by Prince, DD
He put his index finger on her lips, “Shhh, Kyla, please. This is your life we’re talking about. I don’t care about some stranger. She’ll be fine. She won’t remember a thing when she’s returned home.”
“You have such a long way to go, Tristan.”
“Huh?” He looked genuinely perplexed.
“I can’t have you just stealing people to train me. It’s not fair. It’s so wrong.”
He rolled his eyes at her. She felt her temperature rise. She was pissed. She squirmed out from under him, stormed into the bathroom and slammed the door.
How could she just be okay with him having Sam stealing someone else from their life so that she could learn how to act? It was unconscionable.
A moment later he stepped into the room. She was brushing her teeth to within an inch of their life.
“I need you to calm down,” He said, cautiously.
She spat into the sink and wiped her mouth with a towel, “I can’t. I’m freaking right the fuck out. I think you should call Sam now and call this off.”
“Baby.” He pulled her to him and for a change she didn’t even feel like fighting or throwing something at him. She didn’t know what she was feeling. So she grabbed him and held tight.
“Call it off, Tristan.”
“No.”
She tried to pull back, he didn’t let her go.
“Seriously, Tristan…”
“Kyla, I need you to let me handle things. Trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
She wanted to fight back but found herself melting against him, wanting to trust him, wanting him to be able to fix things.
“So you’ll drink from this girl?” she mumbled into his chest.
“No, baby. Shh, I won’t drink directly from anyone but you ever again. Ever. She’s for Sam and to show you. It’s just a few days. I have my blood bank, if I need it but I should be fine.”
“Dirty water,” she said softly, feeling relieved. Relieved he wasn’t going to feed off some poor innocent girl and relieved that his mouth wouldn’t be on some other woman.
“Yeah.” They were both quiet for a minute and Tristan was contemplative.
The idea of Tristan’s mouth on another woman made her heart sink and bile rise in her throat. She found it hard to believe he was promising his fangs would never touch anyone else again. That seemed like it must be a huge thing for a vampire to do.
“Let’s take a bath,” he broke the silence, “We’ll relax for a bit. You’re all tense.”
“So are you,” she squeezed the back of his neck and felt him relax a little.
~~~
They cuddled in the water together for a long time, Kyla between his legs, her back resting against his stomach, her head back against his pecks.
“I could live in this bathtub. It’s almost as big as my bedroom.” She stretched out and flexed her toes in the bubbles, enjoying the warmth and the sizzle of the bubbles on her skin. He started to massage her shoulders.
“Tell me about your life,” she said, “What makes you a bad guy? Why do you feel like you’re in a haze all the time?”
“Let me guess; you were planning on studying to be a journalist in school.”
“No… it was going to be business.”
“You should reconsider. Specialize in interrogations, maybe.”
“You avoid questions. I don’t know very much yet. Things are all happening so fast with us and with all the drama…we hardly know each other. I hardly know anything about you, about your world, about a day in the life of Tristan.” She smiled, thinking about his suggestion to reconsider her major. Did that mean school was still in the cards? Was life outside this bedroom with him a part of her life a possibility?
“I don’t feel like I’m in a haze anymore.” He planted a kiss on the top of her head.
She smiled wider. Her thoughts trailed off to school and her plans, plans she’d made before she met him. He touched her back and eased her forward so he could to soap up her back with a bath puff.
“The group I’m involved with is what outsiders, if they knew about us, would probably describe as a vampire coalition. There’s a hierarchy based on strength, bloodlines, age. It’s a collective. Likeminded vampires who work together to drive wealth, eliminate threats, prevent vampires from being exposed. We feed our hunger, our urges, and protect our secrets and do it at whatever cost. I’m president of a corporation and we have our hands in legit businesses so there’s a lot of very ordinary things happening. A lot of what I do also revolves around keeping our secrets under wraps, eliminating threats. And outside of business there’s a lot of hedonism. I guess after living like that for a while you fall into a pattern. I didn’t know happy. Everything is so much more vibrant and real now.”
