Blood Of Kings (Transfusion Book 3)

by Stephanie Hudson

  “Mount Doom?” He nearly snarled the words. I laughed nervously and said on a giggle,

  “Did I say Mount Doom, what I really meant to say was Mount Pleasant, Mount ‘come on in and take a load off…that type of Mount…but hey if Doom means something different in your world, then hey, that’s your bad.”

  “Um mm,” was Lucius’ disbelieving reply with a raise of his brow.

  “Just so you know, had I been awake when we arrived then I would have been able to see for myself the very inviting entrance complete with welcome mat by the front door.” At this Lucius leaned into me one more time and said,

  “Alright, you’ve made you point, love.” Then he kissed me quick and said,

  “Now, I really must leave, but do me a favour, Amelia…”

  “Hum?”

  “No getting into trouble this time.” I winked at him and said,

  “I make no promises, handsome, after all I am sure there are knives kept in the kitchen.” At this he groaned and walked away shaking his head, muttering under his breath the same threat as before,

  “Shackles… I need fucking shackles and a gag.”

  After this he left and like the good girl I was…

  I unpacked.

  But like the naughty girl I aspired to be, I did so to make a point, saying out loud,

  “Oh yeah, this is going to be fun.”

  I didn’t know how long it took me exactly as there wasn’t a clock in sight and without windows, well then, it was pretty much a crapshoot in the dark. But it didn’t matter as I certainly kept myself busy. This started by going back into the massive walk-in closet and finding one whole side of it had been cleared out ready for me to ‘hang my shit’ as Lucius had said when we had been talking it out in bed. This had been straight after sex…twice, when his first question had been,

  “Does this mean you’re going to hang your shit in my closet?” Now if this had been said by any other male in existence then I was pretty sure any woman would have been peeved to hear her stuff being referred to as shit. But this was Lucius and that meant, this was actually him telling me that he wanted ‘my shit’ there and for me to basically, go and ‘fucking unpack it’.

  But I had convinced myself that he would totally regret trying to convince me to do this and in fact the safer option would have been to simply unpack my clothes, a few girly things and that was about it. Because one look around this kick ass cool cave of his, and well, I couldn’t exactly see all my geekiness fitting in.

  He disagreed.

  He was also about to learn.

  So that was precisely what I did. Doing so in the most over the top way possible, because really, I had a point to prove. Of course, I also could have done with spending my time a little wiser, like working further on the damn cursed box for example. But seeing as I had no clue where it was and had already embarrassingly felt all the walls for a hidden safe, then I had no choice but to swiftly move on to plan, ‘Prove my point to a stubborn ass Vamp’.

  This plan started with the kitchen as the first box I found was all of the gorgeous new stuff that had been bought to replace all my smashed stuff after the break in. It was a good job too as Lucius may have had a kitchen built, but filling it with stuff needed to cook with, wasn’t exactly a priority for him. However, one thing this kitchen wasn’t lacking was food and mountains of it…ha, see what I did there!

  The cupboards were full of, well, strangely all the stuff that had once filled my own cupboards. Okay, so that had been weird number one. Weird number two had been the lack of a fridge. This had taken me a while to locate as it was actually hidden behind the wall of cabinets. I imagined this was so it wasn’t as much of an eyesore seeing as this kitchen had been made on a platform without any rock face to call a wall. Which meant every bit of it was free standing.

  The whole kitchen space was solid dark wooden cabinets with what I first thought was minus all your usual appliances. But like the fridge, that was because these too were hidden. It was only when I started to lift open cupboards and pulling on handles that I started to discover what lay beneath. Like one cupboard arched upwards and had been hiding a counter space behind it that held a state of the art coffee machine, blender and other gadgets.

  Another of these handles when lifted actually disappeared into a slot above and showed the standing twin oven and grill. Another handle pulled turned out to be a microwave and yet another hidden cupboard was a dishwasher. I also tried the fancy tap and found it was one that had instant boiling water.

