We saw the Tahoe coming a long way off. We dressed and dashed down the hill to stand by the road. We threw the parachutes into the back of the truck and climbed in, Jessica up front with Helen.
Helen looked at the two of us, caught our scents. "Really. In the middle of the desert?"
"Numerous times. Oh, so very amazing times." affirmed Jessica. She paused, then added "Yummy. I want to do it again. Let me know when you are ready back there!" Even I thought she sounded chirpy. It gave me a happy feeling to hear her sound that way.
Helen looked alarmed at Jessica's happy bubbliness. She looked at her lover and friend closely. "Uh oh... no... really?"
Jessica smiled even more broadly "Oh yes. Back there, soon as he can make it so. Don't look, Mom!" She looked back at me "Would some water help?" then at Helen "You brought water. Right?"
Helen's blonde mane shook left and right. "You never sound like that. You figured it out? Finally?"
Jessica looked a little confused and sounded less chirpy "Figured out what?"
"Don't be silly, love." She thumbed in my direction. "Who he is... to you."
Now Jessica looked at Helen closely "Are you trying to say you knew before I knew?"
"Phfffht. The only two that didn't know? You and him. Him because he dared not hope you felt the same way about him as he did about you. You, because you needed to work through it."
Jessica crossed her arms and looked ever so slightly petulant. "OK... and when did you figure it out, smartypants? Smarty-skirt. Whatever you are wearing now."
"I was pretty sure the night you called me about having turned him. There was a little something in your voice. A happiness I never heard there before in all the years I have known you. I hoped I to be wrong of course. Not about you being happy, but about the cause. About why you were happy. When I saw you together in Boulder, there in the foyer of Becky's church, before we went in for the meeting. One glance is all it took. Everything about you said you were gone."
"Gone?" Jessica asked, even more puzzled.
"Not gone from a place, my sweet. Gone from me. From any chance of love I might have built with you." Helen laid an open hand over her heart.
Jessica protested "Helen... you know how I feel about you. About Us. If I could be with a woman in a long term kind of way, it would be you. You know that. Also, I have been trying to talk him into a threesome but he is being loyal and stodgy about it. Still: You KNOW I love you. Right?"
Helen ignored the threesome thing. Answered the other part. "I do. As I love you. We talked about this all those years ago. Remember?... I predicted 'Someday a man will come along and you will fall in love'."
Jessica blustered back to the calm "Oh for Christ's personal sake. That was ages ago! You told me that would happen. I did not believe you."
Helen looked out into the night as she drove. Did a finger roll on the steering wheel. "The funny thing about living a long time is that sooner or later, anything that can happen will happen. It was inevitable you would fall in love with a man someday, no matter how you had been treated by that bastard you married, or how much you held yourself and your heart back since. Sooner or later a man was going to get under that armor. I could see it and fear it as clearly as you sitting there. I thought it would be a human man of course. The chances that it would be a male Vampire are, let's face it, incredibly long. I really lost out. At least a human would grow old and die eventually, and I could wait."
Female Vampires sometimes have a tendency to talk like no one else is around if the person that is around is a male Vampire. I said nothing. I did not like hearing this. I did not want to hurt Helen. Not like this.
Jessica turned to face Helen in her seat. "So you told me I would fall in love with a man, and you were right. Where does that leave us? You and I?"
"Nothing has changed as far as I am concerned. I still love you. I am happy you are happy. I am jealous, to be honest. Not of him, at least not exactly, but of you having someone, and I...." Helen looked away for a moment, hunched her shoulders, then finished "... I do not right now."
"You will always have me, Helen. There is a special place in me where only you live, and no one will ever touch or change that." Jessica said.
"That my dear one means a lot to me. Truly, it does." Helen said, and sounded equal parts unhappy and touched.
"Maybe we can sneak away sometimes? He'll see reason on that." Jessica offered.
Huh...
"Any time." Helen agreed. Now it was part hope and part sadness.
Helen looked back at me. "You're being quiet, which is very unusual." I guess she thought of me now, after Jessica's amorous offer.
"I did not hear anything I could add to." I said. "I'll always want to see you naked of course." I shrugged and gave her my best fake sincere look.
"Always with the jokes, and usually about my nudity..." Helen replied, looking back at the road.
Jessica looked back at me. "Oh, I doubt he is joking, lover. He looked you over pretty closely the other night in the hotel, and it wasn't only because you were daring him to. He really really likes naked women. I mean really really likes them."
