Chapter 5
The presence of his breathing rattles me, a constant reminder of the absence of his essence. He's not filling his lungs for survival. He's filling them to breathe in my essence. He's filling them as a teasing appetizer to the main course of a meal long overdue.
The drop of blood slipping down my bottom lip becomes the center of his focus, the center of his world. His red eyes swirl with the hunger. I wait for him to close the remaining inches between us, but he doesn't. He continues to stare.
"Go ahead," I whisper. "If you want to."
My encouragement causes the drop of blood to slip down my chin. Bogdan's nostrils flare. He's thrown out of his trance, and his eyes snap up to meet my gaze. The strength of his hold vanishes from around my face.
"I thought the idea of providing me your blood was repulsive."
Bogdan tilts his head back. The moon shimmers over his fangs and red eyes, his appearance more reminiscent to a feral animal than an immortal man. I pale remembering the words of my email. He doesn't give me time to reply.
"We need to go inside," he orders, backing away from me. "Now."
Another rejection.
Except this time, it's my own fault.
I swallow down the disappointment and open the car door. The night air carries with it a trail of feigned calm, and my senses tumble into overdrive. I glance left. Then right. The silence is unbearable. Back home I can go outside and hear crickets chirping, an occasional bird hooting in some low-hanging branch. Out here there's nothing. It's suffocating and pulls at the rest of my nerves like quicksand.
"Let's go!" Bogdan hisses.
I flinch and stand with stiffened limbs. He waits until I'm a foot away from him before jogging up the cracked walkway. Bits of dried weeds slap against my ankles. Even the earth shows little signs of life here. Bogdan fishes for a key in his pocket and glances around him once more. His red eyes are translucent against the black night.
He opens the door and ushers me inside. I expect him to flip on a light switch, but instead there's a stretch of stillness before a burst of candlelight flickers to life on the other side of the room. If it was any other circumstance, I might find the lack of light somewhat romantic. But in this case it's expected.
Vampires don't need light to see. They don't need light at all. Their night vision far surpasses their day vision. I'm surprised he has a candle at all, actually. I blindly feel around me, looking for a place to sit. Bogdan's red eyes and the small candlelight are the only things I can see. Not even whispers of moonlight make it through the unforgiving blinds.
"I'll be back in a moment," Bogdan whispers with a clipped tone.
A refrigerator door opens and closes. The manmade light allows me just enough time to locate a small couch near the edge of the room. I take a seat and draw my legs up into my chest. I used to sit like this when I was a kid. My mom would tell me to sit up straight; it made me look shy and weak. Right now I'm feeling a crap ton of both.
I think Bogdan is still in the kitchen, but when I turn my head I'm startled to find him sitting across from me. His red eyes are glowing. My heart slams against my chest, and I think I see his nostrils flare.
"I can't offer you anything to eat," he murmurs under his breath. "But the water here is clean if you're thirsty."
"I'm fine."
Bogdan blinks and glances down. There's an outline of a plastic bag on his lap. When he lifts it to his face, the hue from his crimson eyes illuminate the liquid content. Blood. My stomach churns watching him tear off the top with his fangs and bring it to his lips. He drains it in seconds flat.
I thought I'd be more repulsed watching a vampire feed. I'm not a fan of blood. Really, I'm not. I'm the type of guy who gets a queasy stomach if I get a bad papercut. While the sight of the blood still bothers me, the act of watching Bogdan drink it is almost...seductive.
I tear my eyes away and play with the hem of my t-shirt. So this is how he's been keeping himself away from me. Perhaps Bogdan is having the same problem as Kelly's vampire. He just prefers the taste of his last consort's blood.
I suck my bottom lip into my mouth. The cut from earlier is already sealing closed. If Bogdan hadn't just downed his blood bag faster than a college frat and a beer, I'd consider re-opening the wound to try and entice him once more.
Oh Finn.
How can I think such a thing? What most people would deem as a gift I manage to view as a rejection. If Kelly was here, he'd think I was out of my mind. And in all fairness, Kelly's reaction wouldn't hold a candle to the most anti-vampire person I know – my professor and pseudo boyfriend, Leo.
"I forgot what emotional creatures humans are," Bogdan mutters.
I glance up at him. His red eyes are losing their bold glow by the second. His meal is already working its way through his system, pacifying the hungry crevices with the liquid energy source of the dead. He sets the empty bag beside him and props his elbows on his knees.
"I-I'm sorry?" I question.
"Traces of your hormones are carried through your bloodstream," Bogdan explains. "I can smell the shift in your mood almost as fast as you feel them."
"Well that's...intrusive."
I can't think of a better word to say. It's hard enough being in Bogdan's presence. Knowing he can sense my every emotion just from the smell of my blood makes it so much worse. Bogdan's lips twitch in amusement. My eyes catch on his exposed fangs, both of which have retracted quite a bit.
