Nectar: DD Prince (37 page)

She felt goosebumps rise all over, “I’m yours, only yours,” she whispered.

“And I’m yours,” he whispered. She felt his teeth slowly elongating against her clavicle.

“Whoa, Tristan?”

“Baby…”

“No, Tristan, wait,” she breathed, “You don’t want to bite me here, do you?”

He growled, “Grrrrr. No. You’re right. You’re right.” He kissed her neck and then started to pick up the pace of penetration. He slipped the metal cuff off her wrist and it clanged as it hit the floor. He bit there instead. She held onto him with her other arm until they both climaxed while he drank just a little bit more. The sex was a little rough and pretty quick and then afterwards, he licked her wound and re-cuffed her bracelet.

“Better?” she asked, getting her panties back up and trying to ignore the niggling feeling that this should be the last thing he would be doing right now.

“Much,” he smiled with dimples, “I’m fine. No worries. Dinner should be served out there any time. We’ll go, eat, and then one dance and I’ll run you back to the apartment. Don’t stress, babe; I’ll feel better when you’re safely back there.”

She nodded, straightened her appearance and put her mask and then leaned down to retrieve the jewelry from the floor. He seemed totally centered and in control now.

“Have I told you yet how gorgeous you look?” He kissed her.

“Yes, thank you. So do you.” She wiped lipstick off his lower lip with her thumb. He kissed her thumb, piercing her soul with his intense gaze.

He checked her wrist and then kissed it, holding his lips on the bite marks for a moment. Then he re-cuffed the bracelet.

“No one will smell the blood?” she asked.

“Nope, all sealed with a kiss,” he said.

“I should use the facilities while we’re here,” she said softly.

“I’ll wait right outside the door. Everything’ll be fine. Don’t stress.” He straightened his mask, washed his hands, and then straightened his tuxedo jacket. After he left she tried to regain some sort of composure. She re-applied the glossy red lipstick, trying to push away the lingering worries she had about his odd seesawing demeanor.

She felt cramps in her tummy again. She doubled over for a second, wishing she’d had some pain medication in her small glittery red clutch purse.  When she stepped back out into the hall Tristan was entrenched in a conversation with Sam a few feet from the door and he looked angry. His eyes swept over her and his brow furrowed.

As she stepped toward them she merged with two attractive females walking in the same direction, both in masks so clearly attending the same party, “Look, he’s collared her,” one said, “Surprised he’s finally taken a pet…” the other mumbled, “She
does
smell appetizing.”

“I pity anyone unfortunate enough to be
his
pet, though. He is
such
a prick.”

“Yeah, well I hear the sex is amazing. He’s apparently feral and totally insatiable.”

Kyla did her best to hold her face stoic and approached Sam and Tristan. Sam gave her a little smile, “You look especially lovely tonight,” he said.

She smiled, “Thank you. You scrub up pretty good, yourself.”

Tristan let out a little hiss and gave her a look laced with warning. For a split second she thought it was jealousy and then realized she shouldn’t be capable of anything resembling an intelligent conversation. She gave him an apologetic look and then fixed her eyes on the floor.

Sam stepped aside and she took Tristan’s arm and followed him back into the banquet hall. Servers were moving about the large room with carts filled with bowls.

She quickly counted two rows of 6 tables each. Each table sat 10. She was astounded at the fact that at least half, likely way more than that, were vampires. She knew from what Tristan had said that this hotel banquet room held just some of the senior to high level staff and coalition members that he was associated with.  She wondered how much of a vampire population this city had.  She wondered what Kovac was supposed to be; how it functioned as a company in plain sight.

When she and Tristan returned to their assigned seats there were two other couples sitting down as well including Sam, who was with a woman. Tristan and Kyla arrived at the same time as Dawn and a man, who Kyla presumed was the Liam that Dawn had mentioned.

The man was young-looking and attractive. He had blond hair, just past his shoulders, and dark eyes were striking even from his dark mask. He and Dawn looked matched like Ken and Barbie. Although Kyla imagined to others that she and Tristan might look like the brunette equivalents tonight. She’d never felt so good about the way she looked before and being on his arm was exactly where she wanted to be. She only wished this was a normal banquet where she could truly enjoy herself, be herself, not a place with such high stakes.

