Between the phone battery giving up on her and being too mentally exhausted to contemplate trying to mind-link with anyone, she settled the bill from the B&B and headed home.
The journey seemed to take longer with only the radio for company, which played depressing music no matter which station she selected. She sniffled her way through Christina Perri's Thousand years, drying her tears with her sleeve as it ended.
Her mind whirled with everything that had happened over the last month. She would never age - stuck at 20 for the rest of her days providing she wasn't staked through the heart or lost her head - that would be a very long time. She would never have children, and that thought alone made her weep again. Having to watch Adie grow old and eventually die filled her with grief so consuming she had to pull over.
Finally pulling into her driveway several hours later, she switched off the engine and sat staring at the house. It seemed cold and empty and she felt more alone than ever. With renewed determination and a vow to just get on with it, she got out of the car, took the suitcase from the backseat and made her way inside. Her bed called to her. She was so exhausted that she dropped her things by the hall table and made her way upstairs to crawl under the covers still fully clothed. She cried herself to sleep, mourning the loss of her humanity and the seemingly simple life that had been taken from her on the pavement outside the office where she worked, but had yet to set foot in.
Lucien called for her while she slept. She appeared beside him on the bed, her eyes puffy and red and her hair in a crow's nest. Lucien didn't notice. She was so worn out that she didn't stir when he drew her into his arms and let her sleep in his embrace until the morning came. When she awoke in her own bed in the morning, she was none the wiser for having spent the night with Lucien.
A slight burn to her throat made it difficult to swallow the cold blood she eventually found on the front seat of the car. It was sort of like swallowing cold coffee when you had experienced an aromatic warm, creamy cappuccino -stale and bitter against the sweetness of fresh blood drawn directly from the vein. She forced it down.
The rest of the morning she spent cleaning the living room of broken furniture and glass before plugging the phone charger in. It took a minute for the screen to light up, when it did, her phone beeped and buzzed continuously for a good three minutes, alerting her to fourteen missed calls, five texts and six voice mails. She checked the voice mail first.
1st – Hey just letting you know we're at the airport and getting on the plane in about five minutes. Felix booked us in first class, a private suite of all things. Rick said the flight takes about eight hours and the phones have to be turned off, so I'll ring you when we land. Love you. Mwah.
2nd – Thank God we're finally on the ground, I think the change in air pressure must have played havoc with my head cause Rick reckons I passed out for a good hour. Anyway, I'm fine now... Jesus it's hot here compared to home. Ring me when you get this okay? Love you, talk soon.
3rd – Cal? Are you okay? ...Stupid question, of course you are, I'd know if you weren't. Although things have been a bit quieter through the bond, though I put that down to distance... I'm calling Sam now to see if he's heard from you.
4th – Callie it's Sam, Adie's been on the phone panicking because no one has heard from you since you left for Cork. Ring me back ASAP.
5th – Okay, I'm starting to get worried. No one's heard from you in - what - two and half days now. Rick and I have almost reached the point where we lose phone signal. We're stopping at a motel for the night, if you haven't called by morning I'm coming home to find you. Pity help that demon if he's hurt you in any way.
6th – Callie it's Sam again. Ring your sister.
She called Adie first. The mobile you are calling may be switched off. Please try later.
She left a message. "Adie, hi, sorry I've only just got your messages. I'm fine as you can hear. Things were a bit iffy with phone reception where we were and then the battery died. We managed to find a diary belonging to an apprentice of the witch who cursed Lucien and I'm going start going through that shortly. Irene's been offered at place at the Shadow Academy, the place Circle of Fire have their headquarters. She's decided to stay on. Some really old book claimed her as its protector, which I really don't get yet, but anyway...I'm back at our house now, cleaning up the mess and before you say it, yes me, cleaning. Never thought you'd hear me say that did ya? I'll speak to you soon. Love you."
She hung up feeling a little brighter and called Sam next. He answered on the second ring. "Hey, I'm home," she sang.
"Thank the gods. We were about to send a search party for you. Did everything go okay? Did you get what you needed at the Circle of Fire?" he asked, relieved to hear her voice.
