Blood Dawn

Chapter Six

Elirah was still reeling at what had just happened when the growl of her stomach distracted her. Draven had taken a lot if not most of her blood and now she was starving. Elirah looked down at Draven. His soft snoring let her know he was out like a light and she doubted she could do much to wake him.

Elirah looked away from him suddenly, too embarrassed to face him even though he was unconscious. She wasn’t a child and she wasn't naive. She had had the birds and bees talk with Lisa a long time ago and the school curriculum included a section on s*x ed during her freshman year.

Elirah knew enough to know that what they had had was practically s*x just with their clothes on. She had felt him finish. Had felt his p***s hardened even more against her and just as he came, she had felt it twitch and spasm against her core.

The thought making her breathless as she realized that it had been that sensation that had set off on its own. Her thighs clenched together, her body remembering each time he had made her come.

What is wrong with me?! Did she really just do what she just did?

With Draven of all people! And as if that wasn’t bad enough, she had allowed Draven to feed from her.

From her neck! Granted he had been attacked and in running away had basically bled out from the exertion. She had only wanted to give him her blood in an attempt to save his life, never would she have imagined things to go as far as they did.

Elirah didn’t have the energy to face the reality of why she didn’t do anything to stop him. If anything, she had gone along with it. Encouraged him even.

Elijah dropped her head to her hands.

Stupid! STUPID! “Stupid!” Half whispering, half yelling.

Lisa had told her that when two people who love and care for eachother, they would feed off each other to sate their partners blood needs but it was an act just as intimate as actual intercourse.

Elirah ran a bloody claw through her hair and down the left side of her neck to inspect the damage left behind from his feeding. Her demon body could heal itself but with the loss of blood it would take some time for the raw wound to heal.

She paused, smooth unmarred skin greeted her touch aside from the tenderness in the spot he had bitten down on, the skin was completely healed. Which was strange because she was expecting torn and shredded skin from how hard he was biting down and the intensity of his sucking. But there was nothing.

Elirah thought back to his licking and slowly lapping at the area before he had rolled off of her. He had healed her wound. But why?

I’m sorry… I can’t stop. She remembered his words when he’d been on top of her. She understood that he had been taken over by blood madness and yet he had tried to apologize for what he couldn’t control.

Looking down at herself, she was still in her demon form and she was a complete mess.

She looked like what Freddy Krouger or Michael Myers would have nightmares about. Meanwhile Draven looked like a well fed babe sleeping peacefully next to her. She smirked and shook her head at him. The lower half of his face was exposed from under his arm and noticed the blood, her blood drying on his lips and his chin.

Her core clenched tightly, making her thighs clench together again to try and relieve some of the pressure. And what did you know? It felt sinfully delicious, just like the long stroke and retreat of his hips against hers.

Ugh, was her body serious right now? Hadn’t it just had enough of what he had done to her. Her body responded by goosepimpling everywhere. Oh jeez, Elirah knew she was in trouble. She promised herself that she was never going to do that again. Ever.

Because looking into the eternity of Draven’s eyes had cemented her worst fears. After all this time and everything he had done to hurt her, she still wanted him.

Still in lo…

“I am so f****d in the head.” Elirah shook her head. There was no other explanation because what person in their right mind would do what she had done to protect him, knowing damn well that this person betrayed you.

Nobody would. Someone in their right mind would have minded their own business but nooooooo. She had been tempted by the scent of his blood and fell hook, line, and sinker. God, she was pathetic and in desperate need of a bath.

She was going to need to throw away everything she had on and spend about an hour under the hot spray of her shower to get all of the lycan blood and guts off her.

She was lucky she would have the house to herself since Lisa would be at work so she had a chance to get in and get cleaned up without worrying about Lisa. But what about the passed out vampire next to her? She couldn’t exactly leave him vulnerable out here on the cliffs. He had just been attacked by lycans.

That thought came on the heels of a realization that made her blood run cold.

The two lycans that had been after Draven looked to be professional killers which meant that whoever had sent them after him, were also expecting them to return and report their success. When they didn’t, she knew they would come looking for them.

She had to stash Draven somewhere and quick. But where? There was no way she could bring him home without Lisa finding him. She was an Ashuranan demon priestess herself and she would be able to pick up on the scent of the blood on him no matter how hard she worked to mask the scent.

Elirah whimpered at the thought of her foster mother finding out what she had done. The retribution she would enact would no doubt make Elirah sorry for intervening. But what choice did she really have? It was either watch as the lycans hunted him down and slaughtered him or save him.

If anything, it was Lisa’s fault. Yeah! Lisa’s fault for raising a kind and compassionate child. What happens? You ended up with a teen with a great sense of justice who would kill to protect an innocent young man who was himself on the verge of being killed. Yup, that was it!

Elirah laughed out loud at her logic.

“Oh man, I am so full of shit.” She said out loud. But if she had to be honest with herself, she knew deep down she would have saved him regardless.

So yeah, her house was definitely out of the question. Which left her with only one other option.

Her little home away from home, her studio cave. It made for great cover during the winter snow and spring rains, and the rare occasions when a freak storm would pass. Which was how she had found it in the first place.

Elirah had gone out hunting and had left a note for Lisa letting her know that she would be back in a few hours.

