“Certainly, Sir.”
I ran up the stairs but as I reached the top, I stopped, sucker punched as the smell of my mate’s blood hung in the air. I knew the blood was leaving her body, there was too much. Had she delivered the final cuts to herself that would take her from me, from this life? How could I have been so stupid to not turn her and make her my own? Then we could have lived together forever. Now I might face another great loss in my life.
Stupid.
Stupid.
Stupid.
But as I flung open the door, instead I saw Daria leaning over the body of Vivienne, blood dripping from her mouth.
I took a stroll in the park, Rosemary’s arm in mine.
“It’s such a beautiful evening.” She said, staring at the moonlit sky.
“Every evening I’m with you is a beautiful evening.” I told her.
She smiled at me, the light of the moon catching in her eyes, and I was full of love for her; and then she was no longer there.
I heard then saw her body hit the tree and I watched as a tall, pale-skinned man with dark hair ripped out her throat in front of my eyes.
He looked up at me, his own eyes blazing red, and he laughed.
And then he came for me…
As blood lust hit and my true vampire nature took over, I picked up Daria and threw her against the wall. As an immortal like myself I’d only be able to kill her by stake and right now I needed to get to Vivienne. If she came at me again, I’d throw her clean through the window.
“Caleb, stop, I was licking her wounds closed.” Daria gasped. “Look at her if you don’t believe me. Look at the canvas. She had blood draining out everywhere. You need to turn her, quickly. She’s too weak to survive.”
Staring down at the body of my mate, I saw that Daria’s words were true. The wound on her neck was almost closed.
I turned to her. “So, if you didn’t do this, who?”
“I don’t know. Jenson said he’d heard Vivienne scream. I came to look.”
“Jenson.” I roared, realising who the true betrayer was though I knew not why.
“He left her bleeding profusely and sent you thinking you would kill her.” I realised.
“Well luckily, I wasn’t hungry, because my lover and I had just partaken of each other.”
“Your lover?”
“Lucinda.”
Lucinda? The cook? How could I have not known?
“I have always kept my own affairs from you, Sir, as I’d felt it wouldn’t be right, not when you mourned your past love so deeply.” Daria explained.
“Ah.” I’d been too lost in my own world to see my house manager and cook were in love. I was a selfish man.
“I shall go take care of Jenson. He cannot have got far.” Daria’s eyes flashed deep red and I saw the monster awaken within her.
“No. He will be prepared. He could kill you.”
“Let us not forget I am a vampire, Sir. I have met many a human male who has underestimated me.”
Then the window was open and she was gone.
I looked down at the woman in my arms. Her heart was thready and weak, her pallor pale, and her breathing shallow. She was unconscious and I now had a choice. I could take her to the nearest A&E Department and leave her there. I could visit her and use compulsion to wipe her mind of ever having known me. Or I could turn her.
As I gazed at her face, her mouth opened and she spoke.
“She is your destiny, Caleb. You need to live. Let all the roses go.”
As I gasped at hearing my past love’s voice come from the mouth of my present, Vivienne’s body slumped and I knew there was no time left and my decision was made.
I drained her to the point of death and then tore open my wrist with my teeth. As the blood pooled there, I held my wrist below her mouth and let drops of blood fall between her lips. A minute later, her eyes opened, a red sheen over her emerald gaze like the scorching of grass. Then she began to lap, her mouth fixing on my wrist as she sucked. My cock hardened as she drank from me. Euphoria sang in my veins as she fed, but she would be too weak for anything else. My fledgling, my eternal lover. The immortal bite had taken place and now we would be together for as long as fate allowed. I gathered her in my arms and her eyes closed as she sighed with satiation. The next few nights would be brutal for her as she made the change, but I would be with her every step of the way.
Vivienne
Rosemary showed me a vision.
I stood in a cemetery as a seventeen-year-old. On the cusp of adulthood, the illness that had taken my mother’s life was fully taking root in mine. My father told us to take a flower each and throw it on top of the coffin. He’d ordered lilies. Our mother’s favourite flowers were roses. I stepped away to a rose bush planted next to a nearby grave and I pulled the head off the flower.
Walking back, I scowled at my father and my brother and sister in turn and then I threw the petals over my mother’s sunken coffin.
I knew now that the rose I’d picked had been ‘Rosemary’s legacy’. Planted there years before by a man who’d lost his wife, his Rose, and had ordered a bush from Tetburn in commemoration.
It was another piece of the puzzle that had brought me to Tetburn Manor.
“I followed all my roses.” Rosemary whispered to me as I laid there in my white dress in a pool of red. Jenson had slashed at my skin so many times. Was Rosemary here to take me with her? “And this one, near your mother’s grave, led me to you. You struggled to live in life; you will blossom in your rebirth.”
I stared at her. What did she mean?
“Take care of him.” She said. “I can leave now. Be happy. Forget the roses.”
The door opened and the shadow man was there. I could feel his presence.
