Dangerous Love (3 page)

“Tea would be wonderful, thank you,” she said as she carefully took a seat in the chair opposite of the one Vayna tossed her coat onto.
She placed her hands in her lap and looked around at everything. Her gaze fell onto the painting above the fireplace and a gasp escaped her. She was sure the painting wasn’t as old as it made one believe, but it looked like something directly out of that time era. Vayna looked absolutely beautiful. The older woman was beautiful dressed in a long, dark velvet dress that made her pale skin stand out like moonlight on a dark night. Sage’s fingers twitched, itching to reach out and touch the painting. She was convinced that if she but touched it, she could feel the velvety softness of the dress the ancient vampire wore.

Vayna
came back in holding a cup of tea and her own cup of liquid she made sure not to let Sage see. The dark red blood was like syrup in the cup, and she was glad she decided not to go with a glass. The young human definitely would’ve asked about it then. After being around her for just the few minutes they had met, Vayna was definitely in need of a drink. It wasn’t fresh, but it would satisfy her hunger for the moment. She set the mug of tea down next to Sage and gazed up at the portrait as she murmured, “That was done a long time ago.”

“It looks like it was done in the Victorian era…”
Sage said just as quietly as she picked up the mug and took a sip. She felt the calming effect of the tea settle over her and she sighed softly. She really loved tea. She couldn’t explain how she knew that she loved tea. It just tasted so good to her right then and there. She cradled the mug in her hands as she continued, “It can’t be that old, though.”

Vayna didn’t reply. She merely took a sip of the blood and hummed as the liquid flowed down her
throat. To humans, blood tasted coppery like metal. But to her, it had so many other tastes in it. This particular one was a young girl’s donation to the blood bank. At least, that’s what the bag said when she opened it.

Not that the
blood bank knew that a portion of their blood supply went into feeding vampires, but what the humans didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. She turned away from the portrait of herself and took a seat in the chair after moving her coat. She crossed her right leg over the other as she said, “Did you want to call the police now? There’s a phone book by the phone. I’m sure it has the local precinct’s number in it.”

“Oh, sure!”
Sage said as she put her cup down and followed the line of Vayna’s finger over to where the phone sat. She wondered briefly why Vayna didn’t correct her on the age of the painting, but she pushed it to the back of her mind. She stood up and made her way over to the phone. She looked through the phone book for the number and dialed. It rang a couple of times before a male voice came over the phone asking her what she needed help with.

Vayna sat in her chair listening to the one sided conversatio
n, occasionally taking a drink from her cup. The blood was cold, chilled from being inside the hidden freezer she had, but she didn’t mind too much. It wasn’t as good as fresh blood, but she made do with what she could get. Her thoughts drifted over to Sage and she vaguely wondered if the young human would mind donating her blood to a vampire. Almost as soon as the thought entered her head, she shook her head and dismissed it. Sage probably wouldn’t even stay around for very long anyway. Once she found out that there were people looking for her, she’d leave and Vayna would once again be left on her own. She wondered if it’d be worth it to try the club again after the young human left… with the way her mind was, there was no way she’d be able to stay in her apartment alone.

Her mind focused in on the conversation
Sage was having with the operator. The man, whom Vayna could hear clearly thanks to her sensitive ears, was going through the records of missing people under Sage’s name. The two waited patiently for the man to come back on the phone. She saw Sage visibly deflate when he announced that no one had been reported missing under that name.

“Really, there’s no one?”
Sage asked him. She nodded her head sadly when he told her there was no one and that he was sorry he couldn’t be more help. She sighed as she hung up the phone and walked back over to the chair. She had no idea what she was going to do now. Without anyone looking for her… there was no place for her to stay, and now she had no clue where to start looking for her past. She flopped down into the chair and dropped her head against the back of it as she sighed heavily again.

“They couldn’t find anything?” Vayna asked, even though she already knew the answer. Even if she didn’t have the heightened hearing, the young human’s body language was enough to tell her that the precinct couldn’t find any record of a missing report under her name.

“He said that there were no reports under that name in this state. I considered asking him if there were any reports that he could find in other states, but he seemed distracted,” She replied as she closed her eyes. She could feel the despair start to creep over her. How was she ever going to find where she could go if she didn’t even know her name? She possessed no money, and no clue where to go to stay… tears crept out of the corner of her eyes and she fought back the urge to cry. She felt an overwhelming sense of hopelessness possess her and she gulped back her tears harshly.

Vayna smelled the change in
Sage’s emotions. She knew humans weren’t aware of it, since their sense of smell wasn’t as highly developed, but the amount of hormones they gave off and the type of hormone changed depending on the type of emotion they were experiencing. She didn’t need heightened senses to tell how the girl was feeling, though. She stood up and set her empty cup on the table and walked around toward Sage. Kneeling in front of the young woman, she murmured softly, “Hey now. Don’t cry. I know it’s a difficult situation, but we’ll find who you are. Don’t worry.”

Sage
put her arm over her eyes to hide her tears. She didn’t want to cry in front of this exotic beauty, but she couldn’t help the overwhelming feeling of hopelessness that crept over her. Sniffling softly, she whispered, “I have nowhere to go. I don’t know where I’m going to stay. The park may be the only place I’ll have to sleep at night.”

“It’s too dangerous for that,” Vayna said immediately, her tone firm. This poor young thing was already having a tough time. If she stayed at the park… any human looking for an unsuspecting victim would find one in her.
Sage didn’t need to be raped on top of being homeless and confused. Standing up, she offered a hand out to her as she said, “You’ll stay here. I have a guest room. Until we find out who you are, you’ll stay here with me.”

