“My body… carries the vampire gene completely. Both my blood and that are potent enough to turn you,” she replied as she gently licked her juices off of Sage’s fingers. It didn’t taste as sweet as the human’s, but she didn’t mind. If it kept her human safe, she’d tolerate it. She rolled off of Sage and smiled at the groan of disappointment that came from her. Pulling the young human into her arms, she kissed her forehead with a smile. Her voice was soothing as she said, “Go to sleep, my pretty human. Get some rest and we’ll talk in the morning.”
Sage hummed and snuggled into her vampire’s arms. She felt deliciously warm after their lovemaking session and it felt nice to snuggle into her. Although a part of her missed the slight chill of her skin. A yawn came over her and she gave a tiny sheepish laugh. Glancing up at Vayna’s face, she asked, “Will you be awake in the morning?”
“Mmm. I will. I don’t necessarily need to sleep only at night,” she said with a gentle smile. It was a long time since she slept at night, but she didn’t mind. She would enjoy it a lot more with someone in her arms. The two quickly fell asleep, their bodies tightly wound around each other, holding the other close as if they were afraid that if they let go, the other wouldn’t be there when they woke up.
Chapter 3
The sunlight filtered into the room just barely. The heavy black drapes on the windows shut most of it out, but a tiny sliver of sunlight crept along the floor to the bed. It slithered up over the edge and rested on Sage’s leg. The tiny ray of light tried desperately to reach the vampire, to keep her away from its precious child, but it just didn’t have enough power. So it settled with sitting patiently on Sage’s thigh, a reminder to the ancient vampire of the human’s mortality.
Vayna awoke first, slowly. It was definitely a long time since she woke up with another in her arms. Usually her lovers would all vacate her bed long before the sun came up. She forgot how much she missed having someone in her arms. Opening her eyes, she gazed down into the sleeping face of her human and smiled. The events from the night before flooded her mind and she tightened her arms around the younger woman. Lazily, she lifted her head to see the clock on the other side of the bed. The digital numbers read 10:42. She blinked in surprise. How long had it been since she last awoke at this time of the day? She could hardly remember. While she didn’t have to sleep at night, it was easier being awake at night as a vampire than during the day. She was just about to drop her head back down onto her pillow when she noticed the thin band of sunlight on Sage’s leg.
She stared at it for a moment before her morbid curiosity overcame her and she lightly trailed a finger through the bright light. A sharp hiss left her as the sunlight burned her skin. She sighed heavily and dropped her head back down. So the sun still hated her. She vaguely wondered what she would have to do to earn the sun’s approval again. She missed the sunlight. It was one of the things she most enjoyed as a human. Now… the closest she could get to the sunlight was a full moon. It seemed that, while the sun hated vampires, her sister, the moon loved keeping them company. Maybe it was because she understood how it felt to be in the shadow of something else. Vampires would always live in the shadows of humans, and the moon would always live in the shadow of the sun.
Bringing her hand up, she winced at the black burn mark on her finger and groaned softly. She would have to wait until that night, when the moon came out, to heal it. Contrary to popular belief, being a vampire didn’t mean automatic healing. Though, standing in the light of the full moon did heal one completely. It was a right pain in the ass during new moons, though. She glanced down when she felt Sage begin to stir and she smiled lightly.
Sage slowly began to wake and her mind fought to understand why she felt like she was being held. Or why she felt naked for that matter… the events of the night before flashed through her mind and she froze. Lifting her head, she glanced up into amused blue eyes. Smiling sheepishly, she said, “Good morning.”
“Good morning,” Vayna replied as she dropped her head and pressed a deep, lingering kiss to her human’s lips. She thought vaguely to herself that she could get used to waking up like this. Having a sweet, young lover to wake up to. Nipping playfully at her bottom lip, she pulled back and said, “You forgot, didn’t you?”
Sage had the grace to look embarrassed as she nodded. She couldn’t believe how fast things changed in the space of 24 hours. She couldn’t remember what she was doing yesterday, or who she was, but she went from being homeless on a park bench, to being in the arms of a vampire. Not that she was upset by the changes. Far from it. She was just amazed at how quickly one’s entire world could change. She was just about to stretch when she noticed Vayna’s hand and immediately grabbed it as she exclaimed, “What happened?!”
