Scent of a Vampire (16 page)

"I agree Janel is beautiful and it's obvious that she has a great passion for life."

I couldn't help myself, "Well, I bet the two of you look great together. Your both blond and know how to have fun. You're perfect for each other. I hope you'll be happy." I was jealous! I recognized this immediately. Why in God's name was I jealous of Janel and Alex? A vision of them came to my mind of Alex biting Janel the way he bit me and I had to hold myself back from hitting him.

"Whoa, baby, I don't want to be with Janel. She's nice and all but I wasn't joking when I said I had feelings for you."

"You mean you didn't sleep with her?" Alex smiled, "No I didn't sleep with her. Why would you think that?"

"Well you said she was beautiful." Now I felt like a fool.

And Alex had the nerve to actually laugh. "She is beautiful, but she is not you. And one day you
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will understand that how I feel about you is real and even if you love Roberto with all of your heart and soul, I will not change the way I feel about you."

I stared at him. I probably should not believe him, but I did. I won't lie and say it didn't feel good to have a handsome sexy man like Alex saying he wanted you with such force. It made me feel like I was cherished and that was really, really nice.

I took his hands in mine. "Alex, you make me feel more special than anyone has ever made me feel in my entire life. Thank you for that. It's a really big boost after having my exhusband tell me what a loser I was." Alex's raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You were married?"

Embarrassed I answered, "Yes and he left me for his secretary because he said I didn't satisfy his needs." Alex laughed. Alex laughed really hard. It was the kind of laughter that you heard and even though you don't know what's so funny, you have to start laughing too. I couldn't help but laugh with him.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh baby, if he only knew you were about to come into your Sensay powers. You are the hottest, most desirable woman on this planet. And he will never get a taste of it." Ahhh, the irony of the fact made me burst into a new fit of laughter and it felt so good after all of the tense situations of the last few days.

When I finally stopped laughing, I heard my stomach growl. "I better see if I can find us something to eat. I think I saw a gas station next door when we pulled in. I hope it's open all night." I looked at the bedside clock radio; it was just after three am.

I started for the door when Alex stopped me. "I know that I've asked a lot of you tonight. But I need to ask your help with one more thing tonight."

Without any hesitation I said, "Sure, what do you need?"

"I need you to cut me open and extract the bullet in my chest." He said matter of factly.

"What!? I can't operate on you." I said in a rather shrill panicked voice.

"Listen I wouldn't ask this of you if I had any other choice. But the bullet is lodged in my chest and hurts like hell. I think it may be against my breastbone."

"But the wound is closed. You healed. I would need a scalpel, and equipment and I have never operated on anyone. I'm a physical therapist, maybe if I worked in the operating room I might be able to do this but I can't Alex!"

"Olivia, I will help you through this. I've done this before." That thought scared me. "You've removed bullets from your body before? Do you get shot often?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. Thus is the life of a vampire. I was born in 1834. I came to the United
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States from Sweden in the early 1900's. A lot of Swedes re-located to Minnesota, me included. I served in both World War I and World War II, so yeah I've been shot, a lot," he chuckled.

"Do you move around a lot then?"

"Yeah, vampires and other species as a whole tend to move around quite a bit. It has to do with the long life you live. I moved back to Sweden in the 1950's. I lived in London for a period in the 60's and Las Vegas in the 1970's. I found I liked the casino industry and when New Jersey started building casinos beside the ocean I knew I had to build a place there. That was one thing I always missed being away from Sweden, was the sea."

I was amazed. I wanted to talk to Alex forever and hear all about his life. Imagine, living in London during the 60's.

"I'm Henry the eighth I am. Henry the eighth I am I am." I hummed.

Alex smiled at me, "I love when you burst into song like that. It makes me happy to hear you sing."

"Are you kidding?" I couldn't believe someone found my habit of singing endearing. I thought about how Roberto complained about it.

He leaned over and brushed a kiss on the top of my head,

"Nope, not kidding. Not about the bullet either. You can do this Olivia. I know you can. We can do this together." I took a deep breath. "Okay, I will try. Let's see what Leeds packed for us and then if I need anything I can check to see what they have at the gas station." We went through the backpack first. Luck was on our side because there was a first aid kit in there, along with some packets of food, a poncho, and some maps. Alex said, "Leeds isn't so crazy after all. This is a pretty good emergency pack."

