Ambrosia (Nectar 2)

Kyla shivered, remembering the two men in the stairwell.

“What happened?”

“He bit me a bunch of times but didn’t get much blood because I kept knocking him back. It was like I was stronger than me but not strong enough. He kept coming at me. I kept feeling these, these…cold surges in my body with this strength I didn’t know I had but then it was gone. It was there but then it was gone.”

“Fuck.”

“Tristan, please feed.” She threw her arms around his neck, “Feed from me and make love to me, make love to me gentle and sweet and cover what he did and do it until I’m exhausted so I can sleep this off. I need to sleep some more. A lot more. I need to sleep this away.”

He shook his head, “I can’t fucking touch you that way.”

She choked on a sob, thinking that he wouldn’t touch her because he felt like she was still covered in his stench. Her heart plummeted to the bottom of her stomach.

“No, princess. It’s not what you think,” he whispered as she let out an audible sob.

“You’re ovulating,” he added.

“I’m what?”

“You’re ovulating.”

“I’m ovulating?”

“Yeah.”

“Ovulating?”

“Yes. I knew it the second I got to you outside the hotel in that alley.”

“How?”

“You just are. I can’t tell yet if he… if he fertilized...” The sourness on his face felt like a kick in the teeth, “It’ll take a few days for me to tell if---”

“He…he was inside for a second, barely inside, not even all the way. I don’t think he could’ve. As soon as he started to try to get in, Sam burst in.”

Tristan breathed out slow and squeezed his eyes shut tight, looking so relieved. But it only lasted a split second and then his eyes went stone cold, “You’re mine.”

“I know.”

“That motherfucker!” He flipped her and started scenting her all over. He inhaled at her stomach, put his nose between her legs, got back to her throat and inhaled.

He sat up and then let out a slow breath, “It’s too soon to tell but I don’t think he got you preg…” He didn’t finish the word, “I need to go. Find him. Fuckin’ kill him. How do I do that and keep you safe at the same time?”

“Honest, babe, he wasn’t even all the way in. Mostly it was his hand down there and at my chest. He’d only started to try to get in but he didn’t get far. I was so … so dry…”

He growled, looking like he wanted to smash something.

“Lure him to us,” she said, “then get rid of him.”

He nodded, “It might happen anyway. He wants more. I know he does. I don’t know if he can track you or not now that he’s fed multiple times. Adrian doesn’t think so. But if I fail…he’d drain you. Or, he’d get you pregnant and then you’d probably die giving birth to his, his...”

“Tristan,” she sighed, voice full of pain.

“Right now, all I want to do is get you pregnant. Then no one else can. I want to fuck you and feed from you so I’m sure to be strong enough to crush him and anyone else who comes after you. So you’re strong enough, too. You gain strength every time I feed, too, baby. It’s all I can do to stop myself. It’s like I have this primal need that I have to fight off. That probably means he didn’t get you and you’re still ovulating and I want to fuck you until you can’t walk, I want to plant my seed in you so fucking much. It’s all innate. All of this is. But if I do it, giving birth will probably kill you. If I leave you to go off and try to catch him, I put you at risk of being caught and killed or getting pregnant and if he doesn’t kill you, you probably die as you give birth to his baby.”

“God…”

“If I lure him to us, you’re not safe. If something went wrong… and there’s so much you don’t know. So many things I found out. Fuck. And you could’ve fought him off but you’re still weak from my almost draining you before and then not feeding from you yet today and I put you at that disadvantage so he fed and then he fed again, making him strong enough that you couldn’t fight him off. If he feeds again…I’m a bad guy, princess. I’m not good. I’m not your prince charming. The only reason I didn’t kill you out of hunger that first time is become of my bloodline and self-control. Vampires take. Kill. Deceive. It’s what we are. We are entitled, we believe humans are made to serve us. You were made to serve me.”

She shook her head.

“You were! Wait until you get the truth. Fuck. You’ll understand then. You need to know that we do not hesitate to kill, lie, steal, cheat. If you can’t serve us or feed us, we kill you. Unless we find a reason to turn you. Then you become what we are. If I didn’t love you and that love didn’t wake up some latent humanity in me, I’d kill you before sharing you with someone else.