Chapter 4

“You’re not dreaming, Lisa. Make your choice.” Bradley’s voice was smooth and almost perfect. “To live, or to die?”

I had to decide either to die or to be a vampire. I remembered that I swore to myself to never be like my parents and run away from my problems but to always find a solution because there always was even if that solution was not pretty. 

This was the solution. Choosing death would be the cowards’ way out. And I was not a coward. I was not like my parents!

I exhaled shakily and then bravely walked to him slowly. When I reached him, I held his hand and he suddenly pulled me into his arms. My breath hitched and I strengthened my hold on his hand.

Being so close to him filled me with fear. The image of him feeding on the girl that was now on the floor lingered in my mind. “Can we please get this over with?” 

“Gladly,” Bradley chuckled, and then he brought his wrist slowly to my mouth. I began to breathe faster and my thirst for blood was now unbearable, especially considering that I could hear the CEO’s pulse. 

My neck was also in pain, specifically on the spot where I was bitten by Bradley last night. “I can’t do this,” I showed my disgust in my facial expression, but he did not let me go.

“Yes, you can. And if you want to live, you have no choice.” 

“So I’m seriously supposed to bite you and suck your blood?” I cried out, feeling the urge to throw up.

“Lisa…” Bradley said in a warning tone. “As much as I would like to hold your hand through this whole process, I am a very busy man that has a company and many other businesses to run. Do this or not.” 

He let me go and then did something that caused my mouth to drop open. He bit his wrist and sucked the blood out of his veins. Before I could express how grossed out I felt, he moved at the speed of light and before I could even register it in my mind, he was kissing me.

I tasted the metallic taste of blood in my mouth and my eyes closed as emotions stirred in me from kissing the CEO. He was an excellent kisser, and for a minute, I almost forgot the true purpose of why he was doing this: to get me to drink his blood.

When he broke the kiss, I breathed in enough air and my chest rose up and down as I stared at him.

“Normally that would not be enough to get you to turn but I am not like other vampires. As I said before, I’m the last one. There are perks to that.”

“So I won’t have to drink any more of your blood?” My tone was filled with hope. 

“Actually, it does not have to do with me being the last one or whatever, to be honest. The truth is as long as my blood entered your system, even if it was very little, it would still trigger a change.” Bradley explained, and the girl on the floor began to snore loudly. “So yeah, you won’t have to drink any more of my blood for now.”

“But you would have to make drinking blood a part of your diet though.” He added, and then flashed me a nonchalant smile.

I sighed shakily and cringe at the taste of blood still in my mouth. With each breath I took, I felt much more robust and better. The pain in my neck began to disappear and I could not help but try to touch the bite mark. 

“Wow,” I said to myself, noticing the bite mark was now completely gone. I was now officially a vampire.

“Would you mind stepping slightly to the right?” Bradley kept his eyes on the girl on the floor. “I have about half an hour to get my butt to work and I can’t have the young lady in here when we check out of the hotel.”

I did as he asked and in a blink of an eye, a wind rushed by me, and Bradley moved like he was the Flash. When I opened my eyes, the girl on the floor was gone and the CEO stood by the door with a smirk. 

“Wow,” I could not help but say the word again. A lot had happened in the past twenty-four hours that just did not make sense. 

Bradley chuckled and then replied in a breathy way, “I have a feeling that you’re going to be saying that word a lot for the next few days.” He then walked away and I followed him out of the bathroom. 

“You’re going to work now?” I was confused. He was a vampire and daylight bathed the hotel room we were in but he did not seem affected by it. Even if it was not direct sunlight, if he went out to work, there was no doubt in my mind that he would get in contact with direct sunlight.

“I think I made that pretty clear, dear.” He was styling his hair in the full-length mirror. 

“But won’t the sun burn you to ashes?” 

“Hmm,” He mumbled and then smiled at his reflection, showing that he was now pleased with how he looked. “Lisa, you have a point. But I think you have watched too many vampire shows.”

The white bedsheet was still wrapped around my body and I sat on the bed. “So all the burning crap that happens in those movies is fake?”

Bradley looked ready to leave and he headed for the door, opened it, and looked back at me, “Nope, Not fake, but just most of them are just exaggerated.”

“There is obviously so much to explain to you, and I promise that I will. But right now, I need two things. One, for you to tell me whether I should pay for the room for the rest of the day, and two; for you to know that I won’t burn to ashes. I’m wearing a cream that prevents that.”

