Dealing With The Devil

Chapter 2: Marks

Pain surges through my body. I can't wake up, but I'm conscious. I want to open my eyes, to see if Grace is okay, but I can't. I'm too weak. I hear a gruff voice hissing my name, but I can't respond. "I know you're awake, Nichole." He says. 

'I know you know dimwit, but that doesn't mean I have to answer you.' I snarl at him in my head. To say that out loud would be about as good as dying and even though I felt like I was right now, I didn't want to die.

I struggled to breathe correctly so that I could somehow have some relief from the cramping stomach, or from the pounding headache. A groan escaped my lips and I heard a chuckle, but still my eyes wouldn't open. My right cheek was sore and I felt like I had broken ribs. "Oh stupid humans and their weak bodies." I hear the vampire tut. I want to slap him when I'm stronger, and I make a mental note to do that. 

"Get up." He orders. I need to listen to him, I know. The pain I am feeling right now will be nothing compared to what's going to come if I don't wake up, but I can't move. "I know you can hear me. You may be dead, but you're not deaf." He laughs. I feel my head get turned to the side and I lift my eyelids. 

I was lying on a bed with a black comforter. Warmth surrounded me but I could feel the cool temperature of the vampire in front of me. "Get up." The vampire orders once more. I blink slowly and my eyes flick to meet his gaze. 

His eyes are a strange green, interlaced with golden specks that highlight the dark vines in his eyes. The paleness of his skin seems to make his eyes become the main feature of his face, but I don't like his eyes. They are cold, foreign, and they know too much. "Now." The deadly tone of his voice seems to make my limbs come alive. 

In a desperate attempt to please him, and avoid a punishment; I move the comforter, glad to know that I was still in my original clothing. I bite my lip as a horrible pain shoots through my stomach at the movement. My hands shoot to my head as I struggle to hold in the headache threatening to consume me. The vampire looks on, not even bothering to tell me to stop. I feel my heart rate increase and pause for a second. He frowns but still doesn't say anything. 

With shaking hands I gently push myself into an upright position. The vampire still shows no certain emotion but is now watching with interest instead of a bland look. I bite my lip harder as I scoot myself over. A gasp of pain escapes me and I flinch at the horrible sound of my voice. The vampire smirks but still doesn't comment. I slowly turn my body so that I am sitting on the edge of the bed and I breathe heavily in my attempt to concentrate on standing. The vampire backs up and watches every movement that I make. My heart rate is wild by now and I am lightheaded from too much movement. I lean on my knees and then with one last shove I'm standing. 

I sway on my legs. The vampire grabs my elbow and steadies me. I jerk to a stop. "Impressive. Now you can sit down." He lets go of my elbow and I fall, rather than sit, onto the bed. My body is sweating in its attempt to compensate for the pain.  I swallow the knot forming in my throat and glance up at the vampire once more.

"You didn't drink my blood." I say pointedly. He stands in front of me and smirks. My breathing increases as he steps forward. 

"Now, what makes you think that?" He questioned, tilting his head to the side. The smile that forms on his thin, red lips is anything but comforting. I have a hard time keeping my gaze on him. 

"Your eyes were still red." I say quickly, as if to reassure myself that his eyes had indeed been red at some point. The vampire chuckles. "When your eyes are red it means that you need blood." I say with determination. Everything I've ever learned can't be wrong. 

"How do you know it isn't just for the effect of fear?" The vampire smirks. I lick my lips nervously. The vampire seems to enjoy making me think. His eyes searched for mine and if I said I was intimidated that would be an understatement. 

"I don't." I say defeated. The look of triumph that crosses his face makes me regret admitting that I didn't know. 

"Well, if you must know, no, I did not drink your blood." He says slowly. I swallow, trying not to pass out right there. "However, I will. I just can't yet." That doesn't make me feel any better. 

What if he can't control himself? What if I die? What if he doesn't like my blood? What happens when he's sick of me? How often will he drink from me? Is it a one time deal? "In order for you to benefit me, I have to mark you."

"M-mark me?" I ask. He nods. "I- I don't understand." I say gently, not wanting to make him angry. I feel my stomach beginning to act up again and I flinch before grimacing and trying not to pass out. He looks me over and smirks, laughing silently to himself. I didn't find any of this funny. 

"Yes, mark you. It is an old tradition that not many vampires follow, and it isn't in any of your books." He smiles, seemingly amused by me. I huff in annoyance but don't argue. Instead, I remain silent. "I do not feel like having this conversation right now so instead, I will go over the rules." His eyes cut into me and I purse my lips but hold my tongue. 

