Page 21

21

MY SIREN

RUSSEL

Just as Eddie’s blood replenished my energy, his happy smiles fed my soul. And I had to feed him a good breakfast. This time, I’d prepared better. I even made eggs—it was quite easy when I was paying attention. I was surprised how satisfying it felt to watch Eddie eat something I’d made for him.

“I’ve been reading this book,” Eddie said as I drove us south of the city on Saturday.

“Oh?”

“It’s called Common Vampire Myths and the Truth Behind Them . Anthony told us to check it out before he hired you, but I didn’t understand why it was important and didn’t have the time. It lay on my nightstand, untouched for weeks. But then I met you, and I started reading it.”

I checked my blind spot and changed lanes. “I feel a question coming.”

“It’s about siren blood.”

“Ah. What about it?”

“Have you heard of it?” he asked. When I glanced at him, he bit his lip, his cheeks heating.

“Not until recently,” I replied. “But after the night I fed from you the second time, I asked a friend about the effect you had on me. He mentioned siren blood.”

“Is my blood like that? For you?”

The traffic was chaotic this close to the city, and I had to watch the road, but I could feel his anxious eyes on me. “Maybe. But I decided it doesn’t matter.”

“No?”

“Yes, it was your blood that drew me in at first, but then I got to know you.”

“I didn’t bring this up to ask for reassurance. I’m just curious.”

“So you don’t want me to tell you how I feel about you?”

From the corner of my eye, I could see how he smiled, suddenly a little coy. “Sometimes, you can tell me.”

I took his hand over the console and brought it to my lips. “I love everything about you, Eddie. Your blood is just a bonus. A delicious, tantalizing bonus.”

“I can live with that. I feel a similar way about your venom.”

“Good. Then we can love each other and have wild, all-consuming sex.”

Eddie chuckled. “Not dating.”

“Ugh. No.”

In fact, I hoped I could convince him to move in with me before the summer was over.

When we exited the car and the protection of my tinted windshield, Eddie handed me my sunglasses, which he’d meticulously wiped. At first, I was taken aback by the strange gesture. But then it hit me. It was what couples did, right? Me taking care of him was almost instinctual—I didn’t have to think about it. And now he was taking care of me. As if I could be any happier.

At the exhibition, he stood before every painting, studying them in detail and asking questions. I answered the best I could.

We lingered in front of a watercolor of a barley field dotted with bright red poppies when Eddie asked, “Would the scene really look like that to you?”

“Color-wise, yes.”

“But if you see colors differently than I do, you must see the painting differently as well. It’s nearly impossible for me to find out how things appear to you.” He sounded frustrated.

“Let me show you something.”

I grabbed his hand and led him to the adjacent room. There were no paintings inside, but one wall was just a floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the grassy sand dunes on the coast and the ocean in the distance. A white-painted lifeguard tower with a red roof was the only man-made structure in sight. I took a pair of augmented-reality goggles from a nearby stand and handed them to Eddie.

“Have a look.”

Frowning, he put the goggles on, adjusting the strap. “What now?”

I found the discreet button on the side and turned the goggles on.

Eddie gasped.

“It’s not entirely like that,” I said, “but I’ve heard it’s close.”

“Oh my God. Everything glows!” He stepped closer to the glass and stared at the view. “This is incredible. But I understand why sunlight can give you headaches.”

Then he turned to me, and his lips parted. I couldn’t see his expression when half of his face was covered by the goggles. He lifted his hand and brushed my cheek with his fingertips.

“Your eyes. It’s like you’re made of rainbows. Is this how you see me?”

I smiled. If he only knew. Or maybe he did?

“Your face is the most beautiful sight on earth,” I said.

Eddie’s lips twitched, and he pointed at the goggles. “Even right now?”

I laughed.

* * *

That evening in the hotel room, I covered his skin with open-mouthed kisses. Last night, we’d made love, needy for reassurance and closeness. Tonight would be different. Desire rolled off Eddie in waves, and I heard it in his sighs even before he asked for what he wanted.

Eddie lay on his stomach and lifted his hips, his lower back and ass forming a beautiful curve.

“Bite me all over. I want to burn for you.” I grazed his ass cheek with my fangs, and he moaned. “Bite me. Want to bleed for you when you fuck me.”

