Love Bites

by Aleera Anaya Ceres

  “Oh God,” she cried out. His fingers stroked her, toyed with her, riding her to the point of dizziness. Her head swirled. Stars danced behind her eyelids. Was it possible to overdose from pleasure? That’s how she felt. She was sitting at the edge of her seat, anxious for what would happen next in this ride. And she was dying a slow death.

  Her fingers found his soft mess of brown hair, gripping it like a lifeline. Her fingernails scraped his scalp as she pulled his head down to her neck where he laid kisses against her, making her shiver with pure delight.

  It felt so good to be touched like that, to feel wanted, to be given something precious that made her feel every bit the woman she was. Never before had a man given her what Ignacio gave, so she took all that she could in the moment, clinging on to it, afraid that it might end, that she might wake up and find herself in that one nightmare she seemed so afraid of.

  It had been about a person, she was sure, a man, but his name slipped her mind and so did the situation because Ignacio blew his hot breath into her ear, whispering. It took her a moment to catch on to the words.

  “Can I take?”

  Take? she wondered. Take what?

  “Will you let me take you over the edge?” He nipped her earlobe, and she moaned.

  “Yes,” she gasped. “Do it.”

  She prepared herself for a sensation to follow, for him to put his hands all over her. She waited for that promise to be taken over…under…sideways—hell, she didn’t care, as long as Ignacio was the one to take her there.

  She felt him nip her neck, tickling her. She waited, waited, and then she felt it. A piercing pain, like little knives cutting through her skin, making her dizzy, making her vision go dark for a second. Emotions wafted over her in a rush, emotions that weren’t hers and she didn’t understand. Among them, though, was one that she recognized quite well. She felt the lust, the passion running deep into her gut, and she held on to Ignacio, until she felt thick liquid run down her neck to the front of her shirt.

  She jerked away from him, her gaze darting down. The liquid was red, already beginning to stain the top of her shirt. Then she looked up at him and gasped. Ignacio’s golden eyes had changed and were now bright red, dangerous, menacing. But his mouth, oh, God, his mouth was something else entirely. It was caked in blood, and he had two pointy fangs, thin and shining.

  The spot on her neck stung, and she realized what Ignacio was.

  Vampire.

  She opened her mouth and screamed.

  Katheryn bolted awake, heart pumping, confused. Sunlight peeked through the hotel window and onto her face, making her squint. It hardly bothered her, though. She was too focused on the crazy dream she’d just had.

  Why had she dreamt Ignacio up as a vampire? Of course, she was well aware vampires existed, and werewolves and demons. Basically, the Supernatural race had come out of hiding and lived amongst humans. Still, she could pass them in the street and be unaware of what they truly were. Supernaturals had the outward appearance of humans — that much she knew. Other than that, she was pretty clueless about their race, even if she had studied their cellular structure at one point in her career. It wasn’t as if she were racist or anything. She just didn’t really have Supernatural friends.

  So why Ignacio? She pulled out her memories of him from the night before and found nothing strange or abnormal about him. He seemed human enough, with eyes that were just a little too bright, but not a vampire red. He was simply a gorgeous, romantic foreigner, she thought.

  With a sigh and a shake of her head, Katheryn jumped out of bed and went over to the window, pulling back the curtains. Morning light seeped through, illuminating the beautiful hotel room. The sheets on the bed were in a jumbled heap, probably as a result of that heated, intense dream she’d had.

  And boy, what a dream it had been! If dream-Ignacio had brought her that much pleasure, she wondered if the real one could—

  She halted her thoughts and willed her body to calm down. She headed into the bathroom to wash away those desires. She had just met the man, for Christ’s sake, and she was already imagining what it would be like to get him into bed!

  I blame that dream, Katheryn thought a little crankily as she turned on the faucet of the walk-in shower. Spray fell from the ceiling and onto the marble floor tiles immediately, sending steam clouding the room. She stood under the water, the heat beginning to relax her muscles. If it hadn’t been for that blasted dream I probably wouldn’t be thinking this way.

