Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

“Tell me, Hans,” I pushed. “What’s underneath that trapdoor in my head? Dark secrets, right? Something lurking?”

He stroked my cheek, his lips still bloody, dripping red.

“Let it go for the moment. Your body needs to recover, to give your mind the fuel it needs to process things. Especially levels like that one. They will take a lot of energy and faith to understand.”

My pulse was still pumping, and everything was glowing, but I was growing tired. Really, really tired.

“It’s normal to feel like this,” he told me. “You need to sleep, but first let’s get you replenished and cleaned up.”

He opened one of the antique cabinets at the side of the bed to reveal a fridge.

“Water,” he said and presented a glass. “Drink, little one.”

I drank it down gratefully, watching as he loaded a plate with cold meat. More steak, oozing with blood. I didn’t want to eat it, but I knew I had no choice.

“Replenishment,” Hans said. “Your body needs to adjust. It’ll join in rhythm with mine over time, spirit to spirit. Your flesh will learn to produce enough blood to keep on flowing, providing enough to play all the games we desire.”

He held the plate closer. “Eat, please.”

I reached for the meat, but my hand was shaky.

“Let me,” Hans said, and picked it up for me, one cold piece of steak in his long, pretty fingers.

I felt like a little toddler as I took the food that was offered, but there was no shame in it, just trust.

Hans the vampire fed me, and I chewed and swallowed. He smiled at me and kept on giving, even though my senses were fading in and out. I guess it was a reversal of forces. Him feeding me after I’d been feeding him. A polarity of opposites, like yin and yang.

Or the opposite pillars of the temple. Black and white, with marble tulips on top.

I didn’t know where that thought came from, but it gave me a weird sense of memory inside. And the figure of someone in the darkness, a silhouette, but this time it wasn’t Hans…

“Keep chewing, that’s it,” Hans coaxed. “Nearly there.”

Finally, the plate was empty. I saw it through blurry eyes. Hans gave me more water and I guzzled that too.

“Let’s get cleaned up now,” he said. “Don’t move, just let me carry you.”

I wouldn’t have been able to move if I’d tried.

Again, I felt like a little girl as he lifted me into his arms, but I was comfortable. I felt so safe it was ridiculous, given that I was in the arms of a vampire who’d feasted like a beast on my blood.

He was still carrying me as he opened a doorway off to the side of the bedroom. There were no windows in here, just a glow overhead that lit up the bathroom. The bath was luxurious. A huge white tub in one corner. That’s when I saw us in the big mirror over the sink. I half expected just to see myself, hanging mid-air, but no. It made my skin tingle afresh to see him holding me in his arms.

“Vampires do have reflections, then,” I stated the obvious.

“How else would I manage to look this handsome,” my grinning vampire laughed.

He sat me down on a stool beside the bath and set to, filling the bath with steaming water.

“Put your toes in,” he said. “How does the temperature feel?”

I took his hand and eased myself over the side of the bath, loving how the heat soothed my skin. “Feels great,” I replied, because it did. Lovely and warm. Perfect.

The cloth he used to wipe me down was soft and gentle. The water turned pink with blood as it loosened from my skin, but it didn’t faze me. I could have stayed there for ever, even though I was tender and battered and bruised.

“That’s better,” Hans said. “Nice and clean. Now let me join you.”

The bath was more than big enough for both of us. He scrubbed himself as I watched, and I was smiling in waves as I drifted, admiring the strength and the beauty of his body. He was glowing even brighter now he was full of blood. I felt so proud that I’d fed him.

“So you should be, sweetheart. You blessed me with your body.” He smiled. “And blessed me with your innocence, too.”

I clenched my pussy as he said it, still raw inside from where he’d taken me. Even now, in pain, I couldn’t wait for him to do it again.

“I guess I’m still pain drunk,” I said, and he smirked at my words.

“Yes, but as with all cravings, we need to know when to stop.”

“When can we do it again?”

“When you’re ready. I’m yet to discover how well your flesh copes with it. This is the first recovery period to witness.”

I was so curious.

“How does it work with that kind of thing? With getting my blood levels back to provide for yours? Is it like when women are living together and their periods start to hit them at the same time? Natural?”

“Yes, kind of. Although this is soul and energy matching, not hormones and moonlight.”

I loved the thought of that, even though it was weird.

“Anyway, you need to relax now,” he said. “Time to sleep it off.”

I didn’t want to sleep, despite the fact I let out a natural yawn. I still had so many questions.

The trapdoor.

“No,” Hans said. “Not now.”

If I wasn’t so exhausted, I’d have pushed him to talk about it, but I had no strength left to fight, and none to focus. I was drifting in and out of sleep as he took me from the bath and wiped me dry.

“Bedtime,” he whispered.

He sat me in the gorgeous plush armchair, wrapped up tight in a towel as he changed the bedsheets to a fresh set of the same.

“Time to sleep now,” he said, taking away my towel and lying me down in his bed. He wrapped me up under the covers, like I was a dainty little girl.

