Wicked Soul (Ancient Blood #1)(86)
He smirked at my reaction. "Ooh. You don't like that name?"
"Please, Aleric," I said, changing tactics. "I'm sorry for what I did, leaving him, but I thought you'd be happy. You wanted me gone, didn’t you?”
"Oh, I'm ecstatic." The smirk slipped off his face, leaving blankness and those icy blue eyes.
I swallowed hard as he hunched just a tad more, muscles contracting in that tell-tale way I'd seen on nature programs when a feline was seconds from jumping their prey.
My instincts took over and I spun around to run.
Which was, of course, borderline idiotic. He caught me before I took more than one step, pulling my back into his chest, lifting me off the ground.
"Now, now," he purred into my ear. "You don't wanna be doing that, little Snack. I'll forget why I'm here." He trailed his nose along my neck, inhaling deeply, and I shuddered and went rigid in his grasp.
"Please," I gasped. “You don’t understand—“
“Oh, I understand. And in a moment, so will you,” he hissed into my ear, and then everything blurred for a few seconds until we were off the road and in the middle of the small bit of woodland that lined the trailer park.
The tall vampire lowered us to the ground in a sitting position, still with my back pressed against his chest, easily immobilizing my attempts to kick at him and wriggle away by throwing a long leg over my thighs, crossing down over my knees. I might as well have tried to kick off a mountain range. He simply ignored my flailing arms, not even deeming them enough of an annoyance to pin them.
And then his bleeding wrist suddenly appeared in front of my face.
"Drink."
“No! Are you insan—mmph!”
He didn’t wait for me to finish my protest, and pressed his wrist hard against my mouth—which I instantly clamped shut, lips tightly pressed together.
Sighing, he grabbed my nose with his free hand, pinching off my air supply. “Why must you be such a difficult pet?”
I tried to thrash my head to breathe, but he didn’t release his grasp. Eventually, I had to gasp for air, and instantly, I had his bloody wrist in my mouth, thick liquid filling my mouth.
I coughed and sputtered but he kept his arm in place, ensuring that I swallowed everything, until my struggle became more frantic as I was choking from the lack of air.
Aleric let me have a moment to cough and gasp before he bit into his wrist again, pressing it right back.
Not wanting to have my nose pinched shut again, like some child not wanting to take her medicine, I didn't close my lips this time, but I did bite him as hard as I could. Unfortunately, that just got a pleasured groan from the asshole, so I quickly let go, allowing the blood to drip past my lips.
"There's a good girl," he purred, a husky note evident in his tone. "When I'm done with you, there will be no more running away, ever again."
I growled angrily against his arm, to absolutely no avail as gulp after gulp of his heady, dark life essence passed my throat. The fact that Aleric moaned during the entire process, his excitement hard and evident against my back, made the whole experience quite a bit more rapey than being force-fed blood really should have been.
Aleric bit into his wrist three more times, making me drink until the wound closed, and I was getting quite woozy.
When he finally released me, I felt pretty buzzed.
"You psychopathic asshole!" I gasped, spitting out what little of his blood remained in my mouth.
“Brave words, little Snack.” He got up effortlessly, hard eyes staring me down. “You’re lucky I’m here to fetch you. I’d much rather snap your neck.”
I rolled over on my back, my legs too oddly energized to want to corporate to get up. The night above me was alight in colors, and I could make out the energy sparkling within every single leaf on the bushes and trees above us. I vaguely remembered Warin mentioning that too much of his blood would “intoxicate” me, and boy had he been right. I was so high.
“Warin sent you for me?” I asked as I rubbed against the earth beneath me. It felt so good, like being embraced by the planet. "Did he ask you to fucking blood-rape me, too?" I looked up at Aleric. He seemed aglow with the source of life itself.
"Ooh!" I breathed. "You're pretty! A pretty sociopath!"
Aleric sighed. “No. He’s been stubborn as a goddamn mule. Wouldn’t look for you, wouldn’t want me looking for you. Whatever you said to him must’ve been pretty fucking convincing, so well done you. Now get up. We’ve got a long trip. Who the hell runs away to Kentucky, anyway?”
“Oh.” I frowned up at the glowing night sky. “But if he didn’t… send you…? Why are you here?”
The vampire crouched down by my side in a smooth movement. Long, strong fingers grasped my throat—not tight enough to block off my air supply, but hard enough that a spark of worry made it through my drugged-out haze. Ice-blue eyes bored into mine, and in them I saw hate… and mind-numbing fear. “I am here because I don’t have a choice. He won’t live through losing you again. So you’re gonna get your ass back to Chicago, you’re gonna grovel at his feet and beg for forgiveness… and you’re gonna stay with him. And if you don’t, if you ever so much as think of running again, I’ll find you. And I will murder every single person you have ever cared about in front of you, slowly and painfully. Got it?”