Safeword: Storm Clouds(11)

Abbot had come in while she was talking but Eric hadn't seen him yet.

"This is my friend Abbot. I was a little nervous about telling you so soon so he's here to help me talk to you. Normally we like to wait until we know someone fairly well before we share our secret, but... you're different. You needed to know sooner rather than later."

She couldn't tell what Eric was thinking, but she could tell he didn't believe her just yet. He glanced at Abbot and then looked back at Kendra.

"You said you had proof? I think it's time to pull some of it out."



"What would make you believe me? Tell me and I'll do it."



"You said you could fly?"



Kendra couldn't really fly around inside, so she levitated up from the chair she was in and floated across the room and back, sinking gracefully back into her chair. She looked at him the entire time, but he waited until she was back in her seat before responding in any way.

He didn't get flustered, he just calmly said, "Well, that is a neat trick. I thought vampires had fangs?"

She opened her mouth so he could see her teeth and then let her fangs grow out, stay that way a few seconds, and then shrink back to their normal size.

She saw him grow pale and smelled his fear.



"Please don't be afraid. I won't hurt you and neither will Abbot."



"I'm not afraid, and I'm not completely convinced yet, either."



"Eric, every human emotion has a smell. I can smell when you are afraid, when you are horny, when you are angry, when you are happy."

She heard Abbot in her mind. That is not helping Kendra. Let him get used to the idea of not being able to hide emotions later.

How do I help him not be afraid?

You know how to do this. Sit back in your chair, look relaxed. Drink some wine. I'm going to stay on the other side of the room and be as discrete as I can for now.

Kendra sat back in her chair. "Eric, before we had blood banks, when we needed to feed from humans, we didn't have to kill to feed. We take less in a feeding than the Red Cross takes in a blood donation. And our bite is much more fun, if I choose I can even make it orgasmic. But I've already fed tonight, as has Abbot. We aren't interested in your blood. Very few humans know of our existence. I'm only telling you because I want to try to have a relationship with you and, well, this is probably information you need to know, if we are going to date."

"If you were to bite me, would I turn into a vampire?"



"No. You'd need to be bitten on many consecutive days and then have your blood drained to the point just before death."



"Then bite me and make me orgasm. Then I'll believe you are a vampire."



Kendra was shocked, this was the last thing she'd expected.



Abbot spoke. “I'll step outside for a moment."



Eric looked over at Abbot. "But you have super hearing, right? So you'll hear us from outside, too."



"Yes, but sometimes the illusion of privacy is better than nothing."



Kendra needed to talk to Eric about binding him, get his permission. She had to bite him to bind him and she had figured that she would have to convince him to let her bite him. But he was wanting her to, was asking for it, so she needed to get permission now so she wouldn't need to bite him twice.

"Eric, we need to talk about something before I bite you. It's part of the reason Abbot is here. Vampire society has a lot of rules designed to keep our secret and thus keep us safe. The only way we are allowed to share the information with humans is if we perform this little ritual that alerts us the moment that a human attempts tells our secret. I do not want to do this to you without your permission."

"But, now that you've told me you kind of have to do it, right? So it doesn't matter if I give permission or not."

"No, we have two options. I can make you forget I told you, or I can bind you so that I'll know if you ever attempt to tell our secret."

He was trying hard to appear calm, but she could smell that he was not calm about any of this. "You can make me forget?"

Kendra nodded. “Yes. Before blood banks when we fed on someone who wasn't a companion we had to make them forget it happened. It's an evolutionary thing, I guess. But, the fact is that you don't have to go through the binding ritual if you don't want."

"You have to drink my blood to do the binding thing. What do you have to do to make me forget?"



"Just look into your eyes."



"And you are telling me this because you want to have a relationship with me."



"Yes."



"Would this relationship involve the regular taking of my blood?"



"Only if you wanted me to. I told you, now that there are blood banks I'm no longer dependent on finding human sources for blood. There is something called a human companion, someone a vampire keeps around as an intimate source of food. And that is probably how the vampire community will see you at least at first, but if you don't want the sharing of blood to be part of our relationship it doesn't have to be. It's a very intimate act, almost more so than sex sometimes, but if you aren't comfortable with it then it wouldn't be pleasurable so I wouldn't want to do it.