by L J C Fynn
That was it. I had no pills left.
I saw feet in my vision before I actually saw his face.
I felt the sensation of being picked up but didn’t bother protesting. I had no fight left in me.
He laid me back on the bed. “What can I do for you?”
I reached in deep and somehow managed to get sound out of my mouth. “Make it stop.”
“I’ll go and find you pills.”
“I don’t know if I have time for that.” My body was shivering again, and my skin was hot to touch.
I watched Damien pace the room and hit the wall with a loud crack. His fist left a huge whole in the sheetrock. “Damn it.” He resumed pacing and pushed his dark hair out of his eyes. He suddenly stopped and turned to face me with hard eyes. His lips were stretched tight across his metal fangs. “I know how to make it stop.”
I didn’t know what I was agreeing to. I just knew that I either needed to die or make the pain stop. I couldn’t live with this agony any longer.
He climbed into bed behind me and wrapped his body around mine. Once he settled in, his breath was on my neck, his mouth on my ear. “As a vampire, once teeth enter the skin, a fluid secretes out that causes pleasure. That is why so many humans allow vampires to bite them. The feeling is so much more intense than sex, it becomes a mind-and-body experience. The vampire gets fresh blood, and the human experiences the closest thing to heaven while being alive.”
He ran his lips down my neck, which caused my hairs to stand up on end. I knew, without looking, where he stopped. I felt my blood pumping with every heartbeat. He stopped at my rapidly beating pulse.
“What makes me different is that I can choose to how to deliver my bite. I can give you pleasure or just kill you. You would be miserable as I drained every ounce of blood from you.”
He ran his tongue up and down my neck several times. “I usually don’t take blood straight from the source because my venom is so different. But with you, I can’t control myself. If you ask, I will give you everything. I know your body has been fighting the change, rejecting the change, and it has been killing me to watch your body slowly kill itself. I know this isn’t what you had in mind, but I am taking your choice away. Hate me tomorrow; I don’t care. At least you will be alive.”
Damien lightly ran his fangs down my neck, until he was right over my carotid artery. The bite itself only hurt for a second, but as his saliva seeped into my skin, all the pain in my body disappeared. I felt the blood pump from my body into to his mouth. Cool air hit my skin when he released my neck. By the time I adjusted to his absence from my neck, he pushed his bloodied wrist in my face. My body was so weak from the torture I’d been putting it through, and now from the lack of blood, I couldn’t refuse him.
He pushed his wrist to my mouth, and, on instinct, I swallowed every bit of essence he offered.
I heard him groan the moment his blood touched my tongue. “Drink. Take what you need,” he said against my neck as he ran his tongue over his bite, using his saliva to close my wounds.
For the first time in a few months, I felt great. Once my wounds were closed, I felt the bed shift behind me. I looked up at him. He was sitting up behind me with his head thrown back and eyes closed. As hard as it was, I pulled away from his wrist.
“Did you get enough?” He opened his eyes and looked down at me, lifting his wrist to his mouth and sealed his wound shut.
He moved like he was going to get up, but I grabbed his arm. “Did you mean what you said?”
Damien turned and looked at me. “Every single word.”
If this were a few minutes ago, I wouldn’t have had the energy to do this. Now, not a thing could stop me. The world be damned. I jumped up and placed my lips on his. He was only shocked for a second, and then he matched my urgency with his tongue. His mouth only left mine when we shed our clothes. He pushed me back down onto the bed and moved his mouth down to my breast.
His hands moved even farther down, where I was already wet and waiting for him. His blood caused every part of my body to have extra sensitivity. I could feel its essence running through my veins. Everywhere he touched became an erotic zone. I have never felt anything like it. When his fingers entered me, there was not a part of me that didn’t feel his touch.
