1. The Slave

Lisa

“Let loose a bit, Alaric,” Rhain said to me, his chin covered in human blood and a brunette lying unconscious beside him with two large fang marks in her neck.

     

After slapping a hand on my shoulder, he beckoned for a human blood slave. The woman sashayed over to him and sat in his lap, throwing her platinum-blonde locks over her shoulder and showing him her neck.

     

Rhain pulled her closer and glided his fangs up the side of her throat. “You look like you haven’t had a good time in a while, A. Lisa isn’t doing it for you anymore, is she? You should suck her dry and find another slave.”

     

I balled my hand into a fist by my side to control myself at the mention of Lisa’s name. He and the rest of my family might’ve thought that she didn’t please me, but they were wrong. She was so irresistible to me that I forced myself not to touch her like I should’ve.

     

Slaves were our property to do as we wanted with them. But if I lost control with her, I would kill her, and I couldn’t fucking lose Lisa. I had held it together for months now, but being here with Rhain tonight and watching him carelessly drain woman after woman …

     

I could only imagine how Lisa’s blood would taste, pouring into my mouth.

     

Rhain sank his teeth into the woman’s neck, letting the blood pour down the column of her throat and into his mouth. Eyes fading to black orbs, he sucked and sucked and sucked until she fell limp in his arms.

     

And even then, he drained the blood from her body.

     

When he finished, he dumped her to the side like he had the first woman. I stared at the table in front of me and shoved away the women who came over and wanted me to suck their blood at this blood bar tonight. I hadn’t been to one in hundreds of years.

     

While I wanted to drink someone dry, I refused to touch another woman since I found Lisa. It wasn’t that I couldn’t; I just didn’t have any desire, knowing that she was waiting at home for me, her blood untainted and fresh.

“If you aren’t sucking Lisa’s blood like this,” Rhain said, gesturing to the women around the bar, who lay helplessly in vampires’ arms with fangs buried deep in their necks, “then she’s not doing something right. I can fix tha—”

Before he could finish his fucking sentence, I wrapped my hand around his throat and sank my nails into his flesh. “Don’t fucking tell me what to do with my slave. She’s not your property. She’s mine.”

   

Rhain lay back and chuckled. “Lisa could never give you something like this.”

     

Snapping, I shoved him back onto the couch and stormed out of the blood bar to go back home. Unlike the rest of my race, I had always been gentle with Lisa. Other vampires sucked their slaves dry and used them up until they drained their entire life essence. But ever since I laid eyes on her outside the tavern downtown, I refused to use her like that.

     

I didn’t know what drew me to her so much, but I couldn’t lose her.

     

Yet still, humans could only be slaves to monsters like me. Nothing else could become of us, especially when Father still ruled these lands. He had demanded I take a slave and drink her blood every night even though I had no desire to drain Lisa like he and Mother drained so many men and women.

     

Walking back to my skyrise that overlooked the city, I inhaled sharply and stared down at the blood on my hands from Rhain’s neck. It glistened on my fingers under the moonlight, the sight and smell making me inhale deeper this time.

     

It smelled so good.

     

So fucking good.

To control myself, I squeezed my eyes shut. But all I could see in my head was Lisa on my bed, letting out soft moans as I sank my fangs into her neck and drank more of her than just a couple seconds’ worth, like I usually did. Her body squirming under me. Her blood pouring into my mouth. Her body tightening until she came underneath me from the pleasure.

     

When I reached my building, I shook the thought off my mind and vowed that I would do no such thing tonight. I had been holding back for so fucking long that I feared I would lose control and kill her.

     

Unlocking my bedroom door, I stepped into the room, loosened my tie, and let out a long sigh that I had been holding all night. After being roped into heading to a blood bar tonight—where humans volunteered to have their blood drunk from a vampire’s fangs—I had been desperately trying to control my thoughts.

     

But from the mere smell of her, I was having a hard time.

     

Lisa walked out from the bathroom, brushing her silky brown hair and dressed in a loose white dress that left nothing to the imagination. Moonlight flooded into the room, hitting her pale skin and making her veins almost glow.

     

I tightened my fists and cleared my throat. Lisa jumped up in surprise, holding a hand to her chest and gasping softly. She glanced over at me with wide eyes, her quickened heartbeat drifting through my ears.

     

As much as I tried to control myself, I had an ache deep inside me to suck more of her blood than usual tonight. I wanted her to squirm in my arms and cry out into my ears while her blood seeped into my mouth.

