Blood Gifts (3 page)

He had few attachments in the world. A few
friends in various towns that he visited now and then, but for the
most part he was a loner. Getting attached to Karina now seemed
wrong somehow. She was human. She wasn't a drifter like him. She
didn't make sense in his world.

Maybe there was a way—he almost hated to
think about it. If he couldn't erase her memory of him, perhaps he
could reveal himself to her. Drink her blood anyway. Let her
scream, let her cry, let her hate him. And then he could leave
town. But could he hurt her? In the heat of the moment, would he
care? He'd never had to work this hard for a human's blood. It was
usually like taking candy from a baby. Easy.

He could stay away from this town for fifty
years, one hundred years, whatever it took. Till she had died. Till
the police she would inevitably call had stopped looking for him.
But he would get to taste her blood. It was thoughts like these
that made him realize he really was like other vampires. Heartless,
soulless, greedy bastards. But it would be more heartless to try to
pursue this—whatever this was—with her. He could never turn her
into a vampire. A monster. He couldn't live with her and love her
until she died of old age, and then continue for centuries without
her. And worse, drink from her regularly, like she was just blood
to him. How could he turn these feelings off?

He would reveal himself, drink from her, then
leave town. She would hate him, and she would be better off without
him. And once he had tasted her, he would not be so obsessed with
her. He hoped.

Chapter 6

Karina woke Monday morning feeling very
groggy. The haze that Luke had put her into must have actually worn
her out. She got out of bed and stumbled to the kitchen for
breakfast. Leanne had called from work and left a message. She
worked in a doctor's office, as a receptionist. Karina knew she
would call again on her break, and she would answer the phone then.
No sense telling her the story of last night while she was busy
trying to check in patients.

Karina ate breakfast, checked her computer
for new orders from customers, and packaged up a few things to take
to the post office later. She felt very unemotional today. Sort of
numb. Like her date with Luke had sucked all the color out of her
life, all her emotions. It was certainly intense. And then ending
so suddenly. Ironically, before Karina had gotten a phone number or
a last name out of Luke. Nice. Classy. She did know he was renting
a basement apartment from someone. That wasn't helpful.

So she moped. Leanne called. They dissected
the date, the details Karina was comfortable giving her anyway, and
then Leanne had to get back to work. Nina called at lunch time, and
Karina told her most of it too. They were excited, but they were
seeing it all wrong. She didn't tell them how intense it was. How
it made her feel out of control. How she
liked
feeling that
out of control over him. They were both sure he would call. It was
"just a guy thing" they had said. But it didn't feel that way.
After the day they had had. Wow.

She took a shower in the late afternoon and
got dressed to go to the post office. Jeans and a blue tie dye
T-shirt. Hair in a ponytail. No makeup. She mailed her packages,
then stopped by her favorite thrift store on the way home to
restock a little bit. Then she went back home. She had just
finished dinner and was watching TV when someone knocked on her
door. She got up and peeked out the peephole. It was him.

She opened the door, trying not to look as
excited as she felt. He should be a little sorry for how he left
yesterday.

He was dressed all in black. Black jeans,
black button up shirt. Very dramatic.

"I'm so sorry," he said quietly, looking into
her eyes. "I... just needed to get a handle on myself last night.
Everything was moving too quickly."

"I know," she said. "It's okay." She stepped
aside to let him in.

He looked nervous as he stepped inside her
apartment. He closed the door behind himself, then put his hands on
her upper arms. He let one hand travel up to undo her ponytail and
let her light brown hair fall around her shoulders. She smiled as
she put her hand on his hand as he caressed her neck.

"Karina," he said gruffly, "you will never
understand what I am about to do."

She looked up at him, confused.

He opened his mouth and she saw fangs quickly
descend. Her eyes grew wide. Suddenly he gripped her shoulders
tightly and began to pull her closer to him. She screamed. He let
her get away. She ran deeper into her apartment, since he was in
front of her door. He chased her at super speed and caught her in
his arms as she was passing the couch. On her way to the kitchen,
to climb down the fire escape.