“Ah…” the vampire replied with a sheepish sort of laugh. Her skin was just a little bit burned, not badly, and it didn’t hurt. Not anymore, anyway. Moving her finger, she gazed at the scorch mark and sighed, “The sunlight… was teasing me by lying so casually on your thigh. It seems she still hates me, though.”
“She?” Sage asked in confusion. To her human mind, the sun was just a giant mass of hot liquid and gas. It wasn’t alive, and certainly didn’t have a gender. How could it when science proved that it was just a big ball of burning elements? She gazed down at her vampire’s burnt finger and was surprised by the flash of anger she felt toward the sun for hurting her lover. She was about to lean forward and place a small kiss on Vayna’s finger when she felt a sharp pain in her leg. Looking down, she realized that the sun seemed to intensify and was burning her. With a sharp yelp, she swung her legs out of the way and into the safety of the shadows.
Vayna sat up and leaned around the sunlight to look at Sage’s leg. Her brow creased in confusion as she stared at the small burn mark that started to form on her human’s fair skin. Glancing up at Sage, she asked, “What were you just thinking?”
“I was… mad that she hurt you…” she murmured shyly as she gently prodded the area with her finger. She winced at the sting she felt. That was unusual. She didn’t ever remember being burned by the sun before. Of course, she didn’t really remember much to begin with, so she wasn’t sure if she was ever burned before… but, her mind argued, if she was easily burned by the sun, surely it would’ve burned her when she was still sleeping?
Vayna stood up and carefully avoided the sun. Glancing at the offending sunbeam, she yanked the drapes closed fully and cast the room into darkness. Turning around, she spotted Sage still sitting on the bed, her eyes wide as she tried to see in the darkness. The vampire’s inhuman ability to see in the dark allowed her to walk over to her human lover without tripping over. Gently she grabbed her hand and helped her stand up before leading her out of the room. There was a lamp in the hallway that cast light on the open bathroom door. They both winced as they stepped out into the light. No matter how dim it was, it still bothered their eyes after being plunged into the darkness of her room for so long.
She guided Sage into the bathroom and turned the light on. Without saying a word, she grabbed Sage by the waist and lifted her up, thankful of her increased strength. Carefully settling her onto the bathroom sink, she turned and started rooting around for a first aid kit. There wasn’t much they could do about her hand until the moon rose, but Sage’s leg had to be taken care of as soon as possible. Despite the nakedness of her human lover, she was very thorough about bandaging Sage. Out of the first aid kit came burn ointment, gauze and tape.
Sage hissed lightly when Vayna started to spread the ointment on her skin. It was still tender and very red. It almost looked like a welt started to appear. The ointment was cold, but the ancient vampire’s hands were still strangely warm from where she was just holding Sage against her. She spread it on carefully before washing her hands and placing a piece of gauze over the area. After carefully taping the gauze to her human’s skin, she put the kit away and turned to face Sage. Placing her hands on either side of the counter, she gazed directly into her eyes and
said, “You got angry because the sun hurt me?”
Sage gazed down at her lap, acutely aware of her nakedness as she nodded her head. Her arms came up around her naked body as she frowned softly. She couldn’t explain why she suddenly felt so shy around the vampire. They just were in bed together! She almost felt like she was getting scolded, but she knew that couldn’t be the case. She wasn’t expecting to get angry at the sun for hurting her vampire lover. It just seemed so wrong for the sun to hurt such a beautiful creature. If anything she should be celebrating that her light has a chance to fall on such a wonderful being. She almost toppled over backward when Vayna jerked her chin up and kissed her deeply. Her arms grabbed onto her vampire’s shoulders for support and she fought to keep up with the intensity of the kiss. She practically swooned under the ancient vampire.
Vayna couldn’t help herself. No one had ever gotten mad at the sun for hurting her. Even her beloved never got upset over her getting hurt. She felt a deep, intense instinct to keep this human with her for as long as she was able to. The possessiveness in her was something usually not associated with her kind. If anything, vampires were more promiscuous, not really having a lover to get possessive over. Well, there was one other vampire that got overprotective of the girl they were seeing, but he got in too deep with the humans and the Council chained him up so he could no longer bother anyone. He was one of Vayna’s old time friends and she missed him greatly.
