My stomach dropped as the vampire lifted his hand, a single finger brushing a strand of hair off the top of my breast. He licked his lips as he stared at my flesh. I was just a network of veins, and while this was what I signed up for, being pressed against a wall with this vampire at my front was not my idea of a fun time.
My voice was failing me. Every time I opened my mouth, only a series of clicks came out. The vampire pressed his thigh was between my legs, and the scent of him clogged my senses. Panic set in, and my heart pounded, my palms sweating as I raised them to half-heartedly push him away…
His body disappeared.
The heat of him was gone, his scent, everything and in his place was the massive hulking form of Dru.
The vampire who’d pressed me against the wall was on the ground, Dru’s boot on his throat. Dru hissed something at him, words I couldn’t hear because my heart was still pounding a drum beat in my skull. I placed my hand on my chest, confirming the organ was still there, that I was still alive and breathing, that my blood was still in my body.
The vampire was hauled to his feet by two other massive vampires and dragged away. Dru finally turned to me, his face like thunder. “Where the fuck did you go?”
“I didn’t go anywhere!” Now my voice worked.
“Then why weren’t you behind me?”
Oh so this was my fault? Rape culture was a thing in vampire world too? “I stopped to say hi to my friend. I didn’t expect a freaking vampire to come out of nowhere and press me up against the wall and threaten me with a good time, okay? Is this my fault?”
Dru growled—honest to God growled—and a tingle raced down my spine. I shouldn’t be turned on by that, and especially after what just happened. But I was. Goddamnit, I was. Did they pump aphrodisiacs through the air vents in this place or something?
Dru leaned in, placing a hand flat by my head, and bent down to speak inches from my face. He sighed heavily before he spoke. “This is not your fault. And I’m sorry. Volmer will be punished for what he did. He’s been…a little aggressive lately, and he went too far this time.”
All the fight went out of me, and I slumped against the wall. “Okay.”
Dru’s hand rose slowly, and then curled around my neck. He lifted my chin with his thumb, and the heat of his palm spread over my chest, tightening my nipples. I bit my lip to cut off a moan, and Dru’s eyes shifted. “Are you all right?”
I nodded, unsure I could speak. I was aroused; there was no other explanation. I rubbed my thighs together, trying to ease the ache and the pooling heat in my stomach.
His hand tightened, fingers digging into the back of my neck, and I arched into it, pressing my breasts against him, not knowing what was wrong with me, but unable to stop it.
He dropped his hand, lurching away from me, and running his hands into his hair and then down his face. I stumbled a bit at the loss of his body against mine. Had I done something wrong? Was there some sort of vampire make-out etiquette I didn’t know? Cassie seemed to be doing just fine.
“I thought—”
“Do you want me to leave you here or do you still want to go to a private room to wait?” His voice was strained, but I didn’t miss his meaning. Leave you here.
I blinked at him. “Would you stay with me, or—”
“No, I have to work. You pick. Stay here or private room?”
That stung a bit, but what did I expect? I hadn’t exactly been charming since I’d met Dru. If my options were to stay here alone or in a private room, I wanted the private room. When I told him, he nodded at me curtly.
This time he took no chances. He wrapped long fingers around my wrist and didn’t let go, even as I had to jog to keep up with him. My heels were killing me, and I focused all my energy on staying upright and not twisting an ankle.
We sped by the couches, and I didn’t look up. I kept my gaze on the way his T-shirt stretched across his muscular back and broad shoulders. He pushed open a door and then we were in a long hallway. I didn’t have time to look around because seconds later, we were through another door which opened up into some sort of lobby.
He didn’t drop my wrist, but I dragged my feet to slow us down, because I wanted to get a look at this. Also because my feet felt like they were going to fall off. The lobby was a semi-circle, and a large staircase was in front of us, leading up several stories. The floors gleamed and for a second, I imagined I was in some fancy hotel I’d only ever seen in the movies.
