Young Writers Society

Chapter 13

Evie could feel herself drifting awake. She tried her best to cling onto her dream but she could feel it slipping away. It felt so wonderful to dream again. Vampires didn’t experience sleep, just the weariness of the sunlight dragging them down and then the sensation of rising from a pit when the sun set. There was no blissful in between stage where you lost all inhibitions.

Finally, Evie released her clutches on the fantasies of her mind and flickered her eyes open. Her eyelashes were stuck together so she lifted her arm and rubbed her eyes until all the crust was gone. She sighed and looked down at the arm wrapped around her middle. Not her arm. This one was pale and laced with muscle. She twisted her head and started a little at the pair of soft blue eyes gazing up at her through a mess of mahogany hair.

“Caius,” she croaked then cleared her throat. “What are you doing in bed? What time is it?”

“Three in the morning. I just wanted to spend some more time with you before I…y’know,” he replied, resting his chin on her shoulder.

She smiled and ran her hand through his frizzy hair. “So you decided to watch me sleep? How very Edward Cullen of you.” She laughed. “Remember those books? They were bad.”

He laughed and rolled onto his back, looking up at the ceiling. “Yeah, I wish I sparkled in sunlight. It would be a much easier alternative.”

She cupped his jaw and kissed him passionately. He let out a soft moan against her lips and caressed her back, keeping her pinned against him. She smiled and pressed her nose against his. “You shaved.”

“Yeah,” he murmured, running his thumb over her lips. “The blood in my beard was very stubborn.”

“I like you better without the beard.” She kissed his smooth jawline.

He laughed at her tickling touch. “Noted.”

She stayed leant over him for a moment, gazing deep into his eyes, before a yawn hit her unexpectedly and she dropped her head back against the pillow. “I’m going back to sleep.”

“Okay,” Caius said softly. “Mind if I stay?”

Her eyes fluttered closed. “Not at all.”

He shifted himself and spooned Evie’s side, resting his head on her chest. She smiled lazily and curled into him. The soft, rhythm of his tapping fingers on her thigh soothed her and seemed to relax all her muscles, turning them into water. But her eyes flew open when she caught on to what he was doing. The rhythm…the rhythm of tapping fingers was the same rhythm of her pulse.

She looked down and twisted herself a little so she could see his face. His eyes were closed, features slack and lips curved into a content smile. He was completely oblivious to what he was doing. Even in his rested state, he was still fascinated by her beating heart.

Is that what had made him follow her to bed? Is that why he wanted to stay close to her? He said he wasn’t going to drink from her but that didn’t negate the fact that pumping around Evie’s body was the thing that he craved most.

When her heart started to race, his fingers picked up their speed. She snapped her eyes shut and sucked back a sob. She really needed to get him some more blood bags. He may have chosen to not feed from her, but there might come a time when it was no longer his choice to make.

Evie woke again and checked the time. She had to stretch her arm out awkwardly and grab her clock, unable to move from underneath Caius’ dead weight. Before she even saw the time, she knew it must be day. Yes, it was 12.30 but Evie didn’t want to get out of bed. She probably could of. If she put all her effort into it, she was pretty sure she could roll Caius off her. But she stayed anyway because she didn’t want her life with Caius to be like this. She didn’t want to spend all day alone, have a few hours with him and then leave him all alone for the night. It wouldn’t work. So she decided she needed to train her body clock to go back to how it was when she was a vampire. Even though it did seem like an incredibly big sacrifice. She could walk in daylight and she was going to train herself to be nocturnal again. It would be like a someone who suddenly was able to walk again, to get around town in a wheelchair. She was crippling herself. For Caius. Everything she did would always be for Caius.

