“Does this mean we’re dating?”
“No.”
“Aw, we’re dating!”
“No! I’m just… wanting you close so I can fantasize about eating you.”
“I wanna eat you too,” he says suggestively.
I sigh loudly but keep him tucked against me as we lie there. It doesn’t take long for him to fall asleep, head still tucked against me. I try to sleep, but I can’t get it to come. I’m too fixated on that presence I felt from the driveway.
There are vampires as old as me, but there are none around here that I know of. And none like that. But why so much fixation on Finn? Unless…
I pull the covers back carefully, knowing that if he woke, he’d be upset. I draw the covers down but his shirt is covering too much. Carefully, I lift the sleeve of my shirt that he’s wearing until I can see the scarring that runs up his arm. Some could have been from the surgery, but I can’t imagine it all was. I pull the covers down farther until I reveal his sweats, also mine. It’s the first time I’ve seen him without his leg and it bothers me, but not in the way he’s worried about. It bothers me to know that he went through so much pain and still goes through pain because of it. He shifts, so I quickly pull the blanket back over him, but he doesn’t wake.
He has bite scars on his throat, but those could be from his sister.
I grab my laptop and pull it close so if he wakes he can’t see what I’m doing. Then I bring up the database I have access to through VRC. I feel guilty and I know I shouldn’t be digging, but he refuses to talk to me about it and I feel like he’s lying to me. I respect his privacy, but there could be something in his file that will help me keep him safe. He could be refusing to give me information that will allow me to protect him. So I type his name into it and begin looking through his records. I know he was a teenager when he lost his arm and leg through a car accident.
Supposedly.
His father is unknown and his mother is Cindy Hayes. When he was ten, she was arrested for drug possession and child neglect charges. That’s when his sister, Aria, was placed into the system as a dhampir at the age of five. They tracked down her father, Orin, who immediately took Cindy to court. He also fought to adopt Finn. He lost on the first try and Finn was returned to his mother and split from Aria. When he was eleven, she wound up in jail and again Orin fought to get Finn. This time he won, and Finn was placed in Orin’s care. Things were very quiet until he was sixteen.
On July second, there was a car accident that Finn and his mother were in, his mother driving. His mother died on scene.
So there was a car accident. He hadn’t been lying about that. But why was he in a car with his mother after Orin fought so hard to take him away from her?
There are pictures, so I find myself clicking on one. The front end of the car is crushed from where it’d slammed into a bridge railing. The next picture shows the driver, but the passenger seat is empty. Had they already pulled Finn out at that point?
Finn shifts beside me. “Whatcha doin’?” he mumbles, half asleep. “Watching porn?”
I quickly X out of the tab and close the laptop before setting it on the bedside table. “Yes, I was watching porn.”
“I’ll be porn for you,” he mumbles as he pulls his shirt up and pokes his nipple. “Porn.”
“Wow… that was very sexy.”
He gives me a lazy smile. “Thank you,” he says as he rolls over and closes his eyes.
I was sure he’d been lying about the car accident. “What are you not telling me?” I whisper.
“That I can give an awesome lap dance,” he mumbles.
“You are an enigma.”
“Thank you.” And with that, he’s off to sleep.
“I will figure you out.” And then maybe this interest in him will dissipate and I can stop caring about a human.
Fuck. I’ve become an idiot. I’ve become one of those vampires I chastise and tell that they’re making a mistake. I need to get out before I’m in too deep.
If it isn’t already too late.
Chapter Sixteen
FINN
When I wake up, I reach over, expecting to pat Marcus, but instead, I get Artie. I decide that he’s the next best thing and snuggle up against his warm body. Slightly more awake, I open my eyes and look over before jerking back in surprise.
“What the fuck, man?” I cry as I look at Marcus just staring at me. Literally standing over the bed staring at me.
“I heard you were awake,” he says, like that’s a good explanation for… this. Whatever this looming and brooding thing he’s got going on is.
“What’s with the creeper moment?” I ask before realization dawns on me. “Oh… you want to eat me, don’t you?”
And just like that, he’s out the door faster than I can track.
“Your dad is like a teenage girl,” I tell Artie.
His tail thwacks against my leg.
I roll over and grab my prostheses and put them on before going into the bathroom to brush my teeth and use the toilet. Afterward, I head out to the kitchen where Marcus is sitting with his full-face mask on looking like he’s in some apocalypse movie.
“Oh god, Marcus! Just bite me!” I say as I walk over to him.
“I refuse. Stay away. You stink.”
“I don’t stink. You wouldn’t want to eat me if I did.”
He holds his cup of blood even though he can’t actually drink it with the mask on.
“You’re really going to refuse, aren’t you?” I ask.
“I refuse.”
“I can wean you off it,” I say. “We did this with my sister.” I pull his mask off and set it on the table. “Bite my wrist.”
“What? No.”
“You don’t have to drink, I just need some of my blood and if you bite me, it won’t hurt as much as me having to cut myself. Please trust me.”
He narrows his eyes but nods. He bites my wrist, puncturing the skin, but it doesn’t hurt. I knew he would make it so it doesn’t hurt using that vampire mojo he has. He quickly pulls away, proving again that he’s not just going to eat me like he’s convinced he will.
I grab his cup, tilt my arm over and let the blood drip into it. “So when my sister was young, we mixed my blood with whatever she was supposed to drink, putting less and less in it, and after a couple of weeks she stopped needing it. With you, I’d assume it wouldn’t take that long. But I’ll give you some of my blood to leave here to mix with whatever and wean yourself off. Now lick my arm.”
“I don’t want to lick your arm.”
I point to the drops of blood rolling over the pale skin. “Look at the blood going to waste.”
Without hesitation, he grabs my wrist and runs his tongue over it before looking up at me, hunger in his eyes. Now I’m thinking about him licking other parts of me which sounds much more fun. I swallow hard as I lean into him, but before I can do anything, he pushes my arm back and grabs the cup instead.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” I groan. If my dick could groan, it’d be groaning too. “You give me a fucking inch, a smidge of hope, then push me away.”