We walked around to the back of the staircase, where a female vampire sat behind a desk. She smiled at Dru, and her gaze drifted to me briefly before snapping back to him. “Hello, Dru. Would you like a room?”
“Yes,” he said shortly and snatched the key from her outstretched hand. “Block it out all night, please.”
She nodded with a polite smile, and then Dru was once again tugging on my wrist, pulling me toward one of several hallways lining the outside of the circle. Except this time, my feet were done. My right ankle said, fuck this shit, and collapsed like a drunk at an open bar wedding. I cried out as the pain shot through my leg. I would have hit the floor in a lump of tired of human, but I had a vampire companion who could move at the speed of lightning. He scooped me up into his arms, his dark eyes smoldering as they took in my body.
“What happened?” He demanded, his brows a straight line of anger. “Are you in pain? Was it from Volmer?”
I shook my head and pointed at my feet. “These heels…I’m not used to walking in them. My ankle rolled.”
He stared at my foot, then back at my face as he continued to walk down a hallway lined with doors. “Why would you wear shoes you can’t walk in?”
“They’re sexy,” I muttered.
He stopped at a door and unlocked it quickly, despite my weight in his arms. He didn’t set me down inside the door. Instead he kicked it shut with his foot, and then carried me to the bed, where he placed me down gently. He knelt at my feet and removed my heels, his warms hands caressing my ankles. “Which one?” he asked.
I pointed to my right.
He gripped it and rotated the joint, watching my face as he did. “That hurt?”
“A bit.” To be honest, his touch was making me forget about the pain. I hadn’t expected him to be gentle, but he held my foot like it was precious.
“Forgot how fragile humans can be,” he said, almost to himself.
“Hey,” I said. “We’re not that fragile.”
He raised an eyebrow, just one, and I got Jason Momoa vibes that made my blood heat. “We’re not,” I insisted. “It’s just those stupid shoes which I only wore because the dress code had made it clear we should come looking hot as fuck. And those shoes are definitely hot as fuck.”
He wasn’t looking at my shoes on the floor. He was looking at me. My face. “You don’t need the heels, Roxy.”
I swallowed, wanting to yell at him to let go of my foot, which barely hurt anymore. His touch was confusing me, arousing me. He lifted his hand and tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear. “You’ll have your pick when it’s time to head to the Feeding Room. I’m sure they’ll be plenty lined up, eager to get a taste of you.”
Don’t you want a taste of me? That was the first thought that flashed through my head. I bit my lip to prevent the words from flying out of my mouth, and his gaze immediately dropped. My pulse raced and I gripped the sheets of the bed, wondering why my body was lighting up, why I couldn’t stop staring at his lips and wishing his hands would travel up my calf higher and higher…
He stood up abruptly, dropping my leg like it was on fire. I stared at his back as he faced the door. “Dru?”
“I need to go,” he said. He didn’t even glance over his shoulder at me. “You’ll be fine here, I’ll have someone come get you when it’s time.”
No, he couldn’t leave. I wasn’t sure why yet, but I was in a panic. “Dru—”
“Bye, Roxy.” He turned the doorknob and opened the door.
“Dru!” I said, standing up q
uickly, which was a bad idea. As soon as I put weight on my ankle, pain shot up my leg. “Shit, fuck, ouch.”
The door slammed shut and Dru was back in my face, placing me back on the bed, his hands once again massaging my ankle. “Damnit, Roxy.” He sat down beside me on the bed, intent on his task.
I didn’t care about my ankle. “Why are you so eager to leave?” I asked. “Can’t you stay?”
He wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I can’t. I have work to do…and I can’t.”
Fine, he was making me come right out and say it. “Why won’t you feed from me?”
His hands paused on my ankle, and he lifted his head slowly. “Did someone explain to you what it’s like when a vampire feeds from you?”
Zeb had told us when we were walking in, but I might have zoned out a couple of times. “A little bit.”
