A Taste Of A Vampire

He raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Really? I thought that you said Manhattan was your home.”

“It is, or at least, it was. I guess now it’s just a place where I live. Grayson Manor feels more like home to me than any other place I’ve ever known. You’re there. You feel like home to me. I can’t live without you, Nicholas. I don’t want to live without you. This time that we’ve had apart has been pure murder on me. It’s been devastating. I can’t live like this anymore. I need you. I want you with me. We have to try to find a way to be together, even though…” she trailed off.

“Even though I’m a vampire?” he asked as the smile faded from his lips.

“Yes,” she answered. “Except, there’s something else that I was thinking of.”

“And what is that?” he asked in the most tender voice she had ever heard from him.

“I don’t think that one lifetime will be enough with you,” she said, barely believing that the words were coming out of her mouth.

“What do you mean?” His green eyes were staring hard into hers, as if he was trying to read her mind and failing at it.

She took a deep breath. “I mean that I don’t think one human life is enough time to be with you. It might be selfish, but I want more than that. I want an eternity with you.”

He began to draw in a breath, but cut it short. “What do you mean exactly? What are you saying to me?” He sounded as if he wasn’t going to jump to any conclusions, and he wanted to hear it directly from her.

“I want you to change me. I want you to make me what you are, so that I can be with you forever,” she whispered.

He stared at her. “Are you sure? We’ve talked about this…you were repulsed. You didn’t like the idea of being what I am…are you certain that you’ve given this as much thought as you should? Is this perhaps just strong emotion talking right now?”

Claire shook her head. “No. I have given this a lot of thought. Nothing but thought. I don’t want to live without you, and I don’t want to die when I am old and leave you here in this world alone. I want to be with you for as long as we can possibly be together. Forever, or however long vampires live. I can’t believe I’m saying it, but yes, I do want you to change me. Make me like you so that we can be together forever.”

“If you’re certain, then I will do it,” he said, the hint of a smile on his mouth and a new bright fiery light in his eyes.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” she answered, and she meant every word of it.

He smiled and held her face in his hands. “Then give me one more night with you as a human. Let me make love with you like this once more.”

She grinned at him. “Yes!” She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him deeply, losing herself in him as she had so many times before.

When she opened her eyes, she gasped, discovering that they were in her apartment. “How do you do that?” she asked him with wide eyes.

He chuckled. “I’ll show you when you’re changed into a vampire, but for now, there are other things to show you.”

He reached for her, pulling her clothes from her body and from his, and minutes later they were holding one another, kissing and tasting and touching in her bed.

 Their passions consumed them all throughout the night, and when it was done and they were sated, and laying in one another’s arms, she snuggled close to him.

“This is definitely where I want to be forever,” she told him, gazing at him.

“I want that too,” he answered with a wide smile.

“What will it be like?” she asked, her heart beginning to pound.

He pursed his lips. “It will be like nothing you could ever imagine. You will not need sleep. You will be able to move so fast that the whole world will stand still. You can hear things so far away, everything all at once, or you can tune out what you don’t want to hear and focus on one thing. You can see anything for great distances, in any kind of light or darkness. You will be tremendously strong and agile. You’ll be almost impervious to pain and mortal danger.”

She frowned. “What do you mean almost?”

“Well, there are a few werewolves still roaming around. Those are lethal to us, and the only other way that we can be killed is if we are decapitated or if we are staked through the heart. Other than that, there is no death. There is only life everlasting, and a good one at that.” He smiled widely at her.

“I can’t believe these things are real. Werewolves and vampires… but, I’ve seen it, and I know there’s probably a lot more that will surprise me as well.” She shook her head. “I thought it was all just in fairy tales.”

“Well, fairy tales are often based in truth. You just have to know where the tales end and the truth begins.” He kissed her softly. “I think you’ll be very good at this. I know that you will be.”

“Will I have to drink blood?” she asked, feeling slightly ill about it.

“Yes, but you don’t have to kill to do it. I’ll teach you. You’ll discover that it’s not at all what you think. It won’t bother you after you’re changed. You know, I never wanted to be what I am, but it happened, and here I am. Now that I’ve met you and fallen so deeply in love with you, I never want to be without you, and because of what I am, because of what you will be, we won’t ever have to live without each other. We can be together forever.”

She kissed him softly and smiled. “Forever.”

He lifted his wrist to his mouth and the teeth that she had seen only once when he attacked the man he had killed appeared in his mouth. His eyes took on a red glow, and he watched her as he dragged one fang over his wrist, opening the vein in it so that blood began to blossom over his skin. He held his wrist to her lips and she stared at him with wide eyes as she opened her mouth and tasted the first drops of it entering her body.

It felt as if fire was flowing through her, consuming all her body and the more she drank, the more she wanted and the hotter she felt. She could see that he was feeling just as warm as she was, and when he pulled his arm away, he spread her legs once more, moving between them and entering her as everything in her felt like it was bursting into warm flame.

“Now you are mine, always,” he said, kissing her and filling her with himself.

“Always…” she whispered back, moving her changing body with his and feeling everything in her begin to shift as if it was all falling into place, as if every puzzle piece was suddenly settling in exactly where it belonged.

The end.