Working with my best friend on the same production has been a blessing. I have always wanted to work on a big production like Kiss of Hate The Series with Zenipher, however, his work ethic and mine are drastically different. Yes, I do take my job seriously, but you won’t catch me reading lines till 4 a.m. All night long, Zenny and I went over the scenes we’ll be shooting in the upcoming weeks and now I can’t feel my mouth. As a matter of fact, if I have to say one more line, I think my lips will fall off.
I throw myself into a bed after a quick shower, holding Luke’s name tag in my palm, drowsy and exhausted. This cannot be normal. The way my heart races when I remember the sound of his voice. I want to sit next to him again, look into his busy eyes, touch him. Maybe Zen is right, it might just be physical attraction. He is so easy to look at. Maybe once I sleep with him I’ll be over him. I roll over to my side.
Could this just be about the sex? I mean… I have heard many things about being intimate with an incubus. The magnetic pull between our energies, the high from their sweet flavored blood, and then there is the mind-warping. It isn’t genetically possible anymore, but now I can’t help but think about what it’d feel like to have my mind consumed by someone that beautiful.
Morning creeps in through the window and I turn to face the skyline, stretching. Since I left Zenipher two hours ago, I haven’t gotten any shut-eye. Is it even possible to be too tired to sleep? At least the winter fog has started to clear up, and Luke won’t have to ride around the city in such terrible conditions. I wonder if he’s taken my jacket off by now. My heart swooned at the sight of him wearing something that belonged to me. It swallowed him, making him look like an angry bunny. Cute.
A familiar scent hits my nose. Sweet and sultry. Pheromones. Shit! I jump out of bed and dash into the hallway, sprinting to Zenipher’s room. Once I throw the door open, my gaze falls to where he’s curled up on the floor with his blanket, shivering. The strong stench of his pheromones almost makes me choke.
“Heavens.” Covering my nose with my elbow, I hurry to him. “Zenny?” I turn him over, shaking him to wake. His skin is a soft red hue from the heat burning through him “Zenny!”
His drowsy eyes blink open. “Pete...”
“I don’t think you’re heat cycle starts in three days.”
He glances over himself and sighs, his brows furrowing. Zenipher loathes his circle. It reminds him of what he is, the part of himself he’s trying to run away from. I can never truly understand why these things matter to his race so much, no one else cares. I carry him back to bed and quickly undo the buttons of his shirt, sliding it down his shoulders to allow me lick along the lines of his collarbone. A small ritual vampires use to prepare a body for feeding, the saliva makes the first bite less painful. His flesh is tender, much like a male omega in heat–not that I have ever fed from another male omega, they are rare. But I have read up enough about them to know.
“Are you ready?” I ask.
He nods, not looking at me. He never does when I feed from him, too much I guess. Once I set the timer for sixty seconds on my phone and lay it down, his hands wrap around my back, pulling me close enough to let me know it’s okay.
I take a deep breath and sink my teeth into his flesh, shuddering when the blood spurts into my mouth. The taste of him sparks a sizzling sensation across my body. His blood is warmer than the average temperature of a living creature. Zenipher shivers under me, wincing from the pain as he squeezes my shirt. I dig deeper, drawing more blood, and swallowing, fighting as hard as I can to stay aware, to not let myself get carried away. The weight fills my stomach and I feel my groin twitch, in seconds I’m hard.
Feeding from a life source is overwhelming and intoxicating. It leaves me in a vulnerable state, all I can think about is my food, consuming it, digesting it, protecting it. It’s the reason why vampires don’t feed in public. A feeding space must be emotionally and physically safe and Zenny is the safest place I know. His fingers gently dig into my hair, patting me softly as I squeeze him, rubbing my painfully hard dick against his thigh. We’ve grown accustomed to not acting on the arousal, it’s something that can’t be helped.
Sowly, I’m slipping into my predatory instincts, the drowsiness, and possessiveness taking over, and I fight to hang on. Any further and I won’t be able to pull out on time, he’d overdose. Zenipher whimpers quietly, his breath steady and soft. His entire body relaxes under me as I squeeze it for more. I’m starting to not think about him as a person, with every second I’m beginning to see him only as food. A charming warm meal that belongs only to me.
