by Ward, H. M.
The tall slender white door opened with ease. I expected someone to come charging out, but Eric reached down, and took a tiny hand in his and pulled the person out of the shadows. The tiny hand was attached to a slender arm, on the petite frame of a girl, with silky cinnamon colored hair. My fists balled in fury as I ran to rip her eyes out of her head, and shove her ass through the black mirror permanently.
“You!” she screamed, recognizing me. Shannon turned to fight, instantly contorting her face with rage. “What’d you do to him? You already did enough!” We fought like high school girls, not like warriors. I was so mad at her for turning on me. My fingers wrapped into her long silky hair and I pulled hard, thrusting her head into the beautifully plastered walls. The owner watched the outburst and ensuing chaos placidly, saying nothing. The vacant expression in his eyes was notable, but I didn’t realize what it meant yet. At the same moment that Shannon landed her cat claws on my face and started to rip my skin open with her nails, the aroma hit me.
Breathing hard, I stopped and turned instantly. Shannon’s movement echoed my own. Heart racing, I stood in front of Eric, wanting what he had. On each forefinger there was one drop of bright red blood. He held it in front of each of us, and used it to slowly lure us away from each other and toward him. My mind was screaming, telling me to leave, to run away, to do anything but follow that beautiful drop of blood on Eric’s beautiful fingers. Burning intensity shot through me with longing I’ve never known. When he stopped moving, I finally looked up at him.
Eric’s eyes were wide as he gazed at me. In that second, I wasn’t afraid of him. There was something less feral about him, less angry, and more like the old Eric. I forgot about the blood, and stood transfixed until he asked me to sit. I complied without thought, willing to do anything Eric asked of me.
His voice was smooth and sweet, “I have a drop for each of you. All you have to do to get it is answer my questions.” He turned to Shannon and my heart fell. I wanted him to talk to me. I wanted his eyes on me, his perfect face turned toward me. But, I heard him ask her, “Were you there with us in the Lorren?” She had a goofy expression on her face and nodded. Eric turned, asking me the same question.
“Yes,” I answered eagerly.
I felt so strange. I didn’t like Shannon, but I could no longer remember why. The hatred that seared through my veins moments ago was gone. My fixation shifted between Eric’s golden eyes and the dark red drop of blood sitting on top of his index finger as he held it up careful not to spill it. I decided that if the drop rolled off his finger, I’d have to get it before it hit the floor. My eyes widened at the thought. I shook my head. It felt like I was encased in a cloud and everything was surreal. Eric moved closer to me, breathing in my ear causing me to shudder. I forgot what I was thinking.
His voice was patient. Apparently he was repeating himself, “Did you throw Brimstone dust on me?” I looked into his golden eyes and shook my head slowly, “No. No, I found you covered in Brimstone. I didn’t realize what it was at first. You were in so much pain…” my voice trailed off.
Eric nodded and asked Shannon the same question. She moved slowly, like I did, with wide green eyes eager to please him. “No,” she said, “I saw Ivy do it, and leave. When she came back, she kissed you. I couldn’t help because I couldn’t touch you…but I wanted to. I wanted to help you.”
Eric was quiet for a moment, and stared at me. “Did you see the Lorren? Did it hurt you?”
I smiled softly as my head swam. “Lorren is beautiful. He healed me, he didn’t hurt me Eric. Why would he do that?”
Eric arched an eyebrow at me, not understanding me. He tried again, “Ivy,” he waved the drop of blood under my eyes. I sucked in with delight wanting to taste it and feel it slide against my tongue. “I need to know if the Lorren—the golden maze—made it look like a person appeared when we were separated. Did you see someone who wasn’t supposed to be in the maze?”
I laughed, “You’re so silly! Of course I did. Collin was there, and then later Lorren was there.” I tried to place my hand on Eric’s forearm, but he pulled away. Disappointment was clearly visible in my frown.
