Chapter Three ~ Serenity~

Something warm heated my face, contrasting a chill at my side. A haze of confusion clung to me as I started to wake from the most restless sleep, disorientated awareness creeping in. I tried to move, even just shift a little but my body refused. My arms and legs were so heavy, like they were pinned or paralyzed. I decided against moving for the moment. If I was pinned no need to draw attention to my rousing consciousness, and if I was paralyzed I hoped it was only a temporary condition of my groggy state. Cracking my eyelids I tried to draw out some details of where I was, but it prompted pain to stab into my temples and I let them close.

Tracing my memories back to gain some understanding of my current situation, the last thing I remembered was laying in Vondorian's bed and the world spinning. He had dosed me with something. A sweet warm tea-like drink that had a sharp bite of mint or perhaps some other strong herb. I licked my lips to see if I could draw any remaining liquid in hopes it would restore some of my lost time. My tongue was greeted by dry cracked lips but none of that sweet drink Vondorian had served me.

Laying there I tried to draw on another thought, another clue with my dazed senses. After what felt like a long moment of mental struggle my thoughts started to fall into place, fragments of a battle played out in my head. Screams, fire, blood those were all familiar but I still couldn't recapture all of the events. My awareness became more keen the longer I lay there, the warming feeling on my face I was now sure was sunlight but the cold beside me I couldn't place. I battled against the mental exertion to elicit more from my surroundings, where I was would help to fill the gaps in my memory.

I was with Cret…That was all my mind needed to stir anger, and those last moments on top of the hill came flying back. He had stabbed me again, damn him.

What happened after that? Did he leave me to die? I couldn't remember.

Wherever he had left me I wasn't safe. Lying out in the open in the middle of the valley, or worse maybe I was a prisoner. Panic gripped at my chest and my body jumped awake with instinct, forcing my eyes open I rolled to my side and soreness stabbed through my chest stopping my efforts. I was too weak. My wounds weren't healing. Clenching my whole body I couldn't fight to keep my eyes open any longer, instead I just lay there, surrendering for the moment to my injuries. This was serious, but at least now I could understand my confusion with my returning senses.

I had lost control last night—I gave up control. What Cret battled with was nothing more than a wounded animal, how surprising he survived or were my skills really that comprised under my creature's influence?

Waking from my creature's hold was no different than waking from a long disorientating vampiric sleep, my memories so faint at first and without warning they would come crashing back. All the agony and torment I dealt to my victims would return in one swift flood to haunt me. I was relieved that wouldn't be the case this time. No, Cret was the clear victor of this battle, and I was the only victim of my insane rage.

I willed my eyes to open again taking in the blinding sun that burned my vision, I had to know where I was and the extent of my injuries. The sweet breeze of lake air passed over me followed by that now common scent of death, carried along by the burnt aroma of the city. It did little to tell me where I was. I could pick up on those scents anywhere within miles of Tentusa, and my vision did little to aid. All I could make out were blurred colors and hazy outlines before the pain in my head forced them closed again.

"Settle yourself and be still," the familiar voice of my master seized my heart into my throat and I stilled. "Your wounds are serious and far from healed."

Fear overtook the aching pain that held to my body as I lay there helpless with Master so very close, the revelation that I was alive was enough to make me flinch when I felt him move beside me. He was the chill I was feeling, and if I was alive it was because he had a more torturous punishment waiting for me. Vondorian should have killed me or at least let Cret finish what I had provoked, that was the punishment for killing one of our own and for my very blatant disobedience last night.

A throb beat in my temples as my senses fully woke to the moment that could very well be my last. The feeling of silk sheets did little to relax me while Vondorian's bitter vanilla scent covered my body. I must be in his chambers. Is this real or some sick nightmare?

His weight shifted beside me on the bed causing a tremble of fear under my skin. The urge to open my eyes drove me to act. To confirm I was back in the manor in Master's grasp yet again. Suddenly the moment just before battling Cret came back to me, the beauty and power. How untouchable I felt and the freedom that clung to me. I wanted that now and wished to never lose it again, but I knew that was a fleeting moment. A chance happening that would never recur as the chilled whisper of Master's knuckles brushed over the side of my face. I knew that touch better than anything.

There was no denying it—I was caged once more.

His touch trailed down my face and across my collar bone to the other side of my body, then down my left arm. It was so gentle and disturbing. Master was never gentle with me, at least not before the most unimaginable torment followed. I knew it was coming, the first blow that would be the gateway to more raw unnatural pain, and it caused me to flinch intensifying the ache of my wounds.

He hushed me and settled that cold hand of his on my chest. "Be still. You will only make this worse."

Make what worse? What do you have planned for me?

My mind raced with questions, seeking answers inside my thoughts to which Master did not give. I could handle the pain. These wounds were my own fault for rushing so foolishly into battle with such a formidable enemy, and now I was at a disadvantage. That dagger of Cret's nearly killed me, and even though I survived there would be lasting damage.