The alarm buzzes and I retract my fangs, the blood spewing over his shoulder before I can swallow. Out of breath, I gasp for air, squeezing the sheets, fighting to pull myself back into reality because everything in me wants to keep feeding. Sixty seconds is hardly enough for vampires to eat what's needed, but it’s enough to kill an omega.
“Hei,” Zenipher croons, cupping my cheek. “It’s okay, I’m here, breathe.”
I swallow a few more times, shaking my head to push away the fuzziness and desperation to reattach. It takes a few more minutes of Zenipher talking to me softly for it to clear, and now, I’m starting to see him again. His eyes sunken, pupils dilated. He’s incredibly high from my venom but fought to stay awake to take me back from the edge.
“Are you okay?” I mutter.
He manages a weak smile and nods. “Are you?”
Nodding, I begin licking the wound, encouraging it to heal. The venom in his veins won’t let him feel the pain until it’s healed by tonight. When my gaze finds his face again, he’s fallen asleep. He’ll want to nest when he wakes, with lots of sweets to restore his blood sugar. Vine lowers his blood sugar levels. Once I’m on my feet, I turn on the air cleaner to deal with his pheromones and make my way to the kitchen.
The door to my apartment beeps and swings open. I don’t bother going to check who it is because there is only one other person with the passcode and he is about to scream my brains out.
“Are you fucking kidding!” Will, my manager scolds as he storms into the kitchen, holding up three different newspapers.
“Good morning to you, too,” I say, retrieving candies and chocolates from the fridge.
“Kiss of Hate Star Caught In A Hate Feast!” he reads out loud.
“A hate feast?” I chuckle.
“Man Whore Actor Beaten in Sex Club,” he reads from another newspaper.
“No way that's an actual headline.”
“Super Star Pete Escapes Sex Club With Mystery Boyfriend.”
“That one is false.” I point at the newspaper.
“Actor Caught Cheating!” He glares at me.
“Well—”
“I have been on the phone all morning trying to save your ass with the agency. Do you know how sick I am of dealing with your mess!” There is a frown line in the center of his forehead, which if you ask me, makes him look funny.
“It’s kind of your job.”
“Where is this mystery boyfriend? Is he here? Is that who the chocolates are for?”
“The chocolates are for Zenny, his circle came early, and stop screaming, I just fed from him.”
He slams the newspaper on the kitchen counter and pulls his hair like he is about to have a stroke. “What's wrong with you?” he mutters quietly, but before I can explain, he screams, “You’re going to get him pregnant!”
“I told you, it’s not like that.” I reach for the biscuits.
“We are vampires, Pete! We fuck what they eat, Luke, it’s in our DNA.”
“I don’t.”
“Eventually, it’s going to happen and he’ll get pregnant, and thats it. Your career will be over, his career will be over, and for fuck sake so will mine! I have dedicated my whole life to bringing your career up to this point! And every single time we’re making substantial progress, you find a way to fuck it up! Of all the things you could have chosen to eat from, you choose an Omega? A fucking omega?”
“Keep your voice down,” I seethe.
“This is why I didn’t want him to be your co-star. You do realize if he gets pregnant, your child will most likely be a male omega. You will become a social pariah, and everything we have worked so hard for—”
“Keep your voice down for heaven's sake!”
“Kiss of Hate is a 1.2 billion kinari production, Pete. If this flops, no production company will touch you with a ten-inch pole. He’s an omega for heaven's sake!”
“William if you don’t stop—”
“Morning,” Zenipher's voice pours in, and I let out an exasperated sigh.
“Zenny, he didn’t mean that.”
“Yes, he did.” He smiles, walking over to the counter.
“Zenipher, I don’t mean to be demeaning, but—” Will begins.
“I’m not mad, you’re not wrong. We want the same things, Will. It’s the reason I can’t come out to my own parents. I know what the stakes are and I can assure you, Pete and I never get physical, and I’m also on birth control… just… in case. In more ways than you can ever know, I’m truly sorry for this inconvenience. How can I make it right?”
My heart twists as the words pour out of Zenny. Damn Will for making him apologize for a part of himself he can’t control. I reach over and squeeze his hand.
Will clears his throat, adjusting in his stand. “No more male bodyguards,” William says.
“Eh?” I reply.
“You burn through men like a wildfire and it creates too many problems for us. From now onwards, only female bodyguards.”
Through a fake laugh, I say, “What?”