“Because of my blood.” She closed her eyes, reveling in the feeling of him soaping up her back and shoulders but feeling sadness sweep through her.
“Because of you. You and your blood; package deal.”
“How do you know it’s got anything to do with me? It might just be the blood. If it were in a different container it might be just as effective.”
He started to rinse her back. “Here we go again. I know what I feel. I’m crazy about your strength, your tenacity, your snarky smartass potty mouth. Although sometimes it makes me wanna give you a spanking.” He dug his fingers into her bottom. She squirmed. He continued, “The whole package so far. I felt something even before I tasted you, just by the way you looked at me, even. I can feel new things from you on a progressive basis; I’m getting to know you from the inside out. That’s huge, isn’t it? That’s more than blood. Right? Okay… I’ll tell you this as many times as you need to hear it. I.Want.You. All of you.” He shifted her, “You get to the back of the bus and wash me now.”
She leaned forward and he moved. She slid back behind him and he nestled between her legs and lay back against her chest. She soaped up the bath puff with body wash and started to wash his chest.
“Tell me more about you,” he whispered and closed his eyes and looked like he was soaking up the feel of her washing him. She revelled in the feel of him.
“Poor little orphan Annie. You knew that already. I love to read, love movies. I have an insatiable sweet tooth. If I didn’t run I’d probably be morbidly obese. I like to run. Well, sometimes I like to run, sometimes I need to run.” She stopped and felt like there was a lump in her throat, “But you know all that about me by now. I already told you why I moved here…I… don’t want to talk about me anymore. It feels weird. Is that okay?”
“For now,” he said, “I want to know you. I want to know everything. We don’t have to do it all at once. Everyone I talked to all had similar stories about how you keep to yourself.”
“What stories?”
“They all talked about you being strong and smart but standoffish, you don’t let anyone too close, don’t let yourself have fun very often. Your roommate was who called it a personal bubble of steel.”
“I’ve been screwed over,” Kyla said softly, “Like, a lot.”
He leaned forward, “It’s made you who you are. I like who you are. Do my back?”
She started to scrub, appreciating his comment as it was what she believed, too, that your journey shaped who you were.
“You’re a firecracker. I like it. Harder.”
“Yeah?” she giggled and put her muscles into scrubbing, “You got tired of women swooning over you and waiting for you to take them and have your wicked…wicked way with them?” she flicked a wrist to her forehead and fluttered her eyelashes.
“Who’d get tired of that?” he scoffed. She squeezed the puff of soapy water all over the top of his head. He pretended to block his face in mock horror and slid down further so his head was resting on her stomach. His ears were submerged in the water and he looked up lovingly at her.
“Naw, it’s different with you. You’re real, you know?”
“Not really,” she shook her head and fingered through his hair to sweep the bubbles away and sw
ooped water over to rinse it. He turned over so that the fronts of their bodies were pressed together.
“You woke me up. I wanted fingernails in my back; I wanted my name in the air because whoever I was with was acknowledging me, my existence, not just what they were feeling. I just didn’t know it until I felt it. I realized how empty and pointless it all was, all the meaningless sex. I was so fucking bored. I might’ve had something more with female vamps but nothing clicked. The women in my circles are too similar to me. Cold, heartless, diabolical…and I guess that’s not what I want. I went through the motions before you. Fuck, drink, done. Fuck, drink blood, done. They were like warm blow-up dolls that just… took it. It got so predictable. I wanted to do more than fuck.” He let out a sigh, “I don’t know. I just feel different. More powerful, yeah, which is the junkie part, but not just that. I don’t ever want to go back to just satisfying urges. Maybe I’ve always been so sexually insatiable because no one gave me what I wanted until now. You give me what I want. I want more of it. I don’t want it to end. The other night you took the reins? When you tried to make me feel good? Well, that was something. Fuck it was something. You have no clue how bad I needed that; I had no clue how bad I needed that. It brought out even more new emotions in me,” his voice sort of cracked, “I’ve been unsatisfied for years, Kyla. I got a high in the early days from the blood, from the excitement of the plan laid out before me but it quickly lost appeal. Nothing satisfied me. Till you.”
