The Comanche Vampire

by The Comanche Vampire [Evernight] (mobi)

  Anne grinned. “Yes, I did. What about the coffin thing?”

  “Beds are a hell of a lot more comfortable.”

  She tossed back her curls and laughed. “Point taken, Ned. What happens if you need blood and don’t get it right away?”

  “I feel like I do right now.” Anne peered at him and frowned. “Is that what’s wrong? You look terrible.”

  “I feel even worse,” he admitted. Ned made no effort to gain sympathy or lie. “I haven’t had blood in a couple of days.”

  His admission brought her to his side. “Tell me how you feel and what I can do. You can have my blood if you want.”

  “No,” he roared and she stared at him, wide-eyed. “I can’t take your blood, not now. My head hurts, my stomach’s rolling, and I hurt all over.”

  Anne placed her palm against his forehead, then his cheek. “You’re hot, like you’re running a fever. It almost sounds like you’ve got the flu. What will help?”

  “Blood.”

  “Then let me give you some.” Anne pulled her hair away from the left side of her throat. Ned’s ears picked up the whoosh of blood through her veins and the rhythm of her heartbeat. He craved blood, hers most of all and began to lean forward. Ned caught himself and retreated.

  “I’d love to but I can’t,” he said. Somehow he didn’t think she’d like the next part but if he had a chance to keep things good between them, he had to confess. “I’ve taken your blood twice before, so if I do now…”

  “I become a vampire too.” Her voice emerged dry and almost choked. “That part of the lore is true?”

  Ned stroked her velvet skin, his fingers gentle but body tense with desire. “It was for me. I’ve never put it into practice because I couldn’t wish this life on someone else.”

  Shock enlarged her eyes. “You’ve never bitten the same person three times? So you don’t really know?”

  “No, I haven’t but I’m pretty sure. I’m not going to take the chance, Anne.”

  She knelt down in front of where he sat and placed both hands on his knees. “What if I tell you I want you to?”

  Ned wanted to shout with joy and he wanted to weep. If he did, he would have Anne with him forever. But if he bit the third time, she’d become what he was, a creature existing on blood and living in the shadows. She’d brought sunlight back into his life so he hated to rob it from her. “I won’t now,” he stated. “You’d have to understand all it means, what it’s like, before I would. Do you have more questions?”

  “How do your wounds heal so fast?”

  Anne asked good questions, but most he couldn’t answer. “I don’t know. I just do. And I don’t get sick – or at least not any other time but when I really need blood. I don’t catch colds or measles or chicken pox. I have no idea how or why I do, just that it happens. I figured it out the first night I became.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “How?”

  A sigh rushed upward and out. “I tried to end it with a knife, but the gashes healed up same as the ones you saw.”

  Anne moved to the sofa and put one arm around him. “I’m sorry, Ned, but I’m glad your attempt failed. And although it took me awhile to get my head wrapped around it, I’m actually happy you’re a vampire.”

  Surprised, he asked, “Why?”

  “I wouldn’t know you otherwise,” Anne told him. “There’s so much I want to know about being a vamp and a lot about when you were Pea’hocso. But there’s something I want you to know first and then we’ll see about getting you some blood. Ned, I love you, no matter what you are, I love you and I’m not running away any more. I brought half my stuff in the car and unless you don’t want me around, I’m moving in. I hope you do because I already gave notice on my apartment, told the landlord I’m leaving.”

  Anne’s announcement stunned him but it pleased him more. “Good,” he said. “Without you, this place sucked.”

  “C’mon,” she said. “I’ll drive you into Lawton so you can get some blood. Tell me where. Then you can buy me a steak.”

  Her words floated with a surreal quality but he nodded. “All right, let’s go. I haven’t eaten much lately. I don’t even remember when I last did.”

  She paused in offering him a hand up. “Don’t you have to eat?”

  Ned shook his head. “It helps, sometimes, to get me through until I can drink blood but it’s not necessary.”

  In town, Ned directed her to a rundown tavern on the far southern edge of Lawton. “Stay here,” he told Anne. “It’s not somewhere you should be.” Despite being afternoon, a fair number of vehicles, all older and in poor repair, ringed the place.

