Courting a Vampire

I gasped at the pain of him sinking his fangs into my neck. When he had marked me, it had felt wonderful, a bit of pain but it was dramatically offset by the passion Damien and I had been sharing.

Now, however, the pain was intense. I cried out softly and pressed my hand to the back of Damien's. I closed my eyes and felt the tears drip down my cheek onto Damien's lips. I felt Damien lay me back and I began to feel light headed and weak. I tried to squeeze Damien's hair and tell him that I had but it didn't do anything.

"Damien..." It was all but a whisper, but it seemed to be enough to break his trance and his fangs slid out of my damaged neck.

He held me to him and I felt him breath raggedly against my body, "I saw it, I saw the hospital Lilly. But I wanted to see the murder, and its not there."

His fingers traced the scar underneath my scalp, "I've been angry at you for so long."

I wrapped my arms around him and held him closer, "I understand."

The door flew open and Desmond stepped in, followed by four of her cousins. Damien had jumped up at the sound and I laid on the bed, too weak to fight. She smirked down at me and grabbed me by my throat.

I gagged and she lifted me with one hand and held me in the air, struggling to breath. My head felt like it would pop and my lungs began to scream for air. I convulsed and felt the urge to pass out begin to settle on me. She dropped me painful to the ground and I gasped for breath, tears springing to my eyes and I coughed.

"Enough Desmond." Damien stepped towards me but Desmond's family put a hand on his chest and held him in place.

Desmond looked at Damien with a sneer, "You cant seem to kill this thing, so I will. She's an abomination, no vampire should ever give life to anything other than a vampire. I will save you from yourself, my love."

She snapped her fingers and I only managed a brief glimpse into Damien's dark grey eyes before a fist smashed into my face, sending me hurling painfully, into darkness.

*******

I woke up to familiar hands touching my face, "Oh thank god Lilly, your not dead."

I wished I were dead. My face felt like it was both on fire and being crushed. I tried to look up at who was talking to me, but for some reason my left eye wasn't focusing. I turned my head slightly and the pain was so excruciating and turned to the side and vomited.

The cool hands were back on my face when I had finished and my Aunts familiar voice tried to sooth me, "Don't worry Lilly, we will be alright. Just don't move, okay, it wont hurt so bad if you don't move."

The door flew open and three large bodies were thrown in with a loud resounding oaf. My Aunts hands left my face and I could make out her shadow lurking over the new bodies. When the doors slammed shut they sounded metallic and cold. I looked around only a little, but from the rank, metallic smell of old blood, and how cold the floor was, I could only assume I was in the dungeon with my Aunt.

"Its okay, I'm Lilly's aunt Isadora."

My aunts voice was hushed and it seemed to calm down the scuffling sound coming from the shadows she was near. I didn't dare try to turn my head, the pain still so intense I could barely breath. I began to wish for unconsciousness again until the cool hands were back on my face.

"Who?"

My aunt pushed her fingers to my mouth, "Don't speak, it will just make you sick. And its your three suitors, broken, and battered, but from the looks of it, they managed to put up a really good fight."

My aunt touched my left eyelid, "Lilly close your right eye and tell me what you see out of your left."

"Blood." I didn't say anymore because my aunt had been right, talking started to make me sick again.

My aunt strangled a sob and I could tell she had no idea what to do. I know I didn't, "I don't know why we are here."

I clenched my teeth together, "Desmond."

My aunt fluttered back to the three suitors, checking on them again before returning to my side. My aunt touched the still open bite marks of Damien.

"Who did this Lilly?"

"Damien."

Her sharp gasp was enough to make me move just enough to look at her. She leaned down and licked the wound and I could already feel it sealing. "Do they know? The ones that took you?"

"I don't know, they punched me unconscious."

"If we are lucky, Desmond didn't see that." My aunt chewed on her manicured thumbnail, looking at the door whenever there was a sound.

I closed my eyes but only managed to fall asleep before rough hands were grabbing me by my shirt and yanking me up. I cried out as they tried to put me on my feet, and only managed to collapse the times they did. My aunt was yelling hysterically for the vampire to leave me alone, but instead he backhanded her, sending her staggering back. He grabbed me and flung me over his shoulder, like a sack of potatoes, and I whimpered at the pain shooting through my head and I drooped limply over his shoulder.

He threw me to the floor after a short distance and I curled up into the fetal position, trying to both hide from the pain in my body and whatever was waiting for me. I heard a high, whiney laugh and didn't have to look to know Desmond was the owner of the voice.

"You should be standing, little human. It is only honorable that your family see you stand with as much pride as your disgusting body can muster. Come now, stand, it is your murder trial, after all."

I didn't care what she said, I couldn't have stood, even if I wanted to. Vampires seemed to think that humans could ignore the pain in lieu of pride, but they were wrong. Vampire's bodies were wired to their brains differently. The wiring left space enough to consider things like pride in the face of pain.

But I wasn't a vampire, I was a human. My brain was wired so that when my body was broken and in as much pain as I was in, it was all encompassing. The vision of me being stabbed through the heart while my parents looked on in disgust fluttered to my minds eye and burned itself there.

I was going to die, I was sure of it. My parents, if they were really there, were going to stand by and watch it happen probably with the same look of disgust.

"This is highly inappropriate Lady Desmond, the prince should be here conducting this trial." I could hear the council mans annoyance even though my pain.

