From Slate to Crimson Read Online Free PDF

placing it into my mouth.
    Immediately, Amelia stopped eating. The sliver of uneaten meat dropped from her mouth as she stared, wide-eyed at me. I picked out a goblet from the hutch beside my chest of drawers and poured a small amount from the bottle of Merlot beside her.
    “What’s wrong?” I said, bringing the goblet to my lips. Her mouth was full, but it did not stop her from attempting to speak. All she could make were noises and emphatic gestures that I could not understand.
    “Please swallow your food,” I said.
    She turned away, embarrassed, but finished chewing what she had in her mouth. She swallowed loudly. “You… eat too?” she finally said.
    I laughed in spite of myself. I had been so used to eating human food around our hosts or others of my kind when the mood compelled me that I had failed to remember that Amelia was neither of these. “Of course I can eat,” I said, putting the goblet down.
    “But you drink blood…” Amelia said, her voice trailing off.
    “Yes,” I said. “That I do. But it doesn’t mean that I can’t eat. The only difference is that I don’t need to eat. Human food gives us a moment’s pleasure but nothing else. It no longer nourishes us. All I need is blood, and its pleasure far surpasses even eating human food. You’ve felt it. But I eat to be social.”
    “But why eat at all, if drinking blood feels so good?” Amelia asked. “I mean, if it made me feel like that, and if I felt what you felt…then it seems that eating human food is a waste of time.”
    I sighed, realizing that I would have to explain it all once again, as I had done for so many countless others. “Eating human food can be an advantage, if I must play human in front of those who don’t know about what I am, but you’re right. The pleasure of the drink—” I cast a sideways glance at Amelia, grinning from the side of my mouth. “Well, you already know that.”
    She touched her neck where I had bitten her and sealed the wound. Her skin flushed red, and I sensed her desire reawakened with all its force.
    “Yes,” I said, making my way to the other side of the bed. I sat at its edge, leaning towards her. “You feel it, don’t you?”
    As if under a spell, Amelia’s eyes went half-lidded. She had still not shaken the spell of the drink. My insides fluttered with amusement at how insatiable she was. “Please, Talante…?” she asked once again, her gray eyes now pleading, but knowingly in vain. She had practically begged me once she had woken up from that second smaller, but more devastating, drink. She would have pulled me to her, if she had the strength.
    “I can’t,” I said, as adamant as I dared. God, I wanted it! I felt the desire for her blood awaken anew, but this time I beat the beast back. Indulging again so soon would most certainly be deadly. “You know I can’t. I told you that I’ve already taken too much.”
    Amelia exhaled, her gaze downcast. “I know,” she said with evident disappointment. She paused in her eating and bit her lip, closing her eyes at the memory. “It’s just that it feels so good. Even my ex-boyfriend was never able to…”
    She stopped and blushed. Beneath her glasses, it was a sight that nearly caused my heart to explode from my chest. “I mean, you bite me…with fangs…and then take my blood. That shouldn’t feel good…and sure as hell not that good.” Her hand went to her throat, more specifically, to the carotid artery from which I had fed. “How did it even heal so fast? It’s not sore or anything. It’s like you didn’t even do anything to me!”
    “It’s my saliva,” I explained, and then corrected myself. “O ur saliva. It has something you would describe as toxins, but beneficial. They quicken healing and seal any wound.”
    “Will I feel so weak every time you feed from me?”
    “No. Only the first time,” I answered. “It’s always a shock to the system at first, but the weakness will pass. It’s also the cause of