“See you later sweetie. You’re still gorgeous,” my dad said, kissing my forehead on his way back to the room.
I moved towards the island slowly staring at the oozing red steak on a plate. I chanced a glance at my aunt, mom, and Kellan. All three of them were carrying the same anticipatory expression.
I picked up the fork and knife, positioned them correctly and sliced a piece to taste. Lifting the piece inch by inch, I opened my mouth and placed the food inside. Chewing the steak was like eating a piece of bread. The new strength I possessed made it easy to process. In swallowing, a new feeling of relief projected through me. It worked. The liquid in my throat seemed to fade down slightly. “It worked,” I announced with a smile.
“Thank God,” my mother sighed clearly relieved by my normal palate.
I was about to place a second bite in my mouth when, like acid reflux, the liquid surged in my throat, more lifted than the time before. Placing my fork down abruptly, I tried swallowing several times. It was useless. It felt like trying to breathe with a mouth full of water; you can through your nose, but it doesn’t generate the same relief.
This couldn’t be happening. I wouldn’t let it happen. I was not drinking human blood.
Pull yourself together Lexi! I couldn’t let them know any different. I didn’t doubt that Kellan would happily force me to drink a human. So I had to finish some of what was in front of me at least.
I was able to stomach four more bites before dropping my fork indefinitely. Like an angry volcano ready to erupt, the liquid in my throat was verging entry in my mouth. How could I ever sustain on human food like this? I was about to choke right now!
Chapter 18
“Go change and we’ll leave early,” my aunt squealed excitedly. “And you should probably put your shirt back on Kellan,” she said with a wink.
I should have been weirded out by the wink, but wasn’t. That’s just Aunt Claire. And in all fairness, Kellan’s upper body is magnificent. But my aunt was very open in that essence; she was the opposite of my reserved, well-organized mother. She’s carefree, fun and flirts with every man, young and old, she comes across.
I returned to my room to change. Kellan beat me there, of course. I headed straight to my bathroom and took off his shirt. I slightly opened the door and threw it at him.
“Thanks,” he chuckled, not missing a beat.
“Yup,” I started to close the door, but realized my clothes weren’t in the bathroom.
“Hand me my clothes, will you?” I prompted pointing to the neatly folded clothes on my dresser through the tiny opening of my door.
He swallowed hard. “You’re lucky I’m a gentleman. Most guys would have tried to sneak a peek already.”
“Ah. Well, you’d have to get through the bathroom door first,” I smiled.
“That wouldn’t be so hard.”
“Don’t push it mister. Just hand me my clothes.” I shook my extended hand once more. He finally obliged.
I slid into my pants and pulled my shirt over my head. I stepped out to put on my tennis shoes and matching velour jacket without looking at Kellan. The liquid in my throat was bubbling a bit, heating up in temperature. I tried to distract myself with the tiny details of getting dressed, but didn’t succeed.
I went to open my bedroom door and stopped short as he planted himself in front of me.
“Lexi,” he said pulling my chin up, forcing me to look at him.
“Yea?” I was caught off guard by his blockade. I was missing more than I should have due to my concentration.
“You’re the most beautiful woman I know,” he smiled, dimple present, sincerely delivering the lines and melting my heart.
I felt a huge grin spread across my face as I rolled onto my tip toes, wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him. It was nothing fancy. It was soft, simple in touch yet sent chills through every part of my body. More impressive than the sparks that flew was the liquid in my throat seemed to disappear while our lips were in contact with each other.
I pulled back and it refilled quickly. I pressed my lips to his again testing this new theory, and instantly, as if the plug was pulled on a drain, my throat emptied concurrently. “Interesting,” I noted aloud.
“What is?” Kellan prompted.
“Nothing,” I said moving past him down the stairs.
Aunt Claire literally squealed with delight once we were in the car. “Are you sure you don’t mind driving Kellan?” she pressed for the millionth time.