Shannon’s wide green eyes stared at me confused. She asked me, “Why do I know you?” Eric distracted her by waving his finger before her again. She was fighting through the mental haze Eric had cast over us. Maybe it was his blood, maybe it was more than that. Either way I felt giddy and wanted to suck his finger. The thought shocked me and I giggled.
Eric turned to me, “Ivy, did you kill me?”
Surprised he’d ask me, I nodded, “Yes. I gave you a demon kiss. I drank your soul to try to save you.” I paused, looking up at him, frowning, trying to remember. “It didn’t work. You died anyway.”
Eric asked us both a few more questions. Shannon said she saw me kill Eric. She said she tried to avenge his death, but that I overpowered her and sent her through a mirror. He arched an eyebrow at her as she looked up at him adoringly.
“She liked you,” I blurted out. “She said I stole you from her. But you were stuck on…” I searched for her name. I could feel it on the tip of my tongue, “Lydia.” Eric’s amber eyes were wide. “You still loved Lydia. I only reminded you of her. You didn’t love me, like Shannon thought.”
Eric’s voice was odd. I could hear it even through the haze. “Kiss me Ivy. Remember what I told you about Lydia when you do.” Ecstatic, I moved to comply. Eric held his hands out to the side, careful not to drop the blood. I was remembering Eric telling me about Lydia and how he tried to save her and failed, and I brushed my lips against his. He shuddered at the touch, and I pulled away. My smile faded when I realized that he wasn’t pleased with me. The expression on his face was displeased. He blinked at me, and shook off the expression. Shannon was sitting on the edge of her chair ready to fly out of it if I upset him. Eric held his fingers upright and the blood began to trail down his finger. He said we did well, and offered us each the thing we desired most. Shannon latching onto him until the blood was gone. He asked her to go sit in the closet and she left.
I stared at Eric, watching the drop of blood as it slid down his finger and onto his palm. I wanted it so badly, but I couldn’t act. I couldn’t do the thing I pictured in my mind…I couldn’t slide my tongue over his palm and take what he was offering.
Eric’s voice was deep, and commanding, “Take it, Ivy. Do it.”
He watched me fight, trying to resist the need that he made me have. Looking up into his eyes, I took a deep breath, and turned away. It felt like someone ripped my arms off. I wanted the drop of blood. I wanted it so badly, but my mind kept telling me not to take it—run. When I felt him press himself to my back, I sucked in a shocked gasp. I was so close to giving in. His left hand slid around my waist and under the hem of my shirt. His warm hand pressed into my skin, pulling me closer to him.
Trembling started to make it impossible to hold body still, and when he spoke softly in my right ear it sent a shiver down my spine. “Drink it,” he purred. “You know you want it, Ivy. Drink it, and be in bliss… I’ll give you anything you want. Anything...”
His lips pressed against my neck and an explosion of butterflies erupted in my stomach. A moan escaped me as his fingers lifted and touched the tiny drop of blood to my lips. I closed my eyes, fighting it. The blood was right there. It was all I wanted. That tiny drop contained instant bliss. All I had to do was open my mouth and taste it.
Heart racing wildly, part of me wanted me to break free of his hold and run. That part recognized how dangerous Eric was. In in the back of my mind, I was screaming, terrified. But somewhere else, I realized what had drawn me to Eric; why I stayed when I could have left, why I was thrilled when he touched me, and why I was having so much trouble fighting him off—I liked him. On some level, I always have. And now, he was impossible to resist with his hands stretched across on my stomach, his lips pressed to my neck, and his blood so close to my mouth.
Turning slowly in his arms, I looked up at
him. My lips parted as I whispered, “No.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
I expect him to scream, but he just smiled at me. His fingers slid off my waist and he wiped his hand off on his dark jeans, before walking over to Shannon’s closet to lock her back inside. My heart was racing as he walked away. Staring at his back, I wondered what was wrong with me. Did I really like him? How could that happen? I loved Collin. Convinced that it must be something that Eric was doing to me, I didn’t worry about it too much. For some reason, Eric didn’t force me to take his blood.
