They were glowing, in that strange pale way of theirs, my blood on his lips and I could see the last trickle of his cum welling slowly from his still hard cock. When I looked down I groaned, I was covered in him. God there was cum all over my top. I needed to clean up, I needed to get out of here, I couldn’t handle this all and I knew I couldn’t handle it all because despite my protests, I had been turned on, I had come. I was no better than Fabian.
A sob escaped my lips and with one final look at him I turned and rushed from the room, not stopping until I was out of the house and at my car. No one came after me, no one tried to stop me and as the tears began to fall, I climbed into my car, desperate to get away from there.
Francesca appeared suddenly at the driver’s side window and blocked me before I could drive off. She looked at me, at the wet patch on my clothes and she smiled. “You didn’t have sex with him did you?”
“I’m not sure that’s any of your business.” I told her.
“Fabian has fed from you and he didn’t tell you that feeding is a turn on for us as you now know and it’s a turn on for the human too. I can smell it on you. How does it feel to know that another vampire besides your precious Dominick can make you come?”
“Leave me alone Fran, it’s been a long night.” I said wearily.
“I haven’t come out here for some small talk Allegra. I admit that I’m curious as to why you have not had sex with Fabian but mainly I need to know if you still care for my Nicky boy?”
“Fabian couldn’t alter my mind for some reason.” I reluctantly told her and she gasped.
“He what? Fabian can alter the mind on anyone he wants. Why could he not with you?”
“I don’t know Fran, go ask your sire, not me.” I dropped my head on the steering wheel of my car.
“My concern is more for Nicky right now. I need to know, do you care for him at all?” Fran asked me again and I raised my head to look at her.
“Why are you asking me that now? I can’t be with him but yes I still care for him.” My voice broke. “He doesn’t love me though Fran. He cares for me I think, I’m not sure.”
She stared at me in amazement. “Why do you think he doesn’t love you? He told you all the time how he felt Allegra.”
I snorted. “No he didn’t. He never once told me he loved me or anything like that.”
“He told you in Italian.” She gave me a disgusted look. “Did you never question him on what he was saying to you? He’s Italian born so he uses it a lot.”
“Do you know any Italian Fran?” I was suddenly curious. Could she translate anything he’d said.
“Of course I can, I’m Italian myself. Ti amo is I love you, did he ever say that to you?”
My heart skipped a beat then began to thump painfully in my chest. Oh god, he’d said ti amo to me many times including just before he’d walked out of my home, our last night together. How could I have been so stupid as to not question him more about what he was saying? He did care, he loved me, he’d told me over and over again but it had all been in Italian. God, I hadn’t known and I’d never thought to question him. Well, I had on some things but not that, not that ti amo or whatever it was. So many times he’d said that. Fuck but he did love me, but it changed nothing, I couldn’t be with him, not with his lifestyle.
“If you care about him at all Allegra, you need to go to him. He’s hurting. I might give my brother shit, it’s a vampire thing but I do love him and I’m worried about him. He’s killing himself slowly and he won’t listen to me. I told him he’s a fool to give up his life for a human.” She said just to piss me off I was sure. “He’s not feeding and he’s hurt himself. If you care about him, go to him but if you don’t, stay right away from all of us as I will not be too forgiving if Nicky dies because of you.”
“This is emotional blackmail Fran. You’re threatening me if I don’t fix him? I don’t want to be part of his lifestyle. I can’t see how we can work when I feel like that plus I will grow old and he doesn’t. There’s so many reasons why we don’t work.”
“Nicky believes you are the one. God knows why but he does. He wants you to allow him to turn you one day so you can spend eternity together. Poor brother dear is a true romantic at heart. He isn’t like the rest of us Allegra. He feels, he hurts and he loves deeply and he loves you although I don’t understand why.”
I can’t think with this right now Fran, I’m sorry. I need to go, please let me go.” I started my car. “Can I contact you about Dominick. Do you vampires have mobile phones?”
