What I Said

Content Warning: This story contains foul language, mentions of blood, and references to sexual activity.

My stomach started to growl, but I wanted to stay in Cal’s arms and continue to trace his tattoos with my nails. I started with a line that began at his elbow and made its way down to his wrist. If you told me a month ago that one day I would be in the arms of my enemy after experiencing mind-blowing sex, I’d laugh, then threaten to bite you for good measure.

“What do you want to eat?” Cal asked, moving my curls and kissing my forehead. “Don’t think that I didn’t notice your stomach making noise just now. What do you like eating after what we did?”

I answered before thinking, “Before my change, I would’ve gone for a yogurt parfait and some Gatorade or something. Now? Anything with blood. I’ll even take a “Bloody Bloody Mary” that uses A-negative or even donated shifter blood. What about you? What do you like to eat afterwards?”

There was a pause before he responded, “Water and a container of ice cream. Nothing fancy.”

He patted my hip, letting me know that he was going to sit up. I decided to get up to use the bathroom and clean myself up.

“Gahdamn, baby,” I turned to see Cal grinning and showing off his pointed canines as I walked away.

“Hold on,” he said when I came back and sat on the edge of the bed. “Why shifter blood?”

“Donated shifter blood,” I corrected him. “I don’t want you to think that I’m going to take advantage of you and suck you dry. Not all vampires are like that.”

“Alright, but that doesn’t quite answer my question.”

“It’s just a preference; it’s just something that I’ve developed a taste for. It’s been like that even with other partners in the past.”

I was starting to regret mentioning the type of blood that I liked with post-sex meals, but for many vampires, the type mattered. Not all blood tasted the same. If I were being completely honest, I wanted him to offer him some of his blood to me. Whenever I was close to him, I was able to distinguish the different scents from his blood, his personal scent, the scents he liked to wear, and that unmistakable shifter stink. I wasn’t ready to reveal that much to him yet. I put some of my clothes back on and wandered into my kitchen to make a snack. I only had a little bit of ice cream left, so I took it and a spoon out for Cal, who came out from my bedroom half-dressed and with furrowed brows. His tattooed arms were crossed as his large frame filled the doorway. The last bit of sunlight kissed his rich copper brown skin.

“Why do you need to mention shifter blood to me? Why not leave the shifters out of it?”

Shit, here we go.

“You can have the rest of this ice cream, it’s not much, but hopefully you’ll like it.”

I hoped that he didn’t mind not having any toppings. The only topping I preferred was what we were arguing about.

“Ivy, you’re avoiding my questions. Again.”

“You’re making a big deal out of this. I’m not going to hurt you unless you give me a reason... or permission.”

“How do I really know that? The men you hunt don’t have a choice.”

Cold washed over me. How did he know about those? No one is supposed to know, not even Kiri, and I tell her damn near everything. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know what he wanted to hear. And if I didn’t know any better, I could’ve sworn that I heard a tinge of fear in his voice.

“You didn’t think that I knew about that, did you?”

For what felt like a few minutes, neither of us said anything. Half of the time, I was trying to find the right words. The other half was spent trying to figure out what tone of voice to use so as not to sound as if I was guilty of something.

“Those hunts are set up and sanctioned by the Council. The people that I hunt are all criminals who were set to die anyway, the ones who committed horrible crimes against innocent people. Don’t tell me that you feel sorry for them…”

Now it was his turn to be speechless, and the fact that he didn’t know what to say was evidence that the information that he found on me didn’t tell the whole story. I couldn’t speak for all vampires, but when my former lover created me, I had no intentions of purposely hurting innocent people to feed, and I promised myself that I wouldn’t do that.

“Alright. Come here,” Cal came up to me and pulled me closer to him.

My heart and body so badly wanted to melt into his, but my brain said that we weren’t finished.

“Nuh-uh, you accused me of being heartless.”

“I didn’t say heartless.”

“Yeah, but you implied it… as if I would feed from you without consent. Wait a minute. Is that why you got all weird on me when I brought up trying blood play again?”

“Do we really need to go into that right now?”

“You know what, yeah. We’re getting into it right now.”

“Aw, hell.”

Against my body’s desire, I wriggled out of his grasp and looked up at him. Cal rubbed his face and grabbed the spoon and ice cream, which was beginning to turn to soup.

“That time we were scheduled to do that scene again, you canceled and said something about not giving me a double fix or some shit like that. I didn’t know what you were talking about, but I do now. Cal, I don’t derive the same pleasure from hunting that I get when I’m with you, especially during scenes like that.”

“How am I supposed to know that, Ivy? How am I supposed to be sure of that?”

“Because I just told you! Trust me. Not some other outside source,” I shouted.

“Yeah, well, you’re a vampire, and we can’t always trust them.”

I was getting frustrated to the point where I wanted to take the cookie sheet off the counter and smack him upside his head with it. Not enough to hurt, just enough to perhaps knock some sense into him. I wondered, wasn’t he tired of this debate, because I was? While I was stewing and trying to keep my words in check, the way the muscles in his arms flexed made me want to go for another round right there on the kitchen counter. I could tell that he was thinking something similar with his gaze and the fact that I could smell arousal in him. Still, I couldn’t let him win this argument.

“And I’m supposed to trust a person who changes into a massively overgrown dog and can tear damn near anyone to pieces on a whim.”

“We don’t do that to just anyone, and you know it.”

“Yeah, but you could. See? Don’t like how that feels? Good. Now we’re even,” I said as I turned back to the sink.

“Come here.”

I shot him a look, huffed, and continued with the dishes.

“Ivy. Come here,” he said, his voice low and firm.

“What now?” I stopped and turned to him. His nostrils flared.

Cal was so close to me that I had to tilt my head to look at his face. I was taller than the average woman, but next to him, I felt small and soft. He lifted me off my feet and kissed me with so much passion, I almost forgot what we were arguing about and how it got started. I wrapped my legs around his waist, and we went back to the bedroom.