Page 43 of Bite Me

“And now I get nauseous trying to convince myself to go feed elsewhere.”

“You said you fed nine days ago.”

I swallowed. “From the same man.”

Levi’s expression looked grave for some reason. “Ah.”

“So? Have you heard of something like that?”

“There was this book someone told me about.Blood of a Siren.”

“A book?” I had no idea Levi read books. Where did he find the time among all the partying? Of course, he called it representation.

“Yeah. It’s a story about a female vampire who can only feed from one human. When he dies, she starves to death.”

I grimaced. “That’s a little extreme.”

Levi shrugged. “It’s fiction.”

I pulled out my phone and typed it in. The book popped up, with mediocre reviews, supposedly based on an old Greek legend, but then there were articles.

What Is Siren Blood?

Scientific Evidence Behind Siren Blood

Siren Blood: Myth versus Reality

I clicked on the last one.

Some would say that the effect of siren blood is simply a vampire creating an emotional bond with a specific prey. However, multiple accounts, even scientific studies with a modicum of credibility, suggest that the unusually potent taste of blood precedes the emotional attachment and might, in some cases, cause it.

“Russel?”

I looked up. “Huh?”

“Who’s the man?”

“Who?”

He smirked. “Your siren.”

My siren. I was reeling from the onslaught of ideas. Emotional attachment. Yes, I was attached—more than I’d ever been to anyone. Was it a bad thing?

“His name is Eddie. He’s the son of Julia Perkins and my direct subordinate at work.”

Levi’s eyebrows hiked up again. “Holy shit, Russel. When you mess up, youmess up. Damn. His mom is in jail for fraud and tax evasion after the most humiliating public trial of the decade, and now you’ll cost him his job.”

I glared at Levi. “I won’t cost Eddie his job.”

“It’s rule number one. We don’t feed from colleagues and employees.”

“I thought rule number one was not feeding from people who don’t want it.”

Levi just cocked his head to the side, waiting me out.

“I didn’t do it on purpose, okay?” I cried. “I didn’t know he worked for Fowles & Tito when I met him. I drank from him at the club, and we both had a great time, but he left before I could get his number. Then I spent the weekend looking for him because I couldn’t stop thinking about him. And on Monday, he stood in the conference room at my new workplace.”

“But you fed from him again.”