It tasted it better than cold beer on a hot summer day. It tasted like having a glass of life. I could feel my heart race and my blood pumping. My pupils dilated and everything became brighter or clearer. It was as if I’d gotten a new pair of glasses that made everything sparkle with life. I closed my eyes as the blood poured through me, nurturing me. My gaze turned to Antonio. Goodness he was one tall drink of water in the desert. He wore a dark t-shirt over that fit snugly over his bulging muscles that popped with the veins of a body builder. I’d never seen anyone so striking.
“What are you?” I asked.
“Not a vampire.” The words came out like a growl. Suddenly his face began to transform! A white furry wolf ear began to jut out of his head. The cracking of bones heralded his hands turning into paws with extraordinarily long claws. His white hair grew longer all around his neck as his mouth stretched out and his teeth gnashed.
“What the actual fuck?” I dropped the drained cup of blood onto the floor.
Just as quickly, his features smoothed back into the handsome white-haired, tan man I had seen before.
“You are a beast?” I asked.
His laughter filled the air.
“Seriously, that’s the best you can come up with?” he asked. “I understand if you’ve never seen a werewolf before, but surely you’ve heard of them?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen Underworld,” I said.
“Underworld’s a little high tech for what really goes on, but the lycans’ and vampires’ dislike of each other, that’s all completely true.”
“Then why did you save me?”
He stopped for a moment. His eyes grazed over my body. My skin flushed. He was built like some mutant Hispanic god and there was no way he’d be interested in an older woman. Much less an older vampire woman.
“You haven’t done anything wrong.,” he said quietly, turning back to his rucksack. “You are just some innocent cop who tracked the wrong vampire.”
I leaned on the table. It was all flooding back to me. “You’ve been nursing me,” I said, my stomach roiling. The slipping in and out of consciousness, the light days, the dark days, but Antonio had been constant. He’d wiped my forehead as I had writhed in the bed sweating, my body transforming. Dying.
He had fed me.
My eyes widened as I saw the bandages on both his wrists.
“Bobcat blood?” I asked, motioning to the cup.
“Yeah, I can’t give you more now.”
“I didn’t want any of yours in the first place.” I glared at him.
“You would’ve died if you hadn’t had my blood.”
“Now what? I’m supposed to be ingratiated to you for saving my life?” I asked. “I mean, I’m not completely ungrateful.” I clarified. “Xavier got me good. I don’t really know a whole lot about this vampire werewolf thing, but last time I checked, a vampire kind of needs a vampire to show them what to do.”
“I killed your maker.” He didn’t look apologetic in the slightest.
“You killed my maker before you even realized I was there, didn’t you?”
“Get your things,” he grumbled.
“And that made you feel responsible for me.” The truth was clear to me. “You didn’t realize you were killing two people with that stake.”
“I didn’t kill you,” Antonio said. “I saved your life.”
“You turned me into a goddamn vampire!” I exclaimed. “I’m going to spend the rest of my very, very long existence having to drink blood to survive.”
“It’s possible to live on animal blood. It doesn’t have to be human. That’s why I gave you my blood.”
“Hoping I’d turned into a werewolf?” I moaned.
“No,” He slung his rucksack over his shoulder. “You can’t be turned into a werewolf. You have to be born one.”
