“I suspect from that scared look on your face, you’re remembering something. If you want to talk about anything that happened to you, I’ll do my best to help you understand and deal with concerns.”
He seemed very kind and honest, but knowing what he was, she was loathe to trust him. Mia knew if she wanted answers and a ticket out of this place, she would have to place some trust in the man. He was her key and portal to freedom. “I can’t understand how that vampire woman was able to just look at Nathan and he went flying across the room. Does that make sense?”
“Yes,” he replied, his expression terse. “Julia and Dimitri told me about Isabella a long time ago. I’ve never met her, thank God, but she’s bad news. When their son, Dominic, was around six, she kidnapped him to blackmail Dimitri into leaving Julia to become her fledgling again. What that term means is either a newly made vampire, like yourself, or one completely under the control of a more mature one. It’s our guess Isabella is about four hundred years old and she’s what we call a feral vampire. Very powerful and evil and insane.”
“Well, that last part is certainly no news flash. How can she be stronger than a man Nathan’s size?”
“Physically she’s not, but our kind possesses physic and telekinetic abilities due to a gland in the brain housed between the thalamus and hypothalamus. It’s responsible for all these abilities I’m telling you about and more which I’ll explain eventually. Basically, she has extremely honed telekinetic abilities, which we all develop through time. Let me show you.” He sat his glass down and stared at the next table set down the porch. One of the chairs started scooting across the wood slat porch floor, stopping between them.
Mia gasped. “Oh my God!”
He chuckled. “You can’t do that yet, but someday you will if you choose to exercise those abilities. It’s like anything else regarding your body and mind, practice makes perfect.”
For a few moments, Mia just blinked at him, overwhelmed, yet curious. “What do you mean by physic abilities? Betty told me vampires can control a person’s mind.”
He nodded. “Yes and read their thoughts. It’s a necessary adaptation which enables us to feed without causing the human donor distress. With our own kind it’s different. We can’t control the minds of our kind unless the person is a vampire who’s made a fledgling. Isabella made both Nathan and Dimitri. When they were new like you, she would have had complete control over them. From what I’ve gleaned from Julia and Dimitri, it was beyond ugly for both Dimitri and Nathan.”
“Oh God, no!” She clamped a hand over her mouth.
He obviously guessed her thoughts, reached across the table and took her other hand. “Relax. Isabella did not make you. Nathan did because he gave you his blood. Although, because both of them drank from you, they can read your thoughts when they’re around. They could anyway when you were human. Now that you’re vampire, it’s different. When a vampire drinks from either a human or a vampire, we call it blood-bonding. As you mature, you’ll learn to block a mental penetration to a point. The more mature the vampire, who drank from you, the harder that is to accomplish. Currently, you wouldn’t be able to block either of them. Maybe Nathan eventually, but never Isabella, not just because of her age, but because she’s feral.”
“Lovely.” This was just getting sicker and sicker. Mia balled both her hands into fists and glared at him. “Trust me, if I have to dig a bunker in the desert and live there the rest of my life to hide from those two, I will. Forever won’t be long enough to keep me happy from never seeing either of them again.”
He pursed his lips and frowned. “I agree with you regarding Isabella. Nathan on the other hand is not a feral vampire. I know presently you look at what he did to you as evil, but you’ll discover in time he meant you no harm. He didn’t realize when he first met you that you were his life-mate. After he figured it out, he assured me he never fed from you again.”
“Don’t dare defend him!” Mia backed her chair up and squeezed the arms. “He lied to me. So did Julia and Dimitri. There’s no excuse for any of them. And he isn’t my frickin’ life-mate. I can’t stand the man. What is it with you people and that term?”
Christian lifted his hands in a defensive gesture. “I’m not making excuses for any of them. I’m just here to give you the information I’ve been fed and the facts regarding your new life. If you never want to see any of them again, that’s your choice. As far as life-mating, that’s complicated, and I’m not saying he’s your life-mate. I would have no way to know that. It’s personal between the two people. However, I can explain the terminology and what it entails theoretically, but I have no personal experience.”
