Blood is Honey-(Adley Reed)

[Indigo]

“I couldn’t ask for more but sure won’t refuse it. I love you deep into the core.” She was free from the water with a last kiss for good measure.

Her body felt like it was slowly peeled and pried from his. Her skin absorbed the air that found its way between them and her legs stretched as she was placed to her feet. She would feel him for hours to come that much she was sure of. Wrapped in the cotton around her shoulders she took the lead to dry off and get dressed. She knew it was time for her to shift into that role that would afford her the chance to learn all she needed from her sire. Which Adley was though she embraced both he and Kaspar in that role due to their joint efforts in turning her. She would need to learn to take care of herself in this existence. If she didn’t she was even more of a risk to both of them and she could see that already with the way things were still so conflicted.

“I am ready.” She announced once she stood up from the edge of the bed.

The shoes were strapped on and hopefully they were going to be fine for wherever they were heading. Casual street chic. Ankle high wrapped flats that tied at the back. The dress was simple, white and thin strapped. In all appearances she would be no different than anyone out window shopping on a summer Saturday afternoon.

“Think this will be fine?” She asked as she stepped out and made her way down the hall.

It was evident she had a lot to learn about stepping out into the world and grabbing a bite to eat. There was a huge difference between checking out the local pizza place and going to to find a receptive vein.

[Adley Reed]

It took neither of them long to get ready. While Indigo took the towel and tried herself, Adley did the same -- he followed her to the bedroom where he dressed in his usual casual fair. Jeans and a t-shirt that was a little loud, but there weren’t too many shirts that he owned that weren’t loud, in some way. The shirt was a button-up, red and green and black -- roses in full bloom, in a tiled pattern.

He’d wandered out into the hall to find his shoes, to pull them onto thickly socked feet. It was one thing he just could not shake, and one thing that he could not fix unless standing under a steady stream of hot water -- he hated having cold feet. Always had. It was there that Indigo found him as he was tying up his laces; his head lifted to take her in, his features immediately softened at the sight of her. This was a night for Indigo. Adley could heal himself - or he’d go out later. The first thought that entered his mind was that she looked like the angel she had appeared to be, bathed in the bright light of his car’s headlights the first night he’d seen her. Except, this time there was a lack of blood and gashes. The second thought - she was wearing white. He sure hoped that it wouldn’t get messy. Silence invaded the space between them as he considered it. If Kaspar were here, he’d have called it. He’d have told her to dress in something dark. Even something red.

And yet, Adley wasn’t Kaspar. He didn’t want to scare Indigo. So instead of telling her to change, he instead stood with an easy smile. “You look like an angel,” he said, his fingertips reaching for her hips and his lips brushing hers. “Let’s go,” he said, breaking apart to swipe his keys from the hook near the door, to hold the door open for Indigo. “We’ll go to Stag Heath…” he said. The implication was clear.

[Indigo]

Stray fingertips found the hard line of his hip as she passed through the open door. Her eyes skimmed the shape of his lips and felt the traces of pleasures till simmering beneath her skin that they were entirely responsible for. Angels could be sinful, couldn't they? Wasn't she about to? There was certainly no sins in the hive except denying what was wanted or needed.

While Adley locked up the house she took in the night air. It was the first time she would see it fully through her eyes, taste it in ways she had only heard about from those she loved and lived in it. No longer was there any options, maybes or what ifs. It was now hers and it claimed her just as much as the rest.

Stag Heath. Of course she had been through the area. It obviously was not for the same reasons as she was about to go for. She watched Adley move towards her and the jeep. A plethora of emotions made up a constant buzz that inspired her to smile softly, feel the prickling of heat at her cheeks as if it was the first time he caught her staring at him too long. She should be more concerned about what she was about to attempt but it was impossible. It was like being high in the best ways possible and it never wore off.

“Are we going to be hitting a club or…?”

Indigo left the options open for Adley to fill in. Tonight he was teacher and she was, well, she was hopefully going to be a stellar student and then when class was over she was going to stay and see what she could do to earn a few gold stars. She had a ruler. So far he was measuring up beyond expectations.

[Adley Reed]

It all seemed so out of place. With every step Adley took toward the jeep, the greater the reluctance in his step. Was this, then, how Kaspar felt? It was concern, mingled with an obligatory need to introduce Indigo to the unpleasantness of this life. There was a lot to be thankful for, and Adley wouldn’t change a thing. Everyone was different, however, and though Adley had weighed the pros to be better than the cons, it could be an entirely different story for Indigo. His Indigo, this vibrant, bright woman with all her ceaseless optimism. What if this broke her? These were things Adley should have considered before, instead of feigning patience when he’d had none.