Breaking the kiss, she leaned back and rested her forehead against her human’s. Sage got burned because she spurned Lady Sunlight. How many lifetimes would she go through before finding someone just like her? Right at that moment, if Sage asked, she would’ve gladly turned her into a vampire. Just to keep her with her for eternity. But that was something she wouldn’t do without the human wanting it. As much as she wanted to keep her with her for the rest of her undead life, she wouldn’t subject Sage to an unending life. Brushing her nose against her human’s, she whispered, “Come on. Let’s go get some breakfast. I’m sure I’ve got at least cereal in the cupboard.”
“What about clothes?” Sage asked as Vayna helped her down off of the counter. She felt very shy, walking around so naked like she was. She wasn’t used to being without clothes unless she was taking a shower. At least, that’s the impression she got. She couldn’t exactly remember if she went without clothes or not. She just knew it felt weird for her to be without them.
Vayna smirked down at her as she slid her hands up over her human’s hips. Her skin was warm and soft beneath her fingers and she liked the feel of her warmth against the chill of her own skin. Pulling the human’s body closer, she murmured, “Leave them off. I like you much better this way anyway.”
Sage blushed, but nodded. She placed her hands on her vampire’s chest and smiled sweetly up at her. It was a little weird going around naked, but if Vayna liked her like that… she was willing to forget clothes for then. She was content to stay in her vampire’s arms for a while more, but her stomach interrupted the moment between them by growling. Blushing deeply, she laughed sheepishly.
Vayna grinned and wrapped an arm around her waist as she led her out of the bathroom and into the kitchen. She directed her toward the cupboard to look and see what she had. She knew she didn’t have much. She was a vampire, after all, and she didn’t really need to eat human food. She could eat it, but it would make her deathly sick and she didn’t particularly care for that feeling. Still, she usually kept one or two human foods around in case she ended up with a human guest.
Normally that would be foods that weren’t perishable, but she ended up entertaining some human guests not even 2 days ago, and so she went out and bought some basic foods. Cereal, tea, coffee, milk, sugar, bread, and meat for sandwiches. It wasn’t exactly things one would normally serve to business guests, but all of it was high end expensive food products, so it sufficed. Right then she was thankful for picking them up, since there was a reason for her to keep them for a while longer.
Sage looked through the cupboard and found the cereal. She pulled out a box of organic oat cereal with raspberries and grabbed a bowl. Pouring the cereal into it, she smiled when her vampire handed her the milk. She poured the milk and watched as Vayna pressed a switch on the wall and revealed a small freezer. She blinked in surprise as she watched the vampire pull out the half full bag of blood from yesterday and pour half a glass of blood. Both vampire and human sat down at the table in the middle of the kitchen and Vayna wrapped her hands around her glass, she said, “I’m sure you have questions for me. Ask away.”
At first Sage was startled. She wasn’t planning on asking questions. She didn’t want to pry, after all. Sure, she was curious about what it was like to be a vampire, but she wasn’t going to force her vampire to answer if she didn’t want to. Having such an open invitation… She chewed the mouthful of cereal she was eating before swallowing and asking, “Obviously you can’t be in the sun. Are the other weaknesses true? Garlic, crosses, stakes to the heart?”
“Garlic is very tasty on pasta. If I ate pasta, that is,” Vayna replied with an amused smile. The idea of garlic driving away vampires was an old Pagan idea. Garlic supposedly cleansed negative energies and beings. However, she never really was bothered by it. Aside from the smell. She wasn’t a fan of it when she was human, let alone as a vampire, “Crosses are usually only harmful if they’re used to either chop a vampire’s head off, or be stabbed with. Stakes to the heart hurt like hell. Literally. It’s a pain in the ass to be staked. I don’t know how many times I’ve been staked. It won’t kill us, but it can be deadly if it’s pulled out before we get a chance to stand in moonlight.”
