Vincent made a growling noise that also sounded like a guttural moan coming up from the very depths of his soul. In my dreams and all my imaginings of what a supernatural creature might be, I’d never thought of a man, cast in perfectly muscled marble as he was. He was warm and my temperature rose rather than declined as I would have expected when my blood was being drained. It felt like what an out of body experience must be.
He drew harder on my neck and I could actually picture rivers of blood leaving my body and flowing down his throat. Inexplicably, this didn’t bother me in the least. The sharp craving for more sensations roared over my skin and when he reached between us and wrapped his long fingers around my cock, a cry burst from my lips. Two long strokes were all it took to bring me off. My climax hit like a freight train, blasting through my body, and exploding through my senses. I couldn’t imagine anything more perfect as my entire body convulsed in his arms as I came apart in his tight grip.
Rivers of semen shot from my cock and he gripped me hard, jacking me through it as I opened my mouth and tried to gulp in air. I couldn’t breathe but it didn’t even seem to matter. If I died here and now, I would have welcomed it. If a death could ever be beautiful, this was the one I’d always envisioned. My orgasm went on and on and on as blood drained from my body. My cock slid through his tight fist as he stroked me through the most intense climax of my life. My mind ceased all rational thought. All I wanted was more and more... and more.
I felt weak when he finally lifted his mouth, licking over what I imagined must be small holes in my neck, and looked at me. His eyes, once a beautiful topaz gold, were darker, richer, with a tinge of red swirling in the pupils. My rational mind couldn’t immediately comprehend what I was looking at, but it strayed to one word…
… magic.
Magic is what had happened here. In this vampire’s arms, as a source of nourishment and sustenance to his body, my blood had renewed his life and in so doing, I’d become one with him. My God, how could this be? I watched his eyes grow darker as his mouth turned up at the corners. While the small smile remained at his mouth, all I could think was that I had been the one person he’d needed. I’d given him what his body required and the simple knowledge of that was magic.
I’d done this for him.
Vincent reached up and carded his fingers gently through my hair, sliding his gaze over my face as though in worship of my sacrifice for him. I’d never felt anything like it before. That momentary agony of his first strike had fled my mind, replaced with a deep sense of belonging and peace, the kind that only follows an event greater than anything that can be put into easy words. My body, still feeling the small fluttering of distant aftershocks, didn’t feel weak. In fact, I knew that I’d stopped bleeding, the pain in my neck was no more, and the delicate structures under the skin were already healing.
He broke our gaze to lean toward me, brushing his lips against mine. Somehow, they felt plumper, warmer, and healthier. I couldn’t explain the change in him. Whereas before the feeding he’d been gorgeous, beautifully made all over, and handsome beyond measure to me, now he was absolute perfection. Any lines in his face were gone, his eyes shone brighter, and color was high in his cheeks. It had to be because of what my blood had done for him.
Vincent kissed me softly, reverently, deeply, sighing against my mouth. We lay there for long minutes until he finally pulled back… but not too far. He leaned his forehead against mine, looking deeply into my eyes for a full minute before finally pulling back. I tightened my grip around his waist, needing him close, feeling almost vulnerable, something I’d never felt after sex before. Though he hadn’t been inside of my body during the feeding, I felt as though I’d been claimed in every sense of the word.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you, Romeo.”
I was speechless. What did one say to the vampire when he just fed on you? “Do you feel…” I paused, unable to know the correct question to ask here.
“I feel stronger, Romeo, but there’s more to it. I can’t explain this part since I’ve never explained it to anyone before.”
“What do you mean there’s more to it?” I asked, genuinely curious.
“I’m not sure but there’s something about you that is very special—as I tried to explain before—I just don’t know what it is yet.”
“I don’t know what you’re trying to say,” I said, hesitating. “I’m somehow different from other humans who’ve fed you?”
“You mean who I’ve fed from, Romeo. No one has ever willingly given me what you did. I’ve taken it,” he said.
I frowned. “But you said I had to give you permission,” I said. “Before, you said I had to give you permission or you wouldn’t feed from me.”
“That’s right. I said I needed YOU to give me permission. That doesn’t apply to other humans. It never did. We were talking about compulsion if I recall,” he said.
I felt myself frown because I was clearly not understanding. I was pretty sure he realized this because he went on.
“What I meant was that I needed your permission because you are special to me. You are not just any human, Romeo. I never wanted to compel you. I told you that I don’t want that to define what we are to each other the way I define other humans. I told you that I would never compel you because I want things to be honest between us. I don’t ever want to take away your decisions or your power.”
“Why?” I persisted. Vincent’s answer was important to me because I was beginning to want more from him.
He looked like he was resisting the urge to roll his eyes.
“Because you are special. I know you’re not hearing me, Romeo. You. Are. Special. Am I going to have to keep repeating it because I’m willing to do that if it will convince you that I’m telling you the truth.”
I slowly shook my head, sighing deeply. “I guess not. It’s just hard to believe. No one has ever talked to me like you do.”
