Free Unbitten by Valerie du Sange

repressed, the prospect of centuries of
     existence drinking only Hemo-Yum was a fine one. But he
     understood that for every vampire like him, there was one
     like David, who was extremely unlikely to give up human
     blood entirely. Not the blood–or the biting. So to
     reduce the risk for his brother and others like him, he had
     developed the bandage.
    The one problem, thought Henri, for the millionth time, is
     that no one had any idea how many vampires there were. Not
     as many as before, is all anyone knew. He hoped his
     inventions would have an invigorating effect–and that
     there were still enough vampires left that the species
     could be saved.

    There were still a few hours left until dawn. David had
     walked Jo back to her tower, and like a gentleman had only
     given her a kiss on each cheek and said goodnight.
    But he was no gentleman, and he knew it.
    He had wanted nothing more than to bed her and bite her.
     She had looked so lovely in that blue silk dress with her
     strong arms and long legs bare. He couldn’t shake the
     thought of her wrapping those limbs around him and holding
     him tight, so tight he couldn’t move, vampire
     strength and all.
    But even as he was thinking of her, wanting her, he was
     walking towards the row of guest cottages beside the
     Château, thinking also of that older woman he had
     just drunk from last night. She had been…feisty. Her
     flavor was a distinctive sort of herbal thing, he
     couldn’t put his finger on it, but he wanted more.
    David always, always, always wanted more.
    He let himself into her cottage, expecting the woman to be
     sound asleep. But as he closed the door softly behind him,
     he heard a rustling.
    “I hoped you would come,” the woman said, with
     a broad smile. “We had such fun last night,
     didn’t we?”
    David became very still. Had he forgotten to brainwipe her?
     Does she…remember?
    “Has it been a pleasant evening so far?” he
     said smoothly. “I wondered–the stars are
     magnificent tonight. Would you like to take a stroll around
     the grounds and look at them?”
    The older woman, whose name was Katarina, had kept smiling
     during David’s invitation, and now she nodded and
     stood up.
    “A stroll sounds lovely,” she said, and
     somehow, she made that plain sentence sound salacious.
    Oh, she remembers all right, thought David.
    He tried to think seriously about the situation because
     obviously something had gone wrong with the brainwipe, and
     that could mean a nuisance for him and the Château.
     But it was difficult to think rationally when
     Katarina’s suggestive tone had made him instantly
     hard, when his fangs were tingling like mad, and all he
     could think about was possessing her.
    He held out his arm and she slipped hers around it. At
     first there was no sound but the crunching of their shoes
     on the gravel path, and the strange churring song of a
     nightjar on the edge of the forest.
    David did not bother to trot out his speech on
     constellations. He and Katarina had advanced beyond that
     now. Once they had gotten out of sight of the
     Château, on the other side of the lake and in a copse
     of birches, he stopped, and held her arms firmly in his
     hands. He looked her all over, at her dark hair with
     handsome silver streaks, at her cashmere sweater, her long
     skirt, her scuffed boots. To him, she wasn’t a dowdy
     older woman–she was a different flavor, even a bit
     exotic. She had a beautiful face, even if it was not young;
     in fact, some of its beauty was in the history of her life
     that was finely etched around her mouth and eyes.
    Katarina lifted her face to his. “What a spectacular
     night,” she said. “Now go on,” she said,
     turning her head to the side and offering her neck,
     “Bite me.”
    Her words and the rough tone in her voice set him on fire.
     David’s fangs shot down and he felt a wave of power
     ripple through his body, a surge of domination, the feeling
     a lion has as it