Naked Came the Vampire (Hypernaturals 1)

After the Council

We laid a few plans... as many as we could make without any more information, finished up our drinks and headed back to our respective hotels. Helen and I were in a hurry to be as far apart as we could get. Well: I am. Pretty sure Helen is too.

Back in Jessica and my room with the door safely bolted against outside intrusions for a little while, we stripped in silent synchronicity of intent. We barely made it to the bed. The sex was different yet again, and I am starting to think that every time with Jessica is going to be a new revelation.

It is not only that I am largely physically healed that made this time different. There is that I am going to live, and we are going to be together, at least for a while. We even have a commitment to each other of sorts. Sure that 'commitment' comes from outside forces. The Council committed Jessica to me in life or death terms.

Jessica committed to me in front of the council. She is going to raise me to be a good Vampire and be responsible for my behavior. I felt a little bad about taking whatever I can get, but not that bad.

To Jessica's credit, she is big on taking care of her own problems and cleaning up her own messes. I respect that: I hope that is not her primary motivation for staying with me. I could not get my head around the idea that she would be willing to share her body with a man she despises to fix a wrong she thought she committed. That kind of thing has been hinted at in other conversations: That being a Vampire sometimes means doing things you do not want to do, including sharing your body with humans you otherwise might not. I wondered about the fact that Becky has a human husband for example. Is that about politics? Power?

Her Vampiric point of view is a lot of things I do not completely understand yet. Not about her, and not about Vampire life in general. It includes the idea that sex is not the same thing as love. I understood that: I have had one-night stands. I at least liked the people I had sex with even if I did not love them. If I waited to be IN love, I would have been a Virgin the day Jessica and I met, and that night would have been very different.

The closest Jessica has been to a declaration of love is digging her fingers into my hair and saying she wanted me right now! I hope she will grow to feel about me the way I do about her. Even a fraction of that.

One way that this time in bed is different from previous times is not good. There seems to be this little wall between us that was not there before. It felt as if she is pulling back from me a little. I wondered if she is unhappy about how Helen and I do not get along. I know she loves Helen. I decided that is probably not it. I am pretty sure that Jessica would let us work out our issues. The long term point of view if nothing else. So what is it?

It is tiny. It is subtle. I can feel her reservation. Her protecting herself, presumably from me.

I decided to not bring it up. We have other worries. I want to hold her next to me, smell her cinnamon and sex scents, and be happy that I am here, with her. We are past a major hurdle, and I have my life and her in my arms to show for it.

I still do not get the problem with Vampires of my gender.  The waitress did not have a problem with the idea of a male Vampire. She may not have taken me seriously, if Helen is to be believed, but neither was she repulsed. The waitress might, in theory, play with me and toss me aside when she was done, but she did not spit on me. Whatever our role in the Vampire world, us boy types are at least not spit-worthy. I am under threat of death if I turn out to be unreliable, but the people doing the threatening are all pretty nice.

Jessica had been scared for my life. Truly worried. She believed it possible these people would kill me only for being what I am. Cognitive Dissonance echoed in my head.

Whatever the prejudice, it seems it is not universal. Helen's problems with me probably came down to that I am holding in my arms the Vampire of her love. Helen is able to look past that and make hard choices based on what is best for her Maria. Jessica. Sarah. This woman sleeping peacefully right here, of many names and lives and loves.

There is a nice thing about being a Vampire when it comes to snuggling. When I was a human, I tried the whole falling asleep holding someone thing. It always looks good on film. The reality is that arms go to sleep, and you need to move around. Sooner or later, you end up apart. With Vampire muscles and muscle tone, this is not an issue. It is comfortable laying with Jessica in my arms, and I felt no need to move even a little. We can snuggle, her hair spilled across my chest, and I can listen to her steady slow breathing, and her even slower heart.

My mind conjured an image of prehistoric Vampires. Sleeping near campfires near their nearly human mates. Maybe one of them standing watch because of how deeply asleep and shut down the rest are. Vampires run hot and cold, and when they are shut down, they can really shut down. High-end bodies need low, deep sleep it seems. It warmed me that Jessica felt safe enough to let herself go that far away from the world.

In the Vampires of fiction, Vampires go off to a deep dark dreamland during the day. I suppose the real ones could hunt at night if they really needed to. Why bother? All they needed to do was seduce a human-like primate and sneak off for a quickie and a sip.

As I drifted off to sleep, my mind circled back and forth between feeling warm and sated and bouncing down the road working on the problem with Arnold. That bouncy hyperactive bit is the part of my mind that writes computer code at night. It has a new preoccupation.

I reflected on this feeling of a wall being put up between Jessica and I. The thing about Jessica I know is that nothing can stay buried with her. Whatever is bothering her, she will bring it up when she is ready. Whatever it is, it did not stop her from being deeply asleep. She made a deep humming sound. Kind of a growl. Kind of a moan. She is dreaming. I hope it is about us.