Excerpt to Bloodbreeders, Living in Darkness

BLOODBREEDERS Living in Darkness by: Robin Renee Ray

Excerpt:

Annabel picked up one of the devices, smiled like a mother would to an infant she was trying to feed, and said jovially, "Open wide." Needless to say, I kept my mouth clamped shut. She nodded to Enrique, who came over and pulled down on my bottom jaw. As soon as my mouth was opened wide enough, she shoved the device she held into my mouth. It was a round, metal contraption with a hole in the center, and it had little ‘legs’ that hooked onto the sides of my mouth, keeping it pried wide open. Almost too large to fit, the device caused my lips to feel as if they were being split wider than they should be. She shoved it so far into my mouth that I felt—and heard—as it scraped my teeth, gagging me.

"Do you have the blood ready?" Annabel asked no one in particular.

One of the men brought over a pitcher and sat it on the table. She looked down at me slowly, shaking her head with that stupid half–cocked smile, and said, "You should never disobey Mistress Yvette. She was very kind to offer you food from her own private stock." I wanted to argue, but there was no way I could speak with the device in my mouth. Annabel turned back to the table and picked up the plastic tube.

"If you swallow, the tube will go down much smoother," she said, inserting it through the hole in the tool that she had placed in my mouth.

She pushed the tube into my mouth, past my tongue, into my throat. That’s when I found out what type of pain the tube could cause. I gagged repeatedly as she forced the tube further and further down my esophagus, until it would go no further. Even when the tube was in place, I continued to gag, convulsing and completely unable to take a full breath. Annabel secured a funnel to the small piece of tube that was still exposed, and looked down into my watering eyes.

"This is what happens when you refuse to feed," she told me, picking up the pitcher. "You don’t want to be weak for your date tomorrow night, now do you?"

I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about, and I really didn’t care. All my concentration was trying to steal small puffs of air through my nose in–between the continual heaves. She began to pour blood from the pitcher into the funnel, and I could see the clear tube turn crimson as it filled. She kept pouring until the jug was empty, and then proceeded to pull the tube out. As it came up, the repetitive movement of my diaphragm became more violent.

"Uh-uh," she said, as if scolding a child. "Throw it up, and I do it again, as many times as it takes. We have all night."

She removed the metal piece from my mouth as she spoke. I squeezed my lips together, doing my best to swallow, but it did absolutely no good. My body gave way to one final heave and the blood came gushing from its portal, showering back down onto my face."Now that is a shame," she said, satisfaction shrouding her mock disappointment. "It looks like we’ll have to start all over."

I could see Enrique out of the corner of my tear filled eye, smiling like the Cheshire cat.My throat was in agony, raw all the way down, and Annabel was placing the round thing back in my mouth. This time I tried to struggle, but my head, like this rest of my body fought against its own will. Tears of anguish filled both my eyes and I couldn’t stop them from streaming down my face.

"Oh, don’t cry," Annabel smiled. "If you weren’t busy tomorrow night, I would be doing so much more."

The tube was worse going down the second time than it had been the first. My throat was so raw that it felt as if the tube was ripping off pieces as it went along. Another jug of blood was brought out, and Annabel refilled my stomach."Best hold this down," she said, when she was done. "Like I said before, it only gets worse." Just like before, my body reacted and I gagged as the tube was removed, but I closed my eyes, breathing in as much and as deep as I could, and luckily nothing came up. She removed the piece from my mouth a second time, and I prayed that there wouldn’t be a third. I gagged one last time and as I did blood filled my mouth. I grit my teeth and swallowed it back down without a single drop leaving my lips, leaving Annabel looking slightly disappointed.