Sleep eluded me. It was impossible to move without sending shockwaves of pain radiating through my abused body. Even breathing was a feat ending in pain. I wanted to take the blankets off, to remove the pressure off of my wounds, but the warmth was too welcoming.

And Julian.

The memory of him confessing his fear swarmed my mind throughout the night. He seemed so cold and distant. I had him pegged as nothing more than a monster. But there was so much more to him, just as I’d suspected. For a brief moment, he’d let his guard down, tore away the hard exterior and made himself vulnerable to express his feelings to me.

He had feelings for me.

I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. There was no other plausible explanation. I could see it in his eyes. I’d felt it as he held me against his sculpted body that there was something more than just wanting a human pet. Why else would he try to take care of me? To have any sort of remorse after punishing me?

The punishment.

Images of him, enraged as he stuck my body over and over again, penetrated my mind, sending chills down my spine. I still couldn’t place what caused his fury in the first place, but I could only assume it was from a place of pain within himself.

Whether I wanted to admit it to myself or not, there was something about him that I was drawn to. He was dark and demeaning and, to my misfortune, a murderer. But I knew that wasn’t all he was, and for all I knew, that woman might have lived were it not for me finding them that night. Behind all of that power and animosity, he held a gentleness inside of him. Tender and sweet and loving. I could see it in his eyes, the way he looked at me with adoration. He held something more than the darkness I trembled at.

I made myself promise not to hold anything against him until I got to the bottom of it. I needed to know what his reasoning was behind it. And I wouldn’t hold him accountable until I knew the truth. Only then would I make my decision on what I would follow, my heart or my head.

The clanking of metal on metal drew me out of the pitiful excuse for sleep. My eyelids fluttered open, adjusting to the dimly lit room.

Julian had come back.

My heart fought between soaring and sinking. Part of me was ecstatic to see him, thrilled that we would have some more time together, while the other part of me dreaded what the day might entail. For all I knew, it would be another day of punishment. But the sweet aroma of breakfast filled my room, and I clung to the hope that today would be better. It had to be.

Glasses gently clanked together as he placed the metal tray of food on the table and motioned for me to come to him.

He was kidding, right?

The look on his face begged to differ.

I attempted to move my arms underneath me, to push myself up from the comfort of my bed, only to be greeted by agonizing pain. I yelped and collapsed back onto the bed, my flesh too tender to allow my muscles to function. Hot tears immediately stung my eyes and fled down my cheeks. I was just too sore to move.

The feeling of disappointment didn’t help my weakened state. I wanted to follow through, to make him happy in hopes of learning more of what was going on in his mind, but instead I had failed him, and more importantly, myself. At this rate, I would never have my answers. I would never have my resolution.

Silent sobs wracked my body, my chest heaving as I hid myself under the plush covers. I couldn’t let him see me like this, so torn and broken.

The side of my bed concaved, rolling my body against the mattress and causing me to whimper again in pain, the slightest movement ravaging my tender flesh. The covers were gently pulled back, exposing my nude, wounded body to Julian as he rolled them down to the base of my feet. Torment and agony filled his eyes as his gaze raked over me, taking in the damage he had done with his own hands.

Julian brushed my hair away from my face, using his thumb to wipe away the tears that stained my cheeks. Warmth washed over me as his tongue found the back of my shoulder, his hot breath tickling my sore flesh as he slowly dragged his tongue over one of the lash marks. Immediate relief followed.

His mouth ventured across my back, licking away all the pain that resonated there. The touch of his lips on my flesh and image of his mouth being on my body sent rippling chills coursing through me, causing my mound to pulse in excitement.

His mouth slowly trailed down my shoulders to my lower back and found its way to my tender backside, his lips caressing my delicate flesh like they had once before.

I sighed aloud as relief washed over me, my pain fading away as if nothing ever happened.

