Chapter 7
seven
BLAIR
I’d been lying on the bottom of the pool, processing the emotions of the day for what felt like a lifetime when the first shoe sunk down beside me.
My eyes followed it past the gorgeous rock formations and jewel-inlaid walls to the floor of the pool.
It was a man’s dress shoe.
How had someone dropped their shoe while walking next to a pool? That kind of clumsiness shouldn’t have existed among vampires.
A minute went by before another shoe followed.
That one landed on my boob.
I made a noise of indignation.
I could almost believe one shoe was an accident, but two?
No male vampire would accidentally drop both of their shoes into a pool.
Someone was trying to summon me.
I couldn’t prevent the wave of excitement—and dread—when I realized there was only one man who would summon me like that.
Hale.
With all the fury of a pissed-off woman, I grabbed both of the shoes and swam hard to the surface, throwing both shoes out of the water first.
“What kind of asshole summons a woman with his shoes?” I demanded, lifting myself smoothly out of the water. Magic was probably radiating off me, but I didn’t care. It wasn’t like Hale hadn’t felt it before.
I—
“Sorry,” an unfamiliar man apologized, and my gaze jerked upward.
Oh, shit.
He was not Hale.
Very much not Hale.
And I’d thrown shoes at him.
“I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “I thought you were Hale.”
“It’s fine. Getting hit in the face with a shoe is a good way to keep a guy on his toes,” the man said, his gaze glued to my breasts.
I sighed inwardly, and tried to pull my magic back. I hadn’t had anywhere near enough from Hale, and I was physically hungry on top of that, so my control was basically nonexistent.
“You should throw another shoe at me. Maybe it will make it easier to stop staring at you?” he mumbled.
I laughed, grabbing the shoe and tossing it at him.
He made a noise of complaint. “Useless. Throw it like I’m Hale again.”
“Do what like you’re me?” the growl was the only warning before Hale himself sped into the room, stopping beside the stranger.
“She threw a shoe at me,” he explained quickly, fighting desperately to look away from me. “She thought I was you. I used it to get her attention while she was underwater, because we had no rocks.”
I stood smoothly, crossing the room so I could grab my oversized t-shirt off the floor. Water rolled down my body, and I fought the urge to scratch at the layer of glitter the chlorine had formed over my skin.
Scientifically, I didn’t think it made a shred of sense for chlorine to create glitter. But siren magic didn’t make sense, so that was that.
“Why are you sparkling?” Hale asked me, his eyes now glued to me too.
“Chlorine and siren magic don’t mix well.” I shook my arm, and a small amount of glitter fell from my skin. Most of it wouldn’t come off until I scrubbed like hell. Even then, a lot of it would simply refuse to budge for a few days. That was fine, though. Sirens made good disco balls.
“That’s in the note, but I didn’t think it would make glitter… fascinating.” The new guy started to flip to a new page, to make notes, but Hale pulled the notepad out of his hand and scanned the words I’d written.
“Why are you signing a note with a heart for a guy who isn’t your mate?” he growled at me.
“Do you even have a normal voice? All you do is growl at me.” I wrung my hair out, watching glitter-water pool beneath it. “Hearts make things nicer. They don’t have to be romantic. Everyone knows that.”
The perplexed expressions on their faces told me that everyone, in fact, did not know that.
“Never mind. Do you guys have a kitchen here or something? I need to eat before I cause an orgy to break out.”
I meant it as a joke, but the look on Hale’s face told me he would absolutely murder everyone involved if that occurred.
“That was supposed to be funny. It’s never happened before, and I don’t think it’s actually possible, based on the way my magic works. Breathe, Hale. I was just saying that I’m hungry.”
“I’ll feed you,” the new guy blurted out, then cringed when Hale snarled at him. “I don’t know why I said that. He’ll feed you. Not me. I have a girlfriend.”
“It’s my magic’s fault. I can’t control it right now,” I apologized. “I can explain to your girlfriend if she’s worried.”
“You met her already. She understands, and she warned me,” he admitted, his face red.
“Oh, your girlfriend is his fiancé’s sister?” I gestured to Hale, whose forehead creased.
“Yeah, I’m Roscoe.” He lowered his voice and whispered to Hale, “Missy still tells people you’re engaged.”
Annoyance filled his expression. “How many fucking times do I have to have that conversation?” he pulled his phone out, and his fingers flew across the screen.
“Even that won’t stop her,” Roscoe warned, reading over his shoulder.
Hale paused, and considered it.
A wicked gleam filled his eyes, and he lifted his phone toward me.
“What are you doing?” I asked warily.
I heard what sounded like a camera taking a picture.
