6. Cyan
Chapter 6
Cyan
W hen I woke up in the early evening there were subtle, but noticeable, changes to my apartment. The first was the scent in the bathroom. Along with the hint of moisture from a shower taken hours earlier, there was something feminine and lightly sweet in the air.
Tavi’s scent, I realized. Her natural scent, untainted by fear and stress. It was rich and tart. Something between an apple and a cherry. I wondered if her blood would taste the same.
“Nope.” I spoke out loud to myself, heading into the living room. “No, actually. I don’t wonder that at all.”
My note to Tavi and the silver key were gone from the side table, so she and Bea must have gone out. That was good, I had a feeling those two would get along. Bea had been turned for twenty years at this point, but she still knew human needs and customs better than any of us born vampires. And as the only brusang in the clan, I got the sense that she still felt like a bit of an outsider. I hoped she and Tavi could connect and help my new platonic blood pet settle in.
I rummaged through cabinets in my small kitchen, looking for rolling papers and a canister of darakt to make some cigarettes. Instead, I found boxes of dried human goods. Curiosity got the better of me, and I picked one up to inspect.
“Goldfish crackers, huh?” I mused at the foil-lined bag. Did humans enjoy eating goldfish that much?
After a few minutes of poking at the new items in my kitchen, I jumped in the shower and found myself enjoying Tavi’s scent a little too much. The thick, humid air enhanced her flavor, making it an almost tangible taste on my tongue. And the air wasn’t the only thing thickening in that room. The fresh scars on my chest still itched a little, and I absently ran my fingers over her name in my skin.
I needed to get a fucking grip, and not on my cock, which I pointedly ignored as I scrubbed myself clean. Tavi lived here now. It was just a matter of time before her scent covered the whole apartment.
Eventually I would get used to it. Become nose-blind and stop noticing it. The same with her blood. Every living creature had blood. That didn’t mean I was distracted by thousands of heartbeats every single time I walked outside.
Tavi was just new. And new things often piqued my curiosity. That was all this was.
As I dried off and got dressed, my thoughts turned to how she was faring. She had been in shock, guarded and a little defensive last night, but seemed to be taking things in stride. That had been nearly a full day ago, and reality must have sunken in by now.
Tasting and fucking her were off the table, but she was still my responsibility.
Once decent, I left the apartment and headed up to the great room. The moment I hit the landing and opened the door, Tavi’s scent immediately hit my nose. It was fresh and bold this time, not the faint lingering hours after a shower.
I clenched my teeth, stopping all thoughts of piercing through a vein, despite the gnawing ache in my fangs. I had just been to the blood bank, for fuck’s sake. I wasn’t hungry, despite the overwhelming urge to find out what Tavi tasted like.
It’s curiosity, nothing more, I told myself. One that if I indulged in would surely lead to disappointment. She was just a human, after all. Chances were she’d taste like the thousands of others I’d had. If only my damn fangs would get the memo.
“How long you plan to keep standing in the way, Cy?” Someone shoved at my back, making me stumble forward into the room. Rhain came out from behind me, muttering like a curmudgeonly old man.
“Aw, woke up on the wrong side of the coffin again, Rhain?” I teased, taking my sweet time making room for him to pass through.
“Fuck off.” The grumpy bastard hated all jokes, but the vampire stereotypes were his least favorites.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
A few other clan members, the early risers, were milling about. In a few hours, some of them would ride out on patrols to make sure all was well in our little kingdom of Sanguine. Since becoming the ruling clan, we had more territory to cover than ever before. Our compound here was in a central location, the Heart of Sanguine, and our tenure had been an overall peaceful one. Even so, there were clans on the fringes, such as in the Crown and the Ribs, that were less agreeable with our position. Even with outposts and allied smaller clans, we had to ride out far and wide to constantly put out fires.
Fortunately for me, it was a night off.
Tavi and Bea sat at the large island counter on the kitchen side of the great room with a few bottles lined up between them, like they were doing a tasting of some kind. Laith sat on the stool next to Tavi, leaning in close to her in a way that made me want to bare my fangs at him.
