Riding the Storm

by Candace Blevins

  Kendra let that sink in, and when Eric didn’t speak she kept going. “So, it is possible for a vampire to raise a child. My human companion made sure my children were safe during the day, though both of them generally stayed up the majority of the night and slept during the day. They were in the sunshine in the afternoon, which seemed to be enough for them to stay healthy. If you and I go forward with a long term relationship, I’d be very open to adoption. Or, if you wanted the child to have your DNA then we could arrange for a surrogate. But of course, none of this helps the fact I can’t be present for any of your outdoor daytime activities. There’s no way around that.”

  Eric finally responded with, “Why does this have to be so hard? I finally find someone I think I could spend my life with, and she isn’t even fucking human, so spending my life with her doesn’t mean growing old together, it means her watching me grow old and die.” He paused. “You said you were married to a vampire? What happened? Did he get killed? Or do vampires divorce?”

  “Vampire marriages aren’t ‘till death do us part’. When vampires marry, they do so for a set amount of years. All assets are listed when they marry, and when something is purchased during the marriage it’s agreed at the time of purchase who’ll get it when the marriage ends. Some marry for twenty years, some for fifty, and some contract for the maximum time allowed, one hundred years. When the marriage contract ends, a couple can either let it dissolve or they can form a new contract. This particular union lasted seventy years — we married for fifty years and then another twenty before we agreed we’d each grown and evolved in different directions, and were better off going our separate ways. I haven’t seen him in a few centuries, but if I did, we’d see each other as friends from long ago and not much more at this point.”

  “So, even if I decided to be a vampire so you and I could be together forever, it’s not likely we’d be together forever?”

  “I’m not aware of a vampire marriage that’s lasted longer than about five hundred or so years. And even that’s rare. And Eric, it’s way too soon for you to be thinking about losing your humanity. We might date for a year or two and decide it isn’t going to work. I won’t even consider turning you for two or three years, maybe longer.” Kendra paused and then decided he needed more information about the human companion relationships. “If you want to have some kind of relationship with me but are afraid of throwing away your other options, we can formalize the human companion relationship Abbott spoke of the other night. This would mean you’d be free to date other people. The way the human companion relationship is set up, it forms a bond between vampire and human without creating a situation where all the long term issues between our species cause problems. I have one more thing to tell you and then I’ll leave. I won’t contact you — if you want to see me or talk to me, you’ll need to call me. “

  Kendra took another deep breath, as much to steady herself as for the air needed to speak. “In my long life, I’ve had a number of relationships with humans. Some lasted a few years and we went our separate ways as human and vampire. A handful of times, I’ve stayed with someone until he died, took care of him in his old age, and eventually buried him when his body gave out. And, of course, several times I have turned them and we had many decades together, sometimes centuries, before we grew apart and it was time to go our separate ways. It’s unusual for a human man to be thinking this far ahead so soon into the relationship. It’s like you aren’t going to let it get started until you can see a way for it to happen, but love doesn’t always work out that way, Eric. Sometimes you have to take the plunge and just see where you end up. There are a variety of ways a relationship could be fulfilling for both of us, but only if you decide it’s something you want. I can’t remember anyone ever making me feel this alive. I want to spend time with you, want to see where we can take this, but I’ll respect whatever decision you come up with.”

  And then she left. Not the slow walk-out-the-door kind of leaving... but the super-fast thing vampires do so it looks like they disappear. If she had to kiss him and say goodbye, she’d cry, so she just went.

  She was crying before she left the parking lot, but at least she’d kept it together in front of him.

  She couldn’t handle questions from her housemates right now, so she couldn’t go home.

  Abbott?

  Yes, Kendra. What’s wrong? Are you crying?

  Yes, dammit. Stupid mortal men.

  What happened?

  He wants kids. Wants someone who can watch him in hang gliding competitions.

  He broke up with you?

  No. Yes. I don’t know. He needs time to think. Can I stay at your house on the mountain tonight? I can’t deal with questions from the coterie tonight.

  Of course. And knowing you, you’d like something to keep you busy. I’m shorthanded at The Carnival if you’d like to stop in and get things running smoothly.

  That’ll be great. I’ll run by there and handle things, and then see you on the mountain later tonight?

  Would you like me to see if I can round up some male refreshment for you, straight from the source?

  Don’t go out of your way, but if it’s convenient, yes, please.

  Kendra pulled over, cleaned her face, and used her touch-up kit from her purse to fix her face. Thank goodness the whole bloody tears thing was a myth.

  The Carnival was another of Abbott’s night clubs, this one was set up with jugglers and girls overhead on trapeze bars. Well, not so much a trapeze, as a bar hanging from the ceiling, so when they flipped around on it, the bar moved back and forth a few feet. The girls and jugglers were only there on the weekends, though, so tonight there was only the virtual game section and the decor to give it the carnival look and feel. Kendra arrived to discover they were short one doorman and one bartender. The manager was capable of tending bar, but was trying to handle the door, which left the remaining bartenders in a bind.

