Page 18 of Our Sins in Blood (Coven of Sin 1)

My heart felt heavy in my chest. My stomach rumbled, and my throat went dry. “No… Am I always going to have to take those, or do I have to start biting people?”

The prospect of actually biting another person should have been revolting, but now that it was actually on the table as something normal my kind did to sustain themselves, it was hard to think about it as anything but natural. Maybe that was my monstrous instincts talking, and the alcohol wasn’t helping slake that urge at all. It was making it worse.

“You don’t have to, no. But the coven Elders will teach you how to do so safely and discreetly, eventually.”

I frowned. “That girl at the front seemed to like you. Maybe you could go and do that hypnosis shit that Vincent used on my mom.”

“Ruby, that isn’t a good idea. Besides, I don’t know how to do that yet. The ability to mesmerize humans comes with time and practice.”

I shook my head, trying to knock some sense into it. What was I thinking? Had I actually just suggested that we go attack that poor girl?

Walking to the sink, I turned on the faucet and stuck my head under the water to wash out the red coloring. Corry stepped up behind me to help. For a vampire, he was surprisingly warm. He was so close, his heat seeped through my clothing and warmed me all over.

There was something about his presence that was comforting, safe. And he somehow made me feel more human. Which was weird since he wasn’t human at all. I felt his fingers in my hair, massaging my scalp and coaxing the dye from my roots. His touch was strong but gentle.

His breathing turned heavy and labored behind me. Shutting the faucet off, I wrung out my now cherry-red hair and looked at his reflection in the mirror.

“You okay?”

Corry jerked a nod, his Adam’s apple bobbing with a gulp. “Yeah… You just smell really good. Better than anyone I’ve ever smelled before.”

A smile curved my lips, and I saw in the mirror that my cheeks had blotted with twin stains of pink. “You normally go around sniffing girls?”

He let out a nervous laugh. “No. As a youngblood, I’m pretty much confined to the coven these days, and the women there don’t smell anything like you. You don’t really smell like a human either.”

He leaned closer, burying his nose in my mane of red. He inhaled, his eyes growing half-mast and a sultry grin sliding across his lips. He lifted a hand and coiled one of my freshly colored locks around his finger.

“Ruby-Red. Soon to be queen of the dead. Your scent smells like something sent from the gods.”

I arched a brow at him. “You’re a religious vampire?”

“No. But your scent is enough to make me believe in something holy. That’s for fucking sure.”

His voice had dropped to a husky, wanton timbre. The tip of his nose nuzzled the sensitive skin beneath my ear, and his breath tickled my skin, causing me to shiver despite his heat that enveloped me like a blanket.

I caught his gaze in the mirror and swallowed a gasp. His eyes had turned crimson again, and his fangs had dropped. They were so close to my neck, if he decided to bite me now, there would be no getting away.

But he didn’t, and it seemed to be taking all of his control not to sink his teeth into me.

“What happens when a vampire bites another vampire?”

His cheeks burned to a hue of red that almost matched my hair. “A vampire biting another vampire is something completely different than a vampire biting a human. It’s more…intimate.”

“What? Really?”

He gave a slow nod. “We get all the nourishment we need from human and animal blood. It’s deliciously satisfying, but when we feed from our own, it’s another kind of hunger that awakens.”

“Have you ever done it?”

He closed his eyes, shaking his head. “Never.”

I swallowed, gathering my courage. “Can you teach me how to bite?”

His eyes snapped open, and his jaw practically dropped open into an expression of shock, his thick, deadly sharp fangs glinting in the bathroom’s fluorescent lighting. “I shouldn’t. Not yet. The Elders wouldn’t want me to.”

“You can bite me in exchange,” I offered.

Shit, what was I doing?

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