Claimed by a Vampire

“I am. But I still would have expected some difficulty.”

“You mean I should get upset, scream, deny, whatever?” She shrugged. “Maybe most people would. I’m weird. I’ve always been weird. And I like unusual people. You certainly qualify as the most unusual person I’ve ever met.”

One corner of his mouth drew up. “So you think of me as a person? I’m not even a human anymore.”

“You’re still a person.” She leaned back and tucked her legs up beneath her on the couch. “I write about all kinds of fantastic beings. Some come from tradition, myth and fairy tales, others I make up. But I’ve never followed the current trend for vampires and werewolves.” She half smiled. “You’re giving me ideas for a story.”

“About vampires?”

“Maybe. You’re not at all what I would have expected.”

“Meaning?”

“Vampire as St. George.”

Finally he laughed and allowed himself to relax. Things might change at any instant as she truly absorbed what he’d told her, but for the moment he was willing to enjoy himself. At least as much as he could when her scent was driving him nuts. “I’m no saint, and certainly not a dragon-slayer.”

“Just don’t tell me there are dragons.”

“I haven’t met one, so I can’t say for sure.”

A smile flickered across her face. “True. Having just made the acquaintance of a couple of vampires I guess there’s no way to be sure that there aren’t any dragons, or elves, or trolls.”

She was definitely taking this entirely too well. A new and different tension began to creep through him, apart from the tension of self-control. None of her reactions seemed quite normal. The resistance had passed too quickly. The acceptance bordered on the extreme. Most people fought so hard to keep their beliefs about reality intact that they could literally erase from their minds anything that didn’t fit. He knew that effect intimately, as he’d seen it in action more than once, and more often than not took advantage of it. Denial was a basic trait of human nature. It actually helped vampires to survive.

Vampires and other things he would not mention, not today. Yvonne was dealing with enough. Or not dealing as the case might be. He honestly wondered which it was.

Her face had grown thoughtful, and he tensed again, waiting to hear her thoughts. He couldn’t help feeling that her easy acceptance of what he had told her was nothing but a ticking time bomb that might go off at any moment.

But then she looked up at him with a crooked smile. “I could use a little more proof, I think.”

“Proof that I’m a vampire?”

“Yes. Part of me recognizes that you moved far too fast for a human, that your eyes change in a way I’ve never seen any human’s do. But another part of me is seriously balking.”

“I’m honestly surprised that you aren’t terrified, given the stories everyone tells about us.”

She gave a little shake of her head. “You’ve been kind to me in the extreme. I tend to judge people by their actions even more than their words. I’m not afraid of you.”

“Maybe you should be.”

Her eyes widened a bit, and for the first time he saw a hint of fear that had nothing to do with what was going on in her apartment. Yes, it was better if she kept a distance, but his chest tightened anyway.

“Are you threatening me or warning me?” she asked.

In an instant he hovered over her, bending so close that he could feel the warmth of her breath, itself an intoxicant. “I’m a predator,” he whispered in her ear. “I can control myself. But with you … You have no idea how much I’d like to taste you.”

He heard her suck a sharp breath, then release it in a long sigh. He knew the reaction she was having. Many had it in the presence of a vampire. Burgeoning sexual interest, an almost soporific relaxation. Next she’d turn her head to expose her neck and he’d hate himself just for revealing that she was as helpless before the attraction of his kind as any other human. He didn’t want to see her that way, but he also didn’t want to examine his reasons for that.

She surprised him, though. She didn’t offer her neck. She didn’t adopt a pose of compliance. No, she raised her hand and touched his cheek, electrifying him with her warmth, the only warmth he could feel anymore.

“It must be hard for you,” she said. “I should go to a hotel.”

Appalled, he straightened instantly, crossing the room so fast that she couldn’t have seen him move. “No,” he said. “No. I don’t want you to be alone.”

“But this is causing you problems. And you can’t do anything about it anyway. Can you? Jude can do just as much if I’m in a hotel.”

“No,” he said again, feeling his body coil as if it wanted to spring. Only with huge effort did he avoid crouching a bit. “It won’t be safe for you. I can handle it. And yes, my very presence helps protect you.”

“How?”

“Because if anything tries to take you, it’ll have to deal with me. They don’t like to deal with my kind, Yvonne. We’re beyond their reach and we can wreak havoc on them when they take physical form. And … I could drag you back from the gateway of hell.”

His doorbell rang, interrupting further discussion much to his relief. He’d said more than he intended, and things he didn’t want to explain.

He went to let Jude and Terri back in. He noted the way they both looked at Yvonne, but only Terri’s face betrayed surprise.

“You’re not upset?” she said to Yvonne.

“About the existence of vampires? Why would I be? There are worse predators in the world evidently.”

Jude looked at Creed. “She doesn’t get it.”

“I’m not sure about that.”

“I don’t get what?” Yvonne demanded.

Jude looked at her. “That we could be the worst predators on the planet. If we chose to.”

“Do some of you?”

Creed felt a dark wave of bitterness. “Some do. Like the one who changed me. As a rule, most of us prefer not to make a bloody mess of things because like you, we prefer feeling reasonably safe.”

“Well, then.” That seemed to settle it for Yvonne. “At the moment I’m more troubled by what’s going on in my condo.”

“That,” said Terri, “is something I agree with. Totally.”

“She does have a point,” Jude agreed. “That feeling isn’t plaguing her because some prurient boyfriend or neighbor has installed miniature cameras or listening devices. Whatever it is, it’s big and it’s bad. I just wish I knew why it’s interested in Yvonne.”