Chapter 7

Arianna was suffering.

A slow death was her worst fear and she managed to finally say the words for him to end it. But instead of the final blow she was hoping for, the vampire just stared at her. The blood was still flowing from her neck, causing Arianna to panic with the thought that her pain would go on forever. She struggled to speak again. "Please…"

And then to her astonishment, the vampire's burning, red eyes turned dark, and his face became absolutely beautiful to her. Those rich eyes seemed to look at her with such sadness, she had to blink a few times, wondering if this was even real. His hands, only moments ago gripping her harshly, now became gentle. Was she hallucinating? Was her life fading?

Slowly, the vampire once more bent his head so his lips touched her neck. Arianna thought he was going to go back to feeding on her and she whimpered. But then a soothing sensation overtook her and she felt her wound seal shut. To her astonishment, the vampire lifted his head and then took her bleeding wrist to his mouth. His tongue slowly licked across the cut, and it also stopped bleeding.

Arianna felt her body grow even more sluggish. Despite what this vampire did to try and save her, she knew it was too late. Her heart was slowing down and her vision grew dim. For some reason, she reached out to his mind, if only to communicate with him one last time…

Tyrell was practically in a trance as he stared at the female. When she begged him to kill her just moments ago, something inside of him twisted and broke free of the darkness. She could not die. Her deep blue eyes haunted him, as if there was something he should have done for her. He'd taken too much blood and she was now fading.

Let me go.

Pain sliced through his head and Tyrell actually let out a sound from the agony of it. Her eyes widened for a moment, as if she didn't understand why he felt pain when she touched his mind. But then he felt her body grow limp, her eyes slowly closing.

Pain was replaced with a fear he'd never experienced. Tyrell was never afraid. Yet the thought of her dying made him actually panic. Frantically, he lifted her lifeless body in his arms and without even thinking, slit his chest. Bringing her mouth to the wound, he forced her to feed from him. At first, he wasn't even sure if it would even work. But then to his surprise and dismay, she latched onto him.

Hard.

Tyrell groaned and cradled her head to his chest, giving her full access to his blood. He was deeply aroused, and the only thought he had was to lay her back down and find a way to get more than just his blood inside of her.

A door slamming shut somewhere snapped him back to his senses. What the hell was he doing? What was happening? When the female's eyes fluttered open, Tyrell saw comprehension and she jerked away from him. As blood trickled down his chest, he looked down at her, watching as she scrambled away from him. She pulled her knees up to her chest in a sitting position and held her legs. Her voice once more entered his mind.

What did you do to me?

He braced himself for the pain. This time, his head simply ached instead of the intensity of a sharp pain he'd felt before. Still, he winced as he felt her in his mind. Even worse, he couldn't see anything in her mind, like she was blocking him.

"Why do you hide from me?" he suddenly snapped.

She blinked. "What?"

"Who are you?"

"My n-name is Arianna. They captured me long ago." And we shouldn't talk out loud. They will hear us. When he winced again, she frowned. Why does this hurt you?

"Doesn't your mind cause pain to all vampires?" he asked as he rubbed his forehead.

"No." Her eyes widened again. "You're still bleeding!"

"You didn't seal my wound shut."

"What?"

Wait, she wasn't Carpathian, so why did he bring that up? For some reason he wanted her to seal his wound. His heart picked up in pace, as he turned the information over in his mind. When she began to breathe heavily, Tyrell closed his eyes.

Her heart.

It matched the pace of his own.

He let out a hiss in anger and his eyes snapped back open. A feeling that he could not explain was overtaking him and he actually snarled at her. "Get away from me!"

Arianna trembled. "I'm trapped here. I can't leave!" She looked at his chest. "Can't you heal that?"

"What do you care?" he snapped. A fury took over that he'd never known. "You think you can save me? Is that it?"

"I-I don't know what you mean. I just don't want you to bleed."

He laughed, the sound making her cringe. "You should want me to die."

"But I don't…I mean, not anymore."

Tyrell narrowed his eyes. "Because I saved your life? Like you owe me or something?"

"No. I was the one who wanted to die! But if you live…" Maybe you could get free and kill them all.

"My, what a bloodthirsty little killer you are."

She appeared to wince, then glanced at the camera. "Stop it."

"Stop what? You want me to hide the fact that you're hoping I can kill all of them?"

If you keep talking out loud, they will know what you are plotting.

"Am I plotting? No, wait, you are telling me what to do of course." He gave her an evil smile. "Tell me more, my dear. Tell me what I can do for you. Should I start with Derrick first? Or make him watch as I torture his fellow scientists?"

She choked. "Stop it."

"Stop? But why? This is what you want, after all." He had no idea where all this anger was coming from. But he was powerless to stop it. "Don't pretend that you don't want it. I know you mean to control me."

"Control you? I can't control you!"

"Of course not. But I know the desire is there. You want me to do your bidding."

Her eyes grew angry. "Fine. So you don't want the same? You want to just sit here and wait for Derrick to come back and cut you some more? Go for it. I don't care."

"Ah, but you do. I can feel it. You are hoping I will be the one to finally free you."

"In death! I wanted to die. Why didn't you just kill me?"

Tyrell recoiled. He couldn't answer her question. If he was so angry at her, why didn't he just let her die?

"Well, it looks like you are going to die," she added. "You can just bleed to death for all I care."

He scowled at her, then focused. The wound sealed shut. "Satisfied?"

"Obviously not. I mean, you said I wanted to control you. And I told you to just bleed to death, but you healed yourself."

