Die, My Love

by Penelope Fletcher

  He strokes my hip, and oh yes, I purr, and snuggle closer. He feels so good, and the fit is perfect. I press a kiss to his cheekbone. Ben’s mouth slants over mine as it parts. His tongue slides past my lips and I groan into his mouth, pushing myself onto him, clutching him tightly.

  This was what I wanted. All I wanted. Ben. He’s mine now and the thought makes me deliriously happy. Nothing can touch us. Is this selfish? That my master plan is to simply be with him forever? I have all this power and instead of donning a spandex mask and calling myself Lady Midnight, Defender of Justice, I’m happy to spend every night wrapped in Ben’s arms, safe and loved.

  We break away breathing hard. My man can kiss. I want to giggle, but that would ruin the moment. I do so in my head then remember Ben can hear silly surface thoughts and sounds. I put a mental gag on my inner voice too.

  “I never knew it would be this … immense. The changes,” I say then whimper as he pulls me back to him, grabs my butt, and grinds me against his hard length.

  “You will adjust emotionally and mentally, after a while. Just like your body already has.” Letting me go with a frustrated sigh, he touches my head again, his fingers splayed over my brow. “More has happened to your physiology than you may realize. Your skull has larger eye sockets, and your jaw is more powerful, specialized for your new hunting needs.” He presses his fingers to my jaw, tracing it as he speaks. “It is easy to see that your teeth have lengthened for breaking the skin to drink blood, but, should you ever need to, you can deliver a lethal bite to the back of the neck by digging your canines between the top vertebrae of your prey and severing the spinal cord. This causes permanent paralysis, and of course death, but we only do this in times of great distress. Most humans simply bleed to death from our feeding, or if we choose to rip their throats out.” I swallow hard and look away wondering if I will ever be able to do what he describes. Ben turns but asks over his shoulder, “Now shall I tell you the fun part? Or … should I show you?” He rubs the stubble on his jaw as he walks off.

  “There’s more?” I ask, shaking hair off my face and following after him. “Tell me, no wait, show me. Um, do both, okay? Take it slow.” Something stings the sole of my foot and I bring it up to see the sock is wet with blood. I pull the sock off and see the heel of my foot is covered in red. I pull out the shard of glass causing the problem and watch, waiting for the wound to heal. Nope, it’s still bleeding.

  “We do not heal that fast.” Ben tickles the bottom of my foot and I squeal. He slips my sock back on, picks me up, and kisses my nose. I love it when he does that. I sigh happily and lean my head on his chest. “We heal faster than humans, but it is not instant, unless you are feeding. Extreme damage requires a night of healing sleep as well. We are immortal. You will not age or become sick like you used to. We’re not indestructible. If you cut us, we bleed, if you set us on fire our flesh burns faster than that of a human, as it is drier. Despite the danger, fire attracts us like moths to light. We like the heat.” He backtracks at the look of alarm on my face. “We are hard to kill and we can die certain mortal deaths and simply revive ourselves.”

  “Stake through the heart?”

  “Myth in the sense it is not the only way to kill us. A shard of wood through the organ that pumps blood would kill most creatures instantaneously, wouldn’t you agree? Fire, decapitation, a sword to the heart, falling from a great height are all proven ways to end us.” His face brightens. “You cannot drown.”

  I sniff in distain. “Big whoop. I’m immortal but can still be stabbed to death, and….”

  My throat burns hotter and I groan. I’m so thirsty. Ben’s neck looks awfully appealing. His pulse is steady and strong. The thick vein beneath his skin bulges. I nuzzle his neck and open my mouth wide with every intention of biting him when he drops me on my ass.

  Ow!

  Grumbling, I rub my butt and glare up at him. “What?”

  Grinning, he crouches down and points behind me. “Look where we are, love. A town full of food and you were about to snack on me?”

