Cake (9 page)

What the hell?

He was pale, paler than a human, but not so much that he would stand out in the crowd. He had irises of the kind of deep blue that I had only ever seen on a documentary about arctic ice flows and I stared up at them in awe. I don’t think I have ever met someone with eyes quite that shade of blue before. Black strands of hair hung forward over his shoulders, escaping from a loose ponytail that tickled my chest. He was naked. And he’d caught me staring at him.

“
Birthing is such a bloody business. I do not want my clothing stained,” he answered to my unasked question.

Marcus moved in front of me, pressing upon my stomach with his own abs. I blinked up at him.

How the hell did I get to be the blood pack in the middle of a vampire sandwich?

Claudius chuckled softly. “He is delightful, Marcus. Still, we will have to have words about this.”

Marcus sat on my thighs, anchoring me down on the bed. He stared into my eyes with a question, but I had no clue what he wanted to hear from me, so I simply turned my head and presented my neck to him, which must have been the answer he was waiting for because he tore into my throat again. It was just as horrible as the last time, the disabling feeling of having your life sucked out of you and not being able to do anything about it.

He let go just before I blacked out, and I got one of my arms free from Claudius and punched Marcus in the head. He fell out of my line of sight, and I felt a sense of satisfaction.

“
Hold him!” Marcus yelled, righting himself.

“
I did not think he would be so strong after just the first exchange.” Claudius sounded amazed.

Marcus took me by the jaw and squeezed, forcing my mouth open. He’d slit his wrist again and was pressing it now against my lips. “Drink it,” he ordered as the warm blood flowed into my mouth. I swallowed, and he quickly filled my mouth again.

I was actually quite disappointed when he pulled away, I’d been starting to get a taste for his blood, but then the pain in my stomach hit me again, and I curled up in agony. I panted, my head resting on Claudius’s shoulder, his hands still tight on my arms. Marcus shifted for better leverage as my hips came up off the bed. I let loose a scream that deafened my ears, and when I was done, Claudius laid me gently back on the bed and stroked my hair soothingly.

“
There, there, little fledging, it will not be much longer.” The black-haired vampire looked over at Marcus. “Have you been engaging in blood play with him? I have never seen so dramatic a transformation. He should not be so strong.”

“
I have only drunk from him.”

The cramping feeling in my gut passed quickly this time, though I felt like I had the mother of all hangovers, and my neck was sore. I was lying in blood, and the scent was strong, filling my senses, while my head was hurting so much, and the lights were far too bright. I complained, and when Marcus dimmed them, I curled back up into a protective ball.

Thank God. When is this over?

“
When you sprout fangs and bite me, Little One.”

Okay, will do. Fangs, fangs, fangs.

Marcus laughed, but I was serious. There was no fucking way this was going to take twenty transfusions. I could hear my heartbeat, it was slow and sluggish, and my breath sounded like an old man’s death rattle, and there was a fire burning out of control in the pit of my stomach. Was this what I truly wanted? I didn’t know, but I urged the fire to burn brighter, feeling it warm everything inside of me. It was almost there, but not quite enough of it, whatever
it,
was.

I pushed myself up off the bed. I needed help to sit upright. Claudius propped himself against me again, holding me. Marcus came into my field of vision. He was sporting a purple bruise on his cheek where I had punched him. I stared. I shouldn’t have been able to bruise him at all.

“
What did I say about keeping your hands to yourself?” Marcus chastised, as he linked the cuffs together behind my back, and they each took up their positions around me again.

I was physically too weak to struggle, though that didn’t keep me from a running dialogue of what I thought of him. I could feel a burning deep in my chest, almost like acid reflux. It felt like it was waiting for a douse of gasoline, so I could explode. My neck was in agony from Marcus’s bite marks, but that was okay, this was going to be the last time. I heard someone moaning…that someone was me.

His teeth were in, and I could feel the suction as he drew deeply. Pulse, suck, pulse, suck…my heartbeat was getting erratic.

Give it to me. I want to drink you.

He released my neck and set his cut wrist at my mouth, and I sucked on it like it was penny candy. He didn’t expect it and pulled away. I tried to follow, but Claudius held me tightly to him.

More.

Marcus approached and held his wrist to my mouth again. I licked at it greedily and fastened my lips around it before sucking hard. The flame inside me grew brighter and hotter, with each swallow. Marcus had to shake his wrist to get me off.

No, just a few more swallows.

He was just about to give me his bleeding wrist once more when the fire within me ignited. Every fibre of my being was set aflame. I screamed and screamed, and screamed some more, until someone took pity…and knocked me out.

I awoke to the tinkle of ice cubes swirling around in a glass.

“
That better not be any more of that fucking cranberry juice.” My voice was cracked and low, which wasn’t surprising since I hadn’t used it much over a year, and I think I did a hell of a lot of screaming before the lights went out.