Before we left the room, he gave the old man food and put a drop of his blood on the man’s cup. He picked up the glass and obediently licked it clean. I cringed inside. Watching someone else take what I wanted was unnerving. I looked over at Eric. “What are you doing with them? Are they part of your collection or something? I thought you were going to kill Shannon,” I asked. “Why did you lock her up?” I wrapped my arms around my middle to ward off the cold.
Eric’s gaze cut back to me unconcerned, “They wronged me. This is their punishment.”
I swallowed hard, knowing I’d been lumped in with them. “When you left me in Hell, you said you were going to kill whoever did this to you. Why are they still alive?”
Eric rounded on me outside the door. “You’d be dead now if I did what I’d originally planned.” He turned away from me, “Besides,” he smiled over his shoulder, “there’s more than one way to destroy a person.”
My throat constricted as I watched the evil smile fade off his face. I decided it was time to leave; time for me to leave and face whatever was coming next. Losing Al and Collin’s trust wasn’t something I wanted, but I thought I had to tell them. No matter what I felt about Eric, aligning myself with him would be insane. He was collecting people and feeding them blood. Shannon was happily living in a closet. I wondered who else he had trapped in this big old house. No, it was time to go, but I had to find out what I’d originally wanted to know.
I followed him back to the white room, where he closed the door behind me. His voice was strange, “I didn’t think you could resist me.” I turned to him and shrugged, not wanting to discuss it. I remembered how eager I was to please him when he had a drop of blood on his finger. It shamed me, and I felt my face grow hot thinking about how I was all too delighted to kiss him when he asked. Thinking back, that part seemed weird. I looked over at him wondering why he did that. He only asked me to kiss him. And that had nothing to do with the Lorren. My brows knitted together as I thought about it. “What’s that look on your face,” Eric asked.
I turned and looked up at him, asking, “Why’d you ask me to kiss you?” I asked it without feeling—the same way you’d ask for someone to save you a table or grab your mail.
Eric arched a brow and moved closer to me. He liked trying to use his body to intimidate me. He didn’t realize that I thought he looked nice and really didn’t mind. “What’s it matter?”
I shrugged, “Just thought it didn’t line up with the rest of your questions. And I would have told you that stuff anyway. There wasn’t any need to do whatever you did.”
Eric smiled crookedly, “You would have? Just as quickly and without question?” He laughed and turned away, “I don’t think so.”
Defiance rose up inside of me. If he acted normal—like Eric—I would have answered his questions. I grabbed his arm and turned him back toward me. We stood nose to nose. “Try me.” It wasn’t a choice.
“Kiss me, Taylor,” his lips turned up at the corners as his eyes bore into mine. “Kiss me like you need me. Like you want me. Open your lips for me, and think of me—think of the Eric you knew before I died.” His arms were folded across his chest. He leaned down while talking to me, so that all my senses were going nuts. Normally, I would have never done it… but this time I did.
Without a second’s hesitation, I reached out and took his face between my palms and pulled him to me. I swept my tongue over his lips once, and when they parted I kissed him deeply, knowing that he could take my soul any time he damn well pleased. Maybe it was insanity; maybe I had more issues than I thought. Either way, it was reckless. Collin and I never said anything about cheating, but he’d be pissed if he knew I willingly kissed Eric. I pushed back the thoughts as I focused on the thing Eric requested.
Little things shot into my mind, along with the big things—the fights, the tears I shed when I thought he killed Apryl, how I didn’t really blame him for her death even though that wasn’t what I told him. I thought about who he was and how I didn’t mind his hands on my body, or his lips on mine. Breathless, I pulled away from him determined to get the information I needed.
He licked his lips, and gasped, “Thank you.”
