by Melody Raven
“I don’t have a lot of food here for you,” said Marcus. “It will be dark enough for me to go out soon. If you’d like, we can go out to get you something to eat and can stop at some shops while they’re still open to get you more clothes and any other necessities you’ll need for your stay. I don’t think one small bag will get you very far.”
A small thrill went through her. Who wouldn’t get excited about having dinner in the city and going on a shopping spree, let alone having someone as handsome as Marcus to show her around?
As quickly as the thrill started, Gena beat it back. Nothing about this was supposed to be thrilling or make her remotely happy. This was a job for her. She was here to prevent even more human deaths and stop a vampire war from breaking out.
If that wasn’t enough pressure, she was sure Marcus had his own reasons for wanting her here, and she had to be on her toes to see whether he was really as safe as he said he was. Come to think of it, he’d been certain to remind her that he wasn’t safe at all...
I deserve to go shopping, thought Gena, fighting her doubts.
“That sounds great,” she said to Marcus. “Give me a few minutes and I’ll be ready to go.”
Marcus nodded and silently left the room.
Gena breathed a sigh of relief as he left her alone with Lady. She was used to living alone and not having six-foot-tall vampires walking in on her screaming in the middle of the night, or middle of the day in this case.
Gena’s covered her face with her hands and she let her torso fall back down onto the bed. She couldn’t think of a good word to describe how she felt at that moment. On a purely physical level, she felt amazing. Her heart had calmed down since she woke up, and she was no longer sweating. She was surrounded by sheets that probably cost more than she made in a week, and Lady’s furry body was nestled next to her and keeping her warm.
Mentally, however, she wasn’t as comfortable. She quietly pushed the fantastic sheets away from her body and walked to the bathroom. She hadn’t had time to throw any makeup in her bag as she hastily packed and now regretted that decision.
Her hand fumbled along the wall in the bathroom for the light switch as she braced herself for the image that would be staring at her through the mirror. She usually looked bad enough in the morning, but on the mornings after her terrors, her eyes were usually bloodshot and appeared sunken in with the dark circles under them.
She flipped on the lights and blinked against the brightness for a few seconds. As her eyes focused, she looked at her face for the light blue circles around her eyes but was shocked when she didn’t see them.
Her hand came up to her face and moved across her skin. She leaned in so her nose was inches away from the mirror, but even that close her skin looked amazing. She probably wouldn’t have needed any type of foundation with skin like this.
It puzzled her, but it must be another side effect of the new body she was in. This skin had never had any pimples to mar it, nor had she had any contact with the sun.
Gena shut the door and made sure it was locked before she took off her clothes to examine herself in the mirror.
This was her first chance to really study her new self. She hadn’t wanted to stay in the house with her dead body lying in the kitchen, and she hadn’t had time at Hope’s apartment.
Overall, she looked very similar to how she had before she was murdered. Not all the changes were consistent, either. The hair on her head, including eyebrows and eyelashes, were about the same length they had been before, though she could tell the tweezing she’d done just a week ago was for naught. So even hair she’d plucked had come back full grown.
However, the rest of her body looked as though it had been waxed. Her arms, legs, and pubic region were all hairless, though she could see in a few spots that the hair was growing in. It would be nice to never have to shave again, thought Gena.
A few more scars she had from childhood were now missing, but besides that, everything was the same. Her hair was the same dark color she loved, and her eyes were the same crystal blue she was used to.
Her weight also seemed to be the same. She remained active, between running around the hospital at work and walking with Lady when she got home. She couldn’t see her ribs necessarily, but her waist had a nice curve to it and she could probably pull off a bikini, even if she wasn’t comfortable enough to wear one in public.
“What the hell happened to me?” whispered Gena to her reflection.
Marcus was surprised at how much fun he was having with Gena as they both walked down a busy Manhattan sidewalk in the cool fall evening. She was handling her situation very well for a human.
Which made sense, considering she wasn’t actually human. Vampires and other supernatural beings were usually so easy to differentiate from the humans he came across. They would talk with an air of confidence and walk into every room knowing they were the strongest and most powerful in the room.
Gena had none of that. She was a confident woman, but she didn’t have the same walk or talk. She smelled good to him, but still distinctly human, and if he concentrated, he could still hear her heart beating at the same pace of a normal mortal in good health. His own heart beat at a slower pace than hers, averaging forty beats per minute while resting.
The one thing about her that was distinctly unhuman was how she was dealing with all the strangeness happening to her.
Anyone else might’ve taken off the second vampires were brought into the conversation, let alone go shopping with one after sleeping in his bed. He told her to trust him, but he’d also given her fair warning to be scared of him as well.
In truth, even if he did mean her harm, after seeing her get shot last night, he wasn’t sure he could hurt her if he tried. Some sort of powerful magic protected her, and he was thinking he was no match for whatever power that was.
He made a throwaway comment about the high heels that some of the women around them were walking in, and Gena let out a soft snort of laughter and a bright smile filled her face.
