Promise Me

by Tara Fox Hall

  I dreamed of Danial. He’d come back during the night, and even though I’d locked the doors, he’d somehow gotten into my room. He was beside me, reclining close, but not touching. His hair was glossy, a brown so dark it could be called black, and it fell unbound to his shoulders. He was dressed in denim jeans but had no shirt on. I opened my mouth to ask him where the hell he’d been and if he’d killed anybody, but he held a finger to my lips. I opened my mouth to protest but he covered it with his own. His lips were soft and eager for me. I would like to say I protested, but I gave in without a second thought.

  He felt my surrender and gathered me to him. I was burning up from the inside. His kisses were warm and slow. He leaned over me and touched my cheek, stroking my hair back from my face. He leaned farther and moved his legs, and suddenly he was on top. He was careful not to crush me with his weight, holding himself up on his forearms. I reached up to pull him down and covered his mouth with mine. I ran my fingers through his hair and pulled him close. He felt so good, his weight, the softness of his hair, that amazing scent rolling off his body, intoxicating me. The scent I’d been smelling all along had been his, the way he’d smelled to me.

  He smelled so good. I breathed deeply, over and over, and the more I breathed in, the more aroused I became. I brought my hands over his neck, down to his chest, and stroked his pale skin. His hands were busy themselves, sliding up my thighs, over my T-shirt, to my breasts. He cupped them gently through the thin material. Without a word, I pushed him back, sat up, and stripped it off, baring my body to him, my unbound hair falling over my breasts and shoulders, to my waist.

  He gave me a long calculating look and stripped off his jeans. Before I could see what I’d been waiting to see, he returned to me, kissing me again. He stretched out and I felt the length of his body press against me. I wanted him so badly at that moment that I almost cried for him to stop the foreplay and get to the sex. But he stopped kissing me instead and drew back, raising his eyes to mine.

  “I need you to know that I can’t get you pregnant or give you any STDs. I can’t catch anything you have either; my immune system would kill anything that tried to make a home in me. I want your consent for what’s about to happen between us, that you really want me, knowing full well what I am.”

  I looked at him. I wanted him all right, but his talk had cooled my desire somewhat. Talk of STDs tended to do that, especially when a couple is about to commit the act that propagates them. But I appreciated that he cared enough about what I thought to stop and ask, knowing that there was a fifty-percent chance that it would stop him from getting any. He waited for my answer, unmoving. I could still feel the length of him pressed against me. It was true I barely knew him. And I knew we shouldn’t do this, not this fast. But I looked at him, breathed in that scent, and didn’t care. Killer for sure, maybe murderer, probably assassin, liar at least a few times over, and vampire, I wanted him. Right now.

  I looked at him and put all my lust into my voice. “Danial, I want you. Right here, and right now.” That last came out as a growl.

  He replied by covering my mouth with his own and slipping into me with an ease that brought a gasp from my throat. He found his rhythm quick enough, and his hands and lips were everywhere. I was close, but I wanted more, so I leaned to the left and rolled him into the middle of the bed. He was surprised and broke his rhythm, stopping. He looked up at me, clearly wondering if I wasn’t pleased with his performance. I began my own rhythm for us, taking his hands and placing them on my breasts. He held me as I moved above him, and then leaned my upper body down to embrace him. He locked me to him as if he would never let me go.

  He was everything I wanted, and as I felt the orgasm begin to roll over me, I also felt his hand brush my neck, lifting away my hair. As I climaxed, he struck. A wave of pleasure washed over me as his fangs slid into me. There was pain, but it was small in comparison to the pleasure that washed over me in waves. I felt him climax within me, still drinking, still holding me tightly. Long before I would have weakened, he stopped drinking, pulling back with a sigh of contentment. He brought his lips to the wound and kissed it. There was no pain, and I lazily rolled off him, reaching up to feel my neck. The skin was warmer in that area than the rest of me, but I couldn’t feel any marks. He watched me as if I’d shown him something he hadn’t expected to see, and that amazed him. I snuggled close, and he put his arm around me, pulling me close again. He brushed the hair from my eyes and kissed me.

