Blood Line Read online

  He invaded my space again and my breath caught in my lungs. “There are any number of things I could do about it,” he breathed against my neck. “Try me.”

  My whole body shook as I tried to breathe evenly.

  He pulled back far enough to catch my eye and his expression turned feral. “You shouldn’t look at me like that,” he said, his voice so deep I felt it down to my toes.

  I tipped my chin higher, knowing what he saw. Knowing there was no way for me to hide how badly I wanted him. How badly I still wanted him, despite everything. “Or what?”

  His eyes widened for only a moment before he moved. Alexander grabbed a handful of my hair and a handful of my ass and pulled me into him, his lips finding mine instantly. He kissed me so ferociously it felt like I’d be swallowed whole by him.

  He pulled me tighter against his body, his hardness digging into my stomach, and I shivered in his arms. His quick hands unbuttoned my tight jeans before one disappeared beneath my panties.

  “Fuck, you’re so wet.”

  Maybe later I’d be embarrassed about the way my body reacted to him, but there was no room for that now. His thick fingers were dancing along my slit and I was just trying to remain standing.

  Without warning, he spun me around and pressed me against the brick wall. His hand continued its torturous game of pleasure as he crowded my body.

  “You let them touch you,” he seethed against the back of my neck. “They had their hands on your body and their lips on your face.”

  “So?” I whispered as he pinched my clit and I gasped.

  “So? This,” he said, grabbing my mound. “Is mine.”

  I moaned against the dirty bricks, my hard nipples scraping across the uneven surface. “Not anymore.”

  I wasn’t sure why I was still fighting him when I was so obviously putty in the man’s hands, but I just couldn’t let it go.

  He growled and pressed his hard dick into my ass. “This,” he said, squeezing me again, “Says you’re mine. This says you’ve always been mine and that you’ll always be mine.”

  I shook my head, but there was no denying what he was saying. My body had always submitted to him, even when I hadn’t wanted to admit it.

  “Alex,” I moaned.

  He chuckled, his breath tickling the back of my neck. “Yes, love. I know what you need. I want you to show me who owns this sweet little space between your legs. I want you to come. I want to feel you dripping down my hand.”

  I moaned again as I shook my head back and forth, the pleasure too much. Too intense. Too big for my body to handle.

  “Bite me,” I pleaded. “Please. Bite me.”

  He paused for only a second before his fangs were deep inside my neck and his fingers were deep inside my body. It was only another second before I detonated around him.

  My body trembled as wave after wave of pleasure washed through me, drowning all my good sense, and obliterating anything but this moment.

  I was so full of Alexander I couldn’t tell which parts were mine and which were his, but it didn’t matter. For one long eternal stretch of time, there was no end to him or start to me. We were the same. We were one. We were joined through every atom of our bodies.

  I was still barely coherent when he pulled his fangs from my neck and kissed me softly. “Thank you.” I sighed as he slid his hand from between my legs and buttoned my jeans again. “You should get inside, it’s still dangerous out here.”

  I rolled my eyes and turned to tell him I wasn’t afraid of anything with him around, but he was gone.

  There was nothing but trash, and unidentifiable puddles, and this dread in the pit of my stomach. It started as no bigger than the head of a pin, but it grew, and swelled, and ballooned until it encompassed all my insides, like a vicious black hole.

  I looked up and down the alleyway, but I knew I wouldn’t find him.

  I sniffed back the tears, vowing to not let a single one fall until I was alone. Until I could breakdown by myself. Until I could look at the raggedy, jagged pieces he’d just left behind and figure out a way to put them back together again.

  I rode the elevator up to the third floor in a daze and unlocked my apartment. It was dark inside, but I didn’t bother turning on the lights. I didn’t want to accidentally see what he’d just done to me.

  I shuffled into my bedroom and curled up on the bed before bringing my phone up to my face. The tears were already obscuring my vision, but I tapped on my messages and typed out a single text.

  I knew right then it would be the last thing I ever said to him. Starting tomorrow, I was getting my life back together and moving out of this apartment. I needed to be away from him. For good this time.

  I needed to leave him in my past where he belonged.

  I sent the text and blocked his number before turning off my phone and rolling over. The words I wrote blared through my head, scaring me with their finality, even though I knew they were necessary.

  Me: I don’t want to see you ever again.

  Chapter 8

  Alexander

  “She was sandwiched between them like fucking deli meat!”

  Nicholas chuckled through the phone. “That’s an interesting visual.”

  “I’m serious. Is that normal for women these days? To date more than one man at a time?”

  “I’d never pretend to understand the minds of modern women, but it does seem odd that she’d find not only one but two partners in such a short amount of time.”

  It didn’t seem so far-fetched to me. Charlotte was gorgeous. And kind and funny and sweet. There had to be a line of men waiting for their turn with her. I just hadn’t expected her to date two of them at once.

  “I wonder how that works,” Nicholas mused. “Do they take turns?”

  I growled, my hand gripping the phone until I heard it creak. “That’s not helping.”

  “Who’s taking turns with who?”

  I heard Nicholas’ progeny, Adrienne, through the phone as her voice came closer.

