Feral Darlings

Chapter One

Phoebe

“You're a goddamn vampire,” I say, louder than I mean to.

“Well, yeah,” he says, a duh expression on his face, fangs still poking out.

“Should I be worried?” I ask.

“Depends.” He shrugs. “Are you offering freely, or am I taking it?”

His words come with such ambivalence, I’m not sure how to react. “I-I'm not offering.”

He nods and glides over to me. As he looks in my eyes, my world goes fuzzy.

Adonis

I'm a sin eater. Enthralling humans with a kiss is an incredibly intoxicating and erotic experience for both vampire and victim; it’s comparable to things like sex or falling in love. The victims become paralyzed with euphoria, preventing them from escaping and dulling their senses to their surroundings. Then, I feed on them while caressing their minds and learning their utmost desires.

I only take what I need. It’s a myth that we turn our victims each time we feed. To turn someone, you must drain them to the brink of death, then, they must swallow your blood. It is an intimate experience—one I’ve never desired. Once you do it, that person is linked to you for eternity. Talk about a huge commitment, especially since if I were to be killed, anyone I sired would instantly die as well.

We revealed ourselves to society last year. It was deemed—by our high council—to be fortuitous for us. There are groupies who want us to turn them, and, of course, hate groups who want all of our kind dead. They parade around with bags of wooden spikes, vowing to find and kill any vampire they come across. There are no laws that prohibit the killing of our kind. It is in the legislature, but so far, it hasn’t gone anywhere.

Thankfully, most of the bullies are chicken shit assholes who are too scared to actually try and stake us. My brother, Cassius, and I were turned by the same vampire. Victoria Ellis took my life well over a hundred years ago. She seduced me, and I fell for it. Victoria was the kind of woman you didn't say no to, but at the same time, you didn't want to. Her pale, translucent skin, dark, hooded eyes, and beautiful chestnut hair brought me to my knees when I was a mortal.

I was an eager participant in her bed—that is, until, she bit me. I was ignorant and thought it was a kink. Then, when she didn't stop, I knew I was in trouble. I tried to get away from her, desperately ripping her away from my neck, but she was latched on, not letting go. I felt helpless as she held me down with superhuman strength. Before I knew it, my world went black.

I woke up a week later with blood crusted on my face, the tang of it lingering on my lips. I realized I was ravenous for it. I turned my head to see where I was, and that’s when I saw Cassius. His head full of blond curls was in disarray, his face covered in bruises. Obviously, he had tried to fight back. I saw the same blood smear on his mouth. I'd heard rumors of this kind of thing but never thought there was any truth behind the gossip. I always thought it was, well, bullshit. How could something so unnatural be true?

Victoria came down every night to feed us her blood. Our passionate affair was over. She merely wanted to build up her clan. My brother and I were thrust into a world of chaos and destruction unlike anything we had ever seen. Victoria would take us into small villages, where we would drain the inhabitants dry. If she thought any of them would be appropriate for our clan, she would drag their near-dead bodies back to her dungeon and feed them from her vein each night until they woke up and transitioned.

It was tough to gain control…at first. Once bloodlust set in, pulling yourself away from a vein pulsating right underneath the skin was nearly impossible. It took me about half a century before I had control. It was my love of food that saved me from myself. Cassius, on the other hand—well, he’s never controlled his urges, or maybe he’s never wanted to. To my knowledge, he’s never turned anyone; he just senselessly took lives for his own amusement. We've grown apart all these years. I can’t condone his methods, so we split up. It’s not like I’m squeaky clean by any means, but he’s downright vicious. He chose to stay with Victoria and her clan, while I broke off and joined a smaller group that wanted to venture off on our own and embrace change as it came.

The world was constantly changing, and the way I saw it, you either change with it or you get left behind—and there was no fucking way I was staying behind.