Authors: Harnet Spade
.
Savage Awakening
Blood Thirst Series
- Book 2
∞
A Blood Thirst Series Novel
Copyright © 2013 Harnet Spade
All Rights Reserved
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For my eternal loves: Ashley, Audrey, and Lazaro.
I’ve
run away from this moment so many times, yet now watching Darius surrender to me… in this moment there is nothing I want more than to be his. He’s told me not to leave him… but very soon there will be no stopping me. Not my love for him, or even the enchantment he has placed on this cave to keep me trapped here.
He’s lied about everything, and all I can think is- I don’t care… I just want to give myself to him. He’s magnificent, and he wants me. I’m not sure what he is because like everything else, he’s kept it from me.
None of it matters. Nothing does but the two of us.
He encircles my waist within his arm and reaches out for me, burying his other hand in my hair, “Come to me baby, give me all the reason I’ll ever need in this fucked up world,” fangs extending about to pierce my neck when it happens.
I feel the heavy weight of the cold metal sink against my neck as his lips are about to claim me when the collar and beast appear within the alcove.
My heart stutters, I temporary lose my mind, and my attention quickly shifts to find Eros.
He doesn’t have Eros’s appearance, looking more beast than anything else. His silver eyes find me first, see me naked from my waist down, and focus on the blood stains running from the two puncture wounds on my neck. I see severe pain reflect in his eyes… I don’t hide myself from him because I can’t try to pretend the love I feel for Darius is not real.
“No… I’m not going… I love him.” I hold on to Darius with everything I have, unashamed for admitting so much. I hope, knowing in my soul it is in vain, this is reason enough for him to leave us.
I now find Darius’s body is all over mine, his skin blankets… engulfing mine. I’m on the ground completely immobile and covered. There is no place I can possibly go with all his massive weight on me and his rigid forearm held tight against my throat… keeping me down, growling his warning for me not to move.
His face is turned from me… with all his fury directed at Eros.
My arms rise from underneath him, and I try tearing off the collar responsible for keeping Eros here because I don’t want him seeing me like this, the moment is reserved for Darius and I alone- Eros has no right being here. I feel the biting chill of the metal collar digging into my skin, while I’m trying to tear it off, making me bleed as I watch Eros watching me in my desperation.
I’m surprised to see no hate in his eyes. I don’t understand how Darius says this beast could be Eros… because the Eros I know and fear would have tried to kill us both by now.
He must read the surprise in my eyes because he explains, “You are young in your infinite years and a newly turned breed. You… love the blood and would lust after anyone strong enough to give it without end. It is the power within the blood you love, Emma.” Eros says pointing at Darius with the promise of death in his eyes.
“He uses your greatest weakness, your hunger, to trap you.” Eros hisses.
My hands let go of the collar.
Darius straightens his body, kneeling over me first, but quickly stands guard taking a fighting stance a couple of feet closer to Eros. He challenges him… waiting for Eros to make the first move.
I stand, not sure if I should be fighting by Darius’s side, or seeking to find my way out.
“Eva, go now! He wishes to confuse you… to turn your love for me into hate. He knows this is his only chance to win your love.” Darius hisses over his shoulder stepping back, pushing his body against mine to keep me as far away from Eros as possible.
“I never knew you to be a coward, Darius. Tell her why you have kept her hidden.” He looks to me behind Darius, “He is too aware of your thirst for me, has kept controlling you by leaving you no choice for whose blood you drink. Knowing it is my blood you truly desire… Mine!”
I think this happens too often-
this is
Eros behavior, always finding Darius and I when we are weak with desire for each other. Suddenly, I’m against the rock wall, and Darius is before me covering me with his naked body while facing Eros –then he lunges for him. Eros is unprepared for the onslaught, momentarily taken down.
They wrestle on the ground while I beg them to stop. I can’t look at either one of them because there is so much blood and it’s causing a fevered hunger within me,
I have to get them to stop… I can’t control the pangs of hunger for long.
Darius looks to me with doubt filled eyes, claws Eros’s chest making me feel unbearable pain, “No, please don’t,” I scream panicked as he separates himself from Eros and draws closer to me.
“It’s okay… stay with me, look at me, and think of our love… don’t let the hunger control you.” We are staring at one another, the pain momentarily stuns me making me forget about my hunger long enough for him to reach me. I’m staring at their mixed blood on his skin… and think,
just a taste- what would it feel… to have them both in my mouth.