It wasn’t until 5.00 when she started becoming restless…and hungry. On the third attempt, she was able to successfully dislodge herself from under Caius, who rolled onto his back with a heavy thud like a felled tree. She dressed and ate before heading out of the door. The hospital was further than the shop so she took their old, beaten up 1989 Chevrolet Cavalier that was the colour of rust. She folded herself into the front seat and reversed out of the driveway. Evie hardly ever drove. She and Caius only ever used it when they were moving town but now, Evie thought sadly, she’d be using it a lot more often.

The hospital was busy as usual and Evie pulled her hat further down nervously as she headed towards the huge sliding doors at the side of the building, set away from the A&E. It was a smart idea to set the blood bag collection point away from all the injured people. Hungry vampires plus a room full of bleeding wounds equalled a very messy job indeed.

Evie was able to relax when she rounded the corner and found that there was only one more person there to collect. Of course it was quiet, it was daytime. The blonde woman filling her purse with blood bags must have been a friend or lover of a vampire, like Evie. When the woman turned and spotted Evie, she smiled and held her head high because she knew Evie would not be judging her like the rest of society.

“May I help you?”

Evie jumped and turned back to the man behind the counter. She quickly crossed the room to him and placed her hands on the counter top. “Yes, I’d like some blood bags please.”

“Okay, what’s your name?” he asked, looking to his computer screen.

“Evie Graham,” she replied and he started tapping on his keyboard. Evie waited patiently as he retrieved her files.

“Okay, so it says here you were last here a month ago and you collected fourteen bags.”

“Yep. That’s correct.”

He then furrowed his eyebrows at the screen and then looked outside at the sun. Clients at the collection point were not authorised to tell the members of staff whether they were a vampire or human because of some sort of Right of privacy but by the confused look on the man’s face, he must have figured that Evie was a vampire. Probably due to the fact she only visited at night, until now.

“Right…” He looked back at his screen. “That means that you have twenty-eight assigned to you this month. How many would you like now?”

“All of them, please.”

He looked up from his monitor. “All of them? Clients usually make several collections over the month to make them last.”

Yes, well those clients aren’t living with a hungry vampire that could turn on them at any moment, thought Evie. But she kept her bright, innocent eyes on the man and repeated, “All of them, please.”

His eyebrows formed a thick line but then he sighed. “Okay, twenty-eight blood bags, coming up. Do you still want B positive?”

“No.” Evie rushed and paused to think of what Caius’ favourite was. “O negative, please.”

He tapped away at his computer and sent the order.

“Oh.” Evie pushed herself up onto her tiptoes are leaned over the counter. “Is there any way I could also pick up my friends blood bags for him? He’s…away at the moment.”

The man sucked in a breath through his teeth and looked up at her apologetically. “I can’t do that, I’m afraid. Clients must collect their registered blood bags themselves, sorry. We’ve had serious cases of blood hoardings in the past.” He grabbed a clipboard and placed it on the counter beside Evie’s hand. “But you are welcome to make a donation and you may take your own bags.”

Evie looked at the donor form and tried to contain a shudder when a hand of ice ran up her spine. For the first time, she could actually fill it out. They gave her the form every time she came, it was simple procedure for anyone not already on the donor list. But she couldn’t do it. If she handed Caius a bag of her blood, he would probably know it was hers and feel like she had tried to trick him. All of that was out of the question anyway because even just the thought of being poked by needles made her nauseous what Nico’s had done to her.

She pushed the clipboard back. “No thanks.”

The man tried to hide his disappointment as he took the clipboard back. A sliding door lifted in a window behind him and a pair of hands pushed a tray of blood bags through.

“Ah.” The man smiled and spun around on his swivel chair to collect the tray. “Would you like a bag?”

“No thanks,” said Evie. “I’ve brought my own.”

“Okay then.” He settled the tray on the lower level of the counter and Evie moved around to collect them.

After she placed all the bags in her shoulder bag, she smiled politely at the man and told him to have a great day.

