Eyes Like Ice

I woke up with a look of utter distaste on my face, the strong scent of Carpenter having disgusted me even in my sleep. I wondered why it was so much stronger now, and a glance to my left gave me my answer.

Carpenter was asleep right beside me in that same big bed I'd woken up in before.

My expression emptied of all emotion as I tried to take a swing at the sleeping bastard. I remained emotionless even when I found that I couldn't make myself move enough to touch him, let alone hit him. I did sigh, though, finding this rather irritating.

I was laying beside a man I despised and drugged to the point of being almost completely unable to move. Greeeat.

He rolled onto his side suddenly, putting an arm across my body and pulling me closer to him. That's when I realized that he was shirtless and I was naked. He shifted slightly, and I felt something against my leg that made me have to amend one of my previous observations.

The perverted son of a bitch wasn't just shirtless.

He nuzzled my neck and pulled my body even closer to his. I didn't notice that he was awake until he gently kissed my neck and murmured, "Good morning, Raven."

"What the fuck is good about this?" I asked, wanting to sound pissy, but finding myself unable to do so.

He chuckled at my words. "Oh, come on, love. Isn't this nice? The two of us, lying here together, naked...and you don't even have to go to school today."

"I'm not seeing the plus side here."

The man rolled on top of me so he was straddling me, sighing. "Do you really not like this?" he asked before kissing my chin gently and beginning to slowly move lower.

"Mhm," I answered simply.

"You'll grow to enjoy it soon enough," he told me between kisses.

I took a deep breath and somehow managed to roll over, forcing him onto the bottom. I held myself over him for just long enough to kiss him roughly, then I collapsed on him. I found that getting on top of him had been one seriously stupid move, though, seeing as I now had my breasts pressed against his chest and his erection pressed against my stomach.

I ignored these things as well as I could and asked, "If I be a good girl and try to enjoy this, will you not do whatever it is you did to me to make it hard for me to move?"

He chuckled again as his hands found my ass. "We'll see."

I sighed, but figured that that was about as good as I could possibly get, considering that this was Carpenter I was talking to. As we laid there in silence, I closed my eyes and studied my body by feel.

"I'm not bandaged," I stated after a few seconds.

"I know."

"But...why? My wounds couldn't have healed that quickly."

"Not by themselves. I have a very good healer living in this mansion with me, and she managed to heal your wounds as well as mine, though yours proved to be a slight challenge for her. She's never been very good at repairing damaged organs..."

"Ah...I'm going to need blood soon, though. Even if my body didn't heal completely by itself, it still had to do at least part of the work."

"I know. You can feed from me now, if you'd like."

I managed to cock my head slightly. "Why would you allow me to feed from you?"

"Because you need blood, and I'm laying right here."

"But...aren't you afraid I'm going to try to rip your throat out or something?"

"No. Your body is pumped so full of drugs that you would work too slowly, thus allowing me to keep you from doing any serious damage."

"Oh..."

When I just laid there, he asked calmly, "Are you going to feed from me, or should I find you someone else?"

I thought for a moment, then decided that it would be easier to just feed from him. Without verbally answering his question, I let my fangs sink into his neck, not truly knowing how hungry I was until that first drop of blood hit my tongue. My pulls were rapid and almost savage-seeming, leading me to realize yet another thing.

I never used to feed like this, with my teeth actually in someone's flesh. I had always thought that that was something only vampires should do, which is why I had always drank from cuts I had created with my claws, lapping up the blood that pooled on the person's skin, not pulling it directly from their body. I hadn't started feeding this way until after I had met Spike, Dominick, and Riley.

Hm...I wonder why...

Shortly after that thought crossed my mind, I pulled away from Carpenter's neck.

"How do I taste?" he asked casually.

"Just like every other human in the world," I answered, lying. All humans tasted different, the flavor of their blood depending on what they ate, whether they were sick or not, how good they were to their body, and things like that, though I didn't feel the need to explain that to an asshole like Carpenter.

"Ah," was all the male said. Neither of us moved for a few seconds, then he suddenly rolled over, putting his body on top of mine once more. "What would you say if I asked you to have sex with me?" he asked as he hovered over me, his face only inches from mine.

