A few hours later Ryvian was getting ready for a bath when her dress zipper wouldn't come undone.
She walked out into the hallway and called for Amy or one of the other servants but they were all downstairs.
Maybe I'll ask Arkonus, I don't think he would mind.
She walked into Arkonuse's study just as he was getting up to get ready for bed.
"Can you help me with something?" She said pointing to the back of her dress.
"Um, sure." He said, looking a little uncomfortable.
He walked up to her and began unzipping her dress.
Her face grew red as she realized how low her dress zipper went and how she hadn't anticipated how provocative this would feel.
Suddenly Arkonus stopped pulling down her zipper and instead wrapped his arms around her waist, his breath now hot on her neck.
"Arkonus?" She asked. "Are you okay"
His breathing was labored and his grip was a little too tight for comfort.
Suddenly he whipped her around and pushed her into the door of the office, hard enough to leave a bruise.
She winced as he slammed his hand into the door behind her and grabbed her waist with the other.
It only took her a second to realize what was happening.
His eyes were bright red and his fangs were showing behind his lips.
He slowly leaned in, his lips grazing the skin of her neck.
"Ark…?" Ryvian said cautiously. "I know I said I didn't mind, but I don't want you to be mad at yourself if you do"
Arkonus stopped as she called him 'Ark' and he looked into her soft green eyes, his still a bright red.
"I'm sorry, I don't know if I can stop" he said, his whole body shaking as he tried to control himself, his face twisted in pain.
"Usually I drink from druggies, thugs, and murderers in the city because I always have trouble stopping before I accidentally kill someone" he said, his voice breaking "but the amount of hunters in the city has increased and it's not safe anymore and I didn't want to leave you here alone."
Finally Ryvian understood why he hadn't been feeling well.
"How long has it been?" She asked him gently.
"Almost 2 weeks." He replied "I've been overdosing on my medicine trying to make sure I didn't lose control with you…god why am I so dumb"
Ryvain shushed him softly and moved his long hair behind his ear.
"If you need it then take it" she said, tilting her head slightly.
"What if I can't stop?" He asked, but Ryvian could already see the hunger taking him over completely.
She braced herself as he his fangs grazed her skin and then finally broke through.
She gasped as an incredible mixture of pain and pleasure coursed through her veins. He moved his hand from the wall to the back of her head as he grabbed her hair and tilted her head back forcefully.
She was lost in a sea of new sensations. Every cell in her body was vibrating and moving and it felt amazing.
She gasped again as he pressed his body against hers and his hand moved seductively up and down her side.
She whimpered desperately, she didn't want it to stop.
Suddenly the pleasure turned to pain and her body lost all strength. She groaned weakly and whispered "stop", but Arkonus was too far gone. He bit down harder, puncturing deeper into her neck.
Ryvian could feel herself choking on her own blood as she weakly coughed it up, the hot liquid running down the side of her mouth.
Slowly her vision lost color and eventually turned black…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Arkonus released his fangs from Ryvian's throat, still high from the incredible taste of her blood.
It had tasted even more amazing than he had imagined.
He quickly realized what he had done and horror set in as he saw Ryvian's face. Her eyes were glazed over in an empty stare, blood was dripping from her lips and her body was completely limp.
"Ryvian… no.. no no no" he cried out as he dropped to the floor with her.
He checked for a pulse even though he knew he wouldn't find one.
"No please, please, I'm so sorry" tears streamed down his face and he wrapped Ryvians lifeless body into a hug and rocked back and forth.
"Please don't take her from me, I just found her, we've barely had any time together" he pleaded, his voice breaking.
A few hours passed and Arkonus had moved to sit with his back against his desk, Ryvian still in his arms, and tears still streaming down his face.
Amy knocked lightly on the door and entered.
Horrified by the bloody scene in front of her she quickly put the pieces together.
She locked the door behind her so no one else would come in and slowly walked over to Arkonus.
"Please don't come any closer" he begged her, his voice hoarse. She nodded and knelt to the floor a few feet away from him, her eyes now filled with tears as well.
They sat in silence for about 5 minutes when suddenly Ryvian began coughing uncontrollably.
Color rushed back to her skin and her eyes fluttered and then closed.
She took a few shaky breaths and then began to breathe regularly again.
And her heart was beating strongly against her chest.
