Limerence II (10 page)

He seems satisfied with my answer, so I continue. “But saying that, since I don’t remember most of the men I’ve ever encountered, that doesn’t say much. I mean, my standard is pretty low.” I laugh again as he scoops up some of the salt and throws it at me while trying not to laugh. “So, I’ll ask you again: what is your power, Evan, oh great one?” I chuckle, but hold his eye so that he knows I do want an answer from him.

Evan smiles his lazy smile back. “Time to get back home.” He stands and leaves money on the table for the coffee and then scoots out of the booth. “Come,” he orders, and holds out his hand to me. I scowl at it—and him—and get out of the booth by myself, ignoring his offer of help.

I storm towards the exit, feeling angrier than I should but unable to stop myself. Before I can push open the door, he is there and opens it for me—like the perfect gentleman he insists on being—and I almost scream at him in frustration. He stands to one side to let me through, and I walk past, ignoring the goodbye from the waitress and attempting to ignore the smirk on Evan’s face. I continue to walk the way we had come, knowing that he is right behind me and near if I need him.

As I reach the tree line, Evan shouts my name, and I turn to look, startled that he shouted so loudly.

“What?” I snap.

He grins. “Race you!” And then he’s gone in a blur of vanilla scents and grey aura with splashes of red. He darts past me and through the trees, and without skipping a beat I race after him, not wanting to let him beat me this time. My cold, dead heart swells at the simple joy of running, and being free of my bonds, free of
her
, as I realise that she has not been present all night. And on that thought I run even faster, until I reach and then surpass Evan. He looks shocked, and then another expression crosses his face, softer and more relaxed.

I stick my tongue out at him and keep on running, not wanting to go home, but excited, because I know that tonight he somehow helped me conquer something that I’m not even fully aware of yet. And for tonight, for right now, I feel free.

Lora scowls at her
reflection, a gesture I’m both used to and bored by.

“Why couldn’t I have been turned when I was older?” She twirls her blonde curls and pouts.

“Being older wouldn’t have changed your hair, Lora.” I flip through the book on my desk. I’ve been reading for almost an hour, attempting to learn some more of the long history of vampires. It’s fascinating, and normally one of my favourite parts of the week, but my mind is elsewhere today. My mind and body are wanting to run free again.

“No, but my face wouldn’t have been so . . . babyish.” She turns away from the mirror and sits on my bed. “If you’re going to be reading all day, I’m going. I don’t get much free time, and this is not how I want to spend it.”

I close the book, pleased to set it aside for now. “Then leave!” I snap.

Lora stares at me with wide eyes, and I worry that she is about to flip out at me until she bursts out laughing. “What’s eating you?”

I shrug. “I don’t know.” I turn to stare at my own reflection.

“Is it that hunk of a trainer again?” she asks, coming to stand behind me and playing with the ends of my hair enviously.

I watch her over my shoulder in the mirror. “I like him, a lot, but we can’t be together.”

“Why?” she asks, without any real interest.

“We just can’t.” I shrug again. “And that’s okay. Well, not really, but . . . whatever. What bothers me the most is that we get close and then he just drops off the face of the earth.” I spin on my chair to look at her. “I saw him the other day, and we . . . we kissed, and it was perfect—beautiful and perfect—but then I’ve not seen him for three days. I mean, where does he go for three days? And after a kiss like
that
!” I huff at the sound of my own whininess.

Lora frowns. “Men are all the same. Vampire or human, it doesn’t matter what species they are, you can’t trust any of them.”

I shake my head. “It’s not like that. He’s not like that.” I lean forwards, my face in my hands.

“I know what will cheer you up.”

I look up with a raised eyebrow. “What?”

“Let’s go to the Commons,” she says tentatively.

I never go to the Commons—for several reasons. One being Evan forbade me from going there after my first ever encounter with that place and the vampires that go there. I was a brand new vampire on my first visit and didn’t realise that it was strictly for older, more controlled vampires; so, freshly made, I was unable to control my thirst or my lust. My actions were less than respectful to both myself and others. Another thing I learnt about vampires that day: sex is sex no matter who or where it comes from.

I groan. “Lora, let’s just go get some blood. I’m feeling hungry. We’ll play guess the flavour and call it an early night.” Even to me that sounds like the most boring plan ever.

She rolls her eyes at me and stands up. “You can’t avoid that place forever. Sooner or later you’re going to have to get over your mortification.” She smirks. “Besides, I don’t know what your problem is—Jenna and Henry are both great-looking vampires, and you took them both on—wore them out for two days straight, from what I heard.”

