Page 87 of Thirst

I force out a nervous laugh, but when I have to fight off the urge to throw my body against the glass, I know Amari is right. This is something else. I return to the couch and sit down.

“You're gonna have to guide me through all of this,” I tell him. “This feeling has me trippin’.

“I got you,” he says. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here to make sure you're straight. We’ll get through everything. Together.”

“Good,” I say with a smile. “Because I don't even know what I'm supposed to do next. Fantasies burned down, and now I have vampire blood in me. What’s the next step supposed to be?”

“The next step is the first step of your new life,” he says, taking my hand in his again. “Fantasies on Fourth is gone. Your worries about money are gone. Fear about whether you can become an artist is gone. You are an artist. Now you have no excuse not to chase that dream like your life depends on it. You have no art to sell, so now it’s time to create a ton of it, and go make six figures with your next exhibit and sell out again. Then create so much art that I could clear out a ballroom in Black Coins and hold an exhibit there that could make you seven figures. Your life has done a complete one-eighty. Now it’s time to go for what you know. All of your excuses have burned to the ground. There's no turning back now. So the only question left is … are you ready?”

Amari’s question comes to me in my mind, and it unearths something in me that I never knew was buried. Fiery ambition. A desire to make myself the exact version that I've always wanted to be. A need to make myself proud of my own hustle and ability to make things happen. An obsession with maximizing and reaching my fullest potential.

My body swells with pride as I look Amari in the eyes and send my answer to him through my mind.

“Absolutely. I'm ready for it all.”

AMARI

6 Months Later

Epilogue

“Ijust wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for coming out tonight,” Aaliyah says to the crowd.

She's standing in the middle of the room wearing a gorgeous black and white dress. The dress doesn’t make her look better. She makes it look better. Her beauty, her newfound confidence, her aura. All of it makes her a beacon standing in the center of darkness. She's absolute perfection. Just like I’ve always known.

“I didn't get to address those who came to my first exhibit until the auction was finished, but I wanted to do things differently this time,” she continues while I watch from the furthest corner of the room. “Every piece you see on the walls tonight was created by me over the last six months. I've had plenty of motivation and inspiration in that time, and I feel so fortunate to be able to present my art to you tonight. I’ll be walking around all night, so if you have any questions at all, please feel free to come talk to me about whichever piece speaks to you. Again, thank you all so much for coming, and even if you don't buy anything, just know that I appreciate you. Thank you.”

The crowd cheers for her, and the smile she gives them is stunning. I love seeing her this way. She's truly in her element, and after having watched her go through her process to create these new pieces, I know she deserves every bit of the attention and acclaim she is going to receive tonight. This is her night, and I am so proud to call her mine.

As the crowd disperses, Aaliyah walks over to Stanley, who is posted in the corner to receive payment, and the two of them engage in a conversation. Aaliyah isn't the same person she was back when Stanley assaulted her. She's much more fierce now, perhaps driven by the night I gave her so much of my blood. It gave her new life, and she has run with it, even putting Stanley in his place multiple times since then. I forbade him to speak to her, but she was the one who spoke to him first, taking her power back and letting him know that she is in charge. While Stanley still is and always will be under my Influence, it was good to see her break through her fears and come out on the other side as a much more confident woman.

But I'm still going to kill him later for what he tried to do to her.

The two of them exchange a few words, and then Stanley nods before Aaliyah walks off. She glances my way and we exchange a look.

“Go get ‘em, baby girl,” I tell her through my thoughts.

She smiles as she walks toward a small crowd conversing about one of her abstract pieces. “I got it. Time to work.”

“And you look so good doing it.”

“Thank you,” she answers with a giggle she tries to hide. “So do you. I can't wait to celebrate with you when this is all over.”

“Yeah? Tell me how you want to celebrate.”

“With you deep inside me. And maybe with a little bite on the neck.”

“No doubt … a dry bite, right?”

Aaliyah licks her lips, and her playfulness flickers out like a light dimming before coming back on full force. “Yeah … of course. Okay, we’ll talk soon.”

She reaches the group of buyers, and I let her do her thing. It’s still crazy to me that we’re able to communicate in this way now, but I love what my blood has done for our connection. We’re tighter than we’ve ever been, but that togetherness has also made it obvious to me that she's struggling. She's trying to hide it, but when the light in her flickers like that, I see it. She has done a fantastic job keeping herself together over the last six months, but I know how much she's starting to want to be turned.

Over the past three months, we haven't had sex a single time without her begging me to bite her. It’s not the bite that bothers me, especially since I'm able to quench my own thirst through my Companion, but she has asked me to bite her “for real” multiple times. We both know what “for real” means.

When she asks, I simply remind her that I’ll never turn her, and that I've never turned anyone on purpose. There may have been a few people who were turned when I was a newborn vampire, back before I knew how to control my venom. But since I gained control and learned more about what I'm capable of, I have never intentionally turned anyone into what I am. I've said it before, and I’ll say it plenty more—I do not want this for her. Yet, the request is always there, in every look we share. She wants it badly, like I knew she would, but I can't give it to her. I won't, and I hope she can get over the fixation before it starts to rot. Shawn and I were just friends, so he didn't take it personally when I refused to turn him, no matter how many times he asked.

But love changes things.