Kyla saw that it did say Liam on a place card at the other end of the table as she walked by and it had said Guest of Liam Donovan on the card where Dawn sat. She glanced down and saw the Guest of Samuel Jasper beside her seat. A blonde girl sat there quietly, sipping from a champagne flute. Kyla’s stomach flipped, thinking about poor Julia. At least she wasn’t the only non-vampire at the table. Where Jet and Isabelle sat, their place cards had both their names on them. Their surname was Jasper, too. Ah, Jet and Sam definitely resembled one another.

Soup was being served to each person and the room was buzzing with conversation.  Kyla caught sight of Andre and Rebecca three tables over. They were dressed to match in black and were cuddled up talking at their table, sitting with other beautiful “people”. One set of couples included a beautiful woman whose date was dressed in a black suit but without a tie, his first few buttons were undone and he wore a silver chain link choker collar.  Kyla now had another face to emulate. He looked impassive.

Tristan didn’t introduce her to the others at their table. It was as if she and Sam’s guest didn’t exist. Judging by the conversations going on the other couples at their table all consisted of vampires. Kyla ate her soup quietly and slowly, ensuring she had something to keep her busy until the next course. If she had something to do, she felt like the likelihood of doing something to blow her cover would be minimized. The girl beside her would be helpful, too. She’d have someone to mimic.

Tristan was asked about the fire and he recounted a few vague details. Conversations about the following day’s events took place, too, and from what Kyla could gather it seemed like there were several meetings and seminars taking place regarding different elements of business.  It sounded like Kovac Capital was a diversified company with a lot of different business divisions and she assumed that’d make it easy for them to operate in a variety of areas. From what Tristan had said, there were shady areas but tonight the conversation seemed to stay on very surface-oriented topics.

She wondered how the tone and conversations of the event would differ if it had been at the house instead of in public like this. Before arriving he’d told her to imagine it was a business conference, a cocktail party. He said all vampires would be careful because of the public nature of the event so there was nothing to fret about as long as she stayed at his side and had no noticeable reactions to anything.

As she got to the last of the soup, the salad arrived. Kyla felt relief for the busy room, the mask, and the fact that she was being ignored, for the most part.  She’d felt Dawn’s eyes on her several times but tried to ignore it. She caught a glimpse of Dawn whispering to her date and they both seemed to be eyeing Kyla. She tried to focus on her salad.

Isabelle sat directly in front of her and ignored Kyla throughout the dinner. Through the conversation she found out that Jet and Sam were cousins. There was a definite resemblance. Tristan spoke at length to another dark haired man about biofuel.

Kyla’s cramps worsened toward the end of the main course of steak, glazed carrots, and baby potatoes. She wished she could lie down and curl into a ball but she sat quietly instead thinking about the comments about being collared. It sounded so BDSM but Tristan had told her that not only would it cover most of the bite marks on her throat but it’d tell everyone that she was Tristan’s pet, meaning that she was off limits.

She picked through the dessert course of pretty little bite-sized dark chocolate cakes arranged on small plates with edible flowers and a garnish of red whipped icing. She was full and uncomfortable. Uncomfortable with having eaten too much, uncomfortable with the environment, of course, and with dull aching in her belly. She started to feel heat in her face, almost faint. Tristan leaned over and whispered in her ear, “You’re not okay, are you?”

“No.” she whispered, feeling heat rise higher.

He rose and excused himself and she took his arm, feeling faint and feeling the ache in her belly spike downward to her groin. It took everything in her to walk out of that banquet room calmly instead of simply falling to the floor in tears from the pain. The minute they got into the hall she felt her knees turn to jelly and she stumbled.  Tristan scooped her up into his arms,

“Good job, baby. It’s okay. What is it? Your stomach?” he asked urgently.

“My stomach hurts so bad.”

He fished his phone out of his pocket and was about to dial but Sam was suddenly at his side. He tucked the phone away,

“Get the car out front,” he told him. Sam dashed off.

Tristan took her to the lobby. A concierge rushed over, “Sir, is everything okay?”

“My girlfriend is ill. I need to take her home. Sam Jasper will be back in a minute and he’ll speak to you and be your point of contact until I return.”

What felt like a long moment later Sam came through the revolving doors and motioned for Tristan to follow him. Tristan put Kyla into the back seat of the limo and got out for a moment and spoke to Sam. She pulled the masquerade mask off and curled into a ball and held her stomach.

What’s wrong with me?

She imagined it felt like something like giving birth would feel.

