Sucking Bites (San Francisco Vampires Series #3) (10 page)

“Does Sebastian know you’re in here?” My heart would be palpitating if it could.

“No, so be quiet. He’s busy with Liam and Julian. He’ll probably be along soon enough. I took a small break so I could pop in to be here when you woke.”

Damn my waking up at exactly the same moment every day!

“I hear him on the stairs. Go. I don’t want to set him off so early in the day,” I beg my jubilant jinni.

“If you say so,” he says with a wicked smile, nuzzling my hair before he evaporates.

Just in time. Enter Sebastian, stage left. Sometimes my life feels like the script of a daytime soap.

“I wanted to get here before you woke up. I’m sorry, Cherie. How are you this afternoon?”

“Fine,” I lie.

Aidan’s games, while amusing can be taxing. That was just too close a call. Damn Aidan.

“Good, I had Andrew brew some fresh coffee and it should be ready after your shower. I would join you but we have a guest downstairs and I think it would be rude to do so. Although maybe if we hurry…”

“Sebastian! I am perfectly able to go one day without sex.”

“It’s been more like four days and I’m not sure I’m able to go that long without being inside you.”

“Ohmygod! It has been that long. Okay, if we hurry…”

After our quick shower, that was oh, so right, we get dressed. Sebastian in jeans and a V-neck sweater and me in a peasant sleeved black mini dress. I think the generous sleeves make it easy for blood tests. We join the others in the library.

“I understand what they mean about noises coming from the end of the hall now,” Liam says smirking at us. Liam looks rested and at ease. His gentle teasing suggests he can be  charming when he isn’t fighting off his dark side.

Aidan is uncharacteristically quiet. My heart goes out to him, it really does, but he needs to understand that I love Sebastian. Andrew brings in the coffee. I make myself a mocha.

“It was relatively subdued this morning, Liam. It gets quite ridiculous at times. Why do you think we are soundproofing their room?” Andrew says.

“I apologize if we made you uncomfortable, Liam,” Sebastian says.

“Not at all. My partner and I had a very healthy sex life. He left me a month ago. About the same time I lost my job. No one believed me when I said I couldn’t remember where I had been for those days.” His voice is light, barely hinting at the devastating changes he’d experienced with no self-awareness of what had been happening. Liam tells the others what he told me on the phone. “I was so depressed and scared. I just stayed in my place and ordered take out. I was afraid to leave. Then it all started again. This time, I had flashbacks of attacking a woman and I was at my wits end. I called a suicide hotline and spoke with a really nice woman on the other end of the line.” He bestows a sweet smile on me. “The rest is history as they say.”

“You’re better off without Brent, Liam. If he couldn’t believe you and stick with you through this, than he wasn’t worthy of you,” Andrew sniffs.

“Thanks, Andrew. What does Phillip think of all this?” Liam says as he includes all of us with a wave of his hand.

“He never knew. He thought I had eccentric employers. Then he had a chance to choreograph for Broadway, and had to move of course. I was happy to see him get the chance.”

“Have you ever wanted to become a vampire?” Liam asks.

“Oh brother…” Julian says.

“What did I say?”

“It’s just that Andrew used to ask almost weekly for us to turn him. We are morally against turning someone into a vampire. This is the first time we have ever had someone ask for it. We’ve talked about the special circumstances and made sure that Andrew is well informed and have decided that if he wants to be turned we’ll do it,” I explain.

“And…” Liam asks.

“And, I decided to wait a little bit longer, but yes I still want to be changed, before I have any wrinkles or grey hair.”

“That would suck to be immortal and grey,” Liam agrees. “I wonder what would happen to me if I was turned.”

“That’s a very interesting question.” Julian gives us a significant look. “I will have to think about it,” Julian says eventually. “It might slow down the effects of the were disease. It would also curse you to an eternity of moon phases.  I think we need to know more before we go there,” Julian concludes.

“We should start the tests, Julian,” Sebastian reminds him.

“Yes, sorry. You can’t throw something that interesting at me and not expect me to get sidetracked,” Julian’s humor can be self-deprecating and dead-on so to speak. Not that it hasn’t been pointed out to him by his lover for the past five centuries. He’s a good sport about Helena’s gentle teasing. “Liam, Lily if you will follow me to the lab, we will start with some blood tests and follow them up with some simple physical tests, like reflex, vision and strength.”