  I glance behind. We have indeed reached the outskirts of Docklands. “Did you have to drop me?” I pout. “It would have only been a little bite … more of a graze actually.”

  Ben stands and offers his hand. I clasp his forearm and let him pull me up. We walk silently down the quiet streets. The occasional double-decker bus or car drives past, but it’s mainly quiet.

  “I’m hungry,” I moan and scratch at my side.

  Ben places a finger to his lips and bobs his head towards the other side of the road. There stumble a half drunk couple, leaning on each other and bickering. Ben enfolds my small hand in his larger, cooler one, and we start toward them. Something strange is happening. I feel, sexy, lush. My movement has slowed and my chin lowered. My legs tense and I keep pushing up onto my toes, as if I’m wearing heels. God, this is stupid. I force my heels back to the floor, but another other step and I’m on my toes again.

  “When you hunt,” Ben says quietly, “You will feel the urge to pace directly on your toes. It is natural, you don’t have fight it. As you age you’ll find you can control the impulse. The bones in your feet have been strengthened to deal with greater impact and are capable of allowing you to walk with extreme precision. Have you ever seen how a wildcat moves and stalks a field mouse?” As he speaks we draw closer and my muscles pull tighter. The urge to get to higher ground and attack from above is staggering. “They place each hind paw directly in the print of the subsequent forepaw to minimize noise and tracks. You can do this in a fashion. You can walk in a straight line and retrace your steps effortlessly. Your footing will always be sure, even navigating rough terrain. Can you feel your skin tightening? Good. That is your body conserving heat by reducing the flow of blood to your skin so prey with keener senses cannot smell or sense you. That said, we do not sweat, but we do pant at high temperatures.” He grimaces. “Or breathe heavily. It is not pleasant. We prefer the cooler nights of winter; they are longer even if our lady moon is brighter.” I shoot a questioning look at him. “The moon is our herald and when her rays are strongest you will feel a tingling across your skin. What you’re really feeling is the faintest of burns. Moonlight is simply sunlight reflected off the lunar surface, and our skin cells are grossly allergic to sunrays. The venom in your blood, the power that changed you, reacts to the ultraviolet rays. The venom sees this sun-altered skin as foreign and attacks. Do you understand now why you must never stand in the daylight? If large areas of our skin are exposed to sunlight, we sustain too much damage and burn alive.” I stop walking my jaw swinging open. His face lightens. “Enough of that. You want to strike this prey from above, don’t you?” I manage a nod; the sound of their wet heartbeats is utterly distracting. “Hmm. Height gives you a better observation point allowing you to watch your territory as you go for the kill. It’s all natural, love.”

  I rock back on my heels and look away, gasping. ‘No killing. Not … not yet. I can’t, darling, please?’

  ‘As you wish.’

  Viper quick, Ben grabs the man and drags him back, his arms wrapped tightly around his shoulder, hand covering his mouth. Wrenching the victim’s head back, Ben transforms. His brow lowers to slant over his eyes and merge with the bridge of his nose, sleekly feline. His fangs lengthen, and his eyes glow devilishly. He had held back when he fed at the club, then when he had turned me.

  “Get her,” he growls, like a monster, and without another word he sinks his fangs into the man’s neck.

  The woman screams, and runs away on her perilously high platform heels. I turn to tell Ben I can’t do this, and the words stall on my lips. He’s not only drinking the blood of this man, he’s sucking his … essence? I doubt any other than those of our kind could see it. The wispy tendrils seep from the man’s skin and into Ben’s to be absorbed, giving him new life. My love throws his head back with a guttural cry, his face flushed, chest heaving. He lets the man collapse and turns away, struggling to control himself. “It
is harder like this, when we give over fully to the hunting instinct.”

  “Is … is he…?”

  “Sleeping. I promised no killing. He will sleep then wake with a headache and what he thinks is a hangover.” Ben’s face smoothes out as he looks up at me with a smile that morphs into a scowl. “The woman?”