Adley considered Indigo’s question as he climbed up into the driver’s seat and turned the key in the ignition. He chewed on his bottom lip in consideration, before he slowly shook his head. The first night he’d been let loose after his turning, he remembered the thirst and the way it clawed at his senses as soon as he got close to a warm body with a beating heart. It was different now, of course - human bodies didn’t arouse his thirst anymore. Cold bodies did, which probably said something about his and Kaspar’s difference of opinion. Though Indigo was not just a meal to be craved - she was far, far more - the coldness of her skin wasn’t as off-putting as it seemed to be for Kaspar.

“I don’t think a club is a good idea,” he said. The jeep purred beneath them, and he reversed from the driveway and focused on driving as he answered. It was like he had to pull on a different mask. He had to become a sire, act the sire, when he had no idea what that meant. Instead, he focused on being a friend - a lover - who cared deeply for the woman he was with, and would teach her because he cared, not because he was obligated to.

“It’s different for everyone, I think, but if you’re thirsty enough to… well, I should warn you, too. If you feed from a vampire, properly, beyond just a bite - if you had bitten me and fed from me you wouldn’t be able to feed from humans anymore. I didn’t know, when I first did it. I didn’t know it was a killable offense and I didn’t know I couldn’t go back,” he said. Ultimately, it was Indigo’s choice. His hand sat on the gear stick, shifting the gears every now and again as the jeep eased out of the housing estate into the streets of Harper Rock. Indigo had never been out with him before, not like this. Not to ‘feed’. He cleared his throat, tongue licking at lips that suddenly felt dry.

“I couldn’t get enough though. When I …” he was going to explain it to her. He was going to tell her about the night he’d met her, the things he’d imagined, how all he’d wanted was blood. He’d wanted it covering the walls. He changed his mind, and shook his head. He even laughed. ****, was he nervous?

“No. To answer your question. We’ll go somewhere quieter, we’ll start small,” he said, flashing a (what he hoped to be) confident smile over to Indigo in the passenger seat.

[Indigo]

Indigo was seated and all eyes on Adley even as the jeep was in motion. It had been a while since they had been to a club. Actually quite awhile now that she thought about it. The business they started up took up a lot of time and the last several nights had been a huge time consumer in more ways than hours passing on the clock. It still was difficult to think that with the changes there were still ripples of effects that would take time to settle.She knew it would be fine. For now she was in her first of many lectures-though this was more like a personal testimony from Adley the more he spoke of how he came to be limited in what sources he could receive blood from. One that she readily absorbed. So much so that she caught on to his hesitation at the last part.

Not able to get enough. When he… The sentence was left unfinished and hanging. Out there between them and it was not something she overlooked. None of what he had said was dismissed as irrelevant. Not with how serious all of this would be. It was crucial to her future and to her survival when it came right down to it. If he wanted to try brushing it aside she would not be so willing to accept it. She wanted to know and she was quite comfortable telling him as much. Was it something that Kaspar and Jameson neglected to tell her when they told her how Adley was one of the types that sustained himself on other vampires. Did it have to do with when he was hunted for what he needed. It seemed unfair and even at the risk of opening up some possibly there unseen wound she did what she would have done if it was a sentence left hanging in any other topic of conversation.

“When you...what?”

Her body shifted so she could be closer to the edge of the seat. The inside of the passengers seat. There was nothing that couldn’t be said between them and especially now. Bad or good anything and everything he shared with her was an investment of sorts. How would she know if he didn’t tell her? He could strengthen her even in the early stages by sharing what he had seen, went through and his perceptions. How some were left to fend for themselves with no support or guidance was a shame at best. She could not imagine how it must have been for Adley once the thrill of what brought him over wore off. His lips even paused were tempting. Part of her longed to taste the answer he would give instead of hear it. That is if he would offer one. It wasn’t like he had to.

[Adley Reed]

Adley’s lips pressed into a tight line, air hissing from his nose. He should have expected that Indigo would want him to expand. But, she needed to know. Adley didn’t know how these things worked. He knew that his peculiar ‘curses’ weren’t shared. Kaspar didn’t suffer from them, nor did Jameson. But then, he wasn’t ‘related’ to either man. Did it work that way? It would have been the perfect question to ask Abelle, but that wasn’t an option.

“When I was turned… I don’t know if it was because I went about it the wrong way, or because I was never really taught. I thought it was just blood lust, like I was hungry all the time but I wasn’t, really. I realised I didn’t want to consume the blood, I just wanted to spill it,” he said. He wasn’t being concise, and he knew it. The more he said, the more reluctant he was to tell her. He didn’t want to reveal to Indigo how much of a monster he could be. What would she think? Would it change how she felt about him?

