Dominik
Lucy swipes a piece of bread around the bottom of her bowl and pops it into her mouth. I do my level best not to react to the way her ruby lips wrap around her fingers as she licks them clean, my cock not acting alone in any way as it attempts to punch through the fabric of my pants.
Fortunately I’m standing behind the kitchen island, and hopefully she is unable to see what she is doing to my body.
“It was my pleasure.” I clear away her dish and load it into the dishwasher.
“It would have been even better with a glass of wine.” She sighs. “But my sudden aversion to alcohol was one of the first indications I had a baby on board.” She pats her stomach.
Maybe it’s my imagination, but can I see she has a bump already? I doubt that is the case, but I’m struggling not to spiral imagining what it will be like when she is more pregnant.
I am an ancient vampire, and yet this little pregnant human is becoming my obsession. She has only been in my care for less than twenty-four hours, and I never want to let her leave my sight.
I want to be there with her, every step of the way through her journey. I never want Lucy to leave.
“Let me help you,” she says, getting off her stool.
“Don’t you dare,” I growl. “What sort of a host would I be if I let you lift a finger?”
Her eyes widen for a second.
“So you have someone to do it for you then?” she suggests with a hint of a smile.
“I don’t keep any progeny or thralls here in Pécs.” I put the last dish into the dishwasher and turn it on. “Like I said, it’s my bolt hole.”
“Okay.” Lucy wraps her arms around herself as she contemplates the rest of my abode.
“Why is it so different to Budapest?” she queries.
“I wanted something different, and this was the architect’s idea.”
“It’s not very…vampiric,” she says.
“It can be, if you want it like that. Do you prefer the gothic, Lucy?” I pour myself out some blood substitute into a glass, knowing I’m going to hate every mouthful. “And don’t forget, I’ve seen where you live.”
“Yeah? Well I’ve seen where you live, and I have a stake. Don’t forget it, vampire,” she says with a half-hearted curl of her lip before it breaks off into a yawn. “I don’t mind the gothic, and I quite like this. Maybe something in between,” she says, the back of her hand covering her mouth.
“Come, sit by the fire,” I say, walking through to the comfortable living area I don’t think I’ve ever used.
“You say you don’t have any thralls or progeny here, so who lit the fire?” Lucy asks as she takes a seat.
“It’s possible for vampires to have staff,” I say, taking a seat next to her.
Lucy eyes my glass. “Staff?”
“I have an arrangement with a local human to look after the place.” I take a sip and very nearly spit the liquid back into the glass. “And on this occasion to fill my larder.”
“I think you’ve done a good job of that yourself.” Lucy looks pointedly at my glass. “Given I’m here.”
I take a swig from the glass and force it down. I could go a decade without feeding, but I’d be no use to anyone, particularly Lucy.
“I will feed when I need to feed,” I respond. “And if I want my dinner hot, you’ll know about it.”
Lucy squirms, albeit not uncomfortably, on the couch. The look on her face is similar to the one she wore after the kiss we shared.
A kiss I need to happen again, regardless of the fact I’m playing a game I could so easily lose. I doubt the Van Helsing clan will give up one of their own easily. But I made a bargain with my little female, and I don’t intend breaking it.
She will be mine, and I will protect her and her unborn child with everything I have.
“I need to make some calls,” I say to Lucy. However, she isn’t listening because her eyes are closed and her chest moves up and down in deep, sleeping breaths.
I wonder if my fierce little vampire hunter ever thought she’d be fast asleep on a vampire’s couch? I get a blanket out of a nearby cupboard, neatly concealed in one of the stone alcoves which dot this former church, and cover her with it.
She shifts a little in her sleep, the corner of her mouth quirking into a smile.
“Dominik,” she says quietly, and hearing my name on her lips makes my old dusty heart hit a beat or two. “The vampire must die,” she adds, her words slightly slurred with sleep, only distinct because my hearing is excellent..
It would seem Lucy has a way with words even when she has no conscious knowledge of them. But when you let a predator into your life, you have to be prepared to live with them, even if it’s impossible to tame them.
Lucy has already tamed me. But if there is one thing I will never do to her, it is ask her to bend to my will. The freshness of her, the refusal to be cowed or pushed around, was the first thing which made her stand out to me.
The second was the almost instantaneous knowledge she was my mate.
Fate has a way of throwing everything it can at you in a deep, dangerous swoop, with all the wind rushing and all turning on the final strike.
I need to make a deal with Damek before I can keep my Lucy all to myself. It leaves as bitter a taste in my mouth as the blood substitute I pour down the sink. But if it’s what I have to do in order to ensure I get what I want, then a deal will have to be done.