Mated & Blooded, A Blood Ties Novel, Book 1 (22 page)

“Of course that won’t make you immune. It
will require that we repeat this process over and over again until
you no longer reject the blood. It could take five times or five
thousand times. I know it sounds crazy but it is the only way you
can become immune. Trust me, I’ve seen it before and I’ve seen it
work.”

We talked back and forth about it for quite a
while. I made some phone calls to see if his information could be
validated. Several other older vampires believed he was correct.
They likened it to when a new human vaccine was created. We always
rejected the blood initially then had to keep drinking it until our
poor reaction stopped.

The big difference here is the reaction isn’t
a little pain in our heart followed by a small amount of blood loss
from our eyes and ears. The reaction was like pure acid burning
through your system. I would start to bleed horrifically through my
eyes and ears. It would attack my heart and it was going to be pure
agony. I was going to be melted from the inside out.

I couldn’t understand why Kenyan wanted to do
this process with me. I know vampires did if for each other when we
were poisoned although even then it was usually family. Other
vampires tended not to suffer for each other.

He claimed he was doing for the experience.
Said that he’d lived to many years and that there really wasn’t
anything left that interested him. So be it, I decided to give it a
try. I wasn’t going to have a shot at Kalli if I couldn’t blood
with her. This was the best chance I had.

We had decided that I would use Kalli’s blood
the first time. We did this for several reasons. First, we weren’t
sure her blood was pure werewolf blood or even if it was poisons.
Though Kenyon and I agreed that is sure did smell like good old
fashioned werewolf blood.

Second, if it was altered then I needed to
grown an immunity to her blood not just any werewolf blood. We had
to make sure that I would be able to drink her blood. I wanted to
be able to share in the traditional ways of my people. I was very
common for beloved couples to drink of each other. In some ways it
was as erotic and stimulating as love making itself.

The final reason is Kenyon seemed to think
the small vial might be enough to blood us, so even if I didn’t
grown an immunity for future sharing, she might begin to experience
my emotions with just this small amount. If she knew how I felt it
would be easier for her to accept me.

I sat down, took a big breath and said

“down the hatch” then swallowed the entire
contents of the vial.

My mouth was used to the feel of wolves
blood, so while it burned like the dickens and my natural instinct
was to spit it out. I needed to force myself to swallow. I felt it
burn it was down my esophagus and into my blood stream.

My blood heated and I felt bloody sweat beads
forming all over my skin. I was in anguish. I could feel the blood
leaking from my eyes and ears. Kenyan was trying to speak to me but
my ears felt like they were covered with ten gallons of water. I
was becoming faint but couldn’t even close my eyes because of the
intensive raw burn emanating from all my internal organs. Then, I
felt it make its way to my heart and I screamed out in pure
agony.

The pitch and intensity of my shriek must
have alerted Kenyan that it was time to begin to deplete me of my
blood. He grabbed hold of my wrist and punctured my flesh with his
fangs. Unlike most blood exchanges there was nothing pleasant or
euphoric about this. I was in more pain than I thought was
possible. I could feel every single time he pulled at the blood in
my veins and drew it into his mouth. I could tell it was burning
his mouth as well even as I watched as hit spit it out in the
bucket next to him.

I shuddered imagining the next eight to ten
hours pure torture and misery I knew both Kenyan and I were going
to continue to experience. Once started there was no way to stop
this process. I screamed again in anguish. I saw Kenyan pause and
look at me with what I would have thought was almost sympathy
before he return to draining me of my blood.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to live through
this. I felt the blood burning through my heart and new that it had
already consumed more than half of the flesh. I didn’t think Kenyan
could drain me quickly enough. There wouldn’t be anything left to
regenerate.

Then I thought of the regeneration process
itself, it would likely require draining two or three humans. If I
didn’t drain them it would take more than a dozen to replace my
entire blood supply. Kenyan and I hadn’t thought of that before
starting the process. While I wasn’t in love with my humans that
lived in the lower levels I did have a love for them. I didn’t want
to drain them all dry and kill them. I needed a revolving blood
supply and this location was too remote to really provide that. I
tried to speak and tell Kenyan we needed to find blood donors but I
found I had screamed myself out of a voice. I was unable to utter a
single word.

I couldn’t believe that it had been well over
a month since Nikoli and I had started the immunity process. I
looked around my apartment in New York City and grabbed a change of
clothes and headed out to the warehouse Nikoli and I would use for
the next round of treatment. We had started at his place in
Pennsylvania, but quickly realized we’d been out of our element and
would need to change tactics. We moved to New York City to have a
ready supply of donors and to keep more distance between Nikoli and
Kalli.

Thinking about tonight, reminded me of the
first night and our series of mistakes. I remember that I had
thought it would take eight to ten hours to drain Nikoli of his
blood. However, each time I pulled it from his veins it was more
painful than the mouthful before. I could feel some of the poison
seeping into my blood stream and making its way around my body. It
was like acid coursing through my veins.

I now understood why so many vampires had
given up during the healing process. The process was horrific for
the healer and unbelievable dreadful for the poisoned soul. I know
in the dark ages, we used to open their vein and drain the blood
onto the floor but we quickly found the poisoned vampire’s heart
would stop working and they would bleed out and died. When we drew
out their blood through our fangs, it somehow tricked the heart
into believing it was part of the feeding process and the heart
continued to fight to regenerate.

So there we were some sixteen hours into the
process and we still had a ways to go. Nikoli has been screaming in
agony though the entire process. Though, his shrieks became silent
about twelve hours in when he lost his voice. I had been so
grateful when he could no longer verbalize the pain. I too was in
excruciating pain and had to stop multiple times to writhe around
on the floor in pain. No one or nothing could have prepared us for
how truly hideous this was going to be. Perhaps I would have kept
the process to myself I certainly would not have volunteered to
partner with him on this if I had known.

