“Nothing to worry your pretty little head about.”
“Yeah, okay,” I nodded. Then, on a whim, I held my wrist out to the vamp. I didn’t want to leave without at least tipping him. He looked at my wrist hungrily.
“Are you sure?” Oliver asked. “I did say no charge.”
“You didn’t say no tip,” I told him. “Take what you want, and then I’ll go.”
I’d never actually done this before, but I was thinking about what Clarissa said. If a vampire was going to feed from me, I didn’t want Colin to be the first. I wanted to know what I was getting into, especially if it ended up being a really sexual experience. From what I’d heard around the hospital, vampires feeding was mostly just slightly painful, rather than arousing.
The driver didn’t need to be told twice. His fangs descended and he plunged them into my wrist. Oliver started sucking against my skin right away. He didn’t hold back. While this may have been a “first” for me, it obviously wasn’t for him.
“Ouch,” I grit my teeth as he sucked on my wrist. I could feel the blood pouring from me into him. Almost instantly, I felt light-headed. Okay, he was definitely taking more than I thought he would, and this was definitely more than I’d planned for.
When people came in to donate blood, everything was carefully measured and calculated. This was...raw. I closed my eyes as he fed, but I was shocked when I felt him suddenly fly back from my arm. His teeth were ripped away from me. I opened my eyes to see the car door open with a vamp standing beside it. Who was my would-be savior? None other than Colin.
He was standing beside the car. He’d pulled the cabbie out of the vehicle. The driver was now sitting on the driveway flat on his ass looking bothered and upset. Why wouldn’t he be? I’d offered something freely, but Colin had put a fast stop to it.
“Taking a taste?” Colin asked.
“Uh, I, uh,” the vampire said.
“It’s fine,” I said. “I was just tipping. You know, for my ride.”
I looked at my wrist. It was still dripping with blood. Oliver had done a number on me, but I’d given him my permission.
“I don’t want anyone else tasting you,” Colin said.
“Uh, okay.”
“Get out of the car,” Colin said. “That needs to be sealed.”
Without argument, I got out of the vehicle. Oliver was still sprawled on the driveway, and Colin was standing with one foot on the guy’s chest. Colin looked pissed, but I didn’t really get why. Colin and I weren’t exactly a couple.
“Let him go, Colin.”
“You’re mine,” Colin told me. “Until I say otherwise.”
“Hey,” Oliver the vampire said. “You didn’t tell me he was your master.”
“He’s not.”
“Give me your wrist,” Colin said. I held it out because I really was bleeding. I didn’t feel like dying on my first day as a vampire servant girl or whatever it was that I was supposed to be doing here. He pressed his lips to the wound and licked it, sealing it. He didn’t seem to care that someone else had bitten me or that I might have vampire slobber on my wrist from the other guy. He just seemed content to clean me up.
“Thank you,” I said, looking at my wrist. I couldn’t even tell there had been a bite there. He’d done a good job sealing the wound. I twisted it around, checking. There wasn’t even a scab or a scar. There was nothing.
“You are welcome,” Colin said. Then he moved his foot, releasing Oliver from beneath him. The driver scrambled to his feet and hopped back in the car. He seemed anxious to leave and more than a little happy to be escaping alive.
“Wait!” I said before he could leave. “My bag!”
I reached into the backseat and grabbed my backpack, tugging it out. I slammed the door just as I heard Oliver shift the car into gear. He was ready to go, all right.
“Don’t call me,” the vampire driver said, and then he drove off. If this had been a movie, I would have been left in a cloud of dust and debris as he sped away, but it was real life, so I was left staring at the lights on the back of the car as he hurried as far away from Darkvale Manor as he could get.
Colin turned to me, looking at me with confusion. I met his gaze, wondering what the problem was. It was hard not to stare at Colin, though. Even though it was easy to tease him for his obviously-vampiric clothing choices, he was handsome, and I was drawn to him like a moth to a flame.
“Why did he say not to call you?” Colin didn’t sound jealous. He just sounded confused.
I held out the vampire’s card with his name and number, as well as the services he offered. Apparently, he was more than just a cabby. He also offered “dates.” Okay, so I’d been bitten by a vampire pimp. Awesome. That wasn’t really what I’d been expecting.