“Roy Orbison,” he answered. “You know, Pretty Woman?”
He stepped back and pushed off, sending me backward in a hurry. With a quick snap of his wrists I was back in his arms, my body pressed against his. My heart picked up. I was sure that he could feel it against his chest. My feet slid across the hard floor as we danced. He was completely in control.
By the time the second song had ended and the jukebox had fallen quiet, Rawdon's face was mere centimeters from my own. He ended the dance with a kiss. It wasn't the warmth-- because face it, any heat in his body came from my own-- it was the strength of his embrace that did me in. His arms were thin but incredibly strong and the power of his fingers gripping my back made my knees go weak. He was much easier to kiss than my previous boyfriend, too; Rawdon was only a few inches taller than me. Cody was six-foot-four.
He pulled back, taking my hand and walking me back towards the hall. I started to become hyper-aware of my surroundings. Every room that I could see through open doors in the hall had blacked-out windows. He turned and walked backwards. At eye-contact I stopped noticing what was around me. It was as if my conscious thought dialogue and my awareness of my surroundings had split and couldn't be used at once. If I was cognizant of the room around me, I couldn't think. If I was thinking, I was oblivious to what I was doing.
We were standing in his bathroom and the sound of the shower was filling my ears. I was taking off my sweater and dropping it on the floor. He had slid his suspenders down and was unbuttoning his shirt.
I counted how many days it had been since I had met him. It had been Friday. Today was Monday. Technically it was Tuesday. Was this too fast?
He was shirtless.
Wow, he looked really good shirtless. His body was an ideal from the time he came from. He was thin with muscle built from eating real meat and exercising, rather than whey protein and dehydration. His skin was flawless. I would have to tell Geneva just how good he looked. Or not. Wasn't this too fast?
I was shirtless. He dropped my collared shirt onto the bath mat behind me. “Rawdon,” I said, “We met three days ago.”
“I know,” he whispered, “but it's perfect.”
I was back in my head. His bathroom was incredibly clean. Do vampires lose hair? Do they shed skin like humans? Do they sweat? Do they even pee? He drank blood, right? Surely that had to be digested somehow. Well, maybe he didn't need to use the toilet, but I bet he still needed to wash dirt away once in a while. Did he brush his teeth? Could a diet of only blood give you cavities?
I was totally naked and Rawdon was pulling me into the hot shower. The glass door was covered in steam. He reached over my shoulder and slid the shower shut. At the clunk of the door, clarity came back to me.
Then his body, hot from the shower, pressed against mine and I lost it again. He was very skillful. His lips and teeth found all the right places, sucking at my neck and nipping at my ear as his hands explored elsewhere. He listened intently, adapting to every moan that passed over my lips. When he finally pushed inside of me, I was completely ready for him. I staggered towards the shower wall and my back pressed against the icy tile. I recall being struck by surprise to realize that even that particular part of him didn't have a pulse.
I was toweling off when the strangeness of what had just happened stuck me. He looked back over his shoulder and noticed my focused expression. “What?” he asked.
“How do you even... you know... if your heart doesn't beat? I mean, you don't have blood flow, right?” I asked.
“Magic,” he said. “That's a special trait, actually.” He smiled and crossed to me, still completely naked. “You see, some vampires can fly. Some vampires can transform into a bat. Some vampires have the ability to make love to beautiful women.”
“Dracula?”
“Dracula is an amalgam of several actual vampires and one Romanian Prince. Generally vampires who can salute can't turn into bats. See, we inherit traits from our makers and so the bloodlines can never really mix in a single-parent system, no matter how useful the trait may be.”
“Useful. Like finding women to feed on?”
“If I was going to bite you, I would have done it while you were concussed three days ago. I prefer to think that this trait allows me to hold on to my humanity. Generally, the night walkers who can turn into bats are much more predatory.”
I wrapped a large towel around my body. I had no sense of what time it was, but I knew that I couldn't afford to stay out until dawn again.
