by Tisha Wilson
She headed towards the armchair near the window and fell wearily into it. She hadn’t been this tired in some time. She had lost too much blood and used too much energy to heal her broken neck. Her hands were nearly shaking with the effort it took to stay awake. She had to get them out of here. She didn’t know how much longer she could go on protecting him like this. The first thing she had to do was get some gas. She looked over to Jerry. He was slumped against the wall, the shotgun limp in his hand. He looked spent.
By sheer will alone she got up and went to the cupboard. He needed to eat something. She found some beef jerky, power bars, and bottled water. The breakfast of champions. She took the food to him and knelt down in front of him. Her arm was nearly dead weight by now and it was still bleeding, which concerned her more than she wanted to acknowledge. It had been a while since she’d last eaten herself.
“Eat,” she said as she held the power bar out to him. His head fell back and he looked at her through bloodshot eyes.
“Thanks,” he said as he took the power bar and ate it in nearly three bites. She made sure he had some of the water before she headed back to the front window. For some reason the gray light of dawn was making her squint just a little.
“That was the longest night of my life. What are we going to do now?” he asked as he ate the beef jerky in big chunks. She could smell the scent of the beef and it teased her nostrils. She could still remember what beef jerky tasted like.
She stopped watching the dawn and looked down at her stomach in puzzlement. Was that… hunger that she felt? “We need to head out and get some gas.”
“When you say head out… you mean on foot?”
“Unless you grew some wings overnight…” She cast an expectant glance at him.
He made a show of looking over his shoulder at his back to check and see if he had wings. She rolled her eyes. Apparently he hadn’t found any shirts that fit because he’d turned his gown around the correct way to go over his shorts and his feet were bare. Most people would have lost all sense of humor by now if they had been through what he had and she liked that he didn’t.
“Okay. So are we going to catch a few zzzs before we head out or are we going to march into town like a few zombies looking for brains?” he asked as he continued to eat the jerky.
She closed her eyes as a wave of hunger rolled over her and nearly took her breath away. She hadn’t felt hunger like this since… ever. “Probably best we get a little sleep before… before we…” Suddenly she was unsteady on her feet. She began to fall but he was there to catch her before she touched ground.
“Alicia,” he called to her and it was as if it was from a faraway place. Her eyes rolled in her head. Something wet touched her lips and she realized with a gagging certainty that he was trying to poor water into her mouth. She came to and spewed the water everywhere. She tried to push to her feet but the room was way too bright.
She buried her face into the front of his hospital gown. She heard the sound of his heart beating in his chest and heard the blood pumping through his veins. They were loud in her ears and the scent of him, the unequaled mouth watering scent of his lovely essence made her feel dizzy. Hunger tore at her middle. It became like a giant gapping hole, pulling her in and there was no escape. He was holding her close and asking her what was wrong.
“I’m… I’m… I’m hungry,” she whispered.
“Is that all?” he asked as he went to the cupboard. He returned with another power bar and another bottle of water. She could smell him as he neared her again. She hissed and backed away. The light, that was now getting brighter outside, filled the front window and she hissed again running to a corner. The pain and hunger ripped at her senses until she was forced to put her hands over her ears and ball up in the corner.
“Get out Jerry. Get as far away from me as you can before it’s too late,” she yelled.
*
Jerry watched her. He didn’t know what he could do to help her, but he knew he needed to help her. She was nearly writhing with pain in the corner and it was all he could do not to run to her and hold her in his arms. After the night they had just gone through together… he couldn’t stand to see what was happening to her.
“What do I do Alicia?” he asked her.
“I told you. Get away. Get as far away from me as you can!”
He looked towards the front window. The sun was peeking from behind the hills. Al screamed at this and rose to put her back to the corner and to stare at the sunlight in horror. “I’m burning,” she screamed as she began to smoke a bit. She pulled off her jacket and tried to cover her head but he still saw the smoke coming from her.
“Al, what can I do?” he yelled again as he got closer to her.
“Stay back,” she yelled as she threw off the coat and he saw her face. He drew back. Her face was completely contorted and fangs had descended like sharp K9’s. Her eyes were starting to turn from violet to white, like she had no eyes at all. He stepped away and nearly ran for the door. She nodded.
“That’s right and if anyone ever asks you, you never saw anything. You don’t know anything about the wolves,” she said as she turned her head and slumped into the corner her body smoking.
He stopped in his retreat and wanted to slap himself in the face. He felt mad with himself. Here he was slinking off like a coward when she had saved his ass time and again. She needed him and he was just going to run off. He turned back to her. She wasn’t going to tell him what to do to help her so he went to her satchel. He grabbed her cell phone and looked up the contacts until he found the name she had said to him. Bateman.
He punched the number and someone picked up on the third ring. “Hey gorgeous. It’s three in the morning here you know,” the man answered in a sleepy tone.
“Thanks sexy. It’s six here,” he replied.
The voice on the other end of the line suddenly became serious. “Who is this and how did you get this phone?”