She was quiet, absorbing his words, admiring his beauty. Not just his outward beauty but the beauty of him showing her his emotions.
“I’ve never wanted to sleep beside someone before either,” he said and ran his thumb across her bottom lip, “That first night I fell asleep with you. That’s never happened. I woke up a while later and tried to go back to my room after we were together and I couldn’t sleep. Never before had insomnia in my life. I sat up all night and watched you sleep, looking like an angel. I’ve never done that. I knew that first night that there was something different between us. I was sated. For the first time. The next night I moved you into my room. Never had a woman in there before. I always used the guest room ‘cause I didn’t want anyone in my space. I don’t ever want you out of my space. Even when I was pissed at you, you belonged in my bed, not somewhere else. I slept in the guest room for those few days but slept like shit because you weren’t beside me. It’s intense; these feelings. Intense isn’t a strong enough word.”
“All consuming,” Kyla muttered.
“Exactly. I’m sure you’re not gonna want to hear this but I need to tell you this so you understand the impact you’ve had on me. I’m different. Some nights I’d go through 3 or 4 women and it wouldn’t put a dent in my hunger. Not even a little dent. But you…you are all I need, Kyla.”
Her eyes widened and she let out a long, slow breath. “Wow Tristan. Such a slut.”
He laughed. She laughed.
“I’m different too,” she whispered, feeling tingly all over at his words, “I never trust. I’ve never let someone in; not like this. Now with you…I’m different, too. My walls are beginning to come down, or my bubble of steel has a crack or whatever, and that’s because of you. I don’t want it to stop, either. But I’m so scared it will. I’m afraid something bad is gonna burst this bubble, the bubble we’re both in. And there’s still so much I don’t know. I have so many questions.”
He started to kiss her, “Your walls are sugar and I’m hot water. I’m going to dissolve you into a sweet syrupy, sticky mess and then lick it all up. Mmm.”
Kyla felt everything south of her waist clench, “I don’t want this, us, to end. But all the other stuff…” she sighed as he kissed her throat.
“Things are just on pause, baby. I need this conference to go smoothly, no hiccups. Everything is on pause, that’s all. Remember that. If you see things that upset you or if I do things that confuse you please know that we’re just on temporary pause, okay? After this is over we’ll find a way to move forward so that you’re safe.”
“What’s the conference about?”
“It’s just an annual meeting for high ranking vamps in the company. It moves around and this year it’s here. It’s always got a banquet for the kick-off. I know you’re probably going to see and hear things that upset you but I hope it doesn’t make you feel differently about me. Can I just ask you to try to trust me? I know trust won’t come easy but it feels like you are trying. Keep trying, okay? And I need you to remember through this that whatever you see or hear around others that it’s who I was. I have to figure out how to transition into who you’re helping me become. It has to look like it’s seamless otherwise we’re in trouble. I’ve got so much to figure out.”
“Transition to what? Are you saying you don’t want to be a leader any longer?”
“Don’t know. But I have this new conscience now. I…I can’t imagine just walking away like it’s a job I’m quitting or anything like that because I have to help protect the secrets and I’m good at this, growing the company, making it more profitable, and I’m the voice of reason in a lot of volatile situations. I don’t know that I’d want to give it all up and it wouldn’t be easy to just walk away from something I’ve been told for a decade is my birthright. But I know I can’t knowingly put you in danger and I don’t want to keep doing some of the things I’ve been doing. You’d probably want to run from me if you knew all of it. There are things I’ve done that I’d never want you to have to sift through emotions about. Argh. I need to think...” he got out of the tub and wrapped a towel around his waist. Before she could say anything, he was gone. So much for the syrupy sticky mess.
She would bet money he was going for a run. But for a switch she didn’t feel like running. She felt like wallowing.
~~~
He was back a while later. He didn’t speak to her as he entered the room. He discarded gym shorts on the edge of the bed and headed for the shower, drenched with sweat and panting.