When he climbed in beside her, he pulled her close, “Do you need to go to the hospital?”

“I-I dunno; I’ve never had pain like this --- ever.”

“That does it; that’s where we’re going.” He loosened his tie at his throat and undid a button. He was red-faced.

“Can’t we just go home, get me some Advil and see if that works? And do your diagnostic skills give you any clue?”

He flicked on the interior light and looked at her in the eye, sniffed her throat, and shook his head, “It doesn’t smell like any of the usual suspects.” He felt her stomach and pushed down gently, “I don’t think it’s your appendix.” He felt her forehead, then opened the divider window and told the driver to take them back to the apartment.

“I think maybe we’ll take you home and see how you do. Are you feeling any better, any worse?”

“About the same.” She leaned against him and closed her eyes. Then a gripping pain sliced through her belly. She groaned and grabbed her abdomen.  A few minutes later the car stopped in front of the building and he led her inside. The elevator ride felt like it took eons.  Tristan lifted her up into his arms when the elevator stopped and carried her down the hall, into the apartment, and directly upstairs to the bed. He looked pale with worry.

Kyla slipped her shoes off and lay down on the bed in the fetal position. A moment later he was giving her a glass of water and some pills.  She drank and lay down and closed her eyes. She could hear him on the phone.

“Of course I realize how it’s gonna look but I’m not leaving her until I know what this is. Someone threatened her life last night with that fire so I don’t know if this is another attack. Say I’m dealing with a crisis and I’ll be back soon.”

She slid into slumber thinking it was odd that Tristan hadn’t let Sam in on his fire plan. Clearly he
didn’t
trust him completely.

“How long have I been sleeping?” She opened her eyes and saw he was looking out the window, his tux jacket off, top 2 buttons of his shirt undone, bowtie, gone, and his sleeves rolled up. He took a swig from a glass.

“About 2 hours. How do you feel?” He put down the almost empty tumbler and closed the distance between them to feel her forehead.

“I don’t have a fever, I don’t think. The pain is a bit less, I think. It’s just dull.”

“No, you don’t.” He looked perplexed and tense.

“I have to use the bathroom.” Kyla got up and kissed his cheek and then climbed off the bed and walked into the ensuite bathroom.

She saw by her reflection that her hair was a mess and her smoky eye make-up was now smeared into oblivion. She took the remaining jewelry off and took her hair the rest of the way down. She sat down to pee, sweeping a wet washcloth across her eyelids while she did. Then she unravelled a wad of toilet paper and reached to wipe herself but as soon as she wiped, the tissue slid. She looked at it and saw red.

My period?

Could that be what this was all about? If so, those were the worst period pains ever. Was it the birth control shot that caused this?

The thong panties around her ankles wouldn’t do so she stepped out of them and put them in a hamper beside the tub. She decided to look in the bags back in the bedroom that had been brought from the house to see if she could find some non-thong panties to wear.

Tristan had his back to her, on the phone. She squatted and started rummaging through an opened suitcase on the floor. As she found a pair of bikini cut panties that would do the trick he spun around and his eyes were wide. The phone dropped to the floor. “I’ll need some feminine hygiene products,” she muttered, glancing in the direction of the phone laying on the floor, “I think I know why I was in so much pain. Not that it’s ever been this bad but maybe it has something to do with that birth control shot you gave me.” Her voice was full of judgement. She looked up at him, curious about why he wasn’t picking up his phone. “My period, if you haven’t guessed. I hate to send you out to buy tampons for me this early in our relationship but…”

Suddenly he was directly in front of her and had the strangest look on his face.

She felt like the hairs on her neck, her arms, everywhere, were standing on end. It was as if the air was magnetically charged, staticky, and a storm was imminent.

“You okay?” Her voice was a whisper. She rose to stand, looked back at the phone on the floor again and frowned.

She shivered as he took her by the shoulders and guided her to the bed and in an instant was on top of her, pulling her dress up. His hands felt icy cold. She dropped the panties.

Then he was in between her legs and his mouth was
there
.

What the fucking fuck? Ew!

His tongue dipped inside her and he groaned. Loud. It felt cold. He looked up at her face, his fangs out, his irises totally black.

Kyla’s blood ran cold. He only faintly even resembled Tristan. His face was contorted, his skin ashen. She scrambled back against the headboard.

He rose up on his knees and reached and he yanked her back to him by the throat, roughly. His mouth was curled into a snarl and his fangs looked even larger than usual.

