Free Blood Mate by Kitty Thomas

thought you’d go back on your word. The expression on
your face… I thought… ”
    “I was hurt that
you wanted to get away from me so quickly. But why wouldn’t you?
After the hell I put you through to get here.”
    Shouldn’t her
first thought upon awakening have been of the cellar? Of her
suffering and fear and sadness? It had been a constant companion upon
every other awakening since she’d been there. Now it was chillingly
absent. It had been a comforting blanket that reminded her which one
of them was the bad guy and which one of them was the real victim.
But this morning it felt unreal. Even with his blood, she somehow
hadn’t believed she would still feel whole the next morning.
    Nicole’s hand
moved to her neck and her eyes met his, imploring him to answer the
questions she couldn’t yet put words to, but he looked away then
left her alone.
    She ducked into
the bathroom to freshen up, drawing back in shock at the skeletal
face that greeted her. She’d lost so much weight, gotten so pale.
No wonder he hadn’t tried to sleep in the bed with her. Who would
want that? She was a walking corpse, little better than he’d looked
that first night in the cellar.
    She turned away
from her reflection and went to the kitchen where the vampire was
already cracking eggs in a skillet. “August, I can’t go home like
this. I look… dead.”
    He glanced up.
“You’ll regain your weight and color soon. Much faster with the
bond. I can make your husband and family see you as you were until
then. Stay away from work for a few days until you’re back to full
strength and color. And get some sun.”
    “Okay.” Of
course. If he could manipulate minds anyway, it would be such a small
matter to change their perception of her. Still, she hated that when
Dominic saw her, he wouldn’t really see her, but the image August
projected onto the screen of her husband’s mind. This whole thing
was sordid and dirty.
    “Just my blood,
right?”
    He glanced up.
“Excuse me?”
    “That’s all
you want from me?” Her voice squeaked as she pushed the question
out, and she knew she must sound ridiculous.
    His gaze swept
over her, but he turned his focus back to the eggs without comment.
    Nicole felt stupid
for asking. Even someone who could be as hideous as August could
wouldn’t find her bedraggled look appealing, but she wouldn’t
look this bad for long.
    It was hard,
seeing him now, to imagine that first night—the way his face had
seemed as if it were rotting off the bone, as if he were decomposing
before her eyes, like watching a flower bloom and die rapidly through
the magic of time-lapse photography.
    Since that night,
she’d seen him look tired, and once, when he’d skipped a day’s
feeding, like an older, distinguished man, but then he’d fed and
been returned to perfection and youth once again.
    The plate thudded
on the table in front of her, jolting her back. August, in his
perfect incarnation, sat across from her. She felt like a new puppy
that had been brought home where every boring activity was filled
with voyeuristic fascination for the new owners.
    “Aren’t you
eating?” She grimaced as soon as the words left her mouth.
    A slow smile
spread over his face as his gaze slid to her jugular. “I already
ate, poppet.”
    Blood rushed into
her cheeks as she tried to concentrate on her eggs. Her mind drifted
back to the creepy vampire rotting thing. “Will you still decompose
if you don’t feed from me?”
    “Yes. And don’t
try to get out of it. There is no place far enough for you to run.
You and I are stuck together now.”
    “I-I didn’t
mean… ” What did she mean? “What will happen to me? Will
I age?” She hadn’t thought about any of this last night. She
wasn’t a vampire. Maybe she would be immortal and feed him, but
continue to age. She imagined herself old and shrunken and hiding
away in the cellar from people and tried to think about how long he’d
be able to stomach feeding from her