Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Icouldn’t stop staring at Hans as he prepared my steak. The sizzle of it in the pan had my stomach rumbling. I was ravenous.

He was dressed in a burgundy dressing gown that suited the gothic decor, and I was a stark contrast, in one of my oversized sweaters from the rail in the drawing room. Smears of blood were already showing through the fabric. It would make a fitting Halloween outfit.

“And you would make a fitting Halloween creature of the night,” Hans said, giving me a smile over his shoulder. “It’s only a few days away. How do you usually celebrate?”

I felt almost embarrassed to admit my lack of a social circle in Orcop.

I shrugged. “Watching movies and eating bat-shaped candy.”

He laughed. “How about this year? How do you think we’ll be spending it?”

“Maybe getting bitten and having another round of crazy sex in your boudoir.”

“That’s a staple from now on, Katherine.” He presented my steak, oozing with blood. “Bon appetite.”

I was straight on it, moaning as the bloody meat melted in my mouth. Even though the steak was a huge one I was done in a few minutes, tops.

“Excellent work,” he said. “Shame I don’t have any bat-shaped candy to follow, or strawberry jam for that matter, but we’ll get the cupboards stocked up for you.”

Who’d have ever thought I’d be in a vampire’s house talking about the domesticity of cupboards stocked with strawberry jam? I almost laughed out loud, it was so surreal.

One thing that was already becoming less surreal was my easiness around Hans. Despite the crazy fact he’d sucked blood from me and taken my virginity with his huge vampire cock, plus actually killed a criminal before my eyes, it was already so natural to watch him across the breakfast bar. Me watching him as he watched me.

Maybe it was his smile, or his care, or the way he was so at ease with himself. Maybe it was because I was already a tiny bit familiar with him from Regency in my brief stint working there. Or maybe it was–

“Feeling not thinking, remember?” he said with a smirk. “Believe me, you can drive yourself insane with a mind running riot.”

“I’ve got plenty to be thinking about, don’t you think?”

“True.”

I leant back on my stool, wincing a little at the pain. I was still staring at him.

“You must have been thinking so much that you were driving yourself crazy at some point?” I asked him. “Your mind must have been in turmoil when you were turned into a vampire in the first place, suddenly undead after being tortured in Garway church.”

He tipped his head. “Undead is quite a potent term for vampire. I prefer transformed. My flesh died, but I didn’t. Call it a transition that takes over. It didn’t change who I was, just gave me a lot longer to explore it.”

“And a lot longer to think about it too?”

“Well, when you put it like that. Yes.”

He got me a glass of water and placed it down in front of me.

“Make sure you keep hydrated.”

I loved the way he was so attentive, with care in his eyes. It was quite an intense combination of authority and almost parental care, mixed with the unmistakable buzz of sexual attraction. How did that work? And that wasn’t the entirety of it, either. What other subtle dynamics were playing on different frequencies between us?

“Like I said, feeling not thinking,” Hans said. “Don’t try to fathom the unfathomable. Life is complicated. Souls are both too simple and too complex to understand all at once.”

I held my hands up. “Busted! I’ll try to keep my brain spinning to a minimum. Not sure how well I’ll succeed, though.”

I failed miserably in a heartbeat, since another question came out of nowhere.

“What happened to the people around you when you became a vampire? Did you have friends? A family? There must have been so much that changed.”

“That’s a deep one to answer at 5 a.m.” He yawned but I’m sure it was faked.

“Maybe give me a condensed version?”

“Hmm.”

He looked wistful as his mind turned inwards, no doubt looking back a long, long time.

“I was devoted to the Church and my role in the Templars. One of the vows was celibacy, so I didn’t have a family. My parents were in Normandy. I wrote letters but hadn’t seen them in years. I had grief for the people I lost, yes, but that grief was mainly for the brothers being interrogated to death all around me. Plenty of us got taken down.”

I felt like I’d overstepped the mark by probing so deep into his past, but he took my hand.

“You can ask questions. As I said, I’m happy to answer them. Just make sure you want to know the answers before you voice them aloud.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” I squeezed his fingers. “Your life is fascinating.”

He looked straight into my eyes, and something in his expression made it clear once more that he knew an awful lot I didn’t. It made sense that he would do, clearly, since he’d been alive seven hundred years to my measly eighteen, but it didn’t feel like it was purely historical knowledge he had over me. It felt like extra knowledge about me.

The trapdoor.

“And there we go with the thoughts again.” He let go of my hand and patted it. “Be careful.”

I wanted to ask him straight out just what the hell I was sensing in my subconscious that was scaring the shit out of me, but I kept my mouth shut this time.

I’d figured that the trapdoor had only appeared since meeting Hans, but had it? Didn’t I have a sense of it from a long, long time ago, when I was a kid asking Mum and Grandma questions? It was just a whisper of the past, but whispers often tell more truth than shouting.

I’d always been shouted down and told to stop living in fairy tales. My questions about the depths of my dreams had always been met with nothing.

Did I want to know now? Did I want to know the answers from Hans?

The idea gave me an eerie tickle up my spine.

No. I didn’t. Not yet.

I stretched my arms and yawned, finally accepting my exhaustion.

“Time for bed,” Hans said.

We headed up the stairs hand in hand. My vampire guided me to an armchair in his bedroom and sat me down while he went to the fridge and poured a fresh glass of water for me.

Again, I felt like a little girl, so looked after it was beautiful. Safety in the care of a vampire, who’d have even considered it? I’d have expected to be either dead or a vampire myself by now.

I hadn’t voiced that to myself before…

Dead or a vampire?

