Forever Kiss

Forever Kiss

Blood Kissed – Part Two

Published by Novel Concept Publishing LLC

By Dawn Michelle

©2014

All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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www.novelconceptpublishing.com

5699 Applegrove Dr.

West Bloomfield, MI 48324

Cover art © 2014
Cora Graphics

Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

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Look for these other Blood Kissed books:

First Kiss
(book 1)

Forever Kiss
(book 2)

Lover's Kiss
(book 3)

Chapter 1

Shadows stretched from dresser to wall. The corners of the room blurred and blended, twisting in the darkness to hide where one wall ended and another began. The walls looked alive with spider-like lines shifting in and out of the darkness. Beth blinked in the darkness, fighting to focus her eyes and thoughts.

She was tired. No, not tired, she was exhausted. A marathon runner can barely walk, let alone run, for days after a race. She felt as though she might have run two of them back to back. Her body ached and burned with fever. She wanted to throw the blankets and sheets from her body but she wasn't sure if she could lift her arms.

Beth closed her eyes, hoping to relieve the burning in them. Instead it made the itch worse, her eyelids seemed to have been coated with sandpaper while she slept. Her nose was stuffy, making each breath a struggle for her exhausted body. She cracked her mouth open and gulped in air.

She took a break from gasping and tried to lick her lips. They were dry and starting to crack. Her tongue had barely enough moisture to wet them. Beth whimpered and gave up, relaxing her body and collapsing into the bed.

She lay dazed for several moments, drifting in and out while she gathered her strength. She had trouble thinking through the fog that filled her thoughts. She felt like she was still trapped in the clouds that Penelope had carried her into the night before.

Beth's eyes snapped open. She'd flown last night. Literally. Well, almost. Penelope— Penny— had carried her while she flew away from the frat house. The frat house Penny had started a fire in. After she'd butchered half a dozen frat brothers, including the one that Beth had been dating.

Well, sort of. Two dates in a week. She'd known him for about six weeks and only found out last night that he was a sick son of a bitch that set her up to be the guest of honor at a frat house date rape gang bang. Or whatever they called it, he'd gotten her drunk and they'd escaped to a bedroom. Then while she was distracted he handcuffed her to a bed and encouraged his frat brothers to have some fun.

Thank god for Penny. She'd showed up and saved her from being raped. If she could thank god for a person like Penny. After all, she was a monster too.

Beth let out a soft moan, testing her voice and her strength. Her neck was stiff and sore, but not in the usual place. She lifted her hand and probed at her skin, feeling clammy flesh that was too cool for the way she burned inside. Her fingers brushed something else, a material that felt scratchy and then soft as her fingers brushed across it. A bandage?

Yes, a bandage. On her neck. Where Penny had bit her. She'd bit her while they floated above Detroit in the frozen winter sky. And then Penny had drank her blood and made everything— all her worries and all her troubles— fade away into a haze of bliss.

Now she was here. In a strange bedroom. Was that it? She'd been drinking Penny's blood for a week now, but was that how it worked? Did she need Penny's blood? That made sense, otherwise everybody that Penny bit would turn, wouldn't they? She'd told her she wanted to be like her. To be her companion. To live forever, or at least as long as Penny had already lived. She'd mentioned the roman and Persian empires, which meant she was probably a couple thousand years old.

The thought made her chest ache as her heart began to beat faster. It was racing, trying to push what blood she had left through her veins. Beth began taking deeper breaths to calm herself. It left her exhausted but her heart slowed enough that the lightheaded buzz behind her eyes faded.

She  pushed her arm down and lowered her blankets with it. The air in the room swept across her as the blankets moved. Her arm brushed against her side and hip and told a story that she had to lift her head to verify. She was nude. When she'd left the frat party she'd still had her skirt on. What liberties had Penny taken after she'd bitten her?

The air was cool. Beth felt it, but it didn't bother her. It didn't cool her very much either. She sunk into the bed again, resting and wondering what was next. Penny was so strong and amazing, why did she feel like she had a hangover from a solid month of heavy drinking?

Beth licked her lips again. She was thirsty. Her eyes widened, making them ache even as she wondered what that meant. What did she want to drink? Just water, or something else. Something darker. Something…redder?

She let out a troubled sigh. She just wanted something to drink. Her body felt dry. Her throat, eyes, and even her crotch burned from dehydration. She'd been drained all right, but didn't the body make more blood? She remembered that from her high school science class. The marrow in her bones made the blood. But without any food or water, how would that happen? Did vampires eat food or drink water? She'd never seen Penny do that.

