Page 5 of Taste of Fate

That was exactly why I’d never claimed a blood pet before. I was a young vampire, only one-hundred-and-fifteen, and had zero desire to tie myself down to a single blood source. Why would I when there were so many different flavors to sample? And if tasting happened to lead to sex, well, that was just a bonus.

In another three, maybe four hundred years, maybe I’d consider settling down. Hell, the vast majority of our clan didn’t have blood pets or the far more rare and sought-after, blood mates. So yeah, I was pretty damn sour on losing hard in our little lottery. I felt like the humans in the old TV shows that got forced into marrying young because they got caught making out in a barn. What a sad life.

As the four of us rode through the night, I was already thinking of how to get rid of this burden I’d been saddled with. Maybe I can pass the pet off to someone else. It shouldn’t be too hard to find a vampire with a boring palate.

Humans were common enough in Sanguine that I’d already sampled a good number of them, either at the blood bank for a quick fill, or one of our clubs in a more salacious setting. What I’d found out, and most vampires agreed, was that humans tasted bland.

Their blood didn’t taste bad by any means, but there was nothing to be excited about from those veins. From what little I knew about human food, their blood could best be compared to a bowl of rice with no seasonings, or a plain slice of bread. It could sate hunger for a time and contained enough nutrition to survive for a while, but that didn’t mean the experience of having it was good.

Sure, there were small flavor variances here and there, but nothing compared to the wild spiciness of a dragon shifter’s blood. Or the warm, comforting mouth feel of a fellow vampire. Werewolf and angel blood were only available in black market channels, but those were said to be a near-religious experience. I had made it a personal goal to try them at least once.

But instead, here I was giving up my variety-loving palate for the same boring meal every day. Kill me.

The ride could have taken all night and it still would have been too short. The lights of Sapien, the human settlement, appeared on the horizon after only two hours. I squinted at the increasing brightness as we got closer. It was easy to forget humans were diurnal creatures and needed a ton of extra light to see at night. Most of the ones living among us in Sanguine had adapted to nocturnal schedules and they always had lights with them.

The community was spread out over several acres with many mobile-looking homes set up on wheels. The more permanent structures consisted of squat, single story buildings. Many of our buildings looked similar. Considering vampires spent much of their days underground, we didn’t need more than a single story at ground level.

Unlike us, the humans had multiple rows of fenced-in beds with plants growing in them, along with several pens containing animals such as chickens, ducks, goats, and pigs.

I wasn’t the only one who stared at the animals as we slowed the bikes on our approach to the compound. Rhain looked like he’d never seen a chicken before.

“Keeping live animals is fucking weird,” he muttered with a shake of his head.

Someone must have spotted us and alerted the other humans then, because they started pouring out of the large center building in droves.

“Alright. Guess we stop here.” Thorne cut his engine a good fifty feet away from where the humans were gathering, and the rest of us did the same behind him.

It was like watching ants emerge from a single hole in the ground. They came out and then went to the left and right, spreading out thinly in front of their building. Some small groups, probably families, stuck together. One older human had her arm around a much smaller, younger woman who was red-faced and hysterically crying, trying to stifle her loud sobs.

I frowned. The younger one looked utterly stricken with grief and fear. Was she the blood pet?

As much as I tried to ignore it, discomfort itched up my spine. Humans were weak, short-lived, and tasted boring, but they were just as sentient as any species in Sanguine. They were capable of joy, suffering, and everything else in between. It didn’t occur to me until now that giving up one of their own wasn’t just inconvenient, like it was for me.

It was having a loved one ripped away, suddenly and unfairly. This event would shake their community for months, if not years. The blood pet’s family and friends would mourn as if they had died, but a situation like this was worse than death. It was not knowing if they were dead or alive, well or suffering, that was the most persistent poison. The absence of knowledge haunted worse than any ghost. At least you knew a ghost was dead.

I knew that poisonous, never-knowing feeling all too fucking well, and didn’t wish it on anyone.

Strangely, the small woman seemed to be the only one truly visibly upset. The one holding her blinked away tears and seemed to be biting the inside of her cheek. Everyone else looked to be a mixture of afraid, nervous, or curious.

A much older human woman strode out of the building and walked straight toward us. Despite the fear pinching her lined face, she carried herself as a leader.

“Hello,” she called out, stopping about twenty feet from Thorne’s headlight.

“Good evening,” he returned, lighting up another cigarette. A few humans gasped and muttered to themselves at the puffs of red smoke from his nostrils and mouth. He paid them no mind. “We represent Blood ‘til Dawn, ruling clan of Sanguine. We’ve come to collect the blood pet per the Half-Century Selection agreement.”

“Welcome, ah, Blood ‘til Dawn.” The elderly woman repeated our clan name clumsily and brought her hands together in front of her. “We’re honored to, uh…honor the agreement between Sapien and the ruling clan.”

“Have you chosen a blood pet?” Thorne drawled in a bored tone.

“Ah, yes. We have.”

He stuck the cigarette between his teeth and waved his free hand. “Then let’s get this over with. It’s a long ride back. Cyan.” He jerked his chin at me. “Come up and collect your pet.”

With a resigned sigh, I pulled up alongside him and dismounted my bike. Might as well stretch my legs first if I was about to ride home with a passenger.

“The blood pet is mine,” I said to the human woman. “I’ll take them now and we’ll be out of your hair for the next fifty years.”

The woman blinked at me, the lines around her eyes deepening as her forehead creased. “You? I mean, just you?”

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