"Yeah, it worked out okay in the end. I'll fill you in when I see you."
"Are you coming in to work today or would you like me to come over?" He hoped she chose for him to go over. He missed her and wanted nothing more than to hold her for a while. He couldn't do that in the office. "I'll bring a carry out?" he coaxed.
"Maybe later tonight, I'm pretty shattered and the house still needs cleaning too. Say around sevenish?"
"It's a date...Callie?"
"Hmmm?"
"I missed you," he confessed.
"I'll see you later." She laughed and snapped the phone closed.
If she was going to find the time for a relaxing bath, fix her hair and make-up before he arrived, she needed a little supernatural help in the form of vampire speed.
Once the ground floor was gleaming, she moved to her bedroom. You never know where the night will end, she thought with anticipation. I can't very well bring anyone into my room in the state it's in at the moment. A tornado would make less mess. An idea struck her, I have magic - why not try it out! Maybe not fire though.
She concentrated on calling air and created a mini cyclone. It lifted all the clothing strewn around the room and hovered it downstairs to the utility room. She dumped it all into the washer, added detergent and softener and turned it on. A random tune played inside her mind, it seemed familiar even though she was sure she'd never heard it before. She hummed it on her way back upstairs with the intention of vacuuming; only she did the cyclone thing again and dumped all the dust bunnies out the window. At shortly after 5pm, she put fresh linen on the bed and went to run a bath.
She slid down to her neck in the delicious-smelling bubbled bath and sent fire to the candles around the room. The volume on the portable stereo she'd left by the door was set low enough to provide subtle background noise. When Adele's beautiful melodies began, Callie magically turned the volume up.
"It was dark and I was over, until you kissed my lips and you saved me," she sang, in perfect harmony with Adele "I set fire to the rain, watched it pour as I touched your face."
The diary floated towards her outstretched hands from the shelf by the sink. Upon opening it, she attempted to decipher the scribbles adorning the delicate and tattered pages. A couple of pages later, the script became interspersed with squiggles and strange symbols, becoming more and more complex as she turned each page. She had no idea what any of the symbols meant so she started randomly flicking through the diary. Towards the end there was a key listing some of them and their meanings. For example the symbol 'W' she thought might have been for witch was in fact vampire, and the 'star' signified night. She guessed the 'half moon' correctly, same with 'sun'.
Damn, I'll have to rewrite most of the diary replacing the symbols for words if I'm going to make any sense of it at all, she thought as she floated it back to the shelf.
She was just adding the finishing touches to her make-up as the doorbell rang, signifying Sam's arrival. She bounded down the stairs two at a time and flung open the door, ready to leap into his arms. She barely managed to stop herself in time to avoid a face-full of the blood-red roses he offered in an outstretched hand. In his other hand, he firmly held onto a large, darkened glass wine bottle.
"Carry out?" she questioned, eyeing the bottle. "Can we drink alcohol?"
"I guess there is a lot I haven't told you about your new lifestyle yet. This is a very special vintage, one I believe you will enjoy more than your usual brand," he replied mysteriously, nodding toward the door, hinting at the invitation that had yet to be spoken.
She smacked herself upside the head with the palm of her hand. "Come in," she said as she stepped back to allow him access.
He made his way into the kitchen "Have you eaten yet?"
"Not since this morning and that one tasted as rank as stale coffee." She screwed up her face in a grimace.
"Did you check the date printed on the bag? It can go off pretty quickly too if you don't keep it in the fridge."
"Oh. What's with that anyway? How come it tastes so good directly from the person and the stuff in the bag is kinda...I don't know, flat, by comparison?" She jumped up onto the worktop and swung her legs back and forth, watching him search each of the cupboards.
He closed the last cupboard and looked around the kitchen in case he missed one. "Where do you keep the glasses?"
"The glasses are all broken, but there are some plastic beakers in the picnic hamper." She shrugged and pointed up to where it was stored above the cupboards. "You haven't answered me."
