by C. L. Quinn
The groan motivated Mies and he moved his lips to her ear. “You must say the word.”
Sarah heard him. Say the word. He was asking for permission to give her the orgasm of her life. She couldn’t refuse now, her body wouldn’t let her. But her mind took charge and it wouldn’t let her accept him. There would be a price to pay for the perfection of sex with this vampire. Maybe someday she would be willing to pay, but she wouldn’t make that decision just because she wanted to feel him, once, inside her. How would it feel to have him buried deep in her womanhood, moving, touching, feeling, exciting… Stop!
“Are you finished with your blood-meal?” she asked, with a calmness that belied her real emotions.
Mies pulled back after sealing the wounds and got off the sofa.
“I guess that’s the word. And yes, I am finished.”
Sitting up and pulling her clothes back together, Sarah lifted off the sofa and walked to the window again. The brisk night air wasn’t up to the task of cooling her down.
“Thank you,” Mies said from the other side of the room as he poured a glass of Scotch. “Would you like something to drink before you go?”
“No, I’m fine. And I guess I should. Go, I mean.”
“You may wish to know that your blood is potent. More so than an ordinary human’s blood.”
“Oh. I suppose it is because I was a blood-bond for many decades. Although it seemed that all of the effects of it had worn off since I have not had any vampire blood in three months.”
Killing the entire glass of Scotch, Mies turned to Sarah, who still lingered by the window. He thought she looked extraordinary, standing there with the wind blowing her hair back, her clothes fluttering, her blouse gaping as the air raced down the neckline.
“It should have. I think that you may have something beyond human in you. There may be elements of magic in you.”
Sarah shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m smart, driven, thorough, mostly a scientist at heart, but I don’t think I’m anything special beyond that.”
“The blood says different.”
She was uncomfortable with this conversation.
“Be that as it may, I think I’ll head home.”
As she reached the door, she turned suddenly.
“Mies, something’s been nagging at me all night. Once my girlfriend snagged us and drew us into the restaurant, I expected that you would take over. She’s hot, smart, and sexy. You were looking for blood and sex tonight. Why did you let Nikolai stay in charge?”
Without answering, Mies started to pour a second glass of the fine Scotch, but then set the glass back on the counter and lifted the bottle to drink directly from the lip.
“Nikolai connected with her right away. I had no right to interfere with a relationship that he was interested in building. So I enjoyed the company and the meal, and let him woo your vibrant friend. If one of us sleeps with her, it will be Nikolai. He deserves the feelings they developed almost from the moment they met. I could feel him, doctor.” Mies smiled as he took another swig. “He’s deeply smitten.”
“All right. That was very generous and thoughtful of you.”
Mies’s eyes shot to Sarah’s. “I am not a monster.”
Sighing, Sarah walked to him, took one of his hands and pressed it to her chest. “I know that. This thing between us is complicated. We’ll work it out eventually. Until then, get some rest. You still have some healing to do, and that blood meal will help. Do you have a cell phone?”
“The communication device that you can hold in your hand? Yes, we do. It’s a piece of human magic.”
Sarah laughed. “Yeah, it is. Let me have the number, and I’ll give you mine. We must stay in touch as we begin this mission.”
His eyes burned into hers. “I want to stay in touch.”
“That isn’t how I mean.”
After entering her own number in Nikolai and Mies’s cell phone and taking theirs, she left before she let herself change her mind.
Six
Please, call me. I know we missed our date, but we have to reschedule. You don’t know how much I’ve been looking forward to this.
The voice mail from Leo should have made Sarah happy. Wrapped in a satin robe that Naji had given her, a sexy one of course, she perched on the edge of a chair while she nursed a hot milk chocolate with whipped cream three inches high. She smiled as she thought about how much Mies liked the sweetened coffee.
“You’d love this,” she said out loud.
And that was the problem. A terrific message from Leo that he couldn’t wait to be with her, and she sat here musing about how pleased that vampire would be with hot chocolate.
“Aargghh!”
Placing the mug carefully on the counter, she wandered over and pulled the curtain back to look at the soft light as night faded into a golden morning. God, she loved her mornings now. In Xavier’s household, she usually got up in time to see sunsets, but rarely sunrises.
“I’ve missed the sunrises,” she whispered.
Turning, she headed to the bathroom to take her shower.
“Today, I’m going to go and watch the Atlantic and just be out there with other people going through their day.”
Was talking to yourself an indication that you’re going a little stir crazy? Probably. More than anything right now, Sarah needed to distance herself from that world that encroached again into the life she sought here in the U.S.
Dialing her phone, she waited.
“Who the hell?” a sharp voice came through the speaker.
“Naj? I woke you, didn’t I?”
“I can’t even see the sun, of course you did!”
“It’s just rising.”
“Just rising? Ugh! What time is it?” A loud groan cut off Sarah’s reply. “Don’t answer. All I need to know is that it is too-early o’clock. Love, this better be an emergency.”
“It is. Life’s short, it is a gorgeous spring day, and I need you to go boating with me this morning on sparkling waters with sparkling wine. Please tell me you are up to it.”
After several moments of silence, Naji answered.
