The Monhagan Chronicles: Prelude

Chapter 5

Audrey

I bolted upright in bed. My dream finally reminding me of the something I was forgetting. In all the excitement of my turning I had completely forgotten that my friends hadn’t seen me leave the bar. I had snuck out. When my friends returned to my apartment they would find it empty. My friends had no idea if I was okay or even alive! They were going to be furious.

I jumped out of the bed and ran out the door. I skidded to a stop in the hallway as I realized I had no clue how to get home from here. My thoughts became calm again when I remembered that Dean had said we would go to my apartment today. I tried not to be worried, but the anxiety was eating away at my stomach. I felt horrible about forgetting my friends. About not thinking of what they had gone through. To them I had disappeared. They would have no idea what happened to me or if I was alive. I hoped they assumed I hooked up with one of the hot bartenders and were anxiously awaiting my morning after walk of shame.

Once out in the hallway I followed the smell of fresh coffee into the kitchen. Dean was seated at the table with a laptop in front of him, a cup of coffee in hand. His light brown hair was still wet from a shower. There was a faint shadow of stubble on his face. The corner of his mouth tilted up, almost a smile.

“Grab a cup. We should head to your apartment shortly so you can collect a few things then we’ll come back here for some training and exercise. You’ll need to learn how to control your body and mind now. There is a lot I can teach you and I need to have you sorted in the next few days. The council is sending an agent to assess you.”

“What do you mean by assess and what council?” I asked, rubbing my elbow nervously.

Dean smiled ruefully. “I will answer the second part first. The council is a group of very powerful, very old beings that rule over the supernatural community. Well, maybe rule isn’t quite the right word for it. They watch over us, make the laws and initiate punishments. This isn’t the normal situation. These days in order to turn a human there is a lot of paperwork and red tape, interviews, it is a long process. You were the exception. You were dying and I did what I had to do. So now the council will want to assess your state of mind and how well you can be expected to integrate into our society. If you are deemed safe or at least not likely to expose us then they should let you be.” He spread his hands and shrugged. “The key is learning control which isn’t such a hard thing. We will start there and then move on to histories and such. But for now I would really like for you to be comfortable.” 

The entire time he talked we had been walking, coffee in hand, to the living room. Dean bent next to the couch to retrieve my purse that sat untouched on the floor. In all the excitement I had forgotten about it. I snatched my purse out of his hands simultaneously sitting my coffee down on one end table. I immediately started rummaging around in it looking for my phone. If it wasn’t dead I was sure there would be several missed calls and/or texts from Gideon and Nicki. They were going to kill me.

I finally found my phone at the very bottom under my keys and spare tampons. I pulled it out and pushed the button lighting the screen. I had 17 missed calls, 6 voicemails, and 22 texts from Nicki and Gideon. The texts from Nicki got more threatening as I read them. In contrast the texts from Gideon got more panicky. In the last one he stated they were going to call the police to report me missing if I didn’t call them in the next five minutes. It was over an hour old.

“Yeah, I’m going to have to make a quick call on the way.” I gave Dean an apologetic smile and turned to the door while pulling up Gideon’s number.

He answered on the first ring. “Where the he double hockey sticks are you?” I could hear Nicki yelling in the background. 

“Calm down sweet face, I’m fine. Great even.” I paused, unsure what to tell them. I wasn’t even certain if Gideon could hear me over Nicki.

“Girl, we are going totes cray over here. You disappeared without saying anything and you were so trashed. Like we thought you were hurt, or lost.”

“We thought you were dead Audrey!” I heard Nicki yelling.

“Well, I’m not dead.” just dead adjacent. “I’ll be home in a little bit but just to pack. I’m going to take a vacation. I realized that you guys were right and I have been wallowing lately so I’m going to go clear my head.”

I swear I could hear crickets on the other side of the line. I had just opened the passenger door when I heard a small scuffle from Gideon’s side of the call. Then Nicki’s voice came through the line, no longer yelling since she had taken his phone.

“Audrey, what happened last night? Where are you?” I could hear worry in her voice tinged with anger.

“Where are you guys right now?” I countered. I was sure I didn’t want them to be at my place when Dean and I got there. I had been a vampire for less than 8 hours and wasn’t sure what would happen if things got emotional and Nicki had a habit of being overly dramatic and emotional.

“We’re with Mrs. Fitzpatrick. You need to get that scrawny ass of yours home right now. I am not playing with you Audrey.” Beneath her anger was fear. I felt bad for causing her this distress. 

