Existence

by Mel Teshco

  While I stood there with thoughts chewing up my head, Charley climbed the ladder and disappeared into the attic. I sighed and followed. As my eyes adjusted to the gloom, she flicked on a switch and the whole attic lit up like an inferno.

  “Holy shit,” I rasped, shielding my eyes while staring up in awe at the thirty or forty light bulbs that shone hot and bright on us. “They’re infra-red lamps.”

  She clapped her hands and giggled. “Flick these on and the vampire might think twice before trying to capture us.” She turned and plucked a compound bow hanging from the wall. She nocked an arrow and drew it back on the bowstring like someone who knew their way around the weapon. “And this shoots wooden arrows.”

  “You look like an archer.”

  She shrugged. “I lived on a farm and we often hunted for our meat.”

  I stored away yet another little tidbit of information about her, even as I moved forward and fingered one of the many sharp arrows. “Looks like cedar,” I murmured. The so-called nutty doctor had been prepared for all eventualities.

  Her eyes glowed. “So all the stories are true, then? A wooden stake through the heart will kill a vampire?”

  I only wish I knew for sure. “The vampire never told me his weakness. He wasn’t that stupid. All I know for certain is his vulnerability to sunlight and his need for a certain human blood type.”

  “Our blood type.” Her voice cracked at the reminder, her face more subdued. Then she blew out a slow breath, wisps of dark hair lifting off her face. She swung a hand toward the door. “At least the doctor covered all bases.”

  I turned and took in the bunch of garlic hanging above the door, then eyed the bundle of stakes stacked in the corner of the room. “The good doctor told us he knew little to nothing about vampires except in fairytales, so I’m guessing he built this room in the hopes that some of the myths were true and a vampire could be killed.”

  She stepped toward me and I pulled her into my arms even as she said, “All that’s missing is the holy water.”

  I kissed the top of her head, my heart shifting with emotion. “I won’t let the vampire take you. Not for anything.”

  She lifted her head. “I won’t let him take you either.” She bit her bottom lip. “I can’t imagine a future without you in it.”

  I cupped her face, my pulse thumping like a drum in my ears and my heart melting at her words. “I feel the same way,” I whispered.

  We kissed then, a desperate mating of tongues and clashing of teeth. At the back of our minds, we knew if the vampire came for us tonight, this might be our last time together. We tore off each other’s clothes. No matter how much we wished otherwise, and fought to stay free, there was a good chance the vampire would still take us, or kill us. A good chance our lives would again change once the day gave way to night.

  I picked her up and she wrapped her legs around my hips. In two strides I had her against the wall. Her breasts quivered with her little gasping breaths, her nipples tight with arousal. She looked up at me with bright green eyes and her dark hair drifting out of its ponytail. I swallowed hard. “You’re so damn beautiful.”

  She didn’t seem to want to talk and I wasn’t in the mood for a one-sided conversation. Any conversation. And neither of us wanted foreplay. Without any formality, I aligned my cock between her labia and, holding her stare, drove into her.

  She gasped, tensing for a moment. But she was already wet enough to take my all, and I didn’t hold back. I kissed her again as I thrust inside, and she counter-thrust, her breasts jiggling with every motion, her lips parted to give my tongue full access.

  When she drew back to inhale, I pumped all the harder, even as I kissed down her throat, with my tongue swiping across the little puncture wounds in her neck. She stilled with a gasp, clearly startled by the intimate contact, and even more startled by the climax that shuddered through her, her inner muscles clamping hold of my dick.

  My breath stalled and I shouted out her name as my seed poured into her, along with my heart, my soul. But I didn’t care. If I lost her, I’d lose a giant part of myself anyway. I’d take every second of time I had with her and cherish it for all I was worth.

  She unknotted her legs from around me, forcing disconnection. She slid to the ground with a little mewl of loss. But it wasn’t until she winced that I realized we might have overdone the sex.

  Guilt stabbed at me. For crying out loud, she was a virgin before I took advantage of her.

  I put a hand under her chin and tilted her stare back my way. “Are you okay?”

