Blood Rite Saga, Season One Box Set

by Dylan Keefer

  “You think you used to draw?” Milo frowned in mock contemplation, hand on chin. “Well, if I could see the picture I could tell you if you are good.”

  Prudence raised her eyebrows. “Nice try. I am not showing it to you yet.” Inside she was thinking of a compromise, maybe show him the picture of him and Charlotte? But then how would he interpret that action? She didn’t even know why she drew them, and she didn’t want to just play it safe if it meant hurting his feelings.

  “Okay, okay, artist’s prerogative.” Milo put his hands up in surrender, smirking. “Do you need to go to work today?”

  “No, but I want to stop by there to return the books I borrowed.” Prudence shifted in her seat. “I know I am not supposed to borrow stuff, but I only do it to the books that are left out for people, and they get bent out of shape anyway.”

  “Someone commented on it, didn’t they? You are usually not that defensive about things.”

  Prudence sighed, but deep inside she was relieved he asked because it meant she could talk about it. She never really knew how much Milo paid attention to her until a few days ago when he guessed exactly what she was thinking. And he had not stopped doing it since. “An old lady berated me until Mr. Worth told her I work there.”

  “Well, you of all people can’t be concerned about what people think. Especially if the man who owns the books is okay with it.”

  “I will always be concerned about what people think. You know why too.” Prudence didn’t want to talk about vampire things in public.

  “Yes, and I still insist that it does not make any sense. You are one of the nicest people I know. Take you pathological need to keep me away from your problems at any cost. While frustrating, I know why you do it, and I know you will tell me when you are ready.” Milo then dropped the subject, returning to his soup. It didn’t take a genius to realize what problem he was talking about.

  Prudence looked down at her notebook and flipped the page. She didn’t want to work on the drawing in front of Milo, but she still wanted to draw something. She started sketching. It only took her a few minutes to realize she was drawing Charlotte again.

  They have had a few phone calls and video chats, but Prudence couldn’t consider those a viable substitute for actually seeing Charlotte in person. Milo seemed to be fine with it, however. And Prudence wouldn’t even dream of leaving him alone here without a good reason. So she settled with trusting Charlotte when she said she was okay.

  Since she didn’t have to go to the bookstore till the evening she helped Milo sort out the apartment, and this way she had some time with him. Being alone gave him a great opportunity to ask her questions he couldn’t ask in public though.

  “Have you had any more visions lately?” He was sorting out the pillows on the couch.

  “No, I’m fine.” Prudence tried to avoid the subject.

  “So, just the four then.” Milo stopped and looked her directly in the eyes. It was a look that warned her not to lie to him again and that he had had enough. She bit back her ‘it was only one nightmare, not four’ statement. So she just nodded.

  Milo sighed heavily and sat down. “Look, I know you don’t want to make me worry, but this makes me worry far more. Can you tell me what is going on, please? I am not so weak that I can’t handle hearing about it.”

  “I don’t think you’re weak.” Prudence hurried to say. Then she realized she had to clarify. “And it’s not just about me worrying you. I have no idea what it means or even how to process it, and if I told you this before I know what it means, and you take it the wrong way, I couldn’t be able to handle that.” She rattled that off, hoping it made sense.

  Milo scooted next to her and wrapped his arms around her. “Why would you think I would take it the wrong way? I care about you too much to make assumptions.”

  His hug disarmed her. She could feel her eyes tearing up. “I don’t know. I guess I still think you consider me a monster and I want to make sure that you don’t hate me even more.”

  “I don’t hate you!” Milo raised his voice for the first time in a long time and let go of Prudence. “Dammit, I know you think badly about yourself but don’t pin that on me. I like you, hell I think I even love you, and you don’t even let me help you. You only worry about me, and that makes me more inclined to like you, but you won’t let me be there for you.”

  Prudence swallowed. Deep inside she knew she was worried this would happen. “Every time I think of telling you, I think of you looking at me differently, and I don’t know if I could handle that.” It was only natural to switch to her feeling for him. “I don’t know how to define what I feel about you. I like when you are around, and I like seeing you happy. I would be sad if you were sad.”

