Blood Rose (18 page)

“But I’ve kissed you. I never-”

His brow rose skeptically. “Think clearly, Lianna. Pull the emotion away from the memory and think back to each kiss. Not to be crude but you couldn’t have noticed.” My eyes widened. He was right- my tongue never went past his lips.

Deep breath. “Are they retractable? How do I know they’re not implants?” After all I’d never noticed them before. My brows lift as I looked up at him curiously, staring at his mouth. “Can I touch one?”

Damien’s brow lifted skeptically. “You’re not serious. No, they aren’t retractable. You really
do
watch too many bad movies.” There was the look I’ve been all too familiar with throughout my life: Someone coming to the realization of my lacking sanity.

  My face scrunched. It hurt. Relaxed. But I still looked grumpy. Sigh. “Please? I just want to look.” My eyes widened just faintly. I could be really good at the pleading when need be. Probably not too successful looking all beaten to hell. No sad puppy faces when your eyes are black and your lips are double their normal size.

“Anna, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Really, you don’t understand how sharp they are.” His lips pressed to a hard line, concealing his teeth from me. He shook his head in disapproval.

“I won’t touch the very tip.” Slowly I scooted closer. I wanted to be near him but I wouldn’t let myself be close enough to cause him pain.

His brow creased deeply. Smirking slightly he crooked a finger at me. “You can come closer you know. It doesn’t bother me that badly any more. I’m getting used to it. Or are you afraid of me?” The smirk faded away.

It seemed mean but I laughed. “Not hardly.”

His brow arched skeptically. “Hmm. Prove it.” A mischievous glint caught in his eye as he spread his arms open expectantly. I love a good dare. Using my good leg and good hand, I maneuvered closer slowly. Our eyes locked. All the while, he seemed to be taunting me silently. It took a moment for me to manage but I crawled up into his lap.

It wasn’t until I was in his lap of my own accord that his arms locked around me, twisting me gently to make me more comfortable. “Much better. You’re such a strange little thing. Can’t say I don’t love that about you though. You are brave though I’ll give you that one.”

My eyes rolled. “Then why won’t you show me your fangs?”

“You’re sure about this?” I nodded sternly. He chuckled. “Alright fine. Your funeral.” He laughed as my eyes widened. “I’m kidding. Or am I? Still brave enough to find out?” I glared. His mouth opened and he gave a playful menacing nip at the air in my direction. After a moment, he spread his lips to let me have a full view.

I reached for him but paused after a second. “Okay, close your eyes. You’re looking at me funny.”

“I’m sorry, it’s not every day someone asks to touch my fangs.” He shook his head at the dark humor. You could see the question roll over him again wondering if I really was nuts. Probably.

“That and you did just accuse me of being one incredibly disturbed fraud. You know, that is just a bit insulting considering the evidence that you may I add, laid out before us just moments ago.”

“Well people do it! How could I know? Maybe I do believe you and I want to see them now. So close your eyes Vampire!” My lips were stuck between a smirk and a grin as I tapped on his fuzzy chin with my index finger lightly. “Come on open up.”

His laugh was a hard loud Hah! “So wait a second. You do indeed believe me then?”

“Well, I don’t know. Maybe. I mean, you’re not normal and it would sort of explain some things. Then again you won’t even let me see your teeth so how do I know they’re real?” To that he rolled his eyes.

“Okay! Fine, let’s say I believe you. I just have one question.” I rolled my eyes exaggeratedly, mocking him.

Damien’s eyes seemed to glimmer with amusement as he grinned teasingly. “Just one. You’re sure?” He was making fun of me. Hard glare.
Ow
. Soft glare.

“Aren’t there rules about you telling me all of this?” My hands were talking with my mouth again. “Or are you going to kill me now that you’ve told me all your secrets?” Sure, I looked like I was teasing. Kind of have to put up the protective wall when you talk about your impending doom and all.

“Oh I haven’t told you even half of them, sweetheart. And as for the other part, maybe I’ll get to that a bit later. Not real hungry just yet.” He winked, leaning back into the couch casually as his fingers played with a strand of my hair.