I stare at her, embarrassment flooding my cheeks and making me instantly sweat blood. “See, now I definitely need to go and feed,” I say, wiping my hand across my clammy forehead and tutting. “Anyway, Evan still hasn’t told me I can go back in there.”

“It’s an achievement—you should be proud. And they’ve been hankering after you ever since.” She laughs at my expense, and I can’t stifle my groan. “Besides, Evan doesn’t own you, he can’t stop you from going there. He can only advise you—and from where I’m standing, he hasn’t put any claim on you.”

“You’re not helping your cause here,” I huff. “And it’s not about staking a claim on me, it’s about him knowing what’s best for me. Besides, I do not want to see Jenna and Henry!”

“Fine, well, I know that they’re not there today, how about that?” She takes my hand and pulls me. “They’re on protection detail to the Queen today, and she’s on a trip. Some lead on Mr Whatshisface.” She waves a hand dismissively. “So come on—Evan the warrior doesn’t know everything. It’s time you had a little fun.”

“You promise they’re not there?” I question, not completely certain I believe her, yet following her along.

“Promise. Cross my heart and hope to die.”

I roll my eyes at her again and she laughs as if I’ve just told the funniest joke ever. But I go with her, because well . . . I’m not sure why.

Lora is enigmatic and able to convince me to do almost anything. She’s reckless and conniving, but she’s the only sort-of-friend I have, and it’s hard to turn down her friendship when she always offers me fun. And we do have fun.

“Fine, but just . . .” I hesitate. What do I say?
Don’t let me lose control and turn into a sexual deviant again? If they bring in the live food, don’t let me drink straight from the tap?
“Just for an hour, though, okay?” is what I decide to go with.

It’s lame—I’m lame—but then, deep inside I know it won’t be for an hour really anyway, and by the glint in Lora’s eye, she knows it won’t be, either. I don’t want to disappoint Evan in any way, but he’s like a curse: he comes to me, sends my body into fits of longing and desire, and then abandons me for days at a time. Our training sessions are getting few and far between, and I am being left on my own more and more. So maybe I’m acting out and being rebellious, purposefully going against his wishes to get his attention.

Lora practically skips all the way to the Commons, whereas I sulk for most of it, even when she scowls at me. I know I shouldn’t be going here: it won’t do my control any good, and it certainly won’t help ease the demons I’ve been trying to vanquish recently. But then this life, whilst offering so much, has so far offered me so little in retrospect.

I know that I’m a lucky girl; I’m not blind to that—well, apart from being dead and all. I have fresh blood on tap daily, a coven to call my own, and I work out with one of the sexiest men I’ve ever seen—though not as much as I would like—plus, my transformation turned me into one hot woman—even I can’t deny that. But there is something missing from this complex puzzle of my newfound existence. Where once my life revolved around work and planning my wedding to my fiancé, now it revolves around training as if I’m an ultimate fighter and drinking blood. I’ve embraced this life, I love it, but there has to be something more…

“Earth . . . to . . . Mia.”

I haven’t realised that we have arrived. Why they call it a Commons, I’m still waiting to finding out—because this isn’t a room just anyone is allowed in, therefore making it uncommon, not common. This is an underground lair to the orchard of the forbidden fruit. Or that’s certainly how I remember it. But again, I was blood-crazy back then, so maybe it’s not as bad as I imagined it to be.

Maybe.

“You ready?”

I look at Lora with a serious expression and she pinches my cheeks in an obnoxious way.

“Cheer up. No one’s stolen your meal yet.”

And then she laughs, a high-pitched girly sound, and I want to laugh with her, I really do, because memories of the last time I was here—when somebody tried to take my human from me so I didn’t drink them dry—come flooding back. And the image is both terrifying and amusing. But instead of laughing, I grunt a semblance of a response to her, and she continues to laugh as she pushes open the door and drags me inside.

Drags? Really? No, not really. Because part of me is hungering for something more than what I’ve been living, and I won’t find that here, but perhaps I will find something to help free me from my troubles—at least for a little while.

The door swings closed behind me, and I’m embraced in the darkness. I follow Lora along the darkened hallway, my hand clutched firmly in hers to stop me running away. We reach another door, and behind it I feel like I’ll find my nemesis, my saviour, and maybe even freedom. Lora turns to look at me with a sly grin, her eyes gleaming and red-tinged with hunger, and as I stare at the aura floating around her in a cloud of colourful commotion, I know that this was a ridiculously stupid idea. We’re friends—as much as selfish vampires can be friends anyway—but when it comes down to it, in her eyes her happiness, her freedom, will always come first. I will be forgotten and abandoned in favour of her own desires and needs. I don’t take offence to this: that’s just the way things are; that’s just the attraction of blood and what it does to you. Like any addiction, it strangles everything out of your life.

