Caleb was behind me in a second. In fact, I didn’t quite know how he could have reached my side so quickly; I must have been distracted. He pulled my hands away from the window catches.
“Flies get in. They drive me crazy. So I’d rather put up with the AC.”
He was so close to me, and he hadn’t taken his hands off mine.
Turning around, I stared at him and leaning toward him I lifted on my tiptoes and brushed my lips against his own.
My breath hitched at our closeness and I listened to see if he was reacting the same way.
I didn’t hear his breath.
Shaking my head, I leaned closer once more and again rested my lips against his. I waited to feel his breath escape his mouth and move over my lips.
There was nothing.
I stepped back and stared at him.
“Why can’t I tell you’re breathing? How are you doing that? It can’t be good to hold your breath for that long.”
Caleb stayed close to me and spoke softly. “I’m not holding my breath. It’s one of the things I need to tell you about myself. Just as you were surprised that you made what you said in your own words were ‘outlandish claims’, well I have my own to make. The first is that I don’t breathe.
I raised my brows. “Don’t be ridiculous, everyone needs to breathe, or you’d die.”
“I’m already dead.” His eyes stared into mine. We were but inches apart.
“Have you taken some drugs, Caleb? Because I’m finding this conversation extremely confusing. You aren’t making sense. What’s the point to this?”
“The point is I said I would tell you about myself, and I am. I don’t breathe because I’m not alive.”
I backed away from him. “Caleb, this isn’t funny. Now stop these silly games and let’s talk about my sketches. I was going to tell you I’d decided to stay here, but now I’m not sure you are safe to be around. I have my own mental health issues; I can’t cope with someone else’s right now.”
“Vivienne.” He pulled me closer, his hands moving to the small of my back. His cold fingers were against my bare skin under my t-shirt. “Look at me.”
I did. I looked up into those hypnotizing browns and waited for words to come from those pillow soft lips.
“I’m a vampire.”
I went to pull away, but I didn’t move even a millimetre. I tried to move again but I was held in a grasp as secure as a tightened straitjacket.
“What the…?”
“Think about it. My hands are cold as ice. I don’t breathe. You don’t see me in the daytime. My strength is such that you can’t move me. My speed is such that I was at your side before you could open a window, and the reason I didn’t want you to is because there is still sunlight outside and if that touches my skin I will burn. The windows have a protective cover.”
“I don’t believe you. You say you’re dead, but your heart beats.”
“My heart started beating the same day you first came to Tetburn Manor. Before that it stopped beating when I was turned. Vampire lore states that a vampire’s heart will beat again when they meet their mate. You are my mate, Vivienne. You are my one. My heart beats for you.”
There was a clatter and we sprang apart and turned watching as Daria began picking up pieces of the tea set she had been carrying in.
“My apologies. I am so sorry to disturb you both. I was just bringing in some refreshments and I was startled at your declaration, Sir. Are you sure Vivienne is the one?”
He nodded. “I am, Daria. You can leave the spillages, for Vivienne and I must talk further. I will call you later.”
“Yes, Sir.” Daria nodded leaving the room quickly. Too quickly.
“Is Daria…?”
“Yes. About 60% of the staff are vampires, the rest are human. The humans work security as we need that 24-hours and also they work in the rose business.”
He gestured towards the sofa and I took a seat. “Are you beginning to believe me?”
“I don’t know what to think.” I said truthfully. “None of what has been happening to me lately makes sense and part of me feels that maybe my own mind has finally broken and that’s what I’m experiencing now.”
“Then I shall show you that you are really here and really experiencing things.” Caleb said.
He moved onto the couch and leaning over, his lips met mine once more. And then I didn’t care whether I was hallucinating or he was lying. I just wanted his body on me, in me, everywhere.
He opened his mouth and licked his tongue over his teeth and I gasped as his canines descended. His brown eyes took on a russet shade as red danced with the browns. I reached out a hand and he clasped my wrist with his firm grip guiding my fingers up to his mouth. The index and middle finger of my right hand entered his mouth and touched a canine. It seemed more intimate than sex itself in that moment as I felt at the sharp tooth. He pulled my finger away before I could press on too firmly.
Then his mouth was back on mine. I could tell by the tautness of his body that he was keeping himself in check with me. But then again I was a delicate human and he was… my mind pondered it… a vampire.
The idea that vampires existed was ludicrous and yet I knew that’s what Caleb was. His body was cold against mine and yet it set off a fire within me that threatened to engulf my whole being.
He helped me out of my clothes and stripped out of his and then he was on top of me, his fingers stroking at my wet core, while his mouth trailed down my neck. I wondered if he would bite me like I’d seen in films.
And then he was pushing inside me and I wrapped my legs around him. Despite the strength he’d shown me, he fucked me like any human man, except I could tell there was an extra depth of passion, of ardour.
His orgasm chased mine and we trembled together and then rested in each other’s arms. He stroked my face as we laid together. But although I’d come, I was unsatisfied. I wanted the whole of him and he’d given me a piece.