He suddenly felt guilty for not telling her before. It was as if he had lied to her; she had fallen in love with a lie. He swallowed and nodded, moving on. Better to find out now rather than later.

“You were bleeding when I met you,” he said, glancing sideways, finding it hard to tear his eyes away as Indigo was briefly awash in the beams of a street light. But he had to keep his eyes on the road. “I don’t know if you remember much. But I was keen to get you clean. I dropped you home and I hesitated. I didn’t want to go in. I... “ he stopped again, a frustrated growl rumbling in his throat. It wasn’t often that he didn’t know what to say. But he wasn’t a charmer. Not really. He wasn’t good with words, and there wasn’t a way that he could make this sound any better.

“I wanted more blood. I wanted to make you bleed more. I wanted puddles of it. I wanted to be covered in it,” he said, his knuckles white as he gripped the steering wheel harder, as he refused to look in Indigo’s direction. “The point I’m trying to make is that when I was first turned, it was worse. I made a lot of messes because I had no one to reign me in. The new thirst combined with this need to spill blood just…” he shook his head. He had it mostly under control now. Mostly. Sometimes he still slipped. He stopped talking, his jaw clenched, the muscles of his jaw twitching as his back teeth ground together. Even thinking about it, now, thinking about blood - it had him all kinds of excited, and not particularly in a good way.

[Indigo]

Indigo would never forget the first time she set eyes on Adley. It was like forgetting the moon or sun existed. It was there deeply ingrained and it would be with her long after she was dust or whatever would be the end result of her existence. Not that she was ready to give that any deep consideration at this point. She was still drinking in the excitement of the change. As much as Adley seemed concerned she was sort of on that high that did not go away when she woke. He was everywhere and now it was flowing through her making her feel more alive than she could ever remember being.

The gradual explanation of that night definitely darkened her recollection. But it didn’t change it at all for her but for the first time she was now able to have both sides to it. An awareness filled her that filled in the missing pieces. What he was saying made all the behaviors that were so confusing at the time finally make sense. The gloves she learned early on were to protect her from the effects of his touch. A touch that left her so high she melted into the air it would seem. One that eventually became so hard to deny herself that it was painful, left an ache she couldn’t bear. It was stirring for entirely different reasons now.

Was it wrong that his honesty was like an aphrodisiac? It heightened that draw, the hunger that swam through her constantly searching for a release. Specifically at his mention of the part where he wanted to take her when she was most vulnerable and take more from her. To make her bleed and to immerse himself in the last of what she had left to surrender. Her skin instantly covered in a fine spread of bumps. Just like it always had when it was cold or the unexpected had caught her by surprise. Even with the sharp invasion of fear. It also happened almost everytime he put his hands on her. He may not have noticed but somewhere his skin near hers inspired the shiver of pleasure that oddly she felt while imagining him covered in what she shed.

One thing leads to another and it certainly did as she sat there. As she looked at him she saw it on his face. The sweet red offering she discovered she has a deep seeded desire to paint him with. She swallowed dryly. Was she supposed to tell him? Would that alarm him? She had put him through enough. Her impulsivity needed to be kept in some sort of check and this was one of the moments. The sound of his voice dropped abruptly and she reached out to his thigh and gave it a reassuring squeeze. It served her just as much as it was meant to offer him distraction.

“I want to go as deep and dark as you will take me.”

Her voice was as soft as her touch while it broke the silence. It was clear from the beginning when she was first told of what they were that it could be very dark. No one spared her that blunt cold fact. She knew it was out there and she would see it. It was he that should introduce her to it. All of it. She wanted to have him drown her in the reality of her choice and to make her stronger for it. There was no question she would swim instead of sink.

“Show me.”

[Adley Reed]

First, Adley glanced down at the hand on his thigh, and then quickly sideways. He couldn’t keep his eyes from the road for long -- but thankfully they had stopped at a set of traffic lights. He was searching for apprehension and fear; maybe it was the way the light bathed Indigo’s features, or maybe he wasn’t seeing her properly at all. But from the brief glimpse that he did get, he could have sworn she looked almost excited.

A wet tongue slid over his lower lip, tugging in between his teeth as he considered her permission, and her request. Adley hadn’t planned to take her deep or dark. He hadn’t planned to put her through a trial by fire, or throw her in the deep end. The plan he had was only a vague one, but it hadn’t included slicing arteries so that they could bathe in a shower of blood. He flinched as an unexpected, suddenly sharp canine pricked the lip he was chewing. He let it go, thankfully not as excited by the taste of his own blood.

