Tainted Blood

by Sara Hubbard

  “That’s how you turn?”

  “Yes. Only I didn’t ask for this, and he didn’t care if I wanted it or not. He had to leave our family when he became a vampire, and since I had already done the same, he decided he wouldn’t spend eternity alone. He would spend it with me.”

  “He didn’t ask if you wanted this?”

  He chuckles at the thought, but there is no humor there. “No. He did not. He told me to thank him for making me stronger. Nothing could hurt me now, and I’d never have a reason to run away again.”

  “Your brother’s an asshole.”

  He laughs out loud, and the noise echoes off the water. A sheen of white light covers a large space in front of us as clouds part, and the moonlight hits the surface of the water.

  “He is.”

  “And he’s your master.”

  “He’s that, too.”

  I clear my throat and gather my hair to let it hang loosely over one shoulder. While playing with the ends, sliding locks between my thumb and finger, I dig deep to say what I wanted to say before. “If you asked me to kill—”

  “Don’t say it. If he asks me if you’re a threat to him, he’ll make me tell him the truth.”

  What kind of a brother could do what he did to Sebastian? He didn’t turn him for Sebastian’s sake. He did it selfishly, to make sure he was never alone. The man isn’t capable of love, which makes me think there’s no good inside of him at all.

  “Do you love him? Do you have any familial feelings for him whatsoever, or do you feel trapped like he does?”

  Sebastian considers this as he grabs a rock and leans to the side to chuck it at the water. It skips along, hopping at least five times. I lose count after that because it continues into the darkness.

  “You once said your sister is all you have. Well, I understand that feeling all too well.”

  “You’re not at all who I thought you were,” I say softly.

  “Yeah? Is that a good or a bad thing?”

  “It’s very good.”

  I stare into his beautiful eyes and swallow a hard lump in my throat. Slowly, he leans forward and raises a hand as if uncertain of what to do with it. He inches it forward until it’s near my cheek and then he waits for permission. I close my eyes and welcome it. I feel his cool temperature before I feel the light pressure of his porcelain-smooth skin on my warm cheek. The difference in our heat levels makes me shiver, but it’s not only from the cold. It’s from my growing feelings and the tap-dancing butterflies in my stomach that make my whole body come alive with electricity. I lick my lips and bite my lower one, waiting for a kiss that doesn’t come. Disappointed, I open my eyes to find his eyes everywhere but on my face. “Can you see me?” I ask, referring to my light. I don’t know how it's possible, but I know the answer before he responds.

  “You’re lighting up the whole beach.” He cups the back of my neck and pulls me forward. Our lips collide, and a slight groan escapes me, giving away my hunger for this and more. The electricity radiating through me funnels to my core, to the sweet spot between my legs.

  We break apart, our foreheads touching, and I gasp for air. There’s getting kissed, and then there’s getting kissed by a vampire. I might walk funny after this, and we haven’t even had sex. All of my energy is drained, though I wonder if it’s from my glowing, almost translucent skin.

  “Come with me.”

  I’d go anywhere with you, I almost say but nod instead.

  We hold hands in the SUV but say no words. The silence is comfortable, and that’s how I know this is right, though for all counts it’s probably the most wrong thing in the world.

  He takes me to a small cabin deep in the woods at the end of a winding, paved driveway. It’s made entirely of logs, and the windows have red shutters. Below the shutters are plant boxes, but there aren’t any plants in them. He gets out of the car, and before I can open my door, he’s there, opening it for me.

  “Who lives here?” I ask quietly, fearing we might wake the owners.

  “Me.”

  “What?”

  He stares intently at me.

  “Wait? Is this… Is this your resting place?”

  He takes my hand again and urges me forward. I follow—stunned. We’ve only known each other for weeks, and though we’ve decided to trust each other, this is more than I could have hoped for. This is his biggest vulnerability, and he’s sharing it with me when he wouldn’t even share with his brother.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’ve never been more sure.”

