Serum

-Twenty-

“Hey, I grabbed this when I heard you two talking.” Conner remarked, swinging my bag gently. “Does this mean you’re ready then?”

“I’m good, let’s go home.” I replied absently, lost in thought. If it surprised Conner that I referred to his place as home, I never noticed, my mind was too busy. I even jerked when Conner pushed my hair behind my ear on my left side.

“Well you sure were out there. What are you thinking about? I asked you like three times and it didn’t even seem to register.” Conner joked gently.

“Mom, she actually asked me to come back and visit her. Well, first she said I could stay. I just don’t know how to take her sometimes, and then she completely surprises me by doing something nice. I just couldn’t get over it I suppose.” I responded. Conner merely nodded, and we walked the rest of the way in silence. A part of me was grateful he left me to my thoughts, but another part wished desperately he would distract me. Those thoughts were making me uncomfortable.

Conner helped me place my belongings in a semblance of order behind my curtained off area, before I headed towards the bathroom to wash off to the best of my ability. To my surprise Conner had somehow found time to knock out the wall between what had once been two separate bathrooms and make them one big space. He had even installed a bathtub and shower, which eased my fears about having to take a sponge-bath out of the sink. Gratefully, I shut the door, stripped and stepped into the shower. As I slid the curtain closed and turned on the water, I let my memories flood behind my closed eyelids. Everything that had happened so far had just been so much. And now, I was starting to wonder if maybe I hadn’t been a bit harsh on my mother, which was difficult for me to even argue to myself. We’d bounced off of each other for so long. I argued with myself internally until the water ran cold, and even my vampire skin protested at the icy drop in temperature from the water being pulled through cold and frozen pipes.

With the strong stink of healing off of me, I toweled off and changed into new clothing, trying to ignore the stretch and burn of my ribs from the injury that still needed some work to remove the rest of the stiffness and heal completely. I stood  in front of the mirror, staring at my reflection as I brushed my hair. It had grown so quickly, already reaching past the middle of my back, a thick wavy curtain. It was yet another reminder of everything that had changed. I had worn it up or tied back since the serum took hold, but maybe it was time to let it free. Maybe it was time to let a lot more of me free too. With a sigh, I put down the brush, though I wouldn’t deny there was a sense of vampiric smugness about my hair that I couldn’t entirely battle away. It had never looked like this when I was human, always a bit too frizzy and unmanageable.

Shaking my head, I left the bathroom. The first order of business was to clean up the area where I had spent my time healing. I surveyed the mess with a wrinkled nose, and then balled up the dirty bedclothes. I stuffed the old clothes that were stained with blood and the shirt with the bullet hole through it in a garbage bag. I wasn’t really sure what to do with it, but I was afraid to simply throw the clothing away. What happened if someone found them? The shirt scared me. From the holes in the shirt, it looked like the bullet went all the way through. I say holes, but really, it was more like a hole on one side and a rather large, ragged tear in the back. I shivered at the thought of how close I had come to being killed. Would anyone have even noticed I was gone? Dimly, my mind registered Conner as he entered the room, but I continued to pick up my mess until I had everything organized, my thoughts running circles again. When I finished, I noted that Conner had never moved from the doorway. He was just standing and watching me intently. I blushed slightly.

“What is it?” I asked him self-consciously.

“You.” He hesitated for a moment. “I’ve just not seen you with your hair down before. It looks good.” He finished lamely. I had the distinct impression he had something else in mind to say, but he blushed and ducked his head, clearing his throat. “I think you’re finally adjusting.” He waved his hand at the bags and piles of bedding in front of me. I felt my face go temporarily hot. I’m sure he didn’t mean it as an insult, but not too long ago, I probably would not have dealt with this very well. At that thought, something clicked in my mind and the two halves of me felt as one.

“Here, I’ll get those.” Conner said quickly and then rushed into the room and removed the dirty laundry. I tried to protest but he waved me off and rushed out of the room.  I wondered what he was intending to do with the bags of bloody clothes.

When Conner returned it seemed he had gotten over whatever hangup he’d experienced.

“Ok, time for us to do some work.” He clapped once, and then winced as if the act embarrassed him.

“Work?” I questioned.

“Yes, we need to keep in practice for the hunt, and you’re definitely going to need to work out with those ribs, get the muscles used to being used again. Like with a human when there’s an injury, we’re going to do some physical therapy! You know, it just won’t be quite as difficult to get back into shape for you.” He trailed off, rubbing his hands together, then seemed to shake himself out of it. For some reason, it seemed like there was this tension between us now, and I wasn’t sure I liked it. Conner began pushing pews against the walls with ease, clearing the floor before turning to face me.

“Ready?” He asked. I hadn't even finished nodding and he had sped out of sight. How had I forgotten how unbelievably fast vampires were? The next few minutes were spent in a flurry of activity as I tried to avoid being hit by Conner. My ribs continued to twinge and complain every time I bent or turned too far, occasionally crimping my movements when I would come up short with a gasp to prevent further pain. To beat it all, Conner had been relatively gentle with me the first time we ever sparred, but this time he was not saving his strength, even though I was injured. After the third sharp jab to the base of my skull, in which I went down like a sack of rocks, I jumped back up snarling and pissed. On instinct, I caught his leg as he tried to race past. Conner tripped but didn’t fall, pushing himself off the floor in a complicated gymnast’s tumble to land nimbly on his feet. I snarled a curse about that too. How did I end up with the freakin’ gymnastics champion vampire?

“You can beat me, easily.” Conner growled through clenched teeth. “So stop fooling around and don’t spare my feelings. Just don’t go for any killing blows, all right?” His fangs shone out in sharp relief, and my body answered the threat. I felt myself baring my teeth in response, muscles tensing as I pulled my limbs closer, trying to make myself a smaller target. Then the real fight began, each of us struggling to gain an advantage over the other. We used the natural obstacles of the pews as aides in our battle, one or the other of us nearly tossing them into the floor to inhibit the other. Conner once executed a flip I thought was physically impossible except for in the movies over one of these barricades. A few times my ribs would force me to stop, practically screaming in pain as I moved too far or too fast for the injured muscles, and Conner would wait for me to recover as I panted with a hand over the injury. But always, he had disappeared from sight before I had completely straightened. 

Finally, tired of the game and growling with frustration, I knocked Conner up against a wall. My teeth were mere inches from his throat and we were both breathing hard. I could hear his heartbeat, and it seemed to double despite the fact that we had stopped fighting. Instead of resisting, Conner’s hand slid up my hip, tugging me closer to him. The snarl on my face fell away as something rather hard was pressed against me. I gasped, attempting to look down, that couldn’t be what I thought it was, could it? The sudden breath combined with the quick movement sent a zing of excruciating pain through my ribs that doubled me over. Wheezing, I lurched to the floor, both arms wrapped around my ribcage. When I looked back up, Conner had disappeared again.