16. Ren
ren
. . .
I hesitated.
It was a direct request. Vi’s breathy moans punctuated the words and had heat trickling down my spine.
“You’re sure?” I asked, halting my touches.
The idea that I could be crossing the line, especially after what had happened just the night before, was a siren in my head, blaring as loud as a fire alarm.
“I’m sure,” she said, turning her head to look at me over her shoulder. “I trust you, Ren, you wouldn’t hurt me.”
My hand soothed along the curve of her ass, spreading her apart in a feast for my eyes. Her glossy pink sex and tight puckered hole were there, waiting for me, inviting me.
I kissed along the curve, nipping at the supple, round flesh of her ass to a low, stuttered groan.
“Please, Ren?”
I was many things, but weak in the face of a woman who wanted me was certainly exceptionally high on that list. Too high, as I gave in to the cloying want that’d haunted me from the moment I’d seen Vi in that coffee shop.
My hand wrapped around her hip, holding her firmly in place as my fangs pricked through her pale skin, the flavour of her blood exploding on my tongue like the finest spirits. Sharp and metallic, with a botanical flair that reminded me of her honeysuckle perfume.
In a word, divine.
I was terrified that now that I’d tasted her, my tongue still half-coated by her release, I’d never manage to stop. That I was irreversibly bound to this woman and her blood, the one that sang to the very monster lurking under my soul, and I’d never escape it.
Escape her .
Escape my own too-quick-to-solidify emotions built on a foundation of unavoidable familiarity, like my body—my soul itself—knew this woman from a past life and was finally being reunited with its missing match.
I sucked a deep mouthful as Vi went pliant in my arms and moaned, my thumb drawing circles along her clit once more as my venom infiltrated her every cell.
Pacing myself was a difficult thing while Vi babbled nonsense praises, while her delicious blood covered my tongue, exchanging common sense for primal urges that we were far too early into knowing each other to discuss, much less act on.
But Vi had other plans, and she made them known in the way her back arched toward my touch as she sought more. More pleasure, more pressure, more joy.
More me .
And I was her foolish, besotted servant. More than willing to please.
I released her, laving my tongue over the lacerations my fangs had left to close the wounds. Kissing along her cheek slowly, I nipped and grazed my way to her tight hole, spitting to lubricate the entrance.
Vi whined, her thighs quivering as she cursed through another trembling orgasm from my measured touches against the apex of her thighs.
“You sing so pretty, Pet,” I praised. “Feel good?”
“Yes,” she gasped, hips kicking back in a frivolous bid for more. “I need to be full. Need another bite?—”
“Ah, ah, ah,” I hummed softly, using my free hand to tease at her spit-slick asshole, just barely slipping the digit inside before retreating. “I know you have better manners than that.”
“Please,” she begged, breath hitching as I pressed it into her again, just to the first knuckle. “More.”
It was slow work, opening Vi’s ass to accommodate my fingers. A measured pull and press, helped along by keeping her relaxed with consistent pressure along her clit.
I spat down again, lubricated my fingers further before pressing the rest of the way inside, earning a high, breathy moan from my little human. Her warm body accepted me inside her while she writhed in pleasure against me, delightful noises cascading from her lips alongside a litany of foul language that would’ve made a nun have a heart attack.
Though, I assumed, a vampire fucking a human woman through a mix of blood sharing, fingering, and anal would’ve likely done the trick anyway.
“Fuck, Ren! Please !” she gasped, her hand flying backwards to thread her fingers into my hair.
The wet sounds of flesh meeting flesh hummed in my ears like a bassline, adding to the melody of her moans and praises. A symphony of sound that made my sex twitch with the need to be touched . But I could wait; this was about Vi. About making sure she knew exactly how I felt about her.
No more dancing around each other.
No more fucking games.
She was mine .
And I would protect what belonged to me.
I tweaked her clit, and she shouted, the tight ring of her ass clenching hard around my fingers. The hand fisted in my hair, barely stronger than a kitten, pulled, pushing my face toward her sopping cunt, a single delicious word spilling from her lips in a chant.
“ More .”
My tongue lapped at her arousal, teeth scraping just enough to draw out panting moans that lit my nerves on fire, but not enough to break the skin.