Sage
lifted her arm off of her face and looked up into the compassionate blue eyes of the woman in front of her. Stay with her? She just met her. She still could be trouble, and she didn’t know if Vayna would hurt her… but there was nowhere for her to go... Staying here or staying in the park, either way she’d be hurt… and she wasn’t sure if she was willing to get hurt by a stranger in the darkness. At least if Vayna hurt her, she’d be able to point her out in a line up. Reaching out, she laid her hand in Vayna’s and smiled gratefully as she said, “Thank you. I’m sorry to be such a burden on you.”

“Trust me, you’re not a burden,” Vayna said as she pulled
Sage up off of the chair. She took a step back and tensed as the young human stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the vampire’s waist. She stood there awkwardly for a moment, not sure how to respond to the unexpected hug. Hesitantly, her arms came up and wrapped around Sage. The young human’s head was resting on her shoulder and she nervously rested her cheek on Sage’s crown. It felt strange to be holding someone this way after so long, but it felt strangely
right
. A wave of nostalgia crashed over her and she could’ve sworn she held Sage this way before in the past, even though they only knew each other for a matter of minutes. She couldn’t explain it.

They stayed like that for several moments before
Sage pulled her head back and looked up into Vayna’s eyes. She felt so grateful to the other woman that she wanted to do something for her as a way of saying thank you, but she couldn’t think of anything. She was penniless and homeless, without a clue of who she was. That left
very
little room for doing anything. Maybe she’d cook breakfast in the morning for her…

Vayna couldn’t stop thinking about
Sage’s eyes. They were such a beautiful color. Every time she looked into them, she felt like she was drowning in a storm. She couldn’t remember feeling this way before, and she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to. Her eyes flittered down to the young human’s lips and she unconsciously licked her own. She wondered if they would taste sweet… Before she could tilt her head down to capture them in a kiss, Sage backed out of her arms with a sheepish smile. She looked at the young human in confusion before Sage spoke, “I, uh… have to use the bathroom…”

The
vampire fought the urge to laugh, but didn’t stop the amused look that crossed over her face. Motioning with her hand, she led her out of the living room and up the stairs to the second floor. Passing by her bedroom, she stopped at a door in the middle of the hallway.

Opening it, she revealed
a very clean bathroom. Hardly anything was on the counter aside from a bottle of hand soap, hair spray, and a bag of make-up. The walls were light blue with a single painting of a loan woman standing on a rocky cliff. Aside from the shower curtain covering the shower, there really wasn’t anything else to decorate the room. It was bare, and Vayna liked it that way. She didn’t like being in a bathroom that was cluttered with different, useless things. Turning to her new roommate for the time being, she said, “This is the main bathroom. There’s another, smaller one downstairs. Go ahead and take a shower while you’re in here. I’ll lay out some of my night clothes on the bed in your room. It’s that room right there.”

Sage
followed the line of her pointing finger to a closed doorway and nodded her head as she eagerly moved into the bathroom and began to take her shirt off. She called a muffled thank you over her shoulder as she started to strip without thinking. Vayna’s eyes widened and she quickly closed the door. She would definitely need a long drink after this. Maybe she could sneak one while Sage was in the shower…

She padded away as the shower started running and walked into her room. She picked out a pair of old pajamas she never wore for the young human before changing into her
own usual black silk pajamas. She left her hair down, preferring to sleep that way instead of with it up. Her footsteps were as silent as a cat’s as she left the pajamas in the spare guest room and made her way down the hall into the kitchen. She grabbed the cup she used earlier and opened the hidden freezer that was located behind one of the cupboards.

Vayna sighed
in mild annoyance once she realized that she would have to open a fresh bag of blood. Leaving it on the counter, she fished out a pair of scissors from the drawer and cut the tube coming from it. She set the scissors down back in the drawer and was just about to pour it into the cup when her ears picked up on a barely audible gasp from behind her. Freezing for a moment, she turned her head and caught sight of Sage in the doorway to the kitchen, her eyes wide and staring at the bag in her hand. Vayna repeated every curse word in every language she knew silently in her head as neither woman moved. She shocked that she had been too caught up in her thoughts to not register the sound of the human’s footsteps. After a few moments, Sage lifted her hand and pointed as she asked, “Is that…?”

Vayna turned to face her completely, the blood bag dangling between two fingertips. She took slow steps toward the young human as she held it out
toward her so she could see it more clearly. There was no use hiding what she was holding. The young human already guessed what was in it. The ancient vampire internally winced as Sage took a step back away from her, but kept her face a blank mask as she said, “Blood?”

“Y-Y-Yeah…”
Sage murmured as she looked back and forth from the bag of blood to the woman’s face. She was scared and confused. Why did Vayna have a bag of blood in her hand? Why did she need the blood? Was it fake blood, or real? It certainly looked real to her. It even had an official blood bank symbol on the bag. She swallowed harshly before whispering, “Why…”

“Do I have a bag of blood?” Vayna finished for her. She didn’t say anything else for a moment, merely looking at the human. She could smell the fear pulsating off of
Sage and it was taking every bit of control she had to ignore the vampire instincts in her that were telling her to drop the bag and chase after the sweet young blood in the human woman in front of her. A rueful smile appeared on her lips, and with it she revealed the secret of what she was. Her fangs had elongated from hearing the fast heartbeat of the human and the smell of the blood that was thick in the air. It was a natural reaction she couldn’t help, but it helped get the point across.

“You really are
a… a vampire…?” Sage asked her voice shaky, her eyes incredulous. It couldn’t be… vampires didn’t exist. They were just something out of fairy tales. There’s no way that Vayna could be a vampire… but she watched as the other woman’s eyes turned crimson, and her skin slowly fade to a deathly pale, she knew. It was true. No matter how much her mind tried to argue that vampires didn’t exist, she couldn’t deny the evidence right in front of her.

Vayna was a
vampire.