“That picture will turn people on,” Roscoe said matter-of-factly.
“Her existence turns them on.” He typed something out as I hurried across the room.
“Oh, that’s good,” Roscoe said, approving of the message before I heard the sound of it being sent.
“What did you do, Hale?” I demanded.
“I told you to call me Damian, little siren.”
“Damian is the name of someone who wouldn’t force me into mating with him.”
“I stopped you from reciprocating the bond, didn’t I?”
The question caught me off guard, but I distracted myself by taking his phone and reading his text instead of answering.
The group chat’s label said: VAMP MANOR HOMIES.
“Homies?” I drawled.
“Someone else made the group. No one will tell me who,” he grumbled.
My eyes nearly bulged when I saw a picture of myself in my wet shirt, my hair dripping as the fabric clung to my curves and showed off the glitter on my skin.
Below it, he’d written out a message.
Hale
Everyone, this is my mate, Blair. Apparently sirens can be glittery. I’ll have a good fucking time licking her clean tonight. Anyone who touches her loses a hand.
“What’s wrong with you?” I hissed. “You are not licking any part of me tonight.”
“The impact is the same anyway,” Roscoe explained. “He just marked you as his in every way to the whole Manor, and everyone else they know. Even Missy won’t be able to argue with that declaration.”
“He just made me even more of a target than I already am,” I protested.
“Nah, the only ones brave enough to target Hale’s mate are the other kings,” Roscoe said.
“How many times do I have to say we’re not kings?” Hale grumbled.
My stomach growled, and both mens’ eyes dilated as my magic flared.
Hale grabbed me by the waist. “Do whatever she wants to the pool. It’s hers.”
Despite the possessive growl in his voice, the words were a turn-on. A serious turn-on.
“You should add that to the message,” Roscoe called behind her. “So people stop wondering why you put this in instead of the mini-golf course we voted for.”
“There was supposed to be a mini-golf course?” I yelled over Hale’s shoulder, as he turned the corner.
“An epic one!” Roscoe shouted back.
“Why’d you kill the mini-golf course? Everyone likes mini-golf,” I said, trying to adjust my position on his shoulder so my ribs wouldn’t hurt so bad.
“My mate’s a siren. Fuck mini-golf.”
“You built a pool for me? You didn’t even know me until today!”
“I told you, I was looking for you. I had to do it quietly, or the whole city would realize there was an unmated siren wandering around. I knew you were mine the moment I tasted your blood.”
My forehead creased. “Not the moment you felt my magic?”
He turned down a hallway and strode over toward a shiny, black elevator. It had to be the one he’d mentioned would take us to our room.
“Of course not. Your magic feels nice, but I don’t care about that any more than I care about the damn golf course.”
“So you don’t want me because I’m a siren?”
“No. My life would be much easier right now if you were a raccoon shifter.”
I choked out a laugh. “Somehow, that’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“Romance is bullshit.”
“Whatever you say.” I peeled a strip of wet hair off my face as he hit the button to call the elevator. “I don’t think this is the way to the food.”
“No, but I’m not taking you to dinner wearing this. I need to buy you a wetsuit or something.”
“A wetsuit ?” I made a face. “I’m a siren, Hale. We’re supposed to swim naked and free, so we can feel the water on our bare breasts. Or something like that, anyway. This bikini is as close to a wetsuit as you’re getting me.”
“We can argue about that later.”
“We most certainly can not . I’m done arguing about my swimwear.”
“Argue with me about my name, then.”
That was a good transition. A really good transition.
The elevator dinged, and he stepped inside, typing the code he’d given me.
0615.
June 15 th .
A date from a few weeks ago.
I went back mentally, and frowned a little when I realized it was the day we’d met in the nightclub.
Why had he picked that?
We weren’t close enough to ask, but maybe at some point I would.
“Why does what I call you matter that much?” I asked.
“I started going by Hale to distance myself from the guy I was before I took over the vampire wing of the Manor. You’re my mate. I don’t want to be that version of myself with you.”
The admission—and the vulnerability—made my stomach tighten. “You can’t tell me things like that after forcing me to wear your mate mark and threatening to put me in a wetsuit,” I finally said.
“Sure I can.”
“What am I supposed to think in this situation?” I asked him, frustration swelling within me. “I don’t want a mate, okay? I never have. My mom’s mate loved her so much that he killed the women that were her family, and accidentally killed her too. Mate bonds are bullshit. Love is bullshit. I don’t want anything to do with any of it.”