She tasted like the first glimpse of warm sunlight after a long winter. Like being woken from a long, peaceful slumber into the riotous colours and sounds of springtime.
The urge to bite her was so strong I felt drunk with it, the blood coursing through her veins a loud rush in my ears. But I was mindful of my little human pet—she’d lost quite a bit of blood the night before, and she’d need time to replenish her storage.
I snaked my hand from her clit to tweak her nipple hard, replacing my fingers with my mouth for a hard suck.
Vi’s spine arched as release snapped through her, hips lifting off the sofa with an outright scream of pleasure, breaking off into a scattered sob.
“ Ren —!”
“That’s it, Pet,” I murmured, glee undercutting my tone as a fresh wave of wetness dripped from her center. “Let me hear you.”
“I can’t—” she pleaded. “Please, I can’t?—”
I helped her through the aftershocks with a hum, guiding her tired muscles until she lay on her side. My fingers left the tight space of her ass slowly, making her shudder at the loss of fullness as touches turned from stimulating to soothing.
Vi’s eyes were heavy with arousal as she watched me gently stroke her sides, squirming closer like she wanted to crawl inside my skin.
I knew the feeling. If I could, I’d consume her entirely.
“Your turn,” she hissed through clenched teeth, her breath coming in heavy pants even as she made no effort to move. “Now.”
My lips curled into a smile that bared my fangs as I took in her flushed cheeks and chest. My gorgeous little pet, well fucked and flustered, already thinking about what she could do to prolong the moment.
“I wasn’t aware you were the one giving orders,” I teased, the ease that I played her with painting my tone with smugness.
She licked her lips, meeting my gaze with her dark stare.
“Please, sir,” she whispered. “I want to make you feel good.”
The neediness in her tone went straight to my cunt, my neglected sex twitching in anticipation of the relief of release.
“Alright,” I agreed, leaning forward to press a soft kiss against her puffy, swollen lips. “Come here.”
Vi made to sit up, swaying back into my chest with a soft oof .
It teased a smile to my face. I pinched her side playfully. “Cum drunk.”
“Shut up,” she huffed. “Just give me a second for my bones to become solid again and your ass is mine.”
I laughed, rolling us so that she was draped over me, her warm body better than any blanket I’d ever owned.
“It’s like you’re trying to ruin me for anyone else.”
“What can I say?” I muttered softly. “I’m competitive.”
She collected herself with a deep breath, wriggling backwards until she was nestled between my legs. Her hands found the hem of my shirt, and I helped her take it off me by sitting up a little, the fabric meeting the floor with a dull thud.
“Me too.” Vi’s eyes widened as she took in the art that covered my skin. I’d had several mortal lifetimes to accrue the images, travelling to be decorated by the best artists that the world had to offer.
“See something you like?” I asked with a smirk.
She laughed, nipping at my nipple through the spandex of my sports bra. “So cocky, and for what?”
Her fingers hooked under the band of the garment, using the leverage to pull it off. I raised my arms to help her along, grunting when the tight material freed my shoulders. It was flung carelessly from sight and mind, meeting its match on the floor.
Vi’s eyes studied the blend of shades and styles inked into my flesh. Though there were some less than traditional additions over the years, I’d mostly kept to traditional Japanese tattoos. Like the ones I grew up seeing on my uncles and brother.
“Holy fuck ,” Vi breathed, her fingers reaching to brush against the twin dragons covering my throat, moving toward their twisted bodies on my upper chest, nestled among blue and gold ringed clouds, stars, and lotus blossoms.
The story continued over my sternum to the warrior on my stomach, drawing his sword against a beautiful demon clad in a kimono. Her fingers trailed the lines on the woman’s sleeve near my abs, lips parted in surprise as my muscles danced with the light tickle of her touch.
“You should see my back,” I said, eyebrow raising.
She bent, her lips trailing my jaw, pausing to suck and nibble at the soft spot near my ear.
I moaned, grabbing her ass. “Quit teasing…”
She wriggled over my lap, and the friction from the seam of my trousers was almost enough to push me over the edge, the sweet moans and whimpers she’d gifted me with more than enough to bring me to the precipice.
