7. Silas

The smellof burning bodies is unlike any other I've ever smelled in my life, and when your sense of smell is heightened, it's even worse. Like the foulest barbecue you've ever experienced. The Afflicted smell especially bad. It makes my stomach churn.

The bonfires burn high, and that makes me uneasy. There were a lot this time. Too fucking many. We've gotten reports that there are more of them now. Some of the neighboring colonies were attacked and weren't able to defend themselves. Huge losses of human life, more infected vamps, and now more Afflicted.

I jam my hands into my pockets, walking around the bonfires. My hands curl into fists as I think of that Afflicted almost clawing its way into her, almost biting her.

Juliet. It's a name that suits her, as pretty as her face. Those freckles, the pouty, rosy lips, the long blonde hair. She looks like a painting, like something that's just walked out of a classic play. And her body, well there are enough fantasies of what I'd do to that body of hers floating around in my head to keep me awake for a century.

I shake my head at myself as I make my way to the officer's hall. Fucking fool. I'm obsessed with a woman who cannot stand the sight of me. The way she looked at me after I'd saved her, after she thanked me for saving her - even in that moment of gratitude, she still looked at me as though I was nothing but a predator. I can't blame her. She hates the vamps, and why wouldn't she? What reason have I given her to want to trust me?

That doesn't make me any less obsessed.

Braun and Kaleb are sitting at the table in the officer's hall, a carafe of fresh blood sitting between them. They raise their glasses to me as I walk in.

"Evening!" Braun smiles widely, his teeth lined purple-red. "Smells incredible out there doesn't it?"

"Yeah, like a barbecue full of rotten fish, just lovely," I reply, picking up the carafe and filling a glass. "What do we have tonight, gentlemen?"

"A+, and a very good year." Kaleb picks up the empty blood bag and reads the label. "Aged 24 years apparently, female, 4211487."

My mouth goes dry. It's Juliet's blood. My musings over how she tastes are about to be answered, and the anticipation rushes into my lungs like acid. I pause with the glass at my lips, and just the coppery scent hitting the back of my throat is enough to have me biting back a groan.

"Not to your taste?" Kaleb asks, swirling the glass in his hand like he's consuming a fine cognac. "She tastes great to me."

"I'd like to get it fresher than this, though." Braun's hacking laugh is sickening, but Kaleb seems to enjoy the joke and joins in. Idiots.

I roll my eyes, taking a swig of the cool blood. Oh fuck. Fuck. Even though it's not fresh, even though it's barely tepid and accompanied by the maniacal cackling of two absolute tossers - all I can think about in that moment is Juliet. She tastes incredible. Sweet and spicy, with almost a hint of vanilla, how is that even possible? She runs down my throat and sets every single vein in my body alight.

Kaleb bursts out laughing, slapping his thigh. "Oh yeah, he likes that one, look at his eyes!"

Braun smirks at me, leaning back in his chair. "I told you. Imagine getting that fresh." His eyes sweep over my groin, making my skin crawl. "Imagine having her fresh. She's pretty darn cute."

"Which one is she?" Kaleb asks, taking another sip of her blood. I have to restrain myself so I don't knock the glass out of his hand.

Braun lets out a low whistle. "That one with the blonde hair and all the freckles. A real fresh Georgia peach that one. Her ass is a little small, but for the rest of her, I could live with it."

"Oh yeah, she is hot." Kaleb gives me a lascivious grin. "I like watching her shower. Those tits are-" He puts two fingers and his thumb to his mouth, puffing them away with an exaggerated kissing sound.

I down the rest of Juliet's blood in one gulp, electric sweetness burning across my tongue and soothing the boiling rage I feel at their words. "Good night, gentlemen."

Braun's disgusting, hacking laugh bursts from between his blood-lined lips again. "Yeah, we know what you need to go do now." He rubs a hand across his crotch. "Got a feeling I'll be doing the same."

Amidst their jibes and guffaws, I leave the hall. God, they're disgusting. Feral and animalistic, everything that's wrong with the vamps, everything that made the humans call us feeders in the first place.