Kyla had been in bed with the Lestat book. When he came out he walked into the closet and got into a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. He said, “Get dressed and come downstairs to the great room. The room just off the kitchen.” He flashed a smile and then grabbed his phone from the dresser and left.
It dawned on her then that again the phone had been with her the entire time he’d been gone. She could’ve phoned someone for help. She hadn’t. She hadn’t even thought about it the whole time he was gone. She’d worried her lip and did some pacing, yes, but hadn’t been hatching a plan to get away. She’d been wondering what was to come and wondering if he was okay, the way he’d disappeared like that. He’d smiled so that was good news, she hoped.
Kyla jumped up from the bed and put on a pair of faded coverall jean shorts and a black tank top. She walked out of the bedroom and downstairs and then followed voices to the great room. Sam was speaking to Tristan by the door. A blonde girl, around Kyla’s age, sat on one of the big black leather sectional sofas with her hands folded in her lap. She was wearing a very short red skirt and tank top and had red sky-high heels on. She looked normal enough, though. She didn’t look like she was hurt or afraid.
Sam stood by Tristan and they stopped talking when she entered,
“Kyla, meet…” Tristan started and then stopped, searching Sam’s face for the girl’s name.
“Julia.” Sam said, walking over to the sofa where the girl sat.
Kyla looked at the girl quizzically, “Hi?”
The girl looked up and smiled.
“Say hello to Kyla, Jules.” Sam said, looking serious. He put his arm around her and talked to her like she was a small child.
“Hello,” she said. She was a pretty girl with blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She was busty and wore too much make-up.
“Hey,” Kyla said, hesitantly, then sat on the arm of the large sectional sofa a few cushions away from Julia, feeling very awkward about the whole situation. Sam sat on the other side of Julia, took her chin in h
is hand and tilted her face to his, “Kyla needs some help seeing how to behave so do me a favour, Jules, take your dress off.” The girl nodded at him slowly.
“Sam---” Kyla interrupted but Sam raised an index finger, then said nothing further. Kyla scampered over to where Tristan stood, by the sliding glass doors.
Julia proceeded to remove her skirt and then took off her top. She was suddenly sitting in her bra and panties, looking unashamed, unaffected.
“See,” Sam said to Kyla, “she just complies.”
Julia didn’t look like a robot, she looked totally comfortable.
“Have some wine, Jules.” Sam said.
The girl leaned forward and lifted up the glass of red wine from the coffee table and had a sip.
“Are you upset that I brought you here?” Sam asked her.
“No,” she said, smiling, bubbly. Sam looked to Kyla with a matter of fact expression.
“You came willingly?”
“Uh huh.”
“I’m gonna bite your throat now, Jules. I’ll be doing that a lot from now until the time I take you home. You won’t scream.”
Sam leaned over and bared his teeth and then sank his teeth into Julia’s throat. The girl let out a little gasp but then went slack and just blinked slowly as the vampire drank from her.
Kyla clutched Tristan’s arm with both hands and held her breath.
“Stop,” he commanded and took her by the shoulders, “You can’t react like that. You can’t react,” his eyes bore into her.
She looked over at Julia’s neck. Julia didn’t react to Kyla’s obvious distress. Sam backed off and his fangs retracted. He stretched his arms out and cracked his knuckles and then leaned back against the sofa and put his arm back around Julia. The girl smiled sweetly at Sam.
“See?” Tristan said, squeezing her shoulders gently, “Everything feels normal to her. She’s fine. Just seems a bit dazed. We’ll keep her around tomorrow and you can continue to observe. Tomorrow you can interact some more and it’ll help.”
Kyla heard noise behind her. The sliding door opened and Joe entered from outside. Suddenly Tristan’s grip on Kyla’s shoulders tightened slightly. Kyla just froze and stared at the ground. It was clear that Sam and Joe were not on equal footing with Tristan and that she needed to fall in line now with whatever behavior would be expected at the conference.