Every heart beat in the city thrummed in my ears like a siren's song, begging me to seek them out, to slake my painful thirst. It was a mesmerizing harmony that sent my thoughts reeling. Oh, the havoc I could cause, if let loose on the city, if my control wasn't as strong as a saint, or better yet, an Elder.
Although I knew better, I could have sworn my veins, my flesh, were already turning to dust with each passing moment. The thirst, the hunger, would not get to me. I wouldn't let it.
"Please . . . " A small, desperate voice whimpered to me from across the room. "Please . . . take what you need. Take it all. Your thirst consumes me, even as it does you."
My lip curled, revealing one small, yet razor sharp canine fang. My hunger, my slipping control, was stopped dead in its tracks. That pitiful creature was every bit a blood slave as I was, even if he was human. His total submission was staggering. I would rather rot than take something that was nothing more than an over used, mindless blood bank. Cold. I could be one drop of blood away from living or dying and I would turn my head away from such an offer without a second thought.
"You starve yourself, and a feast sits before you, Raven." Daemons' voice, dark and haunting, was a little surprised and confused. "You have nothing to prove here. Your thirst will win out in the end. Why do you do this to yourself?"
I turned my head and saw Daemon standing in the darkened doorway to my "cell." He was all that was cool and casual and everything dangerous. I couldn't deny the sexual attraction, and I wouldn't even try.
"I have everything to prove, Daemon," I said, my voice barely above a whisper.
Oh, yes. I had everything to prove. By vampire standards, I was a child. The Council was up in arms over the fact that I had put my own Sire in his place, so to speak. But, Gerard had made me strong, trained me with every ounce of knowledge he possessed. Only ten years into my new life and I had put my own Sire, an Elder himself, down to the ground with the heady knowledge that I had been stronger than him. It was a drug not many could say they have taken.
"Gerard willingly submit to me," I said before realizing I spoke out loud. "He made me exactly the way he wanted me. He would have torn apart anyone else from his clan if they had dared the same as I. But, he was tired. He was tired of mindless obedience, lack of strength, and powers taken for granted, so he wanted to make sure the one who stood over him was worthy of the task."
"He wanted to submit?" Daemon sounded as if he could never believe that of an Elder vampire. "He could have easily come to one of us. It's not his place, or his right, to make one such as you, one who would defy centuries of rules and take down her own Sire. Those who think above themselves end up out of control, killing without care of the rules, without the proper fear and respect of their Elders."
I turned my head away from him and tucked my chin into my knees. I wrapped my arms around my bent legs and sighed deeply.
"Maybe the Council would be wise enough to look into Gerard's teaching methods with open minds," I said, "I have never once taken a human life. Never. Not even when I was freshly made and unsure of my strength and hunger. I know of all the rules, agree with them totally, and have never broken a single one . . . "
"Except the one about never killing your own Sire."
A rough, purr-like, growl escaped my throat before I could stop it. Daemon made it sound as if Gerard had bared his neck to me, begging me to take his last drop. His utter contempt from my actions, and for Gerard's motives, burned my blood. Gerard didn't go easily. He made me fight, tooth and nail, with every ounce of strength and skill I had, to take him down. Gerard was no meek fool. He wanted a permanent death, but didn't want to give it up to someone who couldn't take it from him honestly.
"You know nothing, Daemon," I said, staying curled into myself. "I didn't want to kill him. He was my Sire, my maker. He made me who I am. I am filled with nothing but honor, respect and love for him. Gerard gave me a gift beyond anything anyone could give me . . . ever."
"Yet you killed him anyway!" Daemons' vicious snarl sent shivers down my spine. As strong as Gerard was, Daemon was infinitely stronger. To serve such as him . . .
"He wanted death, and I . . . I wanted to please him."
Daemon removed the well-used bag of blood, but he didn't stop his attempts at breaking me. He kept me locked in that room for weeks, trying one human after another to lure me from my control. I didn't want to be strong, but it was against my nature to give in without a fight. If Daemon wanted me to bend to his will, he had a lot more to prove than Gerard ever did.
Gerard was my Sire. It was written in my very blood to serve him, to please him. I so wanted to please Daemon, as well, but I knew that to give in to him would be a mistake. He would hate me like no other if I allowed him to break me, to control me, without a fight or a challenge.
But, my control was fast slipping away. My hunger gnawed at me from every cell in my body, painful and unending. With every warm, brightly alive, human that was placed in front of me, my desire to rip into their throats and gorge myself until I was drunk with their blood, was quickly overwhelming my sanity. I knew, when the time came for me to give up, there wouldn't be anything life of my willing victim but a dried out husk, a dead shell.
