by R. J. Blain
If I kept listening to the man, I might learn something. “Is Ben okay with me treating you like dessert?”
“I’m certainly not going to tell him he can’t be your dessert.” Ben chuckled, and I heard footsteps head off in the direction of the kitchen. “I’ll bring blood and some appetizers, in case you can convince her to eat something. It wouldn’t hurt you to eat better, too.”
Emerick laughed, and I cracked open an eye in time to watch him thump onto his favorite chair. “Do try to stay awake for just an hour, Pepper. It’ll really help you adapt. I take it you’ve been sleeping by dawn?”
I nodded. “I have.”
“You won’t be able to build resistance to sunlight unless you try to stay awake. For the first month you’re with me, I’ll keep you awake for an hour beyond dawn. Once you’re working, you’ll only practice staying awake on mornings you don’t have work the next evening; on your nights off, you’ll try to stay awake for two hours. It’s tiring, but it will serve you well later. I expect you’ll be odd compared to traditionally raised vampires. The last time I gave a younger vampire one of your stakes, he screamed and ran away from it. It didn’t hurt him, but it gave him a good jolt. You, however, are already carving stakes despite being a newborn. And the old stakes like you.”
“It jolted him? You mean it didn’t just paralyze him?”
“The old stakes have a mind of their own. It’s more surprising yours accepted you without a test. Each and every one of those stakes has tested me. Old things have power, and those stakes are old.”
“Is it bad I left it in the office?”
“I’ll ask Ben to retrieve it for you before you feed. And yes, I’m going to insist you feed. You’re not at a healthy weight, and feeding every night is necessary for you to become healthy. I know your feeding patterns were by necessity. I respect you for your tenacity, but I will do what’s best for you. For now, that means making you feed.”
“If I throw up on you, it’s your fault.”
“That is a risk I’m willing to accept, albeit grudgingly.”
All things considered, I’d be grudging, too, if stuck in his shoes. “It’d be a shame to waste all that tasty blood. Maybe we should wait for tomorrow to mitigate the risk of losing so much blood.”
“I will force feed you if I must, but you will drink before you sleep.”
On one hand, the idea of anyone forcing me to do anything pissed me off, but on the other hand, I was interested in finding out just what I had to work with.
I needed to be locked up for Emerick’s safety.
Lifting my chin, I glared at the brood master. “You say that now, except you’re delicious and I have a bad habit of draining anyone I feed from.”
“You did just fine the night I brought you into the brood.”
“That doesn’t guarantee I’ll do just fine now.”
Ben returned with a wine bottle, and the red band around its neck indicated it was filled with blood rather than alcohol. He placed it on the coffee table, and I lifted a brow at the lack of a glass.
I hadn’t taken Emerick to be the kind to drink right from the bottle.
Ignoring my incredulous look, Ben asked, “Want me around in case she puts up a fight when it’s time for her to stop feeding?”
“Don’t worry yourself. I can handle anything she tosses at me. She left her stake in her office. Mind bringing it for me, please? I’ll have a holster made for it tomorrow for her. If she gets too feisty, I’ll prick her until she calms down.”
Ben nodded, left the room, and returned a few minutes later with the stake, which was tucked into a velvet bag. It joined the wine bottle on the coffee table. “I’ll head home for the day, then. Call me if there’s any issues.”
“I’ll do my best to ensure there aren’t any. Drive safe.”
Following a nod, Ben turned and left, and I marveled that the man was willing to leave me, a vampire with a reputation of draining other vampires dry, alone with his brood master. I sat up, frowned, and stared down the hallway.
“What’s got you looking so irritated?”
“He really left you with me, and I do have a hobby of draining miscreant vampires dry.”
“I’m not a miscreant, as you like to say, so I’m perfectly safe.” He chuckled. “We’re all alone in my suite now, too. What happens now stays between us. For the most part.” Emerick gestured to a corner, which boasted a security camera. “While that one always records, few have access to the recordings. There are no such devices in my bedroom, nor are there any in the suite I’ve chosen for you. So, relax. What happens between us will remain confidential unless there is just cause to check the tape. More importantly, I’m perfectly safe with you despite your bad habits.”
No, he wasn’t. Not with my completely inappropriate interest in him for things other than his blood. A cold shower might help, and I wondered if I could get away with taking one and dodging having to test my luck and drink his blood.
It really didn’t help my cause that his blood was truly that delicious.
“Let me see if I understand this right. I can do whatever I want to you and have good odds of getting away with it?”
Emerick smirked. “As long as you don’t kill me and convince me to keep quiet about it, yes.”
A cold shower sounded like a good idea. “Do I get a stay of feeding if I want to take a shower first?”
“So, you’ll have to take another shower should you make a mess while feeding?”
“I do not make messes!”
When I’d been hunting on the streets, I couldn’t afford to lose even a single drop of blood. I fought my urge to clench my fists.
My anger was almost as effective at cooling my inappropriate desire for the man as a shower.