She laughed. “We are vampires Allegra, not cavemen and women. Of course we enjoy all that modern technology has to offer today. I shall give you my number and at least give it some serious thought. I like to give Nick shit, but it’s hard to do when he looks like shit.”
My heart contracted at her words. Was he really that bad or was this some game on her part? Fran did seem to enjoy playing games. So was this just her giving me shit? She did like to give everyone shit, even Fabian although he never seemed to pay any attention to her.
I pulled out my phone so I could add her number and she finally stepped away from my car. Suddenly feeling extremely weary I pulled out of Fabian’s driveway and headed for home.
As I drove, all I could think about was my strange conversation with Francesca. She claimed that Dominick was in a bad way because of me but he was vampire. It was hard to believe that he was suffering from depression or something because we’d broken up. All I knew was I couldn’t worry about it tonight and I made a conscious effort to push the whole crazy evening out of my mind while I drove.
It was a relief when I finally pulled up in my driveway and after stripping and putting my clothes in the wash, I had a quick shower to remove the last of Fabian’s scent from my skin, noticing that the puncture wounds in my neck were still very visible but then he hadn’t given me blood to heal them. Exhausted I fell into bed and sleep claimed me quickly.
It was a fitful sleep, plagued with dreams of Dominick. In my dreams he was in bed looking so pale and gaunt, his eyes red rimmed and his lips dry and cracked. There was blood everywhere and as I approached him, he looked at me and reached for me, but his arm fell back to the bed, his eyes closed and I screamed, rushing forward, but I knew, I knew as I reached the bed that it was too late, he was gone.
I woke with a start, the scream that had left my lips still ringing in the room and I began to cry, loud, gut wrenching sobs. God but it was a dream. It had felt so real. One thing the dream had made me realise though, I was kidding myself if I thought I could walk away from Dominick. I loved him and he wasn’t like the rest of them, not really but I couldn’t punish him for being what he was or for having relatives like Fabian, Damien, Lucian and Fran although they were hardly relatives. They were products of Fabian, produced by him and controlled largely by him except for Fran. I suspected not many told her what to do, not even her sire.
Her words came back to haunt me. Was Dominick really as sick as she made out? She told me he wanted to die but how? He was the undead, how could he die? Was it like the movies, beheading, wooden stake to the heart? I had no idea and this was not the time to dwell on it. Suddenly I knew, I knew deep inside that I had to get to Dominick and I had to leave now.
I dragged myself out of bed and hurried into my bathroom freaking out when I saw myself in the mirror. Damn, but I couldn’t go looking like I did. I had to do some maintenance or I’d scare the hell out of Dominick or make him relieved I had ended things.
I brushed my teeth, brushed my hair and swept it back off my face before clipping it in place and hastily dressed in jeans and a blood red halter neck top which hugged my breasts before flowing out from under them to finish just below my hips. I liked the top as it made me feel slimmer although Fabian’s words came back to me when he said he didn’t understand a woman’s desire to be slim. Maybe I did worry too much about my weight. Two vampires seemed more than happy with me as I was. I slipped on a pair of ankle length boots and headed
downstairs.
I grabbed my bag, keys, a drink and with a final glance at my appearance I let myself out of the house, climbed into my car and drove off towards Dominick’s home.
Dominick.
It was the middle of the night when Dominick woke. He had no idea anymore which day or night it was, how many had passed since Allegra had told him she couldn’t share a life with him.
He was weak, so weak now, it took every effort to raise his head to try and see the time. It felt strange to be in bed in the middle of the night, he hadn’t spent a full night in bed since he was human.
He’d woken in a tangle of sweat soaked sheets again after another nightmare where he’d heard Allegra crying and screaming. Strange it sounded like she’d been screaming his name, but that didn’t make sense.
Carefully he raised his hand to see if the small amount of blood that Francesca had force fed him had aided with his healing but the skin still looked raw. Not as cut up as before, but he just wasn’t healing when he wasn’t feeding. He peeled the sheet off his cock and winced when he saw the sad state it was in. He had literally skinned himself, nearly peeling the skin off from his self destructive need to punish while he masturbated.
