Page 11 of I Dated a Golden Vampire (Blind Date Corporation #21)

P ria looked at Riro in the living room. “Coffee?”

He laughed and shook his head. “No, thank you. Are you able to ignore that?”

“Sure. As long as it isn’t aimed at me or as long as she isn’t in total panic. Yup.”

He blinked. “You don’t socialize?”

“I was barely an adult when I ended up paralyzed. If anyone was fooling around with me, I didn’t feel it.”

“You mentioned that you had been attacked?”

“Yup. And he learned that he couldn’t breathe water.” She grinned. “So, that was fun.”

Riro said, “There was water nearby?”

“No, I pulled it from his body and shoved it into his lungs.”

Riro stared. “Really?”

“Really. My activation can do so much more than I ever thought, but it took me having to use it to get me around to develop it.” She grinned. “I even have gill buds.”

“What?” He was horrified.

“Why are you surprised? I have the buds like a lot of actives. They were found in one of the bajillion scans I had to go through after the accident.”

“Wait. No one had looked before?”

“Of course not. I can’t breathe water, but I can move it and move with it. That was what they were interested in. Hyreno politely explained that my skills did not make me eligible to live in their city. It was a very polite fuck-off notice.”

“They didn’t know about the gill buds?” He was concerned.

“The reports were sent to them, but by that point, I was a broken toy.”

“Are they visible?”

“In this suit? Yeah.” She lifted her arm and ran her fingers along her ribs. “The breast tissue conceals them pretty well, as do my arms. Who has gills here anyway?”

“Sharks. They are located for connections to your lungs.” He crouched and stroked the nearly invisible marks. “I think with a month of therapies, the buds could become functional gills.”

“Naw. I have managed to create an oxygen filter for myself now. I can stay under for about an hour.”

Riro was still caressing the shiny scars. “That’s amazing. How did you learn that?”

“Someone pushed me into a pool, and my suit was new and wasn’t capable of getting me out of it. So, I was able to hop a little until I forced my activation to pull me out using water tenacles.”

He jerked his head back. “Someone tried to kill you?”

“Oh. Yeah. The asshole had cousins, and they decided that if I were dead, then their relative wouldn’t be in trouble. It was faulty logic. I reported them and sent in the video from the suit. The peacekeepers said it was useful. Then, I had to wait for a new walking suit.”

“How did you manage?”

“I managed. The walking suit helped, but I couldn’t use my hands.

I was dependent on those around me for everything.

They forgot to feed me. Forgot to get me out of bed now and then.

The feeding was the worst part. If you don’t have enough calories in those suits, the suit pulls all its energy from you, which can kill you in a matter of hours if you are lacking calories. ”

He blinked. “You did four years in that suit?”

“I did. Then, a friend of a friend sent me healing, and the bone in my spinal cord reset itself and healed, and after a few days, I could feel my hands and feet again. Then I learned to walk again, and from there, it was therapy until I took a look at what I wanted for my life and got a com for the first time. At that point, I booked the cruise for a week, and when Zera needed me to go and fish Cabree out of Denog’s casino, I said, ‘Sure.’ After that, it is all her, and I just realized you just asked me about the suit. Sorry.”

He chuckled and stood straight. “You haven’t had a lot of people to tell about this sort of thing. Who healed you?”

“Khytten. Ikir of Aksalla. Mate of Salat. He used to draw comics of Waterdance. Then he was being nosy, checking on me, he talked with Khytten, and she created doses that would heal nerve and spinal damage. It was an experiment for her and, apparently, was difficult, but when I had taken the vials for a week, my fingers started to twitch.”

He stood in front of her. “May I give you a hug?”

“Are you getting all overstimulated by the folks screwing a few feet away?”

He laughed. “Surprisingly, no. I have never touched you without the bulk of suits between us.”

“That is true. There is going to be a lot of skin contact, and that isn’t something I am used to.”

He grinned. “I will risk it.” He slid his arms around her, and she was at nipple height.

Pria sighed. “This is awkward.”

“Get used to it. I am going to be touching you at every socially acceptable moment.”

She had her arms out at her sides. He snorted and grabbed one arm, bending it around him and smacking it into his back. He did the same on the other side.

That was a whole lot of half-naked man.

He resumed his hug and hummed happily. “You smell so good.”

“Oh, no. Cabree told me I was dumping pheromones.” She tried to get loose.

“It is nice, Pria. You just smell very nice.”

She was facing one of his tattoos. “Is this a new tattoo?”

“It’s nearly five years old.”

“Oh. What is it?”