"I would have to ask what was in it for me," I informed him coolly, gazing into his eyes unblinkingly.

"I suppose just pleasure isn't enough?" At my nod, he sighed and began thinking. I could tell he was thinking pretty damn hard by the way his expression changed, his brow furrowing and his eyes dropping to my nose. Speaking of his eyes, I'd never noticed what a pretty blue they were before. Then again, I'd never been quite this close to him before, and he'd always been emotionless during our other meetings. Now, with his eyes reflecting his thought process, they were almost flat-out...beautiful.

I felt nothing for him other than utter contempt, though. Complimenting someone's eyes didn't mean that you liked them. I was merely making an observation.

When blood dripped onto my neck from the puncture wounds in his, he snapped out of his thoughts. "My apologies," he said emotionlessly while wiping the blood away from my skin with a single hand.

"Mm. Have you come up with a good offer yet?"

"If I lower the dosage of what's affecting your movements just enough to allow you some more freedom, but keep you moving slow enough that I could have time to either call for help or fight you off if you tried something, would you agree to have sex with me?"

I immediately shook my head. "I want you to completely stop forcing this stuff into me. Ease of movement wouldn't give me much of an advantage, anyway, since you have all of those Levellua on your side. If you gave them the right orders, I'd be almost harmless."

"That's the problem. You'd be almost harmless. You could still move quickly enough to kill me before I could do anything, so completely eliminating the use of the drug would be a bad idea."

"Then I won't be sleeping with you any time soon."

He gazed down at me, and I figured that he was going to tell me that he'd just take me against my will, but much to my barely-felt surprise, he simply said, "All right." Even more surprising was that he got off of me after saying this, not kissing me or touching me in inappropriate ways or anything.

My pale eyes wandered over his body as he picked a pair of black boxers up from where they were laying on the floor and slid them on. He looked good from behind, but from the front...I probably would've enjoyed staring at him if I had been able to feel. His abs were simply delicious.

And the fact that I just called a part of a man's body 'delicious' is a sure sign that I wasn't making this stuff up.

"What time is it?" I asked while watching him pull on a pair of pants.

"Almost eight o'clock," he answered. "Why?"

I shrugged, turning my gaze to the ceiling. "I just wondered."

"Ah...Well, come down to the entrance hall once you're able to walk," he told me before walking out of the room, still shirtless.

-

Twenty minutes later, my stubborn ass, now clad in the white dress shirt Carpenter had decided to leave behind, was out in the hallway, stumbling along in the direction of the stairs. I had to use the wall to support myself, but there was no way in hell I was going to give up now. I was already halfway there.

The stairs proved to be a slight challenge, though, since the railing wasn't as helpful as the wall was. I could put my whole body against the wall and drag myself along, but I could only put my hands and arms on the railing. Miraculously, I managed to reach the bottom without falling, though I immediately found myself faced with another challenge...

Wide open space.

I sighed and took a step away from the stairs, leaving my beloved railing behind. I wobbled slightly, but managed to remain upright. The second staggered step had me falling to the floor, though. I expected my bare knees to meet the cold, hard tile, but they never did. I did, however, find a pair of strong, pale arms around me.

"Would you like some help?" Carpenter's voice asked, a soft, almost seductive whisper in my ear.

"Since I don't know where we're going, and I don't want to crawl around while trying to figure it out, yes," I answered calmly.

Carpenter chuckled, which he seemed to be doing a lot lately, and carefully lifted me into his arms. He carried me like that through a few doors, stopping only when we were standing in a cozy little sitting room. There, he set me down on a dark blue couch, then he sat down beside me.

"You're going to need to rest for a while longer before we can do anything else," he told me stoically.

"Obviously," I replied, my voice just as emotionless as his, as usual. "Now, why did you decide to let me live?"

He stared at me for a moment with those pretty blue eyes of his, then he said, "Let me take care of you."

This actually had me ever so slightly stunned, though I didn't let it show. I merely asked, "What?"

"Allow me to take care of you. I could feed you, clothe you, send you to any school, any country, any place you could ever want to go to...Let me do that."

"What do you expect to get in return for your services?"