“Maybe. Will you bring that delicious Russian pastry with you that I had dinner with last night?”
“Ah. That’s, uh, not possible.”
“Why not? If I have to get rudely awakened by the sun, what puts him out of the realm of possibility?”
Because he’s a vampire and the sun will burn him alive almost instantly.
“He has other plans. Unbreakable plans.”
“Give me two hours. It will take me that long to wake up enough, get some coffee, forgive you for waking me so early, and get this mass of hair tamed.”
“Thank you! I’ll supply lunch.”
“You know what I like. All right, let me go do this.”
Good. A nice, normal day in full sunlight with ordinary-sized portions of food, and her favorite human companion who always made her laugh. Today would be a wonderful respite.
Two hours later, exactly on time, Sarah, waited on the stairwell outside her apartment building for Naji’s little red corvette. As she searched her big beach bag for her sunglasses, she glanced up when a sleek silver Mercedes convertible slid to a stop in front of the steps. Dropping her eyes to continue her search, she looked back up when she heard someone clear their voice. Naji got out of the Mercedes and leaned against the hood.
“Coming?” Naji inquired casually.
Sarah stood. “That isn’t your car,” she commented, a little confused.
“It is now. My new buddy Demeter gave it to me.”
“I’m definitely in the wrong line of work,” Sarah said as she grabbed her wide-brimmed hat, and walked down the steps to slide into a luxurious cream-colored leather seat.
“Why did he give this to you?”
Naji tore away from the curb far too quickly, but Sarah was accustomed to her fast starts and faster stops.
“He told me that a beautiful woman should be in a beautiful car, a
nd handed me the keys. My new job comes with some awesome perks!”
“I’ll say.”
“Plus, we’re set up at his yacht club for a cruise on his yacht today.”
“No!”
“Yes! Don’t worry about lunch, he’s catering.”
“Naji, you are the most amazing person.”
Naji’s joyful laugh filled the air around them. “I know. I honestly think that I could fall into a pile of shit and crawl out with a handful of diamonds.”
“I believe it.”
Three hours later, sitting on the deck of a luxury yacht, sipping a smooth Mai tai, Sarah laid her head back against an exceptionally comfortable lounge chair next to Naji. Her eyes closed, Naji nursed a similar drink from a bright green straw.
“This is the life,” Naji sighed, eyes still closed.
“Ummm, I agree,” Sarah purred. “Someday, maybe, for me, if I can get my practice established.”
“Soon, for me, because I’m going to marry that billionaire. I just have to figure out how to get rid of that bitch that has her hooks in him now.”
“Bitch? I thought Sofora seemed sweet.”
“Oh, she is. But she’s between me and that gorgeous money bags, so I have to demonize her to justify getting rid of her hot Latina ass.”
“Oh.”
“Speaking of hot. Where’s your friend today?”
“Friend?”
“Oh, Sarah, you don’t play stupid too well. You know precisely who I mean.”
“I thought you had your sights set on money bags.”
“I’d change them in a New York minute if I could snag that man.” Naji opened her eyes, which were softer than Sarah had ever seen. “We really connected, love.”
“Nikolai is a wonderful man. You two would be great together. But Naj, it’s complicated and I don’t know if that will ever be possible.”
“He’s married?”
“No, but he’s…” There really was no way to let Naji know that Nikolai was in real trouble. “He’s just unavailable, let’s leave it there. I wish I could tell you, but it’s kind of family secrets.”
“Come on, love, spill.”
“I would, but just trust me, I really can’t.”
“Too bad.” Naji closed her eyes again and laid her head back on the lounge. “I felt something. Like maybe I could have finally found the one man that I would keep.”
“Naj…”
“Forget it. Lots of hot men out there waiting for me, so he isn’t that big a loss.”
Sarah could see that wasn’t true. Naji truly wanted a chance to see where a relationship with Nikolai could have gone. “I’m sorry, my friend.”
Naji surged from the seat and poured a glass of wine to overflowing, capturing the spilling wine as quickly as possible with her tongue. “Don’t be daft, there’s nothing to apologize for,” She said with a full-on British accent.
After a few moments, Sarah decided to let the subject die. “I’m going to take you to London someday soon.”
“And I’m going to keep you to that promise.”
The rest of the afternoon went exactly as Sarah had hoped; long leisurely swims in warm waters, plenty of wine and poo-poo platters, and several impromptu disco dance sessions. By the time the sun lowered to just above the skyline, Sarah and Naji were buzzed and grinning off the edge of the yacht as it headed back to its berth. Both were entranced as they watched long rays of light bounce off the water like giant pieces of scattered glitter.
“Sarah, let’s never not be friends, okay? Where I come from, people lose each other. All the time, right? And I hate that. You and I are meant to be friends forever, I felt that from the first day. Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Sarah said softly, leaning into Naji’s taller form.
“Hey, let’s do a blood bond? Like blood sisters, okay?”
Blood bond. The term that defined who Sarah had been all of her life. The bond meant nothing if she did it with a human, not really, but she understood Naji’s need to make the metaphoric connection. It wasn’t as if she was unaccustomed to blood.
