Wicked Winters: A Collection of Winter Tales

by Lucy Smoke

  With that said, she seemed to float, rather than walk, through the doorway into his room. When she saw him, she smiled, which was great because he grinned like a fool.

  “You scared the hell out of me.”

  “I’m sorry. I couldn’t let you be killed.”

  She nodded. “I understand your heroic intent. However, the nutty vampire hunter never did show up, since the graveyard is not on fire.”

  He digested this information. So he’d done this to himself for no reason. Would he do anything differently? No, he decided without hesitation. He thought she’d been in danger. There had been no other choice. End of story.

  “Are you suggesting I overreacted?”

  She sat down next to him on the bed. “Maybe. Still, thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” And he meant it.

  “I love you, Ben.”

  Her words washed over him like a hot bath, soothing a part of his soul he hadn’t known was in pain. He spent so much time thinking about his physical pain, he’d not known how much he needed to hear those three words from someone other than his family.

  “I love you too, Ruthie.”

  She shook her head. “You shouldn’t.”

  “Doesn’t matter, I do. And I’d like to argue the shouldn’t part, but I don’t have the wherewithal.”

  Her eyes filled with tears. “Ben, I have to tell you. I don’t want you to die. If you want me to make you a vampire, I will.”

  “Really?”

  “But you have to know what it means. You have to understand. You’ll need to drink blood.”

  “I get that.”

  “You’re going to, for at least a while, want to kill the people you take it from.”

  He nodded. In his life, he’d never been so excited by an unexpected conversation. “Will you help me to not to?”

  She swallowed, and he could see the muscles in her neck move. “I will. But when you wake up changed, you may not want me anymore. You may decide to be a loner, as I have been.”

  He couldn’t imagine that happening. He’d always been social, and he was convinced Ruth’s thinking that she wanted to be alone was really a result of her feeling guilty of having—despite her protest to the contrary—survived the Holocaust when her family did not. Plus, as he looked at her now, he knew he would pick her above all other women in the world to stay with always.

  “I doubt that very much.” He coughed. It was getting harder and harder to speak.

  “No more sunlight. You can’t see your family. Even if you’d be fine with it, they’d be enthralled. Every time you walked in the room, they would become enthralled. It will be hard for you to know they’re out there and to never see them.”

  She was right on that front. It would be hard. Damn hard.

  “It’s natural to die. All humans do it.” She choked like she was holding back a sob. “You don’t know what happens next. Maybe it’s wonderful. Maybe it’s nothing. There is no shame in deciding to say goodbye the right way.”

  “Ruthie, you’re forgetting the most important thing.”

  She wiped at her eyes. “What’s that?”

  “You. I get to spend eternity with you.”

  “Living in a mausoleum.”

  Ben had some thoughts about that, but he wasn’t going to discuss them at the moment. He’d save that for later, when things had calmed down.

  When it came down to the moment, it wasn’t a hard decision. He knew it was right. He’d always trusted his instincts, and he felt completely calm about it. “Do it.”

  She smoothed the hair on his forehead. “It’s going to hurt. I can’t enthrall you, we’ve proven that.”

  “I’ll feel your bite?”

  “Yes, you’ll feel me suck your blood from neck. If you’re still conscious, you’ll feel me drip my blood in your mouth.” She swallowed. “Then,” she seemed to choke on the words, “you’ll die.”

  He nodded. “I’ll die. Go on.”

  “I hope they’ll be no pain. I don’t know. I don’t remember my death.”

  Raising an eyebrow, he smiled. “And then I wake up, I’ll be a blood-sucking vampire.”

  “Don’t make jokes, I’m being serious.”

  “I already said for you to do it. There’s nothing left but to find the amusement in it, Ruthie.”

  She sighed, and the sound moved through him, doing more for his discomfort than the morphine moving through his IV. “Oh, the way you say my name.” She closed her eyes. “I have to finish telling you what will happen. When you have all the facts, you tell me to do it, I’ll do it then.”

  “Okay.”

