Eternal: Chapter One, Part 2

It was wonderful being away from the apartment. My element picked up on everything around us: the wild party-goers; the happily drunk couples; the families leaving the movie in the park, babbling excitedly; the varying conversations of people leaving the visiting comedian; and so on. I was ecstatic to be surrounded and filled with the sounds of life again, even more so now because I was fully aware of my connection to the air element; we were far more intertwined than I had known while alive.

“Are you pleased?”

“Very much so,” I said, unable to stop smiling. Now that he had turned me, it didn’t matter who knew we were together. Of course, we would eventually have to face the Vampire Council, considering he wasn’t supposed to turn me in the first place, but I forsook that train of thought. Right now, his hand was in mine, we were outside, and that was all that mattered.

“How are you doing?” His eyes scanned me nervously, as though afraid I would fall into a million pieces if the breeze so much as shifted direction.

Nudging him with my shoulder, I assured him I was fine. “I feel better than I have in a long time.”

Smiling and looking at me as though I was the only person he could see, he said, “I am glad.”

It amazed me how much my element was absorbing. I felt connected to Drei, to his every available thought and motion, as well as to everyone else if I paid enough attention. How much I had changed hadn’t occurred to me until then. Before I might have wanted to shut it all out and just be with myself; but I had been with myself long enough and the lively change was more than welcome.

“I love the night,” I said, needing to express some of the happiness bubbling inside me.

“You used to love the day,” he said, almost forlornly.

“I know;” I gazed up at him, my free hand pushing some of his shaggy brown hair behind his ear. “But I can’t have the day.”

“No, you cannot.”

“So I’ll love what I can have.”

“That is a good way to live.”

“Not always. Sometimes that’s just settling.”

“This is true. But if you settle for nothing, you lose a lot.”

“Now you’re just trying to sound smart.”

“Perhaps.” He smiled down at me, his pale amethyst eyes sparkling. I found myself kissing him in the middle of the sidewalk. His arms pulled me closer to him for a moment before he seemed to remember we were in public. Grinning, he pulled away from me. “This is not the place,” he said gently.

“I couldn’t help myself.” I honestly couldn’t. The other part of me—the vampiric essence now a part of my being—had been tempted and had very little restraint.

“You will learn to control it,” Drei said, slipping his hand into mine again as we continued on our promenade. “It will take some time, though.”

“Everything takes time.” I was almost sick of hearing the phrase and its variations. It seemed like all I had heard the past six years. My patience was quickly, and understandably, wearing thin.

“The only person you are waiting on anymore is you;” he glanced at me, and I knew I had been thinking too loudly again. “So what plans are you making to start?”

Shrugging, I said, “I haven’t been able to think much on it lately. I’ve been too distracted.”

“What by?”

“Being outside again;” I grinned sheepishly. “But I think the first move to make is gathering those who are going to help me the most.”

“Such as…”

“You know. Don’t pretend you don’t.”

He smirked. “I do know.”

“So if I forget anyone, you’d better tell me so.”

“Of course.”

We turned into the park in silence. It was pleasant, and there were fewer people around so it felt almost like an exciting secret. Kind of like we could hide each other from the world and always be together. Especially since the sounds of the city fell away in the park, replaced with the rustling of leaves, the sighing of flowers, and the whistling of a warm spring breeze. The ambiance was soothing and seemed to carry away even Drei’s worries. I couldn’t recall ever feeling him so relaxed; it seemed he was always stressed by one thing or another.

When we returned to the apartment, it seemed entirely too soon, like we had barely been away. Drei explained the sun would be rising shortly when I raised the complaint. He wouldn’t say if we could have stayed longer had it still been night for a few more hours. Instead, he suggested I change for bed—arguing I had tired myself out with excitement—and wouldn’t listen when I insisted I wasn’t at all tired.

After changing into one of the long satin nightgowns Drei had bought for me recently—he had taken to showering me with gifts, either out of remorse or in an attempt to placate me—I returned to the living room. He sat, reading one of his magazines, completely engrossed.

“Are you joining me?” I asked, curling up beside him and resting my chin on his shoulder.

Drei dog-eared his page and dropped the magazine on the coffee table. He turned to face me and kissed my nose. “If I sleep now, I will miss something very important.”

“Like what?”

His fingers brushed the hair out of my face, tucking it behind an ear. “Such as the call I am supposed to receive this morning.”