I didn’t hold back. He didn’t want me to.

I left stinging bites all over his ass cheeks and around his waist, on the insides of his thighs and even in his crease. Eddie spread his legs and rocked back and forth, his hard cock brushing the sheets. I licked his skin, closing the wounds, before I bit him again and again.

Then I kissed his hole, my fingers digging into his thighs, and he sounded like he was drowning in ecstasy.

I recalled how he wanted to see the bite on his throat on our first getaway, and something occurred to me. I glanced at the mirror covering the closet door. Eddie would love that. I grabbed him around his torso and hauled him to the foot of the bed so he could see himself in the mirror.

“Russel? Lube?”

“I got it.”

I slathered my cock with it and found Eddie’s hole with my cockhead. His body opened for me, hot and silky-soft flesh yielding. Holding Eddie up with one arm over his chest, I grabbed his hair with my other hand, tilting his head to the side. I sank inside him as I bit the vein on the side of his throat.

Eddie cried out.

I sucked for a heartbeat, then let go. With my mouth parted over the open wound, I glanced into the mirror. His pupils huge, Eddie gazed at me through our reflection.

My fangs dripped with his blood, and the twin wound on his throat oozed two thin trails of red.

His Adam’s apple bobbed.

I gave him a measured thrust, then harder. His blood trickled over his collarbone. Liquid rubies. One of the rarest treasures on earth, second only to Eddie’s heart.

Heavy-lidded and with his mouth open, Eddie watched himself bleed, and I fucked him. His hard cock bobbed in the air, the tip leaking precum. His hole loved me, tightening around me, and I thought I could see his underbelly move when I pushed deep enough.

I adjusted my grip on him, smearing the blood on his torso, and Eddie let out a guttural groan.

His cock jerked, and his cum splashed through the air. I didn’t take my eyes off him as I fucked him through his orgasm. His insides clenched around me, drawing my cum out of me. The scent of his blood burned through me, and I bucked into him to the root. With bloodied hands and mouth, I clutched him to me. My everything .

Moaning wildly, he jutted his ass out, still in the throes of his climax. He stroked his chest and over his nipples until he was covered with red smears.

Tingling all over, I hugged him with his back to my chest. The aftershocks of our pleasure flared and died out.

As I breathed him in, the scent of his blood was so powerful, it scared me.

I depended on this fragile human for everything. He was my love and the source of my life. I needed him for survival.

“Eddie…”

The image in the mirror made my heart flutter in my chest like a hummingbird. All that blood on his pale skin… I needed to lick the bite so it wouldn’t scar. I needed to take care of my sweetheart.

“Eddie, let me close the bite.”

But Eddie grabbed my thigh, staying seated on my cock.

“No.”

“It’ll leave a scar.”

He nodded, his eyes closing. “Yes.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off the picture we made. The vampire and his victim. But Eddie’s cheeks were a healthy shade of pink, his chest was rising, and his cock remained half hard. He stroked my forearm where I held him around his waist.

“Let me at least clean you up,” I rasped.

“Okay. But leave the bite.”

I gently laid him on the sheets and proceeded to lick and kiss him all over, carefully avoiding the two red dots at the base of his throat. My conscience niggled at me whenever I glanced at them.

“Eddie, baby, last chance. Or the scar will never disappear.”

He peered at me from underneath his eyelashes.

“That’s the point.”

“Why?”

He licked his lips, his eyes shifting between mine.

“If the myth is true, and I’m your siren, you’ll never feed from anyone else. Maybe you think I don’t notice the fear flash in your face sometimes when you look at me, but I do see it, and I understand. I want you to see the scar and know that I’m yours, to the last drop. I’m here for you. Forever.”

His words stole my breath. I could only stare at his beauty, the bite marring his impeccable skin, and let the love consume me.

His blood drying on my hands, I kissed him. Eddie kissed me back, then burrowed into my embrace with a soft moan.

“Doesn’t it hurt?” I whispered.

“It stings, but I like it.”

Huh. Maybe I didn’t mind seeing the traces of red on our skin and sleeping on stained sheets.

“Eddie, sweetheart, you’re my everything.” My voice still wouldn’t work properly.

“I know. I guess, I’m just that lucky.”

Even when I felt like I might drown in my love for him, Eddie still made me laugh.