My Blood Legacy: Bloodlines

Victor rested with his head against the edge of the bathtub, eyes closed and arms relaxed at his sides. The water was hot enough to loosen muscles that had spent six months being broken, rebuilt, and refined almost every day. Half of his hair was gone as well; he had finally given in to Rakshasa’s complaints and cut the strands that had once reached his hips. Now they ended a little below his back, still long, but far less troublesome. Rowena’s ring had been left with his clothes on the other side of the bathroom. After everything the she-wolf had already been forced to hear, Victor had decided to spare her this time.

He released a long sigh as he sank a few centimeters deeper.

"This is living."

Footsteps emerged beyond the steam rising from the hot water. Victor opened his eyes and turned his head, finding Rakshasa entering the bathroom wearing only a towel around her body. She had tied her hair up, leaving her neck completely exposed, and the towel was clearly struggling to contain her bust. Victor watched her approach in silence, making no attempt to hide where he was looking.

Rakshasa noticed immediately.

"Now you look?"

Victor raised his eyebrows.

"Now?"

"For six months I practically had to rub my breasts in your face to get any reaction." She stopped beside the bathtub. "I started thinking you had no sexual interest in me."

"I never said that."

"You also never did much to prove otherwise."

Victor rested one arm over the edge and looked at her calmly.

"I did not want to move too fast."

Rakshasa looked genuinely surprised.

"You?"

"Me."

"Victor Valentine did not want to move too fast with a woman?"

"My relationships are already complicated enough." He shrugged. "With you, I wanted to do things differently. Get to know you slowly, understand what you wanted from me, and decide what I wanted from you without turning everything into sex at the first opportunity."

Rakshasa spent several seconds simply staring at him. Then she grabbed the edge of the towel.

"Get to know me slowly."

The towel fell.

Victor went quiet.

His eyes moved over her body without any hurry. Rakshasa made no attempt to hide anything. She remained exactly where she was, allowing him to observe every curve, the full bust, narrow waist, pronounced hips, and the legs he had already seen partially beneath the hanfu, but never like this.

For the first time in that conversation, Victor did not find an immediate answer.

Rakshasa smiled.

"Shameless."

"You just got naked in front of me."

"And you just forgot how to speak."

Victor recovered a small smile.

"I’m getting to know you slowly."

"Of course."

Rakshasa entered the bathtub. The water rose around her legs as she walked toward Victor and settled in front of him. She kept no distance. Her body pressed directly against his, her breasts against his chest as she wrapped her arms behind his neck.

Victor held her waist with both hands.

"You really waited six months for this?"

"Longer."

"Patient."

"Do not abuse the word."

Rakshasa pulled his face close and kissed him.

There was none of the hesitation from the first kisses they had exchanged during training. She deepened the contact immediately, and Victor responded with the same intensity, pulling her by the waist until there was no space left between them. Rakshasa ran her fingers through his freshly cut hair while the kiss continued, slow at first and increasingly less restrained as the seconds passed.

When they finally separated, Rakshasa remained close, breathing faster with her eyes half-lidded.

"That was too good."

Victor ran his thumb along the side of her waist.

"Only that?"

"No." She smiled. "Now I want to know what you intend to do."

Victor did not answer with words.

His gaze lowered to her exposed neck.

Rakshasa noticed immediately.

Her expression changed.

Victor leaned closer, brushed his lips along the skin of her neck, and found her pulse. For a moment, he simply stayed there, feeling her blood moving beneath the skin. In all their time together, he had never drunk directly from Rakshasa.

Among vampires, that carried meaning of its own.

Rakshasa tilted her head to the side, giving him more room.

"Finally."

Victor revealed his fangs.

"You were waiting?"

"For quite a while."

His fangs pierced her skin.

Rakshasa drew in a breath and tightened her arms around his neck. Victor felt the blood reach his mouth immediately, hot, thick, and carrying so much energy that his body reacted before he even swallowed.

It was unlike any blood he had tasted before.

Rakshasa’s essence entered him like a heavy current, crossing his chest and immediately reaching the six rings of his body refinement. His adaptive blood awakened, trying to understand that structure, but Victor restrained it before it began absorbing too much.

Rakshasa noticed.

"Hm... even with this, you learned control."

Victor drank again.