“From whom?”

“You will see soon enough,” he replied, his hand traveling down my bare arm and stopping on my forearm. He lifted my arm so he could examine it while attempting—and failing—to conceal his amazement.

“What is it?”

“This is the arm you burned, correct?”

“Yes,” I said slowly.

“When did you heal?”

Shrugging, I pulled my arm away from him and crossed it over my chest. “I don’t know. Probably during our walk.”

“Are you hungry at all, before you go to bed?”

I failed to see the connection between the two but answered, “No.”

“Not in the least?”

“Not at all, Drei,” I said, knowing it was weird as I used to feel hungry most of the time and just learned to ignore it. But I felt completely sated. It was strange, but I wasn’t going to pay it any mind. For the first time in almost a year, I wasn’t hungry; I counted myself lucky.

“That is not at all like you,” he said, regarding me carefully. “You are certain?”

“Yes. What does this have to with my arm, though?”

“I cannot be sure,” he said, though the set of his jaw revealed he was determined to find out. He didn’t like mysteries any more than I did; the only difference being Drei was allowed to know the answers and I had to find them myself.

Deciding the mystery wasn’t worth it—I was healed, that couldn’t be a bad thing even if it was puzzling—I stood, pulling gently on his hand. “If you won’t sleep yet, will you at least lie next to me until I do?”

“You have become very demanding lately,” Drei observed, standing and following me into his room—where I had been sleeping since my awakening. We still hadn’t been together past kissing, but we were both fine with that.

“Not really; I’ve only asked you for two things.”

“And what message do I send if I continue to give you everything for which you ask?”

“You love me;” I snuggled into his embrace, my previous energy quickly slipping away.

“That I do.”

“And I love you,” I added, yawning.

He kissed the top of my head, tangling a hand comfortingly in my hair, the other pulling me closer to him. “I know you do.”

Vampiric: Chapter Twelve, Part 4

Months passed like hours. The first couple were spent between sleeping and drinking. Against my personal desires, Drei helped me build up a resistance to my thirst, ensuring it would become easier over time. When I was awake, he brought news as I still wasn’t strong enough to leave the room.

I was shocked to hear Caroline’s revolution faltered and failed, withering away until only the bloggers vaguely remembered it had ever existed. Drei had said after she believed me dead, she began to lose heart in her project, blaming herself. Not even Ian could pull her from her guilt long enough to finish a broadcast. Slowly, she lost supporters as the call to action failed to be delivered and the news played it down as a joke. I was somewhat disappointed not even that insult could pull her from her depression.

With that came the truth regarding the shooting. In short, it was an anti-C group led by Martin—bitter at having not been given leadership over the camp—and Conan—sore about being found out as a snake. The long version: they had convinced a group of people that what Caroline was fighting for was far more sinister and would result in the extermination of “the pure.” Those poor dopes were talked into setting up a hit, but not for Caroline. With both of their leaders having a score to settle, and Martin too stupid to realize the revolution wasn’t remotely air-related, they set the hit for me. Martin had convinced Conan I had never been apprehended or killed and thus was the leader, with Caroline simply playing the front woman.

As much as that should have angered me, I felt sorry for them. Drei didn’t say anything explicitly, but I knew he was plotting something. It was against my better half to let him plan, but I overlooked it. They had, after all, shot me three times, even if they hadn’t been the ones to pull the trigger.

Drei also brought me magazines and papers so I could keep up with the rest of current events. At first I ignored them, not wanting to know what was happening, but was soon drawn into the tragedies of the world. It helped to re-motivate me. I had more time, but I wasn’t utilizing it, and I felt somewhat guilty about sleeping it away.

He was ecstatic I still had my element; he had been worried I would have lost it in my turning. To be honest, I had wondered the same thing until I began experimenting. If anything, I felt stronger and more in control. It seemed my turning had worn away any fears I had blocking my full potential. Either that, or it was having death nearly inhabit my body.

Even after I was physically strong enough to leave the room, Drei wouldn’t allow me to leave the apartment. He insisted I couldn’t for a while longer; not until it had all blown over. So to keep me entertained, he would encourage my experiments and shower me with gifts, occasionally kisses—but that was only rarely as he feared my new condition might cloud my judgment. Though often disappointed, I was grateful. It felt like a new entity lived inside me alongside my element. But this one came forward at his touch and terrified me. Drei promised I would adjust to that as well, learning to eventually control it.

