“No, it’s gross,” I said.
“I thought it was supposed to be like really magical and amazing, sexy,” Bianca said. “That’s how it is in the movies.”
“No, it’s nothing like that,” I said. “It’s something gross I have to do to survive.”
“We can’t let you out on the street being hungry. Somebody must feed you and it might as well be me. I’ve been the one feeding you the whole time,” Antonio pointed out.
“You don’t have to feed her,” Mae said. “We’ll take care of her.”
She glanced over at the mess she’d made when she’d flung Antonio across the room. The beakers all came together. The glass picked itself up and the table put itself back together.
“How the fuck did you do that?” I asked. Even though the answer was obviously “magic.” Well, it was going to take me a while to get used to that and I couldn’t focus on anything while I was trying to deal with the sound of the blood pumping in my ears as I listened to it move through the veins of every person in the room.
“She really needs to eat.” Jane’s voice was muffled against the throbbing in my ears. I could feel it with every particle of my body, pulsing in my veins.
Antonio took me by the hand and led me away from the rest of the group, outside into the backyard. I had no capability of stopping him. All I could do was listen to the beat of his heart, the pulse of it. I wanted it so bad there was nothing I would do to stop him from letting me feed on him.
“They can’t see,” I said, my voice hoarse with hunger.
“Don’t worry,” he growled out the words, sweeping me roughly into the bushes, ripping the bandage off his hand with his teeth and pressing it against my hungry mouth. I sucked and licked at his bleeding wrist, languishing in his blood that tasted like copper and heaven against my tongue. I glanced up at him, wondering if I was hurting him but his eyes were half closed as if…as if he were enjoying this.
“Are you a sadist?” I asked.
He looked out at me with a grim smile. “No. It doesn’t hurt at all. Being fed on like this, well, you’re a vampire. You should know.”
I shuddered thinking about when Xavier had turned me, the old man sucking on my neck and the deep disgrace I’d felt by the arousal of it.
My eyes were wide as I looked up at Antonio. He was aroused by this. I couldn’t stop myself though. I continued to suck at his wrist, drinking his blood hungrily. “How does it work?” I gasped the words out.
“Your fangs have venom that goes into the bloodstream before you start feeding. It has a euphoric effect and calms the victim down, making them completely entranced and comfortable while you drink.”
I wanted to rip into his flesh and empty his blood, but he carefully pulled me off his wrist. Sighing as he began to bandage it up again. I licked the blood off my lips and wiped the corner of my mouth with my finger, licking the tip when I was done.
“That’s enough,” he said. “Between me and some animals, I’ll keep you fed.”
Chapter 7
Once I had blood back in my system, I felt I could take on the world. It was a rush of energy and light, as if my body could leap in high bounds and take on wild animals.
The coven was having a debate when we went back into the house. Half of them thought I should go back to work and half of them were against it.
“I didn’t realize my job was up for discussion,” I pointed out.
“You don’t have to work anymore,” Mae explained. “You’ll get a stipend from The Estate. It’s good forever. It comes from the DGC, the demigod corporation that runs New Attica.”
“New Attica?” I asked.
“North America,” Bianca explained.
“And demigods run it?” I needed specifics.
“Yep,” Mae nodded. “They formed a corporation after they finished the wars with the Fae. We keep them out of our business by managing our own.”
I looked around at the women. “I’ve got a few things I’ve got to do. One of them is solve a murder. So, unless one of you is going to start talking about what happened to those kids in the forest, then I’m going to go back to the office.”
“I think you should go to the office,” Mae said. “But you don’t have to work out the kids’ murder. They were killed by a monster under the control of a demon. Once they were dead, the demon went in and placed demon blood symbols on everything, trying to free the monster who was trapped in a crypt in the cemetery.”
“Is that all?” I asked, my jaw hanging open. I was going to have to keep up or I wasn’t going to be able to cut it in this new coven or with my new powers. It was like being in the police force; you either suit up and show up or you drop out. Being stuck as a vampire and needing blood every few hours, there was a lot of dropping out I could do. My maker was dead and I had nowhere else to turn, so the best thing I could do was work on trying not to look quite so desperate. “What happened to the Demon?”
