A Taste Of A Vampire

He’s gone. It’s over with. I don’t like killing anyone, but I don’t mind killing monsters. He was a real monster.”

She raised her brows in realization. “Yes, he was,” she admitted, immediately seeing the irony in what Nicholas had said. He the vampire, Drake the monster.

“Why am I here?” she asked, looking around the room and then back at him.

He let out a long breath and sat at the foot of the bed, gazing back at her. “You’re here because you fell when he died. He struggled. There was a moment when his leg knocked you down, and you hit your head on the desk and got knocked out. I brought you here to tend to you. I couldn’t leave you unconscious in the library. What would the excuse for that be? You needed medical attention, and you’ve been getting it. You’re healing, but it’s taking some time.”

She bit at her lower lip. “Have you been here with me all along?”

He didn’t even blink. “Every second. I’ve been worried about you. I need to know that you’ll be all right.”

He rose then and walked to her, taking the glass of water from her to set on the bedside table, before lifting her face to look at her. “You’ll be all right, but I’m keeping you here until you’re fully healed.”

She closed her hands around his, loving the feel of his hands around her face. “Will you stay with me?” she asked in a whisper.

“Every second,” he answered.

She felt a surge of weariness come over her, and she slid back down into the bed and closed her eyes. He stayed beside her and held one of her hands in his while the other hand stroked her head, pushing her hair back gently with his fingers. He combed them through her hair until she fell asleep.

It was a long while later when she woke. He was sitting at the foot of the bed again, watching her. She looked around and sat up again, reaching for her water to quench her thirst. A fresh glass of cool water was waiting for her.

“How long have I been asleep?” she asked quietly as he came to her, sitting beside her on the bed.

“Another day. You’re doing much better now. You had a fever, but it’s gone. You’re wound is healed up, and there won’t even be a scar. There was a little cut at the back of your head, here…” he said, leaning close to her as he wrapped his arm around her and tenderly touched the bottom of her occipital on the back of her head. “It was slight, but I mended it, and now it’s gone.”

He was so close that she could feel his breath on her mouth, and the comfort of his hand at the back of her head and his arm around her brought the familiar need for him burgeoning up in her. She drew in a breath and gazed into his emerald green eyes.

“Nicholas…” she whispered. Every reason she had for not wanting to be with him was dissolving away from her.

She heard his breath catch as she reached her hand up to his face and cupped his cheek. He leaned toward her until their foreheads were touching.

When she woke, she was cleaned and dressed in another dressing gown, and he was cleaned and dressed, and sitting at the foot of her bed. She opened her eyes and looked around, and her cheeks turned a soft shade of pink.

“Was that a dream, or did we make love again?” she asked hopefully.

He smiled and reached for her hand, taking it in his. “We made love again. It feels like a dream, it’s so perfect, doesn’t it?”

She nodded silently. He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it gently. When he lowered it again, he sighed and broke the silence.

“I wonder if you’ve given any thought to staying here with me.”

A hot tear formed in her eye and though she tried to hold it in, it fell over her eyelashes, rolling down her cheek. “I can’t. I love you, Nicholas, but this life you have… this… situation that you are in. You’re a vampire, I’m a human. There can be no way forward for us. You can’t be human, and I don’t want to be a vampire. We just can’t be together. I wish that we could. I love you, but there is no way.”