“I have to work at eight. Can you drive me home?” I asked.
He looked back at me for a moment, trying to read me, and then nodded. “Of course.”
“I really shouldn't be out so late on a week night.”
I dressed quickly, wondering what Geneva would have to say about me arriving God-knows how many hours later with wet hair and my makeup washed away. With any luck, she'd be asleep.
We listened to classical music and didn't speak as he drove me home. When I chanced to look at him, he was smiling with just the corners of his lips. I tried to talk myself down from my panic. I had rushed into a physical relationship. What was the problem with that? I knew I shouldn't be worried that he would never see me again, now that we had been intimate. He was an old soul. If he had been interested in only my body, he would have tried to feed on me, right?
Rawdon walked me to the door and pulled me in for one last cold kiss before I went inside and headed for my bed. The glowing red letters on my alarm clock informed me that it was after two. I was going to get five hours of sleep if I was lucky. Sleep debt was going to kill me all week.
I crawled into bed and went straight to sleep, but my night was disturbed by strange dreams of bats. When my alarm went off at seven, the absolute latest I could afford to sleep in if I had showered the night before, I was in no shape to go anywhere.
I had left my phone in my coat, so I staggered out to the living-room to find it. I dialed the number for work and left a message that I couldn't come in because of a migraine. I knew that they had seen my face the day before and would believe it.
After hanging up the phone, I had the desire to see the sun before going back to bed. It seemed like a necessary comfort after my few hours of restless sleep. I opened the front door and looked out at the sun, still low on the horizon. I squinted and shielded my eyes. Alright, maybe it was still too damn early to be blinded by daylight. I was about to close the door when I noticed a package on the front step.
Crossing the threshold of the house felt diving into a pool of ice water. The package on the doorstep was wrapped in yellow paper with a big red bow, and a tag on the box was boldly labeled, “Kendall.” The handwriting was not what I'd expect from Rawdon, but I picked the package up and tore off the paper. I opened the package and was surprised to find a glossy box with a photo of an object that looked kind of like a hair dryer. It was a UV Curing Gun for curing adhesives. A UV Light Gun. There was a folded note in the package and I took it out to read it.
It said three words. “For your boyfriend.”
I ran to my bedroom and shut the door, examining the package for an address. It wasn't mailed. It had been hand delivered. I shoved the box in my closet and sat down on the bed. Who knew that I was seeing Rawdon? Who knew what he was?
It occurred to me that I wasn't the target. The odds of someone stalking me figuring out that my new beau of three and a half days was a vampire, were very slim. It was far more likely that someone who already knew he was a vampire, had found out that he was seeing me.
My head pounded and I laid back against the pillows. I was in way over my head. I had let myself rush into a relationship with an honest-to-God vampire.
There was a knock on my bedroom door. Geneva peaked in. “Was someone at the door?”
“I was just getting fresh air,” I said.
Geneva was half-dressed for her job at the library. She was wearing slacks and a tank top and was holding a sweater in her hands. “Oh,” she said. “Shouldn
't you be in the shower?”
“Not going to work. Too tired.”
“Hmm, wonder why,” she said with her eyebrows raised.
“Not now, Gen.”
“Alright, Grumpy McGrumperpants. Go back to bed. I'll see you when I come back from work.”
She shut the door. I rolled onto my stomach and shoved my head under my pillow. It didn't help. All it did was make it harder to breathe. I finally wriggled back under my still-warm covers and curled up in the fetal position. It took me twenty minutes of listening to Geneva slamming cabinets and worrying about the package before I could fall asleep.
When I finally climbed out of bed, it was one in the afternoon. I made a PBJ and ate it in front of the television while I watched a home improvement show. When my lunch was gone and the show was over, I was forced to think about my predicament.
I had hoped to spend a few nights by myself, getting back into a reasonable sleep schedule and catching up on my reading. Now I knew I was going to have to call Rawdon tonight. If the package had come from another vampire, I didn't trust that I would be safe. Were all vampires as nice as Rawdon? His maker hadn't been.
