to nose about in his past."
I nearly told him off, but my words left me as a question jumped to the front of my brain. I felt foolish even thinking it, in a moment like this when there were so many more important things to ask. What they were going to do with me, for instance.
"Why does he hate you?"
For a moment, he only laughed softly, looking down at the rumpled comforter between us. "Ah, does the boy still refuse to talk about me? That boy, sometimes I wonder why I ever bothered with him."
"What did you do Daniel?"
"Has he told you anything of his past?"
I shook my head, feeling embarrassed for a reason I couldn't name. Daniel nodded, and smirked at this making my blush deepen.
"Do you even know how old he is?"
Another shake of the head that made him laugh. "And you think the two of you are close? That's just adorable."
I grit my teeth but didn't respond, so he continued, clearing his throat dramatically.
"Isaac was born in 1597, during the 9 year war, in Ireland. He was a child of rape, those were the times for it. His father was a British militant, who took an Irish bride as the spoils of war, though it was not a happy marriage and from what the boy told me it was only to taint her filthy, Irish bloodline with that of a pure British one. People could be so concerned with blood in those days, I hated to tell them that it all tasted the same."
I took this in a moment, thinking of the time we had all watched The Boondock Saints together, and I'd gushed over the sexy accents of the brothers, telling Isaac that it was a shame he wasn't Irish too. At the time, I hadn't understood the chuckle he'd gotten from that, and now it made me a bit embarrassed.
"That makes him…"
"415 years old as of 2012," Daniel smiled, "Not a mathematician, are you?"
"415," I repeated softly. Jesus, that was much older than I had imagined. He had lived to see so much, war and change and the birth of real technology. In my head I'd always seen him as some dashing British noble, clothed it velvet and lace like something out of a romance novel. The accent I had always assumed he tried to hide probably wasn't even real. Then again, if he had been an Irishman, even one of British decent, the world would have not been kind to him. If he'd come to America, during the years of shunning the Irish, he might have even cultivated it to stay afloat. Better an Englishman than Irish and unable to even enter most establishments.
"Oh," Daniel murmured with mocking humor. "You like that don't you. Have a thing for the Micks do you?"
Not wanting to discuss my personal tastes in foreign fantasy, I brought us back to the question at hand. "Why does he hate you?"
"There was a time when even I worked for that frog bitch Colette. I was powerful, connected, and willing to do any of the nasty things she demanded with a smile. I was her favorite for years, and then I realized what a power-hungry impotent little shit she really was and she began to bore me. Colette sought to keep me under her thumb. She knew that I planned to leave, and had no power to stop me, so in her desperation, she found him."
"Isaac?"
"He was a lord at the time, living in Ireland under the rule of his father. I don't recall what it was that first drew me, but in time I began to recognize myself in him. He was fearless, impulsive, but trapped beneath his father, as many were in those days. I befriended him."
"What were you planning to do?" I asked glaring at him. The vampire chuckled, but shook his head.
"You might find it hard to believe, but I only sought his companionship. I was attracted to his strength, his ability to do what was required of him, regardless of the consequences. I respected him for it." His smile fell then and he sat back in his chair. "I would have never turned him. He had problems, yes, but no more than any other in those days. Isaac was happy and he loved his family, and he was expecting another child."
"But Colette got to him anyway." I finished. Inside I was caught on this validation that Isaac had in fact been a father. What had it been like to outlive his own children?
Daniel nodded solemnly. "She gave him to me as a 'gift', but I knew the truth, not that she tried to hide it. I couldn't leave him to her, let her corrupt him with her scheming and power-plays, the way she has so many others. She would have made him as weak as she is, and I couldn't have that, not with him. I became his mentor and helped him to transition into this life as easily as I was able."
"Why does he hate you then?" I asked. "You make it sound as if the two of you were bestest buddies, but he can't even stand to talk about you. What changed?"
Daniel sighed, standing to move slowly to the bookcase. He pulled one of the large, dusty tomes down and flipped through it idly. "Their marriage might not have been born of love, but in the end, Isaac deeply cared for his wife. He loved his son and the girl that would have been born in the coming months." He paused to glance back at me, "Isaac always wanted a girl."
"Did you hurt his family?"
The vampire smiled, putting the book away and moving to the chair against the wall to watch me as he spoke. "When a vampire is created, they have little control over themselves. You have seen one of us when we are starved, but it is worse in the beginning. The hunger is...unbearable. We live off instinct alone, attacking any living creature with the misfortune of stumbling across us. He was no different." Daniel turned to stare into nothing and drifting off into memory. "There are instances however, in some, when tiny bits remain. For Isaac, it was the familiarity of his home. He sought comfort, even if he didn't understand it at the time, and I allowed him to go."