  But back to the fridge and the stainless steel door I found behind the ‘fake wall’ of cupboards. I pulled it open and found it was a walk in design that had on one side a cooler section, with shelves stocked full of everything you could ever imagine for either putting on a sandwich or if you were the healthy type (which I clearly wasn’t) making a salad. The opposite side was a wall of freezer drawers, again all packed with my favorite foods.

  However, the best drawer I opened was by far the one that made me laugh the hardest, as it was the one filled with my heavenly Cereal. This took me back to when I first moved back into my apartment, after Lucius had arranged to refurnish it when it was trashed. The next day he had left me a housewarming gift outside my door that had been the same box of cereal tied in a red bow and with a card that said a simple,

  You’re welcome

  Lucius

  It was no wonder then that I spent eating my first bowl sat at the table smiling the whole time I ate thinking back to how confused I was at the time as to why he would have done this for me. Now though, it seemed blindly obvious, but at the time I was still stuck somewhere between, ‘I thought he hated me’ and ‘Gods, I hope he doesn’t hate me’.

  All I can say is I am glad I am past all that heart aching bullshit!

  Shortly after placing all my new dinner set and kitchenware in the cupboards that were free, I then moved onto other stuff. Or should I say…The fun stuff. Of course, this started with first needing a shelving unit and seeing as there was one in the closet, one I was pretty sure I was supposed to use for shoes, I started trying to carry it all the way into the living room.

  This was how Caspian, of all people, found me.

  “Just what do you think you are doing, human?!” he bellowed as I was struggling down the steps. I paused and stuck my head around the side to see him stood there, almighty puffed out chest looking impressive and intimidating. However, I just scoffed and said,

  “I think that’s obvious,” but his stern face and folded arms said otherwise. An intimidating stance, that had to be said, looked like a feat in itself due to his mountain man sized arms. When he didn’t respond but instead continued to silently expect an answer, I said,

  “Well, I did come all this way just to steal a shelf, so be a doll and just pretend you didn’t see me...yeah?” This he didn’t find amusing and once again his silence told me so.

  “Jeez, what does it look like I am doing?!”

  “You look like you are trying to cause trouble.” I rolled my eyes, knowing I could totally get away with it now and said,

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I am doing, so are you going to help me or what, before I break my damn neck!?” I snapped as I was currently trying to make the bloody thing walk down the steps like a flat robot out of battery. Needless to say, the, ‘side, tilt, tip and repeat’ technique wasn’t working all that great. At this Caspian sighed and then walked up the steps, taking three at a time and then grasped the large unit like it was nothing but a flagpole he was about to stake in the ground to claim land.

  “Where?” he all but snarled.

  “Erm, over there I think,” I said pointing to the only side that wouldn’t hide anything behind it. I mean it wasn’t exactly easy deciding on where, seeing as ‘the room’ didn’t even have any walls to put it against. Caspian put it down and I made an ‘umm’ sound before showing him which way to turn it more. He rolled his eyes and twisted it an inch, then looked behind his mammoth shoulder to see if t
his was acceptable. I nodded my head to the side twice more and he took the hint.

  “There! So, what do you think?” I asked wondering why on earth I bothered.

  “I don’t give a fuck.” Yep and there it was.

  “Oookay then. So, in that case, what can I help you with?” I asked now turning my back and rearranging all the pretty scatter cushions I had added from my place, along with my pride and joy, my pink Star Fleet cushion. One, I might add, with its bright pink piping my aunty Pip had given me, totally did not go with the rest of the décor or the kick ass navy blue U shaped couch. But seeing as that was the whole point here, I was pretty happy.

  “Luc wanted a report on your activities.” I laughed at this. But of course, he did, wanting to know if I was being a ‘good girl’ no doubt.

  “And let me guess, you were the poor bastard that drew the short straw,” I commented with a chuckle.

