The Bliss Drip

by Liddie Cain

  “Yes,” a deep voice spoke from behind me and Mac.

  I whirled around to find Felix standing behind us, smoke rising from the ground where he appeared. “I very much do claim her,” he growled with a devilish grin.

  He gestured at the smoke and looked at me. “Impressed? I did that for you.”

  Despite the whirlwind the past few minutes had been, I couldn’t help but laugh and closed the distance between us. He scooped me up against him and hugged me tightly. Then he tipped my head back and kissed me.

  “Wow, I never thought I would see Felix, well…being affectionate,” Sylvia mused.

  Felix eventually put my feet on the floor and tucked me up against his side, smiling at Sylvia. “Even demons have a heart, Sylvie.”

  She snorted out a laugh.

  He did not know Destiny or Rose, so introductions were made. Sylvia, I learned, was actually a much older vampire than any of them. Even Destiny had been turned a couple of decades before Mac. Only Rose was younger.

  As they spoke of it, I asked, “I thought vampires got stronger as they age?”

  “Yes, but it takes several hundred years to make a difference,” Sylvia responded.

  “Mac isn’t the magistrate because he could physically beat out all of the fie-hundred-year-old vampires around. He was smart, he played his politics well and he still remembers how to relate to humans. Those skills are much more useful to me,” Felix added as he stroked my shoulder. Then he gestured back toward the inside. “Ladies! I brought you a welcome gift. Blood consorts from the Imperium.”

  The vampires all began to make their way inside, chatting between themselves as they went. Mac followed them in, giving me a wink as he left me and Felix outside alone for a moment.

  Felix gave me another swift kiss.

  “Thank you for the fruit arrangement,” I breathed out as his mouth left mine.

  He smiled. “You’re welcome. You plagued my thoughts all day, couldn’t get a damn thing done.”

  He tucked my hair behind my ear, and I simply could not help my brain briefly turning to mush.

  “I want you to wear my mark.”

  “Your mark?”

  He nodded. “Think about it a while. I want you to be sure. It means I will have a very intimate connection with you.”

  I caressed the side of his face. “Okay, I will think about it.”

  He turned, throwing his arm across my shoulders and walking back into the house. Mac was in the kitchen preparing food for the human donors that were with the others. I gave Felix’s waist a squeeze then walked over to help him finish up. I took over the cheese board as he made sandwiches.

  Felix leaned back against the counter as we worked, meeting Mac’s eyes.

  “I’ve asked Roz to consider wearing my mark. I want you to talk to her about it, help her decide.”

  “Of course.”

  “So who is gonna tell me about the Unseelies in the sky?”

  “Speaking of!” I stabbed my cheese knife into the block of cheese I was slicing. “The magic Barden used on me was to make me have a very real-feeling fantasy of making out with him and Mac at the same time.”

  Mac stopped and shot Felix a glare, who shrugged. Mac looked at me. “Roz, he can only bring out a scenario that was already in your mind.”

  “Wait, no. I was not thinking about that.”

  Felix chuckled. “Maybe not in the front of your mind but it had to be floating around in there somewhere.”

  “I mean, I thought he was beautiful, but I wasn’t fantasizing about him.”

  Mac started placing the food out on the table. He touched my shoulder as he passed. “He probably just pulled at the attraction for both of us and guided it from your thoughts.”

  “But he’s interested if he did it,” Felix added.

  I shook my head and went back to finishing the cheese board.

  “I’ll talk to him if you want me to,” he continued. “But I don’t have any authority over the Fae. They aren’t in our pantheon.”

  “I’ve never seen a Fae even be interested in a human,” Mac mused.

  “If I understood correctly before I arrived, he is going to be quite interested in Roz.”

  “I’m not convinced that was my doing.” I frowned.

  “Oh, it was definitely your blood,” Mac responded.

  Felix looked thoughtful but turned the subject to the upcoming seminar. “The live donor demonstration needs to be a local. Would your friend Darby consider?”

