Mystery Man Revealed (Now Published so sample only)

Chapter 10

© Sandra Corton 2013

Chapter 10

Honey awoke with the strangest feelings taking over her. Everything around her seemed brighter, more vibrant, while all sounds were louder and more obtrusive. Even her sense of smell seemed more enhanced and something smelt almost too do good for words nearby. She sat up and shook her head, trying to recall what had happened before she had slept.

A groan from beside her made her move quickly across the bed away from the noise. Aiden was sleeping next to her. She stared at him for another moment. He looked so appealing as he slept. His face was softened, there was an almost smile on his face and he was shirtless.

Something pleasurable curled inside of her and she wanted to fling herself on top of him. It took every ounce of her sheer will to get out of bed and put her attention to something else. Glancing back at him she realised the intoxicating smell was coming from him.

She glanced around the room then and felt confused. She was in her room, why was that scrumptious hunk of a man in her bed? She was sure she hadn't had any nightmares. She clutched at the necklace, pleased to find it was still there.

What she did find on her throat caused her quite a bit of alarm. There were two bumps that marred her otherwise perfect skin. She rushed over to the nearest mirror then having no idea what had caused such a mark. Two perfect puncture wounds surrounded by a huge, darkening bruise covered one side of her throat.

Pictures of the night flashed through into her mind then. He had told her that he wanted to heal Brooke. All she could recall after that was blood and the most intense pleasure of her life. She wiggled a bit at the intensity of the emotion. She stifled a moan as she recalled sucking on his finger like someone possessed. How humiliating would it be to face him now?

She fingered the marks on her throat before looking over herself more carefully. She looked odd. She seemed to be almost glowing. Her hair was lustrous and smooth where it would normally be frothing like crazy after she slept. Her face....it just didn't appear to be her face. She sucked in a breath then as the puncture wounds made complete sense.

She was across to the bed faster than she had ever moved in her life. She paused as his smell fired up her senses and flared to life an excessive passion. She gritted her teeth against it as she shook Aiden roughly. Anger seared through her at the thought of what had happened the previous evening. She couldn't see an upside to this situation at the moment, all she knew was that she needed answers.

"Wake up now Aiden!" She shouted at him and the man’s eyes snapped alert.

"What? Is something wrong Honey?" He asked on a yawn. The fact that he was so calm and held together only made her fury more prominent.

"Did you bite me? I don't look like me! What did you do?" She yelled frantically and watched as his face fell.

"Please give me a chance to explain." He said softly as she glared at him.

"Get out of my room and let me calm down. I'll come down later and you can explain this." She turned so he could see the puncture wounds and he visibly paled.

"That is not right. It should have healed." He muttered as he pushed off the bed and approached her.

His fingers against her throat should have horrified her but instead she felt intensely aroused. She sidled a little bit closer to him, enraptured by his concerned face. He stroked softly against her skin making a moan escape her at the pleasure she felt from such a small touch. Her whole body throbbed with a need for him that she couldn't recall she had yesterday. Yes she had wanted him but not at all like this.

"I ruined everything Honey. I should have known, have planned ahead." He muttered under his breath but she caught everything with her new enhanced hearing.

"Tell me what you are talking about." She ground out the words.

"We shared blood. For a normal human and a half vampire it wouldn't mean anything, but you my love are anything but normal." He said with a shake of his head.

"I am as normal as any person on the street." She told him firmly, not liking how this was going at all.

"Please let me heal this and we can talk after breakfast." He said his concern only seeming to deepen.

"How do you heal it?" She asked suspiciously.

"Like this."

There was a glimmer in his eye but she was in no way ready for what he did. His tongue darted out, licking over the puncture wounds at her throat. Desire so strong and potent hit her making her knees go weak and her body throb with need. When he went to pull away she let out a grumble and yanked him back.

Her lips crushed against his, needing more of the overwhelming pleasure to fill her. He complied by hauling her to him and taking control of the kiss. For a long moment there was nothing but lips caressing, heart beats racing and lust taking over their bodies.

Slowly he eased back, feeling guilty for taking advantage of her. He knew this wouldn't be easy for her. He tried to heal her wound again with his tongue but it seemed determined to stay marred.