  However, when silence was all I got, I turned around and saw him frowning. Then he totally surprised me by saying,

  “No, I requested to.” I didn’t know why this gave me chills, maybe it was the serious way in which he had said it. Something that was ridiculous, as what else did I expect, him to sing it at me in Soprano! I mean the dude always sounded serious and pissed off and with an ‘I am looking forward to the day that I can hunt you down at the first chance I get’ attitude. But then, despite this, something about it sounded totally off, as if he was even struggling with the idea of what he was about to do next.

  I swear if a regular person could have had Spiderman’s spidey sense, then watching Caspian approach me now was definitely making it tingle. Fuck that, it wasn’t tingling…it was like the Gods be damned Hunchback of Notre Dame was ringing his damn bells at me!

  And I was soon to discover why.

  Because he wasn’t just walking towards me with purpose, he was now doing it whilst pulling something from behind his back. And my only two thoughts now were, there was no way I would win against him in a fight.

  And two,

  I was a dead woman.

  A dead woman, now staring at…

  His knife.

  Chapter 20

  My Hands Are Tied

  I started to move and wasn’t sure that I was even backing up at all, seeing as he was at me quicker than my eyes could take in. Making me now question if I was even moving at all?

  “But why, I just…” I just uttered these words, expecting this mountain of a demon to crush me any second, because let’s face it, I could be kick ass, but with this guy, then I wouldn’t stand a chance!

  I was a dead woman.

  “It is my duty,” he confessed as though the words had been torn out of him and whatever he was about to do now, two things were clear, he was struggling with it and he fucking hated that he couldn’t fight it!

  This was when I finally realised I was in fact moving and unfortunately this registered when I saw myself getting closer to the edge as I was backing away from one danger only to find myself heading towards another.

  So, I tried one last time.

  “You don’t have to do this,” I told him in a pleading tone.

  “But I must,” he said before shocking me enough that it nearly knocked me down. But then out of us both, there was only one of us going to our knees and insanely, it wasn’t me. Caspian started to lower himself down to one knee before holding out the blade as if making some kind of pledge.

  “Err…what’s happening?” I asked in that dumbfounded kind of way. Then he turned the blade back on himself and sliced it across his hand deep and long. After this he fisted the meaty paw now letting it drip onto the floor. Then he bowed his head to me, lifted his now blood soaked fist and held it to his forehead. This ended up leaving an imprint there thick enough that blood dripped down his nose over the many metal bars there from all his piercings. Eyes now burning with not just an intensity but glowing white as if he was speaking to me from behind his demon.

  “With my blood I pledge my eternal loyalty to you, for my life is in your service should it need the sacrifice to ever save your own.” Then he took his bloody fist down to his heart and pounded it twice. This left crimson stains all over his Iron Maiden T shirt, making the bands mascot, Eddie even more demonic looking. Especially as he was already holding a busty redhead in the skimpiest red hooker dress in existence to his demonic body.

  “Err…what now?” I said again, in that same dumbstruck voice I couldn’t seem to get past.

  “I pledge my life to you,” he repeated hitting his own chest again like this act was both final and understood.

  “Oookay…can I ask why?” I said now backing away from the edge I had been getting closer to and putting a safer distance between me and it.

  “You tried to save my wife, you protected her, worried for her safety, for this I am in your debt,” he said as if the idea wasn’t exactly a happy one but more one forced upon him. I released a sigh thinking that he believed he had to do it but just needed letting off the burden, so I said,

  “Ah, don’t mention it,” I said waving it off moving now to walk around him but as I did, this was when he decided to finish what he started. Suddenly he was on his feet, with surprising stealth for a man his size. Then he quickly flattened his hand against my chest and suddenly, I found that I couldn’t breathe. I took a few staggering steps back, now holding a shaky hand to my chest.

  “Push past it, human,” was Caspian’s stern advice and if I’d had enough breath at the time to yell profanities at him, I would have…especially now knowing he owed me a life debt and I was pretty sure that meant he couldn’t rattle me to death!

