Chapter 32 #2
The date that had accompanied me was weakened to the point of unconsciousness, causing me to have to find a new human to play with for the evening.
Now that I did not have the responsibility of policing the other vampires, I was free to embrace the evening for what it was: a night of complete and utter lust-filled impropriety.
“Hello, sweetheart,” I said to a human woman who smelled like fresh flowers. My mouth watered as her gaze roved over me, her chest thudding at my proximity. “Care for some fun?”
The woman grinned beneath her elaborate mask, holding her hand out to me.
I bowed at the waist and led her to the edge of the dance floor, pulling her into my lap as I sat down at one of the tables.
She giggled, her hands caressing over my chest as I swept her hair to the side, revealing the blue veins pulsing beneath her skin.
My body tensed as I felt his eyes on me again. I looked up and saw him across the dance floor; my angel of the night, dressed in darkness.
His tailored suit was black and figure-hugging, showing off his muscled thighs and toned torso.
The vest and long coat were also black, lined with burgundy swirls in an intricate, lace-like pattern.
His black hair was down, sweeping across his shoulders.
Even with his eyes covered by the mask matching his outfit, I could tell Levette was staring at me. Waiting, perhaps. Intrigued.
With such attention on me, I felt my monster come out to play. Sinking my fangs into the woman in my lap, I let her blood fill my mouth as I stared ahead, playing whatever game Levette was trying to start.
What was the use in being good when it made me be passed around like an unwanted gift?
Once I had taken my fill from the woman, she turned her head with an intoxicated smile, trying to press her lips to mine. I shook my head and placed her on the vacant seat beside me. “Sorry, love. You’re not my type.”
She sulked, which was irritating considering I knew I had just given her a buzz she would never have felt otherwise. Taking my leave, I averted my eyes from Levette and wandered into the crowd.
The thing I had discovered over my years as a vampire was that it did not matter how much you fed; the pit of hunger in your stomach was bottomless, always requiring more.
Levette and Lena had both preached restraint, not overfilling yourself, yet I had never encountered that feeling of complete fullness.
I was ravenous, always ready to hunt and devour.
Smelling the variety of blood made me salivate.
I brushed past a group of humans, taking the hand of a man who smelled divine.
He grinned and began to push against me, his scent intoxicating as we danced together.
Gripping the back of his head with my hand, I pulled his lips to mine and kissed him.
I felt him hum and go pliant against me, but I was far too focused on the ache in my fangs.
Warren…
I hate to admit it, but hearing his voice in my head snapped the tether to my control. It was a culmination of anger, and love, and self-hatred that exploded, my desire to be free of everything that encumbered me and forced me to conform to society.
Mon cher, please don’t.
I’m not your cher anymore, I replied, letting my bitterness seep into the words as they pulsed down the bond. I haven’t been in a long time.
I sent scenes of sexual pleasure and bloodlust at him like insults, practically feeling his wince as he witnessed some of the lewdness I had partaken in during our years apart.
It was cruel and unlike me, but I was so exhausted by being good.
It had served me in no way and had resulted in more pain than my feeble heart could take.
And the second I chose to act another way, the people I loved looked at me like I was no longer myself.
I wanted to punish Levette, to prove to him that I was not broken since I had left.
We were fiends together, and we were monsters apart; there was no winning.
All that was left was to let go of my grip on humanity completely…
I was the evil that haunted the night, and I would embrace it.
The human dancing with me groaned and slipped his hand to the front of my pants, rubbing. I licked my lips, wondering how it would feel to have his blood in my mouth as he had his hands on my cock.
“Come with me,” I instructed, taking his hand and weaving our way through the party until we stumbled through the ballroom doors.
The building was huge with large hallways and a maze of secret passageways. I led the way through a few twists and turns until we found the library. Throwing open the doors, I pulled the human inside and clicked the lock in place.