On her way back home, she passed a young couple arguing as they attempted to fit a car seat into the back seat of their station wagon while their eldest child entertained their new addition, bouncing the chubby little baby on his lap on the porch steps. Evie slowed down on the residential street, her palms felt clammy against the steering wheel and the bitter, thick taste of envy made her mouth feel tacky.

She pulled up into her drive moments later and hefted her filled bag into the house. After placing blood bags in the fridge, she took a step back, feeling a slight knot cramp in her stomach when one bag tipped over and knocked against the block of cheese she had bought for herself the day before.

They were both so different now…

Evie sighed and checked the time, there were still a few hours of loneliness to kill before Caius could wake so she thought she’d pamper herself a little because she still felt a little grubby after being at Nico’s, as if his germs were still all over her even after she’d showered.

She started running her bath and went on a hunt for candles. After finding four that were fairly new and apparently had a smell that encouraged relaxation, she set them down at the four corners of the bath and found a bath bomb to throw in too. Next, she grabbed her razor and body scrub. By the time she was finished, the bath was full and ready for her. She decided to keep the shutters closed just in case somehow the sun dropped at an angle where the light shone through the door and beamed onto sleeping Caius who was still lay flat on his face on the bed, because the poor ventilation made her have to leave the door open.

She stripped down and dipped her toe into the water then flinched back with a hiss. She still hadn’t gotten used to how responsive her body was to different temperatures. But as she eased herself in slowly, she realised it wasn’t flinch-worthingly hot at all, it was just right. A soft smile filled her face and her eyelids dropped closed as she rested her head on the edge of the bath. The minerals in the bath bomb eased her aching joints and tense muscles. She was always achy and tense now. It was either simply because of her new, fragile human body, or the stress of living with a vampire. She hoped it was the first and not the latter. She couldn’t bear the thought of it being the latter.

Suddenly, that knot in her stomach tightened again and she chewed her tongue with irritation. How hard was it to bloody relax?

She let out a steadying breath and eased herself back into a light sleep.

Everything’s going to be fine.

Everything’s going to be fine.

Everything’s going to be fine.

Everything’s…

Chapter 14

After twenty minutes of uninterrupted sleep, Evie sprang up in the tub coughing and wheezing. Her head had slipped further down the tub until she was submerged up to her eyes in the soapy bath water. It had been an accident but it wouldn’t have even been an issue if she had been her old vampire self, and that thought made her heart sink.

She blew her nose and tipped her head from side to side to let the water drain from her ears. Seeing as though she was awake and her skin was starting to shrivel like a prune, she decided to move on to shaving her legs that now felt prickly. She grabbed her razor from the side and lifted her left leg into the air, running the razor from her ankle to her knee. After one leg was completely smooth to the touched, she switched, lifting her right leg up.

Movement outside made her head snap to the side. Caius appeared at the door, his expression stiff as if his skin had been pulled too tightly over his face. Evie look curiously into his wide, vacant eyes.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice hoarse.

Her eyebrow lifted. “Yeah..?”

“You’re bleeding.”

She looked back to her leg and noticed the trail of watery blood dripping from the cut on her ankle. “Oh yeah.” She laughed. “I hadn’t even noticed.” She dropped her leg back into the water.

A muscle in Caius’ cheek rippled. He nodded curtly and carried on out of the bedroom, leaving her.

After finishing in the bath, Evie dressed into something comfortable and dried her hair before hopping down the stairs and meeting Caius in the kitchen.

“I see you got me some more blood,” he said, sealing up a bag and putting it back in the fridge.

“Yep. What would you do without me, ey?” she replied chirpily and wrapped her arms around his middle from behind. He laughed as he stumbled forwards a little and smoothed his hands over hers.

“Not much.”

She squeezed him and kissed the centre of his back before pulling away from him and heading towards the living room. Caius knotted the cord of his fraying dressing gown around his waist and followed with a glass of blood in his hand.

“Anything on?” he asked, settling down on the sofa beside her. Evie flicked through a few channels before she made her decision.