"Hmmm, when did you drink from a donor? I thought you were revolted by that and it doesn't really taste any different until it starts gong off."
He dragged a stool from under the breakfast bar and used it to stand on. Callie beat him to the hamper by levitating it down from its perch above him. He had to duck to avoid it colliding with his head.
"Long story but suffice to say the blood lust struck at an inopportune moment. Irene felt the sharp end of the fangs."
He stared at her, wide-eyed. "How much did you drink?" he asked in panic. "Do you feel okay? Not weakened or anything?"
He rushed to her side and examined her eyes using his finger and thumb to pry each of them open further, then placed his palm to her forehead.
She pushed him off and laughed. "I feel perfectly fine. Why? What's the problem?"
He took her by the hand and led her to the only seat in the house, the stool he had used to stand on. "Witch blood is poisonous to vampires. A couple of mouthfuls would be enough to kill us. Imagine what drinking acid would do to a human body and multiply it by ten. I'm surprised you were able to get close enough and your stomach wasn't turned by the smell of her."
"She smells no different to Sidney, or Adie for that matter," she countered with confusion. "Well no, that's not strictly true. If anything she smelled sweeter than Sidney - more of a satisfying sweetness, the kind you find in chocolate - and the taste was too wonderful for words." She sighed in remembrance of the ecstasy she felt as the first drop had tickled her tongue and tingled her throat as it slid down.
Sam snapped his fingers in front of her face to draw her back from her daydream. "Strange, what you describe is how human blood should taste." He unscrewed the top of the wine bottle he'd brought and poured some into a beaker for her to taste. "Try some of this and tell me what you think."
She put her nose to the beaker and inhaled. "Smells like..." She sniffed again. "Malt bread?" She tilted the beaker to her lips and let the merest drop touch them. Her tongue darted out to capture it and smear it around her lips before drawing her tongue in and sampling the flavour. "It's not bad. It's sorta malty and woodsy with a touch of honey and vanilla thrown in. What is it?"
"This is black bear shifter blood. This particular bear is from South America but is visiting with Sidney for a few weeks. With him are lion, wolf, and puma. Each of the different shifter groups has a unique flavour. The predator groups generally have a stronger, fuller flavour than say, swan or deer."
"So what about alcohol then - can we drink that?"
"Drinking anything is fine - alcohol doesn't have the same effect on us as it would humans. Eating, although possible for appearances' sake, isn't a good idea because our bodies are no longer able to process it. You would have to vomit it back up so it doesn't rot in your stomach. It causes an ungodly smell after a couple of days."
Callie took another sip of the bear blood and let a little linger on her lips. She'd noticed how he had watched her the last time and decided to tease him a little. He raised his hand to finger the drip away, but she caught it in hers and shook her head slightly. He looked at her mouth, then her eyes before he dipped his head slowly, keeping eye contact until he could resist the call of her lips no longer. His mouth hovered a fraction from hers for a second before he claimed her with a crushing force. Her teeth nicked his tongue as it swept into her mouth and he moaned from his throat - the vibration of it sending shivers down Callie's spine and further igniting her passion to a fever pitch. She wound her legs around his waist and drew him closer, as close as he could get while still fully clothed. His hands crept around her back, sinking lower until he cupped her ass - it fit so perfectly in his hands.
Her voice echoed in his mind for the first time. Please take me upstairs, you have too many clothes.
He pulled back to look in her eyes. "Are you sure?"
She tangled her fingers in his slightly too-long hair and pulled him forward to recapture his mouth. Yes, now move it, her soft command whispered through his mind.
Crashing through her bedroom door a second later, he landed on the bed with her on top. He gave her full control of how fast and where she wanted to take things. She giggled and started unbuttoning his shirt, kissing his chest as each released. They continued in the same manner until they were both naked and breathing fast.
"The exchange of blood between vampires is only done with soul mates," he breathed against her neck. "May I?"
She hesitated a moment, then nodded in agreement, making a short, sharp gasp as his fangs penetrated the tender flesh at her neck. They became moans of unadulterated pleasure as the ecstasy consumed them both.
7F:z