by Dakota Rebel
It tasted like melted pennies. It was hot and thick, and I had to fight not to choke on it. Drinking it like that was different from when we’d shared blood through the occasional nicks and cuts caused by our rough kissing. It was awful, and it seared down my throat.
But I kept my eyes on Jarrod and forced myself to swallow mouthful after mouthful of him until, finally, he gently tugged his arm away from me. I tried to smile at him, but I was instantly hit with a pain so strong I thought I had been shot in the chest. I didn’t scream aloud, but it was close. My hands clenched into fists, and before the pain started to tear through my head, I had a moment to think that I had dug my nails into my palm so hard I was bleeding.
When my brain started to melt inside my skull, nothing else mattered except the excruciating pain and how to make it stop. My muscles twitched in my arms and legs, so I knew I wasn’t dead, but I started to wish I was. Nothing had ever hurt like this. It was inside my body, and there was no way to make it stop.
I wanted to beg Jarrod to grab my gun and shoot me, to make this pain end, but I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t even open my eyes. I wondered if they had been torn from their sockets and that was why I had gone blind.
Then the pain started to recede, and the world disappeared completely.
Chapter Nineteen
“Jarrod?” I called into the dark, but there was no answer.
I tried to sit up but slammed my head into something hard directly over me. I felt around and realized I was trapped. I pushed at whatever was over me, punching and finally kicking at it. I couldn’t breathe, and I was…I was in a coffin I realized.
Everything came back to me in a rush. Jarrod had turned me into a vampire. Then he had left me alone in a coffin. I pushed at the lid again, and finally, it opened. I sat up gasping for air and looking around the room. Jarrod sat next to the box with his head resting on the crook of his elbow at the end of the coffin.
I climbed out on unsteady legs and fell to the ground, sitting there for a minute and trying to calm my breathing. I was out, I was safe and I was alive…sort of. I stood still for a minute, listening to a silence I had never experienced before.
My heart wasn’t beating. In twenty-nine years, I had never noticed the sound of my heart in my ears, but the loss of it was astounding. I was concentrating so hard on the lack of noise in my body that I jumped about a foot when Jarrod called my name.
“Oh my God!” He jumped to his feet and pulled me into his arms. “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry. Are you all right?”
He pushed me back a little and looked me up and down, running his fingers over my face, neck and shoulders.
“I think so,” I said softly.
“Fuck, Mitch. I didn’t think you’d wake up before me. I never would have left you closed in there if I’d known. Shit.”
“My heart isn’t beating,” I said finally, not knowing what else to talk about.
“It will. You need to feed. It will get better in a few days. I promise. Your body just needs to adjust to the new things it requires to work properly.”
“Feed?” I realized suddenly that I hadn’t thought this thing completely through. I had been focused on Jarrod and me being together. I wasn’t sure if I could handle drinking blood from a human being.
“You look like I just kicked your puppy,” Jarrod said with a laugh. “Do you really think I would let you wake up in a coffin then sic you on some defenseless, unwilling human?”
“Don’t laugh at me,” I grumbled. “I’ve had a rough…time.”
He hugged me again, kissing my temple and still shaking a little with silent laughter. I was glad he found the situation so fucking funny. I felt as if someone had beat the shit out of me then stuck me in coffin all alone. My life as a vampire wasn’t starting out so fabulous.
“I have some blood pouches in the kitchen,” he said after a minute. I was glad the laughter was not evident in his voice. “Come on.”
He took my hand and led me out of the room. I realized we were in his loft, but I had never seen his coffin room before. I found myself secretly glad for that. I mean, I knew vampires slept in coffins, but since I’d been with him, Jarrod had always stayed in bed with me. It had humanized him more than I’d thought about at the time.
I felt like an idiot. I had known in the back of my head that being a vampire would be different, but over the past couple days, I couldn’t remember focusing on the “being a vampire” part of not “being a werewolf”. Jarrod would help me, I had no doubt about that, but I had promised not to hurt him. What was going to happen if I couldn’t handle the life I had chosen?
“Stop thinking so hard,” Jarrod said as he kicked out a kitchen chair for me to sit in at the table. “You’re going to make your head explode. It’s an adjustment. You’ve made them before, and you’ll make them again. We are together, you are alive, and you won’t turn furry once a month. Try to let that be enough for right now, okay? Everything else, well, we’ll figure that out when we get to it.”