The first time I fell victim to him I woke much like this, my world completely distorted in struggling moments I couldn't recall. As I regained my strength I found my creature was no longer there to aid me. The thing which drove my whispering dark desires was no longer there. I was left to my own thoughts which happened to be far more mortal—a notion which I loathed. It made me weak and less than what I should have been, even after my creature returned, having only been stunned from Cret's weapon, the mortal side of me remained—stronger than before I was struck down.

This time would be no different. My creature was stunned. Wounded and slumbering deep within me. I couldn’t even feel it but I knew it would return, hungry for vengeance and strengthened with rage. It wouldn't be like last time, the faint hum of its appetite gradually seeping in. I would let it come back in a violent roar because I felt the same wounds it did. Our pride and honor were destroyed and we had to recover. I couldn't do that if Master took my life.

That was the fear that caused me to flinch under his disturbingly gentle touches. The fact that I was alive, for now, only meant he wanted me to suffer first. There would be more pain before he freed me, and I couldn't let that happen.

Deep dread overtook me as I forced my eyes open again, this time slower so they could adjust. Still the sun beat down making my vision blurred, but I could manage the discomfort more now. Details of Master's chambers started to come into focus. The balcony was open as it often was. Vondorian liked to stand out there in the twilight, surveying his new domain like some warlord, a great conqueror that owned all that was visible.

Rain clouds still hung heavy in the sky, filled with the first rays of dawn causing them to reflect a burnt orange hue, the backdrop to the blurry outline of my master. He was leaning over me the details of his face still obscure. I narrowed my gaze to focus on him. The angles of his features became more defined until I could make out the most terrifying image of his face. I was met with an affectionate smile like I had never seen, the same emotion reflected in his crimson eyes that sparkled in the early dawn.

Who is this man? It couldn't be my master. The man who had only expressed dominance and torture over me for the last few centuries.

The back of his hand brushed over my face again as I looked at him. "I'm relieved to see you are awake." The soft sweetness to his voice made me cringe.

I could always measure the extent of the brutality I would suffer based on the edge of his voice, or lack thereof. The softer his tone the deeper his rage and the more I would have to endure, but this level of gentleness I couldn't measure. It was off his normal scale and it made me shiver with a deep anxiety that was so foreign a feeling.

Thoughts of what I had left to do, of what I needed to do raced through my mind. I couldn’t be the victim of Master's rage now, I didn't have the time and if death was going to be my end then there were things I needed to finish. Cret crept back into my thoughts flushing the fright of punishment out of me, replacing it with the deep hatred I now reserved only for him.

"Just get it over with," I said out loud. "Give me all the punishment you wish, I know I deserve it, but I beg that you spare my life. I want to live only long enough to kill Cret."

I was blunt and forceful when I spoke despite the hoarse scratch in my throat and the affliction in my heart that held back my strength. I had never been like this with Master. Defiant, yes. Lashing out in anger—a few rare occasions, but this was different. I was cold and distant from the moment and focused. Master could do whatever he willed with me. I honestly didn't care. So long as I could get to Cret and repay him in kind for what he did to me, not just for last night but all those years ago. It was his fault I was so conflicted. These mortal emotions awoke because he stripped me of centuries of difficult training. My pride was beyond repair now. I needed to ease the ache of that injury more than anything.

To my surprise Master chuckled drawing a piece of my raven hair from my face, "I have no intention of harming you, my dear. I believe you have suffered enough for the time being, but there will be a punishment." The warm reassurance in his voice was unsettling, as was the hint of seduction in his last few words.

My head swam with confusion as I tried to figure out his mood, this strange behavior which set off alarms. I looked into his crimson eyes, flakes of gold danced with a mild heat I had never seen before. It was almost like admiration, some type of deep affection. I blinked to refocus my hazy vision sure what I saw in his gaze was an illusion, but when I looked back it was still there. Is he mocking me?

An uncomfortable knot formed in my gut and I suddenly itched for distance between us. I moved to sit up despite the weakness clinging to every limb of my body, Master's hand pushed on my chest and eased me back to the bed.

"Moving would not be wise. Rest for now. I have taken care of everything." He assured me with a sweet smile that edged on the corners of his mouth. I did not reflect the same comfort that his words implied.

"What do you mean?"

"This ordeal will soon be over, and things will be so much different." Those words were so cryptic I raised an eyebrow in question. Leaning forward Vondorian placed a gentle kiss upon my forehead adding, "the world is about to change."

Knots filled my stomach, something about that last statement. The change in his gaze and the finite tone in his voice didn't settle well. It put me on edge as he brushed his fingers through my hair. What nightmare have I fallen into?

