“Let’s talk about my secret weapon now, alright? I don’t really need these chains.” He jiggled the chains, “Why? I’ll tell you!” He was in monster mode, lips curled into a snarl. His eyes bright blue but yet so cold.
“I felt this new thing that started after drinking from you the first time. When you feel anxiety or stress, guess what? I know it. I know what’s going on in your body and I don’t even have to be in the same room as you. We’re connected.”
She clawed at his hands but couldn’t pull them off her throat.
He swallowed, looking shaky for a second, and then like he pushed emotion away his eyes narrowed, “When you got out of here it woke me. I felt you moving farther and farther away and I felt that war you had going on in your head about whether or not to leave me. You made the wrong fucking choice!” He took a deep breath and continued, looking angrier, “When I was driving back here yesterday while you were trying to escape I could feel something was off. I got here just in time to watch you try to leave me. When Joe showed you his fangs I knew you were afraid. I knew what you felt when he tried to intimidate you. I felt your fear. Felt it.” He thumped on his chest, “I feel what you feel. I know what your heart sounds like even if we’re not in the same room and I’d bet big money I could pick it out of a crowd blindfolded. After each feed this connection we have deepens and I get even stronger. I need your blood. Need it like it’s oxygen. I’m stronger and faster than I was before I tasted your blood, I can now remove or create barriers, and I feel when you get anxious, when you feel stress, when you want me, I feel all of it. There’s no point in you trying to leave me. The minute you do I’ll feel it and I’ll stop you. Tonight, when you ran, I figured out I can track you. That’s new, too. Don’t try to get away again. You. Will. Fail.”
Kyla clawed at his arm, trying to get him to let go, “You’re hurting me,” she squeaked out.
He let go, “That’s mutual, sweetheart.”
She started hyperventilating.
“What?” he demanded, picking up the drinking glass on the nightstand and threw it. It shattered against the wall, “How, after what happened earlier tonight, can you just leave me like that? Not to mention that I tell you you’re in danger and you run from me and put yourself in more danger? Do you care how that hurts me?” He grabbed the lamp from the nightstand and hurled it across the room.
Kyla shook her head vigorously, “This is crazy, it’s …” She couldn’t finish.
“Denial is what it is!” He picked up the silver tray on the dresser and Frisbee’d it across the room, sending the contents flying everywhere.
Then he punched the wall, putting a hole in it.
She was trembling so hard it was becoming painful, “Seriously! Why are you being such an asshole? You have no right to keep me here.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.” Her chin was trembling as she bit back tears.
“This thing we have is more real than anything you’ve ever felt and you damn well know it. How could you leave after what you felt tonight? I feel you fighting it every step of the way. This thing with us started that first time I tasted you and earlier tonight when you fell apart in my arms and wouldn’t let go of me? That solidified it. I have the fucking right, Kyla. Every fucking right. That was supposed to be the cementing of you becoming mine and it was fucking beautiful, the most beautiful moment in my life, your life too, and you just needed to fight it.” Pain flashed on his face and Kyla shook her head, trying to ignore the pang it sent through her.
“Huh? You’re a psycho! I can’t do this. I can’t let you just keep me and, I…I run. Running is what I do! A few minutes of crying and holding onto you doesn’t change that. I’m not in my right mind here! I was kidnapped and I’m a prisoner and you just keep trying to use your power and fuck with my head. These mind games, they’re ---” she sobbed, then stabbed at her temple with her index finger, “fucking with me!”
“A few minutes? You have no idea how long it took me to calm you down tonight. Hours, Kyla. Hours. Do you know how badly you fell apart? And do you know why it happened? Me, us, this thing we have is what put you back together. You’re fighting it but it’s real. The strength I’m getting from your blood; this is all textbook…the shit that the real vampire legends are made of.” He pressed his fingertips to his temples.