“Arthur was the same way. Did you know that he once went several decades without speaking? It’s why his voice sounds scratchy all the time.”
Straightening, I clutched my toiletries in my arms and walked past Dom to the sink. “I probably know more about Arthur than you do.” I set my stuff down and opened my container of wipes. I kept them fresh and moist with water, perfect to help get me clean without a shower. Taking several, I handed a few to Dom before I went to town on my dirty face. “How old are you?” I asked him as we cleaned ourselves.
“About as old as you, I suspect. I was born before the event. I remember movie theaters. Theme parks. High school.” He shuddered and took more wipes, running them over his light blonde stubble. “Ugh, high school. One thing I’m glad we don’t have to suffer through anymore.”
I swiped at my temple and turned slightly to look at him. “I was home schooled. You went to school with humans?”
He raised his blonde eyebrows with a grin, and fuck if my heart didn’t skip a beat. “You didn’t? Oh, now I really feel like a freak.”
“You should,” I smarted, looking back at the mirror with a smile. He threw a crumpled wipe at me as punishment and I dodged, not even stopping my path down my neck. The scoop neck of my gray shirt let me wipe all around my collarbone and I looked up to see Dom staring at my hands intently.
“Do, please, continue,” he offered, smirking per his usual. I tossed the wipe at him, expertly hitting him square in the face even though he tried to move out of the line of fire. We both took more wipes for our arms, and Dom went back to the rest of the room while I removed my boots to attempt cleaning my feet.
“If only we’d stayed in Salvation long enough to bathe,” I grumbled as several rocks fell from between my toes.
“Remind me to complain about your mom’s sense of urgency.” I rolled my eyes and heard Dom picking something up before flopping onto the bed. Stepping back, I saw him, remote in hand, pretending to flip stations on the ancient, dead television. “Ugh, Golden Girls is never on when I want it to be.”
My eyebrow quirked up at him. “You watch Golden Girls?”
His mouth contorted as he tried to look innocent. “Don’t tell Arthur.”
Snorting a laugh, I finished cleaning myself and crossed in front of the dead television to sit in an armchair next to the bed. I lifted my still kind of gross feet onto the dining table and folded my hands on my stomach. It grumbled loudly in protest of my neglect.
Dom looked around like the tummy rumbling was coming from the walls. “I hear dead people. They’re telling me… eat some jerky.”
“Mmm,” I groaned and shut my eyes, trying to ignore the pain in my throat. I was so thirsty. When was the last time I’d fed? The fact that I had to ask was bad. “If only that’s what it needed.” Dom went still, like a human trying to be immobile so the Tyrannosaurus doesn’t notice them. I peeked one eye at him, heard his heartbeat speeding up, and closed my lid again. “Better watch out. You’re looking mighty tasty right about now, you walking sex bomb.”
“I’ve never been fed from before,” he admitted, his voice sounding oddly curious. “Could you control me if you wanted?”
I fanned my hands out in a shrug, ignoring the huskiness in his voice and how warm it was making me. “I’ve only fed from people older than me or too close to my age. I suspect I’ll be able to eventually, but ethics would prevent me from becoming the evil warlord of my dreams. Though I’d definitely wear a badass outfit either way. Something with a cape.”
“Maybe one of those evil up-turned collars too, while you’re at it,” Dom joked back. “I could be your evil henchman.”
My stomach bounced under my hands as I laughed and opened my eyes to see his two-toned gaze on me, his back against the bed’s headboard. Something about it made my body ache right in my center, and I stood up to rid myself of the sensation.
“We need to find sharks and bleeders tomorrow,” I informed him while grabbing my bag from the bed to lay on the floor. I climbed up the bed’s ancient comforter and plopped my head on one of the pillows next to where Dom sat. It smelled like dust, but it wasn’t covered in it at least. “If we don’t feed, we’ll never get the chance to find Jason.”
“I’d never let you go hungry,” Dom assured me from above my head. My mouth opened as I tried to respond, but I’d already started drifting off to sleep.
19. Full bellies
Kitty
The next morning, I found myself waking up with a warm body behind me, snuggled against my ass, curved perfectly to fit my body. I started wiggling into it, feeling all the planes and bumps, before I felt a hardness I wasn’t used to feeling and I realized who was lying behind me.