"You let him kill his family." I said, hearing the disgust in my voice and wishing it would shame the vampire. He only nodded however, looking back at me passively.
"The boy was first, frozen at the sight of his father, returned from the grave, and then the woman. She tried to reason with him, begged him not to kill her, but he was little more than an animal and did not know her from Eve. Their deaths were quick, relatively painless, and Isaac did not remember the deed itself, but for flashes."
"Who gives a shit if he remembers or not! You let him slaughter his family, you bastard. Why would you do that?"
His expression did not change, and he continued to stare at me, completely passive. "I told you, Mira. I had never wanted to turn him. He led a happy life, and he loved his family. When Colette turned him, I knew that he would never be able to let them go. Sure, I could have taken him away, left the country, but the boy would have found his way back to them eventually. A life with them would have been impossible, and it would have only served to hurt him further."
"So you were doing him a favor? Is that what you think?" I scoffed.
"No, Mira. I cared for him, in my own way, and I did what was necessary. It was done in his best interest." He laughed then, shaking his head, "I regret only that I lied to him. Telling him that he had escaped my watch and found them through instinct. It was a half truth, and though it caused him great pain, it was not forever. He accepted it after time and after we found Sanura, he had another family. One he would never lose."
"But eventually he found out."
Daniel nodded, his smile becoming a distasteful scowl. "It was during a fight with Colette. She had learned that the three of us planned to leave. Under my care, they would return to the old world and be free of her, but she couldn't have that. She told him what I had done in an attempt to win back his favor, but he has never been stupid and he left her regardless. Sanura was the only one of us that remained, she hated me for hurting him, and Isaac refused to let her follow him. It wasn't until years later that I found her and explained, but Isaac…" he looked off into the distance again, not seeing the room around him, "I fear he will never quite forgive me, even if he understands why it was done. He cannot trust me any longer, but I understand. I will not force him."
"You're…" I tried to think of something hatful, but there was not a word negative enough to describe Daniel. He had all but forced Isaac to kill his family, his child, his pregnant wife. There were no words for something that evil.
"Do not pity him, Mira. It was long ago and he has moved passed all but his hatred for me. There is more to it, there must be, but for now I will let him live in his hateful little world." He smiled to himself, fingering a frayed seam on the arm of his chair. "I have never quite understood it, but there is something in him, some spark that I crave. He delights me, challenges me. You can't understand how a fearless man can be a welcomed change in a life of domination. Every human who knows what you are bowing and praising you out of fear that you might rip them in half at any moment. The tedium it brings. Then came this wonderful boy, a product of abuse and self-hatred that saw me at my most vicious and still insulted me without fear. The thrill of breaking such masculinity, such an ego…" he laughed softly. "You would shrivel in your seat now if you knew some of the nasty things I forced him to do. The things I did to him."
My eyes went a little wide at his implication and I couldn't help myself, I had to ask. "Did you and him…do you mean sexually?"
The vampire laughed again, his eyes shining in amusement at my flustered state, and nodded once. "Does that bother you, little girl? Surely you had considered how immortality might open one's eyes. There are only so many blushing virgins you can bed before you begin to wonder what it is exactly that makes the fags so keen on it."
My face was burning now as unwanted images flashed through my head and I tried to push them out. Isaac had had sex with a man, and Daniel of all people. Horrid, depraved Daniel. What had he been thinking? The idea of him and Josep had been amusing, sure, but this? This left an unpleasant taste in my mouth.
"I don't believe you." I said finally. "I saw Josep kiss him and it was like he could barely stop himself from running away. If he wouldn't sleep with Josep, why the hell would he do it with you?"
Daniel seemed to think this was all hilarious. "And where did you think that homophobia came from exactly? You assume that our time together was entirely consensual."
My fist curled in the blanket beside me, my eyes narrowing on the bastard. "You raped him." Even as the words left my mouth, they made me cringe. I felt as if something was crawling beneath my skin and I couldn't get it out.
"Not everything is so cut and dry, precious. You're young, you'll understand one day."
"No, I don't think I will."