“
Your cranberry juice days are over, my Little One. Welcome to my world.”

Sitting up, I looked down at myself, and saw that my chest was covered in blood. The sheet I was laying on was drenched with it as well. My hair was matted to my head…with what, I didn’t want to know. I needed to shower, but as I tried to get off the bed I ended up on the floor. My legs were refusing to work.

“
Do you require my assistance, Sex?”

I gritted my teeth; I’d given him permission to call me that. “Yes. Did I get my fangs?”

Marcus walked towards me, wrapping a linen bandage around his forearm. “Yes, you got your fangs, though you will need to learn how to bite. You did not even hit a vein.”

“
Sorry,” I said, though I wasn’t sorry in the least. He caught me around the arms and hauled me to my feet. I was so light-headed and weak that my limbs felt like nothing more than dead weight. I started to topple over, but he quickly grabbed me and swept me up into his strong arms in the typical bridal lift again. I’d take being held like this as opposed to slamming my face into a concrete floor any day.

Once we were inside the shower Marcus deliberately slid me down his naked body. His cock was already stirring.

“
You’re going to fuck me? I can’t even stand up!” Did I say that out loud?

“
You need to drink,” he answered, pressing me back against the shower wall and leaning over, presenting his neck. I could see a shallow pulse there, and my eyes locked on it. “You can live off other vampires if you need to, but the best blood is human. You cannot control the extension of your fangs yet as you can’t bring them down at will, so you’ll have to rely on scent to do that for you. The scent of fresh blood will do it every time.”

I watched as he broke the skin of his throat with his thumbnail, and a drop of crimson blood oozed out. A sudden sharp pain, as though I’d been punched in the jaw, made me grab at my mouth. Sharp fangs now protruded where my canines had once been; crap, they were long, far longer than Marcus’. Even he was staring at them.

“
What…?” I challenged.

“
Your fangs are at their full extension. Once you gain control over them, you will be able to control their length. Now, find the vein in my throat, and remember, straight in and straight out. The key is to not leave any sign on the donor. Try five swallows. No more than that. You are still changing, and too much will simply make you sick.”

Hearing him giving me instruction on how to drink blood was just like being critiqued on my kissing technique. I was so self-conscious that I didn’t even know which way to turn my head, and when I did lean in, I scratched him with a fang. Using my tongue to find the pulse, I pressed down my jaws and my mouth was instantly filled with his sweet, warm blood. I groaned and eagerly swallowed his essence. It was heavenly. He tasted of cold, crisp apples and wet leaves. He was my very own apple orchard. I swallowed again and again, and then, concentrating, I tried to make sure I backed straight out so as not to hurt him. Little rivulets of blood seeped from the dual wounds, and I licked at them in the same way as Marcus had done to mine so many times.

“
You don’t have to lick vampires, we heal quickly,” he said, watching. “But maybe you should get into the habit anyway. How are you feeling?”

“
Stronger.” I stepped away from the shower wall, waiting to see if I was going to start swaying. I didn’t. “A lot stronger,” I reaffirmed, turning the shower on and setting the temperature as Marcus came to stand behind me.

“
May I have you?”

I blinked and turned around. I had to tip my head back to look up at him. He was looming over me, his palms pressed by the shower head and his upper torso angling toward me.

“
What’s to stop you, since me being all bloody is apparently a turn-on for you?” He lowered his head, and I thought he was going to kiss me like he normally did, but instead he stopped a couple of eyelashes away from my lips. I pressed my back up against the tiles, trying to get some space between us, trying to make sense of what he was doing. He hovered in closer, but he still didn’t touch me. I stared him straight in the eye, knowing something had changed. “What makes this time any different than the rest?”

“
I am asking. Because you are a vampire now. You are a part of the Blood. You are a member of my House. Therefore, you are an equal.”

“
So all those times that I said no, they meant nothing because I was just a part of the food chain?”

“
Yes.”

I didn’t expect him to say that, to admit to it, and it silenced me. I reached for the shampoo bottle but he took it first, squirting some out into the palm of his hand and using it to start washing my hair.

I am not a pet poodle, and I smacked his hand away indignantly, surprised that I actually did so.

“
Keep your hands to yourself,” I huffed.

“
How about I only touch you? You can initiate intercourse.”

Shampoo crept into my eyes and stung them. I blindly pressed my hands on Marcus’s chest and shoved him away from me…slightly. “I’m still trying to get my head around the fact that I climbed onto your cock willingly in the first place,” I told him, lifting my soap filled eyes up to the jets of falling water, rinsing them.

“
Give me leave to touch you,” he begged, moving me backwards, crowding me into the corner of the shower but not actually touching me.