Blood Veil

by Megan Erickson

  The door slammed shut and Dru was back in my face, placing me back on the bed, his hands once again massaging my ankle. “Damnit, Roxy.” He sat down beside me on the bed, intent on his task.

  I didn’t care about my ankle. “Why are you so eager to leave?” I asked. “Can’t you stay?”

  He wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I can’t. I have work to do, and I can’t.”

  Fine, he was making me come right out and say it. “Why won’t you feed from me?”

  His hands paused on my ankle, and he lifted his head slowly. “Did someone explain to you what it’s like when a vampire feeds from you?”

  Zeb had told us when we were walking in, but I might have zoned out a couple of times. “A little bit.”

  He sighed heavily. “First of all, we need to feed right from the vein every few days. The rest of the time, we drink stored blood. Our saliva is an aphrodisiac. You’ll want to fuck. Some humans are used to it, and it doesn’t affect them much anymore, and that’s who I usually feed from. But this is your first time, and…”

  I still didn’t understand. “So what, you don’t want to have sex with me so you won’t feed from me?”

  He met my gaze squarely. “I don’t fuck humans.”

  Oh. Oh. Should I be offended? “Do you think we’re dirty or—?”

  He shook his head. “No, I just don’t do it.”

  I was nosy as fuck. “Why?”

  He blinked at me. “You ask a lot of questions, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, it’s my flaw, sue me. So…why?”

  This time his hand settled on my thigh, and the heat from his palm seeped through the denim. He rubbed his forehead with his other hand. “If I tell you, will you let me leave and quit trying to walk on this ankle?”

  I pursed my lips together and nodded.

  “About ten years ago, I fed from a human the first time she ever came to Bite. Blood virgins are a bit of a novelty here. At the time, I was cocky and everything was a competition. So I fed from her and fucked her, and then went back to high-five my friends.

  “But it didn’t end there. She came back the next week. And the next. She became obsessed with me. With our culture.”

  “Did she want to be with you? Are human-vampire relationships allowed?”

  “It’s allowed in special cases. Anything that puts us at risk for detection must be approved by our clan’s Council, like us traveling street-side frequently or allowing a human down here for anything other than blood transfer. But I don’t think she wanted anything other than to be a vampire.”

  “Is that possible?” I asked.

  “We don’t just turn humans,” he said. “That has to be approved by our Council, too. And it’s a process. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. Every time I saw her, she seemed more out of her mind than before.

  “I didn’t know what to do. I finally told her she couldn’t come back, that she had to forget about us. She didn’t like that, and somehow found out information about the other clan in the area. The clan that uses humans as blood slaves. They didn’t turn her. They sucked her dry. Killed her.”

  “Jesus, Dru,” I breathed out. “That’s awful. I’m so sorry. For her and you.”

  “I feel responsible, and although it’s never happened again with humans we invite, I can’t bring myself to get too close to humans. So I don’t.” The sadness in his eyes made my heart ache. “I won’t. Even if you tempt me like I’ve never been tempted before.”

  “But surely you’ve been tempted by a human before. In the last ten years.”

  He shook his head. “I haven’t. Even with her all those years ago, it was about the competition.”

  “So…” Heat rose up my neck. “What do you mean I tempt you?”

  His hand left my thigh and he rubbed his chest. “Around you, I feel…” He let his voice drop, and didn’t finish.

  “What? You feel what?”

  “I don’t know the word, okay?” His frustration was visible in the lines around his mouth, the piercing way his dark eyes studied my face. “I don’t know the word for this burning in my chest, this pull toward you and this need to be in your presence. I don’t know what it is, just that the feeling terrifies me as much as I crave it.”

  I stared at him, unsure what to say, because I was fitting his words together in my head like a puzzle. I still didn’t have the larger picture when he stood up. “That’s why I have to go.”

  “Dru,” I said again.

  “You promised,” he said softly. “I told you, and now you let me leave.”