“Stand in moonlight? I thought vampires were able to regenerate when wounded? What about immortality and superhuman powers? Can you fly, turn into a bat? What about jumping higher than normal, and running very quickly? You don’t age, do you? How old are you anyway?” she asked rapidly, barely able to get the words out of her mouth before she ran out of breath.
Vayna looked up at her from over her glass and started laughing. Who knew her human would be so full of curious questions! She sat back and covered her mouth with her hand as she laughed hard. She forgot how amusing humans could be. After a few minutes, and another round of laughter at the pouting look Sage sent her, she took a deep breath and said, “Only a few rare vampires can heal quickly. Most can’t regenerate automatically. We need moonlight to heal us. It’s one of our biggest weaknesses. We can be killed easily during the new moon, or during the day, but not when the moon is out. As long as there’s even a small bit of moonlight, we can heal. It’s a problem sometimes, but most vampires are very careful. As for immortality and aging, yes we’re immortal, and no we don’t age. If we aged, I definitely wouldn’t be looking like this by now. No, I can’t turn into a bat, but I can fly. I have wings. The superhuman abilities? Yeah, we have some. Not as many as you think. As for my age… isn’t it a culture impoliteness to ask someone their age?”
“Usually, but you’re a vampire! That only applies to humans,” she replied as she leaned forward excitedly, her cereal lay forgotten. There was so much about vampires that the world was wrong on! Who knew how little she actually knew about her lover’s kind? Yesterday she was a little afraid of her lover when she found out she was vampire, but right then she felt no fear. Just a great deal of fascination as she listened eagerly, hungry for more knowledge about vampires.
“Oh, so is that how it is,” Vayna asked with a laugh. Sage was quite adorable when she was excited. She probably should’ve been insulted by her human saying that, but she wasn’t. She was only amused by it. Taking a small sip of the blood, she said “3,426 years old.”
Sage was just about to take a bit of her cereal when she froze. Looking up at her vampire with wide eyes, she simply stared. The gorgeous creature across from her was over 3,000 years old?! She suddenly felt like a kid compared to Vayna. She looked the vampire up and down, admiring her naked body as she said, “You’ve got to be kidding. Over
3,000 years old?”
Vayna nodded her head, still smiling. She was always amused when a person, human or vampire, found out her true age. Being that old… tended to create awe in others. And desire. Especially the Council. But they desired her not for her body, but for her lineage. They were ruthless vampires that, so far, stopped at nothing to have her. A dark look came over her smiling face and she sighed heavily.
Sage reached over and placed her hand overtop the vampire’s arm. She didn’t know what was wrong, but she didn’t like that look on her lover’s face. It was almost as if… as if she went from being happy to angry. Pure, unfiltered anger. While it scared her, she wanted Vayna to know that she was there for her. Her eyes were filled with concern when she asked, “What’s wrong?”
Vayna glanced down at the human’s hand on her arm and blinked, coming out of her dark thoughts. She looked up into the concerned grey eyes and shook her head, dispelling both her thoughts and reassuring her lover. She gently covered Sage’s hand with her own and said, “It’s nothing, my petite amour. It’s just… with being this age comes trouble. You see, the vampire world isn’t just a bunch of vampires doing nothing. We’re controlled by a council. This council is made up of some of the oldest vampires in history. Some are quite old. I think the oldest is over 2,500 years old. But… I’m the oldest living vampire in the world and… I’m also the very first vampire. The council knows this, and they want very desperately to make me the “Vampire Pharaoh.” I don’t want the job, of course. I’d rather just live my life out peacefully without interfering in vampire politics, but they’re ruthless. They still have not stopped wanting me to govern the vampire world. It’s been… over a thousand years since they first asked me to become their Pharaoh.”
Vampire politics? A council? Pharaoh?! Sage could easily see this beautiful vampire in front of her ruling a country of vampires, but she never expected such a thing to exist! She thought it was just a world of vampires living on their own, keeping their existence a secret so they didn’t end up being killed. Her mind tried hard to wrap around the fact that there was a vampire world co-existing right next to the human world without humans even noticing. Automatically taking a bite of her cereal, she asked, “What does the council do? Or am I not allowed to know that?”
Dangerous Love Page 5