I’d always gotten more from my partner’s pleasure anyway. It was just so… gratifying . The feeling of knowing you’d given them your everything.
Vi kissed down my neck, nipping at the column of my throat. The dragons flexed as she tweaked my nipples with her fingers, dragging a gasp from deep in my chest as the warm digits circled the tight peaks in a tease.
“You’re so gorgeous ,” she murmured, adjusting to press hot, open-mouthed kisses down my chest until she reached my nipple. She barely ghosted her lips over the tightened bud of nerves, and I was already fighting the urge to arch my back into her touch, my hips shifting of their own accord.
My chest was mostly flat in comparison to her deliciously round breasts. I loved it, the difference between her glaring femininity and my androgyny. The way that even as we were so different—her rosy, flatter areola and my angular kobicha peaks.
“I’m getting impatient, Vi,” I warned quietly, brushing a lock of her deliciously dark hair out of her face.
She laughed, a raspy, lust-filled sound, as she sat up to unbuttonmy pants. I lifted my hips and watched as she pulled them off along with my underwear, an obvious wet mark waiting on the thin grey cotton material.
Vi dragged her fingers through my weeping sex, toying at my entrance with her deft little fingers. I hissed, the sensation of being on the other side of this sort of teasing alien.
It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy giving up control from time to time, but as my primary sexual partners were a pillow princess and a vers bottom—if you could call topping all of four times in our decades-long relationship being vers—it wasn’t often that I needed to.
But with Vi?
One look in her eyes and I could see she was eager to please.
“Pet,” I murmured, a thin, needy whine threaded into my voice deeply undercutting my authority.
Usually, I would’ve been disgusted by the idea of begging for what I wanted. It was far more typical of me to take it than to ask… but here? With Vi’s sweet scent invading my senses… I was seconds away from dissolving into pleading that’d give Elsie a run for her money.
“Don’t rush me,” she insisted, pressing a finger inside with no resistance. She pumped in and out slowly, just barely to the second knuckle.
Another fucking tease .
My body demanded to be filled, stretched.
She held my gaze as she added another finger, massaging that sensitive, textured area deep inside me until I was keening, my hands gripping her thighs hard enough I was sure my fingerprints would be visible for days to come as my hips rocked into her.
Vi’s thumb found my clit, applying pressure and circling, pushing me closer to the edge I only achieved by the feel of someone else’s hands on my body. At the first flutter of my twitching sex, Vi used her free hand to pinch my nipple, a deep groan of pleasure escaping between my fangs.
“Vi, I… Fuck ?—”
“I love you,” I gasped as Vi fucked me with her fingers, her long hair spilling over her shoulder as she gazed down at me. “Fuck! Don’t stop ? —”
“Come for me again, sir,” she ordered gleefully, dark eyes glittering in triumph. “I want to hear you beg for me.”
I moaned her name through my release, my eyes squeezing shut. When I opened them again, it was to find Vi with her fingers in her mouth, sucking them clean as she hummed around the digits, eyes closed blissfully.
What the fuck was that?
“Can I eat you for real?” Vi asked around her fingers.
I nodded. She could’ve asked me for damn near anything, and I was pretty sure I would agree—including putting on a pair of those ridiculous heels she wore to the club and riding the god-awful subway. Naked .
Disoriented by the power of my own fantasies, it was almost a surprise to see the edges of Vi’s blunt, lightly wavy bob brushing her bare shoulders.
Wasn’t it, just a moment ago…?
But I didn’t have time to examine the thoughts as she adjusted herself onto her belly between my knees. Her tongue lavished the tattoos that covered me from calf to cunt, pressing kisses from the winking demon on my knee to the flowers in the crease of my thigh.
I pushed her hair back from her face, gathering it into a loose ponytail in my fist as she ghosted her lips over my pussy, tongue snaking out to tease and work me steadily toward release, my head tilted back to stare at the popcorn ceiling as I moaned my praises and curses at her performance.