  I stared at him helplessly. How had I only met this vampire a mere ten minutes ago and now I was devastated to watch him walk out that door. But he was right. I’d promised. And who was I to make him go against his personal convictions? So I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. “Okay,” I said hoarsely. “Will I—will I see you again?”

  He reached down, his large hand resting on my cheek and his thumb caressing my lip. “No.”

  I appreciated his honesty. I gripped his wrist and pressed a kiss to his thumb. “Okay. I…thank you. For everything. Out there. This room. Your kindness. And your heart.” His lips parted, and the tips of his fangs gleamed. He’s a vampire, Roxy. What the fuck is wrong with you?

  “Bye, my not-fragile Roxy.”

  I laughed, and he dropped his hand. In seconds he was out the door, and he shut it behind him with a soft click.

  He hadn’t looked back.

  There was nothing to do. I had my phone, and because there was no Wi-Fi, I played some crappy game apps that my brother had told me to download. I tested my ankle and although it was a bit swollen, the pain wasn’t as bad. I couldn’t put my heels back on, but I could put enough weight on it to walk with only a slight limp.

  Also I was a little scared. Would I want to fuck a vampire once they fed from me? The thought of taking my pants off for anyone right now was not an arousing thought. Except if it was Dru.

  No, stop it. I wouldn’t see him again. So I waited in that room for what felt like hours, hoping that Cassie was all right, that Dru had forgotten about me, and that I wasn’t paired up with some lame-ass vampire.

  I wandered around the room. It was basically like a hotel. There was a single bed and a small bathroom with a shower. Just when I was contemplating taking a nap, there was a knock at the door. I froze. “Uh, come in.”

  The door opened, and I breathed out a sigh of relief when the woman from the front desk smiled politely at me. She wore her hair in tight bun, and her dress shirt stretched across her ample chest. She was doing just fine in her sky-high heels. I’d abandoned mine in the corner.

  “Are you ready to head to the Feeding Room, Roxy? Dru asked me to escort you.”

  Oh, escort. Fancy. Except I stood there in my bare feet. My makeup was not looking so fresh anymore, and my finger-combed hair was still full of knots. I was not my best. I cleared my throat. “Yeah, I’m ready.”

  She smiled at me again, and then gestured for me to follow her.

  We walked down the hallway, out into the lobby, then through a doorway framed in red. This hall wasn’t lined with doors. There was just one at the end, and that, I suspected, was the Feeding Room. She pointed to it. “You’ll walk right through there, and toward the back you’ll see a seating area for the humans. You’ll be chosen from there.”

  Chosen. She made it sound kinda nice, but at this point, I just wanted to give up my blood so I could get the money and run. I nodded at her, and walked through the doorway.

  I’d already walked through orgy central back in the club, but nothing prepared me for this. Sex acts, sex acts everywhere. Threesomes, foursomes. Limbs and blood and orgasms. For a moment I stood frozen at the front of the large room as I watched a woman getting the ride of her life while straddling a vampire.

  Blood dripped from two small ho
les in her neck, slipping down between her breasts, where the vampire was smearing it on her nipples and sucking it off.

  Hot damn.

  The woman looked over at me, and winked.

  Okay, that was my cue to get to my area. I padded barefoot to the human seating, glancing around for Cassie, who I spotted in the corner pressed up against a wall with a vampire between her legs. Her eyes were closed, mouth open, and she looked blissed out. At least one of us was happy.

  In the human seating area, a female vampire who seemed to be the “human corraller” told me to sit anywhere. I took a chair near the front. As much as I wanted to hide, I needed to get picked. A line of vampires stood behind a rope, and I watched as one came to the front and scanned all of us. He chose a male human toward the back. The human walked away with the vampire, then the next bloodsucker in line stepped up. It went that way for a while, and I was picking at the polish on my nails when I heard a deep voice say, “Her.”

  I glanced up. A male vampire stood at the front, and his gaze was on me. I looked behind me, wondering if he meant someone else. I pointed to myself and mouthed the word, “Me?”

  He looked confused and said something to the corraller. She looked at me with an exasperated expression. “You! Let’s go.”

