Her lids were heavy, satisfaction making her body feel lavish and lingering.
“Is it always like this with humans? For you?”
His body tensed and the beating of his heart against her ear got just a little louder, more insistent.
“It’s never been like this, Belle,” he whispered, tightening his arms around her. “It’s never been so… intense, so dark.”
Her heart fluttered. Darkness. So he felt it too. All-encompassing, so powerful it scared her. And still, too exquisite to ignore. Too beckoning.
She helplessly searched for something to say back, drawing a blank. Because she was finding it impossible not to agree with him.
When he pulled her closer, melting her into his body, she was glad to be distracted.
“What do you think of the compound?” he whispered and the sound resonated against her ear, sending shivers through her body.
She guessed what he was really asking was, Is it so bad here? And the truth was that it wasn’t. She could somewhat understand the attraction of living in the compound. Food, safety, protection. And at least for her, pleasure. But in the end, she was still a prisoner. Nothing but slaves, her brother used to say. They were kept alive because they served a purpose.
“It’s a nice prison, I guess,” she answered.
Marcus’ eyes darkened just a notch. She expected him to say something but instead he slid his hand towards her naked chest, making her gasp.
He smiled and her heart skipped a beat. It was the first time she’d seen a full smile on his face and she liked it. It was a wicked smile, the kind that said, I’ve got this power and I know it. It was also a glimpse into his vulnerable side, his human side. The side that made it easier to forget what he really was.
“I’ve never had an uncharmed human respond this way to my touch before. Something tells me you like it.”
She did.
“Maybe I’m faking it,” she taunted him.
Marcus’ hand slid higher, until it was resting on her left breast, almost touching her nipple but not quite. The breath caught in her throat and her heart sped up, heat searing through her before she even realized what was happening.
Damn her body.
“I don’t think so.” He lowered his head to whisper the words against her lips.
She hated that he was right about this. She hated even more that he was nothing like she had expected the king to be. He was smart, passionate and a hell of a lot sexier than a vampire should be.
And her mind and heart were in a raging battle.
Kill him.
Love him.
Enslaver.
Lover.
Her biggest fear was that the longer she spent in his arms, the easier it would be for her heart to win the battle. And that wasn’t something she could allow. That would be the ultimate betrayal—of her brother, of the people she had left behind. It would be betraying herself, even though part of her felt she was already doing that.
Marcus’ lips closed over hers, awakening her body again, fueling the betrayal that flowed through her veins. He gripped her tightly, ravishing sounds escaping from her throat or his or both in a confusion of pleasure and need. As she closed her eyes and pushed against him, nails digging into his back, all she could think about was how exquisite he felt.
And, God help her, just how much she wanted to keep feeling him.
Belle felt pulsing and soft in his arms. It was the life pulse that only humans could provide—and that he suddenly couldn’t get enough of. He swore internally. Every second he spent with Belle only served to increase his cravings. Not only for her blood, but also for her energy and how she made him feel.
“Belle, do you remember what I asked you about yesterday?”
Her body tensed up and he instinctively tightened his arms around her.
“The wild vampires?”
“Rabids,” he corrected her. “That’s what we call them.”
She swallowed hard and he heard her heart thump just a little faster. He hated talking to her about this, but there was no avoiding it. He needed to know if she had any information that could help him—but more importantly, he needed to protect her. The only way to do that was to tell her the truth.
“What are they?” she finally asked and the words came out just slightly shaky.
He sighed. Nothing about this was easy. He got up and grabbed a robe, handing Belle another one. Her eyes followed him through the room before she put the robe on and got out from under the blankets, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“They’re sick. Starving would be a better word, I guess.”
Belle was quiet for a second, and he realized she was trying to process the information. She moved slowly and he wondered if he had taken too much blood. It wasn’t a question he worried about often, but with Belle, keeping things under control was a lot more difficult than he had expected.
“So they’re dying?” she finally asked.
“In a way. The difference is that starvation can take a long time to kill us.” He could guess what the next question was going to be. “Years,” he added before she could ask.
The silence in the room bothered him. He wanted to know what she was thinking, what she was feeling. He desperately wanted to charm her so he could ask whatever he wanted and get the truth out of her. Because that was what charming really was—a sort of truth serum, a surrendering of the mind.
“Why?” she finally asked. It was a basic, simple question, but he understood what she was really asking.
“Just as humans do, we require a minimum amount of nourishment to stay alive. If we don’t get it, our organs start to shut down.” He searched for the right words. “And our minds shut down along with our bodies.”
“You… they go crazy?” The words came out warily.
“Yes. We call it ‘the void’ because everything becomes hollowed, as if you’re slowly being swallowed by the darkness.”
Belle shuddered.
“The less they eat, the faster the void spreads,” he continued. “Until they can no longer think and they’re just like rabid animals, destroying everything in their path, human or not.”