I nodded, not knowing what he was thanking me for. Jumping straight to my question, I asked, “How much of your old life do you remember, Eric?” He winced and turned from me, but I grabbed his arm and wouldn’t let him walk away. “I just did what you wanted, no questions asked. You need to return the favor.”
He smirked, “Fine,” he folded his arms looking down at me. “What do you want?”
Hope swelled in my chest. I reached into my pocket and unfolded a page. I had copied it from the book when no one was paying attention. Al and Collin thought it was a bad idea to take the book with me, so I didn’t. I only took one page and didn’t tell them about it. I pressed the page into his hands.
“Read it to me.”
Puzzled, he looked down at the crinkled paper, and smoothed it out. Walking over to a desk, he put it down and ran his finger over it. After a minute, he shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s coded or something.” He crumpled it and threw it back to me.
“No! You have to read it!” I yelled, smoothing the paper again and thrusting it at him. He wouldn’t take it back and just turned to look at me. There was no bond with Eric, nothing to tap into to see what he was feeling, but something had changed in the past few hours. He didn’t go back to being the evil monster again. He stayed trapped somewhere in the middle. “I know you read it.” I saw the flick of his eyes once he identified the pattern. I didn’t think he wouldn’t tell me… Especially if it didn’t matter.
“Maybe I did,” he said, shirking off the paper. “So what? You don’t need what’s on there. Go suck your boyfriend’s soul out and get your life back.”
What did he just say? Shock washed over me as my heart pounded in my chest. He knew what we were trying to do? He knew everything. But how? I stared at him in disbelief with my mouth hanging open. And, he could read that page, too. Too stunned to speak, I watched as Eric sat down in the chair and kicked his boots up onto the desk. He stretched, putting his hands behind his neck. The neck I almost severed…
Completely, frustrated, I made a face. “If you can read it, why won’t you tell me? I need to know what it says.”
Eric looked at me, his face expressionless. “It doesn’t tell you what you want to know. Bring me the rest of the book and I’ll find it for you.” With that he shot out of the chair and left me alone.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Effonating sucks. Before I completely lost my mind and willingly elected to stay with Eric, I left. When he wouldn’t read the page to me, I left it on his desk and wrote on top of it. The message was stupid, embarrassing really. I scrawled, I still believe in you. As if I had any reason to. Deranged and homicidal weren’t two of my favorite characteristics in a friend, but apparently, it was growing easier to overlook terrible shortcomings.
When I appeared back at St. Bart’s, several days had passed. I fell on the kitchen floor, screaming, with more skin spliced off my body than last time. Al found me first, with Collin right on her heels. I was quickly doused in the mixture to ease the pain. After the skin regrew, I felt weak, but had enough strength to talk. I told them some things, and intentionally left out other things…like my new Eric addiction.
When I awoke, I realized that strange dreams didn’t plague me. Slowly, my eyes opened and I noticed that
Collin held me in his arms. He pushed back a stray curl and said, “You seemed restless. I held you for a while, and chased off the dreams that usually plague you.” His fingers brushed the hair away from my face as he looked at me. “It’s kinda weird to be in bed with a hot girl in a church with a nun who doesn’t seem to mind.” He smiled at me.
I laughed and sat up, feeling awkward—and guilty for kissing Eric. I don’t know if I was truly attracted to Eric, or if was because of his blood. Looking at Collin, I felt sad.
He lounged on his side, on my bed, and looked up at me. A black tee shirt clung to his chest, revealing perfectly sculpted arms. Dark hair fell into his eyes as he leaned toward me, asking softly, “What happened?”
I told him most of the story, leaving some things out. Collin hated Eric when he was a Martis, but now that he was a Valefar, his dislike turned to seething hatred. As I was talking about Eric, the bond was in turmoil. Collin was trying to hide his feelings, but the more I spoke about Eric, the worse it got. I left out the kisses, not wanting to cause him anymore pain. But I wondered if that counted as cheating on him. I was afraid that if I had to ask that question, then it was.
