Chapter 23

Erick

Every breath stung.
Even a tiny movement felt like I was in that hell hole once again trying to get Alina to safety… and struggling to keep Emiel from killing me.
“Ugh.” I opened my eyes with much difficulty. The light in the room felt blinding. I closed them again, groaning. God, why do I feel so weak?
“Erick?” Was that Alina? She was here? She sounded worried. I might not be in enemy hands after all.
“I—” My throat felt like someone had scrubbed it raw with sandpaper.
“Hang on. I’ll get some water.” I felt the bed rise as she got up. She had been right next to me.
“Here.” She didn’t touch me, but I felt the glass near my face. I opened my mouth a tiny bit and was rewarded with the cool flow of the liquid down my throat. I gulped it down greedily.
A sigh left my mouth as my throat felt normal again, but the thirst was still there, lusting for a much denser liquid that was my life force.
“Do you need something else? Blood?”Alina asked, still panicking.
“I’m fine.” I lied and was finally able to open my eyes. I then had the pleasure of seeing her face in front of mine. “Alina, you... were covered in blood this morning.” The memory had haunted me in my dreams as I struggled to wake up and eliminate the cause of her distress. In the end, it was a losing battle. My body shut down so I could conserve energy.
Tears welled up in her beautiful green eyes. “No, it wasn’t mine. I’m okay. It was your blood.” Her voice was hoarse.
“Good. I’m glad.” I shifted to my side, holding back another groan, so Alina could sit beside me. I looked up at her when she didn’t take a seat. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m so sorry.” Her lower lip trembled, but she bit down on it. “I should’ve known it was a trap. You got hurt because of—”
“No, Alina. I got hurt because of him,” I told her sternly. “Emiel wants the throne any way he can, and he doesn’t care what he has to do to get it. There’s nothing you or I could’ve done to stop him.”
She simply nodded, finally taking a seat beside me. I wanted to hold her tight in my arms, but as I was about to raise my hand to tug her to me, I noticed the state we were in.
“I think we need to wash up,” I said, pointing to the bed. She did a terrific job of cleaning me up, but there was still a lot of blood on my body from the wounds that were now completely healed. The blood had soaked through the mattress, and now, it had ruined the clothes she changed into last night as she sat on the bed next to me. Even I was covered with dried specks of blood.
Alina nodded her head and got off the bed. “Wait, don’t leave. Is Kendrick here?”
“Yeah, h-he’s downstairs. I’ll call him.” On my nod, Alina went to the door to call Ken, and I took the opportunity to get up and put a shirt on.
“Erick!” Ken’s concerned voice came a second later, and I found myself engulfed in his arms. “Damn, Erick! Don’t fucking do that to us ever again!”
“Sorry.” I felt a smile tug on my lips. Kendrick and I had been friends for a long time now. He was only ten years my senior, but he was my playmate when I was a babe. “How many did we lose?” I asked solemnly when we separated.
Kendrick’s expression darkened. “Five. All the men are dead and dismembered. Mia lost an arm, and the strain made her lose consciousness, but she’ll be fine. Her arm’s healing as well.”
“It’ll grow back in a few weeks, Ken. Don’t worry.” I reassured him because Kendrick and Mia were together. It must’ve been killing him to stay here with me. “Have the new guards arrived yet? And Allen?”
“The new guards are stationed right outside the house. They were ordered to give you privacy as long as they don’t sense any threats.” I looked up that instant as Alina came into the room with a bottle of blood in her hands. Kendrick continued, “Allen is safe. There were no security disturbances at the hospital, but I have set up some extra guards just in case.”
I nodded. “Thanks, Ken. You can go to your Mia now. I’m fine. Just get someone to change the mattress before you do.”
“Sure.” Ken nodded before disappearing out the door.
“Here.” Alina held up the bottle. Like a greedy little child, I snatched the bottle right out of her hand and finished it in a few gulps. As always, it was tasteless and without nutrition. It was not at all like the rich, sweet blood that flowed through Alina’s veins.
“Go take a shower. I’ll prepare something for you,” she said and reached for the bottle in my hand, but I set it on the bedside table instead. “What?”
“We are taking a shower,Alina, you and me.” I was done being the nice guy who understood how to handle such situations. No way in hell was I letting her out of my sight.