“Fucking hell,” I shrieked and rolled off of the bed, landing hard on my butt on the floor. “Ahh fuck,” I shrieked again, my hands reaching to where Artemis lay and I picked her up to point at Dom still on the bed, Shadow lying at his feet.
He held his hands up and his pulse thundered on his neck. He smelled so good. “Kitty, calm down, I wasn’t… shit.” He started struggling to get free from the white cotton sheet we’d been sleeping under. “Kitty, calm down,” he repeated, his hands still out to protect himself as he walked around the bed.
Sweet, crimson, flowing blood. So long, so long since I’d had anything except stinking shark blood. I was so hungry.
Taking advantage of my state, Dom grabbed Artemis and tossed her on the bed, narrowly missing Shadow, before taking my hands in his. “You’re going into a frenzy. How long has it been since you fed?”
My fangs were starting to drop, and I knew my eyes were glowing red with the tendrils of a frenzy coming over me. “I don’t…” I swallowed, feeling the burn of thirst along my throat. “I can’t even fucking remember.”
Dom swore again and bent to the floor, gathering up our things while I stood by the bed, my hunger right on the precipice of insanity, but somehow keeping myself from going over.
“So… thirsty…” I muttered when he took my hands again. Numbly, I followed him out of the room, down the hallway, out the lobby, and to my cycle with Shadow close behind us. Dom zipped Shadow into his jacket and mounted the bike with my hand still in his, and he tugged it to bring me onto the seat behind him. He thrust on the pedal to start the bike and raced out of the parking lot like we were on fire.
I felt like Frodo, gasping for air as he got closer and closer to Mordor, except I needed to drink vampire blood instead of destroying a golden bauble. Dom was my Sam, carrying me to Mount Doom, AKA. my next meal.
Run faster, Sam. I’m horribly peckish.
Dom used his senses to pinpoint the closest den of sharks, but it was still an eternity until we found them. I was a second away from fanging Dom in the neck when I caught their scent. Sweet, crisp sharks. Their blood just waiting for me, like a microwaved hot pocket. Dom stopped the motorcycle as we pulled into an abandoned city, not unlike the one where I’d left the drug dealers to rot in the heat.
The sharks were gathered in the middle of town, around what was once the city courthouse, a tall stone structure, untested by time for now. It was my beacon of hope, not to mention a full belly. Sizing up the large group of drones, I dismounted the bike and slowly walked across the old paved road, my every step causing them to take notice of me. Once I was far enough away from Dom, I flipped my hands out to form claws, my fangs dropped, and I screeched out a cry.
I charged.
The sharks ran to me, I met them with my claws out, and I hacked at the first two, grabbing one to my mouth to take a long pull.
Gross. But so damn good.
I tossed that one away and went to the next wave. They met the end of my claws as I whished by and flipped through them. Those that didn’t end up as my food ended up in pieces. Once my belly was full and my hunger as sated as it could be on shark blood, I continued laying waste to them until none were left and I stood in a bloodied heap right at the center of their corpses.
Turning, I loo
ked back at Dom on the bike, Shadow’s head peeking out of his jacket. He stared at me with equal parts fear and fascination. Good. He should fear me. That’ll teach him to snuggle me in my sleep with his morning wood. Turning the engine back on, he rolled the bite up and got off to approach me, side stepping the bodies around my feet.
“That was pretty wicked,” he appraised, his mouth doing that quirky smile that made my stomach jump like a grasshopper.
I shrugged and some drips of blood fell from my fingers. “Wicked is good.”
A gun shot came from above and the bullet hit the ground right next to Dom’s boot, ricocheting off the concrete.
“Put your hands up, drinkers!” a voice crackled over an outdoor speaker system. I pinpointed the sound coming from the top floor of a faded red building next door to the courthouse. We faced it and put our hands up as instructed when a group of bleeders emerged from the front door, guns out and pointed at us. “Surrender your weapons,” the voice said.
