Romance with a Bite

by Tamsin Baker

  ‘I want to do that too. How?’

  ‘You’ll work out how to control it over time. For a while it will be spontaneous.’ He rolled one of her plump, pink nipples between his fingers, then squeezed gently.

  She arched against him, moaned then cried out as her fangs appeared.

  ‘I need to see this.’ She sat up, and fumbled in the bedside drawer, pulling out a small hand mirror.

  He lay back, loving her enthusiasm for this new part of herself. So different from when he was turned. Thankfully she wouldn’t have to go through the torment and confusion he’d been thrust into.

  Katrine peered into the small mirror, her lips drawn back exposing her long incisors. She turned her head from side to side, testing their sharp ends with her tongue.

  ‘Will I ever get to do anything with these?’

  ‘I most certainly hope so.’ He cupped her cheek in his hand, running his thumb over one of the points. ‘You remember how it felt when I bit you?’

  She put down the mirror and nodded, sliding back into his arms.

  ‘That’s what it’s like from the giving side as well.’ Exultant pleasure. Exquisite release when he’d pierced her throat. ‘That’s what it felt like for me too.’

  ‘So,’ she scraped one fang lightly over his nipple, ‘I can bite you?’

  Lucien clamped his teeth together as heated need engulfed his body. He entwined his fingers in her hair and gently moved her mouth away. ‘Let’s go slow, me belle. As much as I’d love us to just follow our baser vampire instincts, I want to savor you. Savor the moment.’

  She flopped back onto the pillow, a cheeky smile curving her mouth. ‘I certainly hope it’s going to be more than a moment.’

  He knew his heart no longer beat, but he swore that was where the feelings Katrine was creating in him came from.

  He traced a finger between her breasts, over her rounded belly to the lush curls between her thighs. Her hips lifted slightly towards his touch, then her hand circled his wrist.

  ‘Not yet. I have some unfinished business.’ In one, smooth movement she straddled him.

  She was magnificent. Her tousled copper hair falling over her shoulders, brushing the taut tips of her dusky pink nipples. Luscious, full breasts and hips. Tapered waist. Such feminine perfection.

  She leaned forward onto her hands, her hair a curtain around their faces. Silky. Soft.

  ‘How do I kiss you with these things?’ she whispered against his mouth.

  ‘Any way you want.’

  Her lips tentatively touched his and he opened his mouth, her tongue taking immediate possession. He reciprocated, reveling in the feel of her fangs.

  This woman was giving him so much he’d never had before. New experiences. New feelings. No. Resurrected feelings.

  He would happily have stayed kissing her forever, and it seemed an eternity before she broke away and kissed a trail from his throat to his chest. She flicked her tongue over his nipples

  ‘Ummm, can I make them go away?’ She sat up and wiggled down his body until hour mouth was poised over his rigid cock. ‘Things might get a bit dangerous.’

  That possibility did nothing to lessen his need to feel her mouth on him, but teaching her had its own erotic appeal.

  ‘Close your eyes and just think about them retracting. It might take a minute since it’s your first time.’

  She closed her eyes, and almost immediately opened them again, gracing him with a beautiful, fangless smile. He laughed.

  ‘You’re a natural.’

  Then her mouth descended, and her glorious hair teased his thighs as she enveloped him with her lips. He was mesmerized, watching her head slowly dip up and down, taking him in deep, then swirling her tongue as she moved up again.

  He didn’t want to interrupt her ministrations but needed to touch her.

  ‘Come closer, ma belle,’ he managed to say between gasps of pleasure.

  Katrine obliged, never losing contact between her mouth and his cock. He reached out to her delectable, rounded ass, caressing her smooth, cool fresh and dipping his fingers between the cheeks.

  He found what he was seeking. The slippery, wet flesh of her sex. He needed no further invitation when she nudged against his hand.

  The moment Lucien slid his fingers into her cool, tight flesh a growl rumbled deep in her throat, resonating around his cock. She was so responsive. Genuinely responsive. There was no faking the wetness that flooded his fingers.

