by Eve Newton
"Please let Nico and his team do their job, Aefre. I will feel better if I know you are being taken care of," he responds. “I understand your need to be sure of your course of action, but don’t let your merciful side win out.”
"Fine," I give in. I am beyond starving now and I’m getting sleepy. "I need to feed. Now," I say to him.
He holds out his wrist to me as Nico looks away. Curious. It's not like he hasn't seen it before. But I shake my head. "I need Simone."
"Who is Simone?" Sebastian's ears prick up.
"My Feeder. I have missed her for two days now," I grump. "Scott said she was coming after work, but she should have been here by now." I look at CK imploringly and he looks back at me, worried. He doesn't know I need human blood every day as he hasn't been around, but he realizes quickly that I need it and I need it now.
"Nico, can you arrange to have someone brought up sooner rather than later?" He holds out his wrist to me again as Nico pulls out his phone. "Drink in the meantime."
Fangs already dropping, I pull him to me and take a good, long drink from him. Delicious, but I need more. My eyes go to Sebastian, who is watching us with hooded eyes. They pop open wide at the hunger he must see in mine and says, "By all means, however, I do have a policy of no feeding before sex."
My bloodlust is boiling over right now and it's all I want. I can think of nothing else and I take a step towards him much to his delight and CK's fury.
"Aefre," he barks at me, hand on my arm.
I try to shake him off, but he grips even tighter as the door opens.
"Oh, come on, Constantine. If she wants it, let her have it," Sebastian says slyly.
Constantine hisses quietly back at him, "Watch your words. I am not letting her near you on the pretense of a ‘fuck and feed’.”
Even in my frenzied state, I find that an odd choice of words but forget about it, as I round on the human that Nico has let in the door. He looks slightly terrified as he sees me, fangs already down, lips stained with my sire's blood. He tries to back away, but Nico has him in his strong grip and pulls him forward, closing the door behind him.
"Make it quick," he says to me as he forces the man to sit and holds him in place to stop him from running as I advance on him. Constantine moves forward with me with a hand on the back of my head. As I crawl onto the Feeder’s lap, CK’s hand tightens in my hair. He knows he is going to have to pull me back before I kill this man. I sink my fangs into his delicious neck and suckle, slowly and deeply for maximum benefit. I groan as the blood seeps down my throat and it eases the hunger, eases the bloodlust. I feel stronger already and less tired. It's not enough though. When Constantine pulls back on my hair, I growl in protest as I release my fangs. "More," I say as he lifts me off the petrified human.
"Get yourself under control, my sweet. You can do this," he whispers to me, stroking my hair and down my back. I feel my fangs retract and I relax against him, completely under his spell. How does he do that? I am pretty sure that I don't have this effect on Devon or Cole. I blink as my thoughts become clear again and I step back from him.
"Are you back?" he asks, peering at me.
I nod. "Yes. Thank you. Christ, I am going to have to make feeding regularly a priority. You are too much of a distraction, my love." I smile at him, but he looks worried.
"Nico, make sure he is compensated well," he says, meaning pay him to keep his trap shut. "And make sure he gets back to his apartment without issue," he adds, meaning escort him downstairs and threaten him so he doesn't blab anyway.
As they leave, Simone rushes in, apologizing profusely for being late. Damn subway. Her timing couldn't be better though as I am pretty sure I would have scared her off had she arrived here before. Now, I can just top up my feed at the normal amount and she will be none the wiser about what a liability I am to be around. We disappear for a bit of privacy, more for her benefit than mine. I hear CK mutter to Sebastian to keep his own trap shut about what he saw.
CHAPTER NINETY-SIX
A fter Simone leaves, I feel completely myself again but feel I have some apologizing to do.
"Sorry, Nico. That was unpleasant and something that you shouldn't have had to be a part of," I mumble.
He couldn't look more surprised if I’d told him I wanted to turn him and run away with him.
He clears his throat. "No problem."
