“I’m sorry, Preston. You must have had a very difficult childhood.”
“It was what it was. I don’t talk about it often. Well . . . never. I guess you could say my childhood gave me a great distaste for drug users, and I don’t like to drink from prostitutes, which somewhat limits my fresh blood intake.” Lily’s body stiffened against mine, and I wondered if she felt sorry for me or hated drugs too. She had secrets she hadn’t divulged yet, but I wouldn’t judge. I liked her too much to ridicule any of the choices she’d made, and being the kind and sensitive person I knew her as, I was positive that most of those—whatever they were—had to be for a great reason. It took a lot of courage and effort to get through a hundred plus years on earth and all the fucked up baggage that came with it. We’d both been in this messed up world for a long time. There would be no asshole judgments coming from me.
“When did you get turned?”
“I was nineteen years old. After I left the orphanage, I had trouble finding work because of my illness, the constant asthma very prevalent and noticeable. No one wanted to hire me. I was weak and could barely lift a twenty-pound sack without coughing. Not to mention the issues with my leg.”
Her eyes widened, and she sat up and stared at me. “I’m older than you?” The surprised expression on her face ignited her dark eyes with an amber glow once more. The same way they had looked when she climaxed while I’d taken blood from her thigh. I imagine they had again later, as well, but I couldn’t see her face then since her mouth had been buried against my neck, and then later, I had come with her, and my mind was elsewhere.
“You are.” I laughed. “Don’t worry. I’ve always liked older women.” I winked and tucked her closer against me.
“I did land a job as a school teacher, though it had its share of challenges. It took time to charm my way into each kid’s heart in order to get them to look past my disabilities and want to respect my authority without their ridicule. I’d spent a lot of time as a kid playing the piano in the home I lived in. No one wanted much to do with me, so I sat in front of those ivory keys day after day and taught myself how to play. I discovered that through music and my love of songwriting, I could get them all to learn while having fun doing it.
“As for my transformation . . . I’d worked late that night grading papers and hadn’t noticed the huge storm brewing outside. Thinking back, it had to have been a hurricane, but back then they didn’t have machines to calculate the speed of the wind, nor was there any way to send out a warning. I was on my way home—I rented a room at Mrs. Johnson’s boarding house in town, so I didn’t have all that far to go—but the storm was intensifying.
“Initially, when I stepped outside the school house, I almost turned back and stayed inside. But I needed to get a good night’s sleep since I’d been up late the night before writing a song—something I did for fun. So, I braved the storm and clutched my satchel full of books and papers close against my chest. But the heavy gusts of wind stole it from my grasp almost immediately. I couldn’t even see which direction it flew, so I ignored it and hurried along as fast as I could, which wasn’t very fast with the leg brace I still wore. My leg never did improve. In fact, it got harder and harder to move as I grew older.”
I looked down at Lily. Her finger still moved gently over my leg, so I knew I hadn’t lost her to sleep yet, but being sympathetic, knowing how long-winded I could be once I had someone’s attention, I asked. “Am I boring you yet?”
“No! Absolutely not. I find your story captivating. Please, go on.”
I sucked in a breath and sat up. Placing my hands around Lily and bringing her with me, I lifted her up and then set her back down so her legs straddled mine. I wanted to look at her. I wanted her to see me. Her dark eyes gleamed with empathy, and her lips were still plump from my kisses and stained red with my blood. The empathy I didn’t fully understand. How could she comprehend the magnitude of my illness?
Now that she was in this pose, my cock hardened, and I wanted her again. My hand rose as if of its own accord and caressed the nape of her neck. I gently pulled her close, pressing my lips against hers, tasting my blood still lingering on her tongue. I placed my hands under her, raising her up to position her back down over me as her wetness coated my erection. When she pulled her hair to the side, revealing the vein that throbbed, I took it. Taking turns, we shared each other as she moved on top of me. Our blood would be forever mixed. The magnitude of our orgasms exploding together exceeding every sexual experience I’d ever had.
