3. Chapter Three
Chapter three
T he woman before me looked like stone. Her delicate, freckled face was frozen with both hatred and fear. God, she looked delicious. Her body mirrored the image before her so intricately that it was like the piece was created as if she’d been the model.
I did everything to absolute perfection. And seeing photographs, though they were black and white, of the naked form of my ancestor Vivian Valentine, I was able to recreate those curves and intricate lines of her body.
This woman had too many similarities to the corpse beneath the university. Her bone structure and cheeks were high set, freckled, and blushed with rosy pink, which were almost identical. Her eyes were that familiar blue of my very own, a trait we seemed to all carry. Even her hair looked like wound silk, so dark it was one shade away from being completely black.
“Who the fuck is this?” the woman demanded, pointing to the portrait she covered in crude red slash marks.
It looked like blood. Was this an omen for the beautiful woman in front of me? Doomed to repeat the life written in the blood of the past? How tragically ironic.
“Quite a naughty mouth on you. This is the second time we have met, and yet you’ve had your words filled with curses both times. It’s so flattering to see you have such a passion for seeing me, Pet.”
“My name is Vivian. I go by Vivvy sometimes, but I’m certainly not your damn pet…Again, who is the woman in this portrait?”
I looked at the irritation painting her features, unable to prevent myself from grinning.
“I think you know exactly who she is, Vivian.”
She scoffed and tried to back away from me. “I think you drew me naked, you pervert.”
I laughed, knowing she couldn’t possibly know my secret.
“Well, perhaps you should be our nude model for us today so that we can decipher differences and similarities. What do you say?”
Now she laughed, completely exasperated.
“How would you even know what a dead woman from so long ago would look like naked? Isn’t that your ancestor? That’s just gross, dude.”
“Nakedness is nothing to be ashamed of, dude,” I said, parroting her uneducated terminology so she could hear how dumb it sounded. “It is perfectly normal, Little Virgin.”
“How about you just fuck off?” Her flushed cheeks flamed bright red.
I smiled wider, backing away from her and raising my hands in surrender. “Fucking off.”
The smug grin I got in return made my cock swell.
“Oh, such a good boy.” Disdain dripped from her tone.
This woman was clearly used to dominating her pathetic toys, and the thought of putting her in her place was more than intoxicating.
Vivian was going to be my little virgin sacrifice for this Valentine’s year. She was my Chosen. It was my turn to give an offering to the council, and then the fourteen would repeat the cycle again. Castien told me that Vivian Valentine was arriving at the university late, but she certainly took her sweet time to arrive.
I suppose enticing her with the riches and amenities that St. Valentine’s offered proved more difficult than with others. She would have free tuition. That much alone would be enough to entice any poor, lowly student to the high ranks, but she seemed unmotivated by something so trivial. It made me wonder.
What was the enticing factor that finally brought her to my humble abode?
I walked away from Vivian and made my way to the back room where my office was held. The children immediately started bickering and speaking in hushed tones, but I couldn’t care less to direct them.
Tapping a few buttons on my phone, I stared as the pairing function began. I’d paid the tech students a lot of money to be able to do this, and it was worth every penny.
Within moments, an exact replica of Vivian’s display on her cell’s screen popped up on mine.
Now, I could follow everything that my Little Virgin had—all her transcripts, text messages, delicious photos, and my personal favorite—access to her security camera app.
It showed that she had a dormitory with that annoying sorority here on campus, but she also had her little house.
Either way, her pictures were the perfect way to portray her body so precisely. I’d spent hours using the charcoal to replicate every single inch of her exquisite curves. Her photographs were so timeless that her innocence was shown in the way she posed against the wall.
She didn’t have videos of using any sex toys, so nothing remotely scandalous. For the mouth that she had, there was purity in her body and anything related to sexuality. I couldn’t wait to break my Little Virgin.
I wouldn’t let her die without experiencing every single thing I could offer her in the way of destroying her cunt and spirit.
The Valentine’s charity event was a perfect opportunity. One could buy a professor for the weekend to be their ‘Valentine.’ Vivian seemed harmless. I knew she would be on her knees praying to whatever god she believed in when I had her in my grasp.
