Real Vampires Don't Wear Size Six(15)

I knew what she meant. Wasn't immune myself. But I'd had a long, long time to gain control over my urges. In a way, I almost envied her the newness of this experience. But it was a dangerous thing, easy to get out of hand.
"Slow down, Penny. I get it, I really do. But you're letting your baser instincts take over. That's not like you, is it?" Not according to what she'd told me, this genius teen.
"Maybe becoming vampire has changed more about me than just my sleeping and drinking habits." Penny sighed, still staring at Josh like he was the last cookie in the jar. "Come on, Glory, you saw that movie. So much blood. Is it weird that it made me thirsty?"
"No. Even though I knew it was all faked, it made me thirsty too. But I can ignore my thirst when I have to." I wondered if I should give in on this. At least I was here to stop her before anything too drastic happened. "You had two bottles of synthetic before your date. You aren't really hungry, Penny, just drawn to the real deal. Am I right?"
Penny frowned like she was doing a gut check. "Guess so." She kept stroking his jugular. "I can feel his pulse. So strong, so warm."
"I may be sorry, but I'm going to teach you how to drink from a mortal safely. Even I realize I can't dog you every waking moment." I glanced at Josh. He was a healthy mortal, a fairly big guy who could spare a pint or two.
"No, you can't. Better to train me than to just ignore the fact that I'm going to have this bloodlust issue." Penny actually smiled, sure she'd won something here. "Do I just lay his head back?" She gazed at him hungrily. "Oh, God, thanks, Glory. I thought I was going to have to fight you for him."
"And that wouldn't have ended well, Penny." I didn't say that I knew I could take her. Let her keep her illusions. "Forget the neck for now. Too dangerous. Pick up his wrist." I grabbed his other arm for a demo. "Find his vein. You can see it and feel it, of course. Easy, isn't it?"
"Sure, it's practically calling my name." She pulled his arm up close to her mouth and her eyes closed. "Mmm."
"Now open your mouth and your fangs will know what to do." I sighed, not allowing myself to join in on the fun. "I'll tell you when to stop and you'll obey me if I have to physically pull you off to get you to do it."
"Got it. I don't want to kill him, Glory. He's told me over and over again how sorry he was about that night on the hill. He'd just had too much to drink. He never should have been driving at all." Penny's hand was shaking as she held his wrist. When her fangs sank in, she was obviously surprised. Then her eyes closed and she moaned. I didn't need to read her mind. A new vampire's appreciation of real blood bordered on orgasmic. Penny gulped and sighed and clung to Josh's arm like she'd never let it go. But I knew she'd have to and well before she'd want to.
"That's enough."
Her eyes popped open and she glared at me. She kept drinking.
I stood, one hand on Penny's shoulder, one on Josh's arm.
"I said let him go."
Penny's mental message was colorful and boiled down to "Ain't no way."
"You asked for it." I gripped her hair, giving it a sharp tug, then ripped Josh's wrist away, leaving her mouth smeared with blood.
"Bitch!" Penny snarled and hit at me, trying to make contact with Josh's bleeding wounds again.
"I'll slap the shit out of you, Penny. Calm down. Take a breath. I need to show you how to close these punctures." I gave her hair another hard jerk and her eyes watered.
"You calm down. He's mine. Give him back." Her eyes narrowed and we were playing tug-of-war with poor Josh's arm. She didn't have my strength though and even one-handed, I was winning.
"What's going on here?"
Both of us froze, Penny's face smeared with blood, Josh's arm between us. I knew at once who stood in the doorway staring at us in horror.
I paused to toss Josh off the couch and out of Penny's reach, then grabbed the newcomer before she could run away screaming. I clamped a hand over her mouth and wrestled her inside, kicking the door closed behind us.
"You wanted to see your sister, Penny? Well, here she is." I stared into big blue eyes, well aware that all the excitement and blood in the room had my fangs on full display. Yep, that did it. Jenny, Penny's twin, slumped to the floor.
                       
