Chapter 19 – Dahlia #4
“I’m Adora,” she says to me, moving my hand out of the way and pressing the towel there. “Hold that there for a minute, then we’re going to put this on it.” She waves the vial at me. “It will seal up the bleeding. It’s like glue. A witch gave it to me.”
I stare at her, wondering where the hell she came from, but I guess this whole club has a lot of people waiting in the wings.
“A witch?” I repeat, my voice shaking from all the exertion.
“It’s okay, she’s cool,” she says. She looks over at Valtu and Bitrus. “She’s lost a bit of blood, I’ll take her to the bank.”
Bitrus nods and Valtu doesn’t say anything, he just stares at me with a mix of desire and pain. He’s pulling at the metal chain, as if to get close to me, but not hard enough to be a problem. At least I hope not.
Adora helps me to my feet and I do my best to keep the towel on my neck, walk without falling, and keep my dress together, but I can’t do all three.
“It’s okay,” Adora says as my dress falls to the ground and I’m completely naked now. “It’s actually weird if you are dressed.”
She leads me to the back area of the room, behind a Japanese-style partition, where there are a few black leather stretchers laid out. She helps me onto one of them, then opens a restaurant-style freezer and looks in it. “Do you know your blood type?”
“No,” I say. My parents would, I almost say, and for a moment I feel a hit of shame because what the hell would my parents say if they could see me now? Vampires killed them and now I’m not only getting willingly fucked by one, but giving them blood as well?
“That’s fine, we’ll give you a universal donor.” Adora takes out a bag of blood, hooking it onto a stand, sorting through the tubes.
“Have you given blood before?” she asks me, grabbing a needle and attaching it to the end of a tube.
“Given blood? Once, in school,” I tell her. When I first joined the academy and we were told our blood might be helpful in a registry for spells and certain magic.
“Well this is like that. But in reverse. You’ll feel better in no time.”
I frown at her. “Are you a nurse?”
She smiles. “I am actually. Don’t worry, this happens all the time. It’s why Valtu has this blood bank, in case vampires get carried away. It’s in their nature to get carried away, so it’s always best to be prepared.”
I’m about to ask her if she’s just a really beautiful human or a vampire because I can’t seem to tell when I see Valtu poke his head around the partition. He’s wearing his pants, his shirt unbuttoned showcasing patches of dried blood on his chest, his hair messy.
He looks most apologetic.
“How are you?” he asks quietly, cautiously stepping toward me.
Adora gives him a passing nod as she leaves the area so the two of us are alone.
I give my head a shake. “Honestly I’m too dazed to figure that out.”
He comes over to the blood bag and picks up the needle. “May I?”
“If you know what you’re doing.”
He gives me a look like, of course I know what I’m doing, I’m a vampire.
He sticks the needle in my arm and starts the transfusion.
“I’m sorry,” he says with a heavy sigh.
“About what?”
“For trying to…eat you.”
I manage a smile. “Isn’t that what I agreed to?”
He gives his head a shake, a strand of black wavy hair falling across his forehead and he pushes it back. “I didn’t think you’d run.”
“I didn’t either.”
“I think I hurt you.”
I exhale loudly. “Yeah. I’m going to feel it tomorrow.” I know my spine is going to be bruised from being fucked so hard on those steps, not to mention how rough his hands were with my thighs and wrists, and of course the wounds on my neck.
“She said to put that on it,” I say, pointing at the vial on the freezer top.
“Ah, yes,” Valtu says. He takes it and then removes the towel, wincing at my wounds as he does so. “Again. I am so sorry.”
“I know you are,” I tell him. It’s plain to see. “Maybe next time we—”
“There won’t be a next time,” he says sharply as he drips the liquid onto the wounds. It immediately numbs it. “I can’t lose control with you.”
“Well, I don’t want you to feed from anyone but me. Also, you never told me that your cock gets bigger when you’re feeding.”
He shrugs lightly. “Just makes sense, doesn’t it?” He finishes the sentence with a grin. “How about we take this one step at a time? I can’t just tell you I’m a vampire and then throw you in the Red Room for some public feasting a day later. Baby steps.”
“Baby steps sound fine with me.”
He leans in and kisses me softly on the lips, brushing my hair off my face.
“Can I tell you though, I feel the most whole I’ve felt in a long time?
Years. Decades.” He peers deep into my eyes and there’s an affection inside his depths so poignant it feels a lot like love.
“It’s like I tasted a universe inside your blood.
A universe just meant for the two of us.
” He chuckles and looks away. “That sounds cheesy, I know it does, but it’s true. ”
I can’t help but smile. “I think you need to be a little cheesy sometimes, Val. Helps to balance all of this .” I gesture to the blood all over myself and everything else in this room.
“You called me Val,” he says, blinking at me.
“Is that okay?”
“It’s what those who are closest to me call me,” he says fondly. “I’d be honored if you did too.”
“Okay.” I smile shyly. “Val.”
He kisses me again. “My dove,” he whispers against my lips.