“Okay, fine.” Brian interrupted her. It was all interesting stuff, but it was getting way off the subject. “Supposing this is all true...”
“It is true.” She interjected.
“If this is true. You still haven’t said how to kill a vampire.”
“Well, according to myth, the children of these gods could be killed. Many times it depended on the kid. But the vampires and changeling creatures, I’d say they die like normal people, just tougher to kill.”
“Tougher?” Brian asked.
“Yeah...you know, maybe more bullets than usual.”
“What about silver? Or stakes in the heart and such?”
“Those would kill a normal person if used as a weapon,” she said, “but then again some of these books...” She waved at a few smaller books. “Say that the traditional way of killing them is better, as they are more susceptible to it.”
The werewolf that Brian had killed back in Woodland, had died really easily when he had used silver. Just for safety's sake, he probably needed to take no chances and go by the traditional route. If a bullet killed them, that would be fine, but a stake would be much safer.
“So that's it, then? There's no other way I need to know?”
“Well, there were a few others, but they were barely mentioned, so I don't think they would make any difference, and besides, they would kill a human as well.”
“Like?”
“Cutting their heads off and stuffing it with garlic...you know things like that.”
Brian walked to the door then stopped and turned around. “I want to thank you, and I would appreciate it if you don't ever tell anyone else about my little secret.” He smiled at her.
A part of him wanted to just suggest this girl and be done with it, but he was not going to do it. He wanted Heather and Bobby to start trusting him, and he wasn't going to get that if he kept scaring the hell out of them by acting like a bloodless vampire.
“That’s it then? Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am?”
“Excuse me?” Brian felt a bit surprised. He wasn't sure exactly what she meant by her response.
“In case you hadn't noticed,” She pointed around the room to all the vampire books. “I really dig vampires. I'm really into them you know?”
“Yeah? What's that got to do with me?”
“Duh. You're a vampire. You didn't think I did all this out of the goodness of my heart, did you?”
“I thought you were doing it to help Bobby?” Brian said, as he watched her slowly walking over to him, swinging her hips a little too much for his tastes.
“Dude. I like vampires. I wasn’t going to help him hurt a vampire.”
“Then why did you help him?” Brian had to back up back into the hallway as Meryl walked right up into his face, a little too close for comfort.
“Because I wanted to meet a real life vampire, and now I have.”
“Um...that’s great. You got to realize a lifelong fantasy, but as you pointed out, Jason is the real vampire, I'm a Nephilimmmm...” he couldn't quite finish, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and locked her lips onto his.
He supposed he could just push her off, but he didn't want to be rude. She had just helped him answer some questions he really needed help with. Also, she really did smell quite good, and her taste...those lips were way softer than he realized. He found himself embracing her back, just as her warm tongue slipped past his teeth. He let her in as her scent and taste began to overwhelm him. He felt her hands begin to explore his body when she stopped and pulled her head away.
“Show me.” She whispered to him.
“What?” He asked
“Your fangs. I want to see your fangs.”
This woman must have had some siren in her or something. Her voice was just as mesmerizing as everything else about her. What was it? He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but whatever it was, she was intoxicating. Without even thinking about it, his fangs popped out, almost as if it was by their own accord.
Meryl squealed in delight when she saw them, and then began to kiss him again, Brian could feel her leg rising up along his side and rubbing him. He reached down and grabbed a hold of it, as she slowly tilted her head to the side, revealing her exposed neck.
“It's okay, Brian. I want you to drink.” She said, as she reached back and began to squeeze his ass.
This was really starting to get out of control, and he needed to stop it. He didn't bite people. He wasn't that kind of a person. And yet, he wanted to, no he needed to, and best of all, she wanted him to, as well. What could one little bite hurt? He could hear her heart beating furiously as he lowered his face to her neck. She moaned as he nuzzled it and then tasted the softness of her skin with his tongue. Heat rose off her as he slowly scraped his fangs across it.
“Do it.” she moaned.
That was all the encouragement he needed. His fangs pierced her skin and sliced into her artery. A small whimper that almost sounded like a sigh escaped her. She began to pant and squirm her hips into him as he began to suck and draw her life blood out. It was like liquid fire in his mouth. He'd drank living blood before when he had been severely injured, when he had no control of his animal impulses, but never when he was healthy or in full control of his faculties. It was like heaven on earth, as Meryl's blood intermingled with his. It felt almost as if they were slowly becoming one.
“Yes...that’s it. More.” She gasped as she drove her groin into his side harder, and her body began to tense as Brian continued to taste her. Her fire filled him and spread out to every corner of his body, and he felt alive like never before as she shuddered and screamed at the top of her lungs, before going slack and pulling away from his hungry mouth.