  “So, like you feel about Charlotte.” Milo slumped down. “It's fine, the cover works that way, and I would like to have you in my life either way.”

  Prudence looked at the floor, thinking. “I don’t think it’s like Charlotte. I care about her, and I am sad that I can’t see her. I want to keep her safe, and I like when she smiles. But I understand that. I feel like she is a close friend or even family, I feel like I have known a relationship like that before. The one thing I feel about you both is the fact I have never looked at you as food, well besides when I first met Charlotte. That is simple. This,” she motioned between her and Milo, “is odd, and messy and I don’t know what it means when I look at you. That is why I didn’t want to complicate it.” She sighed. “In the end my reasons are selfish.”

  Milo scooted right up next to her and looked her in the eyes. She looked back at him, and she didn’t know what to make of his expression.

  “Can I try something that might either complicate our relationship or explain it?” He asked, his face reddening up. Prudence nodded.

  Milo leaned over and kissed her. It was soft at first, hesitant, but it caused warmth to radiate from her lips, across her face, and down her body. Milo leaned back as if to break away, but she automatically moved with him, so the kiss continued.

  His hands found her waist, and his lips parted. This didn’t feel odd or scary, it felt comfortable and safe. She didn’t realize how much she needed something like this. She wrapped her arms around Milo’s shoulders, moving her legs away so she could draw him near her. Soon enough her stomach was touching his, and his hands were looking for the zipper in the back. His hands tracing along her skin made her sigh and Milo’s lips broke free from hers. She wanted to protest, but he continued down her face and to her neck. Her body leaned backward, and Milo slid on top of her carefully.

  In the middle of the haze, she realized they were still in the living room and on the couch, and that is was super easy to fall down it. She stopped Milo by squeezing his arm. “Wait.”

  “What?” Milo’s voice was breathy. His eyes were foggy, and his hair had gone askew. He seemed worried, but also there was an odd warmth to his face. She tried to control her breath, but it was difficult. “We need to move.”

  “Move?” Milo seemed to not understand what Prudence meant.

  “From the couch I mean.” She clarified.

  “Oh, right.” Milo got up, grabbing her hand. Prudence got up and motioned to Milo’s room. It was far less messy than her room, oddly enough, even if she had more time and wasn’t injured.

  She lied down on the bed but quickly made sure that Milo was the one lying flat on the bed because she remembered the wound. She actually whispered that out loud and made Milo chuckle.

  She unbuttoned his shirt, and he took off her dress. As her hands slid down his body, she could hear his heartbeat speeding up. Her heart sped up too. As soon as she heard that she thought about her fangs growing and she shut her mouth and clenched her fists.

  “What is it?” Milo held her by the shoulders. Prudence sat up, careful not to sit on his wound, and ran her tongue down her teeth and checked her hands. She sighed in relief when she realized they hadn’t grown. “Okay, I’m fine.”

  Milo chuckled, then his face bri
efly got serious. “Are you sure you are okay with this?”

  “Yes.” Prudence leaned down and kissed him. The more she did it, the more her muscles remembered something from the past. Soon enough Milo was really out of breath, in a good way. When Prudence took his pants off, he turned and opened a drawer.

  “What are you looking for?

  “We seem to be heading that way, and I don’t know if you are able to get pregnant. Even if we don’t have sex, we might as well be safe.” Milo shrugged and showed her a square package. It was easy to explain why it was needed and it was simple to use, and the fact he thought about that stuff was why she liked him in the first place.

  Slowly they managed to get to that point. Prudence did everything at half speed, worried that she would move too fast and accidentally break him, but it was not a bad thing. She liked how it felt. The noises and smells that her enhanced mind gave her were a treasure now, but she didn’t feel the rushed feeling she got when she was hungry. This was a different type of feeling, a feeling that enveloped her in warmth and made her stretch out like a cat and kiss Milo’s neck. At the very end, there was a spike of pleasure that she found it hard to control, and she used a little bit more force, and the bed frame slammed against the wall a few times. She exhaled and checked if Milo was okay when she slid off of him.

