I watched the small blonde sleep beside me a tiny smile curling on the corner of her lips. She snuggled into me sighing happily.

I had debated waking her up and inviting her into the shower with me but decided that could wait.

For now I was content to just listen to the sound of her breathing and the beat of her heat. I distantly wondered if she was cold curled into me the way she was, cuddling someone with no body heat was probably not the best idea. But then I remembered that she always kept her room cold just so she can burrow under the blanket and throw them off when they got too hot.

I chuckled a bit as she shifted tossing off a blanket as if on cue, her golden hair spilling across the black pillows.

My smile fell as I spotted the bruise on her neck, caused by my biting her as we both climaxed. I cursed lightly at the bluish marks, there was no way you could mistake that for anything but a bite. We would have to cover that with makeup and she would need to keep her hair down until it faded.

I mentally sighed in relief knowing I had not broken her skin...that I didn't drink from her as she withered in bliss beneath me like every fiber of my being had wanted to.

I had told her before I wouldn't drink from her again and there I was about to do the most intimate thing a vampire could do.

We would only take blood from the neck of the person who held our hearts, it was an intimate practice between vampires one that should never be taken lightly.

And while I adored Calla, would spend every second for the rest of eternity with her if it was up to me. I knew for a start it was way to early to be doing any of those things to Calla, that she wasn't a vampire I couldn't just go biting her neck, I had promised her I would never drink from her, that she never even consented to giving me her heart, and if I did sink my fangs into the delicate column of her neck it would basically be a declaration to the entire world that our relationship was more the met the eye...much more.

Even if it didn't leave a scar, there was something about a vampire biting another on the neck that changed everything. Once we did the same genetic chemical that made the people we bit feel good leaks into their system, very very close to the brain and the intimacy of the act tends to increase the flow of it to the brain...it opens up raw emotional feelings never getting a chance to be diluted in the body and rather than becoming a drug essentially it opened up all pathways of emotions.

Your relationship would never be the same after it and there was no way to hide it because from then on that love would be written across their face and flooding through their eyes every time they looked at you. It was why we only ever did that to who we knew we wanted forever, no one could bear seeing that expression one moment...and having it gone the next since what we felt for the person was multiplied it would essentially break you if they broke your heart.

I pulled Calla closer to me remembering her confusion from when I had thanked her.

I knew she didn't understand but her allowing me to touch her, to lie with her was one of the biggest honors I had ever been given. Knowing that she chose to allow it, to allow me to make love to her even though the consequences of ever being caught were horrific was humbling and filled me with a strange sense of content.

But the biggest reason I had thanked her was because even after the lust had cleared from our minds, I still wanted her and I never wanted to let her go, unwittingly the girl had given me the same feeling so many vampires crave, that only those who have chosen one another felt.

Unwittingly she gave e a feeling I never in all of my years thought I would ever have.

When all was done and through I was overwhelmed with a feeling love, I loved the little human beside me. I think part of me had known from the moment I looked at her photo in that maroon lingerie that she would be the woman I loved, some part of me had been hers since the moment she launched her first insult at me, since she shot me that first glare. 

I thanked her for making that part of me spread through all of me.

I thanked her for letting me love her.