And both are absolutely right. I'm so hard right now I feel like I'm going to lose my fucking mind. Juliet's blood is magical. I knew it would be. Her smell is intoxicating, like the sweetest perfume I've ever smelled. That night when I smelled her getting herself off, it took all my willpower not to drag her out of her bed and straight into mine, like some fucking caveman.

But coupling her scent with the taste of her blood, I don't even know how to resist anymore. Goddammit. This is bad.

I walk along the line of cabins, taking the two steps up into mine in one stride, and slam the door behind me. My body is on edge, my fangs digging into my lips, my chest heaving. I don't need to breathe anymore, but arousal still has the same effect on me as it did when I was human. My heart is hammering in my chest, and I tear my clothes off, heading straight for the shower. I need relief from this.

I turn on the taps, and as I lick my lips I find a small speck of her there, in the corner of my mouth. I slam a fist into the wall as my cock twitches. Fuck.

Under the warm water, I hold onto her taste as I fist my cock. I feel her blooming on my tongue, imagining her in here with me. I pump myself, picturing her against the wall, legs wrapped around my hips as I sink into her. I can practically hear her crying out for me. I can almost feel that cunt clenching around me as I bite her, sinking my fangs into that soft neck.

I brace myself against the shower wall as I keep jerking myself off, imagining her bent over in front of me, screaming my name as I fuck her from behind.

I wonder if her pussy tastes as good as her blood. I bet it does. Of course it does.

I groan as I release, my cock pulsing in my hand, spilling hot jets of cum down the shower wall. Fuck what I wouldn't give to have her in here with me. I press my hands flat against the shower wall, wishing it would somehow help. I need to calm down. She's not for me. I can't have her.

And I'm instantly filled with fury as I think of her in bed with that fucker, that useless impotent fuck head from the breeding farm. Smelling him on her was torture. Carrying her over my shoulder and smelling him - no. His life was in danger. I meant it when I said I'd tear his head off.

But she wants him. Not me.

I shove myself off the tiles and shut the water off. What the fuck is wrong with me?

I haven't been interested in a human in years. I had no reason to be. They were food, something we had to protect but maintain a distance from. Sure, I'm still a man. I still noticed when someone was attractive. But Juliet has me entranced. She's different.

No she isn't. I try to reason with myself. She's a pretty bloodbag with nice legs and fantastic tits and a cunt that smells like heaven and blood to match. You're like a fucking teenager, get a grip.

But I can't convince myself that she's nothing and no one. I can't convince myself that this is nothing but a teenage crush. I can't even lie to myself.

Fuck's sakes.

I dry myself off, determined to sleep. It's been a few days and I should really rest. But the tension won't let me go. This is going to drive me insane. I make a mental note to check every bag of blood before I drink, to make sure it's not hers. Or maybe, to make sure it is hers, and no one else gets to taste her.

Bloodbag 4211487.

I pull on a pair of sweatpants and head outside, down the steps of my cabin and to the one three doors down. I knock on the door, waiting a moment before I hear movement on the other side. The door opens to reveal a short vamp with shoulder-length red hair and big, rust-brown eyes. She grins as she takes in my appearance.

"Well hey there." Her eyes take me in hungrily. "You need something, Silas?"

"You know I do, Sam." I lean on the door frame, looking her up and down. She's dressed in tiny white shorts and a thin white tank top, her nipples peaking under the fabric. "You busy?"

"For you, I'll make time." She grabs the waistband of my pants and pulls me inside. The door falls closed as she slams me against it, her mouth wandering over my chest. I rake my hands through her hair as her fangs drag along my skin.

Fucking Sam is always fun. Thank god we both got a promotion, because being buried in her ass is the perfect relief from any pent-up tension. She's crazy, a lot older than me but just as strong. She's put me through a wall before.

Sam jumps into my arms, kissing me ferociously as I carry her to the bed.

"No, over there." She shakes her head, pointing to the desk. "I want you to bend me over it."

"So bossy." I nip at her lips as she grins at me. But I take her to the desk, spinning her around once she's on her feet and slamming her down on its surface. "Now, are you going to keep your hands there like a good girl?"

"Only if you finish in my ass." She arches back against me as I slide a hand into her shorts.