He sighed heavily. “First of all, we need to feed right from the vein every few days. The rest of the time, we drink stored blood. Our saliva is an aphrodisiac. You’ll want to fuck. Some humans are used to it, and it doesn’t affect them much anymore, and that’s who I usually feed from. But this is your first time, and…”
I still didn’t understand. “So what, you don’t want to have sex with me so you won’t feed from me?”
He met my gaze squarely. “I don’t fuck humans.”
Oh. Oh. Should I be offended? “Do you think we’re dirty or—?”
He shook his head. “No, I just don’t do it.”
I was nosy as fuck. “Why?”
He blinked at me. “You ask a lot of questions, don’t you?”
“Yeah, it’s my flaw, sue me. So…why?”
This time his hand settled on my thigh, and the heat from his palm seeped through the denim. He rubbed his forehead with his other hand. “If I tell you, will you let me leave and quit trying to walk on this ankle?”
I pursed my lips together and nodded.
“About ten years ago, I fed from a human the first time she ever came to Bite. Blood virgins are…a bit of a novelty here. At the time, I was cocky and everything was a competition. So I fed from her and fucked her, and then went back to high-five my friends.”
“But it didn’t end there. She came back the next week. And the next. She became obsessed with me. With our culture.”
“Did she want to be with you? Are human-vampire relationships allowed?”
“It’s…allowed in special cases. Anything that puts us at risk for detection must be approved by our clan’s Council, like us traveling street-side frequently or allowing a human down here for anything other than blood transfer. But I don’t think she wanted anything from me other than to be turned to a vampire.”
“Is that possible?” I asked.
“We don’t just turn humans,” he said. “That has to be approved by our Council too. And it’s a process. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. Every time I saw her, she seemed more out of her mind than before.
“I…didn’t know what to do. I finally told her she couldn’t come back, that she had to forget about us. She didn’t like that, and somehow found out information about the other clan in the area. Unlike us, that clan is more than happy to use humans as blood slaves. They didn’t turn her. They sucked her dry. Killed her.”
“Jesus, Dru,” I breathed out. “That’s awful. I’m so sorry. For her and you.”
“I feel responsible, and although it’s never happened again with humans we invite, I can’t bring myself to get too close to humans. So I don’t.” The sadness in his eyes made my heart ache. “I won’t. Even if you tempt me like I’ve never felt before.”
My breath caught in my throat. “But surely you’ve been tempted by a human before. In the last ten years.”
He shook his head. “I haven’t. Even with her all those years ago, it was about the competition.”
“So…” Heat rose up my neck. “What do you mean I tempt you?”
His hand left my thigh and he rubbed his chest. “Around you, I feel…” He let his voice drop, and didn’t finish.
“What? You feel what?”
“I don’t know the word, okay?” His frustration was visible in the lines around his mouth, the piercing way his dark eyes studied my face. “I don’t know the word for this burning in my chest, this pull toward you and this need to be in your presence. I don’t know what it is, just that the feeling terrifies me as much as I crave it.”
I stared at him, unsure what to say, because I was fitting his words together in my head like a puzzle. I still didn’t have the larger picture when he stood up. “That’s why I have to go,” he said.
“Dru,” I pleaded.
“You promised,” he said softly. “I told you, and now you let me leave.”
I stared at him helplessly. How had I only met this vampire a mere ten minutes ago and now I was devastated to watch him walk out that door. But he was right. I’d promised. And who was I to make him go against his personal convictions? So I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. “Okay,” I said hoarsely. “Will I—will I see you again?”
He reached down, his large hand resting on my cheek and his thumb caressing my lip. “No.”
I appreciated his honesty. I gripped his wrist and pressed a kiss to his thumb. “Okay. I…thank you. For everything. Out there. This room. Your kindness. And your heart.” His lips parted, and the tips of his fangs gleamed. He’s a vampire, Roxy. What the fuck is wrong with you?
“Bye, my not-fragile Roxy.”
I laughed, and he dropped his hand. In seconds he was out the door, and he shut it behind him with a soft click.
He hadn’t looked back.
