Love Bites (Book one)

Chapter five

*Yasmin*

After my fight, I felt numb inside. I did not know I had it in me to kill someone else, even if it was a case of life or death for me. It was close for a second though, every blow that I took from the Physvey was worse than any blow that my father had ever given to me. Something inside me snapped though, and when I looked into his face I saw my fathers smug face instead of his own, all the anger and hatred that I held towards the man that was supposed to be there for me, supposed to care and protect me and my mother came out all at once.

I instantly regretted it, even though I knew that I only did what had to be done. A tear trickled down my cheek, feeling like I had lost a part of myself that I was clinging onto as tight as I could but still managed to let it slip away in the tidal wave that took over me. I shook my head, walking out of the prying eyes that were all looking at me like a champion, when all I felt like was a murderer.

I ignored the surprised looks from the other creations as I walked back into the waiting room that I had left before, sitting back on the bench and going to hold my head in my hands, stopping when I saw the blood that still clung to them, reminding me of what I had done. I tilted my head back, resting it against the wall as the next vampire was called out into the pit. I could hear the cheers of the audience, reminding me of the screams of my mother and Elissa making my hands cover my ears, not caring if I ended up with blood on my face.

The door at the other end burst open and everyone shot to their feet as Dimitri stormed in, his eyes looking around in a crazed fashion before they landed on me. He stomped his feet on the ground as he approached me, grabbing hold of me by the shoulders and throwing me back against the wall. I could tell then that he was a Telvey, with the ability to change how people perceived him. In that moment, I saw what he truly looked like, a small man who looked to have been even younger than I was when I was turned.

Seeming to sense that I could see through his glamour, he instantly let go of me, stepping back as if my skin was scolding to touch. He sneered at me, his eyes containing a murderous glint in them before he turned on his heels and marched out of the room. I sagged back into my seat, wondering what had stopped him from inacting what I was sure would have been a painful torture upon me.

It was several hours before we were finally told that we could leave, just over half of the vampires that had started off in the room still remaining, making me shake my head with sadness. What a waste. I walked out, back down the corridor, my head still hanging low. As I got out the other side, I could hear the raised voices of Dimitri and Antonio, making me look up.

“I am the district leader, you should be proud that I want to take one of your vampires into my nest!” Dimitri bellowed, the other vampires not so discreetly slowing down to watch the argument unfold.

“However proud I am of your offer, Yasmin is mine.” The way he said mine made me feel like someone had just walked over my grave, if I had one to walk over. I turned my face back to the floor, not wanting to add to Antonio’s anger by accidently looking at someone I am not supposed to. I stood silently at Antonio’s side, listening to the back and forth between them until finally Dimitri stormed off and Antonio gripped my arm, tugging me up the stairs and out of the front door.

He waited impatiently, tapping his foot in an erratic beat before our limo pulled up and he tugged me inside. As soon as the door closed, he lifted me from my seat beside him and forced me to straddle his lap, heat building inside me as his lips nipped and sucked at the tender flesh on my collar bone, even though I knew I really wanted to pull away from him. His hands slid up and down my body, hitching my dress up around my waist, as my mind tried to escape what I knew was to come.

“Oh Yasmin, my Yasmin.” He groaned as I felt the bulge in his pants against my core, my panties dampening at the sensation making me curse my own body. “I knew you would not disappoint me, you would never disappoint me.” He groane, his fingers brushing my panties to one side as his fingers explored my folds, finding my sensitive bundle of nerves.

A needy moan escaped me, my mind searching for a safe place to hide, to escape what was happening to my body. The limo came to a stop and Antonio let out a hiss of annoyance, grasping my waist and awkwardly getting out of the opened door before crashing me into the side of our building. My eyes scrunched shut as I felt one of his hands move to his pants and his fangs nipped at my flesh, praying that no one would witness my humiliation in having to endure his treatment of me or the way he used his ability to trick me into not only not fighting back, but somehow enjoying it.

There was a sound of someone clearing their throat and my eyes opened to see Drex staring at me. Antonio punched his fist into the wall at the side of me, before lowering me to the ground, his darkened eyes looking into mine, promising me that he would finish what he started later. I quickly pulled at my dress, covering my body as Antonio turned around and smiled widely at Drex.

“I apologize, me and my creation were quite lost in each other after the night we have had.” He smiled, the glint in his eyes almost convincing enough to make me question if I had been fighting him internally at all.

“Yes, so it seems.” Drex muttered, his eyes that looked to me with sympathy showing that he was not being charmed by my maker’s words. “My maker wishes to speak with you.”