"The army arrives this evening to finish the task. The valley will be our nation’s first real victory. I have dispatched Victoria to handle Cret an—"

"No," I growled in violent protest. "I want to kill him!"

Vondorian paused in his sweet motion of his fingers through my hair and I missed it. I was finding strange comfort in his alarming tenderness.

"She won't kill him. I need him alive…For now."

It should have put me at ease that Cret would live long enough for me to recover and finish him, but the idea of Victoria going after him didn't ease my thoughts. I wanted to be the one to handle Cret. I needed to do this. With Victoria on the task there was a good chance Cret could be the victor.

Since we had returned the young maiden to the manor, Victoria had been under Vondorian's influence, ensnared by his strange powers. Slowly she started to turn into something I had never seen, not a vampire or even a lowly ghoul of a servant but something else. She was just a vacant shell of a person, her bright blue eyes that I once envied were now dull and full of malice. I didn't understand how he was able to turn such an innocent into a monster. The angel was nothing more than a golden-haired weapon at the call of Master, all the basic battle skills of a vampire warrior hidden behind a mask of innocence. The child was no longer a lady bred for a royal. She was a masterpiece that had me in awe of Vondorian's abilities.

Still, Cret was skilled, he bested me, and Victoria was far from my level. She didn't have the instincts of a warrior. Cret could handle her. Then again if Cret were wounded, if Vondorian had battled him in his attempt to retrieve me then Victoria could certainly capture Cret. I couldn't let that happen.

My gaze locked onto Vondorian's. It was a sign of disrespect for someone of my standing to look so directly at a lord, but I needed to show him how serious and true my intentions were.

Pure conviction washed over my face as I spoke, "I want to do this, let me handle the boy."

Master's eyes hardened at my words. The soft gentle kindness leaving him for a second as he stared at me, his crimson gaze studying mine perhaps for some falter. I wasn't going to falter. Not this time. He softened again but uncertainty still stared back at me. Master didn't trust me, and he was right not to. I had given him nothing but disloyalty, but I needed this.

"I will not fail you again," I assured in an effort to persuade him.

"I don't trust you not to kill him," my master's words stung me deep with his lack of trust. "Your rage is far too strong."

"He will be intact when I bring him before you, Master. If you give your word I'll be the one to kill him after you have taken what you need." The venom in my voice scared even me as the words came so easily from my lips.

The rage from last night bubbled up from my gut, but the creature inside didn't respond. It couldn't after what Cret had done to me. Now I would have to rely on my own strength, the strength in my purest conviction. I was left on my own and that was fine.

Vondorian looked at me, studying my face for a long moment before he leaned down and whispered close to my ear, his breath oddly warming despite the chill. What was happening to my world? It was all shifting so fast…Stay focused on Cret.

"You haven't healed yet, and even then you lack the strength." The caring reflection in his words only enraged me.

I can handle that boy!

"I can manage, give me the chance or I will take it." The forceful words came out. I didn't understand myself just like I couldn't understand Vondorian's new demeanor.

He pulled away so I could see his face that lingered so close, his vanilla scent no longer holding its normal bitter bite, instead it was warm and inviting. This was a version of Master I could lose myself in… All of myself.

Vondorian let out a light chuckle shifting his body over mine, his large figure pushing mine into the bed in a gentle show of dominance. "You don't have what is needed for this, but you could," he whispered against my lips. He had my interest. "Become mine, give yourself to me and I will give myself to you. Then you will have all the strength, all the power you require for any task put before you. Serenity, you will become my equal. Everything inside of me will be yours to use at your will."

I had heard this offer before and I wanted it even more now than all those years ago when I was young and reckless with decisions. The way his voice was so assuring, the strange affection in his eyes, it seduced me into needing what he had to offer. I would give him my body and soul, even what little free will I retained, and in return I could have all of him. The price seemed more than fair.

Cold immortal kissed lips brushed against mine, a whispered breath passed from his mouth into me as he spoke. "Become my mate and you will want for nothing."

I melted into that idea like I never had before. Memories of the last time he spoke those words to me couldn't touch on the delicate and seducing nature of this moment. There was need but not like the rough violence in the heat of spontaneous passion when he first made the offer.

On that night, so long ago, after spending centuries in his service being the loyal subject I was in my vampiric youth, he finally showed me an interest that so many of his followers longed for. Something I dreamed of, that I coveted since the moment he sired me into this immortal life. I did anything and everything to ensure I caught his eye, but still I would only get passing glances like all the others. As I rose through the ranks I told myself the success was due to master's special feelings toward me. That night just confirmed it as he took me in the shadows of his room, devouring my mouth like it was his last physical meal. He asked me then to become his mate, to bond with him until death pulled us apart, a mutual joining that would make me an equal.

My chest fluttered with satisfaction, I had reached my goal and gone beyond. I only ever wanted him to notice me, but now he would be mine. Vondorian would never look upon another female again.

