Little Doll (Blackmoth House #1)

Chapter 8 Nova

Chapter 8

Nova

So much information had been hurtled at me as the hours of the night passed by, but I felt I had learned almost nothing. I still had so many questions, but when the hour drew near, when sunlight would begin to flood the large windows, and my brother Draven might rise, my family told me I needed to return to my windowless room in the tower. Only as the others filed out and Fane stood to offer me a hand, did I recall the strange, confusing incident when we left the tower room and then suddenly just… were in the grand foyer.

“How do I find the tower room?” I asked. “And was I imagining things when we left it to come in here?”

Fane smiled as I placed my hand and his and stood. “Well, it’s a matter of magic, you see. ”

I rolled my eyes, and that quick anger sparked. I was tired of nonsensical and whimsical responses and ready for some straight answers.

He detected my frustration and chuckled. “You see, Little Doll, Blackmoth House is a house of many secrets. More secrets than you or I will ever know, surely. And it has its ways to protect its secrets. You are one secret of Blackmoth House now.”

I stopped and stomped my foot, sending one sharp crack of my boot on the floor echoing about the room. “I don’t understand. I’m so tired of all these odd mythical sounding answers to my questions. Just tell me so that I can understand, Fane!”

He tilted his head to the side and cupped my face in one hand. Something crossed his charming face I didn’t recall ever seeing there before. Compassion. “I’m sorry, Nova. I really am. I know this is all so confusing and frightening. There is too much for you to learn, possibly to know it all in one night. But you must trust me. The answers will come in time.”

I wanted to cry. My shoulders slumped and all the sudden it seemed if I’d never slept a wink in my life. They had told me I wouldn’t always need to sleep if I didn’t want to. Sometimes I would sleep during daylight just to pass time away from the sun. But it wouldn’t be necessary. However, as a young vampire, I might feel fatigued for a while. Such was the case right then. “Fane, just tell me how to find my room,” I said weakly.

“Don’t worry, Little Doll. It’s easy. Those who are aware of the magic can harness it easily. Think of where you want to be and take a step. That’s all there is to it.”

I frowned at him for a few seconds, thinking perhaps he’d lost his mind. But who was I to say? His claim wasn’t really anymore daft than any of the other things that were happening to me.

He gave an encouraging smile. “Go on, you try it. Take us where you want to go.” He squeezed my hand.

I squared up my shoulders and took a deep breath. I closed my eyes and envisioned the stone room. Then, together, we took one step.

As he’d promised, I opened my eyes and there we were, back in the round room.

I was so tired; I made no attempt to change into sleeping clothes and I fell in a heap onto the bed. Fane took a seat in the same chair he’d been sitting in while he watched me sleep. “May I stay with you until you fall asleep, Little Doll?” he asked. So strange to hear him ask permission or use any sort of polite manners.

“You don’t have to,” I murmured, my eyelids already drooping.

“I want to.”

I shimmied around in the bed enough to pull the covers up over me. But as I was sinking into oblivion, my eyes popped open. “Fane?” I asked with great alarm. “Are you a vampire?”

Fane’s face fell and shadows flickered in his eyes. “No, Little Doll. I am not.”

All these years that I’d barely seen him because he was such a creature of the night had made me think that. He lived like a vampire. I was surprised to hear he wasn’t one. I was still pondering it when I slipped into dreams.

The dreams were mostly incredible. Elaborate adventures and sultry sexual escapades. But there were interludes of strange voices calling out to me in the dark. Mysterious scratching sounds.

And then there were nightmares of blood.

During the night hours the next evening, I languished in the Blackmoth House library under the pale light of the moon streaming in the tall windows. A book lay open across my stomach, but I found I could barely focus my mind on the adventures within its pages.

My eyes drooped, and my mind wanted to drift back to the land of dreams. I was also distracted by the distant voice of a little girl softly calling my name. Something about the voice broke my heart. I fancied it was simply my voice, the lost little girl I’d once been calling out to me to be rescued from this cruel fate.

