by T. J. Quinn
Upon waking up, Alek noticed that she was watching him as he slept. He ran his hand through his hair and murmured, “Don’t even think about throwing me out. I won’t go.”
She sighed as she gazed down at him. “I’m actually of two minds. One minute, I want to toss you out on your ear and the next I’m hatching an ingenious plot to chain you to my bed.”
He pulled her to his chest. “Thank you for giving me another chance. I love you.”
“That would be what got you another chance.”
He smiled at the teasing tone of her voice. “The last twenty-four hours were miserable without you. I felt like I was losing my mind. Being without you is one of my worst nightmares.”
“Thank goodness we’re of like minds on that subject.”
“I hate myself for what I did to you.”
“I love you, so leave off with the self-loathing.”
“That’s easier said than done.”
“I need to tell you something.”
Her voice sounded somber, so he propped himself up on one arm and looked at her intently.
“Do you realize that I might very well be carrying your child?”
Sitting up abruptly, he stared at her for a brief moment before a slow grin slipped onto his face. “I’d really love that.”
“I thought you said you didn’t want more children.”
“Not with my girl’s mother. With you, I’d love a child.” Alek tried to figure out what it was that he was missing. Something was really bothering her. “You don’t want to have my child.” That was his best guess.
“I don’t know if you realize this, but with individuals with a mixed heritage, you get all kinds of variations. For example, sometimes you get someone who is mostly vampire and other times the person is mostly human. If that is done intergenerationally, then you sometimes get strange people like me.”
Alek was extremely confused for about three seconds, and then another small smile slid onto his face. “You know you are beautiful to me no matter what your heritage but I would love to find out you have a vampire heritage because it would mean we will have many more years to enjoy each other’s company.”
“I have the same heritage as my son. I guess I must be almost purely human. I don’t thirst. I eat human food to live although most of their food is disgusting. I don’t have fangs. I guess I am a pretty pathetic excuse for a vampire. I don’t think I actually qualify as a part vampire, so I usually don’t mention it but if we are haphazardly making children together, you need to know.”
“Have you ever tasted blood?”
She replied thoughtfully, “Did you miss the part of the conversation about me not thirsting for blood? Since I don’t thirst, I have not really ever thought about it.”
He suggested after a pensive moment. “If you would like to we could be partners like your son is to my daughter. Sharing each other’s blood might provoke the blood bond even if you can’t tolerate it for nourishment.”
She was silent for a long time. “I would like to try that, but I don’t think I have the teeth for it.”
“Maybe you do, but they won’t drop down until you need them.”
He absorbed her blank stare and clarified, “If you taste blood maybe they will drop.”
A look of understanding and excitement crossed her face. “Can we try?”
He took her in his arms and began kissing her. Naturally, she melted into his arms again. He loved it when that happened. She wrapped herself around him, and he tightened his hold on her. He gently bit her neck and brought his fingernail up to make a small cut on his neck and realized he didn’t have nails. He took her index finger and ran it hard against his neck causing a minor wound to open. He murmured, “Drink and if your fangs drop bite. Do you understand?”
She smiled at him. “Mind your business, mister. I think I can figure out how to feed if I end up having the proper equipment.”
He made sweet, gentle love to her as he fed from her neck. She had to admit that her tiny drop of deeply buried vampire heritage was instinctual. She was drawn to the blood dripping from his neck. She placed her mouth gently on the wound, and he made a soft growl of pleasure as she began to suck. She cried out in pain as her fangs pushed through her gum line for the first time. She immediately wriggled out of his grasp and ran over to the mirror and looked at her fangs.
He was amused that she was so pleased to have fangs that she forgot to bite and didn’t seem to realize she was standing naked admiring them. He came up behind her, wrapped his arms around her and said, “They really are beautiful. They are much more delicate than you would normally find on a vampire. You know you can’t just wear them all the time. You have to put them away when you aren’t using them.”
She laughed at his gentle teasing. She seemed absolutely ecstatic. “I can’t believe it. It never occurred to me to even think of feeding because I never thirst for blood.”
He stood staring at her and said, “I wonder if your eyes will change colors when you drink blood.”
That was all it took to get her back into the bed and into his arms. She bit his neck gently and drank large mouthfuls of his blood. She was shocked that it was absolutely the best food item that ever crossed her lips. His blood was sweet and sexy. She thought vaguely that feeding was like making love, eating and the pure adrenaline rush of winning all rolled into one moment. She worried that after tasting his blood, she would never want to eat anything else.
He continued to make love to her, and she realized that when vampires both have the bloodlust together it was something that humans truly could never understand. It was like a dream walking in each other mind, sharing on a level that no one could ever match by just talking together.
Afterwards, she lay in his arms, and he whispered tenderly. “Now you are the one with pretty eyes.”
“Thanks to you.” She ran her hand over his chest and said, “I hope I never have to be without you again.”
