Bond Deeper Than Blood

“Go on, Laurent,” Beck says, his red eyes glinting as he feeds from his maid. “You’ve shown incredible restraint. Reward yourself.”

I bring the maid’s wrist to my lips. Without preamble, I nick her flesh with my teeth and then latch on, taking greedy pulls of her blood. While the maids eat a strict diet to keep their blood infused with nutrients we need and the taste an optimum flavor, she doesn’t sate my thirst like she should. Her blood tastes bland. The blood I crave is from Castilla.

Once Beck has had his fill, he licks away the wound on his maid’s wrist, using his healing saliva to close the wound. I quickly follow suit, mimicking his actions. It was only after Beck saved me that I realized I had powers. I can’t teleport as he does, but I have unique hearing and can dreamwalk.

“We need Castilla to aid in our agenda,” Beck says, dabbing his lips with his napkin. “I can uphold my end of the bargain with her daughter, but she’ll need to uphold hers in helping me. You’ll have to refrain from taking your prize until we’ve completed this mission.”

My prize being her.

“She’s my stepdaughter,” I remind him, my morals fragile and cracking due to time passed and what I’ve become.

“That all ended the night you were turned,” Beck replies. “Besides, the way you held and touched her tonight says you don’t believe in that relationship anymore. You want another one. And not just to drain her. You want to keep her.”

A growl rumbles through me. “Damn right I do.”

“Perhaps you’ll be able to if you can control your urges. She certainly seems taken with the idea of you. Had I not intervened tonight, you might have bedded her and who only knows what.”

“I’m everything she hates.”

“For now,” he says. “Next time you dreamwalk, talk to her. Get to know her. Our kind, in the past, have used dreamwalking as a way to forge relationships with our human counterparts. To create a bond between a mate who can sate our needs in every way. In the past, our kind was skilled at mating with someone in order to keep us from devouring every person with a pulse. It’s the greed of those in recent centuries that have dropped those ideals and gone with their instinct to feed rather than mate. I see, though, you’re a lot like me. The urge to mate, claim, own overpowers your thirst. This is something we can work with.”

“What if I bite her?” I croak out.

“You will.” He shrugs. “She’ll probably be angry about it too. Doesn’t change the fact that she’s yours and you’re hers. Might should warn the dear girl that it’ll happen and what to expect so she doesn’t drive a stake through your heart.”

“Speaking of stakes…” I frown at him.

“Don’t worry, Laurent,” he says with a chuckle. “I left them in the apartment before we left. I wouldn’t leave her defenseless. Not when she has the ruby stakes at her disposal.”

“Those were my mother’s,” I reveal.

“I know.” He winks at me. “Why don’t you go lie down? I don’t want you to miss your dreamwalk. It’ll be dawn soon so you don’t have much time.”

“Do you hear it?” I ask, dragging my thumb over her plump bottom lip.

“No.” Her brows furl and she pouts. “Why do I keep dreaming about you?”

“Because you want me to bite you, Castilla.”

She gasps in horror. “I most certainly do not want that.”

“You do,” I tease with a grin, baring my fangs. “And I will grant your wish. But it’ll have to be in person. Your dreams don’t count.”

Her body relaxes at my words. “You can’t hurt me in my dreams?”

“I can’t hurt you ever.”

“But you just said you want to bite me,” she argues.

“You will like it.”

“You’re here again.”

“Every night. I’m a dreamwalker. I can visit every day until your death if I want.”

She sighs, though not at all annoyed. “Maybe I don’t want you in my dreams.”

“Then stop letting me in.”

“I’m not letting you in!”

“I can’t force what you don’t want, Castilla. It doesn’t work that way.”

Her body tenses and she frowns. “I’m used to people taking what they want. I fight back now, though.”

I stroke my fingers through her hair. “Someone hurt you.”

“He did,” she says, her eyes watering, “but I was given Mercy, so I suppose it’s okay.”

“It’s never okay for someone to hurt you. I will slaughter anyone who tries.”

“You’re not my boyfriend.” She huffs. “You’re my stepfather.”

“Really?” I murmur, dipping down to kiss her supple lips. “Because if that were true, you wouldn’t let me kiss you like this.”

She moans and I deepen the kiss. Her fingers grip my hair as she pulls me closer. I wish this weren’t a dreamwalk and in reality.

“Soon,” I whisper against her lips. “I’ll kiss you in real life soon.”