  I immediately shook my head. “I don’t want Darby included.”

  “She might enjoy it.” He shrugged. “I’ve never seen Mac provide a poor performance.”

  “Because it has never happened,” Mac boasted, flexing his arms.

  “Are you two even real right now?”

  They shared an amused grin before Felix turned back to me. “Who then?”

  “If it must be a local, then it must be me,” I stated logically.

  Mac made a concerned grunt. “What if you make me glow like a fairy?”

  “If Roz prefers it to be her, then I will be there to mask if you have a weird response.”

  Mac nodded at Felix. “That should work.”

  “Could you really glow?”

  They both shook their heads.

  “If you want Mac to feed from you, the two of you should talk about how you feel about each other.”

  I walked over to Felix as he spoke. “Is the feeding that significant?”

  “It is very intimate,” Mac responded.

  Felix nodded. “Vampires are designed to seduce their prey. Just because their feeding habits have become more refined does not mean their abilities have faded. The history the two of you have is going to make you have some strong feelings after and I don’t want them to be uncomfortable for you.” He caressed my cheek as he spoke.

  His eyes shifted somewhere behind me, his fingers pausing against my jaw as his attention shifted elsewhere. Then he cursed. “I need to leave.”

  He brought his other hand up and cupped my face. “I need you to stay here tonight. I don’t want an Unseelie sneaking up on you. It’ll be better for you to be here with Mac and the others.”

  “I didn’t bring anything with me.”

  He looked at Mac. “Send Sylvie. She can get Roz some clothes, enough for a few nights. And do something with Darby.”

  He gave me a swift kiss before stepping back. He and Mac shared one of those man-nods, where they both nod upward. Then Felix winked at me and disappeared in a cloud of smoke again.

  Rose walked into the kitchen as Felix disappeared, leading a quite satisfied-looking middle-aged woman into the room. She sat her down at the table and said soothingly into her ear, “Eat something.”

  Then she waved away the lingering smoke, which smelled of brimstone, and made a face. “Is he going to insist on doing that every time?”

  Destiny came in carrying her male donor over her shoulder with Sylvia right behind her. Her donor was actually walking on her own power but looked pale. Once they had gotten the donors situated at the table and getting something to eat, Mac told Sylvia to go get my clothes.

  “Darby should be there. She can help you find everything,” I explained.

  “Shouldn’t be a problem. Want me to bring Darby back here, too?”

  I shook my head. “I doubt she would like that very much.”

  Sylvia smiled. “I understand wanting your own space. I’ll talk to her. If she wants to stay home, I’ll go back and stay there with her. I’ve got a couple of movies downloaded that I want to watch, anyway, and I won’t need to rest until tomorrow sometime.”

  I touched her arm. “Thank you. Darby means a lot to me.”

  “I look forward to meeting her, then,” she said kindly before leaving with a wave. But as she walked toward the front door, we could hear her exclaim in the living room, “Oh, shit, an angel.”

  Mac blurred out of sight to get to the living room. I followed at a more human pace. Brinna wa
s seated on the living room couch looking calm. She gave me a small smile when she saw me enter the room. Mac was walking Sylvia out the door, explaining that Brinna was here to help, so I went over and sat down by the angel.

  She held out her hand to me. “Do you mind?”

  I placed my hand in hers. She did the same thing as the first time I met her. She drew part of me in, like a wave that slid across me then receded back into her. I could feel the pull. Her eyes were closed in concentration, but her smile brightened. She opened her eyes and sent that wave of energy back into me. I gasped from the rush. Then she released my hand and patted my knee.

  “What are you doing when you do that?”

  “Just checking on you. You’re surrounded by servants of Hell, after all.”

  Couldn’t really deny that. “Do you know why feeding from me would make the Sidhe rise in power?”

  “Not completely.”

  “Oh. I thought you might know if I had some kind of immortal ancestor.”

  “Angels are not omniscient, Rozalyn.”

  “Yeah, sorry. Silly question to ask.”

