Exposure: Bloodlust Series Book 1

by L. L. Ash

Clarence rubbed his eyes and began to argue again.

  “He’s right,” came a decidedly feminine voice coming in behind Mason.

  He moved out of the way and Evelyn appeared.

  “She needs fresh blood for the first few days. To gain her strength back. We should also go and see if we can recruit some other houses to our side. Large clans are fewer and farther in between these days, but we need manpower against Jasper.”

  Clarence met her eyes and they shared a meaningful silent stare.

  “Is that what you want to do, Addie?” he asked me finally.

  My stomach rumbled.

  I looked back at the cup before nodding.

  “Besides,” Mason waved his hand around, tossing the empty blood pack in the trash. “Who knows. There is even the smallest possibility that she won’t stay this way, just like after she got bit. We won’t know for a few days yet, but let the girl enjoy herself while she can.”

  “Is there really a chance I’ll go back to normal?” I asked him.

  “Well don’t go getting your hopes up. We’ve never seen someone go vamp before then back to human a week later, but then again, we’ve never seen that with the werewolves either. You’re a conundrum and I don’t know what to expect from you at this point. Time will tell.”

  I nodded and looked up at Clarence. I wondered if he wanted me to be human again, or if he would prefer I stayed vampire.

  “We should wait until the evening though,” Evelyn piped in again. “There are chances of running into a nightwalker. Even a few of them would shift the tides for us.”

  Mason shuddered and Clarence winced.

  There that word was again.

  Nightwalker.

  “So, it’s afternoon already, a few more hours til the sun sets and we’ll head over.”

  We all agreed silently before splitting up.

  “Do you want to go anywhere?” Clarence asked as I found a spot on the couch.

  “Not really,” I admitted.

  I was feeling weak and a little tired, as well as extremely hungry.

  “Maybe you can ask Evelyn if you can borrow a dress for tonight.”

  As Clarence finished his sentence there was a knock on the door.

  Everyone in the house froze before Clarence went to the door, looking through the peephole.

  “Not the best timing,” he said as he opened the door.

  Another person appeared as they entered the room beside Clarence.

  It was Eddie.

  “Well I thought now was better than later or earlier. So deal with it.”

  Eddie had a few bags in his hands, shopping bags.

  “I figured Addie could use some clothes. She’d just gone shopping before...”

  He didn’t have to finish his sentence.

  “Eddie, you didn’t have to bring these,” I told him, standing and going to him.

  “They’re yours, and I’m sure you need them.”

  “But… they were for when I was...”

  “They’re just clothes, Addie,” he gave me a half smile.

  Clarence put his hand out and accepted the load.

  “Oh, and I have this too. I thought you’d want it asap.”

  He reached in his pocket and pulled out my crimson choker.

  “Oh my God… it survived?”

  “Better than you did,” he smiled.

  I fingered the cross, thinking of Mom for just a moment before clipping it around my neck.

  “Thank you so much, Eddie. Seriously, you have no idea how much this means to me.”

  “Well, when Evelyn showed up with the necklace I snatched it away from her pretty fast. I know how much that thing means to you, WHAT it means to you.”

  Taking a step forward I pressed a big kiss to his cheek.

  “Thank you so much.”

  “No problem,” he shrugged, though his voice deepened and his face didn’t reflect his easy stance.

  “Thank you,” Clarence put out his hand, as if in a truce.

  Eddie looked at it for a minute before finally taking it.

  “Still don’t really like you,” he said to Clarence with a crooked smile.

  “Mutual, my friend,” Clarence agreed. “But you obviously mean something to Addie, so I’ll tolerate you.”

  Eddie laughed and snorted before saying, “Yeah, guess we both have to.”

  I smiled at them, grateful they were getting along at least temporarily.

  “And I hear you took good care of her,” Clarence added. “Maybe a little too much care, but good care. So for that, I’m thankful.”

  “Well, she chose you, so you must do a better job. Besides, if she gets bit again, I’ll be there for her.”

