I shook my head. Caleb, the vampire with Rhiannon, had fed off my energy from a distance.
Marcus gripped the footboard tighter and I heard the wood groan. He released it as if it burned him.
"Feeding, specifically blood feeding, is intimate. We release chemicals that induce pleasure in our partner."
That strange twisting sensation in my chest returned at his words. He wasn't talking about me as a meal, but as a partner. And the mention of pleasure.
"Are we talking a nice, warm hug or something else?" I asked.
He actually looked sheepish and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. This conversation was as unsettling for him as it was for me.
"Something else," he answered. A dull flush worked its way into his cheeks. "Typically, if we're in relationships, we only bite our romantic partners, so..."
My own face heated. "So it's sexual?" I asked.
He nodded.
I wondered if my face was a red as his.
"Is there any way to, uh, control it?" I asked.
"A little, but it's an involuntary response, like..." He trailed off as though he were searching for the correct word.
"Breathing?" I asked.
He shook his head. "Not exactly. When you breathe, you can control the tempo, depth, or duration when you think about it. When you don't think, it just happens. This is more like blinking when something gets in your eye or salivating when you smell something delicious. It's almost impossible to control."
I wasn't sure how I felt about that analogy, but I understood what he meant.
"So, it will feel good to me. What about you?"
I hadn't thought it possible, but Marcus' face became a deeper shade of red beneath the olive tint to his skin.
"Uh, well, we find it pleasurable as well because of the, uh...the, um...bond. Our partner's pleasure sort of," he gestured with his hands as he spoke, lifting them and moving them back and forth. "Resonates."
"Long story short, you'll feel what I feel?"
He sighed. "Yes."
I rubbed a hand over my forehead. "Is there any way to...I don't know, stop that part of the cycle?"
"Maybe if you were unconscious," he answered, shrugging.
I had to laugh. "TKO, huh?"
He didn't smile back.
I had three choices here. One, I could continue as I was, letting Andre Dumont feed from me in my sleep and control me anytime he got the urge. Two, I could break the connection with Dumont by cementing the bond with Marcus by blood.
Three, I could run away. It wouldn't really solve anything in the long run, but it was my first instinct.
"We're going to do this," I said, looking Marcus straight in the eye. "I'm sorry if it makes things awkward for you. I don't want that, but I do want to survive. If you can deal with it, I can as well."
"I can handle it."
"Let's just make a pact that we won't let things get weird after this, okay?" I paused. Things were already pretty damn weird. "Not any weirder, anyway."
He nodded. "This is as weird as it gets."
And just as I suspected, the Universe proved that wrong with all possible haste.
