Pulse. Part 11

She rifled through her purse for the stake.

"Don't move!" Stuart was a strong vampire, but he could not repel two at once. She could see bruises appear on his body as they beat him; as he beat them.

"Oh no you don't," she said to herself.

"Over here!" she cried, leaping out of the car. Before the first one could react, she drove a stake straight through his back. The woman looked over, startled, giving Stuart enough time to stake her. The two corpses sank to the ground and swiftly decomposed into ash.

"I told you to stay in the car," Stuart said, gasping, before he collapsed.

"Stuart!"

She cradled him in her arms. "Stuart..."

"I've lost a lot of blood." He coughed.

"Just drink from me, it'll be..."

"No!" Stuart's voice grew louder. "I can't a not Life's Blood."

"Well, who else are we going to find to give you blood? n.o.body else knows you're a vampire..."

Stuart coughed as she dragged him into the back seat of the car. Maeve.

They drove as quickly as they could to Maeve's house. In breathless gasps, Kalina explained the situation.

"Oh, h.e.l.l no," said Maeve. "I'm not letting a vampire drink from me again."

"Please a Maeve a just a little! It's what Stuart did to help you. You could have died if it weren't for him."

Maeve looked Stuart up and down, her eyes wary.

"If you don't do this, he'll die! I'd do it myself a but I can't."

"Why not?"

"Wrong blood type," Kalina stammered. "Maeve, please, it's life or death!"

"Well," Maeve considered. "He did help me before. Are you sure he won't...get too aggressive."

Kalina pulled out her stake. "If he tries, he won't get that far." She caught Stuart's surprised eyes. "But he won't get that far. I promise. But if it makes you feel better."

Maeve held out her wrist gingerly. "Go ahead," she said. "But Kaley's got a stake!"

Stuart took her wrist gratefully and bit her as tenderly as he could.

"Ouch!"

Kalina watched Maeve's face a from the initial indignant pain to something different, smoother. Maeve closed her eyes; her lips parted. "It's not so bad..." she said, her voice trailing off dreamily. Why a Maeve was enjoying it! She leaned back upon the sofa, her eyes heavy and her breathing became more labored. "Wow..."

Maeve sighed, and Kalina could almost hear her heartbeat grow faster and more powerful as Stuart continued sucking the blood from her wrist. She could hear Stuart's soft moans a the sound of something not unlike life returning to him a the pleasure he took in feeding, at last a after so long. Against herself, she felt jealous. How was it that Maeve could give Stuart such pleasure, such life, when she could not; how was it that Maeve could experience this, but she could not?

"Hey, that's enough now!" she said, a bit too loudly for her own comfort.

"You don't have to..." Maeve said, as Stuart forced himself away. His eyes were wide with grat.i.tude as they searched her.

"Thank you, miss," said Stuart. "You are very kind. When...I am recovered, should you still be ill, I am happy to provide you with more of my blood."

Maeve giggled, the daze of the bite still lingering over her.

Kalina swallowed down her jealousy. Maeve had saved Stuart's life, after all!

And yet all she could think, as Maeve and Stuart stared into each other's eyes, was that this was an experience that Stuart and Kalina would never be able to share together.

chapter 13.

In the days following Stuart's attack, Kalina considered going out to Nox many times. She wanted something to do a anything was better than being alone with her own jealousy. Stuart had fed on Maeve several times following the first healing a at her suggestion a for while the first blood had staved off death, he was not entirely cured. She knew, in her conscious self, that Maeve was in no way malicious or aware of what she was doing a the ecstatic look on her face when Stuart was biting her was proof that she wasn't truly in control of her own actions, and certainly Maeve would never betray her trust. But Kalina nonetheless couldn't stop the jealousy that she felt watching Stuart's lips tight on Maeve's wrist or neck, watching Maeve's face as she felt the vampire's breath hot upon her neck. Kalina had read about humans that gave themselves willingly to vampires a not all their blood, but just enough a Stuart had mentioned this group of feeders, those that derived pleasure from the endorphin high that come when you drank a vampire's blood, or when he drank yours. She could see the ecstasy in both their faces, and it was unlike anything she had seen before.

