The Two Vampires (19 page)

He could hear her heart rate, normally slow - what with being a vampire, start to race.  He knew she was close.  He let himself explode into her as she shook, flushed, shouting into the night.

Sarah lay quietly
in Daniel’s arms.  She was sedated, in love.  She let her head rest on his shoulder and felt warm inside as he tightened his grip and kissed the top of her head.  Sarah looked up at the stars above, just showing beyond the canopy of tree branches.  They looked amazing to her new senses, and she was transfixed.  She could see a whole new level of detail in the sky.  It was like her eyes had turned into a telescope, except her vision was not restricted by its narrow focus.  She could look wherever she pleased, taking everything in.  She stared at the Milky Way, seeing the individual stars through the haze, and watched as it looked like they moved slowly across the sky.

She glanced back at Daniel and he gave her a delicious smile.  God he was hot, and he was so good to her.  He was patient and understanding, so interesting and captivating – didn’t he have any flaws?  She pondered his personality.  In reality she did not know him that well.  He had come into her life in a whirlwind and transformed her world.  If it was not for him she did not know what state she would be in now, whether she would even be alive.  She thought of Sebastian, the ancient vampire who had turned Daniel some forty years ago.  He had come to her town intent on destroying it for his pleasure, for his whim and for something to do to occupy his eternity on Earth. 

Sebastian had turned her husband, Jo, into a vampire.  From that point on everything had been crazy; her life had turned upside down.  Daniel had come to her, and she had completely fallen for him, immediately succumbing to his utter attractiveness, and eventually falling in love with him.

She looked at him and smiled, knowing she was coming across as doe-eyed, but she didn’t care.  He had put up with a lot and now she could let her emotions show.  She did not need to hide from him. 

She thought of Jo again, how he had brutally attacked her, and how gutting it had been to see him as a feral vampire.  She wondered how things would be if the situation had been reversed – if it was her who Sebastian had turned into a vampire, whether Daniel would have ever fallen for her?  He probably wouldn’t have.  If he had not known her as a human first, he would have probably killed her; for Daniel had killed Jo.  It had been to protect her, she knew that.  If he had not done it Jo would have killed her.  As it was he had bitten her neck.  It had been horribly painful as he had drunk her blood against her will.  It was totally different when Daniel had done it – when they had been making love – that had barely hurt at all.  It had been heavenly connecting with him in such a manner.  She had drunk his blood too and if she had not she would not be alive now.  She would not be a vampire, she would be dead, as Sebastian had killed her, with Megan watching.

Megan!  She had not thought of her for ages – what was wrong with her?  And Bea, her youngest girl, oh she longed to hug her.  As she thought of holding Bea tight she started to see visions of her blood pumping around her body, a rising desire for blood, and her teeth started to extend.  She jumped out of Daniel’s arms in panic, and saw, through the sudden blood lust that was engulfing her, that Daniel was on his feet too.

She clamped her hand over her mouth and wailed – ‘Bea!  Megan!’

She saw blood – blood everywhere – oh she wanted blood – she wanted
their
blood.

Tears welled in her eyes and overflowed.  How could she want her children’s blood?  How could she hurt them? She could kill them!  What was she going to do?  She could not see them as she could not risk killing them.  Her heart broke and she crumpled to her knees, pain tearing through her heart.

‘Daniel!  My kids!  Oh, I can’t see them!  What’s going to happen to them?  I can’t be there for them!’

‘Sarah, shush – shhh – look at me.’ 

Sarah could hear Daniel talking to her but she could barely think to do what he said as her heart was hurting so bad. 

‘Sarah!  Look into my eyes.’

She blinked her tears away, yet they fell faster, but she looked up regardless as she was filled with a compulsion to do as he said.  Was he influencing her?  As her eyes met his she knew he was.  She felt his influence deepen and let his words roll over her, seep in . . .