Duh! They drank blood. That's how they did it. So Beth needed to drink blood. Easy enough, except for the part about where she got the blood from. She was so weak she couldn't overpower a toy poodle, let alone a human.

How would she do it? She'd seen Penny's fangs firsthand. Heck, she'd felt them! But she didn't have any. Beth ran her tongue along her teeth and let it linger over her canines. They didn't feel any sharper than they used to be. Would they grow? Penny's had grown when she used them, otherwise they looked like normal teeth.

Teeth and blood aside, none of that would happen if she didn't get out of bed. She swung her left leg forward and over the edge of the bed. She rolled with it, gravity pulling and completing her journey.

Beth cried out and clenched both her teeth and her hands on the sheets. She ended up with her toes and knees on the hardwood floor of the bedroom. She held on and gasped for breath while her heart hammered in her chest. She could feel it pounding against her ribs.

After more than a minute passed Beth lifted her face from where she'd rested it against the bed and used her arms and feet to struggle to her feet. She reached out to the wall and held on to it to keep her balance while she fought off the spinning shadows that circled her. Beth wanted to shake her head but she had a hunch that would only make things worse.

When the room stopped heaving like a boat caught in a winter storm she took several short steps and kept her hand against the wall. She made it to the door of the bedroom and grabbed the handle. Beth leaned against the wall and licked her lips again. Was she really going to risk stepping into the unknown while she was barely able to stand on her own feet?

Beth glanced down and saw herself in the darkness. She was naked too! There was no telling what was out there, but facing it weak and naked seemed like a terrible idea. She turned her head enough to glance at the first thing she'd noticed when she woke up. A dresser.

Beth staggered to it and grabbed on to keep her rubbery legs from being overwhelmed. A few breaths later she had strength enough to start opening the drawers. She peered into them and gasped. She opened another drawer and shook her head. A third and fourth drawer yielded the same results. Flimsy undergarments and lacy negligee ranging from current styles to lingerie so old she worried it might fall apart if she touched it.

She shook her head again and turned to a armoire in the middle of the wall at the foot of the bed. She was almost afraid to discover what was inside of it, but she suspected she didn't have a choice. Well, other than venturing into this strange place naked as the day she was born.

Inside the armoire she found more adult oriented outfits. Beth's eyes narrowed as she moved the clothing back and forth. She recognized some of them. Penny had worn them when she saw her at the club. So these were Penny's clothes.

Beth turned and glanced back at the full sized mattress. Was this Penny's bedroom? Did vampires have bedrooms? Shouldn't there be a coffin instead?

Beth turned back to the wardrobe and reached in to grab a robe. She pulled it out and slipped the dark colored silk over her shoulders. The silk brushed her skin and rested so lightly against her she wondered if it was made of spider silk. At least it didn't make her hotter. She tied the sash loosely and made her way back to the door.

The bedroom opened up into a gloomy hallway that ran to her right and left. Air moved through it from three fans that hung from the raised ceiling. On her left it ended after less than a dozen feet at a set of double doors. To her right it stretched nearly three times as far to an open archway. Beth stood in the doorway breathing deep and leaning against the wall. The double doors to her left were closer.

She put a hand on each doorknob and rested for a moment. Something was behind the doors. Her future, whatever that meant. She'd find out what she was and what was going to happen to her. Something that would make the exhaustion and bone deep agony a thing of her past.

She twisted the knobs and tugged on them, expecting the heavy doors to be hard to open. They opened with a fluid ease and swung open, forcing Beth to scream as she was stung by an entire hive of angry hornets. Red tinged sunlight streamed over the concrete rail of the balcony and blasted her full on as she threw herself back and  tried to scramble across the floor.

Chapter 2

Beth huddled on the floor of the bedroom. She curled up in a ball, her arms pressed against her chest and her hands over her face. Her eyes watered but tears wouldn't fall. Her body trembled and her heart leapt like a kangaroo dancing on red hot coals. The pain in her face, hands, and feet was the worse.

She'd watched idiots on YouTube put their hands in jars filled with stinging ants and other insects. She felt like she'd just tried every stupid venomous insect in the world and then smeared a paste made out of ghost peppers over the bites.

She was a vampire. She had to be. The sun had bothered her and given her headaches before, after she'd drank Penny's blood without knowing it. Now it burned her alive. Or she thought it burned. She wasn't sure. Her face felt smooth under her fingers, but the biting and stinging was taking a long time to fade away.