We held each other after, our breaths labored. We stayed that way until our breathing normalized once again. Lily spoke first.
“You’re amazing. A sex god.”
I laughed. “And how would you know?” The moment the words left my lips, I wanted to take them back. Her face became somber, and I badly wanted to wipe that look of gloominess away. There was so much more to Lily than I ever thought possible. With far more tact than I had just demonstrated, I would find out everything about her.
“I read a lot.” She laughed, and I was relieved that she hadn’t taken offense to my rudeness.
“Ah, romance novels no doubt. Or do you indulge in erotica?”
“Mostly just steamy romance, though some erotica, I guess.” Her voice turned shy with the confession, and I loved it. “Finish telling me about how you became a vampire.”
I left her sitting on top of me with her legs straddling mine. I needed to watch her eyes and her lips as I spoke.
“Where was I?”
“You had just left the school house, and there was a storm. By the way, it was rather mean of you to distract me from such a riveting story that way.”
“Are you complaining?”
“No.” She gave me a sweet smile. “It was worth it.”
Every facet of Lily delighted my senses. She could say or do no wrong in my eyes.
“Well, when I left the school, I made my way through the trees, and a loud crack reverberated through the air, followed by a sound resembling an explosion. I turned to look in the direction of the boom as a large tree trunk headed right towards me. As I stood watching the tree plummet in my direction, frozen in place and unable to move, knowing it could be my end, someone came out of nowhere and grabbed me, whisking me away so fast I couldn’t see who they were or where we were going. When he placed me on my feet somewhere several miles away, I immediately threw up into some bushes. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a large man standing by, observing me as I retched into a row of hedges that lined the walkway where we stood. When I finished losing everything except my guts, I looked up to see a small cottage. The wind was still strong and threatening as he tugged me inside. He asked when I’d last eaten, and I told him not since that morning. He told me to sit by the fire and gave me some broth and brandy. I sipped at both as he watched. I asked him how we’d managed to get to the house so fast, but he only shrugged and said, “I will tell you in due time. For now, drink. You’ll need your strength.”
After I had finished both the broth and brandy, I thanked him. He’d saved my life. I offered him money, but he didn’t want any monetary compensation.”
“What did he want?” I heard the trepidation in her voice as she asked so quietly.
“He wanted a companion.”
“What kind of companion?”
“I think you know.”
She nodded.
“He told me he could fix my body. I laughed, coughing as I always did from the asthma. When he told me he was a vampire, I scoffed at him. Disbelieving. But I knew deep down that he spoke the truth from the speedy way in which we’d flown through the air. I’d heard rumors of such creatures, those who defied death. Death as I’d known it at the time anyway. Immortal beings, demons from hell. But he didn’t seem like a demon to me. Besides, I told myself if he had wanted to harm me, he would have already, and he wouldn’t have saved me from the falling tree.”
“So you let him turn you?”
“Yep. I’ve never looked ba
ck since.”
“You like being a vampire?”
“Shit, yeah.”
“But what about the companion part? Did you love him?” Her question wasn’t an accusation. It was simply an inquiry filled with curiosity.
“I grew to love him. Yes.” Her gaze darted to her hands in her lap as she twisted her fingers. A nervous habit I’d noticed from earlier. I knew the question of my sexual orientation must be looming at the front of her mind, and it seemed to bother her.
“But not in the way he wanted. I’m not gay, Lily.”
“I think we’ve established that.” She smiled sweetly. “But why did you stay with him?”
“Because I did care for him. He made me whole. He saved me from a hardship I never thought I’d escape from. I gave him whatever he wanted.”
“Including sex?” she asked.
“Yes. In exchange, he provided for me, showed me what I needed to do to survive the new life he’d given me.” I laughed at a memory. “There were a few occasions when we’d go out hunting and he’d insist on bringing home a female for me to enjoy. I’m not bi-sexual and he knew I preferred women, and he wanted to make sure I was taken care of in that way.”