He dropped the sheet so he couldn’t see what he’d done to himself anymore and rolled over just wanting sleep to claim him again and wipe his mind of the miserable state he was in. Sleep took away his pain, at least for a little while.
He had just closed his eyes when he heard a car pulling into his driveway and he groaned. Not bloody Fran again. Why couldn’t she just leave him alone to die? Damned woman wouldn’t leave him to wallow in his pain and misery until the final death claimed him. Fuck but it was so typical of her, make him suffer while he was suffering. Well, she’d enjoy that.
There was a knock at the front door and Dominick cursed. “Fuck off Fran.” He called out but his voice was too weak to carry any real volume.
He just wanted her to leave him alone, he wanted everyone to leave him alone. Without Allegra there was nothing to make his life worth living and as the faint tapping of someone knocking on his door sounded again, Dominick rolled over and succumbed to the darkness, the oblivion that sleep gifted him, never hearing the door open or seeing who entered his home.
Chapter Seventeen.
Allegra.
When I pulled up in Dominick’s driveway and walked to his door, I found myself shaking with nervous tension. What if he rejected me? Maybe he’d already moved on? More than likely was the fact that Francesca was setting me up to make one hell of a monumental mistake by coming to his house, thinking he was pining away for me and it could all be some horrible joke on her part.
I knocked at the door and waited but nothing. For a brief moment I thought I’d heard a voice but when I strained to listen for it, there was nothing. I tried knocking again but Dominick didn’t come to answer.
I stepped back and looked up the upper level of the house and I could see a dim light coming from one of the bedrooms, but was that his room? I wasn’t familiar enough with the layout of his home to know whether it was his room or not.
I walked back to his front door and stood there for a moment. Should I try knocking again or go? I’d come all this way and the memory of my dream had frightened me although commonsense told me it was a dream, not reality.
Finally with a deep breath for courage, I turned the handle on the door and couldn’t believe it when it swung open. Did Dominick have no sense when it came to not leaving your home open to intruders? Still, he was vampire and more than likely he’d be much stronger than anyone who might step into his home and if they shot at him, bullets wouldn’t do much, would they? I was coming to all these conclusions in my head based on TV shows about vampires, not reality but until only a few weeks ago I had no idea vampires existed beyond the imaginations of authors and movie producers.
I stepped into Dominick’s home and quietly shut the door, my ears listening for the slightest sound in the house. I couldn’t hear anything and I could hardly see anything either as the house was mostly in darkness.
Slowly I worked my way along the walls until I found a light switch and stood blinking under the overhead lights as they suddenly lit up the room and blinded me.
I was in a large living area and I could see the staircase that wound its way up to the upper level beyond the room I stood in. I made my way to the stairs and climbed my way up as quietly as I could and from there, in the semi darkened hall, I followed the tiny sliver of light I could see under a closed door which I realised was Dominick’s bedroom. So he was home, but not answering his bloody door obviously.
I knocked lightly on his door and waited but nothing. Why wasn’t he answering? He couldn’t be sleeping. He was a vampire, they were up at night and it was 3 am so definitely the middle of the bloody night.
Perhaps he wasn’t home and he’d just left his bedroom light on to give the illusion someone was there. Still, leaving his front door unlocked and going out wasn’t the most sensible thing to do. “Are you going to stand around all night debating this or just find out if he’s home?” My inner voice asked and I hated that again it was saying something that made sense.
I was beginning to question what Fran had said though. I wasn’t so sure she hadn’t been toying with me by saying Dominick was letting himself slowly die since he couldn’t have me.
I pushed open his bedroom door and stepped in, my eyes travelling around the dimly lit room. I saw nothing at first but as I walked further into the room and spotted something red on the bed, my heart dropped when I realised it was blood, a lot of blood and in the middle of the white sheets coated in blood was Dominick and my god, but he looked dead.