  No more laughs were exchanged and I wondered if this was a weird version of threats.

  Men… Who understood them?

  “You’ll have no need,” their hands tightened around each other’s. “She has me and won’t need the protection of another for the rest of her life.”

  With that the handshake broke and their hands looked like they’d been squeezed to death.

  “I’ll see you later, Honey,” Eddie said, not saying a goodbye to Clarence before letting himself out.

  “Bloody hell, talk about a pissing contest,” Mason said from his place in the hall doorway.

  “Animals only understand such blatant things as pissing contests,” Clarence said distastefully.

  “Oh, come now. You got into it. Don’t even deny it. You like pissing on your territory just as much as any other male.”

  Clarence’s lips thinned as he looked at his brother, then he tossed himself onto the couch and sighed.

  “Looks like you won though. You break any bones in his hand?”

  “Maybe one or two,” Clarence admitted, trying to hide his smile.

  “Animals. Every man is really an animal down in his core. Human, werewolf or vampire. That’s the one thing that doesn’t change.”

  “I don’t think I’ll ask why you did that...” I said, sighing myself as I perched on the arm of the couch.

  “Staking claim to you, Sweet Pea,” Mason said with a laugh. “Eddie came to sniff things out, Clee pissed in his face.”

  “Men are disgusting.”

  “Won’t get any arguments out of us,” Mason said flippantly as he headed back toward the bedrooms.

  “By the way,” he paused mid-hallway. “I’d like some more of your blood to study, Adds. Supposing you don’t mind.”

  “Sure, whatever you need.”

  A couple minutes later Mason returned with what he needed to take my blood.

  Clarence cuddled beside me on the couch, watching lazily as Mason took some samples and took his typical single drop of blood that bloomed on my skin after removing the needle.

  “She’s actually still pretty sweet,” Mason said absently as he rubbed at my puncture again, the needle hole completely healed.

  “How many times do I need to tell you to stop tasting her blood, Brother,” Clarence drawled, one arm thrown over his eyes.

  “It’s the one thing I look forward to in the midst of all this science. And I’ve no intention of stopping anytime soon.”

  One side of Clarence’s mouth tweaked up and I imagined him rolling his eyes at Mason underneath the cloak of his forearm.

  Mason left the room, vials of my blood in one hand and his bag of medical tools in the other, and we sat in the living room in silence.

  I felt my entire body loosen as I relaxed. Silence settled in around us as I melted into Clarence’s arm and shoulder, everything drifting away around us.

  Minutes passed and my eyes closed before I heard Clarence’s voice rough and gravely.

  “If we don’t move I’m going to fall asleep.”

  “So why not fall asleep?” I asked back, my voice also deep and sultry with sleep.

  “We’ll be leaving soon,” he sighed. “I just haven’t slept well since Tucson, and not at all since you were abducted.”

  “Were you worried
about me?” I asked, turning my head toward him.

  He removed his arm from his eyes and opened them a little, giving me a playful glare.

  “No, I wasn’t worried at all that the woman I love was taken from right under my nose by who knows who, and I had no idea how to find her or how to save her or whether she was dead or alive.”

  “I was scared too,” I admitted. “By the last couple days I thought I was going to die. I was sure of it. I thought that if you would find me than you would have by then.”

  “We tried,” he sighed. “Eddie and I almost took each other’s heads off in the process. It was divine intervention when Evelyn showed up. And even better luck when Eddie didn’t tear her to pieces on sight. You were so smart to give her your necklace as proof.”

  “I don’t know what made me think of it. I just knew that you and Eddie both knew what it meant and I didn’t have anything else that was definably me. And if the worst came to… I wanted you to have it and not them. You would treasure it like I did.”

  “I would have,” he agreed. “I demanded Eddie give it to me but he stuck his companions on me and forced me out. If anything had happened to you I’d have killed him and taken it if he did not give it to me.”