At three there came a knock on the door. The irrational thought that it might be Rawdon passed through my mind before I remembered that the sun was out. I smoothed down my hair before opening the door. My little brother, Noah, was standing on my doorstep with a large fast food bag in his hand.
“Oh, sis. The not-showered look doesn't even work for Ke$ha.”
“It's a sick day,” I said. “What are you doing here?”
“Gen called at lunch, said you were burning the candle at both ends because of some guy who rescued you from a mugger.” Noah pushed right past me and set the bag of food on the coffee table. “What have you eaten today?”
“Peanut Butter and Jelly,” I answered. “You don't need to be here.”
“Here. I got you grilled chicken. Eat it. PBJ is not enough.”
“Peanut Butter has protein,” I said.
“Fabulous. So you'll be twice as strong. Sit down.”
Noah and I, despite being nearly four years apart, are mistaken for twins all the time. He has the same flushed lips, thick lashes, and ghost-white skin as me. He has Dad's blue eyes, though, and he highlights the tips of his hair. When we were kids it was pretty easy to tell that I was older, but differences in age become less distinguishable as you get older.
“So tell me about this Rawdon guy. Gen says he's cute.”
“He's very well dressed,” I said. “You'd like that.”
“And?”
“And he's British,” I added.
“How are his teeth?” Noah asked, crinkling his nose.
I imagined Rawdon smiling with a set of those cheap plastic fangs that kids wore at Halloween. I hadn't actually seen his fangs, I realized. Were they retractable? “His teeth are nice.”
“So when do I meet him?” he asked.
“I don't know,” I said. “He's really busy during the daytime.” I unwrapped the chicken sandwich and took a big bite. I wasn't sure how much I wanted to tell Noah about Rawdon because I wasn't incredibly proud of how last night had gone. I had been a virgin when I met Cody and we had dated for a year before things became physically intimate. I had known Rawdon for three days and I had already hopped into bed-- or rather, the shower-- with him.
I reached in front of Noah to grab my glass of water from the coffee table. He put his hand on my shoulder and stopped me.
“What's on your neck?” he asked.
I froze. Had Rawdon bitten me? I had spent so much of the previous night slipping in and out of awareness. What if he had bitten me while I was in my head.
“That is one enormous hickey,” he said.
I sighed in relief.
“You'd better put some concealer on that one.” He made a face.
“Oh, like you've never had a hickey,” I argued.
“You're my sister. I'd rather not imagine you sucking face. Thanks.”
“Oh but I just needed to get over it when I walked in on you and your roommate--”
“Enough of that,” Noah said, shoving a french fry towards my face. “Eat.”
I pushed the fry away and took a gulp of my water.
“Anyway, if this guy is going to be a serious thing, I'll have to meet him.”
“I don't know if he's going to be a serious thing,” I said.
“Oh?”
“It's complicated.”
“How complicated?”
“He... he's very busy. And my work hours aren't very flexible.”
“If he's really into you, he'll find the time.”
I shrugged. It had been really fun, the first couple of dates, to have someone so into me. Now I was wondering if he was more into me, than I was into him.
“This reluctance to date Mr. Perfect doesn't have anything to do with Cody, does it?” Noah asked.
“Don't you have class?”
“Just remember, you dumped him.”
“This has nothing to do with Cody, alright?” How could I explain to Noah that I wasn't sure about my future with Rawdon because he was a vampire.
“And no,” he added before taking a long sip of his soda. “I don't have class. It's Tuesday. I have absolutely nothing to do.”
“How nice.”
We finished eating in silence. Noah knew me better than anyone on the planet and he had ordered my sandwhich just right-- no pickles and mayonnaise instead of ketchup and mustard. My headache faded to the background with a little food and water in my system. I was caught up on sleep, but I had the feeling that I would have a hard time getting rest at an appropriate hour that night. Then there was the problem about the UV gun in my closet.
