“He said when he was done with us, w-we wouldn’t be able to continue anyway,” finished Elona, looking uneasy.
“You mean you wouldn’t be able to have sex?”
“In the condition he’d have left us in,” said Elona quietly. “Yes.”
“And you still thought you could convince him otherwise.”
They both nodded.
Lilac’s pulse was erratic, anger spiking with the jealousy that shouldn’t have been at the forefront of her mind. This didn’t sound like Garin was being funny, or even chivalrous.
Shrugging uncomfortably, Elona adjusted the shawl hanging off her bare shoulders. “We even brought him a drink.”
Her heart sank. This was wrong. Garin was vulnerable, and maybe he did need help.
How dare you, should’ve been her next words.He’s not himself. Maybe a punch to the face would have sufficed. Several options flashed through her mind before she opened her mouth. “What was he like?” was all that came out.
She couldn’t help herself.
Nellie sniffled while Elona cleared her throat bitterly. She was probably not used to being turned down. They were both beautiful. “Polite, but at the same time ill-mannered. Maybe paranoid. Kept watching the door, as if expecting someone, or something else. He seemed distracted.”
Lilac couldn’t quite concentrate on their conversation or anything in the hall for that matter, but only because she was suddenly all too present in her body. Her stomach churned, and as her hand went to her neck, she realized she’d been sweating; all of the powder, rogue, and perfume she’d put on just to torture Garin, gone.
Her gaze flickered down to the glass Elona was holding. Had the women before her felt the effects of the mead, too? Did they also feel this pulsing at their core, the need to feel something?Anything? They seemed a bit fidgety, but perhaps that came with the nerves of trying to seduce a vampire like Garin.
If they’d had any, how did they look so calm when Lilac had been fed only a few drops and felt like she might rip her clothes off if she didn’t come soon?
She looked down at the cloth-covered chalice in her hands, filled with what might be four or five large gulps of a stranger’s blood for him, hoping it would be enough.
Nellie was eyeing her chalice as well. “What did you bring him?”
“Stop entertaining her, Nellie,” Elona snapped. Her grip tightened on her half empty glass.
Before Lilac could answer, the door creaked open to reveal a well lit room. She could just make out the corner of a four poster bed, the glow of firelight.
No sight nor sound of Garin. Or the woman.
They hunched together behind Lilac, craning their necks to peek past. “Move,” Elona sneered, pushing off the wall and gripping Lilac’s shoulder, shoving her away. “Where are they?”
Lilac’s ears burned. “Get your?—”
“Get your hands off of her.” Garin’s voice floated from inside the room, just as there was a tug at Lilac’s skirts.
“P-please,” rasped a female voice, wet and weak.
Nellie made a fearful noise and Elona did as she was told, falling back against the wall once more.
No.
Lilac forced herself to look down. The third woman the pair had escorted up to Garin’s room was at her feet, pulling herself into the doorway, fully clothed except for the high lace neckline of her pretty gown, which now laid across her chest in red ribbons, looking like it had been slashed open with a knife. Or teeth.
The pair’s startled cries were drowned out by the rush of blood in Lilac’s ears. Without thinking, she bent to pick the girl up—but Garin’s black boots appeared before her as he slowly positioned himself behind his prey, whose gaze bore into Lilac’s, pleading and filled with horror. Blood flecked her head, some of it matted into her hairline as if it had been smeared across her head in an attempt to put up a fight.
Lilac couldn’t bring herself to look up at him, even under the guise of her mask. Instead, she placed the saucer down beside her and reached out to support the shuddering girl over her forearms, but Garin’s voice slid over her.
“Leave her,” he said boredly, as if helping his victim were an unnecessary favor.
Strangely, Lilac felt herself strain a little stronger now, able to resist his demand. “She needs help.”
