Bite, p.31
Bite, page 31
“Well I’d be happy to explain my theory if you like to hear it,” Charlie calls from the ground.
It’s interesting that he has an idea and I don’t know squat. But then again Charlie has always been a couple steps ahead of me ever since we were kids. I let out a grunt of annoyance but I get to my feet. Once I’m steady on the branch, I help Gina down from the tree and we both wait for Charlie to explain what’s happening to her. I raise an eyebrow while asking, “Okay Charlie, what’s going on?”
Mark, Why Do You Have To Smell So Good
(Gina)
We both wait for Charlie to collect his thoughts but I am growing impatient. At first I felt okay but now that the mark had a chance to settle, I do feel a little weird. How was I able to hear Sam approaching the tree and also who gets horny while they have their bite cleaned up by their boyfriend? Then again, I think I am alone on that one.
Charlie clears his throat and says, “Okay I gave it some serious thought and I think I know what’s going on.”
I feel panic radiating off Sam’s body as he asks, “Did I screw something up when I marked her?”
How am I able to feel that? It is like I can sense his mood and I’ve never been able to do that before. Now I’m starting to panic but Charlie is totally relaxed, as he answers, “No you did fine, but she has a small piece of you inside her now and since the venom is a bit stronger than ours, I’m guessing here that she’s going to start slowly changing.”
We both let that sink in and Sam says, “She can’t be. I focused only on making sure I only mark her not change her.”
“And that you did but sometimes a marked human can start picking up some of a vampire’s traits. I don’t think she’ll have the thirst but other things like maybe begin to grow a bit stronger like…”
“Knowing when Sam’s approaching without having to look in his direction,” I finish softly for him.
“Yes that too. Your senses might sharpen up a bit as well.”
“That’s why your touch was extra sensitive to me,” I say to Sam while taking his hand into mine. It is really happening. I’m going to start slowly changing into a vampire. I can’t believe it is happening. I’ll be just like him and him and we can be together forever. I start to get excited but I look at Sam who is giving me a puzzling look and I ask while growing nervous all over again, “What’s wrong?”
He softly responds, “I can hear you. I can hear your mind clearly.”
My eyes grow wide and I don’t know exactly how to feel. Sam can hear me. I’m happy and angry at the same time, happy because he can finally hear my thoughts without me having to concentrate so hard but angry because now my thoughts are vulnerable like everyone else’s. Funny but I thought him not being able to completely read my thoughts made me special since I’m the only one he couldn’t entirely read.
“You are special Gina,” Sam says while gazing at me. He winks and grins as he murmurs, “But I won’t invade your privacy too much either. I’ll do my best not to read your mind as much as I would like to.”
I smile and I know Sam will do the best that he can no matter how strong the temptation will be for him. I put an arm around his waist as he puts his around my shoulder and I turn when I hear Charlie hiss while saying, “Damn it I still can’t read her mind clearly but that shouldn’t surprise me. The two of you are connected so that’s why her mind is clearer to you now.”
“But you said she’s changing. How will we know when it’s complete?”
“She’s only going to pick up some of our traits but she’ll still need a bite for the change to be complete Sam.” Charlie laughs as he adds, “You can relax; she’s not going to wake up tomorrow morning with fangs and asking for blood.”
Sam frowns at his brother’s teasing but all this information is blowing my mind away. Marking me has changed things so much and I want him to bite me again so the change can really happen. I feel like I’m stuck in limbo with only being halfway through the process. If there were a way to force him, I’d make him change me right now.
In a quick movement, Sam scoops me up into his arms and kisses me fiercely. “It will. I will change you completely Gina and you will be with me forever.”
His gaze is showing me all his love in his eyes and I feel my heart melting. To hear him say that he wants to be with me forever makes me want to jump for joy and I wish we were alone so I can physically express how wonderful that makes me feel. But for now I’ll have to hold off on those thoughts and I take his face into my hands. “That’s all I want,” I reply back just before his lips land on mine again.
A month has passed and things are still a bit tense at the house. Well actually things wouldn’t be so bad if Sam would just relax but he’s become a bit more protective than I like. Joseph has apologized numerous times to the point where it began to drive me crazy and Sam still didn’t trust him enough to leave him alone with me. I feel guilty that there is a strain developing between the two of them and I want to see if there is any way I could help but Evan advised me to stay out of it. “You don’t want to get in the middle of two vampires when they’re having a disagreement. Trust me, it wouldn’t be pretty,” he had said to me. So I kept my opinions to myself and prayed that things would get back to normal quickly.
Sam wants to keep things conventional for me so to distract me, he helps me enroll for a couple of summer courses. My light spring semester schedule made me fall behind with my credits so I need to load up and really get it together if I plan to graduate on time with my friends. So during the summer, I’ll be taking a creative writing and psychology course. Oh joy.
We pull up to the entrance of the college. Joseph and Evan are in the car as well because Joseph, in order to blend in, is going to start taking classes as well while Evan sticks around to keep an eye on him. We all knew Joseph would have to do this eventually; he is seventeen in human years so he looks like the average teenager. And that will be a problem because people will wonder why he’s not in school and that will definitely raise questions so Charlie encouraged him to register. That is after he checked the future to make sure Joseph didn’t kill everyone on campus first. That would have been bad.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” Joseph says with panic heavy in his voice.