He kissed his way his way down to my inner thighs. He continued his pace with his finger as he ran his tongue over veins in my inner thigh. When his fingers took me over the edge, he bit into the vein on my leg. I had never felt anything like this. My body pulsated from the climax, and at the same time, my blood was pulsing into his mouth. I was experiencing so much, I couldn’t even moan. I just lay there, fisting the sheets and riding out every spasm my body had to offer.
He slowly made his way back up my body, and pushed in just a little.
He was moving too slow, so I wrapped my legs around him and pushed him in all the way. Damien leaned over me as he pumped his body in and out, forcing me into yet another, different kind of spasm. Not intense like it was a few moments ago, this time was sweet. When my body starting milking his, he moaned, and I felt his rhythm become more erratic as he was getting close to his own orgasm.
I couldn’t think of anything else when he finally let himself go. I latched onto his neck and bit hard with my blunt teeth. I swallowed his blood as he let loose inside me. He bowed his back and groaned deep within his body as he gave me both blood and pleasure.
Chapter Six
The Truth
I woke up on my side next to an already awake Damien. I lost track of how many times he brought me pleasure over the past day, and I was getting hungry. He was tracing circles on my hip. I looked down. The colors on the tattoo looked more vivid last night.
I gasped and sat up. “What time is it?”
“Close to dusk. Why?” He sat up with me.
I jumped out of the bed and threw on my clothes. “We got to go. My fight is tonight.”
Damien slowly got up and wrapped his arms around me. “You don’t have to fight anymore.”
“If I don’t show up tonight, there is no telling what Faith will do to me. Besides, I need my pills. Even though I felt better than I have in a long time, I don’t know how long I will feel this way without my pills.” I pushed Damien back and challenged him as I stared into his eyes.
He didn’t argue with me. Damien dropped his arms from around me and walked toward the door. “Let me get dressed and don’t leave without me.”
Even though it was still snowing out, we got to the storage building faster than normal. New York was eerily quiet tonight, and the air felt thick.
The storage building was bustling and full of vampires. Faith was in her normal location, just outside the cage. It looked like she was taking bets. Inside of the cage was a man sitting on a stool. He was younger looking than the other vampires I fought in the past, and he didn’t have much muscle. In fact, it didn’t look like he’d fought a day in his life.
I might as well as get this over with. I took a deep breath, left Damien’s side, and entered the cage. The moment I did, cheers from the vampires erupted. The man looked up at me when the locks clicked into place, but didn’t get off his stool. I walked closer to him, and he finally stood up. He moved his fist in front of his face, like how a kid would do in their first fight. He closed his eyes and swung first.
I easily stepped out of the way, and out of reflex, I popped him in the nose with a punch of my own. Normally, I didn’t hit a vampire because the only way to really maim them was through death; everything else was fun and games. When I looked at my fist, there was blood on my knuckles. The man looked back at me with blood pouring from this nose.
Holy shit, he was human.
I reached up to my teeth because my gums were burning. My fingers stopped as unfamiliar fangs form from my canine teeth, protruding under my lips. My heart dropped when realization hit me. Damien turned me into one of them last night.
I was turned into the one thing I never wanted to become—a vampire.
Moaning from the boy snapped my attention to the fight. He was holding his nose as blood seeped out from around his fingers. I smiled as the smell of his blood was all I could think about. I was so hungry. I walked closer to him, following his scent.
“Teeka…” I was close enough to reach the boy, but stopped when I heard Damien’s voice again. “Teeka, don’t!” I turned to Damien, as he was banging on the outside of the cage trying to beat the metal down.
“Teeka, you don’t want to do this,” he said so softly, that I had to strain to hear above the noise in the unit.
“Why wouldn’t she?” Faith voice sounded as if she were right behind me.
I turned around, and, even though she was further away from me than Damien, she sounded much closer. “Why wouldn’t I what?”
She was so beautiful, it was hard to remember why I didn’t like her. “Kill Rex, the human behind you. Come on, your secret is out. You want nothing more than to drain him. Do it. He is the reason you are in this predicament. He is the one that has been supplying you the fake pills. His is the one who forced that half-breed over there to turn you into a vampire.”