“Oh god.” I whispered, my voice cracking and I couldn’t stop the sob that escaped my lips. I rushed forward and looked in horror at him. He was a shadow of his former self, a shell of a man. His skin was sallow, his cheeks hollowed out and his lips were so dry, they were cracking.
I couldn’t see where the blood was coming from but there was so much of it and I needed to lift the sheet so I could find out.
I looked at his face as I slowly raised the sheet but he didn’t stir which scared me. It was night time, he shouldn’t be sleeping but this wasn’t sleep, he looked so sick, so close to death it terrified me. Was he dead? With no pulse and not needing to actually breathe it was hard to tell.
When I got the sheet high enough to see under it, I nearly vomited at what I saw. What had happened to him? His cock looked like the skin had been peeled off it like a damned grape being peeled of its skin. Did he do this to himself? Fran had said he’d harmed himself and now I could see she hadn’t lied to me about his condition.
Gently I lowered the sheet again and fought to keep the bile that burned the back of my throat from rising any higher but the sight of his cock had sickened me. What had he done to himself and why wasn’t he healing?
“He’s not feeding, he’s slowly starving himself so he dies.” Fran’s words came back to haunt me. My god but this was self inflicted? Dominick wanted to die? Did I mean this much to him that he had no desire to live if he couldn’t have me?
Well, I had to help him and now but how? He couldn’t die. I loved him and I’d been a fool and he was suffering because of me, I had to make this better, for both of us, but mostly for him. It was killing me to see him like this. I gently shook him, calling his name but he only groaned before falling silent again.
I had to get blood into him but I couldn’t bite myself like he did. He had the fangs which made it easier but I had to find something to make myself bleed and bleed freely too as I could see Dominick was too weak to suck the blood from me. I had to get it so it ran into his mouth.
I looked around the room but couldn’t see anything that would help me so I rushed into his bathroom the colour fading from my cheeks when I saw the blood splattered in the room. Fighting the nausea burning in the back of my throat again, I started rummaging through drawers looking for something sharp but there
was nothing.
Of course he wouldn’t need to shave or anything like that. He was dead, his semi bearded look was how he was going to look for eternity. It was sexy as sin on him but his appearance wasn’t important right now, saving him was. If I didn’t get blood into him, he wouldn’t make it.
I had to find something so I hurried downstairs and found the kitchen which was equipped as a fully functioning kitchen which surprised me. Did Dominick cook for human visitors or something? Still, it meant he had appliances and cutlery but most importantly, knives, he had plenty of very sharp knives and picking one up I rushed back upstairs to my poor broken vampire.
Once I stood over Dominick again, I knew I had to do it. I had to cut myself so he could feed but thinking it and doing it were two entirely different things. I had a high threshold for pain but I’d never cut myself, not deliberately anyway and this was going to need to be more than a small flesh wound, I had to bleed and bleed heavily.
Taking a few deep breaths to try and prepare myself, I held the knife over my wrist and before I could think about it too much I slashed the blade across my skin, screeching from the pain then letting loose on a string of obscenities which helped me feel a bit better at least.
My blood began to flow over Dominick’s face but he wouldn’t open his mouth, he was unconscious or so close to death he couldn’t respond, I wasn’t sure which, but I was going to need to open his mouth somehow.
With my blood running everywhere I somehow got his lips pulled apart and held my wrist over him, watching as my blood dripped steadily into his mouth. The cut hurt like the devil but I ignored the pain, pulling on the wound enough to keep it from trying to seal over and the blood from congealing.
I heard a choked sounding noise come from Dominick and almost sagged with relief, he was starting to actually swallow the blood in his mouth now. I was so worried he was too weak to do it for himself but he was managing.
Already I could see a hint of colour coming back to his cheeks so that meant the blood was starting to do its job. Suddenly Dominick’s eyes opened but they were glassy looking and unfocused.
Passion After Dark Page 19
