“You drugged me,” I manage to say, my words slow, feeling so relaxed that I’m melting on the spot.
“I did no such thing,” he says. “This is your body finally feeling safe. You haven’t slept for days.”
I thought vampires didn’t need sleep, I think, too tired to move my mouth now.
We do, he says, deep inside my head. Just like any other creature.
The next thing I feel is him coming closer, his scent washing over my body, then his strong, firm arms are going around me and he’s lifting me up, carrying me. I’m as limp as a ragdoll in his arms.
“Put your hands around my neck,” he murmurs to me. “Please try not to bite me. I don’t want another shirt ruined.”
I do as he says, opening my eyes for a moment to see him staring down at me with a wary expression. I have enough energy to bury my head in the crook of his neck, pressing my nose against his skin, breathing him in until my eyes flutter. He told me not to bite him, and even though I can hear his heartbeat, it only soothes me even further.
He carries me up the many flights of stairs and I feel myself drifting in and out of sleep. We go down the hall and into my bedroom.
My bedroom. That’s what it feels like now.
Like it’s mine.
Like it always was.
He carries me to the bed, throwing back the covers, and then lays me down on it, gently putting my head on the pillow. He takes off my boots, then puts my legs under the covers.
I feel fear for a moment, the feeling of losing consciousness, of losing control.
“Solon,” I cry out in a ragged hush, reaching for him, my eyes too heavy to open.
He grabs my hand, giving it a squeeze that sends warmth through my body. “You need to sleep, Lenore. You’re safe now. Sleep.”
Stop compelling me, I think.
“You’d know it if I was,” he says in a low voice. “When you wake up, you’ll be hungry. Come find me.”
He gives my hand another strong, comforting squeeze.
Then he’s gone.
Sleep comes for me, pulls me into the black.
Chapter Fifteen
I dream of blood.
Rivers of it.
Elusive.
Endless red that I can’t reach, can’t touch, like I’m in my own personal desert, throat drying up, body aching for something I can’t have.
The more I want it, the more I need it.
And the more the rivers recede.
Telling me that if I get it, I’ll drown myself, that I won’t be able to stop myself. That I’ll destroy the whole damn world with my thirst.
When I finally wake up, I’m ravaged with a hunger I’ve never felt before.
It’s dark in the room and it takes me a moment to realize where I am.
In my bedroom.
In Solon’s house.
A room that was once my prison.
A place I willingly returned.
I remember Solon carrying me up the stairs, bringing me here, handling me with such gentleness that it’s hard to reconcile that version with the one of him who tied me to the bed however long ago that was. Not to mention, you know, the stalking, kidnapping. Vampire traits, I suppose.
But I don’t dwell on it too much.
I’m hungry.
Starving.
And if I don’t get what I need, I think I’m actually going to die.
I get out of bed and walk out of the bedroom, into the house, candles lit along the walls, dead roses gone stiff in vases. I’ll deal with them later.
I start going up the stairs, to the level I’ve never been before.
Come find me, he had said before I fell asleep, you’ll be hungry.
Absolon is up here.
The closer I get to the floor, the more my necklace burns against me, until I’m standing outside what has to be his door, painted black with gold edging.
I raise my hand to knock but I hear his voice in my head.
Come in.
I swallow, my palms itching, and turn the knob.
I step inside a large room. Black wallpaper with gold designs. Black king-sized four-poster bed with black sheets. Black curtains on the windows, black candles for lighting.
This must be where the Prince of Darkness sleeps, I think. The smell of him is overwhelming, churning that hunger inside me. I don’t even know how much of it is the urge to fuck him or how much is the urge feed from him, but I have a feeling I’m about to find out.
He’s not in this room, though. There’s a ladder at one end that leads up to another floor, to what I’m guessing is the house’s infamous tower. I’m about to head up there when I hear a splash of water from another room, the door half open.
I walk over and push the door open, staring into a large en suite bathroom. Compared to the bedroom, it’s fairly modern with slick tiles and mood lighting.