“Almost like sunscreen?” 

“Eh,” He dragged the word. “I guess you could say that. So about the room?”

I ran my tongue over my front teeth ad then laid my hands on my lap. I did have the day off from work, plus I was in no way going back to that house today. I knew that if I went back there, I would still be able to smell sex in our bedroom. 

I knew that I would still be able to smell Nora’s perfume. I did not want to go back there, at least for now. 

“Pay for the room for the rest of the day, please.” I lifted my head boldly instead of allowing my grim emotions to destroy my confidence.

“Okey dokey. Bye.” He stepped out of the room and closed the door. 

Once he was out, it began to sink in. I could not believe that one of the biggest CEOs in the country, and the biggest in the city was a vampire. My brain was throwing so many questions at me, like how this was possible. 

He had hidden his identity for so long and now I knew. And not only did I know, but I was also now like him. I sniffled and wiped the trail that my tears left behind on my face.

What had I gotten myself into? Now not only did I have to worry about finding a way to call off my engagement with Mark, I now had to try to figure out how to live as a supernatural. 

I woke up from the bed and headed for the bathroom. But not the one where I caught Bradley drinking the blood of that girl. There was a second bathroom and I took that to my advantage. 

After taking a relaxing shower and brushing my teeth about four times, I still could not get the taste of blood out of my mouth. I really did not think staying at the hotel for the day through because I did not have fresh clothes to change into. 

I wore the same outfit as yesterday and fixed my hair. And By fix, I meant held it in an almost neat bun. 

And did I care about wearing the same clothes and underwear? Well, not as much as how I was going to handle Mark. My phone had been ringing for the past twenty minutes and it was him. I knew that I wanted closure but I also did not want to feel that burn on my chest. 

“What the hell do you want?” I finally answered the call after a solid hour of it ringing. 

“Lisa…” He let out a sigh of relief. “I seriously thought something happened to you.”

I chuckled without humor and I felt tears build up in my eyes. “Well, something did happen to me, Mark. You f*cked my best friend when we were to get married in two days.” 

“Lisa…” His voice broke. “I am so sorry…”

“You’re not really sorry, Mark. You’re just sorry that you got caught.” 

“Look, I know I messed up, but can we please talk?” It sounded like he was on the street. I could hear cars honking in the background. 

“We’re talking. Which is something that you should be grateful for.”

“I know, I know. I’m grateful, I really am. But I meant for us to talk in person. Where are you?” His voice was coated with guilt and shame. 

“Non-huh. That’s not happening. But what we do need to do is figure out a way to break our engagement in a respectful manner.” 

“No. I’m going to have to stop you right there, Lisa. You can’t just give up on me like that…you can’t just give up on us.” He begged, and my heart tugged. I really wanted to make us work but I knew that it was not the right thing to do. 

“I–umm, Mark, you was the one that gave up when you slept with her,” I reminded him, too emotional to even let her name come out of my mouth. “Okay, let’s do this. Tell me the truth and we can start from there. Is this the first time you have slept with her?”

I waited for his answer and each second of silence that passed chipped at my heart. “Oh my god,” I broke and began to sob. “Oh my god, it’s not your first time, is it?”

“No, it isn’t.” His voice was small and beaten.

“How many times?” 

“Lisa…” He tried to get out of answering my question. 

“Don’t f*cking Lisa me! Answer the goddamn question, Mark!” My voice was strong and filled with anger.

“Four times, yesterday included.” 

I took the phone from my ear and inhaled sharply before letting out a shaky breath. Tears began to flow from my eyes and I stared at the wall blankly. There was a storm of pain in me that was eating me from the inside.

I could hear him calling my name though I held the phone away from my ear. 

I felt so stupid. I knew that I was blaming myself, maybe even more than him, but that was just how I felt.

I placed the phone to my ear. “Don’t call me again. Don’t–”

“Please, Lisa. Work with me here.” He cut me off, and I scoffed.

“I said don’t f*cking call me again. I will come back home in the evening and you can stay as long as you want until we find a way to break off the engagement. There is no fixing us, Mark. I give up.”

“And what if I tell you that I’m not giving up?”

“And that’s your cup of tea, boo bear.” I used the nickname that we had for each other. I ended the call. A sad smile crept onto my lips as they quivered. Tears blinded my vision and I began to sob loudly.