He stares at me, wide-eyed as my blood drips down from the corner of his mouth. My hand clasps the bite at my neck as I watch Cassius slither up Dravon’s back to peek over his shoulder at me.
Then Dravon falls to the floor, his eyes still aware, but his body unable to move. Paralyzed. Cassius must be venomous to demons.
I sink to the ground with my back still against the wall, breathing heavily, still on the verge of passing out. Cassius lightly nudges my leg as if to tell me it will be okay.
Kaius bursts through the door then, with so much urgency and conviction that it breaks free from the hinges and the iron lands on the ground with the metallic clang.
His eyes meet mine and he rushes to me, crossing the room quicker than my human eyes can comprehend. When he reaches for me, that’s when I break down. I fall into his embrace and sob incoherently, clawing at him.
“Kai…Kaius please…help me.”
I desperately beg and plead at him, but he simply kneels next to me looking perplexed. I grab him by the front of his shirt and pull him close to me so we’re face-to-face, our foreheads touching as I look at him from under my wet lashes.
“Kaiuspleasehelp me. I don’t want to be a vampire.”
I manage to get out my full sentence before I completely break down again.
“Adelasia,” Kaius coos. “Adelasia, look at me.” I sniffle and whimper as he forces my eyes to meet his again. “You’re not going to be a vampire. I promise.”
“But…but…” I stutter as my hand goes back to touch my neck. I can see Kaius struggling with his own bloodlust at the sight. His eyes flicker from red to black and then back to red. He opens and closes his mouth as if his fangs are aching and causing him immense pain.
He doesn’t say another word until he lifts me into his arms and cradles me to his chest. I shake and cry quietly into his embrace as he carries me out of the room to his own. A few minutes later, he gently deposits me on a marble countertop next to a basin of water and some rags.
I flinch when he moves my hair out of the way to look at the bite mark on my neck.
I swallow thickly, all of my energy going into forming a coherent sentence. “Can you…can you suck out the venom or something?”
It feels ridiculous to suggest it out loud, and that feeling only fortifies when Kaius’ face twitches into a devilish smirk. He takes one of the rags and soaks it in the water basin before gently wiping away the blood on my neck.
“You’re not going to turn into a vampire, Adelasia. There would be no humans left to feed on if all it took was one bite. How could we keep cattle if that were the case?”
I don’t speak as I consider that. He’s right, of course. If all it took was a single bite to turn humans into vampires, the human population would quickly dwindle until the vampire population became unsustainable.
Kaius stares at the cut on my cheek as he cleans my neck and then sighs. “You’re going to be fine. I promise.”
“Why did he attack me?”
Kaius again focuses on the cut across my cheek. “I suppose I’ll be spending tomorrow trying to figure that out.”
“What will you do to him?”
“Some light maiming, perhaps.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
I gulp, and as Kaius wrings out the rag filled with my blood, I watch him struggle to control his thirst. His eyes grow darker by the second, his movements more rigid, his energy more dangerous.
When he lifts the rag to my neck to wipe again, I gently grab his wrist to stop him. His tense jaw flexes and his mouth quivers almost angrily as his now black eyes meet mine.
“Taste it,” I suggest.
“Adelasia–”
“It’s okay,” I whisper. “Why let it go to waste?” I can feel the hesitation radiating off him in waves, clouded by desire and hunger.
He examines me for a moment, perhaps looking for fear or justification that this is a bad idea, but I can see the moment he finds none and allows himself to accept the invitation of this simple pleasure he gets to indulge in after all these weeks of resisting.