He could almost hear the rush of thoughts flowing through her mind.
“So they’re a danger to you too?”
“They’ll attack anything, yes.”
He paused for a second to let her absorb the meaning of those words.
“The compound?” she finally whispered.
He gave a quick nod. “We found some rabids nearby. Just a couple of hours away.”
He stepped closer and studied her, savoring the warmth flowing from her.
“I want you to stay away from the outer walls, Belle. We have extra guards posted, but there’s always a chance a rabid might get in.”
He could smell her blood, rushing fast through her. It was a lot to grasp and process, but she seemed to be doing all right with the information. There was no panic in her eyes and although her heart was drumming at a frantic speed, everything else in her body was maintaining a steady pace: her breathing, her movements. It was certainly a lot more than he could have expected of any human—and he was impressed.
“How many are there?”
“Rabids? I don’t know. Not that many right now, but the void spreads fast.” He straightened and then ran a hand through his hair. “Eventually, humans won’t be able to make it to the compound anymore because they’ll get attacked on the roads.”
Belle adjusted her position on the bed, crossing her legs. “Humans can still travel during daytime.”
He could feel his own expression darken and wondered how much Belle could see in it. There were a lot of secrets in the vampire world, and he wasn’t sure how many of those he wanted to give away.
“Not exactly,” he finally said and his body got tense.
“What do you mean, not exactly? The rabids can’t walk in daylight, can they?”
He took a step closer, his eyes locked on hers the whole time.
; “We all can, Belle.”
It couldn’t be. For the past five years, her whole world had operated on the notion that vampires were night creatures. They were the boogieman that came out to get you when the lights went out.
“That’s not possible,” she finally said, and the words came out as a whisper.
“The sun is debilitating, but it won’t kill us right away,” he explained. “Most of us avoid it because it takes time to get our energy back after being outside in daylight.”
Her chest felt tight and the words danced in her head in a sort of dizzying haze that threatened to take over.
“You can… you can walk in daylight?”
Daylight was all she had. All that humanity had. All this time she had thought they were safe and it had all been a lie. The realization hit her hard. That meant vampire patrols could be out during the daytime, waiting in the shadows to hunt unsuspecting humans.
It also meant that the vampire back in the factory could have stepped into the light and grabbed her. The truth sent shivers down her spine.
He shook his head. “We rarely do because it’s not exactly comfortable. It’s almost… painful. But the rabids don’t care. They lack the basic understanding to stay away from the sun.”
She tried to process what Marcus was saying and it suddenly clicked. The rabids would hunt during the day too. They would be out in the prowl for food during the day and during the night. Humans would never be safe again, free to scavenge for supplies. If they didn’t die on the roads, attacked by the vampires, they would die of starvation because they wouldn’t be able to leave their hiding places. Why hadn’t she ever heard rumors about vampires walking in daylight?
“How long can they stay out in the sun at once?”
There was an air of darkness around him. The kind that lingered in the air when somebody was revealing a sinister secret they’d been hoping to keep hidden. He didn’t look pleased about the confession, and Isabelle had to wonder why he was telling her at all.
“A few hours without any permanent damage,” he finally said. “After that, deeper burns and maybe some scars, but I’m guessing they’ll seek cover by then.”
Words were buzzing in her head. There was another war raging in the world. One she didn’t know anything about—and it could potentially be a lot worse than the one they’d already been through. If the void spread, if it reached every corner of the country, there would be no fighting to be had. No hope for a future in which humans could reclaim Earth as theirs. The rabids wouldn’t have compounds and surrendering spots. They would be out hunting at all times, killing everything they ran into.
She was beginning to realize that maybe she had stumbled onto something a lot more important than killing the king of the vampires. She had found a secret that could destroy what little was left of her world. Despite her mounting fear, she couldn’t help but wonder whether this discovery would change everything.
Perhaps more disturbing of all: she was relieved she had an excuse not to kill the king just yet.
Chapter Ten
Marcus walked away from the bed and towards the window. The night was quiet, even to his ears. The wind whistled up and down the corridors and a few familiar voices drifted toward him. The harsh white lights above the walls gave the whole compound a ghostly luster. Right now, the place looked more like a prison than a castle. He couldn’t see what was beyond the compound. Not from his window, anyway, as the walls were taller than any building inside. He could guess what was waiting beyond the barricade, though. Pitch black, deep darkness.
When the world had been alive, before the invasion, the darkness had always been a pulsing thing, alive with the breathing and the buzzing of people, animals and machines. Now, it was just a blanket of silence.
He didn’t know why he’d told her about the rabids. Miles was right that he needed to be more careful, but there was something about her that stirred long-asleep emotions in him. Or maybe the answer was that he wasn’t worried. After all, he was a hundred times stronger—and older—than she was. It was very unlikely that a frail human could do any real damage to any vampire, especially in vampire territory.
