Part 8 (1/2)
Zane shuddered. Went rigid above her as her mouth worked the small cut. When the ruby throbbed once more, they gasped. She forgot about his blood and struggled to meet the reawakening demands of her body.
They started again.
Zane listened as Nicky struggled to breathe without panting. Over the last few hours he'd explored, touched and turned-on her body...from the top of her head down to her toenails. He was feeling rather smug.
”Get that d.a.m.n ruby away from me!” she cried in horror.
Zane chuckled, pus.h.i.+ng the ruby off her stomach and under the couch. He stayed on the floor by her side, too replete to move just yet.
”What the h.e.l.l is that thing?”
”I don't know. But as soon as I can move, I think I might make a call to find out.” Rolling onto his back, he pulled her body tight against his and waved his hand in the air. A blanket floated out of nothingness to cover them.
Nicky gasped. ”About that little trick...”
”Vampires have a little magic. We can dress ourselves this way, or take our clothes off. Summon simple things like blankets and books. It's not as if I can make a person or a car appear.”
”How about food? I had a handful of trail mix this morning and I'm famished. You wore me out.”
Laughing, Zane flicked his wrist and a wooden platter with cheese and fruit appeared beside Nicky's hip.
”Works for me,” she said, grabbing an apple and a slice of Gouda. Snuggling back down beside him, she turned her head and smiled.
Her delight robbed him of breath. It was a strange thing to feel a punch in the gut so hard it drove the air out of his lungs. The ruby-induced s.e.xual marathon had taken everything out of him. Before that smile he would have sworn it would take several hours for his body to recuperate enough to respond to any stimuli. He was wrong. ”You know, I'm really into s.e.xual diversity, but do you think next time we could do this in a bed?”
Grinning, Nicole poked him in the rib. ”As long as it's a few hours from now. So what other magic can you do, besides locking and unlocking doors?”
”Turning the lock at JJ's house was just making something move. Like opening doors or windows, or bringing us pillows.” A quick movement with his hand summoned two pillows from the couch. He caught them as they flew overhead. ”The most basic vampire powers are the ones most likely to get us killed, so we rarely use them.”
”What do you mean?” Nicole frowned.
”Every vampire has the ability to clean themselves, change their clothing, use a little mind control when they feed to keep...” How did he put it without scaring her?
”Their meal from remembering the bite?” she said sarcastically.
Zane winced. Obviously she hadn't forgotten what he'd said about the first couple times he'd bitten her. ”Yes. Anyway, those are the gifts we're born with. They take little energy and no thought. However, there are other gifts. Those we acquire with age, like the ability to go out in the sun or fly.”
”You can fly? Cool!”
”Yes. Some vampires get something extra when they're turned, as if the power was locked inside their psyche and vampirism released it. I have an affinity with animals, an ability to communicate with them. Which is one reason why the horses I train do so well. Those gifts are, for lack of a better word...special. Not every vampire gets a special gift. The point I'm trying to make is all these other powers, from age or special gifts-take concentration and a great deal of energy. I'm not going to forget where I am, jump out a fifteenth-floor window after a business meeting and fly home.”
”But you might spill gravy on your s.h.i.+rt and clean it without thinking.” She nodded.
”Yes. Cleaning myself is easy and deadly. Before plumbing was invented, cleanliness of any kind was perilous. It was difficult to keep from waving away the dirt when it would solve the G.o.d-awful smell emanating from my body. And with preternatural senses, well...I can tell you it was a vampire who coined the phrase 'cleanliness is next to G.o.dliness'.”
Nicole laughed.
”In the past we had to wait for someone to fill a tub, or go outside and take an icy bath in a nearby body of water. Or wait two days for clothes to be washed and dried. In this day and age, vampires take showers, or at least run the water so it seems like we have. A couple times a day we go in a bathroom, wait for a few seconds and flush the toilet whether there are mortals surrounding us or not. You never know who might be paying attention and a few precautions help us appear human.”
”So the simple things get you killed. What about never growing old?” Nicole thought of the pictures Mike and JJ had shown her.
”In the last few decades our age-related problems have become both easier and harder. Easier because we used to be limited to ten or fifteen years in one place before we were forced to move. The advent of plastic surgery allows us to stay twenty-five or thirty years now.”
”I would imagine pictures, the Internet and coming up with pa.s.sports reflecting what you look like versus how you should appear would make it harder.”
”That's not as difficult as it seems. We have vampire geeks just like there are human geeks. It amazes me what they can do with a computer and a printer. It's easy to leave your worldly goods to a fantasy son if the paper trail can withstand scrutiny. Our biggest problem is a shrinking world. A hundred years ago, if you moved halfway around the globe you didn't worry about running into someone you'd met forty years before on another continent.”