Alina

Erick reached out and grabbed my hand, pulling me into the bathroom with him. I should’ve resisted... but I didn’t want to.
He turned on the shower to scalding hot, fogging up the glass enclosure as well as the mirror. He then proceeded to take off his shirt and threw it into the laundry basket and then went on to unbuckle his belt and tug down the zipper of his steel grey dress pants. His eyes met mine as I stood transfixed by the counter, but I moved my head to the side to avoid looking at him further. There was something sensual about watching him undress, and I didn’t think I would be able to stop myself from reaching out if I kept looking at him. The sound of something else hitting the laundry basket had me blushing even as a low gasp escaped my lips.
“You can look,Alina. I’m not fully unclothed.” His voice came from right in front of me.
This time, my gasp was louder as I whipped around to face him, my hands coming up instinctively to rest on his bare chest. I looked up into his eyes to find the blue lit from within. He leaned his forehead against mine, and his hands came up to trap me against the wall. “Your turn,” he whispered in my ears, causing me to shudder.
“I…” How exactly could I say that I was uncomfortable with my clothes off near anyone?
“It’s okay. You can keep the top on,” he urged, moving away from me.
Remembering that I still had my underwear on under the clothes, I tugged down the shorts slowly, leaving the top and panties on. I placed the shorts in the laundry basket and turned to face Erick again, my cheeks heating up as I heard him groan.
The next thing I knew, my back was against the wall with the water from the shower cascading down both of our bodies. Erick held my hands against the wall on either side of my head. Our fingers are intertwined as he kissed me with a roughness that he had never shown before. However, it wasn’t hurting me. If anything, I was kissing him back just as roughly, tugging his lower lip into my mouth and releasing it with a wet sound. Erick retaliated by scraping his fangs against my lower lip. When I gasped, he took advantage and inserted his tongue into my mouth to taste its every corner.
Moving away from my lips, he moved down my neck, sucking and scraping his fangs against tender skin. My pulse felt like a drumbeat against my chest as I closed my eyes and gave in to the sensation. I gasped as he moved to the top of my breasts, turning my head to the side when I felt him kiss the valley between my breasts through the wet material of my shirt. He was suddenly still, and even the boiling hot water of the shower felt like blocks of ice.
I snapped my eyes open to look at his face and found him staring at me intently. The intensity of his gaze made me lower my eyes again. “I’m sorry,” he said, moving away from me at once. “I didn’t want to force myself on you a second time.”
He completely got the wrong idea. “No! Erick, it’s not like that!”
“Then why won’t you look at me?” There was an open curiosity in his gaze.
“I— I can’t.”
“Why not?” He took careful, measured steps back towards me and put his hands on my shoulders. “If you don’t tell me why, I’ll just assume that—”
“Because every time I look at you, I can’t stop thinking that this is all because of me! You got hurt because of me!” I yelled as my vision clouded.
His eyes widened as I tried to break free and save myself from further embarrassment. He wouldn’t let me go, though. Instead, he tightened his grip on my arm and forced me to look at him. Then he asked me the one question I wasn’t ready to answer.
“Alina... why do you care?”
I turned away once more, not wanting to answer, but more than that, not knowing how to. He was right. Why did I care about him? After everything that has happened to me, why did I feel like him getting hurt was my fault? I should be satisfied that we’re even now. He hurt me, and because of me, he got hurt back. Then Erick’s lifeless face flashed before my eyes. There was so much blood, and for an instant, it felt like I would never get to see him again. That realisation made my heart shatter into millions of pieces.
“Because I care,” was my simple answer.
I cared about Erick. It mattered to me that he put me first every time. If he didn’t, he would’ve never come to rescue me, knowing that it was a trap. But he came, and he got hurt because of me. I was big a chink in his armour, but he just kept doing it. He kept trying to save me, I realized that with sudden clarity. He would keep doing the same thing for me because he too, cared about me.