“You’re doing so well,” I grunted out, already feeling lost under her rewarding tongue. “That’s it, Vi, just a little more. I’m so close?—”
Her lips, pink and plush and kiss-swollen, wrapped around my clit for a hard suck , and I shattered. My thighs clenched around her head as I came, her name a shout on my lips that I’m sure her neighbors heard from a mile away.
Vi looked up from where her nose was pressed against my pubic mound, a dreamy expression in her eyes as they met mine, working me down and back into a luxurious pace with her fingers as she sat up.
“You taste so fucking good ,” she praised, sucking her bottom lip into her mouth with a moan as she chased the remnants of my glossy release, still shining along her chin and cheek. “Did I do a good job, sir?”
Her tone was all teasing, a maddening false innocence that told me she knew exactly what I thought of her performance. Instead of humoring her, I used my grip on her hair to force her mouth back to my cunt, the order silent and entirely clear.
Eat .
She responded immediately, lapping at my clit as she teased my entrance with her fingers once more, trading places back and forth like my next orgasm was a coin hidden under a pair of cups. Back and forth. Back and forth.
My fangs ached as I lost myself to her touch.
The desire to claim, to drink, to take burned in my gut and spread until I had to chew the inside of my cheek to stop myself from pulling her wrist to my mouth for another long drink.
I was so wet there was no resistance as she fucked me with her hand, mouth on my clit where she licked, sucked, and bit me into a frenzy that had my legs shaking and hips bucking against her face, grinding hard until her teeth grazed my clit, throwing me over the edge and into a wave of euphoria that made my head spin.
“God, yes!” I moaned, collapsing back against the pullout mattress. My hands clawed at the sheets, fisting the material in a desperate bid to stop myself from gripping onto her slender jaw and sinking my teeth into her neck.
Or shoulder.
Or her delicious breasts.
She grinned, and my chest ached at the blank canvas of her throat.
I wanted to mark her all over, bite her until she was in a frenzy of desire that matched my own.
“That’s it, sir,” she cooed, adjusting to press a soft kiss against my temple and then my lips as she freed her fingers with a wet noise. “Let me take care of you.”
I looped my arms around her, dragging her down to hold her against my chest.
Where did this creature come from? And why had it taken her so long to find me? I was certain that if we’d met before, I never would’ve let her out of my sight, so I was writing off the strange familiarity I’d felt as a coincidence.
And yet, there was something just out of my reach.
Her lips pressed to the column of my throat, and I hummed, my eyes shut as I reveled in the relative peace of the moment.
Now that the roaring whoosh of desire for her blood had begun to quiet, I could hear her heartbeat again, elevated from her efforts.
“Sir?” Vi’s voice was soft as she traced patterns along my side, following the lines of my tattoos.
I hummed in response, my cheek resting against the top of her head.
“Can I have a kiss?”
I opened my eyes, gently reaching to tilt her jaw toward mine for a kiss that was a sipping pass of our mouths. She cradled my cheek in her hand gently, a smile teasing at the corner of her mouth as she stole another few soft pecks.
“Why don’t you stay for dinner?”
“It’s hardly past noon,” I chuckled.
“I know,” she said, laughing back. A silly, half-breathless laugh that stretched her cheeks.
Instead of answering with words, I kissed her again, slower and clumsier this time as I rolled us on the couch.
As if I wanted to be anywhere else.
I studied Vi’s profile as she dozed with her cheek pressed against my chest. Long, dark lashes kissed her pale cheeks as her breath brushed against the bare skin above my sports bra.
It’d just been polite for us to redress after an afternoon of rolling around together—she did have a roommate after all. A fact we wouldn’t be able to avoid at the coven house either, but at least there I had my own room.
It was difficult to worry too much about frivolous things like privacy with Vi’s warm body melded against mine, our legs tangled together on the wide Chesterfield now that we’d neatly tucked away the pullout bed.
It almost wasn’t enough contact with the thin material of her borrowed T-shirt separating Vi’s skin from mine. I enjoyed the warmth radiating from her, fingers catching in the cotton slightly as I rubbed her back in slow, soothing strokes.
The television hummed softly with the end credits of a movie that neither of us had paid any attention to. Vi, for the sake of a well-deserved nap, and me, too focused on enjoying her company.