“Yes you can Joseph. We all have faith in you,” I say while giving him a reassuring smile. “Nothing is going to happen.”
“I hope not.” He reluctantly gets out the car with Evan right behind him.
“He looks really nervous,” I say to Sam. I glance in his direction and he sighs while getting out the car.
I get out when he opens the door for me. I’m frustrated that Sam is still being ridiculous towards Joseph and we had a minor disagreement about him being on campus with me this morning. This situation is starting to give me a headache and I would like us to be back to the way we were before Sam marked me. I gaze up at him as I ask, “Are you ever going to let this go and move on? I’m the only one that should be holding a grudge and I forgave him already. Sam, he’s your friend and it’s probably killing him that you’re still so angry with him. It was an accident but I didn’t get hurt and he’s sorry. Can’t you just let bygones be bygones?”
I stare into his eyes, which has a sorrowful expression in them. Damn maybe I should take Evan’s advice and just stay out of it until Joseph and Sam work their issues out with each other. I can see I hurt his feelings and I feel bad for pushing him on the issue so I’m about to take all I said back but he just wraps his arms around me and says, “Yes you’re right. I shouldn’t be so hard on him and I’m sorry that it upsets you. But you forget one thing Gina. I’ve been trying to control not reading everyone’s minds as I promised you but sometimes people’s thoughts scream out at me and Joseph’s was no exception. You didn’t hear the thoughts that were going through his head. You didn’t hear how all he could think about was trying to get to you so he could drink every drop of your blood. You didn’t hear those things so forgive me if I need a little more time to get pass this.”
I squeeze him tighter as I listen to his explanation. I do forget at times that Sam likes to peek inside their minds and I should have known that he would have been in Joseph’s head so his words didn’t surprise me. I lightly kiss his lips as I say, “I’m sorry Sam. I can’t imagine how that must have made you feel hearing him think all those things.”
He lets out a deep sigh as he murmurs, “No I’m sorry Gina. I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that. I was rude.”
I smile as I say, “No I was wrong. I promise from now on I’ll stay out of it. I guess I was just hoping the two of you would make up but I understand that you’ll need a little more time so I won’t push you anymore.”
“I’ll get over it I promise. All I’m asking is that you give me some more time.”
“Okay I will.”
He leans in to kiss me as we hear someone yell, “Okay you two break it up or get a room.”
I laugh as I say, “Hi Amber. Good to see that you’re back from your trip. How was Paris?”
“It was great,” she replies while giving me a hug. She turns towards Sam and waves as she says, “Hey Sam.”
“Hello Amber,” he says.
She then proceeds to fill us in on her trip and her sister’s wedding. It’s cool she can take trips like that since she comes from a pretty wealthy family and vacations to Paris are normal for her. The farthest my family went when Harry was still human was a trip to Niagara Falls. Yeah it’s no Eiffel Tower but we still made the best of it.
When she’s done, I smile as I say, “Wow a wedding in Paris. That must have been beautiful.”
She shrugs as she says, “It was nice but expensive as hell and we were all totally stressed out. My dad said if they get divorced, he’ll kill them both but will send them a bill to pay him back first.” We laugh as she says, “Well we better get to class.”
“Okay I’ll be there in a second.”
She walks away while I turn to face Sam. “I guess you’ll be hanging around until I’m done huh?”
He smiles as he replies, “Yes I will. I hope you don’t mind.”
“No I’m not surprised. You do know Joseph will be okay right?”
“Yes I know.” He kisses me as he says, “Enjoy your class and take care of my heart.”
“I will. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
After classes, Mark and I are walking towards where Sam is waiting. “So what do you think of the professor,” I ask.
“She seems nice but the assignment is gonna be a killer.”
I shake my head as my buddy Mark goes on about the assignment. I never understood why Tiffany gives him such a hard time because next to her, he is also my best friend. According to my parents, we’ve been friends since we were babies and I think they secretly hoped he and I would hook up and eventually one day get married. I love Mark to death but I don’t feel that way about him. He is like the brother I never had. But Tiffany always teases him about his hobbies and the two of them have gotten into little arguments to the point where I wanted to beat the crap out of both of them. So what he’s into graphic novels and a movie freak like me? He is still cool to hang out.
I give him a funny look as I say, “Are you kidding me? Mark, this should be a piece of cake for you. You write short stories all the time.”
“Yeah but the assignment only has to be ten pages. That’s not enough for me.”
I laugh as I say, “Well I’m sure you’ll figure it out. So do you want to finally come over to the house to hang out or are you still being a chickenshit?”
He pauses as he replies, “You mean to the place where a big scary vampire is waiting to eat me?”
Out of nowhere Evan appears from behind and says, “Oh, you’re not really afraid of us are you?”
Mark lets out a yelp that makes me crack up. Joseph appears next to Evan and to appear casual, he puts an arm around Mark’s shoulder, which makes him shudder a little. “Yep, he’s scared of a few simple vampires,” Joseph says with a smirk and him and Evan both start laughing.