He pulled away fully and sucked in a breath. She looked like the most tantalising being that he had ever seen. He didn't just want her blood, now he wanted every single part of her. With a groan he realised they had shared far too much blood so both their needs would be enhanced.

"Come back." She pleaded her eyes wide with need. As badly as he wanted to, he forced himself to take a step back.

"When you come to your senses you will regret what just happened now." He said rather sadly.

"No I won't, don't be silly." She teased as she ran her hands along his broad chest.

"Yes you will Honey. I will be in my study when you are ready to hear my explanation."

With that he was gone and she felt intense disappointment flow through her. With a growl of frustration she decided to shower. Slowly her wits decided to return to her and she felt instant mortification at what she had done. How could she face him after everything that had occurred in the last day?

With a growing sense of unease, she forced herself out of her room. She wasn't sure she wanted to see him in his study. Though the room was quite large she wasn't sure if she could resist throwing herself at him again. She took a deep breath and tried to force her body to have some control when he opened the door. She wasn't ready to see him just then but she had no choice.

"Come in and sit Honey. I made you a sandwich; after all you have now missed dinner and breakfast."

He gestured to a chair where a delicious looking sandwich sat opposite on his huge desk. Before he said anything more she had ate most of the meal and felt a lot better about everything that had happened. Her good mood slightly restored, she found she could face her mystery man.

"I can't remember much about last night. I'm asking you to fill in the blanks for me." She told him as she looked into those regretful silvery eyes.

"I should have known that you being the innocent actually matters, that it changes things." He said as he looked at her quite perplexed.

"Stop talking riddles and tell me what's going on." She stood up and faced him then.

"Don't get too close Honey." He warned as he moved farther away from her.

"Why not Aiden? I'm....my God how can you smell this good?" She asked as he took another step back and raised his hands to her.

"You took more than one drop of my blood. We did the first step in a very obscure ritual that has nothing to do with taking your life." He said the words quickly but she could barely focus on them.

"Aiden this is so hot....why do I want to drag you over to that chair and do wicked things to you? Damn did I just say that? I can't believe I said that." She slapped a hand over her mouth and stared at him with wide blue eyes.

"Honey listen to me and stay over there." He stepped behind his desk even as his eyes flared with heat at her words.

"But I want you and you want me." She pushed her hands into her hair and draped it off her shoulder seductively.

"Once again that is because you took more than a drop of blood from me." He quite deliberately moved to the window to let in the fresh air as she staggered back with a confused look on her face.

"Wait...give me a minute." She tipped her head up to stare at the ceiling and try to think beyond the need for him that rampaged through her body. "So you're telling me that I drank your blood?" She asked her voice filling with horror.

"Yes." He replied honestly trying not to flinch at how disgusted she sounded.

"And you drank mine?" She asked after a rough drawn in breath as she touched where the puncture marks still existed.

"Yes."

"Oh dear God I think I'm going to be sick." She muttered as she rushed from the room to the kitchen. 

Her breath came in shallow pants as she considered what he had said. The sandwich rose in her throat rather diabolically as she stood in that sunny kitchen with nothing but dark thoughts on her mind. How was she to contemplate the blood drinking?  She recalled nothing about it, at least until she stood there long enough trying to force her mind to remember.

It all came back to her in a flash and she had to force herself to gulp in air. She had greedily sucked on his finger and his blood had tasted divine. She recalled the feeling of his fangs sinking into her skin as her hand slid to her throat. A delicious lust took over her and she understood then exactly why they had taken each other’s blood.

"Blood sharing is not an uncommon thing in my world." He tried to soothe her.

"Well in my world it doesn't happen and you can get diseases from it." She managed to tell him.

"I'm clean Honey; you will not get sick from tasting my blood. Between us it never should have occurred at all." He said on a deep sigh.

"Why what exactly is the worst scenario here?" She turned to him from the pacing she had been doing but he seemed guarded as though not sure what to say.

"You are my innocent. You were born chosen and special, though you may never believe it. This makes you quite an unusual human being." He told her calmly.

"Great so now I'm some kind of freak?" She said with a bark of almost hysterical laughter.

"No but you and I together..." He trailed off for a moment, deep in thought. "I told you the worst thing I could do to you, which of course is to take your life to make me closer to immortal. That will never occur." He reassured her.