I gulped involuntarily, which made him laugh more openly. “So why are you telling me all of this?”

“I told you. I’m not going to lie to you anymore. If you ask, so be it. If you run? Well I have ways of taking care of that too. However, I don’t think you will. Though you’re right, I am surprised. You go from storming out half naked because you think I am lying about being a Vampire-”

My jaw dropped, eyes narrowing. “No no, do not interrupt. I want to get this straight. –then you accuse me of being one of those complete cult freaks you hear about on CNN. To taking a complete one-eighty, so suddenly you are in a moderately better mood- Don’t give me that look. And now and want to
play…
with my
fangs
.”

My wrapped hand was resumed creeping up his collarbone and closer to his neck to work my way to his mouth. “I’ll let you in on a secret. I’ve seen stranger things than most people ever have dreamed of, for my entire life and things far more disbelieving than you. Things that destroyed more than the better half of my life.” He flinched.

“Now finally something good is coming out of it.” His brow rose in a look of confusion. “You, Damien.” I sighed. He smiled faintly. “Anyways you said I was weird, now you know the full truth of it. Now shut your eyes and let me see them!”

Damien laughed deeply now. Laying his head back and closing his eyes, he opened his mouth slightly. How had I not seen them before? “So if I did cut my finger by accident what would you do?” I couldn’t help but ask. Trying to mentally distract myself from the much scarier things I had seen in my days.

“Eat you for dinner.” He smirked but kept his eyes closed.

“You’re such a liar.” My fingers brushed his lip slowly tracing the flesh from one end to the other. He shivered visibly. That made me smile for all I was worth. Pain be damned. Gently I pulled his lower lip down. His teeth snapped suddenly, missing the flesh purposefully. I jumped. In retaliation, I thumped him hard in the chest with my good hand and then tapped his lips expectantly with the other.

He chuckled, resuming for dental examination. My finger stroked carefully against the front of his bottom fang and ran up the length of it. “How’d you hide them before?”

You know you’re really something when a Vampire thinks you’re the freak. It took a lot of restraint not to touch the tip. A whole lot, trust me. I hovered over it for just a second before he started, carefully pulling away.

Finally I pulled back trailing my fingers down his lips and to his neck. “I learned to speak and hold my mouth in a manner that conceals them is all. Tell me something?” I waited with raised brows. “I just explained that you make me
hungry.
That doesn’t bother you? Your blood is what sustains my existence. I feed on blood like you eat chickens.”

He gave me a minute as if waiting for this to absorb. More so, I tried to think of a way to explain. “I’m not avoiding the question but let me ask you this. Do you think of me as a chicken?” My brow arched, amazingly I sounded as serious as I had intended.

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Does the idea of making out with a chicken appeal to you?” His eyes narrowed. He wasn’t sure how to respond. “There are many ways a person can be hungry, Damien… Even humans don’t only eat when they’re hungry. Some eat to fill themselves in other ways. The blood sustains your existence as you put it, the way food sustains mine. Are people not hungry for so much more? You fill me in a way that no meal ever could.” I laughed lightly shaking my head. “That sounds silly, doesn’t it?”

He smiled and lightly his lips brushed my jaw line. “No, I understand perfectly. You’re right. There is one thing that every creature hungers for no matter supernatural or otherwise. You do satiate that craving quite well.”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry. This is just as difficult for me to tell you as it is for you to take in. The way you’ve taken it. I didn’t know what to expect but certainly not for you to be so calm. So understanding.”

Gleaming peridot gems stared down at me with a curious sense of wonder. “I have seen the usual reactions. Usually it’s either intense fear or complete shock. Of course you did take some convincing.” His teasing smirk returned.

My eyes rolled. “Well, if you were going to eat me for dinner as you put it, seems like you would have done so by now at least. And come on, I’m a bigger abnormality than you are. Look at my legs.” I motioned down to my bare ivory flesh that had completely healed.