Caius arched an eyebrow at the screen. “A cooking show. Really?”

Evie shrugged, watching the woman in the apron pick out her ingredients. “I guess I need to start learning.”

Caius snatched the remote from her hand and muted the telly. Evie spun to him, her expression sharp. “What was that for?”

He heaved a sigh, his body slouched as he watched the silent screen. “Did you want to be human from the start? Is that why you were at Nico’s?”

The gravity in his tone was like a punch in Evie’s stomach. She even felt a hot wave of bile rise in her throat but she coughed it down with a shake of her head. “No. I was taken like you.”

“And then he cured you?”

She nodded. “After a failed attempt.”

His head snapped to her, making his long hair float over his shoulder. “He hurt you?”

She nodded stiffly. “Not as much as he hurt you though.”

“How do you know?”

“I felt it. Your cry for help.”

His eyebrows rose and the shock on his face made him look ten years younger. “I sent you a cry for help?”

She nodded. “So, it wasn’t intentional?”

He shook his head. “I would never have wanted you to see me like that.”

“Well, we’re out of there now. So we can just forget about it,” said Evie, forcing herself to sound dismissive.

She looked back to the screen but she could feel Caius’ eyes still on her, burning into the side of her face.

“Then when did you decide you wanted to stay human?”

She cringed at the question. When she stayed silent, Caius pressed on. “Evie.”

Finally, she willed herself to look to him. Red pools had formed under his eyes as he watched her. She sighed. “There was a girl- a vampire- in one of the cells. She was so complacent, just letting Nico inject her with all sorts of things. At first I thought it was because she had given up. But it wasn’t. It was because she wanted him to be successful. She wanted him to cure her.” Her bottom lip started to tremble. “That’s when I realised that me being cured isn’t so bad. If she was so desperate for it that she was willing to go through all that agony, it must be worth it.”

He blinked hard and the brimming tears vanished. His jaw jutted out with irritation and jerked his head back to the screen.

A few moments passed where Evie watched him desperately, willing him to turn and look at her again. But he didn’t.

“Caius.” She reached over and stroked his hair over his shoulder. His nose crinkled with a sneer at the contact. “Please don’t be mad at me for wanting a life.”

“A life?” He scoffed bitterly. “You mean the life I stole from you? Is this it? Your way of getting back at me for what I did to you?” She opened her mouth to protest but his eyes flicked to her, cold and steely through his hair. “I remember what I said, Evie, about not wanting to burden you with my curse but then we fell in love and I thought you had forgiven me. Clearly I was wrong.”

She shook her head, clear tears now welling in her eyes that made Caius look like a reflection in a rippling pool. “I did forgive you, Caius. You did what you had to do. I don’t want to stay human to have my old life back. I know that that is impossible. William’s gone. That’s not what I want. I just want to experience being a human again, that’s it. It has nothing to do with you.”

“But it’s affecting us,” he said hollowly, pain glinting in his pale eyes.

The look yanked at her heart like an iron fist. “I know.”

“And you’re still not going to change?”

She bit back a sob and shook her head before managing to choke out, “I’m sorry.”

He sighed and turned back to the telly. “We’ll just have to try harder.”

He unmuted the telly but accidentally changed the channel at the same time, replacing the woman making risotto to Lady Sylvia on the News…yet again.

“Of course it should be allowed! You claim to not be discriminating against our kind yet you find the thought of human and vampire marriage, I quote, repulsive!”

The camera snapped to a man, shaking his head. “Two different species should not be allowed to marry. It’s bestiality!”

“Bestiality?!” cried Lady Sylvia, outraged. “We are not beasts! We were like you at one point!”

“Were, exactly, you were like us. Now you are infected mons-”

Caius flicked the channel back to the cookery show, his expression stiff yet mournful. They both sat there in silence, watching but not concentrating on the aproned woman on the screen.

