20. Chapter 20

Chapter twenty

" Y ou're here early," he said, surprised. Normally, I'd be at the office for another hour at least. I hadn't realized that I had forgotten to tell him that I would be arriving to take him to the party as soon as the sun went down. I supposed it didn't matter now.

"Felix," I said, voice dangerously low. One step, two steps, three steps closer. The man didn't move. Felix didn't either. He looked…caught, like he didn't know what to do.

His eyes swam with emotion.

"I realize—because I have been informed by Winnifred, the sister that you met, with the freckles—" I added, because I wasn't certain he'd remember her. "That I have never formally asked you for exclusivity."

Felix balked, eyes widening significantly. "Exclusivity?" he blinked, obviously confused. "Marshall, what—"

"I want the guests to stop." My hands were shaking. God, I hated telling people my boundaries. "I don't want to share you anymore."

Felix' s expression softened, the odd bloody-looking mess on his lips distracting me. "You're not sharing me."

"I want to be your boyfriend," I said, my heart racing.

Still, the stranger didn't move. It was like he wasn't there at all. Merely a mannequin. Distantly, I recognized that this was odd. That all of this was odd. That it hadn't looked like Felix was engaged with him in anything intimate at all, and therefore I had no idea why he was over in the first place.

Still, I felt that sense of helplessness I had when I'd seen the car in the driveway and thought I hadn't satisfied him.

"I understand that you have certain needs."

"Do you?" Felix's voice wavered. His lips were red, red, red. "Marshall, I don't think you do."

"I will fuck you eighty times a day if it means I will satisfy you."

"You already satisfy me."

"Then why is there a man in your house?" I didn't mean to yell. I didn't. But it just kind of…happened anyway? "Why, Felix? Why is there an endless parade of suitors banging down your door even though I am right here." My eyes were burning, and I couldn't seem to make them stop. Tears spilled down my cheeks and I hurt. I hurt so much.

"If I need to tell you to be my boyfriend, I will. If I need to tie you up and hide you away, I will. But I'm tired of sharing . You are the only person I've ever wanted and it's not fair that you don't want me the same way. "

"But I do," Felix's voice wobbled. I could see his hands shaking. Could see the way he shrank in on himself. "I want you more than anything. I want you more than I…" he sucked in a breath, and a trembly, broken gasp rang out.

Felix put his thoughts together, and I let him. Because I was too busy being a crybaby to do anything but stare and shake and try to piece together the truth.

"I want you…" Felix tried again, steadier this time, "more than I want my old life back. I want you more than I want to be who and what I was before I became this . I want you more than I want gray hair, or wrinkles, or to be a real person."

"Nothing you're saying makes any sense." My hands felt sweaty and hot, my pulse racing. "And you are a real person. I don't…I don't understand." Maybe I was blind. In hindsight, I totally was. I'd missed all the signs. But in my defense, why would a man who was rooted in reality the way I was, ever guess that such a fantastical conclusion was the truth?

"I'm not a real person," Felix countered, and his eyes were wet. "Unless I'm…with you."

When I'm with you, I'm not lonely. I don't feel like a ghost.

"Oh." The aching parts of me settled as easily as they'd been riled. I knew I still was missing something. The secret he'd kept. And as Felix's tongue flickered out to swipe away the remaining blood on his lip, my brain began to whir.

One step, two steps, three steps.

I moved closer to him, because I needed him more than I needed my next breath .

Winnie's words from earlier in the summer came back to haunt me.

"You can't expect him to follow rules when you haven't even told him what they are."

"I want to be your forever," I said for the second time since we'd begun dating. "I want to be your only forever. I want all of your attention, all the time. And one day—I plan to marry you."

The cats were nowhere to be found, mysteriously not attempting to trip me as I crossed the distance between me and my target. The man that Felix had somehow paralyzed, still had not moved. He hadn't turned to speak, hadn't interrupted. Still as a statue, but more uncanny, because he was flesh and blood and he should not have been so…frozen.

If he'd had any self-preservation at all he would've run.