A door down the hallway opened from up above in the library. A woman’s voice called out. “Is someone there? Is everything alright?”
Meryl, who had been hanging limp in his arms suddenly, came alive and stood up, fixing her clothes, blood ran from the side of her neck and Brian pointed at it. She touched it and pulled her hand back to look at it for a second.
“Hello?” The voice said.
“It's okay, Mrs. Hamilton.” Meryl finally answered, as she walked over to her bag and pulled out what looked like a panty liner and put it against her neck. “Everything’s fine, I just slipped and fell on my butt.”
“Oh you poor dear!” The voice said. “Do you want me to come down and have a look?”
“No, no, that won’t be necessary, I'll be right up in a second.”
“Alright, Dear. Holler if you need any help.” Then Brian heard the door close.
Meryl finished fixing her clothes then, fixed the pad until it was attached to her neck. Seconds later, she had a scarf fished out of her bag, and wrapped it around her neck. The entire time Brian just stood and watched her. She gave him hand wipes and pointed at his face.
Looking at his reflection, he found that there was blood on it, around his mouth. He licked most of it off and what he couldn't reach he scrubbed off with the handy wipe. It didn't work as well as his tongue, but it would have to do.
“So, what was that about?” Brian finally managed to blurt out, as they started walking up the hallway towards the door up stairs.
“You mean the sex?” Meryl smiled at him.
“What?”
“Oh, I'd call that sex, in fact I'd say it was better than sex, it was more like...vampire sex.” She waved her arms over her head as if she were a little giddy.
“I told you, I'm not a vampire. According to what you read to me, I'm something different.”
“Nephilim, and yes I would say you're a vampire.” She patted the side of her neck. “Besides, I grew up a fan of Hercules the Series, so I'm still happy.” She stopped before opening the door, and reached up to kissed him full on the lips again. Her scent and taste sent his head spinning again. What the hell is that?
“That’s till later?” She said, then opened the door and broke away, heading straight for the women’s restrooms.
“What the hell?” Brian stood there in the doorway scratching his head, as he watched her disappear. He had no idea what happened down there, why he had lost control of himself, and then almost again as she kissed him before leaving. He could still feel her blood running through him as he stood. The sensation should have left a few seconds after feeding, at least that’s how it was with the IVs. The two slips with the people he had killed, they lasted for a few minutes afterward, their essence filling him and healing him as he regained his strength. This however, wasn't passing, and he could have sworn he could still feel her behind the door she went through.
He touched his lips as he stood there looking around at the people walking by. His lips felt hypersensitive as he rubbed the tips of his fingers across them. Wow, this is so weird. He noticed an older woman standing behind the reference desk frowning at him. Her arms were crossed in front of her, and he couldn't help but wonder if that were Mrs. Hamilton. Rather than wait and find out, as she definitely looked as if she were about to come over and have a word with him, Brian decided to head out of the building a catch himself a cab.
The ride home was uneventful and took longer than he liked. The traffic picked up thanks to an accident that had happened just minutes before, so he had time to sit back and relax in the stop and go traffic. He idly wondered how much more this was going to cost him and if it would make him a bad guy if he suggested the cabby to lower the price, as it was hardly the cabby's fault about the extra time. Then again, the cabby did pick the street to travel on. There were others he could have chosen as well. Oh well, it wasn't really important.
The information that Meryl had supplied him was actually what he needed to think on, or the lack of it. What she really gave him was a list of negatives rather than positives. He should be able to kill Jason if he wanted to. But it was something he wouldn't have considered in the past, not for his aunt's company.
Now, however, with the kidnapping and his refusal to negotiate Heather's release, he'd say Jason deserved whatever he got.
He needed to dream walk to Heather and make sure she was okay. As to the other stuff Meryl and he did, well he was just going to forget it.
He doubted he would ever see her again. After all, he didn't go to the library.
15
By the time he was ready to attempt to contact Heather, he could finally feel the effects of Meryl's blood starting to wear off. Not completely, but its effects were diminishing. The strange thing that bothered him most of all was it had been several hours. Her blood fire should have disappeared long ago. The fact that his senses and strength seemed to still be disproportionate troubled him. There was definitely something different about that girl. What it was, he didn't know.
Brian grabbed a couple of IVs from the fridge, thinking he might need them. After eating one and barely being able to finish it, he tossed the second back into the fridge. It just didn’t taste good, in fact it was terrible. He had to ask himself if it had always been that bad. “It's just got to be her blood still in me that’s making me this finicky.” It was the only explanation, as the IVs had always been good enough for him in the past. Hopefully, he would be able to stomach them later. If not, he was going to be screwed. Well, he'd worry about that when and if that time ever came along.