For a moment, he was struck silent by her beauty. She wasn’t the prettiest woman he’d ever seen, nor was she as model-like as some of the other women in Manhattan, but when she smiled, she was absolutely breathtaking.
She must’ve noticed him staring. A nervous hand reached up and pushed a stray piece of dark hair behind an ear. “What?” she asked.
Marcus debated keeping his thoughts to himself but decided against it. He was determined to get this woman, whatever she was, into his bed before he had to let her go, and if flattery would help, he wasn’t above it.
“I was just thinking how beautiful you look when you smile.”
As soon as he said it, the smile disappeared from her face and she stopped walking. She didn’t look at him as she spoke. “I’m going to pretend you never said that and we are going to go back to having a nice evening with none of those complications.”
With that, she started to walk, and Marcus followed her, but he’d be damned if he’d let her dictate what he was allowed to say to her. “I’m not allowed to compliment you?”
“You know that’s not what I was talking about. Playing stupid doesn’t suit you,” she said harshly.
“It really bothers you that much?” he asked with all seriousness.
“The last thing I need right now is our working relationship becoming even more complicated than it already is.”
This time Marcus was the one who stopped. He grabbed her arm as softly as he could and pulled her away from the crowds and toward the nearest building. Her jacket kept his fingers from touching her skin, and for a moment he hated that barrier.
When they were in as private a place as they could get on a busy street, he turned to face her but still kept his gentle grip on her arm, not wanting to let her go.
“This is my deal I’ll make with you. I know you’re coping with a lot of fucked-up shit right now, and I respect that. I’m going to make your time with me as pleasant and fun as possible even though you’re h
ere to help me.”
“I’m not hearing anything I don’t like yet.”
“But,” he continued, “you touched me last night,” he reminded her. At her puzzled expression, he grabbed her hand and brought it to his face, identical to the way she’d lifted her fingers to trace the lines of his jaw just hours before. He heard her sharp intake of breath at the sudden feel of his skin against hers.
He held her hand there, but she didn’t try to take it away, nor did she trace the same path she had before. Her fingers just stayed right where they were. “Don’t pretend I’m pushing you into something you haven’t thought about already.”
A soft and uneasy laugh escaped Gena’s lips, and this time she did pull her hand away. “You’re so cocky,” she said. “Are you so used to women throwing themselves at you? I’m not going to lie. You’re pretty and you look like an angel, but I know you’re not. I’m not saying I’m not attracted to you, so your ego can get off unscathed. If you really respect me like you say you do, you’ll not try to tempt me to do something I don’t want to want. You’ve had centuries of seducing women. You don’t need me.”
Marcus was shocked. He didn’t remember the last time a woman had spoken so bluntly to him. He wanted to flat-out refuse. He wanted to say he’d never stop trying for her. Instead, he said, “The truth is that there’s something between us. Whether I’m trying or not, that’s not going to go away. I can give you your space, but you need to know this. If you, for one second, decide you want to take the chance of things getting a bit more complicated, it will be amazing. I promise you that.”
Silence stretched between the two of them. He could hear her heart race and knew she was tempted by his promise, even if she didn’t want to be. To make matters worse, she took her thick bottom lip between her teeth and bit down on it, as though she needed to do something with her mouth to keep from kissing him.
The erotic sight after their heated conversation was almost too much for him. He managed to keep himself from pushing her against the nearest building and showing her exactly what he could do with those lips, and he felt his eyes turn black in anticipation. He knew the second she noticed this because she took a surprised breath.
She took one hesitant step away from him and held her hands up in front of her, half surrender, half warning to stay back.
“You’re insane,” was all she said before she turned and continued to walk down the street, leaving Marcus with no other option than to chase after her.
Well, this wasn’t how Gena had wanted the day to go. They’d been having such a nice time before he had to go and ruin it.
Hell, the evening had even started with Marcus taking Lady for a small walk around the block with Gena. Afterwards, she’d gotten some great food and was walking around the city she’d always dreamed of going to. The temperature was cool, but it wasn’t freezing cold yet.
It really had been as perfect as an evening could get, considering all the extenuating circumstances. It’s true, she thought. Sex ruins everything.
Was it really so hard for him to give her some space? They were in a city full of beautiful women. What was it that made her so irresistible? It was probably because she was the first to say no to him.
Even so, he should know better than to get involved with someone he had to stay in close quarters with for an indeterminate amount of time. How awkward would it be if something did happen between them and then he got sick of her while he still needed her help?
Gena also had to take into consideration that she’d only just met Marcus a whole twenty-four hours ago. She was shocked she was even considering doing anything with him after only knowing him for such a short amount of time.
She’d never been with a man within less than a month of dating, let alone less than a day of meeting. But then again, she’d gone through some radical changes in the past week.
Ideas shot through her. “It’s because of what is happening to me, isn’t it?” she said out loud.
Marcus shot her a puzzled look. “What?”
“I think this new body is out of whack. That’s why my libido is acting so strange.”