But he apparently did not, because he continued to stand facing Felix. Continued to stare at him, despite the fact that I was currently hunting him. Two steps more, and suddenly…the side of his neck became visible.

I nearly stumbled with a sickening lurch, my hands clenched into fists.

Was that…?

No.

No.

It couldn't be—

But it…it was .

Without pausing my stride, I took in this new reality with a clarity I hadn't felt before. The world spun, but the stranger's neck remained painfully in focus as I stared at it. As I stared at the bite mark on it.

It only took me a second to recognize what it was, and who it came from—as Felix had left similar bruises all over my own body. I'd recognize the shape of his peculiar teeth anywhere. Only Felix had always been careful with me—only ever accidentally nicking me. And this man's bite weeped . Blood slipped coppery red down his throat, drip, drip dripping.

I'd interrupted them.

Felix.

Feeding.

One quick glance to Felix proved my suspicions correct. The red that was smeared across his lovely lips was very obviously blood. I just hadn't…realized. How hadn't I realized? For a man who was rather intimate with the substance, I was apparently quite obtuse. And Felix looked… God , did he look perfect, especially now that I knew what was decorating his delicious mouth.

Gorgeous and feral.

A wild, wicked thing.

All lean powerful muscles—compact and useful. A predator's build.

His eyes glowed luminous and red.

His fangs glinted.

Fangs .

Because that was what they were.

Because Felix was a vampire.

Because Felix's paramours were apparently not paramours at all but sustenance. And the kills he'd managed were truly accidents. Probably as accidental as overheating packaged food in the microwave, or leaving a pot on the stove long enough it burned.

He'd simply drank too much.

And they…well… They'd paid the price.

My thoughts were ping-pong balls, ricocheting around inside my head as I came to terms with my new reality. A reality that made no sense. None. And yet…made a surprisingly large amount of sense at the same time.

This explained so much.

I wanted to think longer, to mull it over, especially as it seemed Felix had our guest controlled. But…my skin still itched to eliminate the competition, especially now that I knew his blood sat warm inside Felix's belly.

Fuck this.

I decided then that Felix would never feed from anyone other than me.

It felt right.

As did the next words that came out of my mouth, reverent, and soft—like I was speaking to a spooked animal—because that's exactly what Felix looked like right then. His red eyes were wide. His lips were parted. And he was shaking.

Shaking like he thought he'd just lost everything .

"You look so beautiful covered in blood," I said softly, my hands clenched into fists. One step, two steps, three steps. I was barely a foot away from the unwanted visitor—Felix's supper. "Were you hungry, darling?" I asked, because I suddenly knew what was sitting pretty in the package in my garage. I had a feeling if I opened the box I'd find bags of blood, neatly packaged up and labeled. So much was beginning to make sense. Like the fact that Felix only ever had guests when it had been a while between his packages—or I'd…stolen them? Accidentally.

Why he'd been so reluctant to go on a date with me when I'd first asked. Because he'd been hungry. And he'd needed time to feed before he could be alone with me.

Because he…oh.

Because he wanted me .

That's what he'd meant that night at the drive-in.

And before—when he'd mentioned needing to prepare before spending time with me.

My cheeks flushed, my heart fluttering like crazy as my cock perked up immediately.

Felix wants to eat me.

I wanted to let him.

I hadn't given him nearly enough credit. Look how innovative he'd been! Look how desperate he'd been to spend time with me, desperate enough he'd do anything. Including inviting his "supper" over only a few hours after his box hadn't "arrived" on schedule, so he wouldn't have to cancel our date .

Felix had often said he had a hard time controlling himself around me, and now I knew why.

I'd taken his food away—and my clever, wonderful love had been forced to improvise.

Felix looked frightened.

Maybe because he didn't know what to say.

He didn't know how to explain this .

I didn't know what to say either—because there was no logical explanation for what I was seeing. And yet…even more things started to make sense. Like dominos falling into place one by one. Memories assaulted me. Memories of things I hadn't understood, and ignored—only now…there was no ignoring the truth.

Felix's fear of the sunlight for one.

His aversion to food.

