I felt terrible. I was tired and dizzy. My skin was cold and clammy, but also so sweaty, it was grossly sticking to the sheets. My head felt like it was immersed in another hazy cloud, and my heart was fluttering wildly in my chest like a trapped bird.
I didn’t know the symptoms of rapid and extreme blood loss, but if I had to guess, I was experiencing every single one of them.
High above me, two silver, lamp eyes floated above the rafters.
“W-why...?” I croaked. “Why... am I alive?”
“Oh, you beautiful, perfect,tastything.”
Something dropped on the sheets. I didn’t need to look to know it was drool.
“Why would I kill you?” His voice was soft and flickering like the candlelight. “If I did that... I’d never find the other one. Your sister.”
Two words, and they punched through the haze. “What did you just say?”
“Two of you,” he breathed. His shiny eyes went out as he closed them, sinking deep into his daydreams. “I’d keep you both. Both of you so fresh, young, and plump. Both of you allmine.” Radu moaned deep and low in his throat. If he told me he was jerking off, I would’ve believed it. “When one of you needs rest after my feeding, I’d simply switch to the other one.
“Always fed, always satisfied, always blood.”
Radu appeared on top of me, dropping his hands on either side of my head.
“Ahh!” I screamed, sinking back as far as the pillows would let me.
“I would never kill you, sweet Charlie.” Dipping down, Radu licked my lips—an act equal in intimacy and possession. “You’ve made me happier than I’ve ever dreamed of. You’ve given me everything.”
I gaped at him. “You— You can’t have me, you raving corpse! And you can’t have my sister either! We’re not walking blood bags here for your sipping pleasure,” I shrieked. “And—and—”
I whipped my head back and forth, and regretted every second of it. My skull was really pounding now. “Is that why there’s a bed in here all of a sudden? Did you bring this here for me?”
Radu cocked his head, studying me and my wimpy rage. “Of course.”
This was the most I hated someone for confirming my guess. “Let me out of here right now.”
He laughed. “If you want to leave, sweet one, leave.” The vampire swept out a hand. “The door is not locked. You’re not restrained or chained to the bed. If you choose to get up and leave, I won’t stop you.”
“Good!” I willed strength into my limbs—wiggling and heaving against the sheets. Flipping facedown on my front, all the strength left me—abandoning me to his taunting laughter. “Are you enjoying this?”
“Yes.” An emotion other than boredom or menace filled his voice. “For the first time in three hundred years.”
I tried to glare at him, but I could only point my head as high as the third shelf from the bottom. “I want out of this room. You brought me here. You bring me back.”
“Back to what?” Radu flopped down beside me, laying his head on his hands. “Did you forget the highest authority in this school ordered your execution?”
I stilled. Believe it or not, I did forget that. I was little preoccupied with the whole being drained and kidnapped by an insane vampire.
“And sure,” Radu mused, “if you’ve got a deal with Lucifer to get you out of trouble, he will stop them killing you. In all my years, I’ve never known him to renege on a deal. But even so, it’ll be very hard for you to find your dear sister when you’re under threat by a constant and never-ending storm of vampires who want your blood, demons who want your soul, and werewolves who want your body.”
“What do you mean? Why would—?”
Radu plucked out his phone and tapped the screen. My voice filled the room.
“Because I’m a human mortal woman, and as alive as they come.”
“You recorded me?” I bleated. “Why?”
“Simple. With this, I can break your glamour whenever I want. I can even upload this toDead Dropand expose you to all of hell. Lucifer may step in and save you from being killed, but— Oops,” he crowed, looking around. “I don’t see him here now.”
Radu’s smirk was terrible.