Arkonus was awestruck and was frozen in place, staring down at her.
Amy had her hands over her open mouth, completely and utterly shocked.
What had just happened?
They both watched in awe as a thick black line appeared on Ryvians skin around her neck.
Recognition, understanding, and then horror washed over Arkonus as he realized exactly what Ryvain was and what Dorimier had been trying to accomplish with her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ryvian groaned and opened her eyes.
She was in Arkonus's arms and he was holding her hand tightly in his.
Is he crying?
She thought to herself.
Did I almost die again? No, if that were true I would be waking up in bed like last time.
"Ryvian, thank god you're back" Arkonus said, squeezing her hand in his.
"Back? What do you mean?" She asked as she slowly sat up.
"Ryvian… you were dead. I saw you. You weren't breathing and there's so much blood.." Amy's voice came from beside her and she looked over to see her kneeling on the ground looking horrified and shocked.
Ryvian took in the bloody scene in front of her along with the memory's that now came flooding back and pieced together what had happened.
"But that doesn't make sense" Ryvian said her voice trailing off.
"What am I?" She asked as she turned to look at Arkonus.
"Have you ever heard of an Achilles?" He asked her, his voice still hoarse from crying.
"Like an Achilles heel?" She asked slowly, unsure of where he was going with this.
"Basically. Your Achilles Heel is named after a myth about a man who begged the gods to be immortal. They gave him what he wanted but also gave him one weakness. If he was hit in the heel he would die. He died from an arrow to his heel very shortly after. What they don't tell you is that he impregnated a woman before dying and she had children who were also semi-immortal, and then they also had children who were semi-immortal. Eventually there was a whole tribe of semi-immortal beings called the Achillees." He explained as he gauged her reaction. "Unfortunately Achillees are very prone to accidents and death and over time they adapted slightly to have more complicated 'weaknesses'. But the bad luck and death remained. They say that death was angry with being cheated so he made it his ambition to make the life of every Achillees miserable and to bring them an early death as punishment."
Ryvian blinked at him confused.
"So I'm an Achillees?" She asked.
"The Achillees went extinct a very long time ago" he said as he shook his head "I think Dorimier made you into an artificial Achilees somehow"
"An artificial Achilees? But why? What would be the point?" Ryvian asked, completely baffled.
"No, it makes sense. Dorimiers life's work was to find a way to completely remove humans out of the equation. He wanted to find a never ending blood source." He said, his face getting more intense as he explained it to her. "What better never ending blood source than a human who can't die no matter how many times you bite them and how much you take from them!"
Ryvian was beginning to get a headache.
"So what exactly does this mean and why do you even know all this?" She asked rubbing her temples.
"It means that you are semi-immortal, weakness unknown." He said rubbing her back to relax her. "And I know it because all vampires know about The Achillees. It's kind of like a bedtime story for us."
Ryvian relaxed into Arkonus's chest and closed her eyes.
"My head hurts, there's too much information." She mumbled. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he picked her up and carried her to bed.
"Don't worry about it for now. Take some time to rest." He said as he gently kissed her forehead.
She fell asleep before they even got to her bedroom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ryvians sleep was filled with good and bad dreams.
One moment she was reliving the pure ecstasy of Arkonus biting into her neck. And the next she was back to being experimented on by Dorimier.
She awoke from the bad dream with a jolt, covered in sweat from head to toe, tears streaming down her face.
Arkonus was already by her side and immediately swept her into a tight hug.
Shushing her gently and telling her everything was okay and that she's safe now.
She melted into his arms and sobbed into his shoulder for a good few minutes.
After she had calmed down he wiped the tears from her face and kissed her forehead.
At first she was surprised but then remembered he had done that the night before as well.
He's probably just worried so he's showing a little extra affection.
She thought.
"Do you want to talk about what you were dreaming about?" He asked her gently.
She shook her head.
"It was the experiments Dorimier did on me. I guess talking about them yesterday kind of set me up for a nightmare.." she said sadly.
Arkonus hugged her again, rubbing her back soothingly.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry you've had to suffer so much, I'm sorry for how much you'll suffer in the future, and I'm sorry that I added to that suffering…" he said, squeezing her tightly.
She squeezed back.
"Don't apologize. I'm okay." She said, "I'm tough"
He nodded,
"You certainly are, but that doesn't mean you should have to be"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~