Clove : Book 4 of Lord Emperor Vampire Series

I am getting positive feedback regarding the do-over so I am sooooo pleasantly satisfied. Purr, purr.

ATOF
Beta, be thy name. Thanks! (Yes, I’ve messed up some names. Andrews is the vampire wrangler. Rogers is the recruit that Skell kicked in the face. I will fix that!)

Q: I thought I felt something. I glanced around the room but it was crowded and I really didn’t pick it up again. It wasn’t a vampire and whatever it was, was gone.

Yes, it was a Lycan in the bar that first sensed Skell and Kevin. Time may have halted for our little lost emperor but it has continued on in the House of Von Drachenfeld. A major change is that the Imperial Pack has expanded and grown. The search as continued and this was first contact.

Q: I think you’ve made some mix-ups
[The sex, I made him enjoy even though he claimed to be “into girls”.] Ch. 3 Skell & Coven
[“Yes, I did. I made you enjoy it, but it was without your consent.”] Ch. 3 Skell & Coven
["You raped me again. You took me without my consent and you made no attempt to make me enjoy it. You are a selfish lover, Skell."] Ch. 4 Family
Hmm, so does X usually make him enjoy it or not? At first, I thought he did, but then.. it seems like he doesn't?

The drugs that OW has been forcing into Skell has mingled the brothers. One is more dominate at different times, some less. Memory retention is, pardon by French, fucked all to hell. The brothers, merged as they are, cannot separate whose is whose recollections. There is also a habit of lying to oneself to handle the horror he has forced on another being. I think all would agree that if any of the brothers were in their right state of mind, they would not be raping anyone.

Q: I thought Orel Wessel found him at the statue of Reggie? If so.. he wouldn't have been wasting away yet..

Orel Wessel are liars. Dirty, rotten stinking manipulative bastards, who see themselves as heros of humanity because doing these dirty rotten stinking manipulative things to a demon isn’t wrong. If they thought that telling Skell that he ate babies would give them better control over him, they would do it. AND….they didn’t know about the post burn hyper metabolism syndrome and they did almost lose their greatest prize to the wasting illness before they figured out “THE SHOT.”

Sesshomarunaraku
Q: Who said, “You have responsibilities you have to uphold.” (end of Caramel)

It was Claudius, Lord Emperor of the Vampire Nation.

K
You ask very good questions, however, I am not a liberty to reveal answers right now, especially regarding Armor’s appearance in the bar and the ease at which Skell and Coven got away. It will be explained later and with some dramatics.

As for the OW use of psychologists – Vampires are demons therefore are of no consequence other than what they can be used for. The subsequent breakdowns, are actually in the brothers favor…I know it’s sickening, but OW is evil.


Thanks to the Loyal who have read and reviewed my lurching start. I prefer this version and it is flowing along like the previous series. Oh, thank god. I knew I was wrong when it was a chore to get one paragraph down. Whew. Now that I finally got my act together, Many thanks and best wishes go to friends old and new:

Jae; meadows_peak; Jenna T; romanticfae; k; kiki; laur; dramastarelf; rosemary, a.taste.of.insanity; rosei; Dark Avenger; mystic87, tsuki the moon, ex-cathedra, eiriyukithewriter, brackcatmoko; rainy, bunnicle, demonAkasha; ciarl shidenl asyenmari; lioncourt; yuffie03; josey; kuri; kaze; Jamie; sesshomarunaraku; eremi22; nani; dove10; fleur; pan; yamI-baby; mihara

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Chapter 142: A day in the life…


Hatred was becoming my best friend.

Memories were jumbled and out of sequence but they were being released one at a time like pigeons off a roof top. I had faces but no names. There were names but they didn’t fit with the faces that I saw. It was just a gut feeling. I still didn’t have a name. I had three--Xavier, Edward and Azrael. None of them fit, so I stuck to Skell. I played the fuzzy minded mutant vampire to the cameras but inside, I was raging.

Kevin was right. I had been kidnapped. Kidnapped and drugged for years. Five for sure, maybe more. I can’t tell. Andrews was just another face in the long line of wranglers.

