Essence (Nectar 3)

His expression darkened,

“Claudio and Liam both fed on you. They almost killed you. I had to turn you. I almost lost you. You almost died.” A muscle jerked in his clenched jaw.

She put the fork down.

“Finish that?” He jerked his chin at her plate.

“I’m just taking a breather, Mr. Bossy Pants. Start at the beginning.”

“You don’t remember anything?”

“I remember like… I was dreaming. It was all… blurry and foggy and I kept hearing you talk to me but your voice was far away. It was trippy. Like I was inside a kaleidoscope. And stoned.”

“You were mesmerized. Or like that. But worse.”

She frowned, ripped the plastic on the juice box straw with her teeth, removed the plastic and then jammed the straw in the hole and drank some. It was blah.

The omelette was awesome, though. Filled with cheese and sweet fried tomatoes with the perfect amount of black pepper. She forked up another bite.

“Claudio flooded the exam room with a gas that made me disoriented for a minute and I found him feeding on you. I stopped him. And then Liam was there, and he was fuckin’ feeding on you. He gave me a dagger jab and when I came to, you’d daggered him but he’d been feeding and you were barely there, bleeding out, that bastard on top of you. Adrian and I got him off and I had to turn you. You were gonna die. If I didn’t you wouldn’t have survived. I thought you were gone, lost to me. A vampress who’d hate my fucking guts. But I couldn’t let you die. I just couldn’t.”

She frowned, “I don’t feel like a vampire.”

“You’re not. Not exactly. I don’t know yet what your status is. When you woke up you were mesmerized, worse than mesmerized. You weren’t a vamp. You don’t have fangs. But you weren’t you. You were a goddamn shell and it was bad, so fuckin’ bad, princess. I couldn’t feel you. Your blood didn’t taste the same. You weren’t vamp but you weren’t you and I couldn’t feel anything coming from you. I wanted to kill. Kill everything and everyone around me. Somehow I kept it together and tried to get my head straight so that I could figure out what to do. Fuck, I don’t know if my head’ll be straight ever again after all that.

At first you were just a shell but then after a couple days you started to get sick. You were having seizures and high fevers and they kept getting worse. I finally tried feeding again, thinkin’ you were in withdrawals from my not feeding and you tasted like you, after not tasting like you. No, scratch that. You tasted like you but you tasted even better, like your menstrual blood. Which was fucked because I couldn’t feel you and you still weren’t you and the strength I’ve been getting from your blood since then, baby, it’s huge. It’s like it’s the nectar. Your blood, your menstrual blood, neither hold a candle to how your blood tastes now, how powerful it makes me feel. But unlike before, I have control now. I have new talents, I’m stronger. Than ever. I barely even had any before today and what little I did have, it was like a magic potion for me.”

She took another bite of the food and put the plate on the long oak chest of drawers that was against the wall and climbed back into bed and snuggled into his shoulder, looking up at his face. He put his arm around her and cupped her shoulder.

“You started tasting better but you were still out of it and I could feel you but only while I was feeding and I felt like I couldn’t even take much; you were so weak. There was something wrong, though. You were mesmerized, practically catatonic, and you were in pain but my diagnostic skills weren’t working. You were desperate for something. You kept getting worse and I couldn’t help you. I’ve never been so frustrated, so lost in my life.”

She kissed the hinge of his jaw and gave a squeeze.

“And then I just woke up?” she asked.

“No. There’s more.” His expression darkened again.

Yikes.

He took a big breath, “I found out some things. I found out some things about your family, your past. This is a lot to take in. Maybe we oughta get you some sleep and then talk some more after we sleep. It’s like 3 o’clock in the morning.”

“I’m not tired. I feel like I’ve been asleep for weeks. Are you tired?”

“Exhausted. Can’t wait to sleep properly knowing you’re here, really here.”

“Oh.”

He snuggled her close, “Here’s the condensed version. But I’m knackered so will you save the who/what/when/why for tomorrow?”

“Can’t promise that. But go…”

He smiled huge, with dimples.

“I found out you have family that might’ve been able to share their blood with you, hoped that blood in your veins’d help bring you back. So we tried that and it didn’t work. I found that family and brought you to him and Sasha, she’s a doctor, Sam’s sister, she tried it and it didn’t work and you were getting worse so I started to lose it. I had her and Sam watch over you and I went back to Arizona to find out if there was blood or some other mystery in Adrian’s lab or on his compound that’d help. You were at death’s door when Sasha told me she got a tip that I needed to get back here and feed you my blood. That you needed to consume my blood to save you. And it did. I opened my hand, fed it to you, and you opened your eyes almost immediately and you were you. You were at death’s fuckin’ door, baby. You crashed and Sasha had to fucking put paddles to your chest. I hadn’t had more than a split second of the real you in days that felt like years and then here you are. I daggered Adrian and brought him with me with a pile of his lab shit. I have a whack of shit to figure out now. I have to talk to Sasha and find out about your needing my blood and what this all means. You’re not vamp but yet you needed my blood to bring you back from the brink of death. I don’t know why yet.”