The fact that he didn't want to be recognized—probably for the same reason the-man-who-was-now-his-supper had complimented his movies. I realized now why the dark haired actor I'd seen on the screen at the drive-in theater had looked so familiar. Why I'd recognized Felix before I'd even known him. Why the movie star's name was Lucky—the very definition of Felix's name.

Why Felix dyed his hair. (He was harder to recognize that way.)

Why Felix hid. (He had been the King of Hollywood.)

Why Felix never ate. (I kept accidentally taking his boxes of blood away.)

Why Felix spoke like he was from another time. (Because he was.)

Why Felix covered his living room in posters. (They were his movies.)

Why his front hallway was full of framed letters. (Fan letters, more than likely.)

Why Felix had never been frightened of me. (He was a predator, himself.)

Why there was a coffin in the storage room, and Felix's bed was dusty. (He slept there, not upstairs.)

Why Felix's family was dead. (Of course they were, it'd been ninety years.)

Why he collected things. Things that reminded him of his life before.

His home was a time capsule and a prison.

Living in the limelight, there was no room for the abnormal. Felix had to have aged out, didn't he? There was only so long a man could remain the same age without people noticing. I imagined, if I Googled Lucky, the movie star from the 30s, I'd find that he had died rather young.

Only he hadn't.

Because he was standing right in front of me, with a stranger's blood smeared across his lips.

He was standing right in front of me, with his heart on his sleeve, vulnerability quaking in his gaze—like he expected to lose me before we'd ever really begun in the first place.

There was no denying the truth .

The dominos had fallen. The results were in.

The love of my life was a vampire.

I should've been horrified, terrified—some combination of adjectives that were negative and awful. But…I wasn't. I wasn't. Because Felix may be a vampire, but he was also the man that I was desperately, terrifyingly in love with.

" Marshall ," Felix said my name, and everything that had been wrong inside me since the moment I'd seen that car in his driveway fell away.

His voice was brittle and quaking .

His hands shook.

"I'm a monster ." Felix's eyes burned a hole into mine, tears spilling down his lovely, pale cheeks.

I wanted to reach for him.

I wanted to hold him.

I wanted to comfort him, and not once—ever—did giving him a cheeseburger cross my mind.

But first…

I needed to even the playing field.

I needed to tell him my secret too.

So I raised my hands, hovering them on either side of the stranger's head. He didn't move, still frozen. His skin was warm, and his pulse fluttered beneath my fingers as I closed my hands around his head. I should've felt bad for what I was about to do—but I didn't.

He'd touched Felix.

The fact that it hadn't been sexual didn't matter .

He'd touched Felix.

And for that he deserved to die.

So I squeezed—and as easily as if I'd done it a thousand times before—I twisted his neck.

The last of our secrets fell away—quite literally—as a sickening, delicious snapping sound filled the room. Moments later, his body crumpled, falling to the floor in a broken heap. Uncaring, as my point had been made—and my eyes were reserved for one man, and one man only—I stepped over the corpse. My gaze never left Felix's face. I didn't miss the way his eyes widened, or the way he'd flinched, staring at me the same way I stared at him.

Two predators, recognizing each other for what they were for the first time.

My heart was pounding—I reached for Felix with the same hands I'd used to kill his guest. It was a gamble. I wasn't sure he'd accept me now that he'd seen what I could do. There was no mistaking how practiced the motion had been.

And I was certain…he was having a few revelations of his own.

Probably about why I knew how to dispose of bodies.

Why it had been second nature for me to latch onto his kills and drag them through the woods.

Why I'd crossed the street and offered him help that first night .

"Good evening," I'd said, standing in his jungle of a yard while I watched him struggle with the corpse. "Would you like a hand with that?"

My bones creaked as my hand hovered, waiting in empty space—lonely.

Felix had asked me over dinner once if I ever got lonely. Until he'd asked, I hadn't noticed. But since then…every day I was without him was the new loneliest day of my life. He completed me in a way that even killing never had. He smoothed my ragged edges. I didn't feel empty or odd when he was around. I felt…like myself in a way I never had before.

