Samuel Erickson glanced up when he heard a soft knock on his bedroom
door. He wasn’t surprised when the door opened a moment later, even if he
didn’t invite anyone in, and Sully walked inside, shutting the door behind
him. Sully looked over at him for a moment then stepped over to the wall next
to the door and slid down until he was sitting on the floor.
Samuel could almost predict what the vampire would do. Sullivan Buckley
had been coming into his room almost every night for nearly three months. The
only time he didn’t show was when he was on a mission for his prince—another
vampire.
Sully would search the room until he saw Samuel and then slide down the
wall to sit on the floor next to the door. He usually brought a book or
something to read, sometimes his Ipad.
Sully stopped trying to get Samuel to talk after the first week.
Samuel still couldn’t figure out why the vampire continued to come every
night when he knew Samuel hated vampires. He loathed them. Every damn last one
of them needed to be staked through the heart, slowly. Several times. Then
maybe burned at the stake or drawn and quartered.
Well, maybe not all of them, but most of them. His brother Danny was
mated to a vampire. Prince Dominic Xavier Lucian Ruelle seemed somewhat okay.
He made Danny happy and kept him safe. Samuel was grateful for that. The
danger they were in on a daily basis from their psychotic monster of a father
never seemed to lesson.
Maybe that was why Sully visited every night.
“Why are you here?” Samuel needed to know. He was no longer afraid of
Sully, for the most part anyway. He still got a little nervous around the
vampire. Despite the fact that Sully had rescued him from a life of hell as a
blood slave and never made a single threatening move toward him, the man was
still a vampire. He still drank blood to survive. Having been a blood slave
for several months, Samuel could honestly say that it was something he never
wanted to experience again in his life.
Sully’s eyebrows were raised as if the man was shocked to hear Samuel
speak. “You sleep better when I’m here.”
Well, that much was true. Samuel woke up screaming in the night if Sully
wasn’t there. When Samuel had been a blood slave, the nighttime had been made
of nightmares even when he was awake. That was when the vampires would come
for him, after the sun set.
Samuel didn’t remember any of his nightmares, and for that he was
thankful. But he knew they were bad. He woke screaming in a cold sweat. It
took hours to calm down and feel like his heart wasn’t going to jump out of
his chest.
Sully’s presence made him feel like he could breathe.
“Did you feed today?”
Sully’s dark eyebrow went up, just one of them. “You know I did.”
Samuel reached down and rubbed his stomach when it clenched. He tried to
understand that vampires needed blood to survive but he just didn’t understand
it. It was gross and terrible and humiliating.
Everyone tried to convince Samuel that it wasn’t a horrible act, that
they weren’t forcing some poor soul to bleed for them. Samuel didn’t believe a
word of it. He had seen how vampires fed. He had experienced the excruciating
pain involved with being a blood slave. No one was going to convince him that
it didn’t hurt or make him wish he was dead. Not even the vampire that chased
his nightmares away.
“Is he alive?”
Sully’s dark eyes rolled, a smirk twisting his lips. “She is
fine.”
Samuels gut tightened as Sully’s words scraped over his skin like a
razorblade. He knew enough from eavesdropping on conversations and the things
Sully said to know the man was straight as they came. He even preferred his
blood donors to be female.
Samuel turned back toward the window. His thoughts were jumbled,
sporadic. He was having a hard time pulling one together enough to have a
complete thought. It shouldn’t have bothered him that Sully was straight, and
yet it did. The man was a vampire. Despite what Danny said, Samuel knew
nothing could ever come of the draw he felt toward Sully.
Hell, Samuel didn’t even know what the draw was. Just that it was there.
His heart always beat a little faster until he saw Sully, his stomach knotting
until the vampire was in the room with him. He felt…something when Sully was
around. Safe, and yet afraid at the very same time.
His feelings toward Sully were confusing. He anticipated the vampire’s
arrival in his room like the coming of the sun. And yet, the only way he could
truly think of Sully was by not thinking of him as vampire. He didn’t really
think of Sully as human, either. It was readily apparent to anyone looking at
the physically imposing man that he wasn’t human. There was something feral
about him, an uncivilized edge.
It was as attractive as it was terrifying.
Samuel’s entire body seized painfully as a series out loud pops sounded
from somewhere outside of his room. The brash bangs were quickly followed by
an earsplitting scream and several voices raised in volume.
Sully was on his feet and pulling the door open before Samuel barely got
turned around. “Stay here!” Sully ordered as he hurried out of the room,
slamming the door closed behind him.
Samuel pulled the edges of his blanket up to his chin. The sounds of
violence were growing louder, more dangerous. They were growing closer.
His heart pounding faster with each sound he heard, the fear building
inside of him started to make his chest ache. Samuel jumped up and ran across
the room, turning the lock on his door. It might not keep anyone out but it
would slow them down some.
He hoped.
Samuel backed away from the door, watching the door handle intently. He
wanted to know what was going on, and yet he didn’t. The fear of what might be
happening was almost paralyzing. Samuel backed up until he hit the far wall,
and then he wedged himself down into the spot between the dresser and the
wall, trying to make the smallest possible target.
Samuel slapped his hand over his mouth to keep from crying out when
someone kicked at the door. Fear clogged his throat, blocking the air trying
to escape in a blood curdling scream. Whoever was on the other side of the
thick wood continued to kick at it until it splintered and the door crashed
open.
“Samuel!”
For a brief moment, every horrible thing that had ever happened to him
flashed before him. Samuel thought he was going to be sick.
Then the voice that was calling out for him took on a name and Sully’s
face appeared before him. “Samuel, snap out of it,” Sully snarled as he
grabbed Samuel by the arms and yanked him to his feet. “We need to go.”
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