Bride of Blood:: First Kiss Read Online Free PDF Page B

urgings in the past.
                              About 50 years ago, he and Anton had gone to visit Lady Bernadine at her compound in Africa.   Alexander knew that the reason for their visit was because of him.   Anton didn’t have to say it, but he knew.  
                              When they arrived, they were quickly separated and Alexander was led by one of the vampire queen’s handmaids to a room.   The room was typical of those in the compound, small with a large bed and no visible walls.   Instead of walls the room was surrounded by a strange veil of fog.   Lady Bernadine and her handmaids could pass in and out of the fog whenever they wished, without making a sound.
                              Alexander sat down on the bed and looked into the mist.   He knew that soon Lady Bernadine would send one of her mortal servants for him to feed on.   Surely she would.   She always did.   But she didn’t.   No one came into the room.  
                              For what seemed like weeks to him, Alexander sat in the room and was not visited by anyone.   Not Anton, and not Bernadine.   He didn’t sense so much as one of the handmaids or the servants walking through the mist.   He was just alone with his thoughts and his hunger.   He began to get even hungrier.   As he did, he would try to sleep but ended up tearing at the sheets and breathing hard.   He felt his body growing colder, and then the deeper pain began about a week later.
                              This pain wracked his body from top to bottom.   He shook and tried to scream for Anton, but there was no reply.   He was in agony and wanted nothing more than to feed.   For about another week he suffered.   He began to tear off his clothes, the sheets from the bed, and then claw at his chest.   The wounds which usually would heal right away, stayed like scars on a mortal.   Somewhere from deep inside what was left of his mortal glands, he began to sweat.   Real sweat, not blood like he expected.   His skin felt feverish one minute and then clammy the next.   Then came the headaches.   The pain in his head felt like it was being hammered.   He couldn’t even get up any longer.  
                              Finally, one day the pain stopped and the last of his strength was gone from his body.   He lay on the floor in a dead heap.   He could barely open his eyes and felt that soon the final death would come for him.   He welcomed it at that point.   He had come to the point where he was tearing out his hair before he lost his strength for the last time.   He felt as if he’d been totally drained of all that he was. If there’d been a mirror in the room, he wouldn’t have recognized what he saw.  
                              Then suddenly, when he swore that death was upon him, he felt he was being lifted.   Lady Bernadine picked him up from the floor.   He was like a ragdoll to her at that moment.   Not that she couldn’t have lifted him otherwise, as she had the strength of dozens of mortals.   Still, she knew that the fast had done what it needed to do.   She gave a nod and then three of her handmaids appeared and stripped the bed and replaced the linens.   She shooed them away and lay Alexander onto the bed.   She kissed his forehead and whispered into his ear.   He couldn’t consciously understand what she was saying, but somehow he felt better.   Although he couldn’t speak or move, he did feel better.
                              Then Bernadine took off what was left of his clothes.   She saw his scarred body and would have been taken back by his gaunt and gray flesh, if it weren’t what she wanted.   She began to kiss his body, and color began to return to him.   The scars were slowly starting to heal and when she made her way up to his mouth she bit into her wrist.   She allowed him to feed from her and like