Waking the next day, she jerked upright to find herself tied to the bed, clean and dressed, though her nightgown had been lifted to expose the bite on her leg. It had filled in at least most of the way, but the infection had the area blazing and she frowned at it.
She felt tired, even after sleeping and she looked around the room, finding Dirdos sleeping in the chair in the corner. He was way too big for it and she laughed at the sight of him, his back bent over the backrest and his legs stretched out.
He jerked awake and looked around sleepily, finding her and smiling at her amusement.
"Morning, beautiful."
"You look like you're an adult trying to sit in a child's chair," she said, grinning at him.
"Thank you, I aim to please," he said and stood, stretching to pop his back all the way down his spine.
He approached her slowly, smiling when he found her to be alert and herself.
"You gave us all a big scare yesterday," he said as he untied her, and she pulled her arm back to her body.
"I know, I couldn't make it stop," she sighed, rolling her shoulder and then testing her jaw.
"What was it?"
She looked up at him, trying to decide if she should tell him or not. The others didn't know the full extent of it, and she wasn't sure if she wanted him to know.
He saw her hesitation and smiled slightly.
"I won't tell anyone."
"I don't know how to explain it really, but the monster is in there, just waiting for the chance to get out, and this time, that part decided to join up with a part of me I didn't know I had. I didn't know I could experience lust like that. I didn't know I could become like that. I felt it all, the hunger and the desire. I wanted to just…"
"Mate…" he provided, and she nodded. "Did you ever think that you are simply a sexual being who has been repressed so long you don't even remember what it feels like to have desire?"
"Dirdos, I felt desire with you, but not like that… I wanted to kill and bathe in their blood. I wanted… I wanted Sebastian to… and those teeth…" she broke off in a whisper, a shiver of lingering desire going through her. "I wanted to feel his teeth in me while he was taking me. I wanted that pain and to scream while he ravaged me. That's not normal…"
He shrugged, sitting down on the edge of her bed and taking her hands to rub the blood back into her fingers.
"It's not abnormal though, masochism is fairly common, especially for our kind. There's nothing wrong with desiring pain with pleasure, or the experience of pain enhancing pleasure."
Biting her lip, she watched her hands in his.
"I don't know, Dirdos, it sounds wrong. I don't really know what it is to have the regular kind without the pain."
He smiled at her wickedly and she snorted, shaking her head.
"Well, if you ever want to find out you only have to ask."
"And if I wanted you to hurt me?" she asked, genuinely curious.
"My dear girl, I am a sadist through and through." He kissed her knuckles and then scooped her up off the bed, her eyes intent on his face as she thought about it.
"Yes, I think I want to know."
He froze so completely that she nearly fell out of his arms and she yelped, clutching at him and jarring her leg to make her eyes water.
"You what?" he demanded, looking down at her in surprise.
"I want to know. With you," she said, and his eyes were huge. "You just said I could ask you…"
"I didn't really expect you to take me up on the offer…" he said slowly, thrown for a loop.
"Well, you don't have to," she shrugged, shifting herself in his arms. "I'm sure one of the others would be willing to show me."
He growled just as she knew he would and she smiled up at him, his eyes narrowing as he realised, she was manipulating him.
"Devious little beast."
"Think about it. If you want to, you just have to ask," she teased, throwing his words back at him.
"Your demon will kill me."
"He will understand."
"So, what is it between you and the vampire king?" he asked, shoving the door to her room open and she found her suite to be empty.
"Where is everyone?"
"Training. The vampire?"
"Sort of like Sebastian, but less sex and more destruction. Sebastian calls for me, Versalis demands me and there's nothing subtle about it. It would leave thousands dead and we both know it. We came close a few times, but we always stopped ourselves, just before things got to be too much and we try to avoid the subject now. Can I go down to training?"
"You have a hole in your leg," he said thoughtfully.
"I had a hole in my leg. Now I have a scar in my leg," it was a weak, very fragile scar, and blood poisoning, but it wasn't an open wound.
"I wonder what would happen if we ever had sex…" he said slowly.
"Want to find out?" she asked slyly, and he snorted.
***
He took her down to the grounds, and she pouted when she was abruptly told she would not be allowed to participate. She didn't like being told to sit out, but when she tried to stand, the pain nearly made her black out, and so she was delegated to spectator.
"Where's Kai?" she asked, ignoring the wary and curious looks been given to her by Uzo, Daemon, and the hostile glare from Jaia.
"Decided to sit this one out," Daemon said, coming to lean against the railing at her side. Dirdos had plopped her down on it and she was enjoying the game of playing heckler, trying to distract Uzo and Versalis.
"Why?" she asked, accepting a stone that Dirdos offered her and throwing it at Uzo's legs. He snarled and ducked a punch but his anger at her had her mood dulling greatly. It had been much more than she had expected given she was only teasing.
"You'd have to ask him," Daemon said.
She looked down at him and he was watching her with a care she hadn't seen in him in ages, but she turned away and carefully climbed down from the railing. She was getting a very strong vibe that she wasn't very welcome there right then.
"Basement?" she asked, and Daemon nodded, frowning when she started off in that direction, her eyes watering and jaw clenched to ignore the stabbing pain radiating up her body.
"Where are you going?" he demanded, him and Dirdos following after her.
"Well, I'm not wanted here," she said, pausing after only ten steps to give her leg a break and it was throbbing angrily.
"It's not like that," Daemon said, throwing a glare in the direction of the two fighters and Jaia.
"It's exactly like that, Daemon. I get it, I'm not the magical creature you all hoped I was, it's not like I wasn't expecting it to happen sooner or later. You just see me for what I am now."
Swatting at the demon, she accepted Dirdos' offer, and he lifted her up, the relief having her head spinning.
"It's fine, Daemon, just go back to training," she said over her shoulder and motioned forward.
"I told you to be nice," Daemon snarled at the others, but she didn't look back, instead leaning into Dirdos' chest.
"Sometimes I think it would be best just to run and never look back. It wouldn't take them long to forget me, right?"
"It would take an age to forget you," he said gently, and she sighed, not wanting to hear that.