Walking over to the poo-poo platters, she set her wine glass down and picked up a sharp knife meant to cut thin slices of cheese. She walked back to the railing where Naji lingered, tipped a little too far out over the water, stopped beside her, held up the knife and punctured her own index fingertip.
Naji smiled and held out her fingertip to Sarah.
“Do the honors,” she said, and winced as Sarah did so without delay.
Holding the seeping fingertips to each other, Naji leaned down and placed her forehead against Sarah’s.
“Thank you for arriving in my life when you did. My mother, God rest her bitchy soul, had only one good piece of advice for me. ‘There’s good folk and bad folk, child, learn to know the difference, and it will serve you well all your life.’ She was right. You are good folk, Sarah.”
“You’ve helped me, too, in ways I could never convey, so I think that your mother was right, and that we found each other because there is order to the universe, and sometimes, it gets it right.”
They stayed there, finger to finger, forehead to forehead, for several more minutes, a merge of hearts, aware that their journeys through this life were merged now, too.
It felt good to have a companion on this journey. Sarah knew now, as much as at any other time, that she’d made the right choice by leaving Xavier and finding her own place in this world. She was human, and yes, it was exactly where she belonged. Exactly where she wanted to be.
As they moved apart, Naji drained her glass of wine.
“Do you work tonight?”
“I guess. I’m scheduled and I haven’t called in.”
“Worried about your guest?”
“I am. I have to be. He’s, um, unfamiliar with this city and how things work here. Effectively, he’s kind of too innocent to leave alone too long. He’ll get into trouble.”
Naji’s eyes twinkled.
“I know where he can go to wait for you where he won’t get into any kind of trouble at all.”
“Ha, you wish.”
“What, are you afraid I’ll break him?”
“You actually might.”
Placing a hand on Sarah’s shoulder, Naji turned to face her. “Are you interested in Nikolai? Because if you are, of course, hands off, I promise. Hos before bros.”
“No, no, Naj, not at all. I can honestly say that I have no romantic interest in Nikolai at all.”
Although the hot vampire trapped inside of him was an entirely different thing that Naji couldn’t begin to understand.
“Then why don’t you want me around him?”
“He’s just.” Sarah really didn’t have a good reason unless she told her the truth. And she was certainly not going to do that. Knowledge of the vampire world complicated human lives and she didn’t want to do that to Naji.
“He’s just not the right man for you. You have to trust me on this, okay?”
Several silent moments later, Naji nodded.
“I trust you. If you say he isn’t, then you have a very good reason to do so. Too bad, though, I know we would have had the best sex ever.”
“I have no doubt. Perhaps things will change. Until then, my dear friend, this has been the perfect day. Great warm spring weather, wine I could never afford, a luxury yacht, and your company. You’ll never know how much I needed this very normal human day.”
“Human?” Naji said with a smile. “I guess I do that pretty well.”
The drive back to Sarah’s apartment was quiet, both women relaxed and satisfied with everything in their lives at that very moment in time.
As the new car pulled up and stopped at Sarah’s building, Sarah got out but leaned back against the doorframe.
“I’ll see you soon. Goodnight, love,” she said.
“Goodnight, love,” Naji repeated, then pulled away once she saw the security door to Sarah’s building close.
“Oh, I can’t believe that you can
celled that date!”
Tracy finished off her precious hot chocolate.
Sarah finished putting away a box of bandages. It was a slow night in Mass Gen’s ER.
“Family emergency, it couldn’t be helped.”
“Hah. I heard that you had a sexy visitor from your past show up suddenly.”
Stunned, Sarah stared at Tracy. “Where would you have heard something like that?”
“From me.”
Leo walked from the long hallway that led to the doctor’s lounge.
As he approached, Sarah looked up at him. “Leo…”
He smiled casually, his hands in his pockets. “It’s okay, Sarah. I saw you out to dinner with him. I ended up at Transparency with a colleague after you called to tell me about your emergency.”
“Leo, I’m sorry.” She started to explain when she noticed that Tracy hadn’t moved, her eyes wide and both hands still wrapped around the now empty paper cup. Her eyes moved to Sarah when she stopped speaking.
“Oh, I guess I could find somewhere else to be.”
“I appreciate that,” Sarah told her with a nod.
Tracy hurried out to the nurse’s desk as Sarah turned back to Leo.
“It’s okay, Sarah. I get it. Someone from your past shows up and things change.”
“No. Nothing’s changed. Nikolai is an old friend and he’d arrived unexpectedly from Russia. He couldn’t have managed here without my help. I’m so sorry, Leo, but he needed my guidance. I was going to give you more details when I saw you next. Which is now.”
“Fine. I understand. So…you haven’t changed your mind about dating me?”
“No! No, Leo, not at all. I meant it when I told you that I was disappointed that we couldn’t get together Saturday.”
“I was too. Very. So, can we reschedule? Soon?”
Her hesitation made him flinch. She definitely wanted to reschedule, but it wasn’t a good idea until this situation with Nikolai and Mies was sorted out.
To make sure that he understood her, Sarah stepped close, glanced around the room to make sure they were still alone, took a firm hold of his tie and yanked him to her.