He raised an eyebrow. "Disappointed?"

"Now I am, yes."

"Obviously there is no pleasing you. One moment you want me to die, the next you want me to live. I never could have satisfied you in the first place."

She gave him an odd look. "Why would I want you to please me?"

For some reason, her words struck him hard. Why the hell would he want to please her? He only cared about revenge and had loyalty to Carissa.

"Who's Carissa?"

Tyrell growled. "Stop reading my mind." Actually, it was shocking. He hadn't even felt her touch his mind. Deep down, he knew what all of this meant. But the concept of her being his lifemate was inconceivable to him. There had to be some other explanation. He couldn't even read her mind.

"So who is she?"

"No one," he replied in a harsh voice. Now he was very aware of the cameras and he did not want to endanger Carissa.

So then talk to me this way.

Tyrell grew rigid. She was not his lifemate. It was simply not possible and when she communicated with him from her mind, he felt pain. She was an annoyance and nothing like Carissa. In fact, what if this female was simply here to deceive him? The scientists could have somehow discovered something which made him want her. She could be using him.

He looked at her with absolutely no feeling this time. "I want nothing to do with you."

Arianna eyed the vampire warily. He refused to let her see into his mind. She was able to catch some of his thoughts, but not everything. What was obvious, was his distaste for her. Strangely, this made her feel hurt and angry. Who was this Carissa he obviously cared about? And why did she even care?

"So," she replied in a sarcastic tone, "you just used me for my blood."

He smirked. "Of course."

"And you kept me alive in case you needed more. Makes sense."

The vampire slowly turned his head, ignoring her as his eyes examined the walls. Slowly, he got to his feet, the chains clinking together as he towered over her. Good Lord, he was huge. None of the other vampire had his height or physique. She felt tiny and insignificant compared to him.

Arianna watched as he turned away and walked to the wall which held his chains. He was studying it, possibly thinking of a way to get free. She could only hope he was also smarter than other vampires. He certainly wasn't like the few she'd encountered. And why didn't he communicate with her telepathically? Obviously he knew she could do it. So why risk talking to her in front of the Morrison scientists? Maybe he knew it would case him more pain? She still didn't understand why he felt any pain when she touched his mind.

Can you find a way to get free? she asked, trying once again to see if he would communicate privately with her.

And once more, he winced. "Stop doing that or I will make sure you can't do it again."

"Why won't you touch my mind?"

He clenched his jaw. "You are the one blocking your mind from me."

"They gave some type of formula which blocks anyone from trying to read it. But I can still…communicate."

"I already said I want nothing to do with you!" he snapped again. He didn't even turn his head to look at her.

"Right. Just my blood." I'm nothing more than a snack of course.

He moved so quickly, Arianna never even saw it coming. His fingers from one hand easily wrapped around her throat. She couldn't even gasp as she was yanked to her feet. Those dark eyes looked dangerously at her as his bent down and bared his fangs.

"I warned you, and yet once again you ignore my command."

"I'm not at your command." Arianna tried to struggle, but it was useless.

"All I have to do is squeeze," he said in a low voice.

He was right. She was nothing but a mere rag doll in his grip. "Then do it," she whispered.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

His face was now only inches from hers as he bent down to her. Dear God, she should be afraid of him, but she wasn't. To her shock, all she could think about was what it would feel like if he kissed her. Never in her life had she felt something like this, and it terrified her. Was he using some kind of power?

The vampire's dark eyes roamed over her face, as if searching for something. "Who are you?" he asked again. His voice was husky, almost sinful.

"I already told you," she whispered.

"I want you."

Arianna swallowed hard. "What…do you want?"

Now his lips were almost on hers. "I think you know the answer."

Just when she thought for sure he was going to kiss her, Arianna was whirled around and shoved away. She was sent sprawling to the floor, landing hard on her stomach. She heard him hiss and Arianna desperately tried to crawl away, but he caught her leg. She screamed as he dragged her to him, then flipped her onto her back. He loomed over her, and she cringed as he kneeled down while pulling her even closer.

"And just how many vampires have you seduced?"

"What?"

He smiled, making a show of his fangs. "That is what you are meant for, is it not? You attract the vampires for the scientists. It is why I am so aroused by you. You are like a black widow, so tempting, and yet so deadly. Whatever they are giving you, it is obviously working. But I will not be captured by your charms."

"No…you're wrong. I'm a prisoner, like you."

"I'm sure you are. But special or not, you are a female baiting us. And I will not submit to you."

Arianna held up her chin. She was so sick of listening to his rationale and her anger resurfaced. "If you're so afraid of me, then why did you save me?"

He narrowed his eyes. "You think I am afraid?"

"I didn't ask to be made as bait!" she snapped. "And if my charms won't work on you, then get the hell off me or just end it!"

The vampire studied her for a moment, once more searching her face. He probably felt powerless with the fact he couldn't read her mind. And that was probably the only way she'd get him to believe that she was innocent in all of this.

Arianna stiffened as the vampire brought a finger to her cheek, the nail extending like a sharp claw. "What is wrong?" he asked in a low voice. "Are you afraid?"

"Why are you doing this to me?" As his finger lazily trailed down her check, she could feel the edge of his nail, but he never broke her skin.

And then he abruptly stood and simply stepped over her, not caring if the chains he dragged rolled over her body. He stared at the ceiling for a moment and she swore he looked stronger.

"Night has fallen," he announced, looking down at her. "One way or another, my time here is at an end."

Author's note: Thanks everyone for the reviews; my eyes are slowly healing...