Josef nodded. “Okay, I have more questions but we'll arrange a time to sit down and talk about them once you have your proposal ready for us."

  Eric turned to Abbot. “If you have nothing else for me then I'll be going now."

  "Of course, thank you for your time and I look forward to seeing your ideas."

  Kendra closed her laptop and stood as they were finishing up. She walked to him and put her arm around him and walked outside with him.

  She gave him a peck on the cheek. "I'll follow you in my car if that's okay, that way I can drive home when you get ready to go to sleep for the night."

  "Yeah, sure. I'll see you there."

  When they arrived at the marina Kendra could feel that he was trying to put some distance between them. Physical and emotional distance, and she wasn't sure where it was coming from. She tried to talk about what had happened with Abbot to see if that was it.

  "I assume Abbot let you see how the mind link worked? So the two of you could talk without speaking?"

  "Yes, he did. And when he bound me, it was different than what you did. More, businesslike, I guess. Which is what you said, but it was just different."

  "If I bind you so we can talk like that, it won't feel like it did with Abbot. He bound you for a business arrangement, that is why it was businesslike."

  He ran his hand through his hair and said, "Kendra, I don't… I don’t want you to do anything else, magical... metaphysical... to me. I think I need some space to figure out how I feel about all of this. I will go ahead with the agreement with Abbot because if you and I do go ahead with a relationship we will need that in place. I know I have strong feelings for you and I don’t want to completely shut the door on that possibility. But, I'm just not sure how I feel about all of this other stuff."

  Kendra’s heart was in her stomach. "You need some space as in you want me to go and you'll call me when you figure it out... or you need some space as in you want us to keep seeing each other but just not go so fast until you figure it out."

  "It's only been in the last year that I decided I someday wanted to have kids. I want to teach them to rappel and hang glide and kayak. I want to watch my son play ball and my daughter dance. Or, if they are so inclined, my daughter play ball and my son dance. I don't care, I just want to watch them do whatever makes them happy, whatever makes them feel alive. If I go into a serious relationship with you then I'm giving that up. I'm also giving up any hopes of a normal relationship. You'd never see me in a hang gliding competition as it happened. You'd never kayak with me down the Ocoee with my buddies from the raft companies. There is so much in life I want to share with someone, and I won't be able to share it with you."

  She was not going to be emotional about this. She took a breath to settle her nerves so her voice would be steady, and then said, "You didn't answer my question, Eric. Do you want me to walk out of your life until you figure it out, or do you want to keep seeing each other some and just not take things so fast?"

  "I didn't answer your question because I don't know."

  She fought to keep her voice steady, to not show any emotions. "Okay then. Let me talk for a few minutes. Some of what you say is true and there is just no way around it. But other parts of it there may be a way around. First off, I can travel with you. Abbot has a private plane with a fully darkened bedroom in it and I can travel anywhere in the world on that plane as long as I clear it with him ahead of time and make sure it's not being used during the time I need it. So while I may not be able to be there for the actual competitions, I can be there that night. Most large cities have vampire houses that I can stay at while I'm in the city. Abbot is on good relations with most of the other territory masters and I am welcome to come into their territory as long as we do the proper polite vampire politics stuff ahead of time. As far as children are concerned, I have raised two children since I became a vampire. One of them was cast out as a baby because of a deformity to her left hand, the fingers were webbed together. This was back in the dark ages and her parents believed she was possessed by the devil or something. I took the baby back to our vampire lair and raised her as my daughter. I taught her to read and write and do math as well as lessons about the various governments in the world and a lot of geography and language lessons. She eventually married what today would be known as a Duke and the two of them took excellent care of the people under their reign, in spite of her hand. I was so proud of her."

  Kendra took a breath and kept going. "And then, after that, in the days of Vikings and Crusades, there was a village that was quite literally raped and pillaged. Our vampire lair was a good ways outside of town and when we awoke we could smell the smoke and death. We went to the village to investigate and I found a boy of about four or five who was crying beside the body of his mother. I finally got him to talk, and he said his mother and father and grandparents and sister and aunt had all been killed. There weren't many people left alive in the village, and no one was interested in taking the boy in. I was married at the time, to a vampire, and my husband and I raised him until he was an adult and then we gave him the funds to set up shop and make a living. We taught him everything he would need to know to be a blacksmith, and we moved to a new town and he moved into the town and set up shop and we lived outside of town, as we had to do back then to survive."

  Kendra let that sink in. Eric didn't speak so she kept going. "So, it is possible for a vampire to raise a child. I needed help when they were little since I'm down during the day, so I arranged for human help during the day. If you and I go forward with a long term relationship I would be very open to adoption. Or, if you wanted the child to have your DNA then we could arrange for a surrogate. But of course none of that helps with the fact that any daytime activities you participate in, I can't share them with you. There is no way around that."