To its credit, the movie—something about vampires, filmed before we stepped out into the light—did manage to get some of the details right.
Vi had been so horrified that I hadn't seen it while we were aimlessly scrolling for something to watch that it’d quickly become our choice, with the human demanding that I needed to be educated .
It was a foolish notion, given I’d been living with vampirism for more years than she’d been alive. Even so, there was something to be said for a cult classic.
Especially the soundtrack.
And Elsie would probably like to glitter in the sunlight. Unfortunately, in reality, sunlight meant a wicked migraine and a sunburn that was a real bitch to get rid of. Far less entertaining.
I traced patterns along her back, little moons and stars that trailed over her shoulder and spine. Vi had been out since the first scene, her breaths deep and even as she relaxed in my arms with shower-damp hair. We’d barely made it back to the sofa before she passed out, too exhausted to keep her eyes open or support her own boneless body.
Her surprise at what I considered basic aftercare flared a hot brand of anger in my chest. Was she not cared for before? Did her previous partners not take the time to worship the woman who gave herself so freely?
The very idea stoked the monster under my skin to life. It filled me with the urge to break, to tear.
To destroy .
Or was it that she usually kept things more casual? Refrained from dating at all? Not that I could call this dating—we’d been so informal in our courtship so far that I’d wondered whether she’d let me past the front door.
Never in my wildest fantasies did I assume we’d slip from the hallway and fall into bed with the conversation I’d planned only half finished.
I soaked in the smell of her hibiscus shampoo, cuddling her soft frame closer, settling the creature prowling under the surface of my skin.
A tiger turned housecat.
It was… unusual.
I wasn’t a stranger to attraction, or to romance for that matter. In my long life, I’d had many lovers, mostly women, though sparsely a man or two had found their way into my bed over the decades. But Vi? She felt like something else altogether. A sort of siren call I’d believed only to exist in sonnets and fairytales.
Different.
Alluring.
Fucking maddening.
My kind—those of us who were born instead of made—fostered instincts that created vampires like Elsie didn’t.
The desire to create covens, to make new night children.
To share our blood with humans and gift them the immortality that we reveled in as our birthright.
To find mates to share our long eternities with.
Those needs burrowed into the back of my skull like a Dremel, worming their way through my subconscious until it was all I could think about.
At first, it had been frightening. I’d never had much of a desire to act on the impulses before, not even with Elsie. Ultimately, it had been Cherie who changed her. But there had been a courtship between us—time had passed that allowed us to form our own special bond before she joined our coven for the rest of our eternity.
Eternity, I’d found this year, could be cut short quite unexpectedly.
Regardless, we’d been fortunate to have the sort of time that allowed attraction to turn into more.
The sands of that hourglass, marking the passage of days and weeks that build bonds between souls, had barely begun to pool for Vi and me. And yet, here I was, fantasising about what it would be like for her to open her eyes after a lazy afternoon nap and see crimson ringing her dark irises.
Desire grated on my common sense as I cradled her fragile mortal body, my baser urges rattling against my skull.
Bite. Drink. Feed. Claim .
She wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment. She was hardly ready for what we were doing now.
I shouldn’t have been ready either. It wasn’t like me to throw caution to the wind and dive headfirst into limerence.
But here I was. And here she was with me.
Not pushing away but pulling closer.
I chided myself for considering it, even as Vi nuzzled her face against my skin, her lips grazing along my chest and neck with her soft breaths.
A desperate keen rattled in my core, the comfort and ease between us whispering to my very soul that this had the potential to go beyond my wildest dreams.
It was no secret I wanted her.
I’d wanted her from the moment I’d first laid eyes on her in that cafe. So much so that the smell of her blood, brought to the surface with her embarrassed blush, made my fangs ache.
It left me with a bone-weary restlessness, the feeling of returning home after a long time away only to find the entire thing had burned to ash.
Terrifying.
Anxiety-inducing.
And unforgettable.
My eyes strayed to my jacket as if I could see through the heavy wool to the long, wrapped box in the left pocket. A gift, forgotten in my desperate need this morning.
This is all out of order.
A frustrated sigh slipped from between my teeth, my mixed emotions continuing to churn restlessly.
She deserved much better than me.