  “I wanted to show you what it could be like between us,” he whispered. “It doesn’t have to be pain. It can be pleasure.”

  “It was that and more,” I answered.

  “You have to know I didn’t want to stop, to make that speech, but I had to.”

  “I’m grateful you did, and that you cared enough to.”

  He tilted my head back so I was leaning with my head on his chest, looking up at him. “I do care.” He kissed me again, slow and contentedly. “Remember that.”

  I awoke to find my bed a mess, but Danial’s shirt still on. I had one thought, splayed there like a discarded rag doll: WOW.

  And then I realized that I had to get up and go to work. It was Friday—payday—but how the hell was I going to do that when I still felt the aftershocks of the dream?

  * * * *

  Driving home that night, listening to the radio, I played back the previous night’s dream in my head. It had felt so good to be intimate with someone again. It was also wonderful that it had been a dream. I had all the luscious scenes to display in a slide show and none of the guilt. Though really, why should there be any guilt? I was a single woman, who at this stage in her life was old enough to decide who was allowed in her bed. But I still believed in knowing a person before being intimate with them, and I didn’t know Danial at all. Most of what he’d told me was questionable. Did I trust him? I wanted to, sure. He hadn’t hurt me or my animals when he could have, but that wasn’t enough. I wanted him to care about me.

  Arriving home, I took the dogs out for a long walk. I was able to catch a brilliant watercolor sunset, but clouds were moving in, signaling a thunderstorm was on the way. The air smelled of fall, and the cornfield rustled in the wind. The corn stood unharvested, waiting for a hard freeze to be gathered for seed corn. A few bats swooped above my head, looking to help me with the year’s last mosquito crop. By the time we were halfway home, thunder crashed faintly to the south. We hurried the rest of the way and managed to get in sight of the house before the first raindrops fell. By the time we’d got in the door, we were soaked. I dried the dogs off, gave them their nightly Cheweez, and stripped off my wet clothes to jump in the shower.

  I usually didn’t sing in the shower, but the past week had put me in a rather ribald and joyous mood. I belted out the beginning of “Iris.” As I finished with, “I just don’t want to miss you tonight,” I heard a seductive voice say, “Missing me already?”

  Danial stood outside the shower door. My breath came out as a screech.

  “What are you doing in here? I locked all the doors!” In my indignation, I swallowed water. “Get out of here! I revoke my invitation!” I sputtered. I could hear him laughing, and that pissed me off.

  “Ah, if only it were that easy. That old wives trick doesn’t work.”

  Son of a bitch. I rinsed out the shampoo as fast as I could. “I’ll show you a much better one shortly. It involves a cross and some holy water.”

  “Crosses, holy water, bibles, and all other symbols of man’s religion only work if the vampire you’re using them on believes they can hurt him. I happen to be agnostic. Try again,” he laughed.

  I grabbed my conditioner and began working it in. Damned long hair. “How about a nice stake?”

  “That would work if you had the power to get it in my heart. But you don’t, not by yourself, and certainly not at night.” He was no longer laughing.

  “A nice decapitation?” I offered, sarcasm threaded through my words.

  “You are testi
ng my patience,” he said, and it came out as a growl.

  Why was this conditioner taking so long to rinse out? Argh! “And you’re testing mine! Go outside and wait for me. I’ll be right out.”

  “Fine!” he said abruptly. I heard the bathroom door close with a slam.

  I toweled off and threw on a long-sleeved T-shirt and jeans. I squished some leave-in conditioner in my hair and put some moisturizer on my face, all the while readying myself for what was probably going to be the Big Confrontation. I came out to the dining room to see him giving my dogs treats. Even the cats were around as he parceled out tidbits for them. It was odd the way they liked him so much, but I was reassured; they were usually a good judge of character. I may not have trusted Danial, but I trusted them.