Vincent smirked. “You’ve met a lot of vampires, have you?”
I returned his smirk. “If I’ve been compelled in the past, how would I know?”
Vincent chuckled. “Oh, I do love your sense of humor.” He leaned in and kissed me softly. As his kisses grew more and more insistent, I realized that I was growing hard again. Only the distant trilling of my phone made me pull back.
“That’s my phone,” I said.” He tightened his hold. I leaned in and kissed him gently on the lips before pulling back. “I should answer it.” I looked past him to the clock on the bed table. It read 2:35. I glanced back at him. “No one would call me at this hour if it wasn’t important. It’s the middle of the night.”
He let go of me with seeming reluctance and I rolled to the side of the bed which was stained with my blood. The sight of it startled me for a moment and I reached up, touching the side of my neck. I felt nothing but smooth skin but my fingers came away sticky with blood when I trailed them down to my collarbone.
My phone stopped ringing and then there was the beep for a notification that I’d received a voicemail message. I glanced at Vincent before climbing off the bed and going in search of my jeans. I picked them up off the floor and looked at my phone. Sally had called. I put the phone to my ear and listened.
“Sheriff, it’s Sally. There’s been a murder. I need you to come down to the station. I swung by your place but you weren’t there. Please call me when you get this.”
“Shit.” I hit redial as I looked at Vincent who was sitting up in bed watching me, looking absolutely radiant with his long brown hair flowing around his shoulders. It seemed to have red highlights in it that I hadn’t noticed until just now. Sally picked up on the first ring.
“Sheriff?”
“It’s me. Sorry. I was asleep.”
“Oh, I must have missed you. I swung by your cabin on the way into town but didn’t see your truck and you didn’t answer the door.”
I ignored her unspoken query and asked a question of my own. “You said something about a murder?”
“Sorry, but Frederick is the town a few miles away, right?”
“Yes, it borders us to the north, way off the main highway.”
“Right. So why is the sheriff of Frederick calling us if the murder was in his town?”
“Oh, sorry, I guess I didn’t make myself clear. He isn’t the sheriff of Frederick. He’s a sheriff in Lompoc down south of us but he and his family are camping in the Prosper Woods. He and some other campers nearby heard a scream and then when they went looking to see if they could offer to help, that’s when they found a body. He called us because there isn’t a sheriff in Frederick which is closer to their campsite. The town is too small. Our office handles any complaints from Frederick because we’re neighbors.”
I had wondered about jurisdiction when I checked out the advertisement for the job of Prosper Woods sheriff. Being in the LAPD, I’d thought all sheriffs were elected in California but after a little research, I’d learned that the California state constitution required only that each of the state’s fifty-eight counties have an elected sheriff. Tulare County, which Prosper Woods was a tiny part of, therefore had one elected sheriff with satellite offices throughout the county. My position was not one that required an election. It might have been nice to know my jurisdiction included Frederick before taking the job though. I’d have to make a trip to the town to check it out in a few days.
“Okay, well, I’ll be at the station as soon as possible. Give me twenty minutes or so.”
“See you then, Sheriff.”
I swiped the screen and glanced back at Vincent who was still watching me.
“You have to go,” he said. “Some campers found a body.”
“How’d you…”
He smiled, lifting a finger to point to his ear. “Vampire hearing.”
I nodded, smirking at him. “Thanks for telling me. I’ll remember not to have any private phone calls around you.” I put my phone down and began pulling on my briefs and jeans as Vincent got off the bed and walked into the bathroom. He came back with a warm, wet washcloth and stepped into my personal space. He reached out and began cleaning the remaining semen and blood off me, making sure that it was not only gone but leaning in several times to sniff and apparently make sure no scent of anything lingered on my body.
“There. How do you feel?” he asked.
“I’m okay.” Oddly, I didn’t feel the least bit weak. As I pulled on my shirt, I watched him put on his boxers before walking out of the bedroom. He came back a moment later with a bottle of vitamins and a glass of water.
“I need you to take six of these now and then two more tomorrow morning.” He reached for my hand and set the bottle in it, waiting. I smiled and opened the bottle, shook out six of the small vitamins and then drank the glass of water, setting the empty glass on the table, before tucking the bottle into my jacket pocket.
“I want to see you again tomorrow night. I won’t need to feed for a while but I’d surely love to see you,” he said.
I smiled at him, nodding slowly as I reached out and drew him to me before kissing him languidly. When I finally pulled back, I had another hard-on and surprisingly, I felt worlds better. I could only wonder if it was the vitamins, though surely, they couldn’t have been working that quickly.
“I’d love to see you too,” I replied. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a business card that Sally had given me earlier that day, handing it to him. “Call me and we’ll make plans.”