  “Well then I guess we all have reasons to be grateful I didn’t die.”

  He grinned and turned toward me, pressing his forehead to mine.

  “I missed you so much, Addie. I can’t begin to describe how much,” he told me, slipping his arm around me.

  “I think I know.”

  “Why...” he started then paused, not finishing his thought.

  “Why what?”

  He took a fortifying breath and spoke.

  “Why did you avoid me for so long? If you still loved me and you missed me… Why wouldn’t you accept my apologies?”

  It was a very good, and very fair question.

  I inhaled, feeling my lungs expand but none of the oxygen rush I used to get which felt a little weird.

  “Because I was hurt,” I said eventually. “And I guess I stupidly wanted you to come begging on your hands and knees and plead for me to take you back. I’ve watched too many romances.”

  He sighed.

  “Believe me, I thought about it. So many times I stood at your doorstep or sat in my car in your neighborhood, convincing myself not to go, not to grovel. But eventually I was able to convince myself that if you eventually decided you wanted me back, you would tell me, and that it wasn’t my place to beg you to be in my life when we had such differences. If you wanted a clean break, I knew I had to respect that.”

  “So we both thought we knew what the other was thinking and assumed.”

  “Seems like it,” his half smile made another appearance.

  Another pause settled over us.

  “I’m not sure if I should apologize or not for not crawling to you and beg for you to take me back,” he said with a chuckle.

  I laughed.

  “I think you made up for it all in the last few days.”

  “Well, good to hear. I’ll be sure not to make the same mistake again.”

  “And I’ll try to be more vocal about how I’m feeling. I’m not good at that.”

  “Few people are,” he hugged me tighter to him.

  We sat there in silence for another couple of minutes before deciding to be more truthful starting that moment.

  “I’m scared. About tonight. I’m scared I won’t know what to do, and that I can’t do it.”

  “With the feeder?” he asked.

  “Is that what you call them?”

  He gave a faint nod.

  “I don’t know if I have it in me… or if I can… I mean how do you even get the blood out?”

  Clarence wiggled around on the couch for a moment to sit up before standing.

  “Follow me,” he told me, putting out his hand.

  I took it and went with him.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  He led me back to the bedroom and opened the cold bed box. Leaving the lid open, he sat down against the cushioned side, putting his hands up for me.

  “Come, sit on my lap.”

  Entirely unsure where he was heading, I went along.

  I took his hand and stepped over the side before squatting. He moved my legs, one to each side of his hips before I sank down, straddling him.

  “Do you plan on distracting me?” I asked, slipping my arms around his neck.

  “No,” he chuckled. “Not yet, anyway. You said you were nervous. I want to help you.”

  “How can you help me?”

  “Well, I was just thinking that besides that time outside of LA when we were shoved off the road, I’ve never bit you.”

  “I know. You always refused.”

  “Right. And rightfully so. But at the same time, you’re shoved into this world with so much knowledge and no experience.”

  “Ok, so how can you help me?”

  “I’m going to bite you,” he told me, his voice soft.

  Surprise wasn’t really the right word. Shocked was more like it.

  “Really? You can do that?”

  “Yeah. It’s not for sustenance, but it can still be done. But biting a vampire or a werewolf is difficult because we heal. You must continue to bite again and again. You’ll get some practice on me before tonight.”

  My stomach turned with nervousness.

  “But I’ll show you how to do it first.”

  “How did you know?” I asked quickly before he got access to my skin. “Who taught you?”

  “Nobody,” he shrugged. “I became hungry enough that I had to figure it out on my own. But I was fed on so many times before that it wasn’t too difficult to figure out.”

  Done with my stalling, he brought his mouth to my neck, pressing his lips gently there for a long moment. His lips brushed over my skin, sending tingles all the way down my shoulders, arms and back. His tongue savored my neck, lips pressing with the gentlest pressure until they introduced a firm suction. My muscles eased up under his intimate caress before I felt a sharp pang near the front of my throat. I gasped at the feeling, then felt the suction again. His hands cupped my jaw, my head tilted to the side and he fed, tenderly against my flesh.