  Milo was drenched in sweat and panting. He looked at her and smiled. “That was…”

  “Wonderful.” Prudence completed his sentence. Even in this haze, she could see that she wasn’t nearly as breathy as he and she didn’t want him to think he did something wrong by being what he is. She curled up next to him. Milo slid up and wrapped his arm around her, and she put her head in the crook of his neck. Her eyes floated to the time, and she was surprised to see it as past lunch time.

  “Are you hungry?” she asked.

  “No, are you?” Milo asked.

  “No but it is past lunch time, how do you feel? What do you want to do?” She smiled at him.

  “Can we sit like this for a while? This is nice.” Milo ran his fingers down Prudence’s arm.

  “Okay. It is nice. I remember when I fell asleep here a few weeks ago.” Prudence thought back with a smile.

  “I remember it too, I didn’t know how to react. I wanted to do this.” Milo pointed to the position they were lying in, “but I didn’t know if it would make you uncomfortable.”

  “See, you worry about me too.” Prudence looked up.

  “Yes, but I tell you when I have a problem.” Milo countered.

  Somehow now she could think more clearly. “Okay, I will tell you. I keep seeing someone being burned at the stake. One young boy. He looks at me like he’s mad at me. It is just me in a crowd, and the nightmares start at different points of it. Sometimes I see him being brought out, sometimes I see someone in the crowd staring at me. I have no idea what it means, but it makes me feel uneasy and scared. I am drawing him, hoping to get him out of my head. I didn’t want to show it to you because well, what if I did something to it? What if the reason that kid got put on the stake was me?”

  “You can’t blame yourself for something that might not have happened.” Milo shifted towards her. “You don’t know what you were like. But I hardly believe that you were evil, considering the people chasing you. And if you don’t know, you can’t know if you did anything wrong. What if you just torture yourself for nothing?” Milo made Prudence look at him. “The only thing you can do is wait to get your memory back, and then find out who you were. Then if you want to change, you can.”

  “Good advice.” A voice came out from the direction of the desk. Prudence looked that way and shrieked when she saw Charlotte’s face on the screen, smirking, with her free hand on the desk. “Ya know I thought both of ya needed to get laid, but I didn’t think of suggesting that ya do it with each other. Make’s sense, you’re both shy nerds that can be badass at times.”

  Prudence was busy tossing a blanket over Milo and herself and trying to find a way to bury herself under the bed until Charlotte left.

  “Don’t tease her, she is not used to you not caring about stuff like this.” Milo smiled at Prudence’s frantic movements.

  “Relax Prue, I wouldn’t have started the conversation like that if I was mad,” Charlotte said.

  Prudence stopped. She was still embarrassed that Charlotte saw this, but then she thought that if the blood-filled van didn’t faze Charlotte, this wouldn’t either. “Okay, but I would prefer that we have this conversation with our clothes on.”

  “Oh yeah, I would too. No offense but I don’t need to see that much of ya post coital glow.” Charlotte turned around and waited till Milo and Prudence got dressed. After they did, however, she barraged them with questions. “How long has this been this going on?”

  “About three hours?” Milo raised his shoulders.

  “Oh, so ya can’t keep anything from me, just checking.” Charlotte laughed. Prudence felt lighter as she sat with her head on Milo’s shoulder. Charlotte also found out about the nightmares, and she agreed with Milo, thought she made it really clear that she would have yelled at Prudence a long time ago if she was there. Prudence showed them the drawing, and then showed them some of the other drawings. Charlotte praised her and revealed that she had been writing down every single thing they had found out about Prudence in a notebook. What she knew, what she could do, what she was good at. It made Prudence wanted to hug Charlotte if it were not for the laptop screen between them.

  Before Charlotte logged off, she instructed Milo and Prudence to talk about their relationship before, in her words ‘their screwing lasted long enough for their brains to be free to make assumptions and that always leads to trouble.'

  After they closed the laptop, they agreed to eat first. Prudence had a cut of blood while Milo had leftovers. They sat at the counter and smiled at each other.

  “This is not awkward is it?” Milo asked.