She released a trembling breath and ran one hand over the back of his neck.

For vampires, drinking directly from someone had never been merely feeding. It was intimacy. It allowed them to feel energy, emotions, physical condition, and subtle variations that normally remained hidden even from lovers. Between two powerful vampires, allowing someone to sink fangs into their neck meant lowering a defense that very few people were permitted to cross.

That was why many compared exchanging blood to sex.

In some cases, it was even more intimate.

Victor withdrew his fangs after a few mouthfuls. Rakshasa’s regeneration closed the small punctures almost immediately, though she kept her head tilted for several more seconds.

When she finally opened her eyes, there was a satisfied smile on her face.

"That took a while too."

Victor ran his tongue over his lips, still feeling her energy spreading through his body.

"Worth the wait."

Rakshasa held his chin.

"You still haven’t seen anything."

Victor laughed quietly and pulled her by the waist again.

This time, when she kissed him, the taste of her own blood was still in his mouth.

Rakshasa remained over Victor for several seconds after the kiss, tasting her own blood still mixed in his mouth. Her eyes slowly lowered to Victor’s neck. During all that time, he had drunk from her for the first time, but the exchange was still incomplete. Among vampires, allowing only one side to drink was almost like stopping a conversation halfway through.

"My turn," she murmured.

Victor understood immediately. Instead of answering, he tilted his head slightly and exposed his neck. Rakshasa smiled at the trust and ran her fingers along the side of his throat, finding the strong pulse beneath the skin. Six months of refinement had changed even that. His heart beat with absurd force, but there was control in every pulse.

"Finally, I’m going to find out why everyone acts so strange after drinking from you."

"You might be disappointed."

"I doubt it."

Her fangs pierced his skin.

The first drop entered her mouth.

Rakshasa froze.

Victor felt her fingers tighten against his shoulders as her entire body contracted at once. The reaction was so sudden that he almost asked if something was wrong, but then he saw her expression. Her eyes were wide open, her breathing had stopped, and an intense wave of pleasure had crossed her body before she could even swallow.

"Rakshasa?"

She did not answer.

Victor’s blood reached her stomach, but the essence contained in that single amount had already penetrated her system. Rakshasa felt as though every cell in her body had been stimulated at the same time. It was not simply vampiric energy. There was something much deeper in that blood, an adaptive property so pure that her own body tried to absorb it before her mind even decided to.

Victor felt a burst of heat against him beneath the water, different from the temperature of the bath.

She came so hard that she squirted.

He noticed the intensity of her physical reaction and raised an eyebrow, but Rakshasa seemed far too gone to feel embarrassed at that moment.

She drank again.

Another spasm ran through her body.

"Ah... what the fuck is this...?"

Her voice came out low and unstable. Rakshasa pulled her fangs away just enough to breathe, but remained clinging to his neck. Her face was flushed, and her eyes had lost much of their usual provocative confidence.

Victor began to understand.

"My blood did this?"

Rakshasa looked at him as though the question were particularly stupid.

"Shut up."

She bit him again.

This time she drank more.

The sensation was even worse—or better, depending on the perspective. To Rakshasa, it felt like divine nectar entering directly into her body. Her essence reacted to Victor’s blood with a compatibility she had never experienced before. Energy ran through her channels, reached her muscles and organs, and returned to her heart carrying an almost absurd physical satisfaction.

And the pleasure did not fade.

Every mouthful seemed to renew the previous one.

Rakshasa pressed Victor against herself, arms tight around his neck while her body trembled in short waves. She had drunk the blood of powerful beings, monsters, ancient vampires, and creatures whose bloodlines no longer even existed, but she had never felt anything like this.

Victor held her waist to keep her steady.

"Take it easy."

She released his neck only to breathe.

"You... are telling me to take it easy?"

"Considering your face, yes."

Rakshasa took several deep breaths. Her attempt to regain composure did not last long because the taste still remained in her mouth, making her own essence demand more.

"This is not normal blood."

"That conclusion took a while."

"Do not be a smartass right now."

She ran her tongue over the small marks on his neck and tasted another tiny amount of blood.

Her eyes immediately closed.

Victor held her face before she could bite again.

"Rakshasa."

She slowly opened her eyes.

"What?"

"You’re coming just from drinking my blood."

"I noticed."