Page 67Licking wound

After I'd written down the events of the night before, I took a long shower. The hole in my body was closed, but still a little visible. It wasn't as clear as the wound on my arm, but I did have a double serving of blood the night before. It did make me wonder how saturated on blood I could become. Perhaps if I drank a lot of it, my eyes would turn red.

Something I wasn't going to try out though.

Maybe because of the surplus of blood last night, I didn't feel very thirsty. I headed for the Cathedral and started to look for Esmeralda. I wanted to talk to her, not sure if I wanted to tell her what was on my mind, but happy if she could just distract me. Perhaps then my thoughts would be in order again. It was time to have some fun.

Maybe I could ask her if there was an old bookstore in town.

With these thoughts in mind, I entered the Cathedral.

Inside was... A battlefield.

Most of it had been cleaned up during the day, presumably, but most people were just hanging in corners, talking in soft and agonized voices. Some of them holding their head in pain. Hangovers, surely. I didn't ask for Esmeralda, no one seemed in a position to even want to talk to a more cheerful looking person.

At least it made me feel a lot more cheerful than I was before.

I went up to where Esmeralda slept and found her there, alone and reading. It wasn't anything special, just a random magazine that probably had been left there a long time ago. She looked up at me when I came closer.

"I had a thought you might come tonight."

I smiled. "Well, you seemed busy last night."

She blushed. "I hope you don't think I let all the guys do that. I've known him for a very long time."

I laughed a little. "I didn't really think that. Did you enjoy it?" I felt stupid for asking, part of me didn't want to know even if another part of me was very curious.

"He's still very good, bit too addicted for me though."

"Drugs?"

She nodded. "Yeah, strong ones. I don't mind people who try them, but an addiction has... too often a bad result. Oh, that reminds me, can I ask you something silly."

I blinked. "Sure, what?"

"Bite me properly."

"What do you mean?"

"When you bit me, it didn't show. I'd love to have a vampire bite in my neck. I'm sure everyone will ask me how I did it."

My mind boggled. "You think it'd be cool?"

"Sure, at least it'll be more original than the normal bite-marks." She looked at me and changed her expression to that of a hurt puppy. "Please? Will you do it?"

Her smirk below those care-free eyes was visibly hidden behind the expression.

"It will bleed though."

She smiled at me. "I'll let you lick up any blood that escapes."

That was a deal I couldn't really resist now, could I? I sat down next to her and bit her gently in her neck, my teeth piercing her skin. It was different for me to bite now as well. I knew she'd feel it, felt my teeth rather than a haze. As I pulled back, I realized it was the first time I'd actually seen my own bite. Two holes, close to her jugular vein, pulsed with her heartbeat and started bleeding. The wounds weren't that deep, but enough to start it.

I just hoped they would close eventually.

Licking blood from her skin was a new experience as well. Rather than tasting it as it flowed into my mouth, I tasted the different flavours on my tongue first. Mixed with it were the subtle flavours of her skin. There were some memories in it of last night. Flashes of flesh, flowing touches and more passed me by. I tried not to look at them too much and then felt stupid that I didn't.

Esmeralda was sharing everything with me, the least I could do was look.

So rather than ignoring or rejecting it, I focused on it. Every memory in the blood I could see. Soon my whole body was tense with sensitivity, longing for a touch because of what I had felt. Seeing those memories meant hearing, tasting and feeling them as well. it was Nowhere near as clear as on my own body, but enough to make me blush.

Once the blood stopped flowing, minutes later, Esmeralda looked at me with an amused smile.

"Did you like it that much?"

I took a small breath. "It's not that, some of your memories were in it... Those of last night."

Esmeralda laughed and blushed at the same time. "I see. Well I hope you enjoyed them."

"They were..." I smiled. "...very nice." I took a deep breath to let the feelings pass a little. "Something else, do you know of a bookstore in the city? Preferable old books?"

She thought for a moment. "Not really, but maybe Josh knows, we could ask him."

I remembered the people downstairs. "Wouldn't we be bothering him?"

She grinned. "Nah, and if he's hung over, he shouldn't blame us."

"Alright, lead the way."

Interesting idea. To feel the pain and the flow of blood rather than the gentle bliss.