“Is she human?” A question I will now have to ask all the time.
“She is. But someone nearby isn’t. Can you pick up other scents?”
I shake my head no.
“It’s because you haven’t fed. The more nourished you are, and the longer you’ve been hunting, you’ll get better at picking up the distinctions. It’s a skill that you’ll develop with time, as any other.”
I settle against the pillow. “I don’t smell you.”
“Do you know why?”
“You’re a ghost? Zombie?”
She laughs. “I’m undead. Some living vampires will have a scent to you. In fact, in the beginning you may even mistake them for human if they are less than twenty or thirty years turned. But undead vampires will not smell like food to you.”
I try to understand all that she is implying here. The most obvious, of course, is that undead vampires are more dead than alive. Something left their body when their heart stopped, and another creature took up residence. I can’t imagine being okay with that.
“We will know for sure when the sun rises whether or not you are a living vampire or an undead one, but you are making a very good case for living vampirism already.”
“Because I can smell them?”
“It’s predatory. The undead sense their prey by other means.”
It’s the first time I feel like she’s holding back from me. A shiver of fear prickles along my skin. Maybe there is more darkness and danger to this life than she’s letting on.
Of course, idiot, I chide myself. She doesn’t want you to run through the street screaming.
Now it’s perfectly obvious. Send a vampire to the newbie. And I’m more than a little embarrassed that it didn’t even cross my mind before now. I’m going to blame it on vampiric hunger or something.
“I requested your case, actually.”
“You’re reading my mind.”
“Does it bother you?”
“Uh, yes.” Why did you request my case?
“Because Josephine is…” her voice hitches. “Josephine was my partner for a long time. And I am relatively sure she is your sire.”
“How—”
A knock on the door comes, and Dr. Grange falls silent.
The donor steps into the room and oh my god, I don’t know if I’m just starving or if he is really this freaking gorgeous. It’s like middle school all over again. The beautiful boy is saying hello, walking toward me and I’m just slack-jawed with embarrassment.
“Aiden,” he says, offering me a large, warm hand.
“I don’t know—” I begin.
“You don’t know your name?” he asks with a sweet smile. No malice, just gentle teasing.
His bright smile falters.
Dr. Grange compensates for my poor manners and introduces me. “She is new to vampirism. To even the idea of vampirism.”
“Sorry,” I manage to say. “It’s not you. You smell great.”
And god, he does. But my face is flushing hot now. Someone. Kill. Me.
But he’s grinning. “Thanks.”
“Thirst?” Grange asks.
“8,” I say, voice cracking. Then revise. “Maybe 8.5.”
“Unless he’s your type—”
Uh, he’s totally my type, lady.
“—It’s the anticipation. Try to relax,” she says.
Easy for her to say. “I’ve never—”
“It’ll come easy to you,” Aiden says, taking the chair Dr. Grange just vacated.
My gaze slides down to his beautiful forearms—why are forearms beautiful at all?—as they insert the needle in his arm. A nurse holds a tube up into the air to slow the flow of blood until they are ready for me to take it.
Then the nurse is handing me one end of the tube. “Just pull this cap off when you are ready and replace the cap when you’re finished. It’s that easy.”
Like a freaking ketchup bottle, I think, but thank the heavens the words don’t come out.
I look into Aiden’s big brown eyes. God, why did they have to bring someone so cute? I look from his face to the tube to his face again.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” I say, now wondering if I should’ve started with the blood bag. At least it wouldn’t have watched me eat.
“Why don’t we step outside?” Dr. Grange says. “Privacy may help.”
The two nurses leave without question. They’re looking almost bored at this point. Man, this town is weird. It’s Dr. Grange who lingers in the doorway.
“A lot of vampires can’t feed with an audience,” Aiden says, as if trying to reassure me. He needs to stop. Every one of these button-cute smiles is undoing me.
“But what if something happens?” I squeak before she closes the door.
“I’ll know,” Dr. Grange assures me with that even calm of hers. “And I’m very fast.”
The door clicks shut.
And in some ways, this is better. In other ways it’s a lot worse. It’s better because now I do feel less pressure. I don’t want to look like a total noob in front of this beautiful man, but he’s smiling and sweet, which is an entirely different energy than the nurses who are waiting for me to finish so they can do the next part of their job.
“It’s okay,” Aiden says again, his broad shoulders settling back into the chair as if he has all day. He closes his eyes, his lips pulling into a relaxed, easy grin. “I won’t watch either.”
“I’m just worried I might jump up and tear your throat out or something.”
I realize as the words are leaving my mouth that maybe this isn’t something you say to a guy who has just opened a vein for you.
“Do you think you’re going to do that?” He doesn’t seem scared. He’s smiling. His eyes are still closed. I’m staring at his lips like a crazy person.
“No. I mean, I’m hungry. And sitting here looking at this blood is making it worse. But I’m more worried that I’m going to drool on myself in front of this hot guy than accidentally eat him.”