I nod my thanks and turn to Sebastian with a contrite look. He leers at me. "No need to apologize to me. I was quite happy for a fuck and feed. Too bad our sire doesn't like to share," he says in genuine disappointment.
I giggle at him but remember CK’s words of a ‘pretense’. Is he all bluster, I wonder? He wouldn’t be the first one to be all talk, but I get the impression that it is something else entirely.
"Well, I’m sorry all the same," I say, and he nods at me.
Turning finally to Constantine, I say, "Sorry, my love. You must think you are dealing with a newbie. I should have mentioned this but as always, when I am around you, there is only you." I am fully aware of the intimacy of my words.
"Oh, Aefre. Just take better care of yourself," he says gruffly, but I can see he is pleased at my admission. "Now that I am aware of your…need, I will ensure that you are taken care of."
I beam at him, for once allowing him his words without an argument about how I can take care of myself. He leans down to kiss me with his made-for-me-smile as he also realizes this.
"Now," he says, touching his finger to my lips, "you asked me earlier to take you out on a date, so tonight I am going to do so."
"Where are we going?" I ask eagerly.
"That is a surprise. We don't need to leave for another couple of hours so go and get ready, the old-fashioned way, if you please."
"But how will I know what to wear if you won't tell me where we are going?"
"I have taken the liberty of picking your dress out for you."
"Oh, really?" I raise an eyebrow at him.
"Well, you did say this morning that when you came back here, I could dress you up however I like."
"That I did," I say, tilting my head up for a kiss and he obliges me.
"Now go." He gives me a slight tap on my rear.
I giggle. "Yes, sir," I murmur. "Join me?"
"I have business to attend to. I will see you later."
Disappearing into his bedroom with a slight sulk at his refusal of me, I make my way to the bathroom. I could really do with a long bath after the day's events. I am mortified with myself over how much I lost control before. Vulnerabilities, indeed.
Discarding my clothes, I step into the bath and sigh as the water and bubbles lap over me. Closing my eyes, I think back over the last couple of days. I simply cannot fathom CK's change in attitude. Does he really understand my choices or is he just pretending because it gets him back what he wants? It's all very sudden and, not one to question things – well, actually, I am one to question things – I have to wonder what his motives are. I feel the tingle go up the back of my neck and I say, "Glad you changed your mind."
"Sorry, cherie. But it’s only me," Sebastian says with a slight chuckle.
I open my eyes with a frown and rub the back of my neck. That is very unnerving.
"It all feels the same at first. It gets easier to distinguish us the more you are around us all," he says.
"Oh? What do I feel like to you?"
"Not so much a tingle as a fizz."
"A fizz? That's interesting. Is that to all or just you?"
"All, probably. I don't really know." He shrugs and hands me a glass of wine. "Thought this might come in handy after your…troubles earlier."
I accept it with thanks and take a sip. "Troubles? That's one way to look at it."
"You are definitely an interesting creature. Even if you hadn't asked, I would have stuck around to get to know you better, now that our sire is being amenable about it."
I snort at him and shift in the water, teasing him. We’ll see just how amenable our sire is. Oh, I am so bad. R
eally.
His eyes shoot straight to my nipples, now peeking out of the bubbles and I revel in the lust in his eyes.
"I am going to tell you something," he says, still not looking at my face. "Something you need to know."
"Sounds serious," I murmur.
"It is." His face shows it.
I narrow my eyes at him as he pauses and takes a sip of his own drink. "I have clearly known him since day one, I have seen every side to him good and bad and even worse. You think you know him, but you don't. At least not like I do. This side that you see now? It’s one that I have never seen. I have seen him before you, with you, and after you, and never have I seen him so happy. So content. Whatever it is that caused your issues before, he has put aside with great effort. I can see the strain it has on him, but he does it to make you happy. Do you know that? Do you appreciate what it costs him?" he asks me and I nod without hesitation.
"Good," he says. "I think you need to re-evaluate your marriage."