Once my back no longer ached, Julian gently rolled me over to work on the wounds still present on the front of my body. My heart trembled when our eyes met. His eyes had returned to their normal, brilliant sapphire shade I had grown to adore. They shimmered in the dim, flickering light, and I could tell he was in agony.

He looked so sad. Heartbroken.

I wanted to wrap my arms around him, kiss his soft, full lips with my own, and tell him I was okay. That I forgave him. But I wasn’t sure if I was ready to fully forgive him just yet. Not without my answers.

I gasped as his tongue traced the purple marks that were etched into my stomach, slowly licking away the pain being so attentive to each lashing, making sure all of the pain had dissipated before moving on. His mouth caressed my skin, trailing up my body. Even my energy was returning as the aching fled from his tender touch.

When he came to the lashes at my breasts, I found myself wanting more, my mind begging for him to ravish my breasts, to find my mound and take me in every way imaginable.

My cheeks flushed with embarrassment. I had to keep a clear mind. I was certain he was hearing my every thought. I forced the thoughts from my mind and in hopes to distract myself from his intimate embrace, I thought of the questions that plagued my mind.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, the regret hanging heavily on his words deterring me from my thoughts. “My intentions were never to hurt you the way I did. The fear of having my heart broken again made me irrational, and I took that anger out on you.”

My heart stopped momentarily in shock. He was apologizing.

What did he mean, having his heart broken again? Had this happened before?

Reading my thoughts, he decided to explain. “I once took the sister of my greatest enemy as my war prize. I kept her in a room not much different from this one and trained her as my blood slave.” He sighed heavily as if the words were too hard to bear. “As time passed, I grew to love her, which blinded me to everything else.”

“She didn’t love you back?” I blinked away disbelief, trying to imagine a woman capable of spurning Julian. I couldn’t.

“Worse. She did love me. A princess among her kind, in love with the fetid enemy of her people. Her honor wouldn’t allow it, so she killed herself.”

My heart broke for him. All this time he’d carried such a heavy burden, harboring all the pain and turmoil from his past. No wonder he was so reserved.

He cleared his throat. I watched him as his mouth descended onto another lashing, the pain immediately dissipating as his tongue slithered across my flesh.

“After she had died, I lost myself. My world began to spiral out of my control. I couldn’t handle the turmoil. That is when I came to your realm, leaving behind everything. I slept for decades, waking only to feed.”

I watched him tentatively as he tore down his walls and bore his soul to me. “How do you survive out here all alone?” I asked curiously. “I mean, being so far away from civilization, how do you feed?”

His lips turned into a soft smile, pleased that I was being so attentive to his story. “I go into the world from time to time. I couldn’t bear the thought of having another blood slave, so I would go find someone and drink from them, just as I had the night you discovered me.”

“And now?” I asked, my nerves rattling as I wondered what his answer would be.

His gentle eyes found mine in a longing gaze. My breath halted in my chest. “I knew my life had changed after one look into your mind, Abby.”

My heart trembled at his confession.

“You were brilliant and had a… strange… yet invigorating outlook on things. Even me. Most people would hold me to human standards because I appear as one of them, but from the start, I could tell you understood I was something else, something more than what I appeared to be to the world.”

His gaze traced every feature of my face as my cheeks burned crimson. My heart was soaring, and suddenly I was no longer afraid of the man who had captured me. As it turned out, all I needed to let my own guard down was to know the truth of who he really was. His life was a fascinating, yet heart wrenching tale of war and heartache.

I wanted to tell him of my story, to let him know I was familiar with the heartache he harbored—my own battle I fought every single day. To reassure him that he wasn’t alone. But my mouth ran dry, refusing to relive my personal turmoil.

Instead my mind wandered to the logistics of why his blood healed me as his tongue lapped at my flesh again, healing another wound. What made the pain flee so quickly?

And the only way to know would be to ask.

“C-Can you tell me how this works?” I rasped in a strained whisper as I forced a change in subject. “How is it that simply licking me is making the pain go away?”