  Kendra sent the manager to bartend and set herself up at the door. The doorman also doubled as bouncer for the front of the club, but Kendra could handle anything that might come up. The place was packed, and she appreciated the chance to keep busy and not think of Eric, but watching a few of the couples come in made her miss him, which was ridiculous because they’d only just met. But, last night had been special, and she’d thought he’d handled the whole ‘I’m a bloodsucking vampire’ thing fairly well, considering.

  She helped close, and finally drove up the mountain to Abbott’s house. She phoned Gavin on the way to let him know she wasn’t coming home tonight — she could’ve used telepathy, but the phone was considered more polite amongst people who weren’t close friends. When he asked her where she was staying she changed the subject, and he thankfully didn’t push for an answer. Not that it was any of his business, but they were friends even if they weren’t close, so the question wasn’t out of line.

  Abbott’s housekeeper let her in, and Kendra smiled at Carla, Abbott’s hairstylist, as she stepped into his living room. Carla knew Abbott was a vampire, and had been bound as an employee so she couldn’t tell the secret — she came to his home to cut his hair since he couldn’t very well visit her during daylight hours. Abbott also occasionally drank from Carla, and the hairstylist thought it was pretty cool.

  Carla sat beside a man Kendra didn’t know. A quick sniff told her he was human, and smelled of Carla.

  “Kendra,” Abbott said as he rose to greet her, “you’ve met Carla, of course. I’d like you to meet her husband, Tom. They’re newlyweds, and Carla asked me last week for permission to tell her husband about me, since she didn’t want to keep secrets from him. He’s here so she can tell him and I can bind him, which we’ve already done. Tom would like to be bitten, to see what Carla experiences, and I thought you might enjoy showing him.”

  No orgasmic bite, please. Just a blissfully pleasant and non-sexual experience.

  You got it. And thanks. You’re the best.

  She looked at Tom and gave what most humans c
hose to see as a warm smile. “Hello, Tom, it’s nice to meet you. I can sense you’re nervous, but there’s no reason to be. I’ll be gentle. You’ll feel a microsecond of pain when I first bite, but then it’ll turn into a pleasurable experience.”

  Kendra looked to Carla and asked, “Do you have a preference for where I bite him?”

  “I think probably his neck?”

  “Is that good with you, Tom?”

  His hand went to his neck, covering where he imagined she’d bite. “I don’t want to have to explain bite marks.”

  “They’ll be completely healed before you leave, as there’s a healing agent in our saliva. But, Tom, you don’t seem too sure of this. Let’s all have a drink, and sit and talk for a bit, and then see if you still want to be bitten.”

  “No, I’m sure.” He let his hand go back to his lap. “I need to understand what Carla experiences. She says she wants to keep letting Abbott bite her when she does his hair.”

  “Okay, then. You haven’t given blood recently to the Red Cross, have you?”

  “Not in a few months.”

  “When you give blood, how tired are you afterwards? How long until you feel back up to speed again?”

  “I’m okay as soon as I leave, it’s never made me feel dizzy or weak or anything.”

  Kendra smiled. “Good, because I’m hungry. I won’t take as much as the Red Cross, though. They take sixteen ounces, and I’ll only take around twelve. I usually take six or eight at a time, but... since you can handle it, I’ve had a rough day, and twelve would make me feel much better.”

  He grinned back at her. “If you’ve had a rough day and it’ll help, take sixteen if you want. I was thinking you’d take more than the Red Cross, not less.”

  “Okay, lean against the back of your chair and relax. I’ll come around behind you.”

  Abbott didn’t want Tom to grasp the intimacy of being bitten, and taking him from behind avoided most body contact, as well as eye contact.

  Kendra drew his head to the right at an angle to expose the length of his neck. He was incredibly tense, so she massaged the muscles and talked him through a few deep breaths. As he relaxed, she moved her left hand down and across his chest to hold him in place, and finally let her teeth sink into his neck, injecting the numbing agent first and then the right combination to give him bliss without sexual ecstasy. She gave his bloodstream a second to carry away what she’d injected, and then she drank. And drank. She monitored how much she took, and stopped at around twelve ounces, paying special attention to use her tongue to put saliva on the two marks before she pulled her mouth away. She relaxed her hold on his head, but otherwise stayed where she was until he raised his head on his own, and then she slowly moved her hand off his chest and backed away.

  She walked behind the bar area in Abbott’s great room, poured a glass of orange juice, set it on the table beside him, and then sat in a chair across from him while he figured out how he felt, and how to begin talking again. Most people didn’t recover as quickly as Eric had the other night, but Eric had filled his life with new experiences and was used to dealing with large adrenaline dumps.

  After a few moments Tom’s eyes started to focus and he said, “Wow.”

  Carla laughed, sounding relieved. “Yes, wow is a good word for it. Drink your juice, Tom.”

  “No, not yet. I want to sit here with this feeling another couple of minutes.”

