by M. D. Bowden
‘You’re ok Mommy,’ Megan said, her eyes brimming with joy at Sarah’s return.
‘I am my love,’ Sarah whispered into her hair, ‘I am.’
Bea wasn’t far behind - she came shuffling into the hall with Sarah’s parents close behind her. Sarah let go of Megan with one hand, still holding her close with the other, and welcomed Bea into her arms. Bea wrapped her arms around Sarah’s neck and Sarah buried her face in Bea’s soft mass of hair. She held them both, taking in their essence and memorizing every particle of their being. She was not going to let herself forget anything about them.
Eventually they struggled free, unable to be satisfied with staying still for long. Sarah rose to greet her parents, and hugged them both. She was aware they were already under Daniel’s influence as they were both wearing accepting, happy expressions. That would not be the case if not for Daniel! She did not need to waste time explaining anything to them, as he had taken care of that while she had been holding Megan and Bea.
Sarah turned to Daniel, who was standing protectively close. She wondered who he was protecting, her or her family?
‘Daniel, would you mind explaining to my parents how to communicate on-line on my computer? It’s in the kitchen. I want to spend a little time with my kids before they have to go out. I will pack after they leave for school,’ she said.
‘No problem, you go ahead,’ he answered.
Sarah followed Megan and Bea into the living room, painfully aware this was the last time she would be alone with them for a very long time. She crouched on the floor next to Bea and helped her put on her shoes and coat – she was already dressed. Then she helped Megan too, even though she did not really need it.
‘Mommy’s going on a trip,’ she told them.
‘Where are you going Mommy?’ asked Megan.
‘Mommy trip,’ said Bea, as she tried to stick two large bricks together.
‘I’m going on an adventure all the way to England, and we will still get to see each other because we can talk on the phone and on the computer,’ Sarah explained.
Sarah looked up as Daniel entered the room. He approached Megan, who looked up at him with an intrigued, if a little wary, expression. Sarah watched as he made eye contact with her and asserted his will, altering her memories. She felt sad that this was necessary, that Megan had had to see such violence.
When Daniel had finished Megan picked up her school bag and came to sit by Sarah’s knee. Daniel approached Sarah from behind and whispered in her ear - ‘Your parents are prepared for you to leave as I’ve explained everything to them, and I’ve made sure Megan doesn’t remember what happened with Sebastian – and that neither of them will be distressed by your departure, or their father’s absence.’
Sarah looked back at him over her shoulder and said, ‘Thank you,’ before returning her attention to her children.
She opened up her arms and this time Bea got there first, followed by Megan. She hugged them both until her parents said it was time they had to go. Sarah gave them big cheeky kisses as they hurried away, a tear escaping her eye regardless of Daniel’s power over her.
She said goodbye to her parents and both thanked and apologized profusely in one rambling sentence as they hurried out of the door.
Her heart ached as she watched them leave, Daniel’s arms embracing her from behind. She leant back against him, letting him take her weight, as he was already helping with her emotional load. As her parents’ car turned onto the road and drove out of sight she wriggled around to face Daniel and felt his control over her blood lust lessen. Tears ran down her cheeks as she looked into his eyes, and he kissed her gently.
‘Don’t worry,’ Daniel said. ‘I will try and keep you busy, try to take your mind off it.’
His lips curled in that mischievous way that he had, and she laughed a little through her sobs.
‘I’ll go pack,’ she said reluctantly, breaking his embrace.
Daniel nodded in return. Sarah glanced back at him as she ran upstairs. He was looking mightily fine and gentlemanly – standing upright by her front door, exuding control and charisma.
She grabbed a backpack of her own from her cupboard. It was the one she had often taken on escapades in the woods. She filled it in a hurry, stuffing in any clothes that came to hand - too distracted by her children leaving to care that much about clothes. She found her passport and tucked it safely in the inside pocket of her jacket. In the bathroom she selected her favorite shampoo, along with various creams, her toothbrush, makeup and other bits she did not want to do without. Last of all she carefully pushed her favorite photo album down the back of the rucksack, where it would not be damaged. It was full of pictures of Megan and Bea. When the bag was full she selected some clothes of her own to wear to the airport, stripping off the extremely baggy clothes Daniel had lent her and stuffing them into the top of the bag, before strapping it tightly shut.
She chose her favorite panties and fastened her most flattering navy blue bra. She blushed at the thought of Daniel seeing her wearing just those later on. She accompanied them with black skinny jeans and the floaty pre-Raphaelite top she had been wearing the day she first met Daniel. Over the top she shrugged on her jacket and checked her passport was still in place. She thought longingly of the makeup she had already packed, but there was no time for that, she wanted to be on her way.
Excitement bubbled inside her at the thought of her trip with Daniel, the brunt of her sadness at leaving her children masked by Daniel’s talented mind control.
She lifted her rucksack onto her back with little effort and looked around her room, thinking of memories of her past with Jo. She still could not believe that he was gone.
