Chapter 13
thirteen
DAMIAN
Blair was uncharacteristically calm over the next few days.
She wore a one-piece swimsuit one of her sisters had ordered, and her own new clothing.
She was in bed and asleep before me every night, and left before I woke up.
I kept setting my alarm earlier in an attempt to catch her, but it hadn’t worked yet.
She answered my texts about her location without snark or sass.
She didn’t try to force me to feed on her, or try to seduce me.
By the time a week had passed, I was officially suspicious.
“How often do sirens need to feed?” I asked Clementine, during dinner. Though I was at their table, and Blair sat beside me, we hadn’t touched all week.
Keeping my hands off her was torture. Her glitter was coming off more every day now that her pool was free of chlorine, and it irritated me that I didn’t have it on my skin. It was on our sheets—but only on her side of the bed.
And my fucking fangs kept descending for no reason. Now that I’d been fully sated for the first time since I was a teenager, going a week without feeding felt like my stomach was trying to climb its way out of my throat. I usually only drank two blood bags twice a week. I just had to suffer through the initial pain to readjust to that.
Clem looked surprised by the question, but she was the friendliest of the bunch, so I knew she’d answer. “Usually like once a week to stay strong. We feel our best if we feed twice a week, though.”
I looked at her sisters, and a few of them nodded in agreement.
I’d thought I felt lust coming off Blair for a few days, but wasn’t sure if it was just because of how badly I wanted her. No one had reported feeling affected by it.
Maybe because she was keeping to herself…
I met her gaze, where she was sitting next to me. “You’re hungry.”
“Am I?”
I narrowed my eyes at her.
She lifted an eyebrow at me. “I’m not eating if you’re not.”
I growled at her, and she yawned. “Wow, I’m getting tired. About ready to call it a night.”
“It’s seven PM.”
“Late,” she agreed.
“Bullshit.”
“Okay,” she said sweetly, standing up and tucking a long, loose strand of soft, golden hair behind her ear.
My gaze tracked the motion predatorily, and by the time I snapped myself out of it, she was striding across the room.
I stood abruptly, but one of her sisters hooked a foot in the leg of my chair and yanked it back. It caught me off guard, and I sat down.
“We need to talk, asshole,” Zora said flatly.
I looked over my shoulder, trying to catch another glimpse of my female, but she was gone.
“The situation between you two is fucked up,” Zora said, and I finally looked at her. “Fix it.”
“What do you mean, fix it?” I asked.
“She’s going to starve herself as long as you refuse to drink enough of her blood. She’s been going through with the injections. They make her hungry, and she’s fighting it hard,” Clementine explained. “You don’t want to try to out-stubborn Blair, believe me. If you think her walking down a hallway naked is bad, you have no idea what you’re in for.”
My nostrils flared at the reminder. “Drinking from her is a risk to her life.”
“You’d been bleeding for an entire day the last time you tried it, and you didn’t kill her then,” Izzy said drily. “How much more could you take from her?”
My jaw set. “I’ll negotiate with her. Feeding twice a week would be enough to keep me functioning.”
Functioning better than I was at the moment, at least.
“You can try, but Blair doesn’t negotiate if she knows she’s right,” Clementine said with a shrug.
“She’s not right.”
“Your doctor disagrees. It’s hard to argue with the scientific data,” Izzy said.
My nostrils flared. “I’m trying to protect her. And the rest of you, for that matter.”
“Getting our sister’s mate killed is a shitty way to protect any of us. Especially her,” Zora said. “We were against her plan at first too, but when you talk to your doctor, it becomes pretty obvious that she’s right. Pull your head out of your ass and fix it.”
I scowled but stood again. “I’ll talk to her.”
“That didn’t sound like an agreement,” Clem remarked.
“It wasn’t one.”
I strode out of the cafeteria, determined to find my mate. She wasn’t going hungry on my watch any longer.
Blair was curled up in our bed with the canopy lowered over her when I got to the bedroom. I raised it, and she shot me an annoyed look. Her hair was wet, and irritation flooded me when I realized I’d missed catching her in the shower.
Again.
My cock fucking hurt with the distance between us.
“Hey,” I said, trying to resist the urge to lecture her about starving. Her gaze was wary as I sat down on the edge of the bed. “We need to talk.”
She closed her eyes. “I’m not feeding on you. There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Are you feeding on someone else?” my voice lowered, taking on an edge of something feral.
If one of my vampires was feeding my mate, they wouldn’t survive the hour.
“No. I can’t, remember? Are you?”
My lips twisted in disgust. “No. The only person I want on my mouth is you.”
“On that we agree, if nothing else.” Her eyes were still closed.
I dragged a hand through my hair.
She didn’t want to talk, and she wasn’t going to like my ideas, but I’d offer her everything I could.
“I can’t let you starve,” I said.
“You can’t force me to eat any more than I can force you,” she murmured.
“You don’t risk my life when you take from me.”
“Neither do you.”
I made a noise of frustration. “Kara’s theory is bullshit.”
“It’s not a theory if you have factual evidence.”
“I don’t need to feed every day,” I growled back. “Twice a week is enough. I can agree to drink from you twice a week, in exchange for feeding you.”
“Okay.”
I blinked. “Okay?”
“Sure. Feeding from you once a month is enough to keep me alive, so I’ll feed you twice a week, and you can feed me once a month.”
My lips twisted in a snarl. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Then we’ll stay at an impasse. That’s fine with me. I love a good impasse,” she murmured into her pillow.
I shoved another hand through my hair.
My phone rang in my pocket, and I yanked it out. Talon’s name was on the screen, so I knew I couldn’t get out of answering. “What do you want?”
