Enslaved Read online

  Enslaved

  C.C. Phoenix

  Enslaved

  By C.C. Phoenixx

  Copyright 2012 by C.C. Phoenixx

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are

  products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or

  persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the

  intent of the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in

  any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including

  photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and

  retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

  Prologue

  Vince's hands groped for bare skin. Her skin. The skin that he should have instantly been granted access to, but wasn't. Frustrated with his servant's lack of cooperation he latched his mouth onto her neck. The warm, curving body that seemed to be made to fit with his was pressed tightly against him as he ravaged the soft flesh of her throat with his sharp canine teeth, purposely causing her pain, savoring her scream of agony...and the moan of ecstasy that followed as the blood was drawn from her body.

  "N- no, Vince. Please, not- not tonight. I don't want to," Tori breathed, pleadingly as his lips moved seductively down to the base of her throat, farther, farther...His lips rested at the crown of the tight-fitting corset top that she was forced to wear. Vince tried not to react to her informal use of his name – the way she had always called him before they were separated....He forced the memories away, focusing on her distress and pleas, on the present and not on the past...he had been taught better than that. He knew that Tori thought, they'd had a close bond ten years ago. They had. But now he knew better.

  "This is not your choice, Viktoria. You're mine, my property, my slave, and I can do whatever I want to you...whenever I want," he whispered against her skin as his lips made their way back to her throat, back to the puncture wounds he had created a few minutes ago.

  Tori knew that any of the other slaves would have wanted Vince to proceed with the seduction and feeding, the ecstasy he gave and the stark pain that promised to follow.

  Twenty minutes later Vince pulled away, licking his lips clean of blood much sweeter than any other servants' fluids. He'd often wondered why her blood was better than any he had ever tasted. Was it because she resisted him unlike the rest of the help, or because of the delicious torture he inflicted on her, or because of the way he made every second she was with him long and excruciating?

  Vince leaned in, his mouth inches from hers. "Go rest, Viktoria. I will be seeing you soon," he promised and brushed his lips against her lush mouth, feeling the slight shudder of rapture she gave off.

  "Yes, Master Vince," she nearly whimpered, closing her innocent blue eyes, and making her long, dark lashes brush the unnaturally pale skin that rivaled the lucidity of a cloud, much like the hair that hung long and straight to her waist. Meanwhile, Vince resisted the urge to wince at the title...it sounded wrong coming from her mouth.

  There was a shrill noise coming from down the hall outside of the maroon room in which the pair was standing in.

  "Don't let Jon feast on you, darling. You are mine, tell him that." Vince instructed, reaching behind him to the vase sitting on his writing desk and smoothly plucking a black rose from the jar, sliding it into her corset and whispered, "Make sure Jon sees that if he comes looking for you."

  Tori nodded slightly in response and ghosted towards the door, head bowed, snowy hair falling like a veil around her inhumanly beautiful face.

  "Rest, Viktoria," He repeated when the door was a few inches away from closing.

  "Yes, Master."

  ***

  Tori stumbled down the hall, receiving worried glances from the other servant girls as she passed. One stopped her.

  "Tori, are you okay?" Maria asked, her short black hair falling in her face, concealing one of her welcoming green eyes.

  "Yeah, don't worry, Maria. It was just a difficult feeding this time," Tori responded, not meeting Maria's gaze.

  "The vampires here are always hard on you, Tori, but Vince seems to take the most blood from you," Maria pointed out.

  Tori nodded, meeting Maria's wary gaze. "Vince has more of a claim on me than any other vampire in the Hotel has, Maria." She said and began walking away to her chambers without another word.

  All the way there her words replayed themselves in her swooning mind...Vince has more of a claim on me than any other vampire...She wasn't wrong about that, she had a history with Vince, before he had known he was a vampire, before he had changed into the monster he was now.

  Tori opened the door to her room, immediately closing it behind her once she was inside the pitch-black space. The light had been bothering her lately and she feared that Vince was changing her too early.

  As she lay on her cold bed she thought back to the better times with Vince- back when he was ten and she was nine and he had been her guard, her best friend....

  "Viktoria, what's wrong?" That soothing voice startled her, causing her to turn her back to Vince as he approached her. Tori didn't want him to see her crying, so she quickly wiped her tears away, still putting distance between her and her friend.

  "Please look at me," Vince's warm hand on her shoulder made up her mind.

  She turned slowly around to stare into his green eyes that always seemed friendly and warm, they were her sanctuary...but at the moment they didn't make her smile like they always did.

  "What's the matter, Viktoria?" He asked, pulling her into his ten-year-old arms, arms more muscled and toned than a ten-year-old's should be. Vince sighed and looked around the bland room the foster family had provided them before returning his gaze to Viktoria. He was the only one who used her full name and he knew that when he did it made her feel better.

