Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 116220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
A flicker of excitement. A flicker of fear.
Wait. Was that it? Did he grasp a connection for a second, only to lose it right away? Those flickers are enough to have Kyle reach out even more urgently, reaching without his hands, trembling with his efforts to recapture that connection.
“I think I know what it is,” says Elias.
Another flicker. A throbbing, crushing need. The feeling of gasping for air. Of craving a bite while starving. Of desperately needing release from insurmountable tension.
Then Elias says: “I’ll save you the trouble.”
He reaches across the table, takes hold of the back of Kyle’s head, and brings his face in for a kiss.
Their lips touch.
The flicker Kyle experiences now is one of his own: shock.
Elias’s eyes close as he melts into the sudden kiss, pressing his mouth firmer against Kyle’s, charged with desire.
Kyle feels weightless, floating in the vacuous space between thoughts, his only attachment to reality being Elias’s lips.
And his own.
This isn’t the kind of connection he expected.
Elias ends the kiss and pulls back. “Was that too much?” he asks, reading Kyle’s stunned expression. “Did I misunderstand? You look like I sucked your soul outta your mouth.”
Kyle sits back in his chair, lips parted, speechless.
“I warned you I can get intense sometimes. Sorry. Thought I was receiving all the signals. Felt right. You’re emotional. I’m restless. We’re both feeling things. I went for it.”
Kyle brings a couple of fingers to his lips, as if to check that they’re still there.
They tingle with electricity.
Something Kyle hasn’t felt in a very long time.
“Guess I misjudged.” Elias frowns at his taco, which grows cold on his plate. “Maybe you don’t even like Mexican food. I just thought, hey, who doesn’t like tacos? Everyone likes tacos. But you’re not like everyone, are you?”
“No,” Kyle finally says, half-whispered. “I’m not.”
Elias eyes him. “So you don’t like Mexican food?”
“I don’t like or dislike any food. It’s all the same. I tolerate it because I have to … because I forever swore off tasting the … other thing.”
“You mean blood?”
Kyle snaps his eyes to Elias at once, shocked.
Elias doesn’t only get to the point.
He plunges straight to the heart.
“It doesn’t scare me,” says Elias, taking Kyle’s silence for an answer. He comes around the table. “Is that what you want? Is that what you’ve wanted since you first saw me?”
“Elias …”
He stops in front of Kyle’s chair, staring down at him. “Is it what you won’t dare say out loud? Your real secret?” His voice lowers to a near whisper. “You want my blood?”
“Elias …”
“You keep saying my name.”
“I don’t … I … I can’t …”
“Didn’t I say you don’t have to hide anything around me?” Elias stands over Kyle like a mountain, sturdy, strong, devoted. “Let me be your rock, Kyle. Let me be what you need.”
The next second, Elias swipes the knife out of the meat, brushes it off on his hip, and drags it straight across his thumb in one deft movement.
12.
The Lion.
—∙—
Beads of blood scatter like rubies.
Kyle gasps out. “Elias!”
Elias takes hold of Kyle’s chin right at the front with that same hand, fearless, then brushes his sliced thumb across Kyle’s lips, as if to paint them in his blood. His gaze never detaches from Kyle’s, watching him every moment, his eyes filled with unwavering courage, heart racing with excitement.
Then Elias pushes his thumb inside.
The taste of blood washes over Kyle’s tongue.
Eyes fill with fire. Body thrums with energy. Heart, for the first time in a thousand sunsets, ignites with purpose.
It’s like a spell that takes over at once.
It claims ownership over everything. Claims every cell and fiber in his body, an invasion.
Kyle’s tongue, coated in the elixir of Elias’s blood.
Intoxicated by the taste, the savory, enslaving taste, nearly sweet, that satisfies on a superior level no other sustenance can hope to touch.
How is the blood sweet? Isn’t blood metallic? Salty? Gross? Has Kyle’s taste buds transformed somehow over the years, too, unbeknownst to him?
Elias pushes his thumb in even deeper, generously obliging Kyle’s thirst, his grip tightening, insisting, giving.
Kyle reaches up to take hold of Elias’s hand, sucking even harder, clinging as if to a long-lost lover. His heart, thrashing within his chest, rumbling, pounding, a chaotic drum.
Elias’s finger, a life-replenishing oasis at long last.
Kyle fights an overpowering desire to bite, to chew like an animal, to draw even more blood. He begrudgingly practices restraint, rocking his eyes back with frustration, overcome.
No amount will be enough, he knows for certain now.
No amount at all.
That’s why he pulls Elias’s thumb out of his mouth, takes hold of him by the shirt, and pulls him down to his knees with strength that catches Elias by surprise.
Then Kyle takes hold of Elias’s face and brings it to his for a deep, desperate kiss.
The blood has thrown him into a frenzy of desire.