“It’s not uncommon for young vampires to become excited when feeding. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. I am, after all, a rare vintage.” Emerick picked up the wine bottle and popped off the cork. “Your first lesson on non-human bloods. This is Wagyu cow’s blood, imported from Japan. It’s harvested during the butchering process, an anti-coagulant is added, and it’s shipped here. This is a very rich flavored blood, and a favorite of most vampires. I’ll start with trying to adapt you to this, although I expect you’ll spit it out, thus the mess. No fault of yours, of course. You did what you needed to survive, but vampires who started on human—or vampire—blood often have trouble transitioning. I expect this with you.” Holding out the bottle, he raised his brow and waited.
I took the bottle and gave it a sniff.
It smelled a hell of a lot better than miscreant blood, which already made it an improvement to my situation in my opinion. “What if I like it?”
“Drink the whole thing. It’s more than a pint, but you could use the nutrients. I expect if you enjoy it, it will wake your hunger, and you’ll go through that entire bottle and have a drink from me, too. You’ll be rather aggressive, truth be told.”
“Aggressive? How so?”
He shrugged, but his smirk ruined his otherwise nonchalant attitude. “Don’t worry if that sparks your hunger. I can handle you, and the bottle will take the worst of the edge off. My blood will ultimately act like a rather good sedative after a large feeding.”
“Being a vampire is a lot more complicated than I thought,” I muttered, taking another sniff of the blood. “I should be disgusted by this, not about ready to drool.”
“I’ve found cow blood to be the best alternative, and the better quality and care the cow enjoys, the better the blood it produces. I don’t have any young blood offered to the brood; all cows are raised until the age of three to prevent problems.”
“Young blood? You mean from veal?”
“Yes. We sell any young cattle to a different butcher. I don’t want to encourage bad habits in the brood, and blood from younger animals—or people—can become addictive. I was raised in an era where young blood wasn’t frowned upon, but it’s troublesome at best in modern times.”
“People
also had a much shorter lifespan,” I muttered, considering the bottle I held. As delaying wouldn’t change anything, I took a cautious sip. While it didn’t come anywhere close to Emerick’s blood, it far surpassed the miscreant’s bitter blood. Sighing my relief that I could stand the taste, I tried a second sip.
“Tolerable?”
“It’s better than what I’m used to.” I upgraded a sip to a full swallow, and I waited to see if my stomach could handle it. With a few minutes, the warning signs of an upset stomach began, although not strong enough to do more than inconvenience me. I took a second larger swallow to test my luck, and the discomfort remained at noticeable albeit tolerable. “It doesn’t settle as well as yours, although it’s better than miscreant blood.”
My stomach hadn’t much liked miscreant blood at first, either.
“Settle? It gives you an upset stomach?”
I nodded. “But it’s really not bad. I can cope with this.”
“Take your time with it and let me know if it worsens. If it does, we’ll abandon that experiment and you’ll drink exclusively from me.”
“It took a few months for my stomach to get used to miscreant blood.” The confession battered at my already bruised pride, but I refused to remain a coward, flitting from shadow to shadow, determined to remain alive in a world where vampires remained feared and unwelcome. “It’s not that bad.”
“Try to drink half the bottle, and I will drink the other half. Then you can enjoy me for your dessert.”
I pretended to ignore the innuendo, painfully aware half of my interest in the damned man involved his blood. The other half involved how damned good he looked in a suit. “You’re getting the short end of this deal. I get a full stomach, you get bit.”
“I do further secure you into the brood. That is worth tolerating your bite and making sure you’re fed. I was quite serious about how drinking my blood over a longer period of time would result in being blood bound to me.”
I took a deep breath and downed as much of the bottled blood as I could tolerate in one frantic chugging session. Gasping for breath, I set the bottle onto the coffee table. Emerick picked it up, tilted it, and stared inside. Laughing, he shook his head. “You almost downed that entire thing in one go. Impressive.” With far more dignity than I’d displayed, he finished off the bottle. “Unlike the more ritualistic bite from before, you can bite wherever you want. If you’re shy, you’re welcome to hide your bite again, or you can add your mark to my wrist with the rest of the brood.”
“Is there a benefit to hiding my bite at this point? Is this some vampire thing I don’t know about?”
“In theory, should I be taken by another brood, they could locate your specific bite and try to use me to get to you. Hiding your bite would make it harder for them to do this. Most will target the bites on my wrist and try to gain control of the brood that way. Hiding your bite somewhere unexpected would make you a secret weapon of sorts.”
I raised my brows at that. “Is this a common problem with broods?”
“For younger, weaker broods, it is. If you can take over the brood master, in theory, you can take the entire brood—if you can locate all of the bites from loyal vampires within the brood. The more times you bite me and the stronger you are bound to me, the harder it will be for such filth. While you are the one consuming my blood, your strength becomes mine. The weaker the bond, the easier it is to abuse.”
Interesting. “And how strong of a bond do you have with others?”
“I feed each of my children once a year in a ceremonial bite, which is only a few sips. My youngest children have consumed a great deal of my blood through the process of being awoken to their new life. That fades over a few years. Over the course of a few weeks every winter, I feed everyone in the brood this way. You have consumed more than most of my other children.”
“Who would you feed more frequently?”
“Ben has partaken more of my blood than most, and he does this as my trusted confidant. He has to be able to take over the brood should something happen to me. You will rise to a similar albeit different position.”