I looked over at Dean as he drove. I wasn’t sure what else to say to my friend. I doubt there was anything I could say to her to get her to leave. Dare I even try? I don’t think I have the courage to tell her to go away. But how could I face my friends with everything that had changed? Did I even have a choice?

“I’ll be home soon. You guys don’t have to stay, you can head home.” I said this with little hope that she would listen.

“Nu uh. You know better, woman. We will be here waiting for your explanation. And it better be a damn good one for what you put us through. I’m talking earth shattering revelations or I will personally kick your scrawny Irish ass to kingdom come!”

Hmmm… f**k. What would I tell them? I looked over to Dean. His mouth was set in a grim line. This did not seem to bode well.

“I gotta go. I guess I’ll see you in a few.” I said, quickly ending the call. “Well… you got any ideas?” I asked Dean.

He sat stiffly for several minutes. We were only a few miles from my apartment when he spoke.

“This could be difficult for you.” he seemed to think for a few seconds then looked at me from the corner of his eye. “I think… It could be safe. How do you feel? Any burning in your gums or cramping? You fed and should be sated but with us leaving so early in the day and being out in the sun you could be using more energy than is wise. Perhaps I should have planned this better.” The last was almost to himself. “I will be right next to you the entire time. If things appear to become unsafe I will take care of it.”

I wasn’t sure what “take care of it” meant. It both worried and calmed me. “You won’t let me hurt them right?” I almost whispered.

The corner of his mouth tipped up. “No one will be injured.” He promised.

I sighed, resting my head against the window as I watched the buildings pass by. Things had changed so much in less than 12 hours. I felt so very different yet so very much like I had grown into myself. I felt more like me than I ever had before. I finally felt right. 

Dean pulled the car into the complex’s parking lot and cut the engine. When I reached for the door handle he halted me with a hand on my shoulder. I looked back to him, curious. 

“Perhaps we should err on the side of caution. It would be wise for you to take some energy from me, I have plenty and it would make it easier for you. While I can easily stop you if you lose control I would rather it didn’t come to that.”

My eyes widened remembering feeding off Violet in the wee hours this morning. It had been a very intimate and erotic situation and I hadn’t been attracted to her. This man was a different story. He was handsome, very handsome. While I felt like I shouldn’t I knew my body was drawn to him. I was very attracted to him. But I was also very afraid of what could happen if I lost control with my friends in the same room. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, Nicki and Deon most of all. 

“Okay. Um… how…”

He leaned his seat back. “Come here.” he motioned for me to climb into his lap. I felt a blush creep up my cheeks. He sighed and grabbed my waist, easily maneuvering me over the console to straddle his lap. “My blood will taste different, it may not be as appealing.” He unbuttoned his shirt down to his sternum and pulled the collar away from his neck and shoulder, giving me plenty of access. 

The heat in face increased exponentially. The part of his chest that was exposed was hard lines and muscle. I couldn’t help but stare. One of his hands combed through my hair, pressing close to my scalp at the back of my head while the other rested between my shoulderblades. He pulled me down to him, tilting his head and allowing my face to hover at the place his shoulder met his neck. 

“Just relax. Use your senses. Smell the blood and the energy contained within it.”

I leaned forward slightly, allowing my nose to lightly touch his skin. He smelled like heaven. Like cloves and musk. I inhaled deeply, placing my lips against his skin as I had with Violet. There was something so much more intimate in this situation. My eyes closed and a shiver rippled through me. I felt that same burning sensation in my gums. My lips parted. It took slightly more pressure for my fangs to break his skin, but I was rewarded with a hard surge of energy. It was so much more than I had felt with Violet. The ecstasy of this moment was ten fold, one hundred fold what it was with her. Dean had said his blood wouldn’t be as appealing, he was wrong. It was the taste of warmth, of home. It was a hot cup of coffee during a storm, a warm cup of cocoa after a blizzard. It was the fire burning in the dead of winter. The sun during the summer. It was everything.

I pushed myself impossibly close, moaning at the sensations. His arms tightened around me as he hissed, whether from pain or pleasure I don’t know. My hand came up of its own accord, threading my fingers through the hair at the base of his skull. My hips rocked against him. I could feel him growing hard against me, the material of the sweatpants I was wearing and the coarseness of his jeans feeling like a thin barrier between our sexes. I rocked forward again, relishing the feel of his body against mine. 

