Page 22 of Taste of Forever (Vampires of Sanguine #3)

Heather

“ E xplain it to me again.”

“I already explained it to you in the message.”

“So it shouldn’t be hard to repeat it, right?” Soren’s expression was all cold arrogance from across the table.

I leaned back and shoved my hands into my lab coat pockets.

We were sitting in one of the break rooms at work.

He apparently had enough clearance to come and go anywhere on grounds, and even flashed a federal badge when I questioned him.

Security was supposed to be tight here, considering we handled crime scene evidence that many people would love to tamper with.

Needless to say, I hated that he could harass me in my work place, not just outside at the food truck. Since he obviously watched my apartment, I thought work would be my one safe place away from his creepy surveillance. But no such luck for me.

“He considers me his blood mate,” I explained to Soren, my gaze shifting to the large windows looking over one of the labs.

“No one else is listening,” Soren said as if reading my mind. “And no one will disturb us. Keep going. What is a blood mate?”

I let out a resigned sigh. “The way he explained it, there’s something about my blood that makes it an ideal food source for him. I don’t know if it’s something about proteins or what, but I guess it makes me taste, um, especially good to him.”

“Lucky vampire,” Soren remarked.

“And he can only feed from me to feel properly nourished,” I went on. “Nothing else will do. Any other blood tastes so bad that he needs me over anyone else. So to me, it sounds like blood mates resemble lifelong pairings, like when certain animals mate for life.”

Soren swiveled in his chair. “So there’s a sexual component too?”

I swallowed, my face heating with my obvious discomfort. “Well, yes.”

He let out a strange little laugh. “Damn, that’s sick.”

“I didn’t have sex with him.”

“Oh, no?”

“No!” Anger flared inside me. “I have a boyfriend. You know that.”

“A boyfriend isn’t a husband. Certainly not a blood mate ,” he added mockingly.

At that moment, I was having a really hard time remembering why punching people was illegal.

“Well, regardless, I’m not a cheater.”

“Look, all of that is fascinating and all, but my employers are looking for more...useful information.”

I frowned. “Can you be more specific?”

“How long do vampires actually live? Are they impervious to diseases and cancers? Do they have superhuman abilities and, if so, what are they? Do they have advanced weapons or other technology that we don’t have?”

I blew out a breath, rubbing my temples. “It’s gonna take time for me to build up to that. I can’t just grill him about vampire strengths and weaknesses. He’ll get suspicious.”

“I dunno.” Soren’s gaze was scrutinizing. “You’ve got a pretty face and tasty blood, apparently. I’m sure he’s willing to tell you all kinds of things. I bet the more you give him, the more he’ll talk.”

The disgust was clear on my face, but I didn’t bother arguing.

What was the point? Soren just laughed. He was already the lowest of the low—invading my privacy, putting his hands on me, making me do his dirty work and suggesting I whore myself out for information.

God, I couldn’t wait until he was out of my life for good.

He rapped his knuckles on the table before standing up. “Break time’s over, Heather. Oh, and by the way, my superiors are breathing down my neck for this intel so we’ve got to move up the deadline. You’ve got two months now.”

“Two months?!”

He slammed his palms down as he leaned over the table, pure menace in his expression. “Keep your fucking voice down.”

I shrank back, remembering the painful strength in his fingers from when he grabbed me. And just as quickly, he straightened with a cold smile.

“Better get back to work, Heather.”

He left the room and I spent the rest of my shift jumpy and unable to focus. What the hell was I supposed to do? It was uncomfortable enough leading Laith on as much as I was. The last thing I wanted to do was full-on seduce him to make him trust me, but Soren wasn’t giving me much of a choice.

While running tests and typing up reports, all I could think about was how to learn all of the vampire’s secrets in two months. Without sleeping with Laith and outright agreeing to be his blood mate.

You could always tell him the truth, said a voice that sounded suspiciously like my resentment demon.

The memory of Laith’s words followed soon after. Whoever is doing this, they’re no match against me. I can promise you that. Not only am I a vampire, I’m part of the ruling clan of Sanguine. We’re powerful and we protect our people.

I had to admit, it was tempting to give in. To let the gorgeous vampire swoop in and rescue me from everything. To not fight the pleasure that surged through me every time he fed from me. Would it really be so bad to leave everything behind?