Which was why it was only natural to meet him in the middle, once again.

So I told him the truth, answering his honesty with my own, one last time.

"I'm a monster too." My hand trembled. I waited.

Outside, the sound of footsteps should've registered. People crossing the street and heading toward Barry's, probably. I sucked in a breath, my lips wobbling. Felix stared into my eyes, searching them.

His eyes said, Marshall, Marshall, Marshall .

And then, his hand slipped into mine. I squeezed. Tighter than was probably necessary—but in that moment, all I wanted was to feel him squeeze back. And squeeze back he did, tight—tighter than a human should've been able.

We fell together like we always had, gasoline to flame .

His lips tasted coppery sweet, salty and lovely. I licked into his mouth, chasing the last traces of blood as I yanked him into my arms—uncaring of the body on the floor at our feet. He was as light as ever—and yet, I felt lighter.

I'd never thought acceptance could feel this good.

I'd fought for it over the years, yes. Fought for it when we moved from the farm to the city, and I learned that there were new ways to fit in that I hadn't known about before. I'd fought for it at college, at the same time I fought for my degrees. I fought for it when I moved here—attending Barry's parties because I was terrified of sticking out too much.

Acceptance had never tasted like blood before.

It had never felt like Felix's body against mine, his legs around my hips, his hands in my hair.

It was a beautiful, wonderful thing.

And I realized that all this time, the only person I'd needed was right here. The only person I cared about, was currently clinging to me. And like a princess in a tower, he'd been waiting for me. Growing dusty as the years settled, just waiting for me to be born. For me to move here. For me to love him, to obsess over him, even more than one of his fans.

I pushed him to the couch, crowding him against the leather. It squeaked beneath us and I moaned against his mouth, grunting when his hands raked down my back, rucking up my tuxedo suit jacket. I whined when he spread his legs wider and I was able to line up our pelvises. Our dicks were hard. And god—the friction .

I grunted, rolling into him with a happy, content little sound as I licked into his mouth over and over again.

He knew exactly what to do with his tongue to make my eyes roll back, and he did so over and over and over again. The little hussy was trying to break my focus. Trying to dominate me, even when I was the one on top of him. But no. No .

It was my turn, dammit.

The beast inside me reared to the surface, closer than he'd ever been before. I pinned Felix down, growling at him. His eyes grew wide, his gaze snapping to my gritted teeth and the tension that flickered in the corner of my jaw. He licked his lips and did the one thing he'd never truly done.

He submitted.

Fully, completely, beautifully.

His body spread wide, his eyes softening—the trust there, the distance obliviated.

This was what we'd been missing.

This.

The truth had separated us and now that it was out, our monsters could finally meet. Tongue to tongue, cock to cock, heart to heart. I unbuttoned Felix's tuxedo pants, groaning softly when my fingers grazed the swell of his lovely, long cock. It pushed insistently against my hand as I dove down, sucking greedy, needy little kisses along his neck.

Hickeys blossomed beneath my tongue, only to disappear moments later. It felt like a game, bringing them to the surface as I fumbled with getting both of our pants open and our cocks out. Felix gasped—head tossing back, his pale hair spreading across the cushions the moment I wrapped my fist around the both of us and began to tug.

"Oh fuck—hnnn," he sobbed, the long line of his throat tensing, tendons dancing. Setting a brutal pace, I stroked us together, my own hips fucking tightly into my fist as Felix's fingers dug into my arms. "Fuck, yes. I—ah—" he couldn't seem to manage a full sentence, and I felt victorious.

"Take it," I hissed out, hips pumping as our cocks pressed together, wetter every time I rubbed the leaking precum from the tips down to slick the way. It was a little too dry—a little painful—but we both liked the pain. Felix grinned at me, and it was the prettiest damn thing I'd ever seen.

He peered at me through his lashes as his broad chest trembled. I could see his nipples pushing against the white fabric—white to match the black of my own suit—and I leaned down, sucking on them with greed as our hips fucked together.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Felix's hands tangled in my hair, a desperate sob escaping him as I bit one of his nipples, hard. My spit made the fabric nearly transparent, and I whined against him, moving to the other side to repeat the motion so I could see the perky pink nipples strain against his shirt.