  Her body shuddered and moment her mouth relaxed around him, Lucien slid his arm around her waist, rolled her onto her back and settled between her thighs.

  ‘Hey,’ she complained as her eyes opened. ‘I wasn’t done with you yet.’

  He silenced her with a kiss. Soft and languorous. Katrine’s arms wrapped around him, drawing him down until his chest was crushed against her breasts.

  They were touching from head to toe. Skin to skin, and an overwhelming joy flowed through him.

  He never allowed full body contact with anyone for fear that the coolness of his body would give him away. But with Katrine, there was nothing to fear. Nothing to hide.

  She wrapped her legs around his hips, lifting her own in invitation. He paused. The moment they were truly joined, everything would be different.

  ‘Look at me, Katrine.’

  Her emerald eyes held his as he slid into her wetness and everything was different. He’d come home, to his own kind. She gasped and she tightened around him, her hips arching hard up against his.

  He wanted to keep looking into her eyes, to watch her pleasure, to have her sees his, but it was impossible. The more she moved to meet his thrusts, the more he was lost in a world of new sensations. Lost in Katrine, body and soul.

  Her fingernails raked down his back as guttural groan rumbled in her throat. He’d been lost in his own sensation but knew that she’d have the same overwhelming desire to bite.

  He needed to feel her fangs pierce his skin, feel his blood flow into her mouth.

  ‘Bite me, Katrine.’ His words were like fuel to a fire, his own and hers, as he lowered his throat to her mouth.

  Their cries mingled as she pierced his skin. Delicious, heated pain roared through him. He pulled back from Katrine’s bite and sunk his fangs into her neck.

  She arched under him, tightened around him as she screamed her release and his own exploded in a kaleidoscope of sensation and emotion.

  He rolled over, taking Katrine into his arms and brushed the hair from her face. Blood smeared her lips. His blood. He wiped it gently onto his finger and put it into her mouth.

  ‘Mmmm.’ Her murmur of satisfaction stirred his cock again, but the same delicious languor was sliding over him.

  He dragged the duvet over them. ‘Rest now, ma belle.’

  CHAPTER 16

  ‘Wake up, Katrine.’ Katrine opened her eyes, momentarily confused by the weight of something lying across her body. Oh, yes. Lucien. In her bed.

  ‘Mmmmm?’ She rolled over, pressing herself against his body, her hand snaking down to his cock.

  His hand closed over hers. ‘Soon, soon. We have something else to do first.’ He climbed out of bed and held out his hand.

  She pushed back the sheet and took it and he led her to the window.

  The heavy curtains were drawn. He pulled them apart and drew her to him, holding her in front of his body, his arms wrapped around her.

  ‘Have a look, Katrine. One last look.’ He kissed the top of her head.

  She looked out on a shadowy Montmartre, across the rooftops to where a thin line of pale, buttery yellow seeped out from under the fading night sky.

  ‘No more sunrises for you, cherie.’ He tightened his hold on her.

  The slim band of light began to widen and brighten. Part of her wanted to watch it until Lucien said “no more”, but no good had ever come from holding onto the past. Darkness was her world now.

  ‘You don’t ever want to know what if feels like to let sunlight touch your body.’


  There was something new in Lucien’s voice. Something sad.

  Katrine pulled the drapes closed and turned in his arms.

  ‘You’ve seen that?’

  He shook his head. ‘But I’ve been thinking about it lately.’

  She wasn’t sure what he meant. ‘Thinking about what?’

  ‘Meeting the sun. Ending it.’

  She slid har arms around his waist, leaned her head against his chest. ‘Why would you do that?’

  His hold on her tightened. ‘Because I’d had enough of everything.’

  She understood. His solitary existence. His need for anonymity. For decades, and who knew how long into the future.

  ‘Have you still had enough?’

  His body relaxed, the tension now gone.

  ‘Now I’ll never have enough of you, Katrine.’ He kissed top of her head.

  He didn’t have to tell her any of that. Share something so deeply private.

  ‘Thank you.’ She tilted her head up to kiss him and he responded. Not with passion, but with something that touched her deeper than just the physical.