‘Sarah, don’t you worry.  You don’t need to feel pain – STOP feeling pain.  Your kids will be fine.  Your parents will look after them and they will do a good job, they brought up you after all.  You are strong.  You
will
be able to see them again.  But you won’t be able to live with them for a while – maybe a few years – until you can master thorough control.  We will have to go away – far from here, so you are not discovered while you are mastering this.  But you
can
see your kids before we go.  I will go with you and I will influence you to remain in control – and you will.’

Sarah nodded, she knew he had influenced her, and she was feeling better – her pain had faded.  She was not angry at him for influencing her, even though a part of her, deep inside, wondered if she should be.  But she wasn’t, she was thankful, she could not handle feeling that pain.  Daniel had not lied.  She knew he was telling the truth, she nodded again, still processing what he had told her.  They would need to go away, somewhere far from here.  Not just so she would not be discovered, but so she would not have to face the constant temptation to see her children – what if Daniel left her alone?  He could not constantly be by her side after all, and what if she got lost to the blood lust while it was mixed with her love for Megan and Bea, and she just could not help but see them?  What if she did see them and she lost control?

Thinking it now did not cause her the pain it had a moment ago.  She knew she had Daniel to thank for that, but she could still think it through, reason it out.  She knew they had to leave soon – as soon as was possible.

Sarah looked at Daniel.  She realized he was kneeling on the ground in front of her and watching as she thought things through and adjusted to what they would have to do.  Star light reflected gently off his dark hair, which looked raven black in the darkness, and off his cheek bones, defining his handsome face.  She looked into his eyes.  Turning into a vampire had not affected how it felt to look into those.  They were so dark, and she still felt like she could see to eternity as she looked.  It was so easy to lose herself in them.  She smiled softly at him, and he moved in closer.  She watched as he raised his hand and wiped the streaks of tears from her cheeks with his fingers.  They felt cool and refreshing, and they helped to wake her from her consuming thoughts.

‘Sarah, we will need to go and see your family soon, because there are things you need to take away with you.  We must get your passport,’ Daniel hesitated, ‘– do you have one?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ Sarah replied softly, waiting to find out his plans.

She was still desperate to see her kids, yet trying to repress the blood lust that also rose when she thought of them.

‘We also will need some clothes for you, and all the everyday basics you may want to bring.  As I said before – I will influence you to keep control, enough so you can see your family for a short while, and so you can pack your own things.  You can choose what you want to bring – I’d probably choose the wrong things if I packed for you.’

Sarah smiled, relieved.  She did want to pack herself, that way she could take some photos of Megan and Bea.  At least if she could not see them in person, if she could not risk that, she could remember them.  An idea occurred to her –

‘Daniel?’ she asked, ‘Could you influence Megan so that she doesn’t remember that she saw me fight, and be killed?  And my parents – please could you make sure they forget what Megan may have told them?’

‘Yes, I was planning on it,’ Daniel reassured her.

‘And can you, can we, think up a reason for me going away?  For us going away together?’  Her heart sank and a moment of panic kicked in, ‘You are coming with me, aren’t you?’ she asked.

Daniel actually laughed, and Sarah felt silly for doubting it.

‘Of course!  I couldn’t let you go by yourself.  I couldn’t bear the thought of being away from you,’ Daniel said. 

Sarah sighed as he stroked her face and then pulled her into an embrace.

‘I love you Daniel,’ Sarah said and her voice muffled against his leather jacket.

‘I love you so much Sarah,’ he said back.

Sarah still could not believe she was hearing it, that it could be true.  She felt he was too good for her.  She would not let herself dwell on that though, there was no point, he was here and his actions proved his words.  She smiled to herself as she snuggled into him, and felt safe held tightly in his arms. 

She lifted her head to look into his eyes and to see his face as they talked more.

‘What can we say to my family?  What are we going to tell them?’ Sarah asked him pleadingly. 