“That sounds like psychosis, not love.” The elevator dinged on our floor. “And I didn’t propose love. I proposed a mate bond that will mutually benefit both of us. I need your blood to sate my bloodlust. You need my emotions so you don’t have to starve or kiss strangers anymore. It’s a win-win situation.”
“One you forced me into,” I reminded him.
“I gave you a choice. You picked the most reasonable option.”
“Oh, fuck off,” I growled, trying to see his room.
There were few things the myths got right about vampires, but I knew the coffin thing was one of them. Vampires usually slept in coffins. They weren’t your typical horror-movie coffin, but a mattress with a lid of sorts that just went over the top when you were ready to sleep.
I knew that, because…
Well, because sirens are basically emotional vampires.
We’re closely related enough to them that we also sleep in coffins.
It sounds weird, but it’s cozy as fuck.
And we don’t call them coffins—we just call them canopy beds. With canopies that move down and become snuggly forts.
He draped me over the edge of the mattress, then leaned over me with a gleam in his eyes. “Agree to wear a coat and snow pants to dinner, and I’ll agree to fuck off.”
I scowled. “I’m not doing that.”
“Then neither am I. Now, are you going to change before you kiss me, or after?”
“I don’t have any clothes here.”
“You’ll wear mine. We can get yours tomorrow.”
“I don’t want your security team knowing where my house is,” I countered.
“I wasn’t going to bring my security team. Just you, and me. And any of your sisters who want to come, minus Clementine.”
“Has Curtis tried to take her from you yet?” I asked, momentarily distracted from how much I disliked him.
“No. Breaking into my wing of the Manor would be an act of war, and even Curtis is smart enough not to risk that. No one likes him enough to fight with him.”
“No one, meaning…”
“None of the other guys.”
“The other kings ?”
“Leaders,” he amended. “We’re not kings.”
“You keep saying that, but it keeps being untrue.”
He rolled his eyes.
“You’re friends with the other leaders ?”
“Yeah. They’re assholes, but it comes with the territory.”
“Which ones could beat you in a fight?”
“On a good day, none of them.”
“And on a bad day?”
“Any of them,” he admitted. “We’re evenly matched, as annoying as it is. After you seal your side of the mate bond, I’ll introduce you to them.”
“Not before?”
His eyes darkened. “Not a fucking chance. Some of those broody bastards could use a siren in their lives, and they can’t have you. Or your sisters.”
“You’re possessive of my sisters now, too?” I asked, lifting an eyebrow.
“You’re a packaged deal.”
“That’s true.” I ran a hand through my hair. “We’re already here, so I might as well kiss you.”
“Every man dreams of being kissed by a woman this reluctant,” he drawled.
I smiled. “We were never about lust, Damian.”
I could see the appreciation in his eyes as he lowered his lips to my throat and brushed them lightly over the band around my neck. “Maybe you weren’t.”
“You did not want me in that nightclub.”
He barked out a laugh. “Like hell I didn’t.” His teeth slid into my throat, and I gasped, arching my back. My legs wrapped around his hips as his magic relaxed me and made me want him desperately, at the same time.
“You already drank from me today,” I breathed, my entire body flushed.
“Not enough,” he said against my throat.
“Are you sure it’s not just my magic?” I moaned, threading my fingers through his hair and pulling him against me harder. His teeth sank in deeper, and I cried out, right on the edge of an orgasm.
Just before I could finish, he released me with a kiss to my throat and a swipe of his tongue. His bites seemed to heal instantly, unlike most of my injuries. I healed a lot faster than a human, but it was nowhere near instant most of the time. “Your magic makes me want to fuck you, not bite you, little siren. And bloodlust is unmistakable.”
“What does it feel like?” I whispered, my chest rising and falling quickly as pain tightened my abdomen.
I needed a release, badly.
And I still hadn’t managed to peel my legs off his waist.
His eyes clouded a little. “Like you’re going to die if you don’t drink blood. But the more you drink, the more you need. It’s an endless cycle.”
“How does my blood make you feel?”
“Free.” The word was simple, but enough to make my chest ache.
I could understand that desire.
That need.
Hell, I wanted it myself.
He kissed my throat again. “Tastes fucking good, though.”
He was trying to lighten the mood, and I appreciated that. But there were bigger, more important things to deal with.
“You’re never going to let me walk away, are you?” I asked quietly, my hand still buried in his hair though my grip wasn’t as tight.
“Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.” The admission was raw, and honest.
“ Do you want to?”
“No.”
I tightened my grip on his hair. “Sealing the bond will let me drink your emotions without kissing you. It’s freedom for me, too. More freedom than I have right now, at least.”
