Otherworldly Romance: Wednesday Briefs: Thrall part 5

The lantern the hunter held in his hand illuminated the planes of his face and the red highlights in his brown hair. It was a gorgeous color in the firelight. “Perhaps I pegged you wrong, servant?” He shifted the lantern from one hand to the other, displaying the long gun he held strapped to his back as he rolled his shoulders. “Have you given up, and are here to hunt?”

I frowned. “You cannot kill me with that at this range,” I said. “You can’t lift it to fire quickly enough.

Johann raised both eyebrows. “Smart, for a servant.”

My eyes narrowed. “Why are you following me? Bothering me, if I am just…mindless. Like the ones you murdered.”

“I did not murder them. I put them to rest. They didn’t know it, but that was what they wanted.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but the words stilled on my tongue. Instead I asked “How can you know that?”

“I’ve killed creatures like you for over a decade.” I reappraised him. He was youthful looking, but his jaw was firm and his eyes held wisdom and a good deal of wariness. Twenty-five, at least. Older than I had been. “I’ve seen more vampires, and more of their servants, than you can imagine. All of the servants are mindless drones, intent on fulfilling their master’s orders and filling their stomachs with blood and nothing else.”

If he was trying to offend me, it wasn’t working.

“Now, servant. You came to this village. Why?” He shifted his weight, the wooden bridge creaking. His horse snorted, and I realized that the air was cold enough to make the beast’s breath visible. “Tell me,” Johann urged, and he met my eyes.

My gaze instantly shifted away, as it always had when other people had looked at me. I didn’t want them to see my eyes, how colorless they were, or how they had always looked red in the wrong light. Like a demon, they always said. You’ve birthed a demon, they had used to say, to my mother.

And now I was one.

“You are not like other servants I have met,” Johann said, breaking the silence. “So depending on your answer, I may not kill you.”

Wariness, not fear, flashed through me. “You can’t kill me,” I said. “And no, I didn’t come here for blood.” Saying it brought saliva to my mouth, but it was true. “I have fed already. And my master had forbidden it.”

“Human blood will make you powerful, you know,” Johann said.

My fangs pricked my bottom lip. His scent blew on the wind, filling my nostrils, and his heart beat loud in my ears.

I turned and darted into the forest, putting the man and the village at my back. I had fed. It was time to return to my master.

“I’ll see you again, strange servant,” Johann said. He didn’t raise his voice. He knew I could hear him, no matter how quickly I moved away.

***

The farther away I ran from the village, the more the memories and strange sensations they evoked faded. By the time I reached the castle, I once again let my mind wander, letting my senses inform me. Birds flying overhead, the soft gusts of wind against my skin, and the ever present pattering of paws and claws on stone.

And moaning. My master had found another source of entertainment before retiring for the morning.

I knew I would not escape the sounds. The woman’s moans, slow and slurred, permeated every inch of the castle. My master, of course, was silent. Or perhaps it was only because his fangs were probably in her neck while he took her.

She would bleed out before the sun rose, another lady of the evening lost to the night. Perhaps that was why they had sent a hunter.

It had taken them long enough. My master took a woman nearly every week.

I navigated the winding halls, passing empty stone. Scuffs marked where a painting had hung once, and in one place letters cursing the King were scrawled near the floor. Dust caked the walls, and had I been human it would have cloyed my nose and lungs.

The moaning slowed, and then was cut off with a gasp. In my mind, I imagined the form of my master, crouched over a writhing woman, his cock hard and body tense.

The image became Johann, the hunter’s dark eyes smoldering as he grappled with me. His breath would be hot and warm against my cold skin.

I stopped, the strongest flash yet of lust going through my body all at once. My cock twitched, and I steadied myself against the wall.

Fighting confusion, I brought up the image again. Johann, naked, his cock firm and long, thick in my hands. His strong shoulders, his wide, muscular thighs, and how his body would feel against mine.

Warmth I had not felt since being turned began to fill me once more. My mind, not my senses, began to sharpen with something I wanted, not desire for blood, and not something my master had ordered me to want. My fingers curled against the stone. I replayed the sound of Johann’s voice in my head.

My cock began to harden, tenting the thin trousers I wore.

Then my master’s voice boomed in my head, in my being, the way it did every morning. “Sleep.”

The sun was rising.

I grit my teeth as the heat and pleasure faded, swallowed up by the command. I hoped, as I lay down on the pallet in the windowless room of the castle with four empty pallets next to me, that I would dream this time.

Be sure to check out the other Wednesday Briefs this week!