She was going to take his advice on the busying thing. Last night was unexpected, for some reason she had spilled her guts. She still felt weird about it, but she felt a bit lighter this morning and heavier at the same time. He did not have to listen to her go on and on but he stayed.
That was the last thing she remembered before waking up. She felt utterly terrible, like someone had stuck their hand into her mouth and down her throat and clawed at her insides. She could hardly move.
Rita turned her head to the side to find Samuel sitting on the bed with his back facing her. She called out his name and he swiftly turned. “Rita, you're awake. Thank goodness.” There was relief in his eyes. She wondered at that. “Why wouldn't I be?”
“How do you feel?” Her heart nearly flew out of her mouth when she saw and heard him on her side of the bed. She had barely seen him move
“I feel like someone messed around with my insides, mushed them, hit me on the head with a bat and decided to add an obscene amount of shock at the last minute.” she said and winced, her heart erratically beating in her chest while giving him a pointed stare.
“Does that answer your question?” she asked. An apologetic look passed his face. “I'm sorry, i didn't mean to startle you.” He inspected her with his eyes. “So no rage, hatred, or all consuming bloodlust?” he asked.
All consuming bloodlust?! What the hell happened?! What the hell was he talking about?! “I'm not a vampire now, am I?” she panicked. He placed a hand on her shoulder. “No, nothing like that.” Then what the hell?!
“So, no heavy tide of emotions? The urge to vomit?” he questioned her again.
“Aside from confusion. No. What happened?” Did she pass out or something? Why was he acting so strangely? And asking her strange questions? The back of his hand went to her forehead, then her neck. He was checking her temperature, did she catch a bug or something? He looked satisfied with what the results he got. “I'll tell you that later. For now, can you move?”
“Hardly, and it hurts too.”
“I think the sage still has to work a bit more.” He thought out loud. So that was what was making her nose tingle. Sage.
Why sage? What work did it still have to do?
“I'll be back in five minutes.”
¶¶¶¶
Samuel continued to spoon feed Rita since her arms were not strong enough yet to do the job themselves.
“You going to tell me how this all happened?” Rita asked in-between spoons.
“After this last one.” he said. Rita groaned but let him have his way, she wanted to understand what was going on as soon as possible. He scooped the last spoon of chicken soup from the bowl and brought it to her lips. She opened her mouth and swallowed the spoon's contents. Samuel brought a glass of water to her lips and she drank till she was satisfied.
“Now will you tell me? I'm more worried than I was when I woke up.”
Samuel dropped the half empty glass on the tray alongside the empty bowl. “Remember Silas Wren?” he started. Rita had a feeling she was not going to like what she was about to hear. “The old man with the cane from the hotel? Yeah, why?”
Samuel looked at her with all seriousness. “He is a dark mage. He specializes in murder and occultic spells and rituals. Such as demon summoning, psych seizing and all manner of diabolical things.” Rita's eyes widened. By the tone of his voice, she could tell that he was not done.
“At the hotel, the day before yesterday, he used psych seizing on you.” Rita's mind went back to the weird feeling she had in her upper arm when the man held her and let her go. “That's why you don't remember.”
Psych seizing? What the heck was that? “What is psych seizing?” she asked, not liking the sound of it at all.
Samuel looked at her with an expression that wondered why she did not know the word. Then realization passed his face and his mouth made an O shape. “That's right, not a lot of humans know about it.” he said.
“Psych seizing, unlike mind control, is a means of dark magic that like its name implies seizes the mind of another living being. What Silas Wren did was get a hold of you when your walls were down, that can happen when something shocking happens”
“Like when he suddenly killed that vampire at the hotel.”
“Yes, then he cast the spell. Psych seizing usually destroys the mind of the victim turning them into walking bloodthirsty shells of their former selves.”
Destroys?! Bloodthirsty shells of their former selves?!
“We were lucky that all he did was stir and toy with your emotions a bit, but you can feel the effects of what his just toying around did.”
“Could he go through my mind?”
Samuel was silent for a few seconds. “There is no way for us to truly know.”
“What about the jade pendant you gave me? Why didn't it do what it was supposed to?” She was panicking again.
Samuel reached for a jewellery box on the top of the bedside table. He opened it and brought out the same jade pendant he had given her except this one looked like it had been cracked. It was cracked. And it was the very same one.
“He did that to it?”
“And rendered it completely useless.”
“So he could have gone through everything in my head?”
Samuel stiffly nodded and put both the pendant and its box away. No no no. That means he knew everything. Samuel and her. Her family, her new found friends. Everyone she cared about. They were all in potential danger
“I–Did I do anything?” she asked. Aside from being an open document for that mass murderer to read. Panic and worry were running amok in her head and hammering on her heart.
“No, but you almost did.”
“What did I almost do?”
