Three Days of Night (13 page)

I hadn’t noticed the fireplace across the room, until at a flick of his wrist it blazed to life. It had been a long time since I’d seen a real fireplace too. Most, like the one in Morgan’s room on Harsh Reality were artificial, just for looks.

“Warm up while I prepare the bath.”

I slid off the bed and Hud helped me down the steps. I was still unsteady on my feet, but had recovered enough to make it to one of the chairs in front of the fire. How I could have missed something so large was beyond me. The hearth took up a ridiculous amount of space and was made of the same beautiful marble as the floor. Then again, I had been distracted by the bed.

Hud walked across the room and down a corridor to the right. As he left he called over his shoulder, “Tell me about yourself.”

“What exactly would you like to know?” Much as I liked him, I hated that question, always had.

“I could ask it a different way if you like.”

“Are you reading my mind again?” I raised my voice slightly, not because I was angry but because he was around the corner and down the hall.

His laughter carried to me as if he were only a few feet away. “You don’t have to yell. I’d simply like to know you without reading your mind. Besides, there are some places I would never go. I only knew your last thought because it was so clear. I wasn’t trying to pry.”

His answer made me smile. I knew he could read my mind and even with my abilities I’d be powerless to stop him. But he chose not to. There really were places he would never go. Still, there were places I would like to take him.

“Ask me more specific questions and I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

There was only a moment’s hesitation before he replied, “How did you become a vampire?”

Chapter Twelve

It was easier to repeat my story to Hud than it had been when I told Morgan. Maybe it was because I was looking into the fire rather than his face. It almost felt as if I was talking to myself. Like saying it out loud was some sort of therapy. Everyone has done that at some point. You know what I mean, those practiced conversations that never end up happening. You just want to be prepared in case they ever do. Well, telling Hud about my past felt sort of like that.

I had just finished telling him about Mark, about his death. I still had tears in my eyes, but the way I felt about it was entirely different. I was more grateful to have known and loved Mark than I was sorry he was gone. I was simply glad to have been around while he was here.

“Do you think I made the right choice? It would have been easy to save Mark, but I didn’t know if eternity was what he was looking for.”

Hud placed his hand on my shoulder and I jumped. I was standing near the fire and hadn’t heard him walking up behind me.

“You acted according to your best judgment. When we do that, we are never wrong.”

“How can you be so sure?”

He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and I let him pull me close.

“That doesn’t mean you won’t second guess yourself. All we can do is make the best choice at the time. Your choice was selfless. There are not many who could have made such a choice. And yet you did. You cannot love someone more than to put their wishes above your own. Selflessness is the greatest form of heroism.”

I pulled back from him and shook my head. “Don’t start in on all that hero crap. I’m really not.”

“Very well.”

“But it does make me feel better. You know, what you had to say and all. I really appreciate it.”

He shrugged. “I do what I can.”

I looked him over once more and sighed. “You really are in the business of making other’s wishes come true.” He smiled and I added, “Doesn’t that make
you
a hero then?”

I don’t think I could ever tire of his laughter. “It makes me more of a cosmic meddler.”

“It must be lonely, to have the power of a god and no one to worship you.”

I was just about to offer my worshiping services when he said, “Are you ready for that bath now?”

“That’d be great.”

He gestured toward me. “I see you’re strong enough to stand now. Do you think you can walk down the hall?”

“Probably.”

As soon as I answered he took me into his arms instead.

“I told you I could walk.”

“Tell me this is not your preference and I’ll put you down.”

Instead, I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him.

“This is one of the things I really miss about Earth.”

“Having men to carry you around?”

I laughed. “No. Having a bathtub. It’s been so long since I’ve been in one. I was going to take a bath earlier.” I remembered what had kept me from it and could feel myself blushing. “I got distracted before dinner.”

His smile widened. “Yes, I know. And how did you like it?”

“Like what?”

“Your distraction, of course. Was it everything you hoped it would be?”