       
           



       Six

 

That snapped Penny out of her bloodlust.
"Glory, what have you done?" She jumped up and ran over to Jenny, rolling her over to stare down at her pale face.
"Not a thing. She fainted." I dragged Josh up off the floor where he'd landed after our little tussle and sat him in a chair. He was still staring blankly into space. To my amusement, the cat jumped into his lap and made himself comfortable. If Josh had been awake, I'm sure he'd have let out a few yelps as paws trod over his crotch.
"Jenny." Penny patted her sister on the cheek. "Wake up."
"Don't think I'd be in such a hurry to do that. You've got blood smeared all over your face." I checked Josh's wrist, which was still bleeding sluggishly. I forced back my fangs when all I wanted to do was take up where Penny had left off.
"I'll go wash it off." Penny turned toward her tiny kitchen.
"Not yet. Get over here and do what I tell you." I was not a happy camper. Can you tell? "You've got to close these wounds so that when Josh wakes up, he won't be wearing evidence of your snack time."
"But Jenny." Penny squatted down again. "I can't just leave her on the floor."
"Pick her up and put her on the couch. You've got vamp strength now, should be easy to tote around that lightweight. If she starts to wake up, you'll have to use the whammy on her until we figure out what we're going to do with her." I tapped my foot and looked around. A luxury condo, this wasn't. And a housekeeper, Penny wasn't. I was surprised she'd brought a man back here.
A big computer setup held pride of place on the small dining room table and it was surrounded by a sea of papers, boxes of books, notebooks and stacks of more papers on the floor. Penny might have big grants, but she sure didn't waste them on interior decorating. The sagging couch looked like it had come from a charity store, as did the rest of the furniture. I could see an unmade bed in a tiny bedroom next to the kitchen with a sink piled with dirty dishes. Clothes were draped on a chair next to that double bed.
Penny heaved Jenny over to the couch and arranged her head carefully on a throw pillow that was the only bright spot in the avocado green and brown room. Too bad the burnt orange UT pillow wasn't Jenny's color.
"She's still out. Guess the sight of your fangs, which are way bigger than mine, blew her fuse." Penny stumbled over to my side. No coffee table, which was a good thing. Otherwise poor Josh would have a bruise to add to his bite marks. "Now what?"
"You have a healing agent in your saliva that makes bite marks disappear. You should always lick wounds closed after you feed from a mortal. Not that you should make that a habit." I grabbed her shoulder as she leaned forward to take his wrist again. "Do not be tempted to take another drink. I swear I'll knock you against that wall if you try it."
"Geez, Glory, go all Terminator on me, why don't you?" Penny carefully reached for his wrist with two fingers then really looked at Josh's pale face. "Oh, God, what did I do? I was the Terminator, wasn't I?"
Great, here came the waterworks. But, no, she sucked it up.
"How long? How long can I safely drink from a mortal and not kill him?" She ran to her dining room table and snatched up a notebook and pencil.
"What? You're taking notes?" I sighed. I guess I should have expected this from a brainy scientist. And it sure beat tears. But if I hadn't followed her and been on the scene, she could have killed Josh, no doubt about it. Fledglings made those kinds of mistakes.
"Josh here might have been okay after three minutes, but two to be on the safe side. Trust me, you weren't in control enough to watch a clock, Penny." I gave her a fierce look and waited until she stopped writing and glanced at me. "I don't care how smart you are in your old world. In this new world, you're dumb as dirt. When bloodlust takes over, you can't just stop on a dime. At least not until you've learned to get a handle on it. Tonight, if I hadn't been here to get you off of Josh, you would have drained him dry. Then you'd have had to figure out how to dispose of his body."
Penny swayed, dropped her notebook and pencil, then sank down on the floor. "Oh, God. Oh, God."
"I'm sorry, but that's the truth." I sat beside her and put my arm around her. "You see why I'm trying to stay close to you when you're around mortals? You can't think your way through this. It's an instinct. Primitive and not easily controlled. Until you can convince me you're managing your thirst like an adult vampire, you're going to be stuck with me."
Penny leaned against me. "Thanks, Glory. I had no idea." She took a watery breath. "Just, uh, thanks."
"No problem, kiddo. I had Jerry do it for me." I smiled, remembering. "Now let's handle this situation, okay?"
"How? Here's Josh, looking pale and probably weak and now I've got Jenny. Obviously I don't want to tell her about my new status until I can look at her and not want to bite her." Penny stood and picked cat hair off her jeans. "Guess I've finally come down to earth."