“Reject me and nearly drown yourself.” She froze at that. She nearly drowned herself. She nearly killed herself! Why was this happening?
“Before that you said something about me seeing Arbane and the woman you saw me with in London.”
Oh God! None of that was important in the face of what she had learned only a few minutes ago but it made her go red embarrassment. Better to rip the bandaid off now. “So? Are you still having sex with them?”
He chuckled. “If I did not know any better, I would have thought you were jealous.”
She scoffed. “Don't kid yourself. What's the honest to God answer?”
“I'm not seeing or sleeping with either of them.” He had not had a single pussy in weeks, he had only been surviving on fantasies and he was quickly running out of those.
“Are you planning on it?” she asked, accidentally letting that said jealousy soak into her question.
“No.” he answered with every sincerity.
Rita saw it and knew he was telling the truth. Somewhere
“So what's the deal with this Wren guy? It feels like there's more you still have to tell me.”
Samuel sat beside her and she made room for him. “Seventeen years ago he was exiled for wiping out an entire coven of five hundred members to power one big spell. He slaughtered every last one without a thought for the sole sake of that spell. The spell that somehow failed.”
“Fi-five h-hundred people? Tha-that's terrible. Despicable.”
“Exactly. All those lives lost, their existence stamped out for no reason at all but for a failed experiment. Rita that mage is a monster, a killer, a cannibal that targets women and children exclusively,” Rita's blood turned ice cold. Samuel looked her in the eye. “and he kills for pleasure and the suffering of others. Do not believe for one second that he is anything but, no matter what he might say or do.”
“If he is so dangerous and evil, why hasn't the council done anything?” Rita asked, disgusted and frightened at the same time that such a creature was still walking around free and allowed to live.
“They tried to. They killed him and scattered his ashes in the abyss but even that hungry pit of darkness, rejected him. He came back as a walking pile of black dust then he started feeding and he got his body back. They tried just about everything but none, light or dark, absolute good or evil, they could not get rid of him and the devil all but turned him back and refused to take him. You would have to be an different kind of unspeakable evil for even the pits of hell and Morningstar, THE Lucifer himself to reject you over and over again.”
“Ok, now I really don't feel safe in this city. Wait, weren't we supposed to leave this afternoon?” She wanted to get on the next flight right now. First Lyon, now Milan. This trip was about business just as much as it was about disenchantment.
“Yes, we were but you are in no condition to travel just yet. We can go after tomorrow.”
After tomorrow? No. She wanted to leave now. “Won't tomorrow be alright?”
“Perhaps. If I'm sure you are all good for the journey.” he said and got up. “For now, how about a bath?”
“Can you stand?”
“I think so.” She tried to hoist herself off the bed. It only served to further her arms were nothing but wet noodles, she could not get up. Just that little attempt alone and she was already tired.
“I'll take that as a no.” he said and made to help her up. She shook her head. “No, I can do it, just give me a minute.”
She prevailed a few minutes later, after several tries. Eighth time's the charm. Samuel gave her a some weird scrub that smelled like mango and passion fruit, said it would help removing whatever influence Silas had over her.
She put her braids in the shower cap and leaned against the wall. She was tired again, well at least it did not come to the point where Samuel had to come in and give her a bath himself. She went to the mirror, turned and looked down at her naked back, the puckered and darkened path of old cuts and gashes that ran criss cross on the length of flesh. She could deal with the scars herself but if anyone else saw them.
She turned around around to face the mirror from the front. She took the scrub into the shower stall with it. That mage Silas Wren, scared the hell out of her. Even just thinking about him sent goosebumps erupting all over her skin. What Samuel told her just made it all the more worse.
The word 'Cannibal' was stuck in her mind. To think, that time at Celeste hotel, he might have been addressing her as food. Fuck that was scary. Terrifying in every sense of the word. Now she knew how chickens felt. Rita turned on the shower and stepped into the spray. The warm water felt good against her skin, easing away the goosebumps and helping her body relax. She raised her palm into the spray and watched the water hit, glide and fall from it. This was what she had used to nearly kill herself. It did not matter what temperature it was or which source it came from. Water was still water. And it could take away life just as easily as it could give it.
In a way, Rita was thankful she could not remember any of what happened. The last thing she wanted to add to her list of phobias and traumas was water. She applied the scrub, the scent of it calming her even more but the effects were surprisingly energizing. She did not even realize when the tiredness was gone, until she started dancing in the shower. The joy of her limbs being able to move without stress was uplifting. She wondered where Samuel had gotten the stuff from. Did he always carry around spell breaking things with him all the time?
The more she thought about it, the more feasible it became. Of course he carried those kinds of things with him. He was an alpha, in a world where just about anyone wanted their hands on his kind of power and influence any way they could. It made sense. The stall was getting clouded, she opened the shower door and the steam escaped. She felt the loss of its warmth but she could breathe better now. She grabbed the towel and dried off before stepping outside. Her suitcase was there on the bed with no Samuel in sight.