  “Tell me straight, why are you here?” I said bluntly, sitting on the couch.

  “I came back to see you,” he said sincerely, sitting down beside me.

  “Cut the crap. You aren’t dealing with some blonde bimbo who’ll accept anything you tell her at face value.” His eyes narrowed but I plowed on, before he could say anything. “First, you got into my house with all the doors locked, which means you either stole a key or had a copy made. Your truck is in my barn, so you must have a key for that too—”

  “I took a key from the hook by the door, just in case. You told me it was okay to stay here as long as I needed to. I didn’t want to leave everything unlocked while I was out. And I don’t want to knock on your window at five in the morning if I’ve been out to make you get up so I can get in for the day.”

  “But why not just ask me for a key? Or why not just tell me you were taking one?”

  “I apologize for that. I should have waited, but I expected you home before dark. Then you didn’t show. I thought maybe you were hoping I’d leave before you got home.”

  “Look, I want to trust you, but you’ve got to tell me the truth. There’s no way you need a silencer to hunt anything but people. Don’t tell me it’s for self-defense; you have an arsenal of guns that could be used. And your rifle with the scope, that’s most likely for sniper work. So tell me what all of this means, or you have to leave.”

  “You won’t believe that sometimes I use guns to take out prey?”

  He meant animals, right? We’d go with that. “Why would you need to shoot them, when you can...um...”

  “What, jump on them and tear their throats out?” he said loudly in disgust. “Why would I want to terrify them or make them suffer, when a well placed bullet just ends their life? What kind of animal do you think I am?”

  “Look, I just want to understand. I’m not judging you for what I consider to be your business. But I still don’t buy the silencer for that. Tell me the truth.”

  He gave me his now customary calculating look. I watched him silently, waiting. “Fine,” he said. He took a deep breath. “You are right. The guns aren’t all for game. Most are for protection. Someone or something is hunting me. That’s why I was worried that my truck was out in the open. I had to make sure I didn’t lead anyone to you by accident.”

  “Do you live around here?” I asked, watching him carefully.

  “I’ve lived in New York for the past seven years,” he continued. “I moved here originally from Colorado. I have a small business that makes decent money.” Seeing my motion to interrupt, he said, “Yes, even vampires work. Most of us aren’t so old that we have an endless reservoir of funds to draw on. And eternity can get boring if you don’t have a reason to go on existing. Mine is my work. I built my business from the ground up, and it matters to me that it succeeds.”

  “What exactly do you do?”

  “I help big businesses solve problems. You’d be surprised how inefficient some companies are. Sometimes the solution is simple, such as firing one person, or switching vendors for cost savings. Sometimes it’s more drastic, like down-sizing or overhauling company procedures.”

  It was strange to hear this boardroom talk from someone with fangs, but maybe I needed to get with the program. America was equal opportunity. And there was a note in Danial’s voice I hadn’t heard before. He really was into this, and clearly proud of what he did. But before I started hailing him as the best supernatural entrepreneur, I thought I’d better clarify a few points. “Or like killing someone?”

  He glared at me, exasperated. “Why would I kill someone? I give my recommendations to the CEOs, or when the CEO is the problem, to the board of directors. They can choose to take them or leave them. Either way, I get paid for consulting.”

  “And the silencer and the tripod?”

  “The first is if whoever is pursuing me catches up with me while I’m in a hotel or a crowded campground. I’m hoping to get him before he gets me, and do it quietly enough where there isn’t a panic.” I must have looked as skeptical as I felt. He continued, irritated. “Have you ever fired a handgun in an enclosed place? It’s so loud, you’re deafened for a while. In a place filled with people, there’s sure to be someone who hears.” He looked at me intently. “Do you understand, I can’t afford to be noticed or investigated. How would I show up for a trial in the daylight?”