He threw a few bags of liquid onto the table, and my stomach flipped. I wasn’t sure I could do it—actually drink blood from a pouch. It had been awful drinking Jarrod’s blood warm from his skin. The thought of drinking cold blood out of a piece of plastic made me want to vomit.
Jarrod moved a chair to face me, positioning himself so our knees touched and there was nothing between us. He picked up a bag and bit into the corner of it. He kept his eyes on mine as he started to suck the blood from the pouch. I watched his jaw work and realized he was moving closer to me, leaning toward my mouth. I didn’t move with him, but I didn’t pull away when he kissed me.
He pressed his lips to mine, and I opened my mouth to him, letting him drip blood from his tongue onto mine. It was nothing like his blood had been. The taste was sweet, and it was smooth running down my throat. My hands went to the sides of his face, and I held him still while I licked the inside of his mouth and his teeth clean of the blood, careful to avoid scraping his skin with my new fangs that had extended at the first taste he’d given me.
He pulled back and took a deeper drink from the pouch. He came toward me again, and this time I met him halfway, wanting to drink the blood from his mouth more than I had ever wanted anything. I felt myself move off of my chair, breaking our crimson kiss long enough for him to take another drink and for me to straddle his lap.
I drank from his mouth for twenty minutes, letting him heat that liquid candy for me before sucking it from his lips and tongue. I’d been so intent on it that I didn’t realize until all of the blood was gone from the table that my heart was beating again, pounding actually, and my hard cock was pressed against Jarrod’s stomach.
“That wasn’t so bad was it?” he asked in a hoarse whisper.
I shook my head. I couldn’t talk. I could barely think about anything but how much I wanted to rip off his clothes and fuck him on the kitchen floor. I stood, roughly pulling him with me with my hands clamped around his wrists. I tugged him into my body, kissing him as hard as I dared. I didn’t want to hurt him with my fangs since I didn’t know what to do with them.
I kicked out with my feet, never breaking the kiss, and swept his legs out from under him. I caught the weight of his body with my hip and gently lowered us both to the floor. My hands found the front of his shirt and ripped hard enough that buttons bounced and scattered across the tile.
My fingers splayed over his chest, running up and down the smooth flesh as if I had never touched him before. I got one of my hands between us and wrenched at the button of his jeans then slid down the zipper so I could grip his cock in my hand.
I started to pump quickly up and down his shaft until he growled into my mouth. My eyes opened. He stared up at me for a moment before he pressed his lower lip against my fangs, making me bite him.
He tasted sweeter now than he ever had in my mouth. I licked at the puncture wounds he had forced on himself, letting the warm, sweet blood sit on my tongue and hoping that every night would be like this, mi
nus the waking up alone part.
“Fuck, Mitch, I need you,” Jarrod whispered against my mouth. “Please?”
“You and those fucking pleases,” I laughed. “How the hell can I resist that?”
We quickly tore off our clothes, much of it getting destroyed in the process, but I don’t think either of us cared. I had never needed anyone as badly as I needed Jarrod right that second.
“I don’t have a condom,” I said quickly as I got ready to get off of him.
“Mitch, we’ll be okay. We’re both vampires now, remember? Not that you ever needed one with me before. If you walk away from me right now, I might explode. Just fuck me, please? Please?” He grinned. “Please?”
“You’re a brat,” I growled.
“So you’ve told me,” he said before pulling my mouth back to his.
I ground my cock against his while he swirled his tongue around mine. His hands clenched in my hair, and his legs wrapped around my waist. He kept trying to shift so I could fuck him, but we didn’t have any lube in the kitchen, and I wasn’t looking to hurt him.
I pulled back from the kiss and shoved two of my fingers in his mouth. He sucked on them for a minute, licking and gently nipping them until I took them back. I urged him to move his legs so I could reach between us. I slid my slick fingers up the crack of his ass and pressed against him until he relaxed enough for me to push them inside of him.
He dug his nails into my shoulder, and I didn’t get him as ready as I would have liked to, but he didn’t seem to mind. I spit into my hand and slid it up and down my shaft, hoping it would be wet enough for us.
Jarrod wrapped his legs around me again, forcing me closer with his thighs on my ass. The angle of his hips made it easier to move inside of him. We both made small noises as my cock pushed into that tight ring of muscles. He clenched for a minute, and the feel of him gripping me like that was almost enough to make me come.
“Stop that,” I hissed. He just grinned at me and did it again.
I wrapped my hands under his legs and brought his body with me to my knees so that his shoulders were still pressed against the tile, but I could move faster and harder. I pounded into his tight little ass so hard I worried I might break him, but I wasn’t worried enough to stop.
