Blood Deep (Bound in Blood Book 1)
Read Blood Deep (Bound in Blood Book 1) Online
Authors: Karmen Lee
BLOOD DEEP
By
Karmen Lee
Copyright © Karmen Lee
All rights reserved, including the right to publish this book or portions thereof. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Karmen Lee is a coffee enthusiast, data analyst and lover of all things strange and sexy. She can usually be found huddled in front of her laptop writing a few chapters or staring at her work computer screen while attempting to code. Either way, coffee is a necessity and deadlines are always looming.
After a year of writing for others and honing her skills, she is finally striking out on her own as a writer of romance, sweet and steamy. Writing primarily in the LGBTQ Romance genre, she seeks to put to paper all of the various stories that flash through her mind.
Don’t miss out on the second act of Karmen Lee’s Bound in Blood series,
Blood Rising
,
coming July 2015.
I just want it to be known that I am not a monster. To be honest, I’m not completely human either. Regardless, I still go to work and pay taxes like every other red-blooded American…just minus the blood.
I know, I know.
Boo…hiss. I’ve heard it all directed at various incarnations of Dracula that appear on the TV screen. I’ve even heard the misguided idea that all vampires have an insatiable lust for trapping young maidens and feasting on their nubile flesh. You humans really are a gullible bunch.
For one, not all vampires have a taste for the human stuff. I myself have survived on countless orders of bacon burgers and the occasional flute of rabbit blood. In fact, it’s been more than a decade since I’ve last had a taste of human blood, and even then that man was far from innocent as he’d been about to kidnap and rape some poor unsuspecting woman out for a night jog through the park.
How did I know you ask?
Well, I’m not a mind reader, that’s for sure. But I just knew. He seemed to be the type for it, plus he’d been doing it for the past six months from what I gathered during his whining pleas for me to spare his life. Sucking out the last bit of his blood was far better than what would have been waiting for him in prison. I figured I did him a service and dumped his body in the glades for the gators to dispose of.
Now where was…oh yes. You humans are gullible with your antiquated ideas of vampires; who we are and most importantly what can kill us. Garlic is smelly but laughable, sunlight is the same minor annoyance for us as it is for you when you forget sun block. Moreover, crosses do the same for us that they do for the rest of the world.
Piss us off.
“Patrick! Mate, where the bloody hell are you?”
The loud shout shattered Patrick’s concentration and he looked up irritably from his computer just as the source of the interruption walked through the office door.
“Are you still sitting in here typing that shite autobiography? I thought we were going to go to The Cove at sundown.”
Patrick ran a hand through his unkempt blond hair and glared at the blinking cursor on the computer screen before answering.
“Look, Gabriel. I know I said I’d go with you, but—“
“Oh no.” Gabriel held up a hand in front of Patrick’s face to silence him before pinning him with an exasperated golden gaze. “You promised me last month only to stand me up and then you cancelled last week. We are not putting this off any longer. I just broke up with my boy toy and I’m looking for fresh fucking meat to warm my coffin.”
“You sleep on memory foam,” Patrick mumbled under his breath. At Gabriel’s scathing look, he held up both of his hands in surrender.
Gabriel put his hands on his hips and Patrick had to work hard to suppress his urge to smile. “Listen mate, just because we’re vamps doesn’t mean we have to hide away in dark damp places. I mean, look at this.” He threw his hands up and gestured around the office.
Patrick scowled. Yes, his office was dark, but he liked it that way. For one, it kept the room cool and two, it kept the sun from sending harsh glares onto the computer screen. The office had a large bookshelf on the wall beside a cherry oak desk. There was a comfortable couch for lounging behind that. He didn’t have anything hanging on the walls, but he did have a large bamboo plant that he’d gotten from an ex a few years ago.
Patrick thought his name was Harry…or maybe it was Larry.
Maybe it was Sarah?
“Barbarian.”
Gabriel’s voice held a note of disdain and was closer than it had been before. Patrick focused back on his friend when he felt a finger picking at a hole in his Henley. He slapped Garbiel’s hand away irritably.
“What is your problem, Gabe?” Patrick stood up from his chair and pushed Gabriel away.
“My problem is you and your moping about like some creature of the night. That is as cliché as your last book,” Gabriel answered with a sneer.
Patrick smirked. “You mean the book you read from cover to cover?”
“Shut it.” Gabriel held up his hand again, but the curl of his lips betrayed him. “Just, wash up and put some decent clothes on already. I’m starving and horny and I’m ready to find a new bed warmer for the winter.”
“Just turn the heat on in your apartment,” Patrick said as he turned to the doorway. He wasn’t really excited about going with Gabriel to The Cove, but he knew his friend wouldn’t shut up at this point if he didn’t. Still, Patrick had a manuscript to write and a looming deadline and spending the night out with a horny blood-drunk Gabriel was not on his list of things to do.
Regardless, Patrick dutifully marched to the bathroom across the hall. He leaned into the tub and turned the water on as hot as it could go. The manuscript would just have to wait.
“I’m picking out your clothes so make sure to wash your hair on your head and the hair around your dick!” Gabriel called out through the door. “Not that you’ll actually ever use it.”
“Shut the fuck up!” Patrick called back as he slid the worn Henley over his head. He looked at himself in the mirror and sighed at what he saw.
His ash blonde hair really was a mess, the waves going all different ways and Patrick honestly couldn’t remember the last time he’d washed it. He tended to do that when he got lost in his writing. Being a vampire meant not needing sleep, so Patrick sometimes ended up typing for days at a time, only coming up for a shot of rabbit blood before diving back in with renewed vigor. This time though, the words just wouldn’t flow no matter how long he’d sat there. It was frustrating.
