“Constantine,” I pouted. “I don’t want to. Why can’t I just feed on the willing like I have been doing?”
“Because while that is acceptable, it is not our way. The thrill of the Hunt,” he said as he wrapped his arms around me. “The fear makes their hearts beat faster.” He placed his hand over mine before he lightly moved it lower down. “The blood is sweet and full. Don’t you want to taste it, my love?” He bunched his hands tightly in my skirts and I wanted him to lift them and have his way with me. He knew I wanted this too, but he dropped his hands and stepped away from me. “You give me what I want, and I will give you what you want. And only then,” he said with a sly smile on his perfect, handsome face.
I stared at him in disbelief. “You are being cruel, sir. You know I want to be with you, do not refuse me.”
“Do not refuse me, sweet Aefre. You will do what I want you to do. You will always do exactly as I ask. Your only task is to please me. Or do you wish for me to be unhappy?”
I hesitated, not wanting to make him unhappy with me but not really wanting to learn how to Hunt people either. “Very well,” I whispered, giving in. He was the only thing that mattered to me. He smiled at me, happy then.
“At sundown then,” he said, as he swept me off my feet in a loving kiss, but true to his word did not give himself to me.
I was aching with need for him as the sun set and he led me into the forest. “Hear the heartbeat, sense the fear,” he whispered to me. “He has a good head start on you. You should catch him before he escapes.” He slapped me lightly on my rear and gestured for me to enter deeper into the forest. I was afraid. Afraid of what I would do to the man if I found him, all to please my sire. But I would please him, because he wanted me to. I picked up the scent easily enough and followed it steadily, tracking him as I would a deer. His fear was washing over me, and I felt my fangs descend and the hunger clawed at me. I was now close enough to him that I could hear him crashing through the woods trying to escape, but there was no way out for him. He would die in this forest. I found him and in a flash of speed I had him by the throat, holding him close to me, I drank and drank. Past the limit. I felt myself get full and stronger, but I just could not do it. I let him go and he slumped to floor, still alive.
“Finish the task, Aefre,” Constantine said from behind me. “You cannot allow him to live now that he knows about us. He will betray us.”
“No,” I said and shook my head. “He won’t. We can make him a willing Feeder,” I added desperately.
“No, you cannot make someone be willing, my love.” He crouched next to me. “Finish the task and I will lift your skirts and take you right now.”
I wanted him desperately, but I could not. I shook my head and he sighed at me. “I am disappointed in you,” he said as he turned to the prisoner and dropped his fangs. He fed from him until he lay motionless and dead in his arms and dropped him to the floor without a second thought. “I shouldn’t have to clean up your mess, Aefre,” he said sternly. “This night, you will be punished. You will stay out here with him until sunrise and then we will try again.”
I watched him sadly as he left me alone in the forest with a dead man. The tears fell silently down my face. My sorrow over disappointing him and making him so angry with me gnawed at me. All through the night, I vowed to myself that in the morning when he came back, I would do exactly as he asked.
He returned at sunup and offered me some solace in his arms, but he was still unhappy with me. “Are you ready to try again?” he asked.
I nodded and he led me back out to the edge of the forest and let me go. I tracked the human down quickly, but again, I could not finish the task and he was furious with me, as he had to drain the man again.
Three more times we did this. Each time, I failed, and he left me in the forest, all alone with the bodies that had piled up that he had killed because I could not. Each one brought up from the dungeons for me to Hunt and kill. On the fourth night of being alone, I was tired and despite the regular feeds, I felt weak. I knew it was because I hadn’t been near enough to my sire. I had barely seen him over the last few days and it was affecting me. He said that it would, if I wasn’t close to him, and yet he had still left me out there in the forest, miles from the castle and him, all alone, to punish me. He returned and led me back to our starting point. I just wanted to cry and have him hold me and comfort me, but I knew he wouldn’t, and he would think less of me for it. I straightened my back and this time, this time, I was going to complete the task and make him happy with me again.
He found me crouched low over the prisoner, drinking heavily, determined to do this. I felt his heart beat slow and I kept suckling until he was dry and there was nothing left in his veins. The blood was coursing through me now as I pushed him away and stood with a smile on my face. Constantine was smiling back at me with pride and joy in his eyes. “There you go,” he said. “I knew you could do it, my clever girl.”
“Are you pleased me with, sir?” I asked quietly and he answered by kissing me deeply and sweetly as he pulled my skirts up around my hips.
“Very,” he murmured before he resumed his kisses and nips to my lips. “Do you want me?”
“Yes,” I whispered straightaway. “I need you.”
“Right now?” he asked as he pushed me to the ground next to the man I had killed.
I looked into the dead, glassy eyes of the man with no name, the human who had fed me and gave his life to help me please the man that I loved. The man that I would love with every part of me, always and forever. “Yes,” I said as I looked back at my sire, the man forgotten. “I want
you to take me here, now.”
He devoured me with his mouth, his hands, and his tongue. Every inch of me was licked, nipped and kissed before he slid easily into me. Moving inside me, he made me quiver with pleasure again and again, until the sun rose overhead, and I asked him to his delight, “Will you Hunt with me tonight?”
The End
Reader’s Note
To find out what happened to the ‘Other Aefre’ once Liv returned to her own World, read on with the Switch spin-off novella. A quick, fun story from the other side about what happened during the Switch and when she returned to her own World!
The Other Switch
(…and what happened next)
Eve Newton
Forever Series Novella