Page 1 of Make Me Bleed

PROLOGUE

My date is talking, but all I can focus on is the vein in his neck that I’ll tap after he’s done with his meal.

I have shrimp linguine in front of me. Some of the sauced noodles are twirled on the fork, though the utensil itself is lying along the side of the elegant white plate. I managed to eat two pieces of shrimp before my stomach insisted it didn’t want human food. It wants humanblood, and I’ve been stroking the tip of my tongue along one of my fangs as I wordlessly urged Dorian to finish eating his carbonara.

Notturno is an upscale—and vamp-friendly—Italian restaurant in the heart of downtown Clarity. While they serve traditional food for their human customers, the bar stocks blood bags for their supe clientele. I could’ve ordered a glass of Type O-negative with my pasta if I wanted, but knowing that Dorian had already signed up to be my dessert once we were done had me passing on the bagged stuff.

Nothing beats warm blood straight from the vein, and I’ve sampled Dorian before. He’s not my beloved mate—his blood is fragrant and sweet, but nowhere near as irresistible as it would be if he wasmine—but he’s a nice human male who enjoys sharing dinner without expecting anything more.

That’s so unusual that I prefer keeping him around as long as possible. Eventually he’ll push… eventually he’ll want more from me than I can give… but, if only tonight, my company seems enough for him.

I wait for him to take a breath, then smile at him.

Dorian’s eyelids go heavy, expression glazing over as his dark brown eyes meet my pale vampire ones.

He sucks in a breath, and I have to swallow an unladylike curse.

Crap. The last thing I want to do is put him under my thrall. I’ve had more than seventy years to learn how to control it, to keep myself from luring hapless human males like a moth to a flame, but when I forget for a second… it happens, and whether I meant to do it or not, that doesn’t make it easier when I have to break their hearts and lose their attention.

I thought Dorian was immune. Over the last two weeks, he’s shown no sign that he wants to pursue anything other than the arrangement we already have. Not like?—

“Did I tell you how beautiful you look tonight, Elise?”

Ah, crap. This isan arrangement. I feed him. We go into the backroom of Notturno and he feeds me. Our conversations consist of him talking about his job as a Clarity firefighter who answers to the Cadre and my position as a data filer down at Homequarters. Dorian is one of the humans in the know; a non-supe who is aware that Clarity is a Fang City. He understands that he’s basically my most recent preferred donor—or hediduntil just about two seconds ago.

I’d hoped to see him a few more times before I moved on to my next donor. But if Dorian is going to start hitting on me? This might be our last dinner together.

For now, I do what I always do: I pretend not to notice when a male is coming onto me. Tucking a lock of hair behind my ear,I give him a bit of a ditzy smile and just say, “That’s so sweet of you.”

Dorian beams.

Looking for a distraction, I pick up my fork. Stabbing a piece of shrimp, then chewing it is pretty easy. As a vamp, I’m used to jabbing away. But my fork is covered in linguine, and I clumsily slurp one of the noodles.

He grins.

Ugh.

Yup. Definitely going to have to cut him off after tonight. I figured I might have to after the last time he let me have some of his blood. Part of the trade-off is that my male donors feel pleasure as I feed. I make sure they know upfront that it’s their responsibility to finish on their own once I’m done. After what happened with the last one, I strictly refuse to sleep with any of my donors again. Dorian was cool with my rules, but you never know.

I’ve been wrong before.

Flashing him one last tight-lipped smile, I look away. Eye contact is important. If he’s not staring at me, any thrall I may or may not have used on him will break, and I take a few seconds to peer around the restaurant.

It’s about a fifty-fifty split tonight. Half vamps, half humans. That makes sense. Notturno is one of the few places in Clarity where we don’t have to hide who we are. Vampires are always welcome, and a human can only enter the restaurant if they’re with a vamp companion or they’ve been gifted a fang.

I’ve never given one of mine away. It’s the highest mark of possession besides a claiming bite between mates, and if Ididshare a fang with anyone, it would be Bridget. But since my human roommate for the last six months has no idea that she lives in a city run by vampires—and the leader of the Cadreforbids humans knowing the truth unless theyneedto—there’s no reason why I would have to do that.

No matter who else demanded it of me…

“Elise?Elise.”

My gaze snaps back to Dorian. He’s looking at me expectantly, and I swallow my relief when I see that the adoration from before has faded from his expression. If anything, he looks slightly peeved that I was ignoring him.

“Sorry,” I murmur. “I don’t know where my mind’s been today.”

A slight smirk from my date is his way of telling me he knowsexactlywhere my mind’s been—and as I glance down at his neck again, I can’t say that he’s wrong.

But then he rises from his seat and my gaze follows him as he shoves the chair back.

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