I drank my water while Hans bolted us into the bedroom, and my mind kept going through those same two outcomes.

Dead or a vampire?

Well, I certainly wasn’t dead yet, and didn’t think Hans was going to suck my blood completely dry anytime soon, but what about the other option? What about being a vampire myself?

“I can hear your thoughts, you know,” Hans commented as he hung his robe up on a hanger. Of course my eyes went straight to his naked butt… and then to his beautiful cock when he turned to face me.

“Yes, I do know you can hear my thoughts,” I said, my gaze eventually meeting his. “So, are you going to make me a vampire one day?”

I wasn’t really asking the question seriously, not right then. I was still so heady from a bloodthirsty fucking and a huge steak.

“That would be a massive commitment,” he told me, his eyes so serious.

I felt like an idiot for asking. Yes, it would be a massive commitment, he’d likely be stuck with me clinging onto him for all time…

“No, that’s not what I meant,” he said. “Not a massive commitment for me, but for you.”

I played it light.

“I can decide now, if you like? I’ll happily be a vampire with you, Hans. Convert me now.”

His eyes were still serious

“Steady, and be careful what you wish for. You’re blood-play drunk. You haven’t even tasted vampire blood yet. Only your own, and that of a rapist.”

My mouth must have dropped open, not quite understanding.

“You mean I could taste vampire blood without turning into a vampire?”

“Yes,” he answered simply.

It reinforced in an instant just how little I knew about his life, and his experiences, and the true nature of being a vampire. I knew sweet FA. My knowledge all came from novels and movies.

“There are many different beliefs about our lifestyle,” Hans said as he began to change the bedsheets. “Don’t criticise yourself for ignorance.”

“Yes, but I should’ve asked before assuming.”

“You’ve had more than enough questions on your mind lately.”

“There are some questions that are totally obvious, though. I just figured…”

My naked vampire started fluffing up the pillows. What a sight. And how surreal.

“Yes, you figured vampires take victims, and create more of their own kind by offering their own blood in return, and that is true. As I said to you, that’s what dear Edwin offered me. But as with everything else in this world, there are levels.”

“Levels?”

“It takes a fair amount of vampire blood to convert a human body to fully vampiric. Call it a beautiful poison. A lethal dose of rat poison will kill a rat, yes, but a token dose likely won’t. The rat will feel it, most certainly, but it won’t take its life away.”

I nodded, following his words. I kept on listening, totally consumed.

“You’ll see this for yourself in the blood house.” He stepped on over to me. This time my eyes stayed on his. “Rat poison is a poor parallel, you’ll observe that clearly when you see the blood games at work.”

I got a shiver. The blood house. It would be so intriguing that I’d be tingling in private places like a dirty bystander. It would be so much fun. Forbidden. Filthy.

“No more questions now. Let’s get ready for bed.” His hand met mine and I was pulled lightly to my feet.

I threw off my blood-stained sweater and followed him into the bathroom, for hair brushing and teeth cleaning. All I could think about was the blood house, wondering just what blood games would be happening with experienced victims. Players.

“They are players, yes? That’s what people are called?” I asked and Hans sighed as we slipped under the bedcovers together.

“What did we say about questions?” He switched the light off. “Yes, they are blood players. As are you now.”

He pulled me close, so my head was on his chest and his arms were wrapped tight around me. We were locked up safe in the steel box again, and I loved it. It was beginning to feel like home.

His voice was a whisper.

“When do you want to see the blood house? How strong is the pull in your veins?”

I sighed, comfortable in his arms.

“Your turn for questions now, is it?”

“I think the scales are very lopsided on the question score, don’t you? I’m owed some answers.”

“Yes, but you’re also a mind reader. You know when I want to see the blood house. You know about the pull in my veins.”

He kissed my forehead, his full lips so deliciously warm.

“Yes, but some things need to be spoken aloud.” He tipped my face to his in the darkness. “So, I’m asking you. When do you want to see the blood house?”

I let my instincts guide me, common sense left behind. I was thrilled at the idea of seeing a blood house in action, meeting blood players who were going as crazy as I was. I needed the sense of solidarity in my brand new world.

“As soon as possible,” I admitted. “I want to see it all.”

He stroked my hair. “You really are the curious little soul I believed you’d be. I can’t wait to see how the years unfold for us.”

Years…

Us.

Feeling… I felt him in my heart right then.

“We can go tomorrow night,” he said.

I would have clapped my hands in gratitude if I hadn’t felt the swell of his huge vampire cock against my thigh.

Seems I wasn’t the only one keen to visit a blood house tomorrow night…

I was definitely growing in confidence. It was me who slipped further underneath the covers and took his cock in my mouth as deep as it would go. Trusting my initiative. Feeling, not thinking.

It worked.

This time I got a full-blown taste of vampire cum, without even a hint of blood along with it.

He bucked and grunted, and held my hair in the heat of passion as he unloaded straight into my mouth. I felt like a porn star in the making as I smacked my lips with pride and took my place back in his arms.

“Well done, and thank you very much,” he said to me. “You really are a fast learner.”

“You’re welcome,” I said.

“Your turn next,” he told me, and flipped me onto my back in one fast motion.

Oh wow. Here it came again. Here I came again – hard and fast, gripping his gorgeous dark vampire hair as he ate my pussy.

“Bite me, please!” I begged again, but no.

“Patience,” he said. “You’ve had your fair share of bites tonight. You will have to make do with pure, bloodless kisses and hard, deep cock instead.”

“I think I’ll manage,” I said with a dirty grin on my face.