He shook his head, his pale eyes replaying the event as a shudder passed through me. "Great-Gran was telling me that we had to get rid of the body." He looked over at me. "At first, I didn't know which body she meant. But then I heard your heart - it was so faint. She picked up the vampire and blurred away, telling me to get you out of sight. Ben was yelling for me to get you to a hospital. He kept pulling at me, trying to get me off of you." He shook his head as his eyes watered. "But I was holding in your blood. My hands were on your neck, and I was holding in what little blood was left."
He ran a hand down his face and I set my plate on my lap, food momentarily forgotten. I kissed his shoulder and whispered that I loved him. He peeked over at me, seemingly comforted by that. "You started to shake, so I picked you up and we got in the back of my car. I yelled at Ben to drive and then..."
He paused, like he really didn't want to confess this part. Since I already knew it, already pictured it in my head, I nodded at him and urged him to continue. He swallowed before he did. "While he drove, your heartbeat started stuttering. All I could think was that my blood heals fast now, maybe it would heal you." He shook his head. "I wasn't thinking that it would change you. I just...I wasn't thinking." He swallowed again while a tear ran down my cheek.
"It's okay, Teren." I rested my head on his shoulder. "Tell me."
He exhaled shakily, like he was trying not to break down. "I tore my wrist open, put the wound over your lips. You wouldn't drink it at first. It just kept collecting in your mouth. I didn't know what to do. I begged you...and eventually, you swallowed it." He smiled softly and then frowned, looking down at my untouched plate of food. "Ben went nuts when he saw what I was doing. Nearly stopped the car, but I...growled at him, told him to drive to the ranch." He sighed softly and shook his head. "I may have told him I'd kill him if he didn't." He looked up at me. "But I knew I couldn't take you to a hospital, not with my blood inside of you." I nodded and he looked away.
"I didn't know how much you needed, or if it was even doing anything. I wasn't thinking about anything other than 'more', you needed more." He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I had to keep reopening my wrist, it kept healing. I was making myself really weak, but I couldn't stop, your neck hadn't healed." I grabbed his hand, his wrist. He watched me as I examined the skin. It was perfect, flawless. I grabbed the other one, but it was the same. He was perfectly healed. "I've never been so scared, Emma. Not even when I died. I've never been that scared in my life."
He didn't continue talking, and I thought that was the end of the story. Then he looked up from where his wrist was still in my hands. His eyes were wet again. "I fed you the entire way back to the ranch. I only stopped when Mom pried me off of you." He shook his head and swallowed. "I think if she hadn't, I would have given you every drop I had." Another tear dropped to my cheek at that admission. I wanted to say something, but he smiled at me. "It was only when she picked you up, that I realized your heart was beating steadily again. And when we looked, your neck wasn't healed, but it wasn't bleeding very much anymore." A long, languid smile broke over his face. "My blood didn't do what I'd ever have expected it to do, but it kept you alive. It kept you all alive."
His eyes drifted to my stomach, to the twins resting under my plate of cooling food. I smiled and brought a hand to his cheek.
"Have I ever told you, how amazing you are?" He grinned and I leaned forward to kiss him for a few long moments, glad I was unconscious for that, and didn't have the memory, and wishing someone could take the memory from Teren. I couldn't imagine how scared he'd been. Then again, I'd watched him die, almost twice. Maybe I could imagine his terror all too easily.
After a few moments of collection, I dug into my human food. My comparatively bland human food. Not that it was bad, it wasn't, Alanna was amazing in the kitchen, but it wasn't what my body was really wanting. The human part of me still needed it though, so I ate everything in front of me. Teren sat behind me while I ate, playing with my hair or massaging my shoulders. He didn't seem to want to leave me alone. I understood that, I didn't want him to leave me alone either.
But eventually, he had to. Eventually it was Monday morning and he, at least, had to go back to work. He knelt by my side of the bed, concern clear in his face. "Hey, I have to go. It's going to take me longer to get to work and back now, but I'll be here, just as soon as I can." I nodded and he leaned over to kiss me. "I'm going to swing by the house and get some stuff for us." He looked down, a little worried again. "I need you to talk to your mom today, if you don't mind." I scrunched my brow and he explained, "I don't know how long we're going to be here, so I thought I'd leave Spike with her," he grinned wryly, "since she loves him so much."
I nodded. Mom would need to know why she was watching the dog for so long too. I sighed, not looking forward to that conversation. She'd want to move out here to the ranch when I told her I was on bed rest. That would put a strain on the vampires, me too. I'd have to convince her that there were plenty of people waiting on me, and she needed to stay in town for work, and now, the dog. That would brighten the experience for her. I smiled and told him I'd call her this afternoon and let him know what she said. He grinned and kissed me goodbye, lingering for a much longer kiss than we generally said goodbye with. I tried to block out the feeling that he was saying "goodbye" with his goodbye...just in case.
After he left, I stretched out on the bed. My body was still a little stiff, and still felt really odd, but overall, I felt better. The ache on my neck was a manageable level, as the human and vampire sides within me worked together on fixing the damaged skin. My fingers went to the wound, the rustling on the bandage loud in my ear, and I had the sudden desire to shower and dress and try to appear normal, since I didn't feel normal.
