Authors: Velvet DeHaven
I was stunned when he scooped me up with ease, lifting me as if I weighed no more than a feather, though I supposed I shouldn’t have been—he had admitted to being a vampire, after all. I wound my arms around his neck while he carried me from his library, down a hall and to a room with naked, powder-blue walls and a bed with a thick, midnight-colored comforter.
As soon as I was resting comfortably, he disappeared and returned after a few short moments with two blue capsules and a tall glass of milk—it wasn’t chocolate, but given he was in fact a vampire, I wasn’t really expecting it. Why did a vampire have milk anyway? Then again, why did a vampire have Tylenol of any kind?
The questions went unasked as I took the pills without reservation, and this seemed to be surprise him. “You haven’t given me a reason not to trust you yet, but you have to promise we’ll talk about this tomorrow.” I heard him agree, and had just closed my eyes when they popped back open. “My father. I need—” a yawn split my words— “I need to call my father.”
I could have sworn I heard him say it had been taken care of, and I wondered how he had managed to accomplish that. I tried to ask, but my tongue was heavy, and I was already slipping into unconsciousness.
I woke what I assumed was a few hours later to pitch black and panic seized me.
“Calm,
mio tesoro.
You are safe.” The sound of Simon’s voice soothed my fear, and I struggled to sit up, but he stopped me with a gentle hand on my shoulder. “I would imagine,” he said, rich tone coming from above and to the right of me, “that even after such a deep slumber, you still have a headache, not to mention others. I could give you some more Tylenol-three if you would like.”
“No, thank you,” I mumbled, relaxing back into the comfy mattress. “Although, regular Tylenol would be nice.”
“Certo.”
I felt the bed shift when he left, and blinked when a lamp light clicked on less than two seconds later. “Wow. Wasn’t expecting it that fast.” He didn’t respond, not that I really expected him to, and I waited several minutes after taking the gel-caps before asking him anything. “Where’s Cole?”
“Kendal is escorting him to an older, knowledgeable clan in New York,” he said, his words measured. “The city is much more hospitable to our breed.” He went silent and stayed quiet for so long I had to prod him to speak, and the smile he offered was pained. “I am afraid you have a contusion covering a large portion of your left cheek. It is…noticeable.”
“That’s your polite way of saying it looks god-awful,” I groused. “And how am I supposed to explain this anyway?”
“The truth,” he stated. “You were out with some friends, your ex attempted to start a fight, and in the commotion, you were injured. If anyone needs details, say you were accidentally shoved into a table rather than a sofa.”
“And Cole,” I blurted suddenly. “He attacked you because of me?”
His face lost any traces of playfulness and his expression became cold, his eyes remorseful. “I was very much aware that Colton seemed determined to regain contact with his partner from his human life, but never once did I hear him mention your name. I can assure you if Kendal had been remotely aware of Colton’s objectives, he would have alerted me immediately. I suspect, given Kendal’s place in Colton’s former life, Mister Malver felt it would be prudent to refrain from speaking of anyone from his past or behaving in a suspicious manner. Mister O’Cleirigh was just as taken aback by your revelation as I was when you told me.”
Guilt seemed to darken his eyes. “Kendal was of the belief that, being the alpha male of this clan, I should reveal my relationship and intentions concerning you to Colton. Usually when the dominate male asserts his authority, it is followed without question, and given that Kendal is his creator and I above both of them, I—we both—unwisely presumed my orders would be obeyed.
“I am also ashamed to say that I did not fully…comprehend just how obsessed Colton was until now,” he said quietly. “And if I am to be honest, I am unsure if I would be capable of allowing him to return to this clan. If he returns and attempts to challenge me again, I may kill him.”
As I listened to Simon talk, I nestled deeper into the bedding and struggled to comprehend the night’s events. Before, I’d thought the biggest hurtle to our relationship was that I was a student and he an instructor of the same university, but it seemed I was wrong as Simon Treviso was a vampire. The man I had been slowly falling for was an incubus, a sexual creature who preyed on the life of other humans, and I, it seemed, was his mate.