The thought was especially tempting as my shift crawled to its end, knowing home was not the soft landing it had once been.

When I came to work tonight, I had planned on talking to Justin when I got home.

I wanted to ask him how work was going, and see what his reaction was.

If he tried to dodge the question, I’d straight out ask him if he still had a job.

It would most likely lead to a fight and I wanted to be mentally prepared for it.

Then Soren had found me. And now, as I prepared to leave work, I wanted nothing more than to crawl under my bedsheets when I got home and hide.

I swapped out my lab coat for my cardigan at my locker, then checked my phone to see that I had a text from Justin. My breath stopped for a moment when I opened it.

Justin: Hey, I got pastries from the bakery. Had a late night, so I’ll probably be asleep when you get home. Love you.

My frayed edges softened as I reread the message. It was...sweet. Both the message and the fact that he picked up baked goods. I hadn’t used sweet to describe Justin in a long time. Maybe home could be a soft place to land after all.

I unlocked the front door twenty minutes later to a quiet, dark apartment. My stomach growled at the faint, lingering scent of sugar and flaky pastry crust. Seeing Soren at work had rattled me so much that I never ate lunch.

I went to the fridge and pulled out the white cardboard box. A whispered, “Fuck yeah,” left my mouth when I opened the lid and saw the cherry Danish. My favorite.

After a few seconds of warming in the microwave, that Danish was washed down with a glass of milk, and I felt a little bit better.

I got ready for bed as quietly as I could to not disturb Justin, who was fast asleep. After crawling into bed, I fought the urge to snuggle up against him. He was a light sleeper and if I woke him too early, he’d be a grump the entire day. So I instead sent him a quick text.

Me: Thank you for the Danish. I needed it today. Love you too, and I miss you.

He really could pull through, sometimes. Lying next to him then, all my previous thoughts about confronting him about his job felt unfair. Of course he was still employed. He wouldn’t buy pastries if he wasn’t. Plus, he wouldn’t keep that from me.

With my mind finally able to relax a bit, I drifted off to sleep.

Laith removed his fangs from my wrist, but kept his lips sealed over my skin while his tongue flicked over the puncture wounds to stop the bleeding. When he let go of my arm, it felt like the end of a kiss. A conclusion to an intensely intimate moment. The two of us were even a little breathless.

“Water?”

Laith’s magenta eyes focused on the coffee table in front of us, his whole body turned away from mine.

“Yes,” I said. “Thank you.”

He sprang up from the couch like it was on fire, hurrying to the bar across the VIP loft. I leaned my head against the back of the couch, fanning myself with my hand as I caught my breath.

This feeding had been intense. I might have even had a mini-orgasm, just a tiny spark of release that was nowhere near enough.

Not for the first time, I wondered what made my blood so special. I was fueled by coffee and late-night takeout food, and this vampire was the poor soul who got stuck with me. Should I apologize or something? Sorry if you got heartburn. My fault for eating birria tacos at three a.m.

“Here you are.” Laith returned with a tall, chilled glass filled with clear water and the perfect amount of ice cubes.

“Thank you.” I gulped it down greedily while he sat a generous foot away from me.

“So.” He clapped his hands once after I set my water down. “You still want to get to know me in an emotional but not at all physical way?”

I couldn’t help but return his smile. “Yeah, if that works for you.”

His smile wobbled. “So you’re still with him, huh?”

“Well, yeah. It’s only been a few days.”

I’d thought Justin was finally making an effort to reconnect after surprising me with those pastries, but the next day he’d gone right back to gaming and emotional distance.

After running into Soren at work, I could have really used the support of a partner over the weekend. Instead I’d had Justin’s cold shoulder on Saturday, and counted down the minutes until Sunday evening when I could run to Sanguine and bask in the glow of Laith’s attention.

Platonically, of course.

And with the ultimate goal of Soren leaving me alone, of course.

“Fine, fine.” Laith raked long fingers back through his ash blond hair. “So what would you like to know?”

I pondered what to ask first over another sip of water. “Are any of the human beliefs about vampires true?”

“Most of them are not.” Laith tongued one of his fangs. “But you’ll have to be more specific.”

“Well, are you undead for one thing?”

“No. We’re like any other living creature. We’re born, then we die. We live a life between those two points. The prevailing belief is that we split off from humans somewhere along the evolutionary line.”