Night Calls - Nyx Slaughter Book 1 (7 page)

I guess he likes to sleep in his
clothes because he makes no move to change. Fine by me. The second
my head hit the pillow the enormity of the things that happened
today hits me and I find myself exhausted by the lot of it. Within
minutes, my eyes shut and I am fast asleep.

Chapter 7

Relationships are trouble

I wake up the next evening to
wonderful smells coming from the kitchen and an empty bed. A girl
could get used to this, I think rolling out of bed and heading
towards the kitchen. I can make out the smells of eggs, bacon and
something cinnamony. The cinnamon smell is making me very happy and
seems to be on top of all the other scents.

“What ya making?” I ask as I peruse
the bounty.

“I ran out and got some perishable
items since you may be here a while. I haven’t had to cook anything
for a very long time, and back then we didn’t have fancy stoves, so
I thought I would try my hand at it. I also wanted to do a little
experiment,” he replies as he turns to kiss the end of my
nose.

“I am not seeing anything with
cinnamon. Why am I getting that scent really strong and why am I
finding it so appealing?” I ask breathing in deeply.

“My guess is that would be me,
love. It seems your sense of smell has kicked up a few notches to
go along with the fangs. Eventually, you will get used to it, but
for a while it might be overwhelming,” he says smiling and turning
to start putting food on plates.

“What do I smell like?” I ask
curious, not really picking up anything, as I smell my own
skin.

“We each may smell like something
different to other people, but to me you smell like coconuts.
Whenever you are around I picture us on a sunny beach watching the
waves roll in,” he says in a dreamlike voice.

“Interesting,” I say thinking of
how funny it is for a vampire to be thinking about sitting on a
sunny beach. “You are going to have to fill me in on all the rules
of being a vampire. I have a feeling, like you mentioned last
night, that my teachings have been wrong.”

“More than likely. We are a very
secretive species, so we like to leak half-truths to confuse people
on what we are really like,” he says walking me to the table with
plates in his hands.

I settle down on the rocky couch
and take the plate he offers. “What is the second plate
for?”

“Me,” he says bringing his plate to
his face and taking a deep breath. “After watching you eat that
steak last night, I got to thinking that maybe your part human and
werewolf blood has given me the ability to actually digest this
stuff. For some reason, I woke up hungry this morning and it wasn’t
for you.”

“Interesting,” I say taking a bite
from my own food. There is no seasoning on the scrambled eggs,
which is fine with me, but it does seem to have some cheese melted
in with them and it is really tasty.

I look up and watch him slowly put
the fork in his mouth and remove it. He gradually starts to chew
and then swallows the food. Not really knowing what vampires do
with normal food, I am not sure if the experiment is a success or
not.

“I think I like cheddar cheese,” he
says and proceeds to annihilate the food on his plate. That, I am
guessing, isn’t a vampire response, so it seems I do bring a little
something to this partnership. I quickly finish my own food and
clear the plates, so I can do the dishes.

“You don’t have to do that,” he
says joining me.

“You cooked, I clean. Those be the
rules,” I say making quick work of the dishes.

“I can have a maid come in here to
clean up after us. When it is just me, I don’t make much mess, but
the two of us, actually eating, might,” he says.

“It isn’t a bother, so I wouldn’t
worry about it,” I tell him. “Do you have plans to go into work
today?”

“Nope, I am taking a vacation.
Although, if anyone asks for me at the club, I am in an important
meeting,” he says picking me up and carrying me back to the comfy
bed.

I situate myself so I am sitting
leaning against the headboard and he joins me. “How have you been
able to come and go without raising the alarm?”

“Tunnels. All my places have secret
tunnels into them. It gives me a needed sense of freedom because
more than likely my movements are usually watched, even without
riding in to your rescue,” he explains.

“I could see why the Collective
would want to keep tabs on you. You are a very resourceful person,”
I say.

“That I am,” he says linking our
hands together. “So where should we start your
reeducation?”

“You have already mentioned that
you personally only had to drink once a week before meeting me, can
you go into more detail about vampires’ eating habits in general?”
I ask. “I had always thought it was an everyday thing.”

“More than likely meant to keep you
away from potentially hungry vampires. As babies, yes, vampires eat
usually three or four times a day. They cannot really help it. It
is just something their body needs. Around the century mark, they
can usually start to limit it to once a day. As they get older,
more time can pass, but most still seem to enjoy once a day
feedings. My goal has always been survival of the fittest, so I
have been working for years to go longer. By myself, I was able to
make it to a full week. With your help who knows how long I can
wait now,” he says.

“Interesting, and the fact that I
haven’t had to feed once since baby fangs appeared is because I am
not purely vampire?” I query.

“Probably, or the fact that you
have had my blood. I haven’t done a lot of studies on vampire mates
because they are really rare, so it may just be we are able to
nourish each other over for longer periods.”

“See I don’t understand that. The
Collective teaches that every paranorm has a mate and acts like
they are just standing outside the door waiting to be introduced,
but you are saying for your species that is rare,” I
say.

“You can probably change the your
in that statement to our. You are part vampire. Werewolves are the
easiest to find mates with and since that place is pretty much run
by them, I believe they are teaching their own ways. For the most
part, vampires don’t have ‘mates’, per se. We have a person that we
connect on a deep level with and decide to spend the rest of our
lives with them. We have a choice in the matter, they do not. Their
chemical makeup physically binds them to the other person once they
find them. One can reject their chosen mate, but they rarely ever
do because it is painful. For us, we make the decision and say a
few words and voila we are bonded,” he says waving his
hand.