  Oh shit, okay. This was it. My time to shine. “Do your thing, blood,” I muttered to myself. “Taste great. Don’t make me horny.”

  The male vampire looked young, younger than Dru, but I didn’t know much about how vampires aged, so he could have been four hundred years old for all I knew.

  “I’m Tack,” he said. “Your name?”

  “Roxy.” I felt so stupid, walking beside him in my bare feet. He was wearing a T-shirt and jeans, but he looked like a million bucks with his hair nicely styled. He smelled good too.

  I still didn’t want to fuck him.

  “Look,” I said. “Do we have to, uh…” I made a face, hoping he got my drift and that I wouldn’t have to say the words.

  He just stared at me.

  “Do we have to…” I made a thrusting motion with my hips.

  Now he looked slightly alarmed. “I’m sorry, what are you trying to ask?”

  I was an idiot. “Do we have to fuck?” I blurted out. “This is my first time, and I kinda just wanted to give up the blood rather than the pussy. Like, one thing at a time, know what I mean?”

  By now we were in the corner of the room, an empty couch near us that I couldn’t stop staring at. Is that where I’d be sitting when he bit me?

  “I can’t lie and say that I don’t want to fuck you,” he said. Were all vampires honest? I liked this. “But we can’t—and I won’t—pressure you into doing anything you don’t want to do. Maybe we should start with the feeding, and see how you feel?”

  Right, he was banking on that damn aphrodisiac. Fuck, I missed Dru. I felt safe with him, and while Tack seemed perfectly nice, I didn’t want him. Not like I wanted Dru.

  Why was I doing this? Why was I making a big deal about my first time? I wasn’t a virgin—sex-wise. I needed to shut off my brain and get on with it. You can’t always get what you want, Roxy.

  I smiled at him. “Sure, uh, that sounds great.”

  He smiled back, his grin all teeth and fangs. They looked sharp. Well of course they did, they had to slice flesh. No one wanted dull fangs, right? This was good. I sank down onto the couch and he plastered himself next to me. He passed his wrist in front of my face, and I inhaled something sweet. The somnus. My head fuzzed a bit, not too much. Not enough to calm my nerves, that was for sure.

  He placed his hand on my throat, and his thumb caressed the vein on the side of my neck. “You have beautiful skin.” His breath warmed the side of my face, and I closed my eyes, pretending I was somewhere else as his nose nudged my earlobe. “I saw you sitting in there and I knew I had to have you. Blood virgin, right?”

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  He moaned and pressed closer. His hand tightened, and I felt the scrape of a fang on my skin. This felt wrong, so wrong. Stop thinking. Stop thinking. Just let it happen. What’s a little blood exchange between a human and vampire?

  “You’ll see,” he said, his voice rough with arousal. “One bite and you’ll be begging for it, and I’ll make you feel so good, you’ll want to come back again, and again.”

  I was going to throw up. I placed a hand over my mouth, because I was worried I’d spew bile.

  “You’ll love it, Roxy, just you wait.”

  He pulled away, and I waited for the slice of the fangs, for the suction of his mouth as he drank my blood, but with a jolt, the heat of his body left my side.

  Someone yelled, and it sounded like Tack. I popped open my eyes only to see Dru growling a few words at Tack before turning to me with fire in his eyes.

  The dark hue was swirling with red, mixing together like flames in the night. “What—” I began as he scooped me into his arms and strode across the room. I buried my head in his chest, not sure why he was here, and barely even caring about the money anymore. He’d come back, and I was in his arms, and for now that was good enough.

  We traveled quickly, quicker than a human could travel and within seconds we were back in my room where my heels still rested in the corner. He sat me down on the bed and then kneeled on the floor between my legs. He circled his arms around me and buried his face against my stomach.

  He didn’t speak, and neither did I. Out there, I’d been trembling and sick to my stomach. In here, safe with Dru, my blood settled, my nerves smoothed over.