He didn’t respond other than gently running his hands up and down my shins soft as a stroking feather. It was my turn to shiver.

“So you’ve told other people then?” Yeah I know it’s really stupid to be jealous over something so trivial but cut me some slack.

Damien’s lips pulled into a smirk. “Just a few.” He glanced down at my legs and gently lift my good knee to raise up. Leaning down his lips lingered a kiss over a small scrape from my fall. “And yes they are abnormally beautiful.” Lowering my leg, he resumed stroking.

My cheeks warmed so much I had to look down.

“You’re sweet, considering ones swollen to double in size and black and blue. From my toes on up no less.”

In all regards, I was hideous. Aside from that, I didn’t need a mirror to know my face was abysmal and both my eyes were black by now too. Let’s not discuss the concave cheek and rat’s nest of hair on my head.

“Bruises heal, Anna. They change nothing.” A hand reached and placed under my chin. His eyes held mine. I could feel the strangest of tingles deep down, as if he were looking into my soul. The feeling was so intense my breath was caught.

His thumb stroked softly over my swollen stitched lip. “You’re beautiful, Anna. So incredibly strong. If it were possible for my heart to ever beat again, it would be for you, Lianna.”

I looked away from him. I needed time to process. Fear and doubt churned my stomach to challenge my fluttering heart.

“How did they react when you told them?” He seemed pretty good at keeping up with my jumping back and forth from topic to topic. I couldn’t help it. Vicodin makes me ramble a lot.

“Everyone’s a little different. Granted, there was one psychiatrist who thought I was mental also.” His brow lift and he gave me a rather crude accusatory look. I shrank down apologetically. Hey, I’d met Goth’s who tried to make people think they were Vampire’s before in my defense.

“No reaction has ever been the exact same of course. One individual went crazy however. They committed him. Sadly, this was in the early nineteen-twenty’s when they first started experimenting with lobotomies. I felt a lot of guilt for revealing myself to him. He hadn’t deserved that fate. Until you in fact, I’d sworn I would never tell another soul for as long as I lived.”

“It’s hard isn’t it? Keeping who you are secret.” He seemed mildly surprised by my reaction. Thoughtful. At last he nodded.

“I know it’s not the same thing, trust me I know. But I get it. I mean my entire life I’ve been taught to hide who I am. None of my friends know to this extent. Mother and Father never believed me. They said no one could ever know. My brother...” I shook my head. Couldn’t go there. Every time I thought of him, it hurt. It more than hurt.

“A few people know I have nightmares. Neesa. Her mother.” I cringed. “Anytime people find out anything near the truth they-” my voice broke. I looked away from him out the window. Not that I could see out. Deep breath. “Things don’t go well.”

Damien’s hand came up and brushed the hair from my cheek slowly. “I hope you feel comfortable enough with me that you don’t think you have to hide anything from me.”

I didn’t know what to say so I glanced at him and then back to the window. “I know that’s how I feel with you. I mean obviously, right?” He chuckled darkly. “But just the same I want you to know that I won’t ever keep secrets from you, Lianna. I have lied to you, yes but I will never do so again. I want you to trust me.”

Too intense. I took in a deep breath and let it out in a gust. “Okay then. So what’s it feel like to smell my blood? And what about sunlight? Why can you go out in the day?”

I had so many questions. If he wasn’t going to hide anything from me, I might as well ask them all I figured. “What about garlic and stakes? Silver?”

He sighed. I sure made him do that a lot. “Your blood is the best torture I could possibly imagine. I have a lot more self-control than most Vampires do however. Thus, the reason I can with stand it. Despite what it does to me.”

He watched me. Waited. I didn’t react. Then he continued, “As for sunlight we’re a good bit weaker. Hurts our eyes a lot more than it would yours. Imagine being in the dark for weeks then staring straight into the sun. We can get used to it and cope fine but it is always uncomfortable.

“Stakes and garlic, or silver and mirrors for that matter. All myths. We can be injured and die of course. Nothing is truly Immortal. We just have a gift for longevity. It takes a lot to bring one of us down permanently.”