by P. N. Elrod
She laughed, softly. “Like old times?”
“Yes,” I whispered. “If you would.”
Putting forth her hand, she let her spread fingers trace slowly up my bared chest. “I should like to do more than that. . . if you would.”
Nothing could have better pleased me. As for pleasing Nora . . . well, I was determined to do my finest or die trying.
In a few short minutes we’d freed ourselves of most of our encumbering clothing. Being much taller than she, I made things more equal by stretching out on the hearth rug, dragging her down on top of me. There was more voice in her laughter now, I was very glad to hear.
The body remembers what may fade in the mind, and mine fell unresisting into the patterns of the past, recalling her likes and needs without a word being said. To be sure, our time apart did add exceedingly to our mutual desire. We kissed and touched, hands everywhere, limbs entwining as the warmth kindled and grew between us. Soon the fever of it seized me with greater heat than I’d ever known before, and Nora was tearing at me like a wild creature.
Even in the extremes of passion with other women, I had to always be mindful of my unnatural strength so as not to bring harm. Now I was suddenly aware of the hard muscles of Nora’s own body and the realization I could venture more with her and do no injury. . . and she with me. I’d often suffered a bruise or two from her in an excellent cause; now were we both free to exercise ourselves fully, and did so with abandon.
I nipped at the velvet skin of her breasts and throat with my lips only, though my corner teeth were out as were hers. The sight of them in such state had ever brought on arousal for me just as strongly as the sight of her body; I wondered if she had a similar reaction. Apparently so, I soon concluded, for her responses to my actions increased in aggressiveness and demand. We rolled and groaned and bucked against one another like animals. One second I was on her, the next she was on me. Neither of us hesitated, but hurtled forward without pause or waver.
Then was she truly on me, hips grinding away as though independent from the rest of her, pushing me up into her body. This suited well for her initial climax, and as it overtook her she fell forward, moaning, digging her teeth hard into my throat that she might prolong it. My blood surged forth, engendering for me a consummation more sharp, joyful and delirious than those times past when I’d once merely pumped seed into her. She drew on me, her mouth hot, demanding all and taking more. Gasping from it, I felt my life rushing out, but made not the least stirring to hinder its flow, so caught was I in the ecstasy of the act. If she wanted to drain me to a husk, then so be it; I was hers to have.
Her frenzied movements eventually slowed, but she continued to drink, pulling strongly on the vein she’d opened. It was wonderful; I’d never known anything to match it. It was keen and blinding, harsh and dazing. Brain and body, mind and spirit, all my being turned itself over to the pleasure. If it went on like this forever, then I’d have no need of heaven.
My sight clouded over. The glow from the candles merged with the shadows; the room seemed filled with a golden fog. It lay warm upon my skin like sunlight.
I held still except for stroking a lazy hand up along her bare back. As more and more of my blood went into her, even that easy motion became too much of an effort. My arm went lax and dropped away I could not lift it again.
She’s killing me, I thought. But that inner revelation did not alarm me the slightest. I’d already died, and not nearly so marvelously as this; I had nothing to fear.
I fell into a kind of sleep close to that which came upon me during the day when I was not on my earth. This was without the bad dreams, though, and much more sensual. I was soaked through, submerged in a sea of absolute bliss. Waves of it overwhelmed me each time she swallowed. I sank far beneath its crystal surface, not caring if I ever came up again.
“Jonathan?”
I hated to respond, to have any interruption, but when she whispered my name a second, then a third time, I finally looked at her.
Her lips were red from my blood. Her eyes burned like living rubies. She ran one hand along my face, fingers brushing into my mouth, against my teeth. Some part of my lethargy tumbled away, and though weak as a kitten from what I’d given, with her help I slowly sat up. She yet crouched over my hips and now wrapped her legs around behind me, locking us together.
“Your turn,” she murmured, letting her head fall back.
I could just see the swollen vein waiting under the pale velvet. The scent rising from it, the bloodsmell, pierced through my somnolence. My mouth sagged wide. Hunger and lust became one. Impossibly, for I’d thought myself past it, the fever rose up and seized me once more.
She made a shrill cry when, for the first time, I gouged into the virgin skin of her throat. Her whole body arced into it, pressing, holding, pulling me tighter as I swallowed a great draught of her blood, eagerly reclaiming that which she’d taken from me. My member flooded with new strength. Hips rocking back and forth, she sighed, her breath warm in my ear.
Another draught—no tiny drop carefully teased out and slowly savored, but a flaming mouthful of life’s own purest nectar. I drank, deep and long as I could not do with anyone else. She clung to me, shuddering in time to it, one hand on the back of my head to push me harder, more deeply against her throat. I drank until her moans dwindled, hushed, and finally ceased, and she lay limp and unresisting against me like a sleeping child. Then did I stop, holding fast to the last quivers of pleasure as they echoed through me.
