Forbidden Blood

by R. L. Kenderson

  “It’s pretty incredible.”

  He smiled at her, and she couldn’t help but smile back.

  He continued his perusal. “I can see your belly has a small bump, which I know is from the babies. It’s remarkable to think two little beings—part you, part me—are inside there, growing as we speak.” He cupped her belly and lingered there, rubbing her, as he grinned down at his hand.

  He looked back at her and moved his hand lower. His smile dissolved as his eyes filled with heat. “And down here? I can smell your arousal. It’s stronger than before. Not to mention, you are so wet now.” He slipped two fingers inside her with little resistance. “Fuck, you feel incredible,” he said with a groan.

  He stroked her until she moaned. He withdrew his fingers and used the wetness to paint each of her nipples. Then, he leaned over and licked and sucked them clean. She closed her eyes and whimpered. He made her feel so incredibly desired. If he kept it up, she’d soon want him inside her again.

  He lifted his head. “In case you haven’t figured it out, I loved your body before, and I love your body now. And just for future reference, I’m going to love your body when you’re nine months pregnant. Don’t ever hide from me, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  He dropped a kiss on her nose before standing and stretching, not the least bit embarrassed by his nakedness. “Let’s get you something to eat.”

  Her stomach gave an answering rumble, and she laughed at the loud request. “How did you know?”

  He pointed to the side of his nose. “Cat senses. It’s not as strong as a wolf, but I can still sense a lot of things humans miss. You?”

  She got out of bed while he went to the tall dresser and grabbed a T-shirt out of his drawer.

  “Vampires have a stronger sense of smell than humans, too, but I’m sure yours is better than mine.”

  He walked over and pulled his T-shirt over her head. Once it cleared her eyes, she noticed Vaughn staring at her with his head tilted.

  “What?” she asked.

  “How come I’ve never seen your fangs? Do they disappear?”

  She gave him a beaming smile and then opened her mouth. “No, they’re always there. We just learn at a young age to hide them when we talk and smile.”

  Vampire fangs grew in with permanent teeth even though vampires didn’t need fangs until they went through their change. They weren’t huge, but they were sharper and slightly longer than a human’s top cuspids.

  “Huh. I suppose it’s just like people who don’t like their teeth. They learn to hide them. Can I touch one?”

  She laughed. “Sure.”

  She opened her mouth, and he roughly ran his finger over one, giving himself a cut. She felt a drop of blood fall into her mouth, and she sucked his finger to stop the flow. She closed her eyes and gave a small moan at the taste of his blood.

  “Baby, you have to stop.”

  She let go and opened her eyes. “Why?”

  She looked down and got her answer when she saw he was hard again. She giggled.

  “Minx.” He grabbed some shorts and a shirt from his dresser. He put them on and looked at his finger. “How do you not cut your tongue all the time?” He thought about his question. “How do you not cut my tongue?”

  She shrugged. “At a young age, we learn how to work around it. I don’t even have to think about it anymore. Plus, it’s harder to cut our skin than a human’s, and if we do get cut, we heal much faster. We also have healing properties in our saliva, so we can close the wound after feeding. It also helps us heal ourselves if we do cut our own tongue”—she smiled—“or the person we’re kissing.”

  “Come on. Let’s go downstairs. I want to feed you.”

  When they got to the bottom of the stairs, he turned and asked, “Weren’t you planning on seeing Kenzie tonight?”

  “Oh my gosh, I completely forgot.”

  She hurried to find her phone while Vaughn pulled food out of the fridge.

  “I swear, pregnancy brain really exists,” she said.

  “Pregnancy brain?”

  “Yeah, short-term memory loss and forgetfulness associated with pregnancy.”

  “Ah. Sorry, babe.”

  Naya smiled and glanced at her phone. She saw a few missed calls and messages. A couple were from Arianna, and Naya felt guilty for leaving Arianna with her parents. But she couldn’t deal with them right now, and she couldn’t have brought Arianna with her.

  She called Kenzie.

  She answered right away, “About time.”

  “Sorry, I forgot.”

  “It’s okay. I actually just got home from work around a half hour ago.”

