Page 31

Kai

One of the things I found hardest to adjust to after changing was sleep.

Sleep is different for vamps. It’s not like real sleep.

Sure, you have time where maybe you’ll get caught up in your thoughts or daydreams, but when the dawn comes—or close enough, depending how long you’ve been alive for—the magic renders you unconscious.

Or at least, that’s the polite way to put it.

You die.

One moment your eyes are shutting and then you are opening them again, like the blink of an eye.

Not only is it surreal to get used to, being rendered magically deadish has some complications. It puts vampires in an extremely vulnerable situation, and over the years terrible things have happened to our kind.

But on the plus side, aside from being anywhere from mildly to severely feral with hunger, you wake up completely refreshed. Like a brand new being.

Well, mostly.

Like Finn this evening? Not so much.

It’s been adorable watching him attempt to pretend like he isn’t a grouchy bear in the evening.

I think he actually hissed at me earlier when I coaxed him out of bed and into the bathroom.

In the end it took two bottles of blood, spoiling him with all of my specialty skin care products, and a handjob in the shower to get him back to my sweet, delectable Finn.

Even with all of that, it’s still a bit shaky.

He’s nursing the bottle in both hands, forearms outstretched on the dining room table, with his forehead against the tabletop between them.

“You okay over there?” I snicker and fold myself into another stretch.

Fucking Nikki. He’s not even up yet—if he’s even home—and I’m still doing the stretches he insists on. It’s become a habit.

“No.” Finn’s muffled voice barely makes it out of his cocoon. “I haven’t felt this rubbish since my first week.”

The cocoon works in my favour because he can’t see me wince, because it’s probably my fault that he feels like trash.

Sure he fed on me, but I fed on him too.

And judging from the giant fucking mess on the sheets I need to go change soon, we got that shit everywhere.

Sex can burn calories for anyone, but for new vamps, who are much more reliant on blood, sex can really take it out of them.

I should have made him have more blood this morning before we fell asleep, but the dawn had caught up to us and I lost track of time.

Even with all of his grouching, this evening has been pretty unreal.

Primal, animalistic, bloody sex is hot. But it turns out I might have a mild domesticity kink or something because going through my evening routine with him is somehow hotter. There is something intimate about going through your wake-up routine with someone.

“You’ll feel better once the blood kicks in.” I unfold myself from the stretch—what’s the point if he’s not going to watch me?—and join him at the table, giving him a kiss on the back of his head as I pass him.

That makes him look up at least. He looks exhausted.

Almost as bad as Nikki did a few years back when he caught that horrible virus that spread through the vamp population.

It was only a cold, but considering some older vamps had been living in perfect health for a century or two, it knocked them out hard.

There were claims of magical sabotage and targeted attacks at the time, but my dad insisted it was just a biological quirk when I asked him about it.

Taking pity on him, I pat his hand, meeting his tired grimace with a smile.

“We have a whole night together. What do you want to do?” Personally, I have a few ideas, ranging from going back to my room and seeing how much we can mess up a new set of sheets, to going for a drive to the beaches just outside Osneau.

Finn wrinkles his nose as he thinks, shoving his hair back out of his face. He grumbles under his breath when it falls right back again.

“I don’t know. I can’t think. My brain feels like it’s shriveling up in my skull.”

Guilt about not taking proper care of him last night niggles at my stomach, but I would be lying if I wasn’t a tiny bit excited about being able to take care of him right now.

I always knew exhibitionism was my primary kink, but who knew I had some sort of dormant caretaker thing going on? Finn must’ve awakened it in me.

My thumb draws a pattern on his hand and I cluck my tongue at him when he rests his head back down again. “Why don’t we go to the night markets? We can walk around, check out the stalls, pick up something nice and come back here before I drop you home?”

Oh yeah, I’m definitely an absolute sucker for this domestic thing. Downright horny for a trip to the markets to buy some specialty blood items. Maybe something homemade too. Like a candle. Or something knitted. Hopefully he lets me hold his hand. That would be hot .

I wonder for a moment, if it is relationships in general I feel like I’ve been missing out on, or a relationship with Finn specifically? It feels strange that something that wasn’t even on my radar a couple of months ago feels so damn important now.

When Finn looks up at me again, his pallid colour already improving as the blood hits his veins, I have my answer.

It’s him.

“Sounds perfect. Let’s do it.”

I can’t resist swooping in for a kiss. Despite his obvious fatigue, he opens for me, allowing me to sweep my tongue inside and taste the remnants of the blood he drank.

It almost distracts me from my mission, but the nights are short and I want to pack in as much time as I can with him while I have him.

“We should get dressed,” I say, pulling back from the kiss, even though Finn’s lips chase mine.

“Sounds terrible. Let’s not.” He lurches forward to restart the kiss but I don’t give in.

Okay, I give in a little bit, keeping the kiss quick and relatively chaste.

Only a hint of tongue.

“Come on, hot stuff, I’ll let you perv on my ass while I’m bent over changing the sheets,” I tease, pulling him out of the chair and dragging him down the hall.

Yup, definitely a domesticity kink.