Patrick’s blue eyes looked dull and less vivid than normal and his skin was even paler than usual probably due to sitting inside for the past few days. He’d probably missed his necessary shot of blood sometime as well. He internally resolved to do better.
“Are you in the shower yet, mate?”
“Jesus fucking—yeah, I’m getting in, alright?” Patrick cut his eyes to the door before sliding off his sweats and walking over to the shower. When he stepped in, the feeling of the scalding water hitting his skin sent a groan of pleasure rumbling from his chest. While he felt the temperature, the water was never hot enough to actually scald his skin. In order to cause any actual damage, the water would have had to be heated far past boiling. Instead, Patrick’s limbs twitched as if the water were breathing new life into them and he ran a hand across his abs with a smile. He knew he looked good. He’d had no problem getting people to succumb to his charms long before he’d even been turned. All the vampiric change had done was make him able to last longer in bed, far longer than most of his human and vampire partners. Only one had even come close to lasting as long, but he tried not to think of how that one had ended.
When Patrick’s hands brushed across the hairs that framed his cock, he paused for a moment and turned his hearing outward. He could hear Gabriel singing some song loudly and off key as well as the sound of water running and dishes clinking and he figured he’d have enough time to enjoy himself before the other man came barging into the bathroom and demanded him to hurry.
“Get your bloody hand off your cock so we can go!”
“For fuck’s sake,” Patrick groaned his hands dropping to his side. “So much for that plan.” With a sigh, he quickly soaped up his body ignoring the forlorn twitch of his cock in favor of rinsing off and turning off the water. He knew that making Gabriel wait too much longer was akin to asking for trouble and he only had so many clothes and dishes available. He could still hear the sound of cups shattering the one time he had pissed the other man off and he wasn’t eager for a repeat.
For all the needling they did to one another, Patrick had to admit that Gabriel was without a doubt his longest and best friend. They’d actually met at the same club that Gabriel was now hankering to go to. They’d shared a short kiss before breaking apart and laughing about it for the next few weeks before settling into their routine of bickering like brothers who’d been raised together all their lives. They never talked about ‘the incident’ as they called it and neither of them ever felt awkward when the other took home other partners. More often than not, it was Gabriel taking home partners. It wasn’t that Patrick disliked sex nor did he find casual sex morally abhorrent. He just didn’t feel the need to invite people into his bed that he didn’t know very well. Also his abstinence from drinking human blood, fresh or otherwise, made him a bit of a pariah in the vampire community.
Patrick let the last of his thoughts flow down the drain along with the water and suds. There was no point in thinking about all of that when it wasn’t likely to change. He didn’t see him changing his mind about drinking human blood and he doubted the community as a whole would change its perception of him any time soon. Besides, he had plenty to worry about with the current block in his mind when it came to his writing.
“Bloody hell mate, move it along a little will you?”
Patrick shook his head, but obediently stepped out of the tub grabbing the towel off of the wall rack and running the soft cloth over his moist skin. When he’d dried off, he wrapped the towel around his waist and opened the bathroom door. Gabriel was standing on the other side, arms crossed and toe tapping in annoyance.
“Giving me the eye isn’t going to make me hurry, Gabe. You know that,” Patrick said glancing at his friend before crossing the hall and walking into his bedroom. He saw the clothes that Gabriel had chosen sitting on his bed. He walked over to his armoire and opened the top drawer pulling out a pair of boxer briefs. Unworried about his friend’s presence, Patrick let the towel fall onto the floor and slipped on the briefs.
“You know, you really should find you a nice toy tonight. You’re getting awfully uptight especially near your ass region.”
Patrick shook his head. “I don’t need a toy, Gabe.”
“Oh, but I think you do mate. You are so fucking uptight,” Gabe said. When Patrick looked up at him, his friend was leaning against the door frame his arms crossed tight across his chest.
“I’m just busy,” Patrick said with a huff. He walked over to the bed and lifted up the shirt. It was a soft black t-shirt that was tight enough to accentuate his slim waist. The jeans Gabriel had chosen were one of Patrick’s favorites. They were a dark wash also tight enough to hug and frame his ass nicely. Patrick sat down on the bed in order to put on his socks and shoes. “I told you, I have the deadline coming up and I’ve been stuck on what direction to go in.”
“All the more reason for you to come out tonight,” Gabriel intoned with a nod. He uncrossed his arms and moved to rest his hands on his hips. “You can’t write romance if you haven’t been experiencing any.”
“Hey! I have experienced romance.”
Gabriel snorted. “Right. When was the last time you had a non-solo orgasm?”
“That…doesn’t matter.”
Patrick knew Gabriel was right. It had been quite a while since he had even had a one-night stand, though not for lacking in propositions. There were quite a few humans who preferred vampire partners; maybe getting off on sex with a being that could easily rip them apart. Patrick could see the appeal…sort of.
“Oh, but it does my friend,” Gabriel said. “And tonight we are changing it. Get your shite and let’s get the fuck out of here.” Before Patrick could even open his mouth to retort, the brunette exited the room.
“Fuck.”
Patrick didn’t want to admit defeat, but he could concede that maybe he needed a fresh perspective in order to drum up some new material. He stood up from the bed and ran his hands down the front of his jeans. It definitely couldn’t hurt to get out and get some fresh air. He walked over to the large ornate mirror in the corner of his room. The myth about vampires not having a reflection was just that, a myth, and looking at himself in the mirror, Patrick had to admit that he looked practically edible. His six foot frame was accompanied by a lanky swimmer’s build. His golden hair, normally windswept and out of control, fell sensually over his forehead until it rested slightly above his ocean blue eyes. Even before being imbued with supernatural mojo, he’d never had any trouble coaxing willing partners into his bed chambers, though having them stick around had always proven much more difficult.