Darius is furious, and Eros smiles, “She can’t help what she is.”
I try to tune out their scents and hamper down my rising panic from the fear of losing control. I nod letting him know I’m better although I’m barely hanging on.
Eros is watching, studying us… he is so focused on getting to me, all he cares about is what he knows we’ve been doing in this cave, what he’s stopped us from doing. I see it in the intensity of his gaze. He knows Darius hasn’t taken me yet, and he wishes to stop it from ever happening.
His eyes search mine, scrutinizing everything about me, my reactions- what he’s interrupted. I’m immobile, like he has some power over me, while he examines my mind and sees everything that’s happened since he left me lying on the ground with barely a breath left in my body. He takes comfort in the knowledge that I’ve tried to escape Darius going to extreme lengths, even killing him, but he can’t believe I have broken my promises to him.
I see the pain evident in his features, and I realize this time he’s different. There’s a selfless kind of love… it confuses me, shocks me still- holding in my breath, turning my world… me inside out. He is a completely different person. I don’t want either of their pain. And more importantly, I will never move beyond the pain he’s caused me to feel.
“Please stop! Please don’t.” I scream.
My mind reacts involuntarily and reaches to Eros because deep within I know there is no reasoning with Darius when Eros is so close.
I could have loved you, been happy loving you if you’d somehow been like this, but you hurt me from the very beginning- too deeply.
He catches it before I can suppress the thought. His eyes flash with longing and purpose, so I quickly add, “You’d be wise to let us go, it’s too late- I love him.”
He shakes his head disapprovingly, and returns his hate filled stare to Darius who is an impenetrable wall in front of me.
I find myself in Eros’s mind again, and feel how he’s waited for the spell to work… waiting for us to be reunited. He wants to take me from here, but not by force. He felt this time everything would be different… believed in the promises I whispered to him while we were surrounded by night, under the stars, wanting each other.
He felt I would now crave him… and no amount of seduction from Darius would change the undeniable hunger I’d felt for him in the few moments we collided.
A momentary lapse of judgment, we collided, but I’ve moved on, so should you. I will always love him.
He
makes it clear, wants me to know, he will keep Darius away from me, so I may escape. He wishes to give me time to decide what I want. I think he is somehow deceiving me because he’s never offered anything without taking blood, pain, and tears as payment. Am I now to think it is just so Darius doesn’t have me? This would never have been enough before, what’s made him change so drastically?
In his mind, I see he recognizes Darius has a hold on me which I may never free myself from, he sees that now. He reads my last thought before Darius sends him flying to the darkened end of the alcove, away from me. Darius is yelling at him to stop invading my thoughts, I suppose he knows Eros is in my head because I’m moving away with my hands over my head. Struggling against him in my head causes me pain because his hold is strong making me see white flashes as he strikes images from my mind.
Eros doesn’t let go, isn’t done going through those images wanting to see it all. He wishes to see until I’m too far away and no longer can. Why? Why does he wish to inflict upon himself this unnecessary punishment? Is he finally willing to let me go?
Darius turns to me with piercing eyes and yells, “Go, NOW!”
I’m so connected to him I understand his fear. He’s afraid Eros will use me against him, manipulate me with his mind control leaving him no choice but to fight us both. He can’t fight me now after all we’ve just shared… I feel his vulnerability.
He fears I’ll choose this changed Eros. He knows I recently did just that.
I run from them both knowing this is the only real opportunity, I have been aching for… freedom. I know Eros will not kill Darius because he has offered me an escape and the only way for him to achieve it is by engaging in battle for as long as Darius is still standing. I also know that no matter how much Eros taunts Darius, Darius will not kill him.
I hear them fighting knowing Darius isn’t causing permanent damage because he believes me to be running from fear, and with Eros so close he’d rather have me running away- putting all the distance between us. I have made a pact with Eros, and I know Eros will keep his end. My last thought to him before Darius attacked him was,
keep him from coming after me… stay conscious because he will want to knock you out to follow me. He’s changed, stronger. Keep him here for as long as you can… I promise I will find a way to free us all.
What he doesn’t know is I too have lied because although I may find a way to free him and in turn free myself from him, there are some things I’m just not strong enough to do. I cannot run forever from Darius.
