Blood Mate (22 page)

“Nicole?”

She forced her
gaze from Dominic’s pants to his face. “What?”

“Do you want to
try that? If it doesn’t hurt you, I’d be willing to feed from
you.”

Wasn’t that what
she wanted?
Not
to have a serial killer for a husband? Though,
in her mind she’d already started to imagine him killing bad
people. He could clean up the planet of evil. It would be a public
service. The world would be a better place. It would be safe for
children to play unsupervised and for women to walk down dark alleys.
Though she had a feeling that it wouldn’t be worth the cost of how
it would change her husband or the guilt he’d have to live with as
a result.

“O-okay.”

“Excellent,”
August said, “Why don’t we take this upstairs where we’ll all
be more comfortable? We don’t have to do this down here.”

“I’d like to
take a shower first. I feel weird from the change,” Dominic said.

“Certainly.
Nicolette, why don’t you go up to your bedroom and wait for us.”

She would be lying
if she said she hadn’t, in some dark corner of her mind, fantasized
about a similar scenario to this. She averted her eyes from the two
of them and climbed the stairs out of the cellar. They moved with
such quiet grace she wasn’t sure if they were behind her or if they
were still down there talking about vampire stuff. She didn’t dare
look behind her to find out.

In her room,
Nicole made herself busy transferring all the gifts August had given
her to the closet, so the three of them would have room and also so
as not to rub it all in her husband’s face. She dug through the
bags for the makeup he’d given her.

Rice paper to take
off the shine and a swipe of lip gloss. There. Natural and not like
she was trying too hard.

She
went to the bathroom to freshen up. She undressed and slipped on a
nightgown that hung on a peg. When she came back out, both men…
both
vampires
sat in chairs facing each other at the end of
the bedroom. It was still hard to remember Dominic was a vampire. The
two stared at each other as if telepathically debating territories.

When the door
closed behind her, they both looked up, their expressions going from
tense property negotiation to blood lust in a blink. Dominic rose
first, but August reached the bed first.

“Nicolette, come
here.”

She glanced at
Dominic as if asking permission, all the while hoping August didn’t
notice it. The elder vampire needed to feel like he was in charge.
The situation was too delicate. The balance of power would have to
remain
just so
or else the two of them would fight over her
like roosters in a hen house. Never mind that she couldn’t deny one
and wouldn’t deny the other.

Dominic’s nod
was so slight, she wasn’t sure if she imagined it, but she heard
the impatient sigh coming from the bed, so she went to August.

“We’ve decided
that tonight I will take your throat and Dominic will take the vein
between your thighs.”

She didn’t reply
because there was nothing she could say that wouldn’t sound
completely stupid. Dominic had matured a hundred years since his
turning, though he appeared ten years younger. She wondered what
vampiric secrets he was privy to. How many of August’s memories did
he have? How deep did their connection run? And
had
the two
vampires been communicating telepathically?

They’d conspired
to hunt her, to consume her. They would each know what she did with
the other. It would all be laid bare. No secrets.

August took off
his shirt and pulled her against his chest. The skin-to-skin contact
inexplicably soothed her.

He gripped her
throat, and her body went tense like a violin string. He stroked her
skin with his other hand. She looked helplessly at Dominic, wondering
if he’d have that angry glare he’d had when he’d been human and
under August’s control, but all she saw was lust peering out from
yellow eyes and fangs pressing out of his flesh, itching to be inside
hers.

A chill raced down
her spine as Dominic growled and shoved the gown halfway up her
waist, exposing her pale thighs.

“Spread your
legs,” he said.

She did as she was
told, her heart lurching into her throat, pounding at a feverish
pace.

August struck
first. His bite was a calculated strike, his hand never leaving her
throat. As if his possession of her must be displayed more starkly
with Dominic present.

The usual pleasure
and need came over her, feelings she’d sought to mask from her
husband before, feelings that made it hard not to succumb to August’s
desires.

Her muscles
seized, waiting for the strike of Dominic’s bite—the pain still
too fresh to relax. To her surprise, instead of fangs, it was a
tongue between her legs. She bucked and moved against his mouth as he
languidly stroked her.

At the moment of
her release, his fangs were in her thigh. And then both vampires
drank. Dominic’s bite muted the pleasure of August’s—which was
disappointing—but August stopped the pain from Dominic. Instead of
being the most pleasurable experience, or the most painful, it
became… comfortable, something she could sink into like a fluffy
pillow.

Nicole drifted,
floating between them as they fed. Time stopped moving and then it
moved forever. An eternal
now
. It wouldn’t matter how much
they drank, her body would re-knit itself, rushing to meet the demand
with supply. The blood would replenish as if none had ever been
taken.

She squirmed as
Dominic pulled out of her and ran his tongue over the puncture marks
he’d left in her thigh, speeding the healing that would happen on
its own within a few seconds anyway. A moment later, August did the
same.

Then Dominic did
something unexpected. He pricked his finger with a fang like August
did when he wanted to give her a little blood. August tensed and
growled. Dominic growled back. She wondered if they were exchanging
an actual language.

The wound on his
finger healed, but the growls continued for several minutes until
Nicole was afraid for her safety being between the two of them.

“No!” August
said.

“Yes. I want to
exchange blood with her.”

“It won’t
change anything, she’s still mine.”

“Then why do you
care? Besides, you can’t babysit us every second of every day. If
she wants that connection to me, she’ll take it when you aren’t
around.”

Abruptly, August
pushed Nicole off him. “I’ll leave you two alone, then,” he
practically snarled.

Part of Nicole
wanted to go after him if for no other reason than to keep whatever
this was from escalating further.

