Authors: Maya DeLeina
“You’re here!” A sense of relief washed over Steffan as he finished draping a black, silk sheet over Anya’s nude body. He secured another around his waist and moved from Anya’s side to allow Eilian to examine her.
“How long has it been?” Eilian asked as he hovered over Anya’s body, checking for signs of life.
Steffan ran his fingers through his hair as he looked at the clock.
12:38 a.m.
Tears returned to consume him. “Shit, it’s been over fifteen minutes now.”
“And she didn’t show any signs of coming back or least attempting to?”
“None! Eilian, I can’t remember any documented account where it took longer than eight minutes for a claimed human to return to their body. Is she gone?”
“I don’t know, Steffan. I’ve heard stories of human claims taking longer, but I’ve never seen it documented either. There just isn’t much out there on human-vampire claims.” Eilian shook his head. “Look, we need Rhys here. I want to know everything that happened to Brynne when he claimed her.”
Steffan slipped his jeans on under the black, silk sheet as he called Rhys to the house. In a matter of minutes, Rhys was in the master bedroom with Steffan and Eilian.
“Brynne only took six minutes to come back, but it was the worst six minutes of my life.” He looked at Steffan’s distraught shell clinging to Anya’s hand.
“Sorry, Steffan.”
Steffan kept his gaze focused on Anya. He nodded in response to the apology.
“Listen, I told Brynne what was going on. She told me something about her turning that could be happening to Anya. And if it is, man, is she going to be one special lady.”
“What do you mean?” Steffan asked, breaking his trance.
“Brynne said that before she returned to her body, she
suspended,
her mind and body were trying to learn everything she had acquired from the turning. Brynne seems to think that if Anya is taking this long to come back, she might have a gained quite a bit of unique abilities.”
“So, if she is truly just suspended, that would mean her body may have already made the change. She is probably in a vampire body by now so…” Eilian trailed off as he started pacing the room.
“What are you thinking?” asked Steffan.
“Well, I want to test to see if this is in fact what is happening to Anya. I want to know if she’s just in a suspended state right now. If the claim was successful, her body should already have turned and we’re just waiting for her to return to get everything, how should I say…up and running?”
Steffan nodded. “Okay. How do you want to test this?”
“Steffan, you’ll have to break a bone. Repair mechanisms are the only thing we can see with the naked eye at this point.”
Steffan looked at the clock, closed his eyes, and took in a deep breath.
12:43 a.m.
He released his breath slowly as he lifted Anya’s arm to his chest. He opened his eyes and planted a soft kiss on her hand. He held her pinky finger firmly in his hand.
“Steffan, you’ll need to test on a bigger bone. We won’t be able to see much of anything on the small bone. It could even be an internal mend,” Eilian said.
Steffan nodded in understanding and guided his hands up to Anya’s forearm instead. He repositioned himself, kneeling on the bed. He remained next to her body and closed his eyes. “Eilian, I don’t think I can do this.” Steffan’s voice was tattered and flustered.
“You have to. We have to see if her body’s properties have turned to truly understand what’s going on here.”
“Let me try to communicate with her once more.” Steffan concentrated, and this time, slowly he picked up the bright lights and white noise. “I hear white noise, and the blinding light is back. She’s still with us! I’ve picked this up from her before!” Steffan exclaimed in relief.
“Then that means her body will repair itself. Do it, Steffan. Do it now!” Eilian demanded.
Steffan closed his eyes and squeezed his two hands around Anya’s arm, one near her wrist and the other just below her elbow. He slowly rotated his fists. The bone started to fracture, echoing in the room as if sheets of ice were cracking under a heavy snow boot. Steffan continued his motions, swiveling his wrists all the way up until his thumbs faced the ceiling. His face exhibited every grief-stricken emotion that consumed him.
“Forgive me, Anya! Please, forgive me.” Steffan took a deep breath and applied the last bit of pressure and force that sent him over the edge “Fuck!”
Thwack!
The unmistakable sound filled the room.
The fierce snap made Rhys and Eilian’s body jump.
Steffan’s skin crawled.
Without hesitation, thin, black veins crept from Anya’s heart, through her shoulder, and down her arm. Her body’s new natural defenses were employed. The delicate webs traveled with ease just beneath the surface of her skin and congregated at the break.
Eilian let out a sign of relief. Steffan remained kneeling above Anya’s body, his head slumped to his chest. Eilian reached out to comfort him and put his hand on Steffan shoulder. “Her body has turned, Steffan. You didn’t damage her. We’ll just have to await her return.”
12:48 a.m.
Twenty-five minutes after she died, Anya’s eyes flew open.
A wheezing sound pierced the room and she struggled for air. Her eyes rolled back violently in her head as her body jerked brutally in the bed. Her veins protruded under the skin as if an engine had started, sending her blood pumping through her body. Steffan tried to hold the sheets that covered her body in place, but the force of her reflexes exposed her inch by inch.
