Chapter 3
Hugo
Iserved my customer a beer, then scooted closer to my best friend, Jett. “You really want to do this?” I asked him for the millionth time.
Jett rolled his eyes at me, served his customer, then turned to face me. “Dude. What don’t you get about this? Vampire blood won’t harm us in any way or do anything irreversible. If you don’t like the way it makes you feel or whatever, you can stop, and nothing changes at all.”
Someone grabbed his attention, so he smiled at the new customer and took care of her while I cleaned the bar top.
As soon as he finished, we faced each other again.
We were used to having our conversations interrupted, so he continued without preamble.
“But the blood will help us. It’ll protect us and help us heal faster and all kinds of other great things.
And most of all, it’ll help Ward and Zay feel more comfortable since we’ll be a little safer.
I really think you’re making more out of it than it needs to be. ”
I sighed because I knew he was right. I just… didn’t want to drink blood. That was the whole reason I didn’t want to be a vampire in the first place.
Although, at least this blood would be donated, and I could mix it in my food or drink. I wouldn’t have to go out and find someone to suck on—gross.
So… that made a huge difference.
I sighed. “I guess you’re right.”
Jett winked at me. “No guessing about it. I’m always right.”
I laughed and gave him a push, making him chuckle, before we both got back to work.
I wasn’t happy about it, but it was something Zaos really wanted me to do, so… I could at least give it a try.
For him.
Today came too soon, and I was nervous as hell about this blood thing. I’d hoped I’d feel ready by now, but I didn’t think anything could prepare me for what was to come.
Zay had been sweet and supportive all day, and I knew he was eager for me to start drinking vampire blood, but ugh. I’d been dreading it since he’d first mentioned it months ago.
Thank god Jett was doing it with me. I wasn’t sure I’d be brave enough to try it alone.
Jett nudged me from his spot on the couch. “Chill, Hugo. It’s gonna be fine.”
I grimaced at him. “How are you not grossed out about drinking Zay’s uncle’s blood?”
He shrugged. “Honestly, if it gives me more time with Ward, I’m willing to do whatever it takes.”
My heart pounded in my chest, anxiety and guilt fighting for dominance. “It’s not… I don’t… But I—”
“Hey,” Jett said, grabbing my hand. “I didn’t mean it like that. I know you’d do anything to stay with Zay. Of course you would. Please don’t think that I think that you think differently.”
I snorted through my guilt. “That made no sense at all.”
“Sure it did.” He grinned and nudged me again. “You know what I mean.”
I nodded since I did, and then I turned in my seat to look at Zay and Ward. They were in the kitchen, but since the whole living room, dining room, and kitchen areas were open, I could see them clearly.
And they could definitely hear us if they wanted to with their super ears or whatever. But I couldn’t tell what they were saying since I had meager human ears, but they looked happy.
Ward was beyond thankful to Zay and his uncle for giving Jett blood too. The poor guy must’ve thanked my viramore at least a hundred times today alone. He was a good guy, and a great match for my best friend.
Before I could say any of that sappy shit out loud, there was a knock on the back door. The back one because the portal was set up in our new shed out there. Jett finally looked nervous, and when Ward came over and set his hand on Jett’s shoulder, I could tell he was nervous as well.
But neither of them were as nervous as me.
Zaos looked perfectly happy, and he smiled widely when he answered the door, greeting his uncles the way his entire family always greeted each other—with hugs.
Zay’s uncles—Julius, Emrys, and Toby—all walked into the house, and I felt completely and utterly awkward. Should I stand? Should I hug them? Should I remain seated and give a wave like a dork? I didn’t know what to do at all.
It wasn’t even like this was the first time I was meeting them. I’d met them at the Ellwoods’ movie nights multiple times, but I’d never really had a conversation with any of them.
And they were all vampires. Tall, handsome, charismatic, seductive vampires.
Or at least I assumed they were since they were old and all… vampire-y.
Zay’s lips twitched in amusement as he walked over to me, and I had a feeling I hadn’t kept those thoughts to myself.
I heard a small laugh in my head. “Nope, you definitely didn’t keep that to yourself.”
I held in a sigh. Great. Lovely.
Zay’s lips twitched again, but he grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet, distracting me from my own nuttiness.
He gestured to his uncles. “I know you’ve all met before, but let me do introductions again since there’s always a million people at movie nights.
” He shot me a wink that no one else could see.
“This is Hugo, Jett, and Ward.” He gestured to the vampires.
“This is my Uncle Jules, Uncle Em, and Uncle Toby.” His brow furrowed. “Uncle Thay didn’t come with you?”
Toby shook his head. “He’s babysitting right now, but he said he wants to come next time.”
Right. Because this was gonna be a regular occurrence so I could drink their blood, like, every day of the week. Blech.
Not that they were coming every day. I was pretty sure it would be weekly trips, but still… that was seriously inconvenient, and I hated that I was the cause of someone else’s disruption to their life.
Everyone said their hellos, and Ward added, “Thank you so much for doing this. You have no idea how much it means to me—to us.”
Emrys waved him away with a smile. “It’s our pleasure. We’re happy to help.”
Even though this was weird and a kind of strange thing to do, I could tell he meant every word. They really were happy to help us. So maybe I wasn’t being as much of a bother as I’d feared.
It kind of made me feel a little guilty since I’d been so reluctant to do this in the first place.
Julius held out a small cooler. “For you. There should be enough for both of them for a week. We’ll bring more next weekend. We’ll start adding in a little extra so you can build up a supply, just in case one of us can’t get to you on time.”
Zay took the cooler from him. “Thank you, Uncle Jules. Really.”