  Anne shook her head. “I’m coming too. I want to see how this is done.”

  “Anne,” he began but she put a finger over his mouth.

  “Hush. I’m coming along.”

  Inside the dim bar, Ned led Anne to a table near the rear. Beside it, a dingy hallway led to the restrooms. He’d been here before although he didn’t like it much. A thick, sour smell hung in the air, a combination of stale beer, spilled whiskey, and too much smoke. Ned caught a few stares from the mostly redneck clientele but he ignored them. Anne’s presence and attention made him nervous as hell, though. He’d never been scrutinized in the act before and with her attention riveted on his actions, Ned grew increasingly ill at ease. Under normal circumstances he’d never bring her to a place like this and he couldn’t guess how the other customers might feel. Although aware a white woman with a Native American man didn’t generate much negative interest the way it once had, this might be one place it would.

  Ned ordered a beer, one he’d never drink and Anne asked for a soda. As they waited for the beverages, Ned glanced around for a likely prospect. Daytime wasn’t the best time to try for blood but he had little choice. He spotted a mature woman, more than a little worn around the edges with bouffant hair and dangling earrings. She appeared to be in her late forties, but the way she flirted with the men at the bar marked her as easy prey. Ned waited until she headed for the restroom and nudged Anne. “There’s my donor,” he said in a low voice. “Stay here while I take care of business.”

  He figured she’d jump up and want to follow him, but Anne nodded. “All right, Ned.”

  He rose and walked with slow steps into the hallway. The woman’s scent lingered and he loitered until she emerged from the ladies’ room. Ned blocked the hall and smiled at her, hoping he didn’t look too nightmarishly pale he might spook her. “Hey, aren’t you Loretta Jones?” he asked, using a made-up name.

  She halted and stared at him with hungry eyes. “My name’s Sandi,” she told him with fluttering eyelids. “Forget about Loretta, sugar. I wouldn’t mind taking you home with me. Buy me a drink?”

  “I might,” Ned lied. Then he stepped forward and seized her as if he meant to kiss her. Hoping no one else decided to take a piss he leaned in tight and bit her behind and just below her right ear.

  She giggled with delight and he drank all he dared. “You don’t mess around, do you?” the woman said. “I may not need a drink after all.” As Ned stepped back, she locked her arm with his and hung on with the power of a snapping turtle. “Let’s go home and see what happens.”

  Shit. If he untangled now, she might protest or scream. Ned preferred no audience and he didn’t want any trouble. But if they walked out through the bar, the patrons would notice and so would Anne. I can’t leave her alone in a hellhole like this. “Maybe you should meet me at the truck,” he said, aware he’d come with Anne.

  “Lead me to it,” his donor said with a leer. Her beer flavored breath rushed over him in waves as he tried to pull away.

  “Just a minute there, bitch,” Anne said as she crowded into the narrow space. “He’s my man, so let go.”

  “Who the hell is she?” the woman wailed.

  “I’m his woman,” Anne said, sounding more like a cowgirl than a history professor. “So hit the road unless you want to tangle with me.”

  For a tense few moments, Ned fe
ared Anne might get into a catfight with the woman. He imagined scratching, kicking, slapping, and screaming. He prepared to break up any altercation but the woman twisted her face into a frown. “Oh, piss on it, honey, he’s not worth the trouble, on second thought. Take your red man and get out of my way before I kick the ever-lovin’ shit out of you just for fun.”

  She released her hold and when she did, Anne grasped him tight. “Let’s go,” she said, voice harsher than he’d expected. “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, mister.”

  Anne fussed at him all the way past their table and outside. As soon as she climbed into her car and Ned followed, she burst into laughter. After a stunned moment, so did he. She whooped until she paused to catch her breath. “Do they always want to take you home?”

  “Hardly ever,” Ned said. He hadn’t been able to figure out how she’d respond but he’d never expected her to save his ass or finding it amusing. But he liked both. “Usually, I do it quick and they never know what happened. Thanks for helping.”

