Serum

-Ten-

We stopped at the church Conner had originally taken me to the morning he “kidnapped” me, before all the weirdness started. It felt like a life-time away, in a way for me, it was.

“Welcome to my humble abode.” Conner bowed as he gallantly opened the door for me, ushering me inside. “There are not many rooms, as you can probably tell, but I think there’s plenty of room for the both of us. Luckily, vampires don’t get quite as dirty as humans do, because this particular humble abode has no showers or baths, just sinks, toilets, a room I’ve converted to a kitchen, and the grandest room of all, the main atrium. I’m still in the process of fixing it up.”

“You live here, by yourself?” I asked quietly.

“Well, let’s just say that, like you, I had a few disagreements with my family, so I moved out. This place had been abandoned for years, I used to play here as a kid. What better thing than using it as my house now? The old lady who used to own it decided I could have it because she was so enchanted with me as a kid. I’ll never forget the first day she found me running around in here.” Conner chuckled softly. “She passed away a few years ago. This place has plenty of room for me to practice my speed without being caught, and plenty of obstacles that I have to be on my guard for or else I’ll hurt myself. I hope one day to return it to what it looked like about 20 years ago, when the old lady originally bought it from the church members who decided to move their congregation elsewhere.” The first time I had visited the church I had noticed the musty smell, now my nose picked up a thousand undercurrents running within the room. It was crazy, but it was almost like smelling the past.  There were old scents that I could tell were the scents of humans who had repeatedly visited this place, sat in the same pews over and over, touched the same things, the fabrics and woods absorbing their scents over time. There was the smell of decay, the smell of something sharp, was it a cleaning chemical or paint? And not least of which was the sweet scent of Conner. It was everywhere, surrounding me in a soft, comforting cloud.

“So am I scot-free then? No more trainings by Lana?” I joked, trying to distract myself from the way his scent enfolded me and seemed to welcome me in.

“As far as I know, she thinks you’re ready enough to take care of yourself, and that anything else you might need to know or learn, I can tell you.” Conner shrugged. “I think she just wanted us out of her house. She does have a job and what she calls a “life” in the human world, she’ll be just as glad to have us out of her hair. Beyond that, I think you scare her a bit.” He sets my bag down on a pew near the front of the church and I follow him further in.

“What do you mean?” This is the first I’d heard of that. If anything, Lana sort of scared me.

“Well so far, you’re the first one of her “lab-rats”, not to mention just the regular old vampires in this area, that has the potential to roust her out of her position.” Conner offered, jumping up onto a pew to balance on the back.  I winced, expecting it to tilt over.

“Position?”  I asked, confused. “What does that mean exactly?” I watched Conner walk like a tight-rope walker across the back of the pew before hopping to the ground again before he answered.

“‘Queen-bee’ so to speak, Lana’s been the head of the vampire community for about ten years now. She’s currently the most powerful vampire, so she takes charge of educating our community and organizes the hunts for those who disobey our laws.” Conner explained. With a sigh, he collapsed onto one of the pews, legs sprawled, hands between his knees, head lowered.

“Not to mention moon-lighting as a god and population control, intent upon either casting you out or recruiting more members.” I remarked sarcastically. Conner’s shoulders slumped.

“Don’t judge her too harshly, she did help us out after she gave you that serum. Of course, it was more or less under pain of death, but…” Conner murmured. I laughed wryly.

“I believe she has a high amount of respect for you, or at least a healthy self-preservation instinct.” I snarked through my laughter, and then a sobering thought occurred to me.  “Why doesn’t she fear you will take over?”

“Don’t over-judge me. I can hold my own against her, but I could never out-match her, we’re nearly even, neither one more powerful than the other. We would have to resort to trickery for either of us to win over the other.” Conner explained carefully, he still hadn’t looked back up at me, and it was making me uncomfortable.

“Either way…” I mumbled softly, embarrassed. I let my eyes wander and quickly got distracted by the smells in the room. Slowly walking around breathing in the strange aromas, Conner made me jump when he spoke again.

“I’m going to set a corner up for you over here.” Conner’s slightly raised voice made me spin to see where he had gone. “We’ll sling a curtain up so you can dress or change in private, then there’s always the bathroom if you’re not too comfortable with that. For sleeping, I think you’ll just have to do what I’ve been doing…” He stood at the front of the church where the podium at one time had stood with his hands on his hips. To be honest, it was the perfect little alcove to hang a curtain or section off a small room.

“Yeah, and what’s that?” I asked dryly. “Hang upside down from the ceiling like a bat?” Conner chuckled, turning to toss a grin at me over his shoulder that made me temporarily lose my breath.

“No, I’m much too dignified for that. Actually I was going to say that we’d push a few pews together seat to seat and you’ll just have to hop over and sleep in them like a cradle. It’s a bit immature I suppose, but it works, and saves me having to move a bed in here.” Conner winked at me, and I was sure something was wrong with me. Should I be feeling warmer?

“Ah I see, the lazy vampire strikes again.” I mutter, my eyes dancing away from Conner’s as his grin twisted something inside me.

I helped Conner hang, basically a laundry line at the front of the church. We worked silently for several long minutes, he pulled out a ladder, and was surprised to find hooks already installed in the walls above him, which just made our job that much easier. I tied a loop in the end of the laundry line and handed it up to Conner, his fingers closed around mine for a minute or two longer than necessary.

“I heard you tell your mom that you had a job…” Conner let the question hang in the air without actually voicing it before he took the line from me and hooked the loop in place. I winced slightly, running my fingers through my hair.

“Yeah, I did or do, or whatever. I guess I’ll give them a call and make up some wild excuse like getting in an accident or having to have drastic dental surgery and that I won’t be coming back.” I heaved a sigh. “AND that I’m sending a friend to pick up my final pay. Maybe I can disguise myself, or get you to go? I don’t exactly look the same.. After that I haven’t really thought it out.”

“Let me guess,” Conner remarked “You’d rather I be the “friend” that goes to pick up this pay for you?”

“Would you?” I helped him move the ladder to the other side of the room with a coy look. “Can you imagine their faces if I walked in there. It would just be too much explaining, so if you wouldn’t mind…”

“I don’t, I don’t. Just maybe next time don’t spring it on me, ask me ahead of time.” Conner teased, lightening the mood.

“Thank you.”  I sighed with relief, and he offered me a boyish grin as he tied off the other side of the laundry line.

Once we’d gotten the curtain in place, which actually ended up being more like three curtains in the end, but whatever, Conner pushed two pews together for me to sleep in. Then, he walked across the aisle and did the same for himself.

“Unless you’d rather I not sleep in the same room with you?” Conner questioned.

“What more could you, or anyone, do to me?” I scoffed, motioning at myself. Conner’s expression dropped.

“I’m sorry about that.” He muttered. “I had never imagined Lana would do anything like this, try to kill you, yes, but never this.” As if that was any better. I snorted.

“It’s not your fault.” I responded with a shrug and shifted uncomfortably. Conner caught the motion then looked up with a grin.

“So you’re not too worried about your modesty?” Conner shot at me. The teasing look on his face was almost irritating and I launched at him without thinking. He bolted, and even with my new vision, he was almost too quick for me to see. Almost, but I chased after him, and we raced around the church’s main atrium until we both collapsed, somewhat breathless.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been able to run that much at once.” I commented through short quick breaths.

“Well, there are some advantages to being a vampire, at least you can keep up with me now.” Conner teased through a grin. “But vampire or not, we should be careful for a while, you don’t know your own body well enough yet, and I don’t want to have to give any last minute donations again.” Conner yelped as I slapped his arm for his last comment.