Mia didn’t care about the semantics of this vampire life-mate thing, but if it would provide understanding, she’d listen. “Go for it.”
Christian gave her a slight nod, then continued, “Our kind mate once for life, period. I’m around couples of our kind every day and I can assure you, the bond is the most amazing thing any of us can ever experience in our lifetimes. What causes people of our kind to come together like that?” He paused and shook his head. “I haven’t a clue. Some of us think it’s a God thing.”
Mia was shocked. “You people believe in God? Like for real, not in theory.” She recalled her conversation with Nathan regarding his spiritual background, but in light of everything he’d done to her, she suspected what he’d shared to be lies, like everything else that came out of his mouth.
He nodded and smiled. “Many of us do. Like humans, we, adhere to different faiths. As I told you, we’re people, creatures of God, I believe. I grew up in a time where most everyone went to church. I guess my philosophies lean toward Christianity. Julia and Dimitri are Catholic.”
Mia’s mind began to spin with the overload of information. This was good news, but she had much soul searching ahead of her before she could feel right in her heart about her faith. She remembered clearly how she’d reacted to Nathan when he fed from her those nights in his limo. Maybe he’d controlled her mind, but her reactions to him, to every revolting thing he’d coerced her into, she’d actually enjoyed. She felt her face warm with shame.
A long silence ensued as Mia sipped her tea and mentally chewed the information Dr. La Mond had given her. Finally, she said, “1917, huh? So you’re really that old?” Mia knew she gawked at him, but she couldn’t help herself. He looked maybe thirty five and that pushed it.
“Yep. At some point I’ll give you a tour of my house. I have lots of family photos to prove it.”
His comment alluded to her being here awhile. She didn’t like it. “So give me some sort of ETA as to when I can go home.”
He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, his expression firm, thoughtful. “I week, maybe two. Even then you’ll still need out-patient care.”
“No!” She shoved to her feet and glared at him. “Please, Dr. La Mond, you have to let me go home before that.” Her girls would be coming to NOLA in a week or two.
“Calm down, Mia. And for heaven’s sakes, call me Christian. I’ve told you before I don’t stand on ceremony. If I let you go home now you wouldn’t survive. You have a lot to learn before you can get back to life.”
She rubbed a hand across her forehead and sat. “Can’t you give me a crash course?”
He heaved a long breath, then stood. “Your therapy and training will be PRN, darlin’, meaning as much as you want and can take. I’ll be the judge of when and how much though, based on how you react. We can take it up a notch if you want. Come on.” He hitched his head toward the yard, and she followed him into it, then toward a tree line.
“Where are we going?”
He glanced down at her and smiled. “For a walk in the woods. You’re a country girl. I figured you’d enjoy it.”
“I suppose.” There seemed to be a little mystery behind his smile and she suspected she was fixing to learn something about her new body or life. That was fine. The faster she learned, the quicker she could return to pre-Nathan e
ra. Priority one when she returned home would be contacting her kids. It had been several days since she’d called them and her phone was in her purse. She’d left it at Nathan’s that horrible night he and Isabella had wrecked her life. At some point, she intended to ask Christian to help her retrieve it. Priority two would be to contact Joe and ask for her job back.
Dusk was about to steal the last of the day as they entered the trees.
Christian paused and took off his glasses, then told her to do the same. When she did so, she gasped because the wooded scenery was alight with a host of shimmering colors she’d never seen before. Everything was so bright. If she hadn’t known it to be nightfall, she would have sworn they were standing in the woods mid-day.
The greens of the leaves and underbrush were iridescent and shiny. The night sky above glittered like a light blue diamond and the stars held the brightness of some of those Fourth of July fireworks she’d enjoyed with Nathan. The thought of him made her frown.
“You okay?” Christian asked.
