the stairs. They found six more bodies in the upstairs area: one alive, which they brought to Colton, but none were Shane or Tess’ sister. A quick sweep of the kitchen and living room downstairs garnered one more barely breathing body for Colton but nothing to bring an end to this war. Tess sat on the floor staring at Colton as he drained the last body. She watched, fascinated, as the bones in his arm began moving back into place- seemingly on their own. Tess could see the pain rippling through his body as they did. This was not some easy thing that he was going through – this was hell on earth for him and she really wanted to do something to comfort him. “Is, is it safe to come over there or will it hurt you if I do?”
Colton looked up at her with longing in his eyes but behind the longing Tess could see the truth – it would be really hard for him to have the scent of her blood right near him and not be able to feed on it. Despite this truth, Colton gestured at her to sit next to him. Tess shook her head, “No. I’m not going to hurt you anymore than I already have, Colton. I’ll stay over here. Unless….” she trailed off.
“Unless what?” he rasped, his voice little more than a whisper.
“Unless you want to feed on my blood now?”
Colton shook his head as he answered, “Would love to but still not safe.”
“I understand,” she mumbled as she stared off into nothing.
Colton could sense that there was something bothering her, a sadness or something that he couldn’t quite place. “I’m going to be okay, Tess.”
She looked at him and smiled, “I’m really glad, Colton,” she whispered then she turned her head to the side, resting it on her knees.
“What’s wrong, Tess?”
“Nothing, it’s nothing,” she said, but he saw her discreetly wipe a tear from her cheek.
“You’re lying. Tell me what’s bothering you, Tess.”
“It’s stupid.”
“Nothing you feel is stupid, Tess. Tell me.”
“No”
“Tess”
Silence followed for a few seconds during which Colton had to smile – he really adored her stubbornness.
“Tess,” he said one more time.
“Fine. I’m jealous, okay?”
“Jealous? What on earth for?”
“I want you to only feed on me, on my blood. God, I’m so embarrassed that I’m feeling this way, but I am.”
“Tess, come here.”
“No,” she said as she shook her head.
“Tess, get your ass over here.”
“No.”
“Do not make me compel you, young lady.”
“You can do that?” she whispered as she stared at him wide-eyed.
“If I have to, although with your mile-wide stubborn streak it might not work.”
“Liar,” Tess whispered, smiling, as she started to crawl over to him. She knew that his strength as a vampire was probably limitless. She stopped when she was halfway to him, “You’ll tell me if this hurts too much. Promise me, Colton.”
“Tess, come here.”
“Promise me, Colton.”
“Fine, I promise. Now come here, please?”
Tess crawled the rest of the way but stopped directly in front of him. Colton patted the ground next to him, “Sit here, next to me, hun.”
Tess shook her head, “It’ll hurt. I’ll bump something and it’ll hurt.”
Colton reached out, grabbed her arm and pulled her, gently, into his arms. “See? No pain. Now, I would love to be able to feed on nothing more than your sweet, honeysuckle blood. But there will be times, either due to injury or too long between feedings that I will have to feed on others. I won’t enjoy it and I promise that there won’t be a sexual thought in my head when I’m doing it, but it will happen on occasion.”
Tess harrumphed, “Times? You make it sound like we have a future.”
“I sure in the hell hope we do, if you’ll have me,” Colton whispered as he pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.
“You, you still want me after all that I’ve done?” Tess said.
“What do you think?” Colton said as he tilted her chin up and began kissing her. As his tongue slid between her lips, his hand grabbed hers and guided it down to his hardening shaft. The sound of a throat clearing had him stopping the kiss but his hands covered hers in an attempt to cover his excitement – which was difficult given how big he was. “Yes, Hansen?”
Hansen tossed a pair of sweatpants to Colton, “For you, sir. And I’ve found two more donors hiding in the cellar,” he said as he stepped outside the door and hauled in two