She let out a gasp. His icy grip tightened. She felt lightheaded.

What on earth?
She couldn’t even form coherent thoughts.

He pulled her down so her back was on the bed and held onto her throat with one hand as he leaned over and buried his nose between her legs again.

“Tristan?” Fear gripped her.

He jerked his neck and his black eyes widened and then he let go of her and grabbed his temples. His complexion was ashen. He made a snarling sound and leaned forward, about to lunge. But he didn’t lunge. He was almost bouncing like he was ready to jump at her but something was holding him back. Kyla quickly scrambled off the bed and ran for the closet. She tripped and hit her face on a dresser. She winced and half crawled, half ran.

She managed to scoop Tristan’s phone off the floor on her way. As she clambered into the closet she saw him sitting on the bed staring at her, sort of past her, his skin looking even grayer, the same black eyes, huge fangs out. He looked confused. She got into the panic room and slammed the door and immediately hit the red button. Instantly, there was a text on his phone,

“***Twr P-Room engaged***”

Her heart thumped wildly in her chest. She knew, from earlier, that Tristan not only had the key but he had a way with locks. She thought back to all the times she’d locked the bathroom door and he’d opened it without a key. She checked the door. It seemed secure but would that matter?

What was wrong with him? Did the scent of her period blood make him go crazy? Talk about nasty! He’d been acting ‘off’ all night. Was it because of this?

Kyla closed the message and quickly scanned through the contacts on his phone and found Sam’s contact info.  She fumbled the laptop open and clicked the desktop icon and then the window popped up and she had a clear view of the bedroom on the screen. Tristan was still sitting there, wild-eyed and he was hyperventilating.

She went to Sam’s voicemail. An automated greeting told her to leave a message at the tone.

“Sam, this is Kyla. I’m in the panic room at the condo. Tristan’s gone crazy. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. I don’t know what to do but can you please help? Please hurry.”

She ended the call and put the phone down. She wasn’t sure if Sam would be friend or foe in this situation but he felt like her only chance. That wasn’t Tristan in there. That wasn’t even the angry monster-like Tristan she’d seen.

What the fuck was that?

His head was bowed so she couldn’t see if he was still in that state or not. She hit a button on the wall for the intercom.

“Tristan?” She called out and instantly wondered if that was a bad idea. Would he go for her in the panic room? He looked up and around, bewildered. He threw his head in his hands and leaned forward and rocked. She stared at him, awestruck. She went through the slim door to the bathroom and got tissue and wiped between her legs. No more blood. Yet.  Her period typically started light and then by the time she was ready to use the bathroom again she was expecting the bleeding to get heavier.  

The sting of another cramp spread across her lower abdomen. She leaned under the bed and pulled out a duffle bag. There were some track pants and t-shirts, jeans, a few hoodies, socks, and a few pairs of Tristan’s underwear inside. She took a pair of Tristan’s boxer briefs and went into the bathroom. She wadded up some toilet paper and stuffed it into the briefs and then put them on. She was about to take off her dress and put on one of his tracksuits but then the phone started ringing,

The call display read ‘Sam’.

“Hello?” She answered frantically.

“What’s going on?”

“I-I..I’m in the panic room. He’s not himself.  I think he was going to kill me… He’s in the bedroom looking awful and rocking and, I think if I hadn’t gotten away he’d have killed me.  I think he can get in here, in through the closet. I don’t know how much time I have, I---he’s freezing cold and his skin is gray or almost blue and his eyes are black. My period came and he acted all freaked out and he, he… “

“Your period came?” Sam whispered.

“Yeah.” Kyla said.

“Freezing cold?”

“Yeah, he’s bluish gray looking and he feels cold, I ---”

“I’ll be right there. Where’s this panic room?”

Kyla felt a stab of fear. Should she trust him to tell him? What choice did she have?

“Kyla, love…where?”

“Uh the back of the master bedroom closet.”

“Be there as soon as I can.”

“Kay, thanks.”

Kyla leaned against the wall and looked at the monitor. She didn’t know if she’d just made a really dumb move or not. She tried to reach out, in her mind, to Tristan.  She tried to send love and affection. She tried really hard to push the fear she felt away. Seeing him sitting there, looking like that, it wasn’t easy. He was still mostly dressed up but with humungous fangs and grayish skin and black eyes. He was staring off into space with his mouth hanging open. She closed her eyes and pictured his blue eyes, his dimples, tried to feel the feelings she’d felt the last time he held her. Tried to feel his warmth, feel safe, and protected. She opened her eyes and looked at the monitor. He stood up.

