Authors: Faleena Hopkins
It felt as though he’d found the one thing he’d been
searching for his entire life.
He felt the blood filling up each of his veins one by
one, the vibration intense and burning.
It felt like the strongest orgasm he’d ever had. It multiplied to levels
he almost couldn’t take.
Like she
had done, he lifted her and lapped into her wound. His strength gained rapidly
as he devoured her. It was his and her blood together, her blood baptizing his
own.
She’d changed it and poured it
back into him. He understood and accepted it, as his embrace grew rough and
hungrier.
She held him and
whispered to him and gave him permission.
As she felt her own body weakening, she completed the
cycle and sunk her teeth in him and locked back onto his neck.
He gasped at the feeling of sexual
pleasure and they became two lovers exchanging their life force, melding their
souls. Every molecule within him caught fire, from the bottoms of his feet to
the follicles on his head, each pounding like they had their own heartbeat. His
eyes cleared and he could see every strand of her hair separately now, defined
and shining.
He nuzzled deeper into
her and she moaned against him and did the same, their arms tightening.
The bond that would now hold them to
each other sealed forever, come what may.
It was she who pulled away first and gently unhinged him
from her neck.
He reached toward
her and she smiled and shook her head.
“Look around you.
What do
you see?” She stood and stepped just a bit away, leaving him still kneeling on
the floor in front of her, his mouth still open, blood smeared on his face, his
lips, and his shirt.
He rose as though an invisible chord had pulled him up.
It looked inhuman because it was.
The room had come to life in his transformation.
The particles of the walls moved. He
could see splinters in them.
The
lights shone more brightly and had halos around each one. He pointed to a paint
splotch on the floor and said, “Look!” She followed his eyes and saw some of
what he saw.
It looked like art to
her but each vamp is different and has a different perspective.
She nodded and smiled, absently touching
the wound on her neck.
He looked
and watched as her wound healed.
“That’s
incredible.”He
touched his own neck
and felt the open wound, waiting for it to heal. It didn’t change and he looked
at her with a child’s dismay.
“It will take more time.
I’m older.
Things happen more quickly as you get
older, even though time seems to slow for us. Right now, your blood is still
changing.
The rapid healing will
begin over the next couple days. And as time goes by, it will be as fast as
mine.
You can slow it down with
your mind like I’m about to do.” He watched with great interest as she walked
to him, bit into her own wrist and let two drops slide through the slits toward
her.
He leaned forward to eat and she held him back. “No, not
to drink.
This is how we cover our
tracks.” A mirror covered the perimeter of the bar and she turned him toward
it.
His eyes widened as he saw
himself for the first time, the blood stained shirt, the streaks on his mouth
and neck.
The wound. He walked
forward.
His eyes had become an
even lighter blue.
He watched as
she painted her blood from her wrist onto the wound on his neck with her
finger, sealing it in seconds.
“In
a couple days your blood will have healing power, too.
“Look at my eyes,” he said grinning.
“They look like when I look into the
sun!”
This startled her and she looked closely, her interest
piqued.
They did look lighter and
crystal clear but she didn’t know what he meant. “What do you mean?”
“You know how when you look into the sun, your pupils
turn into pinpoints and it looks like your entire eye is the color blue.
Or caramel in your
case.
Or maybe molasses?
God, look at your eyes,”
he said turning to her.
“I can see
every color and shade in them now.
They look like fire.
You’ve
got the sun in your eyes, Daniella.” Her breath caught in her throat. She was
speechless.
She was about to tell him he could not see the sun again when
a sound from outside pierced his senses, visibly distracting him.
His hearing was improving, fast, and she
listened for what he’d heard. “Do you hear that?” he asked, excitedly. He took
a step or two toward the door, looked down, stopped, and felt his thighs.
“They’re growing stronger,” he said,
reaching down and touching them. “I can feel my muscles growing stronger!” He
touched his arms and looked like he’d just discovered gold.
Watching him discover himself through his new gifts made
her happy.
Because he was a man, he
experienced things differently than she.
Her first impression had been that she was so soft, her skin, her hair.
His, that he was hard.
She smiled
and looked to the world to imagine what it must look like through his
eyes.
She thought of Elizabeth and
wondered if she’d had as much fun watching Dani when she was made.
Elizabeth. The memory of her sire’s
proclamation snapped reality into focus for Dani.
She looked at Adrian with fresh
perspective and realized she must put her mind to the task of what to do,
next.
She hadn’t planned this.
Not consciously, certainly not for that
night and not there.
She would
never have guessed she possessed such insanity and impulsiveness to turn a
human in a public place. What would she tell Elizabeth?
Where would he sleep?
She had to trust him with her home and
The Safe.
She swept fear out of her
mind, thinking; screw it.
I’ve come
this far.
I’m not turning back.
What’s the worst that can happen?
“You need to finish counting your drawer.
It’s time to leave.
We have to reach my house before dawn.”
The way his eyes questioned hers she knew what he was thinking, and said, “Yes,
that part is true, we can’t go into the sun.
