Immortal Chocolate (a vampire novel)

Part 21

I shelled out some donuts for the three vampires, and ate one myself, savoring the taste, even if these were day old donuts now. What day was it anyways? I pulled out my phone and groaned. The shop had been closed for far too long.

“So, why have you been chasing Claud for eighty-three years?” I asked the blonde girl.

“I’m Bronwyn, since I was rude and never introduced myself before.”

“Iva,” I said.

“Why have I been chasing Claud?” She let out a soft sigh, leaning up against the booth we’d sat in. I’d had no customers, which didn’t surprise me; they probably thought I’d taken a vacation or something. I waited for her to continue.

“Claud and I go way back.” Her lips formed a smirk, but I could see pain hidden underneath it, and more and likely Claud had been a dick to this girl. She was gorgeous, so why he’d want me instead of this beauty was way beyond logic. “He and I were arranged to be married long, long ago. Back when they did that kind of thing.” She cast a look out the window, and I could tell the emotions that she held for Claud were still there.

I’d often heard legends of people who were changed into a vampire, that whatever state of emotions they carried would stay with them forever, and not only would they stay but get more intense as the years went by. Problem with that theory was I never knew Claud. Why did he obsess over me like he did? Made not one lick of sense.

“You carry his blood?” she whispered to me.

“Unfortunately yes. I can’t wait for it to be out of my system. Makes me act like a newborn.”

“And you don’t know why that is?” She looked at me oddly, partially like I was dumber than a rock, and a bit of respect mixed in. “Sweetheart, you don’t know who Claud is?”

“A pain in my ass?” I suggested to her.

“He’s the vampire god.”

“So, I’ve heard.”

“Do you know what that means?” Her fingers were gripping the edge of the table now, her nails digging into the metal.

“I guess I’m confused.” I gave her a helpless look.

“Claud is the first vampire, Iva. He’s the reason we’re alive. All of us. Every vampire on the planet wants to be his bride, because he can not only give you power, but a child.”

I jumped right out of the booth, breaking it in the process. I swore under my breath at the broken wood.

“You mean Claud wants to get it on with me so that we can have a kid? Why me though? Why does he want me?”

“Every female vampire wants what he can give her. An heir—it’s the oldest desire all women have—the need to care for a child. Iva, he chose you. Women would kill to be you.”

The itch started. Out of the blue.

“What is wrong with me?” I screamed at the ceiling. “I keep wanting to feed every five minutes.”

“Oh god.” Bronwyn stood up now, pacing the floor back and forth. “He fed you his blood. What else?”

“Nothing!”

“What else?” she demanded.

“We both drank blood of each other.”

“Did he bite first or you?”

I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to remember that night. Part of me had totally blocked it out. It wasn’t something I wanted to think about—Claud’s nasty blood in my body.

“I don’t know.”

“Think!” She grabbed the front of my shirt and stared in my eyes. “Think, Iva.”

I went back to that night, trying to sort it all out.

“He bit me first.”

She huffed out a frustrated breath. “It’s too late, sweetheart.”

“What?” I threw up my hands, the itch continuing up my body, blood lust arising. I was getting moodier by the second. I growled low under my breath, trying to get control of myself, but I knew it wouldn’t help. The itch was the one thing that none of us could stop, not even the strongest vampire in the world could halt the itch. The only thing we could do was run from the human we didn’t want to destroy. I hadn’t known that fact when I’d killed Lawrence, I really wished I’d known back then the stuff I know now.

“Sweetheart, you’re pregnant.”