Free In the Beginning... by Calle J. Brookes Page B

sucking the blood from her through her neck? How was it
even possible? Human teeth couldn’t pierce the neck deep enough to
make blood drinking possible, right? Was he one of those people who
had their teeth cosmetically altered to look like fangs? How useful would
those fangs be for sucking blood?
    All of these questions flooded her head,
along with another—would he ever stop?
    Mickey’s eyes closed. She was so tired, from
the strain of the day, from the kidnapping, the fighting, the fear.
This. He wasn’t going to stop and she couldn’t fight him. What was
she supposed to do?
    She tried to open her eyes again, but
couldn’t. Was it fatigue or blood loss? How many pints of blood
were in the human body? Eight? Ten? That was a lot of blood for him
to drink through tiny holes in her neck.
    How many pints would he have to drink before
she completely lost consciousness?
    It wasn’t humanly possible for him to drink
that much, was it?
    That was the last question in Mickey’s mind
before the darkness consumed her.

Chapter Six

    Theo felt the spirit leave
her body and grief hit him. In a way, he had lied to her this night. He had
killed her, taking away all traces of her humanity. Now he had to
replace it with his strong Dardaptoan blood and bind her to him for
all time. How was she ever to forgive him?
    Her breathing was shallow, her heartbeat so
faint when he pulled her onto his lap. He’d need her close so that
she could drink from him. But how was he to get this unconscious
woman to drink from his body when she had never drank before?
    Humans did not possess the necessary instinct
to drink; humans found blood drinking horrific. How was he to
overcome that?
    He bit into his own wrist, waited for the
warm blood to well. He caressed her lips, pulling her mouth open.
He needed to get the blood into her, and quickly.
    He held his wrist over her mouth, waiting.
The blood was in her mouth but she refused to swallow. Was she too
far gone? Had he been destined to kill his female this night?
    He offered up a quick prayer to the goddess
of his people. Their fates were in the Goddess Kennera’s hands. If
she died in his hands, Theo knew he would find some way to follow
her to the next life.
    His Rajni swallowed. Once, then again. And
again. She stopped.
    Theo’s breath backed into his throat. He
waited. The blood would begin sinking into her thirsty cells,
reshaping them to process Dardaptoan instead of human.
    A Dardaptoan only needed two and a half
liters of blood in their body at any one time to live, compared
with the nearly twice that amount humans carried around. He’d
pulled at least four liters from her already. If he could get two
or more liters of Dardaptoan blood into her...
    She sputtered, drew in several large deep
breaths. Stopped breathing.
    Theo covered her mouth with his own and
breathed for her until her lungs found their new rhythm. He
returned his bleeding wrist to her mouth. She needed more. And he
wasn’t stopping until she had what she needed.
    It took hours, but her drinking grew stronger
as more of his rich blood reshaped her system. But it hurt her. And
he had to sit beside her and know that every bit of pain she
experienced was at his hands.
    By the time she had stopped
screaming and rested peacefully upon his bed, Theo’s own vestis was covered with
blood and tears. Both her tears and his. He’d order the tunic
burned in the morning. He never wanted to see it again.
    He carried her into the bathroom and stripped
the bloodied clothing from her body, then washed the blood from her
hair as best he could with his limited vision. She never stirred,
so exhausted from what he had done to her. Theo redressed her in
the warmest clothing the servants had left outside his suite.
    He pulled the silk comforter around them
both, keeping it tucked tight around her shoulders. A female
Dardaptoan was extremely susceptible to the cold, and a newly
converted one would be doubly so. Then he just held her while