"Do I want to know what the best thing is then?" She asked rather sarcastically which he surprisingly smiled at.

"That I am not certain of. You may mark it up to being the worst thing." He shrugged his huge shoulders as she leaned back against the kitchen bench for support.

"Just tell me." She said through gritted teeth.

"Like I said when you were distracted, we shared blood hence we started down the road of a different ritual." He told her quite seriously.

"Another day, another bizarre vampire ritual. Please explain." She rolled her hand at him so he would continue.

"Do you recall me saying that Brooke could never be turned into a vampire by having my blood?"

"Something about not having enough venom in your veins." She said with a frown.

"Yes and that is very true. You are altogether different. Because we shared blood it is one step towards you becoming a vampire." He said it quickly and she gasped.

"No! No...if it doesn't work on Brooke then why me?" She pushed out the words through the panic that took over.

"Simple answer my love, you are the innocent. You have never been an average human; you have always been the tiniest part vampire." He explained while she went pale. He was wrong! He had to be wrong.

"But....but I was born to normal parents. I can't be what you say." She told him in a determined panic, praying that she was right.

"The reason your blood can make me immortal is simply due to that part of you that is vampire. It is pure and strong. Your blood is enough to turn me, a measly half blood into pure." He told her and watched her apprehensively.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" She repeated the words over and over in her head as she tried to comprehend exactly what he was saying.

"Answer me this: were you drawn to my blood?"

"Y-yes." She stuttered out the truth.

"Did it taste good?"

"Dear God yes." She put her head in her hands.

"Can you smell my blood? Take a deep breath in." He said as he cautiously took a step towards her.

"I don't need to. I can smell something different about you and it must be your....blood." She glanced up at him looking so panicked that he felt terrible for throwing all this information at her.

"Honey you don't need blood to survive." He tried to reassure her as he reached for her freezing cold hand. "You are not a vampire nor can I turn you into one. I could only make you half like me." She calmed a little then but still felt uncertain. After all she had looked completely different to her normal self in the mirror.

"Are you sure?" She asked as she poked at her teeth with her tongue, wondering if fangs would pop out at any given moment.

"I am. I have done a lot of research into the vampire world as you know." He stroked a finger gently across the back of her hand and she stilled. Lust, fierce strong lust hit her hard. She licked her lips and sent him a seductive smile.

"Ever thought of doing it on the kitchen bench Aiden?" She asked as she lifted herself onto the bench and reached for him.

"Honey no. This is the other part that I need to explain." He said in a strained voice as he once again stepped away from her.

She pouted adorably but refused to let him get too far away. She hooked a foot around the back of his thigh making him stop. He tried hard to resist but her allure was too great. He had to tell her the truth but instead he groaned and was drawn into her sensual world

"Just one little measly kiss shouldn't hurt any." She practically purred and his resistance completely crumbled.

"I guess not." He agreed his voice husky.

She dragged him closer by grabbing hold of his shirt and yanking. Once his lips were on hers they both moaned and she wriggled to get closer. He stepped between her legs and she wrapped hers around his hips tight.

He deepened the kiss, his tongue dancing deliciously with hers. Her hands went wild as she tried to undo the buttons on his shirt with shaky fingers. She wanted to feel him, touch him and let go of this emotion that kept her from him.

It was only when his lips detoured to that scrumptious smelling throat of hers that he came to his senses. The puncture wounds from the night before stood out clearly around a huge, rather nasty looking black bruise. It was enough to stop him, to make him feel terrible for taking advantage of Honeys lust ridden body. Dammit why did they have to share blood?

"Honey you need to let me go." He said as gently and calmly as he could manage.

"No!" She howled out the word.

"This is not you my love. Deep down a part of you is screaming at you to stop."

He pushed as far away as he could get while her thighs tightened around him. It was hard but he made his fingers do up his shirt buttons rather than explore her hot body like he wanted. He refused to look at her as he tried to recover more of his equilibrium.

"Aren't I good enough for you? All those other women this last week...." She trailed off as her face went through a gamut of emotions. From lust too jealously, to rejection and sadness.

"I am sorry about that  but taking your blood has led to his." He gestured to between the both of them and something seemed to snap her back to herself.

"Hell what am I doing? She said in shock as she let him go and quickly tried to move back away from him.

