Book Two in The Vampire Years
Having survived her first months as a fledgling vampire, things are only getting worse for Lee. Her refusal to help her lover find the vampire clan that attacked her is driving a wedge between them. At the same time, enemies old and new are still out for her blood - and all that comes with it.
This 37,000+ novella continues Becoming, about the coming of age and sexual awakening of a recently turned vampire, and features explicit sex and violence. This is not a YA title!
Prepare to be Shattered
Danny put his hands on my hips and I knew the contact was only there to start the gentle process of pushing me away. I tightened my grip on him.
"It's the truth."
"Lee, you're a kid, you don't know -"
"What love is?" I interrupted. "Don't go there - I know what it isn't. It's not trading your daughter to a gang of bikers so they can chew on her flesh. It isn't telling your step-daughter she's brilliant and beautiful almost every morning and a dumb ugly cunt every night so that maybe she'll finally relent and let you fuck her. It isn't kidnapping your niece off the playground in third grade and taking her back to a drunk mother and her pedophile husband. It's not being afraid of who is going to come into your room at night, a staggering, accusing woman with a lit cigarette or..."
I stopped and managed to push the image of Paul from my mind. I relaxed my hold on Danny enough to give him a hard, pissed shake. "I know exactly what love doesn't look like. I know what it doesn't feel like." I shook him again. "And this isn't like any of that. So don't give me this 'kid' bullshit. I've been taking care of adults for a long fucking time. That distinction means nothing!"
I slapped him, then. It was that or release the blood tears that were swelling. I hit him hard, too. Not hard for a girl or for a man.
Vampire hard.
His head whipped to the side and the print of my palm rose instantly against his skin. It took him a second to recover from the shock but then he trapped my hand. His breathing picked up, at last. His grip on my wrist and hip tightened.
"I..." He stopped, tried to even his tone out. "I didn't mean to negate your feelings, Lee."
"No? Well, I meant to slap you." I watched another wave of surprise wash over his face, the outline of my palm still stark against his brown skin. "Because you don't get my tears."
I moved to pull my wrist from his grip but he stopped me with a simple, heart-rending question.
"Does Oscar?"
It was true, I had cried in front of Oscar, but those had been human tears caused by fear and helplessness. I might still be afraid, I might still need help, but those "little girl tears" were gone.
"Not these tears." I closed my eyes, my vision already tinting red. "Not these."
His hands relaxed. "Lee, baby."
Another little strangled noise escaped me, like a hamster squeezed in a child's fist. I pressed my lips against his forehead, freed my hand to rest it against his injured cheek. "I'm sorry."
"Shhh..." His arms circled my waist. He pressed his palm along the center of my back.
His touch was light, barely pressing on my spine, but I arched in response. I spread my legs a little wider, the weight of my lower torso shifting forward so that my mound was against his stomach and my breasts were thrusting up, close to his face.
I cupped my breasts, squeezing them as I steadily pushed my mound against his stomach. I tilted my head, my hair falling around his shoulder as I kissed his ear and whispered "Please."
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