Bracing myself, I slowly sat up, the bed compressing a bit under my weight. My head swam for a fraction of a second and then cleared. I heard Jack and Alanna talking quietly downstairs as Alanna made him something to eat. In the side building, I could hear Hot Ben still snoring away. No other noises intruded on me, but I could sense where Halina was tucked away for the day and where Imogen was being deathly silent. I remembered that Teren didn't breathe or move much when he slept, and figured that was what she was probably doing.
Wanting that shower, I slowly stood up. Well, that was my intention anyway, but my desire to be clean was so strong, as my sensitive skin could fell the layer of grime on it, that I blurred to my feet. I'd never moved at vampiric speed before, and really, hadn't been expecting that side effect. It completely took me off guard, and not even having time to curse, I overshot my balance and crashed harshly to the ground.
"Emma? Are you alright?" I heard instantly from Alanna in the dining room.
Blushing, and grateful that at least no one saw that, I muttered, "Yeah, I'm fine...just clumsy."
I carefully sat up on my knees and then stood up. Alanna's concerned voice filtered up to me. "Oh, okay. Be careful. You need to concentrate on how quickly you move now. Everything for you will take a concentrated effort for awhile, then it will be natural."
I nodded, then remembering that she couldn't actually see me, thanked her. Great, just what a pregnant woman with a major case of space-brain needed - to have to super concentrate on everything. I had a feeling I'd be falling over a lot for a while. With my mind focused on every muscle contraction in my body, I slowly walked into the bathroom.
Alanna's voice followed me. "Are you hungry? I can bring you up some breakfast."
I walked over to the mirror and sighed at my reflection - my thick, wavy locks were the worst case of bed head I'd ever seen, dark circles under my eyes made me seem like I hadn't slept in days, my lip had swollen from where I'd pierced myself yesterday, and the bandage on my neck was comically huge. My enhanced sight could also see the slight red tinge seeping through it. My stomach growled and my fangs dropped down, luckily not piercing anything this time. Staring at them, I focused on pulling them back. It was more difficult than you'd think. They resisted slipping back up, but like purposely contracting a muscle, I eventually made them hide again.
I sighed again and answered Alanna. "I'm going to attempt a shower, then I'll come down and join you. Wish me luck," I muttered softly.
I heard her faint laughter. "Good luck."
I turned on the shower, adjusting the knob until the temperature was how I liked it. Walking back to the mirror, I wondered if sunlight would be an issue for me. Teren had told me once that his family had the same reaction to light after their conversion as before. I'd been sequestered in our room here at the ranch for days. I hadn't been in direct sun yet. But I took it as a good sign that I wasn't suddenly Halina's roommate in her lightproof dungeon. Our room had heavy, beaded curtains that were closed when I'd woken up, but it was nowhere near as light resistant as Halina's pad. Or Imogen's dark room for that matter. Plus, neither Teren nor Alanna had mentioned anything about it. I took that as a good sign. I don't know if I could handle never seeing daylight again.
Looking at myself in the mirror again, I slowly began tearing off the bandage over my wound. It stung where it pulled away from my skin and I paused. Taking a deep breath, I let my control over my muscles relax and ripped the material off lightning quick. I hissed in a sharp breath and clasped my hand over the surge of pain. Finger by finger I removed my hand. The wound was as horrific as I'd imagined, and it was days old now. Red, raw, blood-encrusted skin, with a distinct oval shape that was obviously from a mouth. Twin deep holes were at the top, right over my jugular, and the remaining teeth gouged deep into my flesh, the top and bottom edges ripping the skin ragged where he'd dug in. He'd practically torn a chunk out of my skin to get to the blood beneath. It was horrid and I could see a couple places where someone had sewn me up with a stitch or too, the stitches themselves pulled out, but the skin puckered back into place. I knew I'd have a scar there permanently.
Anger surged through me as I ran a finger along the bumpy scar. Prick vampire. In my irritation, I lost control on my teeth and they came back down. Too irritated to do anything about it, I left them down and angrily jerked off my clothes, hopping into the shower.
The warm water calmed me back down and I was able to tuck them away again while I was dressing. With the wounds cleaner, they weren't quite as horrific, although they were still not pleasant to look at. I left them uncovered and fluffed my hair to partially cover it. As I took in my clean appearance, I felt a little better, and was starving. I moved to the door, but let myself do it a little too fast and stumbled as I ran into the knob. Really grateful that Teren wasn't witnessing my awkwardness, I opened the door and carefully walked down the elaborate staircase that led into the entryway. Not wanting to fall down the stairs, I had to focus hard on every single step.
I hit the bottom step right as Hot Ben walked into the room. I smelled him before I saw him; he did not smell good. I wrinkled my nose at the scent of scotch and vomit wafting from him. He didn't look much better. His eyes were bloodshot, his highlighted hair sticking up on one side and flat on the other. His clothes were rumpled, obviously still the ones he'd fallen asleep in (or passed out in) yesterday. His face, although still sculpted and gorgeous, was pale and slightly green.