Marcus held a hand to his heart as if he were wounded. “You do know how to bruise an ego, don’t you?”
Gena rolled her eyes. “Stop making this about you. I have been doing things in the past three days that I would have never done before all this started happening to me.”
“We can’t rule out the possibility that your personality has changed as well,” he conceded. “But you also have to admit you have been in situations you could have never even imagined one week ago. Who’s to say you wouldn’t have always reacted the same way?”
“You didn’t even know me before,” she pointed out. “What makes you think I would’ve stayed the same?”
“I have seen quite a few people transition from being from human to vampire. Physically, almost everything is different about the person after the change is done. They are stronger, faster, and have senses better than they had ever even imagined possible. On top of that, they also have the prey drive and natural instincts to feed.
“Even with all those changes, the personality is basically the same. A coward in life is a coward in the afterlife as well. As far as I can tell, you’re no coward and I highly doubt you ever were. You stood up to that man when he pointed a gun at you and burst right past Gareth, who is scary-looking even before you know what he is, to confront Vlad. If that isn’t courage, I don’t know what is.”
Gena was taken aback by the sudden flattery. She’d never considered herself brave before. She wasn’t good at taking a compliment, so she deflected the conversation away from her. “You don’t believe people can change?”
“No. I believe people, and vampires for that matter, are constantly changing and evolving as time goes by. However, it’s a long-term process and not something that happens over the course of one week.”
Gena was about to go deeper into his opinion on people changing when a passerby bumped into her. She lost her balance for a second but righted herself quickly enough. The offending stranger never bothered to apologize, she noted.
She’d been listening to Marcus so intently she almost forgot they were in a crowded street. “Should we not talk about this in such a public place?”
Marcus shrugged. “Even if someone did overhear something they shouldn’t, they are much more likely to think you are crazy than believe I’m a vampire. You can ask me anything you want out here, and I’ll tell you.”
The possible questions raced across her mind. Where should she even start? “Well, I guess the obvious question I should’ve asked a lot sooner is how often do you eat?”
Marcus laughed. “Probably would’ve been better asked yesterday,” he agreed.
“In my defense, you said you were going to protect me, and I assumed that meant no biting,” she said.
“I see your point,” he said. “I can have a big ‘meal’ once a week and be fine, but having a small drink every other day or so is enough to get me by.”
“Who do you get your ‘meals’ from?”
“Well, for most humans,” he gave her a pointed look, “I can simply ask them to step aside for a few minutes and convince them they accidentally cut themselves when I’m done.”
Gena frowned at that, but Marcus continued. “However, in more recent years, Aleksander has set up blood banks all around the Americas and Europe. These blood banks will accept all donations, but any donors with low iron counts or other diseases harmful to humans will be filtered to us. It’s very freeing to not need to hunt every night.”
“You just go to the local blood grocery store?” asked Gena, skeptically.
“The supply isn’t big enough for brick-and-mortar,” said Marcus. “The Internet is the best way to place an order right now.”
Gena laughed. “Of course the Internet would be a great place to buy blood.”
“Well, this is only the pure-born vampires. I never told you that the turned vampires don’t even dr
ink humans.” Gena raised a questioning eyebrow and waited for him to continue. “Turned vampires survive on vampire blood.”
“Why would they need different blood?”
“There are many scientific ways to explain almost everything on this planet. You can teach all the children in school how babies are made, but when it comes down to it, that moment when a fetus becomes a sentient being, whenever it happens, cannot be explained by science. Some things are just magic.”
“Is that a fancy way of saying you don’t know?” asked Gena with a joking smile.
“In a roundabout way. I guess the point is that a lot of the things that make me what I am don’t make sense according to human science. Either there’s a deeper and more complicated science that explains how I exist or it’s magic. I don’t know why I’m here, but I do know I am.”
Gena thought about all the things she’d seen lately. Between mind-controlling vampires and her own (double) murder, a little magic wasn’t too hard to believe in.
“When I woke up, I was so freaked out,” said Gena. “It took me a few moments to fully understand. I don’t think I could ever explain the feeling of seeing yourself laying lifeless on the floor.”
“I can try to imagine,” offered Marcus.
“How?”
“Well, I have never seen myself dead, but I have seen a lot of death. There is something truly tragic about seeing someone who used to be so full of joy and light turned into an empty shell.”
Gena frowned. “Now that you put it that way, I’m even more depressed about it.”
“It was not my intention,” said Marcus. “Everyone has their own unique experiences, and no one will be able to relate exactly to you. That doesn’t mean you’re alone.”
She couldn’t reply to that. It was a nice sentiment he was trying to make, but in truth, she was alone. She was being continuously told she was no longer human, but so far she had no idea what she could be.
She looked at the nameless people who passed them. They all looked so normal. They all knew what they were. Up until her murder, Gena had known exactly where she stood. She was an independent woman with plans on being a doctor. She had plans on buying the home she rented and dog lover. Above all, she was certain of her humanity.