  “Your friend Charlotte went on a date with two men tonight,” Nicholas explained to her, his voice muffled through the phone.

  “Charlotte? Not likely,” she said, the humor clear in her voice.

  “I saw them,” I seethed.

  “Let me talk to him,” she said before her voice got louder. “What’s this about Charlotte?”

  I sighed and closed my eyes. “She came home from a date on the arms of two men tonight. Is that normal behavior for her?”

  “No. Not Charlotte,” she trailed off. “Wait. Were they both blond?”

  “They might have been.”

  She giggled, and I felt my temper slowly rising to the surface. “What’s funny about this?”

  “It was probably Tom and Matt. They’ve been friends since freshman year.”

  “I don’t care what their names are! I care that they are sharing her between them!” I yelled into the phone.

  Adrienne just laughed again. “Believe me, they’re not sharing like that. Neither one of them would know what to do with a vagina, even if it came with an instruction manual.”

  I was quiet for a moment while I tried to decipher her strange words. Finally, with a huff, I said, “Explain.”

  She laughed once more, and I swear I was seconds away from chucking my phone through the wall. “They’re gay, Alexander. They’re a gay couple and they’re just friends with her.”

  I froze as that information settled into my brain.

  Was that possible? Had I witnessed an exchange between good friends and not lovers? They’d kissed her. But I guess a peck on the cheek could be construed as friendly. Had I misread the entire situation?

  “That’s… not what I’d been expecting.”

  She snorted. “Yeah, well, maybe you should ask questions next time instead of making assumptions.”

  I scowled at the phone just as it dinged with an incoming notification. My stomach dropped when I saw it was a text from Charlotte.

  “I
have to go,” I said before ending the call and opening my messages.

  My hands shook as the possibilities flowed through my mind. The most likely scenario was she’d reached out to yell at me. I deserved nothing less.

  I’d ravished her in a dark, dirty alleyway, and then just vanished. But I’d had to. I couldn’t stand there one more second smelling her arousal on my fingers and feeling her hot body beneath mine without doing something about it. It was bad enough that I’d taken her blood, I couldn’t take anything more from her.

  But maybe she’d reached out for a different reason.

  Maybe she was trying to reconcile. Maybe she was as lonely as I was. As horny as I was. Maybe she was looking to finish what I’d started.

  I grit my teeth and shook my head.

  I wasn’t strong enough for that. I couldn’t sit there, just feet beneath her, and turn her away. I knew I couldn’t. If she asked me to come over, I knew I’d be there in seconds.

  With a deep, fortifying breath, I clicked on her message and read what she had to say.

  Charlotte: I don’t want to see you ever again.

  I read the words over and over again, searching for a different meaning. Hoping it was some turn of phrase I was unfamiliar with. Or perhaps a joke.

  But the words were in black and white on my screen, and despite my best efforts, their meaning was clear.

  I’d finally gone too far.

  I’d finally pushed the limits of her forgiveness past the breaking point.

  I’d finally gotten what I’d professed to have wanted all along.

  Charlotte was finally done with me, and I deserved nothing less.

  I sat down in the middle of the floor as I read her message again. I waited, hoping she’d have something else to say. Hoping there was some small chance that she hadn’t meant her words, but there was nothing.

  Just the cold, hard truth I’d been avoiding.

  We were finally done. Well and truly over.

  This was what I’d wanted all along, wasn’t it?

  For Charlotte to see that her place wasn’t beside me. For her to move on with her human life. For her to be permanently safe from my world.

  But now that I’d succeeded in pushing her away, I felt the space she once occupied in my life like a gaping hole. It pulsed and bled, the edges jagged, like she’d been ripped away from me when I’d been the one that had pushed her.

  My eyes darted to the ceiling as I heard a delicate sniffle. I strained my ears, frozen in place, waiting to hear what came next. A soft cry floated down to my apartment and my gut clenched so hard I thought I’d be sick.

  There was no doubt in my mind she was upstairs crying. Just like there was no doubt I was the cause. Again.

  I jumped to my feet, my heart thumping painfully in my chest. I looked down at her message on my phone again, wincing when I heard another sniffle from upstairs.

  Without thinking, my fingers flew across the keyboard as I typed a message back to her. I figured the least I could do was apologize.

  Me: I’m sorry for what happened tonight. You’ll never have to see me again.

  My insides burned like they’d been lit on fire as I stared at the words I’d typed. I didn’t want to make her a promise like that. I wasn’t even sure I could keep it. Every time I thought I could maintain my distance from her, something else dragged me back.

  But she’d asked me for this one thing. How could I say no?

  I pressed send and watched the message slowly be delivered to her phone. I waited for the confirmation she’d received it, but it never came. The little dots danced and danced before my phone vibrated with another notification.

  Message not sent.

  I frowned and pressed send again, waiting for it to go through.

  Message not sent.

  What the fuck?

  I tried one more time.

  Message not sent.

  I stared at my phone for a while as the realization slowly sank in.

  She’d blocked me.