I just had to hope that this was the start of something more.
Caleb
I needed her.
She consumed my thoughts and taking her body had made things worse not better. I craved her. For the next few days I kept my distance as my blood thirst was so high, I felt I would surely kill her if she came near my arms.
I watched her on the security camera footage. Saw the hurt in her eyes as she gazed at the castle. Saw her sketch like a crazy person. Saw her leave.
Her eyes lost their sparkle.
Their shine dulled.
Shadows returned to her face, to the underneath of her eyes.
She wore long sleeved hooded tops on a warm day and the foolish man I am thought she was doing it to protect her skin from the sun.
Until her sleeve fell down while sketching and my vampire vision homed in on the scratches on her skin.
She was still outside when I rose the next day. The weather was dull and so I left the castle and stomped over to where she sat on the stone bench.
“Show me your arms.” I snarled.
Her head turned to me slowly, eyes dead, and she shook her head. “No. My body is my business. I offered it to you days ago and you took it and then you threw me away.”
My teeth ground together in my mouth. “I did not throw you away. I kept myself away, because I am dangerous. Do you know what I can do to you?”
She held up her arm and let a sleeve drop down slightly showing scabbed cuts and scars of past harm. “Is it any more than what I do to myself?”
“Yes, it’s more.” Walking over, I grabbed her and ripped the sleeve straight off her top like it was made of tissue paper. It revealed her whole arm, the tracks of silvery scars, some thicker than others, and the new scratches. “These scratches are like a chaste kiss from me. My cuts run deep.”
She pulled her arm back to herself and I let her.
“My own run deep on occasion.” She scoffed at me. “But for some reason I always survive. Yet now here I am, called to be the mate of a vampire
. Do you really believe I’m supposed to stay human?”
“I won’t turn you, Vivienne. My mate or not; we shall stay vampire and his human love. There will be no immortal bite.”
Bitterness twisted at her features.
“Leave me alone, Caleb. I want to finish my sketch in peace.”
“You said you would move in.” I reminded her.
“That was before you rejected me.”
My voice rose. “I am not rejecting you. I am protecting you.”
“Then return to your castle and let me draw.” She picked up her pencils and turned away from me.
“I’m inside if you want to join me for dinner.” I told her. Then I began to make my way back to the manor. I needed time to think. What was I supposed to do? She was clearly suffering, but I had no idea of our destiny.
I hadn’t even reached the front door when I found out that Vivienne knew exactly what our destiny was. As I heard the gate swing shut, I realised where she was headed.
I flew into the rose garden, reaching Vivienne’s side as she leaned down. I heard her short gasp as the thorn pierced her skin.
She lifted up her thumb and we watched as she took out the thorn and the crimson bead bloomed on her flesh, before dropping onto the ground. Her eyes caught mine just as the scent of her blood hit my nose and then she was in my arms and we were speeding up to my room. I didn’t know what was next, but I knew she had indeed set fate in motion and that what happened from here was not in either of our control.
I threw her on the bed. I was not gentle this time, although I wasn’t at full strength either. She bounced on the covers and scrambled to sit up.
Her eyes widened as she saw me and I knew what she was taking in. My eyes would be vivid red with blood lust, my fangs sharp.
The blood from her thumb had continued to run down her hand and I launched myself, now naked, onto the bed. I licked her thumb, swiping my tongue over the tiny cut and sealing it closed with my vampire saliva, and then I cleansed her hand of the drying blood. Her essence fizzed and sparked in my mouth and my mind.
Mine.
Mine.
Mine.
My mate.
I tore her clothes from her body and when she lay there bare before me and panting, I looked at her closely and saw no fear, just sheer unbridled lust.
I moved over her and this time I had no intention of being gentle.
I bit and nipped at her body. It might cause small bruises, love-bites, but I hadn’t broken skin. She gasped and writhed in my arms. I thrust deep inside her, fucking her hard and fast, and at the point of our completion I bit down on her neck and let her blood flow into my mouth.
She screamed as her orgasm shook her body.
Her heartbeat sang in my ears and as I heard it slow, I withdrew my fangs, licked over the marks to heal them and gathered her in my arms.
“This is all I can offer you right now. I offer you me. The man and the monster. I can’t offer you immortality.”
Vivienne looked up at me sleepy and sated. “Maybe this is enough.” She said, before closing her eyes.
* * *
Vivienne moved into the manor taking a guest room down the hall from mine that Daria had prepared. In the daytime, she sketched and painted. Sometimes she took picnics to the nearby lake. In the evenings we dined together and then we would retire to my room where we would make love or fuck hard. Once she fell asleep in my arms, I’d transfer her to her own room and then I’d work before the dawn rose and my own slumber called.
But as days turned into weeks, I saw the paleness of my mate’s skin. She became tired and I feared she was anaemic. I stopped my bite and as her colour returned to her cheeks, it faded from her existence. Her paintings got darker. Her smiles became fewer. I knew what would happen next, and I waited for the conversation I didn’t want to take place.