I had gone ahead and opened the suitcase and said,

"Sonofabitch."

Alex dropped the backpack he was holding at my curse and hurried over to me, "Are you all right?"

"No. Look at the clothes he packed in here." Alex looked in and pulled out a little white tube top and then a black thong that was trimmed in red fur. Next came out a black leather bustier. Alex held the bustier and seemed like he was lost in deep thought.

I grabbed it from his hands and said in an angry voice,

"Can you believe Leeds bought me this stuff?" Alex swallowed hard, "Ummm Olivia, with your Sensay powers, do you ever feel like there are bolts of electricity flowing through your veins?"

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"Yeah it does when I'm really excit ... ohhhh." I stammered. Alex must have been picturing me in the leather and got excited. I couldn't help but look to the large bulge in his jeans.

Alex took a deep breath, "Its okay. Let's just concentrate on getting this bullet out. The first aid kit doesn't have a knife, but it has bandages and antiseptic, so we will just need to find something to make an incision with. Why don't you run over to the gas station and see if they have anything that might work. I would go but," he trailed off and glanced down.

"Ummmm, okay. I'll pick up some food while I'm at it. Maybe some orange juice to get my blood sugar back up." Alex was at once concerned. "Did I take too much blood from you? Are you feeling dizzy or lightheaded at all?"

I was touched by his concern, "No I'm fine. I'm just not sure if you might need to take more after your 'surgery'." Alex had that far away look on his face again. I shook my head, though I knew how he was feeling. The lust is very hard to control when the electricity starts running through your body.

"Okay, I'm going to head over to the station now." I said as I opened the door and slipped out.

Luck was on my side. The gas station was open all night. It was a short walk across the parking lot. When I opened the door to enter, the man behind the counter looked up. Taking in my appearance he dismissed me as a prostitute and went back to his car magazine. I went down the few food aisles they had first. I picked up some donuts, chips, and candy bars and put them back down. I couldn't let Alex see me pigging out on junk food. Though with the stress I was under it would have made me feel better.

Instead, I walked to the back of the store to the refrigerated section and found some fruit and packaged cheese. I grabbed a quart of orange juice and headed to the check out. I put everything on the counter and when the clerk looked up I asked, "Do you sell any type of cutting utensils?" The clerk said, "You want a knife? We have some small pocket knives in aisle two."

"Thanks." I turned and went down aisle two. The pocketknife was on the small side but it would have to do. As I was headed back to the counter, I grabbed the box of donuts I dropped earlier.

I checked my items out and went out the door, just as what I'm sure was a real prostitute, came in with a rather scary looking man. I tried not to stare. It was a little startling to find myself in contact with this part of the world. It wasn't a normal part of the world I moved in. You know this world exists. It just never touches me. It was kind of a surreal moment. I made my way back to the motel room and let myself in. I didn't see Alex anywhere and I panicked for a second, until I realized the bathroom door was closed. I set my bag down to unpack it. I heard a groan from the bathroom and ran to the door. "Alex! Are you all right?"

All I heard was another moan and I grabbed the doorknob ready to go in, terrified I would find Alex on the floor, passed out and bleeding or something. When the sounds became a little louder, I comprehended just what they were. I backed up slowly and as quietly as possible from
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the door. I sat down on the bed, unsure if I should leave but not liking the thought of sitting outside in the dark. So I just sat there and listened. It was strangely exciting, sitting here picturing Alex in there, stroking and pulling and.... I jumped up. I had to get out; go sit in the car or something. At that moment the bathroom door opened and Alex came out with his jeans still open. I was so embarrassed that I couldn't look at him. He came to stand in front of me. "Olivia, look at me." I looked up at him. "Don't be embarrassed at what you heard. I had to take matters into my own hands. Literally. It is painful to be so hard.

"I normally wouldn't have difficulty controlling myself but between being here with you and not being able to touch you and that damn Sensay blood, well, I had to do something."