My phone buzzed where I left it on the arm of the couch, and I glanced at the screen to see our takeout order was waiting on the other side of the door.
“Vi,” I murmured, gently nudging her as I reluctantly tried to untangle our limbs. “Food is here.”
“I’m comfy,” she groaned, shifting to bury her face into the crook of my neck.
I chuckled, running a hand down her warm back. I should get up and grab our delivery from the step before it turned cold and soggy, but if Vi wanted me close, I wasn’t going to deny her.
I sincerely doubted I’d be able to deny her ever again.
Did she realize the effect that she had on me? On the entire coven?
Not just Elsie and Dana, but even Juniper, notoriously distant, had a fascination with the girl.
A crush, I’d say, if I didn’t mind a thump to the back of the head.
“If you’re sure.”
She sighed, pressing soft kisses on every bit of my skin she could reach. “But… I am kind of hungry.”
With a little shifting, I rolled over her, landing lithely on the floor on her opposite side. “One moment then, Pet. I’ll be right back.”
I headed for the door, confident with my heightened hearing that no one was in the hall as I threw it wide in my underwear to collect the takeout bag.
“Plates are beside the sink,” Vi called, the sofa rustling as she fought to sit up.
The door swung shut with a soft click, and I turned to her. Peaked nipples stood out in my shirt, the white fabric drowning her. The sleeves fell almost to her elbow, and its hem hit her mid-thigh, an obvious indicator of our over-a-foot height difference. My eyes roved over every inch of flesh, from her slender ankles up her shapely legs, over the soft swell of her hips to where I could see the bruises from my hands and mouth proudly visible against the fair skin of her throat.
“Are you coming?” she asked with a suggestive crook of her finger.
I turned before she could catch the way my eyes widened and collected plates from the cupboard.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I stopped at the coat rack and collected the box from my jacket pocket, balancing it on the plates on the way back to the living room.
Curiosity glittered in Vi’s dark eyes. “What’s that?”
I set the plates and takeout on the table before taking the box in my hands, twirling it nervously.
“Last night…” I started with a cringe at the memory of how it ended as I sat beside her.She scooted closer, her body heat like a brand to my left side. “I planned on giving you this. I know for your generation it’s not so important—the, er… courting .”
I licked my suddenly dry lips, my gaze firmly on hers even as my throat tightened with nerves, begging me to look anywhere else.
There is no way she is going to say yes.
Fucking and dating are two totally different things, Ren, you fool.
I steeled myself for rejection, tripping over my words. “But it is for me. So, would you like… er… would you be willing to?—"
“Be your girlfriend?” Vi asked, the deliciously soft rasp of her voice igniting a fire in my stomach that scorched the butterflies rioting in it to death.
I nodded tightly, more of a jerk of my head than anything else. “I would be honored if you’d be willing…” Stop rambling , I admonished myself. “Yes.”
She shifted, and my breath came in a sharp inhale. It was too much too soon. She was going to laugh me out of her apartment.
Her heart rate skyrocketed, but I couldn’t tell if it was nerves or anger.
“I should probably tell you that Elsie and I had accidental voyeuristic sex in front of Dana last night.”
“I— What ?” A surprised bark of laughter escaped me, half incredulous. “When did you have time?”
I smelled her arousal last night when she returned from her break. But we’d been so slammed, and then well… What happened, happened…
Jealousy that Dana’d been the one to get to watch hit me like a freight train.
She ran her hands over her face, a blush colouring her cheeks in uneven splotches.
“At the club, in Dana’s office, during lunch. She surprised me with this lingerie?—”
“It doesn’t bother me if you see other people, Pet. I know that you know I am involved with Elsie and Juniper.” I bit back another laugh at the embarrassed look she flashed between her fingers. “If you desire to have relationships with any of the others, I have no problem with that.”
“So it’s cool if Elsie and I?—?”
“Yes, it’s cool ,” I teased, stressing the last word. “And Dana, and any one of us you may want to explore a connection with. So long as you know that you also want to be with me.”
She smiled, grabbing my face in her hands and leaning forward to kiss me hard. “Then, yes,” she murmured against my lips. “I’ll be your girlfriend.”