“Hey.” I came up to the adjacent side of the island. “What kind of party we got over here?”
“For what it’s worth, I told her not to.” Laith smirked and I suppressed a growl.
“We’re tasting blood chillers,” Bea supplied. “Someone got curious.”
“These are awful.” Tavi made a face as she set a bottle down. “These are really supposed to mimic what blood tastes like to vampires? It’s like someone dumped a bunch of sugar into cough syrup.”
“I told you it was a total gimmick.” Bea laughed and pushed forward another bottle. “You sure you don’t want to try—” she paused to read the label “—Tastes Just Like Real Angel?”
“No way.” I picked up another one of the bottles to examine. “Who would make this?”
“Someone with the brilliant idea of trying to market vampire things to humans.” Bea shot a teasing look at Tavi. “Targeting those suckers who go, ‘Ooh, what’s this?’”
“I was just curious,” Tavi moaned, lowering her face to her palm.
Something we have in common, I thought, watching the delicate pulse flutter in her neck.
I took a tentative sip from the bottle and nearly spat it back out the moment it hit my tongue, much to Laith’s cackling amusement. “Oh fucking Temkra, that is awful.”
The label said it was supposed to resemble werewolf blood. That could have been accurate, if it had sat out in the sun for a few weeks and then was mixed with mud and moldy fruit.
“See? It’s criminal.” Bea laughed. “No one should be allowed to bottle and sell that.”
“In the human world, they have all this government red tape you have to go through before a product hits a store shelf,” Tavi explained. “There’s the FDA, USDA, and probably more. Everything is tested to make sure it’s safe to be consumed and doesn’t contain any harmful ingredients.”
“Maybe we should have something like that here.” Laith’s eyes slid to mine. “If there’s a high risk of humans getting sick from whatever they buy at the market.”
“Most of the market’s stock is smuggled in from the human world anyway,” I reminded him. “So they already go through those regulations Tavi mentioned. Only a very small amount of things sold are actually made here.”
“It was a very interesting trip,” Tavi said. “I never expected to see preserved dragon scales sitting next to the peanut butter.”
“Don’t get us started on dragon products.” Laith and I exchanged a glance and a groan.
The dragon shifters were technically our allies, so they had free rein to move in and out of Sanguine from their neighboring territory, the Shadowburn Cliffs. Some of them even lived in Sanguine full time.
Our alliance began nearly a thousand years ago, when it was discovered that vampires who ingested a small amount of draitrium, a mineral found only in the Shadowburn Cliffs, allowed them to walk in daylight unharmed. After that discovery, dragons couldn’t mine draitrium fast enough, and business flourished between our two species.
Unfortunately, draitrium turned out to be incredibly addictive and came with terrible side effects. To this day, we were battling an epidemic in Sanguine and our clan especially wanted it gone from the streets. We were Blood ‘til Dawn, after all. Not Blood ‘til Noon.
Eliminating the draitrium trade would not happen easily though. Our people’s relationship with the dragon shifters had become deeply intertwined after all this time. Cutting vampires off from the drug would not only make enemies out of the dragons, but could turn our own people against us.
In other words, it was way more than I wanted to explain to Tavi in that moment.
“What else did you think of the market?” I asked her. “Does it have everything you need?”
She gave me a nod and a small smile. “It should work, I think. It’s definitely more convenient than Sapien. We had to make or grow almost everything ourselves. Sometimes we went into the human world for essentials but that was rare, maybe once a year.”
A sad look crossed her face. Even though my scars were healed, I felt a burning sensation in the vow I carved into my chest. She missed her friend, that much was obvious. Soon, I’d have to fulfill my promise to take her back for a visit. I would never go back on a vow I made, but the idea of it made me uneasy.
What if she refused to come back to the clan compound with me? It was alarming how much that thought distressed me. I barely knew this woman and yet I already enjoyed her presence in my space. At the same time, I liked and respected her too much to rip her away from her friend, especially a second time.