“Comment t'appelles-tu?” he asked in a deep Cajun accent, his fingers tracing over my exposed chest.
“Warren,” I replied dryly, shoving him on the small sofa behind him.
He looked up at me with a sultry smile, pulling his cravat free. “You will not ask me my name in return?”
I looked at him pointedly, climbing on top of him as I ripped at his shirt. “I don’t care. All I care about is you putting that mouth to good use.”
“Jean-Pierre,” he said, sitting up to lick the column of my stomach. “You should know my name before I give you a fun time.”
Jean-Pierre was handsome, with his dark features and golden skin, but he was human…and he was not Levette. While all my trysts delivered the desired result, none of them were particularly satisfying—a means to an end, and a way for me to release some tension.
“Whatever you say,” I muttered, leaning back so our positions were switched.
“I’ll call you any name you like if you stop talking.
” I took his wrist in my mouth, swallowing mouthfuls of his blood as he rubbed against me.
The sensation was exquisite, and I was pleased that his blood was as delicious and slightly spiced as I had anticipated.
After I had drunk my fill, Jean-Pierre moved down, his fingertips slipping beneath my pants and straight to where I ached. I sighed as he pumped his hand, his thumb running across the tip that sent a wave of pleasure from my toes to my fangs.
“Just like that,” I praised, raising my hips slightly so he could pull me free.
Just as his mouth closed over me, eliciting a pleasurable shiver, a banging on the door startled him.
“Warren! I know you and your mortal pet are in there. Open the door.”
I laughed at Levette’s irritated voice, shaking my head at the human. “Ignore him. Keep going.”
“Va te faire foutre! Open the damn door!”
Ignoring his thuds on the door, I guided Jean-Pierre’s head back down and relished the feel of his mouth on me. I held onto the back of his head, helping him keep the pace I knew I needed.
The doors burst open, the wooden frame splintering at the force.
I tilted my head back to see Levette in all his dark glory, standing in the doorframe with his hands out, rage written across his face.
It had been so long since I’d seen him like that, terrifying and handsome all at one, and coupled with the very enjoyable sensation happening with my lower body, I was enveloped in headiness and lust, eager to release.
Levette’s eyes flamed as I grinned defiantly at him, turning my gaze back to Jean-Pierre.
The human looked terrified of Levette, but seemed to understand the mission of our tryst, giving me a sly smile as he moved faster.
The growl from the doorway, however, was enough to stall his pace and he released me with a quivering lip.
I didn’t have to move before Levette was grabbing him off me, dangling him in the air like a rag doll. Jean-Pierre’s face was quickly turning red as Levette squeezed, his grip around his neck lethal.
“Let him go, Levette,” I said, propping myself up by the elbows. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You let him touch you!”
“And you have not been near another?” I rebutted, tucking myself into my pants. “We are not together anymore. Let the human go.”
Levette growled, looking up and down at the human as he analyzed. He turned back to me with a snarl. “You let another touch you while I was here! And this is what you chose? Décevant, mon amour.”
Jean-Pierre whimpered, which was not a wise move as it brought Levette’s full attention back to him.
“You should never touch what is mine,” Levette snapped, bringing the human up to his face as he bared his fangs, “but it is not entirely your fault that you did not know. However, someone must face the consequences, and unfortunately, I am very much in love with your devious co-conspirator. Je suis désolé pour cela.”
Like the monster he was, Levette ripped open the human’s neck with his cuspids before dropping him to the floor. He did not even blink as blood seeped into the hardwood flooring, which was a waste, in my opinion.
“Was that necessary?” I sniped, getting to my feet.
“Was showing me all your little escapades necessary?” he threw back, kicking the body at his feet. “Was causing a scene what you wanted from me?”
I shrugged, righting my shirt as I walked closer to him.
It felt like only yesterday since we were together, and yet so much time had passed.
Being an immortal was a cruel joke at times: it served as a reminder that we could have everything we wanted forever, but the human souls we had meant it would always be a struggle to get it together long enough to achieve eternity.
