-Lucien-

It took me a while before I could force myself to get up. Enough to where the sun had already set hours ago.

It was that long until the energy in me had recovered enough for me to just envision tearing myself from this bed without getting dizzy or feeling the need to vomit.

Until my muscles would move without aching, and I could breathe normally after just sitting up.

Percentage-wise, I'd say I was around the mid-twenties. Definitely not great, but I've been through worse.

I never put what Cylas put me through in my journals, knowing that Erik reads them, and I just generally don't like to think about it. I just jot it down as a particularly bad day and move on with it.

I shifted my legs off of the side of the bed, giving myself a short countdown before forcing myself to stand on them

Mentally, I could feel that I was still tender, like that hollow void in my instincts hadn't yet fully recovered.

Either it'd take a few more days to do that, or I'd need something specific to trigger their focus and likewise force them back into working condition.

My sadness was more from just general self-loathing. A type that wasn't strong enough to enlighten my instincts.

My anger at the situation too wasn't strong enough to accomplish much.

I set a hand on the wall before taking my slow steps just in case.

The coito club would work. I knew it would. It always worked in heightening my instincts just enough to bring peace.

But I was barely moving, starving since I haven't eaten since yesterday, and doubted I had the energy to even get down to my ride before what was left in me depleted

A defeated groan rose from my throat, deciding that first and foremost, my goal should be just to get cleaned up. Clean up the spots in this room that I'd gotten blood on as well.

I pulled open the curtain to open my bed up to the rest of the room with my free hand, squinting at the new light that someone had forgotten to turn off.

Speak of the devil, the click of my door unlocking and me drawing in a sigh for mental preparation and general devastation towards the brutal interruption of my peaceful plans.

She walked in completely casually and shut the door, momentarily giving me that same look of shock she gave last night when she finally noticed me standing there.

She made the room reak of uncertainty and fear this morning, causing my headache to skyrocket.

Yet now, just as I've witnessed more than a few times before, she managed to shift that into a false sense of confidence and annoyed disgust.

Squaring her shoulders, lifting her chin, and meeting my gaze head-on. Unmoving as if she had a point to prove.

I wondered if that'd be any different had she known how she behaved in front of me that night she was drunk. That her mask completely crumbled.

I matched her look ten-fold, though mine wasn't in any way faked.

Her timing was away somehow cruel. She just happened to appear or be there at the worst possible times. It's almost like she was doing it on purpose though I knew there was no way that was the case.

I was still somewhat pissed just because she let my sister in this morning, and because out of the entire floor and her own damn room, she always ends up in mine whenever it's the last place I want her to be.

A pathetic growl worked its way into my chest, one I'm not even confident she could hear.

I don't know where her survival instincts and her pride meet to create this kind of approach.

I found it almost impressive how her delusions of bravery were so effective that they changed her scent. It masked it. Like the scent of fear and anger combined into one strange amalgamation that registered as extra annoying to me.

I flicked the tip of my tongue over to roll across the stud there, plotting my approach to this.

"Either turn back around or go to your room. Don't just fucking stand there," Was my decision.

Her hands balled, sensing the very obvious fact that she wasn't happy with my choice of words.

I wasn't happy with her current presence so it was only fair.

"You know, you keep saying stuff like that," She started, crossing her arms in front of her chest, "You'd think at this point it'd make both of us happier if you just free me back where I belong."

My eyes narrowed onto her, feeling myself just generally reacting to the disrespect.

"We both know that's not happening. Pick one and get out." I replied.

"And why the hell not?" She decided to continue, of course, "It's not like you're even using me for anything! I mean Christ I'm happy about it but for fucks sake neither of us are gaining anything by me being here! I'm sure I can get my cure from Erik's office myself on my own time!"

Were it not for what her blood did to me, or the ailment she possessed, I admit, I would have agreed with her.

She was a pain in my ass that just so happened to come with benefits I believed made it worth it.

Addictive benefits. Ones I still had to figure out how to properly ration, but benefits nonetheless.

Though currently, I found myself debating if they truly were worth it.

If they weren't, I couldn't just let her go. She'd seen and I'd disclosed too much for that to work for me.

I could feel my anger at this conversation growing and debated letting it continue to grow for a chance at my own gain.

It wasn't a method I liked. I didn't enjoy targeting others for my own personal relief, but the way she went about things made me feel less bad about it.