Even more telling, though, was the fact that her safety had suddenly become more important than keeping secrets. He did have a good reason for that, because the truth was that he could do damage control on a few humans knowing about their ability to walk in daylight if he had to—but if she got attacked by a rabid because she wasn’t expecting to see one under the sun… well, he could never forgive himself for that.
His intention had been to find out more about her. The human who couldn’t be charmed. He had even sent a convoy out to see if they could trace her way to the compound and figure out where she came from—and what secrets she had brought along with her. But the guards had run into a rabid just hours outside of the compound, and the mission objective had changed in seconds.
His main concern right now was to keep the rabids away. And to make sure his scientists managed to come up with a blood substitute as soon as possible. The void was curable, at least in theory. He wasn’t sure where the dividing line was, however, as the last time the void had spread, everybody—including him—not infected had wasted no time and just ran away. His theory (and the scientists agreed) was that if you caught the void early enough, you could feed a rabid enough blood to revert the effects until he returned to normal. “Early enough” was tricky, though, because nobody knew exactly what that meant.
He did know that the blood supply was getting lower and lower. Nobody in the compound was going hungry because humans were still making it there. But the more rabids were out there, the fewer the chances that humans could get cross-country and into the compound before being attacked. And he was worried that at some point, his major problem wouldn’t be how to keep things out—because the void would slip right into the compound.
He turned around to look at Belle, who seemed lost in thought. She looked so vulnerable sitting on his massive bed, so fragile—but he knew better. She had survived on the roads for at least a night. Hell, she had survived the invasion and the years after it, when food became scarce and illness was rampant.
Whatever fragile creature she appeared to be, he doubted it was the real her.
The first scream didn’t sound like a human scream at all. In fact, it sounded like metal screeching, and Belle’s first thought was that somebody was opening the entrance gate. People coming in? Darkness was still blanketing the surroundings, so it would have been risky trying to reach the compound.
Then she heard the sound again and realized it was a human voice. The terrified shriek of somebody who was staring death in the face.
Her eyes flew to Marcus, who was already dressed and heading for the door.
“Do not leave this room,” he ordered and then disappeared in a blur of speed before she had a chance to say anything.
Another scream, but this time coming from somebody else. She grabbed her clothes and put them on in a rush, then ran to the window. Figures ran inhumanly fast towards the gate that separated her courtyard from the next one. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t around her building. Flashes of grey eyes glimmered in the night, and she realized there were more vampires in the compound than she had first thought. Now that something was happening—whatever it was—they were all rushing out to take care of it.
A crack behind her made her jump. She turned around and found Miles standing near the bed. She hadn’t heard the door open but there he was, almost as if he’d materialized inside the room.
She blinked. “What’s going on?”
Miles didn’t move, didn’t flex a muscle. He was watching her intently, carefully, standing tall in his post. He was there as a guard. Either to protect her or to shield her from knowing what was going on outside. Either way, she didn’t like it.
Another scream pierced the night, this time a shriek of agony that she knew wasn’t human. It was a maddening sound that seemed to go on forever into the night. Behind it, a deep
roar exploded. The hunter and the prey. Except that this time she wasn’t sure who was hunting whom. The hairs on her arms stood up in response and panic engulfed her. She shivered and backed away from the window and towards the bed.
Miles must have sensed her fear because he moved closer. “It’s OK. They can’t get in here.”
They. She was suddenly very aware of her fragility as a human. Her thoughts flew back to the house and to her brother. Please be careful, she thought. She knew very well none of them looked over their shoulders when out during the day. They were loud, they were careless, they moved about without paying attention to the shadows around them.
And then, all of a sudden, the compound was silent. So quiet, in fact, that she could hear her own ragged breath in the bleary air flowing into the room. Whatever had just happened was over and the silence following it was just as eerie as the sounds before had been.
She turned around to face Miles, eager for an explanation.
“Marcus will explain,” was all he could offer.
The minutes that followed were overwhelmingly quiet. The shrieking was alive and whistling in her ears, which made the silence around her so much more glaring. She half-expected the sound to resume at any minute, but nothing happened. She was starting to back down towards the window when the door opened and Marcus appeared. His massive size filled the frame perfectly.
His eyes looked for hers and she sensed the subtle change in the air of the room. Then she noticed the blood on his clothes and her heart skipped a beat. Her body started moving before her thoughts finished forming and she lunged forward, reaching for him.
Then it clicked what she was doing and she stopped midway. “The blood?”
Marcus looked at her closely, words hanging in between them.
“Somebody got injured,” he finally responded, and there was a darkness to his voice she hadn’t heard before.
Her mind was reeling with questions. Who? Why? What? She looked at both vampires standing right in front of her, trying to figure out what side they were on. What side she was on.
What to Read After FSOG: The Gemstone Collection (WTRAFSOG Book 9) Page 119