"First you will call me Master-" As I go to interrupt he raises a hand and I flinch at first but then I realize he was just silencing me. "Before you start blabbing about how you refuse, let me finish my set of rules and conditions." He glares at me and I return the hated glare. 

"I do not believe you are on the same status level as me, and therefore; since I am above you, and you are under my command, you will call me Master." He looks at me and when I don't object he continues. 

"You are not to go onto the third level of this house. That is my area and it's not your business what is in there. Other than that you are free to go as you please. I expect you to come to me when I call and I would appreciate this house being clean when I go to bed or when I wake up, but it is not necessary. Any order I do happen to give you is to be done immediately and without any hesitation." He waits for me to respond and I do after a shaky breath. 

"So what will my punishment be if I don't do those things?" I ask quietly. My master looked at me as though I was a stranger for a moment. I raise an eyebrow. "Do I have something on my face?" I questioned. 

"No, but for someone with that much anger you don't seem to be fighting back. I was expecting some sort of outburst or dramatic scene." He states. 

"I'm sorry to disappoint." I replied. My master chuckles. 

"In answer to your question," He ignores my last statement, "Your punishment is quite obvious." He shrugs. I look at him. 

"Are you saying if I don't follow these rules then my deal is broken?" I ask. He nods, standing up. I frown at him. His dark hair falls over his eyes and I find myself wishing that just once, just once, he didn't have to look so daring. I could see shadows playing in his eyes, as if they were attracted to him. The shadows darkened his eyes and took away whatever confidence I had left. "Yes, Master." I say dejectedly. 

After having given up in this way, the stupid vampire stood and looked me over. I despised him as of right now but I think he knows that. 

"Now that is not a very nice face." He tuts. I hold my tongue and look at my lap, glaring at the floor instead of at him. Swallowing my anger, I look up at him, attempting to appear neutral but knowing my eyes would betray me. I was never good at hiding my emotions. 

"That's better." He smirks. "Feel free to do as you please. I have a meeting I need to attend elsewhere. That means that you will be here by yourself." I feel his cold eyes on me more than I see them and it makes me shiver on the inside. His cold stare that made Grace- Grace! 

"What happened to Grace?!" I shout, immediately shooting into a standing position. As I stand, the pain grips me, and I crumple to the ground, landing on my hands and knees. My master kneels next to me. 

"There's the outburst." He chuckles. 

I groan in pain and shake in my position, trying not to scream. He places his hand on my stomach and I hiss in pain. The eye roll he gives me ticks me off, but again I hold my tongue. "You have a couple of broken ribs." My master states. I close my eyes. "Come along. I'll get you a painkiller before I leave." He stands and I grip the bed as I attempt to stand. 

"Humans." He sighs. My master picks me up, roughly if I might add, and then tells me to follow him. I frown but slowly follow him out the door, leaning on things when I can. Knowing it wouldn't help me at all to take shallow breaths, I attempt to breathe regularly. It is a pain in my rear but it is better than not healing. 

As we walk down the hallways I try to bring the subject back up but I don't know if I really want to know. Finally I got enough courage to ask. "Master?" The words are weird on my tongue but I refuse to be one of those cliché girls that say it makes them feel owned. I wasn't owned. That was his name and I was simply calling him by his name. He wasn't my owner and he wasn't going to own me. I was an individual and the word master didn't change that. 

"Yes?" He asks, clearly liking the word rolling off of my tongue. 

"What happened to Grace?" The question was obviously one he didn't want to answer. His shoulders tensed and he sighed loudly.    

"I drank some of her blood, horrible taste mind you, and then I took her to her house." He says. I don't bother asking how he knows where she lives. If they have as great of a sense of smell as I think they do then he should've been able to trail her scent to her house. "She'll live, but she won't remember anything." His words send shivers down my spine. 

Vampires can mess with a human's mind easily. They can't all read minds, or make a human do things at their command, but being in the presence of a vampire messes with the human's brain. I don't know if it is a smell, a feeling, or what, but vampires tend to have a huge influence over humans. Humans are easily drawn to vampires, which is useful to them as they can use that to catch their prey. Humans can bend to the will of a vampire and - with that knowledge in mind - that is probably what's happening to me. 

"Did you tell her to forget everything?" I ask, half joking and half not. 