Stuart was a vampire. Of course he was! She had known that! And yet, seeing him biting Maeve, she felt for the first time that his vampirism was something that she could not be a part of, could not share, that could not be explained away with a philosophical or logical argument about humans' and vampires' places in the food chain.

And yet Maeve could share it a and she could not! What was there about her blood that made her so special, so important to be protected? At the first, it had made her feel special; now it sickened her. When her own boyfriend couldn't drink from her a if he wanted it, if she wanted it! When it was placing her in danger at every turn. That every vampire she met would look at her with l.u.s.t in his eyes, because her blood represented the key to everything he ever wanted a either eternal power or a chance at being human once more. It sickened her! Her own blood distressed her; her own body disgusted her. She threw herself into her old sports a kickboxing, cheerleading. She practiced jogs and tree-climbing out in the vineyard, working out all her excess rage and pain in desire into taut, hard muscle. When she was working out in the vineyard one morning, a breeze whipped across her face and she sniffed something on the horizon. She stopped. A vampire. She When she was working out in the vineyard one morning, a breeze whipped across her face and she sniffed something on the horizon. She stopped. A vampire. She tensed her muscles. She felt the soft breeze flow around her ankles a he was coming. He came up behind her; in a flash, she dodged away. He came at her again; she feinted to the left, then rounded around to his side, turning around quickly to place her hands palms down at the opening of his chest.

"Gotcha," she said, her hands exactly at the spot where she would have staked if she had one with her. Jaegar laughed. "Stuart has taught you all he knows, I see."

"To stave off creepy vamps like you."

Jaegar seemed as cool as moonlight. He betrayed no embarra.s.sment for what had happened between them last time, and Kalina tried as hard as she could to tame her blush. Even right now she felt her body instantly responding to the closeness between them.

"I see," said Jaegar. "So, I can't sneak up on you now?" He moved closer.

"Not if you want to remain undead."

"Fair's fair," said Jaegar. He withdrew.

Then suddenly, Jaegar closed in and surprised her. It was as though she was under compulsion whenever she got this close to him. Her brain clouded as he engulfed her in his arms, his head bent down to her neck. She could feel the tip of a sharp fang barely touching her skin. She froze, not sure what to expect. What if he means to really do it?

Jaegar could sense Kalina tensing up and he retracted his fangs, surprising her with his lips instead and then the feel of his tongue licking the spot where his fangs would've pierced through. She was feeling woozy with desire and fear at the same time until he let her go, his eyes still looking straight at her, blazing with desire. He pulled away. "See," he said. "Lesson one a never think the danger's over until it's over. The danger's never over. You should have learned that by now. Now, just imagine, what if I had been one of those vampires that you are so worried about."

"You were one of those vampires..."

"Was I?" Jaegar arched an eyebrow. "I guess we'll never know, then."

"Guess we'll never know."

Jaegar helped her up. "You're a little shaky," he said. "Figures Stuart taught you. He fights a little better than a schoolgirl in kindergarten."

"Well, Master Jaegar." Her words were cool and chilling. "At least Stuart was here to teach me. What have you been doing all this time? Seducing women?

s...o...b..ring up blood? What?"

"I am doing," Jaegar said slowly, "precisely what you should have been doing ages ago. I'm solving the case of my brother's mystery! But of course you think I'm a monster a I couldn't possibly do something without an ulterior motive, certainly could never love..."

"We haven't spoken," said Kalina stiffly, "since our last *entanglement.'" She hoped she could pry an apology from him.

"An entanglement?" Jaegar seemed amused. "What a funny phrase. What a silly word! We didn't entangle at all, as much as I would have liked to. In any case, I'll have you know, you pert inquisitive thing, I went to Nox. I've a.s.sembled leads. I'm well placed to find Aaron's killers."

"And?" Stuart shouted across the vineyard as he entered.

"Well, darling brother," said Jaegar. "The trail of conspiracy brought me back here. Back to Rutherford, the Greystone Wineries and more."

Stuart was abashed. "How could you say..."

"I'm saying, my dear brother, that you are now a suspect."

chapter 14.

Kalina felt ill. A suspect? She searched Stuart's smooth, calm face and could find no trace of malice there. His eyes were wide and blue like the sky after a summer storm; his mouth was unsmiling, but kind even now that his anger blazed like a stone fire against Jaegar. "How dare you," he whispered. "How dare you accuse me of such a thing!"