  I ran my fingers through Dru’s hair, and scraped my nails over his shoulders under his shirt. His hard muscles shifted beneath my palms, but still he didn’t speak, didn’t give me an explanation as to why he’d taken me from the Feeding Room.

  This massive vampire was on his knees at my feet. His arms were wrapped around my hips, and I’d never felt so safe and protected.

  Okay, and turned on. Like a lot turned on.

  I shifted my weight as the heat in my belly dropped lower. “Dru,” I said softly. “Why?”

  His shoulders heaved with a sigh, but he didn’t talk. Instead I felt his lips move against my skin between the bottom of my corset and the top of my jeans. Oh shit, and it wasn’t just his lips, it was his tongue too, dipping in my belly button and teasing at the edge of my waistband.

  “I’ve been hard since I saw you.” His deep voice rumbled against my skin. “Thought I could send you off, let you collect your money and get out of here, but knowing you were there, that someone else was going to—” His words cut off on a moan and he leaned back a bit to grip my waist. His thumbs dipped into my jeans and pressed close to where I ached for him. He licked his lips and tortured eyes met mine. “Fuck, I can smell you, Roxy. I can smell how much you want it. Is this for me?”

  He could smell my arousal. Why was that hot? I dug my nails into his shoulder and pressed into his hands. “Yes. It’s for you.” Except, I didn’t understand what was going on. “But you said…you said you wouldn’t feed from me. Or touch me.”

  “I know what I said.” His voice was a growl. “But I couldn’t let another vampire bite you. I walked in there and saw how scared you were. I had to protect you, even if I’m fucking terrified you’re not safe with me either.”

  I touched his brow, his sharp cheekbones, admiring the perfect cut of his face. Was there a better face ever made? Probably not. “I think I’m safe with you.”

  He swallowed. “Roxy…”

  “Do you want my blood? My body?”

  A shudder ran through his body. “More than I’ve ever wanted anything in my whole life.”

  I wanted him too. “And you’re worried because of what happened last time?”

  He nodded.

  “I’m not her. If you weren’t a vampire, I’d want you all the same. Please trust me.” My bo
dy responded to his hands and his voice. What would it be like to kiss him and feel his skin against mine? I had to know. Fuck all the reasons I came down here in the first place. All that mattered was here and now, this moment in time in this room with Dru. “Then take it. My blood and my body. I want you to.”

  His nostrils flared as his breath came faster. His hands gripped me tighter as his control seemed held by a thin thread.

  “Please, Dru.”

  His hands left me, and I nearly wept. This was it. He was going to walk out on me again. Goddamnit, why did I have to find the one vampire with a conscience?

  Except he stayed on his knees, and his hands rested on his thighs. And when he spoke, he was all authority and command. “Take off your pants for me. I want to see you.”

  I shivered as his words danced through my blood. I stood up on my bare feet and slid my pants down my legs slowly. I kicked my jeans off to the side, and since I hadn’t worn underwear, I stood in front of him wearing only my corset.

  He sucked in a breath as he stared between my legs. His lips were parted, and his tongue poked out to catch on one of his fangs. “Your smell is…” He inhaled again, his eyes sliding closed briefly before popping back open. “Sit down.”

  I sat down, the bedding cool on my bare ass. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been this exposed in front of a man. Just everything all out. In a lit room. With hungry eyes taking me in.

  He spread my legs and pressed a kiss on the inside of my left knee. As he drew closer, I braced myself with my arms behind me, still in awe of this massive vampire on his knees looking at me like I was the Hope diamond.

  He was in no hurry. His hand slid up my thigh and then his thumb was pressing against my wet flesh. “So soft and pink and so fucking wet, Roxy.” His thumb pressed harder, teasing my opening. “You always get this wet?”

  “Not usually.”

  He drew his thumb back and wiped it on my inner thigh, leaving my skin glistening. “I wanted to do this from the first moment I saw you,” he said, then lapped at my pussy with that long tongue. I nearly came off the bed. I cried out as his tongue worked miracles, swirling around my clit, dipping into my entrance, then lapping up all the wetness that he caused.