  She gave me a reassuring smile. “Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact a vampire wanted us more than anything else alive, I’d be the happiest woman in the world right now.”

  I wanted to keep her that way and planned to do everything in my power to do exactly that. I kissed her with all the gentleness I hadn’t shown her against the wall, revealing my deep affection in the best way I knew how. When we finally pulled away, her eyes shone with wonder, with hope.

  I trailed a hand down the side of her face, drinking in her shiver of awareness. “Just know that you’ve already made me the happiest man alive.”

  We didn’t speak much after that. What more could be said? Instead, we dressed in silence, and as daylight turned to dusk, we grabbed some snacks, a bunch of blankets and pillows from the bed we’d shared, before we rounded up the cats and took them into the attic.

  Jasper whined as he watched us disappear up the ladder and Charley turned to me. “He doesn’t want to be down there by himself. Do you think he’d let you carry him?”

  “Only one way to find out.”

  I stepped onto the ladder rungs. I was still stronger than I’d ever been, a strength that seemed to have actually intensified since leaving the nest. Not to mention the fact I hadn’t once had hunger cramps.

  Night was already upon us when I dropped to the floor and bent for Jasper. About to pick him up, I froze at the bang of the front door and the wood that skidded across the faded linoleum.

  Shit.

  “Well, well, well, look who we finally found,” Rory drawled as he stepped into the hallway, a slight limp to his walk.

  I straightened, my heart in my throat at seeing not just the younger brother follow Rory inside, but their brainwashed friends too. As they walked down the hallway, I pulled the cord above my head so that the ladder snapped back out of sight. “Don’t let anyone up there,” I shouted.

  I didn’t have time to see if Charley was listening. The brothers moved fast. But I was faster. I distantly acknowledged the vampire blood had given me not just extra strength, but extra mental clarity too. I turned sideward to make myself less of a target. Throwing a punch to the jaw of Rory, I then spun and kicked Daryl in the nutsack. Rory fell back and Daryl crumpled with a strangled scream, holding his groin.

  Two more came at me at once, jostling past the brothers curled up on the floor to get to me. I squatted, then kicked the legs out from under one man, before surging up to punch into the gut of another, driving the wind out of his lungs.

  The last man came at me with a knife, but adrenaline burned away any fear. I’d taken out the other men with relative ease and I didn’t doubt for a second I couldn’t do the same with this skinny teenager with lank hair, red eyes and a prominent Adam’s apple.

  He raised the blade and it arced toward me. I caught his wrist and stayed his arm before I kneed him in the groin. The knife dropped to the floor and he followed it with a grunt. I kicked the blade out of sight even as Jasper growled.

  I turned to the Rotty. “Now you’re the vicious guard dog?” I asked drily. But any and all sarcasm faded as the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and my senses prickled with foreboding.

  “Alexander, behind you!”

  I didn’t need Charley’s high-pitched warning to know who’d arrived. I spun around to the vampire’s slow clap of hands. My heart missed a beat at seeing his glowing red eyes that gave away his blood hunger.

  The vampi
re didn’t attack. Instead, he somehow withheld his base need and he ambled forward, stopping with a curled lip at the first human writhing in agony on the floor.

  He looked back at me. “Isn’t this a surprise,” he said with his modulated voice. “Not only have you conquered your blood hunger, you’ve managed to also hang on to some of my power.” He smiled, not bothering to hide his long, sharp fangs. “A pity you’ll never be as strong as me.”

  I shook my head. “You’re wrong. You’re the weak one here. You need the blood of someone like me to survive. I. Don’t. Need. You.” I cocked an eyebrow. “Or your blood.”

  The vampire’s face paled with barely suppressed rage. “You forget yourself, Alexander. Forget that I fed you and looked after you. Forget that I gave you a longevity most people only dream about.”

  My pulse pounded in my ears, my mouth drying with the wrath I forcefully swallowed. “I wanted a normal life. I never once asked to live in a never-ending nightmare.”

  Except hadn’t those forty-six years been worth it just to meet Charley in my future?