"Your sisters look like they take care of you just fine, and I don't know if whatever fuckery you suffer from has anything to do with it, but I want no part in that either."

The condescending tone didn't bode well with me at all, in fact, it nearly sprung the claws free from my fingers.

I hated that shit. Absolutely despised it.

"Now is not the time, Kira," I warned from the last remaining goodness of my heart, giving her one last chance to save herself while my pupils thinned.

I could feel my instincts starting to become affixed. Awakened by my reactions to what she was saying.

I could feel my blood pumping new energy into my body, ready for me to use.

"Oh," She cooed with the cadence one speaks to a toddler with. So patronizingly that it finally locked her onto the attention of my instincts in a burst of hot rage, "Did dinner with daddy not go well for you? Did daddy just run you absolutely ragged? Well so did mine, so-"

I didn't allow her the chance to finish her thought.

All of it finally boiled over enough to let me snap.

My speed shot through me, allowing me to grab her and drag her back before pinning her beneath me on the edge of the bed with a snarl that finally shut her up.

The holds I had on her wrists were too tight to be comfortable, and I could only tell from the wince that broke through her dumbfounded expression that one of my claws had pierced her skin and drawn blood.

Too much blood for such a small wound spilling down her arm, but I suppose that was to be expected given her condition.

The second the scent of it hit my nose, the urge was overpowering and I was leaning over to where my tongue could save her blood from going to waste.

I trailed my tongue up her arm slowly, letting a good bit of it spill before sealing the wound.

Its effects were mind-numbing in just how fast it worked, though this time I could tell that it hadn't brought me up fully to a comfortable spot.

I guess it only worked so well depending on where I was when taking it, though still a saving grace in of itself, it wasn't going to be enough to finish what she'd just started.

I slowly leaned back so my head was over hers from where I stood at the edge of the bed, still keeping her on the comforter by her wrists with a new strength.

Again, that scent of horror overtook that mix of scents she specialized in with the way she stared up at me, her head probably racing with thoughts of regret from what she'd just set into motion.

-Kira-

What I said was out of pocket, I knew that and regretted it the moment it spilled from me. I was hopped up on the adrenaline I'd been building all day after being tired of feeling scared and it just slipped out.

My chest rose and fell at a speed it did the last time I was being held down by a vampire, fear coursing through my veins.

There was such a small relief in the blood he'd taken, one I obviously couldn't properly focus on.

My eyes dared to stray from him in an attempt to find a means of escape.

I knew I couldn't just wriggle free, his torso was covering mine and a vampiric hold wasn't an easy one to break

I dabbled the pros and cons of trying to kick him, feeling the cons greatly achieve victory.

It was then I noticed how he'd also managed to put himself between my legs, and I cursed my body and mind for going elsewhere.

Cursed my desire for some sort of sexual contact that'd been haunting me since I got here. Even after I'd given up hope of being able to do it with Gabe.

I cursed the way that anger and desire for this had evolved to become one in my mind. One always followed after the other, fights would always lead to sex just to calm down both of us. It was something I came to expect after feeling frustration and anger like this, and this was the absolute worst time to be thinking like that.

It made me feel sick on top of everything else, like my past had truly ruined me.

I forced the thought away, focusing on the true issue at hand.

My breaths shuddered, but I managed to collect myself and return my glare, piercing into the new deep red of his that sat just inches from my face.

His hold on my wrist altered, shifting just an inch closer to my fists.

"Maybe I've been too lenient with you," He began, his tone deep and unforgiving, "I've let you get away with running your mouth and executing your useless little schemes of escape. I've let you get away with it with nothing more than silent warnings because I figured you'd be smart enough to know better. I thought being a human born and raised in a normal human society, you'd have learned when to keep your damn mouth shut. It's one of the few reasons I decided to take you from that shop and yet here you are babbling on like an idiot about shit you can't even begin to comprehend."

That low growl that I could nearly feel against my body had me debating for a moment my current chances of survival.

If he was going to kill me for refusing to just accept and be fine with this insane shift in my life like a mindless animal, then fine.

I didn't expect him to get it, I didn't expect anyone to get it, I wouldn't wish for anyone to get it because this fate is the work of nightmares to most.

People tell horror stories of situations like mine.

Stripped of everything, down to your basic will.

