Page 5 of First Bite
“Oh, fuck that,” I shot back. “Look at me.”
Cole did, and his eyes were fierce, making me inwardly shudder at the angry vampire in front of me. I swallowed and ignored the natural instinct to get the hell away from him.
“Fine,” he said. “Here’s the deal. We need an army. Since we don’t have anywhere near the manpower necessary to go up against Enzo, that means we have tomakean army. Are you following me? That means that we have to go find a shitload of humans who won’t be missed—if you know what I mean—and turn them into vampires.”
“You don’t have to do this,” I said, my eyes wide with shock from what he just said. “Are you worried you’re going to want to fuck them or something, I don’t understand.”
Cole’s face instantly went black, “Are you fucking serious? You think I’m worried that I’m going to want to fuck them? I’m a little more concerned that I will be taking their life from them. You know, that part seems a bit more important to me since I still have my soul and all.”
“Sorry for caring about what you guys do when it comes to feeding. I think this is a horrible fucking decision for the poor humans that you’re going to turn into vampires. Sounds to me like the guys don’t like this idea either.”
“Let me set your little mind at ease,” he forced a shitty smile on his face. “If you haven’t learned by now, we can control our sexual desires if we want when it comes to vampires, so I think we can keep our dick in our pants when it comes to humans. In fact, human blood is repulsive to us, and the thought of screwing one isn’t something we’d even fantasize about.”
“Really?” I folded my arms. Jealousy of my vampires feeding on humans, changing them, and having sexual feelings while doing it was pissing me the fuck off.
“Really.” Cole’s lips tightened in a challenge.
“Seems to me Logan didn’t have a problem fucking a human. I may be a Life Blood, but I’m human too, dick!”
“Give me a goddamn break,” Cole sighed and narrowed his eyes at me. “You’re different. We’re all fucking bonded together. Yeah, you’re human, but there’s a big difference between the only human that we’re drawn too and any other human.”
“So you’re just blaming me for all of this, is that it?”
Cole gripped the sides of his head, and I could tell my insecurity was just pissing him off more. “I really can’t do this with you right now. I have so much other shit to worry about.” He lowered his voice. “It’s best to leave me alone until I can figure out what we have to do. I’m obviously not in the best state of mind to have sympathy for anyone. Everything’s fucked up, and I need to make a plan.”
“Then gomake a fucking plan,” I practically screamed at him.
I had no idea why I was so insecure and annoyed with all of this. Cole was right, the only way to protect me from getting taken by Enzo was for these guys to be prepared for it. I had to trust that my vampires knew the right way to handle it.
I watched Cole disappear into the woods, apparently distancing himself from all four of us.
“If you hadn’t figured out by now,” Braden’s voice wrapped all around me, sending an internal shiver of happiness and comfort when he spoke, “Cole is pissed we have to consider tampering with humans.”
I turned to the tall, brawny vampire, “How bad is it, really?”
“It’s not good,” Braden half-smiled. “It’s also something we don’t want you stressing out about. When we make decisions like this, we take a lot into consideration. We don’t take it lightly.”
I exhaled and reached for Braden, sighing in relief when he pulled me into a warm embrace. “Why is it bothering me that you guys will get turned on while doing this to them? I’m a shitty person. How can that be the biggest part that I’m worried about? What the hell is wrong with me?”
Braden smoothed his hands up and down my back. “Because,” he whispered, “we’re yours and yours only. The bond is growing and intensifying your possessiveness of us.”
“Oh God,” I buried my face in his chest. “I can’t be some jealous, obsessed bitch.”
Braden laughed, “Baby, you’re nothing close to that. I’ll ease your mind a bit.” He held my shoulders and stepped back, my eyes meeting his blue ones. “I can promise you that there will be absolutely no sexual feelings if we do this. It’s more business and the need to do this than anything else. The humans will feel sexual desires because that is how a vampire lures them and feeds from them, but trust me, we’re not going to be reciprocating those feelings. Doing this is more disturbing to us than anything else.”
“Shit.” I let out a breath. “This isn’t easy for any of you, and me acting like this makes it worse. Seems like I need to get my own hormones in check.”
Braden chuckled, “You’re just fine, Ellie. This is why we really didn’t want you to know about this. It’s fucked up, but it’s something we might have to do. We need Lucas on board, though. While we work to change the humans, his coven has to get them up and going and make sure they don’t go rogue on us. The whole thing is a gamble that we have to hope will pay off.”
Over the next two weeks,the guys seemed to be in constant arguments and discussions. Every time the plan was brought up to turn the humans, one of them would blow up. It was painfully apparent that none of them wanted to do this, and the fact that they had to was upsetting, to say the least.
Every night at dinner I would try to get more information about what was happening, and every night I got nothing. Zac and Logan had gone from drinking my blood to not even so much as flirting with me. I was beginning to feel like I had lost all of them to this impending war that hadn’t happened yet.
If it weren’t for Boots the cat keeping me company, I would have felt incredibly lonely every night. I had given my life, heart, and soul to these vampires only to feel this void. It was frustrating, but they were ultimately doing all of this to keep the human race safe from Enzo. I guess feeling sorry for myself wasn’t really part of the big picture, so I tried not to act pouty. I knew this was so much bigger than my feelings.
I followed Braden down the hall after he stayed mostly quiet at the breakfast table.
“You okay?” I asked the same question I had asked everyone but Cole who was still pissed at the world.