There was nothing to do. I had my phone, and because there was no Wi-Fi, I played some crappy game apps that my brother had told me to download. I tested my ankle and although it was a bit swollen, the pain wasn’t as bad. I couldn’t put my heels back on, but I could put enough weight on it to walk with only a slight limp.
Also I was a little scared. Would I want to fuck a vampire once they fed from me? The thought of taking my pants off for anyone right now was not an arousing thought. Except if it was Dru.
No, stop it. I wouldn’t see him again. So I waited in that room for what felt like hours, hoping that Cassie was all right, that Dru had forgotten about me, and that I wasn’t paired up with some lame-ass vampire.
I wandered around the room. It was basically like a hotel. There was a small bathroom with a shower and a single bed. Just when I was contemplating taking a nap, there was a knock at the door. I froze. “Uh, come in.”
The door opened, and I breathed out a sigh of relief when the woman from the front desk smiled politely at me. She wore her hair in tight bun, and her dress shirt stretched across her ample chest. She was doing just fine in her sky-high heels. I’d abandoned mine in the corner.
“Are you ready to head to the Feeding Room, Roxy? Dru asked me to escort you.”
Oh, escort. Fancy. Except I stood there in my bare feet. My makeup was not looking so fresh anymore, and my finger-combed hair was still full of knots. I was…not my best. I cleared my throat. “Yeah, I’m ready.”
She smiled at me again, and then gestured for me to follow her.
We walked down the hallway, out into the lobby, then through a doorway framed in red. This hall wasn’t lined with doors. There was just one at the end, and that, I suspected, was the Feeding Room. She pointed to it. “You’ll walk right through there, and toward the back, you’ll see a seating area for the humans. You’ll be chosen from there.”
Chosen. She made it sound kinda nice, but at this point, I just wanted to give up my blood so I could get the money and run. I nodded at her, and walked through the doorway.
I’d already passed through orgy central back in the club, but nothing prepared me for this. Sex acts, sex acts everywhere. Threesomes, foursomes. Limbs and blood and orgasms. For a moment I stood frozen at the front of the large room as I watched a woman getting the ride of her life while straddling a vampire.
Blood dri
pped from two small holes in her neck, slipping down between her breasts, where the vampire was smearing it on her nipples and sucking it off.
Hot damn.
The woman looked over at me, and smiled.
Okay, that was my cue to get to my area. I padded barefoot to the human seating, glancing around for Cassie, who I spotted in the corner pressed up against a wall with a vampire between her legs. Her eyes were closed, mouth open, and she looked blissed out. At least one of us was happy.
In the human seating, a female vampire who seemed to be the “human corraller” told me to sit anywhere. I took a chair near the front. As much as I wanted to hide, I needed to get picked. A line of vampires stood behind a rope, and I watched as one came to the front and scanned all of us. He chose a male human toward the back. The human walked away with the vampire, then the next blood-sucker in line stepped up. It went that way for a while, and I was picking at the chipped polish on my nails when I heard a deep voice say, “Her.”
I glanced up. A male vampire stood at the front, and his gaze was on me. I looked behind me, wondering if he meant someone else. I pointed to myself and mouthed the word, “Me?”
He looked confused, and said something to the corraller. She looked at me with an exasperated expression. “You! Let’s go.”
Oh shit, okay. This was it. My time to shine. “Do your thing, blood,” I muttered to myself. “Taste great. Don’t make me horny.”
The male vampire looked young, younger than Dru, but I didn’t know much about how vampires aged, so he could have been four hundred years old for all I knew.
“I’m Tack,” he said. “Your name?”
“Roxy.” I felt so stupid, walking beside him in my bare feet. He was wearing a T-shirt and jeans, but he looked like a million bucks with his hair nicely styled. He smelled good too.
I still didn’t want to fuck him.
“Look,” I said. “Do we have to, uh…” I made a face, hoping he got my drift and that I wouldn’t have to say the words.
1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Twelve Page 49