Chapter Six – Sheridan
Maribel's scent surrounded him, filling him with the desire to sink his fangs into her neck and sip from the blood pumping just below the surface. He kept his eyes on hers as he rolled off her, muscles turning to jelly as his completion ended.
Her skin gleamed with sweat. Those beautiful, round breasts heaved as she panted. The sweet tang of blood was even more pronounced now that their bodies were separated. The earthy smell of her pregnancy helped to mask it.
As much as he desired to taste her, Sheridan held back.
He grinned triumphantly. There had been moments when he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to control himself–when Maribel had allowed him to sink deep inside her and that unexpected burst of sweet, sweet blood had nearly driven him over the edge–but he had managed to keep himself in check. His years of holding back had not put him past self-control, but rather honed it.
And being with Maribel was far better than he had expected. Better than his experiences as human. He stroked her hair from her sweaty face and kissed her gently. Was her insistence on being with him love? Was it love that enabled him to keep control over his sharpening fangs?
"You should have told me you were a virgin," he said gently.
Maribel's eyes widened. "You could tell?"
"You're bleeding."
"I'm going to stain the blankets."
Sheridan put an arm around her waist and pulled her back as she made to get up. "It's not that much. I can't even smell the fresh blood anymore. Are you okay? Did it hurt?"
She shook her head and smiled. "I would never have known I was bleeding if you hadn't said anything… Does it make you feel uncomfortable?"
Sheridan closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. The smell of blood had his stomach gurgling, but he had been in plenty of situations where he had smelled fresh blood and been hungrier than he was at the moment. If he could hold back in those times, he could hold back now. He shook his head.
"I think I was overly cautious before," he said. "I was just… I've never been with a human woman since I became a vampire."
"Really?"
"Yes. I guess I just never felt an attraction. Does that surprise you?"
Maribel shrugged. "How did you become a vampire?"
Sheridan sighed, pulling her closer. The room was cool. He could feel Maribel shivering. He quickly wrapped her up in a blanket. "It was almost three hundred years ago. I was married."
Maribel's eyes widened.
"It was an arranged marriage. I was the son of a not-so-wealthy baron in Eastern Europe. She was from a very wealthy family with no title. Our parents thought it was the perfect match. What we thought didn't matter. But she was beautiful and that was all I cared about. I always sneered at the thought of love… I never loved her. She, however, fell in love with a servant and they ran away together."
"I'm sorry. That must have been hard."
Sheridan smiled slightly and shook his head. "My pride was wounded. That was it. But I was arrogant and selfish, and I went after them, determined to put her lover's head on a pike and bring her back to my estate. There were rumors of vampires in the area, but I didn't believe them. I thought myself better educated than to believe in vampires. I was an idiot.
"I never found them, my wife and her lover," he continued. "But the vampires found me. They turned me and sent me home. After a few years of wallowing in self-pity, locked away in my father's dungeon, being fed criminals to survive, I had an epiphany. I was changed for a reason. I could usher in a new era of peace between vampires and humans. So I broke free of my prison and gathered the local vampires under my rule. Using the money my wife had brought to me, we set off for the new world."
Maribel ran her fingers through his hair. "And you became a king here."
"Yes. I made treaties with the humans and built these walls. We survived on the blood of animals until we began buying blood from clinics. And we have had peace. The tensions between vampire and human rise and fall, but it’s usually not bad."
"But it does get bad, doesn't it?"
"Sometimes. Like right now. Anti-vampire sentiments have started growing again. Which is ironic, because there have been less vampire-human conflicts in recent years than ever before. But we have experience in how to improve relations now. It's just vampires like Romanoff that make it difficult."
They fell into companionable silence, bodies cuddled together, Sheridan's hand stroking her hair gently. His eyes drooped drowsily. It had been a full night, between learning of Maribel's pregnancy, dealing with her ex-boyfriend trying to break into the vampire city and then Romanoff attempt at killing her.
Topped off with making love for the first time to his human wife, and it was about enough excitement for one day.
"Phil and I were never engaged," Maribel said abruptly. "We had been talking about getting married, but we weren't engaged."
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, love."
"I want to tell you."
Sheridan kissed her forehead and nodded.
"We met at a concert. I was getting a little overenthusiastic about the music and he thought that was cute. We started talking. He made it very easy to talk to him, and drew me in. After the concert, he took me for ice-cream, and by morning I had convinced myself that I had fallen in love. I was stupid."
