The Change
Dennis
“How long ‘til you think she’ll wake up?”
I tugged at one of Vixen’s chains. She still didn’t move. “I don’t know. Hopefully soon.” I leaned against the tree, watching the way her chest rose and fell. Her heart was starting to beat again. The normal heart rate of a vampire was half that of a human’s; hers was a third of what it should be.
“How long has it been?” Sean placed the Catholic prayer bracelets over her wrists.
“About an hour. I can do that one,” I offered, taking the rosary from his hands. I pulled her hair aside and carefully secured it around her neck. Her wounds from the bite hadn’t healed yet. They probably wouldn’t until she got her fill of blood.
I stepped back to admire our work. And her. We’d pinned her arms on either side of her head. Her left ankle was chained to the tree, while her right leg was chained above the knee to keep the broken ankle from snapping before it could heal.
“I feel like we made a torture device.” Sean ran a hand along the chain that held her wrists. “This would look really bad if someone walked in.”
“Yeah. But we’d have another human to drain.” I smiled at the thought. “I wonder what she’ll be like when she wakes up.”
“How was she when you bit her?” Sean asked.
“Perfect. She was fighting at first but then she liked it. Almost as much as I did.” I took in her limp form as I spoke, thinking back to the way her body felt against mine. The way she’d kicked and screamed. The fact that she’d been aroused by it.
“As much as you? I doubt it. You get off on her pain way too much.”
I laughed and twirled a lock of her soft hair. Maybe he was right. I doubt she’d enjoyed it nearly as much. “She should be waking up soon.”
Her head fell forward as I said it, followed by a chain rattling with the first movement of her arm. Sean motioned for me to go behind the tree as she began to stir. I walked around the thick trunk and took a loose grip on her arms.
The wind picked up, blowing a faint whiff of the sweet smell I could never get enough of. Her blood was the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted, but it was nothing compared to her natural scent.
“She’s waking up,” Sean called from the other side. “Should I bring them over?”
“Yeah.” My grip tightened as she started to move. “What’d you use?”
“Morphine and a ton of valium. They might already be dead.” He laughed, then stopped abruptly. “Fuck. Her eyes are open.”
“Go get them before—” I cut off and squeezed as she tried to pull free of the chains. I couldn’t tell if she was trying to break them or take the whole fucking tree with her. “Hurry up!” I shouted. Sean was already gone.
“Sorry.” He reappeared, dragging an unconscious human through the grass. “I didn’t think she’d try to escape right off the bat. Is she trying to break the tree in half?” He laughed as he came closer.
“I don’t know, just hurry up,” I grunted.
A vicious shriek mixed with the sound of torn metal as she wrenched an arm free. I snatched it back as she tried to lash out at Sean, who was staring at the shattered chain in disbelief.
“How’d she do that? Are the crosses not working?”
“Let’s see.” I felt around for the rosary, then pressed the silver against her chest. Her scream was spine chilling as she recoiled.
“Shit, she can scream.” Sean dropped the guy’s arm to cover his ears.
“It’s nice,” I murmured, smiling as it pierced the air. I let the cross slip from my hand and dangle away from her skin. Her scream died down to an animalistic snarl.
“I guess the cross is kinda working, then?”
“Not as much as it should be.”
She was back to full strength, trying to yank her freed arm from my grip and the restrained one from its chain. I was having so much fun, I almost wanted Sean to make her wait longer.
“That would suck if this dude woke up right now.” Sean said, finally bringing the drugged human within Vixen’s reach.
I let her unchained arm go. She grasped the man and bit into him, drinking so fervently his neck nearly snapped in half.
“I’ll get the next one.” Sean disappeared as her drinking slowed.
Her head lifted and the corpse dropped. She’d gone silent. I cautiously loosened my hold to see if it was safe yet. She didn’t move.
Satisfied, I let go and came around to examine the body. I crouched and pushed the corpse on its back. I recognized this guy. I had seen him around town a few times. I’d never liked him.
“Is she done?” Sean was approaching with another human draped over his shoulder.
“Yeah.” I tossed the body aside, making room for another to take its place.
A quiet sound of pleasure came from behind us.
I turned to see Vixen licking her lips, eyes fixated on the new human.
I dove forward as the remaining chains snapped.
Nails caught my face as I managed to pin her against the tree.
I pressed harder while they sliced through my shirt, carving a gash into my side.
