Blood of a Leo
Solomon's Pride #1

Excerpt

Leo was barely conscious, the vampire had taken a lot of blood and Leo was having trouble getting up, not that the drugs helped any. He struggled to get to the glass of water on the table next to him, but he couldn't seem to get a proper hold on the couch and slid to the ground with a soft thump.

He whimpered, but he managed to get himself to the table, holding onto it as he reached for the drink. Leo felt so incredibly parched, he almost cried out when Mika tipped over the glass, spilling the precious liquid.

"You'll drink when I say you drink." Mika laughed at him.

Tears burned Leo's eyes, "Please," he rasped out, his voice barely more than a whisper.

Mika chuckled and filled another glass, Leo eyeing the liquid as it poured slowly into the glass. "Now, blood-bag, how bad do you really want this?" he asked as he mockingly took a sip of the cool water.

Leo wanted to sob, but knew tears would only entice Mika to torture him further. On his knees, he crawled over to the vampire and hesitantly stretched out his arm in front of the man. Tonight, he knew Mika would feed; it didn't matter that Leo had already been drained twice that day.

The vampire smirked as he took out the syringe from his inside pocket and filled it with a new, unfamiliar blue liquid. Holding Leo's arm tightly, Mika inserted the needle into a well-used vein, leaving behind another small mark that easily disappeared amongst a crowd of dozen identical ones. "Good boy." Mika smirked as he petted Leo's head.

Leo moaned and greedily drank down the water when Mika finally pressed the glass to his chapped lips. The water provided some much needed moisture to his throat. Though swallowing was still painful, the water brought him as close to ambrosia as Leo had ever been.

Apparently in a good mood tonight, Mika even refilled the glass and let Leo drink his fill again; a very unusual gesture.

Finished, Leo felt tired. His body felt strained from the last feeding —a reward to one of Mika's minions for some information he'd gathered— details about a weapons shipment or something. Whatever new drug Mika had given him, he was beginning to feel more than a little dizzy, but at least the water had helped some.

Barely able to move, Leo protested as Mika got up and began tugging him along, but the vampire wouldn't have any of that. A particularly harsh tug had him dragging Leo behind him like some little girl's ragdoll. Leo gasped for air as the collar closed around his neck and chocked him. He struggled to get to his feet but Mika moved too fast for him to get up. Somehow, he did manage to get up in a half crawl which at least let him breathe a little bit easier.

"I'm having company over tonight," Mika informed him. He was still being dragged through a dark and depressingly lit hallway, the floor littered with broken glass that cut into Leo's knees and palms. "You'll feed both of us, and then I'll have Shamus take you over to stay at the den for the rest of the evening."

The 'den' was a smaller part of the compound and a little out of the way compared to the main buildings. Most likely, the den was part of an old asylum. Some of the cramped holding cells were even padded like those in an insane asylum. The people kept there were mostly donors, as well as others who were slaves of some type— either for labor or for power.

Leo really liked it there, despite the armed, despicable guards present every hour of every day. Still, he liked the people because they were prisoners just like him, showing him he wasn't alone in this. Besides, some quality time in the den also meant a break from the excessive bloodletting, but Mika seldom let him stay there for long… not unless…

"What? Who?" Leo managed to squeeze out, when he'd gathered up enough oxygen to do so. He'd already lost too much blood that day; he had major doubts he would have enough left to sate Mika's hunger, let alone him and somebody else.

"She is not your concern; just make sure the drugs are well circulated through your body for later." The vampire sneered, easily annoyed by the blood-bag's whining nature.

Her? Shit! Please, please, don't let it be Christa. She always took too much, too fast and tore at his neck like some kind of starved vampire on steroids.

Leo lost his footing again, not because of the dragging this time, but because the new dose of whatever the hell Mika had given him had kicked in big time. Somewhere, something snarled and he found himself lifted off the ground, causing a swirl of colors and a swooping sensation to attack his senses.

Despite being used to the strange swirls and colors, now they seemed to launch themselves at him, cutting at him like knives slicing through the air around him. Leo thought he might have screamed, but as soon as he did, the colors stopped coming and everything went pitch black. That night, Mika would get his high as the drugs continued to rack through Leo's body.

* * * *

Leo's head hurt like all hell had broken loose when he started to come to.

He felt as if someone had smacked him in the back of the head with a two ton anvil. Opening his eyes, he tried to focus, but all the lines were blurred and the colors remained fuzzy, seemingly melting into each other and making him dizzy.

"Oh, goody, it lives," a shrill female voice said somewhere in front of him. Leo cringed. He knew that voice, and at that point he almost wanted his old master back… but only almost. "Thank god. Fresh food is much better, I am so not into road kill."

Leo screamed as sharp vicious needles pierced his neck and tore at his flesh. In his mind he pictured himself as the helpless antelope as the hungry predator, Christa, tore out his throat, ripping loose the flesh for food.

He tried desperately to push the female off him, clawing at her and pulling her hair, but his attempts were futile and he could hear Mika's unmistakable chuckles as the world surrounding him faded a second time.