I stepped toward her, but Damien’s voice stopped me. “That is Blythe’s son. If you continue, it would be bad on Rafe. Is that how you want to pay him back for getting you out of New Paris?”
I looked back to Faith. “You were planning this the whole time, weren’t you?” I was expecting her to fight, maybe even deny me. I thought she would say something to keep us here. Instead, she just opened the lock and let the three of us walk out.
Once we were outside, Damien turned to Rex’s retreating form, before he walked completely away from us, and said, “You might want to rethink your current actions. Most of New Paris is looking for you, and you aren’t going to like what will happen if they find you before Blythe. It is not worth it, Rex. Trust me.”
Chapter Seven
A beginning
The streets were clear as we made our way back Damien’s home. He was calm until the door shut behind us. Then, he was a flurry of motion. “I can’t protect you here. We have to leave.”
“Why?”
Using his fast vampire motions, he had us packed in a matter of minutes. “We have to leave because Faith will not let us just walk away. She probably already has her revenge marked out. We need to leave before word gets back to New Paris. Rumor has it there are big things about to come down on New York, and we don’t be here when that happens.”
I had nowhere else to go, so I followed him outside. “I can fight for myself.”
He turned back around to me and pushed me up against the side of his house. “Don’t you think I know that already? I can’t watch you fight anymore. It kills me a little every time. For once, let me supply you the blood. For fuck’s sake, let me protect you, Teeka.”
He released me and grabbed our stuff, then held out his free hand.
I took a deep breath and grabbed it. I watched his profile as we walked. “Where are we going to go?”
He smiled, leaned in, and kissed me on the cheek. “Somewhere nobody gives a flying fuck what I am and who you were.”
Just like that, Damien and I left New York hand in hand, headed to a new beginning for both of us.
Part Five:
Once Human
Chapter One
“I can wait outside…”
“…No.” I could not even get out my sentence before two sets of voices told me ‘no.’
We have returned back from New York for three weeks, and neither Rafe nor Damien have let me leave Rafe’s house alone.
I respect Rafe. I always would, he did save my life after all. Three long weeks was enough to try anyone’s patience. “They probably don’t even remember who I am.”
Even though only a year ago, Rafe’s skin was covered in skeletal tattoos. Without regular silver-laced touch ups, his skin healed itself. Rafe looked every bit of his Spanish descent without the ink. If it weren’t for the hard line of his lips, he would have an almost baby face. With his ink, he looked mean as hell. Rafe took off his shirt and laid down on the table Damien set up. Rafe turned his face and watched me as Damien rigged his tattoo machine to insert equal amounts of silver and black ink.
Damien was in his zone, Rafe and I might as well not have been here.
I rubbed my hip, already missing my faded tattoo. I thought I would be different and his beautiful work would stay. I thought when Damien almost turned me back in New York, the rules wouldn’t apply to me. My fangs and cravings didn’t last long. Unlike all the rest of the infected, Damien could temporarily turn me and, for all intents and purposes, I was a vampire. It only took a matter of a few hours, and I was human again—cramps and all.
We weren’t sure if it was Damien’s half-blood or my fucked-up genetics that were not allowing me to fully change. Rafe volunteered on a few occasions to turn me, but we weren’t sure what the result would be. I still had mixed feelings about becoming fully infected, if that were the side effect of Rafe’s blood. Here we were, scavenging for pills and, when supplies were low, Damien’s blood was giving me a small reprieve from the cramps by temporarily turning me.
I grabbed a chair and scooted it to the other side of the table. The buzzing of the machine took over the sound of the room. Even while I walked away from the them, not once did Rafe stop watching me. It was unnerving to have someone blatantly watch me. “I am serious you two. I will only step outside this door.”
Why was he watching me?
“Not necessary.” Finally, Rafe spoke.