We had been shifted to the common room mainly because my blue flame finally wore out, we reeked and the cell called ‘our room’ was a mess. I offered my body up to Kevin again in the shower, not because I had to have sex but it was a pattern that Orel Wessel had come to expect with me. It had something to do with falling water. If I had lost control…if I lost control and killed my BetaZ, the guards would join me in here. I would get chained up and gangbanged into unconsciousness. They would be expecting wanton behavior. The slut in me played to the cameras.

Kevin stood behind me pinched my left nipple and stroked my cock. /Do you need me in you? Cause I really don’t think I can get it up again./

I just shook my head. I had assumed the position, hands on the shower tiles and my feet apart and back. I closed my eyes. I just had to play the tame little vampire for a while. They would be expecting nothing from me but sex and blood. I was basically useless after an alteration. My cock was tender from the abuse it was receiving. I let the water beat at my head and cascade down my hair, my shoulders. Kevin continued to stroke my erection but he gripped my hair and pulled my head back and off to the right. He sank his fangs into my jugular. I didn’t intend to get lost in the sensations but they overwhelmed me. The warm patter of rain on my face, the soft sucking pull on my neck, the strong even pressure on my cock. I groaned and swallowed the water that entered my mouth. Then Kevin latched back onto my left nipple and began milking me with his thumb and forefinger. I felt apart in his arms. My legs quivered after my cum splattered the tile in front of me then they collapsed completely. I landed hard on the shower room floor. I think I fainted.

“Skell. Skell. Come on.” I blinked and looked up at Kevin’s concerned face. He was leaning over me, sheltering me from the shower. “I did good, eh?”

“May I kiss you?”

He blinked at me.

“I asked.”

“Yes you did.” /Why did you do this? You were woren out from before./

/I am always a slut in the showers. They would know something was wrong if nothing happened./

Kevin cupped the back of my head and pulled me upright. /You know I still like girls./ He tenderly kissed me. He showed me what he wanted in return. I was a bastard. Where he lead, I followed like a faithful little puppy. I wasn’t always a bastard. I couldn’t have been. Even if only for a moment when I was a child, I must have had some kindness…some decency.

There was a loud bang as Andrews walked in and slammed his telescoping nightstick against the exposed shower pipe. “Get up and get dressed. The shrinks want you, Eddie. You too Coven. They like your AV tapes. You just might go straight to video.” He laughed like it was funny.

I felt Kevin tense. I grabbed onto his shoulders. Mostly to stop him from doing something stupid and getting his head bashed in and secondly to get my weak sorry ass off the shower room floor. My attempts at protection worked. Kevin reached down and helped me sit up. I think I’ve always been a protector…not much of one but I did try. I was light headed when I finally got to my feet and staggered sideways. I dragged Kevin off balance with me. We slammed into the tiles but he was there, shoving at me hard to pin me there, to keep me on my feet. Marcus. I opened my eyes up to where that face should be. Wait. It was the same face as Armor.

/Skell, what’s going on?/

I got my feet under me. /I remembered someone./

/Now’s not the time./ Kevin helped me toward the exit. I was slowly getting my strength back.

“Come on move it. You can walk Skell. You’ve taken on twelve before and left them laying on their backs and walked out of here.”

I closed my eyes and hung my head. I was a vampire slut.

“Leave him alone. Haven’t you done enough?”

Andrews was the same size as me but he was wiry and fast. Kevin was ripped out of my hold and he hit the opposite wall with a thud. Off balance, he slid to the floor. Andrews drew back his arm with the nightstick. I forced myself forward and jumped on Kevin sheltering him beneath me. One, two, three. I cried out as the nightstick slammed into my back and shoulder. Two fingers rammed into my portal. I bit through my lip.

“I got something else you’d like, demonwhore.”

Oh god. Kevin squirmed beneath me but I tightened my grip. /Keep still…it’ll be over soon./

“Skell!”

I clenched my teeth as Andrews removed his fingers and shoved the handle of the nightstick into me. A whimper broke through my teeth. Kevin stilled. This wasn’t the first time Andrews abused me. Back then he made me believe that it was all my doing. My siren song called to the guards to fuck me, to rape me, violate me in the cruelest ways possible. He was just a sadistic fucker who if he hadn’t found Orel Wessel would probably be a war criminal by now. He used the nightstick to control and punish. Kevin found my hand and held onto it as I endured this rape.