Helen smiled "Well, we have that in common anyway."
"We also both have you in common." Added with a humorous note "We apparently have both kissed you fairly deeply, though as I pointed out to Adrian I got a lot farther than he did."
"Kissed?" Helen asked, looking at me in the rearview mirror.
"Kissed. Life-saving mouth to mouth resuscitation. I woke up to a heavenly mouth is what she is saying." I said.
"Ahh" Helen said, understanding.
Jessica turned impish eyes on me and said to Helen. "He claimed you as his tonight, just so you know. You are his to torment with his very presence rather than allow any old drug lord that comes along defile you as they see fit. Merely the threat of defiling you in his presence requires fairly severe countermeasures as it turns out. See crashed plane in the desert for details on that. He takes tormenting you deadly seriously. Your naked body is his. Mine too, but without all the drug lord parts..."
Helen looked up in the rearview mirror at me again, an odd and unreadable expression on her face. "Oh. So... I'm yours now am I?" There is a less dangerous edge there than I would have expected.
I smiled, not sure why Jessica is telling her these things. I went with it. "It IS true. You are mine. Only I get to torment you. No other male gets you on my watch. I'm a Vampire now, so that's a pretty long watch." I assured her.
"I feel so safe. My body is in the hands of a near-immortal sex maniac." Helen was less sarcastic than I would have thought.
"Yes, but a very, very worn out one. No energy left for you. My next recharge is already spoken for too." I noted.
Blue eyes in the rearview regarded me. "Imagine my relief." Then to Jessica "You could at least have left him something left to claim me with. I could use a nice long wholesome claiming."
Jessica shook her head. "Oh no, dear one. Not tonight. Later. Sorry. The minute he is ready again, I'm going in. Tonight he is ALL mine." She flipped open the center console and rummaged "You never said about the water. We have any sports drinks or something? Anything? He needs to rehydrate."
Helen pointed at a cooler next to me in the back seat. "Not sure I should tell you about that since you are being so selfish."
Jessica told me in command tones "Drink, lover. You are not done yet." Then to Helen in a more conversational voice: "Tonight we are celebrating us. You want in, you need to wait then jump in and get some of your own later. Much later. Maybe in a few days, now that I think about it."
Helen sounded rueful "Yes: I think I'll wait until he's fresher. He looks half dead now."
I sipped my sports drink. Since we are all goofing now, I mentioned in a general conversational way "For what it is worth, my mouth isn't tired."
"Not tired?" Jessica said hopefully. "As in a two-fer not tired?"
"Uh... sure?" I did not expect such an enthusiastic response. Helen driving. Hours to go before we are anywhere. My lover saw that situation differently. I should have known better, upon reflection. This IS Jessica. Two orgasms in a row at this point is something she would do, given the chance.
'My lover'. I liked the way that sounded in my head.
Jessica looked over at her friend and raised an index finger "He's ready. His mouth is anyway. I'll jumpstart the rest later. Excuse me!"
There might have been actual cartoon physics at work. I think her jeans and panties kind of spun and settled onto the passenger seat as she dived into the back with me, shoved the cooler onto the floor, arranged herself, and then said enthusiastically "Oh boy! I love two-fers!"
As an afterthought, she pulled off her shirt, just in case. Good thinking. My hands are not tired either.
Helen glanced back judging by the way her voice increased in volume and clarity when she said "Oh. OK. I'll wait here then, Jessica."
I ignored it. I was busy trying to drive my lover insane and getting a lot of encouragement and non-verbal guidance to pay attention to the finer details of that project.
After a while, Helen allowed "OK. He does actually appear to be reasonably competent. Enthusiastic certainly. He has some of your favorite things figured out. Very teachable. Humm. This may actually work out. Later. You party tonight. I'll wait. I need to put together a lesson plan for MY preferences anyway. You know what they are, but I need to teach him..."
Jessica managed "Eyes... On... Road, You.. Dirty... Vampire." and she trailed off from speaking and instead held my head to guide my efforts.
Helen sighed. "No promises. Looks nice. Fun."
I felt like a teenager sneaking in sex in their parents' car. Except Helen isn't our parent. Also, we aren't sneaking. Any weirdness I might have felt over a public display of intimate affection utterly swamped by the events of the day.
Jessica loves me.