Chapter 17 - The Prayer

I woke up to find myself on a large bed in what could only be described as the royal bedchamber. Or something a hellavalot close to it. Except, this time, I was snuggled under the warmth of a ruby red down-filled comforter instead of lying on top of the covers like in my dream. The lush, decadent bed was extraordinarily appointed with satiny rolled pillows and drenched in rich, crimson velvet drapes that hung suspended from a round, heavily fringed canopy that was easily over 18 feet high.

When it came to beds, I guess the bigger and plushier the better. At least to the Victorians, anyway.

If only for a moment, I wasn't reminded of the awful effects of the curse. Especially when I found myself completely surrounded by many artful displays of freshly cut red roses. Soft music filled the entire bedchamber, while lightly scented candles placed on every dresser and tabletop gave off a rosy glow. Part of me, a really, really big part thought I'd died and gone back to Heaven.

I turned my head to find Vycandor sitting beside me on the grand bed with his head bowed. As soon as he knew I was awake, he began to sing the same words over and over to the delicate violin music that played in the background until I'd committed them to memory.

"I pray you'll be our eyes
And watch us where we go
And help us to be wise
In times when we don't know

Let this be our prayer
When we lose our way
Lead us to a place
Guide us with your grace
To a place where we'll be safe."

I sat up, or attempted to anyway. "That's beautiful. Did you write it?"

He smiled at me, but not like he was happy. "No. It's from a song called, The Prayer." Placing an icy hand upon my shoulder, he gently tried to ease me to lie back down. "You need to rest."

I shook my head. "No. I'm fine. Really."

"Like diet and exercise," he said, voice insistent, "good, quality sleep is essential for optimal health and performance. Even if you are an angel."

"You sound like a Sleep Number commercial," I groaned.

That made him smile. For real this time. "Well, it's true."

I gazed around the room and frowned. "Where's Thomas?"

"He went to talk to the King about Robert."

Finally making it to a relatively seated position more or less, I had to ask, although I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to know the answer. "What does Thomas want to know about Robert? Isn't it enough that he's the only one who can help me now?"

Hands curling into fists, Vycandor's entire body visibly stiffened. "Look, Chaos. There's something about Robert you don't know."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "Correction, there's a lot about Robert I don't know. I haven't met him yet, remember?"

He heaved a sigh. "And I'm not entirely sure you'll want to. Not after you've heard the truth about him. He's extremely dangerous."

"Dangerous?" I repeated. "Exactly how is he dangerous?"

"For once, just once, can you please trust me on this?" I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was running out of patience me. Unfortunately for him, I don't give up that easily. 

"Aw, c'mon! Gimme a clue. Just one. Is he dangerous like Professor Plum in the Library with the knife? Or maybe he's dangerous like Colonel Mustard in the Conservatory with the lead pipe." I paused, pretending to think. "No, wait. I bet he's dangerous like Miss Scarlett in the Ballroom with the candlestick."

Vycandor stared at me angrily with those strange kitty cat green eyes. The effect made my blood run cold. Just like he'd intended. "This isn't a game, Chaos."

I threw my hands up in the air. "Then, tell me already! What's so dangerous about him?"

"How about dangerous, as in Robert could kill you if you're not careful," he admitted, finally resigned to the truth. "Due to Lisette's curse, we may not know what kind of animal Robert can shift into. But what we do know for certain is that he's a Fixer."

I let the word sink in, adding it to the many different types of shifters I'd learned about along the way. In this strange new world I found myself in, there were Drinkers, Drainers, and Feeders. Not to mention Watchers, Tormenters, and now Sin Eaters. Although that last category was reserved for only one.

Namely me.

Still, I had to ask. "What's a Fixer?"

Vycandor uncurled his fists, but only a little. "A Fixer is someone who possesses the distinct ability to return that which is broken to its optimal state." Confusion must have been plain on my face. "In other words, it means that Robert has the power to infuse his own energy into a living being in order to heal and give them back their youth and vitality."

That sounded good enough to me.

My smile brimmed with possibilities. "Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit! What are we waiting for?"

Vycandor reached out, capturing me by the wrist before I kicked off the covers and scooted out of bed. Truth be told, it wasn't that hard to stop me. I didn't have the strength, or the energy to move very fast.

"It doesn't last forever," Vycandor mumbled under his breath.

Confused, I tossed him a frown. "What doesn't last forever?"

"When Robert heals you. It doesn't last very long. He's going to have to keep healing you."

Swallowing hard, I had a sudden sickening realization. "The King's right. There's no reversing the curse. So either I rely on Robert to keep healing me, or I do what Lisette wants and rid her father of his sins."

Vycandor leaned heavily against my shoulder. "You do have another option, you know."

My voice squeaked with surprise. "I do?"

He nodded. His long dark hair glistened in the candlelight, a tangled mass falling over his green eyes that sparkled with an intensity I'd never quite seen like this before, as he reached to gently stroke my cheek with a frosty finger. "Do you trust me?"

I nodded, but no words came out.

It was his turn to swallow hard. "What about letting me try to help you?"

I let out a shuddery sigh. "It's a nice thought, but how are you supposed to help me?"

"You heard what Courtney said," Vycandor began, voice tentative. "Unless you give in and feed off the sins of the damned, you must feed off blood if you want to survive."

Suddenly, it's like someone turned on a faucet. My mouth began to water desperately with need. The hunger that had strangely subsided after I passed out, came roaring back with a vengeance and demanded to be appeased. In fact, it was as if all of my senses had gone into hyper drive. I swear I could hear so well I even heard the sound of grass growing

Inhaling deeply, I moaned, "Damn you smell good. Did I ever tell you that?" I didn't wait for him to answer. Nostrils flared to the max, I drank in his familiar scent. Woody, yet floral with hints of lavender, amber, mint, and spices I couldn't quite put my finger on - all expertly blended together. It was his signature scent. One I'd grown to love. But it was Vycandor's scent mixed with his blood that had me aching between one breath and the next. A delectable combination of musk and copper to be exact.