  ‘And,’ he broke the serious mood, ‘we need breakfast. I presume you keep synthetic blood on the premises?’

  She nodded. She’d seen the bottles of ruby fluid chilling in a fridge in the common living area.

  ‘Go get two.’ He pulled the sheet from the bed and wrapped it around her, and pushing her gently towards the door, gently swatting her butt.

  All was quiet in the corridor. No one would be stirring for hours yet, but she was on a mission. She retrieved two of the small, cold bottles and scurried back to her room.

  Lucien was in bed again, sitting up against the headboard. He held out his hand for the bottles, which Katrine handed over and climbed back into bed.

  He opened them and gave her one back.

  ‘It’s an acquired taste, but a necessity.’ He clinked his bottle to hers and put it to his lips. So did Katrine.

  Her stomach churned at the combination of the slightly chemical smell and the mere thought that it was synthetic blood and she gagged. Then she took a long swig, swallowing hard to keep it down, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and shuddered.

  ‘How much of this shit do I have to have?’

  Lucien took the bottle from her hand and set it down on the bedside table. ‘That’ll do to start. Your body will tell you when you need more.’

  She slid her hand under the sheet and reached for him. ‘My body needs more now.’

  ***

  ‘Lisette.’ Alain tapped his finger on the Post It which lay in the center of a series of lines on the white board. ‘Everything points to Lisette.’

  ‘Yes. All current victims had babies and had spent time at Eternal.’ Juliet pointed to another Post it. ‘Like our victim from thirty years ago. Katrine’s mother.’

  ‘And Lisette adopted that baby.’

  ‘And may be on the hunt for a replacement?’

  ‘Because Katrine might be making a move away from the enclave.’ She’d not said that directly but had admitted that she was spending more time out in the real world.

  ‘Theory on a white board isn’t evidence. What now? Do you think Katrine is in danger?’

  ‘Not according to our theory, but who knows the mind of a vampire? Does human profiling even apply? They were human, but how much of that is still relevant?’

  ‘So what now? More interviews? Surveillance?’

  ‘I don’t know what more we could ask at this stage. If we turn up on a flimsy pretext, she might get suspicious and flee. Hell,’ he rubbed his forehead. ‘How do you even incarcerate a vampire? There’s no precedent for any of this.’

  ‘Well,’ Juliet sat on the edge of his desk. ‘You could go out of hours and chat up Katrine and just keep an eye open.’

  There was no point denying his interest in Katrine. Juliet was a cop, and a woman. Stuff like that didn’t slide by her intuition. ‘I could, couldn’t I?’

  ‘Just make sure you go home and change first. You don’t want to walk in there looking like a cop.’ She stood up, flicking his tie as she walked around to her own desk.

  Two hours later Alain, in non-police jeans and white shirt, sat at the bar in Eternal.

  It was business as usual with a full house and he’d yet to see Lisette, or Katrine.

  ‘Need me to round anyone up for you, Inspector?’ Paul handed him a beer.

  ‘Not tonight, Paul. Thanks. I’m not here in an official capacity.’

  ‘Becoming a fan?’

  ‘You could say that. It’s certainly piqued my curiosity. How about you? How’d you get this job?’ He could never quite turn police mode off.

  ‘A friend of a friend. Word of mouth. Like you, piqued my curiosity and Lisette was looking to hire some humans. I was her first.’

  He was a good-looking young guy. Alain wondered whether he’d ever been a blood donor to one of the women here.

  Was biting humans like a drug addiction where a little taste eventually becomes an insatiable craving?

  ‘Actually,’ Paul was saying, ‘I might need your investigative powers. I haven’t seen Lisette all night, and it’s not like her to not be around.’

  Alain’s antenna buzzed. Lisette was under suspicion and now was mysteriously absent. He was back in cop mode.

  ‘Are you worried?’

  Paul laughed lightly. ‘It’s a human instinct I guess, when something is out of the ordinary, but who knows what’s ordinary with vampires.’

  ‘So Lisette doesn’t usually leave the club?’