I know he’s let me leave because he thought that if he succeeded in keeping Darius away from me, he would finally have the opportunity to kill him. It is what my mind keeps telling me because I don’t believe Eros is capable of such an extreme change of heart. If I am correct, Eros is in for a surprise because Darius will not die. He’d seen as much in my mind, but I guess Eros must think he knows something I don’t. I just have to find a way out of here before either one of them finds me.
I’m hoping by the time Eros finds me, I have found the witch to undo our bond. Set us both free.
I’m soaking wet feeling an undeniable thirst for both their blood as I reach the chest with my clothes. I fretfully strip out of the wet tank top I had on under my pink V-neck and slip on a new pair of jeans with a black V-neck shirt, fighting the irresistible urge to return to them both. I feel Eros drinking Darius, tasting my blood mixed in Darius’s blood, and I feel his struggles intensify. His need for me is vicious, taking on new heights- consuming him.
Time is up, get out now,
my mind yells before all my good motives crumble like the dead.
I run to the alcove that leads into the tunnel with the above ground exit on the other side. I suspect the collar I’m wearing will let me exit the cave because Eros was able to trace here, and he was planning on tracing us out of here.
Within seconds, I’m standing on cool dewy grass looking up at the new moon… complete darkness, not even a sliver shining above, and I know the spell was created to work with the new moon.
Meaning it had been two weeks since Eros found me. It is so strange because it had only felt like days to me. I’ve lost so much time.
Running now, trying to put all the distance I can between myself and them… feeling as if I was being chased by demons themselves. I run knowing that not even submerging myself in water tonight would save me from Eros while wearing this collar, and Darius would find me anywhere because he has consumed my blood. I hoped that if Eros drank enough from him I might have a chance. I hadn’t tried my new found strength against Eros, and it would be against him I would want to fight.
I hated everything Eros and I represented- deceit, manipulation. It was his fault my life had turned out this way, and if I couldn’t make myself end him, I could beat him until he no longer had any strength left to follow me with. The worst of it was, this last time… when I didn’t know it was him, I’d let my guard down, and I felt something- much stronger than desire for him.
A connection beyond our mortal bodies. He made you believe this once before, remember his power over you.
I had to find the strength to do the things required of me. Consumed by my thoughts and moving at the incredible speed I was going I didn’t see how the air in front of me shifted, became dense, and expanded. By the time I noticed this change in the air, and saw it glowing green with a white center, I couldn’t stop myself from going through. I was instantly consumed by the light when unexpectedly… there was no gravity, just a feeling of utter weightlessness with no ground beneath my feet. Turning uncontrollably… gradually at first, but increasingly rapid with each passing moment- I feared I would soon pass out.
I was out of air- suffocating, turning so fast, I could do nothing to stop the momentum.
Without warning and to my absolute horror, I dropped. I was falling at lightning speed through air and found myself dizzily searching for what to do. I kept grasping at the wind… holding on to nothing while staring at a violet, diamond void.
I’ve died before, but never have I seen this.
I shut my eyes, turned my face, and then, thought better of it, forcing them wide open- I saw a black shimmering mass underneath me. No, I was falling… on ground- it was a violet sky above me-
My God, would I recover from this?
I screamed covering my face because I anticipated the ground at any moment.
My scream was cut short when a worse terror literally seized me, I was jerked in mid-air when… great giant talons enclosed around my waist without cutting deep into my skin. I looked up at gray- leathery skin as I frantically fought trying to open free from whatever it was that held me. Quickly realizing whatever had me, had saved me… I tried to hold on because it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain my struggle.
My body was being pushed back by the force of the air hitting me with the speed created by the immensely large expanse of wings flapping over us. Trying to hold my body up exhausted me, and I soon fell back my hands letting go as I dangled lifeless, terrified I would fall over the ever-changing landscapes.
Thankfully, as my struggles quit, it decided to descend to a comfortable height, and as the minutes turned into hours I began a new struggle… fighting off sleep.
In the end I lost- feeling exhaustion claim my body. Soon, I couldn’t help the dreams from taking shape in my mind. I dreamed I was flying, but it was all my own doing. I was finally free… and flying in this purple night. I felt free like a child except now I wasn’t a child, but a powerful woman, in my own right, who didn’t need to dream about being a beautiful bird because I was entirely something else. Something greater.
This is what you wanted,
my mind whispered.
To return to your origin. You are home.