Julian’s lab is a grand, bright, solarium. It’s always fun to visit his workspace. Helena’s plants and herbs share the sunlight. She has hung ferns of every kind imaginable, bromeliads and orchids on the walls and potted palms sit in the windows. Her herb garden is remarkable. Counters are lined with microscopes, incubators, gas burners, graduated cylinders and a brand new centrifuge, courtesy of Aidan.

Everything is kept in spotless order and like-new condition. Julian clearly labels every drawer and keeps everything he needs. It isn’t often he uses the lab for biological purposes, he’s usually doing pure research—not immediately applicable emergency testing. Julian and Helena use it mostly for botany.

Julian guides us to stools and pulls on gloves. He collects several small vials from one of his drawers and labels them with my name or Liam’s. He ties a latex strap around my arm and tells me to make a fist, locating a promising vein before he inserts the needle.  The latex snaps as he releases it so the blood can flow. Vampire blood is sluggish so it takes a while to fill the vials. But soon enough all the vials are full. When he is done he tapes a thick pad of gauze onto my arm, tells me to keep it elevated and instructs Andrew to give me a glass of mulberry wine.

Then Julian repeats the procedure with Liam. Even though Liam is comfortable with us, I admire how unusually sensitive it was for Julian to start with me.  When he’s decided that he has collected enough from Liam, he adds a sample of blood to the centrifuge puts more into various petri containers and stores them in an incubator. The rest of the more-precious-than-gold vials, he stores in the mini fridge.  Liam requests juice instead of wine.

“Now I want to run basic vision, hearing and reflex tests on you. Liam did they do this for you when you saw the doctor?” Julian asks.

“No, they only took an MRI,” Liam answers with disgust.

“That may be a good thing. It always amazes me how doctors ignore fundamental tests these days. They forget the history of their science it seems.” Julian shakes his head. We line up to read a vision chart at the end of the room. I could read even the miniscule print at the bottom. Par for me as I had good vision before I was turned and now, it is pretty much perfect. At least that hasn’t changed.

“Liam, please read as much of that chart as you can,” Julian asks.

“I can read all but the last two lines.”

“You have a noticeably more acute vision than a human being does,” Julian comments.

“It’s still so weird to hear you talk about human beings and me as two different things.”

“I’m sorry, Liam,” Julian says. “This is a big adjustment for you.” He pats the were on the back and makes notations in his records. “If you will step over here, we can do the hearing test now.”

Again Liam’s hearing results are close to mine—clearly superior to the human range.

“This is so bizarre. I thought I was hearing more. But then again I thought I was going crazy so I didn’t trust my perception.”

“Clearly, you’re not going crazy, Liam,” I say. “Julian, what is the lifespan of a werewolf?”

“As far as I have been able to find out, the natural lifespan is somewhat longer than a human’s. They’re not immortal like us. But it may be difficult to estimate accurately because they tend to have high-risk lives.”

Julian administers our reflex tests next. My reflexes are instantaneous. Liam’s are just a hair less, only Julian’s instruments would be able to measure the difference.

“Very interesting,” Julian says. “I need to start comparing and observing the blood samples. You two are free to go and amuse yourselves.”

“Liam, let’s find you something to eat. Helena usually goes overboard when we have someone who can eat in the house,” Sebastian says. He’s watched everything is silence from the corner waiting while we’d been poked and prodded by the ‘mad doctor.’ When I see Julian in his lab or watch him doing research on something I remember that he studied with many of the great scientists and medical people over the centuries.

“Sounds good to me,” Liam replies. “I’m hungrier than usual.”

We stroll into the oversized gourmet kitchen where we find Helena cooking Chinese food. She looks adorable with an apron over her Stella McCartney dress and her high heels. Of course she is wearing diamonds—isn’t that appropriate for Woking? I roll my eyes but I can’t help admiring her sense of style.

“Helena, that smells wonderful! I’m starving,” Liam says.

“You have perfect timing,” she says and heaps a plate with various dishes.

Liam wolfs down his food. Oops, no pun intended. But really he’s ravenous.

“What would you like to drink, Liam?” Andrew asks.

“Anything is fine.”