“Similar albeit different?”
“You are a lady. A lady’s role in the brood differs from a man’s. You will find you will hold a different sort of power in the brood. And, perhaps, more important than even Ben’s.”
“Elaborate, please.”
“As you have time to adapt, the brides broods will come to you with proposals for our men, and you will be able to suggest partnerships and negotiate couplings. I suspect you will be able to find willing women who want to become vampires outside of the confines of the brides broods. You will also have greater sway within our brood, as drinking from me is a sign of my favor.”
“Considering how delicious you are, I’m surprised they don’t fight to the death to get to drink from you.”
Emerick chuckled. “Most don’t find me quite as good a vintage as you do.”
Somehow, I doubted that. Narrowing my eyes, I looked him over. “Are you sure?”
“Gender matters.”
Oh. “Really?”
“Yes, it does. The couples in the brood are well known to enjoy each other’s blood on a rather frequent basis, although they do not drink for sustenance. They do an equal sharing of blood, unlike you and I, where you are drinking for your survival. Because of that, their bonds are not nearly as strong as mine with you will be. Once you are healthier, you can opt to share your blood with me to help minimize the blood bond. But your blood is a vastly superior vintage to the men in the brood simply because you are a woman.”
“And the brides drink your blood, too? And you drink theirs?”
“It is part of the ceremonies each year, yes. And there is an exchange of blood when they are brought into the brood initially. I take only enough to cement the brood bond. You are a special case, and I intend on partaking of your blood once you are healthier to hasten your education as a vampire.”
“How does consuming my blood help?”
“I will gain a better understanding of your fledgling powers and be better equipped to teach you. It may also help me determine more about your maker.”
“If you can do that, you’re welcome to as much blood as you need.”
Emerick’s smile bore a dark edge. “Be careful making such statements, Pepper Lowrance. There are deep consequences to such a thing you are yet to learn, and some things cannot be undone once finished. Now, pick where you wish to drink. Do not fear hurting me. You’ll fall asleep long before you drink your fill.”
I expected he was right, but I couldn’t ignore the challenge in his tone. Aware of his warnings that someone might use my bites against me, I frowned. “Wouldn’t it be better if where I bit wasn’t recorded?”
“The first thing I did once certain you slept was destroy the tapes and all copies of where I bit you and you bit me. But yes, there are more private places you can attend to your feeding.” Emerick smirked. “And should anyone decide to check without my leave, they can wonder.”
Damn. I needed to be more careful around him. “Where’s the most private place here?”
“My bedroom, of course.”
Of course. As I’d walked directly into that trap, I rose to my feet. “Lead the way then, Lowrance. We don’t have all morning.”
To my disgust, I’d probably fall asleep long before things got interesting—or I even slaked my thirst for his precious blood.
He led me to a spacious bedroom, modern with sleek lines and pale covers, with a rich blue duvet and pillows offering a splash of color. He sat on the edge of the bed and waved his hand in invitation.
As I’d rather no one watch me make a fool of myself over his blood, I closed the door. “This is going to leave an odd impression, isn’t it?”
“It will leave less of an impression and more of an all-consuming curiosity.” Emerick smirked. “It will keep my brood on their toes, and I do enjoy making them ask questions. What are you to me? They will want to know.
They will want to know what I am to you. And so the game begins. Come. Enjoy your dessert. Tomorrow night will be long. You have much to learn.”
Eight
One night of blatant indulgence wouldn’t hurt anything, would it?
If I had my way, I would never spend another day without a bed. Waking before sunset clinging to the brood’s master hadn’t been part of my plans, but I forgave myself. A smart woman didn’t let go of her favorite food without a fight. Before him, I’d consumed blood to rid the Earth of miscreants and keep from starving to death.
Emerick’s blood satisfied my hunger within a few sips, and it hadn’t taken long before I’d succumbed to sleep.
If everyone tasted as sweet as the vampire, I could understand why miscreants existed. I’d have to keep a close eye on my tendency to view the man as dessert, as it would inevitably get me into trouble. Once I considered how well he wore a suit, I’d need a therapist to help me get through the next few weeks.
“You have quite the grip,” he observed, raising a brow and regarding where I clutched his arm. My white knuckles indicated he would have to pry me off if he wanted to escape. “The sun will fully set in a few minutes. Would breakfast interest you?”
If breakfast involved his blood, I’d be an addict by the end of the night. As I wanted to maintain some of my dignity, I released my hold on him, yawned, and shook my head. “The sun isn’t up yet?”
“You started to stir at the start of dusk. You maintained your hold the entire day, in case you were curious. About five minutes after you fell asleep, you latched on.”
Latched was a good word for how I’d held him captive. I’d left marks on his arm in my effort to keep him from wandering off and taking his blood with him when he went. Therapy might help. A new diet plan, one where I went back to the safety of blood I didn’t like, would be wiser.
After I crawled out of bed, I would add it to my to-do list for the night, right along with searching through the updated laws for loopholes that might make my life even more difficult. In the meantime, I needed to deal with Emerick and my unfortunate enjoyment of his blood.