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CHAPTER TWENTY

ZAND

C hanel was truly a lovely sight lying in my King size bed with crisp white linens. Her hair was a tangled mess, but to me she was still a sleeping beauty. She had been out for over eight hours. If I couldn’t hear her breathing, I would’ve panicked, believing I had given her too much of the M99. I had only used etorphine a few times. I wanted to use something that wouldn’t harm my girl.

This could be the end of us, and I knew it. I loved her. I was in love with her. I never thought I would ever feel this way again. I’d lived too long and seen too many things to ever truly believe in love. I thought I loved Teresa, but that was a false love. Chanel was the real thing.

My love didn’t matter now. Chanel had seen the real me. Decisions had to be made in order to preserve my people and our way of life. I didn’t want to see her dead or institutionalized. There were only two options for people that knew the truth about me and were unwilling to wrap their minds around it. If she had to die, I didn’t want to be the one to do it. It would rip me to shreds. Now that I’d found love, it could be ripped away from me. If I could get a migraine, I would have one now. There was so much to contemplate and not enough time to think. This was a crisis that twisted me in knots.

I could hear her rustling in her sleep. In seconds, her eyelids fluttered open. I wanted to rush to her side and comfort her with a slew of kisses. That gesture wasn’t wise. So I sat at least ten feet away from her in a chair. I led with trepidation. I could repulse her with who I am.

There was no need for more panic. With any luck there was no need for more death. She’d seen it all. She’d seen the monster. I just didn’t know how she would react after the tornado moved out to sea, after damaging all that she once knew.

“Zand.”

“Chanel.” I sat very still. I didn’t want to alarm her in any way. She had been through a lot of trauma in the last twenty-four hours.

“Where am I?” Her delicate voice was slightly raspy.

“The basement.”

Her mouth frowned, and her eyes darted around the room. “No, I’m not. This isn’t your apartment.”

“It’s the basement of the club.”

“The Castle?”

“Yes.”

“What am I doing here?” She paused and I could see she was thinking. “Did you drug me?”

“Yes.” I tried to keep my tone even.

“Why?”

“You were afraid. I needed you to calm down. You probably would call the police. I couldn’t have that.”

She released a sigh. “I saw you?—”

“You saw me.” I looked away briefly. “The real me.”

Chanel’s mouth opened and closed. She moistened her top lip with her tongue. Her face was strained. “Was that— real? Or was that drugs too? Did you drug me then—? What? I was hallucinating right, from drugs?”

“No.” I said curtly .

“No?” Her voice raised an octave. “It seemed so real.”

“Yes.” Only a few words crept out of me at a time. I felt encased in cement. Something was crushing me, holding me, and freezing more than my age.

“Why am I here? Did you kidnap me?”

“Yes, something like that. I had to keep you safe.”

“Why? We were supposed to go to your place downtown.”

“But we didn’t.”

“Why?” She asked.

“I had to take you away from the scene of the crime.”

Chanel inhaled and exhaled. She was thinking. “Lonzo, is he dead?”

“Yes.”

“You killed him?”

“Yes.” I looked away, recalling the brutal nature of last night’s events.

“Zand! Look at me.” It appeared she reached her limit with my dry answers. I looked her in her eyes because she commanded it. “I saw you turn into something. I don’t think it was a dream.”

“It wasn’t a dream. You saw me, the real me.”

“Your teeth were, your eyes were red. There was blood everywhere. You threw Lonzo across the room like he weighed nothing. You, you, oh god. You were acting like a?—”

“Monster.” I finished her sentence.

“No, a vampire.”

“Monster, vampire. They’re all the same. We’re all the same. Now you know what I am.”

“You’re a vampire.” She said it with a tinge of uncertainty. She didn’t trust her own recollections.

“Yes, I am a vampire.”

“No, no. No fucking way. That’s a joke. Tell me what’s really going on? This isn’t funny.”

Chanel leapt from the bed and rushed over to me. She moved so fast it almost seemed like she was like me, a vampire. She was in my face, glaring at me with the most beautiful brown eyes any human could possess. Her eyes unarmed me. I could never take her life. I could only mourn her absence for one hundred years. Maybe more, this would be more difficult than I ever imagined.

