Mira (6 page)

           
Rillan drank to sate his hunger.
 
He tasted her warmth again, and it flooded through his veins.
 
His body reveled in the heat that only came with feeding.
 
Mira lay still, the room spinning around her, and she began to feel very tired.
 
To avoid thinking about the monster drinking her life from her, she concentrated on the feeling of his cock inside of her.
 
The tired drifting feeling was accompanied with a gentle pleasure from where their bodies were joined.
 
Mira moaned at the memory of what he did to her moments before, and she pressed her hips against him, feeling his cock press more deeply inside her, as he continued to drain her body.
 
Eventually darkness settled over her, and she lay still.

           
Rillan sat back and looked down on her motionless form.
 
She was paler now that he drained her.
 
She slept softly.
 
It was a rare thing, when he considered keeping one of them with him while she slept after the feeding.
 
As he thought about her hips pressing against him while he drank from her, even after she saw his face, there was a little piece of him that wanted to hope.

           
Anger quickly took over his mind.
 
He was annoyed with himself for letting her get to him.
 
Mira is as frightened as the others.
 
The girl merely has a more lascivious side to her than the others.
 
Growling, he got out of the bed and pulled on his breeches.
 
Leaving his tattered shirt on the floor, he went to the corner of the room where he threw her dress and grabbed it.
 
Tossing it across her body, he picked her up off his bed.

           
I’ll have to lock my door in future, in case she goes wandering again,
he thought angrily, carrying her to her own rooms.
 
He muttered and fumed the entire way there, not knowing why she had gotten to him so badly.
 
By the time he reached her bed, his temper had cooled somewhat.
 
He laid her down with a reluctant gentleness and stared at her a moment.
 
Rillan put her dress across the arm of a chair nearby, and returned to her side.
 
He carefully pulled the blankets back and covered her, taking the time to brush her hair from her face and arrange her in the bed so that she looked comfortable.
 
He felt like he was looking for excuses to stay near her.

           
Rillan started to lean down to kiss her cheek.
 
It had been a long time since a girl managed to spend a first night with him without running, no matter what time he spent preparing them for it.
 
Suddenly anger hit him again, and he pulled himself away.
 
He stormed from her rooms, slamming doors behind him.
 
Give her time.
 
She’ll be like all the rest,
he told himself.
 

           
When Rillan reached his own room, he threw the covering of the shaft closed.
 
Dawn was approaching, he could feel it.
 
He couldn’t believe how much time he kept her here.
 
Crawling into his bed, he smelled her on his sheets.
 
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, allowing the nightmares to come for him as they always did.

Chapter 3

           
Lilith gazed around the room at all the druids present.
 
“So what do you propose, should the rumors be true?”

           
One of the younger men looked at the old woman with concern.
 
“Can we survive without him?”
 
He cleared his throat nervously, knowing how many of the others would feel about the idea he was about to propose.
 
“It has to be said.
 
I mean, if Tiberius knows about the vampire, would we be safer to get rid of him?
 
Before he’s found that is.”

           
A fearful murmur ran through the assembled crowd.
 
Many of them had been thinking it.
 
No one was willing to say it.

           
A young woman stood indignantly forward.
 
“We keep him for our own purposes for centuries only to discard him when it seems things may become difficult?”
 
She glared at the druids who seemed to be agreeing with the idea.
 
“I can’t believe we could be as callous as those he was created to protect us from.
 
There must be another way.”

           
An angry looking young man standing against the back wall stepped forward.
 
“If there is another way,” Liam ap Arnauk growled, “shouldn’t that have been decided before we sent in the new sacrifice?
 
And if there isn’t another way
,
then we’ve sent a girl to her death for no reason.
 
If we’re going to be rid of the vampire, then we should have come to that decision weeks ago.”

           
“Enough Liam.”
 
An old man said.
 
He was one of the few assembled who was sitting.
 
The mere movement stilled the commotion that had resulted from the controversial conversation.
 
“
Rillan ap Tiernay was created to be our guardian.
 
Should the legends left by those who actually saw and spoke to him be true, then it can be believed that he would take his own life to protect us should the situation demand it.
 
While I am hesitant to think that it has come to such an extreme, the possibility should be considered.
 