I slid my gaze up his unmarked chest, up his neck, and only stopping when I held his eye contact. The ink on his face was misleading. When he was fully marked up, the color of his eyes looked dark. I don’t think I never knew the true color. With no ink, his eyes were not only dark brown, they held traces of a light honey shade. I have never seen such a complex shade of brown.
I knew the moment the ink hit Rafe’s skin. His body was relaxed, not even a twitch when the silver poison mixed within. His eyes however, were a different story. Just like when I hit him with the electricity last year, he slightly closed his lids. Spending more and more time with Damien, especially theses last three weeks, I have watched him tattoo several vampires. One didn’t get beyond a line, and demanded to be stopped. One screamed and cried the whole time. One was a female who wanted Damien, I smiled thinking about how I stopped her. In my opinion, she was lucky to be alive.
The more Damien inked, the more Rafe relaxed.
I could feel Rafe’s stare on me. I no longer cared, I was more fascinated with the art Damien was creating in Rafe’s skin. His hands created masterpieces. It was beautiful.
The larger the design, the more of Rafe’s blood dripped down onto the table. Between the two men, Damien’s was thicker and darker red. When we shared our blood, both of ours ran out of the vein like honey. Almost all the infected I have killed had blood that ran like someone who had hemophilia. Their blood flowed out the wound. The reason they didn’t die was because their wounds healed so quick.
The more of Rafe’s blood spilt, the more hooded his eyes because. He almost looked post organismic.
He really did enjoy the pain.
“Teeka, we have some news for you.”
I ripped my attention from Rafe to Damien. “Listening...”
“How close were you to Rhea?” He didn’t lift his eyes from Rafe’s tattoo as I jumped back a little from his odd question.
“I haven’t really thought much about her since we left New Paris. Why?”
“Did she every share her parentage with you?” Damien moved from Rafe to pat up some of the blood, “You okay, man?”
I looked back to Rafe who still watching me, with a smile now. “Don’t worry about me, but I think you need to continue with you story. Teeka may actually cause your final death if you stop.”
The buzzing started back up before Damien finished telling me his news. “Guess who her mother is?”
My
gums burned, as I felt my temporary fangs drop down. “Just fucking tell me.”
I reached out and ran my fingers onto Rafe’s fresh ink, not stopping even when I heard him hiss. I let his blood coat my fingertip. The moment I realized his blood was on me, was the moment I realized I was hungry.
“Blythe is her mother.”
Still looking at his blood, I asked, “Wait, that would make her and Rex siblings and why was she with Captain?”
“Blythe has been preoccupied with New York, and shouldn’t be back in town until late this week. We found the offices she keeps her version of your pills.” Damien didn’t lift his head as he patiently answered my questions.
I smiled as I brought Rafe’s blood closer to my mouth. “You better not go without me.”
Damn this temporary vampire shit. My body never got the chance to figure out its hunger. It always hit me when I wasn’t prepared. If I weren’t so hungry, I would have never tried to taste Rafe’s blood. I could smell it, it was so close to my tongue.
Millimeters was as close as I got. Rafe’s hand stopped my finger from touching my tongue. “That is mine.” I was so engrossed in his blood, that I never noticed him sitting up. He stuck my finger into his own mouth, erasing all drops of his blood from my hand. He only let me go when my skin was completely clean. “You better feed her good before we leave.”
Rafe slid off the table, and lightly closed the door behind him.
Usually Damien cleaned up his space before he moved on. I didn’t give him the chance. I ripped off my pants, leaving them in shreds as I pushed the table from between us and straddled him in his chair. At some point, not sure when, Damien freed his erection so by the time I landed on him, I could easily push him inside of me.
Only when I found an easy rhythm, did I push his head to the side, exposing a vein. The thin piece of skin separating his throat and my fangs was throbbing wildly. After everything Damien has done for me, in a few hours I may regret being this rough with him. At this moment in time, I did not care. Nothing in this world could have stopped me from fucking and feeding from him.