Page 139 of Blood Lovers

“I’m sure she did. And perhaps you even thought it was a fair trade. But you haven’t heard my promise yet. So don’t make any more deals without me. OK, love?”

There is a low groan next to my ear and I startle.

“Shhhhh.” Paul isn’t talking to me anymore. He’s talking to Ryet.

“Paul. No.”

“Quiet now, Ryet. We’re ready to begin. In just a few minutes you’re going to feel much, much better. Let me just get you properly situated.”

Paul maneuvers Ryet’s body so that his mouth is poised right in the crook of my neck. Ryet’s breath tickles the tiny hairs near my ear and a craving rises inside me as I close my eyes, waiting for what comes next.

I want him. I do. I want to love him, and be with him, and feed him.

But Ryet turns his head, moaning again. “No. No!”

There is a struggle. I don’t open my eyes to watch it because it doesn’t even matter.

He’s going to bite me.

He’s going to drink me.

And I’m going to love it.

Just as I think this last thought, I feel the tip of his teeth. The fangs. The ones he showed me back at the spa. I hold my breath, waiting for it, knowing how it feels, but still so surprised when he sinks them into me and I moan like I’m having an orgasm.

Paul is delighted. He’s talking. Animated. Happy. I can’t process his words, just his mood. And Ryet is climbing on top of me now, sinking his whole face into my neck, drawing the blood out of me. With every suck I want to explode from the bliss.

The bliss.

I don’t know how much time passes. I think I black out. Which, now that I’m coming to again, makes sense. Because Lucia took so much.

Briefly, like for less than a moment, I wonder where Lucia is. But that moment passes and I no longer care.

Ryet has calmed down now, but he’s made a new bite into my wrist and he has it pressed up to his lips. Every few moments he sucks like a baby on a breast. His head is on my chest, one arm thrown across my hips. His legs scissor into mine.

“He’s asleep.”

I turn my head and find Paul in bed with us. He’s lying next to me, looking down at me, smiling at me. “You’ve done it. I owe you.”

I manage a scoff, but not much else. I’m so weak.

“He’s going to need more. A lot more. But you must recover first. Can you guess what comes next?”

I don’t look at Paul. And I don’t need to guess. I already know he’s going to feed me.

And I wish I had the strength to say no. Not the physical strength to resist him—though I don’t have that either—but the mental strength.

Because I want that blood. I want to taste him. I want to taste both of them now. And I want them to feast on me too.

“That’s right.” Paul says this like he’s reading my mind, and he’s pushing a piece of sweaty hair away from my eyes. “That’s right, Syrsee. You want us. And we want you. And this is just a tiny peek at the promise I’m going to make you now. Your grandma told you about my promises, didn’t she?”

She did. She actually told me most of this, in her own way. I was just… too naïve, I guess, to understand what I was in for.

And now look at me. I’m over.

Syrsee is gone. She will never come back. I’m going to spend my life as the feeder to vampires.

“Oh, come now, girl. It’s not that bad.” Paul is stroking my cheek, angling his body into me. I open my eyes and watch his fingertips play with Ryet’s dark hair just below my chin.