Sure it could be worse, but why should I sit here and be thankful for what my life has turned into? Nobody in their right mind would ever wish this upon themselves.

I'd already decided once that I wouldn't go down and die a coward.

I wasn't left with much else to lose besides my pride.

If he wants to kill me, then he can. He can throw away the studies Erik has been doing on me, my hope for a cure, and the fifteen thousand dollars he spent on me.

The hopes I had after being forced into this had fleeted. The one person I had to depend on wouldn't reach out. My entire family either was either gone or slaughtered.

"Fuck. You." My words trembled but came out with the power I wanted them to, with the bite of someone who had nothing left to lose.

The slits of his pupils stared predatorily down at me through the slits of his eyelids, a deep, animalistic sound radiating from his chest.

He opened his mouth to speak after a sharp hiss. It almost looked like his fangs glinted with the light from the next room. Sharp and ready for use.

But he never spoke, in fact, something else almost entirely took him over.

I could see his nostrils flare before confusion barely widened his eyes.

"What the fuck?" His head drew back only an inch, giving it a slight tilt while he looked me over, "Are you into this?"

The surprise and disgust in his words had my face deepening in color.

That thickness in the air dropped at the shift in conversation, enough for me to manage words out of my mouth.

"I-It's just been a while, and I'm frustrated, okay?," I bit, fighting an uphill battle to not let my true feelings reach my voice, "Don't sit here and mistake it for me being into this or you!"

He blinked at my entirety with that typical, unreadable stare, thinking about god knows what with the information I'd just given him.

It felt like a full minute before his eyes met back with mine.

"Are we doing this then?" He asked with the same roughness in his voice, but a genuiness hidden so far below it that I fear I may have imagined it.

Under that same look on his face, I was sure that I did.

His question sent my mind reeling, and every muscle in my body tightened as if I were bracing for something.

"W-What?" Was all I could manage, so thrown off by the shift in the air and the hundreds of emotions coursing through me.

"Because fucking you here and now is a lot more convenient than the alternative in fixing what you've just started."

Me?

I couldn't decide what part of that to focus on first, or even know how to begin comprehending any of this. What he was offering when just seconds ago I was convinced he was going to tear up my throat.

My own frustration and anger from when this all started was still clawing at me for some sort of release, and yelling at him and getting drunk were both options I couldn't take anymore. What else did I realistically have left?

I couldn't believe myself. I couldn't believe that I was actually sitting here like this considering it.

Him. A vampire. A vampiric Prince who I'd gotten sold to.

I wished that I hated the idea more, I wished that my body wasn't already thrilled with the idea of having somewhere to let out all of these pent-up emotions.

A familiar heat flared up my body, leaving my racing breaths to be because of something else rather than fear.

God fucking dammit!

"I-...The alternative being?" I found myself asking, and he didn't waste a second answering.

"Going and fucking someone else. You love to remind me of my experiences with a 'brothel', so either get naked or get the fuck out. This is your final warning," His hands slowly released from my wrists, adding a grit to his next words, "Your blood gave me enough clarity to see my options. Take it before you piss me off again and then the entire offer is off of the table."

I blinked wide-eyed at him.

He was giving me an out?

I suppose I should find solace in that, but instead, I found my solace in the fact that he was still hovering over me, waiting for my answer.

"You're disgusting," The words came out as no more than an astonished whisper, part of me completely unable to comprehend what was just laid out in front of me.

He looked to catch on, breathing out a single, somewhat amused laugh.

"I'm not the one getting turned on at an argument, and I can assure you, Kira, I have my reasons."

Reasons...?

God, whatever, I couldn't think right now.

Something I could only describe as pure, unforgiving lust was taking me over after hearing what I could get from this. It was shredding through me and begging to be let out and as much as I tried to fight it, I could tell I was going to lose.

It was like his offer had opened up a floodgate within me that I couldn't force shut through willpower alone.

I tried again with the pros and cons but couldn't for the life of me think up anything of worth.

My heart began to beat faster as I trailed down his body, biting the inside of my lower lip.

Fucking hell I'm going to regret this later.

"I don't have all day." His tone was impatient and somehow borderline bored as usual.

The combo flared me up again, having me push myself up onto my elbows, and closing some distance before giving him my answer through a sneer.

"Then get off of me so I can get naked."