“Cease and desist immediately, Andrews. Report to section head. NOW!” Andrews shoved the stick deeper. I gurgled as tears streamed down my face.

“You’re doing the job you were brought here for little Coven. Before, Eddie would have just watched as I wailed on you then fucked you with my ugly stick.” I could hear the running feet of other guards. Andrews waited until those guards came into the corridor then turned and walked away.

“Skell…” I grunted and tried to reach behind me. Kevin’s hand pulled the stick out of me and threw it into the common showers. It clattered against the tiles. I felt blood trail down my inner thigh. Bastard. I screwed up my eyes and tried to get up. Kevin shifted and caught me in an embrace. He hid my tear streaked face in the crook of his neck and pulled my hair forward to shelter me from the onlookers. “Skell…you didn’t have to do that.”

“You’re my BetaZ. I’m not supposed to let anyone hurt you, Kevin.”

“Not like this. No one. Vampire or not, should have to put up with this.” He began rocking me, gently, slowly. His hand came up and burst the tears off my cheek.
“There are bruises on your back already.”

“I’ll survive.” My voice was harsh and low with pain. The new guards came rushing up and dragged us to our feet. An order had been given. It was to be carried out.

Orel Wessel is clinical for the most part. We’re nothing more than experiments. Occasionally, we are tools, well I am. Kevin and I were ushered to the physiatrists in damp towels. I had difficulty walking so I got dragged between the two guards and Kevin followed along behind us. I got tossed face first on the examination table. Kevin got shoved in a chair and they closed the door behind us.

“You’re still bleeding, Skell.”

“I heal fast.”

“Not fast enough. What else can we do?”

We. He said we. “Saliva has healing properties.”

I turned my head and watched as he looked around and found a pitcher of water and a hand towel. “I’m going to clean you first. Maybe it isn’t that bad. Can you slide to the edge? Hang your legs off.”

I winced as I moved and bit back a groan as he touched me. He spread my cheeks and hissed. “Some of this is probably my doing.”

I screwed up my eyes as the roughness of the wet towel patted around my portal. “If you hadn’t taken care of me, Kevin, this would have been worse. I would be in that shower servicing as many guards that wanted a quick fuck. Can’t be trusted because we’re not human but we can be used like sex toys or killers.” The towel traveled down my inner thighs to my knees.

“This might sting.” His hands spread my cheeks as he looked at my portal. He pressed his finger inside me. My hands tightened until my knuckles were white and ready to pop. “You’re still bleeding. He tore you up inside, Skell. Spit works?”

I nodded. Then he did the unthinkable. I thought he was just going to coat his finger and rub it on the lacerations. I never expected him to stick his tongue up my ass. I grimaced and forced my forehead down on the examination table. My back and shoulders just tensed as he worked saliva deep into my abused portal. Oh….. “Take it out!”

“Buck up…I can tell it’s working.” I gritted my teeth and just endured yet again as Kevin healed me. Finally he stood beside me and took my waist, helping me crawl back up on the table. He stroked the back of my head.

“Thank you. That would have been me if you hadn’t thrown yourself on me. I’m having a tough enough time adjusting as it is, Skell, that would have put me over the top.” He walked off for a moment and rummaged around then came back with a sheet. He pulled off the wet towel and draped the cool clean sheet over my nakedness.

“It’s you and me against the world. I get that now. You still don’t get to fuck me, but I get it.”

The door to the room slid back and a white coated lab rat came in flanked by two guards. Kevin was directed to a chair on the far side of the room and I was flipped over onto my backside. He tied off my arm with a rubber tube then proceeded to fill about five vials with my dark blood. He yanked out the syringe pressed a cotton ball to the site, then turned and left the room without a word. Damn it. I didn’t think they would be taking my blood for testing so soon. They were going to find out I burnt the poison or whatever they used to alter me, out of my system.

The doors slid back again and this time the regular Head Doctor, Kruger. “I’ve just finished reviewing the tapes. Impressive display, Ed. We have been treating you as the alpha male…when all along you’ve been the beta. That would explain why so many fledglings were killed. You were searching for your dominant partner. Surprising. that you chose this fledgling. I had not marked him down as anything special. Your submission was complete.”

