Chapter 8: Giving In

“So you’re trying to bargain now.” Isaac gestured to the table. The room was set up almost exactly as it had been last time. The fire, the table, the bed. The only major difference was Isaac himself. He was dressed as he had been at the factory, but his features seemed warmer. His eyes looked awake, alert.

She would not have been able to pick it out before, but Lavinia became suddenly aware that Isaac’s icy eyes had faint dark lines in the iris. Had they been hazy before or had she just not looked hard enough?

“So,” said Isaac, folding his hands on the table between them. “What did you want to start with?”

“What are you playing at?”

“Excuse me?”

“I wouldn’t say I felt anything for you so you start throwing girls away? I knew you were sadistic, but this is just depraved.” Lavinia crossed her arms.

Isaac sighed. “I didn’t kill them for you.”

“Then what are you doing?”

“How much do you know about my kind?”

“Enough to make assumptions.”

“So, very little. When we feed we get stronger. We gain clarity. The more we feed the more in control we become. When vampires go long stretches without drinking blood we become even more inhuman. Bestial almost. We have a drive telling us to destroy and feed and conquer. It is a feeling I quite enjoy. The power of an instinctual pull is quite seductive.”

“I don’t understand what this has to do with me.”

“I wanted to make sure my head was clear.”

Lavinia looked at him skeptically, not understanding what he was trying to say. Clear for what? Lavinia could not make out Isaac’s intentions. She had picked up on his expressions on the earlier evening they had spent together, but his face was now impassible.

He did not seem like he was putting on an act. He seemed as if he had something he desperately wanted to say, though his expression was blank. The thought crossed Lavinia’s mind, unbidden, that Isaac might be wrestling with something.

“My family is very big on history,” he said. “My mother has managed Astor Industries for nearly one hundred years. She is incredibly focused on the continued supremacy of our family.”

Lavinia watched him stand and walk to the fireplace. He rested both his hands on the mantle, staring into the flames.

“Mother turned Arabella and me with the intent of having at least one viable heir. Arabella is still only eighteen. She has not yet been primed for leadership. I on the other hand have had years of instruction at mother’s right hand. She likes to keep her protege within arm’s reach.”

“Get to the point.”

Isaac growled under his breath but did not turn. “She is insistent that I continue her legacy. Inherit, operate, procreate, repeat. I did not have the luxury of teenage dalliances. I am rather unfamiliar with unions of affection.”

Lavinia stared at him, not processing what he was saying.

“Before you jump to conclusions, I am not inexperienced.” Isaac turned back. “I simply have refrained from any significant bonds that did not suit the company’s interests.”

“I fail to see the point.”

“Why do you have to make this so difficult!” Isaac yelled, throwing his hands down on the table. “You don’t need to complicate things with your spiteful tongue.”

“I thought that’s what you liked.”

“It is!” Isaac froze in shock at what he had said. What he had admitted. Lavinia looked back at him, stunned.

“You wanted to think clearly about this. About me?”

“I asked you if you felt anything.”

“And then you got upset and set me back to my room,” said Lavinia. “And you massacred an entire group of girls. Just so you could figure out how you were feeling?”

“What are your feelings towards me?”

“Hatred mostly. Revulsion.”

“And I feel mainly disdain and chagrin towards you. On the surface.” He took his seat again and looked back to Lavinia. “You are combative, don’t know your place, and are frustrating. But beneath that, I feel a draw towards you. One that I desperately wish that I did not feel. Not towards you, from such a lowly background. Not towards a human.”

“What a lovely declaration. How am I supposed to respond to that?” Lavinia jumped to her feet, leaning into Isaac’s face. “What would you like? ‘Oh, we hate each other but something under the surface is compelling me to-’”

Isaac closed the distance between the two of them and kissed her, hard. After a second he leaned back. Lavinia blinked once, then closed her eyes and leaned back in, parting her lips. Isaac raised in hand to the back of her neck and pulled her forward. Lavinia raised her hands to his chest.

“Wait,” she said, a little out of breath. “Do something for me to prove this isn’t just a game.”

Isaac looked at her expectantly.

“Don’t kill Rosie. Let her go.”

“I can’t do that. Mother would-”

“Give her to Arabella. You said she doesn’t kill her prey. She’s gentle. Give Rosie to her. Please.”

“Very well,” said Isaac. “I’ll see that she is transferred in the morning.”

Lavinia smiled in surprise.

“Now,” said Isaac. “I do still need to feed. That is, unless you’d like to see me ravenous.”

Lavinia shuddered in spite of herself and rested her hand on top of Isaac’s. Looping her fingers through his, she moved his hand to the front of her throat. Isaac smiled out of the corner of his mouth and stood, forcing Lavinia to back towards the wall. He pressed her back up against it and tightened the grip of his hand. Lavinia could feel the pressure, the pulse under his fingers on either side, and the buildup of blood flow.

In a swift motion, Isaac’s mouth was on her, biting deep into the side of her neck. Lavinia gasped as the static speak from the point of impact. It flowed into her chest and dizzyingly up into her head. There was no aversion to the pain. She had no desire to pull away from his fanged grip, instead, pressing forward into it.

Isaac smiled against her skin, pulling his mouth back to Lavinia’s. She could taste blood on his tongue. Trailing her own lips across Isaac’s jawline, he could feel the perfection of his skin. She moved to his throat, biting down. She felt him shiver, letting out a soft moan.

“Careful, Lavinia,” said Isaac. “Don’t start something you can’t finish.” He raised his fingers to the small pink mark on his neck. “But if you’re willing to follow through…”

Keeping his hand around her throat, he pulled her away from the wall and towards the bed. When her legs hit the back of it she fell into a sitting position, Isaac standing over her. With his right hand, he pulled up the edge of her skirt, revealing her soft thighs. His left hand moved up to rest on her inner thigh. Leaning down, he kissed her skin exposed between his thumb and forefinger. At Lavinia’s pleasured noise he bit down, sinking his fangs into the supple flesh. Lavinia cried out sharply and fought the urge to move her hips towards Isaac. He tightened his grip on her as she crossed her legs over his back.