“Am I forbidden from having fun because we are no longer lovers?” I questioned, letting my anger free.
“I know, why don’t you go complain about it to Lena?
I hear you two are the best of friends now.
Both of you are unburdened by your problematic little fledgling, now free to do whatever you see fit.
Well, here’s the thing, I get to do that, too.
” I smacked my hand against his chest, shoving him back.
“Tell me, have you spent all these years pining? No, I assume not. Should I have been miserable in the years apart?”
Levette grabbed my wrist to stop me from hitting him again, choosing instead to yank me closer. A surprised breath left me, and I tried not to think about how much my body craved being near him.
“You left me, Warren. You came home and told me you loved me, and then you left me. AGAIN. Do you really want to play the game of who has suffered the most?” He tightened his grip on me, his breath hot against my face.
I could see beneath his mask those glorious eyes, and I had to avert my gaze; falling for him always started with those damn eyes.
“We clearly cannot be together. We suffer when we are apart. It’s a damned cycle of torture!”
Levette let go of my wrist, shoving just enough to make me stumble back. “Then go. That’s what you want, correct? Go, have your freedom from me. You say I am unburdened by you, but you are the one who has chosen time and time again to unburden himself from me. I will not beg you to love me.”
“You think I do not love you?” I asked, genuinely startled by his statement.
Since the moment I had met him, the one problem I had in both life and death was the fact that I was in love with Levette Fortier.
It astounded me that there could be a part of him that doubted that fact.
I thought, at our cores, we knew that loving each other was never in question.
It was merely that death and chaos followed in our wake because we loved each other so deeply. “How could you ask me that?”
He barked out a cynical laugh, throwing his hands into the air.
“Bon sang, you really are so wildly insane that you do not see it, do you?” Levette ripped his mask off, letting it fall down beside us.
I was, much like the first time I saw him in The Carousel, blown away by his beauty.
Levette was sculpted by divine hands; only that could make something so bewitching.
“Warren, you pick me up and throw me away as though I am a toy! You fell in love with me only to hate who I am when it suits you. I cannot take much more.”
Levette leaned down to grab his mask before storming past me, leaving his sadness with me.
The words did not strike me at first. The smell of blood, smoke, and bitter alcohol wafting through the air distracted me until the fog cleared, leaving those words hanging before me.
Immortality was a supposed gift—an endless pool of discovery, love, laughter. Vampires were never supposed to weaken, to grow old, or allow exhaustion to touch them. Levette had seen wars come and go, had lost people he loved and missed, and yet the thing that had exhausted him most was me.
It felt like an accusation, an insult designed to wound me, but the longer I stared after him, the more the words settled. It was not an accusation, but his own truth. My love had made him weary to the point of self-doubt.
When we had met, Levette had been bold and confident.
He had shone in the dismal world I was living in, showing me that life need not mean the end of happiness.
Almost immediately, he had shown me what it felt like to be giddy, to smile at something silly, to laugh loudly and not care if anyone was looking.
Levette had been the guiding star in my life, and I had taken that for granted.
To hear him doubt my love for him, to say that I used and discarded him as though he meant nothing—my chest constricted at the thought. My love for him had become a cage—no, it had become the coffin he had tried desperately to avoid because it was another thing he felt he did not deserve.
I had allowed myself to spiral for years and lay the blame at his door, to throw my anger at him because deep down, I knew he would accept it. Levette had been my punching bag for years, while I acted as though he was the one wounding me.
Perhaps I had suffocated him, all the while telling Levette that he was the one who had to change.
Eternity was a curse, but for the person who claimed to love you to treat you so terribly was a punishment nobody deserved.
In all my turmoil, I had snuffed out the very light that made me fall in love with Levette, and in turn, he had tried so desperately to be who I demanded him to be.
I was a fool, and I had broken the man I promised to love forever.