Since he apparently knew everything that went on around here, why bother lying?

“It was great.”

While he carried me down the long hallway, I thought about what I’d just shared.

“You know, I never told anyone my reason for becoming a vampire before tonight. Now, I’ve told two people in a matter of hours.”

“Do you wish you hadn’t?”

I thought about that for a minute. “No. I’m glad I did. It’s just strange to keep something to yourself for so long and then suddenly start talking about it.”

Before I could say more we entered his “bathroom” and once again my mouth fell open.

“Holy shit.”

The room was more than thirty feet long and at least twenty feet wide. One half was covered by a glass dome through which the night sky could be seen. The other half was completely open. Plants were everywhere, exotic things I couldn’t have named if I’d tried, but they were beautiful. And there were
two
tubs! One was long, rectangular shaped and sunken into the floor. The other was an honest to goodness hot tub and it was on a balcony with nothing above it but the stars.

“I haven’t seen one of those in so long I’d started to think I made them up,” I said, pointing at the hot tub.

Hud laughed. “I thought you’d enjoy it.”

As he carried me past the other large tub I noticed that the water was covered in rose petals.

“But you prepared this one.”

“I prepared them both. The choice is yours.”

The strangest thought occurred to me then and I couldn’t stop myself from saying it aloud. “You just came in here and invented this room, didn’t you?”

He sat me down beside the hot tub as he replied, “Yes.” At my shocked expression he admitted, “Well, not entirely. I added on this part just for you.”

He gestured toward the area where we stood.

“You made a balcony underneath the stars and a hot tub just for me?”

His only response was another smile. As I lowered myself into the water he asked, “How is it that you have no master?”

I rested back against the tub and stared up at the sky. It looked just like the view from underneath the canopy on his bed. The stars seemed closer tonight. Like if I thought about it, I could see their surface. The breeze smelled sweeter and the flowers in the room had a more vivid color than I ever remembered seeing before.

“It’s my blood,” he explained.

“Do you always answer questions that people don’t ask?”

He slid into the tub and moved close to me. “You were just about to.” He rested back against the tub beside me, letting his long hair trail over the rim. “Do you not wish to talk about your master? A sensitive subject perhaps?”

“No, it’s fine. I was just distracted by everything else. It’s all so beautiful. Is this the way you see the world? Everything is so—”

“Alive,” he supplied.

“Yes, so alive.” After a few minutes of relaxing I decided to answer his question. “Like I said before, the one who turned me was a friend of mine. She had been bitten in an alley one night and left for dead. She was fifty years old at the time we met, but she still looked twenty.”

“How did you meet?”

“I was working at a liquor store and asked to see her ID.”

I rolled toward him and just enjoyed his smile for a moment.

“Vampires don’t drink.”

“She was after smokes. When she showed me her ID, I thought it was a fake. Vampires were already on the decline as a species at this point and it wasn’t my first thought. I mean, it said she was fifty years old and she looked like a kid. Her name was Mary and she just flat out told me that she was a vampire. She even showed me her fangs to prove it. When I asked why she wanted the cigarettes she said, ‘Hell, it’s not like I can die from lung cancer.’”

Hud laughed and reached to brush the hair back from my face.

“We became friends almost instantly. It felt like I’d always known her. Then, after my great grandfather died, well, I told you about all that. I was so upset. She was the only one I could really talk to and when she gave me the choice.” I tapped a finger against my fangs. “This is the one I made.”

I moved closer to him and rested my head against his chest.

“Neither of us really knew anything about being a vampire. It was a miracle she’d survived in the first place. Mary taught me to hunt, but that was all she really knew. She was killed by a group of religious nuts before we could try to learn more together.”

“So, all of your abilities, you discovered them by yourself?”

“That’s right. And then a hundred years later, I left Earth, became a mercenary and eventually ended up here.”

He sighed and my head lifted up and down where it rested against him.

“You left Earth after Mark died.”

“Yes. There was no point in staying.”

