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“Don’t listen to her. Whatever you’re going to do, do it to me,” he said. “Don’t hurt her. Let her live, please. Do whatever you want to me, but don’t hurt her. I beg of you.” He fell to his knees before the vampire, pleading.
I whimpered, unable to control my fear.
Rian turned back to me. “You will live, you’ll make it through this. I love you—don’t ever forget that I love you, and I always will.”
A stark thought that he knew he was going to die crossed my mind and I fell into silence, unable to process what was going on.
The vampire let out a husky laugh. “I thought so, though you might be surprised. The last pair, the man shoved his wife into my arms.” He shrugged. “No matter to me, but…at least you’re arealman and I respect that, as much as I respect any blood bag.” He held up a pair of handcuffs and motioned for Rian to move against one of the walls. “You stand there until I’m ready for you, or I’ll do such exquisite things to her that you’ll never wipe her screams from your memories.”
Rian crossed over to the wall and stood there, head down. I wanted to plead with him, to beg him to change his mind, but I knew that look. Rian wasn’t going to change his mind. He was a Renaissance man, and he loved with his whole heart.
I was shaking so hard that the vampire had to grip my wrists to slip the cuffs on me. He draped the chain connecting the cuffs over a hook on the wall above me so that my hands were over my head and I was forced to sit at full attention.
I mouthed “I love you” to Rian and he blew me a kiss.
My heart racing, I recoiled as the vamp ran a finger along my chin, sniffing my neck.
“I can hear your heart—it’s filled with blood,” he whispered. “Your pulse is racing, your heart galloping, like a horse in the wind. Do you know how inviting that is to me? How hard it makes me? I would love to slide my fangs into your neck and drink deep.”
I was trying to calm myself, to keep myself from hyperventilating. The next moment, he said, “But I’m a man of my word. Just a taste, that’s all.” He leaned closer and, tongue snaking out, licked my neck with one long stroke. I grimaced, trying to turn away. He caught hold of my chin and forced me to look into his eyes. I fell into their depths, trying to look away, but the vamp’s glamour held me fast.
“Listen to me. You will watch every move I make. You’ll take it all in. You can’t shut your eyes for more than a blink. You’ll remember every detail. You’ll never be able to forget me or what you see here tonight.” His words echoed in my mind, like a bullet ricocheting from one side to another. “You understand?”
I nodded, unable to speak. He abruptly withdrew and—as I froze—he crossed to Rian. As I watched, he tore off Rian’s shirt, then bit deep into his neck, the sound of tearing flesh echoing through the room. The blood raced down the vamp’s pale chin. Rian moaned, his head lolling back as a river of red gushed down his chest. He whimpered, his eyes filling with pain and with passion.
I tried to look away, but I was condemned to watch as the vampire ravaged my fiancé, making Rian beg for more, even as he was screaming due to the pain. Next, he bit Rian’s wrists and then tore away the rest of his clothing. As he knelt in front of my love, I tried to scream, but I couldn’t force a sound from my throat. Then, the torture began in earnest, with the vamp using both his rusty blade and his fangs.
Every detail burned a memory into my brain, the images all too clear and vivid.
Rian didn’t die easily. By the time the vamp was done, my future and my heart were on the floor in front of me, a bloody mess of flesh and blood that had once been a man. I vomited more than once, and when the vampire came toward me after he was done, I expected to follow Rian into death. But he wrinkled his nose, recoiling at the scent as he undid my handcuffs.
“Listen to me, girl. You’ll sit here until sunrise creeps through the papers on the window, and then you’ll be free to go. I told you, I’m a man of my word. But…one day—some day in the future, when you least expect it—I’ll return for you. I’ll come back and we’ll have our fun. That, I also promise you. I always keep track of my toys.” And with that, he unlocked the cuffs, then slipped out the door, shutting it behind him.
Still paralyzed, I sat there, unable to move as the rats moved in on Rian’s body. And finally, a thousand years later, a beam of light crept through a hole in the boards that were covering the window, and I was free of the glamour. I grabbed my phone and dialed 911 before I descended into the darkness.
* * *
May stared at me,her face ashen. She said nothing, but stood and motioned for me to follow her. We crossed through a path in the woods, still silent, till we came out near a two-story farmhouse. Brambleberry Farm.
It was older, like my home, but she had kept it in good shape. I followed her up the porch and through the front door. Although I’d met her several times, it had always been at my place.
I glanced around as we entered the house. A living room sat to the right, a parlor to the left. The hallway led past a stairwell leading up, and a closed door next to it. To the right of the stairwell was a large country kitchen–dining room, where she led me. Beyond the kitchen was a mudroom, and I thought I could see a utility room from where I stood.
“Sit down,” she said, putting the kettle on the combo electric–wood cookstove. She brought out a loaf of fresh bread, some butter, and honey. “I want you to eat something. After that story, you have to be drained.”
I obediently spread butter and honey on a thick slice of bread and bit into it. She was right. I needed something to shore me up. I was drained. Every time I thought about that night, the vamp’s orders that everything would remain crystal clear remained intact, and it was as though I relived it with every telling. I’d managed to get to the point where I stopped crying, mostly, but that was scant consolation.
“Tell me, have you seen anybody about helping you remove those triggers he implanted in you?” she asked.
“What do you mean? What triggers?”
“Vampires have a number of special powers. He was probably able to latch onto those memories and encrypt them with a biological response. It’s like you’re right there again, isn’t it?” She poured two cups of peppermint tea and handed one to me, sitting down at the end of the table.
I nodded. “Yeah, how did you know?”
“I know all too much about vampires,” she said. “I learned the hard way. Not as hard as you did, but it was no picnic. And I had to find a way to break that connection. I was sick of having him inhabit my head and feed on me. They can, you know—if you’re linked like that, a vampire can feed off of your energy and play the leech. You’re feeding him every time you think of that night. At least right now.”
Horrified, I stared at her. “How do I stop it? I don’t want his filthy fangs on me, not inanyway!”
