Blood Relations - Chapter 24

United States, 1995

Ellen rushed into the apartment, her green eyes glowing with happiness as she looked around the living room and nodded her approval. “Oh, Vicky, this is really nice! How did you find this?”

“The job you set me up with at the blood bank helps with the rent, but I met someone at the Asylum, a strange person who...sometimes they’re Jenny, and sometimes they’re Marcus, but they’re both my roommates. I’m not sure what they are, but they smell mostly human.”

“You draw mystic races like a magnet through iron filings.” Ellen laughed and followed Vicky back to her room. She spotted the coffin set up on an short wooden alter and laughed again. “Aw, no bed?”

Vicky pointed to her roommate’s door. “We can always use his, but I think he might be offended if I stained his sheets.”

“So where is he, or she, now?”

“He’s at a gaming session with his friends. He calls himself a mage, which is funny, because his girlfriend is a real mage.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Well, Kathy calls herself a witch, but she is the real deal.” Vicky moved to the bathroom to turn on the light and continue her brief tour of her new home. “She doesn’t live here, so it’s just me and...and the changeling, I guess.” She laughed as she went to the kitchen. “I love this city. Every time I turn around, something else supernatural is popping up. I expect to see an elf any day now.”

“I hope not,” Ellen said, still smiling as she walked into the kitchen.

“Why would—oh right, sign of the apocalypse,” Vicky said.

“Yep, pretty much,” Ellen agreed.

“Can I get you something to drink?”

Ellen’s smile became positively devious. “I was about to ask you the same thing.”

Vicky uttered a quiet snort. “You know, with you being a Christian, I’d think you’d have some problems with me.”

“Judge not,” Ellen said, laughing with Vicky. “Come to the couch with your things, and I’ll give you a housewarming gift.”

Vicky needed no other encouragement, and she went to the bathroom to gather a lancet, gauze, and medical tape. Everything a vampire needs for good, clean foreplay, Vicky thought, which evoked a peal of laughter from Ellen.

She sat next to Ellen, holding her supplies in her lap while she leaned over to breathe in and sample Ellen. An excited tremor passed through Ellen’s body, and she sent the sensation to Vicky, telepathically sharing her feelings to encourage Vicky.

As if she needed to.

Vicky opened the lance and pierced Ellen’s skin, who made only a quiet sigh in response. She dipped her head to sip from the wound. She couldn’t let herself go into bloodlust, and the feeding was over all too soon.

When she finished bandaging the wound, Ellen surprised Vicky by moving to straddle her lap. Ellen’s smile was confident and alluring, but her gaze was filled with yearning.

Vicky’s pulse sped up under the intensity of Ellen’s stare. Feelings she thought long dead and buried in Europe welled up fresh and vital in her once again. Her lips curled around her teeth, which were aching in spite of her just feeding.

Ellen dipped her head and bit Vicky’s exposed collarbone. Vicky closed her eyes and rolled her head back, her breath becoming a soft pant.

In her heightened condition, Vicky picked up the scent of Marcus and several of his friends as soon as they got out of his car.

Ellen read her thoughts and rolled off of her lap to sit on the couch. She snickered and began primping her hair while Marcus unlocked the door. She elbowed Vicky’s side, who finally took the hint and draped her hair over the bleeding bite mark on her shoulder.

Marcus and his friends piled into the room. He spotted Ellen on the couch, and he tried to wave his friends on to his bedroom. “Uh, head straight through, guys, and please ignore my new roommate.”

“Dude, you found a vampire!” one of the guys shouted.

“We’ve seen the vamp already,” another guy declared, though he paused in the living room when he noticed Ellen. “Wait, she’s new.” He laughed and asked, “Damn Marcus, are you building a harem?”

Marcus sighed and waved at his room again. “Guys, please head to my room to set up the game.”

“Hi, I’m Eric,” a gangly older teen said as he offered Vicky his hand. “Can you turn me into a vampire, please?”

Vicky smiled as she shook her head. “I’m sorry, but it doesn’t work like that. Guys, this is Ellen, my—”

“Lover?” Ellen offered.

Vicky nodded. “Close enough.”

Eric guffawed and faked a guilty expression. “Were you making out?”

Vicky opened her mouth, but Ellen was faster to comment. “Yes, and we were about to engage in hot lesbian sex before you walked in.”

Vicky choked back a laugh, looking like she would gag on it. “Ellen.”

Eric gawked with wide eyed surprise. “Really?”

“No, not really.” Ellen’s smile fell as she pointed at the gauze pad taped to her arm. “I just fed Vicky, and now we’re going to chant backwards prayers to Satan. Then we’ll kill all of you in his glorious name.” She kept her expression straight and her voice icy, and Vicky’s amused grin helped to make her act more convincing.

Perhaps it was because her teeth were stained with a thin film of Ellen’s blood.

Which is why Marcus was the only male not to take a step back. Instead, he sighed and rubbed the bridge of his narrow nose, his expression becoming irritated. “Vicky, I told you not to make my friends nervous, and that rule applies to your houseguests too. Now please, tell your witch to behave.”

“Halfling,” Ellen said.

“Whatever, just don’t slaughter my friends for your crazy, daemonic...” Marcus’ eyes narrowed as he stared at Ellen’s neck. “Oh what the hell? You’re a Christian, so shut up.”

Ellen laughed and raised her hand to clasp her copper cross. “You don’t know that this isn’t just jewelry.”

“Nah, you got the look of a Christian, one of the true believers,” Marcus said.

Ellen’s smile dropped, and she regarded Marcus with a cautious expression. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

A year and nine months would pass before Vicky realized that Ellen couldn’t read Marcus, and she didn’t come to that realization until Wendy Stoffel asked Marcus why she couldn’t read his mind. Vicky should have noticed it right away, because Ellen reacted with genuine confusion to Marcus’ comment.

But between her amusement at Ellen’s joke, and her mind still racing with dirty thoughts, she was too distracted to make the connection. Ellen never mentioned that she couldn’t read him, but then, she rarely discussed or used her powers. In fact, she often seemed ashamed of them.

Marcus grinned at Ellen and said, “You’re too happy. You true believers all act like you’re in on a secret that nobody else knows.”

Ellen relaxed on Vicky’s side as her smile returned. “I know a lot of secrets, but what my God is thinking isn’t one of them.”