“She’s here,” he whispered. He had felt it. “Fucking hell. She’s here.”
I HAD A LOT TO LEARN about being a vampire. Colin and Ida rushed to get me blood. They wanted to fill me with nutrients, apparently. It seemed like even though I was officially one of them, I had a way to go before I would officially be strong enough to live like a vampire. It took me three days to be able to sit up in bed and another three before I could stand. Colin was wildly patient with me. Although he still had business to attend to, he stayed with me as much as he could. Ida and Alice were wonderfully helpful, too.
Once I could speak again, I asked about the hospital, and I found out that Dr. Thompson had temporarily taken over my duties while I recovered. I asked Colin if I’d still be allowed to keep my job even though I was a vampire now, and he didn’t see why not.
About two weeks after I turned, I finally started to feel like a vampire. Okay, I’d been drinking a lot of blood and that was definitely pretty vampirish, but actually getting up and slinking around the house, staying out of the sunlight, and avoiding sharp wooden objects?
Yeah, that kind of did something for me, too. It made me feel like I was actually one of them. It made me feel like I belonged in this new group. I was walking around the house, touching different things and looking at paintings when Colin found me.
“Hello, beautiful,” he murmured.
“Hello, my Vampire Master.”
“Vampire Master? I like that title.”
“Good. It suits you.”
“I didn’t ask you to call me that.”
I just shrugged. It seemed fitting, I thought. It seemed like a good name for a guy like Colin. I was happy to call him my master because he’d rescued me. He’d saved me. He could have left me for dead, and many other vampires might have done just that, but he’d gone above and beyond. He’d breathed life back into me by sharing his blood, and it was a good feeling.
“You’re wonderful, you know,” he said. “I’m glad you’re here with me.”
“Me too.”
“It’s still quite crazy to me how we connected,” he told me, lowering his voice. He placed his hands on my hips, and he nuzzled his nose against my neck gently. “When I met up with you in that cemetery, I was angry with you.”
“Angry with me?”
“It was such a simple thing, I thought. I wanted you to fill an order, and you didn’t.”
“I probably should have just filled it,” I laughed. “But we’d been low.”
“Well, we aren’t low on blood any longer.”
Ever since the vampire invasion, people had been giving more blood than usual. They’d been donating regular amounts, plus plenty extra. Nobody wanted to be responsible for having weak vampires should we experience another attack. In some ways, Norman’s failed takeover attempt had made many of the humans trust the vampires of Darkvale more than before.
Now it seemed like we had vampires who were willing to do anything to protect the humans, and the people of the city were willing to protect the vamps right back. They couldn’t do much. They were weaker and smaller, after all, but they could give blood, and they had.
It had been quite wonderful.
Colin stroked my neck as he looked at me. I’d officially moved into the mansion with him. Someone had brought my things from home, and I’d settled in quite nicely, I thought. It had been a smooth transition, and I was glad, in many ways, that I got to stay with him at his home.
“I almost lost you,” he said.
“I know.”
“I can’t imagine a world without you in it.”
Colin kissed me deeply, pulling me close. His hands were in my hair and on my breasts and everywhere all at once. He grabbed my shirt, tugging it down so that my breasts popped out.
“Fucking gorgeous,” he said. He lowered his head to my breasts and started sucking on one. He grabbed the other, teasing my nipple with his fingers. Heat shot throughout my body. Oh, I loved this about him. He was insatiable and wild and hot as hell. I wanted him inside of me.
Now.
I wanted him inside of me now.
As if reading my mind, he stood back up and spun me around. I pressed my hands to the wall and spread my legs as he lifted my skirt. He bunched it around my waist, and I was bare to him.