Chapter 9 Drink Me #2
I close my eyes and let him drink, counting each drag, each swallow. Praying that Paloma was right. That this will work.
That no one will ever, ever know.
"Welcome to the very exclusive, very illustrious club of the vampire. We're happy to have you, finally," I say as I raise my mug in the air. "How does it feel?"
Angel lifts his cup in response and flashes his newly formed fangs at me. "It feels fucking great."
We slot into each other like we were designed that way.
Our bodies crammed into the elaborate tub at the center of the bathroom.
After Angel drank my blood, the final transformation was instantaneous.
He bloomed and healed and evolved into the exquisitely dangerous predator he was born to become, and he's never looked more beautiful.
No more waxy skin. No more high fever. Just cold blood running through his veins and two sharp fangs in his mouth.
But as we soak in a post-coital glow with blood on our lips, our wet limbs tangled together, and steam rising around us, my gut twists. Something is wrong. Something feels off.
Stop it, Sophia. Stop spiraling.
I square my shoulders. Angel is fine. He survived the transformation, and I've fulfilled my obligation to the client.
I should be calm, elated even. I did the job and made it through to the end with a deep and lasting connection to a man I briefly wanted to murder at the start.
Now we can leave this place and finally be together as equals.
Except it feels like something terrible is waiting on the other side of that door.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Angel asks, his face etched with concern.
I skim my palm across the surface of the water, the warmth of it pleasing against my icy cold flesh. "I'm just thinking about how I'm gonna miss this place," I say without meeting his eyes.
"I never thought I'd say this, but me too," he says with a laugh that echoes off the marble tiles. "This has been like the weirdest honeymoon ever. Trapped with the most incredible woman I've ever met."
My cheeks burn, and I try to shrug it off, but he doesn't let me.
"I'm serious, Sophia. That thing you did? The bird thing? It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. I knew you were special, but..."
"Crow, not bird," I correct. "My special abilities are very specific."
"It just makes you all the more wonderful. Dios mío. If only we'd met under better circumstances, huh? You would have made an honest man of me. I just know it. You still could if you wanted. I'm yours."
I'm yours.
Well, ain't that the truth. Half mine anyway.
It should feel wonderful, but whilst he plans our life together, blissfully unaware of the danger, Paloma's warning echoes inside my head.
You can never tell another soul.
It can't be a coincidence that two vampires visited Paloma looking for a rare herb that stops the process of turning. Someone wanted to block Angel's transformation. Someone wanted to stop this from happening.
The question is...who?
Angel pushes his wet hair back from his face and winks. "We should come back to this place a year from now. Like an anniversary thing. A romantic bunker staycation."
I offer a weak smile. "That would be nice."
You can never tell another soul.
Maybe La Madre was right. Maybe these people are snakes after all. Maybe they set me up to undermine her authority and bring shame to Las Malditas.
I should have known better.
Now my blood, my ancient, magical, Maldita blood runs through Angel's body. The blood I am forbidden to share with another pulses through his veins, mingling and mixing with the essence of a very dangerous man.
But I had no other choice.
Paloma told me that there was a chance that my blood could save him. Especially as I had already tasted his.
"I drank from him, P," I confessed back in her office. "He asked me to...but that's not why I did it. I did it because I wanted to. I did it because I had to know how he tasted. He's under my skin, but I wanted him to become part of me forever."
"That makes things complicated," she'd said.
"The Sangre Negada is powerful but fickle.
It doesn't always work." She'd held my hand like a doctor delivering bad news, softening her voice and speaking each word slowly.
"I know this isn't easy to hear, Soph, but there was a chance that he could have fought off the sickness and turned anyway.
But by drinking his blood, you weakened the effect of his maker.
If Angel makes it through, the maker's influence over him will be less than a regular vampire, and I'm guessing that's not part of the deal. "
"His maker is the leader of the 6th Clan," I'd said with my head in my hands. "He's going to kill me, isn't he? I'm dead. I'm so dead."
Then she'd tentatively told me that the only way he might survive is if I fed him my blood. Of course I'd refused outright.
"Fuck no. There's no way I'm doing that," I'd raged. "Do you have any idea what would happen to me if La Madre found out? She'll kill me."
"Or Lazaro will," Paloma offered unhelpfully. "Either way, you're screwed, mana. Your blood being so special is exactly the kind of thing that would probably save him."
"Probably save him? You can't give me better odds?"
She'd shaken her head. "I wish I could, but we're in uncharted territory here."
As I'd left, she'd offered the warning. "Whatever you decide, you can count on me to keep quiet, but you can never tell another soul. Lazaro would kill you, and I need you in my life."
"I know," I'd said. "This stays between us."
The journey back to El Paso gave me more than enough time to gather my thoughts, but it turns out I didn't need it. The moment my talons left the asphalt, I'd made my decision. I was going to save Angel no matter what. I was going to make him whole again.
I was going to make him mine.
In just six hours, we'll be out of here.
If you'd have told me ten days ago that I'd be desperate to stay in this underground prison, I'd have never believed it, but right now all I want is to spend eternity in this bubble we've built.
Vampirism looks good on Angel Ruiz, and I don't just mean the physical change. Sure, his dark eyes are darker, his jawline even sharper, and the corded muscle that runs through his body more pronounced, but the real change is how he holds himself. How much more comfortable he is in his skin.
Being back in bed with him is much more fun now.
The chains and shackles are intruments are pleasure, not torture.
I nuzzle my cheek into his shoulder, and he responds by kissing me on the crown.
The intimacy between us feels so easy. It always has.
A physical connection blooming from the darkness that began the moment he pushed a blade against my throat.
Now I'm inside him forever, and the connection is deeper than anything I could have imagined. If this is being a sire, then sign me up.
"I wish we didn't have to leave," Angel says as he strokes my arm. "I wish we could just stay like this."
"Me too, but we have to join the real world at some point. How are you feeling?"
"Incredible," he sighs. "I've never felt so content, and it's all thanks to you, Sophia."
"Shh," I say, edging closer to his ear and dropping my voice so low only a vampire could hear it. "Be careful with your words. They could still be listening."
He nods and drops his own voice to match my hush. "I want to be with you, mi amor. I want to know everything there is to know about you. I want to stay young forever by your side." His breath on my neck makes me shiver. "You are magnificent. So magnificent, and I'm in awe of you."
His words are like nectar, and all I want is to drink them in, but it's too dangerous to believe we could be happy.
There's nothing I want more than to run away with Angel, but I know that if the most powerful vampire in the state wants you for his own, then a girl like me is no match.
Lazaro turned Angel to punish his father. To break the paternal bond once and for all. To have a weapon to wield against his enemy.
I wonder what he'd do if he discovered that his precious son's blood answered to another.
To me.