“Everything alright?” Noah asked as he bagged up the papers from our lunch.
“I got pistol-whipped three days ago. It's gonna dampen my mood for a while.”
“Alright,” he said. “Well, I'd better go. I may not have class, but neither does Tim.”
“He has a girlfriend,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Beard. Trust me. I can tell.”
“Well, good luck with that.”
“And good luck with your new flame. Maybe you should take a few days to clear the headache and then give him another chance.”
I nodded, but I knew that I wouldn't be giving it a few days. If someone else knew about his secret, and they were involving me, I had to speak to Rawdon as soon as the sun went down.
Half an hour until sunset, I was on the verge of a melt down. The anxiety of waiting was driving me up a wall. I had eaten an early dinner of toaster waffles and turkey sausages, reorganized the pantry, and folded an entire load of socks and underwear. I finally picked up my phone and dialed the one number I should have taken off of speed dial.
“Hello?” Cody Hunt answered the phone.
“Hi... uh... Cody...”
“Kendall?”
“Yeah. It's me. I'm not on your caller ID?”
There was a heavy sigh on the other line. “No, I removed your number two months ago so I wouldn't call you next time I had too much to drink.”
“Oh. Well... I was wondering if you had my green sweater around your house somewhere. You know, the one with the belt?”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Kendall,” his voice got sharp, “I moved into this house in June. You dumped me in August. There's no way you left a heavy sweater here.”
“It was kind of cold and wet in June.”
Another sigh. There was a long break before he spoke again. “What do you want?”
“I just wanted to make sure that you're okay,” I said.
“I'm fine. I'm great, actually. Three months. I was pretty okay with never hearing your voice again.”
Ouch. “You don't have to be mean.”
“It's not mean. I'm not going to pine over someone who dumped me for the rest of my life. I'm a grown-ass-man,” he said. “So why are you really callin
g me. Is everything alright?”
“Everything is fine,” I said. I looked out the window. The sun was starting to duck behind the horizon. The street was cast in an orange glow. “Really.”
“Great.”
“It's good to hear your voice,” I added.
“Listen, Kendall. I have to go, okay? I have dinner plans.”
“A date?”
“On a Tuesday?”
“You never know.”
“It's not really your business anymore. I have to go, Kendall. Bye.” He hung up.
I thought that calling him would make me feel better. It didn't. The last time we had spoken, he hadn't sounded nearly as angry. I guess a lot had changed since August.
I realized that I still didn't have a phone number to call Rawdon. I knew his address, though, so I tried dialing information. There was no land line listed for the address. By the time that little investigation had failed, the sun was completely set. A knock came at the front door.
Geneva beat me to the door. Rawdon was standing on the stoop with a red rose in his hand.
“She called in to work today, you know,” Geneva informed him. “You've gotta let the poor girl get some sleep.”
“I'm fine,” I said, pushing past Geneva.
“You don't look ill to me,” he said.
“Just tired,” I replied.
Rawdon bent down and kissed my cheek with his cold lips.
“I'll put this in water,” Geneva said, taking the rose delicately with two fingers and heading off to the kitchen.
“We need to talk,” I said to Rawdon the moment Geneva was out of ear shot. “A package came this morning.”
I took his hand and guided him to my bedroom. I shut the door and locked it to avoid any interruption from Geneva.
Rawdon stood at the foot of my bed and watched as I opened the closet and pulled out the box. I had thrown the wrapping paper away, but kept the bold tag.
“This was on my doorstep this morning when I called in to work,” I said, dropping the box on the foot of the bed. Rawdon looked down into it. His nostrils twitched, and then he made a sound like a short hiss. When I looked up at his face, his fangs were bared.
I had not seen his fangs until this moment. Most people expect vampire fangs to be the canines. At least, I did. I was surprised to find that instead of elongated canines, he had sharp incisors. He looked like a snake, ready to attack.
Kissing Corpses Page 4