She had one final look around upstairs, looking in Megan and Bea’s rooms with sadness in her heart. She turned, a part of her clutching onto the memories, but she knew it was time to leave and that she would have to let them go.
She walked down the stairs and approached Daniel, who was waiting for her by the front door.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ she said. ‘I can’t handle it any longer.’
The pain in her heart eased a little as Daniel kissed her again, lingering, before breaking away and taking her bag. She did not need the help but appreciated the gesture. Sarah opened the door wide and ushered Daniel out first. She locked up and then walked away, looking back at her house and thinking of how her parents were going to cope caring for her children, and what Megan and Bea would be like on her return – would they still love her?
Daniel took her hand and led her to his jeep and she let him strap her in, only half aware as he started the engine and drove off. She continued to look back at the life she was leaving until it was out of sight and far behind.
CHAPTER 10
Daniel shifted in his seat, getting comfy – moving slowly so as not to disturb Sarah. He squeezed her shoulder, holding her tightly to his side. A smirk played at his lips, he could not help it. Here he was on a plane with a beautiful, amazing, sexy woman who was now his. She was by his side, thoroughly under his control of course, he did not want her launching herself at fellow passengers, but she was here with him and he had her all to himself.
He had influenced her to relax and she had fallen asleep, and she was doing so soundly. He looked past her soft blond hair out of the window. They were seated near the wing on a narrow row of three. Sarah was by the window and he was in the middle, squashed between Sarah and a middle aged man who was keeping to himself. They were currently flying over the sea, but it was obscured by fluffy white clouds. He caught the occasional glimpse of blue.
Daniel thought back to their wait at the airport. They had managed to get a flight relatively quickly and had only had to wait four hours. Luckily for them someone else had canceled, leaving two seats on the next plane departing free for them to take. Regardless of their luck the time had gone slowly as they were both impatient to get away. Sarah had been very excited, he thought smiling, but she had nearly lost control and Danie
l had had to increase his power over her.
He looked forward to when they had made it to England and found somewhere remote to stay. They could either rent a house or stay in a bed and breakfast. He thought renting a house would be better, as far from other people as was possible – then he could really let Sarah be free and she could hunt while he taught her control. If she could manage to be satisfied with hunting animals the first step would be to teach her to stop feeding, before she killed. This would be far easier to teach if he did not have to worry about her stumbling upon humans mid feed.
He saw a large female air hostess making her way down the central aisle towards him and summoned her over.
‘Please can I buy a large glass of red wine?’ he asked, then added - ‘actually, make that two,’ thinking Sarah might appreciate some wine when she woke up.
The hostess blushed and hurried away to fetch the glasses.
He wondered what dangers they would find to fight, and hoped he really could help people. So far his main experience had been with fighting vampires, this recent stuff with Sebastian had been out of his comfort zone – it had been very challenging to say the least. He thought the best thing for them to do, if they really wanted to help people, would be to find an area with a minor vampire problem; where young vampires were terrorizing the locals. This would be no problem for him, and it would give Sarah a chance to get some experience in fighting while he taught her new skills. He would have to stay by her side non-stop as he could not let her get hurt again, and could not let her hurt people either.
The air hostess returned with a couple of plastic glasses and two individual bottles of red. He thanked her and paid, amused to see her blushing again.
As she walked away he rolled his eyes at himself. Really he had no idea how hard it was going to be to find the kind of challenge he hoped. They might stumble upon something entirely unexpected, or they might not find any supernatural presence at all.
He unscrewed one of the bottles and poured some into the small glass that had been provided. It was not very elegant.
The plane shook with turbulence, and he spilt a little wine on the fold down table. He held Sarah tightly so she would not be disturbed, while he mopped up the mess with a napkin.
As the plane steadied he took a long drink of wine, enjoying how it made him feel.
He would have to make it up to Sarah - that was for sure. All this time under his control could not be that great for her. She was constantly being surrounded by temptations, and he was taking away from her what she wanted – blood. His mind was constantly connected to hers. It had to be, for they were surrounded by people and had been for hours.
Even as she slept he could tell her mind was searching for something, for a feed, for power. All her senses were primed to smell the faintest presence of blood, of life. If he let the connection fade he did not know what would happen, but he did not imagine it would be good.
As he took another sip of wine an idea occurred to him; they could rent a car at the airport. That would be the quickest way to get them their own space away from humans.
Unfortunately, linking his mind to Sarah’s had some unforeseen effects; his own desire for blood was increasing. It was good he had the wine now as the alcohol helped suppress his desire for blood. He had three more hours to cope with the bloodlust before they would land at Gatwick, London, and they would be free to go where they pleased.
They could feed.
Daniel smelt wafts of slightly unpleasant, overcooked food, coming his way. He felt Sarah stir at his side and looked around to see that her eyes were open. She gave him a cheeky grin.
‘I hope I didn’t drool on you,’ she said.
He laughed lightly, ‘Want to try some, no doubt utterly fantastic, airline food?’ he asked with sarcasm.
