I spot the injured guard finally waking up. The vamp snarls, his fangs flashing as he grips me tighter. When the guard spots me in his embrace, he starts to laugh, the sound bitter and rattling.
“I knew you would break,” he murmurs, his skin pale, close to death.
The vamp holding me snarls as the guard chuckles, jerking in the chains as a plan forms in my head. “Let me go,” I whisper, and turn my head to lay a soft kiss on his bloody mouth. He groans, his fangs slicing my lip as he grabs my head and controls the kiss. I feel my fresh blood mix on our tongues, making us move against each other as the cut heals until I finally pull back, breathing heavily again.
I step away, turning to face the guard with an evil grin. “I’m glad you’re here,” I coo and crouch in front of him, stroking his face, ignoring the vamp’s possessive growl. “You are going to help us, aren’t you?”
He frowns at me. “You’re fucking crazy, you will die down here.”
“You’re right,” I agree and he starts to laugh again. “Partially. I am crazy, but I’m afraid it will be you doing the dying.” I yank him to me, and he screams as I start to laugh, the sound echoed by the vampire behind me.
I cover his mouth with mine as that power, the one keeping me alive, reaches out and latches on to him. He cries into my mouth, his body shuddering with the end of his fight, but he soon slumps and I jerk my head back, slurping the last of his power and shivering. Fuck, that was good.
I turn with a gasp, my mouth curving with the power flowing through me. Usually I change straightaway and I feel it coursing through me now, so surely I can send it back as well?
I drop to the floor, my body forgotten as I use all my power and turn it inwards, stopping the change. It halts, and as I push harder, sweat breaks out on my brow until slowly, ever so slowly, it starts to recede. When it’s done, I can still feel it there, waiting to be used, but I can function and I’m still in my own body. The whole plan depended on that.
I open my eyes and they lock with the vamp’s to see him watching me curiously. “Don’t worry, I’m getting us out of here. Be patient, hot stuff.”
I rise to my feet gracefully, power flowing through me as I start to stroll towards him, but I hear the door open and turn to face them instead. I grin at the guards there as they gape at me. “Hello, boys, thanks for the vacation spot, though I wouldn’t recommend the service.”
Eyes narrowed, they step towards me, so I wave my vampire goodbye and he blows me a kiss. Only then do I realise just how much my blood has affected him and it makes me stare for a second.
I was right, he is breathtaking, like a warrior of old. His face filled out, his body strong and muscular, skin golden and gleaming, eyes alight as he watches me be dragged away. He looks powerful and oh so fucking formidable that I debate killing the fools holding me and heading straight back to him to finish what we started, but no, I have a plan.
So I let them haul me out. They whisper amongst themselves about what to do with me, all of them worried how their masters will react when they realise I’m healed and untouched. I whistle and hang in their grip, kicking my legs gently in the breeze, looking around at the walls.
“Who’s your decorator down here? ‘Cause it’s very depressing. You could do with a splash of colour instead of all the grey and brick...maybe red.” I turn my head, grinning at them then, letting my eyes go black as I lick my lips. I watch the pulse of the one I’m staring at jump in his throat. “How about the red in your veins, boy?” I start to laugh as he gapes at me, horrified.
“Assmos wants her back in with the bull, said something about getting what they need…” one of them looks me up and down. “Another way.”
They drag me away faster now and throw me back into a familiar cell. I spin when the door shuts and stare at my bull. “Hi, honey, did you miss me?” I look around then, my eyebrows rising at the dead bodies everywhere. “I see you did some redecorating, love what you’ve done, very macabre.”
“You were gone,” he snarls, completely bull now, no hint of my gentle, confused Dume.
“Oh, are we back to playing?” I coo, sauntering towards him, his chains slinking across the floor as he steps further into the dark corner. “I do enjoy our games and I have a whole lot of energy to burn, what do you say, my bull?”
“On your knees,” he snaps, and I see a hint of Dume peeking through now as they both comprehend I’m more than fine. I’m fucking thriving despite being kept prisoner.
After all, you can never keep a bad girl down.
I follow the lackey like the good little dog they called me, and I wonder for a moment where he will lead me. The dungeons? The tower? The sitting room? But no, I should have guessed, everything with these people is a game, a way to lord power and use others’ weaknesses. I know this path, I was dragged this way many times before and thrown before them in their throne room…where she died.
Each step closer has the madness spinning faster and faster, searching for a way out, imagining Dawn in there waiting for me like my mother was, seeing her die. Fisting my hands, I try to slow my breathing before it bursts from me and I do something stupid like slay them. I have to be smart, I have to be in control for once. For her I have to accept their form of torture and I have to be stronger than I have ever been before.
“Oh, my little Griffin, don’t you listen to them. Your emotions, your love for me does not make you or your father weak, it makes you impossibly stronger. You’re stronger than they or even you know, because they only fight since they are ordered to, but you, my boy? You fight because you have to, because you have people expecting you, needing you. Fighting for love, not respect, will always win. You will always triumph, Griffin. They think it a weakness, show them it is the exact opposite. Use it, let it fuel you.” She smiles softly at me, her human eyes filled with love even as tears trail from my angel eyes, like my father’s. She rubs the wet cloth across my face, dabbing away the blood from the fight.
We are not permitted to fight outside of training, but I was cornered in the bathroom by five other kids, kids like me. They attacked me, ganged up on me. I fought as hard as I could, wanting to prove to my father and to them I was strong enough, but they just laughed. They called me weak, told me my human whore of a mother made me worthless. It infuriated me, I saw red, and when I came to, they were all crawling away with disgusted sneers on their faces. I watched them go, my muscles shaking, and only when I was alone did I break down. That’s where she found me, and like always she picked me up, dusted me off, and loved me.
How can they think she’s nothing? How can they think this, her loving me and me loving her, is nothing more than normal? I find myself asking her that, and she sighs softly, her nose crinkling like it always does when she is thinking, her brow furrowing and her blue eyes sad.
“It is jealousy, my love,” she whispers, gripping my shoulders with all her strength, which is admittedly not much. Her human body is frail, but her spirit is stronger than any person I have ever met, angel or otherwise. “Their mothers, well, they aren’t like me. They don’t understand why you get to have me, why you get to be loved and they aren’t. They see you with me and your father and they envy it. You have to understand that. Because to understand someone’s motives and emotions is to understand them, and then and only then will you know what the right thing to do is. Trust your heart, Griff, you have the biggest one I have ever seen. It will never lead you wrong.”