  This seemed important to her. He wasn’t going to lessen it by rushing her, even as his chest got tighter and his breathing more constricted.

  “Your family will bury you. They’ll think you’re dead. You won’t remember any of it. The next thing you’ll know is when you wake up. Then things will be different. Much as you dismiss me when I say that to you, the truth is the world will look changed.”

  He reached out and grabbed her hand, amazed by how soft her skin was. “Do it, Ruthie. Stop delaying. Get the hard part over. Then the next thing I know will be waking up to you.”

  She was silent for a second, and then as he watched, two of her teeth elongated in her mouth. She raised an eyebrow, her pupils dilated and slightly red in their hue.

  “Close your eyes, Ben.”

  He swallowed. His breath was all but gone. It was hard to speak. Still, he felt no fear, not of Ruthie, not of what would happen. “Why?”

  “I don’t want you to watch you me to do this.”

  He touched her lips with his finger, feeling her fangs. They were sharp on the end. “I want to. These are my last moments. Let me go out knowing what’s happening.”

  Tears filled her eyes but didn’t fall. Climbing on top of him, her breasts pressed against his chest, and he knew he should be turned on. His body was too weak for the sensation. His mind, however, liked the idea of dying like this. Ruthie’s strong, hot body pressed next to his.

  Using her tongue, she licked the side of his neck. He shivered. “Do you do it like this every time you feed?”

  “No.” Her whispered reply sounded husky. “Clearly, you’re special, Ben.”

  “Just checking.”

  She kissed his neck, right on top of what he knew was his weak pulse. “Goodnight, Ben.”

  As her fangs pierced his skin, he jerked beneath her. Unable to stop himself, he grabbed the back of her hair as if to pull her off. Ruthie was strong, she didn’t even budge.

  He cried out. She had told him it would hurt. God, she hadn’t lied. He swore. Then the pain passed. He could feel that his heart slowed down. It was happening. The end was on its way…

  Looking out into the hospital room, he saw something he hadn’t noticed before. Someone had lit a menorah. It was the fifth night. As the room around him grew foggy, he could still see the dancing lights calling him, reminding him of home.

  Soon he would be with Ruthie, with eternity stretched out before them. She stopped sucking on his neck, pulling back to look at him.

  “Any minute now, Ben.”

  Using her fingernail, she sliced open her wrist. Vaguely, with what vision he had left, he saw a red crimson line form as Ruthie’s blood slipped out of the open vein. She pressed it up to his mouth.

  “Drink, Ben.”

  And he did.

  6

  Ruth waited until they’d all but finished the funeral. She stood a distance away. Any closer, and the whole group of Ben’s mourners would become enthralled. She was going to make that happen, just not yet. He deserved a proper send-off.

  But she wasn’t going to let them put him in the ground. No way, no how. She’d stood in the room keeping the coroner enthralled, as she made sure he found none of her vampire venom in Ben’s body. Then she spent the day hidden in one of the refrigerators where they stored the dead bodies to avoid the sun.

  The Rabbi was finishing up his speech.
It had been a nice service. His mother and father had cried. Jenny’s kids had picked out pretty rocks to leave on his grave. All in all, if he ever asked, she’d be able to tell Ben that his funeral had been a nice a send-off made by people who had loved him.

  She stepped forward, coming out of the shadows, and the Rabbi immediately stopped speaking.

  She spoke. It felt awkward, even though she knew none of them would remember what she said or even that she was here at all.

  “Thank you, everyone. It’s time to go home. The funeral is over. Benjamin was well buried.” She cleared her throat. “Go. Now.”

  Like zombies moving with instructions, the group took off for their cars. A small spray of rain hit Ruth in the face as she approached the coffin. Thanking her lucky stars for the hundredth time that Ben’s will didn’t say he wanted to be cremated, she opened the lid to the box that held her love inside.

  He appeared to be sleeping and would look this way for several more days before he rose. Ruth had opened her eyes on the side of the road face down in the mud. It was war, and no one had bothered to do anything with one more dead body strewn around. Most vampires reported having to claw their way out of the coffin and through the dirt, terrified the whole time.

