Two weeks later.
Fire burned through Lucien’s veins, tore at his insides, and incinerated him until he was sure every part of him was nothing but the ashen remains of cells and sinew. He had no idea where he was, and he didn’t care.
Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Must feed. Blood. Feed. Feed. Feed.
Nothing made sense anymore; his brain was a jumbled mess, and everything came back to one thing… blood.
He had to get blood soon. He needed to feed, to sink his fangs into something and drain every drop of blood from it. That was the only thing that would put the fire out. Memories of feeding drifted through his mind and became jumbled with other memories from his life.
He was a child in his mother’s arms, a man covered in blood, a vampire unable to unleash all his pent-up violence, a fighter. He saw the man he followed, his leader, but he couldn’t recall his name. Shadowy figures of other warriors flitted through his mind, and he dimly recalled they once meant something to him, but they meant nothing now.
He saw a Savage… no, a vampire… no, not a vampire but a hunter with strangely white-blue eyes emerging from beneath the earth. The hunter held a sword, and smoke trailed from him as he ran for the woods.
Then a horde of creatures buried him, and he was fighting, tearing, kicking as he sought to break free. He had to save the others.
What others? Who cared about any others when he was on fire, but he was still fighting because he didn’t want to die….
No, he was fighting against a fate worse than death….
He was fighting against this!
For a second, his haze of starvation broke, and he knew he was living his worst nightmare. He couldn’t give in; he wouldn’t let them break him. He had to get out of this.
And then the fire burned away all memories and coherent thought once more. In the dark, he snarled and fought against his binds like a wild animal seeking to break free of a trap. He heard the sounds, and sometimes he realized they were coming from him, but at other times, they were as distant as the moon.
Sometimes he became aware of the stench of a filthy animal and knew it was him. Other times, he jerked against his chains as he hunted the source of the smell so he could feed on it. Sometimes, he sank his fangs into his flesh in an attempt to assuage his need to bite and to taste blood, but his blood did nothing to ease his thirst. It only made it worse.
Something clattered then squeaked. He lifted his head, but all he saw was the shadows enshrouding his prison. Then a flame was brought forth. Unaccustomed to the light, he recoiled, but when the scent of blood hit him, he forgot all about the pain the fire created. Lurching forward, those animal sounds filled his cell as his fangs snapped.
“He’s ready,” someone said.
Lucien lunged toward them, but his chains made the action useless. However, he couldn’t stop trying to break free as the thunderous beat of pumping hearts filled the room. They sounded as loud as gunshots in his ears, and they were more tempting than Eve with her apple.
“Unchain him,” the voice commanded.
Lucien tried to bite his captors when they approached, but they didn’t acknowledge him. A rattling clink came from behind him, and his arms fell forward. He didn’t take the time to rejoice in his freedom or the ease of the ever-present soreness that seeped into his muscles so long ago.
He lurched toward one of them, but someone jerked his arms behind him again. Someone else grasped his ankles and lifted him off the ground. Thrashing, kicking, and hissing, Lucien sought to break free, but starvation had weakened him. His struggles were useless as they carried him through a tunnel.
He saw nothing of his surroundings until he was led into a large, open pit and tossed into the middle. He spun toward whoever carried him, but they were already exiting the pit and shutting a steel door behind them.
Unwilling to let them get away, he flew across the pit and flung himself against the door, but he was like a weakened mouse against an elephant. The impact threw him back and knocked him on his ass.
Pushing himself partially up on his hands, he blinked as he tried to take in his surroundings through the white lights shining down on him. In front of those lights stood a group of vampires who all gazed down at him with mixed expressions of boredom, curiosity, and eagerness. Someone shouted to bring in the others, and then a door across the way opened.
Gladiator pit.
He had only a moment of lucid thought to recognize his surroundings before they shoved five women into the pit with him. Five human women, and they all had delicious, life-saving blood pumping through their veins.
Lucien didn’t realize he was standing or hear the rattle of his chains as he raced across the pit, grabbed the first woman, and sank his fangs into her throat. The sweetest blood he’d ever tasted filled his mouth.
And then a pain unlike anything he’d ever experienced exploded in his head, and he reeled back.
THE END
Look for Bound by Danger, Lucien’s story, to release in 2020!
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