Then there was Cole, my ex-boyfriend from high school. Cole was the reason I was in this bed, a growing bruise on my face. I tried my best to excuse it as him being a new vampire, something I myself was struggling to come to grips with, and not being fully in control of his strength, or indeed any of his faculties, but the truth of the matter was that if he had accepted my decision to end our relationship and had attempted to move on when human, then there would have been a chance there would’ve been no feelings, or at the very least lesser feelings, to act upon.
In the very end, when all of the excuses turned to ash in my mouth, Cole had caused me harm by not growing up, by not making the decision to mature when he had the opportunity to do so. Now, he was an angry, obsessed, violent being whom I truly feared would have no hope for change.
“Do you think if Cole had the chance that he’d kill me?” I asked pensively. “I mean, I’ve heard in some cases if people who are obsessed with their goals don’t achieve it, if they think they are losing the object of their obsession, they’d rather sacrifice their goal than allow someone else to take it.”
“I would never allow that to happen,
mio tesoro,
but I suppose we can speak metaphorically for a moment,” he agreed. “If there was ever a circumstance in which I could not reach you, say if I were severely—and it would have to be quite severe, I assure you—incapacitated, then Colton could easily take your life, probably from uncontrolled feeding.”
When I shuddered, he stroked my arms through the periwinkle sheets. “You must understand that when a vampire finds their mate within a human, there is an intrinsic desire to feed from them, a rather macabre, animalistic bonding experience. And,” his voice again took on a guilty tinge, “had I or Kendal either known of his obsession, we—”
“You wouldn’t have told him,” I concluded. “Simon, I don’t blame you. When y’all took him in, you didn’t know who I was, and I’m sure Kendal had forgotten about our relationship.” When he gave me a pointed stare, I shrugged. “Okay, so I’m guessing y’all don’t forget, well, anything. But still, we had been out of high school for awhile. A lot of relationships don’t survive ‘the college experience’. It would be natural to think Cole and I were long over, especially if he never mentioned me. I’d hoped by now, he’d’ve gotten over it.”
“Yes, well, evidently he has not.”
“Evidently.”
“Sfacciata.”
“Yeah. I still can’t speak Italian. English, please?”
“Cheeky.”
“Infatti.”
He growled, a sound which left me nearly speechless. He had growled. A real growl! Not that low, drawn-out huff that humans made, but an actual, honest-to-God rumbling in his throat. “You seem shocked,” he managed through the rough sound.
“Is that the only sound you make?”
I had meant to be sassy, with a hint of snark. I didn’t think he’d actually make other noises, or that he’d call me on my teasing. Yet without even a moment's hesitation, as he lowered his lips to kiss his way up the side of my neck and nuzzle my ear, making me shiver, the sound shifted positions from his throat to his chest.
His purr, I decided, was truly the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard, and I whispered my thoughts to him, the volume increasing and reminding me of a contented jungle cat. I found the sound unexpectedly comforting, something I greatly needed given the unusual position I found myself facing.
Vampires were real.
The thought churned up more thoughts and feelings, disbelief battling with my desire to understand, to learn, to accept, and I was certain this internal struggle was a major contributor to the headache I had. “May I ask you a question?” I asked after a few minutes of resting in his embrace. “It’s pretty personal, I should warn you.”
“As your mate, there is nothing that is personal,” he responded. “I will answer any questions you have, no matter how personal you believe them to be. Whatever I know, you have a right to know as well,
mia diletta.”
“You said vampires inherently want to drink their human mates’ blood,” I stated calmly. “So you want to drink my blood?”
“Yes.” It was frank for sure, but I could not help but think there was something missing from his answer, and it took several minutes of prodding for him to continue with what it was he really wanted to say. “While I am unsure what you smell like to others, to me you have the bouquet of an exquisite Amarone wine. A fragrant blend of coffee and cherries. Full and generous. Almost awe-inspiring with its powerful flavors, with just a small bite at the end of the experience."