She had just finished when the weather had changed so quickly that she didn’t have the chance to run the eight miles home before rain, hail and lightning were coming down hard on her. She could still feel the pelts of hail against her back, her neck and her head. She had tried to take cover near a big tree but then thought better of it.

She didn’t want Lisa to find her charred beef jerky remains if she acted as a conduit for the lightning and tree. There had been no real cover other than the trees in the forest so she really had no choice. She had curled up next to the tree and tried her best to shield herself from the storm.

Thinking back on it, she wondered if she had really heard what she had heard that day. Part of her had chalked it up to the exhaustion of trying to keep herself safe from the freezing rain but she could have sworn that she could hear her name in the cold harsh winds.

She had had to be having auditory hallucinations because there was no other way to describe the otherworldly call in the harsh howl of the wind. The voice wasn’t distinguishable as male or female but almost a mixture of both and every range in between.

Elirah had ignored the calling but after a while the wind coalesced around her spinning and spinning until she was forced to push away from the tree she had been using as cover.

The wind had surrounded her like she was caught in a dust devil. She remembered being afraid in the moment not understanding what was happening until she heard her name in the swirl of the wind around her. The voice had been faint but it was calm, soothing. It was then that she began to feel the pull of the wind forcing her forward.

She was forced to take step after step or she was very sure the wind would drag her to wherever it was taking her. It had guided her through the forest as the weather continued to get worse by the minute. The sound of thunder and lightning was amplified around her and there had been a few times when her higher sense of self preservation would kick in and she had fought the pull. Digging her heels down into the ground or using a tree root for leverage against the pull but as soon as she would begin her fight, that voice would call out to her.

So she continued. She must have been out of her mind to trust in the soothing disembodied voice pulling her to god knows where. And maybe she had been.

It had been Elirah’s first hunt in six months and she had been so famished for blood she wasn’t paying attention to anything but the icy cold torture in her mouth.

When the dust devil finally dissipated, Elirah found herself facing a dense treeline. The wind was strong and pelting rain at her horizontally. Turning around, she found herself in front of a door. A red wooden door that had seen better days at the base of a very steep hill.

Thunder began to roar above her as the wind had picked up so she had no other choice than to go inside. At first she had thought to knock but she ended up pounding on the door. She looked down, hearing the creak of the rusted door knob turn and it slowly opened. Elirah had rushed in, closing the door behind her.

“Thank you so much for letting me in.” She panted and tried to shake off as much she could from her soaked clothes.

When there was no response, she slowly inspected the space around her in darkness.

“Hello?” Silence answered. Okay? Elirah could have sworn she had seen the door knob turn with a pull to let her in. A few more steps…

She had bumped into a table and scared herself half to death as she yelped in surprise. Something had tipped over and she felt around the table. A candle and a candle holder. Putting it back together. Okay now she needed to light the thing. Feeling around, she hoped… She prayed…

Elirah found a small thin rectangular box and picked it up. The sound of movement inside similar to the sound of matches and she exhaled a sigh of relief. Opening the box, she struck it to light the match and then the candle.

The faint glow of the candle illuminated the space before her, showing her a decent sized room that reminded her of a studio without windows. There was a bed off to one side of the room with a desk next to it. Setting the candle on the table she noticed a sheer layer of dust covering it. Elirah next inspected the bed and it seemed as if it had been a very long time since anyone had slept in it. It looked as if it had been abandoned a long time ago.

Weird, Elirah definitely saw the door knob turn and it had been pulled to open.

Figuring it would be her safest bet, Elirah waited out the storm. Once the storm had passed and she was able to make it back home, Lisa had laid into her for not checking the weather before going to hunt. Elirah knew Lisa was only angry because she had been worried and scared that something had happened to her. Again.

It was only after Lisa asked what she had done to keep safe during the storm that Elirah was able to explain how she had “found” the studio/cave with the big red door and how it had been a great shelter in the storm. Lisa had demanded Elirah take her to the cave and when she did, Lisa had come up with the idea of the cave becoming a safe space for her in the event of freak weather occurrences or a place to rest after hunting.

They had worked together with to renovate and redecorate the studio cave. Smoothing down the walls, a new paint job, new flooring and solar powered lighting had been added along with a new queen sized bed on a platform frame, a black shaggy rug and table. Lisa had insisted on installing a cabinet and filling it with supplies, snacks and water.

Over time, the studio cave had become her sanctuary and she had slowly added things like a stereo, a small dresser for clothes, shelves, posters of her favorite bands and other little things to make her cave more homey. It was so convenient now to hunt and have a place to come back to clean up without having to worry a nosy neighbor would see her blood stained clothes and call the police on her.

It was the only place Elirah could think of to stash Draven until he fully recovered. It was about a three mile walk from where they were at the cliffs which also gave her some time to think about how she was going to convince Draven to keep his mouth shut about what had happened.

Heck he could take all the credit and prestige of getting rid of the lycan assassins if he wanted. Elirah didn't care as long as he kept his mouth shut about her, her true form, his feeding from her neck and what they had done together during his feeding.

Elirah took a deep breath in and shook her head. Moving to stand, Elirah gently hooked her arms under his shoulders and the back of his knees, then stood to cradle Draven in her arms. Immediately, he nuzzled his face to her neck as if seeking out comfort in protective hold she had him in.

Sighing a very long sigh, Elirah looked up to the sky, "This is going to be the longest walk of my life.”