  He unlocks the door and opens it wide, reaching in to flick on the light. I step inside, onto the welcome mat, and take in every detail. It’s not at all what I expected after spending time in the lavish home I assumed he and his brother lived in. This place is small and open. It’s all one room, except for a single door that likely leads to the bathroom. Half of the space is open to the ceiling while the other has a loft with a railing and a ladder leading up to it. I spy the edge of a mattress. Does he sleep there? On a mattress like I do?

  The main floor has a kitchenette and a sofa, coffee table and television set. A bookcase by the far wall is so full of books that one row is stacked horizontally to accommodate them all. I unzip my boots and slide them off before tiptoeing over there. Working in a bookstore all my life, I gravitate to what I know. And I definitely know books. I pluck one out. “Robinson Crusoe? Pride and Prejudice. You like the classics?”

  “Of course.”

  “Oh, wait…Fifty Shades?”

  He grins wickedly. “I had to see what all the fuss was about.”

  I chuckle at him. I don’t bother to tell him I’ve read it many times over. And the thought of some of the scenes in the book has my body stirring again. When I turn, he’s only inches behind me. He reaches out and softly touches his hands to my waist. His fingers curl to grip me firmly, and he pulls me close while staring at me with hungry, crimson eyes. The color almost moves in waves, like the ocean. I stare into their depths, mesmerized. My body is alive and tense with my own feelings of desire.

  “What now?” I say, breathless.

  “We do what I’ve wanted to do to you since the moment I first laid eyes on you.”

  “To bite me?” I tease, trying to make light of the situation because I’m nervous, and it makes this not so scary.

  He leans in to whisper in my ear, his breath tickling me. My eyelids flutter as I welcome the unconscious clench of the muscles between my legs. “To make you mine.”

  17

  My breath catches when he swoops me up and into his arms. I stare into his red eyes, biting my lip as I anticipate what’s coming. Sex with a vampire? I’ve barely had sex at all, a few times with a guy after high school who was more interested in sports than spending any time with me unless it was horizontal—not my finest choice in a boyfriend.

  With slow steps, he carries me to the ladder. I let go, intending to step down so I can climb up, but he shakes his head. His expression is serious, and I link my hands together behind his neck again. He bends his knees and gracefully jumps through the air to land on two feet on the wooden floor of the loft.

  I smirk at him. He didn’t even make a sound. He outweighs me by at least seventy pounds, and my footfalls are akin to a herd of elephants, but a delicate creak of straining boards is the only sound he makes.

  The loft is small, and the only furniture he has up here is a queen-sized bed and a night table with a lamp on it. He approaches the bed and gently lays me down as if I’m made of glass. On all fours, I crawl backward to give him room, but he doesn’t move. He watches me before grabbing his shirt at the shoulders and pulling it over his head. I gulp, and take in his perfectly defined chest, the smooth lines of his abs, and the faint trail of hair that descends from his belly button to below his jeans.

  He unbuttons his jeans, and in a whoosh, they’re gone. I take a deep breath and start to remove my shirt, but he puts his hands on the bed and crawls toward me until I’m on my back, and
he’s over me, hovering like a magnificent angel. His aura brightens, burning gold and orange, like the edges of fire with just a hint of blue.

  I reach up and touch his cheek. Though I try and hide it, I can’t keep the fear I feel from my face. I feel it in the set of my eyebrows and the crease in my forehead. He’s hundreds of years old; how many women has he been with? How will I compare? I want to please him as desperately as he likely intends to please me. Only I suspect he’ll be much better at it.

  “Why the frown? You don’t want this?”

  “Oh, God. I do. I just…I’m nervous.” I look down.

  He holds his body up with one arm as he reaches up under my tunic and grips the top of my leggings, yanking them down harshly and making me gasp in delight. Then he switches hands and does the same to the other side. He sits back on his heels as he pulls them down the rest of the way and then follows by removing my socks.