His smile deepens.
Wow. Did I just call him a hot guy to his face?
Choice 22
This is totally something I would do
Flirting is the last thing I need right now!
This is totally something I would do.
“You’re pretty cute yourself,” he says. Sincerity radiates from every feature of his soft, warm face.
I snort. “I find that hard to believe. I don’t think anyone who survives death can look cute right after.”
The grin falters. “This wasn’t your choice?”
I snort. “No. Not at all.”
His frown deepens. “Do you mind if I ask what happened?”
“There was a vampire who was…hurting a woman. I tried to help and almost died, too. I managed to mace the vampire who did this. If I hadn’t, I’d probably be dead. That paramedic saved my life. I should probably thank him.”
His eyes sparkle with wonder and confusion. “So you’re the one.”
“The one what?”
“That paramedic is my brother,” he says. “He told me what happened. He had to be talking about you.”
I can only imagine the story. I was the talk of someone’s dinner table. The idiot human who tried to stop vampires with mace. An embarrassed flush makes my face burn.
“He was worried you wouldn’t make it. He’ll be glad to hear you did, and that you’re doing okay.”
Am I doing okay? I wonder.
“It’ll be good news. We need some after Jo’s death.”
“Jo as in Josephine?”
His face tightens with emotion. “She was very loved around here.”
I can’t speak. God, my emotions are all over the place tonight. But I’ll be damned if I cry in front of this guy.
He gives me a long quiet moment to compose myself then he says, “You really should eat if your body is still healing. You need it.”
“Right and you’re just sitting there with a tube in your arm while I blabber on
. I’m so sorry.”
He’s grinning again. That kind of grin I recognize. “I like listening to you talk.”
I take one more look at the blood tube in my hand and he closes his eyes again.
“Bottoms up,” I whisper.
“If you insist,” he says. “But I don’t think this is the best position for this.”
I snort and take the tip of the tube into my mouth, removing the cap with my teeth. Hot blood hits my tongue, and I swoon. The world around me fades to black and all I can think about is this warm, delicious elixir. The heat fills me up from head to toe. It isn’t unlike that first flush of heat that one gets when taking a tequila shot. A full body experience that shivers along the skin, ripples through muscles and hums in the bones.
Then it’s over and I open my eyes to see the dry tube in my palm, a red tinge coloring the plastic.
Dr. Grange is smiling at me, pulling the empty tube from my hand. “How do you feel?”
I look over at Aiden and he has a sleepy smile on his face. The tube has been removed from his arm and he’s pressing a cotton ball to the puncture.
“I’m okay,” he says.
“How do you feel?” Dr. Grange says again. There’s a little more force to her voice this time. “One to ten?”
I do a mental inventory. “3,” I tell her, referring to my hunger. “And I feel warmer. A little hyper. Kind of like I’ve had too much sugar. I actually feel like my skin is crawling.”
“It’s the healing,” she assures me. “You look perfect, but there may be some internal stitching.”
I look at Aiden who smiles. “Don’t worry. It was good for me, too.”
I press my lips together hard, so I don’t laugh.
“Injured vampires have difficulty stopping,” Dr. Grange says. “It’s what makes them dangerous. Their hunger spikes to encourage feeding so they’ll heal. The increased demand is almost impossible to control. Add in their fear and adrenaline and they can easily hurt their donors. But you were perfectly civilized.”
I’ve never received a compliment quite like this in my life. I try to imagine my mother saying, you were perfectly civilized.
“You were lucky you didn’t get closer to Josephine. She could have killed you.”
Lucky indeed.
“Do you need more?” she asks.
She catches my nervous glance at Aiden.
“No, he won’t be donating anymore tonight. The hospital has strict guidelines as to how much a single donor can provide in a week. And while he may have his own preferences outside of the hospital, inside he must abide by our rules.”
Aiden is laughing. “You sound like you don’t trust me, Dr. Grange.”
She doesn’t answer him.
“I’m fine.” I am a little hungry, but the idea of meeting someone new and going through the entire awkward process again is too much. And if I’m being honest, I’m hoping Aiden will have an excuse to linger if no one else comes in.
Dr. Grange tilts her head as if listening to something. Then she says, “I should be going.”
“I’ll sit with her until the sun’s up,” Aiden says, as if reading the question on her face.
She spares me a smile and a gentle squeeze of my hand. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Until then, rest and try to relax.”
Dr. Grange exits the hospital room with her heels clicking on the floor, leaving me alone with Aiden. I dare to glance over and see him frowning at the door.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“I worry about her,” he says. “She’s got to be in a lot of pain right now.”
“Why?”
“Dr. Grange and Josephine were together for a long time.” He presses the call button on the side of my bed.
A nurse appears, poking his head into the doorway. He smiles when he spots Aiden. “Hey, man.”
“Hey.” They do a handshake of sorts. “Can I get a donor tray?”
“Sure. I’ll be right back.”
“Do you know everyone in this town,” I ask.