  Without a doubt.

  It was odd, the settling of emotion as I realized the truth. And suddenly I was unmoved by the creature who fed on fear as much as he did blood, because in the end, love was all that mattered. I smiled. “But I guess you’re right—I should thank you for that longevity—without it, I would never have met Charley.”

  The vampire’s eyes flashed, my goodwill clearly not what he wanted or expected. “Her name is Maya.”

  “No. Her name is Charley.” I stepped over one of the brothers and moved closer to the vampire. “And you’re not my master anymore. You’re a bloodsucking freak who can’t ever experience what it is to be human.”

  “You’re right about one thing,” the vampire interjected smoothly. “I am a bloodsucker.”

  He didn’t deny that he wished to be human. I didn’t doubt for a second he’d sell his soul just to feel any other emotion aside from the burn of antipathy I’d witnessed just moments earlier. I guessed no donors had ever escaped the nest before.

  The vampire uncurled his hands, no longer bothering to hide the evil behind his eyes as he added, “But I’m also your bloodsucking master.”

  I sensed him reaching into my mind. “Don’t listen to him!” But Charley’s shout barely penetrated my subconscious. It was as if a fog clouded my brain, sinking deep into my defenses.

  “Offer me your throat.”

  I couldn’t fight the vampire’s honeyed voice of persuasion. Though my mind screamed no I was compelled to obey. I was a mindless marionette.

  My head turned and the vampire’s twin fangs slid into my throat even as Charley’s scream slid into my head. I groaned and everything blurred while ecstasy and despair, yearning and horror, became a new symphony in my head.

  I vaguely heard the brothers and their mates stagger to their feet before they stumbled toward the door. Then the vampire’s icy cold hands that burned my skin held my attention while he kept me in place, siphoning my lifeblood…perfect vampire nutrition. I swayed, quickly lightheaded by the feeding. In some distant part of my brain I knew he was taking too much, yet I couldn’t fight, couldn’t even form the word ‘stop’.

  Was this what the vampire had planned? Drain me lifeless and make Charley his next eternal blood-slave?

  I stiffened. No! I won’t let him touch her.

  The vampire never expected my surrender to morph into rebellion. Before he grasped my intent, I jerked away from him, his fangs sliding like icy blades from my throat.

  I heard Jasper’s vicious growl, registered that the dog had latched on to the vampire’s leg. The vampire didn’t have time to acknowledge more than fleeting shock at my strength of mind, before he turned his attention to the irritation chewing on his limb.

  He kicked the dog free and Jasper yelped as he hit the floor hard. The vampire turned back to me at about the same time as a distinct whoomp filled my senses. I fought to stand even as I distantly realized that the vampire was clutching at an arrow that’d pierced his brow, the arrowhead sticking through the back of his head.

  Another whoomp sounded and an arrow cleaved through the vampire’s chest.

  I blinked, staring in confusion at the powerful vampire frothing at the mouth. The creature had lived for centuries and Charley had managed to give him pause. Oh, he wouldn’t die, but I had no doubt it’d take some time to recover.

  Charley’s hands were suddenly around me, supporting me. “Alexander, can you hear me?” Her voice came from a great distance, but I managed a nod even as she said, “You’ve got to drink his blood and regain your stamina.”

  I swayed, blood loss depleting me of every bit of my strength. But not my strength of will. I looked up at the vampire. His eyes were crimson, rage radiating from him at being bested by a mere mortal. He wrenched the arrow from his head and blood gushed from his wound as he bellowed with pain and all-consuming wrath.

  “We don’t have much time.” Charley’s voice quavered with raw fear and her own desperate hunger.

  It was her fear that pushed adrenaline through my veins and gave me temporary power. If I didn’t drink, I couldn’t protect Charley. And I wouldn’t let the bloodsucker hurt even a hair on her head. Not while there was still breath in my lungs.

  The vampire was paler than parchment, but had already worked half the long, wooden arrow from his chest.

  It was now or never.