  “No, it's not.” Prudence agreed though she was careful not to smile with a mouth full of blood. She made sure to swallow and then drink water to make sure that her teeth didn’t look stained. It was bad enough that she couldn’t make her fangs retreat. Her lips looked like a snake. “I feel better now actually. I’m glad I told you and that we figure out what this dynamic is.”

  “We did?” Milo grinned. “I was a bit worried that this would be a one-time thing. I like you too much for that.”

  “Yes, we figured out the dynamic. I hope this isn’t a one-time thing. Wouldn’t that be awkward?” Prudence nodded.

  “So, what do we do now?”

  “Well, we can just see where it goes. We don’t know what will happen with the people hunting me.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  In the late evening, Prudence walked over to the bookstore. Mr. Worth didn’t say that she needed to be there today, but she wanted to return the book, and maybe help clean up since the old man had trouble wielding a mop because of his back. And Prudence could clean the store in a few minutes even if she didn’t use her vampire speed too obviously. It didn’t feel like work when she spent time in the store. Mr. Worth reminded her of a grandfather. Maybe she had a grandfather, and he was like that? Maybe that was how she survived.

  As she came nearer, she sensed something was wrong. She noticed there was tape across the bookstore window and Mr. Worth was sitting on the steps, murmuring to himself. There was a first aid kit next to him on the steps. As Prudence came closer, she smelled blood, and a familiar scent she couldn’t place. Panic slammed into her throat. Of course, a bad thing would happen if she had a good thing going in her life.

  “What happened?” She came over and knelt in front of Mr. Worth. The blood she had smelled was from a laceration on his hand that he had bandaged up poorly. She didn’t seem otherwise hurt, just tired and under stress. His heart was beating rapidly.

  “Oh, nothing Prudence dear.” Mr. Worth smiled a weak smile. “Some vandals broke my window, and I had to clean it up. I just cut my hand.”

  “
Let me help you with that.” Prudence took Mr. Worth’s hand, and before he could protest she removed the bandage. She could tell that he hadn’t cleaned it properly. He winced but didn’t complain when she cleaned the wound and wrapped it up. “What are you going to do now?” She asked.

  “Well, try and replace the window I guess.” Mr. Worth spoke. “Will be hard and it will dip into my savings, but I can’t just leave it like this now can I?”

  “Is the bookstore not doing well?” Prudence frowned. They had a lot of customers according to her at least, and he paid her pretty well.

  “Windows are expensive.” Mr. Worth looked down. His heart did this weird jumping thing, and Prudence found herself thinking he was lying to her. Why would he? He probably was a private person, or he wanted to keep her from worrying. She was convinced he was that type of person.

  “Is there anything you are not telling me?” Prudence stared at Mr. Worth until he had to look her in the eye. “You can tell me the truth.”

  Mr. Wroth put a hand on Prudence’s shoulder. “I’m just shaken up dear. Nothing else happened. Someone just thought it would be funny to break the window with a brick.”

  Prudence looked at the window. It didn’t look like what she assumed a window hit by a brick would look like. There was too little glass left on the frame. There was a lot of glass on the outside, in front of the bookstore too.

  “I called the hardware store a few minutes ago.” Mr. Worth made Prudence stop thinking about how weird that was. “I’ll need to make sure to set up the plywood sheet before I go to bed.”

  “I’ll help.” Prudence hurried to say.

  Mr. Worth looked at Prudence with such a heartbroken expression that Prudence wanted to hug him. “You do realize that since I will need to dip into my savings, I can’t pay you that much anymore?”

  Prudence smiled. “That doesn’t mean I can’t help you. Where else could I read books on the job?” She kept Mr. Worth as comfortable as possible, even going up to his apartment and getting him a sweater until the hardware store delivered the plywood board. Prudence helped the maintenance man who came over in a van to unload the board and helped him put it over the empty window. Then they put up boards across the back of it inside the shop, in order to hold it in place. It was surprisingly fast and easy, Prudence expected it to last a lot longer. She had to be careful because the plywood seemed like paper to her, and the maintenance man looked at her oddly when she picked it up the first time.