Page 20 of Pity the Living, Not the Dead

I opened my eyes, unable to clearly focus as I watched him draw his thumbnail along his throat, slicing through the main artery. The blood ran down his chest, staining the sheets beneath us. I stared blankly as the fibers absorbed it. My head was pounding. “Drink,” he repeated, tearing my gaze away.

The thought of drinking blood disgusted me, but there wasn’t an option here, and with his erection impaling me, there was no way I could move even if I wanted to. Reluctantly, my tongue darted out, dabbing at a fresh drip as it cascaded down his chest. Unknown sensations rushed through me and took control. My erection hardened beyond anything it had ever been, especially given I’d come mere moments ago. I lapped at the blood until there was nothing left.

Elijah leaned over, his neck centimeters away from my mouth, and snapped his hips with restless abandon. “Drink, my love. Drink from the wound on my neck.”

With the gash pressed against my lips, I drank, heartily. Fervently. Elijah released a deep growl, thrusting himself as far as he could inside me, fucking me in earnest. With a roar, he came and filled me with his seed as my final orgasm hit and my body went limp. I was spent. Gently, he slid from me, grabbed a towel, and wiped me clean. The last thing I recalled was Elijah’s soft voice whispering, “Sleep, my love, you’ll need your strength.”

The excruciating pain I woke to was unbearable, so bad I wished for death—repeatedly. I thought for sure the cancer had won and the transition hadn’t taken. This was the end. Every cramp was a lightning strike, a stabbing jolt of pain that then rolled through me like a raging storm. There wasn’t a part of my body that wasn’t throbbing, it even hurt to open my eyes.

“Kill me now!” I screamed, not recognizing the deep, pain-filled voice as my own. I curled into a fetal position. My arms wrapped tightly around my knees, pulling them against me. It hurt so bad I wanted to die. My body convulsed, surely grasping at every last bit of life it had left in it, struggling to reach the surface, to take control and breathe freely again.

“My love, your body is dying. The transition is nearly finished,” I heard Elijah say, but I couldn’t see him.

The pain, my god, the fucking pain.

This was the transition? What hellish creator came up with this? “When will it end? Make it stop!”

“You’re nearly there, Liam. When you wake, you won’t recognize yourself. As you shift, your face will distort, your pupils will enlarge, blackening your eyes, and your fangs will elongate. The first few times they appear will hurt. I meant to show you this beforehand, but everything happened so fast, we ran out of time. Over the years I have perfected each element of the shift itself and can control them at will. In time, you, too, will learn to do the same, and the pain will no longer be there,” Elijah explained, his voice a smooth lilt to the storm I was battling. A light, a beacon to find my way home in the dark. The thought of Elijah waiting for me at the end of this torrid tunnel was the life preserver I grabbed onto, riding it out to the bitter end.

Ultimately, I must have passed out from the sheer magnitude of it all. When I woke, Elijah was by my side as he’d promised to be. “Here, drink,” he said, slicing his wrist open. “I’ve already fed so my blood will be strong.” He placed his bloodied wrist to my lips and pain shot through my gums as my fangs made their first appearance. I reached up to touch them and Elijah smiled. “Drink, babe. I will teach you how to hunt later. In your weakened state, you shouldn’t go out.”

I fed from my lover, the metallic taste suddenly the best thing I’d ever eaten. I couldn’t get enough. Elijah’s eyes rolled back and his pants tented as I fed. Now I understood what he had said before, feeding was so…arousing. I heard a sound from outside, released his wrist, and ran downstairs to the glass wall that faced the outdoor space. Unfamiliar eyes were staring back at me. Eyes I had never seen in the dark of night. Were they mine? Was this my reflection? Stunned, I reached up, tracing the features on the glass. I looked fearsome. My eyes were nearly unrecognizable.

Elijah’s arms snaked around my waist from behind. “Welcome to your new life, Liam.”

