AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He fidgets with the blanket around him, tugging on its fringed edges. “I’ve been talking with my aunt and uncles…”
“This should be good,” Donovan comments with a roll of his eyes.
Nolan shoots him a quick glare before continuing. “I was asking them to speak with their children about behaving around my human friend.”
“Which they clearly didn’t fucking listen to,” Donovan interjects with a flat smile.
“Stop interrupting,” Kaleb chastises, leaning forward onto his crossed leg. “Nolan, what did you learn?”
“They recommended making Felix my thrall,” he admits with a pained expression. “Under vampire law, he’d be my possession, and therefore, protected from any other vampire’s advances.”
“No fucking way!” Donovan shouts, rising to his feet. “You’re not turning our friend into a goddamn walking feedbag.”
“I feed from you,” Nolan states calmly, leaning back in the recliner. “I feed from Callie. How is this different?”
“We choose to do it every time,” Donovan argues, pointing an accusing finger at him. “He’d be compelled to do it. It would be his fucking purpose in life.”
Kaleb holds up a silencing hand, which earns a frustrated grunt from D. “What exactly goes into being turned into a thrall, and how would it affect Felix?”
Nolan looks at me as he explains, “As I understand it, I’d feed directly from you, and then I’d feed you some of my blood. The first time, you won’t feel much different, but each time I do it, you’ll eventually develop some quality of life enhancements.”
“Like what?” I ask, my heart hammering in my chest. This seems like the easiest answer, but I also know what vampire venom does to a person and how it will complicate my already complicated feelings about Nolan.
“Regular consumption of vampire blood is known to not only extend a human’s lifetime, but also keep them in good health for the rest of their days,” he answers, running a hand through his messy blond hair. “It’s like a fountain of youth.”
“But?” I prompt, waiting for the downside. There’s a reason his family chooses blood bags over thralls.
“But Donovan is partly right,” Nolan murmurs, his shoulders drooping with exhaustion. “Vampire venom is highly addictive, and by consuming my blood, you’d be more inclined to… want to be at my side.”
“Compelled to be, you mean,” Donovan corrects, walking over to stare out the window, the picture of brooding.
Kaleb tilts his head to one side, a thoughtful frown furrowing his brow. “Do you have to feed directly from him? I know that’s how it’s supposed to be done, but is it a necessity for others to believe he is your thrall?” He looks over at me. “The effects of the vampire blood on you would be too obvious not to do it at all.”
“I can’t believe you’re encouraging this,” Donovan complains, glaring over his shoulder at Kaleb. “You, of all people, should be against this.”
“This is Felix’s choice. I’m making sure he has all the information before making it,” he counters with a hard press of his lips.
Nolan scrubs at his face. “It depends on how much my parents would adhere to tradition. The first time is done as part of a ceremony, and then there are twice a year festivals where the bond is renewed. How often the exchange is done beyond that is to the vampire’s discretion, but in those instances, it’s a public celebration.”
Great. Getting supernaturally horny for my best friend isn’t bad enough. Let’s add his parents as witnesses! I try to imagine it, not his parents’ part, but what it would feel like for Nolan to feed from me—the heat of his breath on my skin, his teeth sinking into my flesh, the urge I’d have to be physically close to him. Did he used to feed from James? Is that another experience my body had that I haven’t?
“What’s it like?” I ask, feeling strange in this body I inhabit. There’s so much history written in invisible ink all over me by the hands of a past I’ll never fully know.
“It only hurts for a moment,” Kaleb answers, dropping his foot to the floor. “Then an intense pleasure takes over, loosening your body and lowering your inhibitions.”
A crooked smile flits over Nolan’s face. “Is that what you felt? Because, as I recall it, you seemed pretty tense.”
“I knew what I was feeling was artificially created,” Kaleb states evenly, as if the whole conversation is academic. “I was doing my best to give you what you needed while protecting the boundaries of our friendship.”
“Bullshit,” Donovan coughs, called back into the conversation by the opportunity to embarrass Kaleb. “You freaked about suddenly wanting to fuck a dude.”
“I’m perfectly confident in my heterosexuality,” he replies with pinched lips and a raised brow.
I’m not, I think, peeking over at Nolan. I don’t know if it’s because of James, or maybe I’ve always been this way, but although I love Callie with all of my heart, I can’t deny I’m physically attracted to him. If I become his thrall, will I be able to keep those urges at bay? Will I even want to?
“Do vampires have sex with their thralls?” I ask, my cheeks burning with the question.
Nolan grows paler than his already sickly pallor. “I didn’t ask, but even if they did, we wouldn’t. I’d never take advantage of you like that.”
