Black Blood

"Feel free to change," Edward said with a gesture toward the dress laid out on the bed before me. I got the feeling that I didn't actually have a choice in the matter.

I looked down at the clothes I currently had on. How long had I been wearing these? Even so, there was no way I actually wanted to change into a dress. It was a very pale purple, almost white; long, and flowing. The sleeves were chiffon, split down the middle, and were just as long and flowing as the gown itself. I twisted my face in disgust.

"Let me rephrase," Edward spoke again. "Do change into that dress, or I will have to force you to."

"Aren't you already forcing me to?" I muttered under my breath. I made my way over to the bed, pinching a bit of the fabric between my fingers. The gown felt nice and silky. I looked back up at Edward.

"Aren't you going to give me some privacy?" I asked. His expression didn't change, and he remained in his spot at the doorway. It was as if I hadn't even spoken.

I'd been through a lot up to that point; including almost being raped, getting bitten, and even killing several vampires myself. But I had never been forced to change into a vampire before; they had all given me some form of privacy.

Then again the one vampire that allowed me a change of clothes was gay, so of course he would have no interest in watching. That didn't change my lack of desire to be naked in front of someone though.

"I- uh," I stuttered. "Why do you need me to change into this, anyway? Aren't you just going to kill me anyway? The dress will get ruined, what I'm wearing should be of no importance."

With that Edward started to make his way across the room and over to me. I startled and stepped around the bed, trying to put more distance between us.

"Okay, okay! I'll change!" I said. But still he caught my wrist, pulling me over to him.

I tried to pull away as he tugged up my shirt. He grabbed my bare waist, pulling me back to him and succeeding with pulling my shirt off over my head after that. My hands flew up to cover my breasts, despite the fact I was wearing a bra. I turned my back to him.

His fingers trailed over the bare skin of my waist, and his touch should have made my skin crawl, but there was something about the way his skin felt on mine that cause a heat to stir within me. I felt his breath at my ear, and shivered as his fingers traveled over my stomach to the waistband of my jeans.

He undid the button, and pulls down the zipper.

"I-I can handle the rest," I said.

Before I could step away from him he had roughly pulled my jeans down my legs. I yelped in surprise, and his hands found my waist again.

"Step out of them," he whispered against my ear. I shivered again. My reaction to him had to be due to his influence, I told myself.

I did as he said, kicking them away. Edward's fingertips trailed up, and then back around my spine, and he undid the clasp of my bra. A familiar wave of nausea rolled through me as I felt his hands slide up and under my hands to cup my breasts.

Eve if he was an ancient ancestor of mine, we were still related. I shrugged him off and stepped away from him again, covering my breasts once more.

"I can handle the rest," I repeated. He didn't respond, but he didn't touch me again either. When I looked over my shoulder, he was no longer in the room.

I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding and allowed my bra to fall to the floor. I slipped the dress on over my head, and adjusted it as I looked in the mirror. It fit me well, and did look rather nice on me, but I still wasn't at all fond of dresses.

Edward was waiting for me outside of the room when I left it, and I looked up at him. His gaze traveled over my body, the same expression still present on his face. I frowned.

"You look lovely," he said, but his voice held no emotion to it. I shrugged and bit my lip. He held his hand out to me. "Come."

I continued to stare at him. There was no way he'd get me to willingly touch him, especially not after he had just molested me and forced me to undress. He sighed and turned, making his way down the vine-covered hall. I followed after him after a moment.

"What is this ritual you have to perform, before you can kill me?" I asked. He gave no answer. I hoped it didn't involve him taking the dress back off me.

"Can you at least tell me what you meant, when you said you wanted revenge for what the humans did to you?" I tried again. Edward stiffened and ceased walking. I stopped several feet behind him.

We stood there a while in silence. I wondered if he would actually tell me, or if he would stay silent and just keep walking. His shoulders relaxed again after a moment.

"There are specific human families," he said quietly. "My own included. They are the reason I am what I am today."

"What do you mean?" I urged for him to continue. "I thought you were the one that- you made a deal with a demon? Or something like that."

"Not me specifically," he said, shaking his head. "It was a... different time, back then. There were actual plagues killing people off, but there were also monsters. We needed to be stronger. I volunteered.

"No one else would join me," he continued. "But that was fine. The demon was called upon, and he had me undergo a transformation. I thought it would be only temporary. I managed to defeat the monsters, but..."

He trailed off. He placed his hand against the brick wall and leaned against it. I waited patiently for him to continue.

"There were... unexpected side effects, that came with my new condition," he began again. "I had to drink human blood to sustain myself. My family shunned me. I called back the demon, he said that the condition was irreversible. I would be this- this monster for the rest of eternity.

"The whole town chased me out," he continued. "At first I didn't know what to do. I tried to starve myself, to die, but I couldn't go through with it. I accidentally sired my first children, not knowing how to control myself.

"Everything was fine," he sighed and ran a hand over his face. "We made an agreement that we wouldn't kill anymore humans or sire anymore vampires, and they'd let us feed in the shadows. But my children were young, and had even less control over their thirsts."

He ended up drawing in a shaky breath, and let it out again slowly. The way his shoulders shook as he did this and the heaviness of his tale had me almost feeling bad for him. Almost.

"We were chased out of towns, countless towns," he said. "The world could hardly handle us anymore, and our population continued to grow. I created a separate realm for us- one where we could even stay out in the sun, without it killing us. It took so much energy. Eventually the story of how e came to be got twisted, and I was revered as a god.

"I grew angrier as time wore on," he continued. "I wasn't satisfied. It wasn't too much longer then after that, that I... Well, I started doing the things I've become infamous for now. I lost my position as king. And everything I've done for the humans, and now even the vampires... Has been left forgotten."

"But you don't hate the vampires, as well?" I asked. He was silent for another long while. I had to hold my temper in check; these silences were getting on my nerves. At least he was finally giving me real answers.

"I do, actually," he said quietly.