“Your gift is new to you, Mia. I expected there would be some growing pains as you learned to use it, and I’m not angry that you used it on me. As a matter of fact, I feel honored.”
Honored? Uh-huh. “Did you see what I saw?”
He shook his head. “No. It’s not really like that. It’s not like a television broadcasting to everyone. It’s more like your magic takes from my thoughts those memories that are the most pertinent to you. So, if I were just a random person on the street, what you just did probably wouldn’t work very well on them, because you’d have no intimate connection to them. You’d still be able to read their feelings, just not their memories.”
I nodded my head. Ihadbeen just trying to read his emotions, but had ended up with way more information than I’d asked for. Selfishly, I was glad he didn’t know what I’d seen. Most of it had been jumbled and had gone by super fast, but that last scene had been very private between him and someone else. And if all of that somehow pertained to me personally? I didn’t know what to do with that information. I’d have to think about it.
“I don’t want to know what you saw, Mia,” Draven murmured. “At least…not yet.” He pulled away from me and looked down at me. “Is that alright with you?”
I nodded gratefully. I didn’t know how to articulate what I’d seen just yet. Given time, I might be able to.
“Now,” he continued, “I need some nourishment, and you asked what a vampire’s bite feels like. It seems to me that we can help each other.”
I laughed dully. “Ok, but I’m not sitting on your lap while you bite me.”
He smiled wickedly, making my stomach flutter. “But Mia, I’m comfortable, and you seem comfortable?”
Was Draven…flirting with me?
I looked up at him suspiciously. He looked very, very serious.
“Are you flirting with me?”
My bluntness didn’t take him by surprise, as it did most people, and I really liked that about him. He brought two fingers up and mimicked a tiny amount of space between them to show me he was flirting with me a little bit.
“Boss,” I said, thunking him on the chest with my hand, “employee,” I pointed at myself.
His eyes just glinted more mischievously, and I laughed at him. I really liked this side of him. This mischievous, playful side.
“Ok,fine! I’ll sit here!”Argh.It wasn’t really like it was asacrificeto sit on my gorgeous boss’s lap, now was it?
He laughed and set me beside him. I wanted to howl in protest, but kept it to myself, and then his crimson eyes made their appearance again, and that heady feeling of absolute contentment and complete lack of pain started from the crown of my head, and moved like a river down to my feet, touching every part of me until I felt like I could just curl up and have the best nap of my life.
Draven brought up my hand and turned it over so my wrist showed. He traced the blue-green veins that delicately made their way from the crook of my elbow down to my palm, and then he brought my wrist up and, without warning, bit down.
I watched in fascination. The prick of his teeth entering my flesh had been minimal and very, very quick. It felt a bit like a quick sting, there and gone again so fast you barely had the time to recognize that it was there.
He watched me watching him the whole time. Which made the whole thing feel a lot more personal. I’d thought it would feel like a weird dining experience. Instead, it felt intimate, like he was taking something that was very vital to my being, like my genetic code, and making it a part of himself. As if the blood from me was filling the gaps in him. Like what I imagined donating a kidney or another organ to someone might feel like.
It was a heady experience. My intuition said that if he and I were a couple that the sharing of blood between us would be much more intimate. But we weren’t, and this felt personal enough.
Even though he was just taking the blood from my wrist, the moment became so intimate that I had an intense urge to look away from his focused gaze. But I couldn’t. I felt so locked into his gaze that I didn’t think I was even daring tobreathe.
After a few minutes, he withdrew his fangs, and licked the wound on my wrist, closing the punctures. He licked his lips to get the drop of blood he’d missed and rested my hand with his in his lap.
I was feeling lethargic and full. As ifIhad been the one to drink blood for nourishment.
Empathic. I still forgot about that sometimes.
“I know what you are now.” His eyes were a brighter red, and he looked happy and content. I’d done that for him. Prancing pixies, I think I’m addicted to this now! When could we do this again?
I re-focused on what Draven was saying. “What I am?”
He nodded. “As well as being an empath, you’re a rainmaker.”
I knew my expression spoke utter confusion because he chuckled and continued playing with my hand. “Have you ever had a terrible day and found that a storm followed you home? Or, a fantastic day, and found the weather to be exactly what you wanted it to be?”
“Draven, I hate to tell you this, but no sane person in Manhattan thinks that their moods are controlling the weather,” I said drolly.