Jarrod’s hand moved to his cock, pumping up and down his shaft at the same speed I fucked his ass.
“You’re so fucking gorgeous,” I said, looking down at him.
His eyes squeezed shut, and he spasmed around me as he came, clawing at my arms. The feel of him clenching down on my cock again brought me, too, and I screamed out his name as I pumped my seed into his ass.
I collapsed on top of him, sweating and smiling harder than I had in a long time. He kissed the top of my head and ran his fingers over my back while we laid together on the floor for a few minutes.
“So,” he finally said. “Is it really so bad to be a vampire?”
“I don’t know,” I said, sitting up to look at him. “Are you going to spend eternity with me? Are we going to fuck like wild animals every chance we get? Are you going to love me for the rest of time?”
“Yes,” he said with a laugh.
“Then so far, it’s pretty fucking peachy.”
“Good to hear. You know, it’s not all fun and…fucking.”
“Yeah, I kind of figured that. But we’ve done pretty well with a lot of horrible stuff lately. I think, for the most part, we’ll just have to figure out everything else as we go. As long as we have each other, we can probably do anything.”
“I love you,” Jarrod said before kissing me quickly.
“I love you, too.”
“Anything, huh?” he said quietly.
“I would think so.”
“Hey, Mitch?”
I looked over at him and saw that his face had gone serious. I ran a finger down the side of his jaw and got a small smile.
“What’s up?”
“Well, I’ve been thinking. Can you play guitar?”
“You’re an asshole,” I said when he started laughing. “And no, I’m tone deaf. So I guess you’re out of luck.”
“What if I say please?”
“No such luck there, darling.” I licked his lower lip with the tip of my tongue. “But I can do all kinds of other things for you.”
“Oh really?” he asked with wide eyes. “Like what?”
“Why don’t you come take a shower with me, and I’ll show you.”
I stood and held out my hands to help him to his feet, too. I pulled him into my arms and kissed him, running my fingers over his shoulders and sighing into his mouth.
It was as close to perfect as I had ever known. I didn’t have a single regret. Jarrod made me happy, and I could only hope I would be able to do the same for him for the rest of our lives.
Thank you for your purchase of Mitch. I hope that you enjoyed it and would consider leaving me a quick review on your favorite retailer’s website.
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Also by Dakota Rebel
To Hate and To Hold – Enemies to lovers is all fun and games…until you find yourself eternally bound to a vampire prince that you loathe.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve detested Ethan Connor. And to be fair, he hates me right back. We do our best to avoid each other at all costs, except when we feel the overwhelming urge to kick each other’s asses.
Which is exactly what happened one clichéd dark and stormy night. Fists flying, thunder rumbling, and lightening flashing was apparently the magic combination to set off a bonding curse someone had set on us.
Now we’re stuck in closer proximity than either of us have ever wanted. The fighting is getting worse, but the bond is eager for that energy to change to something way hotter and a lot more dangerous.
I don’t want to be anywhere near Ethan, and I don’t want to sleep with him, and I certainly don’t want to be married to him for the rest of eternity…do I?
Vamplet – It’s like Hamlet…but with hot, gay vampires
To be or not to be?
That is the question in this tale of love, loss and vampires.
The Castle Elsinore, home to the royal family of Denmark, has played host to myriad secrets over many years. Recently, it has been the scene of the suspicious death of King Hamlet, the hasty remarriage of the Queen to Old Hamlet's brother and the late night meetings of young Prince Hamlet and his lover Felix.
Two broken boys, Hamlet and Felix have found comfort in their friendship since childhood. As they entered adulthood, their friendship grew into deeper feelings. Hamlet leans on his mate for support after the loss of his father and Felix takes strength from Hamlet as he endures the abuse of his own parent.
But something is rotten in the kingdom of Denmark.
The return of his father leaves Hamlet frightened and confused, not sure if the old King is a ghost or is truly one of the undead. Just when Hamlet thinks his life cannot become any more difficult, a life-shattering tragedy sends him into a downward spiral of confusion and despair. As his visions become sharper and more frequent, Hamlet can only wonder if what he sees is real or if he’s truly lost his mind.
About the Author
Dakota Rebel is a bestselling author and a very slow distance runner who dreams of racing Badwater.
She live in a perpetual state of exhaustion with her happy husband and two incredibly spoiled children.
Dakota loves to talk to her readers and can be found at www.dakotarebel.net
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