“I’m sure,” he said speeding off down the road.
We had to take Kellan’s car since my aunt, being a single woman with no man, kids or pets drove a red, two-seat convertible of some sort. I’d never looked to see what kind of car it was only surveying its expensive European design.
Like my mom, my aunt sold real estate, but was exclusive with million dollar properties primarily in California. From what I heard she had multiple celebrity clients.
“So, I don’t mean to drill you Aunt Claire, but I feel more comfortable asking you than mom.”
“Sure honey, anything,” she offered.
“Ok. When I turn twenty-five, my body will no longer change so does that mean I have until then to get pregnant? Is that how it works?”
“Yes. To get technical with you, you shouldn’t be able to have a child past your transformation because you don’t get a period at all. Our systems are so healthy, and like the blood we drink and food we eat, our bodies, every vampiric cell within us breaks down everything and utilizes it. Nothing is waste and nothing is wasted – no potty breaks, no period, no cold/flu – none of it. But back to your question, yes, you only have until you’re twenty-five,” she explained.
“Detailed,” I commented. “And… can you tune us out for a minute Kellan?”
“I’ll try,” he said placing earphones attached to his iPod nano in his ears.
I waited to hear the music blasting before I asked my embarrassing question. “And sex. Once you do it with one human, you can do it with any other human after but no vampires or are you limited to that one human?”
“Again, I’m going to be technical with you,” she stated. “You can be with unlimited men of the race you lost your virginity to. The tricky one is a vampeen. If it’s a boy who’s fifty-fifty, well only a vamp doctor can decipher which kind you’ll be restricted to. If he’s seventy-five percent human and twenty-five percent vampire, then it’s humans for you and vice versa.”
“We have vamp doctors?” I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. We have a vamp army for crying out loud.
“But of course. Who do you think delivers your baby? Certainly not a regular doctor; he would have a heart attack at the results of your blood tests,” she laughed.
“O. Okay. So you’ll never have kids then, huh?”
“No. But I’m not cut out for it. I get my fill from you and the stories your mom tells me,” she smiled. “Anything else you want to know?”
“Since I’m mostly human, umm… What happens if I bite another human or drink their blood?”
“The same thing that happens when a vampire bites them.”
“But when you bite, do you paralyze them with venom?”
She broke into laughter and Kellan began to snicker up front.
“Hey! I thought you weren’t listening,” I said over the music still blaring in his ears.
“You said to try and zone you out. And I’m trying. I’m just not being successful at it,” he smirked.
“Ugh. Fine. You can tune in and laugh some more just as long as someone answers my question.”
“I’ll take it if you don’t mind,” he sounded distinguished yet in a mocking way.
“Be my guest,” she agreed.
“When we attack a human, we over power them with our strength. When we bite them, they feel it. We suck their blood so quickly that they lose consciousness, that’s how they’re paralyzed, as you say,” he chuckled on the last line.
“Then what’s the liquid s
tuff in my throat?” I pressed, confused by it all.
“It’s the healing serum. It’s like a gluey substance that seeps into the bloodstream replenishing it quicker and forces a human’s skin back together to heal over within seconds at the withdrawal site. It’s the same medicine that flows through your body and keeps your system from getting sick,” my aunt explained.
“But why would you want to heal them when you just drained their blood?”
“To cover your tracks. We would have been exposed long ago if the police found bite marks on the necks of ninety percent of their murder victims. Also in the event of an emergency, this allows for a donor. You can simply take a little bit of blood from the arm or a less vital flow line and heal the wound after as if nothing took place,” Kellan added.
“Wait, the human gets their blood supply back quickly when the serum is passed into their bloodstream, so why would ninety percent of the murders be because of us?” I was trying to make sense of everything I was being told.