I kept my eyes closed, relishing in his touch, but listened intently, waiting for his answer.

His mouth left my body and I opened my eyes to find his gaze fixated on me, a twinge of humor touching his features. “I’m simply biting my tongue before I lick your wounds,” he stated. “It heals them instead of just taking away the pain like a medicinal cream would.”

All of the marks on my body had healed completely, vanished from my skin without a trace. Had the memory not flourished in my mind so vividly, I would have sworn that yesterday was nothing more than a figment of my imagination. Not a mark, a scar, a bruise—nothing that would indicate that my flesh had been ripped open remained.

I mindlessly dragged my fingertips across the healed skin. It was as soft as a newborn’s, silky and fresh in comparison to the rest of my skin. How could that be?

My eyes locked on his in astonishment “H-How...?”

Julian smiled and offered a timid shrug. “It’s what I am,” he said. “I am immortal, and in return, so is my blood.”

I watched him as he bit his tongue, producing his fang and sinking it into the tender muscle. Ruby red droplets formed on its pink surface before he wiped them onto his thumb and gently spread it across another lash mark. I watched in awe as his blood evaporated into my skin, the mark slowly disappearing before my eyes, leaving nothing but my normal pinkish skin behind.

It was unbelievable. I certainly wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself, with my own eyes. To wield such power was remarkable. This could be the cure to so many devastating wounds, diseases even. His blood could hold the cure to so many medical conditions. It could change the very way we mere mortals lived.

He shook his head, condemning my thoughts. “My blood would be the fountain of youth for any human who could get a hold of it,” his voice clear and stern. “It is part of the reason it is so important for my kind to stay hidden in this realm. Why the punishment for exposure is so harsh.”

With that, I understood. It all made perfect sense now. Why he was so closed off, why he didn’t keep any other company, why he was so lonely all the time. If people were to find him and discover what a mere drop of his blood could do, he would be enslaved, experimented on, and tortured far worse than anything he could possibly do to me. People would take advantage of him and use him to fulfill their own personal desires.

To live forever.

“Does it hurt?” I asked. The thought of him inflicting pain on himself just to heal me churned my stomach.

He simply shook his head. “No.” His eyes glinted with admiration as he gazed at me. “Now lie back so I can finish.” He gently pushed my chest, urging me to relax before his tongue caressed my body again.

My heart raced as courage grew within me, I wanted more than his mouth on my body. Images of him lifting me up by the hips and taking me from behind filled my imagination and my body trembled in response.

“Please stop picturing such things,” he whispered, his lips brushing against my stomach as he spoke sending rippling chills across my body. “You’re making it incredibly difficult to resist you.”

This was it. Now or never. Knowing that whether they took me away or Kiera succeeded in rescuing me, or worse, that she was found first and killed, leaving me hating him forever, our days were numbered. I wanted one pleasant memory of him, something I could grasp onto whenever I needed him if I couldn’t have him later.

With my strength and energy returning to me, I sat up, forcing him to move off of the top of me. His brows furrowed in confusion as I moved into position.

I got onto my knees, laid my head onto the mattress with my hands resting on either side, and swayed my back, displaying myself fully to him.

“I want you to take me, Julian.”

My heart hammered in my chest as I awaited his response. I wanted this more than anything else in the world in this moment. I wanted to feel him inside of me, filling me.

I gasped as his hands roughly grasped my hips, pressing his bulge against my quivering slit.

“If that is what you wish,” his deep voice rumbled.

I meekly nodded, trembling under his grasp. It was all I wanted.

The sound of his zipper being unfastened filled the silent air and my heart threatened to explode in anticipation. I glanced back to see him unbuttoning his shirt, exposing his glistening, sculpted muscles. I couldn’t help but suck on my lower lip, biting down to ease my tensions. He was too beautiful.

