Honeybites: a sapphic vampire romance novella (HONEYBLOODS #2), page 1
honeybites
I. S. Belle
contents
Content Warnings
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Thank you
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by I. S. Belle
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Copyright © 2024
All rights reserved.
Kindle eBook ASIN: B0CTC148SN
IngramSpark Print ISBN: 978-1-067-01410-0
KDP Paperback ISBN: 979-8-324-13936-0
content warnings
Violence, murder, gore, bullying, nonconsensual blood drinking, underage drinking, animal death, addiction, and once again, a surprising amount of vomit.
To every teenage girl who watched that Jennifer’s Body scene on repeat.
You know the one.
“Hell is a teenage girl.”
― Needy Lesnicky
chapter
one
Sadie Greer woke up dead.
White tiles gleamed overhead. Smooth porcelain curved against her back. She was propped up in a bathtub, smeared with dirt.
Sadie frowned up at the familiar ceiling tiles. She hadn’t been in this bathroom in years. They still had the Spice Girls mug holding the toothbrushes; bright pink bath bombs in a vase on the sink.
Honey Williams leaned into view, her strawberry blonde hair matted with filth.
“Took your time,” she said. “I had to knock you out, sorry not sorry. You kept trying to eat that birdwatcher.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Sadie tried to say. What came out was: “Whhhyalboo?”
Honey laughed. It sounded strained. A splatter of red blood highlighted her defined cheekbone.
Sadie’s stomach howled. She lurched up, smearing her open mouth against Honey’s cheek—
—only to be pushed back into the bathtub, Honey’s grip a vice around her shoulder.
“Calm down, snacky bitch. Didn’t you get enough?”
Sadie blinked. Her head throbbed, a strange patch of numbness clustering at the back of her skull. Memories started to trickle back from the last few bizarre weeks: burying a body. Agreeing to go on a road trip with her ex-best friend to murder the indie band who turned her into a vampire. All those grimy motel bathrooms. The disastrous last confrontation with the indie band when Honey’s sire escaped and Honey had to turn Sadie into a vampire before she bled out.
Then the long drive back home for senior year. Stopping at the side of the road to chase down a cow and drink it dry. Finally arriving in their hometown, Sadie unable to think about anything that wasn’t the ravenous roaring hunger for more.
Just a few deer, Honey had said as they cruised into town in Sadie’s van. Then I’m heading home and taking a shower. I don’t care if we don’t sweat anymore, I still feel gross.
Parking on the edge of town. Slinking through the woods. Chasing down a deer, then two, their throats opening so tenderly under Sadie’s fangs.
The memories blurred. Sadie remembered crouching, drinking, fur against her lips. Then a low gasp. Sadie had whipped around and seen—
She squeezed her eyes shut. “Did I…was that your ex-boyfriend’s dad?”
“Mr. Lu, looking for owls,” Honey confirmed. “What a nerd.”
She rubbed Sadie’s brow with a washcloth. It came away smudged with black blood. Sadie frowned again, another memory sliding into place:
Lunging. Mr. Lu screaming, the sound dim compared to the sweet noise of his shoulder ripping under her teeth. A pair of arms around her, yanking her back. Fighting back, trying to get back to the man’s bleeding shoulder, snarling and straining until finally a sharp pain exploded in her head and everything faded.
“You knocked me out,” Sadie mumbled, tongue thick.
“Uh-huh. Actually I, um…” Honey grimaced. “I kinda caved your head in with a rock?”
“You what?” Sadie lifted her hand toward the numb spot at the back of her head.
Honey caught it. “Everything’s totally fine,” she said, smiling like she did when she wanted a guy to focus on how hot she was and not how badly she messed up. “Hats are in fashion right now.”
She rubbed a thumb over Sadie’s hand. Sadie stared. Both their nails were crusted with black blood. Their wrists, too. Honey’s crop top was drenched with it.
“You caved my head in?”
“Well, you wouldn’t go down!” Honey threw Sadie’s limp hand back onto Sadie’s lap and picked up the flannel again. “Excuse me for not letting you murder Mr. Lu because he was stupid enough to go birdwatching at the worst time ever. Who goes into the woods at night, alone? Moron. He was asking to get murdered.”
She rubbed the flannel over Sadie’s face, scraping dirt and dead leaves.
Sadie swallowed. “But he’s not murdered, right? He’s alive?”
“What? Yeah, he’s fine. Summer’s already messaging me about her dad being in hospital. He’ll be out tomorrow.” Honey jerked her head toward the bathroom floor. Sadie twisted to see a laptop lying on the tiles, open to Facebook Messenger. Eighteen new notifications.
Honey rubbed the flannel harder into Sadie’s cheek, smearing black and red blood. “You didn’t even try to make it nice for him, by the way.”
“I still can’t figure out how to do the venom, okay? I get too into it.” Sadie took Honey’s wrist, halting her harsh rubbing. She leaned in and sucked on the flannel, tasting soap and tap water and a few drops of lukewarm blood.