  She flashed him a quick grin. “You’re welcome. I enjoyed it. I didn’t expect this to be fun.” Neither had Ned but he nodded. As the blood he’d taken moved through his veins and gave him strength, he chuckled. Whatever happened, he was glad to be with Anne and to experience a rush of life. “It’s not usually,” he said. “Honey, I love you.”

  “I love you, too. Are you ready for steak?”

  He hadn’t eaten in days and couldn’t remember when he’d last had an appetite but Ned realized he was hungry. “Yeah, let’s go.” Ned savored the steak, tender and delicious but he enjoyed Anne’s company more. Conscious of the public place, their conversation kept to the ordinary. Anne chattered about things on campus, a movie she’d seen during their separation, and shared the latest family gossip from Texas. After they’d finished, they walked hand in hand to her car.

  “You look so much better,” she commented. “You looked terrible when I came to the house earlier and I was worried.”

  “Let’s go home. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

  “I want to make love,” she told him. Ned knew it. The way she moved, the look in her eyes, even her scent confirmed it. He craved Anne’s body but he restrained himself.

  “We’ll talk first,” he told her.

  And once they got back, they did.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Tell me how you became a vampire,” Anne said once they settled down. She sat cross-legged on the floor by choice near his feet.

  Ned gazed at her still surprised she’d come around and accepted the reality. He shared his story, how he’d come to surrender at Fort Sill with Quanah Parker and the last of the free Comanches. “I couldn’t stand being inside any longer,” he told Anne. “So I went outside and after a time, a woman came to me. She called herself a Romany and she kissed me. I was too numb inside to think about why she did or what she wanted but then she bit me, three times. Then she told me in a rage that Comanches killed her family and she’d done it for revenge. I had just surrendered and come into the agency, then I’m a vampire. It took a lot of getting used to, Anne, and it wasn’t easy. Still isn’t, most of the time.”

  “But you’ve managed to exist for more than a century.”

  “Almost a hundred and forty years,” he replied. “Until I met you, every day, every night was like the one before, empty and meaningless. I’ve drifted through it because I had no choice, but you do. It’s no way to live, Anne, and as much I want to be with you, you deserve better.”

  “Maybe and maybe not,” she said. “I choose to be with you, Ned, whatever it takes. I’ll stay with you and stay human if you want.”

  He’d thought about it so often and knew, unlike Anne, it wouldn’t work. “It’s impossible.”

  Anne jutted her chin out at him in protest. “Why?”

  “You’d grow old, I wouldn’t change. Right now, we’re about the same age. In five years, you’d be older, but I’d remain like this. It’d show a little by then, a lot more in ten years or twenty. Sooner or later, you’d become a gray-haired old lady hanging around a man in his prime. People would talk.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “You would,” Ned told her. “Your family would. They’d notice, Anne, and ask questions.”

  He watched as she digested the idea, her thoughts almost transparent as her expression changed as she considered each different idea. “I imagine they would. Mom would ask if I’d found the fountain of youth or some excellent cosmetics,” Anne said with a light laugh. “But if I become a vampire too, then neither of us would age.”

  “That’d be just as hard to explain to your folks,” Ned said. “Or your colleagues. I move about every five years or so to keep people from wondering. This house is my home, all I’ve had for a long time, but I keep leaving, then coming back when I think it’s been long enough for people to forget. I’ve used different names, claimed to be my son or grandson. It wears out quick, honey.”

  Anne put her hand on his knee and directed her gaze upward toward his face. “I’m sure it has, Ned, but it’d be different if we were together. You’ve been so alone. I know that now and I can hear how lonely you’ve been. I hear it in your voice and see it in your sad eyes. I have a lot of feeling for my family, but I could live without being as close. We’ve grown apart over the years anyway and being with you would make up for it. I’ll do it either way you want but what I won’t do is leave. I love you and I won’t walk away from the best man I’ve ever found. These last two weeks have been awful. Nothing seemed right and I hurt in ways I’ve never before. I’ve thought all this through and I know. I’ll do whatever it takes to be with you, even become a vampire, but I’m here to stay.”