“Great!” Zenny cheers at the same time with a clap.
“You can’t be serious,” I say.
“Dead serious,” Will insists.
“And I support, Pete. It gets awkward at work when they start fighting over you,” Zenny says.
“I’m not having a woman follow me everywhere I go.”
“How is a female bodyguard any different from a male one?” Zenipher presses on.
“What if I need to go to the bathroom, or do something private? I walk around my apartment naked all the time and I can’t do that if there is a woman loitering about. My answer is no!”
Will passes Zenipher a look to further back him up before saying. “Yes, Pete.”
“It’s invasive!”
“Then you should have kept it in your pants!” William barks, pulling out his phone. “Calling the security agency.”
“They are professionals, Pete. No one will care about you sitting butt naked on the couches,” Zenny says.
“I can’t believe you’re supporting this.” I turn to the fridge for sticky ice cream and peanuts.
“Take it like a champ, we all have to work together anyway and I want to be on his good side. Kiss of Hate is our biggest project, we can’t mess this up. Also, there is a chance that—” A wince cuts through his words and when I turn around, Zenipher is bent over the counter holding his tummy.
“Contractions?” I ask.
“Mmh…” Zenipher mumbles.
“Come on, I’ll get your nest ready.”
Vine might be able to subdue an omega’s heat cycle, but it does nothing for the cramps and contractions that come with it. The first time I witnessed his cramps was after he came out to me as an omega. We were attending a promotional event for a brand of which we’re both ambassadors for, when suddenly Zenipher went missing. I found him curled up in the storage room, trying to inject himself with the vine he bought off the black market.
He was terrified about being outed and I was terrified about the venom killing him.
Black market vine is heavily altered and has been known to cause severe health problems and even trigger a heart attack. Days after, Zenipher was still sick on my couch and I began to worry. Zenipher never did the research about omega care because he never wanted to deal with that part of himself, and when I took up finding the answer, the information was not readily available either, it was a scarce resource, as though werewolves thought pretending male omegas didn’t exist would wipe them off from the planet.
The next day I visited an old library recommended on the internet. A middle-aged librarian, who also happened to be a female omega attended to me, and by the type of questions I asked, she deduced the answers I needed. It is a different world for female omegas. One pill and the cramps and contractions went away, but for male omega’s more was required. She gave me a manual detailing male omega care and in it’s pages, I found nesting.
It was too funny to comprehend at first. I didn’t understand how stuffing him in a closet, under a bed, under heaps of clothes would help him with the cramps and contractions, but only an hour after a single try, he was fine. Ever since it’s become routine for us.
I stuff my closet with lots of pillows and blankets before he crawls in with a warm flask for his tummy. Then I dump a whole bunch of clothes on top of him till all I can see is his head and shoulder. In goes the chocolates and ice cream and nuts. Cashews and almonds are his favorites. It’s usually a mess when later but that’s okay.
Handing him his current read, I say, “You really should not be reading spicy novels when you’re in heat.”
His cheeks puff up with a smile. “I hate the action movies you make me watch.”
“Those are great movies.”
“No they’re not,” he insists.
“Whatever, you have no taste for good cinematography,” I tease and we both share a laugh. “Comfortable?”
His head bobs up and down slowly. “Thank you. And hey, don’t go fighting Will about the bodyguards. I need him to like me, it’ll make working together easier.”
“I don’t want a female bodyguard, Zenny. The fact that he even brought it up is absurd.”
“Yes, yes. Now get over yourself, and honestly, if I have to deal with any more drama from the men you see, I’ll implode.”
I laugh a little. “Are you sure you don’t want me to leave the door open?”
“No. Feels better when you close it. Thank you, Pete.” He stuffs some candy into his mouth as I rise.
“If you need anything, call me.”
“Okay.”
I shut the closet door and start back to my room, he’ll probably sleep all day, and by tomorrow, he’ll be brand new and ready to film.
I fall into bed and take a deep breath. I need sleep, or else I’ll be a zombie tomorrow on set. Leaving my eyes shut, I try to allow myself sink into rest, but as the seconds trickle by, the memory of his face comes flooding back. Luke. A smile spreads slowly across my lips. Whatever this feeling is, I’d love to discover deep it runs. I need to see him again, even if it’s only for a moment.
Comments (0)
See all