“Don’t worry. I will see that we are together always. You would not like to see the fury I would release on the person who tried to pull you from my arms.”
She snuggled close to him, and he suggested, “You should go and show your lovely son before your fangs go back up. He will be thrilled for you.”
“Maybe, if you will come with me.”
They grabbed a shower and headed to the main floor. As soon as they hit the floor, there was a hush and some whispering. She made a straight line for Jared, and she could tell he was excited as he saw her walking up. Both Dakota and Alek both had red eyes, and their fangs were peeking out from their lips slightly
Jared was the first to speak. “So, we are all made up then? I am glad. Watching you to two try to mate has been painful. Now you look like a matched set.” Jared and Selene hugged her.
Arianna seemed shocked. “Jared, my dear you seem a lot less shocked than me. Did you ever suspect you got your vampire heritage from your mother instead of your father?”
He paused and said, “I spent the first several years of my life with my human father. He eventually placed me in the orphanage because as I grew older, I had some noticeable vampire traits he couldn’t seem to beat out of me.”
Dakota wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. She said, “Sweetheart you father is 100% vampire. He is one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet and helped me search for you for years. I don’t know who your foster father was, but I am terribly sorry that bad things happened to you there.”
“Don’t apologize for someone else’s mistakes and don’t worry about the past because now we have the future. I have to admit I was very confused by you at first. I couldn’t understand why you loved vampires so and fought for their rights but still tried to pretend you were all human. It was very off-putting. It made me have trust issues with you, and that is really why I didn’t want to live with you. Today is the first time I realized you must have simply not thought of yourself as a vampire. I cannot believe you know so little about being a vampire t
hat you never even thought to put blood in your mouth to see if your fangs would drop. I am at a loss to explain that level of cultural incompetence.”
Dakota was more than a little embarrassed. “I didn’t hunger for blood so I thought that I must be some strange hybrid creature that was mostly all human. I didn’t feel like I ever really fit in with humans or vampires. Vampires were just more accommodating about certain aspects of my life. Like the fact that I don’t like to eat food. I realized early on that I don’t require much food to survive. What seems obvious now was hidden from me until Alek dropped me a clue. He was quick about such things and asked me persistent questions about my eating patterns from the very first date. Once I told him that I had the heritage, he immediately suggested that I should at least try to see if I could feed.”
“You are the only vampire in the universe to need prompting from another vampire to think about feeding.” Everyone laughed even Dakota.
“If you have questions this is the environment to ask them.
“Vampires don’t usually feed on other vampires so why is it that I so satisfied feeding from Alek.”
Jared looked at her like she was a child. “Those few of us with mixed heritage seem to be able to feed on either human or vampire and our blood is suitable for feeding a full blood or mixed heritage vampire. Every now and then there is something called the blood bond that happens between vampires where their blood is so intensely attracted to each other that their bodies and their minds must follow. Selene and I share the blood bond. When we grow into our hormones we will share the bloodlust then we will walk in each other’s minds.”
Arianna said weakly “That is a bedtime story for children.”
Selene turned to her and said, “You don’t sound like you even believe your own words. Where is Marko today?”
Alek said, “No, it’s not a bedtime story. This we have done already. The blood bond explains the immediate and extremely intense attraction between Dakota and myself. The dream walking is how I discovered what Jared’s father looked like, that he was a full blood vampire and a very nice person. It is how I know that she loved you from the second they put you in her arms in the delivery room and that she was broken-hearted and cried for months when they took you from her. It’s how I knew that her spirit was broken until Durk helped her find the strength to begin searching for you. She started that search on her eighteenth birthday because that was the first day she was legally allowed to. It is how I know that the first time she met you she was wearing a uniform from the academy and you were wearing jeans and a red t-shirt. That she cried when you told her you would not come and live with her but that you were also nice to her when she visited with you. You taught her to play Mahjong, you two used to play for hours and that she literally lived for those visits. It is how I knew she was intensely attracted to me when we first met two years ago, that her love is genuine and that she will never forsake me.”
Dakota spoke of her experience. “The blood bond between us is potent. It’s how I learned that your father was kept in deplorable conditions aboard the alien ship for a long time before he came here, he was getting so depressed he thought death might be preferable but then the ships came to earth. He was fearful of humans for a long time because of their fierce fighting style. He slowly learned to trust humans, and a couple of them were so fond of him that they gave their lives for him during the war. He is an extremely competent warrior and the things he had to do during the war still haunt his dreams. It’s how I know he never hired a nursemaid for either of you. Even when you were sick, he would stay at home and take care of you himself because he loved you both more than anything in this world. That he taught you both to play chess. It is how I know that he used to read you bedtime stories and that he has told you each that he loves you every single day since you were born except during the time he went missing. That is one of the most difficult things to accept about that period of time…that he couldn’t talk to you and remind you that he loved you. It’s how I discovered that no matter what happened to him during the time he was held in that crypt, and it was truly agony on a level I don’t have words to communicate, he would never give up on seeing the two of you again. It’s also how I know how desperate he was to find a way to be safe around me.”