"I dare say, it looks like the Princess has been beaten."

"SHES NOT A PRINCESS!!" Desmond's scream filled the hall, silencing everyone.

There was a paused moment of silence before Desmond's voice returned, sounding near hysterics, "She killed the King and Queen, she's a murder, and she will die, understand?"

"Prove it." I recognized my fathers clear, cold voice. I managed to peek at him, seeing him standing rigid and tall, never once looking at me.

"You will be silent, traitor!" Desmond sounded like she had gone mad and I flinched tighter into myself as her sharp feet stomped over to me, "Stand up you disgusting creature."

She grabbed my hair and pulled it with all her strength. I cried out and managed to get onto my knees, my shoulders and head hunched forward, my shaking arms holding me up, but barely. I didn't last long though, and before I knew it I was back on my side, curled into my position.

I squeezed my eyes shut when she came close again, and this time all she did was scream and kick me directly in the stomach. I didn't scream, because I was too busy trying to fold into my self, but it didn't matter as she kicked me three times, something snapping inside of me causing the pain I was feeling to double.

I couldn't breath without hurting, I stopped listening because the pain was too much. I began to wish I would have died of the cold only a few days ago. I only vaguely became aware of a small scratching feeling underneath my right breast. I reached in as slowly as I could, any movement making my body scream in pain. I felt a small paper envelope, maybe the size of a large stamp. I pulled it out and felt the grains on the bottom.

I put it in my mouth, and tried to listen to what was going on. I began to gather that the reason Desmond was in control of everything was because she had marked Damien. If she had bitten him, and he had not had the chance to do so in return, she would have a great deal of power over him.

My fathers voice lecturing me began to drift in through the haze of pain and I focused on it, wanting to distract my mind from what it was feeling.

"Anytime a vampire bites another vampire they are branded. The vampire being bitten must quickly bite the other vampire, so that the bond is equal."

"What happens if it isn't equal father?"

My father looked down at me and frowned, "The vampire that was bitten would be at a disadvantage. The vampire would see the one who bit them in only the best of lights. The vampire could murder the bitten's whole family, and the bitten would do nothing but justify the reasoning for it, and then find thing wrong with the biter."

My father tapped me on the shoulder and I followed him outside, my young legs still too short to keep up with his pace except to run.

"As with all bonds, they are broken upon the death of one or the other vampire. But the vampire bitten will fight until their own death to protect the owner of the bond. The vampire will become weak, and given enough time, the bond will eventually destroy the vampire."

"Why?"

"Because vampires aren't built for great amounts of emotion. Probably one of the most intense emotion is love, it is too much for one vampires' being to handle alone, that's why the bond is so valuable. It distributes the emotion between the two vampires, allowing for it to be bearable. If it is just a one sided bond, the vampire bonded will be destroyed."

"What if I get bit father?"

"I have mentioned a few of the reasons why it is to your advantage to be human, not ever one so much as this. Humans are built to survive emotions, in fact they seemed to be built to not only survive emotions but to feed off of them as well. A human will cease to exist if they do not have the emotions that would other wise destroy vampires. If you are bitten you will thrive on the feelings of love, and the vampire that has bitten you will be able to funnel the toxic energy into you."

My fathers voice faded away and I realized that this had to be what was going on. Desmond had bitten Damien and had managed not to get bitten back in return. The only reason why Damien had not become completely destroyed by now was because he had bitten me. I had felt a maelstrom of emotions after having been bitten, but none more than love, frustration, and distrust.

I had to destroy Desmond, because no one else would do it and because Damien wouldn't see me as a threat until it was too late. I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the pain, but I couldn't. My body hurt too much. I listened as the crazy bitch began to talk about the joining of her family with Damien's.

Anger is an awesome pain killer. It gives you that shot of "fuck you" that just seems to eliminate, or at least dull, everything else going on.

I opened the small envelope with my tongue and poured the silver sand into my mouth and worked the sand into a paste with my saliva. I didn't want to kill every vampire in the room, just one, so I needed to make sure it didn't go airborne.

I opened my ears and eyes and began to unfurl a bit and take in Desmond's frantic pacing. She began to speak about destroying me as a wedding present for Damien and I tucked the wad of silver into my cheek and started laughing.

The room must have already been silent because my laughing stopped Desmond's ranting instantly. She turned to me and I slowly sat up and looked at her.

"You are one crazy, fucking, bitch."

Desmond was on me in a flash, and I knew there would be no fight. She snapped my leg when she grabbed it and then grabbed the front of my shirt she lifted me up. I gagged at the pain and then did something I swore I would never do. I inhaled and blew my nose hard onto Desmond, giving her a farmers nose blow like only a country girl could.

She screamed and I saw my chance and with I reached out grabbed onto her ears and brought my mouth right to her. I spit the paste directly into her mouth and kept my open mouth pressed to hers and she fell backwards already beginning to gag. She clawed at my back, leaving long open cuts, but I held onto her.

She kept clawing until I was sure there was no skin left on my back and that anyone could see the bones of my back. I kept my mouth over hers and she opened and closed it, her body now convulsing in its final death throes. I stayed where I was for a few moments after she stopped moving and then sat up. I looked down at her dead eyes, and carefully closed her mouth then looked up at Damien, who had stopped struggling against the vampires that had been restraining him, and with a small smile collapsed.