“Kai finally pulled his ass out of the fae realm. Meeting’s on for tonight. Midnight in neutral territory. Bring your siren.” He hung up without waiting for confirmation.
Blair must’ve heard his side of the conversation, because she was already sitting up. “A meeting with who?”
“The rest of the leaders. I tried to set it up right after Curtis’s attack, but Kai’s been in the fae realm, dealing with his people’s shit.”
“Have you ever been?” she asked, her curiosity piqued.
“No, and you won’t either. No one makes it back from the fae realm without fae magic or a fae mate.”
“Damn.” Her excitement faded.
“We’re not staying at this impasse. This isn’t healthy,” I growled. “You need to eat. I can’t walk you into a room full of the other leaders and have you set off their magic. The last thing I need is Curtis trying to touch you. I’d have no choice but to kill him, and I’d start a war in the process.”
“Technically, he wants Clem.”
“He can’t have any of you.”
“Well I’m not feeding on you, so I’ll just have to stay here.”
“That’s not going to work this time. The whole meeting is about you. If I show up with a fresh mate mark without you at my side, they’re going to be suspicious.”
“Alright. If you want to feed me, you’re going to have to drink until you’re sated again,” she said, matter-of-factly.
My eyes narrowed, but I bit back the response at the tip of my tongue. She had proven that she wasn’t going to back down. I’d have to think of another way to make that happen.
Though I didn’t respond right away, there was something in her gaze that almost looked… hurt.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
She stood up. “Just go drink from your blood bags. I’ll hold your hand while I feed from Lou. She’s mated, so you’ll know there’s nothing sexual about it.”
I stepped in front of her before she could walk around the bed. “Absolutely not. I’m not touching the blood bags, and you’re not kissing my fucking sister.”
“I’d rather kiss her than you right now,” Blair tossed back.
A bolt of possessiveness raced down my spine, and I grabbed her hips, walking her backward slowly, toward the nearest wall. Her ass met the surface.
That possessiveness surged with the light pressure of her body against mine, pinned right where I wanted her. “I’ve been giving you too much space.”
“There’s no such thing.”
“Like hell there isn’t.” I wrapped my hand around the back of her neck, dragging my thumb over the mark on her throat.
My mark.
“My balls have been blue for days. I keep waking up earlier than you, trying to catch you.”
“You won’t.”
“I’m starting to realize that.” I tipped her head just a little to the side, and she let me. Lowering my nose to her throat, I inhaled deeply. “Fuck, you smell good.”
“You’re not even willing to listen to Kara’s research,” she said, her voice growing a little tighter and her body stiffening a bit.
That wouldn’t do.
Tapping into my magic lightly, I slipped my hand beneath the oversized t-shirt she wore to bed. My knuckles slid over the lace hem of her panties before I caught her hip.
She sucked in a breath when I used my grip to open her thighs a little more, but she did relax slightly.
“Kara’s research doesn’t matter compared to my gut, and my gut says I don’t need to feed that often.”
“Have you ever tried?”
“No.” I stroked her hipbone lightly with my thumb.
“Alright, you want to make a deal?” she asked.
“Depends on what you’re offering.”
Her nostrils flared. “If you agree to try drinking from me until you’re sated five days a week, I’ll let you feed me once a week.”
“No.” I lowered my mouth to her neck, dragging my tongue over my mark there lightly.
“If you’re not going to give me a counteroffer, you can go to your meeting alone and deal with their suspicion.”
“I’ll feed three times a week, if you feed once.”
“No. If you feed three times, you get to feed me every third week.”
My nostrils flared. “Little siren…”
“ No , Damian.”
The way she said my name made me want to agree with her just to erase her anger.
“Every other day, then,” I said. “For one feeding a week. That’s fair.
“That’s only three times some weeks,” she pointed out.
I sucked lightly on her throat, earning a sharp breath in. “I’ve felt your magic luring me for days, woman. Once a week isn’t enough for you. You need at least two. Probably three. Every other day for me and one feeding for you is fair, even according to Kara’s ridiculous standards. Especially if you’re forcing me to drink until I’m sated. I’m a fucking endless pit.”
“It’s the injections that are making me so hungry. I think I have extra blood right now or something.”
“You can’t have extra blood .”
“Feels like I can.”
I dragged my tongue over her throat, ignoring the way my fangs throbbed and my head started to ache.
I needed her.
But I couldn’t bite her until we had an agreement.
“Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday,” she countered. “In exchange for feeding me once a week. If you want two, you have to bite me on Tuesdays too.”
“Stubborn little thing,” I grumbled, dragging the tips of my fangs over her neck just so I could feel her shiver against me. “Am I allowed to fuck you when I bite you?”
“Depends how good you make it for me.”
I growled, dragging my thumb over that sensitive line on her throat again. “I hope that’s a challenge.”
“It is.”
“Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday it is. I won’t agree to more until I see how that affects you. And if I can prove that I don’t need more, you have to drop it.”
“Deal,” she agreed.
I kneeled in front of her, one hand still on her hip as I leaned in close to her core. The scent of her arousal was so strong, it felt like a fist around my cock.
Having my nose right there was enough to drive a man mad with need.
“I thought you were going to bite m—ohhh.” She groaned when I dragged my tongue over her clit, through her panties. Her fingers dug into my hair, and my cock fought against the zipper on my jeans.
But I wanted Blair as desperate for me as I was for her, constantly .
I wanted her screaming my name in my office while I fucked her during lunch.
Sitting on my face in the middle of the night because she needed my mouth when she woke up from a wet dream.
Walking into our meeting that night with my release dripping down her thighs so every bastard in the room could smell exactly who my little siren belonged to.
My balls clenched with that image.
Fuck, yes.
I wasn’t accepting anything less.