Devour (3 page)

We
walk in a comfortable silence, hand in hand. It takes only a few minutes to reach his apartment building. Chase unlocks the outer door and tugs me up the stairs to the third floor.

After he open
s the door and we step inside, I take in the scene before me. I’m not expecting this. Usually a single male’s apartment is all modern and cold. They are always so impersonal, making it all the easier to do my job.

This place
is warm and lived in. Pictures hang on the walls and the furniture is worn but not too much. Everything looks cozy. It’s better get to this before I do anything to make me regret this night.

I flash him a come hither smile and pull him to the couch.
Once he is seated, I waste no time lifting the hem of my dress and straddling him. It’s all part of my calculated process. His eyes are now the size of half dollars as he drinks me in.

Leaning forward, his hands slide up my legs and
settle on my backside. He pulls me closer and I’m now nose to nose with him. My control is almost completely severed and my next move is to lean in and kiss him.

After an appropriate amount of time, my kisses
change into soft and gentle ones. As I move to kiss his jawline and his ear, he groans in pleasure and anticipation. I almost feel bad for my deceit.

Needing to
press on, my focus is to lowering my lips on the spot just below the ear. My kisses slowly trail down his neck until my mouth finds the artery I’m looking for. I kiss the spot and gently lick it. His eyes are closed and his head is tilted back in ecstasy.

Before
there can be any hesitation, I stop just long enough to take in the sweet scent of his blood calling to me. My fangs descend and press down on contact. They slice through his skin like butter as they pierce the surface of his neck.

I take a
Moment to let the euphoria settle into Chase, wanting him to enjoy it. It can be a very sexual experience with the right person. It’s a good thing I’m just with a human. As soon as he gasps and his grip tightens, he moves up to my waist and pulls me closer in his excitement.

Now is the time.
I know my eyes are bright so I close them to avoid questions. I bring myself back down to his neck and drink the blood that has welled up in the puncture marks my fangs made. My bloody lips let out a small moan while savoring the sweet and metallic taste of his blood.

Chase
tastes amazing. No, scratch that. He tastes like nothing I have had the pleasure of encountering before. He might just ruin me for future hunting.

Letting the blood lust take over, I began to drink greedily.
It isn’t until his pulse starts to slow that I manage to stop myself. Pulling my fangs back out and gently licking his wounds to seal the puncture marks, they heal instantly.

Then, licking
the remaining blood off of my lips, my attention returns to him. My hands pull his face to me until we’re looking each other in the eyes. A gasp escapes him as he notices the inhuman flash of violet in my eyes. It can’t be helped; I need to erase his memories.

“You will go to sleep once I leave and remember nothing of this night.
My presence will be wiped from your memory. You came home from the club alone. As soon as you hear the door shut behind me, you will forget.”

I ca
n’t resist so I steal one last soft kiss before sliding off his lap and fixing my dress. Then it’s time to open his front door and leave.

I’
m high on his blood and grinning like an idiot. The euphoria my feeding brought on is like nothing else in the world. Cloud nine floats above me and the walk is spent remembering how perfect his blood tasted on my tongue as I drank ravenously.

By the time I reached the car, Jane
is leaning against it. She is picking her nails, a sure sign that she is bored and has been waiting a while. It’s my turn to hurry up and mumble an apology. Looking at my watch, I realize that it’s five after midnight. Oops.

“Girl
, where have you been? I’ve been waiting here for ten minutes. My night finished a few minutes early.”

“I was a few blocks from here.
It was a little bit of a longer walk than I remembered on the way there.”

“Whatever Callie
, let’s just get the hell out of here. I’m riding my blood high and want to get back so I can actually enjoy it.”

I get in the car and wait
for Jane to start the purr of the engine. Then she bolts out of the parking lot and down the street like a bat out of hell. It only takes a Moment to roll the window down now that the night is over and I can enjoy the wind blowing through my hair. Closing my eyes, the nights’ events replayed.

We don’t speak much on
the way home, as we both soak in the euphoria of the blood high. The feeling of peace and happiness flutters through me. It seems like I can do anything at this point. Instead, I’ll settle for going home.

Nathan, the security guard at the entrance of our town property, check
s our passes and lets us in. Jane slows to a crawl as she makes her way down the street. She pulls in my driveway and shifts into park, leaving the car running.

“I had a blast
, as usual. I hope you had half as good a night as I did.” She chuckles.

“I
had an amazing night,” I reply dreamily.

Jane d
oesn’t respond or interrogate me, just raises an eyebrow in suspicion. I laugh and she gives me a wave. Then she puts the car back in drive and takes off.

It’
s early and Mom will want to know what happened. She always does. I think she lives vicariously through me. She’s mated and, therefore, can’t feed off sexy guys anymore. My father would kill her, figuratively, of course.

I open the door to find my
Mom on the couch, reading a book.

“Hi
, Mom. How was your evening?”

“Oh
, it was good, sweetheart. I trust you and Jane had fun on your night out on the town.”

“Yeah, it was kind of a strange night.”

“Sit down, honey. Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” I say and then change my mind.
“Yes.”

