Amelia
If I had thought that the drinks reception was tough the actual meal is worse. I am sat beside Damian as always but the first seat along the table is Erik to my left and his beautiful wife. To Damian’s right as always is Nico his customary glower on his face. You could cut the atmosphere with a knife at our end of the table, sounds of normal and excited chatter drift up from further down the banqueting table but there is an awkward stony silence hanging over us. I feel myself pushing my food around my plate unable to face actually eating anything. I can’t even look up I don’t want to see the hate burning in Erik’s eyes for me. I know I did it to myself but every bit of love I have ever felt for him still burns inside of me. Damian’s cold voice finally breaks the silence “Doesn’t Amelia just look good enough to eat tonight Erik?” His question loaded with innuendo. Fuck! Fuck him why does he always have to be such an antagonistic prick! Still I refuse to look up and instead just down my glass of champagne, I’m going to need plenty to get through this night. Erik clears his throat before speaking “She is always beautiful it’s just a shame what’s inside doesn’t match” this earns a amused snigger from my husband and I feel my fingers tighten around my glass. “Just as well you don’t need to like her to fuck her isn’t it” Nico’s voice adds to my torment, he sounds cold and cruel. I take in a deep breath and hold it trying to calm the rage bubbling inside. What I really want to do in this moment is shove my seat back and tell each one of them to go fuck themselves and run away from them all forever. In reality it will never work. I dare to lift my eyes and inadvertently catch Harlow’s, her eyes shine with pity, ah hell no! She can fuck off too with her puppy eyes all sad. If she looked smug, predatory or even jealous, anything along those lines I could take that all night long but she does not get to pity me. Closing my eyes for a moment to compose myself I hold out my glass indicting for a server to refill it. When I finally open them once more I feel the ice in them. I will not crack, not for anything in this world and especially in this company. I lift my freshly filled glass to my lips and finally allow my eyes to meet Erik’s over the rim of my glass. My ice meets his burning fire of hatred. Lowering my glass I find my voice still holding his eyes in challenge determined to make him look away before I do. I hear the coldness dripping from my every word “It’s just as well no one gives a fuck what you think Erik” I take in their multiple reactions as all once. My words seem to burn him even brighter but he looks away from my challenge first, victory number one. Harlow bless her delicate little heart gasps and I see a hardness as she looks at me now, victory number two. Damian rewards me with an indulgent chuckle and his hand slides over my thigh squeezing, his touch makes me want to vomit but I know this means he is pleased with me, victory number three. I have my armour in place once more, I can do this, who’d have thought Harlow’s pity would be the catalyst I needed. I risk a quick glance in Nico’s direction but his face is an unreadable mask, he seems to be studying Erik’s every movement. I am curious why he is so interested in him, I know he knows the basic history part but I have never confided in him how my heart still yearns for Erik, I’m unsure if it’s because he can read more than I want to give away or if there is something more in his fascination. Talk turns to something easier to follow as Erik probes for Damian’s actual intentions on the pretence he invited him here upon. “So Damian, you said you wanted me to work with some of your scientists at your lab on the bio-weapon, tell me more?” Watching Damian light up at another opportunity to make Erik feel awkward he gives his cruel smile “Well really it’s Amelia you should be discussing that with, she is the head of the lab. I don’t care much for that side of things I have more important matters to oversee. You’ll be working very closely together in New York” Keeping my ice in place I look straight at him and I see the anger there and confusion. “I’ve been running the research arm of our business for decades. I started it initially to look at alternative blood sources, synthesising blood that could help us to live in greater harmony with the humans and to gain a greater understanding of our differences at a cellular level to the humans. Then when this bio-weapon came about I switched a team to focus on how we can nullify its effects on us.” His face looks genuinely surprised and seems to soften for a moment as he looks at me “I had no idea that your side was even interested in any of this let alone so deep into it. I always assumed you were fine with your losses” I prickle at that, genuinely, that’s a bit of an asshole assumption from him. I’m about to tell him exactly what I think to his attitude when Damian cuts me off with a hearty laugh “We really could care less but it keeps Amelia amused and out of trouble” and the condescending prick pats my hand like I’m an unruly child he needs to indulge. I can’t help wonder what would happen if I take my fork and stab it through his hand. A sneaky smile works it’s way over Nico’s face “Yes it keeps her entertained and out of the way of the real business of ruling” I can’t help the snarl that I direct his way “Fuck off Nico” His smile is cruel “Oh I’ll be fucking off plenty later” And he winks at me “Asshole” I spit out. “I hate you too” his tone sounds like venom and he blows me what appears to be an antagonistic kiss with his words but his secret meaning gives me a little thrill inside.Amelia My belly does a little flip flop of nervous excitement as the table is cleared and we are ushered back into the ball room. As we walk through the doors naked humans hand Venetian style masks to each of us. I laugh at the irony of the masks, everyone knows exactly who’s behind the masks it’s a strange illusion of anonymity they represent. I take another glass of champagne along with my gold mask to match my dress, that I know I won’t be wearing for much longer. The ballroom is now surrounded with beds and sofa’s around the edges, still room to dance and mill if that’s what one so wishes. The lighting is dimmed to create a more intimate atmosphere and low sexy music plays in the background. Most of the vampires here are free to enjoy whomever they please throughout the rest of the evening. Only a select few have been issued playmates by my husband but those who have are off limits to anyone else. I’m escorted by a naked human male to the King’s private area, it’s
