Crimson and Blood
Chapter 7
Take it from me, I've had the experience
Finding the right love ain't easy to do
I've been looking and looking and searching around since
Nature started teaching me just what to do
Darlin' you know we can make it
I knew the minute I saw you
You were the one who'd be
Sharin' the love
I have the feeling inside me
You'll be beside me
Sharin' the love
I never believed in love at first sight
It's a foolish dreamer's fantasy
But one look at you showed me the light
And made a foolish dreamer of me
I can feel it bubbling up
All this love needs somewhere to live
Come and take a drink from my cup
I have a heart with so much to give
All the love is here so take it
It would be a sin to waste it.
Sharing the Love, Rufus (edited)
After the night of revelations, as Grace would always call it, Josef and Grace spent a lot of time together. Josef took her to dinner at the nicest of restaurants. She would eat while he would have a glass of wine or two or something else to drink. She had long ago gotten used to eating human fare while a vamp might just watch her eat. Sometimes the link between a vamp and someone they drank from on a usual basis would allow the vamp to at least taste the food if not eat it themselves. (Anita Blake series) No one knew why it sometimes worked and other times did not.
In the evening once a month they would attend "Shakespeare in the Park" which offered both traditional and non-traditional interpretations of Shakespeare's plays. Once, Taming of the Shrew was set in the Wild West, while MacBeth set a mysterious and gory tone. They would bring a picnic basket full of fruits, cheeses and fresh bread for Grace and a couple of thermoses filled with warm blood for them both.
Sometimes they would have dinner with Beth and Mick at either Beth or Grace's home. Josef and Grace enjoyed the boardwalk and Venice Beach in the evening quite often. Grace was a regular visitor to both Josef's office and home, and came and went rather frequently. Their friends, family, and acquaintances had no doubt of their commitment to each other, despite their frequent disagreements.
Josef and Grace argued often about what they began to call 'The Freshie Question.' While Grace no longer doubted Josef's use of the women for sex, she was jealous and insecure enough to use it as a battering ram when she was feeling particularly frustrated or insecure. She never liked seeing him drink from one of his freshies so he was careful not to imbibe while she was there. Just changing that behavior was a huge step for Josef and one that Grace didn't appreciate the difficulty it caused Josef to surrender something he loved, drinking on tap whenever he wanted. He compromised with Grace and stopped drinking from a freshie while she was present.
Once back in the states, Grace felt safer because she was under the protection of both Josef and her father. Overseas, she would be under the protection of the elder vampire in the area she was living in, but she still needed bodyguards just in case there wasn't enough protection and the large number of vampires in the area. Being back in the US, Grace got sloppy about taking bodyguards with her, often leaving without even telling anyone where she was going. She and Beth often went out during the day and evenings without any protection at all. Josef was very concerned if not terrified for her safety. They argued about her need for bodyguards, and she finally capitulated as long as they took a different car and followed her. She did not like having to have extra protection around her, although she did understand the reasoning. When she and Beth would go out to dinner or a movie without the guys, a few bodyguards would discreetly join them sitting or standing nearby, but not intruding. It was one of many compromises they both made to each other.
One night they were sitting in the maze talking softly and kissing gently, enjoying themselves after a few day separation as Josef closed a big deal that took all of his attention and energy. Josef became quiet staring at the fountain. That was a sure sign he had something important to tell Grace, and Grace quietly settled against him waiting for him to start.
"Grace, I have been in love very few times. My marriage long ago was a match made of common convenience. There was lust, maybe even a form of love, but certainly not passion. And as you know I have made love to many women, but there was no real love in those encounters however long or brief they were. In the 1940's I was a different person, a different identity, and did fall in love with a woman named Sarah. She was sweet and kind and compliant. I perhaps loved her for all those things that most of the women I had been with were not. I saw her for several months and she never knew what I was. We would picnic in the evenings or late in the day and she never asked or even realized why I didn't eat anything. She never questioned why I worked the stock trading desk in the evenings and nights. I wanted to marry her, but I couldn't without her knowing what I was. One night we were at my home and she asked me to make love to her. She was a virgin and it was a big step to take for her. I knew, I knew, I could not do that and not vamp out on her. I refused her and she accepted that. She asked me a few weeks later, and again I refused her. In the meantime, I was being torn apart by her desire and my reluctance to lose her if I showed her the real me. When she asked, begged even, I agreed finally. Before I finally took her, I showed her the truth of the man she loved. It frightened her but she wanted me anyway. I took her blood as we made love. Each time I took a little more. Soon she was anemic and I stopped allowing us to be together like that. She asked me to turn her so she could share her life with me, and again after her asking and my refusing, I finally agreed to turn her. We made love again as human and vamp and I tried to turn her. I had turned a few women before because I cared for them and they were dying either from disease or some form of cruelty. This time, the turn did not complete and she fell into a coma. I waited for days and months for her to wake up and she never did. She laid in that bed, cared for by nurses or myself for sixty years before she finally died, looking exactly the same as she did that fateful night. I was never sure why the turn didn't complete. No other vamp knew why either. I still carry that guilt with me to this day. I haven't tried to turn anyone since."
During his sad revelation, Grace took his cool hand in hers linking their fingers together. As the grief in his voice began to show, she held his hand and rubbed his knuckles against her lips, soothing him with her love.
"Grace, I intend to marry you. I am afraid to turn you though. I couldn't go through a failure like that again. Not with you."
Silence descended on them. The only sound was the light splashing of fountain water. Grace continued to rub his knuckles against her lips. She could feel him relax now that his story was told and his fears admitted to.