“Ew, Jesus, stop.” Honey reached down and produced a bright pink thermos. She twisted the cap off, and Sadie’s eagerness faded to resignation as the scent wafted out.
“Raccoon,” Honey said. She tilted the thermos, letting Sadie see the warm blood slosh around the metal tube.
Sadie made a face.
Honey groaned. “Don’t be a baby! God. I was not this bad in my first week.”
“I had to stab you with a piece of mirror,” Sadie reminded her weakly.
“Whatever. Can’t wait until your restraint kicks in.” Honey swabbed Sadie’s neck, surprisingly gentle along her stark collarbones.
Sadie drank from the thermos, trying not to focus on the numb spot at the back of her head. She hoped her skull wasn’t open. She really hoped Honey didn’t take close-up pictures. She used to do that sometimes when they got injured, then excitedly show Sadie while she dry-heaved.
Sadie finished the thermos with a grimace. “How bad is it?”
Honey hummed so high the next words were guaranteed to be a lie. “Not that bad.”
“Great,” Sadie said flatly.
They froze. Footsteps echoed down the hall.
“Crap,” Honey said. She grabbed a towel and tossed it over Sadie’s sticky hair. Her laptop dinged in the background with yet another Facebook notification.
Sadie sat on the thermos. “What do we say?”
“Just…” Honey trailed off into a wince as the doorknob jiggled, the lock holding steady.
“Honey,” called Bree Williams wearily. “That’d better be you, otherwise we have some very incompetent burglars.”
“Better than competent ones,” Honey called.
“You didn’t drop by when you came in. I told you to say hi when you got home, even if I was asleep.”
Honey rolled her eyes hard. “Hiiiii mom!”
Sadie picked at her towel. There was something wet and sticky at the back of her neck. She reached to wipe it off, only realizing that might be a bad idea when she pulled her hand back and found a lump of flesh with hair on it, like she’d just picked up a piece of her own scalp.
“EW NO OH MY GOD!” Sadie flung the disgusting handful to the other end of the bathtub, where it landed with a splat.
Honey froze. Sadie didn’t freeze with her, too busy wiping her hand on the towel.
“Is someone in there with you?” The doorknob rattled again. “Wait a second, I know that shriek. Honey! Open this door and let me say hi to Sadie!”
Honey glared. Sadie glared back, still wiping the black chunks off her hand.
“Sorry I freaked out about touching my own detached scalp,” she hissed.
“Get over it, I barely nicked you!” Honey jerked the towel so it covered Sadie’s eyes and got up reluctantly to let her mom in.
Bree shuffled in with a tired grin. Her teeth were oddly white thanks to a mishap with teeth whitening strips, but otherwise it was the same smile Sadie had been on the receiving end of for so many years: wide and warm with too much gum. A white negligee hung loose at Bree’s hips, strawberry blonde curls bouncing against her freckled shoulders. She waved, and Sadie was struck by the mortifying realization that yes, she definitely had a crush on Honey’s mom while they were growing up.
“Mom, Sadie, Sadie, Mom,” Honey said, rushed. “There, you’ve seen her. Can we get back to it now?”
Bree ignored her, coming to sit on the lip of the bathtub and picking at Sadie’s dirt-streaked shirt. “You look awful. What the hell did you two get up to on that road trip?”
Sadie laughed awkwardly, averting her eyes like Bree might see all the bloody motel bathrooms and underage clubbing and murder if she looked close enough. Not to mention the open head wound under the towel.
Bree frowned, coaxing Honey closer so she could tweak her dirty hair. “Honey! It’s the day before school, we don’t have time to fix this!”
“It just needs a few washes, Mom. Quit freaking out.” Honey gave Sadie an exasperated look that catapulted her right back to childhood: they’d been in this scenario before, Honey giving them both a bad dye job the day before they went back from Christmas break in fourth grade. Honey had arrived halfway through the school day with her hair back to normal, and she’d dragged Sadie over to her house to dye it again before the week was out.
Bree dabbed at the black goo staining Sadie’s sleeve. “What even is this? Did you go roll in some…alien goo?”
“Wrong genre, mom. We’re in a really fucked-up romcom.” Honey rested her head on Bree’s shoulder, digging her chin in. “Get out please!”
“I’m getting, I’m getting. Excuse me for trying to catch up with Sadie after all these years.” Bree huffed and stood, hand hovering over Sadie’s shoulder like she wanted to squeeze it but didn’t want to risk the muck. Her smile was still warm, and Sadie shrank underneath it. Nobody had looked at her like that since she started failing tests and wearing baggy clothes. It filled her with a strange sense of dread. Like it was only a matter of time before she let Bree down.
“It’s so nice seeing you two having sleepovers again,” Bree said. “I can’t wait to tell the girls at work—”
Honey cut her off. “Don’t.”
Bree blinked, confused at the panic in Honey’s voice. Honey looked over at Sadie with a pointed stare as she wiped her cheek where the blood used to be. The blood Sadie had tried to lick off a few minutes ago.
