Ian's First Taste

   He closed in. I could feel his warm breath on the base of my neck. My nerve endings were at attention trying to drink it all in. Ian’s black bangs fell gently against my skin like feathers. As he lifted his face his hair fell into his eyes. He flicked them out of his face; his now dull grey eyes peered up at me with an intense expression that was a strange combination of pain and excitement. “Are you sure about this, Harley?” Ian asked as his soft, yet somehow still hard, lips touching the base of my neck ever so slightly I could almost think I’d imagined it. 
  I inhaled deeply, arching toward his touch. I want this, I chanted to myself. This will make me his. It only hurt for a moment. He promised. “Yes. I’m sure,” I told him with a firm nod. 
  “Are sure you’re sure, because if I do this there is no going back. Elemental or not, you’ll be mine for the rest of your natural life. I’ll be able to find you no matter how far you run. In the vampire world you’ll be a little more than a meal or property. You will be tied to me for as long as I choose. You have no say in the matter. I will be able to bend you to my will if I choose. Not that I would. But I could,” Ian said his words trying to get me to grasp the gravity of my decision. 
  I looked away from him. I hadn’t thought this through very well I realized. Can I really give Ian that much power over my life? “I’m sure. Make me yours,” I said exposing my neck to him. 
   He looked deep into my eyes for a moment with that same pained yet excited expression. I knew what he was thinking. He’d wanted to drink my blood for so long, said he longed so for its taste, which he somehow knew would be amazing, but I also knew that he was scared. Scared of what the consequences of this action would do. He shut his eyes tightly for a moment, his black eyelashes knitting together and let out a labored breath. “Dios! Lo siento. Te amo.” His whispered “I love you” to me and his apology to God was the last thing I heard before he gently kissed my neck and bit down, hard. And when Ian began to draw out my blood the whole world became electrified.     




  The burst of Harley’s blood into my mouth was an explosion of flavors. It was sweeter than any sugar; it was everything I had imagined …and more. I was full with the first drop, and yet all the more ravenous for that sweet nectar that just kept pouring from her artery. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew at some point I’d have to stop or I’d drain her past the point of no return. But my taste buds were completely ignoring that part of my brain. I’d waited so long for this taste. Why couldn’t I just enjoy it? My left hand was supporting the nape of her neck, my right holding her close to me by the small of her back. I could sense her growing weakness. Soon she’d begin to be light headed and dizzy.
   It was that small sigh, just a breath really, that woke me up from my feeding frenzy. I stopped. Immediately. I pulled back and looked at her face. Harley’s eyes were lightly closed, like she was sleeping. She was smiling, like she was having a pleasant dream. I slowly ran my tongue over the bite mark to seal the wound. Ah. Wound. That was such an uncomfortable word to apply to what I’d just done. I hated that in my head I heard words like Sanguinarian being thrown around. I’d just fed off of the girl I loved and she looked happy about it. I had taken even more of what little mortality she had left.   I ran my hand slowly across her face tucking a small piece of hair that had fallen in her face behind her ear. As I began to remove my hand from the warmth of her skin her eyes opened. I stared into her deep brown eyes searching for the hatred and fear I dreaded would come with the decision she had made to allow me to do this. But all I saw was her. All I saw was my Harley sitting there and staring back at me with the most peaceful smile I’d ever seen.  
“That was…interesting,” she told me looking at me through sleepy eyes.
“The price you pay for our love, mi amore,” I whispered in her ear as I buried my face in her neck and softly kissed her neck yet again, slowly traveling north toward her beautiful lips.  “Te queiro mucho, mi amore. Besa me por favor,” Harley slowly whispered back to me, her voice husky and almost sleepy with desire.  “I would love nothing more than to never stop kissing you, my love. So your wish is my command,” I told her as I slowly, gently brushed my lips against hers, but that was not enough to sate what I felt in that moment. I silently prayed she’d take a deep breath so I could kiss her so thoroughly she would never doubt she was mine. And she was. Mine. And I intended to claim my own.