Vail was about to bury his fangs in Victoria’s neck when her whispery voice caught his attention. He wavered, the slight tremble in her timbre pulling him from his frenzy. She was scared, and rightfully so. He knew it wasn’t a pleasant thing for any human to be subdued and bitten by one of his kind. Though he had never experienced it for himself, he was sure some of his past victims wouldn’t have screamed and fought back if the feeding process didn’t hurt them. However, he also knew that there were ways by which he could make the ordeal less traumatizing for the Lady pinned beneath him now.

Calmer now—the urgency he’d felt before had since fled now that his victim was being cooperative—Vail’s eyes flicked up to Lady Victoria’s face. She was close enough to him that he could see the faint quiver in her red lips. “Just relax,” he murmured, turning back to her exposed neck. It was the only advice he knew to give, since the bite would be less painful if she could make her tense muscles unwind. Apart from that, all control over the experience fell upon his shoulders.

Instead of sinking his teeth into her right away as he had been intending to before, he leaned down and trailed his tongue lightly over her neck. The saliva he produced when hunting had a numbing quality to it that, while it wouldn’t take away most of the sting of his fangs below the surface, would cause a tingling sensation to spread over the area he planned to bite. The gesture wasn’t only for her sake though. As he primed her skin, he also took the time to feel for where her neck felt hottest, as that was where he was going to feed.

After a moment, Vail came to a stop just above Victoria’s collarbone. His heart raced excitedly. He was finally going to get a taste of the blood that had been tempting him for three days, and better yet, he was going to use it to satisfy his craving. A feral look returned to his eyes as he curled back his upper lip, baring the full length of his fangs just before he drove them into her tender flesh.

The control he’d regained was lost again as the taste and smell of the Lady’s unique essence flooded his senses. His fingers curled tighter around her wrists, and his breathing quickened with frenetic energy. Withdrawing his teeth from her neck, he lapped at the blood that flowed freely from the punctures he’d inflicted in her fair skin. It was like nothing he’d ever tasted before, filling him with vitality that he’d only felt once in the past when he’d accidentally drained a victim to death in an uncontrolled frenzy. The potency of it was simultaneously overwhelming and exhilarating to him. He wanted more.

Vail continued to feed on Lady Victoria for a while longer, coaxing small trickles of blood from the bite until he’d had his fill. When his craving had been sated, he pulled back from her, letting go of her wrists to free her as he sat up on his heels at her side. Scarlet spatters painted the skin around his mouth and chin, giving him a nearly demonic appearance in the darkness of the alleyway. However, unlike a demon, he’d never felt so [i]alive[/i]. He probably wouldn’t need to feed again for weeks, not with this woman’s rich blood in his system.

Having finished what he came for, Lord Hygrace moved to get up from the ground, intending to leave his victim behind as he headed back to his family’s manor for the night.