  I don’t know how much time passed as he just stood there watching me with his arms folded and looking as if he would rather be doing his wife’s laundry than stood here watching as I tried to ‘push passed it’, whatever the fuck that meant!

  In the end, I finally had enough breath to speak and could finally feel the pressure on my chest ease until the point it was no more.

  “What the fuck was that?!” I shouted making him scoff, a sound that lifted up half his body an inch.

  “Your soul accepting my vow, you now have my life. Now I can go.” Erh…what now? He had turned his back to me not even bothering to wipe the blood from his forehead.

  “Whoa there, hold on big guy, let’s just back this way up and start again,” I said after reaching for him and grabbing his arm to pull him back…Gods, but it was like grabbing a tree trunk!

  “Start again?” he asked looking down at me as if I were a bug on his arm, one he was no longer allowed to squash.

  “Or at least to the part where you said I now have your life…yeah, explain that bit exactly,” I said really hoping this was just one of those, ‘I will bend the knee’ type of things here.

  “It means just that. You own my life as debt,” he stated so matter of fact, it was as if he were just saying, ‘here’s my car to pay off that loan’. I mean jeez, it didn’t even sound like that ‘car’ even meant much to him either! I mean seriously, who just threw away ownership of a soul?

  “Okay well you helped me with the shelf, and then we can call it even.” He frowned down at me before looking to the shelf before raising a wiry brow at me.

  “Because I helped you with a shelf?” he repeated as if he was trying to figure if he had heard me correctly, telling me this wasn’t going my way. So, I thought to embellish my reasoning with,

  “Yeah, we can just say you may have saved my life with that one, as let’s face facts, it’s a high possibility with how clumsy I am.”

  “No. You own it and what’s done can’t be undone,” he stated in clear annoyance.

  “But I didn’t ask for that!” I said throwing my hands up dramatically.

  “You don’t ask for one, you’re granted it. So, I granted it. Why is this hard for you to comprehend, human?” he asked as if questioning my intelligence when really, it was totally the other way around because this guy was clearly riding the loopy train to crazyvill
e!

  “Oh, I get it alright! I just don’t think you are getting that I don’t want it.” Oh no, back up Fae, back up right now! And I did, take a step back that was as saying this clearly didn’t go down well as he folded his arms again and scowled down at me. And let’s just say, that it was a long way down and pee my pants worthy, which thankfully my bladder stayed strong throughout.

  “What is wrong with my offering?!” he snapped.

  “Okay, so granted that came out wrong as I am not saying there is anything wrong with your soul per say…”

  “Per say?” he repeated impatiently.

  “Nothing at all other than offering it to me was totally unnecessary. Now let’s say, you had come in here with a bottle of wine or box of chocolates to say thanks then yeah, I would have totally snatched those out your hand but your freakin’ life…dude, seriously?” I said and on reflection I wasn’t really sure why I threw the word ‘dude’ in there, especially as it wasn’t even a word I kept in reserves. But I guess it just felt like a dude type moment and besides, someone giving you their soul kind of did that to you.

  “I don’t do gifts,” he stated firmly.

  “No, no, but souls, yeah sure thing, got loads of them lying around,” I muttered again without thinking.

  “You are insulting me,” he stated and this was when I released a big sigh and said,

  “Yes, well I don’t mean to, it’s just a bit of a shock when one minute you’re wondering where to put your frilliest scatter cushion so your Vampire boyfriend will see it and it will piss him off, and the next you find out you own a person’s soul!”

  “I don’t understand you,” he said this time and in pretty much the same tone as he used for everything. The permanently pissed off kind.

  “Yes, well I don’t exactly understand myself right now either,” I said slumping down on the sofa and looking down at my hands. Of course, I was also hoping they held the secret of how to return a soul, free of charge, as I doubted even Google could help with that shit!