Page 19 of Taste of Blood
No, what concerns me more is being spotted in the building by Asher. To say he might get the wrong impression is an understatement.
He should be at his fancy office right now, however, and hopefully by the time he’s coming home I will have found this dickhead and dealt with him.
I can dream, can’t I?
8: Asher
I HANDLE A couple of office calls in the afternoon, letting my mind get lost in the day-to-day business of mergers and acquisitions. It distracts me for a while, but once evening rolls around, I start to feel restless.
Once I’m home, a glance outside tells me the rain has stopped, so I get dressed and decide to go for a walk. Sometimes just being out among the bustle of people is enough to make me feel like I still belong to the fabric of humanity.
Not that I miss it–my humanity, that is. I like what I’ve become, and I definitely don’t miss the minutia of aging and anxiety that goes along with mortality. Without those concerns to cloud my thoughts, I’ve been free to pursue my goals. And despite what Cord may think of it, I don’t feel the need to apologize for my success.
Thinking about Cord brings back the reason why I need to get out. I don’t know where to start looking for him, or even if he would respond if I found him. He seemed quite determined when he threw me out of his apartment.
Still, I refuse to believe he’s actually moved on from what we had. If I doubted that, his reaction to my blow job earlier erased that concern. Just thinking about him coming apart gets my dick hard.
No, I just need to find the right way to convince him I’ve changed, which, considering he’s not the most trustingindividual, might be a tall order. To that end, I grab my umbrella in case it decides to rain again and head out to the streets.
Nighttime in the city has always been my favorite time. Everything seems so much clearer without the distraction of daylight. Sounds are sharper, smells are richer, and the nuances of life are like a symphony of heartbeats and sighs. It reminds me of those early days following my transition when the world was a new and exciting place.
“I can feel their hearts beating. I can smell their blood.”
“And it will always be so. But you must learn to control it.”
“How? I just want to eat them.”
“I will teach you so that you may move among them without revealing yourself.”
I recall the difficulty of that first year. Relearning how to appear human. How to school the new appetites that thundered in my veins. Cord was a big part of that. In each other, we learned to sate our hunger and release that awakening beast. In each other, we found someone who would allow us to be just what we were–wild and animalistic. If I hadn’t had him to share those urges with, I don’t know what I would have done. He gave me all my firsts, and I did the same for him. How can he possibly think either of us could move on from that?
The simple fact is, we belong together, and we’ve wasted too much precious time being apart.
The sidewalks are a moving sea of the dinner crowd. I fall into step with them, allowing myself to be mindlessly carried along, lost in my own head.
And then I spot it.
Two blocks down, parked at the curb. I’d know it anywhere.
Cord’s car.
I look around. Granted, Dante lives across the street, but with the exception of last night, I’ve never seen Cord in thisneighborhood before. Besides, as I recall, doesn’t Dante conduct most of his business at his warehouse down at the docks?
I approach the car and reach out with my senses. The engine is cool, which means he’s been here a while. Where could he be? I can’t believe he’s this close and I don’t know where he is.
A little voice inside me says get inside the car and wait for him. It would be an easy matter to get past the locks, though I could imagine Cord’s reaction to finding me inside his baby.
Probably not the best way to convince him to come back to me.
I look around and notice a dry cleaners on the corner that’s already closed for the evening. I step over and wedge myself in the doorway so he won’t be able to see me when he’s approaching.
Then I settle in to wait.
One of the advantages to being a vampire is the ability to remain still for prolonged amounts of time. We can force our bodies to essentially shut down, like a form of suspended animation. It’s an ability that comes in handy tonight as I stand in that doorway till the small hours of the morning. I had to move once to avoid the attention of a beat cop and relied upon my ability to blend in with the surroundings when a couple of kids looking for trouble wandered by.
I start obsessing about possibilities. Maybe Cord has a lover in one of these buildings and is spending the night there. That thought causes my blood to boil, and no matter what I try to do to convince myself otherwise, I’m unable to let go of the idea.
I’ll kill the other party if I have to. Cord is mine, even if we’re not together right now. Even if he doesn’t want to acknowledge the fact. If he thinks he can replace me, he’s sorely mistaken. The thought of living without him is suffocating. How I managed to get by the past ten years is a testament to my own survival instinct. I recall how hard it was at first. There were days whenI thought I would lose my mind. It hurt to breathe, to feed, to exist.