"You. Your master's virtually no more than a greedy whore, right? I could easily pay her to hand her control of you over to me, then you could be mine."

"Which would mean that I'd have to do whatever you told me to."

"Yes, but I wouldn't make you do anything you didn't want to."

I simply looked at him for a few seconds, then I said coldly, "Liar." I got to my feet and headed for the door, finding that I no longer needed to use anything to support myself. I was still slightly wobbly, though, so I stumbled occasionally.

Just as I reached out to grasp the doorknob, Carpenter grabbed my wrist and spun me around. My back met the wooden surface pretty damn hard, but I didn't even wince. I just looked up at him, finding that he seemed kind of pissed off now.

"I'm not a liar," he told me, anger coating his voice.

"Yes, you are. You wouldn't do everything you say you would if you didn't plan to make me do whatever you wanted me to."

He emptied his expression and his voice once more. "All I would want you to do is kill for me. You don't mind killing, do you?"

"For you? Yes, I would mind it."

He growled, then stepped back and yanked me forward by my wrist. He tossed me onto the couch and threw the door open, calling to someone as he left the room. "Watch her."

My mother entered the room a moment later, and I arched an eyebrow. Carpenter must have been really, really pissed off if he was making so many mistakes all at once. He'd given his Levellua a very vague order, and on top of that, the Levellua he sent to guard me was my own mother, who I knew would have no problem helping me escape. She might have pretty much abandoned me a while ago, but she was still my mother. And what kind of mother leaves her baby to suffer at the hands of a greedy, foolish criminal?

The black-haired woman calmly closed the door behind herself, then her composure completely shattered and she nearly threw herself at me. "Raven!" she cried as she held me tightly.

"Mother," I said coolly, just sitting there. She released me after a few seconds and sat down beside me, her eyes wide and worried.

"Are you all right?" she asked quickly. "He hasn't hurt you or anything, has he?"

I shook my head, looking her over and realizing that she must have been to that healer, too, since there weren't any bandages around her stomach. "No. But would you mind letting me escape? I can make it look like I fought you and won in order to keep him from punishing you or something, if you wish."

She shook her head slowly. "He'll punish me no matter what for letting you go, but I'll get you out of here, anyway. Besides, he'll have no one to really blame but himself, since he's the one who told me, of all people, to just watch you."

"True," I agreed with a single nod.

She gave me a weak smile as she got to her feet. Gesturing to the closed door, she asked, "Shall we go, then?"

"Of course." I got to my feet and went to the door, opening it before carefully walking out.

We were both silent for a moment, then my mother asked, "Do you think you're well enough to run yet?"

I nodded. "More than likely."

"Good, because he'll send us after you the moment he realizes you're gone, so you're going to want to run to wherever you plan to go."

"All right," I answered as we walked into the entrance hall. My mother opened the door for me and stepped aside to let me out.

We both froze when Carpenter shouted from the stairway, "Bella, what the hell are you doing?! Don't let her escape!"

"Run," my mother whispered, having gone wide-eyed once again.

I immediately did as she said, stumbling slightly when I started out, but easily managing to catch myself and keep going.

"All of you, after her! Capture her and bring her back to me! Alive!" I heard Carpenter command. Soon enough, I heard several Levellua running behind me, accompanied by the sounds of daggers being unsheathed.

Shit, I cursed mentally when I realized that I had nowhere to go. I sort of recognized the area, and I knew that Riley's house was nearby, but the human would be at school right now. Besides, even if he was home for some reason, what good would he be to me? I had told him that he was strong enough for me, and I knew he was, but...I just couldn't bring a bunch of Levellua to his door. He'd get hurt, maybe even killed, and I just couldn't let that happen.

I thought about the layout of the city in relation to my current location and quickly figured out that Spike's mansion wasn't too far away. He'd probably be sleeping right now, but if I came running through that door, his possessive ass would undoubtedly wake up and come to protect me. The more I thought about it, the better that sounded. His house wasn't nearly as close to my current location as Riley's, but maybe I could make it.

I hissed in pain when a dagger embedded itself in my left calf, and just like that, I was completely freaking screwed. I was going to have a hard enough time getting there with the remnants of these annoying drugs in my system, but with an injured leg...