“Because, in most cases, we drain the human entirely of blood. You can’t manifest something out of nothing. The healing liquid simply replicates what is already there. Place it in a hole and the hole will be filled with the substance surrounding it. Within your body, it is constantly reproducing the healthy bacteria and maintaining balance in your red versus white blood cell counts. It replicates the good, meaning the bad germs or illnesses are easily destroyed within seconds of entry,” he thoroughly reviewed for me.
“O, ok. So the human could live then if we didn’t get greedy?”
“Yes.”
“Then why don’t we do that? Or give the humans the option to be a donor? You know, give them a way to live,” I asked.
“Lexi, did you hear what you just said? You would have to tell a human in order to give them a choice,” Kellan answered.
“Oh. Right,” I stated fidgeting with my hands. “So then if the serum is for healing, then, well, how is someone changed into a vampire?”
“Vampeens can’t transform a human. Only one-hundred percent vampires can create their own kind and that’s due to their mixture of serum with their own blood. When they’re thirsty and their mouth waters, it is their serum that swarms their tongues and coats their teeth. When their serum of ninety percent blood enters the bite wound initially out of thirst, it quickly contaminates the human’s blood like HIV. As he feeds, he literally sucks his own blood back out with the human’s. Between each sip, a small volume of the serum is passed. Should he take less than half the human’s blood, then the bit of healing serum induced will reproduce the vampiric blood cells since they’re always dominant unless completely eliminated. The transformation is complete when the victims heart stops beating over fifty times per minutes, which is usually about twenty-four hours later,” Aunt Claire explained.
“Why less than half?” I never knew we were so scientific by design. I always assumed we were more magical, unexplainable, so this was killing me mentally with my overanalyzation of it all.
“It’s a complex formula but the more blood the vampire consumes, the cleaner his serum is, and therefore the less potent his bite. A vampire’s system is healthiest when he’s full of blood because his healing liquid isn’t diluted. So if he drinks over six pints, then the human’s blood should be clean and his serum will run clear also. So when he regurgitates the large amount of liquid, it will simply heal the human, not change them,” Aunt Claire answered.
“Oh. So that’s how your dad was changed,” I noted aloud to Kellan. “If that vampire wasn’t pushed off of him then he would have had a chance at living.”
“Doubtful. Ninety-nine percent of vampires drain a human. They only stop if they’re forced.”
“But if they can take over half but less than seventy-five percent and allow the human to heal and live, why not do that?” I pressed.
“Lexi, that’s the difference I told you about before. They would have to enforce a conscious decision to do so and vampires are ruled by instinct, not mind like you. There are a small group of those that contain this pro-life mentality; my father is one of them. They do just what you suggested, but it takes brave, strategic discipline to deny your habitual heritage. This is like asking the alcoholic to drink water in a room full of rum barrels – far more difficult than you assessed,” he explained.
“I feel so far behind. I’ve learned so much in lump sums, but your knowledge surpasses mine by generations, not single digit years,” I commented with a sigh. It’s overwhelming to consume mentally; so intricately detailed down to our metamorphic formulation. I wanted to understand everything about our make-up. I needed a book, a big book of everything vampire and vampeen.
“So what stores do you want to go in? Any one in particular?” my aunt asked switching to a more upbeat topic.
“Um… I haven’t really thought about it,” I replied with a shrug. Truth is, I’d never thought about shopping outside Old Navy and other stores with larger sizes available. I’d never been able to. I didn’t even know how to react. It was strange. I’d seen myself in the mirror, but it hadn’t set in mentally for me yet. I still didn’t believe I could shop in any store I wanted.
“Well, don’t hold back. Everything is on me and you’re not leaving with less than two and a half closets worth,” she stated.
“I’ll do my best not to skimp.”
I turned to look through the dark tinted windows of the backseat just as we passed the ‘Welcome to Georgia’ sign. “Holy crap! How fast are you going?!”
“About one-eighteen,” he replied casually.
“A hundred and eighteen miles per hour?! What time is it? What time did we leave? It couldn’t have been longer than thirty minutes ago,” I asked frantically trying to calculate the time and miles traveled based off the speed and distance in my head.
