Page 8 of House of Vampires and Flame

“Don’t be difficult, boy.” He smirked. “You do have a name, don’t you?”

Tell him your name, Sy urged. He’s a good mark and powerful. We haven’t met such a quality. We can fuck him later.

Quit fucking everything that moves, I scoffed.

“I’m Bo—Bobbi,” I offered. “Now will you let me get on with my business, sir? It’s urgent!”

“Little Bob, you smell good,” he said and sniffed my scent deeply.

I always smelled good to monsters.

His nostrils flared. His irises dilated. His fangs popped out. My heart thundered.

Shit, he was no sir; he was a vamp—

“Today is your lucky day, little Bob. I usually don’t ask my meal’s name.”

Faster than a shock, he sank his fangs into the side of my neck, piercing my throbbing vein. It dawned on me that he’d smelled my blood in the wind, lured by its scent and power, and tracked me all the way here before I could sneak into the kitchen to get some solid food into my stomach.

My blood flowed from my veins into his mouth. While he swallowed a mouthful, groaning in great satisfaction, panic clawed at the back of my throat. I shoved him, but he pinned me against the wall with his vampire strength.

The leech is going to kill us, Sy! I shouted in alarm.

Sy tried to break out of my skin, but somehow, she was subdued.

It’s his venom, she said in dismay.

Even if she came out, she might not be able to overpower this vampire.

The double doors were suddenly flung open, and a male server stepped out of the kitchen, holding a tray. A big female with an air of authority followed him out.

The pair noticed us, and their eyes widened in alarm.

I writhed, indicating I was an unwilling victim and hoping they could lend me a hand.

They dropped their gazes quickly and bowed deeply. “Your Highness, have a good day!” they murmured before scrambling away down the corridor.

Shit! I was being fed upon by a vampire prince! In every world and every realm, vampires were always the worst predators, perching at the top of the food chain.

The female glanced back over her shoulder at the vampire prince in longing, as if she longed to replace me.

Be my fucking guest!

While I was thinking this bitter thought, pleasure rocked my body unexpectedly.

It isn’t so bad now, is it? Sy purred like a feline, utterly forgetting that we were being fed upon.

When my father consumed us, it’d been like our essence being chipped away and our bone marrow being drained. Every feeding had left us completely hollowed out.

This opposite experience disarmed Sy. It didn’t feel like being fed on, more like a fair trade—giving a pint of blood in exchange for incredible pleasure.

Perhaps I shouldn’t blame Sy so hard. A vampire’s bite was meant to disarm their prey; their venom in the victim’s bloodstream offered a pleasurable experience. Sy was my primary self who had no sexual inhibition. She was probably a sex addict, even if she sugarcoated it as feeding.

Yet no matter how wonderous the pleasure was, it couldn’t disarm me like it did Sy.

A cocktail of lust, fear, and rage washed over me, then my strength returned, pumping into my backbone, freeing my limbs from being paralyzed by the vampire’s venom.

“Fuck off, leech!”

---