Chapter Seven
R eaper
It’s another night, and I’m back at the cafe.
Not to eat, but to lurk outside like a lost soul.
It’s ridiculous, really, a fucking vampire who hasn’t found the ‘right time’ to step inside and make my presence known.
This has become my nightly routine for the past two weeks.
I follow her home each night, acting like an overprotective bodyguard in the shadows, with the plan to speak to her at the front of my mind.
However, something always happens to stop me from making my presence known.
It’s beyond frustrating, this urge I have for her, along with this insane need to feel like I have to protect her.
Tonight’s the night.
No more sticking to the shadows, watching and waiting while wishing I was touching her. I will speak to her, I’m determined. I have to, or I may rip one of the blood whore’s heads off, and even if they do get on my nerves, they don’t deserve such a gruesome fate for merely getting in my way.
Athena’s routine is the same; it plays over and over in a loop from the first night I met her.
She should be more cautious; predators prey on routines.
They make for easy pickings, and as much as I hate to admit it, she’s no different in that stance in making it far too easy.
I’ve been around a long time, so have my brothers, and one thing I’ve noticed over the decades about younger people is they’re careless with their safety.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining.
People being reckless has kept us fed over the past decades, but where Athena is concerned… It worries me.
I’m transfixed on her form as she turns away from her co-worker, denying a ride once more.
Why am I so utterly obsessed with her? She’s fascinating, and we’ve barely spoken, touched, or gotten to know each other.
However, she’s all that runs through my mind aside from hunting down Veronica and ripping her throat out.
That will come one day, even though it grows more difficult with each day that passes.
I have nothing to lead me to where I need to go to find my sire.
Every evening, I wake up and do various internet searches, hoping something will slip and she’ll finally pop up.
I have my brothers looking for her, as well as some acquaintances keeping their ears to the ground for clues to her whereabouts. However, she’s practically a ghost.
A woman known far and wide by vampires for her viciousness should be easy to find.
Her past is full of plundering and draining too many, while in the midst, turning hundreds of men she’s found attractive.
Surely, she’d realize that at least one of us would be furious over what she’s done and would be hunting her down.
She’s stolen our mortality, our choice from us, and over time, our loved ones, as we can no longer be around them ever again.
Maybe it’s the reason she hides so well, and I’m not the only man who is after her for payback.
I sigh as I glance around, using my advanced hearing to listen to my surroundings and make sure no one is on Athena’s trail as I am.
Something inside of her speaks to me on a level, pushing me to believe we belong together.
I know I must sound crazy, but no matter how hard I fight myself on these feelings, they only seem to grow stronger.
I would bleed for her.
Kill for her.
Hunt for her.
Hell, I already have. Yet, I barely know this woman aside from my baser side leading me to her again and again, needing to be close to her like I need my next breath.
Somehow, none of it matters, only her safety, her wellbeing, and the chance at making her mine.
And the scent of her, Gods…she’s beyond enticing.
I have to fight my natural instincts nightly to stop from grabbing her, holding her to my chest, and drinking my fill.
Humans are fragile.
It’d take nothing for me to taste a drop of her delicious blood, which I’m already confident is divine.
Her small house comes into view, and I take it in.
The paint has seen better days, as the dingy white comes off more as gray.
Two windows in the front of the home frame the door on either side, and it’s all covered by a tiny porch with a couple of steps leading up to it.
There’s just enough room for one chair beside her door.
I wonder if she sits there often, maybe drinking her morning coffee or watching the sun as it rises?
She takes the steps leading to the front door, pulling the screen open. This is where I usually choke, keeping my presence to myself, but the pull to her is too great. I must say something.
Anything. To break this cycle and hear her voice directed at me again.
“Athena,” I whisper her name, allowing the breeze to carry it as a dark caress. She stiffens, glancing to her right, but I’m already behind her on her left. “I’m here, darling,” I murmur, making her jump a bit.
She turns to me, mouth gaping in surprise as she takes in my looming presence, close enough to lean in and kiss her. “B-but how? I didn’t see you, but you’re here ,” She mumbles.
