CHAPTER 9
Aria sat silently as Braith slowly bandaged her wrist. His touch was gentle, his hands light upon her wounded and sore skin. Her tears had finally subsided but she felt exhausted, broken, completely defeated. He was being kind to her again, and she didn’t know why. Neither of them had spoken in the past hour. She did not know why he had come back to her, why he had not gone after Max, and she didn’t care. As long as Max stayed alive then she didn’t care what happened, she had promised Braith anything he wanted; she had meant it.
She didn’t know if that was what had halted him, if that promise was what had brought him back to her, but she wasn’t going to risk him changing his mind. She had overestimated his kindness and understanding of her, but then again she had slapped him in the face. She supposed she was lucky that he hadn’t just killed her outright.
He finished with her bandages, his hand rested lightly upon her wrapped wrist and fingers. She slowly lifted her head to meet his shaded eyes. “Why?” she asked softly.
“Why what?”
She swallowed heavily, fearful of sending him into another rage, but she knew she had to ask the question. “Why did you pull me off that stage? Why did you choose me when you have never chosen a blood slave before?”
He sighed softly; his hands gently squeezed hers. He rose slowly from the floor and sat on the bed beside her. “I see that people have been talking.”
She shrugged, fiddling anxiously with her bandages. “I think most are curious.”
“As are you.”
“As am I,” she agreed softly.
He remained silent for a long moment, his attention fixed on the doorway. “I have never had a blood slave because I prefer to take my blood from the willing. Many of my kind enjoy the force and the control, I do not. I never have.”
She turned slowly toward him, her fingers stilling on her bandages as she studied his hard countenance. Her blood had been wiped from his face, but she could still see the fine imprint of her fingers upon him. A small bit of shame crept through her, she shouldn’t have hit him, but she had never been known to control her temper. It had nearly cost Max his life.
“There are many willing ones out there.”
She felt his eyes slide to her, felt his gaze as it slid over her. She could only imagine what she looked like. Her eyes had to be bloodshot; she could feel the swelling in them. She imagined her face was blotchy and swollen also; her hair was in disarray, wild as it straggled about her face. For the first time she found herself caring about her looks, she did not want to be ugly to him, did not want to look like a helpless child. Yet she felt as if she were both in his eyes right now.
“Yes.”
She nodded, not liking the strange pit that formed in her stomach as he confirmed what she had already known. What the hell was wrong with her? Just an hour ago she had been slapping him, now she was upset by the thought of him with his many women. She was losing her damn mind, she had finally flipped her lid, and she was surprised to realize that she didn’t really care. Not anymore.
“So then why me? Why did you choose me?”
He sighed softly, running his hand through his hair. It was already disheveled, now it stood slightly on end. He stood up, walking over to the window before moving back across the room. He looked like a caged animal as he paced restlessly back and forth. “Because I saw you on that stage.”
Aria frowned, stunned by his response, unsure of how to respond to it. What the hell did that mean? Of course he had seen her on the stage, as had everyone else that was present that day. “I don’t understand.”
“No, of course you don’t,” he said softly. He stopped before her, kneeling down as he took hold of her hands. “I brought you here because for the first time in almost a hundred years I was able to see something, and that something was you Aria.”
She frowned at him; her fingers limp in his as she stared at him in confusion. Her eyes scanned over his hard face, landing upon the thick glasses. Her mind flashed to the cane, and to Keegan who was ever present at Braith’s side. “You’re blind,” she breathed, stunned by this revelation, and the fact that she had not realized it until now. But, he couldn’t be blind. How could he have taught her to read then? And how had she always felt his gaze on her, how had he seen her connection with Max today if he was blind? “I don’t understand.”
He shook his head, turning slightly to look out the window. “I don’t either,” he said softly. “But for some reason I saw you on that stage, and once the shock of actually seeing something again wore off, I began to realize that I could also see things around you.”
“So your eyesight is coming back?”
“No.” He turned back to her. “I only see things when I am with you, when you are around. When I leave this room, when I am not in your presence, I can no longer see again.”
Aria’s eyes widened, her heart leapt wildly in her chest. She did not know what to make of this confession, did not know what it meant, what it signified. Her fingers were shaking, her lips trembled slightly as she leaned forward and gently stroked over the hard edge of his glasses. He did not move away from her, did not stop her as her fingers wrapped slowly around them. She bit her lip, excitement washing through her as she gently pulled the glasses away.
His eyes were closed, but she could see the faint white scars that outlined them. It had been a hundred years, plenty of time for a vampire to heal, but those scars were still there, still marring the otherwise perfection of his masculine beauty. Her fingers stroked lightly over the marks, compassion washed through her. Whatever had caused this had to have been something horrific to have left this type of lasting damage. Something horrific and painful.
“Let me see Braith,” she said softly, suddenly needing to see his eyes more than she had ever needed anything before.