  “You want to come over now?”

  “Um…yeah. I’ve been dying of curiosity all day.”

  “Good. The address here is…” She paused and glanced at Vaughn.

  He gave her the address, and she repeated it to Kenzie.

  “Okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  “Okay, bye.”

  Naya hung up the phone and turned to Vaughn. He looked handsome as he stood there, cooking for her.

  She bet Kenzie was going to flip when she found out she had been right about Vaughn and Sawyer being different.

  KENZIE PULLED UP to the address Naya had given her. Located in the warehouse district of Minneapolis, it was a trendy section of the city close to the Mississippi River. She found a place to park, quickly entered the lobby of the posh building, and headed to the elevator.

  At Vaughn’s door, she knocked. Naya answered the door, and Kenzie studied her for any signs of sickness. She looked healthy, but so had Kenzie’s mom before she went to a routine check-up and found out she had breast cancer with less than five months to live.

  Taking a calming breath, Kenzie tried not to think the worst. She still didn’t understand everything about vampires, but she knew it was more difficult for Naya to get sick than it was for humans. Naya hugged her, and Kenzie welcomed her familiar sweet scent. Kenzie hoped it was another sign of Naya’s good health.

  After separating, Naya squeezed her hands. “Thanks for coming. I’m sorry I haven’t been much of a friend lately. I feel terrible. How have you been? Anything new or exciting happening?”

  “You mean, besides waking up to see Sawyer looming over me after he broke into my apartment last night?”

  Naya held a hand over her mouth, her eyes round, as she stifled a giggle. “He broke into your apartment?”

  “Yes. So much for never seeing him again, huh? Apparently, he was worried about Vaughn, and I didn’t answer my door,” Kenzie said with a shrug. She saw Vaughn cooking in the kitchen. “Hi, Vaughn.”

  He smiled, gave a two-finger wave, and returned to his food.

  Kenzie looked back at Naya and said in a low voice, “But you two seem good. What the hell did I miss?” She leaned in close to Naya. “I thought you weren’t going to see Vaughn again? I thought you were going to do what your parents wanted?” She held up her hands. “Not that I’m complaining.” She put her hands down. “Emerson seems nice, but you don’t love him, and I know you really like Vaughn.” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “Plus, he’s hot, and you said he’s great in bed.”

  “Kenzie,” Naya said, dragging her name out through clenched teeth.

  Vaughn laughed behind her.

  Kenzie straightened and said, “What? He couldn’t hear me.”

  Vaughn was standing at least twelve feet away from them, and there was no way he’d heard what she said. His laughter had to be a coincidence.

  “Anyway, what’s going on?”

  Naya shook her head with a smile on her face, which meant Kenzie had to wait to find out anything.

  “Come in and sit down.” Naya directed her toward the living room.

  Kenzie took the opportunity to look around. The large space was wide and open with vaulted ceilings, and off to one side, there were stairs with a banister above. It was a beautiful apartment.

  “You have a great place,
” she told Vaughn. “It makes mine look sad and small.”

  Vaughn laughed and looked at Naya. “Your apartment has a certain charm.”

  Kenzie turned to Naya and raised her eyebrows. “I guess you can add gentleman to his list of attributes.”

  Naya laughed and sat on the couch. Kenzie chose the love seat, so they would be near each other.

  “So, what’s up?” Kenzie asked. “What did the doctor say?”

  Naya didn’t respond right away. She bit the corner of her bottom lip, and then she had a tiny smile on her face.

  “Please tell me you’re not dying.”

  Naya laughed. “Quite the opposite actually.” She looked down and put her hands on her lower stomach.

  Kenzie felt her eyes widen. “Holy shit, you’re pregnant.”

  Naya nodded and held up two fingers with a big smile on her face.

  “Twins?” Kenzie asked.

  Naya nodded again.

  “Holy shit.”

  Naya grinned. “Shocking, right? Pregnancy was the last thing I thought was wrong with me.”

  “How far along are you?”

  “Twelve weeks.”

  Kenzie tried to recall all the things Naya had told her about vampires and babies. If Naya was twelve weeks along, it meant she had become pregnant the first night she met Vaughn.

