Chapter 4 #2
I couldn’t help or stop the anger that roiled through my body. I was tired, starving, and yet I knew this wasn’t right. “Drop the act, Princess. Docile looks foul on you.”
Her deep blue eyes met my own and I smirked at the shock clear in her eyes. Catching her off guard brought me great joy. I wouldn’t even try to deny it—at least to myself.
“I don’t understand. I… I brought you blood.
It’s not tampered with if that’s your concern.
” She reached out with a tall goblet full of blood.
I pushed myself up, standing at my full height, my gaze peering down into hers.
I could smell the crimson liquid from here, and I knew she was being honest. It didn’t have the same scent as the poison the guards delivered twice a day to all of us.
“Why would you do that? Does your master know you’re here?
” I asked, mimicking the name I knew she used to address him in private.
I didn’t need to hear it out of her mouth to know it was the truth.
The guards spent all night talking, gossiping amongst themselves.
Words slipping from their tongues they’d never dare utter elsewhere.
But I knew it hit the spot I wanted it to when she took a step backwards and her eyes returned back to the floor.
“Oh, don’t cry now, Princess. Let me guess, he sent you here to attempt to persuade information out of me with your charm and wit? ”
She looked back up and her lips parted slightly for a brief moment before she held the goblet out towards me again. “Do you want this or shall I leave? I’m just trying to help, Cedar, whether you choose to tell me anything or not.”
I felt the corner of my mouth lift slightly at the uptick in sass in her tone.
“It seems like the real you is slowly showing there, Princess. Be careful, wouldn’t want your ruler to notice and get angry at you for letting feelings slip from your grasp.
I’m sure he has a dark cell down here somewhere with your name on the door. ”
Playing with fire seemed to be my only ability tonight, but as I watched her stiffen I second-guessed my methods, only to just as quickly bury the doubt.
Cora’s eyes locked with my own, and I felt the slight pull that called to me.
The same one I felt the day we’d shown up here.
Her presence filled the throne room before I ever knew who she was.
I followed her movements as she raised the goblet to her lips and took a slow sip of it before it dropped back to her side.
“Or maybe you just bring out the worst in me. I imagine you have a habit of that. Without you ruining everything, Silvana would’ve stayed out of harm’s way like I intended for her.
” She shrugged and tossed the goblet off to the side of the room, but I didn’t follow the damn cup as it shattered on the floor leaving a trail of blood in its wake.
No. My eyes were locked solidly on the brunette vampire in front of me. Her fire finally making an appearance.
I took a step closer to her, and she must’ve seen something in my eyes because she took a step backwards, but I only matched it. This dance we played until her back hit the far wall. I didn’t stop until I could feel the heat from her body warming me in this cold fucking hell they called a cell.
“Say it again,” I taunted.
I could hear her teeth grinding together, and I thought for a moment she’d leave, but she surprised me when her lips parted. “She never should’ve worked with you, let alone befriended you.”
My hands were up, pushing her body against the stone wall, and my fangs were buried in her neck before she could bat those long dark lashes.
I wasn’t sure what my end goal was, but as her blood hit my tongue I couldn’t stop myself from drinking my fill.
I hoped I had it in me to drain her dry, leave her corpse here for her precious master to find.
Let him kill me. Let him leave me in the sun to finally meet my end. I cared for nothing of the sort.
I’d noted her gasp and something similar to a scream, but I pushed the sounds away.
I heard my name, but I brushed it off, determined to finish the job.
Her hands glided up my chest, the feeling everything I needed and more.
But before I could focus on it, a shock rushed through my chest and into my heart.
I felt as if I’d been struck by lightning as I ripped my mouth from her skin and fell backwards, my body convulsing on the floor, her blood and soft touch still all I could think about as my body felt as if it were on fire from the inside.
Her hand was covering the spot where I’d torn into her neck and she stared down at me, breathless. I couldn’t help but chuckle at her shock and discomfort.
“Aren’t you full of surprises, Princess?” I sneered between the aftershocks still spasming through my body.
“Please don’t—” she whispered, and shook her head before she fled my cell, slamming the door behind her.
I laid on the floor until the involuntary movements stopped and my body began to heal itself with the aid of Cora’s blood now coursing through my veins.
Eventually finding myself able to move again.
I hobbled back to my straw cot, the entire time turning over what she’d started saying before fleeing the room.
Please don’t.
I’d assumed she meant to keep what happened between us—whether it be the magic she’d just used or the fact that I’d tasted her, something I’d refused to dissect any further within my head.
The only vampire I’d ever drank from was her sister, and that had been because Silvana was determined to save my life. She had no idea what it meant.
It was said that while blood from another vampire didn’t feed your hunger unless it was your soul bonded, it could heal if the blood came from a powerful enough vampire.
Based on that alone, Cora was beyond what she was giving off to the world around her.
My mind raced over the last hundred-some-odd years, trying to come up with a moment I’d felt this sort of power race throughout my veins.
I never had, and it was all a side effect of her blood.
As I laid down, my gaze turning up towards the ceiling, I smiled.
Cora was hiding something, and I couldn’t wait to rip it from her throat.
She just inadvertently became quite the bargaining chip.