Though I would urge that if his extermination is to be considered, he be involved in the meeting which should determine that.
 
And more importantly, it needs to be established that the option is necessary.
 
Must I remind you all that once he is gone there can be no other?
 
That information has long since been destroyed.” The other elders shifted uncomfortably, knowing that he was lying for the sake of the young men and women attending this meeting. “And the decision to create him was a long and difficult one.
 
A life is not something to be manipulated lightly.
 
This must be a unanimous decision.”

           
Lilith nodded.
 
“Thank you Caleb.
 
Your words are always thought provoking.
 
It has been a long time since direct contact with Lord Tiernay has been considered.
 
Eva?”
 
A middle aged woman with long brown braids stood forward.
 
“Make arrangements for a meeting to be held with Lord Tiernay, should it be deemed necessary.
 
For now, I believe we all need to wait for our contact to return.
 
It doesn’t need to be said, so forgive the reminder.
 
All things said here must remain here.”
 
At least if Darius is spying on us and working for the empire, he won’t like the information he would have gleaned from this meeting
, Lilith thought.
 
She didn’t like lying to her own people
.

           
With a series of nods
,
a majority of the assemblage filtered out of the room, leaving only a handful of gray and white haired men and women behind.
 
The elders remained in conference for most of the evening, coming to no more conclusive decisions than had been gleaned in the afternoon debate.

           
Black spun and swayed drunkenly in Mira’s head, as she woke.
 
She groaned, feeling the nausea and dizziness twist her stomach.
 
When she opened her eyes, she found herself in complete darkness.
 
The fire had gone out in the hearth.
 
How long have I been asleep,
she wondered.

           
At first she didn’t remember where she was.
 
The bed was warm and the bedding was silky.
 
This isn’t my bed, is it?
 
Suddenly her stomach heaved.
 
When she tried to lean over the edge of the bed to vomit, her muscles didn’t want
her
to
obey the urgent command.
 
As she began to retch, she found the strength to turn over just in time to lose the bile in her stomach down the side of the silky bed sheets and all over the floor.

           
Mira groaned as she continued to convulse and nothing came out.
 
The bile she lost smelled foul, and tears came to her eyes, as pain joined the weakness in her muscles all over her body.
 
She had never felt so sick in her life.
 
Her head screamed its upset at her for having moved at all, searing down her neck and shoulders and back to mingle with the sore tired pain that started in her legs and moved up her chest.

           
With more effort than it should have taken, she managed to work herself onto her back at an angle in the bed.
 
At least her head wasn’t dangling over the vile smell that the bile vomit emanated from the side of the bed.
 
Confusion and fear spread through the sick and pain.
 
Where am I?
 
Her brain didn’t want to think.
 
It hurt too badly.
 

           
Suddenly she realized what brought her from the bliss of unconsciousness into nightmare reality.
 
She needed to use the chamber pot.
 
She racked her brain to try and remember where in the black it might be.
 
As she tried desperately to remember, flashes of where she was and what had happened to her began to blaze across her vision in blinding clarity.
 
Her hand reached unsteadily downward to find the hair on her mound matted and crusted to her body with his dried cum.
 
Mira withdrew her hand, as if it were on fire.

           
Butterflies joined the nausea in Mira’s stomach and stirred it to the point that she began to heave again.
 
Grateful for her empty stomach, she felt her jaw extend, her throat contract, and her muscles jerk painfully.
 
There was no way she could roll over again. If there had been anything in her, it would now have been on her.
 
But now her bowels were complaining more violently.
 
It was all she could do to keep from peeing the bed.
 
More tears squeezed out from under her eyelids.
 

           
Mira threw the blankets off to the side of the bed.
 
Determination boiled in her as she forced herself to sit up.
 
Whimpering with each movement, she lifted one leg and then the other off the edge of the bed.
 
She sat there a moment, breathing heavily and gathering her strength as she tried to judge the distance to the chamber pot in her mind.
 
She could picture it under the small stand, against the far wall, fifteen or maybe twenty feet from where she was.
 
It’s not that far
, Mira reassured herself.
 

           
A gurgling in her stomach urged her to move.
 
Mira scooted forward until her feet touched the carpeted stone floor.
 