     

And her in that dress …

    

Fuck.

     

“What are you doing home so early?” she asked, placing the hairbrush on my dresser.

     

Unable to stop myself, I shot forward at lightning speed and grasped her by her thick hips, pulling her closer to me, burying my nose into the crook of her neck, and inhaling the scent of cherry blossoms.

     

“Alaric,” she whispered, fingers curling into my chest.

I glided my teeth against the artery in her neck and relished in the feel of her blood pulsing against my fangs. “I’m going to be rough with you tonight, Lisa. I’ve tried to control myself around you for months now, but I can’t hold back any longer.”

    

The scent of her salivating cunt drifted through the heavy air. She wanted this too.

     

Dipping my hand between her legs, I massaged her swollen clit and pressed my dick against her thigh, wanting to touch every part of her body with my own. Lisa was mine. I moved the tips of my fangs against her throat, promising myself that I wouldn’t let this get too out of hand tonight.

     

I would drink her blood.

     

But I wouldn’t kill her.

     

I couldn’t.

     

She let out breathy little moans into my ear, her fingers digging into my back. “I’ve been wanting this for so long.” She spread her legs and wrapped them around my waist, grinding her pussy against my suit pants. “Please give it to me.”

     

As soon as the words left her pretty mouth, I sank my teeth into her throat and shivered in fucking delight. Her blood poured into my mouth, her pulse racing around my teeth. I undid my pants and thrust them off, pulling her closer and shoving myself into her.

     

“Alaric,” she murmured, her voice getting lost in the air.

     

She tightened around me, clenching down so fucking hard on my cock, her walls gripping on to me, even when I pulled out of her. I sucked more of her blood, pumping in and out of her as hard and as fast as I could.

     

Tilting her head away from me, she moved her hips back and forth against me. I grunted against her and drank as much of her as I could, quickly losing control. Usually, I only drank from her for a moment or two, not wanting to hurt her.

     

But I physically couldn’t stop myself tonight.

    

I needed it.

     

After sliding my hands underneath her thighs, I lifted her into the air and buried my face into the crook of her neck, continuing to thrust into her tight hole. Blood rolled down her shoulders and chest, staining her white dress, but I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t fucking stop. I needed more.

     

“Don’t stop,” Lisa moaned, clenching on me. “Please, harder.”

With my arms wrapped around her waist, I pumped into her harder and sucked. She tightened on me and threw her head back, moans spilling out of her mouth, and exploded all over my cock, buried deep inside her.

     

I grasped her and held her down on me as far as she’d go, her pussy pulsing all over me. I sank my fangs into her and stilled, pleasure shooting through my body from the mere taste of this woman.

     

My cum filled her tight little hole, and when it started rolling down her thighs, I pulled out. Feeling the blood roll down my chin, I forced myself to pull away from her. With her arms still wrapped around my shoulders and her legs around my waist, she stared at me with wide eyes and grasped the side of her neck, touching the blood all over her fingers.

     

“Alaric,” she whispered.

     

“Are you okay?” I asked, setting her down on the bed, kneeling before her on the floor so we were at eye-level, and tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Lisa, tell me you’re okay, please.”

     

She curled her lips into a small smile. “I didn’t know that’s what you liked.”

     

“I don’t, Lisa. I just—”

     

“You do,” she whispered, glancing down between us. “I know what your family thinks of me and what they think of you for not draining me like they do with their slaves. If you had told me earlier, I would’ve let you lose control.” She nervously rubbed her hands together. “I d—”

     

Before she could finish her sentence, I pressed my lips against hers. Since the moment I met her, Lisa had always been a nervous wreck, a pushover. She didn’t talk back and didn’t like confrontation. And she didn’t start drama like some of those girls at the blood bar did to get attention.

     

Maybe that’s why I loved her so much.

     

When I pulled away, she stared at me in shock. “Alaric …”

     

“I know that you feel it too,” I murmured against her lips. “I know that you’re not supposed to mean anything to me. But I can’t fucking stop thinking about you, Lisa. You’re the only woman I can drink from anymore, the only person I want. And I don’t want to hurt you.”

     

“But your father …”

     

“Fuck him,” I said, grasping her hands. “I want you to be mine—and not as a slave.”

     

“You want … me?” she asked, heart pounding so loudly through my ears. “Me?”

     

“You,” I whispered, joining our lips again. “Only you.”