Chapter 5
Vampire lay staring into space long after the fille (girl) went to sleep.
The lonely feeling, the emptiness of earlier was gone. In its place was Shannon, the fille his human-self had saved.
What was it about her that made him almost, dare he say it, content? It was a strange feeling, this contentment, it made him want to keep her, but he knew he couldn’t, for she is human. She would age and eventually die, whereas he would remain twenty-seven for a very long time for vampires were immortal.
Vampire twisted around so that he was laying on his side facing her. Bringing his hand up, he felt tingles of electricity run through it as he ran his fingers through her hair. Her face was smooth and blemish free, her light-colored brows perfectly shaped over her eyes. She had a small slightly upturned nose; that he had noticed she liked to wrinkle in thought.
Vampire’s gaze then fell to her lips. Those pink bow-shaped lips that almost screamed “kiss me”, and he wanted to do just that. Oh, how he wanted but he didn’t. Instead, he brushed his thumb gently over them, feeling their warmth.
Shannon moaned lightly, murmured something that, even with his enhanced hearing, he missed.
“Hm...? What did you say petite?” Vampire whispered.
She moved a little at the sound of his voice before murmuring again, “Kiss me.”
Vampire knew she was only talking in her sleep, but he wanted to taste those sweet lips so badly that he pushed away from the feeling that he was taking advantage of her. Bending his neck, he touched his lips to hers, careful not to scratch her with his fangs. He moaned his pleasure as her lips moved in sync with his.
He heard her light moan as she moved her body closer to his. Her breasts now brushing up against his chest as she threw her leg over his hip. Giving a groan of his own, Vampire lightly nipped, sucking on her lower lip until she parted them for him. Slipping his tongue in, he tasted and savored her, for she tasted of orange juice and mint.
It is a flavor I won’t soon forget, he thought as he broke the kiss.
She whimpered, and her eyes fluttered open.
Vampire started to draw back, but she tightened the leg over him.
“Vampire?”
“Oui?”
She gave him a sleepy smile as she told him, “I dreamed you kissed me.”
“It was no dream petite,” Vampire said as he rubbed his thumb along her jawbone.
Her eyes moved over his face as she studied him. Then reaching up she ran her hand along his face. The feeling of his sharpened cheekbones, and how his lips poked out over his teeth. Then she ran a fingertip along his fang. Her cheeks turning bright red as she stuttered, “I-I know this is gonna sound really weird, and... but I want to...?”
Vampire raised an eyebrow at her wondering what she wanted. Her heart was pounding over it, whatever it was.
After a moment, she placed her hand back on his cheek, before raising up to kiss him. Somewhere in her kisses, she paused a bit, and that was when he felt it. She ran her tongue along one fang, and then the other before almost sucking on it.
Vampire felt his breath stutter as she did this. Then, a hissing groan escaped him as he felt desire run down his spine. When she did it again, moving her tongue down his other fang, that flicker of desire became a flame and his shaft went hard!
Vampire was now fully aroused, and when the cause of it gave her own moan; he tumbled her onto her back under him. He now lay on top of Shannon, putting just enough weight on her to feel her sweet curves and warmth without crushing her. He continued to kiss her the best he could despite his fangs because he needed her.
Wait! Do I need her? Vampire questioned himself as he pulled back to stare down at her. Non, I don’t NEED her, or anyone!
A new thought fluttered through his mind like a gentle breeze, but we do need her. She makes us feel complete and not so alone.
He knew this thought belonged to André. So, Vampire growled back internally in disagreement, Non, we do not, we are a vampire! I never needed anyone before, and I don’t need her now.
Fine, the human in him shot back. Then I need her! I’m tired of being alone. I want someone to hold, someone to talk to. I want someone to care for me and... I long for the intimacy a woman brings into one’s life!
“Vampire, are you alright?” Shannon whispered.
Vampire turned his focus from his internal debate back to her to say, “I am fine but...”
“It’s okay if you don’t...” she took a deep breath. “I mean, maybe we’re going too fast. I don’t... I’m really not the kind of girl that shags everything that moves.”
Vampire cocked his head. “Shags?”
