Chapter 5: I'm Not Food!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to meet the most beautiful man in the world while looking like you've cried for a week? I couldn't even close my mouth to make my staring less obvious. I knew fairies were known to be beautiful, they've got a glamor they can do to lure you in closer before you notice the knife they've put into your heart, but this vampire was surely prettier than any of them by far.

His eyes were the color of ice, clear and crystal and his hair was gold like corn, flowing around his shoulders in a way that Violet wishes she could manage.

And his chest. I felt like maybe I shouldn't be enjoying having run into a person quite as much as I was enjoying this experience because his chest was a very nice thing to have found myself pressed up against.

Maybe it's how vampires hunt? Some sort of way to make their prey dizzy before they sink fangs into the skin? I should say something. maybe apologize or just plain run but I thought about mouths and his mouth is just so lovely. He's even smiling a little, smiling at me - me! As though I'm not dressed in weeks old clothes with dried blood in my hair and tears drying sticky on my face.

He has to be doing this on purpose somehow.

"How nice," he says, drawing me closer and fully out of the tent. His hands aren't cold like I expected and I shiver a bit as he folds me closer to him, his skin softer than anything I've ever felt and his muscles strong and secure around me. I have a moment where I forget everything else. He's - he smells - he feels -

His golden head bows closer to me and I find myself tipping my head back like a lovesick fool. I want him to kiss me. It's got to be magic but I don't even care. He's close and warm and I know that I can even die happy if those lips press on mine.

Instead he nuzzles the side of my neck and I feel a warm little shiver run through me, a sparkling bright electric sensation that leaves me far too breathless to protest even if I wanted to.

He doesn't kiss me.

Instead there's a sharp pain and a pull that feels like getting drunk and like what I imagine making love would be. It's a good moment before I can clear my head from the rush and then I realize. He's drinking from me!

I struggle but he's strong and I'm flopping like a little fish held on a spear at first. Being vampire food is low, it's a shame so deep even no-souls won't go to the Empire to be food unless someone sells them in. I panic, no one would stop him if he wanted to take everything I have until my heart stops. Do vampires use the whole person on the first bite? Am I going to die?

The panic floods me with purpose and I kick backwards, landing my foot between his legs where the gods blessed him. He lets go in a second, a strangled noise escaping between his teeth and I scramble away from him to where he can't grab me with his strong arms and take me back.

"What are you doing?" he snarls, long teeth not really doing anything for his appearance. It's my blood that's on them and that helps me shore myself up against his pretty eyes.

"What am I doing? What are you doing? Didn't your mama ever teach you to say please before you grab a person?"

He looks me up and down with an expression of such dismissal that I feel like maybe I'm a piece of trash that he's about to throw away and never think of again. "You're not a person. You're food."

"I am not food!"

"You're a no-soul in werewolf territory," he says languidly, dusting himself down like I never made him feel pain. "Everyone knows that werewolves don't keep their embarrassments so you can't blame me for thinking you must be a snack laid on for me and my fellows."

The sheer arrogance of him takes my breath away for a moment and I gape. I have never spoken to anyone that makes me so angry or so dizzy before and I want to smack his face just to take that nasty little smirk off it. "I'm not a snack, bloodbag," I say, reaching for an insult I've heard long ago. "I'm a daughter of the pack and if you touch me again I'll make you regret it."

"And what can a powerless little tidbit like you do to me?" he licks his lips, his eyes on mine. "No matter what your delusions, morsel, you will never be able to get the better of a member of the Vampire Empire."

"Like how I definitely didn't make you let me go right now?" I sass, not sure where it's coming from but really glad of it at this moment. "Like how I didn't manage to get you away from your guard post so I could go in and see her Holy Ladyship? Would your fellows think you so brave and strong if they knew even a no-soul like me can slip by you?"

His color changes and I see actual rage in his eyes like death coming for me. He takes a step forward and I don't know what is coming next when a voice calls out 'St-Clair!' and I run while he's looking towards the call. I'm most ways home when I realize he could have caught me anyways if he'd really wanted to. Maybe he knew it was a lost cause to try to make a werewolf impressed with the great vampire might.

Maybe he was just mightily easy to distract from his purpose.

I crawl up the side of my tower like I've done a dozen times before. Now the rush of fear and adrenalin is fading from me, my knees are wobbly and I feel light-headed with excitement and terror. All the things I've done this night! Fought a vampire! Talked to a god! Used the sass that stays firm inside my head! And there's more to come on the morrow, there's actual hope out there for me.

I pull myself over to my bed and I'm about to fling myself down when I see a little package there wrapped in a slip of cloth and topped with a small white flower. It's my musicbox. Elliot saved it for me.