“You realize I can kill all of you without my gun, right?” I informed the bleeders when they approached. The biggest one broke from the line and put his hand out, wiggling his fingers for me to hand over Artemis. I did, throwing a pouty glare to the window where the speaker sat. Still pointing their guns at us, the bleeders led us inside.
It seemed I was destined to only see the inside of bars on my travels, because that’s exactly what the place had been, or still was judging by the red-haired woman standing behind the wooden bar. She was doing the typical bartender thing of wiping at glasses with a towel that she threw over her shoulder when we approached, because bartenders never did anything else.
“You’re a mess,” she observed, her mouth curving up from the sight of me. I grinned back and licked at the blood on my hand while maintaining eye contact with her. She gave me a look that made my spine shiver. “Take a seat.”
I grabbed one of the red barstools and sat on it while the bartender poured us something to drink. I downed it in one gulp, whiskey by the taste of it, and slammed the glass on the counter hard enough to echo but not hard enough to break it. Dom also drank his, without being dramatic about it.
“Thank you for taking care of the sharks,” the woman said, downing her own drink. “It’s been hard to leave this building since they showed up a few days ago.”
“Guns don’t work?” Dom guessed, throwing his head back to where the other bleeders stood with their rifles.
The bartender almost looked sheepish, and she poured herself another drink, tossing it back swiftly. “We ran out of ammo months ago.”
I flipped my arm behind my head, wiggling my fingers at the bleeder who had done the same to me. “I’ll take my gun, thank you.” He pressed it into my hand and I slid her back into my holster.
“You from Salvation?” the woman guessed, her blue eyes looking us over. “I haven’t seen drinkers in these parts for a time, to be sure. They’re all at that city now.”
“Speaking of which,” I transitioned with a smile. “My friend here needs blood.”
That made her pause, and her eyes darted back to the other bleeders, no doubt wishing they still had ammo. “We’re not a blood drive, girl. We don’t feed your kind.”
Dom pulled his backpack to the side, unzipped a pocket, and pulled out a baggie of Night Shadow, which he tossed onto the counter. “Trade. Blood for Night Shadow.”
Her eyes widened at the sight of the dark red-purple pills and she scratched at her neck in thought. I might’ve been immune to the addictive effects of the drug, but bleeders, vampires, and Lycans were not. Bleeders were especially susceptible to its charms, though they were at a very high risk for overdosing if they weren’t careful.
“One bag for now, another tomorrow for more blood,” Dom negotiated, his fingers drumming on the wooden counter.
The woman tried to look nonchalant as she leaned back against the shelves that held bottles and bottles of brown liquid. “As I said, we’re not a blood bank.” Her words didn’t sound as convincing as before, making Dom expertly straighten up, his hand reaching for the baggies in a power move.
“Alright, we’ll be on our way again,” he said evenly. When his fingers closed around the baggies, all the bleeders seemed to close in on us, the bartender included, hoping to stop us from taking the drug away.
“Fine,” the woman said with a sniff. “Two feedings, and that’s fucking it. You ask for more, or take what’s not offered, I won’t need ammo to end you.”
Though she meant what she said, I held back a scoffing laugh because none of them could take us, but we had to go by their rules, and that meant playing along. Dom and I nodded, and one bleeder came forward with a curl of the bartender’s finger. Dom slid off his stool and was onto the guy’s neck in a flash, the room filling with the smell of copper blood. The bleeder shoved Dom away when he was finished and had a look of disgust on his face as he said some very unkind things under his breath about us.
The woman cleared her throat, her fingers closing around the baggie of drugs before we could stop her. “We have running water if you’d like to clean up.”
Heaven.
20. Wet kisses
Kitty
By ‘running water’ the bleeders meant a communal shower area at a public pool nearby. They’d connected the showers to well water so they magically still worked. I didn’t care what format a shower came in, even with my perfect memory it felt like I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a bath.
The bleeders left us alone in the pool building since they didn’t like being near us, and they were probably all going to get high off Night Shadow anyway, so we’d be alone for the night.
Dom and I walked past an empty pool area to the showers. The room smelled like rusty pipes and old shoes, but I didn’t care. I didn’t even care that Dom was standing next to me, I stripped down to my underthings and ran to the nearest shower head. It squeaked when I turned the handle, but sure enough, lukewarm water started coming out of the shower head and poured onto me like a holy baptism.