Sheridan pulled her closer. "We all make mistakes."
"I guess."
He waited for her to continue, trying to be silently supportive. His blood boiled at the thought of Maribel being used by that man, but he wasn't going to interrupt with his anger. He wanted her to tell him her story.
"We started dating, and I was so thrilled when he said that he wanted to save himself for marriage. It was something I had always known I wanted to do. And to find a man who felt the same… Now I realize he was either playing me or found the idea of sleeping with me horrendous—"
"Or maybe despite his lack of morals, he didn't want to hurt you any more than he already was going to?" Sheridan hated the self-doubt in her voice. How anybody could not be turned on by the idea of sleeping with her was beyond his imagination, and he told her that. "Maybe he did care about you, in some small way. I can't see a reason why he wouldn't be tripping over himself to bed you otherwise."
Maribel stared at him, eyes wide. "You really mean that, don't you?"
"Of course. I don't say things I don’t mean. I can't understand how you don't see yourself as the sexy, sexy woman you are."
"But I'm fat."
Sheridan sighed. "That doesn't mean you aren't beautiful and sexy. I don't understand it. I really don't. Thin doesn't mean pretty and fat doesn't mean ugly. It's just thin and fat. Beauty is far more than size. So your stomach isn't flat. What difference does it make? You're still sexy."
Maribel stared at him. Tears welled in his eyes and Sheridan flinched. What had he said wrong? He should have told her she wasn't fat, that she was just the right size. He opened his mouth to tell her that instead, but she rolled over him, gripping his hips with her knees, and kissed him hard. Sheridan's eyes widened but he wasn't going to complain.
I guess I said something right, he thought as his human began their passion anew.
***
A few days later, a human representative of the human-vampire relations bureau came to the palace. She was a strict-faced woman with horn-rimmed glasses and a severe business suit. Sheridan bowed politely when Billie led her into his office, and she returned the gesture with a cold look. Billie introduced her as Kathleen Armstrong.
"King Sheridan," she said, holding out a piece of paper. "We have received an anonymous complaint from one of the humans living in your palace, claiming that you are holding humans against their will and forcing them to give up their blood."
Sheridan ground his teeth. It seemed like one of these complaints happened every few years. Always a load of crap, of course, but it was annoying to have to deal with. He opened the paper Armstrong had handed him. His scowl deepened as he read the court order on it.
"You are planning on taking all humans from the palace back into the human city?"
"Until we can determine the truthfulness of the claim, we must take all precautions to make sure our women are safe."
"And then men?"
Armstrong's cheeks reddened. "Of course. But you have a higher percentage of women than men."
Sheridan handed the paper to Billie. "Have this checked for legality."
Armstrong glared at him. "Are you suggesting—"
"I am suggesting nothing, but part of the contract signed by the humans that came here is that we are legally responsible for their protection. There are many anti-vampire groups out there. I won't just hand over our donors without making sure everything is in legal order. Although, there was a human who attempted to break into the palace a few days ago… we have been holding him for questioning—"
Armstrong's eyes widened. "Against his legal rights!"
"We informed the bureau." Sheridan remained calm. "And we have documented all interactions with him. He is under constant video surveillance. I would be happy to hand him and all documentation over to you."
It was fairly obvious after talking with Phil only a few times that all he wanted was money. Clearly, he hoped to use Maribel to line his pockets some more. Getting rid of him would be like relieving a headache that Sheridan no longer wanted to deal with.
"Oh, I will be taking both, I assure you. Along with every other human on these grounds." Armstrong put her hands on her hips. "Including Maribel Arnaz."
Sheridan jerked like he had been punched. "She's my—"
"She is human and will be seized with the rest of the humans in your… care."
"Seized as if they were drugs, you mean?" Sheridan's hands clenched. "What steps are you taking to protect their identities?"
Armstrong didn't reply, just glared at him. Sheridan glared back. He would fight this with every legal avenue he had. Waltzing in and taking away all the humans was bad enough, but Maribel? She wasn't just another human. She was his wife. She carried his child. He wasn't going to just let this go. Even when Billie came back with his lawyers, who reluctantly told him he had to let Armstrong take the humans back outside the walls, he was determined.
He might have to let Maribel go for a little while, but he wasn't going to let the anti-vampire scare keep them separated. No. He was getting her back, and soon. There was no question about that.