Immortal Beloved: Chapter Fifteen
Henry stared at her, “What?”
“Would you teach me to hunt?”
“Now?”
“Yeah, why not?”
“Vicki…” he sighed and shook his head. “Fine. I’ll teach you to hunt. But we’re doing this my way.”
“Like I know of any other way. You’re my Yoda right now. My Yoda of hunting. My Yoda of everything related to what I am. Teach me, you will.”
“You’re just so funny aren’t you?”
“I try,” and she slapped her hands together, rubbing them conspiratorially. “All right. What’s first?”
“First, you’re hunting me.”
“You?”
“Yes, me.”
“Why?”
“Because it’ll be easier to hunt someone who expects it than someone who doesn’t for now. If you screw up, there isn’t a chance of your getting staked.”
Vicki wrinkled her nose and stomped her foot. “I don’t want to hunt you!”
“Gee, thanks.”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, the easily bruised male ego is alive and well in you. I just mean that I want to hunt something I can,” she started to laugh, “Sink my fangs into.”
Henry rolled his eyes. “Very punny.”
She laughed gleefully, “I know. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘bite me’ doesn’t it? I don’t think Coreen will be saying that anymore around me!”
“Hunting is not just about deciding what prey you’re going to,” he shut his eyes and shook his head, “’sink your fangs into’. You have to create a rapport with them so that they’ll let you sink your fangs into them. Or using your thrall to hypnotize them into letting you feed off them. And, you need to learn where exactly to go on the neck. Would you know where to bite if a neck was in front of you?”
“I don’t know, come over here and let me see.”
Henry tried not to smile when he walked forward and stood before Vicki, tilting his head to the side. He watched her out of the corner of his eye inspecting his neck with great concentration.
“Right…here?” and she tapped on his neck just below the vein.
“Up.”
“Here?”
“Too far.”
“This sucks,” she said, annoyed, and then started to laugh again. “Can you put an ‘x’ on there or something?”
Henry took her hand and placed it over the correct spot. “There, that’s where you’d bite.”
She nodded, staring at it. “Okay.”
“Now,” he said, cocking his head to the other side, “tell me on this side.”
Screwing her brows together in concentration and biting her bottom lip, Vicki stared at his neck and then placed her finger on the mark she thought. “There?”
“Close. Pay attention to the vein. On a human it’ll be easier to see and it’ll thump for you, but on me my skin is pale enough to see where the vein is. It might not thump for you, but you can still see it. It’s important to get it in just the right spot, Vicki. You don’t want to scare them by poking around and creating a blood bath.”
“Okay, okay, I can do this.”
“Have at it, then.”
“Right…there.”
“Good job. You passed.”
“Can I get a gold sticker for my forehead?”
He laughed, “You’re not done yet.”
“There’s more?”
“A lot more.”
“There should really be some kind of manual for this,” she muttered.
Holding out his arms, wrists up, he asked her where to bite on his arm.
She bent over, inspecting his arms closely and Henry had to resist the urge to just grab her in them and kiss her again. Did she have any idea how much he wanted her? He wanted her and she wanted to learn to hunt.
“Right here,” she said, tapping his arm and then trailed her finger down his arm. “Right along here, right?”
“Yes,” he rasped.
She looked up. “You all right?”
“Ever play hide and seek as a kid?”
“Of course.”
“We’re going to play a game of hide and seek.”
She frowned and tapped her foot. “Let me guess- you’re hiding and I’m seeking.”
“Very good, Miss Nelson,” he answered, smiling. “And when you find me, you bite me.”
Her eyes widened and she took a step back. “What? Bite you?”
“Yes, to practice.”
“I thought that was a no-no.”
He grinned and stepped forward, cupping the side of her face. “Haven’t you figured out that I make a lot of exceptions to the rule when it comes to you?”
She gulped. “I might have.”
“Being bitten can be erotic.”
“It can be?”
“It is. You felt it that first time I bit you didn’t you?”
“But for two vampires?”
“Vicki, I believe you sinking your fangs in my neck is going to be extremely erotic,” he said huskily, “And if you’re a good girl, I might even return the favor.” Bringing his face just inches from hers, he gazed into her eyes, “Would you like that?”
