Page 60 of Vampires of Eden: Oliver
“I rescind my offer.”
Aries sighs heavily and lays his head into the curve of my neck. His voice is muffled. “It’s too far. I will not feed from you.”
We’re quiet as we lie together. I close my eyes and take several deep breaths to push back the fire burning inside. I don’t simply imagine large snowflakes this time. Tonight, I need a blizzard. A complete white-out with low visibility and travel warnings. I plunge myself within the imagery until my head is clear and the intensity of my nature has dissipated.
After a long moment, I open my eyes and stare up at the darkened ceiling. “I’m sorry… that was selfish of me.”
“You don’t need to apologize, but please don’t tempt me that way again, Oliver. There are some lines that we should not cross in this situation.”
“I know, you already explained and I understand, but… when’s the last time you fed, Aries?” I’ve tried not to ask. I’ve been avoiding it because it isn’t my business. How often we feed and who from is a very intimate aspect of a vampire’s life.
Even still, he’s obviously underfed compared with the first day he arrived here. I wonder about his “networks” and whether he has someone in Eden who’s willing to feed him. Our aristocracy isn’t like the other, more liberal vampire communities across the modern world. I doubt that he has proper contacts here to aid him.
He rolls onto his back so that he’s beside me, then rubs his palms against his face. “My young master is astute in his observations. Of course he is.”
“I’m being serious. How can I help?”
After setting his hands on his stomach, he takes a deep breath in through his nose, then blows it out. “I’m fine, darling. You don’t need to worry. I am overdue by a week, but I’ll figure it out.”
My body yearns to remedy this. Innately, I can sense that he’s hungry and needs nourishment, so I want to give it to him. The equation is simple.
“The young master is incensed?”
Turning my head, I frown, but I’m half smiling. “Stop calling me that. No, I’m alright, I just… wish things were different.”
“Rest assured, I feel the same way. Come closer, please.”
I shift and lie against his side—into the taut, warm length of his elegantly toned body. When I’m nestled there, Aries lazily drags his fingers down my spine.
“I want to memorize you, Oliver. Your flowery scent, angelic eyes and the lines of your physique. The weight of you wrapped around my hips and the soft, breathless sounds you make when you come. I am determined to remember all of it.”
Playfully, he strokes his fingers in between my cheeks, teasing my flesh before he grips my ass with his palm. Understanding, I lift my leg up and over his hip until I’m flush with the heat and thickness of his shaft.
He inhales, kissing my neck, and I’m simply euphoric. I want to memorize him, too, and being touched like this. Being adored in this tender, honest but ravenous way.
“I can’t feed you, but… is my blood appealing to you?” I gasp as he swiftly drags me atop his body and settles onto his back, still licking and nuzzling my neck.
“Mm,” he sighs, brushing his nose along my jawline and lazily grinding his hips into my groin. “Extremely.” I find his lips and kiss him hard, practically smashing our mouths together. He exhales and it comes out like a growl—like somewhere inside of him the need is painful and he’s unraveling underneath my weight.
When I pull up again, my lips and face are hot, stinging from the vigor of our affections. He says that my nature and blood are attractive to him, so I want to ask another question. “Aries?”
“Yes?”
“Do you think bonding would be oppressive? Because you’d lose your liberated lifestyle?” The rhetoric of mating and bonding has been drilled into my head since I was seven years old. This idea sits in direct contrast with my sincere desire to be free—like parallel roads, never crossing.
With Aries, and for the first time… I can see them aligned as a singular path. A winding lane forged from gold and flanked by rolling pastures filled with wildflowers. But am I being naïve? Is this unrealistic and the two cannot truly coexist? Bondage and freedom.
Aries draws his knees up, then rests his palms against the dip of my lower back. “No, I don’t associate bonding with oppression. Your fiancé is wrong about that.”
“In what way?”
“He talks about my lifestyle as if the underlying cause of my choices is fear—as if I’m afraid of bonding, and thus, I spend my years running away, traveling and working to avoid being mated with someone.
“But this is not the case. I live this way because it’s truly what I enjoy. Design is what I’m good at, and it fulfills me. If I met someone in my travels that my nature responded to strongly enough to form a bond, I would accept that. Because at its baseline, bonding means that we are innately balanced and suited for each other. Our perspectives and deeper foundations would be harmonious, so we’d create a lifestyle that we both desire. That’s what I believe bonding truly should be.”
My heart is full as I lean in and press our lips together. “I agree,” I whisper. Truly, everything that he said resonates within me. Profoundly.
“This is how itshouldbe,” Aries says. “But somewhere in the midst of our transitioning to contemporary vampiric society, we’ve lost our way. We became civilized, but rigid and rule-based. Burdening ourselves with obligations derived from greed, wealth, power, class and position. None of these have any place in forming true bonds. We’re slowly realizing this now, though, and getting back to what matters.”