* * *
Some considerable time later we summoned sufficient will to sort our selves a bit. Nora rested next to me on her back, serene and smiling; I lay on my side, head propped on one hand that I might gaze down at her. The candles were low, the fire nearly gone. A faint glimmer from the embers remained. Not enough to give warmth, but we had no worry for any chill.
She’d not changed except to become more beautiful in my eyes, and after this night she was above and beyond all other women for me. Though she saw it differently, our shared condition had altered nothing about my feelings toward her. If she felt the need to set limitations—such as they were—on me, on whatever future awaited us, to feel safe, then so be it. Ultimately, I knew only with the passage of time could I show myself worthy of the fragile trust she’d just placed in me. That trust would be tested sooner or later; she’d said as much already. When the test came I prayed I would be wise enough to recognize it and put to rest her fears of jealousy and betrayal.
The testing would likely have to do with her cavaliers. She might expect me to come to resent them, for I did not see her giving them and their gifts up. Not so much because of the loss of money and blood they provided, but because of their importance to her sense of freedom and confidence. If I made offer to fully support her—as I could well afford to do—she’d not welcome it. I could and would never ask her to cease seeing them. That would violate our pact and drive her from me in one witless move. I’d given my word; I would hold myself to it no matter what.
As for the pleasure they gave her and got in return . . . well, I’d ever had the decided advantage since my days at Cambridge. She may have dallied with them, fed from them, enjoyed their company, affection, attention and money, but she loved and went to bed with me. So things would be now, I expected, but even better. Without her imposed influence in my mind, I might be subject to a pang or two of jealousy, but I’d just have to live with it or lose her. I could no more resent her diversions with others than she could my sporting with the ladies at Mandy Winkle’s—though that sort of pastime might be less frequent for me now that Nora had returned. Compared to her, the other women were little more than a temporary distraction.
But the future I contemplated would be with us soon enough and take care of itself. The present had just been and continued to be most agreeable. As to the past. . . there was too much of it that was yet dark to me.
I wondered abou
t this man who had rendered her change. What sort of tyrant was he, and why had he been so cruel to such a woman as Nora? Or to any woman for that matter? To kill others to sustain one’s own life. . . I could not imagine it. Through no fault of my own and in the most extreme of circumstances I’d come close to doing it myself and could understand the desperation of hunger, but thankfully, heaven had spared me from committing that particular sin. Apparently this monster wantonly murdered, excusing his abominations by claiming it was beyond his control. What rot—and Nora and I were the solid proof of it. It sickened me that she’d known so evil a man, had endured his touch. Certainly it was a tribute to her inner strength that she was as recovered as she was from what must have been a terrible ordeal.
Where was he now, and was he yet a threat to her? If so, then he was in for a great surprise for here in me was her own loyal champion. When she was ready I’d question her more closely on the fellow. I’d question her on quite a lot of things. God knows, I’d barely started yet, but there was time for it. Now that we were together again, there would be plenty of time for talk.
“Shall we dress?” she asked, cracking her eyelids a fraction to see me.
“So soon? But it’s been such a long time, my dearest.” I leaned over to kiss her forehead, my free hand making free with one of her breasts.
“That it has, but I’m ill-prepared tonight.”
“Not that I could tell.”
“I can. I’m so feeble I shall have to find refreshment—no, don’t you dare tempt me, Jonathan.”
“But it’s your turn to take from me, is it not?” My hand had wandered down to an even more intimate area of her person. She writhed about, but did not retreat or make me stop. “It will refresh us both, I’m thinking.”
“Perhaps so, but I couldn’t—oh! Well, perhaps I could. But only to make things even between us. We can’t tolerate much blood loss, you know.”
I’d tolerate her draining me to the dregs as long as it was this gratifying.
This time were we slower, more gentle with one another. Nora’s kiss was soft and lingered long, taking my blood away gradually, and giving back a joyful quickening to my senses so intense that I hovered perilously on the edge of a swoon from the elation.
It had not been like this for me since our time at Cambridge. I’d missed it, craved it. Small wonder I’d been so tempted to want Yasmin to do this to me; I was glad now to have pushed away from her. It had been for the girl’s own good, but aside from that responsibility, I realized her efforts, enchanting and exquisite as they might have proved, would have been but a poor substitute. Only Nora could give me such perfect fulfillment.
As always, it was over too soon, alas. She could go on for the rest of the night and it would have still been over too soon, but this would have to suffice until our next meeting. She ceased taking from me, licked one last time at my wounds, and with a sigh settled into the crook of my arm. I was in no hurry to move, both for the opportunity to hold her and because I’d grown weak again; not nearly as bad as before, but it seemed best to indulge in moderation until I’d restored myself at some neighbor’s stable.
“I’m glad you shaved,” she said, lightly touching her lips. They were a bit puffed and reddened, not from blood this time, but from the friction against my skin.
“So am I.” I was also careful about touching my neck. She’d exercised great delicacy on me for the last hour or more, but for all that the area was rather tender. Nothing a quick vanishing wouldn’t take care of, though. Later, perhaps, when I was more recuperated. “When next we do this, I should like to lay in a good supply of beef or horse blood. Then we won’t have to stop.”