  I stumbled forward, using all my remaining strength to clamp hold of the vampire’s shoulders and sink my teeth into his throat. Warm, metallic blood filled my mouth. It no longer tasted like ambrosia. I choked and forcibly swallowed the thick syrupy blood, managing a couple of mouthfuls before the vampire yanked the arrow from his chest. As it clattered to the floor, he turned to deal with me.

  His cold hands encircled my throat before he thrust me back. I crashed into a wall, the wind knocked out of me. But energy was already beginning to burn through my body, his rejuvenating lifeblood giving me all the power I needed then some.

  I pushed back, my eyes wavering between an intensity of super vision and an aura of red that for a moment blinkered my sight.

  “Alexander.”

  It was Charley’s strained, hollowed-out voice that caused my stomach to drop with foreboding. Something wasn’t right.

  Chapter Twelve

  A scream of denial built in my throat, but the sound froze before it could escape. Alexander was now a vampire. The red shadowing of his eyes betrayed his inner monster as surely as the bloodsucker who’d made him that way.

  “Charley, what is it?” Alexander asked, sounding alarmed, yet somehow defeated too, as if he knew the awful truth.

  “It’s…your eyes,” I whispered.

  He stepped forward, but stilled as I retreated from him. He shook his head. “I’m not like him. I’m nothing like him.”

  I glanced at the vampire who’d ruined so many lives. Who’d killed even more. But only the good died young…already the hole in his head was closing over, his chest wound no longer bleeding. Even his pasty look of death was nowhere near as pronounced. Only when the vampire looked at me, a lazy smile of triumph curling his lips and his eyes deader than a snake’s, did I realize Alexander was right.

  He wasn’t anything like this bloodsucker. Alexander still had a soul. A heart.

  I drew my gaze away from the centuries-old monster to lock my stare on Alexander. “I believe you.”

  The residual red in his stare disappeared, replaced by whatever powerful emotion he was feeling right then. My mouth dried and hope fluttered deep. If I didn’t know better, I’d say love shone from his eyes. From his soul.

  If only my belly wasn’t churning and quivering with need at the scent of vampire blood. It’d taken monumental effort to block my hunger, deny the scents that pulled at me with everything I had. It was only my focus on Alexander that kept me grounded.

  Jasper limped toward me, pushing his big, black head under my hand with a whine of dogg
y need. I stroked his soft fur, my stare not once leaving Alexander as I said, “And now we need to finish this.”

  Understanding flashed across his face even as the bloodsucker broke out with a belly laugh that chilled me to the bone. “Do either one of you really think you can defeat me?” He smirked. “If it wasn’t for the fact your blood is far superior to any I’ve ingested before, I’d have hunted you both down and enjoyed the kill.” His smirk widened. “Would have killed you both as effortlessly as an ant stamped underfoot.”

  Alexander straightened, facing the vampire with unflinching vitality. “Power isn’t from how many people you can kill with your bare hands, or how strong you are physically. True power comes from here.” He tapped his heart. “Real strength is the love shared by two people. Love that you’ll never know, no matter how much you might wish for it.”

  “I don’t want or need love,” the vampire snarled. “It makes a person weak, not strong.”

  Alexander stepped forward. “And yet love is one of the reasons you brought me those other women, isn’t it?” Certainty filled his face. “You watched me fuck them, hoping I’d fall in love with at least one of them, even as you wished it was you who had the power to feel something…anything.”

  My pulse skipped a beat. If what Alexander was saying was true, the vampire would have been elated at the instant connection I’d experienced with Alexander. The bastard had undoubtedly fed on their emotions as much as their blood.

  Alexander took another step. “When you first brought Charley into your revolting nest and saw our chemistry, you craved it too, didn’t you? Except you’ll never have that. You’re not even human. You’ll never experience anything but emptiness, despair and hunger.”

  My mouth dropped open. The vampire almost looked…beaten. Like every word wounded him deeply, infecting his power.

  Alexander shook his head. “Good God, little wonder you only gave us drops of blood. You didn’t just want to keep us weak, you wanted us to also experience the same emptiness as you every single damn day of your cursed eternity.”