Scrolling through her calendar, I found her course schedule. Her classes were all over the place, not making sense in any regard, but one, journalism. Ah, this woman wanted to be up everyone’s ass. Maybe she would appreciate knowing that I’d been the one snooping in her life. Slowly unraveling it bit by bit so I could recreate it from scratch.
Putting down my phone, I turned on the camera on my desk to spy on the classroom. Zooming in on the face of the feisty Little Virgin, I listened as another girl comforted her.
“He can be a bit much…but that’s Maddox Valentine for you. You’re new here, right? I’m Teagan.”
Seeing my prey sniffling like she was offended at the truth being presented to her was intriguing. Perhaps I needed to have a more subtle approach. I was not good at subtlety. This woman seemed strong in some ways but so incredibly weak in others.
When my hands are wrapped around her throat, would she be so breakable? Or would she fight me, like the bad girl she portrayed?
I hummed with need at the thought. I couldn’t wait to have this woman underneath me. The charity was just a day away. I needed to play nice so I could get her attention. If she didn’t bid on my name, I would need to kill whatever moron did.
Her body responded to me already. I knew that. It was evident in the way the flush of her cheeks spread down to where no eyes could see. I needed to lick that flush on her skin, taste the salt of her sweat, and feel the shakes of her fear.
“Vivvy Valentine. Though, admittedly, I have never hated my name so much until arriving here.”
Her classmate looked sympathetic to her cause, coddling ‘Vivvy’ like an infant. How could she take such a classic and beautiful name and sully it by making it equivalent to something some intelligible child called a stuffed animal?
I cracked my neck, unbuttoning the top of my shirt to try to cool off the visceral response my body was experiencing from this girl.
What the fuck was wrong with me?
I must be excited for the kill and to deflower this pretty virgin.
The Divine sacrificed so many ‘virgins’ before, but not a real one, not in a long time. We had to resort to those who only used toys or sucked a dick or two. Everyone was such a whore nowadays, and purity of the body was less common than white deer in the forests.
But just like the finest hunters, I would claim the ultimate prey as my own. This pure white deer would bleed so beautifully for me. By the time she made it to the altar, she would already be begging for death.
Quickly, I made a call to the priest at the chapel. I gave him exclusive orders to keep everyone out.
“Tell them it is a mold issue,” I said, my tone clear that there was no other option.
And I knew he would follow my command. I wanted to make sure I would have time to play with her, break her body, and torment her spirit. She would be ready to give us her life on Valentine’s Day.
On that night, the clock would chime at the stroke of midnight, and my Little Virgin would be gone. I rubbed a hollow spot on my chest. It was so rare to have a true challenge, and I didn’t want to waste any more time.
Standing from my desk chair, I straightened my clothing, left my office, and returned to the classroom.
“Class.” The students all turned to me when I emerged. “The assignment for today is to tell me a story within your art. Speak to me about your life. Let me see the demons you’ve faced in your past.”
I walked back over to Vivian, parting her new friend from her side by placing myself between them. To the credit of the woman beside her, she stayed close. Maybe this woman would be next on my list, surely a fighter all the same.
With one hand, I pulled the paintbrush dripping in red out of Vivian’s grip and drew a curved line on my palm. The female looked at me with caution in her bright eyes. She didn’t back away, but there was fear there. I waited for a moment, staring at my mark, and then went back to Vivian.
“For now, Little Virgin, you have to forget the past and simply learn one thing.”
She narrowed her eyes, waiting for me to continue.
“Don’t forget—” I leaned down to her eye level and pressed my marked hand against my mouth. “To smile .”
I pulled my hand from my lips slowly. That fear increased in her eyes as she swallowed. The classroom was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. There was a whiteboard nailed to the back wall of my class, which was never used but kept for the aesthetic of a classroom vibe against the feel of the old castle we worked in.
Right now, I could see my reflection, a large, bloody red smile coating my lips, the red paint dripping down the corners of my mouth and onto the white of my shirt.
My prey didn’t realize what stood before her—I was her past…present, and what she had left of her future.