Suck Me Dry

I woke up in pain; my neck was throbbing, and I felt like my head might explode at any moment. I hesitantly pushed my lids open; it was very difficult because they felt like they had been glued together. I was in a hospital of some sort. There was a bed, much too comfortable to be a hospital bed, and then the white walls. Apart from that, there was nothing else in the small room. It was too white, and I didn’t know why I was still alive.

The last thing I remembered was getting my life sucked out of me by the person I trusted the most. It’s not like I hadn’t always thought something like this would happen. I had told my mom countless times that her new husband and his son might go crazy one day and kill us, but of course, she didn’t listen. And I blamed myself because I had let my guard down around Silas. After all, I fell in love with him. My bad.

“Thank God you are okay.”

My eyes snapped to the person sitting beside me. I had been too dazed to notice Deric; he looked terrible. There were dark circles under his eyes—the kind I always got whenever I didn’t sleep. Since Deric didn’t need to sleep at all, I wondered how he had gotten them. He was holding my hand, his cold fingers tracing circles on my wrist.

“I actually thought you would die on me.”

“I wished I had.” It would be a lot better than dealing with the aftermath of what had happened. I didn’t think I could trust anyone ever again after that. “Why am I not dead?”

“Because I didn’t let you die.”

“Wow, thank you very much; I will forever be grateful to you.”

Deric ignored my sarcastic tone. He reached forward and placed a hand on my forehead. He sighed. “You’ve been unconscious for a week. Silas almost drained you; you were so weak that I thought you wouldn’t survive. But you are fine now; I promise to protect you better.”

“Why are you even protecting me? Silas doesn’t remember the promise you made; he doesn’t remember anything for that matter except being an asshole.” I thought of the way Silas had looked at me like I was nothing more than a walking blood bank. “So, why doesn’t he remember anything?”

“Because he doesn’t remember anything about his life with the humans. I still don’t know the details of it; the elders seemed to have wiped the memories of those they thought were a threat to their plans. Those who have their memories are the ones who never liked being equals to the humans in the first place. They gladly welcomed it.”

“Is that why you still remember? Because you support this?”

“Cut it out, Kerry. Some of us don’t have much of a say in this. My dad is... well, he is not someone to be messed with. That’s all you need to know.”

“And what’s going to happen now? Are they going to take me away? Make me a feeder?”

“No one’s going to take you away. You will stay here with me until we can find a way to fix this.”

Staying here with Deric was the last thing I wanted; I didn’t trust him, yet he was the only one I had. He had protected me, at least done his best to. I would stay with him for now, and if I had the slightest opportunity to get away, I would take it.

---

Deric helped me get to my feet. I found that apart from the pain in my neck, everything else felt fine. Being unconscious for a week had its perks.

“Let’s get you food.”

Deric lived in a mansion, with servants and everything. Men dressed in dark suits, white gloves, and too-pale skin. It was like stepping into a Dracula movie or something. I was the only one who had food in the entire house; no wonder they all looked at me weirdly. I never even knew Deric was this rich; the mansion was the biggest thing I had ever seen, and wherever he went, he had people ready to serve him. Weird.

“No one is going to attack me, right?”

“Of course not.” The look he gave me said he wasn’t very pleased by the very idea. “They all think you are my feeder; no one will dare touch you.”

“Don’t expect me to just sit in this house every day for the rest of my life. I need to find my mom, Deric, and you said we would find a way to fix this, to make everything go back to normal.”

“We will try, but whether we succeed is a different story. The council is not to be messed with; they still think all humans are under their control. The only reason they hadn’t auctioned you is because...”

“Your father is rich, and he is also one of them. So when you asked to keep me, they couldn’t deny you that wish.”

“Something like that,” he muttered.

I sighed. This was all such a mess.

---

Deric treated me a whole lot nicer than I would have ever expected; I was given everything I wanted. The workers here all called me Miss, even though I had only been awake for three days. It wasn’t all bad. But nothing would make me forget the fact that my stepbrother had nearly killed me just because some bunch of imbeciles had decided to take over the world. Plus, my mom might still be in danger, and I needed to find a way to save her.

“What now?” I asked.

“I think that the best way to go about this is if we find an ally,” Deric said, thinking carefully. “We still need Silas.”

“Why? So he can try to suck me dry again?!”

“He cares about you the most.” The mere thought seemed to annoy Deric. He and Silas didn’t really get along, not since that bar incident. But now things seemed worse because Silas believed that he was helping a human.

Centuries ago, Deric had been the one to scorn the mere idea of treating a human as more than food. Silas thought the same, and that was why they got along very well. However, everything changed when Silas fell for a human; Deric thought him pathetic, and now the case was reversed.

“There has to be a way,” Deric said. “We need to jolt his memories back.”

“How? And we have no idea where he is.”

“There’s going to be some sort of celebration tomorrow. Silas will be there, as well as that little boyfriend of yours. Let’s wait till then.”

“Okay,” I said, taking a sip of my drink.

Hopefully, this will go well, and I won’t almost get killed again. And I felt happy at the thought of seeing Carter again.