His eyes remained closed for a moment longer before his long, dark lashes swept upward. Surprise flickered through her, but she found herself frozen, immobile within the grasp of that solid, fierce stare. His eyes were striking. They were a bright, stunning gray that robbed her of her breath and left her immobile upon the bed. Around the iris of them was a band of bright blue that was arresting. They dilated once the light hit them, once they focused upon her.
Aria could only gaze at those eyes, the slow comprehension dawning upon her that they were the most beautiful things she had ever seen, and that they were damaged. Though they had focused upon her, they seemed strangely unseeing and slightly dazed. Yet they scanned over her face, searching her slowly as she ran her fingers lightly over the soft scars encircling them.
“Beautiful,” she said softly. She saw the brief shock that rolled through him, but she didn’t care. They were beautiful, and she couldn’t stop touching them, couldn’t stop touching him. “What happened?”
“An explosion.”
“The war?” she asked softly. He shook his head in response, but did not elaborate and she sensed that he didn’t want to. She wasn’t going to push him either. It didn’t matter how it had occurred, it simply mattered that she was here, with him. “I’m sorry.”
“It was a long time ago, I had long since adapted to the loss. Until you.”
She stopped searching his wounded gaze, and focused fully on the man before her. “What does it mean?” she asked softly.
His hands encircled hers, his grasp tender upon her wounded fingers. “I don’t know what it means Arianna. I simply don’t know. I do know that I wasn’t going to let you go once I saw you, and I especially wasn’t going to let you go to Richard Ellis. That is all I do know, I wish I had more answers, but I don’t.”
She nodded, biting on her bottom lip. Her hands tightened briefly on his hard face, she leaned slightly forward, pressing her lips lightly against his forehead. She wished that she could do so much more, wished that she could heal the wounds that had been inflicted upon him so long ago, but she couldn’t. She could not undo what had been so cruelly imposed upon him all those years ago, long before she was born even.
“Braith,” she breathed, so completely lost and confused by everything that was happening to her. To them.
She pulled slightly back, surprised to feel tears burning her eyes again. She didn’t think that she could possibly have any more tears left in her, but she did. “Arianna, you must listen to me. I don’t wish to hurt you, I really don’t, but there are rules to being a blood slave, and there are rules about the relationship of a master and their slave.”
“I know my life is not going to be a long one,” she said softly. “I’ve known that for years. I’ve seen more death than people three times my age, and I’ve narrowly avoided it many many times. I understand the rules Braith; and I know there is nothing you can do…”
“But there is, or there could be, but you must do as I say Arianna. There have been other vampires that have kept slaves for a few years, even longer. But you must behave, you must stay quiet, and you have to stay away from your lover…”
“Max is just my friend!” she interrupted sharply; angered by the fact that he kept insisting upon something that wasn’t true. “I told you that already, and I meant it. We’ve been together since we were babies; he’s my brother’s best friend. If it wasn’t for me, and my recklessness and carelessness, Max wouldn’t be here. I can’t let him suffer because of me! I can’t let him suffer because I am a fool who never listens to orders…”
Aria broke off, her gaze widening as she realized what she had just revealed to him, or had nearly revealed to him. “Orders?” he inquired softly.
She shook her head, not wanting to discuss this now. She simply couldn’t. “He’s my friend and he is going to die because of me. I can’t… I can’t bear it,” she choked out. “All he wanted was to save me, for Daniel.”
“Daniel?”
Aria nodded, managing a tremulous smile. “My brother.”
Braith’s face was hard, his eyes searching as he looked her over. “I see.”
“Max could have gotten away Braith. I went in to rescue Mary’s child, but Max could have gotten away, he could have escaped and fled into the woods. He is here because he thought that he could save me from all of this, Max is an optimist to the end.”
“And you’re not?”
She managed a wan smile as she sat back slightly. “I have always been one hundred percent pragmatic. Like I said I have seen a lot in my short life, very little of it has been good. Max is good though, and I hate the fact that his goodness will be destroyed because of me. I didn’t mean to hurt you; I just wanted to see my friend, to know that he was safe, and that he wasn’t dead. At least not yet anyway.”
Braith sighed as he sat back. “You didn’t hurt me.”
Arianna nodded, her hands slipping slowly away from his hard face. “Of course I didn’t hurt you. I shouldn’t have said that, I didn’t mean it.” She couldn’t hurt him, she had been foolish to think that maybe that was the reason he had been so angry with her. She needed to remember that though her feelings for him might be changing, his feelings for her weren’t. “I didn’t mean to do what I did today. It’s just that when I saw Max he reminded me so much of home, and I missed him so much that all I could think of was getting to him. All I could think of was freedom. All I could think of was my woods and hunting and running free. Freedom, Braith, I loved my freedom, I reveled in it. And I’m sorry that what I did today could have caused us both problems, but I couldn’t stop myself because for one brief moment I was in those woods again. I could smell them, taste them, feel them around me, and it was wonderful.”