  ‘I can’t say for certain because I’m always behind the bar, but she’s always here for opening up. Always. But she wasn’t tonight.’

  Alain’s antenna twanged louder. If she’d taken off, where the hell would she go? As far as he knew, the women rarely left the premises. But then, had everyone been truthful?

  When he’d interviewed everyone, he’d tried not to let any preconceived ideas color his thinking. He knew nothing about vampires but hoped he didn’t let that ignorance push him in one direction or the other.

  ‘Well, it’s early hours yet. If you’re still worried tomorrow, let me know.’ He pulled out his wallet and gave Paul his card.

  An interesting development, and all the more reason to hang around. That reason kicked up a notch when it was announced that Lucille? would perform instead of Katrine. He hadn’t seen her either.

  So now two vampires had made themselves scarce. He’d been policing too long to believe in coincidences, but had nothing, nothing, to go on as to where they might have gone.

  The lights dimmed, music started, and someone slid onto the seat next to him at the bar.

  Katrine

  He watched the performance. He was no judge of dance talent, and presumed the moves were the same, but this woman, this vampire, just didn’t put across the same vibe, the same intensity, as Katrine. Was it because a vampire and couldn’t relate to the story like a human anymore?

  He turned to Katrine. ‘She’s not as good as you,’ he whispered.

  She smiled.

  When the lights came up again, Katrine put her hand over his. ‘I need to talk to you.’

  He was surprised at the serious tone in her voice.

  ‘In the office.’

  They both sat on the couch, Katrine turning towards him and pulling on knee up under her black lace dress. Whether it was the light, or his imagination, or make-up, but there was something different about her tonight. Her skin was like porcelain and he wanted to run his fingers over its perfect smoothness.

  ‘You’re looking lovely tonight, Katrine.’

  She closed her eyes for a moment, then met his gaze.

  Ok, this was definitely business.

  ‘Lisette’s the one you’re after, and she’s gone.’

  ‘Lisette?’ Having his suspicions confirmed was one thing, but proving it would be another.

  ‘She admitted she killed my mother, and the others.’
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br />   It might confirm his suspicion, but in reality it gave him a whole lot of nothing. Heresay held no weight in court.

  ‘Okay, but you don’t know where she is?’

  ‘Oh, I know.’ Katrine seemed to shrink back into the corner of the couch. ‘She’s dead.’

  He sure wasn’t expecting that. ‘How do you know? You didn’t..’

  ‘No.’ She cut him off before he could voice the unthinkable. ‘Not me, but I was there. Up on the terrace.’

  Visions of a blood bath crossed his mind, then a horrifying thought. ‘Was she hurting you, Katrine?’

  ‘She was turning me.’

  ‘What the fuck? Do vampires still do that?’ His ignorance about this world astounded him.

  ‘They can, but it’s not done these days.’

  ‘So why? Are you ok?’ He looked at her throat but couldn’t see any signs of bleeding or bruising.

  Her sudden, sharp laugh surprised him. ‘Depends on your definition of ok.’

  Realization slowly sparked and he looked more closely at her. Her cheeks no longer held the pink that the sun had kissed them with from their time by the river. If anything, she was a little paler. Alain reached out and took her hands.

  Cool.

  Unnaturally cool.

  She pulled them out of his hold.

  ‘She drained me to the point of death and fed me her blood. She felt she was losing me to the real world.’

  And he’d been a part of that. But this wasn’t the time for personal recriminations.

  Katrine spoke so matter-of-factly of a concept that was so foreign to him, to humans, but it had been an integral part of vampire existence.

  Obviously not ‘had been’ anymore.

  He was looking at a newly created vampire and had no idea what to do with that realization. Or the news about Lisette.

  Before he could say anything, Katrine stood. ‘You need to meet someone. Wait. I won’t be long.’

  She walked out of the office and he couldn’t get his head around the bomb she’d dropped.

  Katrine. The woman he’d kissed. She looked and sounded the same, only now she was no longer human.

  Existing vampires were one thing. They were just there. Always had been. The Katrine he’d been getting to know had lived in that world, yet hadn’t been a real part of now. But now …