Page 41 of Sweeter than Honey
She peers up at me through heavy eyelids. “I trust you, Renata. I trust you completely.”
Her words cements the covenant between us. Without another thought, I gently pull up the silky fabric of her tight pencil skirt. My mouth finds the perfect spot on her upper inner thigh, and my fangs pierce her tender skin.
Her blood is thick, and flows vigorously. It’s the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted, more fragrant than the ripest fruit, and sweet. Sweeter than honey.
She moans, her pleasure like a symphony, resonating against the elevator’s walls. Unable to control myself, I drink deeply from her thigh, and she responds in kind, pressing it up against my mouth.
Her blood strengthens me and calms the restlessness in my core. For the first time in many, many years, I feel grounded. I don’t know why, but drinking from Lily just…feelsdifferent. I realize suddenly that I’ve never drank blood from someone I know, someone I already have a relationship with. I’m always able to distance myself from the living humans I feed on. To think of it as a transaction. I fulfill my need to drink human blood, and they’re compensated with a pleasurable experience, or money. Usually both.
As her blood fills me and my vampiric bloodlust abates, reason returns. Despite the relationship between Lily and I, I have to consider this just another transaction. She allowed me to drink her blood so that I can rescue her from the elevator. It’s just like all of those times with the donors.
Ihaveto think of it that way…
But it’s hard to deny the powerful swell of feeling in my heart, the strong urge to protect her. I need to get her out of here. It’s my responsibility…
As her boss, of course.
I pull my mouth from her thigh, licking the wound. The magic in my spit not only heals the bite, but does so neatly to ensure there will be no scar (another signature of my abilities that I’m quite proud of). I pull her skirt down carefully. She looks up at me with an expression of satisfaction and complete trust. As the glamour charm wears off, I can feel her panic begin again. The elevator is still dark, and there’s no help in sight.
But inhuman strength and power now flow through my veins and harden my resolve.
“Wait here,” I tell her. Now I put my fingers between the elevator’s thick metal doors and find it easy to wedge them between the gaps. With one hand on each I force them open like two sliding screen doors.
The elevator shaft is dark, but there’s a safety light that’s enough for my vampiric night vision. I look up the shaft. We’re poised between two floors, and I can see the light from the floor above.
I look down. The sides of the shaft are too smooth to scale safely. If it was only me, I might try to go down. But with Lily, I won’t take therisk. I return to her side. She’s sitting up on the bench now. She swallows.
“Please don’t leave me,” she says, her voice small.
“I would never leave you,” I reply, bending down to meet her gaze. “But I’m going to ask you to be very brave, Lily. Do you need me to glamour you again?”
She shakes her head. “No. I’m scared, but…but I feel safe with you.”
“You know me in a professional capacity, Lily,” I say to her. She knows of my vampiricism, of course, but she may not be fully aware of the extent of my abilities. “And it might be easy to think that I’m just like any other CEO or businessperson. But I need you to understand something. I’m over two hundred years old, Lily. I don’t breathe, or have a heartbeat. There’s magic inside me that allows me to sustain myself with human blood, and it makes me extremely strong. Stronger than any other person you’ve ever met, except perhaps Celine. I can do things that living humans can’t do.”
She nods.
“I’m going to do something right now that seems impossible. And I need you to put all of your faith in me, and know that I can get you to safety. All right?”
“Yes.” Her panic subsides slightly, although there’s a warm pink flush to her cheeks that wasn’t there before.
I reach down and take her in my arms. She’s so light, and her heart hums like a bird in her chest. She clutches onto me tightly, her arms around my neck and shoulders.
“You can hang on as tightly as you like,” I tell her. “If it makes you feel safer. But I need you to know that I won’t drop you. Do you know that?”
“Yes, I know that,” she says, breathlessly.
“Good.”
Holding Lily in one arm, I lean out of the elevator doors. Her pulse starts to pound, but she doesn’t make a sound. She presses her face into my chest.
“You’re doing well, Lily,” I tell her. “This will be scary, but it will soon be over. Could you count to ten for me?”
“Ok,” she whimpers. “One…two…”
With the arm that’s not holding her, I reach out over the elevator. There’s a bar there, for emergencies exactly like this. I grip it in one fist and swing us up, and over onto the top of the elevator car.
“Three!” she shrieks.