Andrew fetches him a Coke and sits down to eat with him. Helena and I sit at the table with a glass of wine. Sometimes I long for human food. The textures are what I miss. I long to crunch something again. I really want to crunch something—crack bone, suck marrow. Marrow? Really?

“I see that look on your face, Cherie. You would only be sick in a few minutes so forget about it,” Sebastian says with a knowing look.

“Don’t you ever miss it, Bast?” I keep my disgusting craving to myself.

“Sometimes, but I gave up trying it about two hundred years ago. I had finally learned my lesson.”

“I can’t get over how old you all are. Helena, you are so beautiful. You can’t be almost a thousand years old,” Liam says.

“I am. There are days when I feel every one of those years. Then I have days when I discover something new and I feel blessed to be alive.”

I hope I live to have Helena’s grace and outlook on life. I still feel like I am bumbling through my first lifetime. I feel a whoosh and Aidan pops into the room. He kisses Helena on the cheek and then kisses me on the forehead. Then he makes himself at home.

“Did I miss the great bloodletting?”

“Yes, it was strange having it flow the opposite direction for a change,” I say.  Laughs all around.

“That reminds me, Andrew, I want you to watch us feed sometime if you are still determined to become a vampire. It may gross you out and change your mind.”

“I’ve thought about it, Miss Lily, I’m ready. I’ll go with you the next time you feed.”

“It’s a deal.”

My next feeding may be on his friend and that may bring it closer to reality for him. Abstract images are one thing, the smell and look of fresh blood is another. All the better. He needs to know the bloody truth about the life we lead.

“Aidan, could you take me to get my things from your flat? I need to sort out your things from mine. Sebastian, it won’t take but a few minutes,” I say.

“Why don’t I come with you?” Sebastian offers. “I have yet to see your flat and I want to make sure it is a safe place for you to be in case you need a place in a month.”

“As you wish.” Aidan looks like he’s had his candy snatched. Sebastian takes my hand and Aidan takes the other and we transmanifest to Aidan’s flat. Sebastian stumbles when we touch down. He hasn’t had as much practice as I have and has a little trouble on reentry. He snoops around while I go while I go through bags in the bedroom. I had acquired quite a haul. I had wanted some alone time with Aidan to see how he was doing but I guess that wasn’t going to happen.

“Aidan, what do you want me to do with your things?”

“Just put them on the bed. I’ll put them away later,” he says from right behind me, startling me.

He grins.

“I still got it,” he says. You just can’t take the trickster out of the Jinni. I laugh just as Sebastian walks in the room.

“Cherie, let me help you gather up your things. You went on quite the bender, didn’t you?”

“I had a lot of thinking to do,” I say.

Aidan laughs and Sebastian produces a snort—he’s still not gotten over Aidan’s assisting me with my retail therapy.

“It’s a good thing you have a lot of money, love. I personally find walking does the same thing for me,” Aidan says. Now I feel guilty. Bast helped me make all that money.

“Not for a woman. Ask Helena. We can clear out Bloomingdale’s on a bad day.”

“Have you got everything now?” Sebastian asks, his patience reaching its limit.

“Yes, I think so. Oh let me get the clothes I left here. I need to dry clean that dress and I love those shoes.”

Sebastian’s expression is closed.

“Before you say or think anything, Aidan summoned me new clothes so I wouldn’t have to wear the same thing twice. Nothing to get worried about.”

“I will be the judge of that,” he mumbles.

I gather the rest of my things and am ready to leave. Sebastian takes my bags and we hold hands. Aidan takes custody of my other hand and just like that we’re out of there. In an instant we are in our bedroom at the manse.

“I’ll leave you to put your things away, Lilith,” Aidan says before heading downstairs.

“I don’t like that you stayed the night with him,” Sebastian says the second Aidan is out of the door.

“I don’t like that we fought the way we did. I don’t like it when you tell me I can’t be friends with people. I don’t like a lot of what was going on a few days ago.”

He sighs.

“You’re right. Let’s not fight about this too. It’s done and I trust you. I just don’t trust him. Here, let me help you put these away.” His tone of voice changing. “You made some beautiful choices. I can’t wait to see you in them.” He smiles crookedly. “Or out of them… you know we have a few minutes…”