I wanted to say yes back then, the acceptance right there on the tip of my tongue but he hushed me. Put a cold finger to my lips before devouring them one last time, and then he commanded me to prove my worth to him and take that last outpost. Once Izusan had fallen I was to return to him and become his. I never returned. At least not as the same person he made that offer to. Things changed that night and I hated the man whom had changed them… I hated Cret.

"No," I said at a whisper even when I wanted to scream yes.

I felt a rumble of a growl start deep in his chest and his warm expression fade a little, that was the Master I knew. "Serenity." My name came out of his mouth like a warning, but I shook my head.

"I have to do this on my own." I explained. "I have to prove I can do this…I need to do this."

It was the truth. I would say yes to Vondorian. I would give myself over to him in every way and allow him to claim me just as I would claim him. First, I had to make myself worthy again. Reclaim what Cret had taken from me, and prove I could turn back from this hellish existence and be the proud feared vampire I once was. Then, maybe, the dread that gripped me every time I was about to give in to my desires would leave. I could surrender myself without panic that Vondorian's strength would only make my defiant mortal voice louder.

"Why should I allow you this?" He asked with a devious smirk. "I could take you now, I don't need your approval. I could take you and do what I wish because that is my right as a lord, and you are just my subject. It is my duty by law."

His truth shook me. It was his right to do what he willed with me, the fact he expressed a need for my approval and compliance was special only to him. The other lords and even those below them had taken their share of slaves, forcing them into service with death being the only way out.

He could do just that to me. Claim what he felt was already his without giving me the ability to complete the mating ritual, and in that moment I would become his sex slave… Some trophy to be carried under his arm completely invaded by him. Whatever small fraction of myself I had left would be stripped away. Panic tightened in my chest and washed over into a defiant determination.

"And it's my duty to report your strange behaviors to Overlord Mathus. I think he would be very interested to know everything I have witnessed," I challenged.

Vondorian studied me for another long moment, his warming affection returning as his eyes traced over my face and then down, across my bare neck to the bandages wrapped around my chest. His gaze trained on the swell of my breasts as I took in labored breaths causing the bandages to strain. My aching body was at his mercy beneath his looming figure. He could do whatever he wished to me. I didn’t have the strength to stop him. A smirk cracked at the edge of his lips and I braced for what he would do, readying myself for him to take me without granting my request. Drawing in a waiting breath I braced for the violent sting of his fangs, but instead Vondorian chuckled.

"So difficult," he mocked bringing his wrist to his lips and biting it open. Rich blood scented the air and I was suddenly so very hungry. "Drink and heal yourself, then you can go after the boy."

He lowered his wrist to me and I turned away, I wanted to do this completely on my own. A drop of his blood dripped on the corner of my mouth and I fought the urge to lick it even as it followed the curved slit of my lips.

Just one taste, I could do that. A small taste to ease the craving. Fangs slid from my gums and dripped with anticipation for that rich thick power Master was offering me, my body trembling like an addict for one last taste.

It's just a reaction. It will pass, I lied to myself.

My body craved blood because it was weak and starved for power, but I craved it because it brought peace. In those moments of taking the rich crimson life of another my heart beat like no other moment in my long existence. I was free and confined by the single act of drinking from another, and drinking from Vondorian—it was the closet thing to heaven I could ever hope for. A dark sinful domain that could only be reached through the most cursed of acts. A place for those who sacrificed their immortal souls for just one more fix. His own special depraved heaven where I was his damned angel.

Even as my body rebelled against me and my lips parted I pulled my head farther away from him. It was foolish, with Vondorian's offering I could heal my wounds in a matter of hours instead of weeks but I had to prove I could do this unaided.

"While I enjoy your spirit and determination I have let you fight me enough for one day. This is my battle to win, not yours Serenity." He laughed.

I looked back to see his lips twisting in the most deviously enticing grin as he brought his wrist to his lips, before I could question him Vondorian's mouth was on mine. Trapping me in a heated kiss. His tongue fighting its way between my lips until I could refuse no more and they opened, my mouth filling with the sweet taste of blood as his tongue plunged forward to explore me. There was no stopping now, all it took was one taste and I submitted to him. Submitted to my addiction.

My fangs found his tongue and pierced through sending a rush of metallic vanilla down my throat, a moan fleeting from his lips at the pleasured pain. I drank from him with a fevered need, the strength returning to my body in such a rush I gripped his shoulders, my nails breaking flesh as I drew him down to me. Mine, my mind growled taking from him in long gulps not able to get enough.

Soon Serenity…So very soon, his dark voice whispered among my thirsty thoughts but I didn't welcome the invasion as I had in the past. It wasn't comforting or soothing to my needs. I found myself wandering to thoughts of Cret and wishing for the briefest of moments that I could hear his haunting voice instead of Vondorian's.