By My Side ... (A Valentine's Day Story) Read Online Free PDF Page B

eyes. It puzzled her. Then
she came to realise what she was drinking. Watered down milk, the
last of her bounty from the mountain farm.
    She set the mug back down,
trying not to wince at the frown rising on his brow. Before he
could say anything she hurried to explain.
    "The children should have this.
It is the last of the milk."
    "They have had their share."
The beginnings of a growl -- but she had lived her whole life with
apex predators. There was a time to give in and a time to push, or
they would forever see you as nothing more than a toy. She was many
things, few of them useful, but she was not a toy. So she
pushed.
    "The women then."
    The orc leant into her, close
and threatening, eyes alight with stubborn intent. He snarled at
her, the growl now full-fledged and deep.
    "No."
    "I was carried for most of the
day. They should have it." She insisted.
    "Drink!"
    For a moment she considered
arguing some more, then thought better of it. Elena brought the mug
to her lips. Reschkar watched her every move with avid attention,
his gaze intent on her lips as she closed them over the rim of the
mug, her throat as she swallowed. There was a deep satisfaction in
his eyes -- and the beginnings of heat.
    "Why is it so important?"
    Another question she could not
help asking. In truth, she did not think he would answer her, or at
least not with anything more profound than the only too obvious
truth: that she needed all the strength she could preserve because
she was so much weaker than them all. Even the children. But after
a moment's silence, in which she emptied the mug of the last dregs
of the milk, he spoke.
    "A slave does not provide food,
a slave never choses what to eat. If our masters chose not to feed
us, then we starved -- if they chose to poison us, then we died.
Now we hold the power to feed ourselves."
    She understood him, possibly
better than she wanted to.
    "And I am a member of a vampire
court, a symbol for those who were your masters. Now you have the
power over me."
    "Yes." It was the stark,
absolute truth, no prevarication, no softening the blow. In every
way that mattered she had become his slave. And she knew it.
    His hand closed around her
throat, the sharp claws little pinpricks against her skin as he
stroked upwards, closed his fingers around her jaw to hold her in
place. He leant into her, came even closer. She felt his breath
against her skin, tasted him on her lips. Then his whispered words
wrapped around her in what was an oath -- or a threat.
    "And I intend to prove to you,
to them, to myself , that I am a better master than they
could ever have dreamt of being. In every aspect."
    A vow. A promise? She did not
know, was not sure she wanted to know. His large, warm palm came to
rest on her chest and he pushed her down with gentle pressure.
    "Now sleep."
    And then he left, without
another backwards glance.
    Elena curled up on her side,
trying to find a comfortable spot on her nest of blanket, earth and
pine needles. What had felt so soft, so comfortable after a day of
travel, now had developed lumps and sharp corners. Worse, the cold
had found its way under her blanket and icy tendrils were attacking
her skin. Her toes, cold and miserable most of the day, even after
she had replaced her wet socks with strips of cloth torn from her
petticoat, had never warmed up and were now curving into themselves
in painful cramps. She curled up tighter, hiding her cold nose
between her knees and wrapping her fingers around her toes. Not
comfortable -- but manageable, at least until the cramps would
subside. As it was, she might be tired enough to sleep even like
this.
    In that moment she resented the
orcs and their seeming imperviousness to the hardships of their
travel, the temperatures torturing her. That sentiment burnt in her
for a moment, and not in a mild, complacent way. Not in the way she
would grumble about rain on Sundays. No, for a moment she truly
hated them. She knew it was not fair, even knew that most of