  Eric finally spoke. "Why does this have to be so hard? I finally find someone that I think I could spend my life with, and she's not even fucking human. So spending my life with her doesn't mean growing old together, it means her watching me grow old and die." He paused, "You said you were married to a vampire? What happened? Did he get killed? Or do vampires divorce?"

  "Vampire marriages are not 'till death do us part'. When vampires marry they do so for a set amount of years. All assets are listed when they marry, and when something is purchased during the marriage it is agreed at the time of purchase who will get it when the marriage ends. Some marry for twenty years, some marry for fifty years, and some marry for the maximum time allowed, one hundred years. When the marriage contract ends a couple can either let it dissolve or they can form a new contract. If both parties want out of a contract before it is up then there is no problem. However, if only one party wants out of the contract then it goes to mediation and frequently the contract is enforced until the agreed upon end date. But most marriages end amicably with no hard feelings. That marriage lasted seventy years, we married for fifty years and then another twenty years before we agreed that we'd each grown and evolved in different ways and we were better off going our separate ways. I haven't seen him in a few centuries, but if I did we'd see each other as friends from long ago and not much more at this point."

  "So, even if I decided to be a vampire so you and I could be together forever, it's not likely we'd be together forever?"

  "I'm not aware of a vampire marriage that has lasted longer than about five hundred or so years. And even that is rare. And Eric, it is way too soon for you to be thinking about losing your humanity. We might date for a year or two and decide it's not going to work. I won't even consider turning you for two or three years, maybe longer." Kendra paused and then decided he needed more information about the human companion relationships. "If you want to have some kind of relationship with me but are afraid of throwing away your other options then we can formalize the human companion relationship Abbot spoke of the other night. That would mean you would be free to date other people. That's kind of the purpose of the way the human companion relationship is set up, it creates a bond between vampire and human without creating a situation where all of the long term issues between human and vampire cause problems. I have one more thing to tell you and then I will leave. I won't contact you, if you want to see me or talk to me you'll need to call me. "

  Kendra took another deep breath, as much to steady herself as for the air needed to talk. "I have had relationships with many humans over the past couple thousand years. Some of those relationships lasted a few years and we went our separate ways as human and vampire. Two times I have stayed with someone until he died, took care of him in his old age, and eventually buried him when his body gave out. And, of course, several times I have turned them and we had many decades together, sometimes centuries, before we grew apart and it was time to go our separate ways. It is unusual for a human man to be thinking this far ahead so soon into the relationship. It's like you aren't going to let it get started until you can see a way for it to happen. Love doesn't always work out that way, Eric. Sometimes you have to take the plunge and just see where you end up. There are a variety of ways a relationship could be fulfilling for both of us, but only you can decide if it's something you want to do or not. I can tell you that I can't remember anyone ever making me feel this alive. I want to spend time with you, want to see where we can take this. But I will respect whatever decision you come up with."

  And then she left. Not the slowly walk out the door kind of leave... but the super fast thing that vampires do so it looks like they disappear. If she had to kiss him and say goodbye she was going to cry, and she didn't want to do that, so she just went.

  Once she was in her car and driving she realized she didn't want to go to the house and see anyone. She was bawling her eyes out, and she just couldn't handle questions from her housemates right now. Not to mention they didn’t need to see her getting emotional over a human.

  Abbot?

  Yes Kendra. What's wrong? Are you crying?

  Yes, dammit. Stupid mortal men.

  What happened?

  He wants kids. Wants someone who can watch him in hang gliding competitions.

  He broke up with you?

  No. Yes. I don't know. He said he needs time to think. Can I stay at your house on the mountain tonight? I can't deal with questions from the coterie tonight.

  Of course. And knowing you, you'd like something to keep you busy. I'm short handed at The Carnival if you'd like to go see what you can do to get things running smoothly.

  That would be great. I'll run by there and handle things and then see you on the mountain later tonight?

  It's a deal. Want me to see if I can round some refreshment up for you that comes straight from the source?

  Don't go out of your way, but if it's convenient, then, sure.

  And so she want to The Carnival, one of Abbot's bars that was set up with jugglers and girls overhead on trapeze bars. Well, not so much a trapeze as a large bar hanging from the ceiling, so when they flipped around on the bars they moved back and forth a few feet. The girls and jugglers were only there on the weekends though, so tonight there was only the virtual game section and the decor that made it look like a carnival. She arrived to discover they were short one doorman and one bartender. The manager was capable of tending bar but was trying to handle the door, which meant one bartender was trying to do everything by himself. She set the manager up at the bar and then set herself up at the door. The doorman also doubles as a bouncer for the front part of the club, but Kendra could handle anything that might come up. It was a fairly busy night and she appreciated the chance to keep busy and not think of Eric, but watching a few of the couples come in made her miss him. Which was ridiculous, they'd only just met. But, last night had been special. And she had thought he'd handled the whole 'I'm a bloodsucking vampire' thing fairly well, considering.