Dominic pulled
back the blankets and got underneath, propping the pillows behind
him. He patted the mattress. Somehow it felt like old times—before
August had come into their lives. She could pretend they were at
their house sleeping in on a Saturday afternoon after he’d worked
late the previous night. She could pretend Dominic was still a
regular guy with worries like the mortgage and his case load and the
occasional gray hair.

She snuggled
against him, and he draped an arm around her in the same comforting
way he always used to. “Are we going to be okay?” she asked.

“I’ve got you
and my eternal good looks. Why wouldn’t we be?” The attempted
joke fell flat but the attempt was admirable all the same. After
another beat he said, “I think so. He wants us to be together. For
you, mostly. He can’t stand to see you hurting.”

“But what about
you? What about what you want?” she asked.

“I can’t stand
to see you hurting either. It is what it is. I can’t undo the link
he has with you. And I’m not willing to act in ways that just cause
you more pain. I love you.”

It wasn’t that
she wanted the two men to arm wrestle for her, but Dominic’s eerie
calm about the situation was unnerving. It reminded her that he was
something more than human now, that his frame for reality had
shifted. And maybe now the otherness of the two of them would make
her
feel like the third wheel. The two vampires had acted as a
unit. Although she was tied by blood to August, the vampires were
tied by blood as well. But it was different. Their link was more
complete, more primal. And she would always be the human that was
there to satisfy their most basic hungers. What if that was all she
became to them?

“I want to give
you some of my blood.”

“What will it
do?” She didn’t want to withhold things from her husband, but she
feared angering August when everything was still so delicate and
easily damaged.

“It will connect
us more.”

“But August
said… ”

“You wouldn’t
have a mate connection with me like you do with him. I couldn’t
find you like he can, and your lifeline is already tied to his, not
mine. But it will connect us more. It will complete the circle.”

The words felt
ancient and powerful. In her fevered imagination she saw torchlight,
a mix of blood, and then a million fireflies coming out of nowhere,
exploding out into the world leaving the three of them something new
altogether.

“I just had the
weirdest mental image,” she said.

“Did it involve
an uncountable number of fireflies?”

“How did you…?”

“I may never be
your mate in the way August is, but as a vampire, I
can
get
inside your mind. You may be his blood mate, but you aren’t mine
and never could have been mine. The reason I can feed successfully
from you is his link with you and my link with him. I think if you
drink from me the kind of connection we
can
have will be
stronger. You may have something with August that I can never have,
but I’ll have something with you he can’t. I already do to some
extent.”

“C-could you
control me? Like vampires do?”

“I could. I
already can. I can also put images in your head like just now. I can
speak to you mentally, but I get fuzziness when I try to read your
thoughts directly. My mental powers will grow stronger as I get
older, but I think a blood exchange would allow it with you now.”

“So
you would be able to read my mind more?”

She
didn’t want to fear her own husband. She didn’t want to think he
would ever use his powers against her or sabotage her. August could
always take them far away, but then Dominic would be left to kill,
and she couldn’t accept that. Maybe he wouldn’t feel remorse when
he did it because of who his sire was. Maybe that was gone forever,
washed away by the blood link she’d created with the other vampire.

In
the end, August would never do anything to harm her. His entire
genetic code proclaimed that she’d saved him, and as such, deserved
full protection for as long as time existed. But could Dominic be
dangerous? Should she hold back this last part of herself
until she knew how things would be? Could she ever know for sure?
Forever was forever.

She looked up to
find August leaning against the door frame, calmer now that he’d
stepped away. Nicole sent him a questioning look.

On one level she
didn’t care if August was bitter, but on another level it would
make life more difficult. It was daunting being in the middle of
them, being the wild card that could make things turn either very
good or very bad. If very good was on the table… that was what she
wanted.

“You have my
permission, Nicolette.” His voice came out smooth and regal. It was
as if he’d returned from a month-long mountain top retreat where
he’d discussed this issue with a council of fellow vampires. And
now permission was being handed down. How gracious. How magnanimous.

He wants to
feel like he’s the one in control. But he’s afraid you’ll do it
anyway.
Dominic’s voice pressed into her mind, as he squeezed
her more tightly.

Can you hear me
back?
She tried to think in his direction and imagined pushing
the thought into his mind, but there was silence in her own head
after that. She turned toward him, but he was looking at August. He
hadn’t heard her, and for that moment she was utterly alone.

Of the two men,
which did she truly trust more? While the bond was a leash that
forced August to protect her in the end, it didn’t mean he couldn’t
and wouldn’t make mistakes. He’d already done things to her that
most people would consider quite bad. Ignoring those things made her
feel as if she were excusing the behavior of an abusive boyfriend.

Dominic may be a
new vampire, but he was also the man who’d loved her for over a
decade, who she’d loved in return. He’d been good and honorable
and kind. Whatever changes were happening to him, he was still
Dominic. If she ever needed an ally, the mental communication had to
go both ways.

“I-I don’t
know if it’s a good idea,” Nicole said.

August’s eyes
narrowed. She’d defied him. She’d questioned him. How dare she?

“Do it,” he
commanded.

Reverse
psychology? Brilliant.
Dominic thought.

She wanted to
think back,
How well you know me.

Dominic pricked
his finger and pressed it into her mouth. Nicole closed her eyes and
drank the blood, unsure if such a small amount could do anything.

“That’s it,
sweetheart. Take as much as you need.”

When the wound
healed, he withdrew his finger.

Well?
she
thought at him.
Can you hear this?

Yes, I hear
you.
There was a triumphant glee in his mental tone. It was as if
he’d discovered Walkie-Talkies.

Nicole tried not
to think about the fact that she’d never have another private
thought when she was near him.

I have to make
some kind of effort to hear you. It’s not a passive talent, and I
don’t disrespect your privacy. You know me.