Antonio let out a genuine gasp of surprise. “The Master vampire wants to speak with me?” He asked, his hand shooting to his chest. Drex nodded his head, making Antonio clap his hands together like an over excited school girl. “Well it would be my honour to speak to him as well. Yasmin…”

As Antonio turned to me, obviously about to dismiss me, Drex interrupted him. “You should bring your creation along with you.” He instructed. Antonio looked at me for a moment and then back to Drex. He seemed to toy with the thought for a moment, but unsure what he was walking in to, Antonio gave him a small nod. Drex stepped closer, reaching out and offering his hands to both me and Antonio.

Antonio became regid for a moment. “Can my creation not simply hold my hand?” He gritted out.

Drex shook his head. “That is not how my gift works, I have to have physical contact with anything I wish to teleport.” I looked at Antonio, seeing that he, like me, doubted the vampire’s words but, not wanting to speak against one of the creations of the Master vampire, he did not argue and instead gave me a small nod. I reached out and took Drex’s hand and then in the blink of an eye, we were no longer outside our dilapidated building.

The air around me felt cold to even me, my arms wrapping around myself to try and protect from the change in climate. We were standing next to a large wall that seemed to be made of sturdy stone, the same stone that made up the buildings that formed the streets laid out in front of us. In the distance, I could see what looked like a castle. It had a number of tall spires that reached so high, the tips of them were not visible from this distance. The wind that wrapped itself around me, told me that we were so high up that it could indeed be clouds that the spires were hidden within.

Although it looked like the structure could be ancient in design, something told me that the master vampire would not have left his grand palace open to the elements and would have modernised it to suit his comfort. We must have been a long way from the dank dark alley that I had been forced to call home, as the sun was only just setting and the streets were slowly filling with vampires as they rose from their slumber.

We started to head down the path, my head swivelling from left to right as I took in everything around me. I had never been around this many vampires at once, and it was strange to think that everyone I passed was the same as me. There was a mix of Telveys and Sedveys, but Physveys seemed to dominate the population. My heart sank as I saw a female Sedvey being led by a leash by a male Physvey. In fact, it seemed that even here women were being treated as less than men and it made me curse that a species that had been alive for as long as I was sure some of the vampires here had been, that their attitude to equality was stuck in the stone age.

I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat, deciding to focus on the buildings instead of the people that passed us by. It was strange to find that the streets were littered with stores, some selling clothes, other food and some even electronic devices. There even seemed to be bars and clubs that were starting to form lines outside them, waiting for them to open. When we passed a series of stores, offering humans and vampires to be fed on for a price, I decided to stare at the ground I was walking on, not wanting my rage at such a sight to be evident to the others that seemed to be parting before us, their eyes looking at me and Antonio with curiosity and distrust.

“We’re here.” Drex eventually told us, my head slowly looking up. The castle was even more impressive close up. It’s walls were thick and study, the windows each covered with stained glass containing different fantastical designs. Drex continued to lead the way forward, Antonio sending me a glare making me pick up my pace in following them instead of continuing to gaze at the beautiful structure.

We walked through a set of large solid oak doors with iron swirls and flowers weaved throughout it into a marbled floor entrance way that reminded me of Dimitri’s residence but on a larger scale. Instead of having two staircases, it had a single staircase that went up the far end of the room, splitting into two half way up, heading in the oposite directions. There was a red carpet that led from the door we walked through up the stairs, the walls leading to them lined with doors and works of art that I wished I had a chance to admire. My body instantly felt warmer now that it was shielded from the harsh elements, the heat of the palace surprising given its vast size

“Your creation can wait through here.” Drex annouced, making my gaze move to where he stood in front of one of the doors on the left hand side a few meters away. Antonio gave me a nod and I obediently walked into the small, yet finely decorated sitting room. I looked back over my shoulder, Antonio sending me a warning glare to not f**k around before the door was closed.

I let out a long sigh, walking over to one of the large windows, admiring the detail of the design engraved upon it. My eyes looked through one of the small sections that held no colour, seeing a large field in front of me, making me wonder how the grass would grow given the harshness of the environment. To one side of the field, there seemed to be a dense forest and to the otherside, a large circular structure where two lines of vampires filed inside.

I turned back to the room, walking over to the over stuffed sofa and allowing my tired body to flop against the soft covering. This place was beautiful, truely breath taking and more magnificant than I ever would have thought possible. But seeing all this had left a sour taste in my mouth, seeing how the females were treated here. A part of me had always hoped that it was only Antonio who had the sickening sense that he owned me because he had made me into what I was, but it seemed that it was a desease that all these vampires seemed to suffer from. I wondered for a moment, what my life would have been like if I would have managed to resist Antonio that night and stayed a human, but then the memory of me reaching into the Phsyvey’s chest that I had battled against, seeing him wearing my fathers face came back to mind, making my body sag in defeat. I was not that same woman anymore, I didn't even know what I was.