“I don’t know if I can hold her much longer.
” I gripped the hand that kept cutting me and forced it down.
This would be easy if I wasn’t worried about hurting her, but it was getting hard to keep her controlled without taking that risk.
Sean held up the unconscious guy and she lunged, nearly breaking free.
More snarls tore from her throat while she fought against me.
As if that weren’t distracting enough, she let out a blood-curdling scream.
“Can you bring him closer? This shit’s starting to hurt. ”
“Don’t you like pain?”
“I do. That’s the problem.” My arousal was growing with each violent touch of her body against mine.
Sean tossed the guy in our direction. She stopped clawing my skin to latch onto the man. Her teeth sank into his neck, drinking just as fervently as before. I lowered her to the ground while she drained the man’s blood, then dropped my hands to set her free.
She pounced without breaking her hold on the sacrificial neck. I stared at the angel wings tattooed on her lower back while she took the life from this man. The irony was perfect.
She paused to run a hand through her hair, moving it from her face before sipping the last few drops of blood. After the final one she stood and kicked the body aside.
I couldn’t help but laugh. This was great to watch. “I guess she’s done,” I said, drawing her attention. But she only glanced at me before gazing around the small clearing. “You should probably bring the last one before she tries to drain one of us instead.”
Sean chuckled and disappeared in the direction of the last victim. Vixen’s eyes once again fell on me. She wasn’t fully back yet. She wouldn’t be until she woke up the second time.
“I got the last one.” Sean was carrying this one bridal style.
“Did you go looking for her or was it a coincidence?” I grinned as he held up one of the girls who’d insulted Vixen outside the bar a few nights ago.
“Coincidence. She was on a registry. You wanna do it?”
“Sure.” I took the girl and held her out to Vixen, whose lips turned up in a menacing smile.
She snatched the girl from my arms. I watched, mesmerized as she threw the human against a tree and tore into her neck so viciously it almost killed her on the spot. She was sucked dry within a minute.
Vixen let the limp body fall to the ground, then dropped with a hand on either side.
She lowered her face to the girl’s neck—I assumed to finish drinking—but instead ripped her throat out and spat it aside.
She stood and tossed the body like a rag doll.
It tumbled through the grass before coming to a stop.
“That was fucking brutal. I was not expecting that.” Sean looked at the mangled body in a mixture of surprise and admiration. “I think she’s gonna be a fun vamp.”
“I think she’s gonna be a fucking handful. Even more than she is now.”
A loud snap interrupted us. We turned to see Vixen leaning against the tree with a chain in her hands.
She was playing with it, crushing some parts and bending others out of shape.
Her vibrant blue eyes were locked on me.
She watched my every move, licking her lips while a quiet, feminine growl escaped.
It sounded more like a purr than anything.
If it were anyone else I’d be on my guard, but with her I was only turned on.
“I’ve never changed anyone before, but I don’t think this is normal,” Sean said.
“Probably not, but it’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Seriously?” He shot me an incredulous look. “The other stuff you’re into I get, but not this one. This is past me.”
“Look at this.” I moved my arm, watching as her eyes followed. “You can’t tell me that’s not sexy.”
“I’m not into it.” Sean took a step forward, then stopped when her eyes shot to him. “I’m not going over there.”
“I doubt she’ll hurt you. If she tries I’ll gladly restrain her again.” I ruffled my hair, smirking when her eyes snapped back to me. I could do this all day.
“Did she do that?” Sean raised an eyebrow at my bleeding hands.
“Yeah. And this.” I lifted my shirt to show the cuts along my side. “They were deeper, but it’s already healing.”
“I guess I can kinda see it.” Sean eyed my side before eyeing Vixen. “It’s impressive, I’ll give you that. I think she’s about to pass out.” He was right: her eyes were unfocused and her energy was steadily dropping.
“Yep, she’s out.” I moved to catch her when she fell forward, then scooped her up and walked to the middle of the grass. It was nice not hearing complaints for once. At the same time, I missed the way she would’ve asked for a piggyback ride.
“What’s she thinking about?”
“Blood.” I laid her in the grass as Sean came to join. “Food.” I let a few things flash through my mind before saying, “She’s dreaming about cartoons. It’s a bunch of nonsense.” I sat and took hold of her ankle, unclasping the hooks to remove the bandages.