“I don’t feed from humans, Bee. You’ve seen me feed from Kas, and from Jay, so you know the process,” he said. He didn’t quite know how to decipher it. She would go as deep and as dark as he would take her, but was that what she wanted, or was it merely something she would accept, should it come to pass? The lights had changed and they were on their way again; it wasn’t far from the Hive to the slums. It was just the next suburb over. The buildings were already changing, the suburbs melting into the slums almost seamlessly. He cleared his throat.

“If I’m in a bad mood I go down into the sewers…” he said, glancing sideways tentatively, before turning his eyes back to the road. She’d seen him come home filthy before; she’d seem him head straight for the shower, head down, as if to avoid her questions. Their questions. They were all so similar - at least, Kaspar and Jay were. They could eat. They could get away with being ‘human’. Adley was different. He could be an animal, a beast. He had baser urges that he couldn’t resist -- and he’d been called out on them. He hated being ashamed, but he was.

“There are vampires down there. Wild ones. Vampires without sires… I could have become one of them. And I slaughter them for their blood. I rip them to pieces, because it’s what I can’t do with Kas. Or Jay,” he said, slowly, as he pulled up and into a park on the side of the road. It was deep enough in the slums to get where they needed to go, but close enough to the edge that it was a quick getaway - and his care was less likely to be broken into again. He turned the engine off and rested his hands on his thighs.

“I’m not sure I’m ready to show you that, yet,” he said, turning again to catch Indigo’s eye. To watch her properly, as if he could read all her thoughts on her features.

[Indigo]

In the dark she sat. Her hand was still on his thigh as she blinked. Now she knew where he went and got bloody. Sometimes it was enough to that she wondered just what he had got involved in. His clothes would be covered, sometimes his body. She never said anything when he made his way directly for the shower. It was sort of a given that neither of them were going to discuss it. One didn't ask and the other didn’t have to tell.

It was apparent she was doing what she had a habit of resorting to when presented with something she was unfamiliar with. Jumping into the deepest point without testing the water first. She lived in the moment. If she was going to do something she did it without reservation. The only way she knew how to approach a situation if she was going to become a part of it. This was no different even if in all likelihood it should be. It was nowhere close to the first time she stood on the platform of the high dive at the local pool while her friends stood below watching and waiting to see if she would finally do it.

Something extra kicked in besides the need for blood then. Adley was admitting to something beyond what was the typical bite and draw. Her eyes stayed on him, her thoughts wrapping around him in such an act. The tearing apart that he mentioned. Was it a literal statement or he just got into it more than the average guy. The blood she had seen was a lot more than she ever witnessed on Jameson or Kaspar. So there had to be truth to his admission.

Indigo respected his being unsure about sharing such things yet. It was something that could and would wait. For the time being she had a lot to learn. As she glanced out at the decline of buildings and the streets she realized tonight's lessons would be learned in the slums as it was referred to. The small section of Harper Rock where many disappeared beneath the dark blanket of addiction, found the bottoms of their willpower and never got back up again. There she was about to be the opportunist, the predator and put herself among them to become stronger in the skills she would need to rise.

“Fair enough.” Her only words left to acknowledge his reservations. Her hand reached for the door and paused as she looked to him. “Thank you for doing this...all of it.”

[Adley Reed]

There was nothing for it, now. Adley had to suck it up. He had to quit with the reluctance, and he had to just forge onward. Indigo needed a crash course in what it was to be a vampire, and it was Adley’s job to do it. If Indigo didn’t like it, if she had sudden regrets, then they would leap that hurdle when they came to it.

Out of the jeep, Adley circled around the bonnet and wound an arm around Indigo’s waist. A kiss was pressed to her temple.

“That’s what I’m here for,” he said. And it was only the beginning; Adley was optimistic that their life together would be better than ever. Once Indigo was settled, he was sure that they could only soar. So much else seemed uncertain, but with Indigo Adley was sure. They would do this together. They would get through it. Maybe they’d even enjoy themselves.

“Okay,” he said, his arm still wound around Indigo’s torso, leading her into the depths of the slums. There were bars, here. There were old houses and house parties. There were homeless by the dozens. There were guns and bombs and drugs and depression. It was the perfect playground for vampires with their fledglings. Not that Indigo felt like a fledgling -- she was an equal. She was his in a different way.

“There’s a place near the projects -- a small pub, generally not very busy. We’ll hang around outside, and we’ll wait until we see someone suitable. We won’t go inside yet…” he said, still wary of taking Indigo into a crowd. Not yet. They’d ease her into it. Maybe he was being far too protective -- but it was better to be safe than sorry.