I sit up then, forgetting about the naked issue and snap, "Excuse me?"
"Your marriage. It isn't in either of your best interests," he says mildly.
"You have no idea about my best interests. I love my husband. I am in love with him. Do you know what he is?" I sit back, trying to gain control of my anger.
"I know he is your charge."
"Yes, he is. My seven-month-old charge who I turned so that we could be together. I am not leaving him."
"He will adapt if you pay him special attention. You don't need to be married for him to thrive."
"Sebastian!" I stare at him in disbelief. "I love him. Did you hear me before? I want to be with him."
"And yet you are here playing house with our sire instead of being with him."
"Playing house? Is that what you think this is about?"
"It is certainly what he thinks you are doing. He gives you a ring, ignores your marital status like the plague, has you followed so he knows you are safe and now takes you out on dates! That alone would be enough to stun me. But he laughs around you. You challenge him and he revels in it. I see him smile. Do you know how long it has been since I saw that smile reach his eyes?"
I shake my head, a bit stunned myself.
"Over five hundred years," he tells me. "The last time you were truly together at Ponte is the last time I saw that smile."
"You came to Ponte?" I ask confused, knowing that he couldn't have, or I would have known.
He laughs sadly. "No, we weren't allowed. Even before Lance took you, none of us were even allowed in the same vicinity as you. It is any wonder how you got to meet Dmitri. No, he came to see me in Rome."
I look down, trying to process all that he is trying to tell me.
"He wants you, Liv, and I think you need to have him too. It's clear when you look at him."
"He said he would wait. I need him to wait," I say desperately.
"He will. He has no choice if you don't give him one. He won’t force you. But let me ask you this. I see how much you love him. Do you really have room for more than that in your heart? Do you really feel for your husband what you say or is it transference because you thought he wouldn't give you what you wanted?"
"How dare you! Of course, I love Cole. I would never have turned him if I didn't," I snarl at him.
He shrugs off my anger. "So, he gets you two days of the week. What do you think will happen when you leave tomorrow?"
"I’m not leaving. I’m right downstairs," I snap at him.
"No, you will be leaving, and he will be devastated."
"Oh, please. Don't give me that crap," I say, suddenly highly irritated by this conversation. "He accepts our arrangement. It was his idea to start with. If he wanted more he should have bloody negotiated better. Or better yet, he shouldn't have waited until I sired and was married," I say, happy with my argument that he only has himself to blame if he is unhappy.
"Oh, Liv. You know what a stubborn fool he can be," Sebastian sighs.
"Yes, I do."
"Fine. Well, I have said my piece and I have your word that this conversation will not get back to him?"
"Of course. What kind of bad sibling would I be to rat you out for trying to protect him?" I smarm at him.
"You know," he says then, suddenly all coy, "it has just occurred to me that you will never have felt what it is like to be with your sire and a sibling. It can be most pleasing."
"Yes, so I’ve been told," I mutter, irate that I never have and yet Devon and Cole have had the pleasure and voiced their opinions quite loudly on the subject.
"You could talk him around, he would do anything you asked of him,” he murmurs, hovering his hand over my tits still poking through the dissipating bubbles.
"Maybe so, but I have my own set of rules."
"You mean your husband’s set of rules," he sneers. "Don't you find it hard work to stick to them?"
Actually, yes, I do. CK aside, if it weren't for Cole, I would have had Sebastian in this bath as soon as he walked into the room. But I have to keep remembering how I felt when I was new. I have my freedom but with restrictions and I have to honor that. I said that I would. However, when Sebastian's hand flicks over my nipple, I inhale sharply and feel the connection between us. For all of Lance’s creepy familial terms and our own banter about family and being related, we really aren't. I was born to different parents and turned a couple of thousand years after him, but our sire has connected us with his blood as I have connected my own charges hundreds of years apart, and we feel that connection pulling on us.
At my lack of pushing him away, Sebastian trails his hand through the bath water closer and closer to…
His phone vibrates in his pocket and he glances at me as he takes it out to check it.