I turned around and I saw his teeth.
Large incisors as white as the walls.
And I saw his eyes.
As red as the blood spraying from my throat.
And I heard his heart beating.
Th-thud.
Th-thud.
Th-thud.
As I knew my own was ceasing.
I lost consciousness then and when I awoke, I found myself in loving arms, with a violent thirst for blood.
Days passed.
A hunger like I had never known.
They fed me: Caleb, Daria, and another woman. They brought me blood. So much blood.
I was in Caleb’s room, and one day, I opened my eyes and the raging thirst was past. Rather than be desperate for blood, I was desperate for my love.
He stood up from a chair at the side of our bed.
“How are you feeling?”
I closed my eyes and stretched out my limbs.
I felt strong.
Smiling at my love, I pulled back the bedcovers.
“I feel hungry, Caleb… for you.”
This time we didn’t have to hold back, either of us. We nipped and fed from each other. Caleb pushed inside of me hard. We were a tangle of limbs, hitting the floor, the walls, as we reached dizzy new heights.
I might have quenched my immediate thirst for blood, but my thirst for Caleb would last several lifetimes.
Vivienne
Jenson had resented his legacy of having to serve the undead; the fact it was instilled upon him by his parents that he had to serve someone he felt not worthy. He’d asked Daria why immortality meant castles and being human meant servitude. It was a blinkered, small-minded attitude, but then he’d seen nothing much of the real world; his existence largely limited to castle life and vows of silence about the truth of who owned and worked at Tetburn Manor.
Caleb’s obsession with his roses and trust in his staff had meant he was unaware of Jenson watching on his security monitors as he tapped into his bank accounts. Unaware that while he slept, Jenson had installed spyware that watched what keys he clicked. Money that was being siphoned off into a private account, ready for him to make his escape.
But he’d panicked at my arrival. At the castl
e routine changing. At Caleb’s becoming more aware of his surroundings.
His plan had been to turn us on ourselves, to get us to destroy each other and then stake whoever remained. He was in charge of security; there would have been no evidence left. Then he would have been free to do as he pleased, he’d told Daria, as she’d hung him on a rusty hook to encourage his confession.
He’d become greedy, making a plan with some other staff to continue on as if Caleb were still alive and to sell as much of the castle and its roses as possible and then disappear with the profits.
Daria had dropped him off with Nicholas after learning of the other staffs involvement and then she returned to the castle; her and Lucinda helping Caleb to care for me until I’d gotten past my fledgling stage. They’d become good friends.
My new undead life was mesmerising. Colours were vivid, tastes exquisite, smells delectable. I was hypnotised by life. But I no longer wanted to paint it. The feeling had left me. Now I wanted to experience it all. To travel the world and see everything with my new senses. I wanted to see it all with Caleb. My mate, my lover. We could now be free with each other, love and make love without restraint. Touch was electric. Feelings in overload. My happiness knew no bounds.
Caleb had wondered what to do about his and Rosemary’s legacy of roses until one afternoon we found a blight had hit them all. Every one was black and withered, even the yellow one. It was just as I’d seen in my dreams.
The blight was unidentifiable, but I knew what it was.
Rosemary’s final message.
Nicholas was taking the house back, landscaping the grounds and turning the place into an art gallery, among which would be some of my own paintings of the house and the gardens. The roses would live on, but not in a way that required constant tending.
And so we could come back to visit them whenever we liked. But for now, myself, Caleb, Daria, and Lucinda were leaving Tetburn Manor. We were going to travel. We didn’t know where we would end up, just that we intended to see as much of the beauty of life as we could.
Caleb took my arm and we turned to walk out across the West Bridge for the final time. “You look as beautiful as ever, my mate.”
My arms bore no scars. Everything had healed, borne new, as I also became new.
Life’s bite had been far more dangerous than the immortal one.
Now I knew peace and I welcomed it.
THE END
I rarely have a playlist, but Caleb and Vivienne’s love story was enhanced by playing some inspirational, dark, and ‘feels’ hitting songs. Thank you to the following artists and the songwriters etc behind them.
Running Up That Hill. Placebo.
For You. Liam Payne & Rita Ora.
Never Enough. Loren Allred.
Surrender. Paloma Faith.
Bleeding Love. Leona Lewis.
Born to Die. Lana Del Rey.
The Midnight Coven
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Thank you for reading IMMORTAL BITE, a Vampire Mates novella. There are thirteen total novellas in this shared world, each of them a standalone paranormal romance. We, the Midnight Coven authors, hope you’ll check out all of them. For the complete list, just turn the page OR visit our website www.midnightcoven.com
And remember, these books all share a world, but can be read in any order.
Don’t miss a single mate!
The Midnight Coven will be back soon with our next collaboration—Cursed Coven. In the meantime, join our Facebook group! We’d love to see you there!