  If it hadn’t been for the dream, Katheryn probably would have kept Ignacio in her mind as a future good memory. She’d only remember him simply as a hot foreigner escorting her to her hotel because she’d been lost and who had given her his number.

  He’d probably only gave her his number because he wanted to get laid. But Katheryn wasn’t that type of woman. She wasn’t the type to let go of her inhibitions, to have wild crazy sex just because. Hell, she’d only ever had two lovers before, and one of them turned out to be a cheating bastard.

  So, yeah, it wasn’t as if there could be anything between Katheryn and Ignacio, save for a fiery, sexy, vampire dream.

  “I mean, I just lost my fiancé because he was out having kinky sex with some bimbo,” Katheryn said aloud to herself. She wasn’t going to run to the first hot guy she met and have sex with him to hypothetically throw it in Hunter’s face. She was better than that, wasn’t she? Could she even bring herself to have sex with a stranger? If she had sex with Ignacio, what would that make her?

  “But I have a right to have fun, don’t I?” she cried out as she reached for the bar of hotel soap and lathered her skin with it. “I have the divine right to go crazy and do whatever the hell I please, don’t I? I have the right to have sex and fall in love and—” She halted her thoughts again.

  Love? Where had she gotten that idea? She wasn’t in Spain to fall in love. She was simply there to let loose and be free. Love was a hole she didn’t feel like digging anymore. Not when betrayal had bitten her like a deadly viper, leaving its poison implanted in her heart, spreading outward, making her bitter and mean.

  A million doubts floated through her mind as she rinsed her body, turned off the faucets, and stepped out of the shower into the chilly bathroom to reach for a towel. The thought of sleeping with a stranger was a concept as foreign to her as this country. She had never used someone in her life like that, and she didn’t plan on it; just because she was heartbroken didn’t mean she should just sleep with someone like a metaphorical slap to Hunter’s face.

  Still, that didn’t mean she couldn’t kiss Ignacio and see him again…if she could only woman up and call his number.

  Heaving a sigh, Katheryn dried off and went to dig for clothes. She hadn’t packed much, only a few pairs of jeans and whatever she could find. After a few minutes of contemplation, Katheryn pulled on a pair of jeans and a flowing, blue shirt. She’d always thought blue to be her best color. It highlighted the light tone of her skin and made her eyes seem deeper and darker than they actually were. Plus, being a redhead, she couldn’t wear a lot of things that didn’t clash with her hair.

  Katheryn stood in front of the mirror and ran her brush through her hair, untangling the knots that had formed in her sleep. Just as she started cursing the gods of split ends, a vibrating noise caught her attention. She turned to her cell phone, charging on the little table next to the bed. It vibrated again, indicating a missed call.

  She ignored it and turned back to her reflection. For the first time in what seemed like forever, she stared at herself. Her face wasn’t pale, but it lacked color, save for the dozens of bright freckles scattered across her skin, and her eyes were blue, a simple dark blue that had little appeal to them.

  Am I not pretty enough? Not good enough to stay faithful to? What did I do wrong? Was it something I said that drove you to do it? How long did it last? Was it with only one woman? Two? Three? More? How many did you have? Why did you do this to me? Why? Why? Why?

  Tears be
gan to prick her eyes, she wiped them away with frustration. She wouldn’t let herself cry over him. She refused. There was no use crying, because crying wouldn’t solve a damn thing.

  She pulled the brush through her hair, getting out the rest of the knots then tossed the brush to the floor. If only she could control the sickness in her gut. She wished she could simply wash away the feeling of anger that coiled around her. But she had to know. She wanted to know. Without thinking twice about it, she dove for her phone and turned it on. Quickly, she dialed the number she was so familiar with and pressed it to her ear as it rang, waiting for him to pick up.

  “Hello, Katheryn?” Hunter’s clipped, familiar tone came on the other line. The sound of it angered her, yet she suddenly couldn’t bring herself to say anything.

  She’d wanted to ask him why, but that was as good as tearing her heart out and tossing it at his feet. The truth was, she had been insecure in herself for the longest time because of him, because she’d let him turn her into something she was not.

