Blood Kiss Read online

  “Maybe,” I said, sitting up a little but staying in contact with his large warm body. “But he shouldn’t have been able to, damn it. Slayers have immunity to mind tricks—vampire mind tricks, anyway. But I don’t even know if he’s a vampire. I don’t know what the hell he is.”

  “We need to find out,” Michael said. “I want to know everything I can about the guy. Hell, he’s after me for my blood—isn’t that what you said?”

  “He said your blood was the key to some prophesy. I saw him talking to the same vamp that bit you—an Elder. I couldn’t tell what family he came from,” I said.

  “What family?” Michael shifted and looked down at me, frowning a little. “So are vampires organized like the mafia or something?”

  “Close,” I said. “At least, most of the Elder vamps, the founding fathers you could call them, are of Italian descent—that’s where the families get their names. It doesn’t matter what ethnic group they belong to as humans, when they’re turned, they take the family name. And they’re organized a little like the mob too—but by order of strength and age. At the top or head of the family is the Elder—the vamp who started it all in the first place. Then you have the captains and under them the lieutenants. On the very bottom rung you have your leeches— the newest vamps. Easiest to kill because they’re the youngest and the weakest.”

  Michael shifted against me. “Uh, I guess that makes me a leech, huh?”

  “I don’t know where you’d fall in the classification,” I said honestly. “I mean—you’re unique.”

  “Thanks.” He squeezed my shoulders. “I think you’re pretty special, too.”

  “Michael,” I said warningly.

  “Sorry. Just kidding.” But when he grinned at me, I couldn’t help smiling back.

  “Smart ass.” I slapped him on the arm and his grin got wider. His eyes glowed more too—I had never noticed that a vampire’s eyes got brighter when he was happy. But then, I had never exactly gone out of my way to be a messenger of peace and joy among the fanged set.

  “Kate,” he said, shifting around to look me in the eye, “Can we talk about what happened earlier? Without getting mad at each other?”

  I sighed. “You mean can we talk about what happened without me getting mad at you—right?”

  “Well…yeah.” He shrugged. “I just want…no, I need to understand what’s going on here. What happened between us.”

  I stiffened in his arms. “Look, Michael, I don’t know exactly what happened—what all those…feelings or sensations or whatever you want to call them were about. All I know is that I should have stopped it sooner. I mean, I’m not blaming you, I’m just saying—”

  “I’m not exactly talking about the physical sensations we both experienced when I, uh, drank from you,” he said softly. “I’m talking about the fact that from the minute I saw you in the ER I felt drawn to you. I lied about not knowing the hospital policy—I asked you out knowing I could lose my internship because of it.” He pulled me closer and reached down to cup my chin in one warm hand. “I couldn’t help myself.”

  “Michael…” I started, but he leaned down and stopped me with a kiss. His fangs were out again and I could feel their sharp points grazing my lips but he was very careful and didn’t cut me with them.

  My heart started to pound and I wanted to push away from him and pull him closer at the same time. My breasts, which were bare beneath the t-shirt I had worn to bed, (I had taken off the damn sundress for the night) were pressed tightly against him. I could feel my nipples getting stiff and achy as they rubbed against the hard, warm wall of his chest. Between my thighs, my white cotton panties were getting damp again. Damn—what was wrong with me? It had been a long time since I’d been with a man but I had never reacted so quickly before—and Michael wasn’t even biting me. Had we formed some strange connection earlier when he took my blood?

  I felt his mouth coaxing mine to open and against my better judgment I parted my lips and let him in. His mouth tasted of peppermint toothpaste and under it, a faint coppery hint of blood—my blood, I realized. That’s right, because he’s a vampire. And you’re kissing him. Doing exactly what you promised yourself you’d never do again.

  I broke the kiss and pulled away from him abruptly. Shit. Since when was I so weak and needy that I lost control of myself this way? First crying all over him, then letting him kiss me…What was wrong with me?

  “Am I pushing it?” Michael asked, not trying to kiss me again.

  I scooted away from him, leaving the shelter of his arms. He let me go.

  “Kate?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “I just…I just can’t do this. I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t feel attracted to you.” My throbbing nipples and the ache between my thighs was evidence of that but I wasn’t about to say so out loud. “It’s just that I…”

  “I know. You don’t do vampires.” Michael sighed and ran a hand through his hair in obvious frustration. “You know, you said yourself I’m not the average vamp.”

  I almost smiled at the way he was picking up my slang. “You’re not,” I said. “But you still drink blood. I’m sorry, Michael, but a thirst for human blood means you’re a vampire no matter what else you do and don’t do.”

  “Maybe I can find a cure,” he said. “I almost went into research instead of treatment, you know. It’s fascinating and amazing the things you can do with some of the equipment and gene therapy available these days.”

  “Vampires have been around, as far as we can figure, for over a thousand years,” I said, crossing my arms over my still throbbing breasts. “That’s how long the line of Cosenza has been hunting them, anyway. And you’re just all of a sudden going to come along and fix them?”

  He shrugged. “Why not? You said vampirism was caused by a virus, right? An organism that invades your cells and takes over the body for its own uses? We’ve found cures and vaccines for other disease processes that were just as debilitating and devastating. What about polio? Or just recently I read in a journal about a group of children that had been cured of Sickle Cell through a stem cell transplant. And that’s a disease that involves the blood and circulatory system. The possibilities with gene therapy alone are almost limitless.”

  I shook my head in admiration for his sheer, stubborn determination. I had never thought of the possibility of curing vampirism before. For years the Cosenza line had been concentrating on wiping out the symptoms but not a single one that I knew of had considered trying to eliminate the source of the disease or had even thought of it as a disease at all. I think we considered it more of a curse. I wondered if he could really do it. The way he talked, given the proper equipment and a little time, anything was possible. Then again AIDS was a virus and they were still looking for a cure for that.

  “Are you always one of those ‘glass is half full’ kind of people?” I asked him.

  Michael grinned and shrugged. “Sure, I guess. And I suppose you’re a ‘glass is half empty’ kind.”

  I shook my head. “Nope. I’m a drink whatever’s left and use the glass for target practice kind of girl.”

  He laughed, a deep rich sound that seemed to come from the very bottom of his chest. “That’s one thing I like about you Kate—your sense of humor.”

  “My what?” I raised an eyebrow at him. “Listen, Michael, I’ve been told by several people that ought to know that I don’t have a sense of humor.”

  “Oh, it’s there all right.” He stroked my cheek gently. I thought about pulling away from him but I didn’t do it—the soft touch felt too good. “It’s just a little dusty, that’s all,” he said.

  He leaned a little bit closer and it looked like he might try to kiss me again. I didn’t want him to do that. Or rather—I did want him to. So much that it scared me.

  “We really need to get some sleep,” I said, turning away from him to fluff my pillow more forcefully than was absolutely necessary. “Long day tomorrow.”

  “Yeah.” Michael sighed and r