Shannon laughed lightly and said, “Has sex with.”
“Ah,” Vampire said. Then, he moved off her because he still wanted her so badly, he could hardly think straight. Maybe a bit of distance will help.
Shannon snuggled back up against him with a sigh. She then said, “Maybe we should talk about the fact that earlier you bit me, and I thought you hated me. About how we went from there to almost...?”
“Shagging?”
“Yeah, that…” she muttered, her voice trailing off once more.
I know exactly what she is saying, and I must agree. We went from one extreme to another in a very short time. So, he said, “Hate you? I don’t know you, and being a vampire, I don’t love or hate, I just... exist.”
Shannon raised up to look at him sadly, saying, “That seems like a sad way to live. Everyone needs love in their life. I think...” her eyes dropped to his chest then, “I think that’s why I put up with what my dad did to me because I hoped that one day, he would love me like he used to. I wasn’t willing to accept that maybe he no longer loved me.”
Vampire frowned until he remembered what she had said about her father last night. He then asked, “So, you were abused by your father?”
“Yeah. When you, or André, found me, I had given up. I had given up hoping and on living. I finally realized he would never care about me again, and decided that I was better off dead,” she looked up, her eyes watery. “I know this might sound strange, since I’ve only been here two days, but I feel safe here.”
“I think you have made a big impact on André, and I must admit you’re growing on me also,” Vampire told her. “Now, as to what we started, yet didn’t finish... I have not had a woman in a very long time. Not for companionship or... for relations. I suppose you could say I have become bored with life, and it takes a lot to catch my interest, but you mademoiselle, you have caught my interest.”
She gave him a bright smile, and a kiss on his lips. Then, as she lay her head back on his chest, she whispered, “You have caught my interest also.”
They just lay there then, content with the silence between them, and it was such a strange feeling for him.
André’s voice once more whispered through his mind, saying, but it feels nice, doesn’t it?
Vampire had to admit, it did. So, he just lay quietly listening to the gentle sound of her breathing, until he began to feel the sunrise in his bones. The pull of sleep was heavy, and his eyes closed.
“Bonne Nuit petite,” (Goodnight little one) Vampire whispered before letting the darkness take him into slumber.
Shannon awakened to the feeling of being watched and quickly opened her eyes. She scanned the face of the man who almost hovered over her, and her heartbeat slowly calmed. She murmured, “Vampire.”
“Bonjour mademoiselle Shannon,” Vampire said with a slight nod. He then leaned down toward her, running his nose along her neck, as he said, “You have no idea how long I have laid here listening to the sound of your blood pounding in your veins. It calls to me like no other, yet I couldn’t seem to take what I wanted. Instead, I feel this need to ask for it. Why? Why now, why you, what is so different about you? I have never needed permission, I have always just taken what I want.”
Shannon watched his face as he spoke.
His desire for her blood was there, and the confusion about the need to ask for it. He wanted to be cold of heart, and unemotional with her, yet for some reason, he couldn’t be. This seemed to puzzle him greatly, and it puzzled her a bit too. He wanted to know why she was so different, but she had no answer for him. Neither did she have an answer as to why she was drawn to him like a moth to a flame. So, she just told him, “You draw me to Vampire, perhaps we can figure it out together. For now, though, take what you need. I’ll give it willingly on one condition.”
He tilted his head. “Condition?”
“You get me a big glass of O.J. after.”
“O.J.?”
“Orange juice,” Shannon told him.
He nodded, carefully kissing her before dragging one of his fangs along her lower lip.
“Don’t tease me,” Shannon whimpered as she remembered his almost drug-like kisses.
Vampire gave a chuckle, kissing her again.
This time, she carefully turned to pull on his lip with her teeth before running her tongue along one of his fangs.
He gave a hissing growl. “Now who’s the tease?”
Raising her hand up, Shannon put it on top of his head. Then, she ran her fingers through his hair before tugging him toward her neck as she asked, “I thought you were hungry?”
“Oh, ma chérie, j’ai très faim!” (Oh, my darling, I’m very hungry) Vampire whispered in French, his breath moving across the skin of her neck like a caress.