  Not a minute later his tongue laved at my throat and he hummed in satisfaction.

  “You ARE sweet,” he breathed against my skin.

  As his hands released my jaw, letting me relax again and meet his eyes.

  “It closed up,” he said with a weak smile. “Or I’d have gone a little longer.”

  Touching my neck, no mark remained, nor was there a trace of blood. Only a faint mark of moisture remained from his tongue.

  “Your turn,” he said, dipping his chin and turning his head to the side.

  “Does it have to be on the neck? I mean… Logically I know I can’t hurt you, but I’m still afraid I’m going to hurt you.”

  He smiled.

  “The neck has the best and easiest veins to access. Generous blood flow with little skin and flesh between it and you.”

  “And I have to kiss and...”

  “No,” he said quickly, “It was your first time...I didn’t want to upset you. A feeder is used to the feeling, you don’t need to prepare them.”

  “Can I do it for you?”

  “If you wish,” he said quietly before moving his head back into position.

  He left perfect access to his neck.

  “How do I know where to bite?”

  He lifted a finger and drew on his own neck.

  “Little science lesson. The veins carry used blood, the arteries carry rich blood. This here is the jugular vein, following both sides of the trachea. The carotid artery lies just underneath. Aim for here.”

  He followed a line from his earlobe down to his collarbone.

  “And you’ll be ok?”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “Will the feeder be ok?”

  “When you’re done you’ll give them your blood. They’ll heal in
stantly before they can get hurt.”

  I blew out a breath and he moved his head again.

  “Come now, you can do it, Darling. Honest I don’t mind. I did this for a very long time before I started doing the eating.”

  Right. I could do this. He would walk me through it and I would be fine.

  “You must turn,” he added.

  Turn? Why was this so hard?

  “Feel it, from deep down in your stomach. Feel the animal, the beast. It’s just like the werewolf.”

  I focused, reaching deep down and aimed for the wildness I’d grown acquainted with a week before. I felt the tingling I recognized, and then a sharp pain in my jaw as my eye teeth protruded from my jaw and dug into my bottom lip.

  Opening my eyes, I looked into his and watched as so many emotions crossed his face.

  “You’re ready,” was all he said before turning his head once again and exposing the soft part of his neck.

  I leaned down and kissed ever so gently. I could smell the blood underneath the surface, stagnant and unmoving because his heart didn’t pump. His chest remained still, not moving in the fruitless but steady effort of up and down that I’d grown so used to. I dipped the tip of my tongue instinctively against the tendons and veins in his neck, familiarizing myself with the smell and the texture.

  Finally, I took a gasping breath in familiar habit to fortify myself. Using my eyeteeth I sank down into his flesh, feeling the skin tear underneath my lips as he made a little grunt. A little blood came out but not much. But the flavor of copper and salt and iron hit my tongue and I was lost.

  “A little further back,” came Clarence’s voice, rumbling against my cheek and jaw as he spoke.

  Licking what little blood was left after his wound closed, I drifted further away from his throat and more toward his ear before biting again. No grunt of pain this time, and instead I was rewarded with a gush of blood flooding my mouth. I savored and slurped every bit until it closed on me again. And then I bit, opening him up again.

  It was like a morbid sort of dance. His arms were wrapped around me and he stroked me gently up and down my back as I continued to bite and consume. It seemed like seconds and hours as we sat there, and as my belly filled with his offering, heat suffused in the bottom of my belly. My thighs clamped around his hips and as his fingers touched my skin after he’d slipped his hands under the hem of my borrowed shirt, my clamped thighs loosened and my hips began to rock. Something about the blood was such a carnal sensation in my brain, registering pure pleasure as I devoured him, everything about me wanted pleasure, and I wanted everything that he was. With my mouth I owned his lifeblood. Now I needed to own every part of him.