“Leave us!” Steffan screamed out, and Eilian and Rhys quickly exited the room.
Anya’s body spasms slowed, and her eyes froze open. Steffan leaned in, waiting for the color inversion to take place. He closed his eyes, begging and pleading that the heart of the woman he had grown to love would maintain its purity in her vampire existence.
He opened his eyes and watched the show.
Anya’s eyes remain unchanged. The white retained its brilliance against her seductive brown eyes.
Anya took a deep breath in and blinked. “Steffan?”
“Anya, my love. You’re back! You had me so worried!” Tears of joy and relief streamed down Steffan’s face. He reached for Anya and cradled her close to his chest. “I thought I’d lost you.” He whispered into her ear.
“I was so scared.” Anya was crying, gasping. “Wait! I remember! I remember you, Steffan!” Anya said, sitting up in the bed.
Steffan released Anya and sat next to her. He began firing a series of questions in an effort to test her human retention. “Who is Anya?”
“Me! I remember my name!” Anya exclaimed with a childlike innocence.
“Where is Michelle?”
“She’s resting, down the hall. She won’t wake till tomorrow evening. Chloe is with her father and he won’t drop her off until Sunday afternoon…” Anya stopped short in her explanation, her eyes widening in amazement of her recall.
“Good, Anya! Your memory is so vivid!”
Anya’s smile slowly faded, “My family, Steffan. They’re all dead.”
Steffan shook his head as he focused on Anya’s thoughts. The blaring light was still overpowering, marring his ability to see the vignette of her family members and the tragic events that followed.
“I was all alone,” Anya said, shaking her head. She turned to Steffan as she recalled his past with Arianell and his child. “You lost your family. You were all alone, too!”
“Yes. But we are mates. We are each other’s family now.” Steffan held her hand and placed a delicate kiss on her flesh.
“I’m a vampire,” Anya stated.
“Yes.”
“I died. I’m no longer human.”
“Yes,” Steffan continued to confirm Anya’s statements.
“What color did my eyes turn?”
“White—just as I suspected.”
“Now I will never age, never get sick…Live forever.”
“Yes, that’s the plan, my love.”
“What happened to
me
? My soul?”
“It’s still with you. It will always be with you.”
“My mind. It is still me in here, too?”
“Anya, you are you. Mind and soul.”
“But my body, it’s not me. It’s different.”
“Of course.”
Steffan waited for another statement of reality, a question of realism from Anya, but she remained quiet in her trance.
“Tell me, what’s the first thing you want to do as a vampire?” asked Steffan.
Anya turned to Steffan, her eyes glowing passionate red. “Make love to you with my vampire body.”
* * * *
She took pleasure in the sensation of the smooth river rocks under the balls of her feet. She tiptoed and bent over slightly, affording Steffan the perfect angle to penetrate her deeply from behind. The inconsistency of the rocks on the floor, their shapes, sizes and height variances, probed at her aches, like a trigger-point massage.
He plunged himself slowly and deeply into her in a rhythmic dance. Warm water surged from the body sprays that circled the walls of the travertine shower. His hands glided up her back and settled in a tight grasp on her shoulders. Anya steadied herself and tested her flexibility and balance, arching her shoulders backward to Steffan’s chest. The curvature of her back pitched her chest outward, putting her wet breasts on full display, brisk in their movements from Steffan’s demand on her body. He kneaded her luscious mounds, driving more intently into her as Anya’s palmed the side of the glass shower door for stability.
Steffan suddenly stopped, a dead silence between them.
Anya, can you hear me?
Steffan reached into her mind as he remained behind her, buried deep inside her heat.
Oh my god, I hear you
!
Everything tingled as Steffan’s voice resonated through her mind and body. The feeling was inexpressible.
Your voice is vibrating in my head, vibrating everywhere. I’ve never felt anything like this before. Is my voice clear?
Crystal
.
Steffan slipped his cock from her warm pussy and nudged himself upward into her crevice, rubbing his cock up her backside, rimming her entry.
My love, can you feel what I am longing for, see what I am craving?
Anya’s body quivered.
She could feel the depth of his desire burning through him. She saw every explicit detail of his fantasy. Whether there was a
psychological or physiological reason behind it, she had never pursued such a taboo act with any partner before
. She was, by her measurement, a good girl. She was timid really when it came to her sexuality. And this was certainly not an act a woman of her capacity would ever dream about doing.
Until Steffan came into her life, that is.
It was one of those things, either a woman hated it or loved it. All of Anya’s systems seemed to already register a pure fondness for the experience, although she and Steffan had yet to dive into that sexual realm. It was the naughtiness of it all, the ability to elevate their pleasure and deepen their connection to one another that held credence, rousing both of them to explore the depths of sexual variety and experimentation privately.