  Woman? Oh yeah. Um….

  Now what, Lee?

  “I ah, got cold feet? Or … cold fangs?”

  Ben brushes his hands off. He wipes away a sliver of blood from the corner of his mouth and offers it to me. I stare at it, the ruby bead on his fingertip, the smell of it … oh my, delicious. It curls into my nostrils, which flare, and makes my need and hunger that much more acute. My throat contracts and I whimper as I suck his thumb into my mouth. This is wonderful on two levels, I’m sucking Ben’s thumb, and there is a divine thickness spreading from the flat of my tongue lapping up the blood all the way down my throat to my stomach. My brow tingles and undulates under my skin. It twitches, moves. It does not hurt so much, and my senses become sharper, as does this new hunting instinct. I feel more animal than human, a primal force that needs to feed.

  “When you eat solid food you will discover we have relatively few taste buds compared to humans,” Ben says in a strained voice. My tongue swirls over the smooth pad of his finger and I think how much more fun this would be if this was another body part. Ben sounds strangled as he continues, “and blood is most flavoursome to us. You still have a digestive system and can absorb food, just like you still have a respiratory system.” Ben presses his erection into the soft podge of my lower stomach. “Blood pumps through me hard and fast, love. It is how more fundamental parts of me still work.”

  I nip at his thumb and Ben wrenches his arm away from me, removing his thumb from my mouth and latches his mouth over mine. Our fangs graze together and I struggle to get close. I want to bite and fuck him all at the same time.

  Ben cries out in response to my thoughts and pulls away. “Not yet. The night is young and we need to get you fed.”

  Tentatively, I feel my face and am shocked. My brow feels more prominent, like a sloped crown of bone. “Why would my face change this way?”

  Ben takes me by the shoulders. “As I said, we have exceptional night vision and can see well below the light level required for human sight. This facial shape is more aerodynamic and allows you a greater range of vision. Our eyes are incredibly sensitive to even the dimmest of lights; there is not much that can get by us in the dark, and in this form, it is near impossible. The slits in your pupils allow you to adapt to weak light.” He flashes me a smile. “And yes, it is also an indication of other emotion, like anger and arousal.”

  I’m beginning to understand exactly what kind of monster I have chosen to become.

  “Anything else?” I ask timidly, skimming over his features until I fixate on his lips.

  I want him. Our first time was not really our first time. I was half out of my mind, after all. I bet if we tried again, right now, with my new body feeling like this it would be indescribable.

  Ben scrubs a hand through his hair, smiles. “Did you fall in Valerian, love? It is a herb and it drives us crazy.” As in insane? He chuckles at me and I shrug. “The plant contains a substance that makes us … erratic. Think of it as Viagra and Ecstasy combined into a little plant that looks like a common weed. It wreaks havoc on our senses and judgment. Sexual urges skyrocket. Most times it is harmless as you simply writhe on the floor and demand sex.” He flashes me another grin more wicked and suggestive than the last. “And I of course, in future, will be more than happy to oblige. In the wrong circumstance though, it gives an enemy time to destroy you.” He taps my nose fondly, a radiant smile blooming across his face. “This you may find interesting. We have developed a … sixth sense, if you will, and it helps us in many ways. We can better judge the width of gaps and the location of things in the dark without touching these objects directly. Almost like sensing its essence through air currents. This sense can also trigger protective reflexes to protect us from damage, say, if you fall unexpectedly, or are pushed from a height.”

  In my mind, like instant replay, I see Ben, and others of my kind landing on their feet from falls of such loftiness it astounds me. Could I do that now? Could I really…?

  “Of course, love. Without thinking, your body will twist and right itself using your sense of balance. We rely on conservation of angular impetus to prepare for landing. Remember what I said about your strengthened bone structure? In particular the bones in your feet?”

  I blink, translate that into something I understand, and nod slowly. “I want to try.”

