Chapter 20
Hugo
When I woke up the second time, I was just as hungry as I’d been the first time. My stomach ached with the need to fill it, and my gums burned with need.
I groaned as I woke, and I heard Zaos ask, “What’s wrong?”
He’d been asleep, but the second I moved and moaned, my man was awake and hovering. I opened my eyes to stare up at him, and the poor guy looked absolutely exhausted.
“Oh, Zay.” I reached up and cupped his cheek. “It’s gonna be okay, baby.”
He sent me a soft but concerned smile, then turned his head to kiss my palm. “What do you need right now, mezelie?”
“I’m hungry.”
Zay’s uncle’s voice came from behind me. “That’s a good thing. Let me show you how to use your fangs properly so you don’t wind up hurting anyone.”
That definitely sounded like a fine plan to me, so I pulled out of Zay’s arms and moved into a seated position. I expected pain, but to my utter surprise, I didn’t feel any. At all.
“Wow. It’s… my chest feels fine now.”
Zay asked, “Really?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m good as new. Can’t feel it at all.”
He blew out a breath. “Good.”
“That’s a great sign.” Zay’s Uncle Toby—my… sire?—turned so he was facing me a little, still sitting on the bed beside me.
It was lucky the bed was big enough for all three of us.
Honestly, it was probably big enough to fit another person…
not that I wanted anyone else in here with us.
It was kinda strange that I didn’t find Toby being in the bed with us odd at all.
Like, why? Two days ago, I would’ve been pretty freaked out by that.
“It’s your sire-fledgling bond,” Zay said in my head. “I’m not even a part of that bond, but I can still feel it and sense it between the two of you. It’s been… difficult, but I think if I couldn’t feel it myself, I might’ve attacked him already.”
I wanted to roll my eyes at that, at the fact that he was so overprotective, but I couldn’t because I knew I’d feel the same way if the roles were reversed.
I nodded. “Makes sense, I suppose.”
“Definitely a good thing.”
Toby said, “Alright, I want you to concentrate on your fangs. They’re probably burning right now because you’re hungry.”
He held up his wrist and began going over some safety precautions like where exactly to bite so you didn’t bleed someone out or something and not to drag my fangs along their skin or I’d open up a huge wound and a ton of things like that.
And then he held his wrist up and said, “Alright, go on.”
I recoiled. “You… you really want me to try that? After you said I could make you bleed to death.”
“You can’t make me bleed to death. I’m a vampire.”
“Yeah, but what if I like, hurt you, and you lose all your blood?”
“I have plenty of blood bags down here in that little fridge over there.” He gestured across the room to the small appliance beside a large dresser.
“If I lose too much, I can replenish myself immediately, and my viramore is right upstairs. He can be in here in a second’s notice if I need him.
This is the whole reason fledglings practice on their sires before they start trying it on humans and other beings.
Vampires can handle it. There are no worries there, kiddo. ”
“Are… are you sure?”
“Absolutely positive. Now go on.” He held his wrist in front of my mouth again.
I wanted to protest, but I could hear the blood pumping through his veins and smell it through his skin, and I wasn’t sure anything—other than Zaos himself—had ever felt so tempting. I had to drink. I had to feed.
I wanted it.
A small hiss came out of my mouth as I opened it, and the sound surprised me, but it sure as hell didn’t stop me from grabbing Toby’s arm and biting right into his wrist. He didn’t even flinch, although I knew I hadn’t bitten down with any finesse whatsoever.
He’d warned me that it would take practice to make it completely painless, and I grimaced to myself at the thought of hurting him.
As if reading my mind, which he obviously couldn’t, he gave my back a light rub and quietly said, “It only stung for a moment, fledgling. You did good. You did really good.”
I hummed my appreciation of the praise, closed my eyes, and drank.
By the time I finished, I was so full that I felt sleepy again.
Toby helped me lie back as he said, “Get some rest. Zaos and I are going to eat something while you sleep, but we’re not leaving the room. Uncle Thay will open the door to bring Zay some dinner, but he won’t enter, and we’re not going anywhere. Is that okay?”
“Mhm.”
Zay kissed my forehead. “I love you.”
“Love you too.” I sounded almost drunk. I was suddenly so tired, so I let my eyes close, trusting them to watch over me.
This whole waking up starving thing and then immediately falling back asleep was getting old. I’d done it so many times I’d lost count. I thought I was on the eighth or ninth time, maybe?