Stop it, I told myself. Just keep on running, and you can ma-

A couple of the Levellua darted in front of me and stopped, forcing me to alter my path and dart down a quiet side street. I was now heading away from Spike's house and toward...Dominick's house...Why hadn't I factored him into this before?! His master's mansion was even closer to here than Spike's!

I yanked the dagger out of my calf as I ran, trying to ignore the pain and just keep myself moving. People stared as I ran by, but really, now. Who wouldn't stare at a girl running down the street with blood dripping from her leg and nothing but a man's dress shirt covering her?

I rounded another corner, and Dominick's home almost immediately came into view. All I had to do was run a few more yards, then I could burst right into his house and-

Someone grabbed my wrist suddenly, and I was pulled back into the arms of a male Levellua. I struggled violently, but he refused to let go. I then remembered that I still had the dagger that had hit my calf in my hand, so I stabbed it into his thigh. He winced and released me, yanking the weapon out of his leg immediately after doing so. I hit the ground and began to run again, but another Levellua soon had a hold of me from behind. I snarled as I spun around, then forced myself back into the brick wall surrounding someone rich person's property, ramming the female Levellua into it. I had to do this three times before she finally let go, and I instantly took off again.

I was only one mansion away from Dominick's when two more Levellua caught me, each grabbing one of my arms. I shoved them both away with all of the strength I could muster, then I turned to face all six of the Levellua. I wasn't going to be able to make it to Dominick house with them grabbing me every few seconds, so I figured I might as well just try to fight them all now.

The group slowly surrounded me, and I studied them carefully as they did so. Two of them had sheathed katanas in their belts, another two had pistols in their hands, and the remaining two were armed with a few daggers. My mother was one of the Levellua armed with a gun, so I knew I wouldn't have to worry about too many bullets coming my way. I figured that the other guy wouldn't bother firing at me, either, since he probably hated guns like most Levellua did, due to the fact that we were trained with swords and knives, not guns.

All of us were still for a moment, then I started the fight by darting forward and grabbing the hilts of those sheathed katanas. I slid them out of their sheaths and leapt back, spinning to block a couple of daggers with them.

We were lucky there weren't any humans wandering around out here, or this wouldn't have gone well. The police would've ended up involved, and that was never good.

I knocked the daggers out of their owners' hands, then whipped around, slamming my foot into one of the females' faces hard enough to knock her back into the brick wall we were fighting by. She hit her head and fell to the ground, unconscious, just like she had been throughout most of our last fight. The other one dodged the kick I aimed at her stomach, quickly retaliating by stabbing me in the arm with another dagger. I ignored the pain and tried to kick her again, this time being blocked by her arm. She grabbed my foot and tugged, trying to make me fall back onto the pavement, but I managed to flip over on my way down so I landed on my hands, having to let the katanas go. The swords' rightful owners snatched them up as I slammed my foot back into the face of the woman who still had a hold of my foot. She let me go and staggered back, allowing me to quickly get to my feet.

The men now armed with katanas lunged at me, swinging with deadly precision and speed. I barely managed to dodge their attacks, not remembering that I had a dagger embedded in my arm until I dropped into a crouch to avoid another swing. I pulled the weapon out of my flesh swiftly and straightened suddenly, using the bloody weapon to knock the katana out of one of the guys' hands. It hit the pavement a few feet away, and he stupidly dove for it, putting his back to me. I used the hilt of my dagger to land a powerful blow to the back of his skull, and he fell unconscious, dropping to the ground right beside his weapon.

A man grabbed a handful of my long black hair and pulled me back suddenly, preparing to knock me unconscious with the hilt of his own sword. I stabbed my dagger into his shoulder, causing him to hiss and let me go. I then whipped around and yanked the katana out of his grasp. I swung it once, slicing its original owner's stomach open. I then kicked the man in the chest and let him fall to the ground. I spun just in time to dodge a bullet, then I lunged at the man who had shot at me. He fired again, but I sidestepped the bullet, then I quickly maneuvered so I was standing behind him. I let my bloody blade bite into the flesh of his back, then I knocked him out with the hilt of the sword.

