“Yeah,” he said into it once he accepted the call and lifted the device to his ear. He paused his movie and hugged Greggory close with his free arm.
“I am so sorry about tonight. I didn’t mean to miss our date. I hope you’ll let me explain why I didn’t show up and allow me to profusely apologize. I’d also really like the opportunity to make it up to you. I was looking forward to getting to know you.”
Yeah right, Delaney thought with a roll of his eyes. “I’d appreciate an explanation as to why you thought it was okay to ask me out and not bother to show up. I have much better things to do with my time than sit in a restaurant all night without eating.”
“Oh, you didn’t eat? That’s terrible, you should’ve at least gotten something. I’ve been there before, they’ve got a great menu.”
“I’m still waiting for your explanation, Vampyr Lord.”
“Call me Grigori, okay? Please. See, here’s what happened. I’m…well, I guess you could nicely call it absentminded. I tend to lose track of time. So, I decided to put three alarms on my phone for tonight. Only when I went into my lab, I didn’t remember to bring the damn phone with me. When Tigglesworth—that’s our butler—knocked on the door and told me it was eleven, I didn’t believe him. I was sure it was around five, and I still had plenty of time to get showered and changed so I could meet you. I simply can’t tell you how sorry I am. I feel like I’ve already failed as a mate, and we haven’t even really started yet. I don’t want you to think I’m not interested in pursuing our relationship, because nothing could be further from the truth. I hope you’ll accept my sincerest apology. I’m really sorry.”
Delaney would like to be a total hardass and hang up with a curt comment about it being too late, but Grigori did sound as if he made a mistake that he sincerely regretted. He was also trying not to get distracted by the yummy image of him showering, since he was supposed to be annoyed. “Is this a problem for you? Forgetting your phone?”
“You’re going to think I’m a complete disaster…but yeah. It happens a lot. It drives the people around me crazy. I tend to have a one-track mind.”
“What’s your one track?”
“My lab. I’m a scientist. I get lost in formulas and experiments while generally forgetting the world around me. I hope you don’t think I’ll make a bad mate because of it. I do plan on making you and us a priority. I thought I did everything right to make sure I didn’t fuck it up tonight, but it looks like I need a better plan for the future.”
It was such a foreign concept to Delaney to think of himself as an us that he couldn’t really wrap his head around it, but the curious part of his brain was already hooked on knowing more about Grigori’s lab. “What kind of formulas and experiments?”
“I’ve been working with blood. As a vampire, it’s essential to our lives. I’m always intrigued by ideas on how to improve the experience of drinking it. Tonight, I was trying to see if I could make it taste like a dark cup of coffee. It was inspired by you—it’s one of the things I smelled when I met you.”
“Dark coffee?” Delaney asked; that was something he’d never heard before.
“Yeah, I remember freshly chopped wood, leather, and that deep, rich smell of ground-up coffee beans.”
“I smelled roses and raspberries,” Delaney confessed and was surprised at himself for supplying the information.
“Okay, I get the roses. They’re associated with vampires because that’s how Fate marked my mom as Vampyress but raspberries? Do they even have a smell?”
Delaney chuckled. “Yeah, they have a smell. It’s not overpowering, but it’s there. At least I wasn’t smelling leather.”
“You kidding me? That’s so…hot. I mean, I gotta warn you. Vampires have a long history of BDSM, and it’s not really my kink, but you in some leather pants. Yeah, I could get on board with that.”
Delaney was unsure how to handle Grigori’s words or his confession, so he chose to fixate on the part that didn’t directly relate to him. “Wait, vampires are into BDSM?”
“Not all of them but when you compare it statistically to the rest of magickind and shifters, there’s a disproportionate number of vampires who practice it. There’s nothing wrong with it—our butler Tigglesworth and his mate are into it—but I don’t think it’s me. It’s pretty fucking hot to watch—especially if it’s in person—but yeah, not my thing.”
“You’re blowing my mind. You’ve seen it in person?”
“Come on, vampires try to keep our clubs under wraps, but shit leaks. Sex is legal in clubs and in ours, it can be done in front of everyone. It’s tasteful and like I said, hot.”
Despite his terrible evening, Delaney’s blood headed south. “You know, I’ve always wanted to go to a vampire club.” Greggory apparently wasn’t enjoying the conversation, because he fluttered his wings, demanding to be free, and Delaney let go. The familiar flew over to his portion of the bedroom and his little television came on.
“My brother owns plenty of them. I’ll take you anytime you want to go,” Grigori promised huskily. Quiet fell over them for several minutes, and then he added, “Uh…please don’t ask me to actually do it in front of people, though.”
Delaney couldn’t imagine his virgin self stripping down and doing the dirty with an audience. Ever. “It’s okay, no problem there.”
“Oh, thank goodness. I was worried after I said that you’d think I was, I don’t know…a prudish vamp. I just think some things are private and especially with your other half, you know? I mean, I know vampires don’t have that taboo. If you’re mated to another vamp, Fate takes away that little caveat about not being able to perform with another, but luckily I’ve been paired with a nonvampire.”