  “There’s no need to be nervous.” He kisses the side of my foot. I’ve never been kissed there before, and it feels like a button to the sweet spot between my legs. Everything in my core stirs. “It’s just you and me and everything between us.”

  He takes my hands. I sit up as he slides his hands under my tunic and up my sides, barely touching me as he caresses me with his chilly hands. I almost prefer the cold. It makes my muscles tense, and the arousal I feel is heightened almost to the point of orgasm. I let out a moan and close my eyes as he pulls my shirt off me. When I open them, his hands are on my breasts, pulling down my bra to cup them. He leans in and presses a soft kiss to the tender area between my shoulder and my neck. I hunch a shoulder, but he forces his face in closer so I can’t pull away. Everything in me is on fire. If he’s cold, I no longer feel it.

  I grip the hem of his underwear and fist them as he trails his tongue along my collarbone and nuzzles my neck. “Sebastian, don’t forget,” I say in warning, fearing he’ll bite me. The thought of never seeing him again does strange, unexpected things to me. It makes it hurt to breathe.

  “I’m immune to your blood,” he says, his lips so close they tickle my skin.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Penelope cast a spell that made me immune to her blood.”

  “You can taste me?”

  He nods before kissing me under my chin and jaw. “Is that what you want?”

  Oh, God help me, yes.

  “Do you trust me?”

  “Yes. With my life.” Essentially, that’s what I’m doing when I let him taste me. If he’s immune to me, there is nothing to make him stop. He could drink me dry, and I’d never be able to fight him off.

  He tips his head back, his fangs slowly extending beyond his lower lip. His eyes dance with fire, and the veins in his face rise. I run my fingers over them, and he turns away, as if embarrassed.

  “It’s okay. This is who you are.”

  His lips crash down on mine. Surprisingly, it’s not awkward with his fangs, and though they cut me, the sting it brings is almost enough to bring me to orgasm. I gasp as he breaks away to swallow my blood. A guttural sound escapes his mouth. He narrows his eyes at me and growls. My bra is gone, and I can’t remember how or when it happened. On his knees in front of me with his teeth bared, he dives in, his mouth aiming for my neck. He bites down, and heat and piercing pain rock me. It lasts only a few seconds before the pain subsides. The sound of him sucking is a symphony. My lady parts start to pulsate, and every muscle inside me contracts.

  His hand touches the side of my face, and he caresses my skin with his thumb and palm. I let go of a satisfied whimper as the pressure between my legs builds. With his hips pulled close, I rub his cock against my sweet spot. His underwear is gone now, leaving only the thin fabric of mine between us. He reaches down with one hand and rips them off me. I respond with heavy panting. I’m almost there, and he’s still drinking. I don’t even care if he stops. I want my release. I’ll give him every last drop of my blood if he gives me my sweet release. His teeth slide out of my neck, and I feel coolness where his mouth was. I try to pull him back, but he smiles down at me, my blood on his lips and chin. His lips are so dark against his pale skin. I kiss them now, tasting my blood, and it passes between us as his tongue dances with mine.

  I tug at his hips, begging for him to enter me. He responds by pressing his cock in tight against me, circling his hips to rub against my nub. Closer, more, more. He can’t get close enough. And he fights me, refusing to give me another inch. He’s so much stronger than me, and the only thing I have to fight him is begging. “Please,” I whimper. “I want this. So bad.”

  “Whatever you want, it’s yours.” He slams into me as his fangs sink one last time into the flesh of my neck.

  * * *

  One thing I learned about vampires tonight that I wish I knew earlier? Their stamina is whatever they want it to be. He had me in three different positions, and he could have gone for another dozen. I asked him if vampires orgasm, and he said, “When we choose to,” so I told him to, and he did. Just like that. When the pleasure is too much or we’re both satisfied, he can orgasm on command? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all say the same?

