CHAPTER 2: STRANGE PLACE

Jesha wakes up in a new place.

   I woke up to the feel of someone's arms wrapped around me, and my mind automatically went to Matt.  Then the events of the night before came flooding back to me.  I turned my head and found Iian staring back at me.  My head felt light, and the rest of my body was sore.  He smiled.

"Don't worry, bella.  The feeling will pass."  He pulled me closer and buried his face in my neck.  "You smell of strawberries, Jesha.  It's a nice scent."

Something was wrong.  I looked around.  The walls were black, as well as the ceiling and bed.  I didn't recognize where I was.

"Where am I?" I asked, my voice scratchy.

"Do not ask questions.  Just lie with me."

A strange smell invaded my nose.  It was musky, and smelled like decaying flesh.  I had no clue what the smell was.  A small sliver of light peeked between the curtains, and stung my eyes.  I cried out at the pain and Iian wrapped his arms tighter around me, pulling me to his cold hard body.  He kissed the back of my neck.

"Close your eyes, Jesha.  It is noon, the sun will kill your eyes."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're lucky I have enough strength not to kill you.  Your blood was absolute ecstasy.  I wasn't sure I could stop at first."

"What?"

He laughed.  "You're a vampire now, mi amo.  The first few hours are going to be uncomfortable, I won't lie.  But afterward, you can do much more than you could as a human girl."

I jumped away from him and sprinted to the mirror, shading myself from the stream of sunlight.  There were two pricks in the side of my neck that were a deep shade of black.  I looked back at him and he smiled, revealing two sharp fangs.  I felt my legs go weak and he appeared in front of me, catching my waist before I fell.  His shirt was gone and he had several thin scars across his chest.  He pulled me to him and carried me back to the bed, stuffing me under the blankets.

"Relax.  Be glad I didn't take you right there in the club.  Your blood was calling to me, Jesha.  And it was sweet.  Now, sleep.  I will be here when you wake up again."

I was tired.  That was for sure.  But I didn't want to sleep in a strange place.  "Where am I?  Take me home.  Annah's probably worried about me."

He shook his head.  "Think of this as the bat cave.  You cannot know where it is.  But I will tell you, this is my home.  And I called Annah and explained that you would meet her tonight.  You two are going out for dinner.  Make sure you order whatever meat you get rare.  I will not let you kill a human unless you are absolutely out of energy."

He positioned himself over me and kissed me.

"Sleep, my love."  He kissed my eyelids, forcing my eyes closed and rolled over, pulling me on top of him.  His arms were tight around me, his hands under the back of my shirt, stroking my skin.  I closed my eyes, but I didn't sleep.  I stayed awake, both afraid, and disturbingly comfortable with his big hands moving over my skin.  He held me like that for hours and I didn't open my eyes until I could feel the sun's rays slipping away.  I'd finally come to terms with the thought that I might not age ever again, and when I looked up at him, I could see he knew what I was thinking.

"Scary thought, isn't it?  I'm sorry to have done that to you, but with you standing next to me, so innocent and beautiful, I couldn't stop myself.  I wanted to have you pliant in my arms, like you are now.  Soft and small."  He glanced at a clock on the wall.  "You need to go meet with Annah.  I will drive you there.  We can't have my neighbors seeing you fly off."  He kissed the top of my head and I stood up.

"You could let me drive, you know."

"No.  Then you might run off on me.  I need you here, love.  I have to have you with me."

I sighed and he pulled my shirt up over my head, replacing it with a low-cut red blouse.  His fingers lingered on my stomach and he kissed me, long and hard.  He nipped my bottom lip and my heart started pounding in my chest.

"I love you, Jesha.  Please understand that."

My heart stopped completely.  He cupped my face in his hands and kissed me.

"Please say something, my love.  Please.  Anything."

"I... I, uh... umm..."  I tried.

He smiled.  "Close enough."  I let him pull me out to a deep blue Porsche and he opened and closed the passenger side door for me.  I had no clue where we were, but he got in the car, covered my hand with his own, and we took off.

About half an hour later, we pulled into a small restaurant parking lot and through one of the windows, I could see Annah waiting for me.  Her back was to me and I was surprised to hear her sniffling even  from the Porsche.

Reviews

[puppetmaster]

OOOhhh, okay, thanks for pointing that out. I really appreciate it. I should tell you, she is still in the beginning stages, and I didn't really think about the effect it would have in the restaurant. Lol, I should have had him lock her up. that would have bene fun. And I've never really been good with the whole changing thing anyway. Idk, if you have any suggestions for that, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Bryan A.]

That's a strange way to end that chapter. But again, not bad. I do have a couple suggestions. You said she ran to the mirror? I thought vampires don't have reflections. Or is it because she's still in the beginning stages. Because if that's the case, it's going to be very awkward with her changing in the middle of a restaurant. If I was Iian, I would have locked her up until after she changed. But that's just my opinion. And she seems to be very comfortable with the fact that she's now a blood-sucker. That's a little eerie too. Shouldn't she be in pain, or at least highly uncomfortable, or something? And I'm glad you said she didn't open her eyes until the sun set or something like that. For a second I was a little bit confused, cause you'd said the sun was hurting her eyes, which is fine, but then she was going outside. Took me a minute to realize she was out at night and not at noon. This must be my slow day. Keep up the good work, shorty, it's great.