She forced a grateful smile, which she didn’t feel at all. She was so angry and confused. If Nathan were here right now or Julia and Dimitri, Mia knew she’d go apeshit on them and try to scratch their eyes out. She hated all of them, but Christian had no culpability in what had happened to her. Trusting any vampire right now terrified her, but Mia knew she needed help and Christian was her only resource. “It’s beautiful. Why is everything so bright?”
“Your eyes have changed. Have you seen yourself in a mirror yet?”
She shook her head. “Why?” Betty stayed with her in the bathroom while she’d bathed. She hadn’t liked it, but figured Christian ordered her to do so after her freak out episode. Modest by nature, she’d been in a hurry to get out and dressed.
“Your eyes aren’t brown any longer. Their gold.”
“What? Seriously?”
He nodded. “Our kind bare only two visible physical differences than humans. Our eyes and our size. All turned vampires gain height no matter their age or sex, males more so. Over the next year or two you’ll grow a few inches and develop more muscle mass. Your heart will enlarge too. The vampire heart is about a third larger than a human’s, which partially accounts for our physical strength. If you were male, you’d gain up to six or eight inches of height and at least a hundred more pounds of muscle mass. As a female, maybe three inches and fifty pounds. Every person is different. Again, this is an evolutionary adaptation for the purpose of hunting and feeding.”
She snorted. “Believe me I won’t need those adaptations. I’d sooner slit my wrists than drink blood.”
Christian frowned at her. “You’re moral convictions will only last so long, Mia. Imagine your favorite food and how wonderful it tastes and smells, then multiply that thought by a thousand. That’s how human blood will be to your senses in time, whether you take transfusions or not. You’ll learn to control the urge, but it will never go away. Desire for human blood is a primal need, which keeps us alive. It’s like sex, but more powerful. We lust for the opposite sex because the need to procreate is wired into every creature on earth. For a vampire, the need to feed is hard-wired in him or her too for the purpose of survival.”
Mia groaned and rubbed the side of her head. As much as she appreciated Christian’s honesty, all his efforts to educate her, she felt utterly miserable. God forgive her, but she wished she’d died that horrible night at Nathan’s home. “What can I do to overcome this…uhm lust?”
“Take care of your body and be very regimented with your transfusions. Eat and sleep properly, but the best remedy for the affliction is to drink from one of our kind. Vampire blood tastes nothing like human blood, but when you’re life-mated you’ll desire the blood of your mate more than a human’s.”
Mia clenched her teeth. She didn’t want a vampire life-mate and she certainly didn’t appreciate Christian implying she needed to take one. Specifically, Nathan, if that’s what he meant. Had the jerk been talking to Christian behind her back?
“I don’t want to be life-mated to anyone of your kind. I’m sorry, Christian, but I find this new life Nathan foisted upon me disgusting and I hate it. I hate him. I’m not liking you too much at the moment either. I know you’re trying to help me, but the news you keep feeding me, just gets worse and worse.”
He took hold of her hand and squeezed, his expression compassionate. “Would you prefer I lie?”
Her eyes rolled skyward. “No. I may not like the truth, but I suppose I need to hear it.” She didn’t want to think about blood lust anymore. However, she was curious about this eye thing. “Can you explain why my eyes changed color?”
He nodded once. “When a human turns vampire, their eyes almost always lighten within the same color spectrum. You had brown eyes previously, now they’re gold. Julia told me she had hazel eyes. Hers are emerald.”
“That’s bizarre. Why?”
“Hunting purposes. All vampires have beautiful eyes and humans are naturally intrigued by them. Our eyes shimmer in soft lighting, which is meant to beguile our prey. Also as I’m sure you can already tell, we see far better in dim lighting or moonlight. Another evolutionary adaptation. We’re nocturnal creatures by nature, but not so much in this modern age. Actually, the advent of sunglasses, something that simple, turned the majority of our kind into day dwellers. We sleep approximately eight hours a night just like humans. Many of us still hunt. Those who do, generally hunt at night because we’re better equipped to do so.”