I let out a moan that probably wasn’t a wise noise to be making when I was so undressed. Dom didn’t comment, he merely also got down to his skivvies and came to the shower beside me, letting out his own moan when the water hit his head.
The water rushed down my toes and turned the floor a crimson color from all the blood on my skin. I found a bar of soap on a ledge above my head and used it to scrub off all the red from every patch of skin I could reach. My bralette looked a little pink now, but I’d soak it after this to get it white again.
Dom held his hand out for the soap and I gave it to him, thinking he’d use it on himself. Instead, he lifted a finger and twirled it, meaning he wanted me to turn around. I did, pulling my long black curls to my front, and then his warm hands were on my back.
How long had it been since I’d felt someone’s touch on my back like that?
Gently, he used the soap to get all the spots of blood where I couldn’t reach, his hands moving over my flesh long after he’d finished scrubbing, igniting flames all over my skin. He tugged on my arm slightly to pull me back under the shower head and rinse me off. I started moving away, but he grabbed at me again and I heard him rustle into his bag for something before he squirted a liquid onto his hand. His hands came back, but this time they were on my head, running through my curls with the shampoo he’d brought to get my hair clean.
“I had shampoo too, you know,” I said in a half complaint. My body had started shivering even though the water was still pleasantly warm.
Dom laughed slightly and continued massaging the suds into my curls, the gentle caress of his fingers relaxing every muscle in my body. “Mine is better. Your mom gave it to me, it’s for curly hair. She wanted to make sure your hair was cared for.”
I dropped my eyes and smiled where he couldn’t see. Even cornered and threatened, she was still looking out for me, with something as simple and insignificant as shampoo. Another tug from Dom’s large hands and he helped me rin
se all the shampoo out.
“Thank you,” I said without meeting his eyes, mostly because I wasn’t sure what I’d see on his face if I did. “Let me get your back too.” He turned his back to me, handing me the soap over his shoulder, and I came up behind him, bringing the sudsy bar to his perfectly toned back. Suddenly I wasn’t shivering anymore, I was raging hot. Ignoring that, I ran the soap across all his plains and valleys, rubbing it in with my fingertips. “I never thought I’d get to shower again.”
He laughed, the chuckle shaking my hand on his back. “Me either. Feels like it did before, when the world wasn’t like this. Funny how something as simple as a shower can pull you back in time.”
I was also floating back in time, but not to the days before the sharks came. With my fingers dancing across Dom’s skin, I was back to the last time I’d had a shower, when Thalia was still alive. We’d stood under the spraying water, naked and panting, bringing each other to climax as the water dripped down our bodies. Something about the memory was making me sadder than I’d felt in a long time. I’d tried to move on, I really had.
Maybe I was feeling vulnerable, maybe something inside me was trusting Dom more than I’d trusted anyone in so long. Trembling all over, I stepped closer to him and put my arms around him from behind, my hands clutching the skin right above his belly button. I held him to me under the warm water and I felt the patched-up pieces of my heart fall into a cluttered heap again.
Dom’s hand came up and laid over mine, but he didn’t say anything as we stood there, using up all the water. I wanted to stay there forever because somehow, I felt safer than I’d felt since Thalia died. And she’d been gone for what felt like an eternity.
“I don’t think you told us the full story of what happened in Canada,” Dom guessed, breaking the noise of the running water. “You didn’t just lose your friends, did you?” My non-answer was confirmation enough. His hand rubbed along mine and I felt happy and sad at his touch. “I was supposed to be mated.” That made me lift my head slightly, with my cheek still pressed to the middle of his back. “I fell in love with a Born vampire girl when I was young, and I proposed as soon as we were out of high school. Our parents said we were young, but we didn’t care. Her name was Jade.” I felt the sad smile in his voice. “When…” His voice broke, and he stroked against my hands to steady himself. “When the sharks came, a pack of them overwhelmed us and they killed her.” He breathed in a ragged breath and sniffed a few times. Slowly, I lifted one of my hands and entwined my fingers with his, shooting a tingling lightning bolt up my arm.
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 77