  She helped close up at the end of the night and then drove up the mountain to Abbot's house. She phoned Gavin on the way to let him know she wasn't coming home tonight. She could have used the mind link, but the phone was considered more polite amongst people who weren't close friends. When he asked her where she was staying she changed the subject, and he thankfully didn’t push for an answer. Not that it was any of his business, but they were friends even if they weren't really close, and that’s the kind of things friends usually told each other.

  When she went into Abbot’s house she saw Carla and a man she didn't recognize. Carla was Abbot's hair stylist, she came to his home to cut his hair since he couldn't very well visit her during daylight hours. She knew he was a vampire and she had been bound as an employee so she wouldn't tell the secret. Kendra knew that Abbot also occasionally drank from Carla, and Carla thought that was pretty cool.

  "Kendra, you've met Carla, of course. I'd like for you to meet her husband Tom. They are newlyweds, and Carla asked me last week for permission to tell her husband about me, since she didn't want to keep secrets from him. He is here so she can tell him and I can bind him, which we have already done. Tom would like to be bitten, to see what it is that Carla experiences when I bite her. I thought you'd enjoy doing that."

  No orgasmic bite, please. Just a blissfully pleasant and non-sexual experience.

  You got it. And thanks. You're the best.

  She looked at Tom and gave what she knew to be a warm smile. "Hello Tom, it's nice to meet you. I can sense that you are nervous, there is no reason to be. I'll be gentle, there will be an instant of pain when I first bite but then it will turn into a pleasurable experience. There should be less than a second of pain."

  Kendra looked towards Carla. "Carla, do you have a preference for where I bite him?"

  "I think probably his neck?"

  "Is that good with you Tom?"

  "I don't want to have to explain bite marks."

  "They will be completely healed over by noon tomorrow. There is a healing agent in our saliva. But, Tom, you don't seem too sure of this. Let us all have a drink and sit and talk for a bit, and then see if you still want to be bitten."

  "No, I'm sure. If Carla has been being bitten then I need to understand what that has meant. And what it might mean if she keeps doing it. She says she wants to keep doing it. To keep letting Abbot bite her when she does his hair."

  "Okay then. You haven't given blood recently to the Red Cross or anything, have you?"

  "Not in a few months."

  "When you give blood, how tired are you afterwards? How long until you feel back up to speed again?"

  "I'm okay as soon as I leave, it's never made me feel dizzy or weak or anything."

  Kendra smiled. "Good, because I'm hungry. I won't take as much as the Red Cross though. They usually take around sixteen ounces, I'll only take around twelve. I usually take six or eight at a time, but... since you can handle it, I've had a rough day and twelve would make me feel much better."

  He grinned back at her. "If you've had a rough day and it will help, take sixteen if you want. I was thinking you'd take more than they take, not less."

  "Okay, sit back down, lean back against the back of your chair and relax. I'm going to come around back of you for this."

  She thought that would be better, Abbot wasn't wanting him to get the intimacy of this, and when you took from behind it was easier to ignore the intimacy of it. Stepping around behind him, she pulled his head to the right at an angle to show the length of the left side of his neck. He was incredibly tense so she massaged the muscles just a bit and told him to relax. As he relaxed she moved her left hand down across his chest to hold him in place and immediately let her teeth sink into his neck, injecting the numbing agent first and then the right combination to give him bliss without sexual ecstasy. She gave his bloodstream a second to carry away what she'd injected and then she drank. And drank. She monitored how much she was drinking and stopped at around twelve or fourteen ounces, paying special attention to use her tongue to put saliva on the two marks before she pulled her mouth away, so they would heal. She relaxed her hold on his head but otherwise stayed where she was until he raised his head back up on his own, and then she slowly moved her hand off of his chest and backed up.

  She walked behind the bar area in Abbot's great room and opened the mini frig, taking out the orange juice to pour him a glass. She walked to him and set it on a coaster on the table beside him and then went to another chair across from him to sit while he worked on figuring out how he felt and how to begin talking again. Most people didn't recover as quickly as Eric had the other night, but Eric had filled his life with new experiences and he was used to having that adrenaline overdose kick in.

  After a few moments Tom's eyes started to focus and he said, "Wow."

  Carla laughed and said, "Yes, Wow is a good word for it. Drink your juice, Tom."

  "No, not yet. I want to just sit here with this feeling another couple of minutes."

  * * * *

  When Carla and Tom left, Abbot thanked Kendra for giving him the right kind of experience. "No problem, he was lovely. Just what I needed, you really are the best."

  "We've got some time before dawn, let's have some wine and talk."

  "Sure."

  Once they were seated on the sofa, Kendra leaning up against Abbot with her eyes closed, Abbot wrapped an arm around her and finally spoke about Eric. "Do you want me to fire him, find someone else to do the job?"

  "No, he said he'd follow through with it because he wasn't sure about things, and if he wanted to pursue something with me he wanted the proper protections in place. Plus, I think he's just an honorable kind of guy, he said he'd do it, so he will."