Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 112849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
“What’s the fee?” I repeat.
“Blood. You pay in blood.”
My brows go up. “And you think I want to…”
“The club is called the Red Room. It’s a safe place for vampires to feed on willing participants. The humans there want to be of service. They get off on it. They like the kink of it. Whatever their deal is, it’s like donating blood at a blood bank, just a little sexier and edgier than that.”
That’s putting it mildly.
“But blood is the price,” he goes on. “You can’t just go and observe. And everyone who enters is vetted, signs a contract, everything.”
“That’s impressive. Who started it?”
He pauses. “Me.”
“You? The one they call Dracula?”
He sighs. “Yes. Let’s just say I used to be a lot worse than I am now. Maybe this is me making amends for it, I don’t know. But it’s better this way. We have a steady supply of blood, and we don’t have to kill innocent people.” His expression darkens at the end, so much so that he looks haunted. Maybe he’s reliving all the people he did have to kill, but I don’t want to think about that either. It will only remind me of why I was sent here, and how I’m not different than he is.
“Where is this club?”
“You’ll never guess,” he says teasingly.
Since I already know, I don’t bother playing the game.
“So when can we go?”
He blinks. “Really? You still want to go?”
“It depends. Who am I giving my blood to? You?”
His nostrils flare and the sheet that half-covers our naked bodies jerks and I know he’s got an instant hard-on. “Yes,” he rasps. “Only me. You’re mine, Dahlia. No one else gets to feed on you but me.” He swallows hard and I feel the heat in his eyes. “I have to tell you…I’ve been dying for a taste.”
Holy fuck. Shit just got real.
“All this time,” he goes on, his voice low and raspy, “I’ve sampled the rest of you. Your tongue, your ass, your cunt. The taste of you is exquisite. But your blood, Dahlia. Your blood is something I’ve been craving more than anything else.”
Jesus. I thought the idea of him drinking my blood would have scared me but it just turns me on instead.
“All this talk about craving,” I say with a sly grin, kissing his chest and making my way down his body to put his cock to good use.
“Are you nervous?” Valtu asks me as we walk down the aisles toward the door at the back of the library.
I give him a look, like, what do you think?
It’s past midnight and everything is dark. He let us into the school using his key card and the library is especially eerie tonight, probably because I know what I’m here to do. This morning I told him I wanted to go to the Red Room and for him to feed on me there. I didn’t agree to public sex or anything like that, but I did say he could have my blood. Only him, of course. It’s Saturday, so we didn’t have to go to school, we just stayed at his house, and all I could think of was tonight, what was going to happen while trying not to psych myself out. Now that I’m here and on the menu, I’m having second thoughts.
He chuckles. “You’ll be fine. I’ve got you. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
“Except the fact that you’re going to suck my blood,” I mumble.
He stops in front of the door, hand to my shoulder, a grave expression in his dark eyes. “Listen, we don’t have to do this. I get my blood from other people, that’s how this has always worked. I don’t have to drink from the woman I’m with.”
I nod, rubbing my lips together. “Yeah. I know but, I don’t know, I guess I feel territorial about you.” For some reason, the act of feeding seems just as intimate as sex. The idea of him drinking from another person burns a hole in my stomach.
He gives me a soft smile as he squeezes my shoulder. “And that’s how I feel about you. Which is why, if you still do want to do this, it will cement you as mine in front of the other vampires.”
“Can’t you just tell them I’m yours?”
“You’d think, wouldn’t you? Vampires are strange. I can’t pretend to understand my brethren half the time. We tend to go by oaths and codes, things that have ceremony to them. I can tell everyone you’re mine and they’ll probably stay away, but unless I claim you publicly, I suppose some don’t think it counts. Lots of partners have been stolen that way.”
The way he says that makes me think he’s leaving some part out.
“Did that happen to you?”
He just grins at me, the shadows making his smile look extra macabre, and I have my answer. Somewhere along the line he stole someone else’s girl. He probably thinks karma is out to get him now.