Several minutes later while Hud was washing my hair he asked, “Do you remember much about the library?”

I knew he meant the library where I had learned his name.

“I remember everything about it.” I described the place to him, and smiled with the memory. I really did love to read. “What are the odds?”

He dipped me back and dunked my hair in the water. His hand was underneath my head and he moved me as if I weighed nothing at all.

“The odds of what?”

“Don’t be coy. What are the odds of me reading a book that had your name in it? And out of all those names, I somehow remember yours? It’s a little far-fetched, don’t you think?”

He looked down at me where I still rested back against his hand, my hair trailing out across the water. “That’s fate,” he replied.

He helped me to sit back up and I stared at him blankly. “You mean I was destined to be here?”

“And to be with me. There is no other explanation.”

He seemed to accept this easily enough so I stopped trying to figure it out.

“Can I wash your hair?” I asked.

He looked surprised. “I have never let anyone wash my hair before. It’s very sensitive.”

I laughed. “You realize how dirty that sounds, right? I promise, I’ll be gentle with it.”

Hud handed me the shampoo and turned around. He leaned back in the water until his head was resting just above my lap, floating in the artificial waves. He smiled up at me and said, “Just remember, it’s my first time.”

Once his hair was wet he sat back up and I sat on the rim of the tub so that I could reach his head. His hair still looked almost normal until you got really close.

“This
is
your skin, isn’t it?”

“Sort of. The best way I can describe it to you is it’s an extension of myself.”

I poured shampoo into one hand and began to gently work it through his hair. You know the way most people wash their hair, scratching across their scalp, pulling, twisting and mushing it all around? Well, that wasn’t an option with Hud. After all, he could feel everything I did.

So, I worked it gently back and forth between my hands. When I finally ran my fingers over his scalp he moaned like we were having sex.

“I take it you like this?” I asked playfully.

“Don’t stop. I was always so afraid to let anyone touch it …” His words trailed off with another sigh.

Once we were finished he said, “You really shouldn’t have. Now I’ll want you to do it all the time.”

It felt like a current ran through me. All of my lethargy was thrown off like a cloak and I wanted him with such a ferocity I couldn’t describe.

“Then we’re even,” I said.

I rolled toward him and straddled his waist. I rubbed against him provocatively and smiled when I felt that he was almost instantly hard.

“I need more.”

“Then you shall have it.”

Hud reached between our bodies and guided himself into me. I was surprised at how easily I took him. He was huge and I normally didn’t go this fast. My body was so worked up that had I been human still, I might have hurt myself. But luckily I wasn’t and any injuries I might incur would be healed shortly.

“You know, if you keep going this fast, even I won’t be able to last.”

Water splashed between our bodies as I moved against him.

“I need it fast, Hud. Make me come.”

He put his hands on my hips, lifting me from the water and turning so that my butt rested against the rim of the tub. He pulled in and out of me slowly, changing the pace I had set.

“Please,” I panted. “Don’t go slow.”

The instant he slammed into me fully I came. The sensation wasn’t as powerful as when I had taken his blood. But still, it nearly made me black out. My body shook with pleasure and I could feel my skin instantly slick with sweat once more. Hud came then too and as his body tensed with release, he whispered words I could not understand against my lips.

“Are you casting a spell?” I asked breathlessly.

“No, my dear, you are the spell.”

*****

I had no idea how much time had passed, how many hours I had spent worshiping Hud with my body. I’d never felt this way. All I wanted was to touch him. We could have been alone for a few hours or an eternity. It really didn’t matter.

We were standing in the middle of his garden breathing in the fragrant blooms of some exotic white flowers. I was wearing little more than a slip and Hud was dressed in his usual blue skirt.

Since we’d been together I felt the need to share everything that I was with him. We had just finished sharing the memory of the first time Morgan and I were together. It was even better than reliving memories with Aries.
Why
was I sharing all of these things? I can’t explain it other than I needed Hud to understand what being with Morgan made me feel.