Vincent took the card and stared at it. He looked up at me and for a split second I was almost certain I saw his eyes glisten before they returned to normal. “I’ll do that.” He reached for my hand, giving it one last squeeze before I pulled away. I tore my gaze from his and walked to the door of his bedroom. When I turned to say goodbye, he was right there in front of me, separated from my body by only an inch or two. I didn’t even have time to jump back in fright before he reached up to take both sides of my jaw in his hands. When he leaned in and kissed me softly, it was harder to pull away than I thought it would be. I finally did.
“Goodbye, Vincent. See you tonight.”
“Good night, Romeo.” He lifted a hand and waved. “See you tonight.”
I smiled and turned, walking out of the room, down the hall, and out into the night to deal with a murder.
Chapter Six
Prosper Woods Chronicle. Letters to the editor:
“Last night I’m pretty sure someone was lost in the woods. Went to help but heard him talkin’ loudly about politics. Figured it’d be best just to leave him there and save us all grief. Now I’m thinkin’ someone should check on him in case a bear took a bite.” Signed, “Tastes like ass.”
Vincent
Whatever Romeo was about to stumble into was bad. I’d had a feeling that supernatural creatures had settled in the town of Prosper Woods the moment I’d heard howls in the woods. Werewolves. It had to be. The problem with werewolves was that they were pack animals and rarely wandered the world alone. If they were caught in another pack’s territory, they could be killed or invited to join the pack which involved some sort of initiation. I wasn’t sure about the details. One thing was clear. They were here and since werewolves and vampires didn’t get along, I was in for a challenge. I’d have to see how that went.
Being the owner of an antique store had always been good for me. My masquerade as a normal everyday human held up whenever I moved and changed towns, regardless of how large or small they were. I hadn’t had a situation where I’d had to deal with rampant paranormal phenomena or creatures in centuries. I should have guessed a small town like Prosper Woods was the perfect place for other supernaturals to make their home. It was somewhat off the grid and only frequented by the occasional tourist or passer through.
As soon as Romeo got the call that someone had been murdered in the woods, I knew things were about to get dicey. I lifted my hands and scrubbed them over my face, sighing. I really needed to sleep. I already would have been “dead to the world” if I hadn’t fed. I wasn’t like vampires you read about in books or movies. Though mostly nocturnal, because I was older, I could walk about during the day for short periods and needed vastly less sleep than the younger of my species. Still, the less sleep I got, the more often I needed to feed. One had to rejuvenate somehow.
Romeo’s blood… that had been a revelation.
I’d been captivated by the man the moment I laid eyes on him. I was drawn to him in ways I couldn’t describe. At the time, I had no idea why but the moment we shook hands, I felt a pulse of energy surging through him that definitely wasn’t human. He didn’t smell entirely human either. But his blood… I shivered every time I thought of how he’d tasted. My God, it is impossible to quantify how delicious he is.
In the beginning of my vampire life, after I’d first been turned, Robert loved to watch me as I hunted and fed. He had bloodlust like no vampire I’d ever seen since. He loved to hunt, torture, and feed from his victims in the most horrific ways and if I was being honest with myself, I’d enjoyed it. Watching him take a human’s life had been sport for me in the beginning. I’d allowed my humanity to be stripped away completely by my maker because that’s the way he’d wanted me. By the time he met the true death, I’d become proficient at ending a person and not giving a damn about it.
Without his influence in my life, I walked the world alone for centuries. I came into contact with other vampires now and then in my travels, but I’d never stayed with them. They reminded me too much of Robert. The older I got, the less I had to feed and little by little, my desire to hurt a human when I fed from them waned. I remembered my human life with fondness instead of the disdain Robert had burned into my dead heart.
That’s when I decided to be reborn as a vampire with a soul.
I realized that I didn’t have to kill humans to feed and I mad
e good on my pledge to myself. I wouldn’t kill anymore. It had happened a handful of times since my maker died but only by accident. I always felt horrible about it afterward. With Romeo, I found myself wanting to be a better person, not the cursed vampire I’d had no choice about being. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was about the man. His posture, his eye for detail, and his need for knowledge about me and other supes would no doubt make him a fantastic lawman.
I could tell right away that Romeo was a good man. He was rough around the edges as I expect anyone coming from the infamous LAPD with its history of racism and rampant corruption would be. But underneath his tough exterior, I’d found a gentle lover, a kind man, and I’d fallen for him. How? I couldn’t explain and right now, I really didn’t want to. I needed rest.
After I’d kissed him goodbye and listened to him close my front door, I took in the bloodstains on the sheets, the scent of come, sweat, and blood; I had to smile. I walked over and stripped the sheets, depositing them in the washing machine, and turning it on. The last thing I needed was bloody sheets lying around… just in case I had an unexpected visitor. As I took the elevator downstairs to my basement bedroom, I couldn’t keep the smile off my face.
Romeo’s blood, the way his face looked as he came apart in my hands, all of it would give me good dreams this day. I crawled into bed in my windowless room and lay my head on the pillow, thinking good thoughts about the man I’d made love to. I hoped his day would go well, but somehow I just wasn’t sure about it. His face was the last thing I thought of as I drifted off to sleep.
Romeo
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