Very drool worthy.

Vycandor snapped his fingers together to get my attention. "Earth to Chaos. Did you hear what I asked? Let me help you."

I stared openly at his neck and the veins that pulsed just under the skin with every beat of his angelic heart. "Yes. But you heard what Courtney said. I have to drink from you and Thomas," I added, remembering my dream and the way they'd pressed their almost naked bodies together in an effort to commingle their blood before it dripped onto my waiting tongue. Embarrassed, my cheeks blazed with heat at the memory and I could no longer meet his desperate eyes. Pulling my hair across my face, I attempted to hide in shame. "No. It won't work."

"How do you know it won't work unless you try?" he insisted.

"How do you know it will?" I countered stubbornly. Offering no further rebuttal, I kept my attention locked on the map of his pulsing veins from under my hiding place as something stirred inside me. My vision blurred with the monstrous need to feed.

Vycandor sensed the change in me and opened his arms to hold me close. My heart was torn in two, but I finally relented. Locked in his waiting embrace, he folded his arms around me and began to sing again, voice so soft and sweet, and oh so melodic. It was a song I'd never heard before. And one I knew I wouldn't soon forget.

https://youtu.be/UrIiLvg58SY

"Saying I love you
Is not the words I want to hear from you
It's not that I want you
Not to say, but if you only knew
How easy it would be to show me how you feel
More than words is all you have to do to make it real
Then you wouldn't have to say that you love me
'Cause I'd already know."

When he finished, I knew there was only one way to show him how much I really did love him. Especially since I'd never actually said it out loud to him before. I wasn't good with words. How could I say what he wanted to hear? For a moment, I considered doing a bad Dracula impression by saying, "I want to suck your blood." Instead, I drew my inspiration from the song. Without looking up, I whispered, "I will take from you what you ask if only you will tell me how."

There. That didn't seem so hard.

Vycandor's breath was cool on my cheek and made me shiver uncontrollably. "Well, we can always start with a kiss..."

A kiss? I could do that.

Ever so hesitantly, I raised my eyes to meet his. It felt like the world was moving in slow motion as he lowered his mouth and pressed his cherry red lips against mine in a tender kiss full of possession. Part of me worried that Thomas would come back to find us locked in each others arms. Hunger quickly replaced fear as the mounting desire that soon followed coursed through me, igniting bloodlust.

There was no turning back now even if I wanted to.

Vycandor must have sensed it too. The kiss deepened and deepened again. Hands still wrapped tightly around my body, he tugged me hard against him until I felt his passion. Of one thing I was perfectly clear. In that moment he needed me just as much as I needed him.

"You have retractable fangs just like you have retractable wings," he explained, voice sounding as if it were being pulled out of him. No, scratch that. Not pulled exactly, more like dragged over hot coals and rusty nails as if the words were practically being tortured out of his throat.

Normally being told that I wasn't dreaming and really did have fangs would've freaked me the freak out. But then I heard a low growl mixed with a strangled sob. Somehow I knew the sound had come from me. The arousal I felt from his kiss was like a tidal wave crashing inside of me, all aggressively carnal and out of control with desire. Heart pounding against my chest, I found my lips opening to his with a breathy gasp when our tongues touched. Fire met ice as he explored my mouth and I explored his right back, ever so hesitantly at first and then growing with mutual need and sheer desperation.

Vycandor knew what it felt like to hunger for another. Knew what it was like to taste the blood of another. And now I wanted to taste it too. Had to taste it. 

Gathering courage, I lowered my mouth to run my feverish hot lips across his jawline and down his neck in a trail of  kisses, probing briefly with my tongue to explore his collarbone while running my hands over his taut shoulders and fingering the curls that cascaded all the way down his back. A deepening sense of urgency bubbled up inside me. I needed to feel him in every way possible. Not only that, but I needed to taste him. Taste him now.

In one swift move, I opened my mouth wide as if to take a bite out of a very, very big apple and crushed my lips to his neck, puncturing his skin with my newly found fangs, and savoring the rush of energy that flowed over my tongue and slid down my throat like the sweetest taste of honey.

Vycandor moaned, pointy fingernails scraping down the curve of my back. "Chaos," he whispered hoarsely against my own throat before I sank my fangs in him again and again. 

Alarms started going off in my head.

I was drinking his blood! Thick and rich and filled with life, I knew I should have been sickened, shocked, even disgusted. But I wasn't. Not even close. Instead, what did I feel? An extremely odd rush of lushly sensuous satisfaction. I was in desperate need, and he was answering that need in the most intimate way possible. Every swallow of his blood brought wave after wave of intense pleasure. Savoring every bit of the sweetness, I immediately began to feel better. Stronger, in fact. Like the cursed had been lifted and I no longer felt that awful sense of weakness that had negated my powers.

Why hadn't I listened and done this sooner?

Hunger more than effectively quenched like putting out a five-alarm fire, I pulled back from his neck retracting my fangs. Would would've thought that was even possible? I certainly didn't.  Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I grinned up at him like the cat who ate the canary. "You healed me."

Vycandor smiled warmly. "Only when ears are no longer filled with lies, and eyes are not filled with tears, can the mouth be full of song and the heart be filled with love."

I opened my mouth in an attempt to say something equally witty and charming.

That's when then it hit.

"I think I'm going to be sick!"