Because I was to him.

I didn’t want him to leave me, so I reached for him as he moved away, but he was only circling the bed to reach the opposite side. He slid under the covers to join me and pulled me close, flesh against flesh, his arms snaking around to hold me tight. He was so strong.

Sleep consumed me so easily, and I felt secure to go along with it, safe in his arms.

“You’ve never been held like this, have you?” Hans asked me, breaking into my dream state with a whisper. “Not even by your mother.”

I felt the emotional pain in my ribs, remembering the many times I’d cried in the dark with nightmares, screaming for Mum’s arms, even when she’d cussed along with Grandma and said I was silly. She’d told me there were no such thing as monsters, and witches, and wizards. No demons, or ghosts, or vampires.

Just a silly little girl.

My dream voice spoke in a tiny echo, straight into Hans’ mind.

She knew, didn’t she?

He sighed before he answered me.

“Yes. She’s known your whole life. So has your ghastly grandmother.”

I caught a glimpse of the trapdoor again, under the water, and this time it was glowing red around the edges. Its heavy round handle was calling me. But no. Not tonight.

I spun in my tracks like an underwater ballerina and swam the other way.

“Good girl,” Hans said, full of pride. “Keep on swimming until it’s time.”

Time.

It faded in and out in a cycle, the trapdoor, the lake, the trapdoor, the lake.

Still, I didn’t approach that trapdoor, just kept looking at it from a distance whenever it appeared.

“Where is the lake I keep seeing?” I asked. “Is it in the subconscious, or does it really exist?”

“It’s symbolic,” he replied. “But it’s based on memory, yes.”

“Have I swam in it? For real?”

“No. But your family have.”

“Mum and Grandma?”

“No, but your family line did before them, for a long, long time.”

I wished I had the strength to ask more questions, but my body forbid me. Or maybe it was Hans that forbid me.

“Sleep now, little one, we need you to recover.”

I sank into his hold, drifting on a cloud of happiness. That’s how it felt. Aware that time was ticking. Aware of my blood pumping, rejuvenating. Aware that I was totally safe and secure.

I came to lazily, stretching, sighing at the beautiful long fingers stroking my tits. I had so many bite marks, each one of them looking deep and proud.

“There you are, back from dreamland,” my vampire said. “How are you feeling?”

My grin must have spoken for me, but I told him anyway. “Like a new woman.”

He smiled, his fangs gleaming.

“Perfect,” he said.

“Did I sleep for long?” It didn’t feel long at all.

“Twelve hours exactly,” Hans said.

“Twelve hours?! Wow. I usually struggle with six.”

“Yes, twelve hours of the deepest, purest sleep. Just what you needed,” he said, trailing his fingers down my stomach.

My thighs opened for him.

I felt his hardness against my hip as he moved his fingers down between my legs, and I felt the heat in my pussy.

Then I felt embarrassed when his fingers opened up my pussy lips and he repositioned himself for a view, as though I was being examined.

“Healing nicely,” he said, and then pressed his mouth to my clit.

I squirmed, expecting this to be the hot prelude to another round of slamming, and I wanted it, no matter how much it hurt. But no. He cut me off in a heartbeat.

“No cock for you today. You’re still healing. Don’t worry though, sweetheart. Let me pleasure you with my mouth instead.”

He didn’t waste a moment, working me like a master.

I sank into it, shudders running through me when the points of his fangs touched my tender flesh.

I shuddered afresh as his tongue lapped at my clit.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

I wrapped my legs around his neck, rubbed my pussy in his beautiful face, moaned for him. Moaned and whimpered at the press of his tongue.

“Come for me, Katherine.”

I came for him, wave upon wave of gentle orgasm washing all over his face. And fuck, FUCK. It was incredible.

I floated down from the high, panting like I’d run a mile, and smiled at the grinning vampire between my legs.

“That was… perfect,” I said. “Just perfect.”

“As are you,” He pulled himself up to lie by my side. “Your recovery was swift, a I suspected it might be. Such strength of spirit.”

Again I felt pride. I was glowing with it.

With him.

He stroked hair from my brow. “What would you like to do next? So many wonders to explore. So many questions to ask, and things to see.”

“You could do that again,” I said, laughing, but I meant it.

Hans laughed back, got up from the bed and held out his hand.

He pulled me to my feet, wrapped his arms around me and kissed me.

“There will be plenty of time for that. How about a change of scene? Get out of this steel box for a while.”

He opened up the drapes, and the blinds, and the huge metal latches to reveal the beauty of the moonlight outside.

“Ok,” I said, slightly disappointed.

Hans dropped a kiss on my forehead. “Sweetheart, the night is young, and you’ll feel like a new explorer amongst it after last night’s adventures. Step out into the world with me and see it through fresh, pretty eyes.”

I wasn’t sure. My skin was already tingling for more of his.

“Come,” he said, and took my hand. “I mean it when I say you can trust me. You most definitely won’t be disappointed. I have plenty of surprises in store.”