MILAN [WEVERES HOTELS AND SUITES] 5:16 P. M.
Rita was casually cuddled in a blanket in the living room. Said she was cold. He came out of the kitchen with a cup of hot tea for her. “Be careful.” he said and handed the hot cup to her. She took the cup by the handle. “Thank you.”
Samuel till she was five sips in. “Rita, do you also remember the proposition we agreed on?” he asked, watching her expression carefully.
He could see her mind flashed back to the day Walt interrupted them. He knew she remembered, so did he.
*** “What kind of proposition Sir?” she asked.
“How about we take this in a different way.”
“How?” she asked. Her feet were still backing away.
“There are two options, one, we start dating officially.” he saw her face crinkle in disapproval
“or we could add some benefits to our current arrangement.”
“You want us to be friends with benefits?”
“In a manner of speaking.”
“Couldn't you just go and find another woman to sleep with. What makes you think I'd be inclined do that?”
“I'm not saying you would be inclined to do anything,”
“Then my answer is no. **
“Yes,” she answered. “what about it?” she asked, going back to her tea.
He could practically see the wheels turning in her head. She probably thought he was going to collect on it now.
“About that proposition, that we agreed on in Alvas. Just forget about it. I don't want you to feel like you're obligated to do something for me based on that.”
“Why the change of heart? I remember you were practically drooling at the prospect.”
“I was a horny dog.”
“And you aren't now?”
“While you were under the psych seize, you said a lot about how you felt. About what happened last December, about your family and what happened three years ago. It got me thinking,” he was still studying her expression. It had gone from curiosity and sarcasm to disbelief and shame.
“You did not deserve what happened to you Rita. Not with Sakaer, not with me, not with your past and even recently. I apologize for being an asshole three years ago. I apologize for being a pain in the ass the first time we met last year.”
“I just–”
“You just think this is what is best for me? Like how you did not inform me about the great surprise here in Milan?”
“No, it's not like that.”
“What if I want to?” she interrupted him. It was his turn to be surprised. Did he hear her right? She looked up from her cup to him. “Do you plan on taking away my choice too?”
“What if I just want to just have sex with you?” he sat there shocked and with a growing need.
“But I guess that doesn't matter since you've already decided.” she grumbled. She dropped the unfinished cup on the side table and got up. “Thanks for the tea, I'm going to bed.”
She felt him following her, he caught up with her and blocked her path. “What is it? Still have more for me to just listen and obey? Get out of my way.” she commanded.
She watched his Adam's apple bobbed. “Did you really mean what you said?” he asked.
“So you still are a horny dog. Good to know, step aside.”
“Did you mean it?”
“Yes, I did. But not anymore.”
“Sure?” he asked.
The air turned thick, even thicker when her answer did not come. “I'm sure.” she said finally.
Samuel visibly deflated, defeated. He made way for her to pass, all the while still pleading with his eyes.
“I said I didn't want to have sex with you, I didn't say we couldn't play.”
The spark returned to his eyes and they danced with joy. Horny much? Well, she was too so she could not judge.
He backed her up to the desk and trapped her with his arms, a predatory glint in his eyes. Her hands moved to the front of her shirt and her fingers set to work undoing the buttons. He did not wait for the last button to come undone, he bent his head down to plant his lips on hers. She opened for him and he slipped his tongue into her mouth. She felt him shiver
He pushed her on top the wooden surface, pushing everything to the floor with a clatter while he beared down on her. Her legs rose to clamp around his hips. He broke the kiss, to look at her. The sight of his fangs did not repel her like it normally did before, neither did his eyes that were dark with desire and flaked with gold, now for some reason they excited her. Waw, she really far gone wasn't she?
He pressed his lips to her exposed collar bone, he trailed lower. She gasped, with a swipe of his finger he released her breasts from the confines of her bra. The sudden action made her jump a little and rub against his crotch. He growled low and deep and blew air over her nipple. She felt it harden at his action and hard stare.
She gasped again when he gave it a hard pebble a small lick before he drew it fully into his mouth. Rita arched her back and moaned at the heat of his mouth. Her hands went to his head to bring him even closer than he already was. He left her nipple much to her disapproval. The devious look he gave her sent delicious shivers down her back. He took both her hands and placed them at the top of her head and pinned them there with one of his hands. Then he went back to her nipple with a fury. A moan ripped through her lips and her back arched off the table, pushing her breast further into his mouth.
He let it go once again to focus on the other nipple, making sure it was not left out.
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To all of you that made it here. Thank you. ෆ╹ .̮ ╹ෆ
And yes they finally do something!(◔‿◔)