  The vampire who had made Ruth had at least sought her out, showing up about an hour after she’d awakened.

  Ben wouldn’t have that. She’d be there when he opened his eyes. Picking him up in her arms, she swung him very ungracefully over her shoulder. Looking at the gravediggers, who had stood quietly to the side towards the end the service, she instructed them to bury Ben’s coffin.

  With that instruction, she walked quietly out into the night, hoping that when Ben did awaken, it wasn’t to curse her for doing this to him. She swallowed that thought. In sixty-five years, she’d not thought to walk out into the sun and end her days, but if Ben cursed her, the sun would finally look inviting.

  Opening his eyes, Ben looked around the room and almost laughed. He was in Ruthie’s terrible mausoleum. It really was too awful for words.

  Looking to the left, he saw the subject of his thoughts pacing back and forth in front of an enthralled man, who stared off blankly.

  He sat up, and she gasped, her eyes filling with joy and then terror. He liked the first reaction, not the second.

  “Hey, Ruthie.” Just because he knew he’d be able to without pain, he leapt up, not realizing just how far he’d be able to jump, and he cursed as he cracked his head against the ceiling.

  Laughing as he tumbled back down to the floor, he grinned at the woman he hadn’t expected to show up but who had made his life better in just a few days. “My first act of as a vampire, and I crack the hell out of my head.”

  He rubbed his head, glad in a strange way that it hurt. Some things were still the same.

  Ruthie threw her arms around him. “Oh, Ben, I’m so relieved. You should have woken up hours ago. I thought maybe it hadn’t worked and that you were really gone.”

  He held her close, loving how warm she felt, loving that he could squeeze her as closely as he wanted to. His groin jumped to attention, and his already wide grin got even bigger.

  A loud buzzing in his ears altered his attention, and Ben’s eyes, seemingly of their own volition, stared at the man enthralled on the side of the room.

  “Um…babe, who is that man, and why am I so preoccupied with him?”

  His gaze narrowed to the fellow as the teeth in his mouth elongated. He snarled at the feeling, suddenly knowing a fierce desire to puncture the man’s skin and suck until he was full.

  Ruthie’s hand pushed on his chest, bringing his attention back to her. “Because you need to feed right away. I brought him here for you.”

  He wanted the other’s man blood, and he wanted him right now. “Ruthie, I really want to take his blood, and I’m a little concerned about it. You don’t kill people, right?”

  “I don’t.” He could feel Ruthie’s strong hands holding him back. “It’s hard not to. The first few times, I was alone and I did take their life. I’m going to help you not to, but if it happens, I won’t judge you, okay?”

  He shook, and he didn’t care for the feeling, not at all. “I’ll judge me, and you’ll never forgive yourself for bringing this guy to me. Let’s work really hard to make sure I don’t screw this up. We’ll start as we mean to go on.”

  “All right, come with me.”

  She took his hand and led him to the man. “He’s enthralled. He’s not going to feel any pain.”

  She looked away from him to speak to the man she’d brought him to eat. Really, it was incredible she’d gone out and brought this person to him. He wanted to thank her, but it was going to have to wait until after he ate. It was all he could think about.

  Feed. Feed. Feed.

  Through gritted teeth, he managed to speak. “Is it always this bad?”

  “No. You’ll get better at controlling it.” She walked to the man. “Now, I instruct them to turn their neck in a way that I’m comfortable with. You’re significantly taller than I am, so you may actually want to pick him up in your arms until you get the right angle.”

  “Pick him up?”

  She nodded. “Remember how you hit the ceiling? You’re really strong. He’s nothing to you. Pick him up.”

  Ben crossed to the poor man being enthralled by two vampires and lifted him up. “Now what?”

  “Use your fangs, it should be natural, then take his blood. But listen to me very closely, you can hear his heart. You, of all people, should be able to hear when it starts to work too hard. That means it’s time to stop.”

