Blood dripped down her throat, a red so stark against her paleness that it burned into my memory and I knew I would never forget the sight. I should be disgusted and terrified for my own sake, but as I watched him drink deep, I decided that I wanted a taste too. I craved her blood just as much as he did and I knelt there, petrified with shock.
Markos reached out to me, beckoning me to come forward and have a taste and I screamed.
Arms reached for me and my vision blurred between the temple and my office. Somewhere off in the distance I heard Nicole’s voice screaming, Lynn’s kind tone trying to calm the situation and I knew all was lost.
“She’s insane. Get her out of here.”
“She should be committed. This isn’t the first time this has happened,” Nicole said ferociously.
“She’s lost her mind.”
I screamed bloody murder, feeling Markos’ pull more strongly than ever.
“Get her out of here. There’s PTSD and then there’s bloody fucking nuts.”
“It’s not safe for her to be here. She shouldn’t even be let free into the public like this.”
“I can’t even send her home. She’s too far gone,” Lynn screeched.
The great hall full of naked, kneeling humans faded away completely and I was left staring into the concerned, panic-stricken faces of my coworkers. A large group of men held my arms and legs, keeping me still.
I didn’t even know if it was real. I didn’t know if I was actually in the real world or if Markos had forced me into his.
I’d seen his teeth. I’d seen him bite a woman and even worse, I had wanted to bite her too. Had he turned me into a vampire? Was I a monster just like him?
Right before my eyes, he appeared. Behind him, Lynn and Nicole stared at me, unsure what to do with me and he just grinned. He had won.
I was the only one who could see him.
He was consuming my mind and there was nothing I could do to stop him.
Someone came up beside me and I felt them stick a needle into my throat. The pain was sharp at first, but then it dulled as the fluid pushed into my veins and then, everything went dark.
Chapter Five
Kassandra
I woke up in a white room, secured to a bed with thick, bulky leather straps. My wrists were bound to the bed down by my hips and despite all my attempts to loosen them, they didn’t budge. The lights were dimmed in what I assumed was some half-assed attempt to mimic nighttime. The walls were a dull cream color and they were padded. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that I had been committed to some sort of insane asylum.
During the day, the lights came on. At least, I thought it was daytime. I no longer had any track of time whatsoever. It didn’t really matter though.
Doctors came and went. Some of them talked about my periods of blindness and deafness, others talked about the possibility of schizophrenia and the fact that I was talking to voices in my head. Others spoke about my visions, several chatted about post-traumatic stress disorder, and one particularly zealous man preached that I was possessed by the devil.
Maybe he was right.
The longer I was imprisoned, the more the visions came. Soon, Markos consumed my every waking thought. Sometimes he would come to me and tell me about how he was going to fuck me, about how I was fated to be his, how he was meeting the demands of an ancient prophecy to make me his and how eventually he was going to rule the world with me at his side. I began to crave his darkness.
He told me once that he had mastered my body and soon, my mind would follow.
I shook my head, trying to force him from my thoughts, but it didn’t work.
Instead, he sat by my side in the padded room and drifted his fingers across my scalp, trailing along the dampness of my sweaty brow. With just his touch, my body reacted violently, exploding with an intense desire that left me breathless and wanting.
“Kassandra, can’t you feel it? Don’t you want me to fuck you again? Don’t you want to feel my seed dripping down your thighs once more?”
As he spoke the words, I could feel my body reacting to every syllable of his voice. It was more powerful than before and without him even touching my sex, I already wanted to come. It was as though his voice was liquid heat and I could do nothing but crave it.
“Markos,” I whispered desperately, ravenous desire boiling in the depths of my belly.