“Al is in trouble.”
“What do you mean Al is in trouble?”
“I mean I’m here with her and she’s hissing and smoking and her face looks… different and I want to know what I can do to help her. She won’t tell me.”
The man on the line cursed very proficiently. Once he regained his composure he answered in a glib almost uncaring tone. “The best I can tell you to do is get as far away from her as you can. I’ll send a team up to pull you out of there and protect you, but I can’t guarantee that they will get there before nightfall.”
“What’s wrong with her?”
“She is in full hunter mode. It’s been too long since her last feeding. I told her not to let it be so long between feedings. She never-”
“Feedings? What does she eat?”
The phone was silent for a very long time. He almost thought Bateman wouldn’t answer, but then he did. “You must be a semi intelligent being seeing that you are calling for my help. And if you are calling me then you know about the wolves. You have to have at least seen some of the recent pop culture films. What is the natural enemy of the werewolf?”
Jerry sucked in a breath as he looked over at Alicia’s writhing form.
“She’s a… a…”
“I think you get it old boy. Usually she doesn’t need much to survive but if she’s gone into full hunter mode in the daylight… you’d do best to get out of there right away.” How could he be so smug, so unfeeling?
“What will happen to her if I just leave?” he asked breathlessly.
“The sunlight will finish her off of course. Turn her into a statue as hard as stone.”
“You mean she’ll die?”
“It is something like death. I told her not to let it be so long between feedings. They can’t rejuvenate themselves without blood.”
Jerry let his words and all their implications run through his head. “So she risks her life to save innocent people every day, and all you can say is it’s her own fault for not taking blood from a human victim more often. Ge
e. With friends like you who needs enemies huh? Keep your team and shove them where the sun don’t shine. I’ll take care of this myself.”
“No need to be crass. She has exposed us and if you knew what could happen if this were to get out… let’s just say that more innocents would die than just you cowboy. She knew the risks. I’ll miss her to be sure. She was always… interesting.”
“Well if it’s all the same to you I’d like to keep her interesting self alive.”
“Fine. It’s your funeral. We’ll be sending the team one way or the other. Hopefully you’re still alive by the time we get there. If not, I suppose an ‘I told you so’ will be a day late and a dollar short.”
The phone line went dead and Jerry took a calming breath. What an asshole. He heard a mewling sound come from the corner of the room and he saw a welt bubble up on Al’s face. The sun was going to eat the flesh from her face. He looked over and noticed the closed door. It had to be a bathroom. He went to Al who was mumbling deliriously now. He picked her up in his arms and made a run for the bathroom as she screamed and smoked.
*
Al came to her senses again just when she thought she was already gone. It was cool and dark and the only thing that marred the perfection of this room was the light that came into it from beneath the door. That’s when it hit her again. The hunger. It clawed at her from the inside as if it could rip its way out. It was stealing away her senses.
Then the smell filled her nostrils and her mouth watered. It was a nearly uncontrollable beast that locked its talons into her and tried to make her move towards him. He was afraid. His fear made him smell all the sweeter and she felt drawn to him without any thought as to why she shouldn’t go to him.
Because he’s human and you will kill him! You’re too hungry!
She stopped mere feet from him and yelled at him. “I told you to get out of here Jerry! I mean it. I can’t control it!”
“Will I become like you?” he asked out of the darkness.
She opened her eyes. The bright light coming from beneath the door showed his face as perfectly as if they were standing there with the lights on, at least to her eyes. He kept the fear from his face very well.
“No, but you might become real dead,” she hissed as she rocked to the rhythm of his beating heart. He turned his face and exposed his neck to her. She hissed again as the vein at his neck pulsed, calling out to her. “Jerry,” she whispered as she went to him against her will.
She ran a feather light hand over his neck and down his chest. She purred as she rubbed her face along the side of his. Her face was back to normal now that the sun wasn’t threatening her. He shivered beneath her touch and it set her blood on fire.
“Take what you need. I trust you not to hurt me.”
She shook her head as her arms snaked up and around his shoulders pulling him closer. “Mon cherie. There is never any pain, not with your ole buddy Al,” she whispered soothingly in his ear.
It was her but it was not her. She lifted her lips to his neck and let her tongue dance over the precious vein for just a second. She could feel his efforts to relax, but the harder he tried, the harder his blood pumped. She wanted to pause to reassure him that everything would be all right. It was too late. She was too far gone to do such a thing. Her fangs descended but not as far as they would if she were preparing for a fight.
The puncture was quick and her fangs disappeared as she latched on to him. He tasted more wonderful than she could have ever imagined. She took a deep draw off of him and felt his shuttering response as he moaned and said her name. Just as she had thought they would, those strong arms came up and clamped around her as she took another deep draw of him. She could feel his essence draining out of him and into her and her head spun it tasted so good. It was like sex and chocolate and fire all wrapped up into one.
She had been doing this for eight years but none of the men she’d had had ever tasted this good. A fire started up low in her groin. She felt like she had too many clothes on and he had too many clothes on. She wanted more than anything to be riding him right now as she drew him deeper and deeper into herself. She wanted to take all of him, in every way he could give himself to her.