He chuckled. “You can’t see?”

“I am smushed against you. So, no.”

“You can look later. I will explain them all.”

“So, you run around like this all day?”

He chuckled. “I usually wear less. This is just for company.”

“Oh. Great. That will haunt my dreams. Wait. How did you get into my dreams?”

He huffed in amusement. “We are bound, you and I. We always have been.”

She looked up at him. “Fuck, you are tall.”

He grinned. “You just noticed?”

“It didn’t matter when you were teaching me or when I was on a mission. It matters when I am not dressed.”

“Your lack of armoured clothing is very much on my mind.” His fingers strummed the tie of her bikini top.

“Don’t you dare.”

“What? Your skin is so golden smooth that this shouldn’t interfere.” The tie came apart under his fingers, and she felt her breasts shift.

She squawked in panic and pressed her arms down at her sides to hold the rest of the top in place.

He chuckled and stroked her back. She shivered and hid herself against him. His hands covered most of her back, and he shuddered.

“I had no idea you would fit my hands like this.”

“Power bias,” she murmured.

“What?”

“You saw me through my activation, which is powerful, ergo I must be taller.”

“You aren’t an omega?”

“Nope. That is why the Sethir dumped me. If I were an omega, I would be in activation restrictors with a few babies and a snarling alpha visiting when I went into heat.”

“My half-brother and his adviser are both alphas. Their queen is an omega. A heavy-hitter and sculptor, but a heavy-hitter nonetheless.”

“I heard that on the news. She’s Uraddan.”

“You are correct.” His fingertips were under her hair. “Purple hair?”

“Yeah. It’s one of the reasons my parents couldn’t pretend I was human. I couldn’t be like my elder sister, who went to school.”

“What was her name?”

“Bira. Bira Du-melo.”

“Have you ever heard from her?”

“No. She probably has a family somewhere. She had a caretaking adaptation.”

“How could you tell?”

“She also had purple hair, but no one could find her activation, so she was able to get a scholarship to university.”

“How much older than you is she?”

“Two years. She went to university and never came home.” She trailed off. “Oh. She had to leave, too.”

“That was what my research indicated. Did you have any caretakers that you felt close to?”

“Bird. Bird Dume. Oh my god, what kind of an idiot am I?” She looked up at him. “Black hair and she used contact lenses.”

He chuckled. “We will find her.”

“We? Is there a we?”

“I don’t stretch my wrap out for just anyone.” He chuckled.

She didn’t have to look down. She could feel him. “This is going to be really stressful for you.”

“I like a challenge.”

“Uh-huh. What gave me away? What tipped you off?”

“The images of you coming out of the casino with Cabree. And at dinner and in the swimwear, oh, and when you danced at dawn at the pool.”

She blushed. “Oh. I guess the staff had time to record me.”

“Don’t be surprised if the cruise line wants you to replicate the footage.”

Pria paused. “Oh. Heck.”

He laughed. “I don’t blame them. I was going to demand that you pay for the mooring for the cruise ship with a dance.”

“I already promised Cabree I would dance the sunset in. This sucks, though. I am going to miss my aerial tour of the islands.”

“I promise to show you my home.” He gently drew his nails down her back.

She inhaled sharply and leaned into him, ignoring the dampness her body was generating. He rubbed her shoulders in a slow massage, and she had her arms loosely around him.

“What is your end game here, Riro?”

“Ah, just me wearing your legs on my shoulders as I taste the ocean.”

She frowned, and then her expression changed when the description formed an image in her mind. There was a warm surge against her gusset, and she shivered. The warm bar against her belly was also distinctly damp.

“You have the loveliest waist and charming hips.”

“They have never had a personality trait before.”

He cupped her hips. “Oh, they have tremendous personality. Do you dance?”

She deliberately misinterpreted. “Cabree was showing me couples’ dancing.”

“Ah. Not that kind.”

“Oh.” She didn’t say anything else.

“Your water dancing reminded me of something I had seen before.”

“Hm. Must have been a dream.”

He stroked her neck, and her top came loose.

She hissed at him and tried to get it back together, but when she reached behind her, he whisked the fabric away, and she had the choice between hiding with her plastered to him or leaning back to let him look.

She split the difference and pulled her hair forward to cover her.

“Your physique is impressive considering how long you were ill.”

She shrugged. “It was the part that the suit designers always downplayed. Khytten is far more impressive. Hers are functional.”

“There is something to be said for decorative. A lot, actually. How do you swim?”

“The suits flatten them down. It hurts, but it works.”

He knelt in front of her and stroked her hair back.