Chapter eighteen: A Time to Leave
It’s been a whole week since my transformation, and I couldn’t be happier; days spent in the warehouse wrapped in the arms of the man I love, and nights spent hunting and learning about my new existence.
“Are you ready?” Tristan calls from across the glade, calling my attention back to the present; I had been thinking about the day we just had in the warehouse.
I have learned to somewhat control the electricity that seems to emanate from every cell in my body. It’s a phenomenon unlike any other, it pulses through me like blood would through a human, or voltage through a wire; it makes me feel alive even though my heart stands still.
I can channel some of it to a concentrated location, intensify it through my whole body and Tristan’s, or I can turn it off completely; neither one of us likes it to be completely off though, it’s very pleasurable most of the time.
Once it had felt very wrong, like the bite of a naked wire; the painful jolt of too much of the wrong kind of electricity.
I had once stuck my finger in a socket when I was younger; the sting that penetrates, and makes your teeth chatter is what it felt like, only intensified. I couldn’t remember what had triggered the uncomfortable sensation, only that I didn’t want a repeat of the action.
“Are you paying attention?” My eyes focused as I was pulled out of my thought process. Tristan was right in front of me now, and staring at me with concern etched into his handsome features. He still worries about me too much, even though he tries to hide it, I can see the worry in his shadowed green eyes.
“Sorry, but no I wasn’t, I was daydreaming” I put emphasis on the word day, and watched the smile spread as he caught my double meaning.
“You have a one track mind you know that, always in the gutter” I smiled shamelessly, and wrapped my arms around his neck, giving him one soft kiss on the lips.
There was a low and longing growl coming from deep inside his chest. He presses his body closer to mine; closing his eyes he kisses my neck.
“You make it hard to get any work done” He half whispers, half growls in my ear. A small smile plays across my face, only to vanish when he puts me at arm’s length with one hand on each of my shoulders.
“Now, back to work you temptress”
I sigh as he speeds back to his position on the other side of the glade.
“Now, no more daydreaming, we have the nights training exercise, and a hunt to complete before the sun rises, so no more wasting time”
I answer him with a growl as I crouch down into a defensive position; he’s teaching me to defend myself.
I wanted him to teach me how to fight so that we could go after the vampire ally of Lavinia’s, who’s name I had learned is Harlem, but Tristan wouldn’t teach me to fight unless he was sure I could defend myself first. He was being cautious, but I wanted revenge; I knew he was being smart, that I needed both if we were going to kill Harlem, but I didn’t want to be rational.
I want to rip his throat out and watch him squirm until the sun comes up and burns him to ash. To rip him limb from limb and watch his blood pool around him on the ground; to smell the sickly sweet scent of the vampire’s congealing blood at my feet.
I watch as Tristan circles around, trying to get behind me; I sidestep and turn, keeping him in my line of sight. It was like a dance, but one misguided step would throw it of balance and end the dance in his favor.
