Blood & Honey #1

*Chapter Two*

With my fangs positioned directly over the human's humming artery, I am about to clamp down on the tender flesh of her neck right here in the middle of this bookstore and spill the blood that is begging me to take it when another human rounds the corner. It isn't just one human either. It's three—three adolescent female humans with their gazes on me as I have a girl pressed up against one of the bookshelves in the fantasy section.

The only way to silence the hungry growl of protest that wants to rip from my throat is to keep my mouth busy. I redirect the situation to the only plausible explanation that won't cause suspicion in a human's world.

Instead of sinking my fangs in, I let my body go slack and take the mother-loving frustration I'm experiencing out on her neck in a heated kiss. I can't afford to slow down or pause. If my lips stop for a moment, it will all be over. There isn't a force strong enough to stop me from demolishing this human with cinnamon spiced blood that is before me.

I grow restless as I nip, suck, and scrape my teeth against the flesh covering the artery I am beyond ready to tear into. The hyper annoying teenage humans squeal and burst out in hushed whispers they think I can't hear.

They need to hurry and leave. It is getting harder to keep this charade up.

Things take a dangerous turn when my taste buds detect the faintest hint of the red life force that flows through this human's veins. I become frantic as I try to lap up every trace of the substance driving me past the point of recklessness. I'm so desperate to have whatever I can get that I don't balk at sealing my mouth over the human's in my quest for the only blood I can harvest with an audience standing several feet away. I don't even give a damn about the fact this blood came from her nose.

If someone asked me to cut off my arm as payment, I would. My arm can grow back. This blood can't. It can only be ingested once it has been set free.

I become absorbed by the images that flood my mind, images of liquid fire tunneling through my veins toward my still heart. The intense temperature burns me from the inside out.

Heat pours into the chambers of my heart, the sensation a mixture of pain and pleasure that causes a groan to rumble in the rear of my throat. As the heat intensifies, so does my desire to devour this human. The pressure building tightens around my chest. The feeling extends downward when my chest can't get any tighter.

I can feel the human's erratic beating heart beneath my lips, yet I can also feel it in every part of me. I tear my mouth away from the human's when something inside of me is about to snap.

The human's mouth is raw, swollen, and bruised; my feverish and demanding attempt to make every morsel of blood that escaped more than her frailties could bear. Her body is still locked in fright, yet the tremble in her grows to monstrous proportions. She realizes it at the same time that I do. My fang caught the skin of her lip when I pulled away and ripped it open.

She shoves against me, her weak human constitution unable to move me. Clouds of frozen breath puff out, the warmth of her humanity being taken over by the icy energy that surrounds the dark soul I harbor.

Like a newborn seeking light, she squeezes out from between the bookshelf and me. I could have kept her from doing so, but I honestly don't want to.

I just kissed a human. The thought rolls in my stomach with a queasiness of disgust that lingers on my tongue. 

The giggling teen humans bring my attention back to where it matters most. The human I am supposed to be ending is getting away.

I'm about to pursue when I'm stopped by the sound of my name.