“Olivia has called more than a dozen times,” I informed Liam, setting my phone on the bedside table. I’d answered her each time, letting her know Liam was resting, but that didn’t seem to calm her nerves the least bit. I was sure that, with the tight bond they had, she was struggling with not being able to see him for herself.

“How long have I slept?” Liam yawned, stretching that gorgeous body of his.

“Forty-eight painstakingly long hours, my love.” I had been beside myself with fear that his body had rejected the change. Fucking hell, I didn’t know what I would’ve done if that had happened. Needless to say, this wasn’t a process I would put myself through again.

“Holy shit!” Liam exclaimed.

“Holy shit, indeed. When you were screaming, writhing in pain, I feared I may have fucked something up. I ran for the journals in the library I’ve kept through the years, relentlessly scanning them and recounting every transformation I’d witnessed, and kept coming up empty with what I should do.” I shuddered, feeling the panic course through me again, reliving the numerous times I thought I had lost him.

He turned in my arms. “But I didn’t die, Elijah. Well, technically I did, but you know what I mean.”

At a loss for words, pressing our foreheads together, I murmured the only word I could get past the lump in my throat. “No.”

“Is it possible the cancer followed me into the afterlife?” Liam asked.

My eyes snapped open faster than the speed of light. “What? Why do you ask?”

“I’m still cramped up. Elijah, what’s wrong with me?”

I laughed, not meaning to make light of the moment in any way. “That, my love, is your body’s need for sustenance. The cancer has long since left you, you have a clean bill of health from Dr. Elijah. To prove it, we’ll feed from one another after you’ve hunted. You’ll feel what I feel, see what I see. Know what I know, as our blood surges through each other’s veins, marrying and joining our lives together.” Waggling my brows suggestively got my point across without the aid of additional words on what else we would be feeling tonight.

“Ooohhh, let’s go.” Liam turned, making a break for it before I could remind him he was in nothing more than his birthday suit. Not that anyone would see him. Shit, I needed to put a locater beacon on his ass. As a youngling, he could easily kill someone or do something I knew he would only come to regret. It was of the utmost importance I find him and fast.

I located him beyond the clearing where the lake was. He stared off, taking in the wondrous new discoveries his heightened senses brought to light. “Elijah, look there.” He pointed across the water to where a ten-point buck and his doe stared back at us.

“Yes, my love. Amazing creatures, aren’t they?” I said, taking his hand in mine. “Liam, I know the bloodlust is consuming you, but I also know your tender heart won’t take lightly to ending a life.” He nodded. “Come, I’ll show you how it’s done.”

Shortly thereafter, we came across another buck along the ridgeline. The forest came alive at night. Woodland creatures far and wide were running about, foraging. As I turned to signal Liam to keep quiet, a twig snapped beneath his bare feet and alerted the prey of the predator’s arrival. “It’s on,” I said, taking off in the same direction our dinner had.

Much to my surprise, Liam kept pace with me. I couldn’t stop the grin if I had to while witnessing this. Liam was going to do well in his new life. He was a natural, although I could already tell that, with his curiosity, he was going to be a handful. With the buck in my line of sight, I leapt upward, landing squarely on his back and clutching his horns as handles. He tried with all his might to throw off the unwanted rider but was unsuccessful. Powerful as this mighty beast was, he was no match for a seasoned vampire. Sinking my fangs into his neck, I gently guided him to the ground as the fight left his body and waved Liam over. “Drink, but listen.” Liam nodded, never taking his eyes off mine as he began to dine from our worthy adversary. “The key is their heartbeat. As you drink, it will slow. You don’t ever want to take their last drop. It will kill them and this gorgeous hunk has some ladies waiting to bear his offspring.” Liam’s watchful gaze stayed with mine as his fangs breached the flesh. “Hear the change? Count to three and retract. One, two, three.” On three, Liam pulled free. “He will rest for some time. Once he’s regained his strength, he’ll be back on the prowl, giving that other buck we saw a run for his money with the does in the herd.” Liam’s gaze shifted from the buck to me, pupils blown, erection pointing due north.

“Elijah,” he called out, throwing his head back, stroking himself.

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