Eternal Nights

Sealing The Deal

Roxanna’s pov

I began to stir from my unconsciousness, a sticky sweat clung to my face as my head laid upon some sort of cold, hard stone. My entire body ached, reminding me of my fall. Even though I had just begun to stir I already felt dizzy and weak. As my eyes opened I realized I was back in the same prison of a bedroom I found myself before. Everything was a blur as I began to process my surroundings.

The same dark walls surrounding me. The same gaudy gothic decor. The same deep red bed with a shirtless Raforian laying next to me. My eyes drifted shut once again, deeming everything in the room as I remembered. Then I shot up staring at Raforian beside me, my breath quick with panic and a sudden wave of pain shooting through my body at my abrupt movement.

“If you value your life at all I suggest that you be a good girl and be still,” he said, as he pulled my body back towards him with the arm he had previously wrapped around my waist. I tried to fight against him but my body was too weakened to resist his strength. I quickly conceded, placing my head back upon his chest.

He placed his free hand on my forehead before stating, “good it seems like the fever has finally broken. Now that you seem to have escaped death for the time being, are you lucid enough to listen?”

I took a breath and closed my eyes before muttering, “I think so,” uncertain of what was to come.

“Good,” Raforian said, “firstly, understand that you are in far more trouble than you can imagine. In fact, I should kill you right now, but I’m not going to do so,” he paused a moment, presumably gauging my reaction but I remained still, not having the energy to attempt to fight or flee, “you forced me to save your life after attempting to flee from me. In order to do so, I had to give you some of my blood to accelerate your ability to heal. Obviously it’s not a perfect fix as you still appear to be in quite a bit of pain, however upon doing so you could potentially cause me to lose control of my underlings if they get a hold of you. That is completely unacceptable and forcing my hand,” suddenly his hand found itself under my chin, pulling my face to loosen at his, my eyes opened to meet his, “for the next week you are not to leave my side, in fact you are to maintain in physical contact with me the entire time of the duration. This includes sleeping, bathing and the time I must spend in my coffin. If you break this contact for any reason I will make you regret it,” he growled at me.

“You can’t honestly expect that? Maintaining that would be impossible for that duration,” I injected.

“I suppose you’re correct. I will allow you a thirty minute grace per twenty four hours total that you can break that contact, any longer and you can expect to be deafened by the sound of your own screams. If I break it for any reason it will not be counted of course, but understand that this is not your punishment for your attempt at escape or for that waste of space feeding upon you,” Raforian continued, his eyes piercing into mine like daggers.

“How is this not-,” I began to question him but was quickly cut off.

“This is merely a precaution so that my spawn do not onslaught you to consume my blood within you, claiming your life in the process. No, in fact, you should view this as an opportunity to lessen your punishment by doing everything you can to please me,” he said as a smirk spread across his lips.

I paused a moment before speaking, “what am I to expect and what exactly do you expect of me?”

“As soon as you recover enough to do so, you can expect this,” he ran a finger over the bite marks from the vampire spawn, “to be covered with my own marks until they are completely unrecognizable. I fully intend to show you how furious I truly am that another vampire bitten you. I will not hold back like I did before. Beyond that, I will feed upon you every day with very few exceptions in doing so, your experience during this will directly reflect your daily actions. That is the minimal punishment you can expect. As far as what I expect from you this upcoming week, I’ve already told you. I want every part of you, Songbird. How you interpret that is up to you.”

I took a deep breath, “right, ok,” I said before continuing, “and may I ask why you are shirtless?”

Raforian then chuckled, “interesting how you noticed my partial nudity before your own.”

I instantly looked down, taking notice of my bare chest. In a panic I pulled the blanket to cover myself as I backed as far away from the vampire as I could. I could feel my face burning hot.

“Twenty nine minutes, fifty five seconds remaining of your thirty minutes. Are you certain this is the best use of your time?” He said matter of factly, not even bothering to move but kept his eyes locked on me. I could feel a rage coming over me, but quickly swallowing my pride and reaching for his hand, entangling my fingers into his.

“Please just answer the question. In fact why are we both like this,” I asked, still attempting to cover myself with my one free hand.

“You bled quite a bit, ruining your dress as well as my coat and shirt. I have already disposed of the soiled garments and decided that it best to not redress as your blood was still drying,” he said, as he traced the veins in the back of my hand with his thumb. “Your pulse is still rather weak, I think you should lay back down for a little while.”

