Page 6 of Saved by the Vampire Goddess (Dark Wine Vampires #1)

Chapter six

Evelina

Wilderness dome—Moments later

I can tell I’m annoying the heck out of him by touching him. I can tell it’s distracting and a little unfair. But how am I gonna help him shoot straight if I can’t get up close and personal? He should have greater control over his horny self. Not that I’m much better, given that I’m enjoying this closeness a bit too much.

“Okay,” I murmur in his ear, “find the spot ten inches up from the leg and keep breathing in and out through your belly. You’ll fire on the exhale when you reach that natural pause between breaths.”

“Huh?”

Oh Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. He’s a lost cause.

“Just breathe.” I place my hand on his belly. “Here. Breathe here. We can work on technique later. Keep going.”

He looks up at me, and there’s heat in those brown eyes.

“Good grief. Look at the bison, not me.”

When he reaches a regular rhythm, I remove my hand and stand, aiming my rifle at the same bison. If he misses, I’ve got us covered. “Now focus on the spot, and at the end of the next exhale, press the trigger straight back.”

Bang .

The bison wobbles, then tumbles over onto its side. A perfect shot.

Blasted beginner’s luck .

I expected him to make a novice mistake. People rarely press the trigger right and end up pulling the gun to the left, missing entirely.

“ Futuo, ” he gasps. “I did it.” He looks up at me, eager hope in his eyes. “Didn’t I?”

The rest of the bison scramble to their hooves and take off in different directions. None of them head for the tree blind where we’re hiding, so I lower my rifle. “Yeah, it was your shot. I never fired.”

“Now what?”

“Now we load that monster onto the cargo bed.” I motion for him to follow, and once I have the wagon parked next to the carcass, I set the brake and open the wagon’s hinged tailgate. “Okay, Lord Sharpshooter. Put on those long rubber gloves over your coat sleeves.” I point at the black pair I left in the back of the wagon. “Tick bites can make a mortal really sick.”

“You want me to lift the dead bison?”

“Nah. I’ll do the hoisting. You stand in the wagon and grab the shoulders. Do your best to keep this monster level as we place it on the tarp.”

A male bison can easily weigh over nine hundred pounds. I slide my arms underneath the carcass as close to the middle as I can get, lifting most of the weight while tipping my head back to hold my nose far away from the smelly animal. I’m gonna want a hot shower after this.

When I get the body high enough to pass into the wagon, Valroy grabs the shoulders, and with his help to keep the body balanced, I don’t worry about the darn thing slipping out of the wagon. He walks backward on the wagon bed until we get the monster settled onto the plastic tarp.

After closing the tailgate, I climb into the wagon’s seat next to him.

“I still can’t believe it,” he mumbles.

Then he side-eyes me like he’s feeling all manly from the kill and wants to express his feelings between my legs.

So I keep a good two feet between our butts on the seat and focus on guiding the horses.

The wagon is too wide to drive into the tunnels. Fortunately, they built the butcher shop inside the wilderness dome, and I maneuver the horses to back the wagon to the loading dock.

“Come on and give me a hand. Grab the rubber gloves again.”

I can carry the whole thing myself, but it gets a little off balance because I can’t get my arms all the way around the bison, and I end up dragging its head on the ground. This time, Valroy follows my instructions without question—I lift the carcass by the hips while he takes the shoulders, and we haul it into the area set aside for skinning the animal. A high-pressure water hose hangs from a pulley affixed to the back wall, and the tile floor has built-in drains. Makes it easy to clean up afterward. Two hooks chained to the ceiling will lift the body when I’m ready to start butchering.

“Okay. Take a seat and watch.” I wave my hand at the bench against the opposite wall from where I work. “We skin him, cut him in two, then hang him in a special room. If you liked the elk, you’re gonna love these bison steaks.”

He remains standing, despite my offer of a seat. “You’re very fortunate to have such fresh food.”

“I can’t enjoy any of it.” I slip the strap of the waterproof apron over my head, grab the skinning knife, and then run the blade over a sharpening rod. “The only thing I feed on is mortal blood.”

“Not even this animal’s blood?”

“Nope. Animal blood will drive a vampire crazy.”

“So you do all this work for your beasts?”

I laugh. “Kinda. The Lux take the high-quality steaks and roasts to one of their mixed domes, and in exchange, I get luxury goods I wouldn’t otherwise have out here. You’re lucky I still had elk steaks in the freezer when you arrived.”

“Oh.”

I roll the carcass onto its back and walk around to the head, then cut it off, and Valroy looks a mite green. City boys are like that.

Pointing my knife at the door, I flick my wrist. “If you’re gonna get sick, do it outside.”

“I’m fine,” he says, gritting his teeth, his arms crossed behind his back like a soldier standing at attention.