  * * * *

  When Carla and Tom left, Abbott thanked Kendra for giving Tom the right kind of experience.

  “No problem, he was lovely, just what I needed. You really are the best.”

  “We have some time before dawn, let’s open a bottle of wine and talk.”

  Once they were seated on the sofa, Kendra leaned against Abbott with her eyes closed. Abbott’s arm wrapped around her protectively and he asked, “Do you want me to fire him and find someone else to do the job?”

  “No, he said he’d follow through because he wasn’t sure about things, and if he decided to pursue something with me he wanted the proper protections in place. Plus, I think he’s just an honorable kind of guy. He said he’d do it, so he will.”

  “No, Kendra, that wasn’t my question. If I keep the contract with him, he’ll be in and out of the house working on the security system and teaching classes. If you were to see him right now, the other vampires would smell your hurt and sadness towards him, and know something was up. They don’t need to know he’s hurt you.”

  As usual, Abbott was right, but she’d already taken it into consideration, so she told him, “It shouldn’t be too hard to avoid him, and if it gets bad I’ll take a vacation. Or, if you need to send an emissary for something, I can go. Speaking of which, you’re correct about my wanting to stay busy. A while back you mentioned possibly opening a small bar close to the University. If you still think it’s a good idea, I can start looking for a location, maybe something within walking distance of the new dorms? We could serve cheap food aimed at college kids for lunch and dinner, and then revert to more of a bar atmosphere after dark. When I lived in, oh, I forget where, but there was a bar near a college campus called The Library, and kids thought it was cool to tell their parents they went to The Library yesterday, because it made their parents think they were busy studying instead of partying.”

  “Sure, see what you can find, and get the contractor and decorator involved if you locate a suitable spot. Take it from concept to opening night all on your own and you’ll get twenty-five percent of the net profit as long as it remains in business, same as always. Keep me updated on things — I’ll want a walk through, a plan from the decorator, and a cost estimate from the contractor before we sign papers to buy or lease, but the rest will be all yours.”

  “Cool, I’ll send an email to the new Realtor and see if she can meet me tomorrow evening after the sun goes down. I have my laptop in my car. I’ll run out and get it, and then head downstairs. Can I have the yellow room for my rest today?”

  “Of course, I’ll see you when we rise.”

  Chapter Six

  The next few days went by in a blur, and Kendra tried to keep busy. She met with the Realtor and found three possible locations, though none were perfect so she was on hold with her project. Meanwhile, she’d put herself on the ‘on call’ list at all of Abbott’s other establishments, so when they were short someone she could go in and help. She didn’t waitress, but she could handle doorman and bouncer duties, and was more than capable of managerial responsibilities.

  So, five nights later, when Abbott warned her Eric would be coming at eight o’clock the following night with his proposal, she made sure she was up and gone before he arrived. She’d told Eric he was going to have to call her, and she meant it. She kept her cellphone in her pocket and on vibrate all night in case it rang, but it didn’t. She was almost in tears when she headed home after helping to close up the restaurant she’d helped with that night. She went to her room and read for a while, and checked her email just before dawn to see if the Realtor may have sent something before she went to bed for the night.

  She was surprised to see an email from Eric.

  I hoped to see you at the house tonight, but you weren’t there. Can we talk? Without you just disappearing on me again? I miss you.

  She hit reply.

  Sure, we can talk. I’ll be going into TBC around 9:00 tomorrow night to help, since the regular manager’s wife just had a baby. Sunset is around 7:15, so I should awaken around 6:00 if you want to call and let me know where you’d like to meet. I can be ready to leave the house by the time the sun goes down so I can drive somewhere to meet you, but I don’t want to talk here, at the house.

  There, that let him know she was going to have to work him into her schedule, but also told him she was willing to do so. She read it over a few times and finally hit the send button, and then powered her laptop down and fell backwards into the mattress to think until the sun came up and she died for the day.

  She awakened the
next evening a little before six, took a quick shower, and then checked her email. She saw something from Abbott, the Realtor, and Eric. She opened Abbott’s first and saw that he liked Eric’s plans, and was calling for a meeting with his inner circle the following morning at four o’clock at the house. She could do that, no problem.

  Next, she opened the email from the Realtor — a promising unit was coming off its lease in a month, and Gen had access to show it. Kendra emailed her back to let her know she could meet the following night at sundown to look it over. As Abbott’s Realtor, Gen was used to dealing with vampires, and would email back with an appropriate time.

  Finally, she opened Eric’s email.

  Please come to the marina after sundown. There’s a trail leading up the hill to a large rock outcropping overlooking the river. I’ll bring a blanket so we can sit up there and talk.

  Damn, he wasn’t good at following instructions. She’d said he’d have to call her, and then she’d emailed him to call her. Since when is an email the same as a phone call? But, he did make the effort by sending her an email, and she guessed it would have to be good enough. If she insisted on a phone call at this point, she risked looking petty. She dressed for TBC, but put boots on instead of heels, which she carried with her, to change into.