Leave it to Vicki to ruin a heated moment by backing away from him and batting his hand away. “Okay, Romeo. How do we begin?”
“You know where the university campus is?”
“Umm…two blocks from here.”
“Exactly. I’m going to hide somewhere on the quad. You, my dear,” he instructed, tapping the tip of her nose with his finger, “Are going to find me.”
“It’s…dark.”
“You have vampire eyesight now, specially made for this. And now is a good time for you to use your acute sense of smell that you mastered so well last week. And don’t forget your ears. Everything is intensified, all for you to be able to hunt efficiently.”
“What if I can’t do it?”
“Since when does Vicki Nelson employ a defeatist attitude?” Henry asked in mock horror.
“Since she became a vampire and the rules have all changed?”
“I’m your Yoda right?”
“Yeah,” she said slowly.
“Then succeed, you will. There is no try, only do.”
She smiled, chuckling nervously. “Okay, I’m ready.”
“I’m off,” he said and pecked her lips quickly before sprinting away.
********
“I just had to ask to do this,” Vicki muttered to herself as she set off for where Henry had gone off to. “Instead of just dealing with the fact that he wanted to have sex with me, I ask him to do this. I don’t really want to do this. I want to have bagged blood. I can’t feed off a human, I don’t have charisma and charm - how in the hell am I going to convince some jerk to let me feed off him?”
Making her way to the campus, Vicki tried to calm herself and pay close attention to what she could smell, hear and feel. Henry’s scent was faint, other scents were much stronger and she concentrated hard on honing in on his scent. The sounds of the city surrounded her and it grew denser the closer she came to the quad. The university was huge, but the quad itself was not that huge. It was a good size, no doubt, but with some intense concentration, Vicki was hoping to find him. No, scratch that - she would find him.
Chewing her bottom lip, she made her way to the center of the quad where a bench sat. Sitting upon it, her back straight, she closed her eyes and inhaled. He was close. She could smell his soap and his cologne and it was strong enough to clue her in to the fact that he was close. Next came the sounds, the rustling of trees in the soft breeze, the sound of students chattering in the distance, heartbeats, breathing -
“Vicki.”
And of Henry saying her name on a whisper. Her eyes shot open and she stared straight ahead.
“Vicki.”
Cocking her head to the side, she decided his voice was coming from her far right. Her fangs grew and her eyesight grew even stronger. How do I do that? she wondered and peered into the darkness, the few canopy lights in the quad lending some light and therefore some help, but if she knew Henry, he was not one to hide in the open.
Standing, she worked hard to use all her senses, including the one of focusing on his energy, his being and extend out her feelers to find him.
“You can’t move,” she said to the dark.
“Yes, I can.” There was teasing in his voice.
She growled, “No you can’t.”
“But I will.”
Glaring into the dark, she shot off, determined to find him amidst some trees to her far right. And then she saw him bolt from behind a tree and run in front of her, just out of reach.
Determined to nab him, Vicki ran harder, faster and just when she was about to grab him, he shot to the left and down a nearly empty street.
“That does it,” she snarled, frustrated. He wasn’t playing fair and it was making something primal inside of her push through the surface. She could feel her blood pounding inside her, could feel something beastly rising out of her - he’d played dirty and now he was going to pay for that.
She followed close on his heels when he ducked down an alley and she lunged forward and managed to grab his jacket. As soon as she had a grip on it, she spun him to a brick wall, his back hitting it with force and she stood before him, panting needless air, and glaring at him. His eyes were black and sparkling, his fangs were extended and his chest was heaving. “Vicki,” he growled and tilted his head to the side, baring his neck. She didn’t even hesitate, didn’t even have a coherent thought in her mind before she lunged at him, sank her fangs into his neck and crowed inside at the almighty roar he let loose. A roar that spoke to that beast inside her that was out, loose, free, the beast that wanted his blood and much, much more.
Sliding his fangs from his neck, she looked up at him and sought out the dribble of blood she could feel seeping down the corner of her mouth with her tongue. All her mind processed was sweet, tangy, Henry, more. And then her back was against the wall and before she could blink, Henry’s fangs were in her throat and she understood that roar even more, for she let one loose too, just as she orgasmed.