  Ned listened, his heart about to burst with love. He’d planned to save her from his eternal existence, send her away and suffer for it. He thought he could do it, even celebrate the life she’d have without him but now he had to choose. Either he could accept her love, the gift she offered to him of herself and all she had, or deny her. The second option would devastate them both. As if she sensed his turbulent thoughts, Anne stood up and took his hands in hers. Then she tugged until he found his feet and faced her. “There’s really just one question, Ned,” she said. “Do you want me or not?”

  His tongue tangled in his mouth, grew heavy and thick as he replied. “I do want you, Anne. I’m no poet and maybe I can’t talk as pretty as you. English is still my second language, but I want you. Between when you left and today when I opened the door, I’ve lived in hell. I went through the motions, work, home, back and forth but without anything. I felt nothing. I didn’t eat, I never slept, and I sat around thinking about you. Without you, I had no sun, no moon, no stars, nothing. My life was dark and lacking everything. I had no desire to exist and when I thought of the endless period ahead, I wished I could die. I want you, Anne, on any terms, but I want the best for you, whatever it is. I love you enough to send you away to have a life, a real one if it’s what you want.”

  “You’re what I want, Ned. So take me now, love me and then turn me. When we weren’t together, I was desolate. I despaired so much I thought about taking my life. We met for a reason and we’re meant to be together, not apart. Maybe we’re soulmates… maybe the stars fixed our destiny. I don’t know and I don’t care, but love me and make it forever.”

  Forget reasons why not. Ned blinked away the tears springing into his warrior’s eyes and said, “Haa! U kamkuto nu!” He used his own tongue because this was important. It was a vow. Then he took her into his arms and kissed her, his mouth slow and searching over hers. Anne’s body melted into his embrace. Heat poured from her lips into Ned and although he began with gentle caresses, she went wild. Her hands clawed at his shirt and ripped it from him. She pulled the t-shirt beneath it over his head with a clumsy, fast motion then fumbled with his jeans until she got them unzipped. Ned kicked them off as she peeled his briefs away.

  Anne shucked her clothes off and unleashed her hands on his body. Her f
ingers roamed at will over his skin, rubbing, touching, and lingering. She teased and tickled, thumbed his nipples until they turned to stone and reached between his legs. Anne grasped his shaft and worked it, her hands performing wonders as his cock hardened. At the same time she leaned forward and kissed his lips, his throat, his chest, and down his belly.

  Ned ran one hand down the curves of her body and thrust it between her legs. Heat emanated from her crotch in waves. Her pussy pulsated and his desire intensified. Weeks of abstinence made him ravenous and like a hungry man provided with a feast, Ned lacked restraint. He lifted her into his arms, carried her to the bedroom and mounted her with all the wild force of a stallion. He rammed hard into her hot, wet space and rode with almost savage force. Anne cried out but with pleasure, not pain, and linked her hands with him. “Deeper,” she moaned. “Come in harder, Ned.” If his need hadn’t been so urgent, he might’ve chuckled. Anne missed their lovemaking as much as he had, he mused as he gave what she wanted. Each time he dove into her, the walls of her box constricted around him and caressed his cock. He enjoyed the sensation but it added to the growing tension. As much as Ned wanted this to last, he knew it wouldn’t. His body ached to come and would soon. He could no more halt the process than stop the rain or pause the wind. But before he did, he must deliver the third bite.

  Body tense, dick stiffer than bedrock, Ned pulled out halfway. He rose up on his forearms and leaned over Anne. She arched her back and thrust her hips toward him. Her momentum almost toppled him. “Be still,” he said, gasping for breath. “It’s time.” Anne turned her head right to offer her throat and with overwhelming need, Ned bared his fangs. Then he bit into her flesh, sinking his sharp teeth into her vein. The rush of blood sent glorious sensations through Ned’s body. Anne tasted sweet and salty. He picked up her pulse beat and felt it in his own blood, a rare sensation. Sensual delights spiraled through his body along with a physical sensation as he stole a little life from her. Intense emotions flooded Ned too as he grasped the reality of the commitment Anne made. This went beyond love, past marriage, and into something he’d never shared with anyone: forever.