Sadie’s cold heart sank. The man she’d attacked was alive. It was dark, but he had to have seen something. If she and Honey started spending time together, people might put those pieces together. People would already gossip like crazy without anybody getting attacked. Honey and Sadie had been laughing about it on the ride back into town.
Best gal pals back together, Honey had said, grazing a finger over Sadie’s mouth while she drove, pulling away when Sadie tried to bite it. I’m gonna make you cool, just you wait. You’ll be dating this year’s prom queen.
Sadie waited until Bree was gone. Honey knelt beside the bathtub again.
“Did he see us?”
Honey sighed, wiping grit from Sadie’s arms. “He didn’t have his night vision goggles when you ran at him, so…kinda. So far he’s saying it was two girls. I don’t know how much description he’s giving the cops, but I’m gonna bet he’ll shut up pretty fast. Cops will think he’s crazy, saying all this crap.”
Sadie laughed shakily. “It was two teenage girls from hell, officer!”
“One of them bit me and the other one tackled her and smacked her with a rock until she stopped moving,” Honey said in a nasally voice that made Sadie remember she had actually met Summer and Ken Lu’s dad, while she was waiting to get picked up after school on the rainiest day in freshman year. He’d asked Summer what she’d done that day, his nasally voice attentive and kind. He’d brought her an umbrella so she didn’t get wet running to the parking lot. Sadie’s fifteen-year-old self had ached for her mom. She’d sat there for another two hours before her dad finally pulled up, apologizing about missing her texts and not saying another word for the rest of the ride home.
Honey pulled Sadie’s face closer. Sadie moved obediently, and Honey rubbed the washcloth around her ears.
Sadie squirmed. “Oh my god, I can shower.”
“I’m just being attentive,” Honey complained, pinching her cheek. “Don’t you want an attentive girlfriend? Do you want me to leave you to clean your own weird vampire blood off of you when half your skull is showing?”
“’S not half,” Sadie protested.
Honey kept rubbing her ears. She looked oddly flustered.
“What?”
Honey shook her head. “We’re, like…we’re girlfriends, right? I mean, obviously we can’t be open now. I know we were gonna, but if we can’t even tell people we’re friends…”
Sadie grinned. Honey looked so sweet, all bumbling and nervous. She only got like this around something she really, really wanted.
Honey wanted Sadie. Years without talking and she’d broken into Sadie’s house to invite her on a murderous road trip. She’d kissed her blood into Sadie’s mouth, turning it into a lifeblood that brought Sadie back to her.
Sadie leaned in. Honey made a noise, soft and pleased, against her mouth. She tasted like iron and earth and the faintest trace of lip gloss. Her eyelashes fluttered as Sadie drew back, still self-conscious in a way Sadie rarely saw. The washcloth was draped around her wrist, forgotten.
Sadie tapped the freckles dotting Honey’s nose. “You’re so cute when you’re nervous!”
“Shut up.” Honey batted her hand away, then mimed biting it.
A scary thought made Sadie pull back. “The cops won’t come looking for us, right?”
“I told you, Mr. Lu didn’t—”
“No, like…back…” Sadie stared at her until it clicked.
“No,” Honey said. “Reddit says—”
“Oh, if Reddit says—”
“Shut up. Reddit says the cops are looking for the bassist.” Honey leaned over, closing her laptop. “There still aren’t a lot of articles out. Everyone’s being really quiet. There are already conspiracies.”
“Unless they try to drag us into it, I don’t care.” Sadie sighed, sagging against Honey’s shoulder. Honey remained strangely quiet for so long Sadie looked up. “Wait, are they dragging us into it? I know we ran off stage, but none of the articles mentioned us, so—”
“What?” Honey blinked, distracted. “No, nobody’s said shit about us. I just…”
She trailed off. Two vulnerable silences in one conversation. It was a night for miracles.
Sadie dug her chin into Honey’s shoulder. Honey groaned reflexively, as if that could hurt her anymore.
“It’s nothing,” Honey said in response to Sadie’s silent question. She let out a small, nervous laugh. “I kinda feel like I ruined your life a little bit.”
Sadie thought back to her life one month ago. In the guts of summer vacation, slowly becoming one with the couch, on another endless cycle of reruns and shoplifted vodka. Not talking to anyone for days at a time. The world narrowing into that shitty little living room, population: Sadie Greer.
The world was bigger now. Scarier and infinitely more uncertain—but bigger. She had her favorite person back, even if they were bound by a ravenous secret they couldn’t tell anyone about. Sure, Sadie had gone feral and ruined their chances of hanging out together. Sure, Sadie’s hunger still wasn’t calming down like Honey’s did. Sure, the future was uncertain and filled with terrors.
But she wasn’t alone anymore. She had Honey. That’s what mattered.
Sadie ignored the howling in her stomach and smiled.
“You didn’t ruin anything,” she said. She took Honey’s hand, their joined skin as cool as the bathtub porcelain. “I’m so happy to be here. Even with all the…”
She gestured down at herself, all the viscera left to clean up. “I’d still take my life now over the boring shitshow of three weeks ago.”
Honey snorted. She still looked uncertain, but it was hard to notice when she was smiling so prettily.