I manage to control my laughter and pat him on the back as I say to Mark, “Pay them no mind. Come on Mark you’ll be fine. I miss hanging out with you and I promise they won’t do anything to you. They’re just teasing you. Trust me it’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure? I mean I don’t want to bother them if they’re busy or something.”
“Will you come on and stop being a baby,” I say while smirking. I grab his hand and lead him to the car. We all pile in and Sam speeds off. Mark is sitting in the back with Evan and Joseph while I sit in the front with Sam. I turn to give Mark a reassuring smile while Sam asks, “Is he going to be okay?”
I turn to face him and with concern in my voice I ask, “Of course he is why do you ask?”
“His heart is beating way too fast and it’s making me nervous.”
I turn towards the back to check on him and Mark gives me a nervous smile. Evan leans over to him and asks, “We’re not making you anxious are we?”
“No-no not at all. I’m cool as a cucumber.”
Trying to hide a smile Sam says, “Well I’m going to need you to relax a little Mark because with your heart beating that fast, I’m worried you might give yourself a heart attack or something. Nothing is going to happen you have my word. You’ll walk out of our house unharmed.”
He tries to smile but the face Mark makes sends me in hysterics. We reach the entrance to the driveway and begin the long ride up to the house but Sam stops the car so Evan and Joseph can get out. Evan chuckles as he says, “If he’s like this now, he’ll shit his pants when he finally sees David.” They both laugh as they walk away and we head towards the house.
“Ignore them Mark, David is not going to do anything but probably give you a hard time and be a jerk,” I say to him.
“Yeah thanks. Um, just to give me a head’s up, how big and scary is this David again?”
Sam laughs as he stops the car and we get out to go inside the house. As soon as we enter, Harry jets off the couch and goes to stand by the door that leads to the backyard. Sam immediately stands in front of Mark protectively as he asks, “Harry, are you okay?” He nods as Sam carefully asks, “Do you remember who this is?”
He studies Mark’s face as I add, “Pop, you remember Mark right? He used to live next door to us.”
Harry stares at him while he tries to recall everything he can on Mark. I’m almost holding my breath until he finally slightly smiles as he says, “Yes I remember Mark. You still look the same.”
“Nice to see you. You look good Mr. Williams,” Mark says.
“Mark, being that I’m a bit different from the last time you saw me, you can call me Harry.”
We all laugh as Mark nervously says, “Okay.”
I grab his hand to help him relax as Charlie enters. He smiles as I say, “This is Charlie Sam’s brother.”
Mark smiles as Charlie says, “So this is Mark. It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“Same here.”
I smile as they begin to make him feel comfortable. I feel Sam come up behind me and his arms wrap around my waist. I softly say, “Thank you for protecting him from Harry.”
“You’re welcome Gina.”
“Will Harry be okay with Mark here?”
“Yes as long as he keeps his distance he should be fine. Why don’t you give him a tour of the rest of the house while we fix lunch for you two.”
I kiss him as I say, “Okay. Come on Mark, let me show you around.”
I Am Such a Naughty Boy
(Sam)
Mark and Gina have their lunch. I watch as they chat away while I monitor his thoughts. Since he knows I can read minds, I can tell that he is controlling what he thinks around me. I learned not too long ago that Mark is looking for more than friendship and because of Gina I have not allow my jealous side handle the situation. I want to wait to see how deep his feelings for her are before I do anything. Not that he has a chance since in Gina’s mind he is nothing but a good friend. I know he wishes it could be something more so it is frustrating me that he’s hiding what he is really thinking.
I smile as David enters after returning from a hunting trip. He’s been dying to meet Mark and really check out what he thinks his potential meal will look like. The moment he enters, he takes a whiff and says, “Wow, what smells so good in here? If you guys were going to order in, you could have told me and saved me the trip.”
Gina immediately gets up and sternly says, “David you behave yourself. Mark is here so you better be nice to him.”
I can’t help but laugh while watching Gina stand up to him. He glances in Mark’s direction and says, “So you’re Mark. Huh, you’re just as geeky as I thought you would be but I didn’t think you would smell so damn appetizing.”
“Sam!”
I step up to David and say, “David, stop trying to scare the boy. Do you want Gina to start screaming again? Surely you remember how much you loved that.”
He cringes at the memory of what happened when Gina screamed for the first time and the pain we all felt. We still can’t figure out why it hurts us but until we know why, we’re not looking forward to feeling it again. And this was before I marked her so I’m not ready to see what will happen if she screams now.
He shakes his head, as he responds, “No that’s okay I guess the boy is not worth it, for now.”
She sticks her tongue out at him and goes back to eating her lunch and there’s peace in the house again.
Evening rolls around and I begin to feel my thirst coming on and I know I need to go out to feed. The scent of Mark’s blood since he’s still at the house is making me a bit thirsty and I bite my lip until I feel a twinge of pain to distract me biting him. I need to leave immediately but I want to tell Gina that I’m heading out so she doesn’t worry. I find the two of them sitting on the couch watching TV so I lean down behind her and whisper in Gina’s ear, “I’m going hunting now but I’ll be back shortly.”
