“No. I do not want you to spit on him,” Etienne told her. “But just like a kiss, fluids will be transferred.”
“Yeah,” Lily said slowly then looked to James. “You need to get yourself a girlfriend cause he’s just ruined relationships for me. No way am I ever kissing anyone again!”
James laughed, grinning at her but before he could say anything Etienne cleared his throat, giving them both glares now. “So as I was saying being more pure vampire will ensure, he won’t be bleeding through the bite after you’ve fed. Places to avoid are the neck, chest, and groin,” he explained.
“The groin,” James said, with a pained look that turned into a grimace when she gave him a fully fanged smirk. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen… ever. Your fangs are going nowhere near that area.”
“You two are like children! Will you please focus on what I’m trying to discuss,” Etienne complained.
“Look if we don’t laugh about it this is just going to be too weird,” she replied with a shrug that James shared.
“It’s not weird, it’s who and what you are now,” he told her, his tone growing stern. Lily rolled her eyes and made a dismissive wave at him. He shook his head once more before continuing. “Now when you actually bite him and begin to feed, don’t suck on the marks but let the blood flow freely. Sucking causes unneeded damage and will extend healing time,” he explained then continued to explain the proper way to feed.
Somehow Lord Etienne managed to take all the mystery and allure of being a vampire and make it sound as dull as her high school biology class. James, however, was riveted. He took it all in and even was engaging the vampire lord in a debate. Figures, Lily thought, bored out of her mind. I’d get mated to a bio nerd. “Are you ready to try Petit Louve?” Lord Etienne asked.
“Huh,” Lily said, coming out of her mental rendition of the song of a hundred bottles of beer on the wall.
“Told you,” James said, crossing his arms over his chest, earning a glare from her, and Lord Etienne sighed, yet again.
“Well guess what? He made it boring! How do you make something like vampires boring is beyond me but he succeeded,” she said in her defense.
Lord Etienne took a long, slow, and noisy breath that she knew he didn’t need as he pressed his pale lips together. “Fine, Lily. I will use little words so I don’t confuse your simplistic mind,” he told her.
“Hey,” she complained but he continued talking.
“I want you to take a drink from his wrist, let the blood fill your mouth before you swallow. I want you to do this five times. Once you have done it five times, press your tongue against the marks so that he’ll stop bleeding. Do you understand or do I need to draw you pictures too?”
James tried to hide his breathy laughter but she saw him anyway and sent him a glare. “Hey, you deserved that one,” he told her.
She looked back to the vampire stubbornly. “No. I don’t need you to draw a picture. I understood you just fine,” she complained.
The vampire sent her a small smirk. “Good then please, why don’t you begin,” he said, his tone sounding almost like a challenge. James held out his right wrist to her and Lily swallowed, feeling a little nervous. Hesitantly, she took his arm in her hands.
“Don’t sweat it. I’m a tough guy,” James said, giving her cocky grin that made her roll her eyes at him.
“Whatever,” she grumbled.
Lord Etienne began to instruct her how to hold his arm and where to bite. I can’t believe I’m actually going to do this, she thought as she brought James’ wrist to her mouth. This was a whole lot easier before, she thought again. With a lot of hesitation, she bit into his skin and her hunger raged as the warm blood began to fill her mouth. She felt the urge to dig deep and pull the blood out of his veins.
Tightening her grip on James’ arm, she started too but when the vampire repeated his instructions to let the blood flow on its own and not to drink until her mouth was filled Lily managed to stop herself. Seconds after she swallowed her first drink, her body filled with near scalding warmth. At the fifth mouthful, Lord Etienne reminded her to stop, startling her. She’d forgotten he was even in the room.
Again, following his instructions, Lily helped stopped the bleeding and pulled away from James to lean back into the chair. All her body seemed to relax after weeks of tension and she finally didn’t feel hungry anymore. “Very good. You should feed once a week or in the least once every two weeks. It should keep your bloodlust under control,” Etienne said, giving her a look of approval as he stood.
“James, I would suggest some sugar, stay hydrated, and take the next few hours easy until your body recovers. For a lycan I don’t think it should take too long.” James nodded, leaning forward with his arms resting on his lap, and didn’t say a word. A knot formed in Lily’s throat at she saw his serious expression. Dread sank her stomach as she realized something must have gone wrong. “If either of you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask,” Lord Etienne added then left the room.
“James, what is it? What did I do wrong? Did it hurt,” she asked once the vampire was gone.
“No. It didn’t hurt,” he replied, still looking serious.
“Liar,” Lily shot back, growing angry at him and herself. “This was a bad idea. I knew it! I should’ve listened to my gut,” she added, standing. She wanted to get away from James and her now growing guilt.
She only took a step when James grabbed her arm. “I’m not lying Lily. It didn’t hurt,” he told her as he looked up at her from his leaning posture.
“If it didn’t hurt then why do you look like that,” she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Because it didn’t hurt at all, but the opposite. I figured serious looked a lot better than embarrassed,” he replied, looking almost bashful as he spoke.
“James what are you going on about? So it felt kind of nice. So what? What’s supposedly so embarrassing about that,” she replied, crossing her arms over her chest.
“It didn’t feel kind of nice. It felt… I mean I… sort of…,” he said then hesitantly removed his other arm from his lap so she could see what he was talking about. Apparently her drinking from him had made him feel very good.
“Oh. I see,” Lily replied, not sure what else to say.
“I didn’t even realize it had gone that far until it happened…” he said, his cheeks a clear shade of pretty pink now. “God, and he was right there, too! Do you think he noticed?” He asked, rubbing a hand over his face as if trying to rub away the humiliation then narrowed his eyes as he saw her pressing her lips together. “Don’t laugh!”
Despite all her intentions not too, Lily started to laugh. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to,” she said through her laughter, unable to stop it once she’d gotten started.
“Right, I can see that,” he said sourly and grabbed her hips, pulling her down into his lap. “Damn woman,” he cursed then placed his hand behind her neck, bring her down for a kiss that ended her laughing. “Much better,” he said when he pulled back but before he could say anything more Lily got up.
“Don’t get that look James. You hear lord leech, no mixing sex and blood. All you’re going to get is a cold shower,” she said smirking at him.
“You can’t be serious,” he complained then when she laughed as a reply he sighed. “That’s not fair! I should at least get a little something” he continued to complain.
“Looks like you did that already,” Lily told him with a smirk, still feeling a little evil. He groaned again before getting up and heading into the bathroom.
James took a shower, still feeling the embarrassment of earlier burn his face. He knew vampires had the ability to make a feeding feel good. When Silvano had taken him and allowed vampires to feed off of him, Bianca had tried to make him think he was enjoying it. However, James didn’t think Lily feeding on him would’ve caused such a feeling. Especially since she was so against the idea of it in the first place.
“Hurry up James,” he heard her shout. “Chris says Greg is going to call in about ten minutes with an update. I am not your secretary to take notes while you play around in the shower,” she demanded, but her tone was more playful than angry.