  "Nothing, Vince. I feel better now, now that you're here," She whispered into his shoulder in her pure voice that wasn't marred by cockiness, rudeness, or stark grief. Viktoria was the only girl in this foster family that seemed unaffected by the fact that she didn't have parents, she was different, she was an angel. She was his angel.

  "It's okay, Viktoria." He whispered into her snow-like hair, using her full name to ease her rare unease...."It's okay, Viktoria. I'm here for you. I always will be."

  Tori had slowly drifted away from her memory of the young Vince and into a state that was free of emotion and pain, free of memories and people....free of Vince

  Chapter 1

  Now reclining in a chair by the window, Vince could hear aggravated footfalls, too quiet for the human ear, coming towards his room where they eventually came to a halt. The brass knob turned and Vince came face-to-face with Jon.

  He didn't look happy, his pale face was contorted in fit of raw anger and blood lust. Jon was a tall vampire, taller than Vince, with blond hair that was always smoothed back from his face, revealing those startlingly blood red eyes.

  Jon was clutching Vince's door's doorknob, leaving indentations.

  Vince sighed and calmly said, "Jon, don't go around breaking my property." There was a double meanings to his warning and Jon was highly aware of it.

  "She's not your property, Vince. She's the hotel's property. Just because you're attached to a stupid human doesn't mean that you can- " Jon was cut off, for his windpipe snapped was Vince wound his hand around his neck.

  Jon wouldn't die from that injury, it would be unbearably uncomfortable for the next few days, and Vince, the sadistic vampire he was, would enjoy every moment of Jon's suffering.

  "Jon," Vince kicked him in the ribs when the other vampire was flat on the floor, hearing a satisfying crack, "I have three
rules that you will listen to. Number one: Don't be telling what is and isn't mine, because I own you; you're on my territory. Number two: Don't talking about that servant in particular the way that you were or else next time, I will cleanly take your head off with my teeth. And number three: I'm not attached to a human, Viktoria just tastes better than the rest of them. Now, get the hell out of my face before I smash yours into a wall."

  Vince turned away from the struggling and gasping Jon, glaring out the window until he heard the door open and close behind him. Vince wearily massaged his temples with his fingers and sighed, sitting down in his chair and leaning his head back, raven-dark hair falling away from his naturally pale face, his crimson eyes shutting as he mused.

  Stupid Jon, coming in here and acting as if he ran the Hotel, Vince thought acidly. I run this place, I created it, I built it! I filled it up with humans, filled it with servants and their blood, darkness and night, pleasure and the sweet taste of a human's torturous bliss.

  Vince found his mind wandering once again to the one thing that made him restless...Viktoria. Viktoria with her long, snow-pale hair and docile blue eyes. Viktoria with the killer body that seemed to be molded to fit against his, and that sent insatiable lust throughout his body...her long legs that were bared by the regulation mini-skirts and her bust that was barely concealed by the corset-top that brought out all of her delicious shapes. Viktoria with her quietness and musical voice, her soft, creamy skin dusted with a flush that greeted him before every feeding. Vince craved her presence, her statuesque build and aura of pureness....

  He couldn't ignore the unusual pangs of guilt that wracked him when ever he thought of what he was putting her through...she had been his world before he was separated from her.

  Vince groaned as his old self clawed at the hard, ice-cold wall he had built around his heart. I don't feel guilty, he thought to himself, its her blood, she's inside me, making me feel this way....

  Vince rose to his feet and in a sharp movement took the vase on his desk and launched it at the wall across from him. The crystal shattered into a million pieces, the midnight-black roses falling limp to the floor as he stared at the mess with blazing eyes.

  "Why?" He asked sadly to the air as if expecting an answer. "Why'd I have to drag her into this?"

  But as fast as his sorrow and guilt came it was gone with the need to feed, to cause someone else pain, to feel bliss and lust...to tame the monster he was.

  ***

  Tori was startled awake by a piercing noise that slithered throughout the Hotel. It wasn't actually a "hotel" as she had been led to believe before she had actually stepped foot into this hellhole. It a Gothic castle filled with creatures of the night and the beautiful humans that sustained their cravings. She still couldn't get over the fact that she was one of the "suppliers" or, more astonishingly, that Vince had changed into this...this breathtakingly handsome and deadly beast. Tori couldn't wrap her brain around the fact that her closest companion had been buried deep in the past, locked away and replaced with a man that was no longer the Vince DeChorello she once knew.

  She sighed and tried to go back to sleep, but the sounds of a servant girl asking for, “More!” and crying out in pain kept her in the agonizing realm of the living – and the dead. Tori wasn't sure why she kept herself here, alive, why she didn't just kill herself, maybe it was because she wanted to change Master Vince...to get her Vince back.

  I need some air, she thought, as she felt as though all of her grief was smothering her.

  Getting out of her bed, Tori moved towards her mirror. No other servant was allowed to have one, but Master Vince had bent the rules for her. She wasn't sure why he had as she looked herself over in the seeing glass.

