Adrian kneels down in front of the bed, concern in his eyes. "What's wrong, little- Adelaide? What did he do to you? Did he-"
I shake my head. "He didn't do anything like that."
"Are you sure? You can tell me. And I won't lay a hand on you if you don't want it, I mean it."
"I'm sure," I say, looking him in the eye. "All he did was bite me."
"Then...why did you run like that?" He cocks his head to the side.
It comes out all in a rush. "He was going to almost drain me. So that you couldn't feed. But I didn't want it, I didn't want to make problems, so-"
Adrian grins a little. "I didn't know you liked me that much."
"Well," I admit slowly. "It's not just that. It's…"
"...How you got away?" he finishes. He stands and leans over me. "Pray tell, how exactly did you escape the clutches of a noble vampire?" He looks down at my neck slowly oozing blood. "And mid-feed, at that?"
I cover the bite with my hand and look away. I'm not ready to say it, even if I know that the rest surely all know by now.
"...Maybe it'll be easier to show you," I say hesitantly, holding up my hands. I concentrate on the tips of my fingers, closing my eyes-
Adrian gasps. "You have a cutis sole enchantment." he says, drawing back slightly from my glowing fingers.
I keep my head down as I nod. "It was a last defense. I was hoping I wouldn't have to use it."
Adrian's silent for a few moments as he thinks. Probably on how best to lock me up, keep me unconscious so they can feed without worrying-
"Wait," he says. "Doesn't that mean you did all that completely willingly?" He tilts my head back to look him in the face, but I avert my gaze.
"All...that?"
"Well, Dante and Virgil said you were quite obedient, and Lucien told me all about your time in the bath-"
I feel myself turning red yet again. "Nothing happened!"
"Exactly," he says, finally capturing my gaze with his own. "You could have, and you didn't. That's a chance most thralls would take, even fidelis thralls."
"I suppose," I say, scooting further back to avoid his knowing look. "But I didn't need to. No one actually crossed my lines until then."
He follows me onto the bed with a creak. "So you weren't coming up with desperate excuses when you said that, hmm? About how you're willing to do just about anything." His voice is laced with innuendo. "I suppose I should have guessed, with what Dante said, but…" He chuckles. "Perhaps this is more of a gift than a punishment for me."
"I told you I have my limits," I say, trying to scoot backwards, but he stops me by pressing down on my hip.
"And what, my dear, exactly are those limits?" he purrs, coming dangerously close to my face.
I feel like I'm on fire. I'm too embarrassed to speak. "Shall I begin and find out when you stop me?"
"N-no!" I finally manage. "I don't…I won't be...intimate with strangers," I say, trying to bury my hot face into the bedsheets.
"Right, you did say that," Adrian sighs, but there's a smile in his voice. "Let's get to know each other then, shall we?" And I feel his fangs pierce my skin.
But I'm not prepared for what else he does as he drinks. His lips knead my skin, and his tongue swirls along the nape of my neck. He's making embarrassingly loud noises as he drinks. "What's wrong?" he teases. "I'm just feeding. This is just your normal job, isn't it?" he whispers into my ear. With a sigh, he goes back to nibbling on my neck, and it takes all my willpower not to make a sound. True to his word, though, his hands stay on the bed on either side of me. Not that that means much right now.
...Until he starts making his own sounds instead, moaning sweetly into my ear.
"Wh-what are you doing?" I stutter in a high-pitched voice.
"Well, it tastes good," Adrian says. But he doesn't stop licking at my neck. "Isn't that a normal response? Mmm, delicious~"
I can't take it anymore, and start writhing under him. "Please, stop," I moan, then immediately regret the tone my voice held. "Just-just drink normally," I plead.
Adrian hums in satisfaction to himself. "All right, all right," he says, pulling away. He tries to look me in the face, but I bury my head even further into the sheets. Thankfully he doesn't force my head again. "I am quite hungry, after all," he says. Then, as he leans in again, he murmurs, "I knew you wouldn't stop me," and finally, he begins to drink normally.
