Blood Dolls by Sophie Stern

back to life as something more, something else. Something darker.
    Samuel still remembered his life as a human. Many of the vamps in the house didn’t. A lot of them, once they shifted, forgot what they were before . A lot of them forgot what it meant to be human. A lot of them forgot the little things.
    The touch of grass beneath his feet, or the smell of a flower, or the way a child laughed: these were all things that made him feel human, real. Samuel remembered.
    But when you became a vampire, something changed deep inside of you. Those little moments became few and far between. You didn’t want them, crave them anymore. You wanted something else instead. You wanted something carnal, something darker.
    You wanted the sultry, the sexual. You needed it. You didn’t have time to smell the roses because you were too busy fucking them. It was a craving so intense Samuel wasn’t sure how he handled it.
    That was where the dolls came in.
    He wasn’t interested in hunting. Some vamps got off on that. They liked to find people to feed from, to feast upon. They liked to kill and maim. They liked to scare. He didn’t. He wasn’t about that. Maybe he was lazy or maybe he was just more human still than he wanted to admit.
    It wouldn’t do for him, a big bad vamp, to admit he still cared. It wouldn’t be good for his image for him to admit he still had things he thought were important. That wasn’t the way to get respect. That wasn’t the way to prove how in control of himself and his men he was.
    The truth was that Samuel had to be in control. He couldn’t afford to let his mask slip. Where would he be without it? He’d lived in this vampire world for nearly a century and only once had he loved someone so deeply he almost staked himself.
    Harper.
    He had spent the last fifty years dreaming of her, thinking of her, missing her. He had spent half a century brooding over her. He had told Gordon again and again that he’d never find anyone like her, and he had been right.
    Only now, as Samuel sat as his desk watching Celia sleep, he knew he didn’t need to find someone like Harper. He had found someone different, someone better. He had found someone who completed him in a different way, a better way. He found someone who made him feel different things, interesting things, things he didn’t think he was capable of feeling.
    Celia made him feel curious and passionate and hungry for something other than just sex. Oh, she hadn’t staked his hunger. That would never be satisfied, but she’d given him something else to look forward to than just sex.
    She’d given him a little bit of her heart, and he loved that.
    It frightened the fuck out of him, but he loved it.
    He loved her.
    He loved Celia.
    She wasn’t just a doll to him.
    He loved her.
     
     
     

Fourteen
     
     
    “There’s a party tonight,” Jade told Celia. They were in the bath together. They’d stopped bathing separately after they’d slept together for the first time. After that experience, there had been no secrets between them. They’d grown close, and the vampires in the mansion hadn’t seem to mind that two of the dolls enjoyed playing together when they weren’t feeding anyone.
    “Am I going?” Celia squeaked. She splashed the water in excitement and a few of the bubbles went over the side of the tub.
    “Of course,” Jade laughed. “But stop the messing. Seriously, someone is going to have to clean up this mess, and it’s not going to be me.”
    “Yes,” Ariana said from her spot in one of the other tubs. “You’re being a bit ridiculous, sweetie. It’s only a party.”
    They all burst into laughter and finished bathing. Celia tried not to ask too many questions, but she couldn’t help herself. There had been a few parties since she’d come to the house, but nothing like tonight. Nothing that involved the use of the theme rooms.
    She’d seen most of them, but always when they were empty. She wondered what the rooms would look like when