Page 14 of Loved to Death

He nodded and then looked behind them at the fading town for a moment. “I’ve never traveled outside of Eugene.”

“Never?”

“Never.”

“You’ll get used to traveling. If you stay in one place for too long, you’ll be discovered. I never stay for more than a fortnight in one location. Often less.”

“That sounds lonely. What happened to your husband, Joseph?”

Her body stiffened in front of him. “He met his final death.”

“How?”

“Sunlight.”

He waited a moment but when she said nothing else, he prompted, “What happened?”

“For eleven years I lived under his rule. If I didn’t comply immediately with his every whim…well, if he was in a good mood, he’d beat me senseless, if he was in a bad mood, he’d starve me for days until the hallucinations came on. At first, I wanted desperately to be a good wife, even after learning I was undead, because he’d been kind to me for a solid week. I tried to follow his lead in all things. But his demands became more and more unattainable as time went on. He didn’t just want me to kill, he wanted me to torture our victims. Like a cat playing with a mouse. I tried to escape him once. We’d gone into a city and separated to find victims. Instead of finding someone to feed on, I ran. He found me the next day within minutes of sunset. I didn’t realize it at the time, but he could sense me the same way I can sense you, so he was able to follow me without seeing or hearing where I was. I never tried to run again.”

Thomas’ stomach twisted. “I’m sorry.” He automatically pulled his arms closer around her while holding the horse’s reins.

Polly pulled her right leg up and turned in the saddle until she was riding sideways. Then she lifted her left leg and turned again so that she was riding backward and facing Thomas. She had to basically sit in his lap by putting her legs on top of his thighs and pressing their groins together to avoid sitting on the saddle horn. Looking into his eyes, she said, “Almost a year later, when Joseph finally trusted me enough to let me feed alone again, I gave a particularly nasty-looking man a key to our current cellar and paid him handsomely to break in, shoot Joseph in the head, and then drag him out into the sunlight to burn his final death.”

She put a hand on the side of Thomas’ face and said firmly, “I belong tonoman. If you ever cross me, I’ll shove you out into the sunlight myself.”

He swallowed down the urge to follow her threat with one of his own and forced himself to nod.

A sly smile grew on her face. “Most people in your position would vow not to cross me.”

He chose his words carefully. “Your husband was cruel. I don’t blame you for having him killed. I vow to never be cruel to you.” He put a hand on the side of her face, matching her actions. “You deserve a man who will show you love and kindness.”

She glared at him. “I will not be controlled with kindness and sweet words any more than I’ll be controlled by pain and cruelty.”

“You and I share that sentiment. My father tried to control me my entire life. He never could. And no one ever will.”

She smiled coyly. “I do like a challenge.” She tilted her head up and placed her lips on his.

He wrapped one arm around her waist, pulled her close, leaned down, and tried to deepen the kiss with his tongue. Unlike any of his previous lovers, she didn’t open her mouth for him. Instead, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and used his body as leverage to pull herself up. When her head was slightly above his, she pressed her lips against his until he was forced to lean his head back slightly, and then she put her tongue in his mouth. He allowed her to control the kiss for a few seconds before his natural urge to lead took over. He used the arm around her waist to try pulling her down, and their tongues warred for dominance for a couple of moments.

She bit his tongue with her human teeth hard enough to hurt without breaking the skin.

He grunted and tried to end the kiss by turning his head to the side, but her hand tightened on his jaw to hold him in place. After kissing him for a couple more seconds, she finally took her mouth from his and stared deeply into his eyes. “When we kiss, I kiss you. You don’t kiss me.”

Scowling, he said, “I don’t have it in me to passively submit to anyone.”

“You don’t need to be passive. You’ll submit either way.”

The same fear that he’d felt the first night she’d attacked him prickled at the base of his skull. “I won’t,” he asserted defiantly.

Polly raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Oh, but you will. Joseph taught me many ways to break a person. I know what to do, and more importantly what not to do, to make you comply. Eventually.” She grinned before pressing her mouth to his once more while he struggled to turn his head.

***

Thomas woke with a gnawing pain in his guts and a shocking lack of dirt pressing down on him. It had only been two weeks and already he was used to being buried and naked when he woke. But last night, they’d found a deep cave to take refuge in, so he was fully clothed and unburdened by the pressure of dirt.

He put a hand on his stomach, closed his eyes to will the feeling away, and rolled onto his side. The hunger was getting worse every night and the thought of more cow blood made him ill. He whimpered softly when the pain spiked.

Polly’s hand gently caressed his face. “I know. It will get easier to bear with time.”

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