Her heart pounded with fear as he gripped her
shoulders so tightly it hurt. He looked at her a little menacingly,
and slowly lowered his fangs to her neck. She squirmed to try to
get away, but he pressed her onto the couch and lay on top of her.
He held her head with one hand and bent his head down to bite into
her neck. She screamed again at the searing pain as his vampire
teeth cut her flesh. He covered her mouth with his hand to muffle
her scream. Then he tasted her blood.

It was warm and thick and tasted beautiful.
It tasted how she smelled. Sweet. Clean. Innocent. He drank
quickly, lost in his blood lust.

Having his lips on her neck, sucking, warmth
flowing out of her and into him, suddenly it felt right to her.
Like he needed her and she was giving him what he needed. She was
sustaining him. And he was close to her, and warm, and his hands
had released their tight grip on her head and shoulder. She was
panting as he sucked, and she had stopped fighting him. She
moaned.

He stopped sucking. He was out of breath. He
pulled away from her neck to look at her. Part with wonder, part
with horror. What was she doing? Sure, there were people that were
into this. Having their blood drunk. But she was not the type. This
was different. It was like it was because it was him, not because
it was blood, or because he was a vampire. She wanted to give him
what he needed. She was out of breath as she stared up at him with
half-closed eyes. She reached up and traced her finger along his
lower lip, wet with her blood. He was suddenly angry. Did she have
no self-preservation instincts at all?

"Be afraid," he said to her sternly.

"No," she said weakly and shook her head.

"I could kill you," he said a little
menacingly.

She said nothing, only traced his lip again
with her finger. Then she put her hand on the side of his face.

He retracted his fangs. Then he pressed his
thumb to her neck wound to stop the bleeding.

"Karina," he said quietly, frustrated and
amazed.

"I love you, Luke," she whispered quietly,
amazed at herself too. How could she feel this so soon? And for
someone who had attacked her moments before, almost killed her?

"You are not sane," Luke said with wonder.
"Clearly." Then he buried his fingers in her hair, trapping her
head where it was. "I guess that makes two of us," he said quietly,
then he roughly kissed her lips, causing her to moan again.

Karina felt totally lost in him as she kissed
him, felt herself trying to tear his shirt off. He removed it for
her. Then he pulled her shirt off quickly over her head and picked
her up, holding her tightly in his arms as he carried her to her
bedroom. Her neck wound still leaked a little blood and he licked
it off her neck as he held her in his arms over the bed. She moaned
and her arm fell limply to her side. The sun was setting, and
streaks of gold and pink light painted the walls as he laid her on
the bed.

He carefully removed the rest of her
clothing, and then quickly his own. He lay down on top of her.

She gasped as he quickly slid himself into
her. She dug her fingernails into his back as he began to move. It
caused him pain, but he didn't care.

She wrapped her legs around him as he thrust
into her, feeling like she couldn't be close enough to him. He
became more frantic. The pleasure building in her was insane. More
intense than anything she'd felt before. It almost hurt. She
orgasmed, arching her back. He didn't stop. He just became more
frantic. He began to move at a speed that was much faster than a
human could move. She was in awe, frozen in a state of intense
pleasure and bliss, until he finally came. Pleasure burst through
her again in an enormous wave, causing her to convulse a few times
as he held her still with his arms. He gripped her tightly,
wrapping his arms around her body, her head buried in his neck.

"I love you too," he whispered. She thought
she felt him shake, like he was sobbing. Then quickly, he moved
with superhuman speed away from her, gathering his clothing like a
tornado, and speeding out of her bedroom, and her apartment. She
heard the door close as he left.

She was still out of breath, lying weak in
her bed, when she passed out.