She swings the door wide open, pulling me inside with her, and I am swallowed into the lion’s den.

It’s dark in here also; of course it is—isn’t this the typical cliché of things to come? The room is full of writhing bodies both warm and cold. With the Queen away, it seems everyone has gone wild. Perhaps this is a normal vampire’s way of letting off steam. Perhaps. Or this could be just a normal way of life here in this particular coven. Either way it screams danger, fun, and temptation. And I know it was a stupid decision to come here, but I can’t back down now—couldn’t even if I really wanted to; my own inner demons are excited, my nerve endings spitting out sparks.

Music plays, but nobody dances; instead they sway, the music more like a backdrop to set the mood for everyone. Almost everyone is huddled with another vampire either talking, feeding, or…doing something that under normal circumstances would be described as inappropriate in public, but here it’s okay. Here everyone is safe. We protect our own, watching over them as they feed, or fornicate. Nobody feels shame: it’s hard to believe that this could ever be wrong when so many are doing it. And I feel myself being swallowed easily into the sensual atmosphere.

My body shivers in anticipation. The shiver travels up and down my spine like a tiny trail of ants marching towards something deliciously dangerous. I pass two male vampires kissing in the centre of the room. Their arms wrapped tightly around one another. The young male, young in that he is new here, stops kissing for a moment to remove his top. Revealing a hard abdomen, and chiselled chest. The other male, Avon I think his name is drops his fangs and slowly begins to kiss the other male from chiselled chest to taut abdomen, slowly teasing with small bite marks that draw blood and drip down him in an erotic show of power and seduction. My mouth goes dry watching them, feeling aroused at the image of their strong bodies touching and pulling at one another.

We make our way across the room to another lounge area lit up with red lights like a cheap brothel, and Lora pulls me over to the human in the corner on tap for everyone to use. She kneels down between the human’s thighs and drops her face to his inner thigh, biting down and drinking deeply. I watch, growing thirstier by the second. Mad Donny is the steward tonight, of course—as if he would ever let one of his humans escape his clutches.

He smiles brightly when he sees me. Already half gone with blood, his fangs are out and dried blood stains his chin, mixing with a rough three-day beard. And that should be my warning right there: if he’s had enough blood to look so out of control and manic, then he’s had too much. He’s enthusiastic and over the top as he embraces me, kissing me on both cheeks and no doubt leaving a stain in his lips wake. The smell of the human on him makes my own fangs drop in eagerness.

Donny waves me over to the human as Lora stands up, looking dazed. He holds an arm up, ready for me to feed from. I hesitate for a second, knowing that I need to control myself, keep my urges at bay, but the human smells so good, the scent of his blood washing over me like a tidal wave and sending another shiver down my spine. I take the arm, looking up through my dark lashes and smiling shyly before biting down into the soft forearm of the young human male and drinking from him greedily.

He tastes delicious; just the rich metal tang of blood and humanness. It’s a taste like no other: sort of bland, but potent and almost intoxicating at the same time. The taste is like coming home, and I haven’t realised what I’ve been missing until this point. There’s no fear in this one, and I’m sad that Donny didn’t bring the redhead for me to drink from, yet I can’t complain because this male does taste so good. He also hasn’t been flavoured, and instead tastes of humanness. I suck harder, greedier, moaning against his warm flesh as his blood floods my mouth.

How quickly we descend into madness.

She
stirs, but I’m too eager to care too much for the consequences. Besides, I’m not so far gone that I can’t control her; she’s just irritating, like a fly buzzing around my brain, spoiling my fun. I know I should stop drinking soon, though, but I don’t want to. The urge to feed and feed and never surrender the taste of this perfect human man is overwhelming, and I almost don’t stop. Mad Donny dances in front of me, a hat he has found from somewhere being waved in the air as he skips in circles.
She
continues to test the barriers of her cage with frustration, and I can’t help but smile smugly when she realises that they are still tightly held. For the first time, I feel stronger than her.

Lora lounges across a male vampire I have seen around the coven but don’t know. He’s skinny and pale; long, black hair hangs in either side of his face like curtains, his image likely stolen off
Vampires Weekly
—if there were ever such a magazine. Together they talk amongst themselves, his hand sliding up her thigh too high for normal decency, and yet they continue to talk and watch me as if it were all completely normal. It’s a perfectly erotic image of watching them touch one another as I swallow down this delicious human, each of them offering me a smile as they gasp in the pleasure they receive from one another. However, I know that the image of me feeding on this male is the biggest turn-on for them. That’s why they stare at me, why they don’t take their eyes away from me feeding as their hands move more frantically.