Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
I smile. My little fairy doesn’t know vampires have heightened hearing. Good thing because this is one conversation I don’t want to miss.
“Yeah, well...I met him at work...sort of. And we’ve just been...hanging out for the past couple days…Charlie. Yeah. I don’t know,” she says with the suggestive lilt to her voice that teenage girls use when telling secrets.
Something in me turns warm and sugary. I love hearing her talk about me as if I’m a love interest. Her youth and innocence shines through in the conversation, bringing out a protective instinct in me. I have no intention of developing a relationship with Aurelia, but the idea of her wanting one somehow changes things.
I’m prepping the steaks as Aurelia emerges from the bedroom.
“If you work very hard, I might let you go out with your friends.”
“Shut up, vampire,” she says, but wears a flirtatious smile.
“Are you going to introduce me to them?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“Why you want to meet them.”
“I’m going to kidnap them and keep them as blood slaves until you free me of the curse.”
She snorts but then darts a glance at me to make sure I’m joking.
“Nah, that’s only if you haven’t figured it out by Tuesday.”
“I don’t perform well under pressure.”
“I don’t believe that.” I give the potatoes a stir.
Aurelia walks up behind me, and I find myself longing for her to touch me of her own accord. Instead, she says, “What can I help with?”
“You could work on making a salad.”
I move out of her way, and she takes the salad fixings out of the refrigerator.
“So how did you become a vampire?” she asks as she begins chopping fresh vegetables.
I fold my arms across my chest, leaning back against the cabinets and watching her work. “I was the carriage driver and groom for the Duke of Lynton. His wife, the duchess, had a penchant for being bent over the hitching post and taken roughly from behind.”
Aurelia stops and stares at him, a mixture of fascination and shock on her face. “By you, you mean?”
“Yes, although I imagine I wasn’t the first groom she’d recruited for her recreation. The night I was turned, I’d just driven her to London and had thrown up her skirts in the stables when the Duke found us and shot me.”
Her eyes round, the knife suspended in the air.
“I managed to stumble out onto the streets of London. He let me go—I imagine he didn’t think I’d get very far, but I must have walked a few blocks before I collapsed. And then a beautiful woman lifted me into her arms as if I weighed no more than a child, and she carried me to her apartment. She asked if I wanted to die or if I preferred eternal life. I chose eternal life.” I wink.
“Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“What else? Does garlic keep you away?”
“No. But it does make your blood taste foul, so I can see where the legend was derived.”
“And the only thing that kills you is a stake through the heart?”
“Not exactly. We heal quickly, so most injuries wouldn’t kill us, but decapitation or some other major injury which might cause us to bleed out before regenerating would. Sunlight, obviously.”
“Silver bullet? Or no, that’s werewolves, right?”
I chuckle. “Silver can harm us too, actually. Takes away our strength and burns our skin. Not fatal but not a friendly element for us, either.”
Aurelia returns to chopping celery, but her eyes remain on me, bright with interest. “Ouch.” She jerks her thumb up to her mouth.
The smell of her blood reaches my hunger-starved brain before any thought. I blurr to her, taking her sliced thumb into my mouth and sucking hard.
Aurelia
I yank my hand out of his mouth, terrified. He did his blurring trick, appearing right in front of me with his fangs fully elongated and a look of pure hunger on his face. Not lust this time. He looked like a drug addict who needed a fix.
Without thinking, I draw back my palm and slap him across the face as hard as I can.
Surprise flickers over his features.
“I’m sorry,” I exclaim, somewhat shocked at myself. A little afraid of how he’ll react.
I remember now that his saliva seals cuts. He probably was just trying to help, and I overreacted again. I definitely should not have struck him. A dumb move. Who slaps a vampire? I give a prayer of thanks that my vampire prefers kink over real violence when it comes to retribution.
As if reading my mind, Charlie clucks his tongue. “Naughty little mortal. Never lift your hand to your master.” He slowly walks me backward until my butt hits the kitchen table, then turns me and presses my torso down over it. He gives each cheek a spank, then works the button open on my shorts and tugs them down and off, along with my panties.