One evening, after nine months of healing and adjusting, I sat watching the news; Drei was in the kitchen. They were covering a protest over a newly endangered rainforest and a recent natural disaster in a Pacific Island nation. Somewhere between the stories and everything else they reported, something clicked in my mind. Something rather unexpected.

“Drei?” I called, trying to determine how I felt. My mind raced between excited, frightened, serious, and calm.

“Yes?” he replied, handing me a mug of blood. I could feel his eyes taking in my mind’s dilemma before finally deciding on serious excitement.

“I think I know what I’m supposed to do,” I whispered, saying it aloud causing a bubble of excitement in my chest. I could barely contain myself. After so long, it seemed ridiculously easy to not have discovered forever ago.

“Truly?” he asked, measuring my response and not wanting to be taken in by a false alarm.

Staring at him, almost unable to see him for watching my idea bloom before me—taking definite shape and seeming to smile back at me—I knew it was too right to be wrong. I couldn’t be wrong; not this time. Not about this.

“I’m certain.”

End Book Two

Vampiric: Chapter Twelve, Part 3

It felt almost like the air had been sucked from my lungs. None of this was making the least bit of sense and it was starting to unnerve me. Why couldn’t he just come out and say whatever it was he was avoiding? He wasn’t making anything better or easier. It only seemed to be messier and more puzzling.

“I don’t understand,” I conceded slowly, hoping against odds the answer would come before he said it. His hesitancy was making me fear it, whatever it was.

“I lost my sisters, and it nearly ruined me,” he whispered. “I could not imagine what losing you would be like, and I never wanted to know.”

“Drei…what did you do?”

He stood, my slipping from his as though he had forgotten it was there, and started pacing along the foot of the bed. “What I did is unforgivable and I understand if you loathe me,” he said, refusing to look at me. “I never wished my fate on anyone—least of all you…but I cannot undo what has been done.”

“What did—” It clicked. I had changed, but I hadn’t died. Not entirely. “You turned me,” I whispered, not sure how I felt about it. On one hand, it meant I could be with Drei and it was considerably more difficult for me to die. It also meant I hadn’t failed yet. But on the other, it meant facing the Council, for they would know eventually. It meant never growing old or living a full life. Would I be able to have children if I wanted them?

“I could not imagine living without you longer than I had already,” he murmured, his pacing stopped but his gaze hidden in shame.

I stood—or tried to, I should say—to go to him, instead bringing him to me as my legs crumpled under my weight. “You are still suffering side effects,” he explained, helping me into bed again. “You will be weak for a while, until your body adjusts. It doesn’t help you were injured when I—” The sentence completed itself, despite my fogginess. “Your wounds are healed, however,” he offered hopefully.

Wrapping my arms around his neck, I said, “I love you, Drei. Nothing, not even this, can change that.”

“Not even the way I treated you?”

“I never stopped loving you.”

“Neither I you.” He held me in his arms, the embrace familiar but strange. If anything, it was more powerful, strengthened by his relief and our former separation.

Then the moment was ruined by me and my newly acquired thirst. He laughed uneasily, though he tried to feign lightheartedness. He left briefly and returned with a mug of warm, dark liquid. “Animal blood,” he offered.

“Do I have to?” My stomach felt sickened by the thought as my mouth watered for it.

“You will grow accustomed to it.”

“I don’t believe you.” I held out against drinking it a while longer before thirst won out. Surprisingly, I wasn’t tempted to gag at the coppery liquid. If anything, I wanted more. But Drei said I needed to learn to curb my thirst early on before I began experiencing blood lust. I wasn’t strong enough to press the issue.

“You need more sleep,” he insisted, setting the empty mug on the bedside table. “That is the only way to regain your strength.”

“You’re always telling me to sleep,” I teased, lying down again, exhaustion washing over me.

“Because you seldom tell yourself,” he replied, grinning, his fingertips gliding down my scar-less arm. I closed my eyes, enjoying his touch, soaking it up after having longed for it.

“Thank you,” I whispered, feeling myself drift off.

“Do not thank me for my selfishness,” he murmured softly into my ear as he lay beside me.

I thought about telling him how unselfish he had been. His motive was selfish, but in retrospect, he had done so much. He had given me the deepest secret he had as well as bought me more time to figure things out. He had saved me from failing, and no one else could have given me that. No one.