  There was nothing left to say. And wanting to know the answers to all her doubts would only bring torture to her heart.

  “Katheryn, are you there?” he asked urgently, almost annoyed. “Listen, Katheryn Meyers.” He used her full name, the way he always did when he was angry at her, as if he were her mother. What right did he have to be angry? “I hope you realize your absence has not only worried me but also your mother. Let’s just set up a meeting and talk about what happened, work out our problems like adults so we can move forward in our relationship. This tantrum of yours, not calling, not messaging, is quite irritating, and it has to stop. Now.”

  He spoke in that superior tone, the way he always did. And she wondered why it bothered her more now than it ever had before. Why was she noticing his attitude now, when before she’d simply shrugged it off and accepted it? Because I’m an idiot, that’s why. Agitated, she hung up and threw the phone to the floor.

  I shouldn’t have called. Now, her heart felt heavy, as if it were an anchor ready to fall through her body at any given moment. Her throat was tight with emotion, and her eyes stung. But she couldn’t cry. She wouldn’t…

  Instead, she stood up and looked at herself in the mirror again. Her eyes were wide and red-rimmed. Feeling ashamed, she picked up the brush and finished taming her hair, focusing on her movements. It wasn’t until she felt the droplets trickle down her chin that she realized she was crying.

  With one final tug of frustration, she set down the brush, grabbed her purse, and begrudgingly threw her phone into it before walking out the door.

  7

  Ignacio felt Katheryn’s distress in his sleep, and, hard as he tried to reach her mind, to whisper to her and tell her that it was all right, that everything would be all right, he couldn’t. He wondered why that was. Why was it that one moment they were able to share a dream together, and the next, when she desperately needed him, he couldn’t get to her? What was he to do? He was in his death sleep, and she was awake. He couldn’t possibly wake up or even go out in the sunlight or else he’d burn to a crisp and die.

  He didn’t know what it was that had caused her sudden torment or how it was possible he could even feel it. And it mattered little. All that mattered was that she was in trouble, she needed him, and he wasn’t there for her. He could have screamed, and were he any other type of Supernatural, he would have burst awake and found her, if only he could hold her in his arms to comfort her.

  But he wasn’t just any other Supernatural. He was a vampire. And he couldn’t wake up and rush to her. He could only wait hours upon hours in torment, feeling her anguish ripple through his body. He fought hard to wake up, to battle his own body, but it was too difficult—it was impossible.

  So he waited until night descended, until his body could finally respond. As soon as he was conscious, he jumped from his bed and hastily dressed in whatever he could find on his bedroom floor. He had to hurry, he had to find Katheryn.

  He rushed out of his house without a word of goodbye to his mother and ran to Katheryn’s hotel but didn’t sense her there. Where could she be? Sudden worry gripped him, took the breath from his lungs. Hopefully, nothing had happened to her. Hopefully, no one had tried mugging her or worse.

  He didn’t even want to think about it. Ignacio waited and listened to his instinct, to the chord being struck over and over again inside his soul. And he felt it. The thing others had described and what he’d only ever dreamt of feeling. A pull, a tug on his very self. Like an internal compass that would lead him to the missing part of himself. So he listened and ran, and he didn’t stop until he found her.

  She sat outside a nearby diner at a table for two, her posture rigid and stiff. She looked down at her hands. At first, the sight of her relaxed him, made him happy she wasn’t in any physical danger. But it all dissipated when he saw her beautiful night sky eyes drip sadness. He saw how she tried to hold it in, tried not to show her true feelings. He took a long, deep breath before he walked over to her. He had to see if she was okay.

  Katheryn didn’t notice him. It wasn’t until he sat across from her and cleared his throat that she looked up with surprise. Almost immediately, she ducked her head and rubbed her eyes, furiously wiping away the tears.

  Rage and worry seethed through him in equal measure. When he found out who had caused her distress, he would wring their neck.

  The urge to reach across the table and swipe away her tears gripped him like a vice, but he didn’t think she would have appreciated it, considering she was trying to wipe away the evidence of her sadness.

