“How many years?” I repeated dumbly.
“How many years…” He approached slowly. “…have you craved the blood?”
I sucked in a breath as shame washed over me. Shame that I had hidden it from the only family I had ever known.
Shame that it was a secret I’d kept my entire existence.
“Since my first hunt,” I admitted in a grief-filled voice before I slapped the steak onto a plate, grabbed utensils, and fled the room.
SERENITY
My body was still buzzing from the contact of his mouth. My heart felt like it was cracking, and I had no idea why. What I did know?
I needed some sort of blood if I was going to get my energy up. Normally, I had my small apartment stocked for emergencies.
Well, this was an emergency.
A bird chirped outside my window.
I shuddered. Gross.
The idea of killing a tiny innocent bird made me want to puke. I was officially the worst vampire in existence. I couldn’t even kill right. In fact, I’d never killed before. Most of my kind at least enjoyed the hunt, but I hated it. I hated the fear I saw in creatures’ eyes.
Besides, it was not like we needed to hunt. It was more of a hobby for people now that modern technology made it easy for us to take blood however we needed it.
We survived off blood and food — both helped nourish. Where food kept our bodies running, blood kept us young and viciously strong. It was like taking a drug that promised perfect vision, hearing, and all of the above.
The vampires that had died out were the ones that had wanted a real life with humans. There wasn’t a timetable of death for our kind; we were immortal. But the problem with introducing humans as mates?
It caused vampires to want to die.
Why exist outside of the family you helped create?
My own parents were no longer alive, choosing to die together rather than live another hundred years.
They had left me enough money to live comfortably.
But part of me felt… angry.
And a huge part of me believed I hadn’t been enough for them to stay, that my love for my parents wasn’t even a flicker of the love they had held for each other.
I hated the whole immortal code.
The mating process meant you weren’t yourself anymore but part of something bigger. I didn’t understand how people could say that mating was so great and wonderful when it made you forget about your own child.
Or abandon them.
It had been my job to plan their funeral. They’d made a big deal about it. Mom had gotten dressed up. Dad had worn a tux.
And I’d had to sit there and watch them wither away. I had even offered my veins, but they’d politely declined. And then they were gone.
Dust.
I swallowed past the lump in my throat as a vision of them holding hands fell to the forefront of my mind. The smile on their lips… The way they’d died together looking at one another…
Rather than at me.
Their only daughter.