“Zand, come on. What is going on?”

“I’m sorry. I told you the truth. I am a vampire. I didn’t want you to know the truth, but I couldn’t let him hurt you. He had to die. It was the only way he would leave you alone.”

“I believe that’s true.” She agreed with something.

“What part?”

“Lonzo is dead?”

“Yes.”

“And you killed him?”

“I did.”

“Because he was going to kill me.”

“Yes, I believe he was going to rape you, murder you, and conceal your remains. Without my permission I fell in love with you and I couldn’t see any other way to keep you safe.”

“I don’t care about him. If he’s dead, he’s dead.” Her response surprised me. “Why are you saying you’re a vampire? Like, come on. That’s something we joked about. Remember the notes, you’re the vampire. I’m the daywalker.”

This was the moment of truth. This was the moment she got an up close glimpse of the real me. I could anticipate her reaction, cringing, screaming, and running in horror. The saying I can show you better than I can tell you came to mind.

Here goes. Opening my mouth, I let my sharp, deadly fangs descend from my gums. I let them hang so she could see their razor sharpness. I blinked my eyes once to release the hot crimson glow that illuminated my eyes when I was ready to hunt my prey. In this state my skin turned a pale gray color and every vein on my face glowed a cerulean color. I knew I knew I appeared monstrous. That was the point. I held this deformed vampire face for a time so I could really let it sink in.

Chanel’s eyes grew the size of tennis balls. She took a huge step back, then another step forward. She didn’t run. So I was tempted to put her reaction in the win category. I knew better than to get my hopes up. Good things never happened to people like me.

I rushed toward her with my rapid speed and grabbed her shoulders, lifting her off her feet. I tossed her in the air like a rag doll. I made sure she landed on the bed. I leapt down on top of her unsteady body.

I could see the fear in her eyes as I glared down at her.

“What are you doing?”

A good question that I didn’t have any answer to. What the fuck was I doing?

“Zand, go back to the way you were. Don’t bite me.”

What? “I wasn’t going to bite you.” I let my animal-like face settle back into its inactive human looking one.

We were in an intense staring contest that I lost. I blinked when she tilted her head up and pushed her lips into mind.

What the fuck?

Now I was questioning if I was hallucinating. She pried my lips open with her tongue. Her wet mouth was stuck to mine. Her tongue was licking my fangs and turning me on. My cock pressed against my zipper. I was getting mixed signals. Was she afraid of me, or did she want my cock? My confusion about her behavior was answered when she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and tried to pull me into her flesh.

She had no idea how badly I craved her. I had her sexy body and now I fucking wanted her blood. It took the strength of the Roman army to keep my fangs from puncturing her creamy melanin skin. I cupped her nipples through the t-shirt I dressed her in.

“I want you.”

“You have me.” She whispered in my ear.

I smiled into the crook of her neck. I pulled up from her body to remove her t-shirt. Her hands reached between us and grabbed at my jeans. She quickly undid my single button and unzipped me while I pulled my t-shirt over my head and discarded it. I jumped out of the bed to remove my jeans.

Chanel held her hand out for me to take. I seized it and crawled into bed with her. She guided me by pushing my shoulders back onto the bed. She straddled me and meticulously lowered her delectable pussy down on my cock.

She worked her hips in sensuous circles. Then she rocked her hips back and forth over every single inch of me. If only I could give her a baby. I would give her so many.

I watched her perfect tits through hooded eyes. I gazed up and her brown eyes burned into mine. She was biting her bottom lip looking as alluring as ever. I was enjoying her taking the lead and riding my dick with everything she had in her.

This pussy was the bomb and she wanted me to know it and feel it. I did. She felt so good to me. Her canal was so taut and sweet. I couldn’t think of any place I’d rather be in the world.

Chanel pressed her pelvis down onto me as she vacuumed me deep inside her flooded hole. I palmed both of her ass cheeks and guided the rhythm that was only meant for us. We had a love dance that rivaled anything I’d ever felt.