“We left at 7:34 sharp and it’s 8:02,” my aunt announced.
“Wow. We’ll be in Savannah in seven minutes for a total of thirty-five minutes of driving to a place that takes the average Charlestonian two hours to get to,” I commented, still amazed at the time difference.
“The mall opens at ten so I figured we could walk around downtown looking for ghosts until then or we could just go to the beach,” she offered.
“The beach sounds good to me. Besides, if Kellan can get me here in forty minutes or less, I’ll visit downtown Savannah another time,” I said.
“Sounds good,” she agreed.
Surprisingly Kellan didn’t need directions and Aunt Claire never offered him any. We parked and walked along the beach for a solid hour. The wind blew strong and waves crashed loudly, but I never got cold. Absorbed in nature’s beauty, I didn’t speak a word the entire time we strolled. I just listened to the seagull’s squawking, the rough ocean singing and the random chatter within the beach-front villas.
Once we reached the fishing pier, Aunt Claire took off to chat up a fisherman in his late thirties. He was attractive I suppose, but nothing to fall over. Kellan’s appeal produced more heart flutters than this man ever could.
Kellan and I settled in the sand about thirty yards away. I cuddled into his arms without hesitation. Less than ten seconds after getting comfortable, the healing serum, as Aunt Claire called it, filled my throat again at a higher resting level. It never really left, but distracted before, I didn’t give it any thought.
Hmm. Maybe this was normal. Maybe I’d carry this stuff in my gorge forever. Maybe it’s not supposed to go away. But then I recalled kissing Kellan earlier; it went away when our lips touched… at least I think it did. There was only one way to certify this theory.
I turned to look at Kellan, a serenity was over him; I’d never seen him so peaceful. I felt bad for disturbing him but I needed to discern for certain if the liquid went away. I pushed him backwards into the sand and climbed on top of him. I didn’t even give him the chance to breathe before my lips were to his. Just as before, the serum descended from my throat. For that reason alone, I didn’t want to break away.
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I began to feel an intense desire from within me. It ascended with every lingering second I kissed him. I could feel every crease in his soft lips, feel every breath on my palate, and hear every beat my heart pattered next to his.
I wove my fingers through his hair and suddenly he was on top. Though his arms held him off of me, the push of his lips to mine were strong. As we lay, the connection forged between us. The amount of energy exerted was un-chartable. I wrapped my arms around him, locking my hands behind his back. He mimicked my move. It’s in this moment that I could fully sense what he was feeling; we’d merged on an emotional level.
Remembering the attainable mental connection, I pressed harder. I removed every mind block, erased every distraction but him and allowed myself to sync into his movements. I was aware that we were kissing, but his emotions combined with mine, it’s as if we were making love. The passion was overwhelming yet I slowly felt myself releasing, until I heard, “I want more, I’m ready for more with you and you alone.” I listened for a second, but realized those words weren’t spoken aloud.
“I’m in, we’re in. I mean we’re connectedly completely,” I thought knowing Kellan could hear me as I did him.
“We are indeed, my love.”
“Did you mean it? Do you want to be with me alone?”
“I did and do.”
“Can I concur?”
It’s funny, even mentally he chuckled a soft, “I would love you to.”
“Alexa!”
“Aunt Claire?” I thought pulling away from Kellan. Like a rubber band snapping, I felt a strong push-pull-release of our force fields though the connection, the fury of love remained present.
The liquid rose in my throat again as I called, “Yea?”
“Please keep it PG-13 with Kellan. I don’t want to deal with your mom,” she pleaded with a wink.
I blushed and nodded.
“So it was twelve girls at once?” I returned my attention to Kellan to dig for him to admit the truth that I had seen.
“But you’re the only one I have eyes for now,” he defended not truly acknowledging any fact to it.
Diary of a Vampeen Page 20