*
It wasn’t like anything he expected. The initial bite was, but this... As she drew on him, took him into her body, he felt himself grow harder and harder. It was probably the most erotic moment of his life and all he could do was hold on to her slender frame as she took from him what she needed. She drew again and his world tilted on axis. It was all he could do not to fall to the ground in ecstasy.
It was as if they were all wrapped up in each other and he wished that they were both naked for this moment. She drew on him again and he did fall to his knees as he came in an explosion of fireworks. He held on to her as she took him to a high he’d never felt before. He felt himself leaving… floating away on a cloud.
“Alicia,” he murmured from a distance. She was draped across him where he lay on the tile floor, still latched on to his neck. “Alicia, come back sweetheart, come back. I know you won’t hurt me,” he said before his eyes drifted closed and his cloud drifted off higher and higher.
There was nothing anchoring him to this world anymore but her, and that line was getting thinner and thinner until it was little more than a wisp of air. He was beginning to forget why he should hold on to it at all. He had a feeling where he was going there would be no pain, no heart ache. He heard himself sigh as his spirit left his body.
“Alicia,” he said again, but this time it was like saying a prayer, like a relief, like a release.
*
Alicia felt like she was flying high in the air wrapped up in his embrace. She hadn’t felt this free since before she’d lost everything that meant anything to her. Taking Jerry into her was like taking life, taking love, into her very being. They floated in and out of each other in an ecstasy that she hadn’t ever known. And he had given her this gift so freely, with no thought to himself. She felt so grateful that all she wanted to do was take more and more of him into herself. All of the men she had ever fed from told her how good this felt to them and she heard his moans of bliss. He wasn’t feeling any pain and she felt so so good.
He tasted like heaven and instead of feeling satisfied, tasting him only made her want more and more. She knew that she should pull away but something had taken a hold of her and urged her on and on. How would it feel if she just took all of him into herself? She would be with him forever and forever. They would never be apart again. She could just live here with him. There would be no more loneliness. There would be no more pain. This was as close to heaven as she would ever get.
Yes. She would do this. She would take all of him into herself and he could live in her heart and she would never be alone again. He whispered something but she didn’t hear him. All she heard was the mantra in her mind. Take him. Take all of him. Let him live inside of you.
“Alicia. Come back sweetheart, come back. I know you won’t hurt me.”
She heard the words and briefly realized that they had floated to the floor and she was lying across his rock hard body. His chest rose and fell beneath her and she felt the heat of him. She fought against the beast inside of her and it bucked hard against her. She was walking a fine line and something in her was forcing her to do what she’d never done. Take an innocent life. He was on the brink. His heart beat was nearly non-existent. One more pull was all it would take to stop his heart and the thought consumed her with desire.
“Alicia,” he whispered one last time, and with that gave her the will to pull away. She took her mouth from him and jumped to her feet. She caught sight of herself in the mirror above the sink. In the dark she looked like nothing more than the beasts outside. Her eyes were glowing red. She closed her eyes and backed up until her back hit the wall and her heart slammed against her ribs. She struggled to catch her breath.
It had never happened to her like this before. She had always been in control of it. It ha
d lurked in the corners of her mind and she had called herself a monster more than once, but this… The thought came to her that she had nearly killed him and it brought her back to herself. She clicked on the bathroom light to see what she had done.
She was back at his side instantly. He was pale and his body was limp as he lay with his head turned to one side. The area where she had bitten him was still red with his blood and remembering it now she felt awful. She had been like a drug addict unable to control herself at all.
“Jerry,” she said breathlessly as she slapped his face.
He moaned and his eyes fluttered but didn’t open. She scooped him up and carried him out into the main room, his blood giving her unbelievable energy. The air was starting to turn hot and she knew that as soon as the bugs smelled the blood they would come in through the gapping holes in the wall and front window. She laid Jerry on the bed and went to wet a towel she found in the bathroom. She did her best to clean him up like she had done with all the others. The saliva from her mouth would heal him quickly so there was no need for a bandage.
She felt his blood humming through her veins like a hurricane. She had never ever drunk so much from one donor. She had never needed to. Once a month was all it usually took to get her going, and then she only took enough to make their head spin a bit with the pleasure. She would whisper in their ears of all the great things they had done and then leave them with a satisfied smile on their faces.
Bateman had chastised her time and again telling her that she needed to eat at least once a week to be sure that she didn’t get too low, but she didn’t relish the thought of doing it that often. Hell, if she could stop doing it all together she would. She had tried it to see what would happen. She had thought that maybe that would end it. Nothing had happened.
She had simply gotten to a point where she stopped moving. The sun had baked her like a brick until she was as hard as a statue. Day after day she couldn’t move, couldn’t talk, couldn’t walk, and she’d burned when the sun came up. Bateman had found her near her motorcycle in the woods and she was glad it was him and not the wolves.