I stopped and looked around, panting. Only two Levellua were still able to fight, though the male whose stomach I had sliced open was try to rise. A quick kick to his head had him falling down again, unconscious.

My mother and the other female, who had blood gushing from her nose because of the kick I had delivered to her face, were standing a few feet away from me. They both watched me carefully with their pale eyes, and I studied them as we all just stood there.

My mother looked like she just wanted all of this to stop, but the other woman looked pissed. While the other Levellua had been going easy on me since Carpenter had specifically said that he wanted me to come back alive, this female appeared to be ready to kill me, and all because I had made her get blood all over her pretty face. Well, that, and she seemed like she was a pretty competitive woman, anyway.

I moved forward quickly, stopping right in front of my mother suddenly. "Sorry, Mother," I said as I prepared to knock her out.

"It's all right, sweetie," she said with a smile. "I'll still love you."

I then knocked her unconscious, and she fell to the ground with that smile still on her face. I stared at her for a moment longer before turning to face the other woman, who was still watching me and looking utterly pissed.

"I'm not going to let you win," she told me angrily.

I picked the other katana up from where it was laying on the ground, then I tossed it to her. "I know you won't let me win, but I'll win, anyway," I said simply before lunging at her.

Our blades clashed, skating off of each other and separating in a shower of sparks. I leapt back, then rushed forward again, swinging wildly at her. She blocked and dodged my attacks, trying to make it look easy in spite of the fact that she was obviously having some trouble dealing with my speed. She managed to lock her blade with mine again after a moment, and she shoved me back before rushing forward with her own wild swings. I made blocking her attacks look easy because it really was easy for me. She moved just a bit slower than I did, but that bit was just enough to give me one hell of an advantage. I ducked under one of her swings suddenly, slashing at her stomach while the blade of her sword sailed over my head. She tried to jump back, but she just wasn't fast enough to evade the attack. My sword created a deep gash on her stomach, and she fell to her knees with a wince, dropping the katana and using her hands to cover the bleeding wound.

"Good night," I said simply before knocking her unconscious.

I took a step back and relaxed slightly, thinking I had won, but then I found my stolen katana flying from my hand. It hit the ground a few feet away, and I dove for it, not knowing who or where my opponent was. Just before I reached the weapon, a dagger was thrown at me, stabbing itself right through my hand. I hissed and fell into a crouch, yanking the weapon out. The sword before me was then picked up by the swordsman I had knocked out when he'd gone for his own weapon earlier. Standing beside him was the other dagger-wielding woman, the one I'd knocked out twice in the past day using two different walls. Both of them looked grim as they gazed down at me.

"We can't let you win," the male stated.

I stood slowly and nodded. "I understand."

I bowed my head in a false show of surrender, and just as the man reached out to take my wrist, I jumped up and slammed my foot into his chest. He staggered back, and the woman immediately came after me, armed with a few more daggers. I dodged her stab attempts, but I was forced to stop when the male's katana blade sliced through my back. As blood spattered all over the ground behind me, the female in front of me stabbed four daggers into my stomach, then roughly ripped them out. I fell to my knees, now breathing heavily.

"Give up, or we'll have to do more," the woman told me, obviously hating having to say that.

I shook my head slowly, staring down at her shoes, and said, "I'm sorry I have to do this, and I'm also sorry that you've all had to do this." I didn't give them time to react to my words, instead leaping to my feet and turning so I could stab my claws into their stomachs. I yanked them sideways, then tore them out. After that, I tried to land a blow to both of their skulls. The woman didn't move to block the attack fast enough, so she soon crumpled to the pavement once more, but the male easily grabbed my wrist.

"Raven!" I heard a pair of familiar voices cry, though I was too busy being pulled right onto a katana blade to figure out which two it was. Blood spilled from my mouth when the man ripped the sword out through my side. He let go of my wrist, and I staggered back, blinking rapidly as my vision began to darken. I hit the man in the face as hard as I could, sending him to skid along the ground and undoubtedly take a little nap, then I fell to my knees.

How the fuck am I going to live through this one? I wondered before falling onto my side, unconscious yet again.