  “How did this happen? I mean, you’ve always told me how hard it is for…your family to conceive.”

  “Vaughn knows I’m a vampire.”

  Kenzie scrunched her nose. “What?” she asked in shock.

  Naya quickly added, “He just found out last night. I would never tell him that I was a vampire without telling you that I told him.”

  “But you always made it sound like it was even harder with a human?”

  “Well, there is something else, but you can’t share what I tell you with anyone.”

  Naya’s eyes left hers as she looked behind Kenzie. Kenzie glanced over her shoulder and saw Vaughn walking over to join them.

  Naya looked at Kenzie again. “It’s very important. You have to promise.”

  “Of course. You know you can trust me,” Kenzie said, a little hurt Naya would doubt her.

  Vaughn sat on the arm of the couch.

  Naya leaned forward and squeezed her hand. “You are my best friend, and I would trust you with my life.” Naya let go of her hand and sat back up. “I only stress the importance of confidentiality because it’s not my secret.”

  “I promise.” The secret had to be about Vaughn.

  “Do you remember the last night we went out, and we were leaving the club? We were talking in the parking lot?” Naya asked.

  “Yes.” At the mention of that night, Kenzie caught herself subconsciously rubbing her neck where Sawyer had bitten her. She quickly dropped her hand back to her lap. “I remember.”

  “Well, you were right. Vaughn and Sawyer are not human. They’re actually shifters.” She put her hands up. “Not werewolves.” She let her arms drop and smiled at Vaughn. She turned back to Kenzie. “They’re cat-shifters.”

  “Holy shit, I was right. Sorry I keep saying that, but you keep surprising me.” Kenzie was stunned. She’d brought up the idea that night, but she hadn’t thought she would actually end up being right.

  Cat-shifters. Wow.

  Kenzie sat up straight, remembering the conversation by the door when she’d first arrived. “Uh…does this mean Vaughn has super hearing?”

  Vaughn let out a loud laugh. “Yes, it does. Glad to know you appreciate the package and that my bedroom skills live up to their reputation,” he joked. Vaughn kissed the top of Naya’s head. “Thanks, babe, for bragging about me.”

  Naya turned pink.

  Kenzie laughed uncomfortably. “Oops,” she said, only making Vaughn laugh harder. “Sorry,” she said to Naya as she shrugged.

  “It’s okay. You didn’t know. But it’s not like he needs any ego-stroking.”

  Naya and Vaughn grinned at each other, and Naya nudged him with her shoulder. The large T-shirt she was wearing moved, revealing part of her shoulder and the bite there.

  “So, what’s with the neck-biting thing you do?” Kenzie asked Vaughn, pointing to Naya’s neck. She hoped he wouldn’t know she was asking because Sawyer had bit her, too.

  Vaughn looked down at the mark on Naya. “It’s an intimate bite that shifters put on someone to mark the person as theirs.”

  Kenzie raised her eyebrows and swallowed hard. “It sounds primitive.”

  “Well, I suppose it is, but you have to remember that we’re half animal, and just like any other animal, we can be possessive when it comes to something we think of as ours.”

  Naya suddenly sat up straight, her shoulders stiff. “Do you do this with every female you sleep with?” she asked Vaughn.

  Vaughn smiled with laughter in his eyes, but he was smart enough not to make a sound. He kissed her on top of her head again. “No, baby, it’s reserved for mates. Our biology isn’t made for one specific person. However, when we’re drawn to someone, it’s primal, an instinct. Marking is an impulse we really can’t control.”

  Intimate? Possessive? Mates? And Sawyer had bit her. Could she possibly…

  For a second, she felt a tingly sensation in her chest she recognized as hope, but then she recalled Sawyer’s words from that night. He’d only bit her to get his friends to stay away, not because he wanted her for himself. She wasn’t good enough for any of them. Plus, his neck-biting had come across as deliberate, not some uncontrollable impulse. At least now she understood a little more about what had happened between them. Maybe she wasn’t good enough since they were cat-shifters, and she was human.

