Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Levette
Waking the day after I had fed on Warren had been nerve-racking. I felt more refreshed than I ever had, though worry overtook my thoughts. I assumed he would regret it, be scared, and run off again, but he hadn’t. He was still in my arms as I stirred from sleep, offering me a dazed smile.
Realization dawned on his face, and he pulled away, his cheeks flooding with color. I loved it when he blushed, his embarrassment so cute and endearing. So human.
“I—uh—I…Hello,” he stuttered, pulling the sheet over himself as though he was the one without a shirt.
I grinned, showing teeth and fangs. He didn’t back away or flinch, and though I heard his heart rate increase, I still considered it progress. “Good morning, mon amour.”
We got dressed after that and I walked Warren home, allowing him the time he needed to process the night before. I hoped that he did not allow himself to wallow or overthink—he needed to only feel for once in his life.
The weeks passed by quickly after that. We fell into a routine of meeting up each evening and walking the city together.
Although Warren had not pulled away, neither had he allowed himself to touch me.
I could admit that it hurt and it was painful to see, but my promise to be whatever he needed me to be remained at the forefront of my mind. I was grateful to be even a friend.
Ever since tasting Warren’s blood, my meals haven’t sated me properly. The blood tasted bitter in comparison, and I longed to have my fangs in him again, his sweetness coating my tongue.
“How often do you feed?” Warren asked me curiously as we sat by our fountain.
I shrugged. “I try to feed every few days, but I can go longer. I find that it is better to drink smaller amounts closer together, otherwise the hunger becomes too much.”
Warren hummed as he flipped the page of his book, trying to focus. There was another question on his tongue, and he was trying hard not to ask it. I found it to be adorable.
“Ask me whatever you want, cher.”
Sighing, Warren slammed the book shut and turned to look at me. “Do you kill them when you feed?”
Ah. He was worried about my body count.
“No, I try not to. I take what I need to curb the hunger and that is all. Killing them usually happens in a spree—when hunger overrides everything, or the vampiric pleasure of killing takes over.”
“Do you like that? When you kill them?”
I cursed under my breath, looking to the sky. Why must he ask the questions I would rather not answer? I promised him honesty, and my honesty came at a price. Every time he asked something like that, I knew it would push him further away. Make him look at me differently. I hated it.
“Yes.” He flinched and looked away, but I touched his arm, beckoning him to look at me.
“You wanted the truth from me, Warren, and this is it. Killing is cruel and wrong, yet it brings me joy. I do not indulge in it because I am aware that it is wrong—that does not mean I am not tempted or that I never will again. It just means that I try to control myself.”
He nodded, tapping his fingertips against the hardcover of his book. I wished I could hear his thoughts, know exactly what was going through that beautiful mind of his. Sometimes I could read him so easily, and other times it was as if he were completely unknown to me. I didn’t like guessing.
“I will not apologize,” I said, trying to get ahead of where his mind was going, “because this is who and what I am. I try to be better, and I will continue trying, yet I will remain a vampire who is programmed to kill.”
“I understand,” Warren said after some time, twisting to face me. “I know what you are, and I accept it. I am even morbidly fascinated by it. However, reconciling the Levette I know with Levette the Vampire is difficult for me.”
Warren’s humanity made me miss my own. He was so consumed with right and wrong, trying to be good in a war with evil.
It was what made his heart so incredible and what made me love him.
It also made me feel more disconnected from the world than I had been in a long time.
Warren made me look at my flaws and failures, and try to fix them. To be better for him.
“They are not as different as you think. You know the real version of me.”
“How do you feed when we’re together every evening?
” he asked, switching the subject slightly so he didn’t have to analyze that.
It was something I always noticed: how he struggled to accept my feelings for him, and when it became too honest, he moved on to another question.
I didn’t blame him after all he had been through, but it hurt anyway.
I wanted him to accept my love, happily and honestly, though I knew that was a huge ask and would take time. Maybe one day.
The truth was that I had been feeding less frequently since meeting Warren, and even less so since tasting him. I wanted all my time to be spent with him, listening to him talk and watching him even as he read. I could never grow bored of seeing his face or listening to his heart beat.