He had no clue how they went from their ruined evening to the sexual practices of vampires, but Delaney was wondering what rock he’d lived under his whole life. “I didn’t know that.”
“It’s a dirty secret because magickind doesn’t approve, but it’s stupid. Shifters are the same way. Fate does it for whatever reason for them. As for vampires, feeding is a very sexual thing, so it makes sense you’d want to perform with your donor. I mean, you’ve gotten each other all worked up, and you’re going to walk away? No, I don’t think so. That’s how the public sex thing started. Mated vampires would do it in full view, so there was no secrecy in their relationship. Not all of them do it like that, though. My parents never did—they used to feed off humans but always together, and they didn’t, you know, do that stuff with them. Ugh, I really don’t want to think about sex and my parents. Why does my brain want to even skirt the edges of that subject?”
“Have you done that a lot? I mean, I know you need blood. I don’t know how often or anything. No one really talks about that kind of stuff.”
“My parents are very strong vampires. My mother’s one of the first of our people. Because I’m their son, I only need to feed about twice a month. I’ll need less in a couple thousand years. Younger or weaker vampires might need to feed as often as once a day.”
Delaney was glad Grigori hadn’t realized his question was more about performing with his donors than drinking blood. He certainly didn’t need to know about his past lovers and was currently punishing himself by imagining him with faceless men, doing all kinds of sex acts. “I guess things are easier now that you have synthetic blood.”
“Technically, it’s not synthetic. It requires a few drops of the real thing, and a chemical concoction is added to it to multiply the plasma portion of it, which is what vampires require for life.”
“Still, it must’ve made an enormous impact on your people and their lives.”
“It did, more than I could’ve imagined when I was fourteen.”
“You were fourteen when it was first created?” Delaney asked.
“Yep.”
“You know, I had the Prism Wizard ask the Vampyress if High Arcanist Idris and I could meet with the scientists responsible for creating it, but she denied our request.”
“Yeah, she’s really protective of me, and we’ve managed to keep the secret of who created it all this time.”
“Huh?” was all Delaney managed.
“When I was a kid, I found my mom crying because an entire family of vampires died due to lack of blood. My dad had already built me my own lab, and I’ve been intrigued by science my whole life. I decided I was going to fix it for her, so she didn’t lose any more of our people. First, I had to figure out what component of blood vampires relied on. You would’ve thought plenty of studies were done by then but anyway, once I figured that out by experimenting on myself and separating the blood until I could feel my body craving it, I began building a formula to replicate the plasma. I finished the first version when I was fourteen. Since then, I’ve refined the process down to about three or four drops to make gallons, but someday my goal is to truly make it synthetic.”
“You’re a genius.”
“From what I’ve read, so are you.”
Chapter 10
“You’ve read about me?” Delaney asked. Grigori tugged off his sneakers and lay down on his bed. He was enjoying his conversation with Delaney and the wizard hadn’t hung up, so he figured they were doing all right. Which was a relief, considering what he’d put him through. He wasn’t going to let Delaney go until he agreed to a redo and accepted his apology. He needed to make this right between them.
“First and only wizard to graduate at the rank of Master at the age of sixteen. Doesn’t sound like you have any trouble with books there, High Arcanist.”
“I love books—the older the better.”
“Did you really summon a dragon familiar because of my mom?”
“I have to be honest, my fascination with dragons started then, but I believe something would’ve drawn me to them no matter what. I believe Fate knew someday I’d be living in a dragon court.”
“I guess I don’t need to ask if you like it there at your sanctuary.”
“It’s more than a sanctuary, this is my family. They’re the best people on the planet.”
“I can’t wait to meet all of them. I’m close with my family too.”
“Everyone in your family’s ridiculously good-looking.”
Grigori laughed. “Well, I know your family won’t share the same resemblance mine does, but if they’re half as gorgeous as you, then I’ll be saying the same about yours.”
“I spent a good thirty minutes doing my hair tonight.”
“Sorry I missed seeing it. Would you let me make it up to you? Dinner tomorrow night?”
“I’m not going to the same place. Those waiters think I’m some cheap weirdo who only eats breadsticks while sipping water.”
“You’re killing me, you didn’t even order anything to drink?”
“It would’ve been rude to do that before you got there. Not as rude as forgetting to show up but you know, still awful.”
“I hope you know, I really am sorry. I’ve already decided I’m not going to let you hang up until I have your forgiveness,” Grigori confessed.
“I guess I can understand how you could’ve forgotten your phone which you rely upon to keep you on track.”
“Oh thanks, Delaney. I have to make it up to you, though. Seriously, dinner tomorrow night?”
He heard the sigh through the phone. “Does it have to be fancy? That’s not really my thing.”
“You really are perfect for me. How about somewhere you can wear jeans and sneakers?”
“Vampire club?”
“Nice try. Not on our first date. Besides, when we go, you’re going to be wearing the leather pants of my dreams,” Grigori told him.
“Technically it’s our second date, and I don’t own leather pants. Idris insisted I get a pair of dragonskin ones made, though.”
“Keep going. I need an image for later. Are they black?”
“Of course.”