But I was determined to stay awake after feeding this time.
As soon as I finished, I licked Toby’s—or should I call him Uncle Toby?—wounds to seal them, let him go, and then leaned into Zay without looking since I knew he’d be right by my side.
He kissed my temple as he wrapped an arm around my back. “Do you want to lie down?”
I shook my head. “Nah. I want to stay up for a bit.”
“You sure?”
“Yes. I’m sick of sleeping so much.”
Toby finished rolling his sleeve down. “That’s normal, but I understand being ready to be awake.”
“Yeah, I think I maybe want to move around a bit.”
“Is that safe?” Zay asked him.
I could’ve complained that I knew my body better than anyone, but I wasn’t even sure if that was true anymore.
I didn’t know this body at all. I could feel some differences already, and the fangs were the least of the strangeness.
I could tell my senses were on overdrive, and I thought that maybe my strength was better too, but I wouldn’t know for sure until I tried it out.
Ooohhh! And I should have super-duper speed too.
That would be fun to test out.
“Yes, it’s perfectly safe. Whatever Hugo’s comfortable with is fine.”
I asked him, “Can we walk out of this room? It’s dark out now, right?” That was another thing. I was sure I could sense when the sun was up or down even though there were no windows in here at all, and I hadn’t looked at a clock even once since I’d woken up the first time.
“It’s dark out, yeah. I’m okay with walking through the house since you just ate, but Uncle Thayer’s home, and Kian is here too—he’s been staying here as well. Will you be okay with that, you think?”
Instead of automatically answering that yes, obviously I would be fine, I took a moment to think about it before I nodded.
I didn’t want to risk my vampire side going nuts over someone else’s blood or whatever, but I honestly felt full and not even a little bit tempted to hunt down my own food source.
Plus, I really wanted to see Kian. I felt terrible that Zay and I hadn’t been here for him for the last few days. Understandable, yes, but I still felt bad. I was happy to know that Thayer had stepped in for us.
It was sweet that Key was here now.
“Yeah, I think I’ll be fine.”
He gave a nod and climbed off the bed, waving the two of us toward the door.
Even though I didn’t need the help, I let Zay pull me to my feet and wrap an arm around my waist. He was feeling…
lots of things, so many things I couldn’t parse through them, and I knew he needed me close and probably needed to feel needed after being so helpless when I’d been hurt.
Since I needed him close too, I was definitely good with this arrangement.
I felt horrible that he was so traumatized by what’d happened, but unfortunately, I didn’t think I could dive too deep into that until I felt more settled in my body.
Not to mention that I knew I had trauma there too, and I was definitely not ready to deal with it yet.
There were going to be lots of therapy appointments in both our futures, that was for sure.
Thank goodness there were some good supe therapists in our city these days.
I paused.
A supe therapist.
Holy shit. I was going to need a supe therapist too.
Because. I. Was. Also. A. Supe!
That was… that was… just wow. I was a supernatural being.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
“Hugo? You okay?”
I blinked up at Zaos before grinning widely at him. “I’m a supe!”
He stared for a beat, then snorted and shook his head. “You sure are, sweetheart.”
“I get to be a part of the cool kids’ club now. Ha.”
He laughed at that, and even Toby chuckled.
The three of us walked out of the basement room to the staircase, and Zay’s uncle led the way up the stairs. Their basement door opened into the kitchen, and I was happy to see all the curtains drawn even though I logically knew the sun was down.
It made me feel a tiny bit safer.
“Hey, Hugo,” Thayer said from across the room, snagging my attention. “How are you feeling?”
I glanced at him, taking him in with my new eyes…
and ears and nose and… everything. He smelled different than Zay and Toby.
He smelled like sunshiny earth or something, and I automatically knew that smell was part witch and part his affinity.
He also had a metallic scent about him that was most definitely the vampire in me scenting blood.
But more than that, I could see so much more detail than I’d realized downstairs in that dark room.
Sure, I’d been able to see perfectly fine down there, which now that I thought about it was weird.
But in the light up here, I could see every fleck of color in his yellow eyes from all the way across the room.
Even his hair looked… more spectacular with many different shades of red running through it.
It looked like he’d gotten some highlights or something, but I knew he hadn’t.
That was all natural. I could just see better now.
Or maybe more in depth? Or… something. I didn’t know, but it was really awesome.
I blinked and shook myself out. “Hey. Um, yeah, I’m feeling okay.”