Page 17 of Finding Our Home

“Vampire blood generally tastes better than human blood—although almost all blood tastes good to me—but for you, mine might be even better since we’re True Mates. Your blood is the best I’ve ever tasted.”

“Really?”

He grunted. “Mhmm.” Then he leaned his chin on my shoulder. “You’re delicious.”

I snorted at that because it sounded ridiculous, and I leaned back into him as I stared at the majestic tree in front of us. I couldn’t believe that the scary monsters I’d always heard about had come from such a beautiful thing. Not that they were actually scary monsters at all. So far most of the vampires had been kinder to me than many humans.I wonder how they got such a terrible reputation? I wonder if there’s any truth to those scary stories?

The wind blew and I shivered from it.

Dorian wrapped his arms tighter around me. “Is it cold? I can’t always tell.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty chilly because of the wind. We’re lucky it’s not snowing.”

“Is it that cold out?”

“No, but some of the humans were saying that they figured it was sometime in February, but obviously they could’ve been wrong.”

He grabbed the edges of the blanket we were sitting on and managed to wrap us up in it together. “I haven’t kept track of the month since we fled our home.”

“Did you keep track before that?”

He nodded against my shoulder. “Before things got bad, we had electricity in our underground home. We were lucky that our running water came from a well, so we still had that after the war started. I used to have a TV, and there was a big radio in the common room. The antennae was run above ground so we could listen to the radio. It was a good set up.”

“I was pretty young when we lost electricity. I think I was maybe ten?”

“So that makes you around thirty?”

“I think so.”

“Mm. So young.”

I lifted the shoulder he wasn’t leaning on. “I mean, you only have what? A hundred and fifty years on me? That’s not too bad.”

He chuckled and kissed my neck, so I tilted my head to the side to allow better access. He trailed kisses up and down my neck for a minute, then buried his face there and groaned. “Even your skin is delicious.”

“You don’t have to stop.”

He spoke against my skin, so his words were mumbled. “Actually, I do. I need to take you home.”

Disappointment shot through me, but I tried to hide it. “Oh, um, okay.”

He lifted off my shoulder and tried to see my face. “What’s wrong?”

I shook my head. “Nothing.”

“Okay, no.” He pushed the blanket off us, making me shiver again. “That’s not how this works.” He picked me up and turned me, placing me on his lap, just as easily as a freaking flower or something. He cupped my jaw and turned my head to look at him. “If you’re upset, you have to talk to me.”

I looked off to the side without moving my chin from his grasp and sighed before looking into his brown eyes with silver rims.

“Talk to me, Neo.”

“Fine. I’m… upset—no, um, I’m disappointed you want to take me home because I thought you were going to feed from me again tonight, and I thought that maybe…” I trailed off with a shrug and looked down because now I was also embarrassed.Ugh.

I could feel him staring at me for a long moment, then he finally jerked his head back and said, “Wait, do you think I meant take you back to your home?”

I nodded once.

“Oh, my treasure, I’m sorry. I meant that I want to take you back to my quarters, to my home.”

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