Page 4 of Fangs and Family
So I decided to protect myself and never see him again.
Adam Lisowczyk was who he was, and it was just my bad luck that I’d fallen for a damn vampire.
1.Geas: an obligation or prohibition magically imposed on someone.
2.Methadone is a medication which has been used for decades in Medication-Assisted-Treatment (MAT) to help treat people overcome their addiction to heroin, other opiates or narcotic pain medications.
Chapter 2
‘I’m going to stake him. First, I’ll find the oldest, most potent aspen tree, take the gnarliest branch, then ram it through his heart the hard way.’The angry voice somewhere deep in the building was eclipsed by heavy stomping and the trashing of furniture, but I couldn’t care less. My mind was floating on a cloud of pleasurable oblivion thanks to the fresh whiskey-infused blood I’d been drinking for the last hour or two. While I usually stayed away from mind-altering substances, I had kissed my last fuck goodbye and headed to the nearest blood brothel to drink myself blind.
I looked at my donor, her eyes struggling to focus even as her expression gave away her distaste for my favourite tipple. Her hand brushed idly at the needle mark left from the discarded transfusion kit that lay beside her.
Her disdain at my choice of this method had annoyed me. ‘That’s not how things are done,’ she’d said, and I’d ended up paying double to shut her up.
Most of the staff here worked for more than just money, desperate for the pleasure a vampire’s bite could induce. Despite my present circumstances, I couldn’t face biting another woman, and I wasn’t interested in catering to another annoying female’s demands. This was a blood brothel, so I didn’t care if she felt slighted. Even if it was the only place that catered to my kind, and it would have to be with a name like “Suck and Fuck”, I wouldn’t yield to her demands.
Unfortunately, the idle thought didn’t distract me from the desire to bite someone, and I felt my anger rising as, in my befuddled state, the redhead’s hair darkened, reminding me who it was I really wanted to sink my fangs into.
‘Fuck!’ I cursed, throwing my empty tumbler across the room, the illusion of that woman filling my vision, her heart-shaped face and dark expressive eyes that burned so bright I felt my heart wanting to beat again just to make her smile.
Nina. I wanted to bite her, to rip into the flesh of that sensual neck for what she did to me. I still remembered our endless conversations, the times we sparred, letting her win to have her jump into my arms, laughing so freely, like she wasn’t embracing a monster.
She wasn’t afraid of me, challenging me at every step. She also gave me a home, warm and welcoming despite my presence being forced on her, and it felt good, so I tried hard to be good enough for her. I was ready to offer her the world. I didn’t even ask for her blood, only taking what she offered on that one incredible night, holding back despite the burning craving her taste left in my body. Stupid vampire, falling for the first woman who wasn’t trying to use me for sex or money, only to fall apart when she tossed me aside like week-old trash.
My thoughts began spiralling as I grabbed another glass for another drink, my mouth twisting in disgust at the now foul-tasting blood. The curse I uttered as I looked down at the lukewarm liquid was full of spite, but I downed the drink, refusing to let that woman spoil my last pleasure.
I was cocking back my hand to throw another glass at the wall when the door burst open, startling awake my donor. The woman didn’t hesitate to flee the room unsteadily without a backward glance.
‘Adam, that’s enough. Shift your worthless arse out of that seat. You’re coming with me.’
The distaste in the newcomer’s voice had me raising my middle finger even as I flinched in self-recrimination. I tried to ignore the imposing figure that stood in the doorway, radiating power like some avenging spirit.
‘Make me!’ I replied, laughing at Leszek’s darkening expression before I waved him away. ‘Go back to your woman and just leave me alone.’
As the Forest God’s body blurred, I squinted, trying to focus despite the bright glow that came from fuck knew where. I was sure it wasn’t daylight yet, and whilst the sun couldn’t kill a vampire, we definitely knew when its glare touched our skin, the pain it caused, which thankfully lessened the older one became. Still, as with any night predators, vampires liked it dark, and my eyes needed a moment to adjust.
‘Make you? Oh, with pleasure. Get up, you poor excuse for a Vampire Master. You have a job to do, and you will do it even if I have to break your bones. Where the fuck have you been? You were supposed to supervise the shipment on Monday and check the bank account of that Austrian merchant. Care to tell me why I have to come to a brothel to drag your half-naked and wasted body back to work?’ He asked, not bothering to hide his displeasure.
‘Then just break my bones. I’ll heal anyway. I always do.’ I replied quietly. I wanted to feel pain. I wanted to feel something, anything, that would mute this longing that had torn at my soul since I’d seen Nina at the charity event. We had a history; it may have been short, but that brief period was the most alive I’d felt in decades, until one petty argument that left me confused and on the street. Now, she ignored me and acted as if we were strangers while I felt every emotion I’d bottled up break loose and smack me in the face.
‘Why do you care, anyway? Am I disrupting your perfect marital happiness with my problems?’ I sounded pathetic even to my own ears now.Maybe it’s time to stop drinking,I thought, especially when the enraged Forest God grabbed me by the collar and lifted me off the sofa.
‘It’s been two years since you broke up with Nina. Two years. For fuck’s sake, pull your head out of your arse and talk to her. Didn’t you learn anything from my fuck up with Sara?’
‘And tell her what, exactly? Don’t you think I didn’t try? She doesn’t want me. If she did, she would have looked at me at least once during your party. Why didn’t you tell me she was going to be there? I saw her, smelled her… I can’t… you don’t know how it feels to be ignored by the woman whose blood still sings in your body as she flirts with a horde of men. For her, I’m nothing. Do you hear me? Nothing! So spare me your divine wisdom. Nina is not like Sara. She will never accept me. I know because I fucking bent over backwards to be good enough for her!’ I shouted in his face, drunk and uncaring. It was the first time I’d told Leszek about my longing for Nina.
‘What the fuck is going on in that thick skull of yours, Adam? Stop being a fucking jerk and fight for her if there’s even the slightest chance she could be important to you,’ Leszek snapped out, dragging me toward the light.
‘Our situation is different,’ I said, but he only shook his head.
‘Oh, for fuck’s sake, grow a pair,’ I heard my boss mutter before he dragged me out of the room.
I hissed, covering my eyes, wondering when I’d last stepped outside. A day? Maybe two? Leszek said I’d missed a shipment, so it may have been a week, but it could have been longer, as I couldn’t remember anything after storming out of the charity event. I wouldn’t have gone if I had known she had been invited. Still, when I saw her, I’d stayed until… fuck, why did I stay?
I’d watched her like some creepy stalker while remembering the time we spent together, me as her bodyguard, her my pain-in-the-arse client, testing my patience and goodwill at every turn. I moved closer in an attempt to bury the hatchet, justifying my actions to ease the tension when we inevitably crossed paths, as we were both in Sara and Leszek’s social circle.
It was a mistake. I knew it the moment Nina tilted her head to the side, watching me, her brow lifted in annoyance, but I was one step too late. Nina’s scent hit my nostrils, and my body reacted, canines elongating, my saliva filling with pleasure-inducing venom.