“Say a few words? I haven’t said a
few words and I don’t remember you ever saying them, but yet you
called me your mate,” I say trying to make sense of
things.

“Yeah about that, as long as your
vamp gene was still recessive there wasn’t anything for you really
to do. I knew I wanted to bind with you, so I said the words three
years ago when we first spoke about our business agreement, it is
the reason that the feedings are more than just me taking blood.
Therefore, technically we have had a one sided bond for that long,
which I was totally fine living with. It made it so I found all
other blood gross and I was great with that. I think you taking a
nibble though closed the circuit. Like I have been saying, this is
my mistake and I am sorry. I imagine, if I hadn’t done the binding,
then you wouldn’t have probably turned.”

“If none of this would have
happened, I would never have found out I wasn’t human, so I cannot
see it as totally a bad thing, but I am pissed you bonded with me
and neglected to tell me about it. What if I would have been killed
at some point on a mission? Would you have been able to start
drinking from someone else?” I ask.

“No, chances are I would have
probably died with you,” he says with his head cast
down.

“Then it was really moronic. I was
just a rookie when you did it, as a weakish human fighting
paranorms odds were not on my side,” I scream.

“I know, but it couldn’t be
stopped. Your unique genetic makeup drew me to you. I thought after
our first meeting that it was just a fluke and I was picking up
something that didn’t exist, but when you came back I could still
sense you were different and I knew I had to be tied to you. Since
then, I have stepped back and let you make all your own decisions.
Thankfully, I have agreed with most of them, so I didn’t drive
myself insane,” he explains.

“So are we truly mates then? It
doesn’t sound to me like we are.”

“Mates is a werewolf term. You
don’t see demons out there running around with mates. I have never
really liked the word, but I figured you would understand it’s
underlying meaning. We are simply now two halves to the same soul.
From the beginning, I felt that you would complete me and that is
why I did the binding. I know there is something special about you
and as old as I am there has never been another person that I have
found the spark of life you contain.”

“You know you are really trying to
be too romantic for your own good. I do realize that you did this
just because I was different and not because you were madly in love
with me. I was like a new toy and you wanted to keep me all to
yourself,” I say knowing how Sebastian works.

“I cannot say that is totally
false. You were new and shiny and so interesting to study. Another
part of it was I knew you were special and I felt the need to help
protect you. The bond, even though you probably haven’t felt it
yet, allows me to feel your emotions. Therefore, if you were to
ever become extremely scared, I would have dropped everything and
run to find you. Over the years, and even a little at the
beginning, I did feel a strong emotion towards you. Nowadays, and
for at least the past couple years, my heart it totally yours,” he
states.

“Part of me wants to believe you,
but finding out about the binding done behind my back makes me
leery,” I say removing my hand from his grasp.

“Well in that case, you will be
happy to learn that because of that bonding, I cannot actually lie
to you. I imagine that part will be kicking in for you pretty soon
as well,” he says smiling.

“And you expect me to believe
that?” I ask.

“Try it. I know the emotions
haven’t kicked in yet or otherwise you would know exactly how I
feel,” he states.

“Okay let’s try something easy. My
eyes are…” I start to say trying to finish with green, but for some
reason cannot.

“Perfect. I have always hoped we
would one day get to this point. Now you can see that in three
years, I have never been able to lie to you and it isn’t the kind
of thing where you can skate by with half-truths. Believe me there
are a couple times I tried. My options are to tell you the truth or
not say anything at all,” he mumbles.

“Really, I want to know about those
instances,” I say as I hear my phone go off. I forgot it even
existed. “I better check on that. It might be my new
assignment.”

“So you are going to keep working
for them?” he asks.

“Just this one last case. You got
my interests peaked when you said there was something going to
happen during it,” I say looking at the phone. Sure enough, the
message is for my next mission. I click the app to see what
evildoer I am going after now and find it to be a werewolf named
Alexander Monroe. He has been convicted of killing at least three
children. Just one child, is a death sentence in the Collective
law. “Hmm. Why is it all the really bad guys have to be so cute?” I
ask with a smile.

“That isn’t very nice,” he
growls.

“I was just joking. He isn’t really
even that…” I say before stopping.

“You were saying, my dear? I have a
feeling this whole not being able to lie to me might be eye
opening,” he replies with a smirk.

“Whatever,” I say waving my hand in
the air. “Last known location is Emerald Town. At least this one is
staying within the paranorm community. Are you going to join me on
this last hurrah?”

“You would let me join you on one
of your little adventures?” he asks with a grin and I can sense
that he is really happy. It is probably just the fact that I
haven’t stormed out of the house after being told we have been
bound together for the last three years. I still cannot believe
what an idiot he is.

“Well, you did mention that we
shouldn’t be apart in case I get hungry,” I say a little harshly.
“It is probably a good idea that you come anyway to make sure I
stay alive.”

That sets him down a peg. Good.
“Those are both good reasons. How soon before you want to leave?”
he asks while I hit accept on the mission.

“I would like to get it over with
as soon as possible, so I can get on with my new life. You know
another fun reason for you coming along?” I ask.

“What?”

“Just think of how aggravated the
Collective will be at seeing us together in action. I can almost
see their heads exploding now,” I say rubbing my hands together
evilly.

“And here I have been dreading you
going on this mission. I believe you have become a monster,” he
says with mock astonishment.