The following is an original work of fiction. All characters belong to the author and any likenesses to real people or places is purely coincidental. Please do not copy or repost any part or portion of this work to any other website.
Eris Jade
*****
He comes home late, blood-drunk and smelling like stale smoke and the air at midnight. The top three buttons of his shirt are undone and his blue eyes are heavy-lidded and cloudy.
He shuffles to the bed in silence. Flops down on his back with his arms spread wide and his booted heels splayed out over the carpeted floor. He looks tired and full, and she smiles to herself. Doesn't think she'll ever grow weary of the sight of him like this.
Centuries have passed since she turned him, an eternity of nights since the blood took hold, mending what was broken and making it like new, but she still remembers that boy, barely a man, really, an infant compared to the years she'd already lived.
He had been angry. Angry and sullen, and he'd caught her eye; she'd seen something in him, a fiercely burning flame she'd wanted so badly to hold within the palm of her hand.
He'd agreed so willingly back then, eager and hungry for the blood before she'd even allowed him the first taste.
And here they are now, very much removed from that long ago time, immortal and unchanged.
He doesn't move when she crawls up onto the big bed next to him, hiking up her nightgown so as not to become entangled in the fabric. She bends over him, braces her hands on either side of him and stares down into his handsome face.
He blinks bleary eyes up at her. His full lips are flushed a deep, deep rose. There's a dead leaf caught in the loose, wind-tousled waves of his blonde hair, which is fanned out artfully over the bedspread.
"Look at you," she says softly, lovingly, for there's more than just love for him inside of her. There's an unapologetic admiration, an unencumbered adoration living there.
He licks his lips. Blinks in an attempt to clear away the haze.
"You are a mess," she goes on just as softly. Plucks the leaf from his hair and absently tosses it aside. She can smell the blood in him, can hear it sloshing sloppily through his heart as it forces the dead organ to beat, if only for this short window of time. "Do you intend to share, my love?"
His smile is slow and lazy, the corners of his lips turning up in a teasing half-grin.
"There is a price," he replies, voice low and slightly slurred. Blood in it, as well.
She lowers herself to one elbow. Nuzzles his cheek with the tip of her nose. His skin is warm, scorching compared to the iciness of her own.
"A price, you say?"
He shifts to cup a large, rough hand over the back of her neck. Holds her there a moment while he presses his face against her throat. Rumbles out in his slurred, blood-soaked tone, "My fee is... one kiss."