She looked closer at the screen. It looked like the color was returning to his face. His eyes, they looked like they might be normal. His fangs started to recede.

Suddenly, he dashed into the ensuite bathroom. Then he came out and disappeared from the view of the camera. She guessed he’d gone downstairs.  Was he looking for her?  Was it safe to tell him where she was?

He was back in the camera’s view, “Kyla!” He yelled. He sounded frantic, like he did that night she’d left via the balcony. He was out of view again.

Panic rose. Something in her body started to buzz and pulse. It was a weird sensation. If he knew where she was would she be safe if he opened the door?  She’d rather Sam was here to help, if need be. But why would Sam even help her? He wouldn’t care if Tristan killed her, would he? The weird bass-like thrumming inside her got more intense.

His fear-filled face struck something deep inside her; she couldn’t let him freak out and wonder where she was. She hit the intercom button,

“Tristan, it’s okay.”

“Kyla?” He was back in view of the camera. He ran his fingers through his hair and looked toward the camera.

“I’m in the panic room. Stay where you are. Don’t come in yet. I have to talk to you.”

“What?” He looked confused. He headed toward the closet.

“No Tristan, please!” She screamed, her voice ringing with terror.

He stopped cold in his tracks, “What? What’s wrong?”

”You weren’t you. You were gonna hurt me.”

His brows furrowed, “I what?”

“Listen. Please listen. Just wait for Sam to get here. He’s on his way.”

“Sam? Huh?” Tristan shook his head hard, like he was trying to shake something off.

“Please, Tristan. Trust me. Just wait.  I’m pretty sure you were going to kill me. Let me stay in here until Sam gets here. I called him from your phone. I got my period. Something about that blood, I think, I think it set you off. It was bad. You went cold and gray and your eyes turned black. You tasted it and then… ” She heard loud knocking, “Get that; it’s Sam.”

Tristan frowned and went to answer the door. Kyla felt relief flood through her. He was Tristan, for the moment. After a few minutes she saw both men come into view of the camera. Tristan pointed at it.

“Kyla,” Sam greeted and waved at the camera, “Her menstruating obviously triggered some kind of psychotic response from you so let’s keep her in your panic room right now while we sort this out. Chances are it’s blocking her scent.  You give me the key---”

“No key. You don’t need the fucking key.” Tristan scowled, folded his arms and stood, looking domineering, and ready to fight.

“Okay,” Sam raised his arms in surrender, “Let’s go for a walk to get some fresh air, get you settled down.”

“I’m not leaving her,” Tristan clipped.

She hit the button, “I need…err…sanitary products. There were none in the things you packed for me.”

“Okay then,” Sam said, clasping hands together, “We have a mission. We’ll head to the store to get Kyla some supplies and we’ll have a chat on the way. Kyla, you okay for 15?”

She hit the intercom button, “Yes.”

Tristan looked bewildered. He glanced in the direction of the camera.

“She’s fine, Tris. You’re fine. Right, sugar?”

“Yes. I’m okay.”

He let Sam lead him out of the view of the camera.

Kyla flopped onto the small bed in the panic room and started to tremble. Hard.
What the fuck?

This was messed up. Big time. Once again her short not-much-of-a life had flashed before her eyes. How many times had that happened since meeting Tristan? This relationship was indubitably doomed. 

She stared at the green button on the ceiling, her heartbeat chugging in her ears and sounding like a washing machine. They were gone. She could hit that green button and make a run for it.  Gone, safe, away from him.

Did she really want to do that? Would she be stupid not to? When they got back how would she know that she was safe to come out? What if Sam was affected the same way Tristan was? That’d mean two scary monster vampires were out to get her.

She rubbed her temples, feeling sick to her stomach. Her future felt like it totally hung in the balance. The green button glared at her. She chewed her lip.

Tristan’s phone started to ring. She looked at it and the name Dawn came up. She ignored it. Then a moment later another number came up without a name assigned to it. She curled back under the blanket and laid there for a while, feeling tormented and conflicted and trying hard to avoid looking at that green button.

“Kyla,” She heard his voice. He was at the camera. Sam was behind him and talking on the phone. She bolted upright and hit the intercom button.