  That was a hard, bitter pill to swallow, but I knew I’d earned it. I was a miserable asshole, and I’d never had any right to the perfect, lovely woman crying in the apartment upstairs. She’d never been meant for me, and I needed to accept that.

  I heard her sniffle again, like she was trying to cry as quietly as possible, and my heart ached in my chest.

  I needed to leave.

  I had to get out of there.

  I couldn’t stand there with her scent still filling my lungs and her quiet sobs above my head.

  It was too much for me to bear.

  I shoved my phone in my pocket and sprinted out of the apartment, not caring who might see me flying down the hall. I took the stairs three at a time and burst onto the roof with a gasp, like I’d been drowning and had finally broken through to the surface.

  But I still couldn’t breathe.

  It felt like all the oxygen had been removed from the balmy summer air. I gripped the shirt over my chest, like I could force my lungs to work right again.

  But nothing was right.

  I’d hurt Charlotte. Maybe more than I ever had before. So bad that she never wanted to see me again. So bad that she was crying again.

  And it was all my fault.

  With a growl, I leapt off the roof, landing on the one right beneath it. I sprinted across the surface, moving too fast for a human to see. I leapt from building to building, trying my damnedest to outrun all the mistakes I’d made in the past month, but there was no escaping my indiscretions.

  I didn’t know where I was going until I’d made it there.

  Crimson was an underground vampire bar I’d already spent too many nights in. But alcohol sounded exactly like what I needed right then, so I opened their rooftop door and descended into the nightclub.

  The music was probably soft for a human establishment, but plenty loud for the vampire patrons littering the bar. It was also hazy from cigarette smoke and hot from all the bodies, but I ignored all that. I just needed a fucking drink.

  I found a seat at the bar and waved to the man working there. “I’ll have a whiskey neat. And keep them coming.”

  He poured the blood-infused liquor and slid the rocks glass into my hand. I tipped the drink to my lips and downed it in one gulp. “Another.”

  The barkeep obliged, and I spent the next several minutes trying to drown the sounds of her sniffles from my brain.

  But it wasn’t working.

  “Hey, handsome. You here alone tonight?”

  I turned to find a human woman at my elbow, her frazzled bleach-blonde hair framing an ordinary face. I spun back around to my drink.

  “I’m sure I would have noticed you before now if you come here often.”

  I drained my glass and signaled to the bartender. “What do you want?”

  She leaned a warm arm on my shoulder and sighed. “Well, the guy I came here with got kicked out, so I’m all alone now. I was hoping you’d keep me company.”

  I ignored her.

  “You know, I taste much better than that stuff does.”

  I waited for my gums to ache or even for my mouth to water, but there was nothing. Not a single reaction to the offer of this woman’s blood.

  Maybe I really was fucked up.

  I finished my drink and pushed my glass back for another refill. “I’m not hungry.”

  Which was the truth. Not only were my eyeballs beginning to float with the amount of liquor I’d consumed, but Charlotte’s blood was still pulsing through my system. I could feel it swimming in my veins. It strengthened me. Sharpened my vision. Filled me with power.

  But the price I’d paid–the price she’d paid–wasn’t worth it.

  I glanced at the glassy-eyed woman still hanging onto me, appraising her through a different lens.

  She was easy. Available. Willing to offer her blood to me. Why shouldn’t I take it? Why shouldn’t I fill myself with this woman? What did it matter now?

  I finished my latest drink an
d plunked the glass onto the counter. “Let’s go.”

  I didn’t grab her hand like I’d done to Charlotte so many times. I didn’t want to be that intimate with this woman. I just walked through the bar, assuming she’d follow.

  I found an empty room reserved for situations like this and waited for her to join me. When she walked in, there was a triumphant smile on her face, and I looked away.

  “Do you want me to glamour you?”

  “No, I like the pain,” she said, her voice deep and throaty. She probably thought it made her sound more attractive, but it just seemed like she was trying too hard to me.

  I walked across the room, not even able to meet her eyes. The woman tilted her head as I got close, her heart racing in her chest. I stopped just short of her and froze.

  I didn’t know how to proceed.

  I didn’t know how to touch her like this. How to feed without a connection between us. I had completely forgotten how to do this with a stranger.

  “Would you prefer to bite me somewhere else?” she asked in that low voice again.

  I shook my head and leaned in closer until I could smell her skin and feel the heat of her body on my face. I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply, trying to activate that hunter deep inside me. The one who craved blood, no matter whose it was. The one who would have no problem sinking their fangs into this woman’s neck and taking what they wanted.

  But he was nowhere to be found.

  Instead, all that was left was the pathetic man who’d broken his own heart while destroying another’s.

  And I realized in that instant that I couldn’t do this. Not tonight. Not with Charlotte’s scent still on my skin and the taste of her blood on my tongue.

  I blew out a frustrated breath and put a little distance between us. “Go back to the bar.”

  She jerked away, her brows furrowed. “What?”

  “I said go back to the bar. This isn’t happening.”

  The woman watched me for a few moments, her face growing incredulous. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “No. Just go.”

  She scoffed and spun around. “Whatever.”

  I didn’t bother to watch her leave. I didn’t really care if she went back to the bar or not, I just wanted her out of here.