Page 84 of A Vow of Blood and Tears

She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

“Thank you for allowing me to try. I know it’s—it’s not what you wanted, but I can assure you that you are delicious.”

That got a genuine smile out of her.My one true ambition in life is finally achieved: to be tasty.

“You mock that, but let me tell you… some people are not tasty. Truly, you should be honored by such an accolade.”

She laughed breathily, a slightly giddy quality to the sound.I absolutely am honored. If anyone asks, I will tell them: I am extremely edible. Toothsome, ambrosial, and possibly even scrumptious.

My precious wife… she was riding the high of victory and venom, having overcome her fear to the degree of allowing my teeth to pierce her, the relief evident in her smiles and laughter and jokes. I wouldn’t ruin her high by telling her any vampire asking about her taste was also asking to be decapitated with extreme prejudice.

“Ambrosial forme, my lady. Toothsome forme.” I pulled her onto me so she straddled my lap, still overcome with silent giggles. “No other vampire’s fangs will touch you.”

She paused, touching her chest with a concerned look, and grabbed her journal to scribble:Why can’t I stop laughing?

Then she fell forward, her head thumping onto my chest helplessly and shaking as she was consumed with more inaudible laughter.

I winced, cradling her to me. “I may have allowed a little too much of my saliva to inoculate you against the pain. It was… well, a fairly large dose, considering I tried to ration myself.”

She sat up, signing with loose gestures, her meaning rather nonsensical.

“All right, love, come here. Let’s sleep this off.” I unlaced the stays of her simple dress, peeling the overdress from her and tossing it on the floor. Cirri was like a doll, still trapped in a cycle of giggling and catching her breath, but she gripped me tightly as I pulled her up into the bed.

She flopped over me languidly, one bare leg draped over my thighs, her head and an arm flung across my chest. I stroked her smooth leg idly, unable to hold back a smile at the occasional explosion of shakes that signified her laughter.

“It might be a while before this stops.” I stroked her hair. “Would you like a bedtime story?”

Y-E-S, she signed, and if her hands were her voice, that voice was slurred and drunk.

Ancestors, next time I would usemuchless venom. My poor wife.

I thought of a story to tell her that would maybe give her a little insight into the people of the keep. My family, hopefully to be hers as well one day.

“Once upon a time, in the days when the vampires still lived Below, there was a bloodwitch who just couldn’t follow the rules and always wanted to test the patience of her elders…”

Cirri erupted into another small earthquake. As much as I enjoyed holding her this close, for her it was going to be a long night.

But as for me—my thirst was quenched, I had a gorgeous woman draped on me in bed, soon I would understand her, and… there was going to be anext time.

As I spoke, and the venom’s effects slowly mutated into a soporific grip on her, I didn’t let myself think about how I didn’t deserve this, or how it all seemed so unreal. Even later, when everything had been ripped away from me, I held onto this moment as the exact night that my life, my hopes, my dreams… they had all changed, suddenly taking an unknown path I had never considered before, a path that led to something I’d long since given up on.

I was going to grip this happiness with both claws and run with it. It was mine now.

Chapter 21

Cirri

For the second day in a row, I woke up alone in Bane’s bed.

Instead of rising, I rolled onto my back, staring at the high ceiling, then raised my arm up to my eye level.

The marks his fangs had left were faint, tiny silvery patches, like years-old scars. Or stars… stars that had somehow fallen from the sky and embedded themselves in my skin.

So it was real. I had let him feed from me, and I hadn’t lost my mind to terror, or jerked away and caused irreparable damage to myself. I exhaled a sigh of relief, remembering the strange, dizzying sensation that had crept up on me after he fed. Everything had seemed so funny for no particular reason, my skin had been fizzing with warmth… and Bane had simply cuddled me tight, until I fell into a sleep so deep I didn’t remember a single snatch of dreams.

I blinked at the ceiling, and let my arm drop across my stomach as a sudden frown replaced my smile. Whatwashe studying? I felt a little selfish for wanting him to be here when I woke up, particularly when last night was the first time I hadever tried to meet his needs, but… in my heart of hearts, yes, I was selfish.

I wanted the first thing I heard every morning to be the sound of Bane’s voice. I wanted the first thing I smelled to be his woods-and-smoke scent. I wanted the first sound to be his voice, and my first sight to be the face that had been so dreadful to me a short time ago.

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