Once I finished draining all of Nikoli’s
blood I realized that we needed blood donors and I mind linked to
his female living in the lower level quarters and requested for
them to join us. I had been exhausted and in desperate need to
feed. I was also going to have to help Nikoli to feed, since it was
a key part of regeneration and it was time to begin putting
nutrients back into Nikoli’s system.

Five ladies came from upstairs to be used as
donors. I recognized the female that was in front of me as the
young women who had fed the hybrid just yesterday. Given the amount
of blood that was taken from her by the hybrid I knew that she
would provide a minimal amount of blood and nutrients. Somewhat
disgusted, but not wanting to kill her since Nikoli had expressed
that very clearly earlier, I ordered her to return to her
rooms.

I grabbed a short brown haired female, and
snapped my fangs into her wrist. I wanted to feed quickly on her so
that I would have the strength to help Nikoli to feed. She’d
obviously is a diabetic since I got a mild sugar high upon contact.
I asked her why Nikoli kept her around as a donor and she explained
he never fed from her. He had other uses they preferred to share. I
gave the woman a good look over again and raised my eyebrows.

“I am sorry to hear that you are not used to
being a donor, but Nikoli will not survive the night if he isn’t
sufficiently fed. Tonight, you will need to provide for him. I held
her hand and brought her to sit on the floor next to Nikoli. I
carefully placed her still bleeding wrist into his mouth.

As expected, once the fresh blood touched his
lips he went into a feeding frenzy. Given how low he was on blood,
and that his heart was severely damaged, he had only the animal
instincts to guide him. The poor girl was going to be severely
injured when he was finished. I watched him as he tore into her in
flesh and sucked out her blood at an alarming rate. It was what one
would call a barbaric feeding.

I knew from my first day that Nikoli was
still a big believer in compassion for human life. I also knew that
he took great care in providing for his humans. He would not want
to brutalize, maim or kill them in his blood lust. I would need to
stop him before he drained them dry and protect his humans if he
became vicious.

I forced him to stop feeding on the diabetic
and told her to head up stairs and get her arm wrapped up. Then I
motioned for the tall leggy blond with very little meat on her
bones. I would bet Nikoli rescued her from a life of drugs and
prostitution. Chances are she still had much healing to do.

I brought her over and asked her to stay very
calm. I placed her arm into his mouth and he did the rest. He
clamped down on the donor’s wrist like a bear trap snapping shut. I
heard the girls bone break and had to silence her screech of pain
that reverberated in my ears.

I took control of her mind and forced the
pain out. Once Nikoli drank his fill, I used my hand to forcibly
rip his fangs from the girl’s wrist. I poured some of my own blood
on her wrist to help the healing process. Then sent her upstairs to
her companions and seek medical help for her broken bones.

I asked the next donor to step forward. She
was a big girl. Easily considered obese in today society, I just
found her to be a very full figure. I thought she might be leery of
coming to me having just witnessed Nikoli crushing her companion’s
wrist but she moved forward without hesitation. I assumed she was
very loyal to him since she moved forward and placed her own wrist
into his mouth.

Like the donor before Nikoli clamped down
viciously on the woman’s wrist and began drawing in her blood. This
donor however started to pat his arm, rub her fingers over his brow
and coo soft calm words to him. I could tell she was in a lot of
physical pain but she didn’t allow that to stop her from
encouraging Nikoli to feed.

She spoke softly to him the entire time. As
she drew low on blood, and started to become faint her words
changed. She started to tell him to release her so that she could
provide for him another day. Something she said must have sunk in
since he released her on his own. I asked the heavy set woman to
head upstairs but she declined. She was looking at me with a sort
of disgust on her face. Then she said

“Don’t try to tell me what to do, Nikoli is
my family. He is all of our family. Not a single one of us would be
alive if not for Nikoli. He found us and provided us with a real
life. Take Laya for example she’d been born in Russia but had been
moved to the state via a human trafficker. They had her addicted to
all sorts of drugs and had been abusing her for years when Nikoli
found a freed her. Or Mari”

She said pointing at the young odd looking
female with blue hair, a ton of tattoos and more piercings that I
cared to count.

“Mari’s mother had allowed her to be
viciously abused by men from a very young age. Nikoli rescued her
and has given her a home without strings attached. In fact he’s
never even requested that she donate blood to him.”

The heavy set woman now had tears in her eyes
and she again leaned down onto the floor and started to caress
Nikoli’s face.

“The truth is, each and every one of us have
reasons for being with Nikoli. While we might all go about
explaining it differently, the reality is he just treated us better
than the outside world. Before our lives restarted with Nikoli we
were women that had been thrown away and misused in society.”

The woman looked over at the girl she called
Mari who plopped herself down next to Nikoli and the heavyset
woman. I watched as the heavy set woman closed her eyes and fell
asleep. Without any hesitation Mari shoved her arm into his mouth.
Unlike the others before her Nikoli gently punctured her wrist and
began to drink. The feeding seemed to go on much longer than the
other two and I started to wonder if he was draining her dry.

I moved over towards the three of them to
realize that he’d stop feeding sometime ago and had actually fallen
asleep with his fangs still embedded in the girls arm. I asked if
she would like help removing his fangs but she declined. Instead
she managed to move her body into a position that allowed her to
lay down beside him with her wrist still in his mouth. I watched
somewhat amazed as the three of the slept in that position.

I had decided that I would head upstairs and
see what had gone on during my and Nikoli’s absence. The moment I
walked through the front door I knew that to some extent Nikoli and
I had already been somewhat successful. The drinking of his beloved
blood had begun the blooding process. She had felt and endured the
process almost as much as he had. I was assaulted by more than one
scared wolf not really understanding what had taken place.