“As you now know, vampire bites feel…”
Her fingers still for a moment. “Yeah, I remember,” she grumbles.
I snicker. Thankfully, it feels like we’re slowly sliding back into our normal rapport-- even if a lot more touching is involved at the moment.
“On bagged blood, vampires have to feed every couple days to sustain themselves. The magic-- life energy-- whatever, fades from the blood once it’s no longer circulating through the body. From a living supernatural, I only had to feed once a week.” I hesitate as I get closer to the real problem. The reason I shouldn’t keep feeding from Callie. “There are no withdrawal symptoms from a bite, but people can still get addicted to the feeling… Gina was the only person I was feeding from.”
“Oooooh,” she breathes, elongating it several syllables.
And it clicks.
Expelling a deep breath, I continue, “Yeah. It can also leave people… wanting more, if they haven’t… um, if certain…”
I don’t know why the fuck I’m floundering. I never have issues talking about sex, but with Callie, I feel like I’m corrupting her.
“Oh for the love of...” she curses, clearly annoyed. “If they haven’t orgasmed. Is that what you mean?”
“Yes,” I chuckle, but she’s not done.
Callie sits up straight, so she can look me directly in the eye. “Just because I’m not as… experienced as you,” she huffs, “doesn’t mean I don’t know how sex works. Or lust. Or whatever.”
If she didn’t before, she certainly does now.
Pulling her back into my arms, I cuddle her close and pet her hair.
“You’re right. I’m sorry,” I murmur to the top of her head, doing my best to hide the humor in my voice.
“I mean you guys throw around innuendos like party favors,” she mutters, and I don’t have to see the eye roll to know it’s there. “But talk about sex and stuff, and you’re clutching your pearls.”
I lose it on that one and start laughing so hard tears are running down my face, and it gets hard to breathe.
“Ha ha. Yes, I’m hysterical,” she drawls, not nearly as amused as I am. “Can we get on with it? Gina is obsessed with you because you won’t feed from her anymore? Is that it?”
The mere mention of the Witch Bitch sobers me. “That and I won’t fuck her.”
“Wow. Seriously?” Callie fumes. “Just when I think it’s impossible to hate her more.”
There’s something strangely charming that she’s equally mad about this. Some days it feels easier to name the people I haven’t fooled around with, but she doesn’t bat an eye about any of it.
“I’d been feeding from her for about a month and a half, and now, I understand how... difficult…” I falter, not sure what I’m trying to say.
“Nolan, you don’t have to explain it to me,” she assures, squeezing my hand that’s migrated to her outer thigh when I wasn’t paying attention.
“No, I want to,” I declare, adjusting her so I can wrap both of my arms around her waist. “It might sound dumb, but I haven’t talked about this to anyone. With the guys, all I have to do is mention her name and they see red. And it’s, I don’t know, nice?-- No, that’s not right.”
“Cathartic?” she supplies.
“Yeah that-- to finally talk about this shit.” I hug her tight, and I don’t know if it’s for her benefit or mine anymore.
Callie drops her head back on my shoulder, and once again soothes me by running her fingers along the base of my neck. “You can tell me anything.”
It’s been over two years since everything happened with Gina, but my feelings are so raw right now, it might as well have happened yesterday.
“We’d been dating about two and half months, and because of the bite, over the clothes stuff wasn’t enough for her anymore. She wanted sex.” Words pour out of me like poison, while equal measures of shame and guilt eat away at my insides. “Vampires are very sexual creatures, but at fourteen, I wasn’t ready for that. I wanted… I don’t know. I just wanted to be normal for a little longer, I guess? To do all that dumb young love shit. Hold hands. Go to the movies. Make out. Crap like that.”
“Nolan…” Callie murmurs, but I can’t seem to stop until I get it all out of me.
“After a month of her getting more persistent… and accusing me of being gay when I kept telling her I wasn’t ready---” I snort, then ramble, “Considering I’m bi, she wasn’t completely wrong. It’s just my attraction to men had nothing to do with why I wouldn’t sleep with her.” My heart throbs in my chest, and I hold onto Callie tighter to hide the tremors in my hands. “Anyway, after a month of it, I couldn’t take it anymore. I should’ve broken up with her sooner, considering all the shit she pulled, but…”