Surprise flickered in his eyes. “You don’t need to?—”
I lifted my free hand to his throat, wrapping it around his like he had mine, and said, “You are mine, Damian.”
The magic that blossomed between us was fierce enough to rip the breath right out of my lungs. His mouth was on mine before the power faded, both his hands on my ass as he lifted me higher and pressed against me harder.
I drank his emotions, taking what I needed and so, so much more.
“Fuck me,” I commanded, wildly sated and desperately horny when I finally released his mouth.
He shoved my swim bottoms aside and filled me with his fingers a heartbeat later, making me cry out with pleasure.
His thumb found my clit, and it only took one rough brush against it to shatter me.
I panted hard as I came down from the high, his hot gaze burning into me and his thumb still stroking my clit.
“That was—” I cut myself off, with no idea how to finish it. “We can?—”
“You’re hungry. The emotions of the mate bond are still running high. I’m not taking you for the first time when there’s a chance you might regret it.”
“You say that like it’ll happen more than once.”
His lips curved upward, his smile wicked. “The bond will prevent you from wanting anyone but me, little siren. Eventually, you’ll get desperate enough to fuck me. And after you’ve had me, you’ll never be done with me.”
“That sounds like a challenge,” I tossed back.
“No, it’s a promise.” He leaned down to kiss my throat, and my chest constricted. “You want to get off again before I pull out?”
“Yes.” The whispered admission escaped me before I could stop myself.
“Needy little thing.” His words were playful. But the way he ran his thumb over my clit was anything but that.
I moaned, “If you fuck Missy with these fingers, I’ll rip your cock off.”
“You’re mine, remember? If I want a sexy little female to fill, I have this one.”
“Fuck, I hate you.”
“Hate is a hell of a lot like love, don’t you think?”
I gasped when he ground his hand against my clit, making my hips rock harder. “Shut up and get me off, Damian.”
He chuckled, his voice low and rich. “I’m going to jerk off to those words tonight.”
“Don’t even think about it.”
“I’d like to see you stop me. Now, quit talking and come for me, little siren.”
I laughed breathlessly—then cried out when he worked me harder, until I was clenching around him as I lost control completely.
He kissed my throat again, straightening as he continued to tease my clit lightly while I came down from my high. Then, he kissed my knee.
“There’s glitter on your lips,” I said, my breathing still unsteady.
He licked my knee. “Now it’s on my tongue, too.”
“You really do want people to think you went down on me.”
“I want people to know that you’re taken.” He dragged his thumb lightly over my clit, making my hips jerk. “And is this really that different from going down on you?”
No, it wasn’t.
“Your blush answers that question for me.” He licked my other knee, then gave my clit one last stroke before he slid his hand out slowly.
My core clenched around nothing, my body already missing him the moment he was gone.
He lifted his hand to his lips and licked my pleasure off his fingers, glitter and all. My breathing picked up again.
I should’ve asked for three orgasms.
“This doesn’t change anything,” I said. “I still think you’re an asshole, and I still don’t want a mate.”
His gaze was on me as he finished licking his fingers clean and ran them down the inside of my thigh. “I don’t expect anything to change, but this is permanent, little siren.” He lifted his slick fingers to the mark I’d put on his throat. “You belong to me.”
“And you belong to me ,” I said.
“That’s right. If you hear anyone say otherwise, you make that clear.”
“When was the last time you had sex with Missy? I feel like that’s an important thing to consider, here.”
“I’ve never had sex with her.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“I won’t ever lie to you. And you already don’t like me, Blair. I have no reason to tell you anything but the truth.”
That… was valid logic, actually.
His answer wouldn’t have changed my opinion of him, even if he said he screwed her that morning.
“Why is she so insistent, then?”
“Our parents arranged a marriage when we were kids. I refused as a teenager, and they shredded the contract. Missy keeps bringing it up anyway.”
“Are your parents still alive?”
“No, they passed away fifty years ago now.”
I winced. “I don’t think I want to know how old you are.”
He chuckled. “Probably not.”
My stomach rumbled again, and he stood up. Those gorgeous blue eyes met mine, and the look in them was genuine. “I’m sorry about your parents.”
“It was a long time ago.”
“Time doesn’t erase pain.”
“Maybe not.” He squeezed my knee. The one he’d licked, repeatedly. “I’ll grab you some of my clothes to wear.”
With that, he strode into the closet, his erection raging through his jeans.
“You have glitter in your hair,” I called out behind him. “And on your hands.
“I’d like to have it on my cock, too,” he called back, and I laughed.
“Better get rubbing, then.”
His snort made me warm.
He was an asshole… but maybe we could figure out a way to be friends, during the moments I didn’t hate him.