The light streaming in the hallway lit up the bedroom so that, when the tingling in Beth's skin lessened enough for her to notice it, she began to notice little things. The pattern darker blue designs on the soft blue wallpaper was less menacing than the crawling spiders she'd first imagined. The furniture was a dark stained wood, mahogany or cherry she guessed. The walls were smooth other than the wallpaper and door. No windows, pictures, or decorations of any sort.

She turned her eyes to the open doorway and squinted. The sunlight reflected off the wall and floor of the hallway, sending tiny golden bullets through her eyes and into her skull. She groaned and looked away. The relief was instant.

"Fucking sun," she said, her voice a scratchy whisper. She rolled up to all fours and used the footboard of the bed to help her pull herself back to her feet. Her hands and feet looked unharmed but now she felt a new ache. She felt like she'd swallowed a hammer and it had whacked at the inside of her ribs. Or maybe it was one of those chest bursting aliens in the movies her suitemate Mandy liked watching.

Whatever the cause, she had to hold on to the bed until the knives slicing under her ribs stopped. She risked a glance over her shoulder at the sunlight hallway and scowled. She had no idea how long until the sun set, and she couldn't stay trapped in the bedroom forever. She felt some gurgling in her belly that she hoped promised relief from some of the pain and pressure inside of her.

A cold shiver ran up her spine as her insides twisted and cramped. She caught her breath and let out a groan as the pain eased. Her relief was short lived as whatever moved inside of her passed on and left her with a growing pressure.

"This is not happening," she breathed in denial. But it did happen. She felt an intense sensation that she couldn't decide if it felt like burning or freezing before the pressure intensified. She glanced around, looking for anything that might help.

Beth's eyes fell on the bed and the heavy comforter on the top. She grabbed it and pulled, ignoring the strain of her heart kicking into high gear again. She draped it over her back and head, cowering beneath it, and then turned and shuffled into the hallway with her eyes narrowed to bare slits.

The blanket warmed her back instantly. She whimpered and shuffled faster, panting as the heat built up and seeped into her back. Doors on the right hand side of the hallway were shut. She moved past them, afraid to reach out and have her hand exposed to the sunlight. She reached the archway at the end of the hall and turned the corner, stepping out of the light. Her back cooled immediately, leaving her panting and trembling as she clung to the wall. She let go of the comforter and bent forward with her hands on her knees.

When Beth looked up she saw a large combination great room and kitchen, although the kitchen seemed like an afterthought compared to the plush couches and chairs in the massive great room. Tall shuttered windows lined the walls across from her and to her right, promising a spectacular view. She spotted speakers positioned through the kitchen and great room but there wasn't a television anywhere.

The pressure returned, building lower in her belly and pressing against her. Beth whimpered and slid a hand to her belly. Was she swollen and bloated? Her stomach felt like it had a bulge to it. That wasn't new to her, she'd spent the last year trying to fight off her curves, but this time her skin felt tight.

She turned, searching for a restroom. There was a door near the kitchen, but the foyer next to it had coats and shoes in it. That led outside or to a garage— it wasn't a risk she was willing to take.

That left another door  on her right, further down the wall she was leaning against. She made her way down and tried the knob. It turned in her hand and pushed open, revealing a tile floor and a dark bathroom.

"On my god," Beth whispered as she stumbled into the room. Her body reacted, sensing relief was near, and twisted her bowels up inside her in hopes of relieving her of whatever poison she had inside. She yanked at her sash to pull the loose twist free and shrugged the robe from her shoulders. It fluttered to the floor behind her, after she'd spun and sat on the commode hard enough to nearly bounce off of it.

Beth's eyes widened and her heart thundered anew as the pressure built and felt like it was tear a new hole through her body. She cried out when her dry and aching muscles forced the pain out of her.

She endured countless spasms as her stomach churned and expelled everything she'd eaten since she was six years old. By the time the quivering and cramping subsided she lost track of time. She could still see the glow in the hallway filtering into the main room, but it seemed redder. Sunset was approaching.

She cleaned herself as best she could and took stock of the bathroom she was in. It was large and contained a shower and sink as well as the toilet. Towels rested in shelves built into a wall as well as various decorations that looked old. No, not old, ancient. Tiny statues carved from stone, marble and other kinds of rock, decorated the bathroom.

Beth rose up on shaky legs and turned to flush the toilet for the fourth time. As much as she wanted nothing to do with the horrific mess she'd left behind she found herself glancing into the bowl. It was like a train wreck that she couldn't stop herself from watching. She gagged and jerked on the handle, flushing the stink away before she could make up her mind if the bowl had been splattered with waste or with blood.