“An excellent idea, my dear. I look forward to it.”
“Then let it be soon.” If I could have moved I’d have tried loving her again. Sweet heavens, but it had been so damnably long. But she was with me again, and things promised to be better than ever between us.
“Was your death painful?” Her question, breaking into my thoughts out of nowhere, startled me. “If you don’t wish to speak of it—”
“No, it’s all right. I’ve just never talked about it before. I didn’t want to cause Father or Elizabeth any discomfort, and it’s not one of my favorite memories. But to answer, yes, it was, but it was quick. I’ve had worse since then.”
“What could be worse?”
“If I told you we should be here all night.”
“Have you anything else to do?”
“Yes, but I fear it would be too physically taxing for both of us.”
“Rogue. You’ve yet to explain why you were stalking around your cousin’s empty house with a pistol.”
“Dear me, yes. Are you awake enough for a long listen?”
“You must know by now we don’t sleep like other people.”
“Indeed I do, and what a trial it was to learn that.”
She put her hand on my cheek. “I am sorry.”
I kissed her palm. “It’s all right. I understand now. Past and done. Time to move forward.” I paused a moment to think and compose . . . where to begin? At the beginning? And where and when might that be? I supposed on the hot August morning when Beldon and I had our unfortunate encounter with Lieutenant Nash and those Hessians. I’d never asked Nash why he’d been blundering about the island with a pack of German soldiers. They should have been with their own officers. I suppose he’d been forced to use whoever had been at hand to hunt down the Finch brothers. Would things have gone differently for me had Beldon and I left a few minutes earlier or later? Or if I’d worn another color coat?
Past and done, I thought. Thankfully, because of Nora, I still had a future. One with Nora in it. That was all I ever wanted or needed. Turning on my side again, I put an arm around her and commenced telling her everything.
* * *
Interruptions upon such a lengthy recital are inevitable, but Nora kept hers to a minimum. Still, it seemed a remarkably long while before I thought to pause, and the fancy was becoming fact the next time I noticed the mantel clock. The dawn was too close for me. Now that Nora was here, the dawn would ever be too close.
We’d quit the hearth rug and dressed ourselves. This time she sat next to me on the settee, as close as she could get.
“I hope you don’t mind about the others,” I said, after a diplomatically brief mention of how I’d dealt with my carnal needs with other women.
“You were careful with them?” she asked. She did not seem in the least bothered by the subject. A relief, that.
“Always. Perhaps more so than necessary.”
“I’m glad to hear it. You seem to have fared well in your change just by following your own best judgment.”
“And what I recalled of your example. . . though I never once saw you vanish.”
“I don’t do it often. It tires me.”
“That took some work on my part to accept. It was damned startling. Why is it we can do it?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know the why, only that we can. Perhaps it’s to allow us an easy escape from our graves at night and a quick return to them in the morning.”
“It was useful to me that first time, but I’ve not been back to my grave since. I can’t abide closed-in places even now.”
“For which I cannot fault you.”
“Why do we have such awful dreams without our earth to rest on?”
A shrug this time. “I could not say.”
“Elizabeth thinks our return to life requires some sort of a compromise, that we must carry a bit of the grave along with us in exchange for leaving it.”
“That sounds as good a reason as any I’ve ever considered.”
“Why are we not permanently harmed by injury?”
“I’m not sure. We heal so fast, and we vanish to heal. The two might be connected in some way.”
“Why do we not reflec
t in mirrors?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps we’re invisible to them the way we’re sometimes invisible to people, only it’s beyond our conscious control. In some parts of the world it is thought it’s because we’ve lost our souls, but I don’t believe that.”
It did sound foolish. “Why is crossing water such a hardship?”
“Because it separates us from the earth?”
“Not fair, a question for a question.”
“Better than my saying ‘I don’t know’ to you all the time.”
“What do you know, then?”
“To always have a goodly supply of earth with me, to always and ever be prepared for calamities like fire, flood and gossips, to make sure my servants are loyal, discreet, and well paid, to always be home an hour before dawn. . . .” She had quite a list of things, most I already knew, all of them exceedingly practical. “Will that suffice for you?” she asked when finished. “There’s more.”
“It seems more than enough.”
“Not nearly enough, I fear. I cannot reduce my experience down to but an hour of talk.”
“Nor can I give all my questions to you in one evening.” Of course there would be many more evenings ahead for us, but I was of a mind to fill them with other activities than lessons. This brought an idea to mind, though. “Dearest, you asked me earlier to pretend it was our first night to exchange blood. I’ll ask the same of you. If you had explained all to me at that time, what would you have said?”
She thought for a while. “Well, I would have first asked if you had ever heard of nosferatu.” Quite the foreign word it was to judge by her intonation and accent.
Under her intent gaze I cudgeled my brain a moment. “A Baltic seaport, I think. Isn’t it?”
