It felt more intense. Like I could feel each drop of blood enter him, giving him power. It almost made me want to give him anything.
I know Draven mentioned it was something called lust-struck. But it felt so real. Did I only want to give him my blood because he put me in a trance?
I crawl on the bed and curl around a plump pillow. I’m not sure how long I lie staring at the shadows dancing across the wall before the door opens.
I don’t have to see him to know it’s Draven.
“Who were those people?” I ask.
“They were bad people. Lowlifes.”
“Do you only kill bad people for food?”
Draven comes into my line of sight, stopping a few feet from the bed. “I don’t kill anyone for food, Allison. I have servants I feed from. Like the woman you saw me with before our wedding.”
He explains there’s a law amongst his clan forbidding killing humans for food.
I sit up, processing what he’s telling me. She wasn’t his girlfriend, just a late-night snack. It’s all so weird to me, and part of me feels as if I’ve entered some alternate reality. Or a dream from which I can’t fully wake.
How will I ever come to terms with this?
“Will that couple become vampires?” I ask.
“No.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “They’ll be returned to where they were taken from, and they won’t remember anything. I know you don’t understand things, or why tonight happened at all, but the other clans feel differently about humans.”
“They kill people?”
“They do. That’s why I want to start a council, a governing body, with rules for all vampires to abide by.”
“I think you should.”
He blows out a short breath. “If only Rao and Bogdan would get on board with it.”
“Do people think I know that you’re a vampire? Or do they think I don’t know?”
“They think you already know about us. About all of us.”
He sits on the edge of the mattress. I’m nervous about sleeping in the same room with him, but not because I’m afraid he’ll touch me.
I’m afraid I might touch him.
He’s really so beautiful to look at, and I can’t stop thinking about the way he kissed me. The way his lips felt against mine. I yearn for more, wanting him to take all my power away with one push of his body against mine.
I don’t even know if vampires can have sex, but a part of me wonders if they can what it would be like. Would he be gentle or rough?
Would he suck more of my blood?
Because that feeling of him draining me felt more incredible than all the past sexual experiences I’ve had in my life combined. That’s not saying much, but it’s so crazy a non-sexual act like sucking my blood could work my body up the way it did.
“I had the staff bring your things here, so you can get ready for bed.”
“Thank you.” I swing my legs off the bed and move toward the en-suite bathroom where I find my toiletry bag and clothing on the marble countertop.
As I go through the motions of getting ready for bed, I try not to think about where I’ll be sleeping. There’s only one king-sized bed and is that where Draven will sleep?
When I peek out of the bathroom, Draven stands beside the bed, in nothing but black pajama pants that hang low on his trim hips.
I try to breathe when I look at him without a shirt. His chest looks carved from granite with each muscle and hard plane defined so perfectly. Like a creep, I follow the grooves of his abs down past his belly button to the thin trail of dark hair leading to the v accentuating what’s below his waistband.