Chapter 114

Tessa’s POV

I couldn’t have heard her correctly. Did she just say a blood slave?

“What did you just call me?” I asked her, narrowing my eyes at her.

She frowned and stared around me, seemingly confused by my question, just as I was confused by hers.

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be so direct. But a few of us were talking and we were surprised when Joseph brought you around. It’s obvious you aren’t just his guest, but Joseph has never kept a blood slave before.”

“I don’t think I understand what you are saying,” I said, still trying to wrap my head around the term she used. It was a term I had never heard before and I felt queasy at the very mention of a blood slave. But I had to know what she was talking about and what that meant.

Her frown deepened.

“Are you serious?” She asked, furrowing her brows together. “So, you really aren’t his blood slave?”

“Please, tell me what you mean by ‘Blood Slave’,” I pleaded. “I never heard that term before.”

She was quiet for a moment, and I saw as her features paled and she glanced out on the battlefield. I followed her gaze to the warriors who were battling. Carter was in front, instructing them with his own weapons. He had a partner as well and they were fiercely battling.

I recognized him, even through his armor, as Ryan. The vampire that Fae was with during Anna’s barbeque. He’s the reason she must be here right now.

“I’m Ryan’s blood slave,” she murmured.”

I snapped her a look and I saw how serene her face was.

“What does that mean?” I found myself asking.

She looked at me and with one quick motion, she pulled down the collar of her blouse and I gasped when I saw bite marks on her neck. There were a few of them and they were red and swollen. There was even some dried blood around her collarbone.

Then she lowered her collar even more and that’s when I noticed a marking on her shoulder blade. It almost looked like a bitemark, only it was healed and light pink.

“That’s the mark of the blood slave,” she explained. “All blood slaves have it.”

She quickly hid the bites from my viewing and looked back out towards the warriors.

“Oh my god….” I said in a harsh whisper, unsure of what else to say.

“The bites heal quickly. Usually within the day. But he’ll just do it again later and tomorrow,” she said, shaking her head. “I guess I shouldn’t complain. I chose this lifestyle. Otherwise, I’d be dead right now. Still living the harsh life of poverty and abuse from an old lover. I ran away and had nowhere else to go. Ryan found me and saved my life. That was years ago.”

I stared at her in disbelief.

“He drinks from you?” I asked, my voice unfamiliar and hollow.

She glanced at me.

“Yes,” she answered. “That’s what a blood slave is for. Blood for vampires is like alcoholism, and blood slaves are the only legal way to do it.They get domesticated so they don’t terrorize humans and put their kind in danger, but there are a lot of vampires who don’t want to give up blood altogether. So, they get blood slaves to satisfy their wants. Ryan will always have a fresh supply of blood as long as I’m around and I will always be protected. Not to mention I’m immortal, so I won’t die that easily and I won’t age. He can drain me of all my blood, and it’ll just keep coming back within the day. He drinks from me until I pass out from blood loss. But I always wake the next morning with a fresh supply.”

My throat became dry, and my body trembled at her words. Joseph failed to tell me about this. How could he not tell me about Blood slaves?

“There are rules though, strict ones,” she told me, meeting my eyes. “I couldn’t disobey anything Ryan said. I’ve been compelled against speaking about vampires or blood slaves outside of the village borders. I’m also not allowed to go beyond the borders without Ryan. I have to be available to him whenever he needs me. Some vampires are more lenient to their slaves. They allow them to live in the human section of the village and do their own things. They can work if they want to, or they can dick around. It all depends on their masters. But Ryan makes me follow him everywhere…”

My heart sank into my stomach.

“You’re like his puppy,” I breathed, and it wasn’t a question. “You have to follow him wherever he goes…”

She gave a dry laugh, but she nodded.

“Yes, like a puppy. It’s honestly not too bad having to follow him. Part of being a blood slave means I’m bound to him,” she explained.

“Bound to him?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

“It means exactly how it sounds. I’m bound to him. He can sense where I’m at if I’m not with him. He can speak to me in my mind and smell me easier than he can smell any human. I also feel a connection with him…” She paused as if she was thinking twice about speaking this next part out loud. “It feels like love and lust,” she finished explaining.

“You love him?”

“It feels like I do,” she said, shaking her head. “But it’s not real. It’s just the slave bond. But whenever he orders me to do something, even when he wants to drink my blood, I want to do it for him because my body, mind, and heart, are bound to him.”

“Did it hurt… I mean….everytime he drinks from you?” I heard my voice shaking, remembering the sourness around the bitemark after my one night stand with Joseph.

“You should’ve known it, it quickly got that mesmerizing effect. But it was a lot of pain the next day.”

I stared down at my hands, having trouble imagining all of this. But then something she said surfaced in my mind.

“You said there are other blood slaves?” I asked, raising my brows. “How many others?”

She smirked at my question.

“You’ve seen other humans here, right?” They are all blood slaves to someone,” she said, shaking her head with dismay written all over her face.

My heart plummeted into my stomach.

“All of them?” I gasped.

“Did you really think a village of vampires would keep humans around if we didn’t serve them some kind of purpose?”

“Joseph told me they were workers. They work around the village and in the vamp house…” I breathed, unsure of what was real.

She chuckled.

“Yes, we do that too. But we are here to serve them a greater purpose. We fill them with their supply of blood. Also, vampires don’t share blood with other vampires. So, the humans you’ve seen so far, belong to someone here. Usually, the ones they are closer to or walking with…”

I thought about the girl I saw the other day on our way to the vamp house for breakfast. She looked like she had just come back from swimming, and she was walking behind a vampire. Both of them were looking at me but then they disappeared into the woods.

I remembered feeling uneasy about them, but I was mainly confused because I wasn’t expecting to see a human here.

Now, I know… she was his blood slave.

A chill coursed through my body, and I had to wrap my arms around myself to keep from shivering.

I looked out into the battlegrounds and saw that the fighting was continuing. Only this time, I met the wandering eyes of Ryan who was still in the middle of battling Carter. Ryan’s eyes locked onto mine and they darkened, making me shiver again.

I wasn’t feeling so well. I almost wanted to pass out on the spot. But I couldn’t.

Not here.

I had to be strong.

But I also knew one thing for sure…. I needed to talk to Joseph about this right away.