LEXINE BARELY MADE it back to the manor. After the sun had set, Lucas had let her go with a list of demands. And, if she didn’t follow them, he would show Dante and everyone else the video that he’d shown her.
Just thinking about how everyone would look at her made her sick. Although that could also be the blood loss she was dealing with. She didn’t know how she was going to go out on patrol when she could barely hold herself upright.
Lexine snuck into the compound through one of the back doors and was able to creep up to her room without anyone seeing her—the one thing she had going for her that night.
She would have laughed if it wasn’t so sad.
Once she entered her room, she stripped off all her clothes, found an old backpack in the rear of her closet, and stuffed her outfit in there. She’d burn the whole thing later.
Next, she got in the shower and turned the water on as hot as she could take it and scrubbed her skin raw.
Lucas and the others hadn’t raped her. After they’d all unzipped their pants, she’d closed her eyes, weak from fighting and Lucas stealing her blood. Nobody had touched her at first. She’d thought and hoped that maybe they were going to leave her alone. Until she’d felt a hot spurt hit her stomach. And another and another. Then, she’d felt it on her chest, her legs, and her arms. They had jacked themselves off and come on her over and over again, leaving no part of her body untouched.
At first, she hadn’t understood why they had done that instead of sexually assaulting her. But then she’d figured out that, this way, there would be no proof of her attack because a rape kit would show nothing. And, to top it all off, she had to come home smelling like she’d had sex with three males. Add in the low blood count, and now, she looked like a whore who gave out her body and her blood.
After they’d finished, they had let her lie there, covered in their semen, for the rest of the day. She’d known that she needed to rest to regain her strength, but every time she’d tried to sleep and escape her situation, someone had come along and woken her up. She hadn’t slept for over thirty-six hours.
Lexine sank down into the tub and let the water wash over her. Even though she had not been a willing participant, she was mortified. She had let these people into her life. All because she’d trusted the wrong vampires. She’d thought they were her friends. Some Guardian she was. She hadn’t even seen them for who they really were.
The water was beginning to turn cold before she reached up to shut it off, but she was too tired to get out. The hot water on top of everything else had made her incredibly sleepy. She lay back to rest for just a minute to regain some strength before attempting to climb out and get herself up and dressed.
She zoned out, her body trying to sleep while her mind tried to stay awake, and she didn’t hear someone knocking on her bedroom door. She didn’t even hear that person breaking in or charging into her bathroom.
“Lexine! Oh my God!”
She opened an eye. It was Sterling. He was bending over the tub with a horrified expression on his face.
“Of course it’s you,” she wearily told him.
“What happened to you? You’re as pale as a ghost.” He leaned closer and frowned. “And you smell like…”
“I’m not a whore. I’m not.” She wasn’t supposed to tell anyone the truth, but she couldn’t have people believing she would do that. She didn’t even care that she was naked as long as he didn’t really think she had been out, having an orgy.
Sterling’s face softened. “I know.” He leaned over, grabbed her big bath towel from her towel rack, and wrapped it around her before he lifted her out of the bathtub and carried her into her room. “You need to feed.”
She shook her head. “There’s no time. We’re on duty tonight. And I can’t let my brother see me like this.”
As an unwedded female, it was preferred that she only drank from members of the same sex or from family members. She often drank from her brother, but there was no way she would let him see her like this.
“Take my vein,” Sterling said.
She swatted his hand away, or she tried to anyway. With her weakness, it was like a feather hitting a rock. “I’m not going to do that.”
While she was a stickler for the old rules, especially when it came to being a female, she was a Guardian after all, and there was a time when there used to be no female Guardians. She just wasn’t comfortable with feeding from any male. And she always envisioned that Dante would be the first one she fed from.
Sterling looked at her like she was crazy. “Okay then, I’d better go find our leader before he goes out for the night because there is no way you can go out like this. Someone will have to cover for you.”
He stood, and she grabbed the first body part she touched—his leg.
“No.” There was no way she could let Dante see her and smell her like this. She was already having enough trouble getting him to see that she was meant for him. “I will drink from you.”
“Thank God.” He sat down on the bed, took off his shirt, and spread his body out beside hers.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
Like all Guardians, Sterling was physically fit, but she never really paid attention to how nice his chest looked until it was right in front of her.
“Feeding you,” he said, drawing her eyes up to his and away from his body. “You know, you need to drink a lot and fast. You don’t have time to feed from my wrist.”
Sterling grabbed her around the waist and laid her halfway on his body so that her mouth was right at his neck. He touched her like it was something he did every day, and she wasn’t sure how that made her feel. She knew he was helping her, but they didn’t know each other that way.
But then she smelled his skin and his blood. How had she never noticed that Sterling smelled almost like melted chocolate? He smelled delicious, but she was sure it was because she was so hungry.
She sank her fangs in his neck and took the first pull. There was a possibility that her eyes rolled back into her head at the taste. How had she never known that the opposite gender’s blood tasted this good? No one had ever told her. No wonder the Vampire Council discouraged it.
She drank and drank from him, climbing on top of his body until she was straddling him. She would have continued, but he gently cupped the back of her head.
“Lexine. Lexine, honey, you need to stop. I just fed last night, but if you keep going, I’m going to need to feed again.”
She barely heard his words, but they did penetrate. She remembered what Lucas had done to her and didn’t want to do the same to Sterling. She withdrew her fangs and licked the wound closed. Despite lying still for quite some time, she was breathing as hard as if she’d run a marathon. It took several seconds for her to realize that Sterling was aroused under her. She knew it had to do more with her feeding from him than with him being attracted to her, but she was suddenly aware of her nakedness and slid off him, clutching her towel to her.
“Holy shit,” Sterling whispered more to himself than to her. He shook his head, as if to clear it, and looked over at her. “You okay?”
She nodded and licked her lips, making sure she got every drop of his blood. “Yes.”
“Good.” He stood up and adjusted himself. He probably didn’t think she noticed, but she did. “Are you ready to talk about what happened?”
She shook her head. Even if she wanted to submit herself to that humiliation, she couldn’t. Not if she didn’t want her parents to be hurt.
Sterling looked disappointed. “I figured.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. It wasn’t much, but she felt like she owed him something for all his help.
“Will you be ready to go soon?”
She nodded.
He gave her a single nod in return. “See you in ten.” He reached for her door handle.
“Wait,” she said as she sat up in a panic.
Sterling looked over at her. “Don’t worry, Lexine; I won’t tell anyone. But you are going to have to talk to me soon.”
He reached for the door, and this time, she let him go.
She flopped back on the bed. She was in so much trouble. And, while it was nice that Sterling wanted to hear what she had to say, she was in this by herself. She needed a plan, and she needed one soon because she wasn’t going to let Lucas win. He’d messed with the wrong Guardian.