"You are simply responding to what is called blood lust. Mine is the only blood you have ever tasted and that vampire part of you is responding to that." He informed her making the renewed panic return and the lust fade away.

"What else is new Aiden?" She said thankful that he stepped away and she could get down off the bench.   

Once again she felt mortified for throwing herself at him. Twice in one morning now, what was wrong with her? Was it simply this blood lust thing he just mentioned? Crud the last thing she wanted to be thinking about again was sucking on his finger but she couldn't seem to help herself.

"Do you remember I mentioned a ritual?" He asked gently and she nodded. She decided the distraction of normal food might help her control those intense, crazy needs she had for Aiden's body.

"Hmmm?"

"They cannot be completed until the full moon which is a week away. It is up to you which ritual you choose to use." His voice filled with uncertainty then.

"Okay do we have to do it and will it stop this?" She gestured between the two of them before blushing.

"We will have to do one now that we have shared blood. Depending on the ritual you choose is whether it will stop what is happening between us. One will sever the ties between us forever while the other will bring them tighter together." He separated his hands before enclosing them together.

"Oh okay." She muttered, it all sounded rather drastic to her. "Can you tell me more about it?"

"Of course I will show you the books they are written in when you are done." He waved a hand at the bowl of cereal she had poured but not taken a single mouthful of.

"Hmmm yeah." She said to herself as she pondered his proposed ideas.

"I was hoping we could discuss Brooke again." He said it quietly and with much hesitation while she shook her head sharply.

"No we are not doing that to her." She cut him off abruptly.

"It would not harm her; it may in fact be a cure." He insisted.

"How do you know that she's not an 'innocent' too?" Honey asked feeling anger fill her that he had brought this topic up.

"An innocent is marked, Brooke is not." He said on a wince.

"Marked? I'm marked somehow?" She asked feeling even more perturbed by the turn in their conversation.

"Yes you are. I am going to come close to you so that I can show you." He warned her. With every step he took her already aroused body threatened to come apart. A whimper escaped her as he traced something on her left cheek.

"A triangle on your left cheek marks you as an innocent for the entire vampire world to see." His fingers moved over her soft skin and it took her a moment to focus.

"You smell so dang good Aiden. Look so good too. Why don't you want me like I want you?" She let out a little moan as he kissed her forehead and stepped away.

"Focus Honey, what did I just tell you?" He asked encouragingly.

"Um something about a triangle makes me an innocent." She mumbled out and was rewarded by that small smile of his.

"Yes look in the mirror later and you will understand what I mean. That is how I know that Brooke has nothing to do with my world. That is how I know I can perhaps cure her." She stiffened at his words but she knew that he would never lie to her now.

"She is going into hospital tomorrow." Honey said quietly.

"Then tonight while she rests we will give her that one drop of blood." He insisted and she sighed wondering whether to agree.

"I'm still not sure. I mean look at what happened to me." She threw her practically untouched bowl into the sink. "I've been acting like some kind of harlot all morning."

"That will ease if we spend more time together. The scent of my blood will then affect you less and less." He assured her but she still seemed doubtful. "How about we test my theory then? If your urges have not lessened by sundown then Brooke shall remain untouched."

She peered intensely at him then. She knew once again that he was in no way lying to her. He had answered every question she had, even when he knew that she wouldn't like what he was going to say. 

"Fine but if we are spending the day together then we are doing something relaxing." She crossed her arms and faced him down.

"Certainly, we have a movie library in the theatre of you wish to watch them." He said with a shrug.

She nodded eagerly as she turned back to the kitchen cupboards to search for snacks. He was just happy to see her smile return that he had been afraid he stole from her the previous night.

"Well it looks like we get to go shopping for snacks first. Time to test my will power with you in a car." She waggled her eyebrows, now accepting his words.

She was getting to spend a day with her mystery man, what could be better than that? Well as long as she could control those overwhelming urges of hers. She was certainly going to try.

Sure she had learnt some rather distressing information this morning. Finding out you've always been part vampire wasn't that easy. She knew she could cope though if he accepted her that way. 

She had said some pretty daft rubbish to him as well as thrown herself at him more than once. She pushed all of that mortification aside and decided to focus on the moment. They would spend the day together and all she could do was pray that she could keep her inner, blood lusting vampire self away.