“If you aren’t bi-sexual and you’re definitely not gay, that must have been difficult to allow him to do what he did with you.”
“It was, but I was so grateful for the life he’d given me, and I’d made the deal with him. I felt obligated to honor it. I’d have given anything to no longer be trapped in that body. I’m not making excuses for being with him,” I added, though I realized that was exactly what I was doing as guilt swamped me for wanting the life he’d given me in exchange for sex. The thought of using my body as payment for something like eternal life hadn’t bothered me in the slightest back then.
“Lily, I’d had a shitty, difficult childhood. Living with disease was extremely hard, especially during that era. When someone came along and offered me an illness-free eternal life? You bet your beautiful, sexy derrière I took it.”
I stopped talking when she became placid, and I sat up and tilted her chin up with my finger so that her eyes were level with mine.
“Do you still love him?” I had known that question was coming.
“In a way, yes. But never in the way he wanted me to love him. But he’s gone now.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know. I kept my position at the school for several years, making excuses about finding a miracle worker of a doctor who was just passing through town, until it got to the point where I thought people had begun to notice that I hadn’t aged. One day, I came home from school, and he was gone. Just like that. He left me a note, saying that he was thankful for my companionship but that he needed to move on.”
I paused for a few seconds, remembering how lost I’d been and how empty I’d felt inside being left alone without the companionship of another vampire. “I knew it was more than that. I couldn’t hide the fact that I liked being with women more than him. He knew I craved the love and touch of a female. I just grew to love him because of who he was and what he’d done for me.”
“Then it seems as if he took advantage of you. Maybe even abused you.”
“You can think of it that way if you want to, and I suppose you might be right in a way. I’ve never taken another male lover since my sire, nor have I ever told anyone this. Not even my best friend, Gage. It’s not exactly a conversation I want to have with any of my bandmates. I doubt they’d make fun of me, but I never wanted to give them the opportunity. And it’s usually not very good bedroom conversation.”
I smiled and flipped her onto her back as I climbed on top of her in a playful way, kissing her neck and sliding my tongue down to the tips of her breasts.
“But you told me.”
Lifting my head, I glanced at her. “Yes. I want you to know everything about me. I care about you. I care for you. You must know that.” I kissed her nipple and then playfully nipped at it.
She remained quiet. Docile even.
“What is it, love? Why are you so sad all of a sudden? You don’t like being a vampire do you?”
“It’s not that I don’t like it . . .”
“What, then? Tell me.”
Chapter Ten
Lily
“It’s late. I should be going.”
I wiggled out from under Preston and found all my clothes that had been strewn around the room. Lying there with him had been wonderful. He was wonderful. His story was enthralling, and I wanted so much to be like him. I wanted to embrace my vampirism. But I couldn’t. I was a vampire owned by another, and I couldn’t find a way out. The idea of Press loving a man didn’t bother me. I understood that kind of love. Especially with one’s sire. In a way, I loved Dorian, but over the years, that love had turned to hatred as my freedom turned to captivity. Preston’s story should have made my confessions easier. But it didn’t.
“Lily, wait. It’s still early. It’s only five in the morning. Can’t you stay a little while longer? The sun won’t be up for another hour and a half. I’ll take you home myself.”
Wouldn’t that be something? To have Preston take me home. Home to Dorian. Preston had no idea what kind of life I led. He hated drugs and prostitutes. Had said as much. His mother had died in his arms from a drug overdose, and her prostitution had created him. How would he take it when I told him that I had to peddle heroin every night? Or that I lived with a man who pimped prostitutes and sold women and men into sex slavery. There was no way I could reveal where I lived, whom I lived with. Preston would hate me. He would never understand.
Tonight had been nothing but the realization of the dream I’d wanted. That was all. I had gotten exactly what I wanted. Now, I could move on. Forget Preston.