Caius was right, if they wanted to stay together, they had to try harder. Evie was trying her best to not pressure Caius into getting his life back on track too soon as it was clear he was still being haunted by what Nico had put him through. She was trying to be sympathetic but worry was eating away at her. He had never been the most happy man in the world but she didn’t blame him for that. He had been on the earth for ten centuries and he had only disclosed parts of what had happened to him in that time to her. She figured that the memories he kept to himself were too painful to pass his lips.

But he was a good man. As good as a vampire could be. As human as a vampire could be, that’s how he blended in so well and that’s how Evie learned how to do the same. And he loved Evie with every fibre of his being, despite her existence being a punishment to him.

He had always been so level-headed and…solid. But now he seemed like a ghost of himself just…drifting from night to night…from the bedroom, to the kitchen, to the sofa. Their life had never been too exciting but it had been better than this. Caius even had a job at a music shop that opened at night for the vampires. He knew a lot about music, followed it religiously through the ages.

This got Evie thinking…

“Maybe you should go round to your store tonight.”

Caius’ eyes stayed on the screen. “Maybe you should go to the club.”

Evie frowned. “I was actually thinking that myself…I’ll go in a bit. Even if I’ve lost my job, I’d better show my face to Eric. Will you go if I go?”

He picked up his glass of blood and watched as he swirled the red liquid. “I’ll think about it.”

Evie sighed and scooted closer to him on the sofa, resting her chin on his shoulder. She brushed his hair back to expose his neck and kissed it. “You can’t stay in here forever.”

“Actually, I can.” He arched an eyebrow to her.

She smiled and kissed his lips. “Don’t get sassy with me, I mean it.” She wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “But seeing as though you’re not going anywhere soon, how about we go to bed?”

He brows fell. “I’ve only been up for like half an hour.”

She looked to his thin lips then back to his eyes. “We won’t be sleeping.”

“Ooooooh.” He grinned.

She squeezed him. “Ooooh, indeed.”

He laughed and wrapped his arms around her waist, settling her on his lap. She shifted so she was straddling him and kissed him passionately. With her eyes closed, she felt herself shift and heard the air whoosh past her. They were stood up by the sofa one moment, then at the base of the stairs the other. Evie clung to him with her legs around his narrow frame as he pressed her up against the wall. His hands were on the small of her back, slipped under her vest top. Evie’s arms were still locked around his neck, her fingers mussing up his hair. They both started to pant, kissing more frivolously. Caius’ breathlessness a result of passion rather than exertion.

He spun her around and vampire sprinted up the stairs before kicking their bedroom door open and settling himself down on the foot of the bed with Evie straddling him still. She had kept her eyes squeezed shut as the world rushed past her so she didn’t get knocked over by a wave of nausea like last time. Throwing up was not ideal in a moment like his. Bit of a mood killer.

Evie pushed off his dressing gown from his shoulders and Caius’ lips landed on her neck as he began pulling up her vest top. Her heart was pounding with adrenaline, making her feel light headed and giddy as they continued kissing. Her skin felt hot under his touch as his hands skimmed up her back to her bra clasp. Once removing it, he spun them both around so her back thudded against the mattress and he was over her. Before Evie’s eyes had ceased rolling in their sockets, Caius was trailing open-mouthed kisses over her chest. She writhed beneath him, her back arching upwards for more contact.

Then he stopped. His ear hovered over her heart. But before she could ask him what was wrong, his lips were on hers, as if to trap her unspoken concern.

His hair fell over her, tickling her cheeks as they sighed and moaned together.

Her hands roamed his chest and back, feeling the expanse of muscles she knew off by heart. Every bump, every ridge, every hollow…especially the extra sensitive little groove beneath his hipbones.

This was what she needed. To forget about everything other than the fact that Caius was here, with her and that he still loved her. Even after a hundred years, even after all this change; he still loved her.

Two lovers enjoying each other’s company.

Simple.

Surely her humanity couldn’t take this away from her.