Beth went to the sink to wash her hands and frowned as the water never seemed to warm. It wasn't cold, but it was hardly comforting. Just like her showers had been. She frowned and lifted her gaze up to the mirror. She gasped at her reflection.

"I thought vampires didn't leave reflections," she whispered as she stared at herself. She was definitely reflected in the mirror. And she looked like shit. Beth winced and had a flash back to her humiliating experience a few moments ago and decided that wasn't right. She looked more like a person dragged behind a car down an icy road and then left as road kill on the side.

Her skin was pale and her eyes had dark circles under them that made her think she'd tried out for an MMA fight. Her hair was sticking out and fell limp across her shoulders. Other than the bandage, her neck and shoulders look sunken in and oily. If she didn't know any better she'd have sworn she was looking at a cadaver.

She reached up and scratched at the bandage, digging her fingernails under the tape and pulling it away. She hesitated, would it start bleeding again if she pulled it off? Would her blood spurt out like it did in the movies? Did she have enough blood left to do that?

Beth swallowed and peeled the bandage back. She twisted her neck to get a better look and pulled her snarled hair out of the way. Dark flakes of dried blood crusted her neck and fell away, fluttering into the sink. What remained was two swollen red bumps on her neck with dark scabs in the center of them. The spots were an inch apart, the same distance that Penny's fangs would be.

Beth lowered her hand to the sink just in time to keep from falling. Her legs trembled and her stomach lurched. She bent forward and gagged, heaving on an empty stomach. Her body sagged and collapsed, leaving her lying on the tile floor and feeling nothing but how hard it was beneath her.

"What have I done?" Beth whispered. She reached up and ran her fingers over the wounds on her neck. She felt the dry scraping of the hardened blood and then the bulges of the swollen bite marks. She jerked her hand back as though she'd been burned. She shook her head and let out a sob. She really was a vampire, or at least turning into one. But what did that mean?

Was she already dead? If so, why did her heart still beat? Would it always do that? Would she never grow any older? What about her hair, could she grow it out or was it stuck where it was? Or if she cut it, would it grow back?

What about children? She couldn't do that now, not if she was dead. Real vampires didn't have babies, just like they didn't sparkle. No more periods, but that meant no more of a lot of things. She couldn't get a tan, couldn't go out for ice cream, couldn't have a beer, couldn't even say hi to her friends or her family.

She'd been rushed. Penny gave her an ultimatum, be like her or die. What kind of choice was that? It wasn't fair! Of course she was going to choose to live, even if living meant not really living. But what if it wasn't worth it? Penny said she was old and lonely. Is that what Beth wanted? To live forever and never be allowed to be with anyone except the bitch that tricked her into being like her?

Beth took a deep breath and slowed her racing thoughts. She had options. She hadn't seen Penny yet. The sun was still up, in fact. Maybe Penny wouldn't wake up until after it set. That meant she could still do something about her situation. She could still get away. Heck, she could run down the hallway and throw herself into the sun. That would do it, wouldn't it?

She looked down at her hands and realized they hadn't changed from her brief exposure. Sure, they felt like they'd been dipped in industrial grade acid, but there hadn't been any real damage. Did that mean sunlight wouldn't destroy her, just hurt her? That meant she couldn't die, or at least not that way. She frowned and looked around. Maybe she couldn't die at all. A wooden stake in the heart or cutting off her head? Sure, but not an easy thing to do to herself.

Beth shook her head. "I don't want to die," she reminded herself. She was in her position because of that. She'd wanted to take control of her life. To be strong and in charge of herself. How would killing herself prove any of that? No, that wasn't the kind of escape she wanted.

Her eyes settled on the robe on the floor. Clothes. She needed clothes so she could get away. She could figure things out on her own, but she needed to get away first. She couldn't do that naked and dirty. Beth looked to the shower and she nodded. She'd get cleaned up, get dressed, and get the hell out of wherever she was. She'd figure the rest out later.

Beth crawled to the shower and cranked the water on. The temperature didn't matter, she knew she wouldn't feel it. She stood up and stepped under the falling water. It was lukewarm, the same as the air around her. She sighed. Being a vampire sucked if it took all the little pleasures out of life.

She turned and saw an old and dried up looking bar of soap in a soap dish. She scowled, but at least there weren't any hairs stuck to it. She grabbed it and lathered it up. She had a lot of work to do and not much time to do it. The sun was setting and she wanted to be away before Penny woke up.