Arianna had tears running down her face. Jared had Selene wrapped in his arms, and she had her head on his chest. Alek walked up to her and wrapped her in a warm embrace. He brought up one hand to her face, and that is when Arianna and Selene noticed his nails were missing.
Arianna walked up to him grabbed his hand and examined it. Selene came over, and tears welled up in her eyes. For the second time, Alek was embarrassed. Arianna turned on Dakota and screamed, “Why would you ever in a million years authorize a doctor here to do something like that to your love mate?”
Dakota looked at her suspiciously. “I would never have agreed to that. I would die before I would have his primary means of self-defense removed. I was told you authorized it.”
They both looked at Alek who looked at John. They realized for the first time ever that her fiancé really did not understand what it meant to be a vampire. She shook her head, went to him, pulled off her engagement ring, placed it in his hand and said: “One hour, I want you out in one hour.”
John seemed confused, closed his hand around the ring and left the room.
Alek felt he had to do something to lighten the mood. “I have heard all about the lagoon. Would someone care to come and swim with me?”
Dakota said, “Count me in, my love.”
Everyone else answered as well. They all got their swim gear and were at the lagoon in less than thirty minutes. Alek carried Dakota into the cool blue water. The kids jumped in and began to swim around. Dakota and Alek stood watching them play. Alek drew her into his arms and kissed her gently. He loved the look of her with fangs and thought of all the ways he would make love to her. He knew that her having a vampire heritage would no doubt give her a longer lifespan. He was not sure how much longer, but at least several times that of a human would be reasonable to expect. He also thought about how very shocked her friends were going to be about this new turn of events. He drew her to him and held her in a warm embrace. They spent the entire evening swimming and enjoying each other’s company.
Jared was on his cell phone briefly. When they arrived back at the institute, Marko was there. Arianna immediately went to him, and they sat talking. He slowly moved his hand over to hers, and she leaned over, and he drew her to his chest. She cried for a very long time. Dakota started to go to her, but Marko held up a hand and shook his head. Alek pulled her towards their room. As they walked by, she noticed Selene and Jared playing some kind of virtual video game in a small room that involved shooting things…aliens of some sort.
Dakota turned to Alek and said, “Can I catch up with you in a minute?”
He kissed her on the forehead and headed upstairs. Dakota went to the medical wing. She spoke with the physicians involved in Alek’s surgery, verbalized her displeasure at their decision to cut the nails out.
They looked at each other, and one spoke softly. “We couldn’t bring ourselves to perform the surgery we were supposed to perform. We left the nail seed in the back of each bed. Alek’s nails will grow back, but it will take months. We are sorry, but a vampire without nails is not safe.”
Dakota nodded, fighting back tears. “Good work gentlemen.”
They both looked relieved. She got a copy of Alek’s surgery report and headed back downstairs.
Regardless of Marko’s objections, she landed in the chair directly in front of Arianna. She put the file folder on the table and looked at the young woman.
Arianna’s voice was trembling, “Look, I am sorry for what John did. I would do anything to be able to take that back…”
“John may not understand what it means to be a vampire, but my physicians certainly do understand such things. They did not perform the surgery that John asked for. They performed a similar but
less evasive surgery that left the nail seed in each nail bed. His nails will grow out. It will take several months, but they will grow.”
As the realization of what she said hit Arianna her face went from grief to relief. Marko had a small relieved smile on his face as well.
Arianna threw her arms around Dakota and said, “I’m sorry for shouting at you.”
Dakota said, “Falo mahn viro da latna.” One so beautiful should not have to make apologies.
Both Arianna and Marko smiled that she spoke their native tongue and that she referenced their first meeting.
Dakota headed back to her love mate. Telling him would be harder.
Slipping into their room, she pulled off her clothing and joined him in bed. When his arms came up around her and pulled her back flush with his body, Dakota lost her nerve. Closing her eyes on this tumultuous day, she decided to talk to him first thing in the morning.
Chapter 14
Truth Telling
~ Dakota ~
Sitting alone at a table in the dining room, Alek and Dakota shunned food in favor of the weak tea vampires were so obsessed with these days.
When Alek brought his cup to his mouth, Dakota noticed his missing nails. Dredging up her courage, she stated flatly. “They will grow back, and you will not freak out about it.”
Alek lowered his cup slowly to the table. “I worried that might be the case. Now that I have my head screwed on, do you have any bright ideas for solving that problem?”
“What makes you think I can’t call the blood rage?”
A slow smile crept onto his face. “I think you would be sexy as hell in the heat of rage, but even then, you’re delicate.”
“Perhaps manacles we could attach manacles to either side of the bed? You could still have your sexy way with me but not in danger of using the claws?”
