I roused to the brightly lit room. Rays of sunshine shone straight at my face. Lucian liked his room well lit and so floor to ceiling length windows filled in all most all the wall spaces around here.

I moved to get off the bed and pain shot through me sharp and vengeful. Immediately recollection of the day past flooded my mind.

Lucian had left me. Vowed never to feed unless I fed off him first. It was a bluff. It had to be. There was no other way to look at it. He would never just leave otherwise. It was surely one of his schemes to trap me to him for the rest of my life as nothing more than his food.

I shuddered at that thought unwilling to face that bleak future. Been there done that. Nothing in it for me.

I turned my head away from the bright morning glare and winced my eyes open once more. This time I focused on the door to the bathroom. I would get to it somehow I just needed to concentrate and make it happen. I didn't need to be a bloody vampire to whisk myself there and back without dying of pure agony. I could do this.

I placed a hand on my battered ribs now blank and blue. And winced from the lightest contact. Those assholes deserved whatever it was Lucian did to them. I thought furiously for one moment before remorse set in. The fools were dead because of me. I should have warned them that I was protected by a vampire no less a creature of pure fiction to many still. Even my own parents refused to believe in their existence despite their own daughter being a scion of one. A lot of people scoffed at the reports of the infective virus and over time, I scoffee too. I have been associated with Lucian and his ilk for a long time now and no virus had gotten the better of me. Infact, I was hale and hearty despite having consumed pints of his blood over time.

I couldn't keep deluding myself over it all. I needed some solid answers and if it meant my death then so be it. I would demand explanations. There can be no reason for not telling me if I were to take it to my grave. Lucian would have to cave into my demands and reveal all at some point.

God! I needed to pee!

With a feeble moan I tried once more to lift my bruised torso off the bed. But once again I fell back this time with a cry of rage. I was so over it. So over with being so blasted helpless all the time. Being ruled by Lucian. Governed by his dictates. A shadow beneath his command. I couldn't do it anymore. It was all I could do not to slice open my wrists in effect. Of course I needed a blasted knife first and to get thst I would first have to get off this damn bed.

I tried again this time sliding sideways. Inching myself slowly to the edge of the bed. I felt stupid but I could see no other way. If Blondie and Redbeans could see me now I would be a laughing stock that rattled their lungs for a good time to come.

I reached the edge and gingerly moved to slide my feet off and onto the ground. My hands reached out to grab hold of the bedhead. I would use my arms to haul myself up and my feet to brace. Hopefully, that would do it.

Biting my lower lip to stiffle my cries I did just that. The pain was blinding and I blacked out a moment but found myself upright. Not yet on my feet but still sitting on my bed. I don't believe my ribs was broken just badly damaged.

I used my hands once more and miraculously found myself on my feet. I hobbled over to the mirror and lifted my shirt to assess the damage. It was black. Black as night. Only one thing I knew was blacker and that was staring right back at me in the mirror.

"Lucian?" I gasped.

He didn't respond just tore his dark gaze away from my torso to meet my eyes in the mirror. His look was nothing short of threathening. I dropped my tshirt back into place concealing my multi coloured ribs.

"You're healing," he murmured shortly. "Your ribs have mended. My blood from your last drink of me must still be running through your veins. I doubt you would be dying anytime soon but a drink now will help you heal faster," he said coaxingly.

I stared at his angry eyes and would have believed him better if it was the golden ambers that were speaking to me instead of hungry pitch blacks. I shook my head in answer and merely turned away to hobble to the bathroom.