Chosen Bride of the Seven Dark Princes

Candi pulled back from Dante. His eyes were glittering with rage and he was shaking with the effort of holding it in.

The fright must have shown in her eyes because he closed his eyes and exhaled a long and shaky breath.

"Please don\'t be frightened of me, Love. I\'m not mad at you, and even if I were, I would never do anything to hurt you."

He opened his eyes. This time, his green eyes held remorse and pain. He reached out and cradled her face.

"When did he inject his venom into you?"

"Right before breakfast with your Mother and Father."

"So that was why you were late for breakfast, and with the Emperor and Empress of Erenveil, no less."

"Yes. I found Byron. He was a big mess, so I comforted him as best as I could. He told me he was leaving soon so I asked him when he was coming back."

"I heard about that," Dante frowned. "But my mother just adopted him! Why would he treat her precious gift to him as if it was nothing and just leave?"

"I think he\'s just trying to find himself and figure out what his future holds. His entire world had just been dumped upside down and he was picking up the pieces trying to figure out how to put it all back together again." Candi murmured gently.

She was still trying to understand why Dante was so upset over what seemed to her like an ingenious and simple method of communication.

"And so he decides to bite you so he could figure out what he wants to do with his life?"

"It wasn\'t like that Dante. He wanted to have a way to communicate with me once he leaves this area." She murmured softly, hoping Dante would take it at face value, because truly, she had also taken this at face value.

"And the man doesn\'t have access to a virtual monitor and just call you up like any normal human being would do? He\'s never heard of a voice or visual call?"

Dante threw his hands out with frustration.

"Heck, if he really missed you, he could just do a 3D call and it would be like having you in the same room. Instead, what does he do." Dante\'s eyes were once again raging.

"He fucking infects you with his venom!"

Dante reached out and gathered Candi into his arms, shaking with rage and grief.

"Dante." Candi whispered. "I didn\'t think it was such a big deal. It\'s just a little bite, right?"

"It\'s not just a little bite. You\'re now infected with our family\'s venom."

She pulled back to look at him with fear-tinged eyes.

"Am I going to die?"

Dante smiled despite his overwhelming sadness.

"No Darling. Of course you\'re not going to die." He pulled her back into his arms as he fought the waves of rage coursing over him. "I would never allow that to happen."

He could feel Candace\'s hands rubbing his back in a gentle soothing manner, as if she was placating a child.

Strangely enough, it worked.

Her warm gentle hands and her soothing aura assuaged his raging anger and calmed his soul.

He could not believe that this tiny woman was the only one who could quell the avalanche of emotions that catapulted around him causing him to lose control and turn into a monster.

Candi rested her head within the shelter of his arms for awhile, trying to comfort him from that which was causing him to be so upset.

Could it be that he was jealous because Byron could telepathically talk to him and Dante could not?

What if he could, would that make a difference?

"Dante," she whispered.

"Hmmm?" He rumbled in his chest.

"I have an idea."

"Hmmm…" More chest rumbling.

"What if you bite me too? That way you can communicate with me in the same way."

Dante\'s body shook. She pushed him away so she could see his face.

He wasn\'t laughing. He was crying.

"Dante. I\'m sorry. Forget I said anything."

"You don\'t understand. Nobody in their right mind, let alone a tiny female like you, would volunteer to be bitten by one of us." He whispered.

"It\'s just—just a tiny bite to establish communication link, right?"

"No!" Dante shook his head. "You don\'t get it. The telepathy was a side-effect of mind control, something that was needed to keep the prey in line."

"Prey?" She looked up at him, horrified.

"Yes. There\'s a reason why we\'re called demons by those around us. We\'re the only mammals that can fly, and we are the only ones who need to drink living blood to survive!"

He turned away from her, hiding his face with deep shame.

"A long time ago, it was normal for a vampire blood bat like me to have a harem of people, both male and female. Everyone hears the word harem and thinks it has to do with sex, but it really wasn\'t."

"No?"

He shook his head. "Most vampires only have one mate, and most mate for life. The harem was used to feed."

He shuddered with distaste.

"The vampire would rotate through the harem, drinking the blood of each person and then giving him or her enough time to recover from the blood loss before the next feeding session."

"The larger the harem, the longer time they were given to recuperate. In that manner, they were kept indefinitely as a food source."

"But you\'re not like that. You\'re not a demon." Candi reached out to rub his shoulder.

"We might as well be. Our bodies need fresh living blood to sustain itself."

Candi gave him a dry dull look.

"Well, I hate to break it to you but my body needs the flesh of animals to sustain itself too. I haven\'t gotten to the point where I could just chew on leaves and be satisfied."

"But you eat farmed, butchered animals. You don\'t bite the flesh off living people to survive."

"No, but Byron did say he used animal blood to keep from being malnourished."

"Yes. We do." Dante\'s face twisted in a grimace. "It\'s pretty nasty though, but I had food manufacturers reformulate cow\'s blood. Once it\'s been through a processing plant, it got rid of prions and is also bland enough for us to take internally without gagging."

Candi\'s eyes widened. "Wow. You\'re really something. How do you think up all this stuff?"

Dante gave a short miserable laugh.

"Isn\'t that what we\'re put into this Universe to do? Improve everyone\'s lives as best we can? I\'ve even had it formulated as a dietary supplemental pill because some people just can\'t drink the blood in liquid form, and they get very malnourished."

"Do people buy it?"

"Yes. It sells quite well and I make a lot of money off that blood pill." He said with a sad droop to his shoulders.

"So what you\'re saying is you don\'t see me as a food source."

"NO!!!" He gave her a horrified look.

"So what do you say, hmmm?" She gave him an encouraging smile.

"About what?" He gave her a wary eye.

"Bite me.." She leaned her head over to one side and exposed her neck.