Chapter 6: The vampires of my life
Flabbergasted, I stared at Dave, still trapped in his arms. No, I must have heard wrong. Me, a vampire. Ha, the joke of the year. Till the age of 12, I was actually frightened of the dark. It was just the emotions, nothing else.
'Huh?' I looked at Dave dumbly, willing him to repeat what he had just said. I had cried so much and been in a heightened state of emotions for so long that my hands started to go numb. When I was very stressed, my blood pressure usually went down.
As if I was a mere rag doll, Dave lifted me onto his lap. He started rubbing my arms up and down, generating warmth in them. 'Did you never find it odd to see that Nani never seemed to grow old?'
His words got me thinking hard and I thought back to the old pictures I had seen of Nani and the moments we had shared. Across the years she had barely taken a new wrinkle and I had put it on the account of the Korean skincare habits she had adopted. She was the one to get me hooked too.
'It just doesn't add up. You have to realize that a few hours earlier I never even suspected the existence of vampires and now you're telling me that it's in my blood. Talking of blood, do you drink any? I asked looking at Dave suspiciously. I surreptitiously used that moment to wipe my nose on my sleeve for lack of a tissue paper.
'Yes, I do. My body needs it to function. Just like it needs carbs, proteins and vitamins.'
'So you go around, sucking blood from people,' I said unconsciously touching my neck where I could feel my erratic pulse.
Dave actually threw his head back and his full-throated laughter was pleasant to the ears. He quickly calmed down and using the nail of his index number he gently brushed it against the skin of my neck, making me break out in goosebumps.
'Frightened I might bite you here?' He then shifted his trailing finger to the inside of my wrist. 'Or here?' A delicious warmth started pooling in my body and a tremor ran through it. I unconsciously spread my legs wider.
His lips came closer to my neck and I could feel the warmth from his breath on my skin. My breath started coming in gasps and I was vaguely aware that my fingers were clenched in the shirt he was wearing. I unconsciously bent my head back as if offering him easier access. I felt his lips barely graze my skin, it was still as soft as before with the locket. Then....nothing. Cold air touched my skin when Dave abruptly moved his head away and I came to my senses.
I was sitting in the lap of a vampire, baring my neck to him and actually enjoying it like a hussy. I unceremoniously scrambled from his lap and stood up in front of him. He also looked affected before his face shuttered and he looked as calm and collected as usual.
'Vampires don't need to force their victims to get their blood.' I understood that when I realized that I was ready to do the same a few seconds ago. So had he only been trying to teach me a lesson?
'But I don't drink fresh human blood anymore, unlike the Vetala,' Dave claimed, standing up. 'Our civilization has progressed and we now have synthetic blood. Just like in your supermarkets you have your milk in liquid or in powdered form, it's the same for blood. It's not like the fresh one, definitely, but it does the job.'
'What about your fangs?' I asked looking at his mouth.
He grinned to show me his row of pearly whites and his canines were the usual size.
'Retractable. They only come out when we need to use them.'
But I protested, 'You said I have vampire blood, but Nani doesn't drink blood. I would have known if she had added powdered blood in her tea.'
'It's late, we continue this conversation in a few hours.'
I opened my mouth to protest, but before I could say anything, he had simply vanished. One second he was in front of me and the next, he had left and closed the door on his way out. Must be one of the vampires' prerogative, I said resentfully.
I went to the adjoining bathroom - not as lavish as the other one, but still quite grand. It had a bathtub with one of those fancy hydromassage functions. I felt like trying it out but I knew that my body was craving sleep. I undressed wearily and had a quick shower, using Dave's shower gel.
'Mango and mandarine essence,' I read. It was so soothing to have the warm water sluice over my warm skin and the lather didn't dry out my skin. I dried up with the towel resting on the rail and slipped in the bathrobe hanging on a hook at the back of the bathroom door. Then, barefoot, I walked to the inviting bed and launched myself on it without even changing in the outfit I had laid out carefully on the side of the bed. I felt so warm and cocooned in the bathrobe that I quickly fell asleep and was snoring away. Sleeping on the belly did that for me.
A loud noise interrupted my sleep and I opened my eyes to find angry red eyes were staring at me in the darkness. I tried to walk away from them as fast as I could but the bathroom slippers I had on kept making me trip. I kicked them off and started running, but I could feel the creature catching up on me. The growls were coming nearer and nearer. My heart beats were accelerating and big drops of sweat were flowing down my temples. My bathrobe kept getting trapped between my knees, halting my movements from time to time. Suddenly I tripped over something and I went flying down. I threw my arms in front of me so as to protect my face during the fall and then immediately turned around, in time to see a furry animal with big sharp teeth launching itself at me. I screamed in pain as I felt its teeth tearing the skin from my forearm. I threw out my leg in an attempt to kick it off and I felt it make satisfying contact with skin and heard a grunt. Then I felt it shaking me so hard that my eyes flew open.
My eyes flew open and looked straight in Dave's frightened eyes. I reached out my hands and touched my right forearm. The skin was intact. My breath was still coming in hard puffs and it slowly came to my comprehension that I had only been having a bad dream. Leaning on my elbows, I lifted my chest and looked around me. I was still in bed, with the sheets and bathrobe all twisted around me. Dave was in front of me, looking at me with concern.
'You fine?' he finally asked.
'I had a nightmare,' I mumbled.
'I guessed. And I'm sure that the creature must have been hurt with the kick that you gave him.'
'How do you know about the kick?' I started asking him before I noticed that he was rubbing his chest with a grimace of pain. 'Oh my goodness, was it you that I kicked? I'm so sorry.'
I hurriedly pulled myself up and kneeling on the bed, I reached out to touch his chest. His bare chest. I looked up at him but his eyes were not on mine, they were looking elsewhere. I followed his line of vision until it reached my gaping neckline. During the night, the belt of the bathrobe had come half undone, baring my skin. Mumbling an apology, I fastened it again, with more force than necessary, trying to hide my embarrassment.
'I heard you screaming, so I came to check on you.'
'I saw a big creature with red eyes. It was very furry and aggressive...'
'A werewolf,' Dave stated glumly.
'Sleep with me, please,' I finally said. Looking at Dave's frown which had almost reached his hairline, I realized what he must have understood and flustered, I started waving my hands about, trying to explain, 'NO, no, I meant, please stay in the room with me. The bed is quite large. You sleep at this end and I'll be at the opposite end. I'm afraid to dream again. Please,' I ended pleading.
'Okay.' He gently pushed me on the mattress and covered me with the blanket which had been thrown to the foot of the bed. And then he got up on the other side.
I thought that it would take time for me to fall asleep as I couldn't help but stare at his smooth back. He was only wearing pyjama bottoms slung low on his hips and nothing else.
'Sleep,' he ordered without moving a muscle.
I smiled and yawned. Two minutes later, I was out for the count.
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