  Brinna kept her ever-neutral expression, but I realized that she never actually said she didn’t know. She spoke around the question. Angels wouldn’t be able to lie, right? I narrowed my eyes at her. She was unphased. “Have a blessed evening, Rozalyn. I will be close for your protection.”

  As Mac came in the front door again, she went out. He saw my befuddled expression and raised his eyebrows. “What is it?”

  “That angel knows something she’s not saying.”

  He snorted derisively. “They always do, and good luck getting them to admit it. But, to give them credit, I think they are normally given orders not to tell anyone anything because they can’t influence your decisions. Free will and all that.”

  “Oh.”

  Then a thought occurred to me. “What is the afterlife like for you if you die?”

  “Like for me personally?”

  “Yes, since you are a vampire.”

  “Oh, you’re asking if my soul is predestined to Hell for being a vampire?” He grinned, plopping down on the couch beside me. “There are some vampires that were humans that sold their soul to be one. They live as rogue vampires mostly, just doing what pleases them and not ‘working’ for Hell. So yeah, they are predestined to Hell. I was recruited. Most vampires you are going to meet were. We are servants of Hell and part of the job benefits is skipping the eternal torture thing.”

  “So what would happen?”

  “It’s different for everyone. Your soul is linked to your archdemon, and I’m not even sure what all of their choices are. They can kind of leave you in stasis if they want. A couple of Imps I’ve met were vampires that had died and their demon recreated them as Imps. Felix would definitely know better than me, but archdemons are a little like angels, hard to get them to tell you what they know.”

  “So, the demon mark?”

  Mac blew out a breath and shifted the way he was sitting on the couch. “It’s a little crazy that he asked you that the day he met you. It’s almost like a marriage.”

  “What?” I asked flatly.

  He smiled. “Not legally, I guess. But a human that wears a demon mark, it weaves a connection between them that is even more than what he and I share. Felix and I can communicate telepathically. He can track me and know what I’m feeling. Both of us can choose what thoughts the other one hears. For you, he would be able to do all that plus read your mind when he chose to. It gives you the ability to invoke him, one of the reasons they are really picky about who they give their mark to. It attaches your soul to him, too.”

  It was a lot to consider, and I fell silent while I processed. My initial reaction was that this was something I did want to share with Felix. But I did hesitate over how quickly it was moving and how I was only beginning to get to know him. The connection I felt with him was undeniable, like there was an immediate intuition that we just fit together.

  Mac suddenly stood and went back to the front door again. I could hear him talking outside as Destiny and Rose both joined me in the living room, with Destiny talking about Felix as they came in the room.

  “You had it rough living out there in Monroe’s dominion, but I’ve always heard Felix was decent. I was pretty excited when they opened another district under him.”

  “I was born in South Carolina, so it was also nice to come back to the south.”

  That made me feel a kinship with Rose, and I smiled at her, which she returned. Then Mac came back into the room, and we all turned to look at him and the two new vampires that accompanied him.

  The one standing beside Mac was the same height as him with dark skin and an easy grin. He had a short beard and short hair that was buzzed close on the sides, and dressed in dark wash jeans and a light brown leather jacket. He spread his arms wide with a charming look on his face. “Hey, guys, I’m Jason, and I’m here to be the resident black vampire.”

  Destiny smacked her leg as she let out, “Ha! You’re not even the best-looking resident black vampire here.”

  Jason brought his fist up to his chest and acted as if he were wounded. Mac patted him on the back. “Yeah, Sylvia is definitely prettier than you.”

  But Jason’s eyes lit up. “Oh, man, I like Sylvia. That’s awesome.” He smacked Mac firmly on the arm, “Nice place you’re running here, young magistrate!”

  Mac grinned then pointed to the other new-comer. He was shorter than the other men and more withdrawn. He had barely smiled as everyone else had joked with Jason. He was also unfortunately dressed in a tank top that showed off how very pale he was.

  “This is Tate.”