Chapter 7

Luke had dressed quickly in Karina's living
room and was now walking agitatedly down the street. Mindlessly
walking, he ended up back at the festival. Things were just
wrapping up. Tables were being cleared and packed up. He stared at
a folded pile of tie dyed shirts and thought of her, and suddenly
the shirts flew off the table. But there was no wind. He walked
quickly past them. The same thing happened when he stared at a pair
of pink shoes sitting on a table. They flew to the ground for no
apparent reason. He looked at a dented soda can on the ground and
it flew away from him. He ran then, back to the park, to get away
from all these objects he could suddenly affect.

What was this? He had never been able to move
things with his mind before. This was not a vampire thing. Had his
bond with Karina caused him to develop new powers? He was still
shaking from his encounter with her. He walked to the farthest
corner of the park, away from the festival, and stood in front of a
trash can. A little steel thing inside a green wooden holder. He
concentrated on it and willed the metal can to lift in the air, and
it did. Then he walked over to a picnic table under a wooden
shelter. He willed it to slide across the concrete and it did. He
was getting excited now. And nervous. How could this be happening?
He'd never heard of this before.

"Well, well," a male voice suddenly said from
behind him. "Aren't we talented?"

Luke spun around to see a young blond man
with a smirk on his face standing ten feet from him.

"Newfound gift?" the man said, slowly walking
towards him. He wore all black, looked to be about 25 years old,
and had a purple tattoo on the left side of his neck. Looked like a
scrolled letter. Luke knew what he was.

"Cat got your tongue?" the blond man laughed.
"You seem to know who I am," he said.

"I know what you are," Luke said with
contained anger. "You're a vampire, Runic clan."

"Very good," the young man said. "So, you
know what we like."

"You collect vampires with special powers,"
Luke said grimly.

"Now now, no need to be so serious. We
recruit vampires with abilities, yes." He looked overly innocent
now.

"But these powers are not yours, are they?"
The blond vampire walked around him slowly, checking him out. "You
seem much older than you look. What were you 25?—30?—when you were
turned? But that was not recently, and you were practicing your
powers just now as if they were new."

"What are you getting at?" Luke asked
angrily.

"You," the vampire took a step towards him,
"fed on a human with powers." He tapped Luke's chest once with his
finger. "Your powers will not last."

Luke was shocked as he realized it was true.
Karina had powers. It must be.

"Blood transference," the blond vampire
continued. "You seem surprised."

Luke said nothing.

"You know we recruit humans too," the
young-looking vampire said. "Any chance you left this human alive?"
He asked this last question as if it was a casual curiosity, but
Luke could tell he was intensely interested in the answer.

"I did not," Luke said.

"Pity," the blond vampire said, walking away.
He looked over his shoulder once at Luke, then continued on his
way.

Luke wanted to check on Karina, make sure she
was okay, that this vampire wouldn't get to her. But he knew he
couldn't go anywhere near her tonight. The other vampire would
surely be watching him. Waiting for him to return to the human with
the powers. Luke was almost sure he hadn't bought it when he said
he'd killed her. He would check on her tomorrow. He looked quickly
around, and seeing no one, ran at super speed away, back to his
apartment.

Chapter 8

Karina woke the next morning still exhausted.
Probably from blood loss. She put her hand to her neck wound. She
had a bit of a scab there. Her muscles were sore, probably from
superhuman sex. She still felt blissed out from that, but calm.
Serene. She sat up slowly in her bed and looked around the room.
Her eyes grew wide.

It looked like the place had been ransacked.
Things had been thrown to the floor or messed around. Drawers were
open, clothing pulled half out, one drawer was on the floor. Her
lamp was knocked over.

"Shit," she said to herself. But she knew she
had done it. She knew there wasn't any other explanation. No
burglars, no tornado, just her. Her bizarre telekinetic powers.
Like the night she'd dreamed of Luke in her room. Which she now
realized was not a dream. He had broken into her apartment to drink
her blood, but she'd woken up. He knew she lived on the third floor
in the elevator without being told.