Page 44 of Even Vampires Bleed (Even Ever After #2)

Cassiopé

I wake up in a room I don’t recognize. The bed linens smell like home, but they’re so at odds with the rustic wooden bed that it throws me off-balance.

Where am I?

It takes me a minute to remember my jump from the jet and the events that ensued. I’m okay, though. I can feel it—blood.

I remember the blood I lost and then the blood I took from Léandre.

I blush at the thought.

Drinking blood from someone is taboo amongst the bat-shifters. We like our meat raw or rare if cooking can’t be avoided, but we stir away from drinking people’s blood.

And we don’t usually explain why.

The first reason is appearances, obviously. Because it’s one thing for humans to call us vampires, but it’s another to behave like the ones in their stories.

But it’s also because drinking blood can drive us mad.

It starts a craving that is only satiated when the taker has taken everything. Blood, body and soul.

So, I better stay away from Léandre.

Because if I don’t, it’s going to start things both of us might not want.

Oh well, physically, I still want him. I can’t lie to myself about it.

The only reason I didn’t slip my fingers into my panties while I was drinking his blood is because I wasn’t completely myself. I was on the verge of passing out, and I couldn’t even see straight, so the strength to rub my clit when I could barely hold my head up? Not a chance.

But Léandre—this one at least—isn’t attracted to me, and if he was, I’ve probably driven him away by now.

So, he doesn’t want this. There is no way he wants me to claim him in a blood bond.

I look around myself.

It’s a small, but cozy room. The furniture is made from wood and there is an open shower on the right side next to the window—which has its blinds closed, but thanks to my bat sight, I can still see everything.

The house seems silent, and I wonder how long I’ve been asleep and where Léandre has gone in the meantime.

I get up and wobble on my own legs before finding my balance.

It still feels like I lost a lot of blood, even with everything I took from Léandre.

Slowly, I make my way out of the room and find myself inside a spacious living room that doubles as a kitchen.

Léandre isn’t here, but I can see that it’s late afternoon, and I believe we arrived right in the middle of the afternoon, so I’ve either only slept a couple of hours—which would explain why I’m still so tired—or a full day.

I walk to the door—which is fully open—and breathe the outside air.

It’s warm, and I like the way it smells.

I walk some more, and without meaning to, I find the pool of my blood.

It’s dry. Completely dry. And the dirt on the ground has started to absorb it.

Okay, so not just a couple of hours.

I slept for a while.

I keep walking until I reach the edge of the forest and that’s when I hear it.

The grunts and the clangs.

I follow the sound and arrive in another clearing.

Léandre is there, bare chested, his hair tied at the back of his head and sweat dripping down his torso as he cuts wood.

I’m mesmerized by the sight and my eyes are stuck on the way his muscles bunch each time he brings the ax down onto the piece of wood.

If I don’t stop myself, I’m going to end up drooling.

I have no idea how long passes until Léandre realizes that I’m here, but by that time, I’m sitting on the ground against a tree and thinking about licking the sweat that has been dripping on his abs.

I know I’m bad. I said less than an hour ago that I needed to stay away from him.

I’m obviously bad at following my own advice.

Or maybe the blood loss is talking for me. Well, acting for me.

“Finally awake?” Léandre asks, and I know he isn’t really expecting an answer since I’m here, sitting in the forest.

“Do we need all that wood?” I ask instead.

“Not yet,” Léandre says, “but we might when it gets cold.”

It’s the middle of the summer, so I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

How long does he think we’re going to stay here?

“It’s the only thing that kills my morning wood, anyway,” I hear him mutter under his breath.

He said it very quietly. I don’t think he meant for me to hear that.

So, he either forgot he was spending time with a bat, or I’m more attuned to what he says because of the blood I took from him.

I hope it’s not the latter because if it’s that option, it means I took too much already.

Wait.

He said it like it happened multiple times.

“How long have I been asleep?” I ask.

I know that I must have paled, because Léandre looks at me with concern in his eyes before dropping the proverbial bomb.

“Three days.”

“What?”

I scramble to get up in something akin to panic.

Why did I sleep for so long? I pat myself to check if everything is alright even if I already know it’s the case.

I wouldn’t be here, standing in the forest if it wasn’t the case.

“I’m sorry,” I finally say, crestfallen.

“I was supposed to come so you wouldn’t be alone and in the end you had to save me, basically from myself.

You had to heal me. You let me drink from you, and you took care of me, and then you had to take care of the house on your own.

I feel like I’m a dead weight. I knew I shouldn’t have come. ”

I say the last sentence quietly even if I know he’ll probably hear it, anyway.

That’s the truth, after all.

“I know you didn’t want to come,” he says and my mouth falls open from the shock of his words.

How could he have known?