There was also the matter of the incessant scratching sounds in the walls. Anywhere in Blackmoth House that I went to escape, it followed me. Scratching like rodents had gotten into the walls. All the walls. Even the walls of my room that were made of stone.

Perhaps the vampire curse had brought with it a curse of madness as well.

It was 3 A.M. when I lay sprawled on the navy-blue fainting sofa, slumbering lightly, when this cousin I’d never heard of before… Carmilla… arrived.

I awoke with a start as Cleo shuffled in, holding onto the arm of an enchanting woman.

Simply sharing the same spaced with this woman was intoxicating. I could definitely tell she was family. She was a mirror of me. Except better in every way. She was the tallest woman I’ve ever seen with illustrious jet black hair flowing down almost to her knees. Her eyes glistened like black diamonds and when she looked at me, she could see everything about me.

I scrambled off the sofa and stood, giving the beautiful woman a curtsy. She extended her hand, which was encrusted with rings made of jewels of every size and color. I took her hand and, without even thinking about it, I lifted it to my lips and kissed it. When my lips brushed her cold skin, lightning shot through my entire being.

“I am Carmilla,” the woman said in a voice that sounded like dark music. “And you are Nova, I presume?” she asked.

I blushed and nodded, embarrassed to have thought of kissing the hand of a lady. But she giggled and lifted my hand to her lips next.

“I’ll just leave you to get acquainted,” Cleo said and then hurried out.

Carmilla took a seat on the fainting sofa and patted the cushion next to her. She fell onto it, giving the impression of being exhausted. With a second of hesitation first, I sat down next to her, the silks of both of our black gowns wishing together in quiet sighs.

“I hear you have discovered the dastardly curse of our family,” Carmilla began.

I bowed my head and nodded. It felt good to speak freely of it to someone I hadn’t formerly known. On the other hand, I was full to the brim with shame. And chronic confusion.

“Well, as I’m sure you’ve already been told, there is too much to impart to you for just one night. But I have an idea of what I can teach you tonight. Perhaps, the most important thing.”

I peered into her bewitching eyes. “What is it, Carmilla?” I asked.

She took my chin in her hand to pull my face closer to her. “Aren’t you hungry, Little Doll?” Carmilla whispered. “Your brother Fane invited me here to teach you how to eat.”

Once again, I found myself clip clopping down the road in a carriage, whisked away in the night by a beautiful dark-haired family member. Carmilla was delightful to be with. Despite her perpetual exhaustion, she exuded a peaceful demeanor as she spun her words with charm and wit. It made her both entertaining and comforting to be with.

“You have probably heard in the lore of vampires that they sustain themselves on blood. That is true. But you can eat other things too. However, food and drink will no longer have a taste to you, nor will they provide you any sustenance. Wine will no longer intoxicate you. Only one thing will both intoxicate and sustain you, and that is blood. The only reason to eat anything else is if you should feel the need to fit in with humans. To blend. To not stand out as a strange girl who never eats. Have you had blood since you awoke a vampire?”

I realized that I was famished. In fact, I had not had blood, nor so much as a sip of water, since I rose from the bed in the stone room as a vampire. I had been owned by the sounds of blood rushing in the veins of the people around me, but I hadn’t thought of consuming it.

I had, however, thought about murdering everyone in my entire family at one moment or another, so maybe I was a little hungry.

“No, I haven’t.”

“And how long has it been?”

“This is my second night.”

Carmilla gasped. “That’s too long to starve a baby. What are they thinking? You’ll go on a murdering spree before long. I’ve arrived just in time.”

I nodded and giggled. I thought of snapping the neck of the driver and all the horses just then, and it sent a jolt of pleasure low into my belly.

“Well listen, this is a good time to give you your first lesson,” Carmilla said in a low, dark voice. She lowered her chin and looked at me from beneath half-closed eyelids and luxurious black lashes. She gave me a devilish smile and ran her tongue over her teeth. “Vampires can feed from other vampires.”

I took a sharp breath, and her long lithe fingers drew my eyes. She removed her black gloves and undid the buttons at the wrists of her ruffled sleeves.