Her eyes pin to my mouth once more, she’s been staring at it every chance she gets since I kissed her, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s seen my fangs. They’re not too noticeable, but being this close, she’d be able to tell the difference.
I’m not like her.
I’m not human.
I’m immortal…I crave blood and darkness.
The innocence shining in her eyes is endearing, since she has no idea of what I am. If she knew, she’d be absolutely terrified. In fact, I doubt she’d ever want to speak to me again, let alone be near me.
“Athena, beauty,” I lowly reply, raising my hand to cup her cheek. “We meet again.” She’s remarkably stunning in a natural sense. The way the moonlight shadows her features only heightens her allure.
She’d make a remarkable vampire.
My fists clench at the sudden, unwanted, overwhelming thought. She will never be a vampire. I won’t allow my instincts to drive me to poison her with my fate. She’s too important… Too special.
“Reaper? Where did you come from? I didn’t hear a motorcycle on my way home. D-did you walk here?” Her question trails off, as if her mind is trying so desperately to put the pieces together, but none of it makes any sense.
I lean in, carefully running my nose along hers.
“No, you wouldn’t. I followed you from the café.
” There’s no use in lying about it when she’ll figure out the truth soon enough.
I plan to tell her all about me eventually.
For now, I savor her scent and the way her skin heats against my palm, so warm and alive.
Everything about her was made to tempt me and drive me wild with blood lust for her.
To drink from her would be divine, otherworldly .
“Y-you were following me? S-stalking me?” She stammers again.
I can’t help but take in her heartbeat and how it’s racing unnaturally.
The thump-thump echoes in my ears, the telltale sound of her fear.
She knows I’m a predator, yet she remains in front of me.
She could try to escape, I suppose, scream, and run inside her house.
She’ll never be faster than me, but I’d still allow her to escape if it’s what she truly wants.
I don’t mean to harm her; I hope she can at least feel that much coming from me.
I switch tactics. “Are you not pleased to see me?”
“No, it’s not that. You’ve caught me off guard. It’s frightening to think you followed me the entire way to my house and I had no idea. It could’ve been anyone, and I was none the wiser. What if it’s happened before? You know?”
“I will protect you. No one will touch you.” I promise, finding that I mean it with my entire being.
“I had to see you again. I enjoyed your kiss, and I’ve missed it, probably a bit too much,” I confess.
The way her tongue collided with mine, her eagerness matching my own, has consumed my thoughts to the point it’s maddening.
Her teeth sink into her luscious lower lip, and it has me wishing it were mine biting there instead.
Her cheeks heat as her irises send an inviting sparkle, but who am I kidding, everything about her is tempting.
Her heart pounds a different beat now, one giving away her excitement, and it’s quickly becoming my new favorite sound.
The air floods with the sweet, enticing scent of her arousal, and then her hands are off the door and on me instead.
Her palms are warm as they rest against my chest, her heat sinking through the thin cotton fabric.
“I’ve missed your kiss, too,” she admits. She dips her head, shyly disclosing, “I’ve dreamt of it. Of you.” Her eyelashes flutter as she discloses the truth, but does so sparingly. I want to know every single detail of this dream, to live it, through her words.
“Is that so? What else have you dreamt about me?”
“That you’d taken me with you the night you were in the café. I rode on the back of your motorcycle.”
My mind explodes with images of her wrapped around me, the wind in her hair, my pipes roaring in our wake as we glide down a heavily tree-lined road.
It would be bliss to feel her at my back, holding me like her life depended on it.
“Mm, I can make that happen. Tomorrow? I’ll pick you up and bring you home? ”
“I’d like that a lot.” Her elated expression tells me she’d enjoy it even more as well.
I doubt she’d be this happy if I took her back to the club and locked her away in my room, keeping her from everyone else.
I doubt she’d let me; I feel fire in her veins when I touch her, and something tells me she’ll be hell to reckon with if angered.
“Good, but until then, I need a taste.” I press my lips to hers briefly before dropping to my knees. I’ve had her lips; now I want her pussy.