Relief flooded me, and I grinned, turning my face to nip at her fingertips playfully. “This is for you.”
“You didn’t need to get me a present, you know.”
“I know, I wanted to. Besides, I couldn’t let Elsie show me up, could I?”
“You knew?” she asked with narrowed eyes.
“Not about you fucking in Dana’s office in front of her, no. But about her gift?” My eyes flashed, a predatory smirk spreading across my face. “Who do you think helped her pick it out? I think it should’ve been me who got to watch nstead of Dana. It would’ve been more fair.”
She pressed a kiss to my cheek and took the proffered package. I expected her to tear through the paper like Elsie, half feral and overly eager, but she flipped the box over and carefully peeled the pink paper at the taped edges. I dropped my arm around her shoulders as she removed the paper in one piece, flipping the light blue box back over and lifting the lid.
Even with my improved hearing, I barely made out her gasp at the sight of the tickets inside, a set of three.
“Ren, are these…?” she asked, voice high in her excitement.
“Yeah, I thought you and Danny might like to come to a game with me,” I said with a grin. It might be a little strange to invite your new girlfriend’s sibling on a date with you, but I thought they might like to experience being in the stadium together.
“Shut up,” she half squeaked, bouncing as she pulled the tickets out, only to freeze when her eyes found the golden bracelet beneath them. A delicate chain with five little rubies embedded into the metal at even spaces.
It had been expensive.
But I was half counting that she wouldn’t immediately clock just how much.
And worth every penny, to know without a doubt that Vi would be marked as mine, in my own little way. A special gift for a special girl.
My hope was that she’d wear it to the club, and irritating vampire fuck boys like Sel would get the hint and leave her alone.
That it told them all she already had a vampire, and a fucking powerful one, that she belonged to.
Besides, she deserved a more traditional courting gift than tickets to a baseball game.
Her lips curled at the edges, showing the dimple in her left cheek. “Ren, this is beautiful .”
“Can I help you put it on?”
She nodded, offering her wrist. “The game is Saturday; what about work?”
“I’ll find someone to cover for us, don’t worry,” I said, taking the bracelet in my hands, meaning to attach it. But when my gaze caught on the bandage wrapping her wrist—the bruises that fucking jerkoff had left on her skin, I paused. “Pet…” I murmured softly, bringing the back of her hand to my lips for a gentle kiss. “Would you let me heal this for you?”
I expected her to hesitate, and I would’ve understood if she did.
But Vi nodded, a weak smile playing at the corner of her mouth. “Yeah, please.. hurts like a bitch, honestly.”
My nose wrinkled, a bitter, angry part of me hissing that I hadn’t be able to finish the job on the useless sack of immortal flesh that’d dared touch what belonged to me.
“Might still sting a little,” I admitted, unfastening the tape holding the gauze together and wrapping her wrist.
“I can take it,” Vi promised with a tired smile. “I’m tough.”
A little chuckle wormed its way out of my chest even as my temper flared at the sight of Vi’s injured wrist. Before I could allow myself to sink further into callously murderous thoughts and half-baked ideas to track the vampire down and finish what I started, I bent. My lips grazed along the ribboned flesh, the hardened blood easy for my fangs to puncture, hitting Vi with a fresh wave of venom that had her limp and pliant in my arms as I laved at the spot, coating it with my saliva thoroughly.
It took a little time, but the skin began to knit back together as Vi rode the high of the venom, sighing happily as the wound sealed, leaving behind a thin, red scar.
In time, like the memories of last night, it would fade.
But for now? I kissed the place, reaching to collect the bracelet from its box to attach it to her wrist, leaving enough space for Vi to rotate it to her preference.
Deep satisfaction filled me at the sight. Finally, my girl was claimed
Mine .
With gentleness that was unnatural to me, I took hold of her wrist, bringing it to my lips for a lingering kiss against her pulse. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Pet.”
Vi wasn’t a member of my coven yet, but if my instincts were to be trusted, it was only a matter of time. And, with the little stones glittering along her wrist, I couldn’t help but feel that I’d taken a small step toward claiming her.
One of the positives about immortality?
You had a lot of time to be patient.