“I need you to turn me, Caleb. I told you my dream. It said Tetburn Manor would be where I began, ended and began again. You know what that means.” Her voice rose as she snarled near my face, so close a tiny bit of spittle hit my cheek.
“Your dreams did not specify you would die. And dreams are exactly that anyway. Dreams. Fragments of your imagination playing in your brain.”
Her eyes darkened; it was like her soul leached out as we spoke. I needed to get her painting again. Painting and the rose garden brought the light to her eyes.
“I had Daria help me turn one of the rooms into an artist’s studio. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before. Come look.” I took her hand and dragged her to the room next to her own. Pushing it open, she walked in taking in the plain white walls and the plain canvasses everywhere. A white unit held every paint and brush she could ever desire.
“This room looks out over the front of the house. You could paint the bridge, the new meadow. Now even on a rainy day, you can do that which makes you happiest.”
“Thank you, Caleb.” She said, smiling at me.
But her words rang out hollow like the empty echoes of the room we stood in, and she looked around the room as if it sealed her fate to the blankness of her current existence.
Vivienne
He said he wanted me.
I knew his heart fought his head.
His head was winning.
While I lost.
I was so goddamn tired. All my emotions were leached out onto the canvasses I painted. My heavy heart was a burden to carry.
Now Caleb would take me to his bed, but he wouldn’t take blood from me. Not anymore. He kept the main part of himself—the vampire, his true nature—from me, and he expected me to accept that.
He left me no choice, because I would rather have his company than none of him at all, but it hurt. It hurt so much. Life hurt, living hurt. But I knew I’d been here before in the dark recesses of my mind, and I’d fought through and won. I would find the light, the colours, and I would live with my immortal beloved until…
It was a question I had no answer for.
Until…
* * *
I’d been painting. I’d enjoyed an early evening dinner with Caleb and then I’d come out to the stone bench to sketch the rose garden while he held business meetings. I would see him tomorrow; tonight, he was busy until past my own bedtime. I felt so aristocratic this evening, dressed in a white cotton summer dress, a picnic hamper containing strawberries and champagne at my feet. It was the last thing I remembered. Tasting the sweetness and savouring its fizz on my tongue.
And now? Now I woke, my head banging. As I opened my eyes, I could make out that I was tied to a chair back in my new art studio. How the fuck had I got here?
I looked around me, at my white studio, and then fragments of a dream rose and tangled with the reality of my current life.
“Who are you?” The voice had come from behind me. From behind the stone bench.
I turned around. “I’m Vivienne.” I was confused, they knew my name.
“Yes, but who are you? As in why are you here? Why do you keep visiting my castle, my garden?”
Their castle. What were they talking about?
“I don’t know. I just need to be here.”
“But why?”
“Because it’s the only place I feel alive.”
Then I saw them sitting staring at me, and I knew.
“But you don’t feel alive at the castle do you, Vivienne? Not anymore. It’s death you seek now, or rather un-death. But your being there is changing things. Things that have been as they are for years. I don’t want you here. You’re getting in the way of my own plans.”
My death was imminent. I didn’t know what I’d been given, but I kept nodding off and waking again.
The skin on my arms was ripped open. This time I did not welcome the pain. A gag around my mouth stifled my screams and as I slowly bled, they smiled. They took me off the chair and laid me on the floor on a massive canvas. My mouth gagged, and my wrists and ankles bound, I laid there as the blood dripped out of me creating its own work of
art. I began to lose consciousness once more.
The dream moved on and I was standing inside the castle in a room with bare white walls. Yet, instead of feeling the peace I got from Tetburn, here my heart was gripped with fear as I turned around and around, seeing nothing but the white.
And then there was pain.
I most certainly was not numb here.
My captor stood watching.
The pain at my throat was excruciating and bright red blood sprayed out and coated the bare white wall in front of me.
I looked down at my white gown. It looked like I’d spilled red wine, but I knew it wasn’t wine at all.
The door clicked closed and I laid there, my life ebbing away, and then I saw her. She knelt beside me, her long red hair soft around her face. I knew who she was. Rosemary. A ghost from the past.
“It’s almost time.” She whispered.
Caleb
“Have you seen Vivienne?” I asked Jenson as I returned from the grounds where she’d told me she would be painting, my meeting having been cancelled.
“No, Sir. But that’s strange as I haven’t seen Daria this evening either. Maybe they went somewhere together?”
“I doubt it. Daria rarely goes anywhere. I bet Vivienne is in her room or the studio.”
“Sir, this may be me speaking out of turn, but lately Daria has been acting a little oddly, saying things like that the routine of the castle is changing, and well, you were aware of her feelings for you, weren’t you?”
I stood stock still staring at my security manager. “Daria… has feelings for me? You must be mistaken.”
He looked at me like you might stare at someone who’d just been found wandering dazed. “She’s in love with you. Has been for years.”
My mind refused to believe his words. Surely, he was wrong?
“I’ll go check Vivienne’s rooms. Can you be checking the cameras?”
IMMORTAL BITE Page 5