  Finally, she looked up at him and gave him an obviously forced smile.

  “Hey,” she said.

  He didn’t return the smile. Instead, he looked at her with concern. “Ms. Meyers,” he whispered. “Are you well?”

  Taking her bottom lip between her teeth, her eyes darted down for a moment. When she answered, it was in a less than convincing whisper, “I’m fine.” Then, she cleared her throat and looked back at him more determinedly. “It’s nothing.”

  But Ignacio wasn’t assured at all. “If it were nothing you wouldn’t be crying, Ms. Meyers.”

  She stilled a moment then sighed. “I know,” she admitted. “But I don’t want to talk about it, to be honest.”

  He didn’t press the issue. If she wanted to talk about it, she would when she was ready. Even though it worried him, he let it go. “As you wish, Ms. Meyers.”

  Katheryn made a face at him. “Don’t call me Ms. Meyers,” she said. “It sounds so formal. Call me Katheryn; I don’t mind.”

  He smiled. “Katheryn.”

  Her name tasted sweet as it escaped his lips. It wasn’t the first time he’d said it, yet it still rang like music to his ears. It was the enchanting melody of his grand piano notes strewn together. And he had never known a more precious sound.

  “Then you may call me Ignacio, without the formalities.”

  “I was planning on it.” She smirked, all traces of sadness seeming to disappear in an instant. It eased the ache in his soul.

  “Anyway, what are you doing here? Are you following me or something?” She raised accusing eyebrows at him.

  While he could feel the banter beneath the words, Ignacio still panicked. He hadn’t been following her around, but he had been looking for her. He had been so distressed, feeling her emotions as if it were his own that he hadn’t really thought about how this situation would look. Now, she’d think he was a stalker when he wasn’t. Was he? And how was he supposed to answer her? With honesty? Yeah, I had a dream about you then felt your distress, and I had to find you! Somehow, he thought that wouldn’t go down too well.

  She wasn’t a vampire and he didn’t think she would understand the importance of what she was, what she would be to him.

  “I live around here.” It wasn’t the whole truth, but it really wasn’t a lie either. “I just came out for a stroll when I saw you.” Okay, that part was a lie, but he didn’t want to scare
her away with the truth.

  She raised her eyebrows at him. “Really?” There was a bit of trepidation in her tone.

  He couldn't stand the suspicion in her gaze. It prompted him to add, “Honestly. I just woke up and thought I’d—”

  “You just woke up?” she interrupted. “What are you, a vampire?”

  The tone of accusation in her voice had his mind instantly rewinding back to his dream. The dream where she was in his arms, engulfed in flames of passion. They were kissing and touching and practically devouring each other. Ignacio had wanted to devour Katheryn, when he had asked her to bare her neck for him, and she had, he couldn’t help himself. He had to have a nibble, had to have a taste of her blood. But when she’d realized what he was doing, she had screamed. Just like that, she’d been gone, disappearing from his dream like smoke out a window.

  He stared at her now, at her horrified expression and heard the accusing tone in her voice. He wondered, briefly, if she’d had the same dream as he’d had. If she had, what did that mean? Of course, it was a completely rhetorical question. Every vampire knew what that meant. They knew what the signs were, some even waited impatiently for them, while others went around searching. Ignacio hadn’t given it a thought until now, hadn’t paused for a moment to think about what all of those signs could mean.

  The static, the fire, the dreams, her emotions flowing through his own body as if they were his own...the strange pull he felt toward her, as if a chord in his heart was being struck repeatedly, only grew stronger in her presence. He wanted to fight it. He had tried to fight it the first moment he saw her. He had wanted to barely spare her a glance, to take in her beauty for a mere moment, but he’d found his legs moving toward her, felt as if she were a magnet, and he was beyond attracted to her.

  And he could see her now. He could see the fear in her eyes as she uttered the words vampire, could feel her emotions, her astonishment. Deep beneath that, there it was: a dream identical to his. He sensed it there, read it on her mind.