Grigori closed his eyes as his brain supplied an image of those dark eyes and a pair of tight dragonskin pants. “I wish wizards didn’t wear those thick-ass cloaks. I don’t even have a good idea of how you’re built.”
“How am I supposed to respond to that?”
“I have no idea. I’m just thinking aloud.”
“Is this something you do often?” Delaney asked.
“I’m afraid so.”
“I guess I’ll have to get used to it.”
“Tell me one of your bad habits, so I’m not feeling horribly flawed.”
“I worry about stupid stuff,” Delaney confided.
“Like your awful vampire mate standing you up on your first date?”
“Exactly.”
“Tell me about Greggory.”
“I almost shit myself when Vadimas told me your name. How did that happen?”
Grigori smiled up at the ceiling. “Fate. I think it’s awesome.”
“But weird.”
“You’re just worried.”
“You don’t even know me well enough to speculate.”
“You already confessed about your worrywart tendencies. Don’t worry, Delaney. I’ll keep you on the straight and narrow.”
“Not sure how I feel about my male mate telling me he wants to keep me straight.”
Grigori barked out a laugh. “Not straight like in you not wanting to have sex with me.”
“Why is your mom worried about the two of us?”
“There’s a very good reason vampires only feed from humans. Shifter blood apparently tastes like shit, and magic’s unpredictable.”
“So a dark wizard fucks up the entire equation.”
“No, Dark Wizard of Doom, it’s because of how much power you have, not because of the kind you use.”
“Dark Wizard of Doom?”
“Dooooommmm,” Grigori stretched the word out as dramatically as possible. “Sounds like I’m heralding forth some huge dinosaur. Ladies and gentlemen, be on the lookout, the Delsaurus Rex is approaching.”
Delaney’s laughter filtered through the phone. “Delsaurus Rex?”
“Yeah, that nickname’s going to stick, too. I’m going to see to it.”
“Once again I’m bereft of words.”
“In private, you can be Delsaurus Sex.”
“You know, I wasn’t going to say anything since you’re committed to doing all this science stuff to help your people, but there’s a good chance you might spend too much time in your lab.”
“Oh, there’s no chance. It’s a fact.”
“Are you worried about having some powerful wizard blood? Would you have preferred a vampire mate? You know, that way you can show up at the vamp club in your matching leather pants and watch some sexy stuff before retreating to a private space to do the same things to each other.”
“In the vampire world, there’s nothing more fiercely envied than someone whose mate isn’t another vamp. To be reliant upon your other half for the blood you need is considered the ultimate gift from Fate. I’m not worried about drinking yours. It might make me feel drunk, or I might strip off my underwear and run down the road. We’ll find out together when we’re ready for that step and for the record, I didn’t have the leather pants fantasy until I met you. I didn’t want a vampire, I would’ve had to hope they only drank the bagged stuff like I do or worry about them wanting to fuck someone else. That’s not for me. I’ve always known that, and I’m glad Fate did too.”
“You only drink bagged stuff?”
“I’m twenty-six. Most people had already switched before I was born, and I invented the nearly synthetic formula. I can’t run around sucking neck at this point.”
“ ‘Sucking neck,’ ” Delaney repeated with a chuckle. “Why do shifters taste like shit?”
“I guess because they’re technically half animal. It’s not palatable for vampires. The ones who wind up mated to shifters basically acclimate to the crappy taste of their other half.”
“Guess you’re glad I’m not a D’Vaire dragon.”
“Absolutely. I’d be like, ‘Yeah, Delsaur
us, you’re hot as fuck, but your blood tastes like skunky beer.’ ”
“I’d be begging for you to feed and you’d say, ‘Not tonight, babe,’ ” Delaney responded.
“ ‘I’ve got a headache, honey.’ ”
“So I shouldn’t worry about what’s going to happen to you if we’re ever at the point where you drink from me?”
“When, not if.”
“What?”
“You said ‘if’ we’re ready for me to drink your blood, not when. I’m committed to this relationship. I know my actions haven’t shown that yet, but I believe strongly in Fate. I don’t have any issue at all with drinking from you someday. As a scientist, I’m insanely curious how I’ll react, and I hope you won’t be nervous, because my mom’s going to drive herself crazy enough for all of us,” Grigori confessed.
“You’re easy to talk to. I wasn’t expecting that. I don’t always have the best of luck with people.”
“You’re different, and people are naturally afraid of things they can’t immediately figure out. I think it’s been hard for you being the only dark wizard.”
“I’m not going to fill your ear with complaints.”
“You live in a sanctuary, so I know your life hasn’t been all roses and tender, loving vampires.”
“Tender, loving vampires?”
“I’m going to totally be that. Just you wait,” Grigori promised.
“I like that you’re weird.”
“I’m expecting you to hold up your end of the bargain and be just as quirky.”
“Challenge accepted.”
“You want to know something?”
“What?”
“I’m fucking starving. I need to raid the kitchen.”
“Well, if someone had shown up to this fancy, romantic restaurant he invited a certain dark wizard to, you wouldn’t be hungry.”
Becoming D'Vaire (D'Vaire, Book 11) Page 8