  We lie in bed, him on his back, and me on my side with my head resting on his shoulder. I draw shapes on his chest with a finger, not paying too close attention to what I’m doing. “It means a lot that you brought me here.”

  “I thought it might.”

  “Did you ever…ever take Penelope to your resting place?”

  “God, no.”

  I lift my head to look at his grinning face.

  “Penelope had the worst temper. I couldn’t be certain if she was going to stake me when I pissed her off. She came close more times than I can count.”

  “Hmph.”

  I lay my head back down. He took me to his resting place but not her. I don’t know why I’m focused on her. Perhaps it’s because I know he loved her, and I care enough about him to make it uncomfortable when I imagine him with someone else. But it’s kind of ridiculous, because I’m technically her, and if I wasn’t, the girl he loved died a very long time ago.

  “This isn’t what I expected. Anyone could walk in here. You’re still vulnerable.”

  “I don’t actually sleep in this bed.”

  “Oh. Where do you sleep?”

  He points down. “Under the floorboards is a bomb shelter. The hatch can only be opened from the inside when it’s locked.”

  A bomb shelter? Well, that certainly is secure. “Did you build this place? I can’t imagine there are a lot of log cabins built on bomb shelters in Nova Scotia.”

  “You’d be surprised,” he says, his voice full of amusement. He runs his fingers through my amber hair and kisses my forehead. “There was a house about twenty feet away, and the shelter was under a shed. When I purchased it, I tore down the house and built the cabin.”

  “Sexy and a handyman.”

  He laughs. “I built boats once upon a time. A house isn’t all that different.”

  I’m not sure I agree, but I guess being handy makes it easier. “Alexander will know where this is because of the tracker on the car.”

  “No, I removed it. And I usually run here.”

  “We’re at least a half-hour drive from the house.”

  He leans down to whisper in my ear, sparking renewed desire. “I run very fast.”

  We stay in bed like this until the sun starts to shine. I might have slept, but I’m unsure, and when I look at him, his eyes are still open. “Don’t you need to rest some?”

  “No. And we have a flight in a few hours. It’ll take us a couple hours to reach the city.”

  I frown at the thought of untangling myself from him. Last night was beyond amazing, but everything could change after I take on Markus. And I might not live through it. A smart person would walk away, but even if Alexander hadn’t threatened to turn my sister, I still wouldn’t because in my core I know this is what I’m meant to do, even if I still feel conflicted about it.

  When
I get out of bed, I feel weak, and the world spins. Sebastian rushes to the kitchen and comes back with a pill and some water. “Take this. It’ll help replenish what you lost.”

  “It’s weird. I didn’t want you to stop. I knew I could die if you didn’t, but I didn’t want you to.”

  “Vampire blood has its own sort of magic. We’re designed to be desirable, and our blood works almost like a drug. The more you taste, the more you want. I can’t be sure it’s as appealing to you as it is to a normal human, but I think it would be different. They’ll do anything for another drop or the promise of being turned.”

  “Your staff? Are they there because they want to be or because of the blood?”

  He frowns, giving away his answers. He likely knows how I’ll feel about it.

  “They deserve a choice like you deserved one when Alexander turned you.”

  “I don’t drink from them, and I didn’t hire them. With the humans I drink from, I use mind control to make sure they forget me and the taste of my blood.”

  “How can you be brothers and be so different?”

  He merely shrugs. “Perhaps you’ll have to ask yourself the very question when you find your real family.”

  “Did you find—”

  He shakes his head, silencing me. “No, but it’s possible you have more family than parents.”

  He has a good point. Siblings? Grandparents? I hadn’t even considered that. But the prospect of more family in my life only makes me excited, not worried.

  18

  Our flight is delayed, and we end up in Ottawa hours after we were supposed to arrive. From the airport, we drive to Stratford in a rented car. It’s big and black and completely unnecessary, but Sebastian has a type when it comes to cars.