"As expected…" He holds it out for me to see a message: Hands off, Vincentius!
"Have you ever wondered how he does that?" he asks.
"All the fucking time!" I state with a laugh. "Glad it isn't just me then."
"No, he has a way of feeling the spike in our emotions. What a fucking shame. I was under the impression you were up for it."
"Hm," I say noncommittally. Spike in our emotions? Is that what it is? I honestly thought it was because he could read my mind. "Vincentius? Your original name, I presume?"
"Yes," he says shortly, not offering up any more than that.
"And yet you choose to be French, not Italian, like him?"
"I did for a time. I prefer the French way of life. So much more joie de vivre," he says.
"Indeed."
"Why do you choose to hang onto to your Anglicism?"
Startled at the question no one has ever asked me, I blink and say, "Erm, I don't know. My origin, my history?"
"Sure, I get that. Although technically your history would be Saxon in origin, German."
I smile at him. "Yes, that would be so, my parents' parents came over from Saxony."
"My parents were from Ancient Rome. My grandparents were Etruscan."
"Yes, I gathered," I say. "He never talks about it," I say quietly.
"No, he doesn't. Not just to you."
"But you knew him then. You must know something."
"I knew him after he was created, remember. There isn't a thing I can tell you about his human self as I don't know."
I must look disappointed as he smiles at me and says, "If you asked, I am sure he would tell you."
I shake my head. “I have asked so many times and I get nothing from him."
"What about your super brain?"
I snort. "That is a pain in the arse. Yes, I know the facts after events, but I don't know what he feels or how he felt. I want to know but he won't tell me."
"Try again. You never know." He shrugs as he twiddles his fingers idly in the water. "Watch this," he says, suddenly mischievous and my eyes go wide as he moves his hand back into the bath, his fingers playing lightly against the water just above my pussy.
Not two seconds later, our sire bursts in the do
or of the bathroom and says, "Enough! Get out!"
We both burst out laughing at his fury. For all of his denial of sensing our intentions, and it being an Initial Vampire ability, he has most definitely just shown his hand.
"Out, Sebastian!" he says again as we continue to chuckle. I find having someone to laugh with, someone who knows him so well, very comforting. I thought I would be wildly jealous but that is not the case. But that is most probably because he is a man. I know for a fact that I would not be sitting here giggling with Grace.
Sebastian holds his hands up in defeat. "Can't blame a guy for trying."
"Yes, you can," CK snaps at him, glaring, bringing his irate gaze to me, still languishing in my bubbles. "Don't be a tease, Aefre. It is not an attractive quality."
I lower my eyes in contrition and sink myself further into the bubbles. Peeking back up at him, he is watching me with growing desire and I inwardly high-five myself. Knew he wouldn't be able to resist. Sadly, though, as ever, my stupid face must give me away. No need to be able to read minds, when he can read my face. He suddenly narrows his eyes at me. "Aefre," he warns.
"Oh, come on. Give me something," I snap as Sebastian snickers. "I don't want to wait until later." I pout then as it always works, whereas fury just amuses him. Tilting his head to peer at me, he comes to crouch next to the bath. I hold my breath in anticipation, eyes firmly on his. He lowers his hand into the bath water, lower and lower until his shirtsleeve is soaked. He lightly brushes his fingers over my pussy, all the while watching my reaction. I shiver at his touch and he pulls away, standing.
"Time to get dressed, my sweet," he says and saunters off to presumably change his shirt.
I stare at him open-mouthed that he just teased me. Then I shut it again grimly as quite clearly that was his lesson: Don't be a tease.
Ignoring Sebastian, who is having a right old laugh at my expense, I pull the plug out of the bath and stand up reaching for a towel. It shuts him up promptly as he gives me a lingering once-over. Having the satisfaction of seeing his eyes cloud over as I wrap the massive towel around me, I step out of the bath and pick up my discarded wine, then I saunter off to get dressed.