• Immortal Hexes by Amelia Hutchins
• Immortal Promise by Kim Loraine-Author
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• Immortal Hunter by Patricia D. Eddy
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• Immortal Bite by Andrea M. Long
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• Immortal Bloodlines by Jessica Cage
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• Immortal Night by Emily Goodwin
• Immortal Darkness by Lisa Manifold
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• Immortal Oath by Corinne O'Flynn
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• Immortal Awakening by Renea Mason
• Immortal Devotion by Gwen Knight
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• Immortal Enemies by Jessie Lane
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• Immortal Skye by KL Bone
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• Immortal Protector by Alice K. Wayne
https://books2read.com/u/3nKwrx
A Taste of Vampire Mates
IMMORTAL BLOODLINES BY JESSICA CAGE
Blood dripped down the curve of her hip when his teeth sunk into her dark flesh. The trail of crimson was followed by his tongue. Not a drop would go to waste. Her nails dug into his flesh as the soft howl passed her lips and she took him deeper inside. Each stroke coaxed the building tension between her legs and inside of her core. He stared at her with eyes deep and dark as he called out her name, his body seizing with his orgasm just before he fell back against the worn bed frame. Still, even after he’d finished, she continued to grind her hips atop him and brought herself to the top once more before collapsing onto his chest. The smooth, brown tones of their skin blended together just as their deep breaths did.
“Dammit, another night like this and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get away from you.”
“Is that what you want?” She looked up at his glistening face, the sweat from their lovemaking still formed on his brow. “Would you like to get away from me, Noah?”
“Absolutely not. I’d have to be a fool to want that.” He groaned. “Besides, I’ve expressed to you just how much I want to be with you, eternally, and not in hiding.”
“Do you think this is something we can really do?” She lifted herself from the bed, kissing his chest once more before she left him there to peer out of the open window of their little hideaway. The moonlight lit her dark skin, giving it an angelic glow.
“Hell, I don’t think we have a choice. If we don’t try, we risk losing everything. For both our people.” Noah stood from the bed and joined her by the window where the moonlight touched her skin and gave it a soft glow. The thick hair that fell down her back brushed the top of her ample cheeks teasing him, and it took everything he had not to pull her back to the bed. “Skye, we can’t keep this up for much longer.”
“They won’t accept this.” She stepped back and leaned against the wall that was his strength. “I’m the daughter of the Alpha of my pack and you’re the son of a vampire who made a treaty with my people to keep the peace. This will disrupt that. We’re not even supposed to be together; the bylaws forbid it.”
“If we’re not, then the universe really fucked up because neither of us can control who we mate with. Yet the moment I saw you I knew it. It was you.” He ran his hands along the bare flesh of her hips before wrapping his arms around her waist.
“It was the same for me.” She dropped her head back, and a soft sigh passed her lips when he kissed the length of her neck.
“I’m not saying this will be easy. It will be a shit show. But we have to try.” His deep exhale sent a warm brush of air across her skin. “We can’t keep asking our friends to lie for us. Eventually this will all come to light. We need to make sure that we are in control of that when it happens.”
“You’re right,” she agreed with him. “I know you are, and yet it doesn’t make this any easier to do. I just keep imagining my father’s face. The anger and disappointment that I know I will see in his eyes when I tell him about you. I wish that weren’t the case, but I know it will be. It would be nice if he could be happy for me like he is for my siblings, but my gut tells me that the moment he hears that I’ve given myself to you, a vampire, he will turn his back on me.”
“I’ll tell my father as soon as I make it home,” he promised her. “Hell, I’m sure I will face the sa
me. But then we can be together. We may both very well be shunned from our homes, but we’ll be out on our asses together. And I swear to kiss yours until it feels all better.”
“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” She turned in his arms to face him with a small smile on her lips. Noah’s deep eyes lit up as she combed her fingers through his short auburn hair. She loved the way the light reflected and highlighted the strands of red hidden within. “Once we do this there is no turning back, Noah.”
“I refuse to keep my love for you hidden for centuries on end because our fathers are idiots who are stuck in the past. We need to move forward in our lives. We cannot allow their chaotic—”
She pressed her finger against his lips to stop his coming rant. “If he heard you speak of him in that way…”
“Yeah, I know, punishment, blood drained, and to the dungeon with me.” He rolled his eyes. His father was one for the dramatics, and if Noah gave him a good enough reason, he’d be too eager to make an example of his only son.
“Stay safe, please.” She smiled. “Not much use I’ll have for you if you’re a dried-out husk tucked away in your daddy’s dungeon for the next fifty years.”
“Would you wait for me?” He looked at her with a devious smirk as if he were ready to test the theory.
“I’m not making any promises.” She winked at him. “Hell, a wolf has needs, too.”
The growl that escaped his lips was overshadowed by her laughter which soon became the soft moans of a lover coaxed by the touches of her mate. He would bring her to her peak twice more before they parted ways again.
IMMORTAL BITE Page 6