Now the question was could he dream walk to Heather's cage? It'd taken four IVs of blood the last time and he had seriously drained himself then, thanks to staying too long. Was it even worth trying to make it without that much blood in his system? He didn't know...well, actually he did. He wasn't going to leave her alone another night. Maybe with Meryl's blood he would be able to make it to her more easily. That would be a nice boon, and definitely work out. Who knew? If it did work better, maybe he could get more of her blood. No, scratch that. I'm not going to see that girl anymore. It would be a mistake to go back to her, and especially to feed. There's something different about her...and I need to stay away from her.
With that settled, Brian made himself comfortable on his bed and began to clear his mind. Once or twice he found his mind wandering back to Meryl's soft, shiny black hair, the smell and feel of it. Each time that this happened, he had to sit up and clear his thoughts again, so he could once again attempt to go and speak to Heather. By the second time he found it difficult to concentrate, as he now had a raging hard on. He wasn't sure why he couldn't get Meryl out of his mind, or why his body was reacting in this way. He loved Heather. She'd been the one girl of his dreams since they were children. It had always been his one hope, his one desire to spend his life with her. He even used to imagine what it would be like to raise a family with her before he had become a vampire.
He was not about to lose risking those dreams just because of one night of what had to be just lust. He wasn't going down that road, not ever. Closing his mind off, Brian concentrated until he felt the familiar tearing that announced his arrival into his dream state. The grayness of the landscape rose in every direction from where he stood. A vague picture of the motel room surrounded him, yet it seemed more of a mirage rather than reality. He had to be careful not to focus on anything in the room, otherwise he would concentrate on it too much and make the room more solid, and then he would risk being stuck again until he could clear his mind of it. He thought about Heather and her blonde hair. Her clear blue eyes and sweet smile.
Normally that would have been more than enough to take him to her, but with this strange cage she was being held in, it was near imposable to find her without strict concentration. She was out there, however. A pulse of light in the distance, no bigger than a pinhead when he tried to picture it, but the more he concentrated on it, the more it grew, changing shape until it became a room, and then a bed with the one person he wanted to see more than anything.
“Heather, can you hear me?” He called out to her when he found himself standing in the room. Heather was once again sitting on her bed, he legs drawn to her chest with her face buried into them.
Her face appeared as she looked up at him, and the tears running down her cheeks were the first thing that he noticed. Under her eyes were dark blemishes, sunken and red.
“Brian?” She whispered, “Brian, is that you?”
Brian held open his arms to her, but she just sat there and stared at him with those sullen eyes.
“No!” She yelled at him. “You're not going to trick me again, Jason!” She lowered her face back down into her legs, and her body shook with great sobs. He was in shock. He never considered the fact that Jason would try to trick her by pretending he was Brian. What kind of monster was that guy? It wasn't enough to kidnap her, to take advantage of her while she dreamed, but now he had to torment her as well? That man was going to pay. Before everything was over, Brian would make sure of it.
Walking over to her, Brian sat down on the side of her bed and put his arm around her shoulders, trying to hug her.
“Heather, it's me. I'm really here in your dreams this time.” He felt her crying stop after a moment, and she turned to look up at him, her eyes even more red than before.
“How can I know?” She asked still in a whisper. “How do I know you're not just him, wanting to get my hopes up, just so you can dash them again?”
Brian shook his head, tears starting to form in his eyes as he looked at her. He didn't know how to answer that. How could he? There was no definitive proof that he could offer her. He only had his own word, and he wasn't sure that would be enough.
“Heather, I don't have any idea what this monster has done to you, but I promise you, he's going to pay for it.”
Heater leaned into Brian’s chest and just sat there sniffling as Brian wrapped his arms around her. He could feel her heart starting to slow as he held her, and it was sometimes amazing (and it was amazing)? to him that dream bodies could perfectly simulate real life ones. Never in a million years would he have thought that dream forms would have a heart beat, but then, everything around them was made from their subconscious and he supposed heart beats, as well as
breathing, would be what he would expect as the norm.
Brian kissed the top of her head, the smell of her hair exactly the way he remembered it the last time, so long ago it seemed. Time had no meaning as he sat there and held her. He wanted to do more with her, to encourage her and to tell her his plans to rescue her, but he didn't. It was enough to just hold her in her time of need. After awhile, he began to feel a tug somewhere in his gut, and a wave of fatigue that followed it.
“Brian?” Heather sat up and looked at him., her eyes searching his face. “It's you?”
He smiled at her, and nodded his head. “Yeah.”
“But how--” she stammered.
“Shh, that’s not important right now.” He placed a finger across her mouth. “I'm here now, and that's all that’s important.”
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