  She felt a sting behind her eyes, and she was afraid she might start to cry in front of Naya and Vaughn. This only confused her more, considering she didn’t even like Sawyer. It was ridiculous to feel any hope she might be his mate, and then be sad and disappointed when she realized she wasn’t. Sawyer was making her crazy, that was for sure. She mentally pinched herself. She needed to save her thoughts for when she was alone.

  She looked at Naya. “So, you and Vaughn are going to have a baby. Are shifters really fertile? Is that how you got pregnant?”

  “No,” Naya answered. “Shifters have the same problem vampires have. My doctor doesn’t understand how or why we conceived this quickly. Vaughn is going to ask his doctor if he or she has any information that might help us.”

  Vaughn brought his hand to his mouth and cleared his throat. “Actually, I already spoke with my healer yesterday after I left here,” he said, “and I do have some info to share with you.” He glanced at Kenzie. “You might hear more about pregnancy and biology than you planned tonight. I can wait until after you leave. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

  “Oh, Vaughn, how little you know me. Of course, I want to hear everything.”

  His brow went up for a second. “Okay. Well, shifters and humans have mostly similar qualities, but we have other differences besides the ability to shift. Our bodies are mostly like yours in human form. We have legs and arms, hair in all the same places, and the same internal organs. However, when it comes to our”—he cleared his throat again—“penises, at first glance, we look the same, but we’re different.”

  Vaughn glanced between Naya and Kenzie to see if they were okay, and then he continued. “One of the variances in cat-shifters is that we don’t have foreskin like a human male does. If you saw a cat-shifter dick and thought it belonged to a human, you would assume it was circumcised. Our foreskin doesn’t cover the head of our penis. Instead, it covers the underside of the head of the penis because when we have an orgasm, we have six barbs that come out of the underside of the head. The foreskin covers and protects them when they aren’t erect.”

  Barbs? Kenzie tried to hide the look of wonder she felt because she didn’t want to interrupt.

  “Our bodies are designed that way for a reason. Female shifters only go into mating heat twice a year, usually st
arting around age twenty-one, and it is the only time they can conceive. Like our cousins in the wild, the barbs scrape the walls of the female’s vagina when she’s in mating heat and signals her body to ovulate. With non-vampires or when a cat-shifter female isn’t in heat, most guys only worry about the barbs hurting his partner upon withdrawal. To avoid this, we wait until the barbs have retracted before withdrawing from a female, or we pull out before we come.”

  “So, basically you can control when you impregnate a female?” Kenzie asked.

  “In theory, yes. However, it doesn’t really work anymore. What used to be a sure way for cat-shifters to breed seems to have become more and more desensitized as the generations go on. The barbs rarely trigger ovulation anymore. Now, it seems a female can ovulate more on her own during her heat, making the barbs unnecessary. The sad part is, it doesn’t mean a female will ovulate every time she’s in heat, barbs or no barbs, and since Mother Nature only gives shifter females two chances a year, there are fewer and fewer babies.

  “I’m embarrassed to admit I presumed a few things the night Naya and I were together. I never thought I would cause a non-shifter to ovulate. Female humans and vampires are different from female shifters, obviously having their own cycles and times when they can get pregnant. Male shifters can smell when females are fertile, so we usually don’t have sex with humans when they are ovulating to avoid pregnancy. The night we met, I didn’t smell Naya ovulating, so I wasn’t worried about getting her pregnant. But the first time Naya and I separated after sex, she was on top, and before I could stop her, she got up.”

  Naya inhaled loudly. “I remember that. I felt you as I got up, but it didn’t hurt. Instead, it made me have another orgasm. I also remember having a strange feeling in my stomach. I must have ovulated then.”

  “Yeah, something that no longer works on cat-shifters, like nature designed, worked on a vampire. I think this will give our doctors a lot to think about.”

  After the big revelation, they talked for about a half hour more before Vaughn got up to leave them alone for a while. Naya then filled Kenzie in on what had happened with her parents and how she’d left. She said things were good with Vaughn so far, but they’d been together for less than a day. If things didn’t work out, Kenzie assured Naya that there would always be a place to stay with her, babies or no babies.