  Tate lifted a hand in a small wave of greeting but didn’t speak as everyone greeted him. Jason strolled over and sat down beside me with his charismatic smile. “Hello, human.”

  “Hello, vampire.”

  Destiny chimed in, “Before you get ideas, she is our blood medium and also claimed by the dominion’s archdemon.”

  “Goodbye, human,” Jason joked, scooting down the couch as everyone chuckled. Then he laughed and scooted back over beside me. His aura was easier for me to sense when he got closer, and it was thicker than the other vampires around me. He called Mac young, so I inferred that he was likely a much older vampire than the rest of them.

  Tate was speaking softly to Mac where I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but Mac gave him a nod and took him down the hallway that led to where the new vampire’s bedroom would be as everyone around me chatted. Mac returned alone in a few moments and sat down beside me.

  Jason was naturally funny, and the conversation stayed interesting. Even Rose started coming out of her shell when he started directing some of the conversation toward her. I was enjoying the dynamic of the group, but the need to sleep was getting harder to deny. Mac caught on to the fact that I was fading and took my hand, standing and tugging me along.

  “Time to tuck the human in,” he joked.

  Destiny blew a kiss. “I like our pet human. Take good care of her.”

  “Goodnight, Roz,” Rose said in her soft voice.

  “Pleasure to meet you! Sleep well!” Jason said.

  Mac led me upstairs and into his bedroom. He went over to his dresser and came back with a large shirt.

  “Something to sleep in. The bathroom is in there.” He gestured to a doorway on the other side of the bed.

  “Will you stay?”

  “If you tell me to.”

  “Please.”

  He nodded. “Have the bathroom first. I must see to a couple more things downstairs, get Jason settled in, but I will be quick.”

  He left the room as I headed into the bathroom. I folded the clothes I had on into a little stack on the bathroom counter then debated again over the bra. Mac had seen my body plenty in the past, of course. Things were different now, but sleeping in a bra was dang uncomfortable. I frowned at my reflection in the mirror then finally decided I wasn’t going to be uncomfortable all
night. I unclasped the bra and tucked it up under my shirt on my clothing pile. I slid the large shirt he had given me over my head. It was just a plain dark grey undershirt that was big enough that the bottom hem reached halfway down my thighs. I found some facial soap and a rag and cleaned the makeup off my face before heading back into Mac’s bedroom. He still wasn’t back so I quickly tucked myself underneath the covers and sat up against the headboard.

  It was only a few minutes later that he came back into the room. He hovered at the door.

  “Dove, you look good like that, wrapped up in the blankets on my bed.”

  It made me finally admit that I had to stop pretending I could be platonic with this man.

  “Why did you leave me?” I dove right into it. Felix said we should talk about our feelings, right?

  With a sigh, he closed the door behind him and walked over to the bed. He climbed up onto the bed beside me but stayed fully dressed and on top of the covers.

  “I mentioned earlier that I was recruited to be a vampire, but strong armed into it is more correct. That summer we broke up, I had been doing that internship in Atlanta and coming back to see you here in Steiner.”

  “Yes. And you started coming less and less.”

  “Right. Vampires weren’t out yet, but Hell had already started organizing the Imperium for the vampires. Part of that was a meeting with Georgia’s secretary of state, whose office I was interning in, because as you know eventually the Imperium Capital would be built there. All of the future Imperium senators were there, and they are all really old vampires. Gavino was one of them, and he was sitting outside of my office, cursing in Italian, trying to sort out his speaking points for the meeting regarding all the zoning and community impact that was anticipated. He didn’t understand some of the zoning laws. I didn’t know what he was.”

  “And I told you something was off with him.”

  “Yes. You came to surprise me that day when he and I were sitting in the conference room working. You looked so scared of him and left. I apologized to him and started to reassure him I’d never seen you act like that. That’s when he told me he was a vampire, showed me his fangs as he said it. He told me I needed to join him. I refused, because of my love for you. Gavino told me if you were my only obstacle he could easily remove you.”