I just stared at Kruger. He hadn’t asked me anything anyways. He was just talking to hear himself talk. “So, we are going to permanently pair you up. BetaZ will become your hunting partner. He will have weapons clearance. I was going to have one of the instructors take him in hand but you are a better teacher.”

“Now, I want you tell me about the vampire you met last night.” He looked over at me expectantly.

“Last night?”

“You took BetaZ out for a feeding. You called back extraction orders. You said that you had run into trouble with a vampire for trespassing.”

“I…I don’t remember.”

He took out a little flashlight and blinded me. I blinked. He must have found what he was looking for because he gave a little nod. “You wrote in your diary…” He turned and headed to a small desk. He picked up my diary and flipped to the last entry. “You dreamt of fire. What did you mean?”

He handed me my writing. I looked over it. Just the tone of the writing was a submission collar offense. “My world was on fire.”

“What do you think it means?”

“That my world was on fire. Everything was burning.”

“Is it re-birth? Is it cleansing? Is it hatred? Is it regret?”

“Regret?”

“What do you regret, Ed?”

“Many things. Regret is lost opportunity.”

“Such as?”

I parroted Kruger. “Such as…my head hurts. My ass hurts.”

“Yes, Andrews unauthorized actions will be reviewed and appropriate discipline will be meted out. Has he done this before?”

“I can’t remember.”

“Try.”

“I don’t want to remember. It hurt. It hurt so much.” I was playing with the good doctor. I couldn’t recall every instance of Andrews attacks but they were more than just the four that I could remember. They were always right after a mind cleansing. It was his way of re-establishing control. Unlike today, it usually ended with him raping me himself. I would have to be on guard. Disciplinary action against a demon was nothing more than a slap on the wrist. He would be around again sometime today. I would have to keep Kevin close. I wouldn’t put it past Andrews to go after him since I so brilliantly displayed how much the little fledgling meant to me.

Damn, I missed whatever Kruger said. I covered it by curling into a ball and hiding in my hair. I stiffened as a hand rested on my back. “Please, can’t you see he’s in pain.”

“BetaZ. He has raped you countless times. He has dragged you into dangerous situations. Why are you defending him? You should be rejoicing that he has got what he deserved.”

I could feel Kevin’s distress. /Say nothing. He will use it against you./

“BetaZ? You will answer my question.”

“He is my maker.”

I closed my eyes. Oh, Kevin.

“Explain.”

“He has shown me what it means to be a vampire. He had to teach me how to feed. He has exposed me to more learning than my original maker. Even though he hurt me, he has never called me by another’s name while doing it.”

“Your maker tossed you away because you were defective.” I sensed Kevin’s sharp heartache as Kruger clinically cut at him. “That is not uncommon. More and more fledglings are getting left for the Covens, in turn for us to pick up. This is almost decadence. You were discovered to be lacking and your maker left you to perish.”

/Don’t listen to him./

“The proof is that your maker didn’t even leave you the skills to provide for yourself.”

“That is why Skell…”

“I am your maker, BetaZ. I showed you how to drink from the blood packs. I showed you your skills and limitations. Skell just mastered your body. If anything, you should be on your knees before me thanking me in gratitude for giving you a chance at life. Two more days out in the darkness, you would have perished – starved to death. Skell just made you into his whore.”

/That’s not true./

I watched as Kevin bowed his head and then lowered himself to his knees. “Thank you for saving my live. I ask, no I beg that you allow me to stay with him.”

I pushed myself up into a half repose, my white hair hung around me like a shroud. I wanted to grab at Kevin and force him to his feet. Orel Wessel wasn’t worth kneeling for.

“What is your purpose, BetaZ?”

“I am control.”

“Yes you are. You are there to keep Ed under control. He has shown more interest in you than all the others. He has allowed you a dominant role. You know what he is capable of. A mere castoff like you should be groveling in his presence but he wants to grovel in yours. He has taken a beating meant for you. He has taken abuse meant for you. What will you take for him? What will you do for him?”