  He continued his explanation. “The second is for the same reason, but used in a different location, alone, miles away from anyone. Again, I’m hoping to get him before he gets me, and I want to have every advantage.”

  That sounded like good strategy, if a bit overkill, and I nodded in understanding.

  “I don’t want a shoot-out unless there’s no choice. Frankly, there may be more than one bad guy on my tail. I can’t be certain, but in my business, where I sometimes get people fired, there’s more than one person who wouldn’t hesitate to shoot if they had me in their sights.”

  He was right; it wasn’t as if the cops could protect someone like him. He didn’t fit in their world, especially as he seemed unwilling to follow basic gun laws. But I wanted proof that this was legit. “Can you show me some of this work you do?”

  “Yes.”

  I followed him to the basement, where he’d set up a makeshift office, including a state of the art laptop and a small printer on the nightstand. A box of office supplies was on the floor beside it.

  “Sit down. I’ll open up some files for a company I just got some inquiries from.”

  I sat on the edge of the bed and tried not to appear too comfortable sitting on the bed beside him. He seemed totally oblivious about it, with his mind on his work.

  He quickly powered up the laptop. It had a bunch of icons on it, and he went to one that was marked “Inquiries.” He brought up a file dated a week ago and opened that so I could read it. It was an e-mail from a CEO of a prominent company that wanted him to investigate how the company could cut its losses in the coming quarter without letting any employees go. There was mention of a new software program with programming issues that needed to be fixed. The CEO also suspected one of his vice presidents of embezzling funds and wanted Danial to find out if it was true. Attached in the e-mail were all sorts of reports and information on the company, with the CEOs’ statement to ask for any other information needed.

  A wave of relief hit me. I’d been so wrong. He was legit. Once I’d learned he was a vampire and had weapons, I’d automatically assumed he was a killer, and not educated or intelligent. But Danial was computer savvy, much more than I was, and clearly a businessman. I’d underestimated him and I felt bad about that, because I wanted him to like me. I wanted there to come a time when we were together, like we’d been in my dream. I felt a rush of warmth, remembering how he’d felt to me…

  Stop it. I let out a deep breath and pushed my memories of the dream away. “I’m sorry. I jumped to conclusions when I shouldn’t have. I should have asked.”

  “Don’t think any more on it. Events conspired against us. There wasn’t a lot of time for talk, especially the night we met.” He put his laptop down on the floor and pulled me to him. I looked up at him questioningly. He shifted me so I was sitting on his lap, and he put his arms aro
und me. He felt so good, I didn’t even try to fight how I felt. It felt right, and that was enough. He leaned in close and said, “I hope you don’t mind if I stay here a few weeks. I can give you money. You can think of it as rent—”

  “You don’t need to pay me,” I said quickly. “I said you could stay here and I meant it. Keep the key until you leave.” Then it registered that he’d offered me money, and I felt it necessary to add, “I may not have a lot, but I have enough to be happy.”

  I was sensitive to him having more money than I did. I knew my home wasn’t grand or even solid construction; it was a prefab home termed a doublewide, and I would be just as cold this winter in it as I had been last year. I wondered if Danial felt sorry for me and that was why he’d offered. I struggled to get off him, not wanting him to think he was my savior, or that I needed one.

  He chuckled softly and pulled me in close. I felt the muscles of his chest and arms, and despite myself, I relaxed. “Fine then,” he whispered. “Let me buy you something, and you can think of it as a present. How's that?”

  I opened my mouth to protest, but he nuzzled my neck, so I just said, “That’d be fine.”

  Chapter Four

  Danial left soon after our talk on Friday night, saying only that he had business to attend to and he’d be back soon. Despite that I wanted him to stay, I didn’t ask him to, or when he’d be back. Instead, I spent all weekend catching up on chores and finishing last minute summer projects. I got everything done, running myself ragged in the process. It was time for a little relaxation and heady anticipation of returning home to possibly find him waiting for me there.