His fingers caressed my throat slowly, and I leaned into the touch with a moan. "To a creature such as myself, you are something so rare and divine that it would be a sin to just drain you thoughtlessly. No, Sofia. I would only occasionally soothe my palette with your delicious flavor, for you,
mia squisita diletta,
are most tempting. You—" he trailed his tongue over my fluttering vein— "you are meant to be sampled,
mio tesoro.
That is what your blood is to me," he cooed. "I could never just drink of you so carelessly, until the last drop was pulled from you. No, no, no. I would savor your blood for years to come."
Figlio di puttana!
Son of a bitch.
Those words should have not have been as arousing as I found them. The man had compared me to a popular Italian wine, and had proceeded to describe, rather tantalizingly, how he would drink, or rather not drink, from me. Of course, in my mind this equated to the same thing, and to my mortification, I found myself inquiring if he ever would give in to the enticing pull he felt and indulge.
“I must confess that denying myself the taste of your blood would be almost as painful as denying my feelings for you,” he answered. “But you should be aware I could never bring myself to drink from you. It would be inappropriate to do so.”
This shocked me and left me feeling strangely disappointed.
My face must have betrayed the myriad of emotions, because he sat up to face me when he spoke. “From the moment I awoke to my condition, I swore to myself I would not let the blood of humans pass my lips, and I failed,” he continued, “as I still do. I have striven for centuries to attempt to perfect my control, and while I have succeeded for some time, I inevitably fall short. Yet even with my failures, I still endeavor to be a better example. How do you think it would appear to my clan if I were to so easily succumb to the temptation of your blood, if I were to allow myself to partake of the luscious life that flows through your veins?"
“Do you not just love how he presumes to know what we think? Seriously, it is so horrendously aggravating.”
My head snapped up, and I found two women standing in the door way. One was pale as porcelain; the other had a hint of mocha in her pearly skin, and after taking another look at Simon’s coloring, I reasoned she was probably of Middle Eastern descent. Either way, they were both incredibly beautiful, more so than any human I had ever met.
"May," the younger one warned softly.
The one named May had raven hair as straight as a yard stick which flowed all the way down her back, and eyes that seemed to be a perfect blend of rosewood and cinnamon. She looked elegant and exotic, and I felt an uncomfortable twinge of inferiority just looking at her.
I couldn’t help but notice that while the fiery red-head’s murky brown eyes looked directly at mine, they did not seem to focus on to them, see into them, and it took me several moments to realize the reason was a lack of sight—a blind vampire!
I felt like I would get whiplash at how fast I glanced between Simon and May then back to this other female.
“Yes,” she interjected into my silent questions, sounding amazingly pleasant and entirely unoffended. “I’m blind, and yes, it took me awhile to learn how to be the only blind vampire I know of.”
“Sofia Capriola,” Simon began, “allow me to introduce
Maymuna bint Fatima bint al-Harith ibn al-Basir
, also called Maymuna Bashir or May O’Cleirigh. The number of her names makes mine look positively pitiful. She is both Kendal’s wife and mate.”
And she was definitely of Middle Eastern decent.
“So-fī-uh. I’ve never heard it pronounced with a long ‘i’ sound. It’s very interesting,” the other succubus said cheerfully, pulling me from my thoughts as she walked straight to the edge of the bed. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Sofia. I’m Grace Bennett. And you’ll have to forgive May; she’s rather blunt.”
I nibbled my lower lip for a moment then spoke up in defense of the exotic vampire. "Well, she may have a point."
When Grace raised an eyebrow at me, I shrugged and cast another apologetic glance to my surprised mate. "It’s not like your clan is full of children. They’re adults, very old adults I’m guessing. They’re capable of making their own decisions with or without your help, and at such an age, I’m fairly certain your behavior wouldn’t really influence their choices, nor do I think your choices would the sole basis of their view of you. Not only that, it does make it sound like you’re trying to be better than everyone else,” I challenged.