He laughs. “We moved here when I was ten. And I’ve been donating for about ten years, ever since I could legally.”
I must look confused.
“You’ve got to be eighteen. They don’t let minors donate.”
So he’s twenty-eight. Just a year older than me.
“What made you want to donate?” I ask.
The nurse, entering the room with the food says, “He’s here for the free food. This boy can eat.”
Aiden laughs good-naturedly about the tease.
The nurse asks if I need anything and I thank him but say no. I have no idea if I can even eat human food or drink water. I feel like the answers must be no, but I don’t want to assume.
Aiden is tearing open his wrapped dinner roll and peeling back the foil on his warm meal. Steam rises in to the air between our faces. But it’s the comically large glasses of water and orange juice that have me smiling.
“Honestly, I wanted to donate because of my brother.”
“The paramedic?”
“No, that’s Mason,” he says. “I’m talking about Liam. I have four brothers. Mason, Liam, Noah and John. Mason, Noah and I are all human.”
“Five sons. Your poor mother.”
He bursts out laughing. “She’ll appreciate you saying so. Yeah, we were rowdy, but not too bad. But sometimes bad things happen to good people. Like you and Liam. He was attacked, too.”
“That’s awful.”
“Yeah, he was only thirteen.”
“Thirteen. God, what a monster. To be thirteen forever…”
“Oh, he’s not,” Aiden assured me, pausing to take a big drink of orange juice. “He has the living strain. So his body kept growing and maturing.”
“It can do that?”
“Living vampires can, yeah. The bigger and stronger the body the better, as far as predators are concerned. So living vampires continue to grow up until the body fully matures, so the vampire can be as strong and fast as it can be. But if his heart had stopped…” He arches his eyebrows.
“That would’ve sucked. Even worse than the attack I’m sure.”
“He’s made his peace with it. We all have. Coming to Castle Cove really helped. For a long time, my mother wasn’t sure how to help him. She’d already had it hard raising five boys on her own after my father passed but she was holding it together. Right after, none of us were. It was one of those things you can’t prepare for, you know? But she found out about this place and moved us here, and we were able to get Liam the support he needed. That’s when things got better for us.”
“It sounds like a great place.”
“It is,” he says. “Though maybe not to you, considering what happened. Do you plan to stay in Castle Cove?”
Choice 23
I’ll stay
I plan to leave town first chance I get
I plan to leave town first chance I get.
“I think I need to get out of town,” I say.
When Aiden’s face crumples with his obvious disappointment, I add, “At least for a little while.”
“I get that. You need time to process. But I hope you’ll come back.”
We spend the rest of the night talking about a lot of things that don’t pertain to my new vampire condition: our families, our goals. And the more I talk to him, the more I really like him.
But as wonderful as it is to have someone to talk to, really talk to, I still find myself packing up my clothes when I return home the next night.
I resolve to hire a shipping company to come get the rest of my crap and send it to my mother’s house in Maryland. Tonight I only take the things I’d be sad to lose. It takes me nearly five minutes to find Sushi, but once I offer him the cat carrier—which he usually detests—he seems all too willing to get in.
It’s not even ten o’clock when I climb into my car and pull away. In the rearview mirror, I look into the dark windows of my apartment and wonder if I’m doing the right thing.
I push my foot down harder on the gas. Midnight Pass, the long road carving a path through the canyon, leads me along the ridge overlooking the cove. The sea glitters in the moonlight.
If I strain, I see shadows moving on the beach below. Nighttime bathers…or something else, enjoying the waves and moonlight.
Once I’m on the uppermost part of the ridge, I roll down the window to enjoy the crisp night air. The chill doesn’t seem to bother me anymore as it did when I was still human.
A howl breaks open the night, carried on a soft breeze. It smells of salt water and the lush forest stretching behind the ruined castle. I hear another howl from those trees, forming a chorus with the first. Both now closer.
I wonder if that howl really belongs to wolves, or one of Castle Cove’s special citizens.
Maybe one day I’ll find out if I come back.
When I come back.
Here’s hoping Aiden’s still around when I do.
The End
Create a new story
Flirting is the last thing I need right now!
I cover my face with my hands and sigh. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make this even weirder than it already is. This can’t be awesome for you. Having some grungy, bruised up woman hitting on you.”
“You look beautiful,” he says. Sincerity radiates from every feature of his soft, warm face. But then it hardens a little at the edges. “Do you mind if I ask what happened?”
“I was attacked,” I say. I almost can’t believe it. “I managed to mace the vampire who…who did this, and if I hadn’t I’d probably be dead. But really it’s that paramedic that saved my life. I should probably thank him.”
His eyes sparkle with wonder and confusion. “So you’re the one.”
“The one what?”
“The paramedic is my brother,” he says. “He told me what happened.”
God I can only imagine that story. I was the talk of someone’s dinner table last night. An embarrassed flush makes my face burn
Welcome to Castle Cove Page 8
