VAMPIRE AT FIRST SIGHT

A Bloodline Vampires Short Story

By L. J. Red

Lucian cut through the crowd, vampires and humans alike scattering before him. following the strange scent, cinnamon spice and honey sweetness.

As he approached the door, a woman suddenly rounded the corner and walked directly into him. He was struck still by the feel of her in his arms. She rocked from the impact. The pressure of her body against his was delicious, and he instinctively gripped her arm to stop her from falling or perhaps to bring her closer towards him.

Lucian looked down at her. Her blood was pumping in her veins. A wave of attraction rose off of her, mingling with her sweet womanly scent. She was alive to him in a way he had never experienced with another human. How he could be so enraptured by this stranger? She shifted against him and lust rushed through him, his shaft hardening as she raised her head and her eyes met his. He tightened his grip on her arm, barely able to control himself. His fangs ached, threatened to lengthen in his mouth. Fuck, he wanted to taste her.

“Excuse me?” she said.

Her voice was like music, and for a moment Lucian was entranced by it, not focusing on the meaning of the words, but on the sound of them coming out of those soft lips.

“Should I?” he murmured, looking down at her, reveling in the feel of her skin under his hands. “Do you deserve to be excused?” he asked. Was she one of the hangers-on? One of those vampire groupies that seemed to flock to vampire clubs across the country?

He wanted to taste her, his iron control weakening in the face of his desire. He needed to taste, to touch. He wanted to rip the neckline of her t-shirt to expose the smooth skin of her neck.

Her fiery eyes flashed with anger as she took in what he had just said, and it sent an answering thrill of lust through him. He tried to will down the aching hardness in his pants. It was all he could do to stop himself from taking her there and then. “You walked into me,” he purred.

“No, I was standing right here and you came through the door into me,” she said, her anger lighting her eyes and bringing the blood to her cheeks. It made her ten times as attractive.

“Let go of me right now, or I’ll… I’ll shout to all your friends in there. I bet you don’t want to cause a scene. Mess up all your fancy… “

She looked down at him and as she took him in, a shiver ran through her. He felt it all the way down her body where she was pressed against him. He was finding it hard to contain himself at the knowledge that she was reacting to his body. Fuck, she wanted it just as much as he did.

Lucian threw steel bars of control over his lust. He should step away, but he couldn’t bring himself to let her go. “Cause a scene,” he murmured, “no, we wouldn’t want that.”

Lucian looked over his shoulder briefly at the room behind him. He could sense the vampires nearby attempting to eavesdrop on his conversation, and the thought of anyone else seeing her filled him with protective rage.

He bore forward, expertly spinning her around and bracketing her within his arms until she was pressed against the wall of the hallway, his body hiding her from view. He had to fight the desire to bend down and catch those lips in a kiss while she was still dizzy from the spin.

She blinked dazedly up at him. He should walk away, but he couldn’t do it. He managed to release her arm, and slowly so as not to scare her, he rested his hand on the wall. He couldn’t bear to step back. He needed to be close to her. This was the closest he could come to compromise.

Why was she so intoxicating? Why did her smell enrapture him like this? What was it about her? He had seen many beautiful women over the long years of his life, but there was a fire within her that was unlike anything he had ever experienced. It called to him.

The music of her heart beating fast drew him. He dropped his eyes to her chest as if he could see the heart behind her ribs. “My eyes are up here,” she said. Lucian grinned in amusement at the clear irritation in her voice. Her body was beautiful, but she was right. Little did she know it, he far preferred to stare into her gorgeous dark eyes and see the flames of desire reflected inside them.

“So, now we will not cause a scene,” he said with a smile.

She opened beneath him at his smile. He could smell her arousal rising up from her body, and he felt his control stretching to breaking point. Suddenly she ducked under his arm and stepped away. He could have moved to stop her, but he was fighting a raging battle within himself, a battle for his own control, and he let her walk away from him just a step or two. He wasn’t sure he could answer for his actions if he let her get any further away. Like a predator, he would give chase.

He forced himself to remain where he was, tracking her with his eyes, and leaned against the wall, pulling the tatters of his control back together. Why did she bring such strong feelings out in him? He had never experienced anything like this. Not even when he was a human. He had thought such feelings were beyond him as a vampire. He didn’t know who she was to be doing this to him, or why she was doing this to him, why her very presence was doing this to him, but he intended to get to the bottom of it.

“You seem lost,” he said, after he had managed to regain control over his voice.

“I need… I need to find one of your guests,” she said after a moment, “can you direct me to the guest quarters?”

He straightened. The thought of her approaching another vampire filled him with rage, and he began to advance upon her. “Which guest?” he asked silkily, hiding the steel under the question. He would find the guest, he swore, and rip him apart with his bare hands before he let another vampire come anywhere near her.

“The Shadow,” she said.

Lucian froze, even his heartbeat stilling, his breath trapped in his lungs, and he flushed with a keen and focused interest. What could she want with him? And on the heels of that thought, she didn’t realize who she was talking to. She had no idea who he was. A predatory smile slid over his lips.

She was no groupie, no hanger on like he had suspected initially. She was dressed simply but practically, her clothes clinging to the delicious curves of her waist and breasts, doing nothing to hide the muscles in her legs or the strength in her arms. She was no pampered princess, that was for sure. There was a fire within her that called to him. He stepped closer to her again.

“I’m his vassal,” she said. He blinked in surprise at the lie and watched her falter and take it back. Her inability to lie to him amused and satisfied him.

He pressed her further for the truth, wanting to know why she was here until finally, she admitted that she needed to speak to the Shadow. There was an urgency in her tone that called to him. He needed to respond to her fear, to smooth it away, but she didn’t know who he was, and she didn’t entirely trust him.

Not yet, he thought, swearing that one day she would trust him entirely.

She was a mystery, and he wanted to spend hours, days, weeks unwrapping every layer of that mystery. He wanted to bare her skin to his lips and his fingertips. He wanted to make her moan and hear the sound of his name on her lips.

“I work for the Shadow,” he said finally, amused by the way it wasn’t entirely a lie.

Her relief was palpable, and it thrilled him with intrigue, who was she? Why did she want to find him so desperately? Most people shunned the Shadows, called them in only when all hope was lost. When was the last time his company had been sought out?

She resisted his questions and he was impressed by her strength. But there was something more going on here, in this city—the uneasy spread of corruption through the vampire elite. Was she tied up in it?

He refused to believe it. There was something pure about her, an innocence that called to him, that made him want to protect her. He pressed closer to her, catching her eyes. “Tell me why you need to see the Shadow,” he insisted, reaching out with his mind and pulling the truth from her.

“He’s in danger.”

Tensions thrummed through his body at her words. In danger. She slipped away when he reached from her, but kept talking. Ambush, a trap. A warehouse, vampires. Lucian growled, his desire for her now fighting with his growing rage. Someone wanted him out of the way, wanted to stop him from finding this killer.

He had to go, he had to deal with this threat.

But he couldn’t leave her like this, she’d try and find another person to warn him. Perhaps he should tell her who he is, but no, the world of the Shadows was no place for a human, better to take her memories, better to send her back to safety.

He caught her eyes again. “Thank you for telling me this,” he murmured. “Forgive me.” And with that, he stole her memories, spinning them away into the darkness,

She rocked back and Lucian gathered the shadows around him as her eyes fell shut, forcing himself to turn his back and leave. Every step away from her he felt colder until he was encased again in solid icy control. His wants, his desires didn’t matter. He was a Shadow and he had a job to do. No human woman could change that.

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