Then my gaze shifts to his narrow face and blood-stained lips. As if reading my thoughts, his tongue swipes away the remnant blood. I watch the movement like it's happening in slow motion, salivating for a piece of him.
Warmth radiates through my cheeks. How embarrassing. Can he sense the emotions I'm having now? Does he know they're about him?
I clear my throat and glance to the side. "Can I ask you something?"
Bogdan leans back and casually spreads his arms out across the back of the chair. He doesn't nod or tell me I can, but he doesn't tell me I can't either. So I proceed.
"What's going on?" I ask quietly. I point a thumb towards the direction of the window. "Out there?"
"Vampires are dangerous. You should know that by now."
"Yea, but...what I saw out there. That was different. They looked hungry. It's like they haven't eaten in months."
Bog stares at me. The color in his eyes have dampened to a reddish brown. He tightens and loosens his jaw while he debates how to answer me.
"Astute observation," he finally says. "And an accurate one."
Accurate? So they are hungry. I wonder if curiosity is an emotion he can smell in my blood too. I wipe my hands down the length of my shorts and venture to ask another.
"But it says in the Agreement that all vampires are assigned a consort. If they all have one, why are they so hungry?"
My vampire tilts his head to the side, studying me. It's a speculative gaze, one that makes me think he's debating whether or not I know the answer to my own question.
After a moment of unbearable silence, Bogdan's voice lowers.
"They're revolting."
"Who?"
"Your kind."
My jaw slackens.
"It's only just begun, but it will get worse," he continues. "They are heading anti-vampire groups. They're trying to override the Agreement, claiming it's some form of punishment or unjust treatment."
"So they're just...withholding their blood?"
"They can't be forced to give their blood," Bog answers, quoting the phrase with his slender fingers. "At least, that's what they're saying."
Is it true?
Leo's never mentioned anything like this before. He teaches a class dealing a lot with the history of vampires. Does he know about this? Of course he does. He has to. So why hasn't he trusted me with it? I chew on my newly healing bottom lip.
There hasn't been a revolt or an uprising in centuries. The Agreement was created so both species could live peacefully among one another. It's not ideal, but it works. The last time the humans revolted was an awful time in our human history.
They thought they could overrun the vampires. But what they had in numbers they lacked in just about everything else – strength, agility, speed, and patience. So many human lives were lost, and a lot of blood was spilled. Pun intended. If it weren't for a handful of pacifist vampires who were willing to come to a compromise, there'd be no humans left.
"And the vampires we saw - they're fighting back?"
Bog snorts in derision. "Hardly. Our council is aware of the issue, and their stance is to remain passive while we try to work out the problem with your leaders. Meanwhile, vampires are starving every day. And it doesn't help when someone like you comes along."
I frown. "A human?"
"No. A human is one thing. But you're a human who's scent is –"
He stops himself mid-sentence. His lips clamp shut, and he swallows down whatever words he was going to say.
"What about my scent?" I press.
Bog shakes his head. Then he continues, sidestepping my question without a second thought.
"I've never seen my kind so hungry. Some are even resorting to animals."
He shudders at the thought. Such a thing is a humiliating means for the vampire population to stay fed. They're essentially lowering their standards to consume the same food source as humans. It's below them, similar to humans eating dog food.
"I'm sorry."
Bogdan tilts his chin in surprise. I'm apologizing for my own kind, after all – apologizing for mankind standing up for themselves. I shouldn't be apologizing. I should be helping the cause. My vampire's look of surprise morphs into confusion. And then anger.
"Don't mistake our passivity for weakness," Bogdan warns. "We're simply trying to keep as much of our food supply as available as possible."
I shake my head. "I wasn't trying to say that. I just...I don't know why they're doing this when it's worked just fine for so long."
His strong shoulders shrug stiffly. "They forget how dangerous we are."
"Maybe."
He's quiet for a moment. Then his eyes flicker to meet mine. A hint of bright red stirs in them again. He ate only minutes ago, and already his hunger is returning.
"Have you forgotten?"
Beads of cold sweat break across my skin being under his probing gaze. Am I afraid of vampires? Hell yes. In fact, if it wasn't for Bogdan, I'm sure I'd be dead ten times over at the hands of all those vampires swarming around my car earlier.
"No, I haven't," I answer truthfully.
"Good. Because they don't think like you do, human. They'll kill you without thinking. They don't care. They see you as food. Nothing more."
They're all words I've heard before. Most of the time they're said by teachers, but a few times my friends have said them too. Hearing them from an actual vampire makes it more real, more menacing.
"Is that true for you, too?" I ask suddenly. "Would you do all those things?"
Bogdan laughs quietly under his breath, shaking his head slowly from side to side. "Yes. Without question."