I plop down on the other end of the couch and cover myself with a blanket before pulling my knees up.
“Ugh, you are going to think I am crazy. Do you promise not to tell anyone?”

Mom
is one of my best friends. She never judges and she always listens. I know that I’m lucky to have her in my life. Mom nods and I take a deep breath before recounting the night’s events.

“Have yo
u ever felt for a human?”

“N
o! It’s forbidden. But can it happen, yes. It just hasn’t happened to me.”

“It was so weird.
I had this attraction to a guy and his blood smelled better than anything else I have ever encountered. He was different from other humans but I don’t know why.”

“Callie, listen to me.
This is serious. Tell me you didn’t do anything stupid.”

“Relax
, Mom. Nothing happened. I took him back to his apartment and fed. Then I erased his memories before leaving. The problem is that I didn’t want to. For some reason I wanted him to remember me.”

“Oh
, honey. At least you did the right thing. Just be careful from now on when you are out hunting with Jane. Don’t give yourself that opportunity again. Stick to safe.”

“
Ugh, Mom. It was just so unreal. I felt this weird sensation the minute my hand touched his. It was so different from anything else I’ve encountered.”

Mom
put her arm on my shoulder and smiled. “Lucky for you, we have the blood ball tomorrow night. You get your pick of
available
men. Tell you what, meet me at sunset when you get up and we will go out to get our nails done before we have to get ready for the ball. I think it will be fun. What do you say?”

It’s always hard
telling my Mom no to anything. She knows that. I easily give in when her eyes meet mine. “That sounds great, Mom. I’ll see you then. It’s been an exhausting night, so I’m going to go on up to my room for the night. I want to spend some time alone listening to music and painting.”

“I love you
, dear. I’ll see you then. Have fun painting,” she says before standing up and exiting the room.

Making my way upstairs, I pull my shoes off and carry them.
My feet definitely thank me for the gesture. My body can’t wait to get out of this dress and into something more comfortable. Tomorrow will be even worse with the blood ball. My dress is extravagant.

I open my bedroom door and shut it behind me.
After plugging my iPod into the small set of speakers on my desk, I collapse on the bed and listen to the beats. The blood high is still in full force and my mind wanders as I lay there.

Chase
will not leave my thoughts. I’m intrigued by him. Even though my common sense understands that he’s a mere human and nothing I should concern myself with, my mind can’t stop going there. It is some kind of personal hell to have him invade my thoughts like this because I can’t figure out what is so different about him.

If
there was a way to wish the thoughts away, I would. I definitely should try. Rules are rules for a reason. The humans can’t find out about us. If they did, we would be in utter chaos. It would become a witch hunt. It makes me shudder at the idea of being hunted like we hunt the humans.

I can’t deny the way
it felt when we touched or kissed. My stomach is fluttering like a million caged butterflies just thinking about it. The feeling when we kissed had a strange kind of intensity. It makes me wonder what it will feel like when I find my mate. Hopefully, it is way better.

In an attempt to forget him, I force myself up off the bed and rummage through my dresser drawers until I find an old tank and shorts to paint in.
As nice as it would be to lie in bed, it is no way to spend my night.

I start
by placing a new canvas on my easel and mixing my paints until there’s a variety of bold pinks, blues, purples and yellows. My desire right now is to create something intense and emotional. Driven by the blood high, I take a deep breath and the brush makes its first stroke on the canvas in a thick yellow line.

Impressionism is
, by far, my favorite style of art. I love the brush strokes and how they bring the painting together to make a whole scene. It has always been a wish of mine to have been alive when impressionism was at its peak.

Shaking off my musings, I refocus on my work.
The song has changed and the melody washes over me. I begin to paint a scene with one stroke, and then another, until I have some semblance of an idea what I’m painting.

My creative side is always stronge
r during a blood high, so that’s when my painting is the best. Using a varying method of brush strokes, I’m rewarded with an amazing piece.

I’
ve painted a little girl picking a daisy out of a never ending field of white daisies. Her face is so innocent. The sun is bright and the flowers are beautiful. Stepping back, I admire my work. Satisfied, I find an empty spot on my wall and hang it up amongst my other works of art.

My walls are cove
red from floor to ceiling with my better works. One could get lost in a sea of colorful, impressionist art. Sometimes, I sit for hours and take in the memories associated with each work and why it’s special to me. It never fails to give me perspective. 

Still feeling a little keyed up, I pull out my yoga mat and begin t
o stretch my lean muscles. I’ve been doing yoga since I was coordinated enough to accomplish it. It’s practically second nature for me, but it gives me a certain level of peace that I can’t find anywhere else.

I
t’s hard not to wonder what Jane would say if I had confided in her about tonight. Would she freak out, or admonish me for even thinking about breaking the rules? Maybe she would just lend me a supportive shoulder to lean on.

As much a
s I’m dying to tell her everything, my Mom’s reaction stops me. I couldn’t drag Jane into anything that suggested danger. It was not even safe to gossip about things like that. The whole thing could be misconstrued and I could end up in front of the council for it.