Page 36 of Taste of Fate

My teeth gnashed together as I approached the peak, jaws clenching painfully. The chilly, humid air of the shower was a poor substitute for a mouthful of rich, delicious blood. That was the only thing missing, aside from the human woman herself. I needed to be latched at her throat, needed that dark wine from her vein filling my mouth while I filled her.

And when my release shot through my hard flesh, and Tavi’s name left my mouth as I painted the shower walls with cum, only then did I realize how fucked I really was.

Chapter 13

Tavia

The next day, I found two brand new cell phones outside my bedroom door along with a brief note.

Tavi,

Enjoy. Bea will show you how to set these up. -C

I saved the note and stashed it in my room with the other one he’d left with the key. For some reason, I felt sentimental about his notes and often unfolded them to reread them before I went to sleep. During those weeks we didn’t speak, it felt like I held onto a part of him with these notes. A small, private piece of him that was just for me.

I would trace the indent of the words, imagining his hand moving across the page, or sometimes his lips moving with the words as he wrote them. I thought of his fingers and the firm grip he’d held on the pen.

The same fingers that skimmed over my back when he’d hugged me, and that had gripped my shoulders as he stepped away.

His reaction had been such an about-face that my head was still spinning. Before I hugged him, we’d been having a good time. He seemed genuinely impressed with my wine and eager to talk about it with me. No one, not even Amy, had shown half as much interest and curiosity as he had. I had been on cloud nine just over the fact that someone had wanted to hear me geek out just because it was something I loved.

When he set a date for me to visit Amy, my happiness overflowed so much that I didn’t know what to do with it. I hugged him, and that seemed to ruin everything. He’d said a quick goodbye and ran off like I had the plague.

I was still new to vampire culture, so maybe they didn’t touch to show affection or gratitude. He’d probably hugged me back to be nice but the whole experience might have been really strange to him. If I ever actually saw him before we made the trip to Sapien, I’d make sure to apologize.

Part of me hoped his number would have already been in my new phone, so I could just text him an apology, but no such luck.

Three more days passed, and I got the sense that he was avoiding me again. We were supposed to ride out to Sapien the following night, and I hadn’t seen him once since that day in the kitchen.

This time, there was no question in my mind that I had done something wrong. He apologized, we were getting along, I hugged him, and now we were strangers again. It was exhausting. I wished he’d just tell me if I was breaking some vampire taboo. Surely that would be better than days of silent treatment.

But on the bright side, I had plenty of wine and freshly ripened avocados to make guacamole with.

A few vampires were hanging around the great room when I entered around seven in the evening, although Cyan was not among them.

“Hey, Tavia.” Desmond and Laith sat across from each other at the kitchen island, two wine glasses in front of them and an empty bottle between them. “We didn’t mean to finish the whole bottle, but…you’re making more of this, right?”

It was my last bottle, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel even a tiny bit mad. I felt like a chef who had spent hours cooking a gourmet meal, and everyone I’d served it to had licked their plates clean and asked for seconds. That empty bottle was the highest compliment. Words of praise could never touch the hope in their eyes as they waited for my answer.

“Sure. Twist my arm, why don’tcha.” I grinned as I pulled out a cutting board. “But you’ll have to wait at least three weeks.”

“We live for over eight-hundred years. We’re a patient species.” Des pulled the bottle toward himself and turned it upward to get the last few drops.

“Hey, don’t be greedy.” Laith swiped it from him and turned away to drink.

“Fuck you. You poured the biggest glass for yourself.”

I chuckled at their antics as I began halving avocados for my highly-anticipated guacamole. They were like an adorable, always-bickering married couple.

Several vampires came and went through the great room as I focused on chopping my ingredients. Rhain and Thorne never stopped as they walked through, but gave me quick nods of greeting as they headed to the garage. I wasn’t sure where Bea was, so I texted her letting her know there would be plenty of guac if she wanted some.

My instincts prickled just as I finished dicing red onions, and I knew before I even looked up that Cyan had walked in. I nearly dropped my knife when I saw who he entered the room with.

Cyan had his arm around a stunningly beautiful woman who was definitely not human. She was tall, nearly the same height as him, with shiny black hair loosely braided over one shoulder. Her eyes weren’t red, but a fiery orange with slitted pupils. There also appeared to be scales shimmering on various parts of her body. I almost thought it was makeup, but the scales would disappear and reappear on different areas of skin. Her presence also seemed to heat up the room by a few degrees, like she had some kind of internal space heater. Or fire inside her.

Bea had told me about dragon shifters, including that a few lived in Sanguine, but this was my first time seeing one in person. I didn’t know how to picture one when she’d said they were inhumanly beautiful with reptilian eyes, and even in human form, would let their dragon shift come through just enough to show off their scales.

This woman put the human super models I’d seen in magazines to shame. Every vampire turned to look at her, and I knew I was staring too. Just being in the same room with her made me feel like a lesser being. And the fact that Cyan had his arm around her, his smile cocky at all the attention, made me feel even worse.

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