“Well, I’m glad my blood helps you to push this part of your consciousness to the front. I like talking to you. Do you have any interest in singing?”
He tilted his head. “Absolutely not. That’s a human concern.”
Well… that’s that, then. Okay.I sat back in my seat to watch the movie, but I didn’t really watch it so much as I stared at the screen and tried to absorb everything. I was sure the movie would be funny under other circumstances, I just wasn’t in the mood to laugh.
Maybe. Or something.
He wasn’t laughing either, but I wasn’t sure he would anyway. I’d never seen a vampire actually watch television or a movie.
“This is my second date ever. You brought me on my first one, too.” I mentioned it earlier, but I repeated it for something to say. Filling awkward silences was something I was constantly compelled to do.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “That resonates in my memory as a really good night. A happy human memory. There really weren’t many of them, and the most prevalent ones include you. And you’re obviously making quite an impression on my vampire memories, too.”
“Well, I’m glad to be memorable.”
He leaned his head against mine. “If we’re not going to watch this, and frankly I can’t tell if this is a good movie or not, because I can’t smell them, and that is really important to me. It’s a little bit like watching stick figures running around on screen. I can’t seem to really care about this story.”
That was interesting. “We can go. You paid for it, though, so I feel bad for wasting your money.”
“I took you out. It was what I wanted to do tonight. You feed me. I’ll do things for you, too.”
I don’t know why his words burned the way they did. He hadn’t really said anything particularly terrible, just talking about a quid pro quo. Since I fed him, he took me to a movie. It wasn’t because he’d been overwhelmed with wanting to take me on a date.
I’ve had that version of Tanner. He’s dead now.
No, this was how vampires treated their paramours. They fed off of them and bought them things. Somehow. I had to remember to treat them like a business transaction and not like people I cared about.
If I couldn’t feed them anymore, they’d stop doing nice things for me.
This really isn’t going to work in the long run.
They’d died and woken up with a different soul.
The trouble was, I still had mine, and I was still longing for the ones I lost.
Sex was all part of it, too. I got to have it because I let them feed. My blood gave them the ability. If I couldn’t do that, I wouldn’t get to have the intimacy either. My head started to pound. From one day to the next, I had to readjust my sense of morality and how I defined myself in their world. Once upon a time, the only thing I’d had was who I was. Now I wasn’t sure I had that anymore, either.
“Let’s go home. I need to get to bed. Work tomorrow.”
He nodded. “Yes. It’s still much earlier than you indicated, but that’s fine. Maci, are you okay? Your entire demeanor changed.”
Yeah, it’s important to check how your food source is doing. “I’m fine.”
My favorite four letter f word has certainly changed over time.
He took my hand, and I let him lead me to the car. Tanner didn’t try to drive, although he’d directed me there earlier, he made no move to take the wheel from me. I was glad to have that much control of my life. Small but significant moments mattered to me.
Or maybe I was just fooling myself.
We drove in silence for a while, passing houses until we were back on the one lane highway that took us through a patch of thick woods. We’d eventually get to our creek house from this road. Mountain laurels and oak trees shaded the world from view, and even at night I could see they were beautiful.
A flash of red caught my eye, and I gripped the steering wheel tightly.Did something just explode in the woods?“What was that?”
“I don’t know.” He whirled around, looking left and right and then doing it again, checking all around us.
It happened again, and I caught my breath. “Should I pull over?”
“Yes, but then don’t stop. Drive all the way home and don’t stop. Lock the doors. Tell Griffin we just stumbled upon a battle. I’m going to see if I can help.”