He’s so easy to tease. Smiling, I make the first cut around the back leg. “Watch closely. You don’t want the fur to flop onto the clean meat. The contamination can’t be washed off. It’s gotta be cut off. So always fold away from the meat.”

I’m wearing gloves more to protect the meat than me. The last tick that had the gumption to bite me fell to the ground, dead within seconds. Only mortals seem able to drink vampire blood and survive.

Valroy cocks his head. “Why are you showing me this?”

“Because you’ll have to take over some of the chores—I can’t keep both you and the animals fed.”

I’m making up the rules as we go along. I have no clue how the Lux will feel about my delegating work to him, but that’s their fault for dumping him on me. I gave them a week to change their minds, and now, here we are.

He eyeballs the carcass, an unspoken question on his face.

“Don’t worry. I’ll carry the bison here for you, but you’ll do the preparation next time. You’ll have to pull your weight.”

“I see.” His gaze tracks my movements. “Doesn’t it bother you?”

“Doesn’t what bother me?”

“This work. It’s not usually work for a girl, is it?”

“Woman,” I growl at him. Lord Prissy’s attitudes about women annoy me sometimes. “I’m used to the work.”

“Because you’re a creeper?”

“ Vampire .”

“How did you become a creeper, er, vampire? Were you born—”

Harrumph . He really knows nothing about us. I make another cut under the bison’s skin to pull the belly fur back. “Vampires are made, not born.”

“Like in the movies? I’ve seen various Dracula films.” He slaps a hand over his neck where I bit him the night I rescued him. “One bite—”

“Oh, geez. It takes more than one bite.” I step back and dip my knife in the liquid sanitizer, which is in a box bolted to the wall. The sanitizer keeps the muck from piling up on the blade. Then I swipe the blade across the sharpening rod a few times. “The process to turn a mortal is kinda complicated. You can’t make one by accident.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.” I keep tension on the bison skin as I work my blade down the side. “Why? Don’t ya wanna live forever?”

“I’ve never thought about it before.”

“Well, even if you did, I can’t turn you. The Lux are touchy about increasing our numbers.” Yeah, real touchy. And it wouldn’t work for us, even though I gotta admit he’s attractive.

“What’s it like?”

“What’s what like?”

“Drinking human blood?”

I snort. That question is number five on the top ten most frequently asked. “Well, once you become vampire, your body craves it and your taste buds instantly adjust. The flavor’s meaty, with a rich bite of iron. Better than even bison steaks.”

“I see.”

He sounds like he’s just being polite. Doesn’t matter. He tasted mighty fine that first night, and all this talk makes me want to drop my fangs into a warm vein.

Nope. I am not biting him again .

Because I know it’ll lead to sex. And where will that get me? We have no future. He’s stuck up, prideful, and arrogant. Though some of that pride looked good on him when his rifle shot hit the target. And the way he brushes his curly chestnut hair out of his eyes is mighty sexy.

No, Evelina. Just no.

If I want to grab Chris and the other band members and tour the various mixed domes and revive my career as a singer, I need to scavenge enough trade goods to support me for ten years. Which means no distractions.

Maybe by the time that decade is over, I’ll be famous again and won’t have to do keeper work anymore.

Besides, even if I don’t let Valroy distract me too much, and I’m able to scavenge what I should, a relationship with him will still mess up my plans. When I finish my current contract, I won’t have enough savings to support both of us for ten years. And that’s if the Lux really let him stay here. I’m convinced they’re just messing with me and will relocate him after they get their yuks at my expense.

Nope. Not gonna happen. That’s got heartbreak written all over it.

I run my knife down the bison’s other side and the blade slips, slicing across my finger. “Dammit.”

“Are you okay?”

I don’t want to drip my blood onto the fresh meat, so I swing around, dip my fingers into the sterilizer, and let out a loud yip. That stuff stings. “As okay as I can be with my knuckles cut to the bone.” I nod toward the workbench. “Get me another glove from that box.”

He follows my directions, and he’s soon helping me peel off the damaged glove. “How are you healing so fast?”

The skin has already closed, leaving a red line. “Part of being a vampire. So long as it’s not caused by silver, I’ll be fine. Help me put the new glove on.”

The concern in his eyes is genuine as he works the glove over my injured fingers. I can see it there, that spark.

The yearning to bust down the shell protecting my heart hits me hard. To leap ahead and open myself to a mortal. To give it a chance, even if I can’t predict where the sex will take us or for how long the relationship might last. To stop leaning into all my excuses and fears.

But I can’t trust that yearning. I stuff down those feelings until there’s no room left for anything else, and then, with the new glove on, step away from his delicious ocean scent and get back to work.