"You're so beautiful," I somehow managed, worrying his chest with my teeth. "Even more now that I know you're mine. "

"Yours," Felix promised, saying it like it was easy. Like it was second nature. Like it took no thought at all.

"You won't feed on anyone else," I told him, his cock pushing into my grip.

"I won't," he agreed, breathless and needy. His hips flexed, his dick growing warmer by the second as I rubbed and teased it. My cock was darker than his—closer to purple than his was when it was aroused. His dick was a little over half the size of mine, and it was more than a little delicious to see them pushing together.

"You can't go out without me," I begged, biting a line across his chest, then up his lovely throat.

"I won't."

"You can't look at anyone but me."

"I wouldn't."

"Because you're mine—" My voice wobbled, my shoulders shaking as I grew closer and closer with each promise that rang between us. Sweet as wedding bells. "You're mine."

"I'm yours."

"And I need you—" I kissed his ear, blocking him from view—protecting him from the world, as I wanted to do for the rest of our lives. "I need you to need me like I need you."

"I do."

"I need you to love me like I love you."

"Oh, Marshall." Felix's voice wavered, breathless and rough, one of his lovely hands cupping the side of my face, jerking my head away from his ear so he could look at me. His eyes were warm. So very warm. Warmer than summer days. Warmer than rhubarb pie fresh out of the oven. Warmer than Vladmir when he curled up in my lap while I made collages.

"Because looking at you hurts—" my voice broke. "You're so beautiful." My heart thrashed. "Because I don't deserve good things, and that's what you are—" Felix made a wounded sound, gripping my face tighter as my eyes burned, and hot tears spilled free. Hotter even, than the cocks I still held clutched tightly, possessively in my hand. "Because no one has ever loved me the way I need."

"Oh, darling," Felix's voice was warm, warm, warm. So full of love it floored me.

"Felix," I managed, voice cracking.

"You know…I thought—" he shivered, hips pushing into my grasp. "I became…this—" A vampire, "Because I worried that without my beauty and youth I'd have…nothing." His voice shuddered, the truth echoing between us, shivery warm. "Now I realize, what an honor growing old would have been." Tears burned in his eyes. "Especially if I had been able to do that with you."

I smiled, a wobbly, awful smile that I was sure was pathetic, and not at all sexy. But Felix didn't seem to mind.

"Nothing good lasts forever," Felix said softly, stroking his thumb along my cheek, catching a stray tear that had slipped free. "I know that firsthand." He sucked in a breath—a breath he didn't need. "But you will."

"Steady as the stars," I promised, heart fluttering.

"Two eyes, two hands, and a grin," Felix echoed, the words I'd spoken to him all those weeks ago.

"Not special," I countered, leaning down till our noses brushed.

"Not at all," he hummed, fluttering a kiss against my lips.

"Forever?" I offered, now that I knew that for him…forever was infinite.

"Soon," Felix promised.

And then we were kissing again. Warm, wet, delicious. He slid inside my mouth, his fingers tangling in my hair and I lost myself in him. My hand moved more quickly, my orgasm fast approaching as the rollercoaster of emotions we'd shared over the last few minutes coalesced.

When we came, we came together.

Because that was what we were supposed to do.

Felix gasped against my lips, a broken, needy whine. His hot cum spilled against my fingers. I followed after, feeling victorious that I'd managed to make him come first. I caught what I could of the mess, feeling quite proud when that ended up being all of it.

That was…of course, when the fact that I'd left the front door open came to bite me in the ass.

In the form of my worst fucking nightmare.

Barry (the busybody.)

Standing in the doorway, eyes wide, his ridiculous hair primped for the party. I only had a moment to judge him for the amount of gel he used before I realized what exactly he was seeing. Me and Felix, fucking on the couch. Aaaaand the body on the floor. The very dead, very still body, staring vacantly at him—eyes still open.

Fuck.

My.

Life.