He slid a finger through my slit to find my aching bud, a growl resonating from deep within his chest as he discovered my slick juices had already formed, awaiting his penetration.

Replacing his finger with the head of his erection, he glided it through my dripping slit, lubricating his manhood before aligning it with my quivering opening, and an anxious shudder rippled through me at the warmth of his cock.

A gasping moan escaped my lips as he eased his hard cock into my aching pussy, stretching me until I molded around his steel rod. I had imagined he was well-endowed, but the girth of him put my imagination to shame.

My eyes rolled back, basking in the pleasure that washed over me as he slid his massive girth to the base.

His strong hands slid over my stomach and grasped my supple breasts before pulling me up off the bed. My back pressed to his chest as he slowly pumped his thick rod in and out of my heat. He tenderly wrapped an arm around my torso, holding me in place as his other hand grasped my throat, forcing my head to rest on his shoulder. His lips found my neck, kissing and nipping at my flesh as a deep, muffled growl rolled out from his chest.

I glimpsed his fangs growing. I rolled my head back on his shoulder, giving him better access to my throat. I wondered if it would hurt. A sharp pain spread across the nape of my neck, quickly fading into bliss.

As each beating of my heart pumped more blood into his mouth, I could feel myself pouring into him, and I knew it was powerful and dangerous and if he didn’t stop, I could die. Not right away, but eventually. But I didn’t want him to stop. I wanted to pour every bit of myself into him. To be with him, always.

It was a strange sensation, the need to be devoured. Especially coupled with rhythmic pounding between my legs as he took me from behind. The pleasure he made me feel just made me want to surrender more to him. More than my body or my blood—every part.

His pace quickened as he pumped his massive cock into my sweet, slick pussy with growing speed.

“Oh, my god!” I moaned repeatedly at the sensation of his soft, warm cock gliding into me. In such an exhilarated state, I knew I wouldn’t last long.

My hands gripped at his thighs, my nails digging into his flesh and he ravished me, our heavy breaths in sync. It was pure bliss.

He retracted his fangs from my neck, leaving the spot where he fed from me feeling cold and empty without his mouth.

He flung me forward, forcing me back onto the mattress, holding my head down with the palm of his hand, and rammed his cock into my tight hole. I screamed in pleasure, relishing in every forceful thrust.

My body tensed as my excitement built up inside of me. Julian seemed to have taken notice, and relentlessly pounded his cock deep into my aching pussy over and over again until my eyes rolled back and I screeched in ecstasy. Wave after rippling wave of pleasure washed over me as my trembling wetness latched onto his thrusting rod.

“Yes!” he growled, seemingly pleased with my release and thrusting his growing cock faster into me. “Beg for it,” he demanded. “I want to hear you beg for my cum.”

Without hesitation I moaned. “Yes! Please, Julian, cum in me!” I pleaded, I wanted to feel his hot seed spill into my quivering hole. “Please cum in my pussy!”

With that, an animalistic growl ripped through him as he forcefully thrust his thick shaft deep inside me and released himself, filling me with his hot seed. His body trembled against mine, jolting as he slowly came down from his climax.

I lay there in the afterglow, his cock still pulsing as it remained buried in my quivering pussy. I drank in every sensation of this experience. It was so much more than I had ever anticipated. And to experience it with him made everything even more exhilarating. I found myself growing aroused again just at the thought of having him take me the way he had, but my body was drained. I anxiously awaited the second round, dreaming of all the things we could do together.

He chuckled softly, lying beside me and scooping me into his arms so my head could rest on his chest.

“We have plenty of time, my dear. Be patient.”

I nestled closely into his side, relishing in our passionate moment. “We don’t have to wait too long, do we?” I asked with hooded eyes as sleep beckoned me.

A soft chuckle rattled his chest as he pressed his lips to my forehead in a gentle kiss.

“No, love.” His whisper echoed through my mind as I drifted off into a blissful slumber.