The way the oldest vampire of the three stood really did make me think of every single vampire movie I’d ever seen. Even the way he waved Zay off, all proper like, was super vampire-y. And apparently vampire-y was my word of the day.
Julius said, “It’s not a problem, Zaos. We want to help you out.”
Zay set the cooler on the coffee table and gave his uncle another hug.
I almost grimaced because the vampire was so super serious that I didn’t think he’d appreciate a hug at all.
But then he wrapped his nephew up and a small smile played on his face, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Julius truly cared about Zaos.
And that he was a fan of hugs, apparently.
I glanced at the other vampires. In fact, all of them clearly loved my Zay. A lot.
I didn’t know why I was surprised. Every single Ellwood I’d met so far loved Zaos to death.
I would’ve thought that maybe it’d be a little different with him since he was adopted into their family, especially since he was older—twelve—when he’d joined them. But he was treated the same, loved the same, as everyone else in their humongous family.
I supposed many of them were adopted, anyway, so I guessed that made sense.
Not to mention that Ailin, the one who’d started their coven in the first place, had adopted a billion people, so I figured that kind of wonderful, amazing, remarkable love sort of trickled down, but still.
My own parents, who were blood-related to me, hadn’t cared even a sixteenth of the amount that Zay’s uncles did for him.
That just showed how sad my family had been growing up. Ugh.
Zay ended up giving the other two hugs as well before he stepped back and asked, “Um, sorry, if this is a weird question, but I’m just wondering. Is this a mix of all three of your blood?”
They shook their heads, and Julius spoke up. “It’s mine since I’m the oldest of the three of us. We think it’ll be better to at least start with an older vampire’s blood. We’re thinking about asking some of the vampires in Gauhala if they’d donate for us since they’re much older than me.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
Toby shrugged. “They always want to help, so I’m sure they’ll be happy to. And there’s definitely benefits to having an elder vampire’s blood.”
“Who are you talking about?” I asked before I could stop myself.
I had no idea what elder vampire he meant. I knew there were a few other vampires in their coven, but I’d thought Julius was the oldest.
Everyone looked at me, and I regretted opening my mouth so much at that moment. My face flamed with embarrassment.
But then Toby smiled at me and answered, “Anton, Phaeron, Beshiro, Katja, and Jedediah. They’re all thousands of years old, although Anton is the oldest by far. They have a few other younger vampires in their den now too, but we wouldn’t need their blood.”
Thousands of years old?
There truly were vampires that were thousands of years old? Just walking around the world like any other person?
Jett and I exchanged a look, amazed for sure, but also a little horrified.
I couldn’t imagine living that long. Wouldn’t you get bored?
Sometimes I couldn’t stand people even after my measly twenty years of life.
But thousands? I was afraid I’d go on a rampage after spending that much time around all the idiots of the world.
I looked at Zaos.
Okay, I could imagine it—without the rampage, even. I kind of… even wanted it. It was just difficult to think of living that long when I was so much younger now.
Thousands of years… damn.
Anton, Phaeron, Beshiro… holy shit.
I blinked when I registered who he was talking about. My mouth blurted out, “Jed’s thousands of years old?” Holy shit. I thought he was my age or maybe even younger with the way he acted.
All three of the vampires laughed, and Emrys nodded his head. “Yes, he is. He acts like a kid, but he’s a lot older than all three of us put together.”
That was difficult to comprehend, to put it lightly, but I still nodded. “Right. Okay. That’s…”
“Wild?” Toby smiled at me, clearly amused. “Jed’s young at heart.”
Emrys added, “But old as fuck in body.”
That made all of us laugh.
After Zay stored the blood in the fridge, his uncles sat down and stayed for a while. Turned out they were actually pretty cool and really nice people. That shouldn’t surprise me either. They were Ellwoods after all.
I didn’t mind that they stayed for a few hours, but I had to admit I was happy to have Zay, Jett, and Ward to myself for a little while, even if that time was going to be spent with Jett and me drinking blood.
Julius’s blood.
Ewwww.
“Do you want it in a drink or in some food?” Zay asked after he saw his uncles out.
“Drink,” I said. “I’m not that hungry, and having to eat it like that sounds even grosser than drinking it.”
Jett chuckled. “I agree. Drink, please.”
“Coming right up.” Zay got up and walked into the kitchen.
I was already gagging, and I couldn’t even see or smell it yet. This was going to be so disgusting.
Zaos brought in two glasses of red wine—or at least I hoped it was red wine and the blood hadn’t turned white into red. Ew, ew, ew, ew.
Zay rolled his eyes at me, looking amused again. “It’s red wine. The kind you two cooed over a few weeks ago. Try it. I bet you can’t even taste it.”
We each took a glass, looked at one another, clinked our glasses together, and brought it to our lips.
I’d planned on hemming and hawing over this, but after what Jett had said earlier, and after seeing and feeling how upset Zay was yesterday, I figured I needed to just go for it.
So after one little breath where I purposefully didn’t breathe the wine scent in, I took a big gulp.
I was prepared for a metallic taste, or maybe for something simply gross, but all I tasted was… wine.
Jett sighed. “Huh. That’s delicious.”
My brow furrowed as I examined my glass. “Um, are you sure you put some in here?”
Zay smiled. “Yep. You really don’t need that much to begin with, but it also goes well with wine. Vampire blood doesn’t always taste like human blood.” He shrugged. That was… weird and kinda gross, but I’d take it.
“How do you know that?”
“Uncle Thayer told me.” He shrugged again, and I honestly wasn’t sure I wanted to know how or why his uncle knew that either.
Instead, I looked at Jett, clinked my glass to his again, and gulped the rest of it down in one go.
It really did taste good.
Thank god.
Now I had to keep my fingers and toes crossed that it stayed down and that I didn’t psych myself out about it again.