“Told you, babe,” one girl whispered to her companion. “He’s a walking thirst trap, and I’m betting if you get into his bed, you’ll find him turning into a beast.”
The words, uttered in a hushed whisper dozens of feet away, weren’t meant to be heard by the man they were talking about. But it was, since they were right about him. He was a beast, only he wasn’t the kind that grew fur and shifted into another form. Instead, he was a Caro; his kind drank blood to survive, and it was because he was what he was that Etienne was now on his way up to deflower a woman he had never met.
A study conducted by the finest scientists of his race had recently discovered new properties of sangferia. It meant virgin’s blood in their language, and if consumed directly from a source, sangferia could exponentially increase a Caro’s strength. Further tests revealed that the potency of sangferia depended on factors such as the source’s health and profile. Even the thickness of hymen mattered; the more it hurt apparently, the sweeter and stronger the virgin’s blood would be.
It would have been ideal if he could conduct his search for a chemically compatible source in a more private manner, but with vampires once again razing the realm of Faes and Faeries, Etienne’s guts told him that the vampires would only grow more aggressive in the coming days.
And so the hunt had begun, with numerous virginity auction houses involved, and after the amount of time and effort the entire searching and matching process had consumed, when VIP Productions finally contacted him about having found a suitable match, he had been more than willing to say yes to all of the girl’s demands. He didn’t really give a damn what the girl’s reasons were for selling her virginity. Nothing mattered as long as he was able to take her virginity and consume her blood in the process.
Etienne’s nostrils flared when a familiar scent struck him as he tapped the card key against the reader and let himself in. That scent reminded him of one person alone, but it was so damn impossible he decided it was probably because he had been thinking of her too much that the memory of her scent was now messing with his senses.
Every square inch of the suite was expectedly swathed in darkness, but because he was no ordinary human, Etienne’s eyes had no trouble adapting, and he saw everything as if all of the lights were still on. A girl was on the bed, with her back to him, and only her head poking out of the covers, and the moment she heard him open the door, her heartbeat had instantly raced like she was about to compete in a marathon inside her mind.
Poor, innocent, little lamb.
It was not in Etienne’s nature to be compassionate – Caros, in fact, were one of the most inherently selfish and hedonistic races there was – but there was something about the anxious thudding of this girl’s heart that almost made him feel inclined to carelessly drop a word or two of comfort.
And he probably would have, too, if not for those requests of hers. She had requested anonymity, after all, and her sangferia was too precious for him to risk saying or doing something that could be considered a violation of their contract.
The safest and quickest way to deal with this night, Etienne decided, was to keep things impersonal, take her virginity with his fingers, drink her sangferia. And after that, he would – per her request – give her the best fucking night of her life.
So relax, my little precious.
He walked towards the bed at an unhurried pace and deliberately made his footsteps audible, knowing it was expected of him. If he had walked towards her like he normally would, his Caro abilities would only have her freak out, and that, he definitely didn’t need.
When he finally reached the side of the king-sized bed, his gambit had paid off, with the way her breathing had gone back to normal and her heart no longer thudding against her chest. But still, he made no move to reach her just yet, wanting the girl to have more time to adjust to his presence.
Another minute passed, and then she was stirring and turning towards him—
Etienne sucked his breath.
Spencer?
Hazel eyes that could be feral one moment and affectionate the next…
Lips that were most often either curled in disgust or pursed in a fit of irritation in his presence…
He would never mistake those features for anyone, and despite the heavy darkness that still shrouded the hotel suite, Etienne’s Caro eyes saw her face as clearly as if the sun was shining down her cat-like face.
No fucking wonder he had imagined Spencer’s scent lingering in this room, he thought disbelievingly. It was because she truly was here, and he now had no fucking idea what to do next.