"I'm not embarrassed by what you were doing. I'm not a prude or anything. On occasions I've had to take matters into my own hands too, you know."

He groaned. "Please for the love of God Olivia, stop." My eyes widened. "There is no way you can be in that kind of mood again. You just well, you know." He took my hand and placed it against the front of his jeans where there was an obvious bulge. "How is it you have no idea about vampires when you just spent two days with one? A vampire has the ability to make love many times in a night." He squatted down in front of me and looked me in the eyes. "If you were mine, you would have known that. I would have made sure I loved you long and hard my every waking moment."

I felt like I had to defend Roberto. "Well maybe he was concerned about me. Maybe he didn't want me to be sore. He is kind that way."

"Hmmm, maybe he was. And maybe what I would have done if you became too sore would have been to use my tongue on every sore spot on your body. As I told you our saliva has agents in it that promotes healing." I didn't like the fact I was learning more about vampires in the last few hours than in the two days I spent with Roberto. Still I felt I owed him to at least try and defend him. "Well, I'm sure he didn't want to frighten me with too many strange things at once."

Alex chuckled, "Yeah you're probably right. Knowing Roberto he was probably just concerned about you and didn't want to alarm you with an over abundance of passion." I didn't want to hear anymore. "Do you want me to take out the bullet or not?"

Alex stood up and removed his shirt. I stared at his muscular chest with a smattering of fine gold hair on it. When I shivered Alex asked, "Are you cold?" With laughter in his voice.

"Oh shut up and lay down on the bed." I snapped.

"Ohhh baby I've been waiting all night for you to say that." He wagged his eyebrows at me.

I couldn't help but smile back at him. He was quite the charmer.

I didn't want to do this but knew I had no choice. I went to the bathroom and got some towels
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and filled the ice bucket with warm water. I took an antiseptic wipe out of the first aid kit and wiped the blade of the pocketknife.

"Do you know exactly where the bullet is lodged?" He pointed to a spot right beneath his collarbone.

"Before you start, if I pass out, which I normally don't, but I'm thinking with your Sensay blood in me I'm going to feel this more than normal."

I hadn't even given that a thought. But it made sense, if I could feel pleasure more than normal; it stands to reason I would feel pain more than normal. Well heck, that wasn't good. Now I really didn't want to be doing this. Alex continued, "If I do pass out, don't leave the room. When I wake at dusk we'll continue on to Buffalo. I'm sure Roberto will meet us there. The sunsets just before eight tonight and it should only take us six hours to get to Buffalo. I can have you back with your parents by three am." I was overcome with emotion and hugged him hard.

"Thank you Alex. I'm so worried about them." He hugged me back. "I know babe, that is how I feel about my family too. I'd do anything to keep them safe. Tonight while we're driving I'll tell you all about them, especially my sister. Her and I are really close or were. I haven't seen her in a while." He sounded sad.

I took a deep breath, "Okay let's get this over with." Alex took one of the towels, corded it and put it in his mouth. He again pointed right to the spot where I should cut. I forced my mind to the place that I went with my patients when I needed to manipulate limbs that no longer worked. I knew it caused them pain but I also knew it was for their own good.

I steadied my hands the best I could and with no more hesitation, cut into Alex's chest.

Alex closed his eyes, so I had no way of knowing how much pain he was in. I made a small incision about an inch and a half long. Remarkably there was not a lot of blood oozing out of the wound. I knew I had to act fast because of Alex's accelerated healing.

I set the knife down and mentally prepared myself for the worse part. I closed my eyes and slid my index finger into the wound. Alex twitched a little. I started to move my finger around in the wound. I felt the bone but did not feel any bullet. I didn't want to probe too hard and make it worse if it dislodged and moved. I moved my finger a little to the right and felt the bullet. It didn't seem to be embedded in the bone but felt like it was resting up against it. With my free hand I reached in the first aid kit and got the tweezers. They didn't look like they'd be long enough but it was going to have to do. I carefully inserted the tweezers with out removing my index finger. I wanted to make sure that I didn't lose where the bullet was. I quickly glanced up to look at Alex's face. His eyes were still closed but he had broken a sweat on his pale face.