“I’m sorry, Preston. I really need to go.”
I finished pulling on my boots and headed toward the door. Preston quickly tugged up his pants and followed me out. When I entered the hallway, I stopped when I heard voices. People stood around, talking. His bandmates. Their women. They were all there, and they all stopped talking and stared at me when I stumbled into view. Preston came and stood beside me, barefooted, his pants zipped but not buttoned, showing a bit of the hair that I had just run my fingers through. He wore no shirt, and his hair was messed and tangled as I’m sure my own locks were with that just-fucked appearance. He looked delicious, and I wished I didn’t have to leave him.
“Elvis!” one of them said in a surprised voice, using that ridiculous nickname. Preston stood silently beside me, and they all just kept staring as if they’d never seen another vampire before. Well, maybe not one coming from Preston’s room with messed-up hair and a satiated glow that I was sure I had. If vampires could blush, I was sure my cheeks would be a deep, dark shade of pink. “Are you going to introduce us?”
“Oh, yeah,” Preston began. “This is Lily, my girlfriend.” The new title gave me goosebumps. I hadn’t been prepared for it. I’d wanted it, but I knew it could never be. I hated that I was the only one who knew that this had just been a one-night stand.
“Hi, I’m Maggie, and this is Cian.” A petite young woman and a male vampire that I recognized approached me. She draped her arm around his waist as she held out her hand to me. I shook it. She was small, a few inches shorter than me. Her beautiful, dark locks were pulled back and secured into a ponytail. Tight, cropped workout pants displayed her shapely figure. Now that I looked closer, they were all dressed as though they’d just returned from the gym.
I took Cian’s hand when he reached out to claim mine. He was handsome, with a neat, short haircut. His smile, as well as his grip, were welcoming.
Another male stepped toward me. “Hi, I’m Gage. I’m Elvis’s best friend,” he said with pride, and I instantly liked him. He took my hand and held it, the movement slight but strong. Gage was taller than Preston. In fact, he was taller than all of them. His unruly light brown curls fell loosely to his shoulders, and his smile was infectious.
“I’m
Lane, and this is V.” Lane was even more handsome up close than on stage. I knew he and Cian were twins, but the resemblance was only slight. They were both fine-looking vampires, but Lane, like my brother, was pretty . . . only with an air of playfulness and danger. A joviality that Julian had possessed at one time until Dorian’s dangerous drug had claimed him, stealing the goodness and strength that made my brother the man he’d grown to be.
“Short for Vanessa.” The female vamp smiled and held out her hand. She was tall, like me, and her two long, golden, pink tipped braids flowed down over the straps of the pink jog bra she wore. My senses flared when our grasps met. She was different from anyone I’d ever come in contact with before. As if she sensed my discomfort, she said, “I’m a witch.” It wasn’t until then that I noticed the crystal hanging around her neck. But then she smiled, showing fangs, and I stumbled back a little. I’d never encountered a vampire witch before. “I know, it’s a rarity. But it happens.” She shrugged and smiled, and I returned the sentiment.
A large human male walked up behind them.
“That’s Ari,” Preston supplied.
“Hi-ya.” He raised his hand in a wave. He didn’t seem frightened. Perhaps he was compelled. But I recognized him from the club. He was one of the bouncers there. It had always struck me as strange that a club frequented mostly by vampires had a human for a bouncer. But no one ever seemed to be bothered by it.
“What’s going on? Why’s everybody congregating in the hallway?” A pretty young woman with short, blue-and-red-streaked hair chased an adorable chocolate brown Labrador puppy down the hallway. Another human guy trailed behind them. “Oh. Hi,” she said, stopping when she reached the group, but the dog simply continued padding its way to me, wagging its tail very fast. I liked dogs. Always had, and this one was a little irresistible, so I bent down and gave her some love behind her ears and on her tummy when she flopped down on her back at my feet.
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