“Why?” Eric furrowed his brow, which looked kinda ridiculous with him being in full vampire mode and all.
“Because I was trying to convince myself it was some kind of relic from a Halloween party and just a very bloodlike-looking cocktail. But I couldn’t bring myself to actually open it to make sure because I was afraid it would be blood after all.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “I sound like a lunatic.”
For the first time since getting here, Eric cracked a real smile. One that lasted longer than a millisecond. A warm one. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You just figured out that I’m a vampire. I think freaking out is to be expected.”
I nodded. “Also, as it turns out, taking the blood was a good idea. You obviously need it right now. So… what do I need to do? Do I need to… heat it up for you? Wait… is the blood still okay? It was unrefrigerated for about half an hour.”
“It’s fine,” Eric said with a sigh. “And you can give it to me just like it is. Bagged blood is never good. The consistency and the temperature are all wrong, but for some reason heating it up just makes it worse.”
I handed him the blood and watched him like a hawk. Part of me wanted to look away because, quite frankly, this was fucking unsettling. Like a wild dream—but with it being all real.
Eric let out another hiss, the pain obvious as he raised the bag to his face and just… bit into the plastic.
Ugh.
A fresh wave of nausea hit me as I watched him greedily sucking the blood out of the clear plastic bag.
Yep, it sure was blood. Even I could smell the uncanny metallic scent.
My boyfriend was sitting on my toilet, drinking blood.
I had to bite back a laugh. I didn’t want to interrupt him. Mainly because he needed to drink so he would feel better, but also because it was… fascinating.
His throat worked relentlessly, swallowing down gulp after gulp, but his face was.Huh. He looked almost disgusted. And pained, which was to be expected since he was holding the bag in his completely burned hands. But the disgust was surprising. As was the way his skin was even paler now, his bones more pronounced, his posture more aggressive. All in all, he looked more like a vampire than he did even seconds ago. Less human.
I waited for the fear to set in, but it never came. After spending half the day freaking the fuck out about the idea that my boyfriend could potentially be a vampire, I failed to be afraid now that I had confirmation—verbal and visual.
It only took Eric a couple of seconds to empty the bag. It fell to the floor with a clatter, a few last drops splashing across the off-white tiles.
Ugh. I’d need to clean that up later.
“Better?” I asked, raising my brows. His face was still red and partially blistered, and I really didn’t want to look at his hands any more than necessary.
Eric opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He shut it again and inhaled deeply before mumbling something under his breath that I couldn’t really understand much of. Something about lying?
“What was that?”
He looked up at me out of his blue eyes. Also, his fangs were gone, and his skin looked normal pale again, not extra freaking pale.
“It’s better,” he said, pursing his lips. “But not good.”
“How much do you typically need?”
As in, did he need to kill people?
My stomach churned, and my chest tightened.
Okay. Seemed like I found my breaking point.
Boyfriend being a vampire? Weird, but okay.
Boyfriend drinking blood? A bit nauseating, but okay.
Boyfriend potentially killing people by drinking their blood? Nope, that’s a step too far.
“Fresh from the source? Not that much. But bagged blood isn’t as efficient. I don’t know why; it’s just the way it is.”