Daniel rolled his eyes and stood from the chair with a heavy sigh. As he came closer to me I drew back against the headboard, not wanting him to touch me. Hell I didn't want him in the same room with me and it wasn't because he was a psychopath anymore. He was truly twisted, disgusting. He was a real monster and I didn't want any part of that. I had once obsessed that I would become like the vampires; cold and merciless and delighting in other's pain, but now I knew that could never really happen. I could never be like Daniel, I wasn't capable of it.
"You're right, Mira. You can't understand." He was smiling again, settling down on the end of the bed to watch me, and enjoying the way I stared at him like some hellish thing dragging its twisted body right out of Hell.
"There is a power in it, that as a woman, you could never grasp. To take another man, one who is repulsed by the thought of it, to force him to accept it, to enjoy it? There are few things sweeter in this world than shame and a broken ego."
"I don't want to talk anymore," I said, starring at the bed because there was no way I could bring myself to look at him anymore. He was repulsive, looking at him literally turned my stomach and I could no longer handle it.
"Oh, but you wanted to know about your precious Isaac, didn't you? Poor girl, have I scared you away from him? Can you bring yourself to touch something that damaged?"
"You," I said, loathing dripping from my tongue, "I don't want to talk to you. Get out of my room."
The vampire grinned and in the time I realized the mattress had shifted, he was pressed against me, his hand cupped under my chin and forcing it up. I screamed in rage and disgust and shoved at his chest, but he was immovable and I was still weak from blood loss, and god was I tired now.
"God, don't touch me." I shrieked, turning my head away and growling when he forced it back. "Please, just don't touch me, I can't stand it. You disgust me. You're the most revolting thing I've ever seen."
He only smiled at this, enjoying my hatred, drinking it in and wanting more. He leaned toward me, and I know in that moment he planned to kiss me, and I knew that if he did I would vomit all over in. I was more concerned with having him on me than his reaction should I really get sick on him.
The door opened as the vampire had forced up my chin and titled his head, our lip mere centimeters apart. I could feel the warmth of him on my face, smell the sweet scent of vampire that should have enticed me, but in him only made me sick. Daniel went still, his eyes snapping to the door and our intruder and I had never been happier to see Ryan in my life. The vampire was clearly displeased, but he blessedly pulled away, raking his little errand boy with a scathing glare. I crawled away from him on the mattress, still unable to stand, but clinging to the opposite side of the bed like a life raft. He watched this a moment before standing and tracing to the shadow and the plate of chicken and vegetables he was holding. Ryan looked just as displeased to have interrupted us, but I think that was more because Daniel looked about ready to rip out his throat.
"Throw that out," he said, motioning to the plate and the only food I'd seen in hours. "She doesn't need it anymore." Then he paused at the door. "Leave the orange juice; she'll need a bit of her strength back for her interrogation tomorrow."
Ryan nodded quickly and set the tall glass on the side table beside me, then hurried out of the room. He wanted to get away room Daniel, I could tell, fearing his sudden anger, and I didn't blame him. Apparently, when this thing was feeling horrid, he was willing to rape other men. My stomach turned, and suddenly I didn't mind losing my only meal, I wasn't sure I'd even be able to keep it down anymore.
Daniel left after Ryan without a word to me. The door was closed and locked from the outside behind him and then I was left in silence, but I was grateful. I drank my juice slowly, wincing passed my tightening throat. I don't know when I started crying, but once the tears came they wouldn't stop. I finished my juice and set the glass aside, curling up in the center of the bed and folding a corner of the comforter around myself. I was shivering, and though I knew it wasn't from the cold, I bundled myself anyway. I don't know how long I lay there, but my cheeks had started to burn from the salt and my chest hurt from all the heaving. Eventually thought, exhaustion and devastation claimed me, pulling me down into a deep sleep. I wasn't safe there, though, because the moment I closed my eyes, I could only see Isaac and the pain Daniel had put him through. Even in my sleep I wondered if I would be strong enough to survive him.
Weeeeeell….ahem. So yeah.
Some things have been let out in the open. There are many kinds of depravity, and Daniel likes to experiment with them all.
I got a few emails about Daniel for the last chapter, lot of Eww and I hate him, one from disheartened that made me laugh. "Dear Daniel, I hope Isaac rips each of your fingers off. And maybe some other things too." Thank you for that, it made my day.
What surprised me though were the few that seemed to find him attractive. Now, he's a pretty boy, and I'll admit that when I first wrote him, way in the beginning, I had a slight thing for the vampire, but that was born out of my love of writing him.
I'm curious though, how many of you still think he's yummy? *evil laugh*