Slowly, I relax, partially from relief and partially from blood loss. When I finally lose consciousness, I'm too tired to even worry about what will happen to me in the morning.
The good news is that when I wake up I'm not in that godforsaken cage. The bad news is that my ankles have been bound again, Lucien's looking down at me, and he looks very, very angry.
Actually, all four of them are standing around me. I'm lying on the couch in the main room. Before I have a chance to say anything, though, Lucien speaks up. "You owe me."
I won't say I'm not scared. But more than that, I'm angry. "I don't owe you anything," I say, sitting up. His eyes blaze, but I continue. "I was never a part of your wager. I stopped you because you didn't listen."
"You don't get to decide these things, thrall," says Virgil. "You act like you can you can tell us what to do."
"Treat me well, and there won't be any problems," I say, my voice hard. "It's not that difficult to not mistreat people."
"You know, there are many who would scoff at you calling yourself that, human," says Dante.
My hot anger immediately turns to ice as I look at him. "And are you one of them?"
He seems to lose his composure for a moment when he meets my gaze, but responds calmly. "For the record, no."
"Good. Then it shouldn't be hard, should it?"
"You're acting awfully brazen for a thrall with an illegal enchantment," growls Lucien. "The council would have you killed immediately." He leans down at me, his face dark. "We could do that."
I meet his gaze evenly. "If you could, you would have already." His eyes dart to the side for a just a moment. Just as I thought. "You don't have any contact with society in here, do you?" But still, he won't answer. "If you get me some food, I can 'pay you back' in full," I add.
Lucien glares at me for a few more moments, then sits back onto the lounge behind him with a sigh.
Before he can decide on a solution that ends badly for me, I continue. "I only stopped you to prevent discord. If you had done what you had planned to, it could have eventually turned into a bloodbath. How am I supposed to stop that?"
"Is that true, Lucien?" asks Virgil.
"Of course it is," replies Dante. "There's nothing he loves more than watching people in distress."
I take a deep breath, and look at each of them in turn. "Listen. I meant what I said about being willing to do nearly anything. That wasn't just pretty words. And I suppose it doesn't matter to any of you, but…" I sigh. "It's not because I'm desperate. As you should have figured out from me not using the enchantment. I just, genuinely, don't mind. I like to talk to people. I like to explore things together, find out what they like, and I truly don't mind sharing deeper parts of myself at the right time." I look down a little, feeling vulnerable. "Is...is it really so bad to want that from people?"
My heart pounds in the silence that follows, and I start feeling woozy. I sway slightly, and try to find the back of the couch with my bound hands-
Someone catches me and holds me up. When the world steadies, I realize it's Virgil. Someone else - Adrian? - holds a bowl of soup to my lips and helps me drink.
Lucien's still watching me with a slight frown, but his eyes have softened. "You're lucky I'm interested in you," he says.
I pause for a moment to give him a wry smile. "Are you sure that's good luck for me?"
Dante laughs at my response. "Little bird, you are a bold one, aren't you?"
I finish off the soup and hold my bound legs and arms out. "Please," I plead. "I swear I won't run off if you unbind me."
Adrian leans over from the side and unlocks my wrists. Finally. I stretch with satisfaction and give him a proper hug. "Don't say anything weird," I tell him, before he can make a comment.
Dante sighs, and kneels to unlock my feet as well. "Thank you," I reply, but he dangles the key in front of me.
"Don't get too excited. It's not like I'm getting rid of this," he says.
"Hmph." Lucien scoops me up off of the couch, and the world spins again. It's all I can do to cling to his shirt as he carries me back to his room.
His face is still stoic, but he lays me down on the bed gently. I'm already falling asleep as he lays down beside me and pulls me into an embrace, and my eyes flutter closed as healing sleep overwhelms me.