‘Why not?’ said Sarah. ‘I am hungry, or thirsty, or something. Maybe it will help?’
‘It might a little, but this will probably be of more use,’ he said, presenting her with a full glass of rich red liquid.
‘Umm wine, I haven’t had that in ages,’ she said.
Daniel watched as she took it and downed it in one.
‘More?’ he asked.
‘Yes please,’ she replied, holding out her empty glass as a different air hostess started to pass over their meals.
Daniel quickly poured her some as the man to his right was given his meal on a tray, and then placed the bottle on his table ready to receive food for himself and Sarah.
As the air hostess moved off to dispense more meals Sarah wrinkled her nose at Daniel, and he could not resist - he kissed her hard on the lips. As he pulled back smiling he was pleased to see her cheeks flushed, pleased he still had that effect on her.
She took another sip of wine and peeled back the foil on her tray. He focused on his and did the same, revealing over-cooked salmon in a creamy parsley sauce, accompanied by some very uniform looking new potatoes that looked like they were from a tin.
He started to force himself to eat it, trying not to draw attention to himself. The man to his right was tucking in to his, occasionally elbowing Daniel in the arm.
He glanced at Sarah and she was pushing her food around with her fork, and he watched as she tentatively brought some up to her lips and started to chew.
‘It doesn’t taste of anything,’ she said.
‘I’m not sure it would even if we were human,’ he muttered in her ear, and she smiled wryly back.
As he watched she ate the rest of her food speedily, downed the rest of her wine, and then groaned softly, looking out of the window at the fluffy clouds.
‘You ok?’ he asked her.
‘My throat is dry, I’m not sure I’m doing that well,’ she said.
Daniel tried to increase his influence on her but his power was weakening after asserting it for so long, and he could sense her desperation. It was getting hard to mask.
‘I need something Daniel,’ she said, a panicky edge to her voice as she resolutely looked out of the window.
Daniel wondered if her teeth had extended and that she was trying to hide it. What were they going to do? He tried to think if there was any way he could get her some blood now. Could he try and get her to feed off the other man sitting next to him? Is there any way they could manage without being noticed? No, there really was not, and anyway, how would he get her to stop feeding without creating a mass scene? That would not be good and he did not have the strength to influence all of those people.
‘Daniel . . .’ she called quietly, but with angst.
An idea occurred to him.
‘Here,’ he said leaning around her, protecting her from view with his body and pushing his wrist against her lips.
She did not hesitate. He felt twin points pierce his skin and she sucked, instantly connecting their minds and bodies. She was fighting to be quiet, and so was he, this was so romantic and he was starting to feel hot. An image sprang to mind of ripping apart her jeans and taking her against the window, right in front of everybody. He was relieved there was a table over his lap concealing his arousal.
‘Now stop,’ he strongly projected straight into her mind.
He felt her teeth retract and was proud she had done as he commanded. She continued to look away, and he listened to her controlled breathing. She was still hungry. There was not more he could do, however much he wanted to. If she drank too much of his blood he might lose control and then they would both be done for.
He heard a cart being pushed down the aisle and sat up straight, but Sarah continued to look away. His wrist had healed already and he wiped away a trace of blood before he had to pass their trays back to the hostess. He asked for two more of those little bottles of wine.
He focused on his own breathing, keeping it slow and rhythmic, and forced himself not to listen to the pumping heart to his right. He was relieved when the blushing lady returned with their drinks, eyeing the back of Sarah’s head briefly, before giving Daniel a flirtatious smile.
; ‘Thank you,’ Daniel said, doing his best at being polite.
He poured wine for Sarah and passed it to her, she took it but she still did not turn from the window. He sat back and took a long sip himself, thinking the wine was far better than the food, and letting his thoughts drift back to their destination.
Finally the plane was descending and he held tightly to Sarah, for now she had to face the crowds. The plane touched ground and Daniel braced himself as the brakes came on and the plane slowly came to a halt. The seatbelt light snapped off and they waited for the aisle to clear before rising and leaving the plane. Daniel kept glancing at Sarah to see if she was ok, but she kept her eyes lowered the whole time. He held onto her hand to keep her from straying, but also for his own support – to remind himself of the preciousness of life and that he should never let himself lose control and take that life from anybody.
She finally smiled up at him uncertainly as he led her through customs and they waited by the conveyer belt to collect their bags. Then they walked to the nearest car hire desk and selected the strongest car they had. He did not know what they would be facing after all. While they were waiting to collect the vehicle he purchased every paper they sold at the airport - a mix of regional and national news reports. He kept hold of Sarah’s hand the whole time, feeding her comforting, soothing, anti-blood lust, subconscious messages. His power was really wearing thin and he needed to feed as soon as a possibility presented itself.
They were soon leaving the confines of the airport, walking outside into gentle rain. Daniel thought about the seasons and realized it was early April. It was warmer here than in Hartland, Sarah’s home in Canada, but still on the chilly side.