Page 36 of How to Bare Your Neck and Save a Wreck
Rate your human’s blood based on how long it has been since he took his insulinsounded boring for a video that would probably play like a porno: bite after bite after bite.
Shane shuddered at the thought, and the tremble went straight between his legs, settling there warm and tender. Fuck. He hadn’t even beenkissedagain; he could not run away with himself yet. Though at the rate they were moving, it seemed like Shane might have to be the one to run away with them both if he wanted anyone to.
His phone pinged as he was climbing into bed. He hoped to see Andres’s name, or if not him, then at least Nat, but instead the text came from an unknown number.
Hi Shane, this is Mercer. I hope this is not intruding. I dug up the old business card you’d given me, so perhaps it’s the wrong number now. Anyway, I wanted to check that you’re all right. The vampire you were with has always been perfectly nice in all our interactions but I’ve worked with a lot of kink couples over the years and you both seemed unusually tense. If I’m overstepping, I apologize immensely. I just wanted to offer help if you need it, and if not then I wish you both the very best.
Oh, fuck. The back of Shane’s throat felt dry suddenly. Theyhadbeen tense—but that was, in part, because they weren’t a couple. Or they were, perhaps, just not in the way Mercer assumed, not two dating lovebirds who called each other partner, but a human and the vampire who’d bought him. And together or not, they weren’t into kink.
Not that Shane had anythingagainstkink—or what little he knew of it; restraints and leather and sex dungeons. While bondage wasn’t his thing and he didn’t want a dominatrix to tell him he’d been a bad boy, he could still respect that it worked for some people. Collars though…
He’d assumed those for kink were all dark and heavy with little metal hooks and thought nothing of them, but something beautiful and delicate—a gilded piece that made him not a pet but aprize…
Shane rubbed the side of his neck, the heat between his legs undeniable. There would be little gilded chains too, his vampire had said. Little chains that could be tugged on, pulling Shane close, his vampire asking him, sultry and possessive, to tip his head, revealing where his racing heart pounded through his exposed pulse. That was still just a bite. Still just the same thing—the same wonderful thing—they’d been doing this entire time. And yet dressed up like that…
Wasthatkink? Fuck, Shane didn’t know, and in that moment he was too afraid to google; to be told in definitive terms that this version of it was just as unhealthy and harmful as he’d suspected. He’d been letting his vampire coerce him, control him, scare him even—that couldn’t be right.
He couldn’t bring himself to stop it though. No matter how much he’d grown to long for every text he received from Andres, he didn’t know how to go back to a world where that simplicity was all he craved. Where it wasn’t his vampire he wanted most.
That was far too much to tell the poor smith, though.
Shane-anigans
Thank you for checking, but I’m fine. You just caught us on a bad day.
He clicked send before his weaker self could tag on a question about vampires and kink, and flipped over to his chatting app.
Shane-anigans
So is it weird how into this vampire I am?
Nat1
Dude it’s 2am
Shane-anigans
Dude you’re the one responding to me.
Nat1
Fine.
All right. I want to say immediately UM YES HE’S A VAMPIRE; maybe he really is a great person after all but if it turns out he ISN’T, you’re putting yourself in a lot of unnecessary danger. But also, I guess it depends onwhyyou’re this into him? /curious don’t hate me
“Don’t hate me,”his vampire had said. And Shane was sure there were plenty of humans who would have, in his place, but somehow Shane was still here, still begging for more.
Shane-anigans
No it definitely is weird, I don’t know why I even asked.
Nat1
I’m not going to shame you for your preferences but be careful, please. Keep one foot out the door and if you get even the slightest vibe that maybe he isn’t as heroic as you think he is, run.
Shane-anigans
He’s not going to kill me.