“If I had to complain about something other than these…” Tavi waved her hand over the blood chillers and hesitated.
“Tell me,” I urged, leaning forward over the counter. “If the market is missing anything, we can source it for you.”
In my peripheral vision, Laith’s eyebrow lifted in surprise. Was I too eager to make my new blood pet, who I wasn’t feeding on or fucking, happy and comfortable in her new home? Maybe, but I didn’t care. Nor could I explain where such a desire came from.
Tavi brought her hands to her face, an adorable flush creeping up her neck and into her cheeks. “It’s nothing, really. It’s dumb, actually. You’re going to think I’m a snob.”
“Tell. Me.” I growled the two words, flashing fangs as I leaned into her personal space. “Or I’ll bite you.”
It was a joke. Honestly. I was smiling as I said it. But part of me wanted to see how she’d react, wanted to see if she’d take me up on it rather than voicing whatever complaint she had about the market.
Tavi’s lips parted and her pupils blew wide. Her pulse accelerated to match the beat throbbing through my fangs. In that moment, I forgot that we weren’t alone. My whole world shrank to her plump mouth, her pretty face flushed with strong, healthy blood beneath the surface. She went still, so still for me like a good blood pet. She would not move while I decided which blood vessel to drink from.
Just as my hand lifted to push her hair away from her neck, she broke eye contact with a laugh. “Okay, fine! I’ll tell you.”
I leaned away, hiding my aching hunger for her under a smirk. “I’m waiting.”
“So, the market has a terrible alcohol selection. Especially wine.” Tavi picked at a label on one of the bottles. “All the wines barely took up one shelf and they were all terrible brands that looked decades old. It just made me a little sad, that’s all.”
“You like good wine? That shouldn’t be hard to get.” I looked at Laith to confirm and he nodded. He had human-world connections most of us didn’t.
“I do, but it’s not really about drinking the good stuff.” She hesitated again. “Back in Sapien, I used to make it. That was kind of my thing. My art form, you could say.”
“Shut up!” Bea exclaimed. “You know how to make wine?”
Tavi nodded shyly. “Wines, meads, ciders, and beer too. Seeing that crappy selection makes me miss my hobby, you know? It was something I enjoyed and kept me busy.”
She had barely finished talking, and startled when I slammed a notepad and pen in front of her.
“Make a list of all the supplies you’ll need. I’ll make sure you get everything.”
Everyone’s gaze fell on me, but hers was the only one I focused on.
“Cyan.” She breathed my name out so sweetly. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I know.” My index finger tapped down on the paper. “Start writing.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t read your mind and find out what goes into winemaking if you don’t write it down.”
“No, I mean,” she laughed, picking up the pen. “Why do you want to get me winemaking supplies?”
I shrugged. “Everyone needs hobbies.”
She needed something to do, something to stay busy in the day-to-day so she wouldn’t get bored or depressed. Better to make it something she already enjoyed than throwing random hobbies at her. That was what I told myself anyway, as I watched her write her list.
Dark eyelashes swept over the tops of her cheeks, and her blunt teeth sank into her lower lip as she focused. A lock of hair fell forward, covering more of her neck, and my hands itched to push it back, to let my fingertips trail over her pulse.
I jerked my gaze away with a clench of my fists. Laith’s red eyes met mine with a knowing smirk, and I shook my head at the implication.
Not fucking her. Not feeding from her. We’re just going to be friends. That’s it.
Once Tavi received her supplies, my new hobby would be keeping the hell away. With any luck, she’d be busy enough that we would barely run into each other. The newness of her would wear off and my curiosity would eventually disappear. It would be so much easier if only she would stop being so attractive. Interesting. Intoxicating.
But no matter how much of a temptation she was, I would never claim her. Whether romantic or platonic, there was an intimacy between blood pet and verakt, an expectation of openness and trust.
And I had no intention of letting Tavi find out what kind of person I really was.