Kruger reached down and pulled Kevin’s face upward. “What do you want me to do?”

Kruger reached into his lab coat and pulled out the dreaded epi-pen. My daily shot. “You will give him this. He needs it to live. You will give him his shot every day. Ed, offer your neck.”

I swallowed then swept my hair back off my neck and laid it on the opposite side. More was in that shot than just an elixir to keep my wasting sickness at bay but I didn’t have the luxury of fighting about it. Kruger had made it plain. My life was in Kevin’s hands. His life was in mine. I closed my eyes and stretched my neck toward him.

“Straight into the vein, BetaZ. Press the top of the pen to inject.”

/I’m sorry./ I swallowed and tried to control my breathing as I felt the mouth of the pen settle against my jugular.

/It’s all right. I need this shot. Don’t panic./

/Don’t panic?/ He hit the button of the pen and a short bunt needle jammed into my throat and sent a stream of ice ripping into my blood. My body shuddered. It was like this every time. I went into seizure. Grand Mal. Kruger never told him what would happen. He never told Kevin that that was why I was strapped to the table. Kevin jumped forward and kept me from spasming off the table. It was only 30 seconds. Just 30 seconds out of my entire day. It seemed like an eternity. I flopped to stillness and panted heavily. Kevin caught me in an embrace and hauled my weak and weary torso toward him.

“Excellent. One shot every day. That is now your duty, BetaZ.” Kruger walked around the table and brought the flash up in my face again. I blinked slower this time.

“Ed. Edward. Follow my finger. No, just with your eyes.” He made the sigh of the cross. I blinked repeatedly but made my gaze follow his digits. “Good, boy.” A key floated in front of my face. It couldn’t be. I lifted my hand to take it. I lifted…I lifted. I concentrated and lifted my arm up to take the small key. I couldn’t get my hand working. Kruger laid the key in my palm and closed my fingers around it. He let go and my arm just fell back against the table.

“That is your reward, Ed. The Table was pleased with your actions on the roof. The recruit’s injuries were deemed to be his own making. You have free access again. You follow the rules, you get rewarded.” He reached out and lifted my lip looking at my fangs. “It’s so much easier to get rewarded than punished, Ed. You know who’ll be taking your punishment from now on.”

I blinked to let him know I understood. Bastards. Fucking bastards.

“Good boy.” He patted my face then turned back to Kevin. I didn’t even get the chance to warn him. Kruger touched his watch and Kevin choked falling backwards as his submission collar was activated. I could barely thrash. I couldn’t even turn over.

“When Ed comes back from a med change, you do not make any references to what sent him to the lab to begin with. Is that understood, BetaZ?” The silence was broken when the collar was turned off. Sobs rose up from the floor. “Answer me verbally.”

“Yes…”

“You are young, Vampire. You are not stupid. I would not give Ed anyone stupid. He is highly intelligent for a demon and requires more stimulation that just an unwilling fuck. I thought we had found our perfect control with BetaZ-4. He responded so well but we all know how that ended. I have high hopes for you. Don’t make me terminate you. What are you?”

“I am control.”

“Excellent. I will have your uniforms delivered here. Ed, take him to the shooting range at 18:00 hours. Might as well start training him to watch your back, aside from covering it.”

The door slid back then shut again. I was so weak. I couldn’t even lift my head. /Kevin?/

/Fucking sadists./ I heard him shift on the floor and the table rocked has he used it to pull himself to his feet. /How fucking long have you had to put up with this madness?/

His eyes were red from his tears of pain but he looked physically none the worse for wear. I needed to lay still for five minutes then everything would start functioning again.
/Five years…that I know of./

He reached out and stroked my forehead. /Why do you carry on? Why don’t you just let them kill you and get it over with./

He climbed on the table and sat behind me, propping me up against him. He rested his chin on my shoulder. /Why don’t you just die?/

/Because I hate them./ Kevin stilled. /I hate them with every breath I take and each day that passes, I hate them more. I will remember, Kevin. I will remember who I am; what I am and what I can do. You are right. They are terrified of me. I can do something that they don’t want me to remember. I will remember and when I do, I’ll kill them all./

/You’re scaring me./

/Orel Wessel has altered me, but there are some things they can’t. It would be so much easier for them if I was ‘into girls’. The same with killing. That is a skill that I had before I wound up with them. Killing has never bothered me. Raping others does./ I was able to take a deep breath. The shot’s hold on me was wearing off.