"Josef, I'm sorry about Sarah. You have turned people successfully before, and there are those very rare times where it doesn't work. Perhaps it is something infinitesimally small in their makeup, their DNA, or their blood. I have no reason to fear what happened to Sarah will happen to me. Neither of us knows what will happen when you finally make love to me. People gossip that I will turn when I lose my virginity, but no one knows for sure. I might get stronger talents, I might lose those talents I have now. I might get pregnant, I might not turn at all. I might die. We don't know, but I'm willing to take that risk with you Josef, and no one else."
Josef buried his face in Grace's hair, her head tucked neatly under his. "Well, then. That's that."
Grace tipped her head up to him, a slight smirk on her face. "What is 'that'?"
"We'll get married and we'll just see what happens," he said with a laugh in his voice, kissing her upturned forehead.
"Ah, I see. And here I was thinking you might actually ask me to marry you. Silly me, you do tend towards the tyrant, telling me I'm going to marry you is much your style." Grace teased back.
Josef laughed into her hair again. "Ok, I'll ask you nice and proper soon, with a ring and everything. Who knows, maybe we can get Mick and Beth to finally get there and have a double wedding." He felt Grace's laughter as she moved against him.
Grace slid from under his arms and surprised and shocked him by sitting in his lap, her denim covered legs straddling his. She had never sat like that with him. "Josef, can we try an experiment?"
"Sitting like that in my lap might get you more than a 'try an experiment' Grace'," he warned lightly.
"I trust you Josef. You have been amazingly patient. You have compromised with me on everything I have asked for, and I know I have asked for a lot. I have something I want to share with you. Will you try it with me, baby?"
Josef looked deep into her eyes. He wasn't sure if it was the light, her power, or the passion he sensed in her but her eyes looked like small balls of obsidian. "What do you want to do?"
"I want us to exchange blood. You take some of mine, and I'll take some of yours. I think we may be surprised at what happens. I've never tried it before, but I think I know." Grace could feel Josef's arousal hard beneath her center. It hardened when she moved into his lap, and the idea of sharing blood increased his hardness. She felt him grow against her and she responded by pressing against him harder.
Josef answered her carefully, his voice deep with passion and need. "Are you sure?" Unless she clearly refused him, he would take her blood.
Instead of answering, Grace responded by pulling her hair away from her carotid artery, bringing her waterfall of hair to one side. Josef saw her pulse beating rapidly against her pale skin and answered her by leaning in to pierce her neck. She gasped as his sharp teeth broke her skin and her channel flooded with heat and desire. In response, Josef hardened even further, threatening to break through his button-fly jeans. Her blood was rich and thick with power. It tasted sweet and spicy, very different from both humans and other vampires. After a few swallows he felt her slightly push back and he released her. Her blood was exhilarating and powerful. He could feel it pulsing through his body like nothing else he ever had. He licked the bite mark and it quickly disappeared.
Grace looked at him with her solid black eyes, wondering what he thought. "Everyone was right Grace. Your blood is special." She smiled softly at him.
"May I?" Her teeth were small but sharp. He nodded his agreement, offering his neck, but she declined and lifted his wrist. "Since I have never done this before, and my teeth are small your wrist is better, less skin to puncture and less blood to lose if I mess up." She gave a little nervous giggle and held his wrist to her mouth. She hesitantly bit through his skin to his blood and started drawing it into her mouth. His blood was like a well aged wine, dark and thick and sweet. Again she felt her channel flood with passion and cream, and instinctively she began to grind against him. The whole act of exchanging blood was more passionate then she ever expected. Josef moaned into her neck, licking where he had taken blood, loving the feel of her body pressed hard against him and the feel of her taking his blood. Nothing, nothing, had ever been like this before for him, and he knew it had never been for her. When they were finally wedded and bedded, he thought their lovemaking might incinerate the room. Everything was warm as she pulled his blood in tiny sips.
Grace finally pulled away, licking his wrist with her blood covered tongue, sealing the wound. It disappeared almost immediately. She looked deep into his eyes, and she spoke. "Josef, can you hear me? I'm talking in your mind."
Josef pulled himself back from her slightly, surprise all over his face. "We can talk to each other telepathically? How?"
"I don't know how I knew, I just did. I never tried it before and wasn't sure it would work."
"Grace, you can read anyone's mind, but you can't talk to them through your mind can you?"
"No Josef, I can only talk to you. I thought we could keep this our little secret. It isn't safe for me if people to find out I have this skill, and it wouldn't be as useful for you if people knew either. On some of those business meetings or get-togethers, I could tell you what people are thinking through telepathy if you wanted to know. That is manipulating others using my gifts, but you have given me so much I would do it for you. My own safety is the biggest risk I think if people found out. You and Valentin are already concerned just given the rumors and the power others have already seen."
"Grace, we could tell no one, not even Mick and Beth. It is too dangerous for you. As for using it in business, I could see where it would be useful, but we would have to use it carefully. I would not want you to feel used or manipulative to the point where you felt guilty."
Grace gave him a happy smile. "It feels very intimate to sit this way with you, to share our minds with each other. But Josef, the downside is that I will know if you have cheated. I have not been reading your mind to protect your privacy. But now that we are connected, I think our thoughts will just float between us. I don't know how far or how long it will last. We can renew the connection whenever, if ever, it starts to fade. And we can test it to see how far the connection exists. This is a level of intimacy I think neither of us has ever experienced."
Josef moved his arms parallel to Grace's back and pulled her forward so her face was millimeters from his. He could feel her heart beat faster and her breath became ragged. Her heat was pressed against him tightly, like she wanted to climb inside of him. He very much wanted inside of her. Grace giggled at that as she listened to his thoughts. Josef smirked. "I thought you weren't in my head anymore."
Grace continued to unapologetically snicker. "Josef, you are a very bad boy."
"And you love me anyway."
"Yes, I do."