Harlow I had tried with everything in me not to watch them, to get lost in my own pleasure from the beautiful fledgling between my legs but it was impossible. The sounds of pure passion and rawness of connection could not be ignored. I had watched as she writhed between them and part of me had wanted to be in there with them, to be a part of it. The other part felt a dark jealousy that I had not know I was capable of, Erik’s face was full of an intensity that I had never seen before. He looked at her in a way he had never looked at me. Watching Nico carry her away I feel relief, that once more Erik is all mine. I notice a tenderness in the way he cradles her that is at odds with the disdain he usually displays towards her. I look to Damian to see if he has noticed but his attention is elsewhere already. He watches Erik with hawk eyes as he gets dressed once more and I shift to fix my dress back down moving away
Amelia I follow my personal butler down to the grand foyer where my bags are already waiting to be put into the car that will take us to the jet. Erik is there before me his face set in a grim line, he doesn’t even acknowledge me as I join him. Harlow is no where to be found and my heart aches a little for her, no matter how hard this is going to be I know being stuck here with Damian will be so much worse for her. Mercifully Nico arrives at this very moment, his expression surly and sharp but at least it creates some momentum, a welcome distraction from the awkwardness of the situation. “Let’s go” He snaps and I put on my sunglasses to shield my eyes from their scrutiny, the car ride will not be a comfortable one. Nico doesn’t help by taking the front passenger side leaving me alone in the back with him. We sit at oppostite sides both hugging to the window, the few inches between us feel like an ocean. I fix my gaze out of the window and sit like a statue the entire
Erik She thinks that I don’t see her sneak past me out the main door. I feel a rage bubble inside of me every time I look at her. Her behaviour is a joke, she doesn’t get to run from me after what she’s done. The way she looks at me with that cold condescension makes me what to wrap my hands around her neck and squeeze. She betrayed me, she left me and let me think she was dead for a thousand years. I have mourned someone who never actually existed, all she had wanted was power obviously and when Damian showed up she found a better opportunity. How I hate her for everything she has done and now we are forced back together she keeps thinking she can run away from me, avoid facing the consequences of what she has wrought. Well she has another thing coming, I am going to make her feel every shred of pain I have. I take off after her and I’m grateful there are multiple cars waiting outside the building for the executives to take advantage of. I climb into one just as her car
Amelia I do as he asks and I don’t turn around but I never needed to to know it was him. I felt his energy long before he was behind me, touching me, lighting my body on fire with his very presence. My head is spinning that he did this, my compulsion is strong even on vampires, his hatred for me should be filling his mind whenever he is near me. I can’t understand why he has done this, I also can’t understand why I allowed it to happen. Who am I kidding there is nothing in this world that I wanted more than to feel his touch, his lips on my skin, him filling me completely. Yet, I know this is a dangerous game and will lead to nothing but sorrow. I vow this can never happen again. Slightly dazed, running those moments with him over and over again in my mind, I wander down to the floors below looking for what I actually came here for, an attractive human to feed from. At the bar I ask for champagne and turn to survey the room, it is packed with attractive options, bodies writ
Erik Two weeks have passed. Two awkward, challenging, infuriating weeks. My blood boils every time I look at her, an anger like I have never felt gnaws at me as I watch her every move. My cock also gets hard every time I look at her and I replay over and over again the delicious perfection of being buried inside of her. Guilt floods my every waking moment as I know I do not think of Harlow as much as I should or miss her in the way a husband is supposed to. It’s like Amelia is an obsession that has infested every cell of my body, I can think of nothing but her. She is elusive at home and in the lab, disappearing each night with Nico whom she is supposed to hate, where they go I do not know but yesterday he left, summoned back by my cousin. Now it is her and me, my desire and my hatred, alone at last. She has been extra cold and short with me since this morning in the lab and now I watch her through the glass into her office lab, the secret place that is off limits to all
Amelia I feel the creeps behind me, smell their foul unwashed scent violate my nostrils, hear the racing of their blackened hearts as they anticipate felling their prey, the vile panting of their breath as they prepare to pounce on their victim. A thrill of delicious excitement runs through me, I haven’t been hunting for too long, restricted by Nico’s watchful eye. This is not about feeding I wouldn’t taint myself with a drop of their infested blood, this is a public service, this is vermin control. I think about all the poor women they have violated and hurt in the past and it galvanises me. There is nothing more satisfying than when these creeps realise they are not the apex predator, the delight I take when the reality of their situation flashes in their eyes and they fill with fear. A delightful shiver runs through me in anticipation as I reach the bottom of the dead end alley. I hear them jeer at each other as they believe they have me cornered, as they delight in t
Erik I am so angry that I can’t even articulate it to her. She is like ice beside me in the back of the car, head firmly locked looking out of the window away from me. How she can be angry at me is beyond belief, she put herself in a ridiculously dangerous situation for a reason that escapes me. Mercifully I was there to help her, even if I hate her for what she has done to me I never want to see her hurt in that way. Yet I do want answers from her. As the car draws to a stop in front of the apartment building she doesn’t even glance in my direction as she harshly pushes open the car door. Ah hell no! I dive out of my side and catch her just as she stands upright. I know I grab her a little too roughly but she is not getting away from me without an explanation. Her eyes bore into me full of annoyance, well she better get used to it I’m not going away. She will give me what I want from her. The noise from the cocktail bar across the street draws my attention and I realise it