She leisurely rocked her hips back and forth on all of me. She could ride my cock with style and grace. I felt her essence slide down my length and coat my balls. I opened my eyes to see her work her twisted Black girl magic on me. My human love was really the supernatural of us two. That truth hit me hard. I was hers forever. Chanel bucked her body rapidly and popped her tight pussy all over me. This connection was a once in a lifetime.

I rose from the bed and wrapped my arms around her back. I held her in a tight embrace that only sped up her hard grind down on my cock. Kissing her lips as she moaned into my mouth was my only option. I was growing so close to coming my body shook with excitement.

I roared and buried my face in her neck while she clawed at my back. I sniffed and then licked at the delicate skin on her neck .

“Can I bite you?” My voice was hoarse and husky.

I wanted just a taste, a teaspoon or tablespoon worth of her salty metallic tasting nectar. I wanted to get a little nibble. Not because I was thirsty but because I was curious. Her pussy was fire and I wondered about her blood.

“I don’t know.”

“Please.” I begged. I wasn’t above begging.

“Okay, don’t kill me.” She purred into my ear.

I haven’t heard those four words in over two decades.

“I would never hurt you.” I licked the area where her jugular vein lay under her skin. “Relax. Don’t scream.” I whispered. I shut my eyes and plunged my fangs into her neck. It was always best to stab into the flesh with a quickness.

Chanel let out a gasp, her hands wrapped in my hair. Her nails clawed at my scalp, sending shock waves to my firm cock. I pondered rather or not she could take double penetration. I made an executive decision to thrust my cock deeper inside her from beneath her bottom. Plowing into her this time, she squealed. I’d been attached to her neck for far too long and needed to unplug. But no, not just yet. I loved the taste of her blood. She took her multivitamins. I could taste all the iron, D3, B12, Vitamin C and pure zinc. There was even a hint of elderberry.

Her body clung to mine. Mine clung to her and inside her.

I instantly became light-headed. I was swimming in delight. This was beyond anything I’d ever tasted. Blood that had every ingredient I craved and desired. This was too good to consume in its entirety. Her blood was like a well-aged merlot, something to savor, something to relish, a gift that was cause for celebration.

I broke rules, more than one. I should have never revealed my true nature to her. And of course I should’ve never drunk her blood. The practice is primitive and a habit I broke ages ago. But for my love I would break all the rules.

Enough, I told myself as I removed my fangs from her flesh. I kissed her lips and her blood seeped into my mouth. I knew better. I should’ve never done that.

My sheer ecstasy was prolonged when she ground her hips deep down on my cock. It was too much pleasure. I pinched her ass with my hands and shot all of my venom into her damp hole. My body collapsed down onto the bed. She had come too. I could feel her pussy opening and closing over my spent cock.

I couldn’t move and felt a sense of abandonment when she glided her pussy up and off of me. She moved to lie beside me.

Come.” I reached over to my love. “Sleep here. Close to me.”

She rolled into my arm and laid her head on my chest.

“You didn’t kill me.” She muttered.

“I would never kill you. I love you.”

“Do you have to drink blood?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Do you bite all the people you have sex with?”

“No.”

“Why?” I welcomed her curiosity.

“Many reasons. I think the average human woman would scream, cry and call the police on me. That’s if I bit her and drank her blood. Blood doesn’t have to be straight from the vein for us, for me to survive.”

“Us? Are there others like you?” She asked.

“Yes.”

“You drank from my vein. I’m not going to turn into a vampire, am I?”

“No, it’s a more complicated process than just a bite.”

“Okay. What are we going to do now?”

We, she said we. “I don’t know. What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know. I know what you are now. Do you want me to act like I don’t know? Do we act like you didn’t kill Lonzo? Wait, have you killed other people?”

A question I didn’t expect. “Chanel, do you want to know these things?”

“I don’t know. I think I do. ”

“I can tell you this. I can be very dangerous. But, I don’t go around killing people. I didn’t want to kill Alonzo, but I feared he would kill you. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you. The Zand that you knew before, he is still here. The Zand that loves you is still here.”

“I know you can control yourself and I know that I love you. That’s all that matters to me. I’m tired.”

“Close your eyes and sleep. I will keep you safe.”

Chanel exhaled and I felt her breathing settle until she was once again my sleeping beauty.