Mia shivered. “Yuck. Skulking around at night, hunting humans? Never in a million.”
Christian smiled at her and said, “You have no need to be concerned about your survival as a vampire, darlin’. You can take transfusions for the rest of your life. Soon you’ll only need two to three a week.” He began to lead her down a wood-chipped trail meandering through the woods.
The news held no reassurance. “What if I can’t afford them? Currently, I’m jobless. I left a four year position to work for Nathan, which obviously I’m not going to do now. How much will this cost me per month?
He stopped and faced her. “Nothing, Mia. What happened to you was a crime perpetrated by an evil one of our kind. I wouldn’t take a dime from you. To do so would feel like a crime on my behalf. Humans who turn vampire generally do so because they fall in love with a vampire and they want to be with that person. Their turning is a choice. Your choice was ripped from you and you have no one of our kind to care for you. You’re like a baby right now. New, inexperienced and uneducated for survival. I’d have to be ethically bankrupt to charge you for your care here or turn you out because you couldn’t afford it. Your payment to me will be to survive.”
“That’s very kind, Christian, but what am I going to do once I leave? I seriously doubt I can just walk into a blood bank and purchase my week’s supply.”
“Actually, you can with a prescription. Let me clarify that. All vampires who take transfusions have a doctor and our clinics supply them units. It’s so easy these days, you can actually place your order on line and they’ll be shipped to you. The cost is minimal. We don’t charge what human facilities do for blood. Plus, as a vampire, any blood will do. There is no need for type and cross matching like a human requiring a transfusion. Your body will accept any type of blood. In time, I’ll teach you how to start an IV on yourself.”
They began to walk again in silence. Mia offered no argument because she had no choice but to accept his charity. At some point she’d find a way to repay him, but she would need a working body in order to do so. The body she now inhabited remained a mystery and she needed this man to help her solve the enigma.
The serpentine path through the timber eventually led them back to the point they entered the tree line. Along the way, Christian told her he’d created the walking trail as exercise for his maternity patients, which expanded much further than the path they’d traversed. She suspected the short trip had to do with other patients within the house he needed to tend.
When they were inside again waiting for the elevator, Mia expected the night to end with her back in the room she’d inhabited for the last couple of days. This evening’s physical therapy had been very daunting, yet educational and she appreciated the doctor’s time and efforts. “Thank you for tonight, Christian.”
“Your welcome, darlin’.” He gave her an encouraging smile and punched the button on the wall to bring the elevator to their level. “Can I trust you to stay put here until I decide you’re ready to go home?”
“Yes. I won’t bolt. I promise.” She meant it. Where would she go? From what she’d learned tonight, she’d be a danger to the human population. Eventually, she’d have to re-enter it, but she needed Christian to get her there so she wouldn’t be a threat to her co-workers and friends.
He nodded as they entered the elevator. Moments later the doors opened into a hallway with plush white carpet and walls sporting hundreds of baby pictures. She remembered Betty telling her about the top floor maternity ward and suspected that’s where he’d taken her.
Christian led her to a closed door just right of the elevator. “You’ll find this suite far more comfortable then the one you’ve been staying in.” He opened the door and walked inside.
Mia followed. The first thing she spied was a king bed with a yellow comforter sporting playful pink bunnies and blue kittens. The wallpaper and other decor mimicked the bedspread. It was sweet and lovely, but she worried about displacing one of his patients. “Are you sure about this? I don’t need anything this fancy and I wouldn’t want to take up space if you have patients needing this room.”
He gave her a warm smile. “No worries, darlin’. I only have two patients here currently and both will be going home first thing in the morning. The house is yours to explore on this level and the next one down. Make yourself at home. You know where the kitchen is located. If you get hungry or need something to drink, you’ll find all you need there. Betty or I will check on you periodically throughout the night and I have another blood transfusion ordered for you at ten p.m..”
Forever and a Night Page 16
