Bitten by the Beast (Virgin Blood 1)

“Come on in,” Bishop says without looking up from his desk.

We all file in and stand there, waiting on him to stop what he’s doing and look up. It only takes a second before he’s putting down his pen and sitting back in his chair. Bishop might be the oldest vampire in the room, but he doesn’t look like it.

“So, it’s Friday night and everyone wanted to come see me at once? Family dinners are on Tuesdays, guys. You know the schedule.”

“Check out Kane’s dick!” Erik says excitedly.

I roll my eyes, and Ravana groans and drops her face in her hands as Ezra and Erik high five.

For a second Bishop looks like he might laugh, but then as his eyes lower they widen in shock. He stands up and glances over to Ravana then back to me. “Did you and—”

“No,” she and I say at the same time.

“Who is she then? Why isn’t she with you? Don’t you know separation in the first few months can be painful?” he says as he comes around the desk.

“She’s human,” Ravana says, and room goes silent. Bishop’s eyebrows pull together as he looks to her and then to me.

“Is that true?”

I nod. “She broke into my house tonight. She cut her arm on the gate sneaking in. I was only going to clean the wound and then tell her to leave, but the scent of her…” My mouth beings to water as I remember the smell of the roses. How sweet and innocent she would taste. My eyes feel heavy and my body throbs with the need to have her. To take her, if I must.

“Kane,” Bishop commands, and I snap out of my fog. “Sit down. We should talk about this.”

Bishop turns around and walks over to a stack of books on a table in the back. He starts going through them, flipping pages one after the other.

“Bishop, are you saying this has happened before? There’s a possibility that this is real?” Ezra asks as I take a seat in front of the desk and Ravana begins to pace.

“There are cases of it happening before, but it was a long time ago. There’s only one or two documented that I can remember.” He pauses for a second before grabbing a small book and bringing it over. “Here it is.”

Everyone gathers close as he reads the passage in the book. It’s from his creator, who is talking about it happening before his time. He says that it happened in an ancient bloodline and that the power we have can be connected to a human. The human we choose as our mate will become immortal just as we become immortal when we find them. We can drink their blood and it will sustain us until the end of time after our first bite and the venom enters their body.

Bishop sits back in his chair and I can see his mind is spinning. Ravana is silent as she looks at me, waiting for me to say something. The twins are whispering to one another and I tune them out because I knew the moment I smelled her blood that she belonged to me.

“This has a lot of complications,” Bishops says as he steeples his fingers in front of his face. “She won’t know anything about our world. Taking her as a mate is not a choice, but you have to be careful. If she finds out what we are and rejects you, this could kill you.”

As if the room wasn’t already silent, no one dares breathe a word at this news. I remember him telling me a long time ago that sometimes when a mate was killed the other would die soon after. I don’t know if there’s a history of a vampire being rejected, but I’m willing to take that risk. I would do anything to have my Juliet.

“I don’t like this,” Ravana says, and I turn to look at her. “I don’t like revealing our secrets to a human who might decide they don’t want this life.”

“Did any of us choose this life?” I counter and stand up. I can feel my anger rising again and I know it’s because I’m separated from the woman I want.

“No, but we didn’t have a choice. She does.” Ravana gets closer to me, and I can see her own anger bubbling up. “She could ruin everything we’ve built. All of this could come crashing down because you’re following your dick.”

She turns away from me and walks to the window. The sun isn’t far from rising now. I can feel it inside me.

“Either you all need to stay here, or you need to make your way home. This conversation is done for tonight. Kane.” Bishop and I lock eyes. “You are to stay put until we get this figured out.”