"I'd love to." I bite her earlobe as I tear her shorts down her legs. I push down my sweatpants and sink into her. She's a lot shorter than me, so I have to grip her hips to lift her up to me, but that just makes her so much tighter.

She cries out, clawing into the desk and leaving big gaping scratch marks in the wood. We've destroyed three beds, two desks and fourteen chairs together. Not to mention that wall.

"Harder," she moans.

I pound into her, and a choked gasp leaves her throat. "Greedy little slut, always wanting it harder. You want me to fuck your ass this hard too?"

"Oh god, yes." She braces her hands against the desk, trying to straighten up, but I grab the back of her head and slam her back down. I curl my hand around the back of her neck, squeezing hard as I hiss in a breath.

"Only good girls get it in the ass. Now stay fucking down."

"I fucking hate you," she says over a breathless laugh. "You feel too good."

I hook a hand under her knee, forcing it up onto the desk so I sink even deeper into her, and she yelps.

"Fuck." She hisses. "You're too fucking big."

I'm suddenly overcome with the sensation of Juliet's blood running down my throat, and I feel myself become impossibly harder inside Sam's cunt. Fuck, this was meant to make me feel better. This was meant to relieve my tension, not make it worse.

Sam clenches around me as she comes. Her fingers curl around the corner of the desk, which comes apart in her hands in a shower of wood chips as she screams. "Fuck, fuck."

She trembles and pants with anticipation as I bite open my wrist, coating my cock in my blood. I drip blood down between the creamy cheeks of her ass, and she shudders. I push the blunt head of my cock to her puckered entrance, and she whimpers as I ease myself into her.

"Silas, you're going to break me."

"Good." I slam into her, and she screams. The other vamps will hear us but I don't care. They'll have heard us before.

Fucking hell, her ass is so tight. I thank 20-year-old Silas who thought it would be a good idea to get a cock piercing, because right now the dragging pressure of that metal bar is so fucking good I can't see straight. She reaches back for me, and I curl my fingers around her wrist, forcing her arm against her back.

"Yeah." Her voice is barely audible over my own moans, over the sound of the desk creaking under us. "Oh god, yeah."

I close my eyes, my body tensing with heat as my climax builds. And suddenly it's Juliet's arms under my hands, her screams and whimpers meeting my ears. It's Juliet coated in my blood. The vision is so vivid, like daylight searing itself onto the backs of my eyelids.

My whole body ripples with release as I roar, coming so hard I'm sure I've crushed Sam's bones to dust in my hands. I'm gasping for air I don't need, my blood on fire. Holy fuck. Holy shitting fuck.

But Sam just laughs, slumping on the desk as I pull out of her.

"Jesus," she murmurs, "that was incredible." Her ass is covered in blood and cum and sweat, and when I look down at myself I don't look much better. It always looks like a massacre when vamps fuck.

"You OK?" I ask as she turns around, perching on the edge of the scratched up, splintered desk.

She pushes the hair from her sweaty face with the back of her hand. "Yeah, why?"

"That was, it was intense."

She grins and reaches out, running her fingers down my chest. "Silas, you're always intense. Not many men fuck the way you do."

"And what way is that?" I ask, pulling up my sweatpants.

"Like you want to own me or kill me."

Her words make me pause for a moment, and when I meet her eyes, she tilts her head.

"Something wrong?"

I shake my head quickly. "No, I'm fine. Always am after we're done."

"Well, you know, anytime." She watches me leave, giving me a lascivious smile as I pause at the door. "Good seeing you, Silas."

"You too, Sam."

I head back to my cabin, the night air cooling the sweat on my skin. Like you want to own me or kill me. Sam can't know the impact those words had on me. The feelings I've fought for years. The feelings my maker tried to persuade me weren't real.

I stand under my shower, washing the blood, cum and Sam's scent off me. When I close my eyes, letting the hot water cascade over my face, the specter of Juliet returns almost instantly. Her arm around my waist, her cheek resting gently against my back. That was incredible, Silas. Just the thought of her saying my name sends volts of pleasure down my spine, and I'm hard again.

Then it's her hand stroking my length, her fingers flicking over my cock ring, her hot breath against my neck as I come with her name on my lips.

Fuck.

This girl has me in a chokehold.

This is really fucking bad.