“As you wish,” I said, keeping as much distance as I could between us, I laid back down.

“You’re more than welcome to lay back on my chest if you would like,” Raforian said slightly pulling my hand towards him.

“I’m fine, thank you,” I said, resisting his attempts to coax me closer.

He chuckled once more, “shame, you seemed perfectly fine laying on me for the past six hours. Especially since you were the one who refused to let me go when I first placed you in bed.”

“I’ve been laying on you for six hours?” I asked, I could feel my face growing hot.

“Six and a half hours is more accurate, but yes. Though, your concern should be with making me happy at the moment, or did you already forget?” He said before suddenly moving on top of me, pinning my arms above my head. I could feel the blanket move off of my chest, and a wave of pain course throughout my body, “let’s try this again. At the moment I have half a mind to chain you up, then carve my name into every inch of you repeatedly to bring you back from the clutches of death until you no longer cry out in pain before I leave you in that state until I decide to toy with you once more. That will only be a taste of what you have to come if my mood does not improve by the end week. You will get no further warnings, am I clear?”

His glare was intense. If looks could kill I would be long dead. I took in a deep breath and tilted my neck in offering it to him, closing my eyes expecting his fangs to pierce.

“I’m afraid you have the wrong idea at the moment, but it is a start,” I could feel one of his hands release my wrist, then I could feel him gently brushing the hair from my face. My eyes opened once more before he continued, “if I were to feed from you at the moment, I had no doubt that you would end up dead,” his hand began to trail down my face, and began to trace my lips with his thumb, “for now, I’m going to steal another kiss from you,” he said as his hand trailed downward towards my chest, “but by the end of this week, I will make my claim upon your body.”

My heart raced at hearing his words. For as long as I could remember, I have avoided relationships of all kinds. I knew that many people sought me, since I had started preforming at the Hot Snow my father would complain daily about the number of times people would come to the bakery asking for his blessing for my hand. Ever since losing my mother I had tried avoiding getting too close to people knowing that sooner or later they may end up dead or as a creature of the night. I had never considered giving my heart to anyone, let alone my body. Yet in less than a week my virginity would be stolen and by none other than the vampire that has caused nearly all the suffering of Wolfborough. I was terrified. I wanted to run, but retreated into the depths of my mind.

“Oh no you don’t,” Raforian said, reclaiming my attention.

My eyes shot open and before I had a moment to react his head dipped downward towards me, claiming my lips with his own. Once more, his mouth felt like ice against mine. I closed my eyes, resisting the urge to break away from him, knowing that if I did I would be sealing my fate. Suddenly, I felt something wet press against my lips, as his tongue glided across my mouth, pressuring me to open myself to him.I fought to keep my mouth closed for only a few seconds as he pressed harder and harder until my mouth opened instinctively. His tongue plunged into my mouth, a whimpering moan escaped my throat which only seemed to encourage him as he explored my mouth. Several minutes had passed before I could suddenly feel his free hand trailing down my torso, inching towards my core. It felt like electricity running through my veins, my body feeling both weakened and exhilarated at the same time at his touch. Shallow, quick breaths escaped me but I felt as though I was being suffocated. I began to reach up with my free hand, grasping his shoulder, and began to push him away. To my surprise, I could feel him pull away from me. Instinctively, I began gasping for air.

“It really is a shame that you require air, especially when we were having such a sensual moment,” he said, as he reached back up to my face to caress my cheek.

“And you don’t?” I asked, still fighting for air.

“No, I’ve not had to in a very long time,” he said as he flashed a smile at me.

“Wait, how long have you been like this?” I asked, taking a moment to gather myself.

“A little over a thousand years now, though I became a true vampire roughly twenty years ago,” he paused a moment, “actually it was exactly eightteen years ago if I am recalling correctly. It seems ironic that my second rebirth fell on the day you were born. It truly does seem fitting that I was drawn to you.”

It was strange, he seemed to know so much about me, but I knew very little of him. I barely knew anything of vampires. I knew they hunted at night. I knew they were stronger and faster than any human. I knew that you shouldn’t invite anyone into your home because once you invite a vampire inside, you are dead. But very few of the rules applied to him. He seemed to roam freely throughout the village, entering buildings as he pleased. He was awake during the daylight. All vampire spawn seemed completely obedient to him.

“Now then, as much as I enjoyed our intimate moment,” his words broke my train of thought, “you reek of the scent of death and illness. I think it’s time for our first bath together.”