Free Bitter Bite by Erin M. Leaf Page A

hit her again, twice
as hard. He kissed her lips gently. Tenderly. He wanted her to feel how
precious a gift she and Gideon had just given him. They’d shared their humanity
with him. He couldn’t resist it. He didn’t want to resist it. She opened her eyes. Her pupils were dilated, black almost
completely swallowing her brown irises.
    “God,” Gideon scrubbed at his face, but his eyes, too, were dark
with the high. “This is like smoking pot laced with sex pollen.”
    “God has nothing to do with this, my dear,” Alaric said, pulling
him in again. He licked over the puncture wounds on Gideon’s neck to speed the
healing. His consort tasted like smoke and fine liquor. Sweet and piercingly
musky, at the same time. Alaric sighed as pleasure coursed through his body. Gideon
groaned and Alaric sensed he’d caught a taste of his emotions. Alaric shivered,
then turned back to Hannah and licked down her jaw to her neck. She smells of cherries . He hadn’t eaten
fruit in centuries.
    “No, wait!” Gideon said, but he was too late.
    Alaric bit down and Hannah’s blood flowed into his mouth like
sweet syrup. Gideon’s fear rushed through him, but Alaric didn’t stop. It was
too late to stop. It had been too late from the moment he nicked her lip during
their first kiss. If he didn’t take her blood into his body, they’d all die. He
sucked hard once, then licked the wounds, sealing her skin. When he lifted his
head, he was breathless.
    “How could you?” Gideon asked accusingly.
    “I had no choice,” Alaric said, swallowing the flavor of his
consorts. “If I hadn’t completed the consort bond, we would not have survived
this night.”
    “You mean, you wouldn’t
have survived.” Gideon squeezed Alaric’s arms hard enough to break an ordinary
mortal’s bones.
    Good thing I’m no
ordinary mortal . Alaric
accepted the pain. He deserved it, not that he regretted anything. Not anymore.
    “Gideon, stop,” Hannah said, tugging at him.
    “No. It’s okay, Hannah.” Alaric absorbed Gideon’s anger and let it
pass through him. “I wouldn’t be the only one to perish tonight. None of us
would have lived if I hadn’t taken your blood.” He leaned into his consort’s
strength and let Gideon’s emotions pour through him until even the ex-priest
couldn’t deny their connection. Gideon shuddered, fingers finally opening. Alaric
moaned with pleasure as Gideon abruptly stopped fighting the metaphysical
connection. He grabbed Alaric and pushed their mouths together. Alaric shared
the blood and energy he’d consumed across all three of them, using the bond to
plunder their minds. This would complete their connection, cementing their
relationship for all time. They were his consorts. He was their vampire.
Neither Hannah nor Gideon was mortal any longer.
    “My mind to yours, my soul is found, my heart beats for you, as
God wills,” Alaric murmured. The words came from the deepest part of his
instinct as a vampire. The moment he said them, he felt a click in his
brain and both Gideon and Hannah turned their heads to stare at him. Their eyes
were like flames.
    “Holy mother of God, you’re a vampire,” Hannah whispered.
    * * * *
    Hannah followed Alaric around her apartment numbly as he shoved
clothes into her small backpack. A vampire. In my apartment. She still
didn’t really believe it. Monsters weren’t real. Well, at least not vampires.
That was the stuff of fiction novels. Monsters, in her life, were the people
who were supposed to take care of you and hurt you instead. Like my father, she thought darkly.
    “We can’t stay here,” Alaric said, thrusting the bag at her.
“It’ll be sunrise soon and that will kill us all if I’m caught outside.”
    Hannah stared at Alaric. Not go outside? She didn’t
understand. When she didn’t grab the bag, Gideon took it and slung it over his
shoulder. Weirdly, she could sense his frustration as though it were her own.
She felt Alaric’s worry, too. It made her