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“I need to feed before we leave,” Nelli says, turning to Victor, “Can one of your guys...?”
“Yeah, of course. Take your pick.” He gestures to the assembled security guards, several of whom are already smiling at the promised possibility of a private moment with Nelli. “Anybody else need a snack before we head out?”
Annabelle raises her hand tentatively, asking for a volunteer from the group even as Nelli makes her selection.
“You good?” Victor asks, glancing away from the spectacle of Nelli’s usual feeding habits to look at Jasper standing close to Eva.
“I’m fine,” Jasper grits out. “I’m just gonna step over here and ignore... whatever Nelli’s doing to that guy.”
He finds a couch tucked away in a secluded corner of the lounge, and positions himself so he won’t have to watch Nelli play with her food. He can still smell the blood though, the sharp and delicious tang in the air. It’s tempting—oh so tempting—but he isn’t hungry enough to give in. He can still push back against the Beast as it gnaws at his rib cage. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath he doesn’t technically need, attempting to steady himself and silence the taunting voice that growls in his ear.
Eva’s hand closes over his as she settles onto the couch beside him and he opens his eyes again.
“Are you hungry?” she asks, running her thumb across his knuckles to distract him from the enticing scent of human blood.
“You—I’m fine.”
“No, you aren't.” She reaches out and brushes her other hand across his cheek, turning him to look at her with a feather-light touch. “Be honest with me, Jasper.”
They’ve talked about this before, about how he needs to be honest with her if their arrangement is going to work. She’d spoken to him more patiently than he deserved, talking calmly about how regular feedings could keep the Beast at bay more effectively and how feeding becomes most dangerous when he abstains long enough to become feral. She’d walked him through it, repeated over and over that starving himself did more harm than good in the long run, before he finally started to believe her.
“I… could eat,” he admits, her kind eyes pulling the truth out of him so easily.
“How close are you to frenzy?” she asks, running through her usual questions.
“I’m still in control.”
“That's good. Come here.” She lets go of his hand to sweep her hair to one side and unfastens the intricate lace necklace from around her throat. Her hand on his cheek slowly moves to the back of his head, cradling him as she pulls him in close, guiding his mouth down to her neck.
Jasper presses a kiss to her skin before opening his mouth and sinking his fangs into her. No matter how many times they do this, he will never get over how good she tastes. Her blood is sweet against his tongue, the smell of flowers fills his nose, the scent of her hair mingling with that of her vitae and pulling him in deeper still. He can taste the magic in her, it’s that strong, and there’s a heady undercurrent of… something, something he’s only ever gotten from her. It overwhelms his senses in a matter of seconds. She is perfect and he could do this forever without complaint.
The initial sharp sting of the bite fades almost immediately as the gasp on Eva’s lips transforms into a quiet sigh of ecstasy. She scratches lightly at his scalp as he feeds, reassuring him that she is still conscious and aware even as she encourages him to take what he needs. Feeding him like this is pure pleasure. It's not just the supernatural ecstasy of the Kiss itself, but also the knowledge that she’s helping him, that she can do this for him, that they trust each other like this. She tilts her head farther to the side, reveling in the feeling of his mouth pressed against her throat.
She lets out a breathy laugh against his ear and can feel his low answering growl as it echoes in her veins.
Jasper doesn’t take more than Eva can safely give. He never does. As wonderful as she tastes, he never wants to hurt her like that. Even when the Beast snarls in his ear, telling him to take more, take it all, he reminds it that if it ever hurts Eva, it’ll never get to taste her again. That bargaining chip usually shuts it up for a little while, at least long enough for him to feed in peace.
They have a system now, carefully negotiated since she made her stance on his feeding habits perfectly clear: when he’s hungry, he needs to be honest about it; he needs to feed more often to reduce his risk of frenzy; when he’s too close to losing control, he feeds from her wrist while she holds a knife in her other hand—a precaution he insisted upon, no matter how many times she said she trusted him; and when he’s hungry but not starving, he feeds from her neck... because it feels better for both of them that way.
They have crafted a form of intimacy that is all their own. Her blood has always been perfect and feeding from her like this—with her hands on him and her soft, pleasure-addled voice so close to his ear—is the most amazing feeling in the world. And just knowing that she feels the same makes the experience so much better. He'd never fed consensually before her, but he learned quickly that she was absolutely right when she told him willing blood tasted better. She has reassured him countless times that she enjoys this as much as he does, that feeding him feels good in ways she can barely describe. Even knowing that, he still goes out of his way to make these moments into something more than just feeding.
As Toreador as it may feel sometimes, he always kisses her neck before biting. He wraps his arms around her, holds her close, and runs his hands along her back, always vigilant for the slightest shift in her body language that will tell him he’s gone too far. It’s taken him this long to unlearn five years of inhumane practices, to reframe blood as something to be given freely rather than taken by force. She places so much trust in him when they're like this and he has never taken that for granted.
Eva gives him this gift, willingly and happily, and asks for nothing in return but the pleasure it provides her and the promise that he won’t go back to what he did before while she’s around to provide a better alternative. It took him a while accept the idea, but now it's a promise he's more than willing to keep.
As Jasper feels his Beast quiet in his chest—not silent, but satisfied—he pulls away. He runs his tongue along the side of her neck to lick the wound closed and presses three quick kisses to the newly healed spot. She giggles as he trails his lips across her skin, nuzzling close to her. He moves his hands up to cup her face, cradling her jaw. Her eyes flutter open and she smiles at him, soft and satisfied.
“You alright?” he asks, the same way he always does when they’re done. She checks in with him beforehand, he checks in with her after—gentle communication when each of them is at their most vulnerable.
“I’m alright,” she answers, reaching up to wrap her fingers around his wrists. “It... That felt incredible. But I should probably eat something before we go. Just to be safe.”
“Just to be safe,” he echoes. Eva is the one to close the space between them, pressing her lips to his and tasting the faint trace of her own blood where it still lingers at the corners of his mouth. When they have more time and privacy, they like to tumble into each other after a feeding, losing themselves in the feeling of their mouths pressed together as they linger in the intimacy of the Kiss. But there is no time for that now. This kiss is quick and simple and Eva pulls back only a moment later, grazing her teeth across Jasper’s bottom lip but staying careful not to break his skin with her fangs.
“I’ll be right back,” she tells him as she sweeps her hair back over her shoulder and rises from the couch. He keeps his hand in hers for as long as he can, until her light steps carry her out of his reach. He follows her with his eyes, smiling as she looks back at him over her shoulder.
There is a war waiting on their doorstep and far too many looming threats on the horizon, but for now the night is calm, they are safe, and Jasper finds himself absentmindedly tracing the delicate designs of Eva’s forgotten lace choker as he waits for her to return to his side.