  Tori was regaining some of the color back into her face. She noticed that the two red holes in her neck stood out in stark contrast to her fair hair, sallow flesh, and required slinky, black outfit. Slipping into her – also required – high-heels Tori left the room and headed for the gardens that no other servant dared enter.

  They knew better than to go there during the night, for that was Master Vince's favorite resting place.

  Tori didn't care that Vince resided there most of his time, she preferred the clean air and sharp chill of the night...it helped her think, reminisce, escape the present.

  Down the hall a door closed softly, and upon turning, Tori saw that it was Vince's room a servant had exited, blood streaming down her throat from the two puncture wounds...

  Sighing and shaking her head, Tori hurried off, not wanting to be called back to him if he saw her...If he wanted her.

  Chapter 2

  Tori always knew that she didn't have the best of luck in life, from Vince being adopted and changed, to Vince changing and sucking the life out of her and finally landing on her mixed feelings for Vince. Her life had been no bed of roses.

  She sighed and curled up on one of the stone benches out in the garden surrounded by black roses, her little spot was located in the corner of the box-like area, out of view of the main doors on either side of the space. The night sky expanded over her like a dark cape while tall walls wrapped around the space between two parts of the Hotel.

  Tori was staring at an onyx rose, pitying how those poor flowers had succumbed to the night's charm, all in efforts for her not to have a flash back into the past. She was so absorbed in trying not to think about Vince that her stupid bad luck decided to kick in. She didn't hear anyone enter the garden or slip up behind her until that smooth, rhythmical voice whispered at her ear.

  "Viktoria, I told you to get some rest, darling. I do not think hanging around in the gardens is the best place for that." Vince breathed in her ear, his breath tickling the sensitive skin that was already very keen to the fact that he stood a mere foot from her curled-up body.

  Slowly, she glanced over her shoulder, her blue eyes meeting scarlet ones, a tell-tale sign that he had just fed.

  "I'm sorry, Master Vince." She said quietly, fearful that he would seize her by the shoulders and seduce her once more. Tori began to stand up when Vince's hand touched her shoulder.

  She unthinkingly jumped away from his touch and saw the shocking expression of hurt flash across his pale, beautiful face. Tori closed her eyes tight, bracing herself for the slap that was sure to come, but it never did.

  "I won't put you through anymore torture for the rest of this week, Viktoria," he said calmly, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his tailored black slacks.

  Tori stared at him in disbelief, eyes roaming his figure to make sure he was fine, unconsciously committing every part of his anatomy to memory.

  Vince was tall and lanky, yet had a strong build with broad shoulders, long legs, and muscled arms. He wore a crimson button-down shirt that was left open to reveal the sinuous, smooth planes of his chest and abs. His shoulder-length black hair was worn the way he had always worn it since childhood: slightly shaggy in a stylish way, strands of it falling in his eyes.

  His eyes...they used to be a nice shade of green lined with long, dark, sweeping lashes that, before he had changed, would tickle her face whenever he gave her a hug. But now, his optics weren't pools of melted-down emeralds, they were lagoons of smoldering blood rimmed with luscious onyx grass that brushed the skin of her neck whenever he fed from her.

  "Please, Vince,” she muttered informally, “don't fool with my mind. I'm already messed up as it is." She flashed her eyes at him, and she crossed her arms over her chest. She knew that he understood the fact that she was blaming him.

  Tori saw the shock run across his face when he caught the look of pure hatred printed clearly on her face from the way she quirked her pink lips to the way her eyes narrowed and her nose scrunched up slightly.

  "Vik- Viktoria, I'm not fooling you. I'm giving you some time to rest, build up more blood," he stammered, unusually flustered, the rare insight into how young he really was, how young they both were.

  She nodded, the movement sarcastic, as she stood. Her ey
es were level with his lips...curvy, sundered lips begging to be kissed. Her own mouth got an odd itch to them as she licked them and looked up at Vince.

  "I don't trust you, Vince," she whispered.

  "Then why are you still with me in the gardens...alone?" He purred back, his fingers running through her hair, giving her tingles from the root to the tip of he snow-white hairs.

  Tori stuttered, but managed nothing coherent in response. "Viktoria, if I wanted to hurt you I would've already done it," Vince said serenely. "Yet, I haven't, now have I?" Tori helplessly shook her head.

  "And if I wanted your blood again, I would've taken more earlier, now wouldn't I?" She nodded again, not trying to pull away as he wrapped his arms around her small waist.

  "And if I wanted to kiss you, I would do it like this, right...?" His words were cut off as his lips came into contact with Tori's slightly parted ones. She felt his tongue caress her upper lip, felt his hands trail lower than her waist, sensed his disbelief when she kissed him back and slowly pulled away.

  "No torture, right?" She sighed, her mouth just underneath his bottom lip as she spoke, head tilted back so she could stare him squarely in the eyes.

  "No torture, Viktoria," he answered and froze completely when she rose on her tip-toes and kissed his cheek.