Chapter 25 #2
Jumping easily from the stone pillar, I hummed a little song as I made my way to the riverbank on my side.
“Can you stop that racket?”
“Sure,” I said, easily transitioning into whistling my latest Dead Air song.
“Are you daft?” he asked as I reached the edge and knelt down, running my hands through the water.
“Not at all.” I slapped my hand onto the blue surface, enjoying the little splash sound it made, and watching it ripple away from me.
“Okay,” he said gently. Was it long life that made him flip-flop his technique so quickly, or was he just a dick? I’d go with the latter.
“Okay, fledgling. You were so patient waiting for me. I’m sure you’ve been under so much stress not having me or my blood. I forgive you for your odd behavior.”
He forgave me? He really was a piece of work.
“But I’m here now, and the minute you cross the river, we can go home, and you can feed from me.
Doesn’t that sound good? There’s nothing as delicious as the blood of your sire.
” I heard him lick his lips. “The way it coats your tongue. The original essence of the change, of you and me together, will be there. It’ll make you feel so good. ”
I thought about how much stronger and faster I felt since I’d fed on Scotty earlier, and I wondered if what he said was true.
My mouth watered just thinking about Scotty’s deliciousness.
It seemed a shame that the only time my Sire had given me his blood was when he turned me, and I couldn’t remember a thing.
My Maker stretched his sleeveless arm out across the pond. I saw his veins under the smooth, translucent expanse of skin. Would I be able to lean over and take just a little, just to satisfy my curiosity, I wondered.
“King, I hate this. We can’t even be sure he can hear us,” Sky was saying from outside of the little bubble we were wrapped in. It was like being inside an airplane bathroom. You knew there were other people out there, you could hear their voices, but you couldn’t see them.
“I know, sweetheart,” King responded. “But we have to keep talking just in case he can hear us.”
I looked at my Maker, but he didn’t show any signs of hearing anyone outside of the two of us. I grinned.
My attacker smirked. “Yes, you don’t have to cross the river yet if you don’t want to, but take my arm and warm your belly with my essence. You won’t regret it.”
“Tell me a story about you and Ego,” King said.
And my cousin began to talk, regaling King with one story about us after another. As he spoke, I hummed along as if I was the backdrop to his documentary.
“Go on,” the Master vampire said. “Drink from me.”
I heard Sky cackle at something he’d said, and I grinned at the being across from me. “You almost had me, you know?”
He frowned. “What do you mean, almost?” Immediately, he switched back to angry. “You don’t know how painful I will make your anchor’s death if you don’t get over here and do as you’re told. There’s only so much I’ll tolerate.”
“Then why don’t you leave me alone?” I sang to him.
He scowled. “Because you survived. Which makes you mine.”
“No,” I sang. “I should’ve been yours the second you sank your fangs into my neck.” I paused. “Although, you didn’t ask permission. Shame, shame, everyone knows your name,” I sing-songed. “Although, I don’t know yours, do I?”
“Master,” he said firmly, in a tone that brokered no argument.
I heard King laughing at something Sky said, and Sky’s squawk of outrage, and I began walking backward, singing the whole time. Whenever he tried to talk over me, I whistled or hummed.
“Come with me, then, Master. Come with me and convince me. I’m over here, waiting for you.”
He growled. “I can’t cross the river.”
“But you can,” I sang breathlessly, putting a hint of sexual desire in, too. I saw his eyes flare, and I knew it. I knew that was why he’d turned me. He thought I was pretty. And now that I’d made it without him, he thought I was strong. I wondered what the sick fuck thought he’d get from me.
“Please come get me. Give me your blood.”
I was almost back to the pillar when he stared dubiously at the river before him and sprang. When it didn’t knock him back, and he arrived safely on the other side, he crowed like he’d accomplished some feat that wasn’t supposed to be possible.
Which it wasn’t, so I changed my tune to magical impossibilities, knowing he wasn’t listening to the words as he stalked toward me like the predator he was.
Time felt like it was dragging as Sky and King chatted on and on, one story after another.
I sang my heart out as my attacker drew closer and closer, and dread curled up my spine.
If he picked me up and ran back the other way before Scotty pulled me home, back to Willowhope, there’d be nothing I could do.
The Master stopped not far from my pillar as I hopped up to sit on it.
His clawlike nails sliced through his wrist, and blood beaded on his skin.
He waved his arm around. I smelled the familiar, metallic scent, and if he thought that was an enticing offer, he was dead wrong.
My stomach roiled as flashes of what he’d done to me returned to my mind.
“You know you want it, boy,” he said in a sugary sweet tone, then he licked his own long tongue across the slash and moaned as the dark red liquid coated his tongue.
Instead of vomiting like I wanted to do, I sang louder, stronger, about my right to choose and freedom. There was no question he was drawn to the melody of the song, but the words completely escaped his understanding.
He moved closer, with lust in his eyes and sin on his tongue. “Why don’t we celebrate being here together, fledgling? You can lick my blood, then you can lick my dick.”
I nearly gagged right there, and I wasn’t sure how to keep him off of me when I heard Scotty’s firm voice saying, “Ego. Come home now.”
The Master jumped at me, expecting a chase. It was clear from how he pounced on me that he wanted a struggle, but I opened my arms and grabbed him to me. Holding him close.
He paused in confusion, and I sang one last line.
“Hey, asshole, it’s sundown, which means I can wake up.”