“I try to do it before I meet you so that I always have all evening and night to spend with you.”
That cute little blush appeared again and he went back to reading his book in silence. I grabbed my newspaper and unfolded it, looking through the NOLA news to see what news there was.
TWO MORE BODIES FOUND. THE HUNTER IS ON THE LOOSE ONCE MORE!
“Putain de salaud!” I cursed, crumpling the paper up. Warren jumped at my outburst and I flinched at having scared him. “Apologies, mon amour.”
“What happened?” he asked, his heart thumping. I looked around before placing my hand on his, trying to calm him.
“Nothing, nothing. I overreacted.”
Warren leveled me with a stare. “I am not stupid, and you promised me no lies. What happened?”
If I told him, it meant pulling him further into the darkness of what I was and everything that came with it. To hide it from him meant lying to him, and I wasn’t prepared to do that. It would only hurt him more, and he had been hurt enough. I would not contribute to that if I could help it.
“Someone has been hunting in New Orleans. Bodies have been dropping steadily over the last year. Started with humans, but witches and vampires have been killed, too.” Warren shifted uncomfortably, avoiding my eyes.
I heard his pulse quicken when he felt my eyes on him. “You don’t seem surprised. Or scared.”
Warren sighed, rubbing his face. “I was trying to figure out a way to tell you,” he groaned. “I had no idea about the dead bodies, but I think they may be connected.”
I sat down beside him, checking around us to make sure nobody was listening, before he continued. “Gerald came to see me the night you found me in the church. He told me that there are sects of the church that hunt witches and other people they think are deviants. What if it’s them?”
The mention of another man’s name from his lips infuriated me. Gerald. His stupid employer? I could feel the rage simmering beneath my skin and my fangs itching to be released.
“Why was Gerald at your apartment?” I asked, my voice controlled and quiet.
Warren noticed my tone, and I felt the shift in his posture as he looked at me. His back straightened, but his pulse quickened. Was he scared? Did he like the fear?
“He came to tell me to leave town.”
I tilted my head as I stared at him, slowly raising a brow. “And why would he tell you to leave?”
My fingers tapped the back of the bench, and a bead of sweat formed on Warren’s forehead. “He was warning me against you.”
“He was what?” I clenched and unclenched my fist slowly. I had to keep myself calm, my anger contained, but the idea of another man visiting him to warn him against me…The storm beneath my skin was barely being kept at bay.
Warren looked from my eyes to my hand and back again. He could see where my mind was going, and he looked panic-stricken at the thought. “No, no, not like that!”
“It sounds like that to me! How long has Gerald been trying to fuck you, mon cher? Did he try to seduce you before I came around? Offer you employment so he could get close to you?” I could hear the venom seeping from my voice, but I couldn’t hold back.
The demonic part of myself that I tried so desperately to hide from Warren was clawing to get free.
“Est-ce qu'il sait quel go?t ont tes lèvres? Does he? Have you allowed him to know you as I do?”
“How dare you!” Warren yelled, his heart thudding so loudly that it was all I could hear. The vein in his neck throbbed, and I wanted to grab him and sink my fangs into him, drink his sweet nectar, and kiss him until he remembered that only I was allowed to know that side of him.
“How dare I? How dare he!” I spat. “Another man was in your apartment, talking about me like he knows me! What did he tell you about me? What lies did he spew?”
I stood and began to pace in front of him, struggling to focus. The bloodlust was overtaking me, and I ached to find Gerald and end his miserable life for daring to speak to what was mine.
“He knows about you! The vampires and the witches. He knew what you were and he warned me to leave before I succumbed to you.”
My laugh was bitter and cold. “Is that what I’m doing? Have I lured you? Do you not know your own mind, Warren?” I took a steady breath and threw my hat off, running my fingers through my hair. “How does he know what I am?”
Warren hit the bench beside him in frustration, gaining my attention.
“If you would let me talk and explain, I would tell you. Merde! He told me about the church factions hunting the sinners and the supernatural. Gerald said it has been happening for centuries. Then he handed me an envelope of my pay and told me to leave New Orleans.”
I hissed, my fangs descending in my mouth. “And how did he know these things? Did it occur to you that he could be part of it?”