”So you're always worried someone will recognize you?” She s.h.i.+fted her body into his, propping her chin on his chest to stare into his eyes.
Zane nodded. ”Airplanes and a mobile society have made this danger a very real concern. But the same technology that makes it difficult to hide has other benefits. Before the invention of telephones and email, I could go for decades without talking to longtime friends. Because traveling to another's territory would take weeks or months, I rarely saw other vampires. Now I have daily, sometimes hourly contact with friends even if they live on the other side of the world. It's a simple thing to visit them, or have them visit me.” Zane winced. Which reminded him-Vlad said he and Ronnie were going to visit soon.
”Another's territory? Vampires have territories?”
”It's not really a geographical territory. Not like marking a specific s.p.a.ce they defend. A newly made vampire can live with their sire or an older vampire for a decade or so. As vampires age and acc.u.mulate power, it becomes impossible for them to share households or spend time with each other. A physical separation of a few blocks might work if they're careful not to cross paths. The older a vampire gets, the more s.p.a.ce they seem to need. Visits with old friends have to be kept to a few short weeks.”
Thinking of Vlad's desire to have him take the position of Sentinel for this area, Zane realized the lessoning of the territorial impulse was a tangible job perk.
The ritual binding of a Sentinel to their region would ensure that the one responsible for the area could tolerate other vampires for longer periods. It would defeat the whole point of being a Sentinel if the one chosen couldn't spend enough time with the region's other vamps to protect them or determine whether or not someone posed a threat.
It also meant that with a Sentinel mystically bound to the land, other vampires could attend meetings without the inherent urge to fight. It still didn't make them capable of living with each other, but there was a general easing of tension.
Nicole wrinkled her forehead. ”What about Thomas? He lived here and you said he made you a couple hundred years ago.”
Zane smiled. She certainly had a great memory. ”Unfortunately, after several centuries of solitude and hiding what we are, a vampire can regress-or become completely crazy. Thomas never found joy in his life as a vampire, becoming melancholy and a little unstable over the last few decades. His power began to fade, which allowed us to live together.”
”So, why didn't Thomas get married so he wouldn't be alone?”
Her voice wrapped him in silk and heat and thinly veiled compa.s.sion. Zane kept his gaze on Nicole's questioning blue eyes. He could drown in those eyes. And while he wanted to look away, he owed her the truth.
What he hadn't counted on was how much it would hurt to say the words.
”Vampires can't have long-term relations.h.i.+ps. Females become just as territorial as males, Nicole. If Thomas had turned a lover into a vampire, he'd have had a decade or two with her before one of them needed to move on.”
Wincing at the thought, Zane continued, ”What kind of torture would it be, to love someone with your mind yet be instinctively incapable of living with them? And if he left his lover mortal, it would mean every day they shared brought her closer to death. In too short a time he'd be left alone again. To what? Find another human and watch her die too?”
He could see her struggling with the explanation. Watched her compare his sire's loneliness with their situation. He could sense the emotions overwhelming her. Because he was touching her, it was a simple thing to feel the compa.s.sion she had for Thomas, for him. She understood without him telling her that he would always live his life alone. He shared her sadness when she realized their time together was limited. He could explain the one-in-a-million chance he had of finding a true bond. But that would be cruel. It would give her something to hope for when there was no hope.
Nicole could never be more than a short-term lover for him. As much as he'd like another option, it wasn't up to him. He was relieved when she pushed her pain aside and changed the subject.
”So. You're not the soulless undead-I can feel your heartbeat. I've seen you drink coffee and you're awake during the day.”
Zane snorted. ”More ridiculous myths. Vampires are neither undead, nor sp.a.w.ned by the devil. Some are good, some bad. But it has more to do with what they were like when they were human. I'm not exactly sure how we came to be. We have simply existed since the beginning of time. There are ancients among us who have lived for thousands of years. Although I have to tell you, based on their reputations, I wouldn't want to meet one.”
”I have one more question. I've felt you in my mind. Is that normal?” Nicky's gaze had turned even more serious.
”Some vampires can read minds by just meeting someone's eyes. I can't. I have to be touching you and then I only get surface thoughts or impression. Which is why I couldn't get any information from Mike or JJ last night except for what they spoke aloud. I'd have to take their blood to get a peek at their thoughts, to influence them or make them forget. Or at least that's normally what I have to do.” He fell silent.
”When we have s.e.x, somehow we connect. I can feel what you're feeling, not emotions but the physical sensations. Is that a vampire thing? Is it because you're touching me?” Nicky s.h.i.+fted in his arms.