The door slid back and two guards came in. They looked over at our little tableaux then dumped clothes on the floor and retreated back out into the corridor. Kevin had been upgraded to permanent resident. He got the same grey camouflage pants and white wifebeater tank as me. No shoes though.

“What’s the key for?”

I concentrated and opened my fingers. A small brass key lay in the center of my palm. “My salvation.”

“What?”

“Help me get dressed and I’ll show you.”

Kevin was a coven fledgling, but he was a vampire. I had not expected him to shove his tongue where the sun didn’t shine, but the fact that he did it and that he healed my tears completely wasn’t going to be forgotten. I sucked on the tip of my finger and rubbed at the hole in my neck left my the pen. I was getting back to normal quicker than before. That was not a good thing. Our observers had to think that everything was the same as previously. I hung onto Kevin as he pulled my undies up then my camos. I don’t think it was intentional but he brushed my left nipple as he pulled my tank down over my head. My engine roared to life.

“Sorry.” He turned away and quickly got dressed.

I crossed slowly to the door after he had his zipper up and stepped out into the corridor. He yanked his tank on and scurried after us. Apparently the word was out that I, ahem, we had gotten privilege back to the common room because it was completely empty. I pressed my palm to the security grid and the light above the door turned blue. Ha, ha, bastards. The guards took up post outside the room and I walked inside. It’d been six months since I’d last been here. I felt the small key biting in to my palm as I flicked on the lights.

Kevin looked around at the couches, the gaming tables, tv and movies. I continued on to my goal. I opened the door on the far side of the room and flicked on those lights as well. There is was. I lied. They hadn’t stolen my soul. They just barred me access to it.

“Skell what the…”

His voice trailed off as he looked at the black baby grand piano with a hideous lock on the lid. I let my hands run along it’s gleaming black surface. I could rip the lock off. It wouldn’t take much effort, I was Vampire after all, but then I would lose privileges again. It had been so long. My hands actually quivered as I tried to fit the key in the lock. Finally I turned the key and the thing dropped off to the hardwood. I pulled the bench up and sat before it before lifting the lid and folding it up so I could get at the ebony and ivory.

“Your salvation?”

“It brings me joy.” I set my hands on the keys and pressed out chords in c major. The tone was like mana to my ears. I actually felt my insides quiver. I missed this. This music. I saw a flash of a red concert grand and the back of a man with long black hair. He was important to me…somehow. His love of music was my love of music. I learned this for him…but he was lost to me. He was taken from me. Tears streamed down my face I watched as one bead of salty tear landed on the white ivory of middle c.

/The musical assassin./

Huh? I turned and sniffed. Kevin stood at my side and wiped at my cheeks. “You are such as contradiction, Skell. I have seen you kill without regard but you threw yourself in harm’s way for something of little consequence. You have been brutal to me in the past, but just one note from a piano brings you to tears.”

“Don’t belittle yourself. You are of great consequence, Kevin.”

“I am your leash.”

“Yes, but you are also my joy.”

/You confuse the hell out of me./ Kevin shook his head and lowered himself down on the floor, resting his back against the bench. “Play for me, Skell. Make us both cry.”

/…for what might have been if we weren’t stupid enough to get captured by Orel Wessel./ Kevin leaned his head forward and rested his forearms on his bent knees. /Play, Skell./

A crimson grand. A black haired man. A scent of apples shared between twins and the faces of two little girls. Glimpses of my past were returning. I didn’t know how long I would have before the lab rats discovered their poison was leeching out of my system. I would gather my memories and cherish them close to my heart until they were ripped away again, until then…I would play my soul. I lifted my wrists, closed my eyes and let the music be the freedom that my body was denied. Hatred couldn’t exist when the music flowed. I let it fall from my shoulders and crash to the floor. It would be there to don once more when the good thing ended. All good things must come to an end. But not right now, not for this moment.

I could hate Orel Wessel later…when my soul was quiet once more.

* * *