The room was starting to spin again.
 
Mira took a deep breath and tried to stand.
 
For a moment, she actually believed she was going to manage to get to her goal.
 
Without warning her legs gave out as they felt her weight.
 
Mira cried out, tumbling to the floor.
 
Grabbing for support, she only managed to topple the small stand next to her bed.
 
There was a loud crash, when the porcelain pitcher from the stand hit the stone floor.
 

           
Mira heard more than felt the sickening thud, as her head hit the floor.
 
Pain screamed through her skull.
 
A monstrous image of a pale skinned creature with empty eye sockets and a mouthful of fangs consumed her.
 
Grateful relief soothed her, as Mira felt liquid warmth puddle and flow over her thighs, and she began to black out.

* * * *

           
Rillan’s sword sung out of tune, slicing through the air and crashing violently against the armor on the practice dummy.
 
His strikes were a bit off this day.
 
He hadn’t slept, and he kept looking at the large wooden double doors, expecting them to open.
 
Every random sound had him checking to see if she had woken up yet.
 
He wasn’t sure if she was weaker than the others, if he drained her more than he should have while he was trying to teach her his lesson, or if she was hiding in her chambers afraid of him.
 
He swung the sword angrily at that thought and dented the already battered shield again.
 
The last was the most likely of the options.
 
They didn’t usually sleep this long.
 
It’s her own fault
, he told himself over and over as he swung his weapon haphazardly.

           
He considered going to check on her.
 
That pissed him off more.
 
Why, the hell, do I care,
he thought and brought the sword down on the dummy hard enough to crack the breast plate strapped to what should have been its chest.
 
He swore and threw the sword down.
 
It clattered across the floor and lodged against the hearth of the large fireplace.
 

           
Rillan pulled his armor off piece by piece and tossed it at the foot of the dummy.
 
Several times, he started for the door and then paced back to the dummy indecisively.
 
Taking a couple deep breaths, Rillan went over to pick up his sword.
 
He sheathed it properly and hung it with care on the armor rack next to the dummy, picked up his armor and set it where it belonged.
 
The actions were therapeutic, in a way.
 
Once he calmed down, he left the practice room, his soft boots echoing footsteps on the stone down the hallway.
 
When he reached her door, he paused and tucked in his white shirt.
 
He was sweaty and considered changing first, but then shook his head and forced himself to go in and check on her.

           
The darkness in the hall was unsettling.
 
She never let the candles burn down this low.
 
That was when he realized that she wasn’t merely hiding from him.
 
Something was actually wrong.
 
His pace quickened, as he walked to her bedchamber, almost starting to run when he neared the door.
 
Opening the door, the reek of vomit and urine assailed his senses.
 
He could see the empty bed from the doorway.
 
With his hand over his nose, he rushed into the room.
 
The guilt he had been hiding beneath a blanket of anger bubbled to the surface, when he found her lying naked and hurt on the floor near her bed.
 

           
Rillan knelt next to her and reached down to push her hair back from her face.
 
“I’m sorry little one.
 
I took it too far,” he said softly.
 
Gently he picked her up and placed her on the bed.
 
Her body was stone cold.
 
He felt his heart sink into a sick fear.
 
Leaning down he placed his ear against her chest and listened for a heartbeat.
 
He had never accidentally killed anyone.
 
The second it took for the weak thud to tap against her chest seemed an eternity.
 
Letting the air out of his lungs, he listened for a moment, before standing up and looking around the room.
 

           
The carpets would have to go and the bedding would need changed.
 
The pitcher and night stand would need replacing.
 
He glanced down at Mira.
 
First he would get her cleaned up and warm though.
 
Rillan tucked the blankets around her, so that she might warm up a bit while he worked in the small chamber that held the bathing tub.
 
He moved quickly, lighting the coals under the tub.
 
He was glad that he had replaced the water the day after he fed from her, so that it would be clean when she woke.
 
As he waited for the water to warm, he pulled the rugs up from either side of the bed and dragged them out into the hallway.
 
Then he went back into the room and tried to think of where he could get another rug to cover the cold stone floor, while he cleaned up the shards of porcelain from the broken pitcher and stood the night stand up.