“You should hear some of Ari’s thoughts.” Sean sat nearby as I started unwrapping. “She’s really smart.”
“Oh, yeah?” I examined Vixen’s ankle to make sure it had healed correctly. Luckily, everything looked fine. She’d probably kill us if we left a scar. “What does she think about?”
“A lot of equations.” He grinned at my confusion. “Mostly for school but sometimes for fun. She’s always going over projects in her head. Or reviewing material she studied and needs to memorize. Seriously, it’s nonstop. Even when we’re at the bar.”
“Sounds boring. I’d hate to listen to that all day.” I set Vixen’s leg on the ground.
“She thinks about other stuff, too. Like Emy a lot.” He glanced at her as he said it. “She worries about her. You know what’s funny?”
“No.” I ran a hand along Vixen’s exposed stomach, pausing to play with the skull on her bellybutton ring.
“She’s actually glad you bound Emy.”
“Really?” I looked up in surprise. “That’s weird. I thought she hates me.”
“Yeah, you’d think so.” Sean laughed as I went back to tracing patterns across Vixen’s skin. “She’s convinced you might be insane, but she likes how you watch out for her. You still scare her, though. You might wanna stop doing that.”
Now it was my turn to laugh. I wouldn’t be stopping that anytime soon. “How do you hear all that? You’ve only been bound for three days and none of that’s about you.” I swirled a finger just above Vixen’s bellybutton, smirking when she made the tiniest noise.
“I’m in there every once in a while. She goes through a million things at once so it all blends together.” He paused before asking, “What about Emy? I’m curious what she thinks about.”
“A lot of different ways to kill me. She thinks about me a lot, actually. Not that it’s surprising.”
“Do you ever hear interesting stuff?”
I almost laughed at the question. Of course I did. Not much I would share, though. “Well, she thinks Mateo is boring.”
“Really?” Sean chuckled. “He’s just shy.”
“Yeah, I know. He bores her, but she thinks you’re adorable. And that I’m sadistic.”
“You are.”
“True.” I smiled, remembering the way her body had reacted while being drained. If that was any indication, she would enjoy it when the time came.
I stopped messing with her bellybutton ring—I could feel it starting to annoy her—and pulled out my lighter instead. I lit the flame against my thumb, enjoying the pain it brought.
Normally she’d be nervous around the fire, but she was still dead asleep.
I toyed with my lip ring, wiggling it for a much needed distraction.
A lock of hair blew across her face and I pulled it back, tucking it behind an ear so it wouldn’t bother her.
She didn’t flinch. Her thoughts didn’t even get caught between fear and arousal the way they always did when I touched her.
“Is it that strong already?”
“What do you mean?” I looked up to see Sean watching me.
“Don’t fuck with me, D. You know what I mean. Is it really that strong?”
I let the flame die and slipped the lighter in my pocket. We both froze as Vixen rolled over and mumbled something.
“You’re stupid, it’s not an alien,” she repeated, barely intelligible. “The bad guy’s in a machine ‘cause you’re all fucking stupid.”
“She’s so vulgar.” Sean laughed. “What does that even mean? Do you know?”
“She’s still dreaming about cartoons.”
Sean smiled as she sleep-giggled.
“You’re smart. You figured it out.” She snuggled an arm before rolling over again, this time onto her stomach.
“Does she always do this?”
“Sleep talk? All the time.” I paused to listen to her heartbeat. It was almost where it should be. She would probably wake up within the hour.
“How do you always hear thoughts that aren’t about you? I can’t do that.”
“I can hear her almost all the time, but I know I shouldn’t. So far the bipolar disorder is the best theory I’ve come up with. Her mind is always vulnerable.”
“So she’s usually not mentally stable?”
“She’s never mentally stable.” I laughed at how wrong he was. If only he knew. “With the way her mind is, it’s like she’s always off-guard or sleeping. Her defenses are always down. It’s abnormal.”
“That’s a nice way of putting it,” Sean’s voice was sarcastic.
“It’s the technical term. And it’s not like I ever cause it.” I took in his slightly disapproving look. For some reason it almost bothered me. I pressed a hand against the grass and stood. “Should we take her back now, or wait until she wakes up?”
“Let’s wait. I wanna see how much damage she did to that tree and your chains.” Sean stood and headed for the tree.
“I have to get new chains,” I muttered, following close behind.