The Consort (MalexMale) 《COMPLETE》

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Bogdan and I stand in silence, our eyes connected and unwavering. What little hesitation and guilt were evident in his features before are now wiped clean. He simply stands tall, waiting for me to speak. It feels surreal - Bogdan confessing he's the first to claim my blood. But... is it true?

I squint at him, replaying our time together in fast motion. The only real contact we've had is from our small handful of kisses. While they were spine-tingling moments of intimacy, none of them led to a feeding. Was he able to drink from me during those without me knowing?

I suck my bottom lip into my mouth and chew on it gingerly. It's chapped and torn from my nervous habit kicking into overdrive the past week. At least with Axel I knew what I was dealing with. He was a horrible man from the start.

I shake my head, glancing over at Axel's body. It's still slumped on the floor. The rest of his skin has changed appearance as well. It's cracked and dry, resembling the worn sidewalk leading up to Kelly and Fiona's apartment.

"You claimed my blood...." I whisper under my breath. "How? ... When?"

"The night we spent at the cabin," he answers evenly.

He takes a step towards me, but I counter it with a step back. I can't have him close to me. Actually, scratch that. I don't want him close to me.

My mind races, thinking back to our first night together. I offered Bogdan my blood in the car, but he turned it down. We went inside for a bit, I fell asleep, woke up to find out we were being hunted, and we left.

That was all.

Bogdan never came close to me. In fact, he made a point to stay as far away from me as possible. I shake my head after a moment of contemplation.

"There's no way," I argue. "I would have remembered something like that."

Bogdan pushes away from the door and walks towards Axel's lifeless body. He circles around it, eyeing the immortal corpse without showing even a glimpse of remorse.

"You bit your lip and accidentally cut it," he explains. "And offered me your blood in the car. Do you remember this?"

I nod.

"Well, it happened in the cabin as well. When you fell asleep, you started biting your lip again. A lot. Then you started calling for me in your slumber. A single drop of blood left your lips and slid down to your chin, taunting me to taste it."

I blink back at him in disbelief. I remember having a nightmare when I was there, a nightmare so awful and vivid that I woke up terrified. I also remember Bogdan being the one to wake me because I was making too much noise.

But he didn't seem at all different from when I went to bed to when I woke. In fact, he seemed even less impressed by me than before.

Bogdan raises his head to lock eyes with me again. The redness in them brightens to life, and I hate the hunger rattling in my veins to have him touch me. Taste me. It's like my body refuses to connect with the angry, hurtful thoughts in my mind. It doesn't care about any of that; it simply wants more of him.

"I knew you were a Nirv from the moment I saw you," Bogdan explains. "I knew it from the first time we met; that's why I left without giving you a reason. But when I smelled your scent in the Village that night, I knew I couldn't stay away."

He strides towards me slowly. He tucks his hands behind his back, approaching me with hungry eyes and a terrifyingly, calm expression.

"I was hungry," he admits. "Hungrier than I had been in a long while. The combination of my hunger and your scent were too much for me to handle. So when that drop of blood slipped off your chin, I reached out and wiped it away with my finger...and tasted you."