The feel of it had her hormones tumbling in her tummy, and her thighs clenching in need. What is it about him that makes me feel this way?
At sixteen, Shannon had rebelled against the stress of having to work, go to school, and dealing with her mom being sick. So, she had found herself a loser of a boyfriend to hook up with. Biggest mistake of her teen life! She’d ended up smoking something, not sure what since that night is still hazy, and ended up giving him her innocence. She was so glad she hadn’t ended up pregnant on top of everything else.
Just thinking of it had cured her of wanting drugs or meaningless sex to forget things because all that did was make things worse, not better. So, he’d been her first, and her last. Yet now she had a strong urge to jump this vampire’s bones because he was...!
Her thoughts stuttered as he bit down. She moaned at the rush of desire she suddenly felt. Then she cried out, “Ah!”
The feeling... oh, the feelings that were running rampant through her body right now. She felt need and desire, but also completeness. Suddenly, she felt as if he was the perfect one for her, so strange and surreal; because she’d never felt this way about anyone before. She tightened her hand that gripped his hair as the urge to rub herself against him like a cat in heat grew stronger.
Suddenly, she felt emotions, emotions that didn’t belong to her. She could feel his emotions as they flowed through her. His desire for her, his wanting to protect and keep her, but most of all his confusion as to why he felt this way.
He pulled away and, after licking the wound, he raised his eyes to look at her.
“Did you feel anything... different when you fed on me just now?” Shannon asked gently as she lay gazing into his eyes.
He shook his head but didn’t speak, he just continued to gaze at her.
Shannon bit her lip in thought, maybe I imagined those emotions moving through my head. I mean, it only lasted for a moment, but surely, he should have felt it too? I was so sure I felt a flood of his emotions though…? Giving a slight huff, she let it go.
“So, how about that...” Shannon’s voice faded as she felt another rush of emotions. This time it was a strong need to kiss her, while his hands explored her body. She also felt his worry that she might reject his advances.
Oh, I am certain I’m feeling this, and no, there will be no rejecting his touch EVER! Shannon thought, almost moaning at the thought of him doing just about anything to her. Just thinking about what those big hands of his would feel like against my bare skin drives me nuts! So, she decided to encourage him by pulling his head down once more and locking her lips with his.
He took over then, his lips moving on hers, nipping and licking a bit before she realized his fangs were gone. Feeling that, she tugged his head closer, and encouraged him to deepen the kiss. She then picked up his hand, and placed it on her breast, groaning when he lightly squeezed.
When he broke the kiss, Shannon lay there, taking deep breaths.
Then he began whispering as he slowly kissed his way down her neck. In French, he murmured, “I want to feel your bare skin against mine my darling.”
Shannon shivered at the husky timbre of his voice. She had no clue what he had said, but it sounded so sexy when he said it. Opening her eyes, she saw him watching her.
Only now he was André again.
“I have no clue what you said, but keep talking in that sexy voice of yours, and I’ll go along with whatever you want,” Shannon told him breathlessly.
André opened his mouth to speak, just as a knock sounded on the door. With a frown, he stood.
“Are you expecting someone?”
“Non, and most of my friends call before coming. Let me go see who it is,” he answered.
Shannon gave him a nod, even as she stood up, only to start swaying.
“Whoa petite,” André said, as he reached for her arm.
“I think I should have that orange juice now,” Shannon told him as she sat down.
André hurried off, but soon returned with her juice, saying, “Drink, I’ll get the door.”
The doorbell sounded again, and he gave that hissing growl of his as he began to glare.
“Go, baby, I’m fine,” Shannon said as she made a shooing motion at him.
Somehow, she knew he was worried about her and didn’t want to leave her side, not even to answer the door. She really didn’t understand how she suddenly felt these feelings of his. She did wonder though if he could feel her feelings also.
“But you were dizzy, maybe I took too much blood from you. I should stay and...?” André stopped when she placed a finger over her mouth in a hushing motion.
“I’m fine, let the juice do its job. You get the door, and I’ll dress. Then you can take me out for a burger and fries okay.”
He nodded and reluctantly left the room to answer the door.