She thought it was not long ago she had asked him a similar question.  That was after she had been taken by Sebastian, and had been missing for a couple of days.  She was human then, and had thought she was returning to her family for good.  She had had such a short amount of time with them before this had happened, before she had been killed and had awakened as a vampire. 

This time she would hardly get to see her children at all.  Still, at least she
would
see them, and maybe – a hopeful thought occurred to her, if they could leave on good terms, well – under good influence – she would be able to keep in touch.  She could talk to her parents and children on the phone, maybe via Skype.  Then she could see them grow up and they would still recognize her when she returned.  She swore to herself that she would.  She would develop enough control that she could be with them again – she had to – she could not miss their lives and she didn’t want them growing up with no parents at all.  After all, Jo was dead now too.  Their life was going to be so different.

Daniel spoke, startling her; she had been so absorbed in her thoughts.

‘Let’s think it over for a bit.  There are some other things we need to do before going to see your family,’ he said.

‘What things?’ Sarah asked.

‘Well, two things really.  Before you, errr, woke up, I took a spade from your house to bury the bodies Sebastian had possessed,’ Daniel said.

Sarah looked at him intently as he spoke.  She was shocked that she had forgotten about the bodies, the life she had taken when fighting Sebastian.  Sebastian had come back from the dead as some kind of spirit after Daniel had staked him.  He had taken possession of a teenage boy who had then attacked Sarah while Daniel was away trying to learn enough magic to make sure Sebastian could never come back.  Sebastian attacking her had triggered the enhanced strength that she had developed from Daniel’s blood, after he had saved her the first time Sebastian had hurt her.  God – all she had been through – it was mind boggling.  Sarah shook her head to clear it. 

She thought of the boy she had killed instead.  Daniel had told her there was nothing she could have done differently, that once someone had been possessed in that way there was no saving them.  That really the boy had been dead already.  Sarah could not help but feel guilty though as she had never hurt anyone before, not seriously, and now she had killed someone.  She had nearly killed someone again tonight, she thought, becoming distracted by the thought of blood. . . .

‘Sarah!’

‘Sorry . . .’ Sarah said, snapping out of it, forcing herself to concentrate again, ‘. . . carry on please.’

‘That’s why I wasn’t with you when you awoke – I was burying them.’

‘Them?’ Sarah interrupted, thinking there was so much she had missed out on while she had been out of it, and adjusting, ‘The second body – you mean you killed the woman who had been possessed by Sebastian too?’

Daniel nodded.

‘What about Sebastian?  God, sorry I didn’t ask sooner, what happened?  And also – thank you Daniel – thank you for burying the body for me,’ Sarah said, feeling her eyes well up at the thought of him dead.  She was glad Daniel had buried the body and that she did not have to face what she had done.

‘Sarah, don’t worry, I was glad to do it for you.  I wasn’t going to put you through that.’

Daniel leant in and kissed her softly on the lips and once on each cheek, and Sarah let herself enjoy it, feeling instantly warm and fuzzy at his touch.

Daniel leant back, making himself comfortable against a tree that had been close.  Sarah moved closer and leant against his side.  She reached up and stroked his gorgeous dark, messy hair.  It was so silky, and to her enhanced vamp vision she could see all sorts of colors reflected in it, making him look utterly beautiful.  She kissed his firm jaw, before smiling ruefully and making it clear she
was
concentrating. 

Daniel continued and Sarah listened, not just to his words, but to the sound of his voice as his southern drawl sent tingles through her body right to her core.

‘I’m not sure what you remember . . . ?’ he said.

‘The last thing I remember is you shouting for me to run and then a sudden pain wrenching through my neck,’ Sarah answered.

‘Yes well, that would have been when Sebastian snapped it.  Then you fell, you died,’ Daniel said.

Sarah’s heart ached as he said this, not so much because it was her death he was speaking of, but because of the pain evident on his face, in his clenched jaw and in his eyes.  She placed her hand on his chest as he carried on.