Aria broke off, overcome with a crushing sense of homesickness again. Braith was silent, his mouth parted slightly as he studied her, and then his fingers were in her hair and he was pulling her against him. Aria gasped softly, but then his lips were upon hers, his mouth claiming hers with a desperation that left her stunned and breathless. At first she was so surprised that she was motionless against him, unable to respond to the intensity and need she felt radiating from him.
And then her shock was buried beneath the torrent of emotions that surged forth in her. She was shaking, rocked by the need that filled her, the desperation that seized her. She needed this, she needed him. And it felt so right, so perfectly, wonderfully, right! Something inside of her seemed to be healing, mending, becoming whole. There had always been something missing in her life, something that she had been searching and hoping for, but she had never known what it was. Until now.
And now she knew that it was him.
He was what she had been missing; he was what she had been searching for, looking for. He was what had made her so reckless all the time, because without him she had been so lost and empty that she hadn’t stopped to think about the consequences of her actions. And though she knew there would be consequences for these actions, she didn’t care, because this was right. In fact, even though he was something that she had always hated and fought against, she thought this might be the first right thing she had ever done.
He rose over top of her, his large body loomed over hers as he seized hold of her waist and lifted her easily up. Aria gasped softly as he deposited her in the center of the bed before coming down on top of her. Aria’s heart hammered, excitement and panic tore through her in equal measures. It all felt so wonderful and new and thrilling, but it was also moving far too fast as the heavy weight of his body pressed her deeper into the mattress, and his strong hands began to slip her thin dress up her thighs.
Aria broke free of the delightful pressure of his mouth as fear finally took over completely. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t get control of her surging body and tumultuous emotions. “Wait Braith, wait!” she managed to pant out.
He froze against her, his hands stilled instantly upon her thigh. Aria shook at that realization; it was the most intimate touch she had ever experienced. A tremor raced through her as desire sent her heartbeat skyrocketing again. She had never felt so torn and lost before, never felt such overwhelming desire mingled with such pulsating fear of the unknown. It was all moving too swiftly, she couldn’t think, and she desperately needed just a moment to at least try and sort out what was going on.
His hands were upon her face, turning it towards him. She blinked at him, trying hard to focus on the beautiful, caring eyes swarming before her. “Arianna, are you ok?”
She managed to nod; she even managed a wan smile. “I’m just… I’m not… It’s just too fast. It’s all too fast.”
His eyebrows drew sharply together again for a moment, his eyes scanned slowly over her face. Then, much to Aria’s horror, a dawning realization seemed to come over him. His brow smoothed out, his eyes were far more understanding as they came back to her. “Arianna, are you a virgin?” Her face flooded with color and her eyes darted rapidly away from him. She couldn’t meet his gaze again, she was too mortified. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She bit on her bottom lip, shaking her head as she struggled to keep the fierce heat from her face. “You should have told me, I would have gone slower, I would have…”
“Stop,” she whispered, too embarrassed to hear anymore.
He sighed softly; he bent his head, pressing his forehead against hers for a moment. His fingers twined slowly within her hair, stroking lightly through it. “Ok,” he said, pressing a soft kiss to her nose. He rolled off of her, pulling her tightly against him, his arm wrapping around her waist as he held her against him. Aria was stunned by the easiness with which he cradled her, and the fact that he had taking her rejection this calmly as he held her gently within his arms.
“I don’t understand any of this,” she whispered.
He was silent for a long moment, lightly brushing the hair back from her face. “Neither do I, but you must keep this to yourself Arianna. No one else can know about my eyesight.”
She rolled over to stare at him; his hand cradled her face as he watched her. “Not even your family?”
“They see my blindness as a weakness, and there are many people that want to keep me weak. If they realize that I have my vision back and that it’s because of you, they will kill you to keep me weak. They may not know why I can only see around you either, and they won’t care. You can’t let anyone know.”
She bit on her lip as she nodded. “I won’t,” she promised.
He smiled at her, pressing soft kisses across her cheeks. She was amazed by him, stunned by the tenderness he showed her, shocked by the fact that he had so easily been denied something she knew he desperately wanted. He was a vampire, a monster, and yet she knew now that though he could be volatile, he was not a monster. He never would be, not with her anyway. She knew it instinctively, deeply, and with every fiber of her being.
“What are you going to do with me?” she asked softly.
His smile was swift and stunning, his eyes twinkled brightly. “Whatever you want me to do.” Aria couldn’t help but smile back at him as she lightly traced the hard ridge of his jaw. “I know you want your freedom Arianna, and I understand that, but I can’t give it to you. I will keep you protected for as long as I can, for although I am a prince there are those with more power than I. It may take a little while, but I will work through this, somehow. I won’t let them kill you.”
Aria nodded, warmed by the words, but not comforted by them. There would be little either of them could do if it were decided that she was a threat that needed to be taken care of. “You look exhausted.”
“I am,” she admitted.
“Sleep, we can talk later.”
But she didn’t want to sleep, she wanted to lay here and feel him against her. She wanted to lay here and enjoy the simple wonder of her strange and tenuous situation. But though she struggled against it, sleep was swift and deep when it claimed her.