  Ben sighs. “Of course you do. Remember what I said? We may be immortal but there is always the slightest of chances you can get hurt, and that is almost too much of a chance for me to accept. I don’t want you in pain.” He sniffs. “And your dinner is headed that way anyway.”

  Ben takes me into the empty dome and I gawp like a child. It’s pretty cool. We reach the end of the fake boulevard, passing into a large concrete space, and Ben points to a ladder which keeps going up until it pops out the top. The bottom is all locked up, obviously, but Ben takes two running leaps and jumps past that, landing twenty feet up the structure and starts climbing fluidly.

  Okay, I can do this. Instinct. I run, jump, and catch a rung on the ladder, but squeal and kick my legs as I’m doing it, clutching on for dear life. Guess I have to work on that whole stealth thing. Ben is making quick work of the climb, so I stop fooling around and chase after him. On the top of the dome, we work our way onto one of the spikes and keep climbing until we reach the apex of one of the huge yellow cranes. From up here everything should look small, but with my new sight, I see everything. It’s all clear, so clear. The river Thames snakes around below us to the left and cars pop in and out of the Blackwall tunnel. Oh look! There was the woman in the high heel shoes, zigzagging across the entrance plateau directly below us!

  The wind blows my hair back and I close my eyes. It’s strangely peaceful up this high. “If I jump?” I ask Ben quietly.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “I jumped off the tower balcony and fell on my face. I guess I want proof of what I am. I know I’ve done some things I could never do before, but I….”

  “You will fall. If you do nothing, you will hit the ground and your body will be damaged. You may or may not survive.”

  I bite my lip hard. There is a distinct caution in his tone. “So, what can I do to stop myself getting hurt?”

  “You will land on your feet.”

  “Okay, lets say it’s looking like I won’t land on my feet.”

  He grunts in annoyance. “You will, it is instinct. Let it guide your body.”

  “Darling, let’s say for one second my instincts are all messed up. What else could I do? Humour me?”

  Silence. Did he just mutter the word stubborn?

  “You could use the dark forces to cancel out gravity and float.” Ben squeezes my shoulder. “But such magics take time to master whilst landing from a fall does not. That physical act is programmed in your natural reflexes. It’s like breathing, but what happens when you concentrate on breathing in and out too much? It becomes more difficult, yes? That’s because you are trying too hard, letting your higher cognitive functions try to control something that your primal self is in charge of.”

  My heart hammers hard and this makes me smile. I get a rush of adrenaline, and I’m practically buzzing on the spot. Again, I’m amazed I feel and hear my own heart. One of those silly things that means nothing to other people but is important to you alone. I take another step forward and let my foot hover over the edge; twirl it in the open air.

  “People will see me?” I ask breathlessly.

  Ben’s chest brushes my back as he presses himself into me from behind. His hands capture mine and spread them wide. His mouth nibbles the nape of my neck, up my throat, until he reaches my ear. He licks the curve and sucks the lobe into
his mouth. I shudder and start to rock, back into him then forward, closer to tumbling off the edge.

  “The area is quiet so early in the morning, no one will see you if you do not wish them to. Do not trouble yourself, should anyone see us, I will take care of it.”

  I breathe in deeply, listening to the sounds of the woman’s heels clattering on the concrete below. I’m excited and scared. What the hell am I doing? I don’t jump off buildings … except … this feels very much within the realms of what I should consider fun and easy.

  I sway back into Ben, gifting him better access to my throat; what he’s doing feels nice. “You’re coming with me?”

  He suddenly shifts forward and now only my heels are left on the edge and my body is titling forward. Ben’s heart syncs with mine and we’re both breathing hard, getting off on the rush of doing something potentially treacherous.

  “I’m with you. And love?”

  My eyes close as I savour the feel of Ben, the wind on my cheeks, and the feeling of being this free and wild. “Hmm?”

  “Don’t forget to look down.”

  Chapter 12

  Lee Handles The Truth