His hand that had been between my shoulderblades moved downward. Slowly caressing my back down to my hip. His fingers digging into my flesh eliciting another wanton moan from me. Then his fingers in my hair tightened, tugging back slightly.

“That’s enough, love.” His voice was deep and raspy.

I pulled my fangs from his skin. My tongue darted out to lick the small trickle of blood that had escaped the healing wound. His grip on me tightened and his hips bucked. I moaned again as he pulled my head away from him. Our eyes met. It could have been minutes or hours and I wouldn’t have known. His thumb caressed the corner of my mouth wiping a drop of blood away. Not wanting the delicious fluid to go to waste I grabbed his hand and licked it away. His pupils enveloped the iris, completely covering the beautiful green of his eyes.

Dean’s brow furrowed then his eyes closed. It was as if he was collecting himself. Becoming self conscious I climbed back over to the passenger seat. There was a definite wetness in my nether region. The blush swept back over my face and neck. I had never acted so wantonly in my life. Embarrassment flooded me. Dear lord, what the hell happened to me. I quickly scrambled out of the car needing fresh air to calm my heated body. 

Dean

It took probably five minutes of deep breathing for me to calm my body and allow my engorged member to slowly subside. What was this woman doing to me? I had thought that allowing her to feed from me would be much the same as it ever had been for another vampire. I was wrong. Though not all of those times had been pleasant, or with consent it had never felt like that. Had never elicited that kind of reaction. If she had rocked those seductive hips against me one more time… I couldn’t let that happen. She deserved so much more than my broken self. 

When I was calm enough to approach her without throwing her to the ground and stripping her bare I climbed out of the car. She was turned away from me, doing some deep breathing of her own. The sun shining on her brought the red in her hair out magnificently. Taking one look at the creamy skin of her face, eyes closed, lips parted, I knew I was in trouble. She stirred emotions in me that I hadn’t felt in centuries. With the realization of what that could mean I slammed my walls down around myself. This wouldn’t do. I had to protect her from myself.

I walked around my car coming to stand beside her. In as cool of a voice as I could muster I said, “Are you ready?”

Her beautiful hazel eyes opened and she nodded. We walked briskly to the building and entered. The lobby wasn’t large. It was stale and white, looking more like a foyer than anything. A large potted plant sat off to one side. The hallway had an elevator on one side and a doorway marked “Stairs” on the other. Beyond that were more doors with metal numbers denoting each one.

I followed her to the elevator. She pressed the button to call the elevator and waited patiently for the doors to open. One hand went absently to the opposite elbow, rubbing it. A habit I realized that meant she was nervous. Though I knew I didn’t exactly have much experience in comforting others I made a small attempt, for her. I placed my hand on the middle of her back and made a gentle motion of rubbing up and down. Her back still felt warm from the sun. A small shiver ran down her spine and I immediately removed my hand thinking I must have scared her. Perhaps I needed more practice. 

I had never been gentle by nature. I had spent too much of my life in turmoil. My anger and hate all consuming. It wasn’t until I met Lucian that I learned there were better things out there. Even then we were in such a situation that didn’t lend itself to gentleness. I ran a hand through my hair in frustration. The doors opened and we stepped into the elevator. Audrey pressed the button for the third floor and the doors hummed closed. 

I had never enjoyed enclosed spaces. Too much trauma from my maker. But as the small elevator filled with her scent I found myself enjoying this small space. She smelled of coconut and brown sugar. I closed my eyes, savoring the flavor of the air. Much too soon the doors opened. I followed her out of the elevator placing a hand on her elbow to slow her steps. She stopped to turn to me with curiosity.

“If at any time you feel uneasy just say the word. I will get you safely out.” While I knew that I was liable if she were to lose control that wasn’t my first priority. I didn’t want her hurt. I didn’t want her damaged emotionally. I wanted her healthy, well, and happy. I didn’t understand why, or where this feeling came from.

“Promise? I don’t want to… I can’t hurt them.” she took a deep breath. “What can I expect?”

I smiled briefly. “The worst will be the smell. They very well could smell like your favorite food but it will be more intense. Your mouth may water but there won’t be anything to worry about unless you feel the burning in your gums or cramping. Those are sensations you get from your desire to feed. It can be quite overwhelming and your instincts can kick in overpowering your rational mind. Just try keeping your mind on other things. Breathe through your mouth if you must.”

She nodded in understanding then turned. Her apartment was the last on the left. I watched as she shakily inserted the key into the lock, it turned with a click. After another deep breath she opened the door.