Chapter 5

Simone's POV

Before I can even think about it, I put myself between Aldric and Baron. “Stop,” I say and put up my hands.

Baron stops dead in his tracks. He gives me a confused look, maybe because I’ve never given him an order before, I don't know. “Why are you with him?” he asks in a watery voice. “You are mine.”

It’s my blood doing that to him. I’ve seen it before. It changes him. Sometimes he'll be all giddy and nice, other times he'll be weepy like he is now. “I asked him to bring me up,” I reply and slowly walk towards him. “All those vampires were looking at me,” I make my voice small and try my best to sound more like the child I used to be. “I was scared.”

“You should have come to me, not him,” Baron spits. "I look after you. I protect you."

“You're right-” I lay my palms flat on his muscular chest -"but you were busy. You are an important man. You don’t have time for silly little girls that are afraid of silly little things like a few vampires looking at her.”

I kick my foot past Baron’s leg in the direction of the door, hoping Aldric will get the message and leave. I don’t know him, but I know Baron is older, which means he’s stronger. I like Aldric. He’s the first person, vampire, human or otherwise, that had shown me any type of kindness since my mother died.

I feel a gust of wind go past me and start to relax a little. I don’t care so much about myself, but I want Aldric to get away. The odds that Baron will truly hurt me are very low anyway.

I slip my arms around his neck and lift my face up. The overlord hesitates only for a moment before he closes his bloody lips around mine.

I hate it when he kisses me right after he fed, but tonight, he’s soaked in blood and holding me so tightly that it’s seeping into my clothes and clinging to my skin. I have to concentrate very hard not to gag which will infuriate him even more.

Baron lifts me off my feet and walks over to the bed with me. He throws me on the soft mattress and hovers over me. “Did he touch you?”

“Just when he carried me up here.”

If he wasn’t so high, he would have smelled Aldric’s scent in my hair, but Baron’s gone to cloud lalaland, which has probably been our only salvation. “How do you want me?” I ask.

“On your knees,” Baron says.

“Can you say no?” I hear Aldric’s voice echo in my head.

“No,” the word just pops out of my mouth before I can stop it.

Baron’s eyes widen as if he had just been slapped. “Excuse me?”

“I said no. You are covered in blood. It makes me sick.”

‘Shut up, Simone. Just shut up. He’s going to kill you.’

‘So what if he does kill me? What am I living for anyway? To sit in a dark room all by myself?’

Baron grips my face hard enough for me to hear my jaw crack, but I feel no pain. I’m filled with rage. I want to scratch his eyes out. I want to bite and kick and punch and make him feel every bit of the hurt he made me feel these last five years since he started coming to my bedroom every night. “I hate you,” I blurt out.

“Bride or not, I will kill you.”

“Oh please,” I say. “Please kill me. You’ll be doing me a favour.”

Something brown and sharp on the bed catches my eye. Something that doesn’t belong here. Baron hasn’t noticed - he’s too busy trying to figure out what’s going on with me. I flick my eyes away from him to look at the object on the mattress. It’s a piece of the broken door. It makes for the perfect stake.

It won’t kill him, but it will slow him down. 

Slow him down and then what?

Get away, a very timid voice says in the back of my mind.

I don’t keep questioning that voice. I should. I really should. It would be better to die here in the only bed I’ve known since I was five years old than at the hands of starving and blood mad neophytes.

Baron grabs me by the shoulders and shoves me onto my back. He crawls up my body and plants a hand on either side of my head. “You don’t say no to me,” he snarls in my face.

Blood and spit drip on my lips. I gag and my fingers automatically curl around the big piece of wood. I lift it high and bring it down, sharp end first, driving it into the soft spot just below his shoulder blade. Blood spurts from the hole and washes over me.

Baron grunts and slumps forward on top of me. He’s just stunned, and they heal fast. So fast. In another few seconds, he’ll be fine and there will be hell to pay.

I grip the stake with both hands and yank. It comes out of his shoulder with a soft squelching sound. I jam it down again. This time I hear ribs crack and I meet a lot of resistance, but I keep going until Baron roars in pain and anger. His eyes are wide and confused.

I pull the stake out and bring it down again. Light pink blood froths from Baron’s mouth and he lands on top of me with his full weight, trapping me between his body and the mattress.

I shove my hands against his chest, trying to shift him off me, but I can’t even budge him an inch.

He’s going to heal. Any moment now. He’ll open his eyes and he’ll suck me dry.

I lose all ability to think clearly. Screaming like an enraged banshee, I yank the stake out of his back. Again and again, I plunge the piece of wood into him, not caring about the flood of blood soaking into my clothes, not caring about the consequences, I just want to hurt him.

“Shit. Simone!” someone says loudly.

I don’t pay attention to Aldric. If I’m going to die tonight, I’ll make sure that Baron remembers me for the rest of his life. Screaming and crying, completely out of control, I have enough time to bring the stake down one more time, shoving it straight through his neck. The sharp point comes out the other side, almost hitting me in the face.

Baron’s heavy body goes away and a moment later I hear a heavy thud to the right somewhere. “No!” I cry out. “He’s not dead yet.”

“Nor will he die. Oh, Jesus, Simone.” Aldric says. “What have you done?”