I’ll tell you the rest on the way.”
“I don’t need to count the fucking drawer.
Let’s get out of here.”
“No.
You need
to count the drawer.
People will
wonder what happened to you. The fewer questions asked, the better. I didn’t
mean to do this, at least not here, and we need to cover our tracks.
The blood is gone from the floor so
we’re alright there.” He looked down to see
she was right
,
all the streaks were gone
.
“It cleans up after itself.
It protects itself, and us. Since mine
was mixed with yours it took a bit longer, but then… poof,” she smiled.
He grinned and looked for evidence, walking around in
circles.
The 70’s rain/oil lamp
stole his attention, hypnotizing him with the slow droplets of oil and how the
light refracted through it.
Shaking
her head, she flashed to him in less than a heartbeat and put her hand gently
on his chest. “Adrian.
Focus. I
know you want to explore, but you know what would be really great?
If you checked out how quickly you can
count the money now that you’ve got super human speed.”
He laughed his fast burst of laughter she liked so much,
and excitedly zipped across the room and picked up the forgotten stack of
20’s.
He counted with the speed of
a machine, not a man.
The sound of
the bills brushed against each other like a hummingbird’s wings.
The 20’s, 10’s, 5’s… all shuffled and
counted with the same speed and agility, his mind easily adding the numbers,
then following suit with the coins. Pen to paper scratched out the night’s
balance, and he was done.
“This is incredible. What else can I do?” he said,
turning to her.
“We’ll find out, won’t we?” She smiled mischievously back
at him.
“Are there cameras here?”
They both shared a look, acknowledging how much that would have sucked, but he
shook his head no, and promised they were in the clear.
As they headed towards their respective cars, she
stopped.
He stopped too, and in his
eyes she could see he was processing a hundred things at once.
She told him they should take one
car, that
she should drive, because the distractions
endangered him.
If his senses got
pulled in any direction but her home, he would find himself dying at daybreak.
“Okay, well, I have to move my car off the street.
I’ll put it in the parking lot.
It’ll be fine there.”
“Will someone wonder why your car is here all day?”
“Nah, they’ll just think I got lucky last night.
With you.
Ha!”
“That you did.”
“That I sure as hell did!”
Laughing, he jumped in his car and moved
it into the lot.
Daniella looked at
the sky and fear clawed at her.
The
desire to protect him was strong, an after effect she had not anticipated.
How could she have?
She’d not even admitted to herself that
she wanted to give him the gift.
If
she’d played the tape through, she would have handled this so much better, with
fewer questions, and a strong plan.
As it was, she was flying by the seat of her pants.
She had never given thought to what
making a vampire would feel like.
He was like lover and child, though she would never confess to him the
latter he was too masculine to ever picture himself as a child.
But she felt the need to protect him as
if he were her own.
She knew she
would do anything to keep him safe, and that he now came first.
“It’s a good thing you’re driving because just pulling
into the parking lot…I was like, woohoooo!!” He jumped into her Jeep and they
took off, speeding toward the 10 freeway. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but
you might want to slow down so we don’t get pulled over.”
“We don’t have time to slow down. Can you see the light
changing in the sky?”
“No, it still looks dark to me.”
“Well, I can,” she said, and turned onto the Robertson
Street entrance, merging onto the 10 as fast as she could go. The connection to
him was palpable.
She could hear
his heart beating as if it were in her own chest. Her mind began to spin. From
the corner of her eye she saw him massaging the dashboard, sensually running
his fingers across its texture, and she laughed.
She laughed from relief and from joy
and, above all else, at her own audacity at what she’d done.
They hit 90 mph and she turned on the radio, flipping
through a playlist for Led Zeppelin’s Whole
Lotta
Love, turned it up loud, which sent Adrian into an air guitar wonderland as he
sang along at the top of his lungs with Robert Plant. The top still off the
Jeep, the air whipped through them as they hit 100mph.
She didn’t want to go faster in fear of
tipping them over when they took the off-ramp.
“It’s not cold!” he yelled out and stood up on his seat,
yelling, “YEAH!” over and over.
She could feel the layers of years of numbness lift off
her soul. She soaked in the skyscrapers again, the beauty of them - their
shape, their symmetry, how they glittered and the impossibility of their
heights. She pointed them out and he joined her, in awe.
She felt the air whipping her hair. Her
skin felt alive, awake, thrilled. Her eyes cleared – everything looked
crisp. His laughter gave her goose bumps. The music, the sheer genius of music
captured and held for them to enjoy on a tiny little box that made no sense, it
was once again magical. Her ears could hear the delicate changes in the songs
again, could appreciate the genius of the artists who wrote them.
He pointed out to her each instrument
and how they added this or that quality.
She followed his ears and his words and let her mind open.
They sped off her exit, taking the off-ramp as fast as
she allowed herself to safely go.
On the surface roads, the streetlamps danced for her, too, as he
excitedly yelled for her to look at them.