Because the night belongs to us
'What the...'
Dave's mind didn't even have time to finish the thought before the redhaired goddess he had followed three weeks ago landed on him, bearing him to the ground. There was a moment of discomfort as his back made acquaintance with the pavement, but then he had no complaints at all when he felt her mouth cover his. Almost instinctively, he wrapped his arms around her. She was drawing his lower lip into her mouth, her tongue working gently against the spot where the debris had cut him. Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, soon he felt no pain from the cut at all.
And then she moved her mouth from his, trailing her lips to his neck. He arched his neck back for her, wondering why she had taken this sudden mood, but not about to question it. Sure...Dave Malucci stop a woman when she was nuzzling his neck? Not a chance.
He winced a bit as her nibbling grew a bit too enthusiastic. So enthusiastic, as a matter of fact, that it almost felt as if she'd punctured his skin. But then the momentary pain gave way to pure ecstasy as he felt her mouth and tongue working against his neck. Drawing the blood to the surface. It briefly crossed his mind that he would have one hell of a mark there tomorrow, but he didn't think to object. No way...he was enjoying this too much. She was good. So damn good. What she was doing to him, simply with her mouth on his neck...he felt his breathing go shallow as his hands tightened on her waist.
Jesus, was it possible to orgasm just through someone kissing your neck?
Before he had a chance to find out, however, she made a sound deep within her throat, somewhere between a growl and a whimper of despair, and pulled quickly back, shoving him roughly away.
"Damn you!" she hissed, turning her head to the side and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
Dave was more confused than he had been at their first meeting. Eyeing her curiously, he moved to a sitting position. She wouldn't look at him.
"You wanna tell me what that was about?" he asked softly.
At that, she turned another one of those glares on him that he had seen when he followed her. For some reason, rather than intimidate him, it made him laugh, though there wasn't much humor in it.
"Yeah, that's right. I forgot. Keep my distance. I'm not the one who tackled you for a pretty heavy liplock."
"You were bleeding," she spat accusingly.
"And that has what to do with the price of tea in China?" Dave asked, shaking his head as he looked at her. "Jesus. Did I fall down the rabbit hole and not realize it?"
Her gaze softened a bit and she smirked. "No. Worse." Then she shut her eyes and ran her hands through her hair wearily.
"Do you have to practice to be this confusing?"
Dave shot a grin at her as he stood up, brushing the dust from himself and then holding his hand out to her to see if she wanted a hand up. She looked at his hand for a moment as if it were a venomous snake poised to strike, then took it and let him help her up.
"It just comes naturally," she said. Her voice held that tone that suggested she meant it to be humorous, but didn't quite make it. She sullenly went about the task of brushing herself off.
"Need some help there?" Dave grinned widely at her, which had the desired effect of making her chuckle...just a bit.
"I can manage. You've done quite enough."
"Okay. Would you tell me exactly what it is I'm supposed to have
done? Because as far as I can figure, I didn't do anything on purpose
this time."
She looked up wearily, then shook her head.
"Just...drop it. Please." She started to back away, giving
him a pleading look as she held her hands up to him. "And leave me alone."
Dave was about to reluctantly acquiesce...after all, despite his posturing
at work, he did know that there was a point where you just had to
leave a woman alone...when he noticed something. He blinked, sure
that it must be a trick of the light, but no. His eyes weren't deceiving
him.
Reaching out quickly, he caught both her wrists in his hands and turned them up towards the dim light. He looked down at the marks on them, long, angry red marks running from the spot where her hand met the wrist to nearly half the length of her forearm. Like the just-healing puckers that might be left after suturing a wound closed only a few hours before.
He raised his eyes to meet hers, his expression one of puzzled understanding.
"It was you. The attempted suicide. But how...?"
She snatched her arms from his grasp and crossed them tightly over her chest, her gaze going to the ground.
"I'm asking you now...no...I'm begging you...forget about this. Forget about me."
Dave shook his head, as much in confusion as denial of her request. He tentatively reached out for her once more, and despite a step backward for appearance's sake, she didn't protest. He grasped her arms gently and pulled her closer, taking one arm in his hands and bringing it up for closer inspection.
"You don't want me to forget about it," he told her softly.
Again, she didn't protest. Instead, she let him look at her healing wound, her shoulders slumping forward as her head went down.
"I'm just...so damnably tired," she murmured through the curtain of hair that fell forward and shaded her face.
Dave reached out and moved the hair from her face, his nose tickled once again by the tantalizing scent of cinnamon and roses. So many questions were swimming through his brain, some of which he didn't even know how to phrase, some of which he probably wasn't even aware he wanted to ask. So he started from the beginning.
"Are you going to at least tell me your name?"
"Alyxx," she whispered softly.
"Alyxx," he repeated. "I'm Dave."
She lifted her gaze and smirked.
"Charmed, I'm sure."
Dave grinned. He was immediately on more comfortable ground. Until he turned his attention back to her wrists. Using one finger, he lightly traced alongside the path of the healing scar on the wrist he held in his hand.
"Why...? How...? I mean...I saw the blood back there..."
She pulled her wrist away, gently this time, and looked upwards, as if the sky held the answers.
"You were bleeding," she finally said, simply, as if it should answer all his questions.
"Yeah...and?"
She looked at him once more, holding his gaze with hers.
"And are you now?"
"I don't..." He lifted his fingers to the spot on his lip where
he had been cut, and realized the area was clean and dry. He couldn't
even feel the tiniest pucker in his skin to tell where the wound had been.
"Must not have been as bad as I thought."
She laughed humorlessly. "It was pretty bad. Not quite bad enough
to leave a scar, but enough to have bled for awhile, and been sore as hell
for a couple of days."
Dave furrowed his brow. Why did she insist on confusing him?
"But what does..."
She shook her head and raised a hand, cutting him off.
"It wasn't a 'liplock,' as you put it. I was...feeding. But I couldn't get enough from that small wound."
"What?" If Dave had thought it was impossible for him to be more confused, he'd been wrong.
Alyxx cast another gaze skyward, as if wondering how dense he could be, then leveled her gaze upon him once more.
"Dave. Think about it. The place you followed me to the
other night. The blood you saw in the alley earlier tonight.
The fact that you were bleeding when I jumped you. The fact that
I bit your neck."
Dave shook his head incredulously.
"But you said you weren't into the vampire scene..."
She gave another humorless laugh, this one tinged with more than a hint of despair.
"The scene? No. But remember what I told you? That they were posers? That's because I'm not a poser, Dave. I'm the real deal. And I'm sick of it. I'm sick and tired of existing like this. I wanted to put an end to it, and I tried...but they found me, so I had to escape before they could find out what I was. And I was starting to get weaker, but then you ran into me and I had to try to get away again. Only this time, I couldn't get as far. And then I made the mistake of throwing that handful of debris at you to try to get you to back off. And if I'd known it'd make you bleed, I wouldn't have done it.
"Because when I smelled the blood, I was too weak to resist."
Dave blinked at her. Then he blinked again. And shook his head.
And began to chuckle uneasily.
"You're shitting me."
"I wish I was. You know why there isn't even a mark on your lip now?
For the same reason there isn't one on your neck. The wounds we make
heal quickly. Just like...our own wounds heal quickly. When
we have blood. And I had blood, Dave. Your blood. Which
is why my wrists that should be gaping open and completely empty by now
look like they've just been sewn closed."
"You're a vampire."
"That's what I've been trying to tell you. It's why I wanted you
to stay away."