“Would you like your first taste of blood to be mine?” she asked. Her voice had taken on an unearthly quality that made my head swim. Butterflies swirled in my stomach and fluttered down to tickle me between my thighs.

I could barely breathe.

“Yes, Carmilla,” I whispered.

She pulled the sleeves back and revealed her pale wrists. I could both hear and see the blood coursing through the pulsating blue veins there. I wanted what was in those veins so badly that it made me want to cry.

“First, the lesson,” Carmilla said. Her eyes had slipped down on me. First, they danced over my neck, and then I saw her become fixated on my wrists. “Vampire blood cannot sustain you if you are starving nearly to death. It doesn’t provide much nourishment, and depending on who the vampire is, it could even harm you. But it’s useful just to top you off, or to hold you over until you can really feed. It’s enough to prevent the insanity of blood lust. Also, it can be quite… Fun.” Her eyes slid back up and met mine again.

“Fun?” I asked.

She grinned. “Yes, quite. It’s different from vampire to vampire, what impact it will have on you. I’m told that my blood, for lady vamps, can be… Orgasmic.”

The familiar ache in my teeth surfaced once again. I licked them and the two tiny sharp fangs extended.

“Now, my question for you is if you would be a dear and let your old tired Carmilla have a nip of your blood too?”

My spine went rigid. The thought of her teeth sinking into my veins had not occurred to me and, in truth, it gave me a fright.

She reached across to me and took my hand. “Don’t worry, darling,” she purred. “It won’t hurt at all. In fact, I think you’ll find it will feel quite divine.”

I decided not to think about it for very long, and to trust her. From everything I’d heard of vampires, trusting one was the worst possible idea. But here I was in this world now, and I had no choice.

I lifted my right arm and turned my pale wrist inward to her.

She let out a soft hiss, and I watched her teeth extend before my eyes. It sent a vibrating thrill through me. She lifted her wrist to me as well.

“You’ll feel excited, but be careful,” she said. “Just poke your sharp little points in and suck. That’s it. No biting, no ravaging. Be gentle. Can you do that, Little Doll?”

I stared at her wrist, my mouth watering and arousal thundering in me. Unable to speak, I nodded vigorously.

She moved her wrist to my mouth, and I moved mine to hers.

My teeth were in her a split second before hers sunk into me. She’d told me to be gentle, but there was a delicious crunch when she bit me.

When Carmilla’s blood hit my tongue, my body turned to hot liquid. I sunk and slid off my seat onto my knees by her lap. I tilted my head back and sunk my teeth in to the bone. She groaned around my wrist and the low, sultry sound caused me to shriek against her as her warmth coursed into my mouth.

Pleasure swam through me and my cunt grew hot and wet. I had an overwhelming desire to be filled, to be fondled, to touch myself, to be touched. But I remained steadfastly latched onto her wrist and clutched it to my mouth with both hands. The delicate bones of her wrist cracked under my grasp.

I glanced up and saw Carmilla staring down at me as she sucked me. Tendrils of black looking smoke swirled around her. They snaked down her body and then mine, like ghostly fingers. I could feel their energy through the fabric of my dress and my body vibrated. The tendrils creeped down my dress and disappeared under the hem.

It was then that something entered me. It felt like fingers, delicate and gentle, moving in and out of me, coursing to the same rhythm as the blood flowing into my mouth.

My release was instantaneous.

My core felt as though it exploded into the same smoky material of Carmilla’s devilish tendrils as I came wildly while screaming and sucking at her wrist. She released my wrist and tossed her head back. She moaned and shook as though she were experiencing the same in her own way.

I fell limp with my head on her lap, still attached to her wrist, though barely a drop was coming now. “That’s enough, Little Doll, please let go,” she whispered, stroking the sweaty line where my hair met my face.

I did as she asked, spent and full. But within seconds, I sat back upright, feeling vibrant and full of energy for the first time since awakening into this nightmare.

She cupped my cheek, looking down at me lovingly. Then tossed her head back and laughed. She, too, looked awake and full of life now. “We’re going to have such fun!” she cried.