"Yes, her brain was quite easy to manipulate." He responds. Sighing, I continue dragging my feet after him. I was relieved that she was alive. I was so relieved that I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. My master glances back at me and tells me to wait where I was. I gladly slide down the wall and sit on the ground.

Vampires were real. The realization was almost surreal. This was reality though. The vampire is dangerous. I'm a blood slave. My thoughts slowly trailed from exciting to horrifying in one smooth swoop. Great. I can't even think about something without it going bad. Shaking my head, I realized my master was back. He hands me a bottle of pain relievers. I glance at the bottle, before deciding to trust him. 

I take the bottle and watch as he disappears around the corner and is back a couple of seconds later with a glass of water. "Thank you, Master." I say politely to him. Yeah, he isn't my favorite person, but I'd rather be on his good side than his bad one. 

I take the pill and drink the glass of water, only doubting for a second that it could be poisoned. If he wanted me dead I would be dead by now and if this was how I was going to die then so be it, but I highly doubted that, he would want to get something out of me first. 

 "Now, be good. If you dare to-" 

"Open a door an alarm will go off and you with your amazing super senses will track me down and punish my family and town? Yeah I got it." I chuckle lightly. "I wouldn't make it far in this condition anyways." My humor doesn't seem to amuse my master but he doesn't argue. "Do you have extra girl clothes somewhere?" I asked. He shakes his head. 

"Girls." I hear him mutter. He storms past me and when he comes back from around the corner he shoves clothes in my hands. "These will do for now. I will have to get you clothes later. Now, if you'll excuse me I really have to go." With that he goes off and I am left with his clothes in my arms. Sighing, I stand and start towards the bedroom I had woken up in, assuming that would be my room. 

As I suspected, there was a bathroom in the room I had woken up in and I finally took the time to enjoy the furnishing. A king size bed was in the far right corner of the room, the black comforter was slightly disheveled from where I had thrown it earlier. There were white curtains in front of the window that looked ghostly with the black sky behind them. There was a closet in the far left corner. Then in the closest left corner, there was another door that led to the bathroom while the closest right corner held a desk, with a paper and pen already set out. The carpet was a cream color and was soft to the touch. There was nothing extravagant about the room. Even the lights were simple, just little light bulbs indented into the ceiling. Yet, something about the room made it seem extravagant. 

Maybe it was the fact that a vampire owned it, but I felt as if it were more than that. I sigh and make my way over to the bathroom. When I turn the lights on, I'm blinded for a minute by the brightness. The floors were a pearly white and seemed flawless. I looked at the beautifully carved double sink and the dark mahogany colored cabinets beneath the white counter. The silver faucets looked simple and it finished the set perfectly. I set the clothes down in between the two sinks and turned around. 

Behind me was a large closet built into the wall that had a dark door opening to it. I slid the silver handle down and opened the door to reveal the plush blue towels that were stocked on the shelves along with different soaps and other bathroom options. I grabbed my necessities, settling for the 'Golden Sunset' bathroom set. My master seemed gloomy enough for the two of us, so I suppose I should make things a bit brighter. 

Smirking at my joke I slid into the stand-up shower, knowing for a fact I did not trust myself to go into that huge Jacuzzi. I instead found myself standing under boiling hot water, creating a steamy bathroom that made the air stick to the roof of my mouth when I inhaled. 

A song buzzed in my head and I quietly sang the tune while taking my time in the shower, loving the stinging on my skin and the lovely feeling of my hair being scrubbed clean. However, all showers must come to an end. 

When I was finished and had stepped out and patted myself dry, I stood in front of the fogged up mirror and fought the instinct to draw a smiley face. My hands found the light switch in the foggy world I created and I turned the fan on next to it. It wasn't long before the fog began to disperse, even if it was only slightly. I grabbed the clothes my master had handed to me and, after placing my own undergarments back on, slipped into the clothes he had set out. 

As I stared at my reflection in the mirror I wondered, what made me his choice victim that night? Was I easy prey? Was it by chance? I didn't know, and the thought that maybe I would never know crossed my mind, but I shoved it away. 

My tired eyes gazed over my now make-up free face. I had already thrown my hair up into a messy bun but little stray strands fell around my face. The blue shirt that my master had gotten me fell to my mid thighs and the shorts he gave me, luckily with a drawstring, fell past my knees. At least I was comfy. Heck, at least I had clothes. 

Sighing, I turn to leave and go explore but my eyes become even more tired. Giving in to my body's hints, I trudge back to the bed and slip in, covering up in the thick comforter before I easily slip into my world of dreams. As it turns out I didn't want to go there either.