"I'm not accusing anyone, dear brother," said Jaegar. He stalked around the two of them like a great feline encircling his prey. "I'm only commenting a that's all. And it seems that you knew the Stromboli Brothers were interested in a a how shall we say it a monopoly on Vampire Wine? It looks like they wanted to kidnap Father Botticelli for themselves a and force him to make more wine, with the profits going directly to them."

"Aaron would never give up that secret!" Stuart shouted.

"But would you? For a price a perhaps? Or for the location of the girl with the Life's Blood you've been seeking for so long."

"It isn't true!" Stuart's voice cut like a knife through the air. "Kalina a it isn't true. Jaegar here is looking for any excuse to rail against his brother a isn't that right, Jaegar?"

Kalina felt vaguely sick. She remembered how she had felt when Stuart had first revealed he was a vampire a full of apprehension and thinly-veiled terror, terror she had swallowed down in her willingness to trust, to be open, to get closer to Aaron's family.

"You're not wrong," said Jaegar. "But a all the same. Isn't it suspicious that you haven't gone after the Stromboli Brothers yet?"

"We were planning to," said Stuart. "We were attacked before we could leave." He raised his voice. "But I do not believe the Stromboli Brothers would have killed Aaron.

"Who are they," asked Kalina. "Like a vampire mobsters?"

"Not the Stromboli Brothers," said Stuart. "They're not entirely clean, but they are professionals a and they're wine-drinkers, not cannibals."

"Don't use that word!" said Jaegar. "We're only part of the food chain."

"The Stromboli Brothers wanted to muscle in on our arrangement with Father Botticelli a this much is true. But they have codes of honor a and killing Aaron makes no sense; he's the only one with the information about the location of Father Botticelli. Killing him wouldn't have solved anything a and they know it would have brought down the wrath of the vampire magistrate upon them. It's a stupid thing to do. No a someone else must have done it. Someone with far less honor."

"But we were going to the Stromboli Brothers," said Kalina.

"I believe they may have information," said Stuart. "But I at least do not make false accusations without reason."

"Kalina does," said Jaegar darkly. "Isn't that right, Kalina?"

"What are you..."

Stuart took hold of her shoulders. "Don't listen to him," he said. His fingers were tight and possessive on her; she felt uncomfortable. He stroked her hair. "He's only trying to do what he always does a isn't that right?"

"Stuart..."

Stuart took her into his arms; his embrace was tight, uncomfortable. She knew what he wanted a for Jaegar to see them together, to make him jealous. She felt Stuart's mouth on hers, pulling her closer, pulling her more tightly, filled with desire for her...

"Don't let anything come between us, Kalina," said Stuart. "Please a don't let him lie to you." She sensed the fear in his voice a a fear borne out of centuries of sibling rivalry. Had he lost women to Jaegar before?

Stuart kissed her, his mouth warm against her lips.

She heard Jaegar's voice in her ears. "So, you think you're with Prince Charming, right? And he's trying to keep you safe a because he loves you? Ask him the real reason he won't sleep with you!"

When he pulled away and she opened her eyes, Jaegar was gone.

She crossed her arms. "What did you do that for?" she said.

"Kissed you a I always kiss you."

"No," she shook her head. "Not like that. That wasn't for me. That was for Jaegar. You wanted to show me off a to show him that he couldn't have me."

"Kalina, please..." She saw in his eyes that it was true. "It wasn't like that."

"I didn't realize you were only with me to make Jaegar jealous." Kalina knew she was speaking irrationally a more out of anger and jealousy and the stress of the past few days than out of any logical reason a but she felt a lump in her throat just the same.

"You know that isn't true. I," he cleared his throat, "I feel very strongly about you. I care for you very deeply. But a Jaegar, you know what he's like..."

"What did he mean a the real reason you won't sleep with me?" Kalina put her hands on her hips. "What was Jaegar talking about?"

Stuart sighed heavily. "I didn't want to tell you," he said - "I wanted you to be free of this burden."

"This burden? What burden?"

"Please a I didn't tell you for your own sake. I didn't want to put that responsibility on you..."

"What responsibility?"

"Your Life's Blood a if it is drunk normally, it provides a vampire with impossible power. But if you give it as part of love..."