  God, this was going to be hard. He’d underestimated the passion he would feel for the blood. He wanted it, needed it. Looking at Ruthie’s concerned eyes, he had a thought that might save him. “Put your hand on my arm. Don’t let me lose myself to this. Keep me grounded here.”

  “I can do that.” Ruthie put her arm around him. “I’ve got you.”

  “Great.” Now if only he could get control of himself.

  Closing his eyes, he bit down awkwardly on the man’s neck. The skin broke easily, shocking in the simplicity of the act. Sucking upwards, he let the spicy, life giving essence of this man invade his body. Wow, no bottle of wine he’d ever drunk had tasted this delicious. Coppery and thick, he lost himself to the sense of heat entering his body.

  He could hear his heartbeat as if it happened inside his own body. It would be so easy, he realized, so simple to take all of his blood and this soul’s existence. It would be his blood then, his soul to take, his eternal existence.

  The feel of Ruth’s warm hand on his harm jarred him from his dark thoughts, and he pulled back, instinctually licking the wound to close it on the man’s neck. He looked down at Ruth, whose small smile was like a million sighs coming over his body to soothe him.

  There was only one problem. “I’m still hungry.”

  “You always will be if you don’t kill. Even if we enthrall a hundred people tonight, you will feel unfinished if we don’t end their lives.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “And you’ve lived this way for sixty-five years, all alone, without anyone to share the burden with?”

  “Yes. Although I have met other vampires who feel as I do and stay hungry to prevent the killing.”

  “What do we do with him now?”

  Ruthie turned the man toward her. She patted him once on the head. “Thank you for feeding him tonight. Go home now, drink some water, and go to bed. Tomorrow, do something nice for yourself.”

  As the man turned to walk up the stairs of the mausoleum, Ben cracked up. “Do you do that with all the people you feed off of?”

  She shrugged, looking away for a minute as she bit her lip. “A variation on it.”

  He moved forward, faster than he ever had before. Stroking her cheeks in his hands, he kissed her. “You’re adorable.”

  He felt her shiver beneath his touch, and a new heat filled his body. “I think I know what we can do to g
et the hunger under control.”

  Her eyes glowed in the soft candlelight of the mausoleum. “What’s that?”

  He stroked the length of her small nose, noticing for the first time that she had freckles. He’d never been able to see them before. They’d always been obscured in the darkness, or he’d been too sick to notice in the hospital.

  “Transference.”

  She bit down on her lip again before she pinched his chin lightly. “Are you suggesting we take one kind of hunger and replace it with another?”

  Ruthie really was a woman after his own heart. “Exactly.”

  Arching her neck back as she pressed up against him, she kissed him lightly and bit down on his lower lip as she pulled away. “What did you have in mind?”

  “I’m thinking I want to start by getting that shirt off you. Then the rest of your clothes, while we both find out what this functioning body of mine is capable of handling.”

  Her voice sounded husky when she spoke. “Pick me up.”

  Placing his hands under her arms, he lifted her up. Ruthie put her arms around his neck, wrapping her arms around his waist.

  “You can’t hurt me, and I can’t hurt you, not seriously anyway.”

  “Which means what?”

  She pressed her lips to his neck. “Feel free to do your worst.”

  With a growl he’d never imagined he could make, he ran forward until he pressed her against the wall. With one tug, he ripped the shirt from her body, exposing her pale, freckle-covered skin and a white cotton bra.

  “Do you have a lot of lingerie?”

  Ruth laughed. “What is a lot? I have a few bra and panties. If you could manage not to destroy them, I’d be thrilled.”

  “I’ll buy you new ones.”

  “You don’t have money anymore, you’re dead.” She wiggled against him, and his hard length jumped to life. He groaned and closed his eyes.

  “Trust me, Ruthie, my love, if there is one thing I can do really well, even when I was dying, it was make a lot of money. I’ll get some of my own back or make new.”

  “Is this your way of telling me you want to rip off my bra?”