I’d have to convince her that there were plenty of people waiting on me, and she needed to stay in town for work, and now, the dog. That would brighten the experience for her. I smiled and told him I’d call her this afternoon and let him know what she said. He grinned and kissed me goodbye, lingering for a much longer kiss than we generally said goodbye with. I tried to block out the feeling that he was saying “goodbye” with his goodbye…just in case.
After he left, I stretched out on the bed. My body was still a little stiff, and still felt really odd, but overall, I felt better. The ache on my neck was a manageable level, as the human and vampire sides within me worked together on fixing the damaged skin. My fingers went to the wound, the rustling on the bandage loud in my ear, and I had the sudden desire to shower and dress and try to appear normal, since I didn’t feel normal.
Bracing myself, I slowly sat up, the bed compressing a bit under my weight. My head swam for a fraction of a second and then cleared. I heard Jack and Alanna talking quietly downstairs as Alanna made him something to eat. In the side building, I could hear Hot Ben still snoring away. No other noises intruded on me, but I could sense where Halina was tucked away for the day and where Imogen was being deathly silent. I remembered that Teren didn’t breathe or move much when he slept, and figured that was what she was probably doing.
Wanting that shower, I slowly stood up. Well, that was my intention anyway, but my desire to be clean was so strong, as my sensitive skin could fell the layer of grime on it, that I blurred to my feet. I’d never moved at vampiric speed before, and really, hadn’t been expecting that side effect. It completely took me off guard, and not even having time to curse, I overshot my balance and crashed harshly to the ground.
“Emma? Are you alright?” I heard instantly from Alanna in the dining room.
Blushing, and grateful that at least no one saw that, I muttered, “Yeah, I’m fine…just clumsy.”
I carefully sat up on my knees and then stood up. Alanna’s concerned voice filtered up to me. “Oh, okay. Be careful. You need to concentrate on how quickly you move now. Everything for you will take a concentrated effort for awhile, then it will be natural.”
I nodded, then remembering that she couldn’t actually see me, thanked her. Great, just what a pregnant woman with a major case of space-brain needed – to have to super concentrate on everything. I had a feeling I’d be falling over a lot for a while. With my mind focused on every muscle contraction in my body, I slowly walked into the bathroom.
Alanna’s voice followed me. “Are you hungry? I can bring you up some breakfast.”
I walked over to the mirror and sighed at my reflection – my thick, wavy locks were the worst case of bed head I’d ever seen, dark circles under my eyes made me seem like I hadn’t slept in days, my lip had swollen from where I’d pierced myself yesterday, and the bandage on my neck was comically huge. My enhanced sight could also see the slight red tinge seeping through it. My stomach growled and my fangs dropped down, luckily not piercing anything this time. Staring at them, I focused on pulling them back. It was more difficult than you’d think. They resisted slipping back up, but like purposely contracting a muscle, I eventually made them hide again.
I sighed again and answered Alanna. “I’m going to attempt a shower, then I’ll come down and join you. Wish me luck,” I muttered softly.
I heard her faint laughter. “Good luck.”
I turned on the shower, adjusting the knob until the temperature was how I liked it. Walking back to the mirror, I wondered if sunlight would be an issue for me. Teren had told me once that his family had the same reaction to light after their conversion as before. I’d been sequestered in our room here at the ranch for days. I hadn’t been in direct sun yet. But I took it as a good sign that I wasn’t suddenly Halina’s roommate in her lightproof dungeon. Our room had heavy, beaded curtains that were closed when I’d woken up, but it was nowhere near as light resistant as Halina’s pad. Or Imogen’s dark room for that matter. Plus, neither Teren nor Alanna had mentioned anything about it. I took that as a good sign. I don’t know if I could handle never seeing daylight again.
Looking at myself in the mirror again, I slowly began tearing off the bandage over my wound. It stung where it pulled away from my skin and I paused. Taking a deep breath, I let my control over my muscles relax and ripped the material off lightning quick. I hissed in a sharp breath and clasped my hand over the surge of pain. Finger by finger I removed my hand. The wound was as horrific as I’d imagined, and it was days old now. Red, raw, blood-encrusted skin, with a distinct oval shape that was obviously from a mouth. Twin deep holes were at the top, right over my jugular, and the remaining teeth gouged deep into my flesh, the top and bottom edges ripping the skin ragged where he’d dug in. He’d practically torn a chunk out of my skin to get to the blood beneath. It was horrid and I could see a couple places where someone had sewn me up with a stitch or too, the stitches themselves pulled out, but the skin puckered back into place. I knew I’d have a scar there permanently.
Anger surged through me as I ran a finger along the bumpy scar. Prick vampire. In my irritation, I lost control on my teeth and they came back down. Too irritated to do anything about it, I left them down and angrily jerked off my clothes, hopping into the shower.
The warm water calmed me back down and I was able to tuck them away again while I was dressing. With the wounds cleaner, they weren’t quite as horrific, although they were still not pleasant to look at. I left them uncovered and fluffed my hair to partially cover it. As I took in my clean appearance, I felt a little better, and was starving. I moved to the door, but let myself do it a little too fast and stumbled as I ran into the knob. Really grateful that Teren wasn’t witnessing my awkwardness, I opened the door and carefully walked down the elaborate staircase that led into the entryway. Not wanting to fall down the stairs, I had to focus hard on every single step.
I hit the bottom step right as Hot Ben walked into the room. I smelled him before I saw him; he did not smell good. I wrinkled my nose at the scent of scotch and vomit wafting from him. He didn’t look much better. His eyes were bloodshot, his highlighted hair sticking up on one side and flat on the other. His clothes were rumpled, obviously still the ones he’d fallen asleep in (or passed out in) yesterday. His face, although still sculpted and gorgeous, was pale and slightly green.
He looked up at me when I stepped off the last stair, a small smile on my face that I hadn’t tumbled down them. “Hey,” he whispered.
I wanted to hold my breath at the smell on his. “Hi, Ben. How are you doing?”
He gave me an ironic smile and brought his hand up to point at my neck. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”
I shrugged and hid my wound a little better, not wanting to freak him out even more. His eyes locked onto my scar though and something in his visage changed. Suddenly he straightened taller as he stared at where I’d nearly been killed. His blue eyes shifted back to mine and his entire demeanor seemed more focused than I’d seen in awhile....